12/13/23

 Wednesday, December 13, 2023

In bed at 9:45, up at 5.  Let Lilly out.   22°, high of 37°, wind W at 8 mph, 7-10/20.  W/C is 13°.  Sunrise is 7:15, sunset at 4:16, 9+1.

Dramatic predawn sky, 12/13/23

Treadmill; pain      30:02 & 0.76

I'm grateful for Lawrence Orrie Anderson, Larry Anderson, LOA who calls me CDC.  He sat in front of me in our alphabetically arranged classrooms at the Marquette Law School and we became friends early on in our freshman year, now called 1L.  He initiated the friendship.  He's more outgoing than I tend to be and in that year I was still somewhat in recovery mode after my year overseas and in Bucks County.  I was 3 or 4 years older than most of my classmates, including Larry.   His dad was Orrie Anderson who operated a car repair garage; his mom was Mrs. Anderson, a proper Wisconsin Synod Lutheran.  Larry was single, had just graduated from UWM as an English major, rode a motorcycle, and enjoyed listening to The Shags play loud R&R music at O'Brad's on the East Side.  I was married, a Marine Corps veteran and a veteran of Vietnam, which was even then not a popular war, especially among those of draft age, like almost all of my classmates.  I think he was impressed that I was a Marine and had served in a war zone although he was at times disparaging of military service,  a very common attitude among young Americans 2 and 3 years after our invasion of South Vietnam and relentless bombing of North Vietnam.  In any event, we remained friends throughout law school and, unlike many of our classmates, Larry managed not to get drafted (because of lucky draft lottery numbers) but ended up, mirabile dictu, joining the Marines as a JAG officer.  After his discharge from the Philadelphia Navy Yard, his last duty station, he came back to Milwaukee and worked first as an assistant city attorney for Milwaukee, and then as an assistant U.S. attorney, becoming an expert in prosecuting complex drug cases.  He and his wife Gaye, whom he met when he was stationed at Quantico and she was a student at Mary Washington College in Fredricksburg,   They had a lovely bungalow on Story Parkway above the old County Stadium.  When Sarah developed an allergy to our Lhasa Apso "Moose," Larry and Gaye adopted and cared for him.   Lrrry eventually transferred to the US Attorney's office in Atlanta, GA because Gaye couldn't deal with Wisconsin winters.  They later divorced and Larry remarried his wife Jan, who had been another AUSA in Atlanta.  He stayed in the Marine Corps active reserves until he retired as a 'bird colonel' some years ago, having switched his primary MOS from JAG to Infantry, 0302.  We have been friends for more than 56 years and I was happy to be on the telephone with him for half an hour yesterday, just schmoozing.

A thought about Trump's standing in USSC on the immunity issue.   January 6, 2021, was a Wednesday, the middle of the first work week of that year.  While Congress was kept busy certifying the results of the 2020 election and fleeing from the angry mob that invaded the Capitol, the Supreme Court was literally across the street engaged in its business.  Unlike the Congress, the Supreme Court was not stormed that day, but the justices were certainly aware of what was happening across the street from their workplace.  Will this have any impact on their attitudes about Trump's moral and criminal culpability for having, as Liz Cheney put it: "summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack"?

Comparing Al Gore and Donald Trump.  From the op-ed  "Let us praise Al Gore for saving the country" by Stuart Stevens in this morning's WaPo:

We don’t talk enough about Al Gore and his greatest moment: The night of Dec. 12, 2000, when he saved the country by accepting the bitter results of a partisan Supreme Court ruling on a tied election.  The 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore gave George W. Bush 271 electoral college votes — one more than required for victory. After the excruciating spectacle of the Florida recount, there was more reason to challenge the legitimacy of the presidential election than any time since 1860.

Gore could have shattered our electoral system’s stability by raising legitimate questions about a deeply flawed process. There was clear reason to feel he had been cheated in a state governed by his opponent’s brother and by a Supreme Court influenced by his opponent’s father. It was the first time in more than a century that the winner of the popular vote was not elected president. 

But as we increasingly realize the inherent fragility of our democracy with its dependency on good will, Gore’s greatest moment may well be when he accepted defeat. This year, let us pause to honor the actions of a quiet American hero who simply did the right thing. As the Republican Party has forgotten, there can be no democracy unless someone is willing to lose. [My bolding.]

That night in December 2000, Gore told his staff not to trash the Supreme Court because he believed there was something more important at stake than the results of one election. He was right. We owe Gore the respect of a grateful nation.

Three thoughts came to mind as I read this:  First, Stuart Stevens wrote the most candid political book I have read: It Was All A Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, in which he admitted that the basic appeal (in both senses of the word) of the modern Republican Party is RACE, White superiority and White supremacy.   Second, while running for president in 1988, Al Gore sat for a televised interview at my desk in my law office.  I joked that, if he won, I could boast that the 'presidential ass' had sat in my chair and I would sell the privilege of sitting in my chair for $1 a minute.  Third, there was another significant difference between Gore and Trump.  Gore served in the Army during the Vietnam War.  Trump  avoided service (something for 'losers') by getting a medical draft deferment for spurious 'bone spurs.'  Someone those 'bone spurs' never bothered him once he had the deferment.

Biden admits Israeli bombing in Gaza is "indiscriminate" and says it is costing Israel support around the world.  Tony Blinken has admitted there is "a gap" between the respect for international law and the law of war that he has called for in Israel and what is happening on the ground in Gaza.  Secretary Austin has spoken of the danger of Israel gaining tactical victories at the cost of a strategic loss.  What does all this mean for the U.S. that has just vetoed the humanitarian ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council?