Really and truly! And that about summarizes our circumstances in this country. Regardless of how badly Trump conducts business at the White House (short of annihilating all of us) we want to hang on to him through the length of his term in office. Then, with the help of some deity (perhaps Mike Pence's deity) we can elect someone else to the presidency.
Calling on a deity appears more and more to be our only recourse - we all remember that our collective opinion was that 'it could not get any worse than George Bush' and now here we are with Trump. Obama was little more than a 'speed bump' on the steep decline as this country races downhill.
The one good thing about Trump is the list of all of the bad things about Trump that keep him from functioning well in the formal government structure. His personal 'style' of buffoonery interferes with cooperation within the circle of government officials who share his thoughts and ideas. Fortunately for the common citizens of this country, he can't seem to get things accomplished.
As we've said, "We don't want Mike Pence in the White House. Mike Pence represents all of the worse ideas of Donald Trump in the body of someone who is a capable individual, an accomplished politician who can actually get things done - the 'wrong' things, but he would achieve many parts of his agenda."
There are two huge negatives that seem to direct his policies. He is in favor of whoever donates to his campaign. Science is absolutely meaningless to him.
Mike Pence says “smoking doesn’t kill” while receiving $100,000 in campaign donations from 'Big Tobacco'. He made his statement about smoking not killing more than 50 years after the United States surgeon general reported that 'smoking kills'.
Mike Pence says “smoking doesn’t kill” while receiving $100,000 in campaign donations from 'Big Tobacco'. He made his statement about smoking not killing more than 50 years after the United States surgeon general reported that 'smoking kills'.
Again, in his mind, science doesn't count. He says, for example, “In the mainstream media, there is a denial of the growing skepticism in the scientific community on global warming.” First, there is no growing skepticism about global warming in the scientific community, so he lies to make his distorted point. Secondly, there is growing agreement within the scientific community (97 % agree) that global warming is real and is caused by activities of human-kind. He tries to trick the public by using his ambiguous deception to justify his denial of climate change.
Further proof that he does not believe in science - Pence believes that humans were simply placed on earth by God. He is a creationist. "Do I believe in evolution? I embrace the view that God created the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that’s in them." Watch video of his creationist thinking.
So much for science, on the human level, he is equally out of touch with reality. Among the most published criticisms of Pence is his hatred for the LGBTQ community. (maybe he's trying to hide something?) What else could make someone so vehemently a homophobe?
In addition, he is a leader in the fight against Planned Parenthood. The truth about that fight is that it is a fight against abortions in general but also and equally important is a fight against treatment for cervical cancers and for routine pap smears. Plus it is a fight against testing for Sexually Transmitted Diseases including HIV, syphilis, hepatitis A, B & C, oral herpes, genital herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea.
And, Pence claims to be “morally opposed to drug needle exchange programs” because "they promote drug use." He really believes that exchanging used needles for clean needles was intended to help drug users to use more drugs.
Pence has a history of working against raising the minimum wage. He opposed raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over two years. Pence, then a congressman, took to the House floor to explain why he opposed raising the minimum wage, which was then $5.15 an hour. “It will harm both the wage payer and the wage earner. An excessive increase in the minimum wage will hurt the working poor.”, he claimed.
He was in opposition to a proposal that would have raised Indiana's minimum wage to $8.25. As governor,he signed a law that prohibits local governments from requiring businesses pay a higher minimum wage, or offer any working condition or benefit, such as paid sick leave, if it's not mandated by state or federal law.
Ironically, Pence, the “family values” hypocrite voted against four weeks paid parental leave for government workers. Low pay and no time off from work define his stance regarding employment issues. Indeed, it seems that anything good for the common folk or good for the average family is actively opposed by Pence.
We can refer to history. During his term as governor, nothing especially good took place in Indiana and everything bad got worse under the Pence administration.
Prayer may be all that we have left. Ignoring the fear of redundancy, it is worth repeating, 'we really don't want Mike Pence in the White House ... really', and that's the truth !!!
As Hopes for Trump Impeachment Persist,
New Warnings of a President Pence
"Pence is the inside man of the conservative money machine," writes Jane Mayer for The New Yorker
from Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett
In a recent piece for The New Yorker, journalist Jane Mayer describes Vice President Mike Pence as the darling of wealthy Republican donors.
As Republican insiders reportedly have new worries that Democratic victories in the 2018 midterm election could mean the impeachment of President Donald Trump, investigative journalist Jane Mayer, in her latest piece for The New Yorker, offers an in-depth warning about "the danger of President Pence."
"The worse the President looks, the more desirable his understudy seems," writes Mayer, noting that left- and right-wing commentators alike have increasingly wished that Vice President Mike Pence would ascend to the Oval Office.
While she details their ideological differences—"Trump campaigned as an unorthodox outsider, but Pence is a doctrinaire ideologue"—Mayer makes another notable distinction: "Pence is the inside man of the conservative money machine."
White House counselor and former Pence staffer Kellyanne Conway has described Pence as "a full-spectrum conservative," while former While House chief strategist Steve Bannon said he is "the outreach guy, the connective tissue" between the Trump administration and the most conservative wing of the Republican establishment.
Serving as that "connective tissue," as Mayer explains, also means keeping a cozy relationship with billionaires who donate to Republican candidates:
Pence has the political experience, the connections, the discipline, and the ideological mooring that Trump lacks. He also has a close relationship with the conservative billionaire donors who have captured the Republican Party's agenda in recent years.
On election night, the dissonance between Trump's populist supporters and Pence's billionaire sponsors was quietly evident. When Trump gave his acceptance speech, in the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan, he vowed to serve "the forgotten men and women of our country," and promised to "rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, and hospitals." Upstairs, in a room reserved for Party elites, several of the richest and most conservative donors, all of whom support drastic reductions in government spending, were celebrating.
Doug Deason, a Texas businessman who attended the party on election night, told Mayer, "Mike and I are pretty good friends," adding, "He's really the contact to the big donors."
Deason wasn't the only elite donor supposedly enlisted by Pence. Koch Industries co-owner David Koch—who, along with his brother and business partner, Charles, is infamous for bankrolling GOP campaigns—was among the elite crowd celebrating upstairs, and as Mayer notes, his "presence was especially unexpected."
Trump insiders credit Pence's rapport with the pair for winning over the billionaire brothers.
"The Kochs were very excited about the Vice-Presidential pick," Marc Short, Trump's head of legislative affairs and a former Pence staffer, told Mayer. But, warned Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), "If Pence were to become President for any reason, the government would be run by the Koch brothers—period. He's been their tool for years."
After early failed attempts at launching a political career, Pence worked at a conservative think-tank and as a talk radio host, through which he "amassed a Rolodex full of conservative connections and established a national network of wealthy funders." By the time he ran for Congress in 2000, as the party favorite, he won by a 12-point margin.
As a congressman, Pence gained a reputation for challenging GOP party leaders, and he later transitioned to governor of Indiana.
"Pence's close relationship with dozens of conservative groups, including Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs' top political organization, was crucial to his rise," Mayer writes, before detailing how Pence got tangled up with the Koch brothers. Short "had grown up in moneyed conservative circles in Virginia," and his wife worked for the Charles Koch Foundation. A former White House colleague told Mayer that Short, Pence's chief of staff, "really delivered Pence to the Kochs."
Being the darling of billionaire Republican donors would undoubtedly influence Pence's decisions as president—which, as interviews with a retired Indiana newspaper editor and Pence's family reveal, could be his end-goal. While the newspaper editor described Pence as "ambitious, even calculating," his mother and a brother recalled the vice president, even as a high school student, "talking to classmates about becoming President of the United States."
While Pence reportedly has strong influence over Trump's decisions—and "has become a back channel for government figures who are frustrated by the impulsiveness and inattention" of the president—the priorities of the Republican party's wealthy donors have already begun superseding those professed by candidate Trump, who campaigned on a populist, nationalist agenda and promises to "drain the swamp."
"One by one, all the things that Trump campaigned on that annoyed the Koch brothers are being thrown overboard," said Whitehouse, who along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a report in July detailing the administration's embrace of corporate insiders and lobbyists. "And one by one the Koch brothers' priorities are moving up the list."
New Warnings of a President Pence
"Pence is the inside man of the conservative money machine," writes Jane Mayer for The New Yorker
from Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett
In a recent piece for The New Yorker, journalist Jane Mayer describes Vice President Mike Pence as the darling of wealthy Republican donors.
As Republican insiders reportedly have new worries that Democratic victories in the 2018 midterm election could mean the impeachment of President Donald Trump, investigative journalist Jane Mayer, in her latest piece for The New Yorker, offers an in-depth warning about "the danger of President Pence."
"The worse the President looks, the more desirable his understudy seems," writes Mayer, noting that left- and right-wing commentators alike have increasingly wished that Vice President Mike Pence would ascend to the Oval Office.
While she details their ideological differences—"Trump campaigned as an unorthodox outsider, but Pence is a doctrinaire ideologue"—Mayer makes another notable distinction: "Pence is the inside man of the conservative money machine."
White House counselor and former Pence staffer Kellyanne Conway has described Pence as "a full-spectrum conservative," while former While House chief strategist Steve Bannon said he is "the outreach guy, the connective tissue" between the Trump administration and the most conservative wing of the Republican establishment.
Serving as that "connective tissue," as Mayer explains, also means keeping a cozy relationship with billionaires who donate to Republican candidates:
Pence has the political experience, the connections, the discipline, and the ideological mooring that Trump lacks. He also has a close relationship with the conservative billionaire donors who have captured the Republican Party's agenda in recent years.
On election night, the dissonance between Trump's populist supporters and Pence's billionaire sponsors was quietly evident. When Trump gave his acceptance speech, in the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan, he vowed to serve "the forgotten men and women of our country," and promised to "rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, and hospitals." Upstairs, in a room reserved for Party elites, several of the richest and most conservative donors, all of whom support drastic reductions in government spending, were celebrating.
Doug Deason, a Texas businessman who attended the party on election night, told Mayer, "Mike and I are pretty good friends," adding, "He's really the contact to the big donors."
Deason wasn't the only elite donor supposedly enlisted by Pence. Koch Industries co-owner David Koch—who, along with his brother and business partner, Charles, is infamous for bankrolling GOP campaigns—was among the elite crowd celebrating upstairs, and as Mayer notes, his "presence was especially unexpected."
Trump insiders credit Pence's rapport with the pair for winning over the billionaire brothers.
"The Kochs were very excited about the Vice-Presidential pick," Marc Short, Trump's head of legislative affairs and a former Pence staffer, told Mayer. But, warned Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), "If Pence were to become President for any reason, the government would be run by the Koch brothers—period. He's been their tool for years."
After early failed attempts at launching a political career, Pence worked at a conservative think-tank and as a talk radio host, through which he "amassed a Rolodex full of conservative connections and established a national network of wealthy funders." By the time he ran for Congress in 2000, as the party favorite, he won by a 12-point margin.
As a congressman, Pence gained a reputation for challenging GOP party leaders, and he later transitioned to governor of Indiana.
"Pence's close relationship with dozens of conservative groups, including Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs' top political organization, was crucial to his rise," Mayer writes, before detailing how Pence got tangled up with the Koch brothers. Short "had grown up in moneyed conservative circles in Virginia," and his wife worked for the Charles Koch Foundation. A former White House colleague told Mayer that Short, Pence's chief of staff, "really delivered Pence to the Kochs."
Being the darling of billionaire Republican donors would undoubtedly influence Pence's decisions as president—which, as interviews with a retired Indiana newspaper editor and Pence's family reveal, could be his end-goal. While the newspaper editor described Pence as "ambitious, even calculating," his mother and a brother recalled the vice president, even as a high school student, "talking to classmates about becoming President of the United States."
While Pence reportedly has strong influence over Trump's decisions—and "has become a back channel for government figures who are frustrated by the impulsiveness and inattention" of the president—the priorities of the Republican party's wealthy donors have already begun superseding those professed by candidate Trump, who campaigned on a populist, nationalist agenda and promises to "drain the swamp."
"One by one, all the things that Trump campaigned on that annoyed the Koch brothers are being thrown overboard," said Whitehouse, who along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a report in July detailing the administration's embrace of corporate insiders and lobbyists. "And one by one the Koch brothers' priorities are moving up the list."
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