Treat us all that way

       Now that there is a possibility that Donny Two Scoops may actually have to spend the rest of his life in the crowbar hotel, those who can't imagine that happening are creating logistical roadblocks, such as protesting the Secret Service may have to assign men to a prison detail.  Really?  Pretty weak tea.  After their shift is over, the agents can go home, unlike the protectee.  

Above or Below

     After reading Jack Goldsmith's column in today's NYT, I no doubt experienced a blood pressure spike.  Goldsmith, an Assistant Attorney General during The Shrub's administration has cultivated an above the fray persona and has appeared as a non partisan talking head on left and right cable news shows.  In this latest essay, he reveals himself as a party apparatchik, issuing smarmy advice to special counsel Jack Smith and implying the Biden administration is persecuting poor Donald tRump to the detriment of the republic.

     I kept waiting for Goldsmith to come around to professing that despite the dangers of prosecuting an ex president, we must preserve the axiom no one is above the law.  But despite admitting tRump had created the mess we now find ourselves in, according to this Republican toady, the optics are just not right and anyhow it is all the Democrats' fault, somehow.

Slowly they turned

       tRump's main defense lawyer for the Jan. 6 conspiracy case, John Lauro, spent most of the day on Sunday running the tired "free speech" defense past an increasingly intolerant audience of pundits.   Obviously Cheeto Jesus and his henchmen prepared in advance for an incitement charge and when Jack Smith didn't deliver, they went with their canned response anyway.

     When Lauro got tired of being contradicted, he changed gears and tried what is now being called the "aspirational defense".  In this not so closely reasoned defense, the orange menace was not leading a criminal conspiracy, he was just asking politely for everyone from VP Mike Pence to Georgia Secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to join in his coup attempt.  In this fantasy, tRump is merely aspiring to overthrow a democratically elected government.  We'll see, but I don't think this particular dog is up for hunting.

What's wrong with the Republican party?

        Over in the Lawyers, Guns and Money blog, Paul Campos argues anyone who belongs to or supports the institutional Republican party is supporting an authoritarian, ethno-nationalist agenda.  I agree with his assessment with the proviso that not every member of the party implicitly supports such goals.   There is a small, but substantial minority in the party who support the traditional Republican mantra of small government, low taxes and a strong national defense.   Many of these people vote for whatever candidate the party supports, much as many rank and file democrats do for their party's nominee.

     The trial of Donny Two Scoops for attempting to subvert democracy with the aid and connivance of the Republican party will, i hope, open the eyes of these Republicans to the danger their party poses to American liberal democracy.  Only several crushing electoral defeats will start the process of reform in one of the country's two main political parties.

Weather or climate

      The other morning, the village of Saranac Lake reported a temperature of 36 degrees Fahrenheit.  In the midst of record heat throughout the world in July; now recognized as the hottest month in human history, the little town in the heart of the Adirondacks provided a little relief from the otherwise oppressive weather news.

     Thanks to the melting icecap in Greenland and its interference with the Gulf Stream, our area is likely to experience cooler than normal temperatures as climate change proceeds.  If present trends continue we will (probably not in my lifetime) see an influx of climate refugees from the southern and western US as large portions of the country become uninhabitable at least during the summer.  The disruption of life around the world is hard to comprehend, but it must  be addressed or chaos will be the response.

What does accountability look like?

        Well,  Donnie Two Scoops has endured his third criminal indictment since leaving office.  Special Counsel Jack Smith is charging the twice impeached, disgraced former president with three counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US government and to deny voters the franchise.

       These charges go to the heart of the argument that tRump cares nothing about democracy when it conflicts with his self interest.  I'll let the cable news talking heads suss out the finer points, but if I were the orange menace, I'd be more worried about these indictments than any of the others, so far.

Our tangled health care system

    My recent brush with our health care system, thanks to the Divine Mrs. M, has been an eye opener.  Two of my children are Registered Nurses, so I have heard horror stories about patient care for years.  But the poor outcome of the Divine one's first visit to our local hospital is a cautionary tale.  Despite seemingly endless blood drawing and testing which showed elevated white cell counts, the attending physician blithely recommended discharge after a 2 day course off IV antibiotics.

      The doctor prescribed a course of oral antibiotics at home, but after a couple of days it was apparent this treatment was not working and after a visit to her primary care office it was recommended we again repair to the ER.  7 days later the patient is finally being discharged now that the condition is reasonably under control.  Fingers crossed.

      My wife's infection is fairly common and well understood.  Why the botched treatment?  Our local hospital is a point of community pride.  It is not owned by a private equity firm looking for maximum profit.  Yet, the staffing is sparse and many of the nurses are recent graduates who are being mentored by women and men who are barely out of school themselves.  My daughters correctly diagnosed the condition and probably could have recommended the correct treatment, but both of them have years of experience to back up their diagnosis.   It would seem we have a shortage of well trained and experienced hospital staff.   I don't know what the solution to this problem entails, but certainly more and better trained nurses and doctors would be a start.