Yesterday, I awoke just before 6.00am which is my preferred waking time and stayed in bed long enough to hear the news and a selection from the Mozart clarinet concerto before getting up just after six. The news contained details of one of the most corrupt practices and abuse of presidential power in the US it is it possible to imagine. The transcript of an interview between US Department of Justice’s second-in-command Todd Blanche and Ghislaine Maxwell was made public for the first time on Friday. Maxwell has been serving a 20-year jail term for child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, also a convicted sex offender. According to the released transcript, Maxwell she had never seen President Trump ‘in any inappropriate setting in any way’. The current president ‘seemed friendly’ with Epstein, she said, but added she only recalled seeing the pair together in ‘social settings’ and not in ‘private settings’. Now Maxwell had every incentive to lie through her teeth because within days of her interview, she was moved from a fairly harsh penitential regime to one that was as soft as possible and almost the equivalent of house arrest. The British equivalent would be the deputy Director of Public Prosecutions interviewing a prisoner who was then transferred to an open prison and would be unimaginable in the British context. It is for this reason that British (and formerly American) democracies have the doctrine of the ‘separation of powers’. The doctrine of the separation of powers. This divides governmental authority into three distinct branches, the legislative (lawmaking), executive (law-implementing), and judicial (law-interpreting)—to prevent the concentration of power, safeguard citizens’ liberties, and guard against tyranny and abuse of power. The doctrine was first enunciated by Montesquieu and posits that these functions should be assigned to separate institutions with no single person holding power across multiple branches.
Last night was some really enjoyable sport on TV. It was the opening match of the Women’s World Cup and England were playing the USA. The England team known as the ‘Red Roses’ actually trashed the United States team by 69:7 scoring try after try in front of a crowd of 42,723 which was the largest at any Women’s Rugby World Cup anywhere, including the last final. It was not that that the US team played badly, as such, but they were completely overwhelmed in the strength and power of the English pack, particularly in the Scrum where the American team were nearly always out scrummaged leading to an inevitable penalty when the American scrum collapsed. There is more rugby over the weekend for me to enjoy as Scotland are due to play Wales. Neither team has particularly good form in this competition and so the result is a little hard to predict. Last night, just before I settled down to watch the rugby, the doorbell rang and it was my neighbour who very kindly was letting me have a supply of runner beans direct from his allotment. When we had a very large garden in Leicestershire, we used to parboil the runner beans and then finish them, as I remember, in a white sauce enhanced by either dry vermouth or a drop of Pernod but I think I have run out of both in my drinks cabinet (and I suspect that both beverages are not in accordance with today’s tastes) I have just looked at a video showing how to cook/bake green beans together with potatoes and as I have plenty of both, courtesy of my neighbour and some time on my hands this morning, I may well try out this quite innovative recipe. The whole is enhanced with a bit of mustard, an egg and some grated cheese so I think I will give it a try later on in the day.
Later in the morning, I walked down into town and was joined in my walk by a lady who enquired after Meg. This is always a slightly upsetting experience but I go into my well-worn spiel about how Meg had a peaceful death at home surrounded by family and friends. More often than not, as was in the case of this particular acquaintance, the story I tell is quite a familiar one and this lady had been to the funeral of her brother-in-law only last week. I then met up with my usual Saturday crowd in Wetherspoons and was joined by my University of Birmingham friend who I have not seen for the best part of a fortnight. Delighted though I was to see him, I would have liked to have spent tomorrow morning in his company but he is likely to be otherwise engaged on Sunday mornings so this makes Sundays quite an isolated day for me this weekend compounded by the fact that Monday is a Bank Holiday and none of the shops are open. Today, after I left my coffee friends, I made for the nearby Asda because I wanted to buy some ingredients for the bake I intended to cook in the middle of the day. This worked out pretty well, really, and was probably quite close to the original recipe but the quantities in the recipe were probably for family of four so I only ended up eating a quarter of it. The rest will no doubt keep but it means I will probably be eating it up for the rest of the week. In the afternoon and before attending church on Saturday evening, I watched the Scotland v Wales Women’s Rugby match and, as predicted, the Scots turned out to be much the batter team so I did not bother watching it until the bitter end. Nothing of any real interest strikes me on the TV this evening so I may engage in some catch-up TV. The series I have followed this far is the Dan Snow account of life in Pompeii before the eruption of the volcano of Vesuvius so I will see if I can get this on Channel 5. When all else fails, there are generally some repeats of the 1970’s comedy ‘Rising Damp’ which are still reasonably amusing as well as episodes of ‘The Good Life’. Also, I tend to tune in quite often to the podcasts given by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stuart (on ‘YouTube‘) with very sharp observations on American and international politics and their contributions are always worthy of a good listen.