Day 162 of Nat'l Emergency: A Daughter's Grief

 Michelle Obama is being hailed by Democrats, or razed by Republicans, for her emotional takedown of Donald Trump during Monday’s streamed Democratic Party national convention. 

But for my money, the most effective, powerful moment came not from a politician or their spouse but from a grieving daughter whose father believed in Trump’s handling of the coronavirus and died needlessly because of that misplaced trust. 

Democrats missed an opportunity to more widely share this message by placing it during the first hour of the convention which was not broadcast by CBS, NBC or ABC. So if you did not see it, here’s a link to Kristin Urquiza’s impassioned 2:21 minute tribute to her father: https://youtu.be/ukc9jO3CtG8.

Day 161 of Nat'l Emergency: No Limits on Secret Executive Powers Threatens Democracy

 I couldn’t fall back asleep Sunday night after waking up at 1 am. I stayed awake for four hours. I kept thinking about a “CBS Sunday Morning” piece by Ted Koppel I had watched that evening about the unlimited executive power a president could assert in a self-declared emergency. A president could, for all intents and purposes, shred the Constitution. 

A president could declare martial law, dismiss Congress, suspend Habeas Corpus, and indefinitely jail any dissenters, including elected senators and representatives, journalists and late night TV comedians who have made a cottage industry out of haranguing those in power, even if they have not committed any crime. Elections could be shelved. 

In effect, a president could install him- or herself as a dictator for life (https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs-sunday-morning/video/c2GTT9IUfgKZj_7k4XvnuMpj193vK1Y_/limits-of-power-/).

Developed first in the 1950s during the Eisenhower administration as a rapid response format in case of nuclear war, the content and scope of executive emergency authority directives, known as Presidential Emergency Action Documents, are not widely known. They are periodically updated by administrations and their Justice Departments. Conjecture about them breeds uncertainty and apprehension. In the hands and mind of the wrong president and his or her cabal they could destroy our democratic republic.

And it would be entirely legal.

Several times Donald Trump has hinted at the extraordinary powers a stroke of his pen could grant him. On March 12 he declared, “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” Earlier, on January 9, he said, “I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency.” 

So far, Trump has invoked seven national emergencies. All he needed was approval from the Justice Department. He has a pliant and enabling attorney general.  

Sadly, under pretext of restoring civil order, Trump could unleash federal forces throughout the land. He has had his dry run in Portland, Seattle, Chicago and Washington, DC, along with his border patrol agents and their detention centers.

Few have seen the scope and text of emergency executive power authorizations. Leaders of Congress haven’t. Presumably, the four living ex-presidents—Carter, Clinton, Bush and Obama—have, so why haven’t they issued warnings about their substance and potential abuse? 

COVID-19 and racial unrest are not existential threats to the republic, but then again, it is Trump who would make the determination. Losing an election—even holding an election—could be perceived by him as an existential threat to his continued rule. He has joked about being president beyond the constitutional limit of two terms. 

The question of his voluntarily leaving office if he loses the election is no longer a parlor game of possibilities. He could void the results. And if he wins he could remain “president” for life if he so chose. All perfectly legal.

It is generally assumed Trump’s supporters revere the Constitution. What will they do if he suspends it? Is their patriotism a sham, or will they finally revolt against his rule? Keep on mind that some estimates place two-thirds of all legal guns in the hands of Trump supporters. Would the ultimate irony be Trump’s disarming the membership of the National Rifle Association?

The playbook for would-be dictators is well known: Get yourself elected to lead a government and then purge it of all dissent as you strip away any potential challenge to your absolute rule while setting up laws, including removal of all weapons, that you and your like-minded judges ruthlessly enforce. 

Eisenhower defeated Hitler and Mussolini but the emergency powers he put into place have provided a legal umbrella to shield Trump on his mission of total empowerment. It is no comfort to know that the foreign leaders Trump most often praises are Putin, Duterte, Erdogan, Kim Jong-un, Bolsonaro and even Xi. 

Foretold is forewarned. The results of the election November 3, if there is an election, could be far different from our expected reality, our tradition of a peaceful transition of power. Remember, even if he loses in a landslide Trump would remain president for 77-1/2 days, more than enough time to proclaim an emergency to invoke absolute authority, forever.

I’m sorry in advance if you cannot stay asleep tonight. But don’t blame me. I am merely the messenger.

Day 160 Nat'l Emergency: Voting Edition—Jewish Voters, Minority Voters, Mail-in Voters

 You gotta hand it to political junkies. They’ll look for any trick to tie in support for their preferred candidate.

Take the Jewish voter. In important swing states, such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and even Arizona, Jews could shade each state blue or red.

Here’s where some Jewish “pilpul” comes in. For the uninitiated, pilpul, according to the dictionary, “is a method of disputation among rabbinical scholars regarding to the interpretation of Talmudic rules and principles or Scripture that involves the development of careful and often excessively subtle distinctions.”

There can hardly be a more subtle exegesis than the argument that God is on the side of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Why? Because their surname initials, B and H, written together as B’’H, are shorthand for a phrase many observant Jews place at the top of anything they write. It stands for “Be-ezrat Hashem,” which means, with God’s help or with God’s strength. Some translate it to be “Be-irshut Hashem,” with God’s permission. Either way, God is invoked as a positive presence.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence might claim solid evangelical Christian support, but Biden-Harris could be a signal from God to Jews to vote Democratic.

Speaking of Jewish voters, pundits are wondering what the impact of the Trump-brokered peace accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates will be on their choice for president.

They can stop wondering. Those who already favored Trump will continue to believe he is the harbinger of the messiah.

Those who vote based on a candidate’s total résumé—which in Trump’s case includes culpability for tens of thousands of needless deaths because of his mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic, his demeaning, bullying, lying, misogynistic, egotistical manner, his xenophobia—will choose Biden who is a mensch and has been a stalwart supporter of Israel.

Mail Call: Trump says mail-in ballots are prone to fraud. Of course, that hasn’t stopped him from requesting his own mail-in ballot from Florida.

Trump claims in-person voting is safer from fraud than mail-in systems. Yet, for the 2016 New Hampshire results, Trump asserted hordes of Massachusetts voters crossed the border into the Granite state to cast votes for Hillary Clinton, depriving him of victory there.

In other words, no method of voting is safe and secure from fraud, according to the man who cannot tell anything but a lie.

I’m sure he has an easy solution—just forget about voting and leave him in office for perpetuity, which is what his former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, in his new book, alleges Trump really wants.

Black Votes Matter: Every word that Biden and Harris say about minority communities is being parsed by Trump and his surrogates. Trump wants their votes by touting his economic underpinning of minority businesses and improved employment prospects.

Those arguments might have had traction before 2020, but since the coronavirus pandemic hit Trump has been a “war time president” overseeing and ignoring devastation within minority communities in terms of deaths, illnesses, lost jobs and shuttered businesses. Black and Latino populations have been hurt by COVID-19 on a greater proprortional basis than Whites.

Back in 2016 he publicly challenged Blacks to support him by asking, “What have you got to lose?” Apparently, their lives, the lives of loved ones, their jobs and their businesses. As minorities often fill non professional jobs in essential businesses such as mass transportation and healthcare facilities, they are more exposed to COVID-19 than the general population.

Mail Call II: For sure I have been focused on Trump’s attempt to undermine voting rights by destabilizing the Postal Service’s ability to deliver mail-in ballots in a timely manner. Like many of you, most of my outbound and inbound communications are internet borne, so I didn’t take his actions too personally as they pertained to ordinary mail.

I didn’t zero in on an important function the Postal Service  provides—delivering prescriptions, many of them life-saving medications—to countless Americans.

I casually sympathized with their plight until I realized, hey, wait a minute. I get my diabetes, prostate and blood pressure meds through the mail!

Trump is trying to kill me and millions of others by mucking up delivery of life-sustaining medications. If not outright kill us, at the very least he is creating unneeded anxiety in our lives.

Sadly, while Trump’s actions might be morally indefensible they apparently fall within the legal powers of a president. Our only response is to vote in overwhelming numbers, in person and by mail. 

Day 157 Nat'l Emergency: The Biden Acceptance Speech I Want to Hear

 (A week from tonight Joe Biden will present his vision for America. In his nominating acceptance speech, I don’t want him to aggressively attack Donald Trump. No doubt, the days leading up to his speech will contain plenty of vitriol aimed at Trump. I want Biden to present a forward thinking, positive message imbued with dignity and decency. Here is what I hope he will say:)

My fellow Americans, I humbly accept your nomination to become the next, the 46th, president of the United States. I promise you I will work tirelessly to heal our nation both physically and emotionally, to make us again the shining city upon a hill that is the envy of the world.

Let us talk about our brighter tomorrows. First and foremost, we must sign on to a pact of truthfulness. Your leaders must address you as bearers of truth and respect.

We must base our dialogue on respect for science. On respect for the rule of law. On respect for the Constitution. On respect for the value of the lives of all the residents of our great country irrespective of their religion, their race, their creed, their national origin, their wealth, their education, their socio-economic status.

We are a compassionate and empathetic nation. For too long we have buried those emotions in an orgy of selfishness. Compassion and empathy start with an example from our highest leaders. My personal history has contained moments of extreme tragedy. Without the support of family, friends, community and yes, government, I would not be able to stand before you today. I vow to be a caring, compassionate, empathetic president.

As I speak to you today America has sustained an unconscionable loss—more than 5 million have contracted coronavirus. Sadly more than 165,000 have died. Millions have lost their jobs. We cannot dismiss these losses as, “It is what it is” rhetoric. 

As president, my number one responsibility will be to ensure your health, safety and welfare. Any loss of life—especially deaths that could have been prevented by a responsible, coordinated, national response—will not be acceptable in my administration. Our actions will be based on the best scientific, medical and, should it be required, military advice without regard to how it would play politically.

We need to rebuild our country. We have done it before. After the Civil War. After the pandemic of 1918. After the Great Depression. After World War II. After assassinations. After Vietnam. After the recession of 2008.

The current pandemic has shown us the clarity of the need for healthcare for all of our citizens, for a virus knows no boundaries between classes, or races. or religions, or regions. No other industrial nation in the world does not have a working system of affordable health care for all its residents.

No other such country does not have a system of preschool child care. We must provide affordable college education or technical training to all who desire it.

We must heal our nation from within of the insidious racism that keeps too many of our brethren from equally enjoying all the fruits of this great country. We cannot accept hunger and poverty in the richest most successful country in the world. Our compassion and empathy demand we act to decisively lift the lives of our fellow citizens who through no fault of their own have been kept in conditions all compassionate and empathetic people would resolve to change.

Drinking water. There is no reason, no acceptable excuse, why millions of our people lack clean drinking water flowing freely into their homes.

We must shepherd the environment. We cannot let corporate greed debase our greatest natural heritage.

Let’s embrace the truth—climate change is real and is enabled by human action. And can be mitigated by human action. We must strengthen, not weaken, environmental laws.

Through hard work our fathers and grandfathers built an infrastructure complex second to none. But it is aging and needs refurbishing. We must revitalize our bridges, tunnels, highways, dams, ports, waterways, mass transit systems and air traffic control systems.

Throughout our treasured history America has been a beacon that attracted the best from the nations of the world. Not just the richest. Or the most educated. The best. Those who had a desire to improve their lives and their family’s lives, through hard work and initiative. 

We are a nation of immigrants. None of our pedigrees is better than those who came before or after us. We need to construct a workable, compassionate, empathetic legal system of immigration and asylum.

We are a nation among nations. Our commitment to international alliances must be rock solid. For three quarters of a century the rest of the world looked up to America for our values and leadership. I will restore our good name among the people of the world.

Ours is one of the few democracies that has not yet been graced by a female president. My selection of Senator Kamala Harris as my vice presidential running mate and your election of our team will put us one step closer to the shattering of that ultimate glass ceiling.

One hundred years ago women across every state in the Union voted for president for the first time. How fitting it would be to celebrate that achievement by electing our first woman vice president. But let’s not do that simply because Kamala Harris is a woman. Her credentials for the job are exquisite and align tightly with my vision for America.   

Together, Kamala and I will fight any attempt to restrict voting rights. We will champion passage of a living wage. We will address the inequities of a tax system that has rewarded the super rich while burdening middle class and working class families. We will choose federal justices who adjudicate the law and not the whims of their political party affiliation.

But we cannot do it alone. We need each and every one of you to vote, in person or by mail-in ballot. Vote for the Biden-Harris ticket but also cast your vote for Democrats running for the Senate and House, for governor and state legislator, for mayor, councilperson and school board member. The legendary House Speaker Tip O’Neill said, “All politics is local.” Remember, at stake is the direction of our country not just from Washington but also from every hamlet, town and city, on up to state capitals.   

A stark choice for our future awaits us November 3rd. I need not delineate the differences between Democrats and Republicans. I am confident my reading of America is that of a compassionate, empathetic people who believe in equal opportunity for all. Who believe ours is a government based on the rule of law. Who believe that the first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens not just from external threats but also from the decaying threats of poverty and income inequality, of hunger and disease, of ignorance and bigotry, of lies and deceptions, of selfishness and greed. 

I believe in America and want to lead you into an era of trust and truthfulness, of respect and responsibility, of caring and compassion.

I am humbled by your confidence in me. Together we can rebuild America, stronger and better.

Day 151 Nat’l Emergency: International Beer Day, Mood Swings and a Toast to Pete Hamill

Today, August 7, is International Beer Day. While I enjoy the occasional brewski, I am not devoted to the libation. I’m no Brett Kavanaugh. I’m more a vodka man when seeking a buzz.

But I have come to recognize the importance beer has played in the development of societies. As I learned when reading “A History of the World in Six Glasses” by Tom Standage, beer was the first transformational drink of Western civilization. (Just so you’re not overwhelmed by curiosity, the six breakthrough liquids, in their order of development in the Middle East and Western countries, were beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca-Cola.)

Water, naturally, was a thirst quencher from the get-go. But too often water sources became tainted from human and animal waste. The production of beer, on the other hand, cooked off disease spreading microorganisms. At one time, Standage noted, beer was the preferred drink of kings of ancient civilizations. Moreover, the quality of one’s beer reflected a person’s wealth. 

Beer also often was part of one’s wages. Written records show the Egyptians who built the pyramids were state employees whose wages included rations of beer. As winemaking became more prevalent, wine superseded beer as the drink of choice by the cognoscenti. 

Beer continued to be important to the masses. Even children drank beer, albeit a heavily diluted potion. Adults also consumed diluted beer, at least early in the day. It was not unusual for the populace to walk around in a stupor from morning till night. 

It was only after the introduction of coffee to Europeans, first on the island of Malta in the mid 16th century by Turkish slaves, that a different type of buzz woke Christendom up in the morning. Coffee hastened the industrialization of Europe.

It is beer that is celebrated today, however, so everyone raise the glass of your favorite brew. Cheers!

 Uh-oh, I just found out why I have a problem stabilizing my moods.

According to a chart from Sumbu.official, you can get more serotonin in your body by swimming, cycling, running, meditating, sun exposure, and walking in nature.

Okay, well, I don’t know how to swim, I stopped biking 10 years after I learned how to at age 40 following repeated spills, I never jogged (bad for the knees, I always reasoned), I don’t meditate, and after four facial basal cell carcinomas I try to avoid too much sun exposure. I do walk in nature but not often enough to count as a daily, even weekly, endeavor.

I guess I’m screwed.

Serotonin, for those like me who never really thought or knew about it, is a chemical released in your brain based on activities you undertake to stabilize your mood. It is one of four “happiness” related chemicals, the others being dopamine (the reward chemical), oxytocin (the love hormone), and endorphin (the pain killer). Here’s a chart: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCaTF74Dqmv/.

How have you been keeping your sanity while staying cooped up in your abode? Have you been maintaining your equilibrium? Not chomping at the bit eager to chop off the heads of your spouse or children? 

Even Michelle Obama has acknowledged these pandemic and political times have infused in her a low grade depression. So, how do you keep your cool?

I achieve quasi-normalcy by writing this blog, though during periods when I go almost a week or longer between posts it usually is because I am too depressed to get up the initiative to create. It’s not writer’s bloc. It’s low grade depression. 

How are you coping?

For Pete’s Sake: Around the time I matriculated from the sports and comics pages of the newspaper to reading daily columnists—the mid 1960s—Pete Hamill began his reporting career at The New York Post, then a bulwark of liberal journalism. He was one of several noteworthy writers including James Wechsler, Murray Kempton, Mary McGrory, Max Lerner, who filled my brain with progressive ideas. But it was Hamill’s prose that captured a reader’s attention through its earthy depiction of tragedies and human interest stories amid the normal lives of working class stiffs that forged the core of Hamill’s background growing up in an Irish neighborhood in Brooklyn. Hamill died Wednesday. He was 85.

Along with Jimmy Breslin of The New York Daily News, Hamill championed a new type of journalism that went beyond the who, what, where, when fact sheet and delved into the why, the emotions behind the swirl of events. He described people and how they were affected. He also instilled a soul into his depiction of New York City. His writing was like that of the Post’s sports columnists who didn’t worry about telling you the score of the game but rather related what star athletes felt about their achievements or disappointments.

I never met Hamill directly. Rather, my contact with him was once removed. Back in the 1970s, when Hamill was living with Shirley MacLaine in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, Gilda’s stepfather, Gus, was their mailman. One day he had to make an in-person postal delivery. Gus rang the bell to their apartment and was surprised when MacLaine opened the door dressed simply in her negligee. A wide smile passed over Gus’ face whenever he recounted that experience.

As I conclude this blog entry written with several interruptions over the course of eight hours, it is still International Beer Day. I think the passing of Pete Hamill is worthy of raising a toast in his good name.

(Editor’s note: Because of the loss of Internet service to my desktop computer I am unable to provide direct links to URLs provided. Please copy them into your browser to gain access to the sources.)

 

Day 150 Nat’l Emergency: Neighborhood Watch

Most evenings after the oppressive daytime heat and humidity have dissipated to a tolerable level Gilda and I do a circular walk around the streets of our housing development. Each rotation is half a mile. Our goal is six revolutions, though we often have to compromise because the air remains heavy and dank. 

Tropical Storm Isiais breezed through our neighborhood Tuesday toppling Gilda’s tomato plants in our back yard and scoring a direct hit with a broken off tree limb on the sign she put up on our front lawn. Score 1 for Injustice. 

The branch had bent the sign frame back as if it were a yoga enthusiast doing a King Pigeon Pose. Gilda easily bent the frame back into shape (score 1 for Justice). We jointly lifted the urns holding the tomato plants. It had already been a less than appetizing crop. Isiais did not help. The fickleness and randomness of nature was not lost on us. 

Wind shorn branches were strewn across the neighborhood. We didn’t lose power but we did lose Internet, cable and Internet-enabled landline phone service. One doesn't realize how dependent life has become to technology until connectivity is severed. We’re grateful we saw the last episode of “Money Heist” on Netflix before Isiais hit. 

Built in 1966 the subdivision went up on land that was an apple orchard. The manor house is one of 34 in the development, distinguished by its size and architecture from the four or five different models the builders employed in the subdivision.

The builders—it was the first residential project by Robert Martin Associates. They named the streets after family members. Romar Avenue for the two partners Robert F. Weinberg and Martin S. Berger. Teramar Way for Terry and Martin Berger. Brad Lane for their son. 

In 1990 as our family flew on a UJA  mission to Israel we sat next to Brad Berger, a tall, handsome man with curly, prematurely grey hair. He was amused to hear we lived on the street his parents had named for him. 

After several more single family housing developments Robert Martin Associates evolved into commercial real estate. It became prime builders of office complexes in Westchester County. 

We’ve lived in our house for 36 years. The day we moved in I took a break from unpacking to make some use of the basketball hoop the prior owners erected next to the driveway. A neighbor and young son ambled by and joined five-year-old Dan and me. The man hardly missed a shot. He introduced himself as Jim McMillan. Was he the same Jim McMillan who played for Columbia University and professionally for several teams including the New York Knicks?, I asked. He was. 

I envisioned honing my poor basketball skills at the hand of a retired pro, but the McMillans moved a short time later. They eventually relocated to his birth state of North Carolina. He died of heart failure four years ago. He was 68. 

One of the byproducts of the pandemic’s limitations on freedom of movement is a renewed interest in the comings and goings inside our subdivision. From the outset diversity has been a hallmark of our neighborhood. Two of the remaining three original homeowners are a Black family and an interracial couple. Among the 34 current homeowners there are, by my informal count, five Afro-American families, three Indian, five Jewish, two Eastern European,  four German, one Canadian, and three Italian.  

Almost every family has at least one SUV among their two or more vehicles. I feel almost unAmerican not owning a gas guzzler. At least one of our cars, however, is a domestic brand. Within the subdivision there are fewer than 15 U.S. models. One home has three Teslas, though I believe only two drivers live there. 

Obviously environmentally conscious, that family is, like us, one of three with solar panels installed. 

Within the last three to five years a new wave of owners has descended on our neighborhood, bringing a passel of kids under 10 years old. It is not uncommon to observe parents and grandparents pushing strollers while older children ride circles around them on their bikes. A few middle aged couples no longer are empty-nesters as their single or married children have fled Manhattan for the relative safety of suburban life and remote ties to work. 

New ownership has also meant a surge of home improvement projects. 

One of the quirkier aspects of life in the burbs is the divergent belief in the most appropriate time to water a lawn. After sunset or before sunrise are the options most preferred. Gilda is a morning advocate. If you’ve seen her garden you would be hard pressed to disagree with her. 

Day 144 of Nat'l Emergency: It's Time to Think About What Trump Could Do After the Election

On the assumption Donald Trump will fail in his reelection bid, prognosticators are busy trying to piece out what he would or could do. 

Would he challenge the validity of the election? Of course he would.

Would he outright refuse to leave the White House on January 20? That’s an interesting question posed recently on Quora.com, a newish question and answer website on all sorts of issues whose major drawback is that answers do not necessarily come from experts. Some of the answers are downright amusing, such as the one posted in response to the question, “Can a president refuse to leave office after losing an election?”

“Absolutely! The President can legally refuse to leave office. The housekeeping staff will politely pack them up and remove their goods to the curb, and the Secret Service will come into the White House and remove the now ex-President to the same curb - or to the local hoosegow - and the new President will move in and take control. But, the old President can pout and thrash and proclaim that he or she is still the President - legally - and they will be cheerfully ignored.”

That’s all well and good on January 20, 2021, but from November 3, 2020, until noon January 20 Trump would still be president, with all the powers ascribed to that office. 

For example, he would continue to be in control of the nuclear codes until Joe Biden takes the oath of office on inauguration day. That, of course, is an extreme example of the delayed transfer of power. 

During those full 77-1/2 days after votes are cast, he would remain commander in chief of the armed services. He could end our membership in NATO, though that order would be rescinded by Biden on his first day as president. He could order an air strike against Iran, and any subsequent military action it provoked. Cleaning up that mess would be Biden’s responsibility.

He could declare martial law at will. Indeed, some fear he might exercise that power in advance of the election to prevent voters in Democratic districts in swing states from  being able to turn up at polling precincts.

There would more than enough time for Trump to wreak additional havoc on government institutions and international alliances that he has already weakened.

The potential for chaos is extreme.

Which brings us to the Rod Rosenstein solution, commonly known as the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. After Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey with its potential obstruction of justice issues, Rosenstein, as the deputy attorney general of the United States in charge of overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is alleged to have suggested Trump could be removed from office under provisions of the 25th Amendment. For the record, Rosenstein denies he ever seriously considered the idea.

But it may be worth thinking about now. Section IV of the amendment empowers the vice president and a majority of cabinet secretaries to remove the president from office, at least temporarily. The section reads, “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”

Within 21 days both chambers of Congress would have to ratify the action or the powers would revert back to the president (https://www.businessinsider.com/25th-amendment-how-can-you-remove-president-from-office-2017-3). 

Trump clearly has been exhibiting anti-democratic tendencies, even going so far as to tweet the idea of postponing the November 3 election, a suggestion that prompted a founder of the conservative Federalist Society to call his actions “fascistic” and grounds for impeachment (https://nyti.ms/33azE6H). Not so strident but soundly in opposition to Trump’s idea were Republican Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

If Trump loses, will Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet invoke the 25th amendment to safeguard against scorched earth actions such as a pardon of Ghiselle Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s enabler?

Mostly, but not entirely overlooked by the public and some media because of coronavirus and political campaign news, Donald Trump was asked at the tail end of a recent news conference if he was concerned Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged-sex-scandal-with-underage-women-enabler Maxwell might reveal names of famous people.

Unspoken, but clearly implied since Trump had consorted with Epstein and Maxwell before he was president, was whether he feared she would implicate him in the sordid activity, as Britain’s Prince Andrew has been. Maxwell is in custody on six federal charges for allegedly facilitating Epstein’s sexual abuse of minors. She has pleaded not guilty. 

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach. I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well. Whatever it is.”

The vagueness of that comment and his well wishes to Maxwell prompted the following Facebook message from “Ridin’ with Biden”: “I’m voting for the guy who didn’t just go on live TV and send best wishes to a woman accused of running a child sex trafficking ring.”

By now we are creepily familiar with his repeated protestations of ignorance about his affair with Stormy Daniels and the payment to her of hush money. 

We also should all be creepily familiar with Trump’s evocation of positive feelings toward friends and supporters charged with, and even convicted of, illegal activity. Paul Manaford. Roger Stone. Gen. Michael Flynn. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik. 

If he speaks fondly of someone, expect some form of executive clemency in the near future. So Paul Manaford and Retied General Michael Flynn, sit tight, your freedom awaits a propitious moment.

That could be sometime after November 3, whether Trump wins or loses the election. And let’s not count on Penche and the Cabinet doing the right and patriotic thing after four years of serving as his toadies.