january
January was the longest month since 2020 and it wasn’t just me feeling it. Senator Warren had Big Pharma whispering in her ear, Senator Durbin made it clear he doesn’t care and is voting no, and Senator Tillis took things to a new level literally making a bingo card of key phrases and showing it. Would’ve made a great drinking game.
We kicked off with a national tragedy, President Trump kept his word to those he pardoned, Verano execs got charged with insider trading, and now there are reports of bribery involving city leadership. Meanwhile, Illinois is still a mess, with Pritzker and Johnson going head-to-head with POTUS and Homan, whether it’s the political version of Wiener Circle vs. McDonald’s or something worse, I’ll let you decide.
But here’s the kicker if Illinois regulators had just stayed quiet and pretended to follow their own rules, no one would’ve been the wiser. Instead, they put it in writing that they refused to follow procedure, exposing systemic corruption in an attempt to cover up misconduct. And once I started talking about it? Suddenly, people wanted to talk to me. Wonder why?
Now, February is shaping up to be interesting with some well-timed meetings and discussions because when oversight agencies start paying attention, your mayor is facing bribery allegations, and your governor is busy attacking the President while staying silent as regulators ignore their own rules to protect a cannabis company that could now put the whole state at risk… it turns into federal leverage.
February is about to lay the groundwork for real change bringing much-needed transparency and accountability. Because as I’ve said before, it’s never the original issue that causes the biggest problems… it’s the Theranos-style cover-ups that follow. It was never just a failure to investigate it was the outright denial and obstruction.
Business as usual, right? Well, some of us are paying attention.
On a personal note, Bella had to be rushed in for surgery and, for the second time in her life, came out on top stronger than ever.
For a little irony, my brother gifted me an original copy of Spider-Man featuring the first appearance of Wilson Fisk. Pre-COVID, when I was 300 lbs and structuring capital raises for highly strategic deals overseas (thankfully, I'm 180 now), someone said I was like the Kingpin with how I built my deals and positioned myself… and I liked it. Was it really that crazy to ask about being a diplomat? Seemed like a skill that might come in handy one day.
Funny enough, for an hour yesterday, my LinkedIn analytics were wiped to zero like I never existed. Then I tweeted about it, and suddenly, everything was back. Almost like it never happened… if I hadn’t screenshotted it. Hope your January was a little less eventful than mine.
As always, tune into fnaround.com for all episodes of F'nAround. We’re getting louder.