0831

August 31, 2022

In bed @ 10:20, up shortly before 6, 2/3 pss, 1 small cognac, 1 and glasses of red. Head a jumble of thoughts on awakening.  Back pain is still present on the mid-right side.  Put a load of laundry in the washer at 6.

    Dinner with T&C was very enjoyable, though C does not seem to be her 'old self,' something bothering her.   S has been living with them for the last 2 or 3 months after a domestic breakup but will be moving to Denver within the year as required by his new job.  Ben & Jill's daughter starting high school in Chicago.  Geri grilled flank steak served with lots of fresh sweet corn, watermelon, and cantaloupe.  When T&C departed, we watched Alex Wagner, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Stephanie Ruhle to get a report on the DOJ filing opposing the appointment of a special master in the Mar-a-Lago search case.  Lasted until 10:15 or so before calling it quits.

    Spent a listless morning, doing next to nothing,  useless, Wordle in 3 lines, and cleaned up the dishes. silverware, pots and pans from last night's dinner.

    Geri got home with Lilly at about 2:30, a bit distraught over Lilly, who was unable to jump into the back of her Honda.  Geri had to take hold of her rear end and help her up.  Also, the groomer reported that she wasn't able to good a good 'butt clean' which requires moving Lilly's back leg because Lilly attempting to move her hind legs was painful.  Grim, grim, grim.  Much much heartache here for each of us as we watch her decline.  

    Television stations have been running ads for days (or weeks?) now telling former Marines who were stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to contact PI lawyers: "You may be entitled to compensation and it won't affect your eligibility for VA benefits."  Even "one call, that's all" Gruber has gotten into the act.  I have to assume that all the lawyers do in these 'cases' is assemble service and medical reports and file them with appropriate recipients at which point the claimant receives some level of compensation and the lawyers take their cut.  I'm wondering whether there is a cap on the fee the lawyers can charge, the 25% cap under the Federal Tort Claims Act.  The whole thing strikes me as shabby, grubby, leaching off the misfortunes of the former Marines and other claimants but in this respect it is precisely like most of personal injury practice, at least as practiced by 'ambulance chasing' volume practitioners.  Routinely over-compensated for settling cases, rarely trying any in courtrooms with juries.

    Most of the chatter on MSNBC and CNN has been about the 40-page filing by the DOJ opposing Trump's motion to appoint a special master.  Most of the talking heads suggest that Trump's in deep trouble, ditto his lawyers who drafted and/or signed the certification that no more documents bearing classification designations had been turned over to DOJ/NARA in June, when in fact many boxes of the desired documents were still at Mar-a-Lago, some in Trump's own desks in the '45 Office.'  DJT has a new lawyer, a former solicitor general of Florida, known as a 'knife fighter.'  Let's see if he files a Notice of Appearance in the NARA case and signs onto the filing that is due tonight in response to the DOJ's 40-page brief.