All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[worstblogever]

This isn’t to say that all Mike Pence did was alternate between lying and hiding since becoming vice-president. He still surfaces to waste taxpayer dollars to do things like try to defeat Kim Jong Un’s regime by impotently staring angrily at the Korean DMZ, to lick Donald Trump’s boots in televised Cabinet meetings, or the time he attended a Colts game with the intention of angrily storming out if if anyone protested by kneeling during the national anthem. ON YOUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS FOR TRAVEL AND SECURITY FOR THAT STUNT.

Pence, during the Trump administration, has been called out for helping funnel money towards Donald Trump’s businesses by manipulating his travel itinerary to stay at Trump resorts and bill American taxpayers for a small fortune. He's also using his office to again direct money towards Christian groups, similarly to what he did with groups that supported gay conversion therapy while in Congress.

In 2018, Pence started to ape Trump’s bigoted rhetoric more, as he praised disgraced former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, defended the Trump White House for banning CNN reporters from covering events (because what’s the big deal about the First Amendment, right?), cited false statistics about how people from the Middle East were sneaking across the U.S./Mexico border with refugees from Central America, or appeared with a fake rabbi who claims Jews who don’t accept Jesus go to hell at an event to honor Jews slain by a Neo-Nazi in Pittsburgh.

He has been rewarded for his loyalty by Trump by being thrown under the bus, completely, and as Trump’s corruption began to be laid bare in his dealings with Ukraine, and the impeachment inquiry began… Trump responded on September 25th, 2019, by telling the media that they should also ask Mike Pence about the times that he has demanded quid pro quos. Pence did push back on that, but hardly enough to convince us that there might not be some truth to it… and then EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified, it looked like Mike Pence would go back to just denying, denying, denying all the facts for the foreseeable future (which he is practiced in doing, but still).

And then… Covid-19 happened. And Donald Trump is f***ing incompetent, but also terrified of receiving blame. So he named Mike Pence to be his patsy… we mean head of the Coronavirus Task Force in February 26th, 2020. As you might have noticed… Pence done f***ed up. Repeatedly and often. Who would thought the man who botched the response to an HIV outbreak while Governor of Indiana could mismanage a highly contagious respiratory pandemic and that 325,000 to 350,000 will be dead by the time he leaves office?

And forgive us if we take absolute glee in having seen Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris trounce him in a debate a few weeks ago lecture him for trying to interrupt her like a schoolteacher telling an unruly student to shut their entitled cake hole (Also, REAL s***ty of Karen Pence to run on stage afterwards without a mask. Truly, the epitome of a Karen). We still aren’t out of tough times, and whatever glimmer of hope happens, we savor. Seeing this Evangelical white nationalist have his place taken by the first female VP, the first African American VP and the first Asian-American VP… ooooooh hell yeah we are here for that.

We hope this is the last time we ever mention Mike Pence, who deserves to be trapped in one of those Phantom Zone mirrors like the Kryptonian bad guys in Superman II and cast off into space. And that would be a mild punishment for the f***ery he’s carried out.

[PaulBullion]

FWIW i actually like boating!

Trust fund socialist?

Yeah, I figured.

[PaulBullion]

Is it really "Cleaning Up..." when you can just dump the bowl in the toilet, and then rinse it out?

That really depends on what you feed your dog, and whether it has chronic diarrhea from being around you too much.

[PaulBullion]

Quick look at the country the death cult thinks we should base our covid response on:

[AnakinFlair]

I realize all of this. Pelosi screwed up with her play a few months ago. The issue is she is passing a worse bill than she could have gotten now because she knows that after the recess the Democrats will have the White House and more seats in the Senate and the pressure will be on them to get something passed in harder circumstances than she thought. So she wants to take a shit deal simply because once they get soomething passed they can sell it as "we made the deal before recess, now Republicans don't want to play ball so what more can we do".

I'm telling you right now, this is going to be the last chance regular folks have for a stimulus. McConnell will not let another bill hit the floor and he will have Republicans stonewall it. So taking a crap deal at this point is basically just a failure to save face and avoid answering harder questions in January/February. By that point Republicans will cite overspending, just passing a bill, and the vaccine to stonewall it.

I said since March Pelosi has been failing at every level in any stimulus negotiations. They got outflanked the whole way.

This is assuming that Mitch allows the bill to the floor for a vote. And assumes that Trump won't veto it out of spite. I do agree that Pelosi screwed up, but as someone else pointed out, she thought that the Democrats would be in a much better position after the election.

Pelosi deserves to lose her job as the leader of the House. Its that simple. This has others not happy to watch it unfold in her own party. So she pretty much by catoring to McConnell here will more than likely have those in party push her out.

This I agree with 100% What exactly has she accomplished as Speaker? An Impeachment that went nowhere, a stimulus bill that stalled, and an election where she LOST seats. It's time for some fresh leadership.

[Steel Inquisitor]

This is assuming that Mitch allows the bill to the floor for a vote. And assumes that Trump won't veto it out of spite. I do agree that Pelosi screwed up, but as someone else pointed out, she thought that the Democrats would be in a much better position after the election.

Screwed up how? They would be, but they have to do something with what they have right now and that's not a great position to be in as the opposition because of Trump and Mitch. Whtavr she punts to the Senate or the president will be thrown out, that's within their jurisdiction - nothing she can do about it.

This I agree with 100% What exactly has she accomplished as Speaker? An Impeachment that went nowhere, a stimulus bill that stalled, and an election where she LOST seats. It's time for some fresh leadership.

An impeachment pushed massively by the left, which she gave her best and so did her colleagues in congress. Where's the gratitude? Did you see what they did in congress to nail Trump? They gave it their all, it was beautiful and since we live in a world where the GOP hold enough votes to block Trump being stripped and the fact they'd rather stick with Trump than America it failed. The impeachment went off, that she succeeded in so where is the credit for it? Her purview is the House, not the senate - that's Mitch's domain and Mitch wants Trump where he is. Blame him, please. Stimulus bill needs to go through congress, which relies on Mitch having a conscience in the Senate. Again, Mitch's fault, not her's. Pelosi's not in control of election campaigning, she works with what she's got. You summed up Pelosi's problems in the first paragraph: Mitch and Trump. Nothing a speak can do if Mitch wants to not put a bill to a vote or Trump wanted to veto a bill. I implore you not to blame Democrats for things Republicans do.

Replace her with who? Paul Ryan was a "fresh" Speaker for the GOP, look what happened to him.

[PaulBullion]

Pay-for-pardon scheme involved Jared Kushner’s lawyer

The Justice Department investigated as recently as this past summer the roles of a top fund-raiser for President Trump and a lawyer for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in a suspected scheme to offer a bribe in exchange for clemency for a tax crimes convict.

I guess Jared won't run for president.

[worstblogever]

A self-inflicted tragedy in two acts:

[Malvolio]

A self-inflicted tragedy in two acts:

So she got what she wanted. But she probably honestly believes that prayers are all that's needed to defeat the virus. SMH

[Joker]

Gonna miss out on worshiping when you're dead.

[PaulBullion]

Gonna miss out on worshiping when you're dead.

They believe in eternal life. That is why those radicals endanger all of us, they just think they will pass over to a big garden full of bunnies where they get to be closer to sky daddy.

[Tami]

They believe in eternal life. That is why those radicals endanger all of us, they just think they will pass over to a big garden full of bunnies where they get to be closer to sky daddy.

Yet they never consider judgement. The weight of spreading this to others and getting them sick, possibly resulting in their deaths, should weigh heavy on their 'eternal souls'. I'm not very religious, but the part of me that still is understands that, if there is an afterlife, there will be some form of judgement for how you have lived your life.

[Tami]

Trump calls Georgia governor to pressure him for help overturning Biden’s win in the state

President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Saturday morning to urge him to persuade the state legislature to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state and asked the governor to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures, the latest brazen effort by the president to interfere in the 2020 election.

Hours before he is scheduled to hold a rally in Georgia on behalf of the state’s two GOP senators, Trump pressed Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature to get lawmakers to override the results and appoint electors that would back him, according to a person familiar with the conversation. He also asked the governor to demand an audit of signatures on mail ballots, something Kemp has previously noted he has no power to do.

Kemp declined the entreaty from Trump, according to the person.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A self-inflicted tragedy in two acts:

The messages were only two days apart I noticed. Didn’t take long for that moron to get a reality check. Thoughts and prayers, yo!

[shooshoomanjoe]

So she got what she wanted. But she probably honestly believes that prayers are all that's needed to defeat the virus. SMH

I would've been an asshole to her and told her that if god takes your husband it's because he's testing your faith, just like he did with Job.