Today is Wednesday, July 3, 2024. If you can believe polls, the president and felon Trump are in a virtual dead heat for the White House, despite the former’s rotten record as president and his now being given imperial powers by the corrupt Supreme Court on Monday. Who can believe such polls after the former president’s lying, bullying performance during that terrible debate last Thursday? The only good thing with this latest polling is that Biden has not substantially lost ground since a performance against Dump in which he appeared distracted and lost his train of thought. But what is horrible about the polling is that the convicted felon didn’t lose any ground since his disgusting performance. Are people still in denial over Dump this late stage in the game?

Yesterday I did not file a journal entry because I attended my gay men’s reading group meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Jefferson Market Library branch in the West Village. I also traipsed off to the oldest gay establishment around the corner, Julius’s, with a few of the guys to have a ginger ale, and I surprisingly had this nonalcoholic drink along with two other nondrinkers. Who would have thought I would meet two other people who didn’t drink? One of them was a visitor from Amsterdam who is staying in the Murray Hill area for about a year or so. The other was a man of Asian descent who shared an interest in the Turner Classic Movie Festival and said that he would be interested in, possibly, going to the next festival in April 2025. We exchanged phone numbers so that we could be in touch in the next few months.

I’m writing this blog late tonight because Elliot and I were watching another Midsomer Murders episode, and would you believe, the DVR ran out once more during the second episode at a very critical moment: the revelation of who the murderer or murderers were and the reason why the murders occurred. I screamed at the television set, naturally, when the tape ended. I vowed not to tape later episodes from this series on this PBS channel.

So tomorrow is the 248th anniversary of the founding of this country that I see is slipping away from many of us, as we experience the predations of a highly corrupt presidential candidate vying for the office – when he should be disqualified without question – and the actions of an out-of-control Supreme Court that is changing the face of America with its extremely unpopular rulings. The situation is downright depressing, and because of it, I won’t celebrate the 4th of July the usual way: by viewing the Macy’s fireworks display. I probably won’t even watch the spectacle on the TV even. As someone suggested in my news feed on Facebook today, the true Independence Day this year will not be tomorrow, July 4, but will be November 5 instead. I would tend to agree with this sentiment.

Have a good day tomorrow, whatever you do.

Stay safe and be well.