Mike Pence: A Mindless Husk That Stands A Heartbeat Away From Taking Over For A Heartless Colostomy Bag Of A President

-by Noah

When I look at Mike Pence, I say to myself, "Now there's a man who's had too much shock treatment." But, when I listen to Mike Pence, I say, "That man needs a lot more shock treatment." The fact is, though, that Mike Pence is a mindless husk. There's no amount of any kind of therapy that can cure that.

Pence has filled his lifetime with an endless list of hate-filled episodes and tone deaf pronouncements. In that sense, he was a perfect choice to run as Comrade Trump's Vice President and, over the past four years, he has proved it over and over again. Now, the 2020 Republican Con-Vention is nearly upon us like a cast iron safe falling out of a window as we walk down the street.

Like Trump, Pence has a way of disregarding others, at least the others who are not his personal benefactors among the top half of the top one percent. So it was a few days ago, when in the middle of a pandemic that is causing Americans to lose their businesses and their homes if not their lives, Pence went all full-blown "I Don't Give A Fuck" and puked up the theme of the Con-Vention; the theme that we hear endlessly from the Repugs and will be hearing from them all this week and all during the campaign. We will hear it right along with their boot-stomping Law And Order chanting. The irony with the latter, of course, is that the Repug Party and its leaders are the antithesis of law and order. They are to law and order what they are to both disease containment and looking out for the personal economies of the hard working citizens of this country.

Here's what Pence had to say (via tweet) about "our" economy on the 17th as a warm up for the 2020 Republican Con-Vention. He'd have us believe that we are ALL better off than we were four years ago:

Another RECORD broken for NASDAQ today! This economy is coming back under President @realDonaldTrump and it will keep growing with #FOURMOREYEARS!

One might think that he knows that the stock market is no longer the economy but, if he did, would that stop him from lying? Nope. Not for a second. I mean, c'mon! His whole life is a lie, so...

Anyway, the reaction to Pence's inanity was swift and justifiable derisive. He should consider himself lucky that he isn't living in France in the year 1793. Here are some of the choice twitter responses:

1. @FrakerMonica-NASDAQ isn't feeding UNEMPLOYED Americans. You have failed 41 million who are without jobs.

2. @PointCounterpt- The stock market is NOT the U.S. ECONOMY! I can't pay my rent, or buy food or insurance with the NASDAQ. People are starving, being evicted, & dying because of you. It's an election year. Why not actually do something for the American people instead of your obsequious babbling.

3. @CharlesUpton17- 170,000 Dead Americans...Oh I'm sorry. I don't want to interrupt your celebration... go on.

4. @queeniema52- Tell that to the families being evicted and going hungry asshat!

5. @pesachlattin- Oh ffs. Stock market is a betting game. It's not the economy.

6. @Pats Fan876- Every coronavirus death is a record, asshole.

7. @LorenaBlas- Another RECORD broken for American deaths caused by President Coronavirus @realDonaldTrump @VP @MikePence as of today. Their death toll is climbing above 170,000. Voters will remember their victims. #TrumpkillsAmericans

8. @kathleenholmes- The stock market has nothing to do with the economy which has been destroyed by you killing off 172,000+ Ameicans, not doing your job, doesn't include the troops killed with bounties on their heads. #VPofdeath #presidentof death #GOPpartyof death All your fault. #SaveTheUSPS

So there you have it. Mike Pence is a master of insensitivity, or is it just his contempt showing? Pence is a veritable brainiac. Would you trust your life and the well being of your loved ones to this kind of person? A week before his infamous stock market tweet, he tweeted that he and his madman boss had created more jobs in the last 3 months than Obama did in 8 years. I'm sure his boss loved that one. It was a major kiss on Trump's big orange cellulite farm of an ass. The thing is though, Trump and Pence have lost 41 million jobs so gaining 20 million back means they are still in the hole 21 million jobs. Getting some jobs back is in no way "creating" jobs. So many "new jobs" are just part time or temp work anyway. They don't want you to think of it that way, though. That's another measure of their complete lack of respect for Americans. Having the market make money and stashing it in offshore accounts free from taxation is not "the economy." Pence knows this but he's an obvious pathological liar. It is what it is. It is exactly what it is.

Healthy For America vs Dangerous For America

"I Can't Breathe" by Nancy Ohanian

One of the themes here at DWT this cycle has been about the dangers of getting too chummy with conservative Republican #NeverTrumpers. They are, after all conservatives and oppose Trump because-- among other things-- he isn't. Many don't have to hold their noses to vote for Biden. He's just what they're looking for. In fact, from what I've seen, conservative #NeverTrump Republicans like Biden a lot more than progressives do. About 80% of progressives are going to hold their noses and vote for Biden, under no delusions about his utter unfitness for office, just thinking about the existential danger Trump is. The #NeverTrump's actually like the idea of a Biden presidency. Sure, they'd prefer someone like Paul Ryan, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, maybe even another overt racist likeTucker Carlson, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Ted Cruz-- one of their own-- but Biden's record of almost 5 decades is very comforting to them in the short run.

These people will help us take down Trump. The enemy of my enemy is my friend... to a certain extent. Thanks for helping get rid of the fascist. Then go back to your own party and reform it, but don't try to move the Democratic Party even further right than it has already drifted since Arkansas conservative Bill Clinton managed a hostile takeover in 1992.





In an OpEd for TruthOut this week, Beware of Anti-Trump Republicans Who Endorse Joe Biden, William Rivers Pitt agreed. He wrote that "A stampeding herd of 'anti-Trump' Republican organizations and PACs has flooded the zone with ads attacking Trump and endorsing Biden. If beating "Donald Trump in November is your main thing, this would appear to be only good news. I am forced to wonder, however, what the real intent is behind this sudden solidarity after three long years of near-silence from the deeply compromised 'Never Trump' crew."

"Trump," he continued, "is the best campaign spokesman Joe Biden could ever wish for, because Trump will not stop damaging himself, ever. He is incapable of staying out of the spotlight, has no interest in talking points or strategy, and almost never knows what he is talking about when he starts flapping his gums at the cameras. His ceaseless lies about everything from Russian bounties on U.S. troops to the uprising to the pandemic are a feature, not a bug. In the midst of this maelstrom, Biden pops up every so often like some grandfatherly Jack-in-the-box to remind people that, whatever else he may be, he is not that guy. He has out-raised Trump for the second month in a row, while Trump’s own campaign spends its money on ads intended only to assure the president that he’s a great guy and everything is fine."

All the momentum is on Biden’s side at present, and Trump is only going to help him as we lurch toward the reckoning in November. So forgive me for being leery of this abrupt tidal wave of Biden support from Republican-based organizations. It puts me in mind of the old joke about the French aristocrat who sees an angry mob run by and says, “I must find out where my people are going, so I may lead them.”

The newest entry into the Republican anti-Trump push is named 43 Alumni for Biden. It is a collection of hundreds of former campaign and administration members who worked for George W. Bush, the war criminal 43rd president. A list of members is not available so far as I can glean, but the group boasts a number of former Bush Cabinet secretaries and other high-ranking members whose names I’d love to know. Rumsfeld? Ashcroft? Rove? Cheney? Such is the possible character of Biden’s new allies.

“Whether you worked in the earliest days of the 43rd Administration or sprinted to the finish in January 2009, you know a thing or two about serving the grand ideals and exceptional people of our country,” reads the 43 Alumni for Biden endorsement. “Together we saw compassion in action, strength on display and the steady leadership of a true statesman who inspired us to meet some of America’s greatest challenges.”

I don’t have time to fully parse the freight of “Oy vey” in that paragraph; if you lived through the scabrous eight years of the Bush administration, you don’t need me to tell you how much unrefined bullshit is slathered on the words “compassion,” “steady leadership” and “true statesman.” Those hundreds of “43 Alumni” aided and abetted a murderous smash-and-grab robbery of an administration, and now they’re piling in behind Biden exactly when he does not need their help.

Another Republican group that has been throwing hot shade at Trump is The Lincoln Project. The ads produced by this organization have been singularly brutal and ruthlessly timely, and Trump the TV fanatic is well aware of them. Each time another Lincoln Project ad airs, Trump Twitter goes seismic. The Lincoln spots are masterpieces of inflicted political pain, and further proof that conservatives are better at making killer ads than the Democrats ever were or will be.

Many who oppose Trump have rejoiced at the way these ads have been flaying him, but it cannot be forgotten that this same gleefully lethal energy also went into creating and distributing the GOP’s racist Willie Horton ad attacking Michael Dukakis in 1988, and the wildly truthless swift-boat ads attacking John Kerry in 2004. With friends like these, etc.

...[T]hose working to get Trump gone must be deeply wary of this new “help.” These are the people whose policies and go-for-the-jugular campaign ethos made President Donald Trump possible, or even inevitable, in the first place. Here they are now, leaping on the Biden bandwagon in hopes we all forget the blood and tears soaking their hands.

Furthermore, if these right-wing organizations do manage to make a notable difference in the November outcome, they are going to think they are owed something for that assistance, and anything that pushes Biden even further to the right is a menace on its face for anyone seeking genuine progressive change.

Simply put: Never, ever forget who it is you’re dealing with here. These groups do not oppose Trump because of his policies. They oppose Trump because he is bad for the Republican brand, full stop. The enemy of your enemy in this case is not your friend, at all. It feels too much like the Scorpion and the Frog all over again, and folks by now should be heartily wary of getting stung.

Yesterday, super prominent #NeverTrumper Bill Kristol, writing at the NeverTrump Daily Journal Bulwark, tried to appeal to "those who have not been opponents of Donald Trump... those who, for whatever mixtures of reasons and motives, have until now reluctantly supported or tolerated him." He wants them to use July 4th and what it stands for to help them become "former Trump supporters." And he tells them even if they are too reflexively partisan to back Biden, they have an alternative, "His name is Mike Pence." Here's where these #NeverTrumpers show what they're made of and who they are. "[I]t is self-evident that it would be much better for the country if Donald Trump were out of office for the next six months, and if he had no chance to be president for the next four years. A President Pence for the next several months-- even with the possibility of a President Pence for the next four years-- would be a good outcome for all Americans." Yeah, so not our friends. Instead he has a game plan:

Serious and patriotic men and women who have been Trump supporters could go to Donald Trump privately and tell him that he’s done whatever good he can do. They could tell him that it’s time to resign and to turn over both the reins of government and the 2020 Republican nomination to his vice president.

If Donald Trump ignores them, serious and patriotic men and women who have been Trump supporters could urge delegates to the Republican convention to withhold their votes in this emergency from Donald Trump, and could provide legal and political help when the Trump campaign claims those delegates are bound.

If that doesn’t seem feasible, serious and patriotic men and women who have been Trump supporters could simply announce their support for Joe Biden now. If a sizable number of major figures did so, it would make Trump something like a lame duck and might force him from the race. Even if he refused to withdraw, it would weaken his hold on Republicans on the Hill and on his own administration, and make it harder for him to do substantial damage over the next several months. And since Trump could do substantial damage in using the executive power of the federal government to affect the November election, either beforehand (as in his attempt last year to use Ukraine to damage his opponent) or after (by calling results into question, creating chaos and a crisis of legitimacy, and the like), weakening Trump even if he stays in office would be no small thing.

So the best option would be a Trump who has resigned from office. Second best would be a Trump denied re-nomination. Third best would be a weakened and then defeated Trump.

Those who have previously been Trump supporters could help produce one of these outcomes. They should. For Donald Trump has surely proven himself, even to those who wished him well and hoped for the best, to be, to quote the Declaration, “unfit to be a ruler of a free people.”

There is no reason for patriotic Trump supporters to continue enabling him. There would be a portion of honor in helping us get beyond him.

I'll take a great big pass on that strategy. What would be healthy for the country is a massive November rejection of Trump, Trumpism, fascism, authoritarianism and the Republican Party. And that's what's coming, Bill Kristol and his friends on board or not. There's nothing that would make me cast a ballot for Biden-- nothing-- but there is one thing that I like about him: he promised (though I don't necessarily believe him) that he will not pardon Trump. Pence would, of course. What would be healthy for America-- more healthy than anything I can think of short of a Bernie presidency-- would be to see a Trump trial and to subsequently see Trump die in prison, the way Al Capone did.

Is Donald Trump Likely to Resign?

Thanks to Trump's mismanagement of the Covid-19 outbreak, the U.S. is on the verge of becoming the Typhoid Mary of major industrial nations

by Thomas Neuburger

Donald Trump's resignation is a topic on many lips these days. Chris Hayes, in a dramatic moment at MSNBC, called for Trump to resign over his mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic (deservedly so), and at least one newspaper editorial board has called for Trump to step down, as has Washington Governor Jay Inslee.

Michael Gerson at the Washington Post called for Trump's resignation because of "diminished moral capacity" related to his alleged callous indifference to the alleged Russian bounties offered for American lives in the Afghan theater of war.

Note that there are a lot of "if"s in these bounty reports — Gerson himself leads his argument with "If, as reported by multiple news sources" — while skeptics think it's awfully convenient timing that leaks from ... who? "American intelligence officials," who proudly admit to lying ... have reached the Times just as the Trump administration is working on Afghanistan peace agreements that could get the U.S. out of a war it's been waging for almost 20 years. (Whether the U.S. has been waging the war successfully or not depends on what you think the U.S. considers success. If military occupation counts as success, we've succeeded. By any other measure, we've failed.)

Analysts are also speculating that Trump could leave office voluntarily or be forced out. Robert Kuttner wrote at The American Prospect that Trump may leave on his own, since nothing seems to be going his way lately and the minute he's unelected he'll be subject to quite a bit of prosecution. Kuttner's speculation hinges on the possibility that Trump could pre-emptively negotiate a deal for resigning that amounts to a giant "Get out of jail free" card.

"Trump may conclude," writes Kuttner, "that he has more leverage to cut the best possible deal with all players while the bargain includes a widely wished-for resignation, rather than after he loses an election and his term merely ends. At that point, Trump’s opponents have no incentive to make deals, and a pardon only goes so far."

Sounds plausible to me, but I've been wrong before.

Others feel that increased pressure from Republicans leaders, fearful of losing both the White House and the Senate in November, will cost him critical support within his party. Most of those discussions are private at the moment, but they are many. The question is the method — how to get him to go.

Which brings us back to the Russian bounties story. Will that carry such weight with the American people that his already "crummy" approval rating (39%) and poll numbers (nearly 10 points below Joe Biden) will drop even further? If so, could a combination of public shaming and deep unpopularity force him out of office?

Sounds unlikely to me, but I've been wrong before.

The Typhoid Mary of Major Industrial Nations

Something that might force his resignation, though, is low on people's radar, but it shouldn't be — the EU travel ban on Americans entering Europe. Consider the following from CNN (emphasis added):

What EU's new border rules mean for travelers
Updated 1st July 2020

(CNN) — The European Union has formally agreed a set of recommendations that will allow travelers from outside the bloc to visit EU countries, months after it shut its external borders in response to the outbreak of Covid-19.

As had been widely expected, the list of 14 countries does not include the United States, whose current Covid infection rate does not meet the criteria set by the EU for it to be considered a "safe country."

The criteria requires that confirmed Covid cases in countries on the list are similar or below that of the EU's per 100,000 citizens over the previous 14 days (starting from June 15).

Countries must also have a "stable or decreasing trend of new cases over this period in comparison to the previous 14 days," while the EU will consider what measures countries are taking, such as contact tracing, and how reliable each nation's data is.

The US has not only the highest number of reported coronavirus infections of any nation, currently 2,590,582, but also the highest number of deaths, at, 126,141, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

US infection rates will need to dramatically drop if Americans are to be allowed entry to European countries, just as the European tourism industry enters what are traditionally its peak months.

The recommendations are expected to come into force as early as July 1, however, it remains up to member states to decide exactly how the implement any changes in border policy.

According to CNN, exemptions may be offered to "EU citizens or family members of an EU citizen; long-term EU residents or family members; those with an 'essential function or need,' such as diplomats, healthcare workers or certain agricultural workers."

Does being wealthy, powerful or connected count as an essential function? How will business travelers be affected? Would Charles Koch be allowed in? Would a high-ranking official of, say, Apple, on her way to a meeting with a German corporate counterpart, be counted as having a need to enter Europe? What if Charles Koch or the Apple CEO wanted merely to look in on their eighth farm in France, bringing the grandkids for a visit? Would they be allowed in?

If yes, how far down the wealth or corporate ladder would one need to be before the ban would apply? Would mere millionaires qualify? How about junior VPs at smaller companies? The questions, once exemptions are granted, are endless.

The Feckless Administration

Which brings us to Donald Trump and his resignation. The following two things are true:

First, U.S. Covid infection rates are never going to drop under the current regimen and under this administration. They will never come down except naturally, if the virus recedes on its own, period. Trump and his administration are structurally incapable of making this better, and yahoo U.S. governors are incapable of not making this worse.

Second, this will be true from now until January 2021 when the next president is sworn in, and perhaps beyond.

The American people can be told to suffer and bear with it, but they don't travel to Europe. Our bipartisan betters do, however, and this includes our Republican betters. If the Europeans are as strict as, frankly, they ought to be, do you think that powerful and wealthy Republicans, many of whose lives are essentially international, will tolerate a travel ban for the next six months?

When and if Republican elites decide that European governments are serious, that France, Germany, Italy and the rest won't let most of them in, I'll bet any money in the world that Donald Trump will be offered a deal, and both parties will be party to crafting it — even if it means letting Vice-President Pence run as an incumbent on the November ballot.

And, if Robert Kuttner is right about Trump's legal needs post-election, I'll also bet he takes it.
  

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

Jeez, Pence always has to imitate Donnie Clown Shoes! First there was that conference room thing with the water bottle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjY4vdyBx0Y Then Donnie Clown Shoes had trouble navigating a ramp at West Point so Pence then just had to fake stumbling up a stairway. What's next? Oh, I see Jesus pushed him! Not bad, Mr. Christ, not bad! This is like when you did your famous Antifa move on the money changers. Good on you! This is the kind of Jesus I can believe in!

Now, please Jesus, hear my prayer. Can you arrange it so Pence gets off of a Marine helicopter and walks across the White House lawn to visit his boss of bosses looking like he got in a fight with his handlers on the trip just like his boss? You know, tie askew. Maga hat all scrunched up in his hand. Suit severely rumpled, practically ruined. Face all puffy and dejected-looking and like he's been screaming, crying, and throwing things. "Mother" nowhere to be seen?

What Would Trump Do Differently If He Was TRYING To Lose The Election And Tank The GOP?

People are looking at two big national polls this weekend, one by Marist, released by NPR and PBS that shows Trump losing with just 44% of the vote (and a sky-high disapproval of 57%!) and one from Kaiser showing Trump losing with 38% and with a disapproval of 56%. And, occasionally he's starting to face reality. One such occasion was Thursday evening on Fox with Hannity when he mused that Biden is "gonna be your president because some people don't love me, maybe and all I'm doing is doing my job." He then went into his whole litany of lies about what a great steward of the economy he's been, the myth on which he had been building his campaign-- until the reality of what he made into the Republican Plague hit him in the face and knocked him on his ass. Ezra Klein wrote that as Trump "has continued to treat the presidency as a media spectacle, the work of governance as a dull distraction from the glitter of celebrity"-- obsessing over cable news and Twitter conflict and neglecting the job Americans hired him to do-- he's loath to face up to his record: "More than 120,000 dead from Covid-19 [and] an economy in shambles. Coronavirus cases in America exploding, even as they fall across the European Union... Trump has spent the past three years and 158 days playing president on TV and social media. But he has not spent that time doing the job of the president. A strong economy that carried over from Barack Obama’s presidency hid Trump’s dereliction of duties. But then a crisis came, and presidential leadership was needed, and the American people saw there was no plan, and functionally no president."

Trump seems to be doing everything possible to lose in November. Even the far right editorial board of the Wall Street Journal mused yesterday that "Trump may soon need a new nickname for 'Sleepy Joe' Biden. How does President-elect sound? On present trend that’s exactly what Mr. Biden will be on Nov. 4, as Mr. Trump heads for what could be an historic repudiation that would take the Republican Senate down with him."

Friday morning, the Miami Herald announced that "A record week of surging coronavirus numbers was only heightened on Friday, as state health officials confirmed 8,942 cases, nearly doubling the previous record of cases reported in a single day, two days earlier... Over the last seven days, Florida has reported 29,163 new cases. That’s nearly a quarter of all the confirmed cases in the state so far." Brainless, Trumpist governors Ron DeSantis (FL) and Greg Abbott (TX) finally reversed themselves and ordered their states' bars to close, something they-- and all governors-- should have done in March.





Meanwhile, Fauci told the Washington Post that Trump's testing strategy is a failure.

Not enough to get himself kicked out of office? His regime is still trying to make matters worse for sick people by demanding the Republican-dominated Supreme Court abolish Obamacare-- along with the insistence that insurance companies cover customers with preexisting conditions, the part of Obamacare that is universally popular-- even with hard core Republicans. James Hohmann wrote yesterday that "The Trump team’s core argument is that every Republican who voted for the tax cuts three years ago knowingly voted to destroy the 2010 law in its entirely, not just to get rid of the mandate that individuals buy health insurance. And, because the Supreme Court previously upheld the constitutionality of the law on the grounds that the individual mandate is a tax, Trump’s lawyers say that the whole system became invalid once Congress got rid of the penalty for not carrying health insurance... The brief is full of little gifts like this to Joe Biden and Democrats who hope to ride his coattails down the ballot."

All this stuff is bad for Trump and bad-- deservedly so-- for the GOP. But Trump figured out a way to make it worse yet. Emily Larsen, writing for the Washington Examiner reported that "Trump’s extreme opposition to mail-in ballots is more likely hurting him and down-ballot Republicans than it is helping him. Mounting evidence in voter registration data, a survey, and organizer anecdotes shows that instead of preventing the voting method from being a major factor in the November election, his stance is turning Republican voters off from using the method entirely, which could have the effect of depressing Republican votes. The president’s rampant alarmism on mail-in voting-- most recently claiming that foreign governments will rig the election by printing millions of mail-in ballots, an idea rebuked by elections officials-- frustrates those trying to push state election officials and Congress to provide ample absentee voting and in-person voting options and resources in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. They point out that many analyses find that mail-in voter fraud is small and often prosecuted... Trump’s public lashing out against mail-in voting may come too late. All of the six most important swing states have some form of mail-in or absentee voting. Despite Trump, some state Republicans are doing what they can to organize mail-in votes. The Florida Republican Party sent an email in May to its supporters, reminding voters to request a vote-by-mail ballot. Pennsylvania’s GOP website includes instructions on how to vote absentee."

But not all state Republican parties are doing what Florida and Pennsylvania are doing. 85% of the votes cast for the Kentucky primaries were sent in by mail. How much of an increase was that? In 2016, there were 38,112 ballots mailed in. This year... around 800,000-- a 2,000% increase! But that record turnout is alarming Republicans. In Georgia and Iowa-- both controlled by the GOP-- barriers are going up to vote-by-mail, infuriating voters who find out what the Republicans are up to.

What the Republicans are doing-- whether in healthcare, voting, pandemic response... is all leading to what is going to likely be the most gargantuan repudiation of the GOP since 1932, when Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover was defeated 22,821,277 (57.4%) to 15,761,254 (39.7%)-- losing 42 states (carrying just 6). In the process, the Republicans lost 11 Senate seats (including their Majority Leader, James Watson (R-IN)-- the Mitch McConnell of his day) AND 101 House seats-- yes 101!-- losing the White House, the Senate and the House, all by immense margins. The news lineup in the Democratically-controlled House was 318 Democrats, 117 Republicans. The GOP lost all their seats in Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

Does Trump Have The Coronavirus? Pence Too?

Fake Magic by Nancy Ohanian

You may only know Michael Gerson as a Washington Post columnist who leans right. But he's much worse than that. A member of the neolib warmonger Council on Foreign Relations and a top George W. Bush speechwriter from 2001 'til 2006 he can proudly take a great deal of credit for the catastrophic invasion of Iraq.

As you can probably imagine, he has a very different vision of the presidency than I do. I can think of no better short term solution to our current Trump-created disaster than Trump and Pence both getting coming down with severe cases of COVID-19 and dying quickly, first Trump and then, an hour later, Pence. An elite #NeverTrumper, his vision was in his column yesterday. "Every time Vice President Pence appears for a coronavirus briefing," he wrote, "it is a reminder what the votes of just 20 Republican senators for impeachment might have accomplished for the republic."

Pence is no Franklin D. Roosevelt, but neither is he an obviously outmatched leader like his boss. The vice president is a sycophant but not an incompetent. He possesses the type of qualities one might find in an effective governor facing a hurricane. President Trump possesses the qualities one might expect in a shady businessman trying to shift responsibility for bad debt and mismanagement-- which was the main leadership qualification on his pre-presidential résumé.

Never has the phrase "President Pence" had a better ring to it. Never have Republican votes against impeachment seemed more shortsighted and damaging to the country.

I’ll not deny that a presidential election is always something of a crap shoot. Before his own election as president, even FDR was no FDR. Walter Lippmann thought that the New York governor’s record showed “that he just doesn’t have a very good mind, that he never really comes to grips with a problem which has any large dimensions, and that above all the controlling element in almost every case is political advantage.”

Lippmann badly underestimated FDR. But we now have plenty of evidence to judge our current president. Trump just doesn’t have a very good mind-- or at least one capable of absorbing and repeating essential facts. He can’t come to grips with a problem that has large dimensions-- as displayed by his habitual lateness and indecision. And his controlling element is political-- particularly in his contemptible attempt to shift political blame.

The point here is not simply to condemn Trump, which has limited usefulness in the midst of a national crisis. At this point it is perhaps better to ignore him, which is precisely what governors and mayors across the country are doing to good effect. But Americans do need to recall this moment the next time they enter a voting booth.

In nominating and electing Trump, Republicans were making the claim that presidential character matters for nothing. That only his policy views and judicial appointments really count in the end.

Two months ago, every Republican senator except Sen. Mitt Romney publicly reaffirmed this argument. By voting against impeachment for Trump’s abuse of power, they were also denying that presidential temperament and judgment should be given serious weight in our public life. They were saying, in effect, that a trivial leader was sufficient for a trivial time. Who cares about integrity, wisdom and public spirit when the stock market is rising and the economy is booming?

They should have cared. We all should have cared.

It was impossible to elect Trump without mentally shrinking the presidency to fit him. A president, we were told, didn’t really need to have governing experience. He didn’t need to care about the truth. He didn’t need to be civil or unifying. He didn’t need to be a diplomat. He didn’t need to be a pastor.

But suddenly, governing skill is the antidote to panic. Trust in the truthfulness of public officials is essential to public health. Unified action is central to the safety of the vulnerable. Global cooperation is necessary for any national strategy to work. And leadership will increasingly require the ability to express empathy and to comfort those dealing with inexplicable loss.

It has recently been common in our politics to assert that the establishment has failed, that our institutions and systems are corrupt, and that we need political disrupters to shake things up or burn things down. This is now revealed as the political philosophy of spoiled children.

We no longer have the luxury of apocalyptic petulance or the language of faux revolution. We need trusted experts to carry hard truths. We need our systems and institutions to bear enormous weight. We need public officials to encourage an orderly urgency, to repair what is broken and to calm irrational fears.

Perhaps all these lessons will be quickly forgotten once the emergency is lifted. But it would be better if this period were known as the “Great Sobering,” when our country relearned the high stakes of politics, the indispensability of public character and the importance of a functioning president.

Meanwhile, since Gerson brought up FDR, let me ask you to imagine that the Democrats in Congress from 1932 on were as spineless and cowardly as the Democrats in Congress today. The Democrats whop passed the New Deal were nothing at all like the Democrats Wall Street Journal reporters Siobhan Hughes, Natalie Andrews and Kate Davidson wrote about yesterday, "The Democratic-led House scaled back a paid-leave program that the chamber had tried to enact days earlier, following pressure from businesses worried about financial burdens from the sweeping bill in response to the coronavirus crisis. In revised legislation that Democratic leaders billed as a technical correction, but represented a significant rewrite, the House modified a program aimed at providing paid leave to people affected by the coronavirus." Imagine Mitt Romney-- and even Trump-- getting to the left of Pelosi and her team of cowardly losers!

If John Oliver is going to continue doing his show during the pandemic, he absolutely needs a canned laugh track. Or maybe I'll just get used to this; he seems to have-- more or less:

Does Pence Have Coronavirus Already-- And Who Has He Spread It To In The White House?

CoronavirusCzar Mike Pence by Nancy Ohanian

One in 10 members of the Iranian parliament (the Majlis) has tested positive for coronavirus. Yesterday, a close Pelosi ally in Congress told me she;'s considering adjourning Congress for "a while." The feeling in the non-denying House is that members of Congress are out in every corner of the country shaking hands and then coming back to Washington in close quarters with each other-- and then go blackout to their districts to shake hands with more people. Most Americans understand by now that Trump can be counted on to make every possible wrong decision at every turn-- and that he never appoints any good people to any jobs. And that includes, of course, battling coronavirus. Maybe Jared would have been a better pick than Pence for this one too, who, Trump said, was chosen because he doesn't have anything else to do. When I noticed on Monday, at AIPAC, that Paul Begala predicted that Trump is "gonna dump Mike Pence" for Nikki Haley on July 16-- presumably the day Bernie makes his acceptance speech-- I was, to put it mildly, dubious. But Begala went on that the excuse would be Pence's failure to handle the coronavirus, expected to be a catastrophic pandemic by then-- adequately.

"This is not a prediction. It’s a certainty. On Thursday, July 16-- that’s the date the Democrat gives his or her acceptance address-- on that day, to interrupt that narrative, Donald Trump will call a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He’s going to dump Mike Pence and put Nikki Haley on the ticket to try to get those suburban moms. You watch. Guaranteed," Begala said. “Trump put Pence in charge of coronavirus to throw him under the bus."

Or... maybe not. Pence will be 61 in June. People over 50 who contract coronavirus have an extraordinary chance of dying, whereas people under 50 usually seem to weather it pretty well. And Pence may well already be carrying coronavirus. [WARNING to all DWT readers: do not get anywhere near Mike Pence, let alone shake hands with him!] Why?

Last Friday Pence was at a fundraiser in Longboat Key (Sarasota, Florida) at the home of Congressman Vern Buchanan, where he shook hands and posed for photos with a cadet from the Sarasota Military Academy who is now under quarantine after his mother-- who is also under quarantine-- come in contact with a patient who tested positive for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that "The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus rose to six on Monday, and patients were being treated in at least 15 states, deepening fears about the outbreak's rapid spread and the medical, psychological and economic toll it will exact on the United States. Four deaths announced Monday and two others this weekend all occurred in Washington state, the center of the nation’s most serious outbreak. Eight of the state’s 18 cases, as well as four of the deaths, are linked to the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., and at least 50 other residents and staff members have reported coronavirus-like symptoms. King County leaders declared a state of emergency, and health officials said they are trying to figure out how far the outbreak has expanded into surrounding counties. Nationwide, the number of cases topped 100, and U.S. officials used increasingly dire language, even as they sought to push back against waves of panic and misinformation online. 'We know there will be more cases,' Vice President Pence said at a White House news conference. 'Now we’re focused on mitigation of the spread as well as treatment of people that are affected.' Trump administration officials stressed Monday that the risk posed to the public by the coronavirus remains low but cautioned the outbreak could change course as the disease spreads through person-to-person contact."

Other states with confirmed coronavirus patients include Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. It's unlikely a vaccine will be available before 2022, but Trump noted on Monday that "the market’s up today... our country’s very strong economically." He then started whining about the Federal Reserve not doing enough (to prop up the economy and his case for reelection). That was a typical bear trap and Tuesday the Dow Jones was down over 786 points by the end of the day-- even after the Fed announced a half point interest rate cut. (Remember, they don't have too many half points left to cut, largely due to Trump's personal, self-serving agenda-- and the markets know it.)

Nationwide, signs of spreading panic included the stockpiling of food, sanitizers and cleaning supplies.

At the Trader Joe’s in Mountain View, Calif., the freezer sections were empty of pizza and most ready-made meals. There was no pasta or rice. Across town at the Costco near Google’s headquarters, customers climbed shelves to reach groceries, and lines snaked through the aisles.

A Whole Foods employee in Los Altos, Calif., said the store was out of “pasta, beans, frozen vegetables, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, paper towels. “I’ve worked here 10 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.

Health officials continued to beg Americans to stop buying masks and save them for health workers who truly need them. On cable news, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams argued that consumers who buy masks “actually can increase the spread of coronavirus” because people who wear them improperly tend to fidget with their masks and touch their faces repeatedly.

Online, Amazon shoppers in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Washington also ran into problems, with the company warning customers that its same-day grocery-delivery service “may be limited” amid reports of consumers stocking up.

...Meanwhile, worsening situations in various countries overseas offered possible signs of what may lie ahead for the United States.

Schools across Japan mostly closed their doors Monday in response to a controversial request by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week to make a concerted attempt to slow the spread of the virus.

South Korea said it would extend its school closures by two weeks to March 23, its education minister announced.

Japanese officials studying the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship said more than half of those infected-- nealy 400 out of 705 people who tested positive-- showed no symptoms, underscoring just how difficult the virus is to detect and how many people may have contracted it without knowing it. Some would never have been tested unless they had been onboard the ship, they said. While many people appear able to shrug off the virus, it clearly is devastating to the elderly and people with underlying health problems. At least seven of the cruise ship passengers died.

The European Union’s internal market commissioner said Monday the coronavirus has led to about $1.1 billion in losses per month for the European tourism industry since the start of 2020. And British Airways on Monday said it was canceling hundreds of flights-- including a dozen between London and New York-- in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader died after contracting the coronavirus, state media reported Monday. Iraq and Egypt confirmed more cases, many of them linked to Iran.

Senegal confirmed its first case, marking the second case found in sub-Saharan Africa. Global health officials have expressed strong worries that the epidemic and death toll could grow rapidly if it reaches areas such as Africa, which in many places lacks the resources and the health infrastructure to combat the virus. Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country and biggest economy, announced last week that doctors had diagnosed the illness in a businessman from Italy.

Yesterday, The Guardian reported that "Pence’s public health record is disastrous. As the governor of Indiana, Pence was responsible for the largest HIV outbreak in state history. He slashed public health spending, triggering the closure of HIV testing sites. Against the advice of scientists, he banned needle exchanges, causing transmissions to spread due to increased needle sharing. Pence has also downplayed the link between smoking and cancer. 'Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media,' he once wrote in an opinion piece, 'smoking doesn’t kill.' In fact, research shows that as high as two out of three smokers die from a smoking-related illness. Pence’s track record should disqualify him for any leadership positions in public health... Pence’s appointment follows a track record of the administration prioritizing politics over scientific expertise. Trump has appointed fossil fuel lobbyists to lead the EPA, climate deniers to head up Nasa and the Council on Environmental Quality, Dow executives to USDA leadership, and a chemical industry insider to run the EPA’s toxic chemicals program. These appointments have eroded public trust and shifted the priorities of these agencies from saving lives to special interests... Now is the time for honest and humble governance. Viruses don’t discriminate between liberals and conservatives. Dedicated and talented government scientists are working hard to protect us all. We should allow them the freedom to get on with their important jobs."

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Nothing beats enjoying your work! Mike Pence has always shown that he'll do just about anything to please his boss, not just out of adulation but also in hopes of one day succeeding him. Tough shit, Mike. Trump plans that position for his daughter and blood is thicker than water.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

And now... John "Swiffer" Bolton is gone. Soon to become a lone mad bomber no doubt. One wonders if he took the nuke codes with him, and is that a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, suppose he could hack the system and convince those at the other end of the launch protocols that he's the president. Then again, if he has them then Trump doesn't so there is that.

But really, now that Bolton's gone does that actually mean Mike Pence has won this way to the long episode of The Apprentice? What does he win? Unlimited free hours at the "Gay Conversion Therapy" machine? If so, he better get down to South Carolina to retrieve it. Rumor has it that it was last seen there during the summer congressional recess.

Not so fast! Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller are still infesting the White House. Betsy DeVos and her yachts are still around. Ben Carson's still there but everyone thinks he's dead and the White House staff enjoys playing "Weekend At Ben's" with his remarkably preserved corpse. Pence is going to have to wait. He might not make it very far into 2020 anyway. I predict the last one standing will be Ivanka. We all know that Senor Trumpanzee sees her as the winner, and future prez. We know by that flickering light in his soulless eyes that he sees her other ways, too. His tiny groping hands do not lie, even if his brain and mouth do. We've seen how he looks at her. Trump's future White House is just him and Ivanka, all alone together, at last. She even has a blue dress.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Answers to the names Mike or V.P.

Anyone here seen our old friend Mike? Can you tell us where he's been? Did he over do it by self-medicating with his magic Gay Conversion Therapy machine? Is he now even more blank-brained by all that shock therapy? We haven't seen Mikey since he went to Texas to look at boys in cages. Was "Mother" not keeping a close eye on him? So many questions.

We see the rest of the administration lead krackpots, kooks, and kon artists; Steve Mnuchin, Stephen Miller, Kellyanne Conway, Mick "Double Monocle" Mulvaney... even Sean Spicer has come forward to announce that he will be appearing on some idiot TV show called Dancing With The Stars. He'll be dressed as a shrubbery no doubt. We know that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is off getting her drastic makeover for FOX "News," soon to reappear as a black-dressed blonde 29 year old. But, alas, no Mike Pence! He's MIA. What has Trump done with him? Is his picture about to start appearing on milk cartons? Is he gagged and stuffed in a closet? Locked away in a very hush-hush private sanitarium? I think it's time for the White House to fess up. Does Q-Anon know the answer?

Please understand. As far as I'm concerned, the world would be a far better place without people like Mike Pence, but, his disappearance is, shall we say... curious?

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

It figures that the kind of "Christianity" most Republicans are into requires a billionaire pastor and a "church" the size of the Roman Colosseum. The colosseum part is even more apt when you consider that Republican Christianity is a thumbs up/thumbs down affair. Up if you're white and preferably rich. Down if you're anything else.

As for Mike Pence, just look at this smug, hypocritical stiff. He's prime Republican Christianity stuff. Go ahead. Take a good look. Do you actually think Pence was even born with a soul? I don't. I can't image Pence as a child, at least not a normal one. Mike Pence is a soulless alien. He's Children Of The Corn or Village Of The Damned material. Combine those two movies with "The Omen" and you can use the photo in tonight's meme for the theater lobby poster. Look at those eyes. There's not much there there, just cold, cold soulless, sociopathic "I don't give a shit" evil. In short, he's what Republicans call leadership material; right into hell.

OK. I'll lighten up. Maybe he's just the next Freddy Krueger.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

The country hasn't seen or heard much of Mike Pence lately and I'd certainly hate to think that you'd think that we at DWT didn't care or that we'd forget about him. We also wouldn't want "Mother" to start calling us, so, from the fabled DWT Department Of Things That Can't Be Unseen, I offer this picture of Pence's Lawn Jockey as tonight's meme. Pleasant dreams!

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sunday Thoughts:

I'm posting this not because it breaks any new ground on the warped views on religion held by Republicans. It doesn't. But I thought that, while Republicans are sitting in church today trying to think up new ways to hate "others" and make the lives of "others" as miserable and depressing as they possibly can, we must remain vigilant and not take their hateful desires lightly at all. I would also hate to think that, in all the news about the Trump Crime Family and its supporters and associates, we should never forget that additional evil lurks just off to the side and its name is Mike Pence.

By the way, is it just me, or does Mike Pence's head appear to be drying up and shrinking? Take a good look at that photo. Something's going on. His inner ugly appears to be showing up more with each passing day. Has "Mother" noticed? Could it be her doing or is it a result of Mike's being so evil that his soul has already left for parts unknown? He's a husk of his former self. Is it a life of lies and denial taking its toll? Are maggots with little red hats eating his brain? The skin and scalp are tightening rapidly and the eyes are getting more sunken. And the change seems to be happening while his head is still attached to his body! A living shrunken head! Praise Republican Jesus! It's a miracle!

Trump Says He And Kim Jung Un "Fell In Love" And Status Quo Joe Says Mike Pence Is "Decent"-- They're Both Screwed Up

A couple of years ago, when The Blade asked Mayor Pete about the experience of being openly gay in a state where Pence was governor, Buttigieg called Pence a "super-nice guy," immediately adding that he pursues "divisive and backward-looking policies... The thing about Mike Pence is, he’s a super-nice guy, who just genuinely believes this stuff. He operates from a different reality than the rest of us operate from. He’s written that cigarettes don’t kill, he thinks climate change is made up. He must assume that people get up in the morning one day and decide to be gay. And so, as nice as he’ll be to you in person, when it comes to policy, like a moth to a flame, he goes in for these divisive and backward-looking policies and I think is having the same influence in the White House right now that he did as governor." Pence has a long history in the public arena. He's always been a corrupt scam artist, a self-serving backstabber, self-righteous hypocrite and an embarrassing opportunist. "Nice" is the wrong word.

Last Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal’s Reid Epstein noticed that Status Quo Joe Biden, at an event in Omaha, called Pence a "decent guy." That's Biden's instinct-- institutionalized, back to normalcy hypocrisy in an age where people want straight talk, not bullshit. Even Chris Cillizza seems to have noticed:

Biden is a political anachronism. He's been in politics for almost 50 years; he was first elected to the Senate in 1972! Politics back then (and all the way through the mid- to late-1990s) was far more genteel and polite than it is now. Biden is a hail-fellow-well-met sort of guy. My guess is he has called roughly 200,000 people (NOTE: This is an estimate) a "decent guy" over the course of his political life. That doesn't mean he agrees with them. Or that he even likes them. Rather, it's a reflection of the general collegiality that reigned in politics when Biden came up in the game.

Things have changed drastically since then, however. And this kerfuffle is a sign of things to come for Biden. He is a benefit-of-the-doubt guy running to lead a party who views the other side as not just dumb and incompetent, but evil. This may be the first time who Biden is as a politician runs directly into the new governing reality of the Democratic Party.

Calling a dangerous monster "a decent guy" will just be another item on the long list for Biden to explain on his national apology tour-- AKA, presidential campaign, which already includes his anti-integration politics, his decades of full-blown corporate corruption, his lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key posture on criminal justice, his myriad women problems (that go way beyond his treatment of Anita Hill). Status Quo Joe was the wrong guy for the Democrats to nominate for president every time he's tried running for president-- and he's more the wrong guy now than he was decades ago, back when his Beltway buddies like Joe Lieberman, Max Baucus and Richard Shelby (still a Democrat at the time) were pushing him to.

It's not just Biden still walking among us. Just when you thought Claire McCaskill had finally left the national stage, MSNBC dragged her into their increasingly conservative ring of paid guests. And, sure, she "counts" as a Democrat, even though she said that said she'll "fight anyone" who looks down on the people from her state of Missouri who voted for Señor Trumpanzee. Televised Mud-wresting, I hope. The recently defeated conservative Democrat, who alienated her base with her voting record, told David Axelrod onthe Axe Files that "[Trump] tapped that vein of frustration and anger. And if somebody is frustrated and angry that they don't think the world is giving them a fair shot based on their hard work, you need to listen to that and understand it, and not look down your nose at it and call them names and say they're all racists or they're all this or they're all that, because it's just not true... I know these people that voted for Donald Trump, and some of them I don't care much for and don't like much, but a whole bunch of them I get. And I hate it when people in Washington, especially people from bright blue states just said, 'Well, the only people voting for Trump are stupid people.' No that's not true."

As a senator, McCaskill never worked to bring these people along in a progressive direction, not only because that's way too hard a task for someone as intellectually lazy and disinterested as she is, but also because she doesn't believe in the progressive agenda herself. McCaskill found it far easier to make political hay by demonizing Alexandria Ocasio Cortez than to explain why Medicare-For-All would be a godsend to her constituents, something she doesn't even believe. It's fine to be supportive and respectful of non-racist Trump voters in a red state like Missouri but... what next? Can you do what Bernie does and show these folks why real populism is what will save them and their families? Not if you're a corporate conservative like McCaskill... or Status Quo Joe. Conservatives don't think like progressives. And they're in the wrong party... if they're Democrats.

Warren G. Harding was a very successful candidate and his "Back To Normalcy" platform had great appeal. He won handily and started out as a popular president. It's almost impossible to find a credible list of the three worst presidents in American history that doesn't include Harding. Let's not make the same mistake again.

Mike Pence Is A Bigot And Has No Place In America's Future-- A Guest Post By Frank Schaeffer

Chances are Mike Pence might become president through Trump’s resignation, impeachment or arrest.

A Pence presidency is a horrible possibility because every entity related to Trump is either bankrupt, closed or under investigation. Trump Casinos, Trump Golf Courses, The Trump Foundation, Trump University, the Trump Campaign Transition, the Trump Inaugural Committee and the Trump White House all are under some sort of cloud or investigation. We have a crooked loser for “president.” Pence looms.

Trump’s most scandalous action to date was his appointing Mike Pence as vice president. Mike Pence is hostile to LGBTQ people. He has linked same-sex couples to “societal collapse” and supported conversion therapy, a form of torture. A vice president who has expressed such intolerance is a dangerous, mean person and has no more place in American politics than a KKK lynch mob.

In Trump/Pence-dominated 2017, 20 gay, bisexual or queer men were murdered in hate crimes, an increase of 400 percent from the previous year. Every single one died at the hands of people who share Mike Pence’s immoral “views” on homosexuality.

Thus Mike and Karen Pence are figures of great consequence. And their bigotry-- regardless of their white evangelical religious justification-- has to be confronted. Anti-gay evangelical fools have no place in American life. Period. Religious freedom does not mean freedom to lead us to backward hell.

Let’s put this in perspective: Ralph Northam must step down. Agreed. But having Pence in American politics is a bigger scandal than a 40-year-old blackface sin because Pence is a bigot right now! His “black face” equivalent is happening– right now!

The destructive, evil power of blackface and Ku Klux Klan robes in a yearbook picture must never be underestimated. But let’s also ponder the harm of ongoing “respectable” hateful “biblical” homophobia.

The Pences are “deeply religious,” and their views on homosexuality are based on their “sincere religious convictions.” So what? The Bible was used to justify slavery, genocide, murdering girls for losing virginity, war without end. “Religious freedom” is no excuse for evil ugly stupidity.

Female circumcision and mutilation is a religious freedom issue for many people from Muslim cultures. But in America it is against the law. We would not have a vice president who advocated female mutilation in the name of sincere religious belief. Why do we have one that advocates the persecution of gay men and lesbians and who quotes backward evil Bible verses that say they should be killed?

Enough!

Demand the resignation of Mike Pence for his views on homosexuality. Insist Pence’s wife Karen resign from a school that discriminates against gays and lesbians.

White Trumped evangelicals like the ever more dreadful Pences must not ever be given leadership positions in a civilized society. Period. In fact the fact that Trump even appointed an evangelical bigot like Pence is the best reason for Trump’s impeachment.

Demand the resignation of Pence for his hateful, anti-science, lying bigoted “views” on homosexuality. He belongs in the trash can of history, along with the sort of people who think entitled white men dressing up in black face is fine– or that young girls should be tied down while they are mutilated with razor blades because this is a social and religious tradition, or that black youths who glance at a white woman should be lynched.