666 Today

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Kind of a longish post, but I wanted to set in context a couple occurrences of "666" I'm keeping my eye on.

One is the zip-code.

Working at the Post Office, you quickly pick up that the zip-codes of every major U.S. city can be identified by their initial three digits.  Kansas City, Missouri's, for example, are "641."  The different areas of the city are designated by the last two digits.  So I grew up in zip-code 64127, and later got an apartment in the Westport neighborhood, zip-code 64110.  I went to college at U.M.K.C. in 64111.  My parents moved to 64134.  My cousin lived north of the river in 64151.

It was a handy trick to know when you worked at the Post Office.  The zip-code for Kansas City, Kansas, is 661.  Wichita is 672, St. Louis 631, Chicago 606. New York City 100, Washington, D.C., 200; and Los Angeles 900.

I was always bemused that the hick capital of the hick state where I now live had the zip-code 666.  It seemed an odd cosmic joke that Topeka, Kansas, ended up with the scriptural "number of the Beast."

In recent years, I've found that fact less and less of a joke.  I'll just say that the political faction which has ruled in Topeka for some years has done a great deal of evil to our state, while loudly claiming to be the faction of "Christian values."

In that faction's (lack of) thinking, "Christian values" have played out as victimizing the poor, the sick, and the alien: fanatical "Second Amendment" lawlessness (including criminalizing federal enforcement of federal gun-laws in our state !), and short-changing our schools to enable corporations to pay no taxes.

I'd also mention that the primary national funders of "conservative" propaganda, the Koch brothers, are natives of our state, and hugely influential with (i.e., in full control of) the faction ruling in Topeka.

But the individual I've been most keeping an eye on is the amoral and hugely-ambitious Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach.  A native of Topeka and graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, Kobach has established himself as his faction's top man for voter-suppression and anti-immigrant fear.  The first Kansas politician to join the Trump campaign, he is currently co-chair of the Trump committee "cleansing" America's voter-rolls of all those illegal alien voters.  He professes to be a Christian.

It's been clear ever since Kobach has been on my radar that his intention is the Presidency.  He's currently on track to be the next Governor of Kansas.

The zip-code that identifies Topeka is 666.

A couple months ago, N.P.R. did a lengthy piece on the Kushner family, and how they achieved the prominence that made their son Jared a fit mate for Donald Trump's daughter, and now the president's closest personal advisor.

It's a fascinating story.  All of Jared's grandparents were Holocaust survivors.  N.P.R.'s story included some of their recorded testimony of their experiences.  And after coming to America in the late 1940s, they prospered in New Jersey rental-properties, eventually owning several thousand.

Jared's father Charlie built the business even larger.  He also became a major player in state politics.  And there the story becomes very tangled, and Charlie's maneuverings (personal, business, and political) very questionable.  Eventually Charlie was convicted on federal charges by the rising young U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Chris Christie, and served 14 months in a federal prison in Alabama.

Jared was out of law-school by then, and remained loyal to his father, running the business in his father's absence.  He visited Charlie in Alabama every week. And when Charlie was released, he stayed behind the scene at the Kushner Companies, and let Jared lead.

The Kushner Companies' first big move after Charlie's return was something that had always been Charlie's greatest desire.  As wealthy as New Jersey real estate had made him, Charlie always knew that the neighboring Manhattan real estate scene was the real Big League.

So, soon after Charlie's release, the Kushner Companies made the splashiest possible entry to the Bigs, buying the premier midtown-Manhattan property then available, for what was at the time the largest price ever paid for a piece of real estate in American history.  The N.P.R. story traces how that venture also turned to ashes for the Kushners.

But what most caught my attention in the story was the property the Kushner Companies chose as their flagship entry in Manhattan real estate.

That building is 666 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan.

The full N.P.R. story is fascinating, and is online at

https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/560276794/how-politics-have-complicated-business-for-kushner-companies

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Who Is Mike Pence

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

When Mike Pence was announced as Donald Trump's running-mate last year, we were all hearing that he was chosen because he was a stalwart "evangelical" who would appeal to that Republican "base."

It seemed to work for some supposed "values voters" I knew, who were torn about voting for Trump.  I don't think any of us had really heard much about Pence before: but the "buzz" (doubtless produced by the "Christian" political machine) was good, and I heard people bring up Pence' name as the reason they thought voting for Trump was a "godly" choice.

Seeing how his relationship with Trump played out, I didn't buy it then, and don't buy it now.  Pence has defended Trump, and "interpreted" his lies to make them seem palatable: he's had no discernible influence in changing Trump's character.  Bottom line, Pence has seemed merely another shameless sycophant of the kind Trump likes around himself.

But my biggest problem with Pence was that he used his "Christian" reputation (even if it was mostly political hype) to whitewash Trump's character.  One time my daughter and I were talking about the role Pence had played in some Trump outrage, and found we had come to think of him in exactly the same words: "Christian whore."

My friend Tim in Australia and I were discussing some months ago where Trump might fit in God's end-time workings.  Neither of us considered that Trump could himself be anti-Christ.  Scripture portrays that man as a uniter, likable, a professing "believer," and widely popular: a master-deceiver, able to hide his evil spirit from his followers.  That's obviously not Trump.

But we didn't really go on to consider that any constitutional process replacing Trump (following his death or impeachment) would give us President Pence.

I blogged several months ago that post-Trump politicians (of all factions) will undoubtedly try to bring forward "...a 'leader' perceived as more honest, intelligent, and likeable than Trump," to whom people will gladly give their allegiance.  ("Who's Next ?", 6/16/17).  Again, thinking of him entirely as a creature of Trump, Pence didn't even cross my mind.

But a profile of Pence in the New Yorker this week makes me think I'd better consider Pence actually could be "who's next."   Rather than a creature of Trump, Pence has long-time personal ambitions, telling high-school friends that he was going to be President.  Nobody but Pence can know how sincere was his conversion to evangelical Protestantism; but he's certainly made it part of his political persona.  He has also cultivated a mutual relationship with the Koch brothers, espousing their causes and accepting their contributions.  Over it all, he projects a voter-friendly image of "Midwestern nice."

I highly recommend the New Yorker piece for its insight into Mike Pence' character and intentions.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-danger-of-president-pence