From Fred Owens' Facebook Page:
Harris might run. We'll get a decision from her after the November election. One friend told me Harris had little experience since being elected to the Senate only two years ago. But she was Attorney General of California for six years. That's a tough job.
I hope she runs. She has the grit and the stamina. She has the smile and the laugh. Not the charisma, but she engages well with a crowd. She can work a rope line and give a good speech. Women will vote for her because she's a woman. Men will vote for her because she's good-looking. Young people will vote for her because she's only 53.
She speaks for Dreamers and immigrant families. Her career is not touched with scandal. She can win against Trump. She will not scare away the moderate Republicans who don't want to give Trump another chance.
She grew up in Oakland, attended Howard University and then law school. Her parents are both immigrants -- father from Jamaica, mother from India. She is married with step children. She had an affair some years ago with Willie Brown who was married at the time -- imagine how her life will be examined for stories like this if she runs for president.
Kamala Harris is well-known and liked in California. Let's see how she does when she visits Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Alan: I would be happy with Kamala's candidacy, although I think the ticket would be even stronger if it was "Cory-Kamala in 2020."
In any event, my first love remains Joe Biden.
Friend Megh grew up next door to the Bidens and both families were constantly in-and-out of one another's homes.
Megh paints a picture every bit as generous, kind and convivial as what I've always felt about Joe.
Then there's this...
Back in the early days of the 2008 campaign, when the Republican and Democratic candidates were still undecided, the New York Times (or maybe it was WaPo) ran an article detailing the personal finances of every contestant on both sides of the aisle.
I was stunned to learn that Joe's net worth was about $150,000.00. (No typo).
Remarkably, there was not one online naysayer who disputed this number, although there were several critics who faulted Joe for being a financial failure, asking why America would want to elect someone who never got rich. https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2017/11/joe-biden-book-assets
America's "good Christians" work themselves into climactic lather pretending that lust is the pathognomonic sin of our time.
But lust is vanishingly small beans compared to greed.
Notably, the "good Christians" who champion whoremonger-cheater-in-chief-lying-dog-rip-off-artist are contentedly at home with greed.
And whether their de facto approval of this "Deadly Sin" appears on their personal radar, it is an inconvenient truth that Trump boasts that he is a "very greedy person" who "loves money" which, astonishingly, is Paul the Apostle's precise definition of "the root of all evil." (Not "some" evil, but "ALL evil." Where are biblical literalists when they could be put to good use?)
Trump went so far as to proclaim: "The point is you can't be too greedy" a subset, I suppose, of "you can't grab too much pussy," or, "when you're a star they let you do anything."
Alan: I would be happy with Kamala's candidacy, although I think the ticket would be even stronger if it was "Cory-Kamala in 2020."
In any event, my first love remains Joe Biden.
Friend Megh grew up next door to the Bidens and both families were constantly in-and-out of one another's homes.
Megh paints a picture every bit as generous, kind and convivial as what I've always felt about Joe.
Then there's this...
Back in the early days of the 2008 campaign, when the Republican and Democratic candidates were still undecided, the New York Times (or maybe it was WaPo) ran an article detailing the personal finances of every contestant on both sides of the aisle.
I was stunned to learn that Joe's net worth was about $150,000.00. (No typo).
Remarkably, there was not one online naysayer who disputed this number, although there were several critics who faulted Joe for being a financial failure, asking why America would want to elect someone who never got rich. https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2017/11/joe-biden-book-assets
America's "good Christians" work themselves into climactic lather pretending that lust is the pathognomonic sin of our time.
But lust is vanishingly small beans compared to greed.
Notably, the "good Christians" who champion whoremonger-cheater-in-chief-lying-dog-rip-off-artist are contentedly at home with greed.
And whether their de facto approval of this "Deadly Sin" appears on their personal radar, it is an inconvenient truth that Trump boasts that he is a "very greedy person" who "loves money" which, astonishingly, is Paul the Apostle's precise definition of "the root of all evil." (Not "some" evil, but "ALL evil." Where are biblical literalists when they could be put to good use?)
Trump went so far as to proclaim: "The point is you can't be too greedy" a subset, I suppose, of "you can't grab too much pussy," or, "when you're a star they let you do anything."
Such a vile person. Perhaps he can be "bottled" as an epochal improvement on ipecac.
Trump's Full-Throttled Promotion Of Greed, Traditionally One Of Christianity's "7 Deadly Sins" http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/09/trumps-full-throttled-promotion-of.html
Christian Trumpistas might wisely hang their heads in shame and at least contemplate their bone-deep Pharisaism long enough to recall the scorching vitriol Yeshua reserved for hypocrites, simultaneously choosing to spend his time with "wine bibblers" and women of ill repute. https://biblehub.com/luke/7-34.htm (Two whores figured among Jesus' direct ancestors. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/11/two-prostitutes-were-direct-ancestors.html)
But most of all, I think Joe has been profoundly humanized -- not only by his blue collar upbringing, but by three tragic deaths in his life: "On December 18, 1972, a few weeks after (his unexpected) election (as senator), Biden's wife and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in Hockessin, Delaware. Neilia Biden's station wagon was hit by a tractor-trailer as she pulled out from an intersection. Biden's sons Beau and Hunter survived the accident and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds, and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries. Biden considered resigning to care for them, but was persuaded not to by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield... At age 30 (the minimum age required to hold the office), Biden became the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history... But the accident left him filled with both anger and religious doubt: "I liked to [walk around seedy neighborhoods] at night when I thought there was a better chance of finding a fight ... I had not known I was capable of such rage ... I felt God had played a horrible trick on me." To be at home every day for his young sons, Biden began the practice of commuting every day by Amtrak train for 1½ hours each way from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, D.C., which he continued to do throughout his Senate career. In the aftermath of the accident, he had trouble focusing on work, and appeared to just go through the motions of being a senator. In his memoirs, Biden notes that staffers were taking bets on how long he would last. A single father for five years, he left standing orders that he be interrupted in the Senate at any time if his sons called."
We all know the opening sentence of Acton's Dictum: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
But few of us are aware that Acton's next line is "Great men are almost always bad men."
I believe Trump is a fundamentally bad man.
I also believe that Joe - flying in the face of the received wisdom - is a good guy.
A very good guy.
Given how bloody difficult it is for "good men" (and good women) to rise to positions of great power, I say we should not look this gift horse in the mouth.
But most of all, I think Joe has been profoundly humanized -- not only by his blue collar upbringing, but by three tragic deaths in his life: "On December 18, 1972, a few weeks after (his unexpected) election (as senator), Biden's wife and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in Hockessin, Delaware. Neilia Biden's station wagon was hit by a tractor-trailer as she pulled out from an intersection. Biden's sons Beau and Hunter survived the accident and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds, and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries. Biden considered resigning to care for them, but was persuaded not to by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield... At age 30 (the minimum age required to hold the office), Biden became the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history... But the accident left him filled with both anger and religious doubt: "I liked to [walk around seedy neighborhoods] at night when I thought there was a better chance of finding a fight ... I had not known I was capable of such rage ... I felt God had played a horrible trick on me." To be at home every day for his young sons, Biden began the practice of commuting every day by Amtrak train for 1½ hours each way from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, D.C., which he continued to do throughout his Senate career. In the aftermath of the accident, he had trouble focusing on work, and appeared to just go through the motions of being a senator. In his memoirs, Biden notes that staffers were taking bets on how long he would last. A single father for five years, he left standing orders that he be interrupted in the Senate at any time if his sons called."
We all know the opening sentence of Acton's Dictum: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
But few of us are aware that Acton's next line is "Great men are almost always bad men."
I believe Trump is a fundamentally bad man.
I also believe that Joe - flying in the face of the received wisdom - is a good guy.
A very good guy.
Given how bloody difficult it is for "good men" (and good women) to rise to positions of great power, I say we should not look this gift horse in the mouth.
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