Monday, August 31, 2026

September 2026+ Free CLE

 Dear Friends and Colleagues, As we head into September and everyone settles back into their post‑summer routines, I’m glad to share this month’s lineup of Free CLE Webinars. They’re ready for you to explore, use, and pass along to your networks. Every listing is free to attend, though credit approval varies by jurisdiction. If your state isn’t listed, you may still be able to self‑apply depending on local rules.

If you spot a new program I should add, I’d love to hear about it. The calendar is a living resource, updated throughout the month at http://4freeCLE.blogspot.com.

Here’s to a strong start to fall and another month of accessible learning.

September 2026 Free CLE

September 3:
September 8:
September 9:
* Crossing the Finish Lien: Medicare After Final Demand. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
September 10:
* AI in Action: How to Draft with GenAI. By LexisNexis.
* Managing AI-Generated Filings in the Bankruptcy Court. By Washington State Bar Association.
* Engineering Expert Reports or Testimony for Impact Claims. By Pete Fowler Construction Services.
September 15:
* Real or Fake? AI Use & Misuse: What Can Courts Trust?. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
September 16:
September 17:
* Ensuring Equal Justice for Self-Represented Persons. By Washington State Bar Association.
September 22:
* Trust Me, Your Auditor Won’t: IOLA Ethics And The Changing Landscape. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
September 23:
September 28:
September 29:
September 30:

October 2026 Free CLE.

October 1:
October 6:
* 2026 Annual Update - No Fault. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
* 2026 Annual Update - Labor Law. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
October 8:
* 2026 Annual Update - Medical Malpractice. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
* 2026 Annual Update - Product Liability. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
October 13:
* 2026 Annual Update - Disclosure. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
* 2026 Annual Update - Evidence. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
October 14:
October 15:
* 2026 Annual Update - Municipal Liability. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
* 2026 Annual Update - Municipal Liability. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
October 20:
* 2026 Annual Update - Insurance Law. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
* 2026 Annual Update - Damages. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
October 22:
* Affordable Care Act Retrenchment. By Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
* 2026 Annual Update - Ethics. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
October 27:
October 28:
* Legal and Ethical Issues of Medical AI. By Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

November 2026 Free CLE.

November 5:
November 11:
* The Information Power and Its Discontents. By Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
November 12:
November 17:
November 18:
November 19:
* Allocation of Responsibility for Construction Defects. By Pete Fowler Construction Services.
November 23:
* The ROI of AI: Ethics, Economics & Everyday Practice. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.

December 2026 Free CLE.

December 3:
December 8:
December 9:
* Settle Down: Ethics in Mediation. By New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
December 10:
December 17:
(I'm adding to this "On-Demand" list gradually. LMK if there's any particular topic, speaker or provided you'd like added!)
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Friday, August 21, 2026

Navy Renames Aircraft Carriers!

BREAKING NEWS: The Navy announced today it is renaming all 13 of its aircraft carriers after Donald Trump:
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Thursday, August 20, 2026

August 24: Tools To Increase Voter Turnout, hosted by 34th Dems and Field Team 6

logos of 34th Dems and Field Team 6

On Monday August 24, 2026 at 6:00 PM Pacific, the 34th District Democrats partnering with Field Team 6 invite you to a Zoom session on real, practical steps to increase voter turnout across our nation.


You’ll get solid numbers on how time and effort put into voter registration now, months before an election, has shown measurable results. We all want our contributions in time and money used effectively!


We’ll cover how to join or organize local postcarding efforts to help likely allies become registered voters. We will connect you with existing postcarding groups and provide resources if you'd like to start one of your own.


You’ll also learn how to participate in text based voter registration outreach from home. This is not "begging for money" texting; You’re not asking for anything! Instead, you’re offering help to people who want to register but haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s simple, friendly, and the statistics provided show it's effective.


You’ll learn how voterizer.org helps anyone register in any state, no matter where they live. It’s a simple tool that removes confusion and makes the registration process straightforward and accessible through a QR code.


And there’s more. You’ll walk away not just with information, but with concrete actions you can take immediately to help preserve and promote democratic participation. No prior experience needed - just curiosity, goodwill, and maybe a beverage.


Register now:

https://tinyurl.com/34dem20260824




event registration QR code

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Friday, August 14, 2026

Debunk: Steaming the Ford Class

Retrofitting a Ford-class aircraft carrier to use steam catapults and hydraulic plane elevators - as Trump wants - would be an engineering freak show because the ship was never designed to support those systems. The Ford class was built around electromagnetic catapults and advanced weapons elevators, and those choices shape the entire internal architecture. Steam catapults need massive boilers, long steam plumbing runs, reservoirs, and venting systems. None of that infrastructure exists on a Ford-class ship. Installing it would mean tearing open major sections of the hull, rerouting power systems, and redesigning structural supports that were never meant to carry the weight or vibration of steam machinery.

Hydraulic elevators pose the same problem. They require large fluid tanks, pumps, and extensive piping networks. The Ford class uses electromagnetic elevators, which rely on completely different power, control, and structural pathways. The ship simply does not have the space, the load-bearing design, or the internal routing to support hydraulic systems. Converting to them would require ripping out decks, bulkheads, and machinery spaces and replacing them with older technology that the ship was never engineered to accommodate.

In short, the Ford class is built around modern systems, and trying to retrofit older ones would be a full-scale reconstruction project. You would spend more time undoing the original design than installing the new one.

It would be like taking an F35, removing the jet turbine, and bolting in a 1940s piston engine. Technically possible in the same way that technically you could teach a cat to drive a bus. You would have to rebuild everything around it, nothing would work right, and the end result would be loud, dangerous, and deeply confused.
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Thursday, August 13, 2026

Debunk: Peterson vs. Chesterton

Working for the Peterson "Academy", Smug Bishop Barron wrote:
It's assumed that leaving the faith is the daring move and staying is the safe one. Chesterton found the opposite—that orthodoxy was the reckless thing, a chariot thundering through the ages, swerving past heresy after heresy and staying upright by an inch. Nobody presented it to you that way. It's a shame. 100+ full-length courses in Scripture, philosophy, and the Great Books. Dare to be reckless at Peterson Academy.

That made me snicker, so I replied:

People keep sharing that Peterson Academy promo line built around a Chesterton quote, the one claiming that “leaving the faith is assumed to be daring, but staying is actually the reckless move.” It’s rhetorically clever, but the argument falls apart once you look at what Chesterton actually meant.

 Chesterton’s “chariot of orthodoxy” metaphor isn’t about rebellion or daring. It’s about the precariousness of maintaining doctrinal balance. He describes orthodoxy as a narrow path that avoids extremes, not a daredevil stunt. Peterson Academy reframes this as “orthodoxy = punk rock,” which simply isn’t what Chesterton was saying.

 The promo also relies on a false dichotomy. It assumes that leaving faith is culturally rewarded and staying is culturally punished. But in the U.S., especially in Peterson’s audience, staying in faith is often socially reinforced, while leaving can be stigmatized. There isn’t one cultural narrative here, and the ad pretends there is.

 The real sleight‑of‑hand is that it tries to rebrand conformity as rebellion. Peterson Academy markets a very traditional worldview as if it were edgy, countercultural, and dangerous. But the worldview they’re selling is historically dominant, institutionally supported, and culturally familiar. Calling it “reckless” is branding, not philosophy.

 Chesterton’s prose gives the ad emotional force, but the logic doesn’t hold. The argument structure is basically: Chesterton said orthodoxy is precarious → precarious means daring → therefore taking our classes is daring. It’s a category error. Chesterton’s theological metaphor doesn’t justify a marketing slogan.

 And the line “Nobody presented it to you that way” is just a persuasion trick — implying you’ve been deprived of a truth only they can reveal. Chesterton has been taught, quoted, and celebrated for over a century. The idea that this framing is some hidden insight is simply false.

 In short: orthodoxy isn’t “reckless” in the sense the ad claims. The Peterson Academy pitch misuses Chesterton, reframes a conventional worldview as countercultural, and relies on a false dichotomy about what is “safe” or “brave.”

 Clever marketing, but not coherent philosophy.


Then someone replies:

      you should read the Bait of Satan by John Bevere


Setting me up to reply:

Ah, the classic move: I write a detailed analysis of rhetorical framing, and you counter with “read The Bait of Satan.” Very on‑brand for the universe, which loves to toss in plot twists just to see if anyone is paying attention.

 I’ll put it this way: my critique was about how Peterson Academy repackages conformity as rebellion by misusing Chesterton. Pointing me to a book about spiritual offense doesn’t really address any of that. It’s a bit like responding to a discussion of logical fallacies by recommending a cookbook. Interesting, possibly tasty, but not actually relevant.

If you want to talk about Chesterton, rhetoric, or how marketing turns orthodoxy into cosplay rebellion, I’m here for it.

If the goal is simply to redirect the conversation into a different reality tunnel, I’ll politely decline the detour.

But I do appreciate the enthusiasm.

---

Then the ad came out again with space for new replies, so ok ....

Ah yes, the ol’ “orthodoxy is the REAL daredevil” routine .... Chesterton revving the theological Harley and popping wheelies through history.
Cute story, but let’s not pretend the rest of us were handed a brochure titled "Join the Church: Warning, Extreme Stunts Ahead!!!"
Leaving a faith is not automatically “safe,” and staying in one is not automatically “reckless.”
People make both choices for all kinds of reasons ... intellectual, emotional, cultural, personal ... none of which require a chariot license or a helmet.
Chesterton was making a metaphor, not issuing a physics report. You know this.
If orthodoxy is a chariot “swerving past heresies,” most folks weren’t standing on the sidelines thinking, “Wow, that looks dangerous ... better cling to the seatbelt of tradition.”
Sometimes staying is the comfortable path.
Sometimes leaving is the risky one.
Sometimes both are complicated.
Real life is messier than a Victorian mic‑drop.
But hey ..... if someone wants to imagine themselves clinging to the hood of a theological drag racer, I’m not here to ruin your The Fast & The Faithful fantasy.
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Debunk: Species-Jumping Scepticism

Someone wrote:
I contracted COVID very early on before there was a vaccine and paid close attention to the 'experts' for guidance. I called multiple hotlines to offer myself for monitoring in case my antibodies could be helpful (crickets). The experts didn't know what they didn't know and should have said that. The impact it had on me is distrust, not because of Trump, not because of MAGA but because people we we trusted outright lied. Did you really believe on day one that a bat had sex with a pangolin in the same place a lab was located?

I replied:

I have to start by asking, very gently, whether the bat‑and‑pangolin sex line was meant as a joke (in which case haha good one!), or whether no one ever explained to you how species‑jumping actually works. It is a perfect illustration of how confusing science communication can be - especially when sex is a possibility.

In reality, species‑jumping does not require animal romance. A very plausible pathway is simply two animals sharing the same food source. For example, bats often chew fruit and drop it, and pangolins or other small mammals may scavenge the same fruit. Bat saliva or droppings (tasty tasty bat droppings!) on the fruit can expose the second animal to the virus.

That is one common route, but there are others: shared roosting areas, contaminated surfaces, predators eating prey, or repeated contact in the same environment. It is ordinary ecology, not a wildlife soap opera.

 Viruses are very good at species‑jumping because it helps them spread. It is not "on purpose" - they are not conscious like you and me, but the versions that happen to mutate in a way that infects a new species get to reproduce more. Over time, the successful ones become the dominant ones. It is evolution doing what evolution does.

 So no, no bat needs to date a pangolin. They just need to chew the same fruit. Nature handles the rest, and it does not even ask for a first date!
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Debunking Pederson For Fun And Profit

 Right now I'm getting a plague of Jordan Pederson ads for his "Academy" - really just a video channel, not any better for learning than a curated youtube channel, but much more expense.
In these ads he and his minions make various silly claims. Let me collect debunkings as an exercise.
---

CLAIM:
"You are the salt of the earth." You've heard it a thousand times. You think it means a decent, dependable sort of person. It means something far stranger—and far more demanding.
Rome paid its soldiers in salt. That's where the word salary comes from: men marched years for a mineral you now scatter without thinking. It earned that price by doing two jobs at once. Salt keeps meat from rotting. And salt makes food worth eating. Your body can't survive without it, but nobody ever craved it for survival. They craved it because bland food is a kind of slow death too.
One sermon. Eight lectures. Every line. Now at Peterson Academy.

MY COMMENT
This ad is a PERFECT example of Jordan Peterson's style: he speaks with assurance about something he knows nothing about.

The Latin word "salarium" does not mean “payment in salt.” It originally referred to money given to soldiers so they could buy salt, or more broadly, an allowance for necessities.

It’s like calling your paycheck a “payment in mortgage” because you use part of it to pay your mortgage.

Over time, salarium just meant salary or money.

Not a Roman Costco membership.

Anyone who spends a minute thinking about Pederson's theory has a good laugh. Salt is bulky. When you go to the vegetable stand, do you carry around a teaspoon to measure it out with? When are the chests of salt found by explorers in ancient tombs?

Rome paid soldiers in coin, because coin is portable, countable, taxable and does not dissolve in the rain like Jordan Pederson when confronted with a fact. ----------- NOTE: I could have gone on about the incoherence of Jesus saying "You are the means of paying for an army" but ...another time.
-------------------------------------

CLAIM:
Nietzsche saw it coming. The death of meaning. The rise of the herd. The slow seduction of comfort. In Nietzsche: Further Down the Rabbit Hole, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson spends ten hours inside Beyond Good and Evil, and shows you the way back out. Now available on Peterson Academy.

MY COMMENT
Nietzsche did warn about the “herd,” but he wasn’t predicting the rise of people who buy ten‑hour personality‑brand lectures. He was critiquing moral conformity, not forecasting a future where every crisis comes with a merch link.
This ad works because it follows the classic Peterson formula:
* Invoke a famous thinker.
* Declare that thinker foresaw our current DOOM!!!
* Announce that Peterson alone has spelunked deep enough into the text to retrieve the secret meaning.
* Offer to guide you “back out,” as though Beyond Good and Evil is a minotaur’s labyrinth and not… a book.
It’s not Nietzsche.
It’s Nietzsche‑themed self‑help cosplay.
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Debunking a Fauci hating letter

I’ve seen this letter floating around, so here’s a fact‑check with a little humor to keep things human.
A lot happened during the pandemic, and memory is… well, like a mask left in your jeans pocket after a wash cycle: a little warped.
1. “You told us we could wear a bandanna.”
Early 2020 guidance was based on the best available evidence at that moment. COVID was new, data was limited, and cloth coverings were recommended because they reduced droplets. As more evidence came in, guidance changed. That’s not conspiracy ... that’s literally how science works. Early pandemic PPE was basically “use anything short of a medieval helmet.” Nobody was thrilled about it.
2. “Wear a mask when entering a restaurant but take it off while eating.”
This wasn’t a Fauci invention. It was a CDC guideline based on reducing exposure while people were moving around indoors. You can’t eat through a mask unless you’re a woodchipper. Masks don’t work like vending machine flaps. You can’t shove a cheeseburger through them.
3. “You told us to stay 6 feet apart.”
The 6‑foot rule came from decades of respiratory virus research. It wasn’t perfect, but it reduced transmission before we had vaccines or antivirals. Grocery stores made one‑way aisles because humans panic‑swerve like shopping carts with one bad wheel.
4. “My kids suffered.”
This part is real and deserves compassion. Pandemic disruptions harmed many families. But those decisions were made by state governments, school districts, and local health departments, not one individual. Fauci didn’t personally close your kid’s school like a supervillain with a giant lever. 5. “You took our freedom of speech.” No U.S. government agency banned speech. Social media companies moderated posts under their own policies ... sometimes clumsily, sometimes inconsistently .... but that’s not the same as government censorship. Humor version: If Fauci had the power to silence millions of Americans, Twitter would have been much quieter.
6. “You spread fear.”
News outlets absolutely amplified fear. But Fauci’s actual job was to communicate risk during a global emergency. If your house is on fire, the firefighter yelling “Get out!” isn’t fearmongering; he’s doing his job.
7. “The toxic shot gave my mom blood clots.”
I’m really sorry your mom had complications; that’s frightening. But large studies show COVID infection causes far more blood clots than the vaccines. Vaccines reduce clot risk overall by preventing severe infection. COVID is basically the world’s worst party guest: it breaks things, steals your snacks, and leaves blood clots behind.
8. “All the ferrets died in mRNA research.”
This claim has been repeatedly debunked. There were ferret studies, but they didn’t show mass death from mRNA vaccines. This myth started from misread data and internet telephone. If every ferret died in mRNA trials, the internet would have held a candlelight vigil. Ferret people are intense.
9. “China and the UN came after me through Team Halo.”
Team Halo is a volunteer science‑communication project run by the UN Verified Initiative and Vaccine Confidence Project. It’s not China. It’s not a secret task force. It’s basically nerds with webcams trying to explain immunology. If the UN had a covert squad called “Team Halo,” they’d at least give them cooler outfits.
10. “Spike protein antibody tests prevent turbo cancer.”
There is no scientific evidence that spike protein antibody levels predict cancer, heart attacks, strokes, or anything similar. This is not supported by oncology, cardiology, immunology, or epidemiology. If “turbo cancer” were real, Mario Kart would have sponsored the research. Final Thought:
The pandemic was traumatic.
People lost loved ones, jobs, stability, and trust.
But blaming one man for every global, state, local, and institutional decision is like blaming the weatherman for the hurricane.
We can process the pain without rewriting the facts.
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Monday, August 03, 2026

Smug-faced "Bishop Robert Barron", in a Facebook ad for the "Peterson Academy" , writes:
It's assumed that leaving the faith is the daring move and staying is the safe one. Chesterton found the opposite—that orthodoxy was the reckless thing, a chariot thundering through the ages, swerving past heresy after heresy and staying upright by an inch. Nobody presented it to you that way. It's a shame. 100+ full-length courses in Scripture, philosophy, and the Great Books. Dare to be reckless at Peterson Academy.

I Respond:

Ah yes, the ol’ “orthodoxy is the REAL daredevil” routine .... Chesterton revving the theological Harley and popping wheelies through history.

Cute story, but let’s not pretend the rest of us were handed a brochure titled "Join the Church: Warning, Extreme Stunts Ahead!!!"

Leaving a faith is not automatically “safe,” and staying in one is not automatically “reckless.”

People make both choices for all kinds of reasons ... intellectual, emotional, cultural, personal ... none of which require a chariot license or a helmet.

Chesterton was making a metaphor, not issuing a physics report. You know this.

If orthodoxy is a chariot “swerving past heresies,” most folks weren’t standing on the sidelines thinking, “Wow, that looks dangerous ... better cling to the seatbelt of tradition.”

Sometimes staying is the comfortable path.

Sometimes leaving is the risky one.

Sometimes both are complicated.

Real life is messier than a Victorian mic‑drop.

But hey ..... if someone wants to imagine themselves clinging to the hood of a theological drag racer, I’m not here to ruin your Fast & the Faithful fantasy.

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