A Pig in a Poke

A Pig in a Poke

I retired in July of 2013.  Ohio public teachers have their own retirement and health coverage system.  At 65 the retirement system requires that I sign up for Medicare Part B. Failure to sign up for Medicare Part B, allows the state retirement system to cancel my health insurance. 

So Sarah began the process months in advance of my 65th.  As in all endeavors Sarah and I have a partnership.  Which in this case required two minds, two college degrees and a combined years of experience of some 125 plus years.  

So here is the story.  Most stuff on FaceBook consists of short notes, but those of you who persevere may find some benefit.

In an effort to save paper, Sarah signed me up on line for Medicare Part B.  The application went through.  It was so easy.  Sadly the tail ends not here. 

One week later a call came to our house asking if I had received my Medicare Card.  Sarah said no, it had not arrived.  We were told to look for it in the mail, as it would soon arrive.  A week later a letter arrived which informed me that I was not eligible for Medicare because I had never paid into Social Security.  This, of course, is true as I had paid into Ohio state teacher retirement system.

Please, keep in mind that Medicare, Washington, D.C. has a website.  On this website it states that every US citizen, 65 or older, and a resident for 5 or more years has the right to sign up for Medicare Part B whether that person has paid into Medicare or not.

I called to register with the Medicare system.  Thinking of course that personal contact is always better.  I dial.  A computer says press 1 for this, 2 for that, etc.  Press 3 if you desire more information on measures passed by Congress to save paper.  I knew better and waited for a human.  I was told that there was a 55 minute wait, if I stayed on line.  If I leave a call back number, they will call back at some time.  I say “call back”, as I am still talking to a computer.  

60 minutes later a call arrived.  I tell the human that I wish to sign up for Medicare.  I am asked for my name, my Social Security number, my mother’s maiden name, my address, by birthday and year.  Pause as she waits for computer to load a reply.  

Soon Social Security says- you have not paid into Social Security, you are not eligible.  

No questions were asked, no curiosity, no interest at the other end of the line, no willingness to take time to serve my interests.  

Me: I need to sign up for Medicare Part B because Ohio teachers have their own retirement system for health insurance and it requires that I sign up for Medicare Part B.  

Social Security: You can not sign up, you did not pay into Social Security.    

Me: Please, make an appointment for me with the local office in order to discuss this.

She agrees.

The local office turned out to be in Painsville, Ohio.

Three days later I receive in the mail a letter telling me that I am not eligible for Medicare.  The same day a letter arrived telling me that my appointment would be the Monday after Thanksgiving at 2:09 PM.  You guessed it, there had been no discussion about suitable times, or a time frame or choices- just here is the date and the time- 2:09 PM.  

We spent Thanksgiving with Bob, Elizabeth and Faye.  Bob has become a master fryer of turkey in peanut oil.  He loves it.  While I stood out with him Thanksgiving Day, holding up a board to prevent the wind from extinguishing the flame, a call came reminding me of my appointment on Monday.  Saturday after Thanksgiving, Sarah and I and Elizabeth and Faye drove to Alabama to visit Charles, Susan and Walton.   Elizabeth leaves Charles’ on Monday at 2 PM.  I missed the call for my appointment.  But not to fear the lady called a  whole 5 minutes later to give me a second chance. I had missed this, also.

So we return from Georgia.  I call Social Security to sign up for Medicare.  By now I felt experienced in the nuances of which button to push and what to say.  I call.  There is a 35 minute wait, the computer speaks.  I say again- “call back” and leave a number.  A call arrives. 

Me:  I must sign up for Medicare Part B.  

I give my name, social security, birth day, year date, mother’s maiden name, my favorite politician (just kidding).  

Pause.  

Social Security: You are not eligible.    

Me: I must sign up by law and I must do so to keep my insurance with Ohio.  

SS: You can not, you did not pay in.  

Me: I realize that but Ohio State Teacher Retirement System requires that I must sign up for Part B.  If I fail to do so, they will cancel my insurance.  

SS:  You are not eligible.  This rule is the same for every state. 

Me:  The rule is not the same for every state.  Ohio has its own system.

SS:  You are not eligible. 

Me: Would you please make me an appointment with the office in Painesville, Ohio?

SS:  Yes.

Pause.

SS:  Your appointment will be January 9 at 1:00 PM.  But the call may come between 12:30 PM and 2:00 PM.

The Thursday before my call, a call came in reminding me that the call will come at 1:09 PM.

So, I set a notice on my phone to alert the time of the call.

The call came at 1:09 PM.  The lady was very nice.  She skipped most of the questions and in 8 minutes I was signed up.

A letter arrived of 6 pages informing me that I would soon receive a letter soon which could be used to inform Ohio retirement system that indeed I had complied with their rules.

Yesterday, January 17, the letter arrived.

This took 5 months.

It all worked out and I am glad.  But even a scenario which worked out took months.  And people actually want the government more involved in our lives?  This movement of more and more government to “solve” our problems is not a train wreck in the making but the focus of power in unaccountable hands.

I apologize for the delay in the announcement but a cold cramped my style.  January 3, 106 BC was the birthday of Marcus Tullius Cicero.  He was ( or is- well, his words DO live) a Roman philosopher, politician, poet, amateur gardener, architect, art critic, writer of letters and public speaker.  But in reading these facts alone I am not sure that it is proper for anyone to be impressed.  So I append an example:

In 51 BC Cicero was assigned to be governor of Cilicia (southeastern modern day Turkey).  The position was important as it lay on the fringe of the empire which means that security was a major concern.  He learned well in advance that the previous governor was corrupt and had abused his power and left the province in dire straights.

Letters which detail all of these events survive.  

He chose his staff with great care.  Meetings were held during which he explained that no one was to request or demand any thing from local communities that only money from the governor's allowance was to be used and used sparingly.  Abuse of power of any kind was not to be tolerated.  He kept his word.  

Cicero resisted the Sirens of Greed and Easy Profit.

Off they went. Upon arrival in Cilicia, he made sure that his rules were strictly enforced.  When his duties had been fulfilled he returned to Rome.  Any money he and the staff had not used was returned to the treasury.  There was grumbling amongst his staff that any money left over was their "profit" and should be distributed.  He refused.  I am sure that those staff members who were disgruntled had choice words of description. He did not care.

While in Cilicia, word spread very quickly that this was a man to trust.  Deputations from cities throughout the region sent delegations to complain of abuses.  As he traveled about, moving from place to place in their tents, he held court, heard their concerns and problems and solved each one.  He even convinced the tax collectors that if they should lower the taxes that the people of Cilicia would probably more readily pay their taxes, thus saving the tax collectors the difficulties that they had experienced. Taxes were lowered and indeed payment with speed.  During the hearing he learned that local officials themselves had been cheating their own citizens in these matters.  These he summoned and convinced them that they could avoid public disgrace by returning the public monies. He persisted.

Cicero as governor of Cilicia had control over Cyprus, an island at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.  A very powerful Roman wrote to Cicero that large sums of money was owed by the people of Cyprus but were nastily refusing to pay up and he wanted Cicero to send troops to enforce payment at sword point.  Cicero did some investigating and learned that this distant powerful Roman had lied about the circumstances and had actually been charging a yearly interest rate of 48 %.  Cicero refused to send troops, discovered that there were troops already there trying to wring the money out of the locals and ordered those off the island.  Serious and arrogant letters were sent to Cicero.  He did not flinch.

During these efforts he was constantly pestered with nasty letters from the previous governor, an immensely powerful figure, who complained that Cicero's manner of governing made him, the previous governor, look bad. He did not back down.   He even managed to prevent the delegations which communities had been forced to send to Rome praising this previous governor.  The letters of Cicero in return are examples of master diplomacy at work.  So skillful was he in his care to deal with the previous governor that soon after he dedicated a literary work to Cicero.

So here we have a former Consul, now governor with a chance for easy graft and certainly a great deal of legal profit.  And yet he returned home no richer than when he left.  

Any politician, present or future, would do well to follow his example.

Marcus Tullius Cicero in Capitoline Museum

SPACE IS INFINITE BUT THE SPHERE OF TRUTH HAS NARROWED

I saw one of the episodes of the new Cosmos.  It was interesting.   I read a review of it in Sky and Telescope and they mentioned how graphics and technology have improved over what Mr. Sagan had at his disposal.  I enjoyed the new Cosmos and I thought that it has much of value to offer.  Yet, I was surprised to see rather simple animation, almost Saturday morning level in the program.  So this drove me watch the old Cosmos and to listen to Sagan's album on vinyl (so glad I kept those). It is very interesting how much classical music is in this old album.  Mozart, Vivaldi.  It is quit impressive.  There is a  sense of wonder and curiosity in the old Cosmos music.  Sounds weird I know.

I wonder if the new Cosmos contains a sense of distain which was absent in the old one.  I do not have this feeling that this distain is present in Science alone.  Science and society are different from just 30 years ago (duh), not different but so different in a way which may not bode well for the future.  There is more of a sense of here is the answer, our system has all of the answers and everyone should listen.  In my short experience it does not seem that knowledge is something which someone figures out and then everyone else accepts it as truth- that is the road to dogma.

The mosaic in Palazzo Massimo in Rome has always intrigued me.  It is based on the golden rectangle.  Another way to think of it is the pattern of seeds on the sunflower.  But the longer one looks at it there is more than one way to view it and enjoy it.  In fact the different views are valuable.  To put it another way it just does not seem that one view/answer fits all.  If one system has all of the answers, if that system comes to dominate what reason would people have to preserve what is felt to be dated or even unacceptable?  This did happen once in human history and 80 percent of all Latin Literature and 90 percent of all ancient Greek literature disappeared forever. And we humans spent the next 700 years digging out of the pit of ignorance.  And I must add in some areas we have made no progress at all beyond what Cicero or Aristotle figured out.

I seem to have this feeling that today some people (more than I would prefer) know the answer and we should just listen.  Dogma is being made to look appealing.

The Missionary Comes to the Farm

The Missionary Comes to the Farm

Once there was a farmer and his wife who had the idea that he could feed his family and friends on their small plot.  So he and his wife decided to purchase ten gilts, as they felt that these would easily supply their wants, those of their friends and neighbors and even have a few left over to sell elsewhere.  When these were of age they were bred.  Each had 8 piglets hungry and eager.  

Before the farmer and his wife made the venture, they asked people in the area what grew and how well.  They wanted to adapt their plans to the nature of pigs, land climate and seeds.  They learned about the daily weather, amount of rain, the make up and nature of soil  They found that barley, corn and alfalfa loved the soil and climate.  The farmer, who had grown up on a farm, remembered the nature of pigs and those qualities possessed.  

Pigs have eager appetites and love to root.  But the rooting is due to their desire to find food.  It is figured that tons of earth worms, beetle larvae, roots, rhizomes, minerals exist in just an acre of land.  If trees are near by the better, if these are nut trees.  Pigs can fatten on acorns.  

They planned to hand sow three paddocks.  One of barley, one of corn (they decided on sweet corn- they figured that the pigs could eat the sweet corn but the husband and wife could partake too) and one paddock of alfalfa.

They were living on a shoe string , low on cash, poor by many standards but smart.  They hoped someday to have a small tractor or mule, plow and disc.  They had to choose between these (which would be nice to have) and the seed and gilts.  They wisely concluded that the grains and pigs they could eat but everything they read said that heavy metal was dangerous to consume.

So with paddocks in place but unplowed and the soil unturned they adapted. They let the gilts first into one paddock and then another.  The pigs when released viewed this as heaven.  Here they were faced with what they were fit and made to do- root, plow and till.  Many benefits here.  It may be that they were unaware but as they ate grubs, larvae, insects, weeds, grass they acquired the exercise they would need to bare their young in the season to come.  Their strength improved, they rooted more vigorously and consequently ate more, had more energy and in the end thoroughly plowed one at a time all three paddocks.  The gilts had to be supplemented with grains.  But they had figured this as part of the budget.

As each paddock was cleared, in one barley was planted, corn in another and alfalfa in the last.

The gilts were bred.  Each gave a litter of 8 to 9 piglets.  Soon in rotation about 95 hogs were let loose on one paddock after the next.  A few of the piglets died, one was eaten by a coyote, a few fell ill and died and one disappeared.  Loaded up at seasons end 83 hogs went to a local market.  A handsome profit was made and everything looked good. They were proud that they had adapted the ways of pigs to the land and the climate. They were proud that they had adapted their life in a meaningful way to their home.  

Then one day a missionary type came down the lane and, as he talked to the farmer and his wife he looked about the farm, asked where the equipment was, the heated shed for the sows and cement floors to prevent rooting.  He also told them that they could bring far more efficient machines to till and work the soil which would increase their productivity.  A small loan from the bank would give them the cash flow they needed to expand and increase their production.  The wife asked why the bank would just give them money.  The missionary told her and her husband that they would make a small payment to return the money over a long period of time.  The farmer and his wife would make a profit and so would the bank.  He added that if they were wise and had kept pace with new approaches they would know that larger fields could be tilled, weeds could be kept in check with herbicides, since machines would do this instead of the hogs.  Insecticides, as insects are a nuisance, are a must, since the pigs would no longer graze the fields for larvae.  But the trade off would be that their harvest per acre would dramatically increase. Besides additional loans down the road would allow them to expand, increase their productivity.     

The farmer and his wife resisted.  The missionary after a while became impatient.  He told them that they must learn to adapt.  That before they became too old they should learn the power and wisdom of modernity and get with it.  He quickly added that all the universities filled with phds and such knew that the new way was the best. Still the husband and wife expressed some doubt.  Finally the missionary waved his hand in the air and left in disgust.  

The farmer and his wife wondered if the missionary had a point and that perhaps they should take his advice.  But, as the farmer and his wife walked into the house, a blue bird sat on the post near the door with an insect in its mouth, a robin was plucking a worm from the lawn and bees were abuzz in the fields about.  That is music that no amount of iron and cash flow could ever better.

I ask the reader to think about the damage done by the business/industrial mentality to the art of farming.  How industry and business have used marketing to promote their activity.  How business and industry have designed a marketing system which casts a cloud of ignorance and stupidity overt those who resist the "new way" in order to marginalize the arguments of anyone who resists and objects.  Imagine the distance which a business/industrial mentality has put between the nature of life/ the needs of the individual and those who are responsible a quality future.

As a teacher of 37 years (now retired) I shudder to think what a business/industrial/technological mentality is doing to education.  Machines/gadgetries/technology are valued far above the wisdom and experience and adaptations a teacher makes to be successful. Industry and business have done much harm to farming and now technology and cash are doing it to education. 

A DINING PARABLE

 A DINING PARABLE

Long ago a Roman politician in Rome during the early empire invited guests from far and distant places.  He so hoped to impress his guests with his class, wealth and power that he hired an agent to organize the affair.  He hoped too to improve his standing with powers that be.  Preparation took on a great deal of time and remarkable expense.

Food was shipped from Greece.  For that province was famous for its cheese.  A specialist arrived from Africa who once made mushrooms taste like chicken. 

 He maintained a garden near the villa which were filled with those items one would associate with diligence and an earthiness.  But the tubers therein would not do from this garden but instead 12 varieties of radishes and turnips and carrots were gathered from farms as distant and diverse as Hispania, Asia Minor and Britannia.  He had heard that these achieved fame due to manner of care and fertilization.  

The meat which was loaned from a pig had been smoked with wood from trees which are said to produce ethereal delight and to provide an air of distinction.  He had even heard that this wood from a distant land would help to nullify the after effects of indulgence.  This wood came from the forests near by Byzantium at the northern end of the Aegean Sea.

A custard was made with eggs and elderberries.  However, special eggs were shipped from distant Gallia.  To please his wife the master of the house served nuts and fruits smothered in honey and sprinkled with a dusting of rosemary.

The wine came from those villas which the master had recently toured the past weeks.  One came from the vineyard which had once belonged to Scipio Africanus who had defeated Hannibal.  The politician looked forward to the moment of decanting the wine for he fancied himself adept at the nuances of wine production and for that matter the history of Scipio.

All of this was to be served by slaves who would meet every need of every guest.  The finest plates, service dishes and ware would be on hand.  Expensive crystal and bronze ware collected from the finest shops in Rome and Alexandria would add sparkle to the setting.

Now read no further beyond the line below and answer the following:

What would be your opinion of this Roman?  Would you view this as extravagance?  The necessities of his office?  An offensive display of wealth and power at the expense of others? Repulsive?

___________________________________________________________________

I suggest that most would consider this an example of ostentatious display for personal sensation, that most would find this disgusting and representative behavior of those greedy and wallowing-in-wealth Romans. 

I fabricated the entire scenario above.  I simply made it up.

In reality the vast majority of Romans were mostly vegetarian.  Their main foods were nuts, vegetables such as cabbage, peppers, turnips, radishes, cauliflower, lettuce, carrots, wheat, barley, oats, legumes, figs, dates and apples and pears.  They did have meat, usually pork.  But meat was by and large reserved for religious celebrations and those sacrifices associated with it.  They also consumed cheese, numerous herbs and honey for flavoring.  

Truth to tell they were not impressed with extravagant dinners.  They passed laws against serving exotic and certain expensive foods.  The existence of these laws makes it clear that some very wealthy Romans did dine high off of the hog so to speak.  But it is interesting that it was frowned upon by the public and the practice of extravagance was often used in court cases  to weaken someone's testimony.  In other words no Roman publicly stood up and said:  I live an extravagant life style and eat the rarest and most expensive of foods. 

If one looks carefully at the photograph, the Romans preferred to eat out side and most settings, even among the well to do, were mild. 

So what was my inspiration for this?  I record the article I recently read (February, 2014) which covered the costs and service and dishes provided for a banquet at the White House:

Highlighting food from across the country, menu items include a first course of American Osetra Caviar from Illinois, quail eggs from Pennsylvania and 12 varieties of potatoes from farms in New York, Idaho and California. For the salad course, the White House details a Winter Garden Salad that “pays tribute to The First Lady’s White House Kitchen Garden.”

The main course is a dry-aged rib eye beef from a family-owned farm in Colorado that will be served with Jasper Hill Farm Blue Cheese crisp from Vermont.

Finishing the meal are a selection of sweets. There will be a chocolate malted cake that combines bittersweet chocolate from Hawaii and tangerines from Florida and will be served with vanilla ice cream from Pennsylvania. Additionally, the menu boasts fudge made from Vermont maple syrup, lavender shortbread cookies and cotton candy dusted with orange zest.

A selection of wines priced between $30 to $65 will be offered from California, Washington and Monticello, Va. (reported by CBS)

It matters little who is in the White House when it comes to such things.  In other words it is not a Democrat thing or a Republican thing.  It seems to be whoever occupies the White House. I rarely detect a sense of thanks or humbleness.  This practice has become common for a lengthy time.  What practice?  

Expensive meals, high calorie, food items shipped from all over at great expense appear to be the main fare.  12 varieties of potato?  Quail eggs?  

I do not suggest that the President hand out paper plates but I would suggest that he or she should make it clear that he or she indeed comes from the people. And that a degree of frugality is evident in terms of our money.

How to deal with cold temperatures

How to deal with cold temperatures.  Radio and television stations tell us to remain inside when the temperatures dip.  Out of fear for our health, they say.  Yet, I have always wondered what answer an Alaskan would have.  So this morning I woke up to 14 degrees.  It was chilly in the house.  So I ate breakfast, put on my winter boots, warm coat, hooded sweatshirt, super gloves and went out side.

Now clothing is rated, if you did not know.  But if the coat is rated for 15 degrees, that rating is measured by someone's comfort WHILE WORKING.  Not to say that anything shady is going on, just saying.  So if the temp outside is 14 degrees, if one just sits on their astabula, the temperature is, in a way, somewhere around -4 degrees.  So in view of this, many fear the outside and of course in the end fear Nature.  I can not think of anything more contrary to logic than fearing Nature.  But that is what we are told to do and most acquiesce.

So back to 14 degrees.  House was chilly, so I put on my winter gear in defiance of the news media and dare to breathe in air dangerous and lethal. Early in the winter I had cut up a tree back by the barn.  I had always been afraid to take down this tree; it was close to the barn and the trunk gnarled as it rose.  It was difficult to see which way the bulk of the weight lay.  So in my wisdom, I did nothing but give it a glance on occasion.  Nature in all of her kindness knew exactly where to put pressure on this ash and brought her down.

Now I love Nature and respect her but she apparently tried to clear the barn but failed.  I can only assume that she was busy that night.  Almost 6 feet of barn for forty feet were crushed along the west side.  Not damaged but crushed. When such a thing happened a few years before. Nature really missed that time.  Nature landed a tree on my barn extension which houses the trains.  Insurance agent evaluated the damage and wrote a check.  I fixed it for a pittance and Sarah and I used the rest of the money for good purpose.  But this time, I had a few health problems and we had a check from insurance to pay a good friend to fix it up.  Of course he had the audacity to improve upon my work for which I am very grateful.

But seventy feet of ash is a whole bunch of firewood.  So I cut her up in the fall, split the wood and had hauled some of it to the house.  Back again to 14 degrees.  Remember it was chilly in the house.  Pulled out my large sled and hauled five loads to the house, perhaps five hundred feet.  By the time I had finished, I was hot.  I came inside, took off my winter gear and there was a nice cozy layer of sweat.  I was no longer cold, the house did not seem chilly and I had actually done something.  There was a Roman I have always liked, Martial.  In a poem he wrote he had trouble being impressed by those in the baths clanging weights about.  He said that trimming vines would be more beneficial.  I agree.

Lucius Marcius Philippus and President Obama

         Lucius Marcius Philippus and President Obama


President Obama at his State of the Union, January 27, 2010, made a strongly worded remark about the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court had recently handed down a decision allowing corporations to contribute money to election campaigns.   When the President's remark was made, numerous supporters stood around and behind the seated Supreme Court members and screamed and cheered.  By protocol members of the Court are expected to remain nonpartisan.  Chief Justice Roberts on March 9,  2010, while talking to law students at University of Alabama expressed concern about such a remark in a setting which is supposed to have dignity and decorum.

It occurred to me that Chief Justice Roberts, within bounds of Supreme Court etiquette, was making a defense of the Court's dignity.  As the Chief Justice, he felt in his opinion that there was a need, in the face of, what he considered, blatant outright denigration of the Court's standing, to come to its defense.

As I read this incident, something came to me which I have read several times in Marcus Tullius Cicero's De Oratore.  The story concerns Lucius Marcius Philippus, one of the consuls at the time (91 B.C.) and Lucius Licinius Cassus, a former consul and teacher for whom Cicero had undying respect.  The time is different, the situation is different but there is a connection concerning the protection of dignity and proper protocol.  So here is Cicero's account of the incident (De Oratore III. 2-5):

The Consul, Philippus, was not happy with the Senate's stand on matters before the house.  He was meeting with serious resistance.  The Senate, apparently, adjourned without resolution.  Senators went home.  Philippus, irate,  delivered a speech, laying out his anger and complaints not to the Senate but to the public in a public assembly.  He did not simply criticize the Senate but belittled its standing.

In public assembly Philippus said among other things that he must look elsewhere for an advisory body, for with this Senate he could not carry on the government.  When Crassus heard of the speech, he returned to Rome.  On the morning of September 13, Marcus Livius Drusus, as Tribune, called a meeting of the Senate.  Crassus came, Philippus came and soon the Senate house was stuffed to overflowing.  Drusus listed his complaints about Philippus and then made a motion for a vote concerning the violent attack which Philippus had made publicly against the Senate on the previous day.

Crassus, Cicero reports, was astonished that a Consul, in public, made a vicious attack on the Senate.  Crassus was further angered that a Consul, who ought to be a faithful parent and guardian of the Senate, plundered the cherished dignity of the Senate like some looter. "There must be no surprise", said Crassus, "when this consul has damaged the Republic with his policies, if he should reject the Senate as an advisory body" (since it no longer suits his purpose).

With this, says Cicero, Crassus had enraged Philippus ,a man impetuous, bold and learned, too. Philippus could restrain himself no longer; he  jumped from his Senate seat and commenced to coerce Crassus by seizure of his property, if he failed to relent.  (Such a move by Philippus treated Crassus not as a fellow Senator but as someone to be ordered about.)  The exchange heated up quickly.   At that point Crassus replied that, since he did not view Crassus as a Senator, he denied that he, Philippus, was a Consul. 

"Do you really think, when you regard the Senate as something to be controlled by intimidation,  and in a public assembly you ruin its authority, that I can be intimidated with threats of seizure? If you wish to coerce Crassus, you must not destroy his property; you must rip out his tongue; as a matter of fact although his tongue has been removed, with breath alone my liberty will repel your obscene willfulness. "

It seems that Philippus mocked the standing of the Senate in the wrong setting and in a demeaning way, at least in the opinion of Crassus.  Crassus felt that Philippus had not only done damage to the Senate's ability to have credibility with Roman citizens (and consequently more difficult to perform its duties) but had failed to treat an ancient government body with the respect it deserved in a public setting.

Crassus at the end moved a resolution which declared that the country should be confident that neither the advice nor loyalty of the Senate was lacking.  The motion passed with ease.

Decorum is a complex term but the swift route to the heart of its meaning is that there is a right place and a wrong place to say something and a right time and wrong time. It may be that Chief Justice Roberts was suggesting that  the President express his thoughts in the proper setting and at the proper time without damaging the Court's standing.