“Looking at RBG this evening at the swearing in, it seems that she is semi-vegetative.”
Her energy is really low, and she has had very serious health problems over many years (two types of cancer).
Her mind is still incredibly sharp though. I saw a recent interview with her (just weeks ago) where the interviewer asked her an open-ended question about women in Law. She paused a long time, that had me thinking she was way over the hill - but then she went on for ten minutes talking in a single continuous thread with a complete and detailed response, repeatedly citing names and dates (even from the 1950’s). It was a single, logically complete composition from beginning to end.
Her heart might flutter to a stop at any moment, but her mind is still sharp enough for the big leagues.
I too was disappointed to see how clear her thinking seemed to be despite her slow, deliberate pace.
She is 85. Seventeen years from now, in 2035, some of us may be treated to the scene of a 102-year-old Ginsburg, still on the Court and indistinguishable from Stephen Hawking in his last days. I very much doubt that I will be around to see it.