7/1/24

 Monday, July 1, 2024

The 1863 Battle of Gettysburg began in Pennsylvania, a slaughterhouse

1910 Comisky Park opens in Chicago

1934 Brookfield Zoo opens in Chicago

I fell asleep again @ 8:30 as Geri watched COBRA on PBS, woke up at 9:30 to brush my teeth, put a load in the washing machine, and turn on the slow cooker for my oatmeal. Lights out at 10:40 and up at 1:50 to let Lilly out and do some middle-of-the-night reading and writing.

Prednisone, day 50, 15 mg. day 14.    I took my pills at 3:50. Oatmeal at 4:05. CGM reading at 7 a.m. = 255.  Took my morning meds at 7:05.  BP at 8:40 = 144/80.

Dr. Ryxka called in sick today.  My appointment is rescheduled to 7/8/24 at 2:30.  Geri changed her PT appointment to 7:45 this morning to accommodate my rheumatology appointment.  Rats.

French election's foreshadowing.  The French electorate is veering hard right in the snap election called by President Macron, whose centrist party came in 3rd in yesterday's election, well behind the leftist party and Marine LePin's party.  Similar results occurred in Germany's recent European parliament election in which Scholz's Social Democrat coalition came in 3rd, behind 2nd place neo-Nazi AfD, and the Christian Democrats.  Only in the UK where the Tories have had control of the government for so long and have overseen the long decline since Brexit will the leftist Labor Party prevail in the upcoming election.  And now the handwriting is appearing on America's wall with Joe Biden's stumbling, mumbling, bumbling performance in Thursday's debate with Trump.

Peter Baker and Katie Rogers report in this morning's NYTimes that  Joe Biden is receiving strong encouragement from wife Jill and son Hunter to stay in the race despite the polls showing 72% of respondents saying Joe doesn't have the wherewithal to handle the job of president and 45% of Democrats wanting him to bow out.  It's hard to believe that the political future of the most powerful and most dangerous nation in the world may be determined by Joe's elderly wife and fucked-up son trying to salve the old guy's feelings and to retain their current relationships with the pomp and power of the White House.  Jill Biden's words after the debate - telling Joe he did a great job and that he 'answered all the questions' - sounded like a mother encouraging a child after a poor performance at school.  And Hunter Biden as a presidential advisor?!?!  Long-term drug abuser, crackhead, married his current wife one week after meeting her, recently convicted of one federal offense with a tax evasion trial coming up?!?!

Ron Klain is quoted as saying "{Biden's] the choice of the Democratic voters."  Right, like Putin was the choice of the Russian voters.  No realistic opposition candidates were available once Biden froze them out by announcing he was seeking re-election.  Plus, by keeping him largely hidden from the press for the last 3 and 1/2 years (few press conferences, no Super Bowl interview, etc.), the voters didn't get to see the extent of his diminishment over those years.  Even now, he uses a teleprompter at his rallies and even at a fundraiser.  Unscripted, he wanders and gets lost.  Newspaper reports that major donors have expressed alarm, saying they recognized in Biden’s performance some of the deterioration they have observed in smaller meetings and donor events.

Is this really happening in and to the United States?  Or am I living in a dream world from which I will eventually wake up?  Can things possibly be this bad, that the best our political system can come up with is a choice between the fascistic cult leader Donald Trump and the addled, superannuated Joe Biden?  Joe Biden is 15 months younger than I am.  I think of the changes that have occurred in my health just this past year - debilitating polymyalgia rheumatica, crippling arthritis, enervating insomnia, decreasing ability to see and read, difficulty getting out of bed, rising from a chair, and mounting stairs (sometimes even a single step), etc.  What may the next year hold in store for Joe Biden?  And the year after that?  And the year after that?  And the year after that?  And I'm ignoring the possibility of a cardiac event, a stroke, or another intracranial aneurysm like the two he had earlier in life.  Again I wonder - is this really happening?  

Lastly, my concern is not limited to the upcoming 4-year term of office.  What is Biden's competency today?  Does he have some dementia already?  Is he a 'sundowner' whose cognitive capacity and competency fade as each day progresses and he tires?  OK only episodically?  The Thursday debate occurred at 9 p.m. Eastern time and he looked at times like a slug.  The next day's campaign rally at which he was so "with it" occurred in the afternoon and even then he had to use his teleprompter.  He couldn't be counted on to deliver the speech unscripted, or even just relying on notes. 

Some thoughts on presidential immunity case.

 Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass:  “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all."

Article II, sec. 3  United States Constitution:   He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

Popular Myth: No one is above the law.

Trump v. United States, No. 23-939:  "The nature of Presidential power entitles a former president to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.  And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts."

Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, dissenting: "In its purest form, the concept of immunity boils down to a maxim—“‘[t]he King can do no wrong’”—a notion that was firmly “rejected at the birth of [our] Republic.”  To say  that someone is immune from criminal prosecution is to say that, like a King, he “is not under the coercive power of the law,” which “will not suppose him capable of committing a folly, much less a crime.” Thus, being immune is not like having a defense under the law. Rather, it means that the law does not apply to the immunized person in the first place. Conferring immunity therefore “create[s] a privileged class free from liability for wrongs inflicted or injuries threatened.” 

1977, David Frost interview of Richard Nixon:

Frost: So, what in a sense you’re saying is that there are certain situations and the Huston plan or that part of it was one of them where the president can decide that it’s in the best interest of the nation or something and do something illegal.

Nixon: Well, when the president does it … that means that it is not illegal.

Frost: By definition –

Nixon: Exactly … exactly… if the president … if, for example, the president approves something … approves an action, ah … because of the national security or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of, ah … ah … significant magnitude … then … the president’s decision in that instance is one, ah … that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they’re in an impossible position.

Anniversary thoughts.  I mention Gettysburg only because it reminds me of my first public speech.  My Bly, my freshman English teacher at Leo High School, appointed me to represent Class 1B in the Oratory Competition in the school auditoriu.  Why?  I have no idea whatsoever.  There were 30 or more of us in his class.  Why me?  In any case, I chose to deliver Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and when I stood in front of the entire student body to give it, my heart was thumping, my mouth went dry, and I gave the opening and closing paragraphs and completely forgot the middle of the speech.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

I mention the opening of Comisky Park and the Brookfield Zoo because they remind me of how often my Uncle Jim, may he rest in peace, took me, my sister Kitty, and my cousins to the zoo and the ballpark.