Tag Archives: Mike Pence

crime news, national news, political news

Pence ignores the obvious

Mike Pence says he won’t endorse the man in whose administration he served as vice president.

Oh, and why is that? Well, the former VP says he and the ex-POTUS have fundamental policy differences. Therefore, he won’t endorse the guy who also incited a mob to seek out the VP while carrying signs that said “Hang Mike Pence!”

Or that he said Pence was a coward for refusing to discount votes that elected Joe Biden president of the U.S. in 2020.

Or that he did nothing to call off the traitors who stormed the Capitol on the Sixth of January.

No, Pence said he cannot endorse the former Moron in Chief because of “policy differences.”

What … a … coward!

national news

Pence drops out … wow!

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to end his 2024 presidential campaign speaks loudly about the state of affairs within what passes for today’s Republican Party.

Think for a moment about this. Of all the members of the previous administration, damn few of them have stood out as believing that their oaths of office were to the Constitution, not to the individual who led the government for four years from 2017 until 2021.

Pence was one of those who stood for the rule of law when Donald Trump and others sought to coerce him into overturning the results of the 2020 election. Pence said he had no authority to do anything other than what he did, which was to certify the election results and declare that Joe Biden had been elected president of the United States.

It is true, in my view, that Pence did little else of note during his term as VP.  But his refusal to disobey the law and the Constitution stands out.

And it cost him among Republican presidential primary voters, as they appear wedded to the propaganda peddled by the former POTUS.

military news

But … we’re doing that, Mr. VPOTUS!

While listening the other day to former Vice President Mike Pence declare his 2024 presidential candidacy, I was struck by a theme he kept harping on.

We need to do all we can to support democratic nations, such as Ukraine, he said. The United States must take the lead in helping Ukraine fend off the illegal and immoral invasion by Russian forces, he added. We need to stand for democracy in Europe, Pence said.

But … wait!

We’re already doing that, aren’t we? President Biden has not just said all of that but has persuaded Congress to spend a lot of money to arm the Ukrainians, to train them in using the equipment we’re providing them. He has imposed punishing economic sanctions on Russia, persuading our NATO and EU allies to go along.

The Ukrainians are — as near as many experts can tell — winning the fight in the field against a demoralized, under-qualified Russian invading force.

How is that? Because the United States has stepped up as the world’s pre-eminent champion for democracy!

What does Mike Pence think we should do differently than what we have done already?

For my money? Not a damn thing!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence boxes himself in

It took no time at all for former Vice President Mike Pence to box himself into a corner from which he will find it next to impossible to escape.

He said while announcing his 2024 presidential candidacy that no candidate should put himself above the Constitution and that anyone who does is “unfit” to be president; moreover, he said that anyone who demands others to do the same should “never be president again.”

Hmm. Who is he talking about? Oh, yeah: Donald John Trump!

But when CNN’s Dana Bash asked him if he would support the GOP presidential nominee if it happens to be Trump, Pence said, well, he would support him.

What the hell?

The former VP is going to stumble and fall flat on his face as he continues this bizarre tap dance around political reality.

Either he means what he says about Donald Trump being unfit for public office … or he is lying.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Joe Biden, national news

What is Pence talking about?

Listening to former Vice President Mike Pence announce his presidential candidacy, I was struck by the nation he was describing to a roomful of supporters in Iowa.

The United States of America that the former VP was laying out there for us is a nation in decline, that we are angry and afraid of our future, that we’re heading straight to hell.

I was left to wonder: What in the name of truth-telling is Mike Pence talking about?

President Joe Biden inherited an office at a time the nation was suffering from a pandemic that would kill more than a million Americans. We had lost millions of jobs because employers couldn’t do business while fighting the COVID-19 virus. Our allies had lost confidence in our ability to defend them — and ourselves.

As for the pandemic, it’s now essentially whipped. The jobs are coming back by the hundreds of thousands each month. Unemployment remains at historic lows.

Mike Pence talked about how he would defend Ukraine against a war of aggression from the Russians. Did he offer anything different from what Joe Biden has done already? No. He didn’t!

I am not at all clear as to what the former VP would do to restore the nation. Or what he could do.

From my perch here in Collin County, Texas, the nation is functioning well. This is occurring despite the right wing’s best efforts to demonize the left, to attack that thing called “woke,”

I listened to much of Pence’s announcement today, powered through the platitudes and promises to “make America great again.”

However, I will suggest to the Pencekins out there who have swallowed that MAGA swill that America today is greater than it ever has been and that, yep … the best is yet to come.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence: We’re not as divided as our pols?

Mike Pence announced today he is running for president in 2024 and while I don’t embrace his policies or his leanings, he did offer a bit of wisdom in his speech with which I want to agree … in principle.

He said something today about Americans being not as divided as our politicians.

Pence spoke of unseating President Biden, suggesting that the nation is falling apart, that it has lost its way, that we need to “return to traditional values.” Hmm. I don’t know what he sees out there, but the America I see is full of all those values.

The former vice president told the Iowa supporters to whom he spoke about the great divide among American politicians, but said the nation out here in Flyover Country isn’t as divided.

Man … I hope he’s right.

I had dinner Tuesday night with friends who recently traveled back east through the heart of what they described as “Trump country.” They talked about seeing “Fu** Biden” signs in businesses. My friends’ recounting of what they saw doesn’t quite square with the picture that former VP Pence painted about the nation he hopes to lead.

Toby the Puppy and I are about to head east along much the same route my friends took as they meandered their way through the South and along the Atlantic Seaboard. I don’t what I’ll see or who I will meet. As a general rule I don’t sweat the stuff I cannot control. So, I’ll just go with the flow.

I will agree with the former VP that our politics — and our politicians — are deeply divided, suggesting that they aren’t representing their constituents’ desires. Hmm. Is this another sign of a broken system of governance … that needs to be repaired?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Embrace embodies Pence’s problem

Donald J. Trump’s embrace of a woman who has declared that Mike Pence should have been “executed” for his actions on the day of the 1/6 insurrection highlights a serious problem facing the former vice president of the United States.

Pence likely wants to seek the presidency in 2024. Trump already is in the race. The two men, of course, once were partners as POTUS and VPOTUS for a single term prior to the 2020 election.

Trump incited the assault on the Capitol on 1/6. The crowd stormed into the halls of the government looking for Pence and others. Pence was presiding at the time over a joint congressional session to ratify the results of the 2020 election. The crowd wanted to string Pence up.

How in the world does Mike Pence, therefore, campaign against Donald Trump, who still commands the fealty of the traitors — such as the nitwit he embraced this week in New Hampshire? Pence has been a highly reluctant critic of Trump. Yes, he calls Trump’s remarks on 1/6 “reckless,” but he also urged the House select committee reviewing the incident to not bring a criminal referral against Trump.

For that matter, only one leading Republican — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — has shown the jewels to criticize Trump actively. The rest of ’em are dancing all around the issue and that includes Mike Pence.

I am one American patriot who is aghast, but surely not surprised, to see Trump hug on that moronic traitor. He signed some sort of program she shoved at him, mugging for the cameras. The guy is disgusting in the extreme, given that he has all but promised to pardon those accused of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

So … the dilemma for Pence heats up as he ponders whether he wants to run for president in 2024. One of his potential foes happens to be the guy who endorsed the mob’s threat to kill him.

Nice …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

1/6 assault makes me angrier

There can be no denying this fact about the 1/6 assault on the government, which is that the more I see video of that horrendous event, the angrier I become.

Former Vice President Mike Pence testified today before a grand jury that is examining that event and its cause. I have been watching video from that attack, listening to one traitor declaring that the mob would “drag Pence through the streets” if they were to find him.

Then I heard the chant to “Hang Mike Pence!”

Were the traitors serious about those threats? Did they really intend to lynch the vice president? You know, I am not clairvoyant, but the mob seemed pretty serious about the threat and whether they would follow through on it.

Juxtapose that with the knowledge that Pence wants to run for president in 2024, but he likely is going to seek to appeal to the very men and women who threatened to string him up.

What the hell?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Special counsel closes in

I am not a lawyer … and I don’t even play one on TV, but I have a hunch about a legal proceeding that I want to share.

It is that former Vice President Mike Pence’s testimony this week before a grand jury examining the 1/6 insurrection well might be the beginning of the end of Donald Trump’s idiotic quest for the presidency in 2024.

Special counsel Jack Smith summoned Pence to testify before the panel; Pence initially fought it, then he and the Pence-Trump legal team were told that the ex-VP had to testify.

Today, he did. Prosecutors sworn him to tell the truth and they then worked him over behind closed doors.

They likely asked Pence: What did Trump say to you in advance of the 1/6 assault on the government and what did you say to him?

I suppose it is possible that Pence could invoke the Fifth Amendment, which protects him against self-incrimination. Except that he isn’t the subject of the probe; Pence is a low-risk witness, given that on that terrible day he stood his ground and stood on the Constitution, which required him to do his duty that day, which was to preside over congressional certification of the Electoral College results from the 2020 presidential election.

Oh, yes, that’s the election that Joe Biden won over Donald Trump. 

Pence has told TV interviewers that Trump’s remarks that day were “reckless” and that they put “everyone in the Capitol that day” in dire danger. Indeed, traitors who stormed the Capitol threatened to assassinate Pence and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

What did Trump do to stop it? Not a damn thing!

That’s the kind of testimony that the former vice president of the United States can deliver to the special counsel and the grand jury that will determine whether to indict the former president of the United States.

My non-lawyerly gut tells me the special counsel’s hammer is about to hit home … as it must.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Pence sees light … finally!

Let’s call it a “well, duhhh” moment, shall we?

Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke this weekend to a group of supporters and leveled some very harsh criticism directly at the man he served for a single term.

He said Donald Trump endangered the VP and his family by failing to act to end the violent insurrection that erupted on 1/6.

Hmm. Wow! I don’t quite know how to respond to that other than to state the obvious, such as, “Well, it’s about damn time, Mr. Vice President!”

Pence has been tippy-toeing around criticism Trump ever since the two men left office after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris defeated them in the 2020 election. He’s been reluctant to say out loud what the rest of the country has known all along, which is that Trump refused to call off the traitorous mob that threatened to “Hang Mike Pence!” while smashing windows, beating cops mercilessly and sh***ing on the floor of the Capitol Building on 1/6.

I don’t know what the former VPOTUS’s newfound anger signifies, other than a potential run for the presidency in 2024 … opposing the man who selected him to be VP in 2016.

If that’s the case, fine. Go for it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com