The city:

We picked up our 3 year old grandson at his pre-school to drive him home, as we do every Monday (and Thursday). It’s about a 30 minute drive from his pre-school (near our house) to his home. For those of you who know Washington, you might know that most major street spike out from the business and government center, so that traveling cross-town can be a challenge. Most of our drive is normally on Irving Street NW, which we pick up just east of Rock Creek Park. With the exception of the block approaching 14th Street, where the traffic is always tied up, we can usually move right along, stopping only for red lights. But today, for some reason, east of Georgia Avenue, Irving Street looked like a parking lot (I still don’t know why), so I immediately decided to divert while I had a chance and to cut across the first alley and proceed on a parallel street.

Now comes the interesting part. The alley goes between Irving Street and Columbia Road. I immediately wondered if I had made a mistake diverting because there was car at the other end of the alley pointed at me…..and not moving. Would we be trapped in the alley?

I drive slowly on. There is a large black mass in front of me in the street. Edie says: “IS THAT A PERSON?” I have to divert not to run over him. It becomes clear that the car at the other end of the alley must be stopped there to keep other cars from coming into the alley and endangering the person lying in the middle of the alley. He’s a man – that’s all we can see. I have to move to the right to avoid hitting him. We call 911. We tell the operator where we are. She asks “is it a man in a black coat?” We say “yes, you already know?” She tells us a car is on the way.

The car facing us backs out of the alley, and we are able to get to the street. That’s all I know. Drunk? Drugged? Sick? Dead? No idea.

One more thing. As we are waiting to pull onto the street, I see through the mirror a man walking by the person on the ground. He just walks by him. Doesn’t seem perturbed at all.

Life in the big city.

The country:

Happy to say that the rest of the day was better. For those of you on Facebook, you may have already seen my question regarding the unanimous Supreme Court decision telling states they can’t remove Trump from the ballot based on the 14th Amendment. I understand the Court’s constitutional argument on whether Congress has to implement provisions of the 14th Amendment and it’s probably right. But it was a bit hypocritical for the Court to give as an additional reason that chaos may result if states reached different conclusions about the acceptability of a candidate, since this Court with decisions like Dobbs has itself created chaos, since “originalism” (which I think is a disingenuous way of looking at the constitution anyway) would tell the Court to ignore practical considerations, and since one of the cornerstones of conservative thinking is states’ rights.

Further, the Court said that states could control state election qualifications, but not federal. OK, but what does that mean for minor party or no party candidates? Kennedy is now striving to meet the ballot qualifications of various states? Doesn’t that mean states do control candidates for federal elections? Why do major party candidates get to be treated differently? And what about voter qualifications and other election day rules involving ballot access? Maybe the Court hasn’t avoided chaos, but once again fomented it.

And then there was Trump himself , lauding the Court and saying at the vase itself was just political and the creation of the Biden White House. Well, Trump, listen. Yes, any case which seeks to disqualify a candidate is by its nature political. So what? And, as to the origin of the case, the plaintiffs include no Democrats, only Republicans and independents.

By the way, Joy Reid started her show tonight with a series of recent verbal gaffes by Trump. What if he is elected and becomes a new Mad King George III?