Sorry, but I support Kamala for president 2028. Anything less, like the nomination of a white man means the Dems are losing ground in what is essentially trench warfare. Anything less and I’ll likely go AWOL, and will not be subject to the UCMJ.
So many, so very many good women. Why nominate a man? Why a white?
Going AWOL: I am bilingual with German and have loved ones that over my 40 years of closeness would be a welcoming community in the Rheinpfalz. So, I could go AWOL.
Perhaps a good compromise: One or two months in a year.
Kamala Harris is bruited about as Governor of California. That is NO second prize, but a great office, or even a platform for 2028.
I see no reason why a statesman like Kamala Harris should not run in 2028.
To me, Kamala Harris is the best candidate I have experienced in scores of years.
I agree with you that Vance is worse than Trump. I can't help but think that his plan was to get Trump elected, invoke the 25th Amendment, and become president himself.
Liz Gauffreau: Yeah, JD Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson, President Donald, Governors Ron De Santis and Greg Abbott -- a gallery of rogues.
Can you BELIEVE we are living in times like these?
You live in beautiful, northern New England.
That is THE heritage: Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson.
You, I, Kate Reade Morgan and other likeminded: Let us luxuriate in the literary work of these poetic and philosophical contemporaries of ours: Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson . . .
No, I can’t believe we’re living in times like these. Both of my parents are spinning in their graves. The results of the election knocked the stuffing clean out of me. I made the decision not long afterwards that I would let these people live rentfree inside my head for the foreseeable future. I’m going to live my life as I see fit, and do my best to make my little corner of the world a better place.
What is beautiful in life is love of persons: Your spouse, your children and grands, your neighbor.
My beautiful Mom who is everything to me (1921-2014) taught me from our homeland -- Charleroi -- a love of classical music (from Schubert to Shostakovich), philosophy (Plato, Plotinus, Hegel . . .), literature (Emily Dickinson to Jasmyn Ward), art (from Van Gogh to the moderns).
The love of beauty -- in philosophy, in poetry, in music, in art, in the woods -- and the people around us that we love . . .
THAT must inhabit our minds.
Trump and the loud neo-Nazis will have no rent-free place in our minds.
The only time I will think about them is in ACTION against them TO PROTECT THE DIGNITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE of persons -- persecuted immigrants, to act through the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
If my cause seems monotonous, it is because the greatest danger I see is violence towards innocent immigrants.
My strengthening of my spirit through the music, philosophy, literature and art will be the exercise that gives me strength to act, when act I must.
I treasure friends, and you, Ms. Liz, have become a friend that I begin to know, and will enjoy knowing deeper, even if this friendship is through a software platform.
You are among the good persons who enrich my life.
No, it's not funny. It's sexist as hell. It's right up there with right-on male liberals referring to Lindsey Graham as "Miss Lindsey." But by all means, carry on.
Susanna J. Sturgis: In my denunciation of JD Vance I made a remark that in retrospect was sexist and highly offensive, as you correctly point out. I have deleted that remark and am deeply ashamed at having made it.
Susanna: I personally apologize to you.
I have read your own Substack platform with great profit and agreement.
In reading your own work, I am particularly moved by this post:
In this post, I particularly am moved by your observation:
Having come of political age in the waning years of J. Edgar Hoover’s reign at the FBI, I totally get it. Hoover weaponized the FBI to go after his enemies, notably Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders.3 Kash Patel and others in Trump’s orbit are more than capable of doing likewise. Trump surely wouldn’t stop them, and if previous performance is any guide, neither would the Republican-led Congress.
You encapsulate my own experience of John Edgar Hoover, who had reigned at the FBI from 1919 until his death in 1972.
Armand, this is so inspiring and well-wrought. Thank you for a sorely needed essay based in history, facts, logic, humanity, decency and sagacity. Bravo!
As cats do. Fwiw, my family doesn’t layer on the praise, either, and my cat judges me moment by moment. Belly full = good enough mom. Belly empty, fractious, soaking in self-imposed ennui = loser mom.
Is this article about the Supreme Court Justices who gave us Citizens United, overturned Chevron, ended the voting rights act, ended affirmative action, and gave us Dobbs?
Vance is worse, but he doesn't have the base support like t-Rump has. Maga doesn't worship Vance. They're two completely different animals, in my opinion.
Lorraine Evanoff: You are absolutely right that JD Vance "has the charisma of mucus."
Ahem, THAT is quite an image! LOL!
As far as racial violence, I am judging Vance by how he absolutely dug into his blood libel against Haitians. In the even Trump passes away and the Presidency devolves upon the VP, in this case, Vance, I think Vance's hatred would result in oppressive and brutal measures against interned Latinos.
Vance is a low man whose mind seems inhabited by hatred.
The people may have elected Trump, but it is quite possible that the Presidency could devolve upon the VP, and Vance has an evil disposition.
I agree that Vance is likely NOT to have the attraction of Trump.
Which was . . . remind me . . . WHAT attracted people to Trump . . .
Oh, Lorraine, we DO live in strange times.
As John Lennon sang, "My mama told me there would be days like these. Strange days, indeed!"
I was in shock over the election and cried for weeks. Now I am completely disgusted. I ended a 40 year friendship over this nightmare. I cannot be close friends with anyone who thinks it is okay to vote Raping Felons with Lying Crazed VP's as Pres and VP. We need to speak the truth. It is an American Horror Story. Utterly horrific.
Jennifer Keen: I have SUSPENDED communications with two professionals that were my friends in civil service in the Navy over the MAGA-obscene-ideology.
I keep them as friends -- greeting cards, iPhone texts, but avoid correspondence or emails with them. These have been friends for 30 years professionally. I won't break friendship. But I have implemented a HARD suspension of communications.
Jennifer: Spend some time in political action and political free speech.
But take the vast majority of your days and nights with quality time with YOURSELF -- listening to music you love; looking at art that moves you; reading literature that moves your mind and heart; read philosophical works.
Spend a lot of time with loved ones. Take joy with loved ones and in things you just LOVE to do.
Spend the vast majority of your time nurturing your mind and your very being and taking joy with your loved ones.
Take a lot of time enjoying your love of close ones.
Political action is for the long haul. You must not wear yourself down in it.
Pick one political battle -- mine will be immigration, and mine will be in ways to help LULAC to the extent one individual can.
But meanwhile, I love my wife, my daughters, my sons-in-law, my grandkids, my dear friends, and the vast majority of my time will be in growth in myself and with others, in loving others.
LULAC and politics will get enough of my time, believe me.
As far as the election is concerned, do NOT let the MAGA-nuts get inside your head. Do NOT.
You must NOT let them invade your mind and space.
Perseverance on one cause is a great thing.
But LOVE the beauty of life, loved ones, and the great arts and thinking produced by humanity.
Take quality time for YOURSELF and loved ones.
Take CARE of YOURSELF.
You, I and others can continue to grow in friendship.
David Grenier: Oh, there is hope for Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris is a great statesman who has won statewide races in California and should easily have won the Presidency in 2024.
I still shake my head. How can it even have been close? Look at the absurdity of the Republican ticket.
As John Lennon sang, "My mama always told me there would be times like these. Strange days, indeed!"
As far as Armando being inspiring, whew: My wife (53 years together; 51 married) doesn't even LISTEN to me, and thinks I am very silly; my two daughters will walk away, not even aware I am talking to them; and my granddaughter's two cats just look bemused when I speak. "Inspiring" is not a word that occurs to these loved ones! LOL! You are way too generous!
Sorry, but I support Kamala for president 2028. Anything less, like the nomination of a white man means the Dems are losing ground in what is essentially trench warfare. Anything less and I’ll likely go AWOL, and will not be subject to the UCMJ.
Jim Sanders: Kamala Harris is my FAVORITE.
So many, so very many good women. Why nominate a man? Why a white?
Going AWOL: I am bilingual with German and have loved ones that over my 40 years of closeness would be a welcoming community in the Rheinpfalz. So, I could go AWOL.
Perhaps a good compromise: One or two months in a year.
Kamala Harris is bruited about as Governor of California. That is NO second prize, but a great office, or even a platform for 2028.
I see no reason why a statesman like Kamala Harris should not run in 2028.
To me, Kamala Harris is the best candidate I have experienced in scores of years.
I agree with you that Vance is worse than Trump. I can't help but think that his plan was to get Trump elected, invoke the 25th Amendment, and become president himself.
Liz Gauffreau: Yeah, JD Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson, President Donald, Governors Ron De Santis and Greg Abbott -- a gallery of rogues.
Can you BELIEVE we are living in times like these?
You live in beautiful, northern New England.
That is THE heritage: Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson.
You, I, Kate Reade Morgan and other likeminded: Let us luxuriate in the literary work of these poetic and philosophical contemporaries of ours: Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson . . .
No, I can’t believe we’re living in times like these. Both of my parents are spinning in their graves. The results of the election knocked the stuffing clean out of me. I made the decision not long afterwards that I would let these people live rentfree inside my head for the foreseeable future. I’m going to live my life as I see fit, and do my best to make my little corner of the world a better place.
Liz Gauffreau: You and I share the same spirit.
What is beautiful in life is love of persons: Your spouse, your children and grands, your neighbor.
My beautiful Mom who is everything to me (1921-2014) taught me from our homeland -- Charleroi -- a love of classical music (from Schubert to Shostakovich), philosophy (Plato, Plotinus, Hegel . . .), literature (Emily Dickinson to Jasmyn Ward), art (from Van Gogh to the moderns).
The love of beauty -- in philosophy, in poetry, in music, in art, in the woods -- and the people around us that we love . . .
THAT must inhabit our minds.
Trump and the loud neo-Nazis will have no rent-free place in our minds.
The only time I will think about them is in ACTION against them TO PROTECT THE DIGNITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE of persons -- persecuted immigrants, to act through the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
If my cause seems monotonous, it is because the greatest danger I see is violence towards innocent immigrants.
My strengthening of my spirit through the music, philosophy, literature and art will be the exercise that gives me strength to act, when act I must.
I treasure friends, and you, Ms. Liz, have become a friend that I begin to know, and will enjoy knowing deeper, even if this friendship is through a software platform.
You are among the good persons who enrich my life.
Thank you for sharing.
You’re most welcome, Armand.
Copyeditor's note here, Armand: The "alumnae" in your heading refers strictly to *women*. I think you want "alumni" instead. :-)
No, it's not funny. It's sexist as hell. It's right up there with right-on male liberals referring to Lindsey Graham as "Miss Lindsey." But by all means, carry on.
Susanna J. Sturgis: In my denunciation of JD Vance I made a remark that in retrospect was sexist and highly offensive, as you correctly point out. I have deleted that remark and am deeply ashamed at having made it.
Susanna: I personally apologize to you.
I have read your own Substack platform with great profit and agreement.
In reading your own work, I am particularly moved by this post:
https://susannajsturgis.substack.com/p/pardon-me
In this post, I particularly am moved by your observation:
Having come of political age in the waning years of J. Edgar Hoover’s reign at the FBI, I totally get it. Hoover weaponized the FBI to go after his enemies, notably Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders.3 Kash Patel and others in Trump’s orbit are more than capable of doing likewise. Trump surely wouldn’t stop them, and if previous performance is any guide, neither would the Republican-led Congress.
You encapsulate my own experience of John Edgar Hoover, who had reigned at the FBI from 1919 until his death in 1972.
Armand, this is so inspiring and well-wrought. Thank you for a sorely needed essay based in history, facts, logic, humanity, decency and sagacity. Bravo!
As cats do. Fwiw, my family doesn’t layer on the praise, either, and my cat judges me moment by moment. Belly full = good enough mom. Belly empty, fractious, soaking in self-imposed ennui = loser mom.
Is this article about the Supreme Court Justices who gave us Citizens United, overturned Chevron, ended the voting rights act, ended affirmative action, and gave us Dobbs?
Vance is worse, but he doesn't have the base support like t-Rump has. Maga doesn't worship Vance. They're two completely different animals, in my opinion.
Ilona Goanos: You state it correct on all counts.
What galls me about Vance is that, as an alumnus of Yale Law, he is a public figure of white-racial-rage.
Vance is in a position to know better.
One of the best shorts of Mel Blanc was as Daffy Duck, whom I picture here face to face with Vance: "You are DETHPICABLE!"
I think the opposite Armand. No one voted for JD Vance. He has the charisma of mucus. Once trump dies, there will be a vacuum.
"I am convinced that if Trump passed away and JD Vance succeeded him, the regime would sink to even greater depths of racial violence."
Lorraine Evanoff: You are absolutely right that JD Vance "has the charisma of mucus."
Ahem, THAT is quite an image! LOL!
As far as racial violence, I am judging Vance by how he absolutely dug into his blood libel against Haitians. In the even Trump passes away and the Presidency devolves upon the VP, in this case, Vance, I think Vance's hatred would result in oppressive and brutal measures against interned Latinos.
Vance is a low man whose mind seems inhabited by hatred.
The people may have elected Trump, but it is quite possible that the Presidency could devolve upon the VP, and Vance has an evil disposition.
I agree that Vance is likely NOT to have the attraction of Trump.
Which was . . . remind me . . . WHAT attracted people to Trump . . .
Oh, Lorraine, we DO live in strange times.
As John Lennon sang, "My mama told me there would be days like these. Strange days, indeed!"
I was in shock over the election and cried for weeks. Now I am completely disgusted. I ended a 40 year friendship over this nightmare. I cannot be close friends with anyone who thinks it is okay to vote Raping Felons with Lying Crazed VP's as Pres and VP. We need to speak the truth. It is an American Horror Story. Utterly horrific.
Jennifer Keen: I have SUSPENDED communications with two professionals that were my friends in civil service in the Navy over the MAGA-obscene-ideology.
I keep them as friends -- greeting cards, iPhone texts, but avoid correspondence or emails with them. These have been friends for 30 years professionally. I won't break friendship. But I have implemented a HARD suspension of communications.
Jennifer: Spend some time in political action and political free speech.
But take the vast majority of your days and nights with quality time with YOURSELF -- listening to music you love; looking at art that moves you; reading literature that moves your mind and heart; read philosophical works.
Spend a lot of time with loved ones. Take joy with loved ones and in things you just LOVE to do.
Spend the vast majority of your time nurturing your mind and your very being and taking joy with your loved ones.
Take a lot of time enjoying your love of close ones.
Political action is for the long haul. You must not wear yourself down in it.
Pick one political battle -- mine will be immigration, and mine will be in ways to help LULAC to the extent one individual can.
But meanwhile, I love my wife, my daughters, my sons-in-law, my grandkids, my dear friends, and the vast majority of my time will be in growth in myself and with others, in loving others.
LULAC and politics will get enough of my time, believe me.
As far as the election is concerned, do NOT let the MAGA-nuts get inside your head. Do NOT.
You must NOT let them invade your mind and space.
Perseverance on one cause is a great thing.
But LOVE the beauty of life, loved ones, and the great arts and thinking produced by humanity.
Take quality time for YOURSELF and loved ones.
Take CARE of YOURSELF.
You, I and others can continue to grow in friendship.
David Grenier: Oh, there is hope for Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris is a great statesman who has won statewide races in California and should easily have won the Presidency in 2024.
I still shake my head. How can it even have been close? Look at the absurdity of the Republican ticket.
As John Lennon sang, "My mama always told me there would be times like these. Strange days, indeed!"
As far as Armando being inspiring, whew: My wife (53 years together; 51 married) doesn't even LISTEN to me, and thinks I am very silly; my two daughters will walk away, not even aware I am talking to them; and my granddaughter's two cats just look bemused when I speak. "Inspiring" is not a word that occurs to these loved ones! LOL! You are way too generous!