Today is Thursday, July 25, 2024. Though I was absent from this venue yesterday, I did watch the sitting president deliver a historic 10-minute message to the American people to defend democracy by not voting for an autocrat this November. Not once did he mention Dump’s name, but we all knew who he was referring to in his solemn address. By doing this, Biden detailed how he was passing the torch to a much younger generation of leaders, specifically, his Vice President Kamala Harris. An article in today’s Daily News by The Associated Press lays out the import of Biden’s first speech to the nation after announcing his leaving the race on Sunday, November 21. The title of the article is “Joe: I put nation before ‘any title’: In first address to U.S. since quitting race, says it’s more important to save democracy than cling to presidency.”

In his address delivered behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, Biden delivered a forceful repudiation of the former president by stating, “Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. And that includes personal ambition.” Here Biden so strongly contrasts his character with that of the Orange Turd who desperately tried to cling to power after the 2020 election and, even now, as he stumbles toward the White House yet once more in a desperate attempt to escape accountability for his myriad legal woes. He would never willingly give up his contemptuous race for the White House if he ever – God forbid! – were given a medical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease between now and November 5 because his doctor has said he’s going to live to 200! This is not made up; it’s a real quote.

This moment last night was one for the history books in which a U.S. president reflected before the nation on why he was taking the rare step of voluntarily stepping down and handing power over to his vice president. About the office, Biden said, “I revere this office. But I love my country more.”

Talk about a leopard never changing its spots: the Orange Turd is still spouting the Big Lie about widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election at a campaign rally just an hour earlier than Biden’s unprecedented speech. His refusal to concede inspired the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, which Biden called “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

During his speech, Biden stated, “I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation, also saying, he wanted to make room for “fresh voices, yes, younger voices.” He added, “That is the best way to unite our nation.”

The President did not indicate in any way that he was going to play golf the next few months before his term expires at noon on January 20. He spooled out a weighty to-do list of goals for his last six months in office: working to end the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, fighting to boost government support to cure cancer, addressing climate change, and even pushing for reform of the Supreme Court.

At some point, Biden said he was grateful to have served as president and said nowhere else but here in the United States could a kid with a stutter grow up to sit in the Oval Office. Showing his gratitude, Biden said, “I’ve given my heart and my soul to our nation. I’ve been blessed a million times in return.”

In a very scholarly article in The Atlantic on my smartphone by David Frum, a dramatic contrast is made between Biden and that of Dump in the piece entitled “The Dramatic Contrast of Biden’s Last Act.” Here Frum compares Biden’s address where he announced he’s relinquishing power for the good of the country to that of a modern Cincinnatus. Uh! Who is this? you are probably asking.

You would be correct to speculate that the name comes from the ancient Romans and it does. Therefore, Cincinnatus was the name of a man who, as the story goes, accepted supreme power in the state to meet a temporary emergency and then gave up that power to return to his farm after the emergency passed. The first president George Washington modeled his public image on the legend of this common man, Cincinnatus, while, on the other side of the coin, is the sinister character of Catiline, “a man of depraved sexual appetites who reached almost the pinnacle of power and then exploited populist passions to overthrow the constitution, gain wealth, and pay his desperately pressing debts.” Who, pray might you ask, is there a modern equivalent of this Catiline in our present-day politicians? I’m sure you already know; his initials should be DJT. In historical times, Alexander Hamilton invoked Catiline to inveigh against his detested political adversary, Aaron Burr. Hamilton’s description of this much-hated man could easily have been written of Trump hundreds of years later.

“He is bankrupt beyond redemption except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement . . . If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions to secure to himself permanent power and with it wealth . . . He is truly the Catiline of America.”

Frum believes that Biden presented the next election as a “stark choice between, on the one side, ‘honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice, and democracy,’ and, on the opposites of those things, Biden cast his political adversary in the ancient role of Catiline.

This line is so resonant: “Biden’s act of renunciation gives power to his words of denunciation.” Biden used the speech to demonstrate that he cared about something loftier than personal ambition and also portrayed his opponent as someone who cared for nothing other than personal ambition. Here is another resilient line from the article: “By surrounding the power that he’d once hoped to keep, Biden condemned by contrast his predecessor who clung to the power he’d lost. Biden’s July 24 rebuked Trump’s January 6.”

Even though the names and stories of Cincinnatus and Catiline are no longer remembered by most of us, Frum writes, their symbolism still survives even after the details have blurred down the centuries. The story involves self versus country first; appetite versus conscience; ego versus law.

As a result of Biden’s address last night, Frum believes that Joe Biden’s entire career spanning five decades ended rather magnificently. I loved what he wrote about Dump’s career which, unfortunately, hasn’t ended just yet. He writes in the concluding paragraph, “Donald Trump’s career has not ended quite yet – though it, too, is backlit. Any hope or promise it might once have carried vanished long ago. His final chapter seems at hand. It won’t be good – and after the contrast with Biden’s finale last night, it will look worse than ever.” Hell, yes.

Just know this about Dump: he’s now wriggling out of debating Harris because he’s deathly afraid of Harris. He’s such a fucking coward that this is not surprising at all! Previously, Dump committed to a debate with President Biden on September 10 on ABC, but that got turned on its head, with Kamala Harris being the presumptive Democratic nominee now. So now the Orange Turd’s campaign is refusing to commit to any future debates until the nominee is officially chosen. That’s bullshit because it seems she has the nomination all sewn up anyway.

Harris responded to his bullshit by taking to social media, saying, “What happened to ‘any time, any place’?” Earlier today, Harris said she was ready to debate the former insurrectionist, but added that Drumpf was “back pedaling” on debating her. She taunts him even more for his cowardice, saying, “I have agreed to the previously agreed upon September 10 debate, he agreed to that previously. Now it appears he’s back pedaling. But I’m ready. And I think that the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage, and so, I’m ready. Let’s go.” She delivered these comments to reporters after landing at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

My dinner last night with my cousin “Rivka” and her husband “Dillon” was very nice. We met a little after 7 and we had an almost two-and-a-half-hour dinner upstairs in a very dimly lighted, nicely apportioned dining room. We availed ourselves of the $60 prix fixe menu since this is Restaurant Week. The price included three courses: an appetizer, a main entree, and dessert. Of course, any beverage was extra. Thus I had lobster dumplings, fire-roasted Atlantic salmon, and chocolate mousse cake as my three courses. For his three courses, Elliot had the burrata salad, diver scallops, and key lime pie as his full dinner. Rivka copied me by requesting the salmon for her main entree. What was more delectable was the conversation that flowed for so long. We hadn’t seen my cousins since May, I believe. They had traveled to the Cotswolds in late June for a week or so. So we had the vacation to discuss, among many other topics.

It’s getting late here. Elliot and I watched another Midsomer Murders episode that took too long to complete.

Stay safe and be well.

Here is our rascal Atticus again on his perch!