Shy of a Load
Joe Biden appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday, in the show’s debut week.
Most main media reports and commentaries seemed to agree this morning that the vice president was favoring not running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, but that his decision was not set. As an example here’s NPR’s report “Emotional Biden Still Doesn’t Sound Like A Candidate.”
As he’s said before then again Sept. 10, the vice president’s loss of a son (former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden) to cancer earlier this year has rocked his plans for what he does after he’s downsized Jan. 20, 2017.
I saw the interview and heard Biden say strongly but indirectly he remains too distraught to campaign then serve as an effective president.
Joe said he is not running, with sufficient clarity.
But:
He’d hit the trail just as soon as he checked the knot on his tie and smoothed his hair — as likely would former Vice President Al Gore — should Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid collapse. Biden said nothing close to that. How he acknowledged the audience applause and his vigor throughout implied it.
Clinton is no sure thing.
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Like all publications, National Geographic has been hit for years by financial problems. Its executives have found a solution, it was reported Tuesday: The nonprofit National Geographic Society sold the magazine and “related media assets” to a “partnership headed by 21st Century Fox,” The Washington Post reported. The main details are at media reporter Paul Farhi’s “National Geographic Gives Fox Control of Media Assets in $725 Million Deal.”
Social media posts — the ones I see, at least — are not happy, because Fox is often seen through one of its louder subsidiaries, Fox News.
Because few can predict what will happen with the science-focused NatGeo, let’s be optimistic that the for-profit owners will keep its integrity intact. That is what makes National Geographic … National Geographic. After all, Fox has produced the consistently arch cartoon The Simpsons for decades. Also, Fox is like Wal-Mart, honoring what sells is what sells. A political point of view is a limited though lucrative market, and the overlords know that.
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There are a lot of usually overlong essays or columns by — and sometimes about — college professors, instructors and adjuncts (the last refers to higher-ed part-timers) — in recent years. This new one resonates: “I Have One of the Best Jobs in Academia. Here’s Why I’m Walking Away” by Oliver Lee for Vox.
History Professor Lee explains why he does not like the system, clearly and with sufficient detail. Earlier this week, Garry Trudeau drew blood about college in his Doonesbury strip, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2015, putting underemployed adjuncts in a parking lot hoping to be chosen to hop on a day-labor flatbed driven by a dean.
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In surfing the ether today, being 9/11 of 2015, I found a link to a prime reflection on the 2001 terror attacks, “How 9/11 Changed the Future: 9-11-15” by my friend Bill Tammeus of Kansas City in his Faith Matters blog.
There’s hundreds of posts, columns and editorials on the 14th anniversary of 9/11 and many thousands of social media jots. They’re as hard or as sentimental as anyone could want. Bill’s is a focused snapshot, how matters look to him this week.
