Tag Archives: Karen Pence

Rainy Day Snarky Snippets

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

The dreary gloom outside matches my mood inside, so … It’s time for some snarky snippets!  Granted, most of what I write these days is snark-filled, but still there is more … it’s never-ending.

AR-15 vs pandemic

Junior, aka Donald Trump, Jr., has contracted the coronavirus.  He says he is doing well … too bad.  He also said he will pass the time in isolation battling with the virus by cleaning his collection of guns.  I wonder just how many he has?  And what … does he think if he gets those guns all nice and clean (how did they get dirty, anyway?) that he can just shoot the virus and make it go away?  Or perhaps he’s planning another killing spree with his brother soon …

trump-killer-1

The last party …

Meanwhile, Karen Pence, has invited Congressional Club members to an afternoon “Christmas Craft” at the VP’s residence on December 9th at 1 p.m. Attendees are requested to wear ‘Holiday Attire’, but the invite makes no mention of masks. The event comes as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has discouraged holiday gatherings, and as we have set new records nearly every day for new cases and deaths due to the pandemic. Her husband, Vice-president Mike Pence, is allegedly the head of the White House’s coronavirus task force, which has said indoor gatherings should be limited.  Oh, the irony!  The delusion!  The stupidity!

Karen-Pence-invite

Thankfully, this will likely be the last time she gets to use that title.

Poetic justice …

Merrick-GarlandIn a bit of fun irony, it is reported that President-elect Biden is considering Merrick Garland for the position of Attorney General!  You’ll remember that moderate Garland was President Obama’s pick to fill the Supreme Court seat left open on the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2012.  Mitch McConnell single-handedly refused to allow the Senate to even interview Garland or consider the nomination, claiming the seat should remain open for the next ‘president’ to fill.  Funny, isn’t it, how he changed his tune this year after the death of Justice Ginsburg?  I wonder if Moscow Mitch will find some objection to Garland as Attorney General?  Wouldn’t it be nice if the other republican senators grew a pair and stood up to Mitch … just once?

mnuchinGiving Americans a middle finger

It isn’t bad enough that Trump is certifiably insane and is throwing roadblocks up all over the place to deny President-elect Biden access to information that would allow for a peaceful, smooth transition in January, but his minions are playing the game also.  On-his-way-out treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has decided to end a variety of programs aimed at helping markets, businesses and municipalities weather the pandemic and asking the central bank to return the funds earmarked to support those efforts.

By ending the programs, Mnuchin is taking away a source of economic support just as the new administration comes into office and as rising virus cases dog the recovery. By asking the Fed to return the money that enables the emergency efforts, he could make it harder for Democrats to restart them at a large scale and on more generous terms.  This is another trumpeter giving We the People a middle finger.  Again.  If this country goes into a deep recession next year, don’t even think of blaming the Biden administration … put the blame where it belongs, in Donald Trump’s court.

The murderer is back on the streets

Remember Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old white supremacist punk who shot and killed two people at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin back in August?  Well, he is out of prison on $2 million cash bond as of yesterday.

Hours after the release, one of his attorneys, Lin Wood, posted this picture of Rittenhouse alongside actor Ricky Schroder.

rittenhouse

“Free at last!!!,” Wood wrote, above the smiling photograph in which the newly freed Rittenhouse is wearing a Black Rifle Coffee Company t-shirt.  Well, not exactly ‘free’, since he faces five felony charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide.  In another tweet, Wood called Rittenhouse “a hero”.  And this may well define just what is wrong with half of this nation today.  When we applaud killing, when we call cold-blooded killers ‘heroes’, then we have for damn sure lost all shreds of humanity.

Personally, I hope Rittenhouse goes to prison and doesn’t come back into society until he is too old and doddery to even walk straight, let along shoot straight.

A final note …

And last but not least, Fox News’ idiot Geraldo Rivera thinks Trump should be honoured by having the coronavirus vaccine named after him.  Personally, I think it would be more appropriate to name the virus itself after Trump, for he has the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands due to his intentionally inept response.  Yes, the trumptanicvirus … or TTV … sounds about right to me.

Arrogance And Still More Arrogance

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Arrogance

At the presidential debate on Tuesday, September 29th, the family of Donald Trump refused to wear masks.  The rules clearly stated that everyone in the venue would wear a mask except the two candidates and the moderator, yet Ivanka, Melania, Junior, Eric and the rest of the clan were sans masks.  It was no surprise to anyone that this clan thinks they are superior to the rest of us, for they have demonstrated that every single day for nearly four years.maskless-TrumpsBut last night, at the vice-presidential debate, the same rules were in place and it was clearly stated that everyone except Mr. Pence, Senator Harris, and moderator Susan Page would wear a mask or would not be allowed into the venue.  And yet … Karen Pence, Mike’s wife, was maskless when she appeared onstage at the end of the debate.  This, my friends, is supreme arrogance.  She put the lives of everyone in that room in jeopardy, for no doubt she has been exposed via her husband who was exposed by Trump himself.  In addition, she attended the Rose Garden event on September 26th that has been blamed for many others in the administration contracting the virus.  masklessWHY was she allowed to remove her mask, against the rules?  Why wasn’t she told to put the mask back on or be forcibly removed, just as you or I would have been?  For the record, Kamala Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, did wear his mask throughout the event and even after, when he appeared onstage.

I expected such arrogance and lack of consideration out of the Trump clan, but until last night I thought Karen Pence was a more decent human being than the Trumps.  Obviously, I was mistaken.  Perhaps she thinks her god will protect her, but it should be obvious even to her that her god has not protected the more than a million people worldwide who have died from the coronavirus, 217,000+ in the U.S. alone.

Where does this attitude of arrogance come from?  Karen Pence is a schoolteacher, for Pete’s sake!  She, of all people, should know the dangers this pandemic carries!  She is an artist who painted the illustrations for a children’s book written by her daughter.  One might think she was actually human, unlike her husband and the rest of the current administration.  But no … she is just like Ivanka and the rest … a self-centered bitch who cares little for any and puts her own image far ahead of the safety of this nation.

More arrogance

This morning the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced that next week’s debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be held virtually in the wake of Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis.  I was glad for the announcement, for Trump has no concern, no care for anyone and has downplayed … continues to downplay … the virus as if it were naught more than a common cold.  He remains contagious, even as he himself recovers from the virus and should not be allowed to expose others.

However, in his supreme arrogance, Trump said …

“I am not going to do a virtual debate. I am not going to waste my time on a virtual debate.”

Okay, fine by me … the first debate was such a bloody fiasco that We the People gained nothing but elevated blood pressure and a sense of deep frustration from watching it.  Better not to have any more anyway, for they are costly and of absolutely no benefit to anyone, given Trump’s refusal to observe the rules of either the debate or of common courtesy.

When he says he isn’t going to waste his time, I suppose that means the time he would otherwise spend watching Fox ‘News’ or tweeting out ignominious one-liners while munching on his Big Macs.

Joe Biden’s campaign quickly agreed to the virtual debate, likely relieved that Joe and his family wouldn’t have to risk the exposure of an unmasked Trump clan.   Biden campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield responded to Trump’s refusal to participate by noting Biden would be happy to appear virtually, but said if Trump refuses to appear, Joe Biden “will find an appropriate place to take questions from voters directly on October 15th.”  I think that may well be the best option anyway.

We already know what Donald Trump thinks … or says he thinks … on nearly every topic, for we have had four years of listening to his incessant b.s.  We would like to hear more from Joe Biden, which is nearly impossible in a debate venue such as the last one, where Trump literally bulldozed over Biden every time he attempted to answer a question.  I would much prefer hearing from Biden with Trump nowhere in sight!  We might actually learn what he thinks, what he his plans for the nation are.

To Donald Trump I say:  You just stay home with your cheeseburger and Diet Coke watching Fox and tweeting your little heart out.  We’ll all be better off.

And for a bit of spot-on musical commentary by James Corden of Gavin and Stacy fame, and more recently The Late, Late Show and Carpool Karaoke …

The Ultimate Hypocrisy …

Posted on by under education, Racism & Bigotry, religion, Social commentary

Did you ever wonder what Mike Pence’s wife, Karen, does for a living?  Well … ‘for a living’ is likely a misnomer, for I’m fairly certain that Mikey brings home enough to pay the bills … but Karen is, indeed, gainfully employed.  She is a teacher.  An art teacher.  At a school.  A school that bars LGBT students … and teachers.

The school is Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia, where Ms. Pence previously taught from 2001 to 2013.  The school does not allow gay students and requires employees to affirm that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, despite the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v Hodges. The school’s employment application equires candidates to describe their faith in Jesus Christ, affirm that they are a born-again Christian and vow to adhere to specific standards in their personal and professional lives.  Welcome to 1692, the year the Salem witch trials began.  Welcome to the Dark Ages!  Is it not the ultimate hypocrisy that the wife of a man who has sworn to uphold the Constitution is so blatantly in defiance of the values espoused in that document?

Item #8 on the employment application requires that an applicant initial the following statement:

“I understand that the term ‘marriage’ has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman,” it reads, adding that certain “moral misconduct” would be disqualifying, such as “heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female.”

Karen Pence signed her initials, agreeing to the above statement.  Karen Pence, the wife of the man who is likely to, through order of succession, become the next President of the United States.  Think about that one for a minute.

Unlike public schools, private schools can require students and employees to follow specific religious beliefs and adhere to certain behavior in their private lives. They are not restricted from teaching from religious texts in class and are not subject to employment discrimination laws.

As I have stated on numerous occasions, I am not against any religion per se, although I do not ascribe to any religion myself.  I believe in the doctrine of “live and let live”, and as long as people do not attempt to enforce their own beliefs on others, I do not care what religion people choose to follow.  But this … is an abomination.  If parents wish to send their children to a parochial school, as long as they are willing to fully fund their child’s education with no assistance from taxpayer money, I have no problem with that.  However … when said religious schools are exempt from federal employment discrimination laws, then yes, I have a problem … a BIG problem.  When they exclude children who do not fit into the narrow confines of their own moral views, then yes … I have a problem.

For those who might not understand my objection, let’s turn the tables just a bit.  Let’s say I want to start up a school for African-American LGBT students and I refuse to hire any white Christians, simply on the basis that a) they are Caucasian, and b) they are Christian.  How long do you think before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) shuts my school down?  Yep … less than a day after the first complaint. eeoc-1Discrimination, whether it is in employment, education or housing is wrong.  Discrimination against a specific race, age, disability, national origin, religion, gender, or gender identity is wrong.  Such discrimination is against the law.  Period.  And here’s a really terrifying thought …

“It is a place that partners with families, always looking far into the future, preparing a generation of young people who will someday take our place as parents, teachers and leaders.” 

Mike Pence, Karen Pence and the Immanuel Christian School need to get over their feelings of superiority and come into the real world where people are different, yet can live together in a world of peace, mutual respect, compassion, and love.  Isn’t that, after all, part of the Christian dogma?  Or has it changed?

A side note:  Mike Pence’s daughter, Charlotte, wrote a book about a bunny … or more specifically, a day in the life of the Vice President as seen through the eyes of her bunny, Marlon Bundo.  Last spring, late-night comedian John Oliver re-wrote the book just a bit, making old Bundo gay, hooking him up with another boy bunny, and sending the two on a quest to get hitched.

Oliver’s book was an instant success, and even Charlotte Pence bought a copy, saying …

“I have bought his book. It doesn’t have to be divisive. I think that everybody can come together over Marlon.”

And the real kicker … the Trevor Project—a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, which split the proceeds from Oliver’s book with an AIDS nonprofit—announced that it had shipped 100 copies of the thing to Immanuel Christian School!  Along with the books, they included a note …

“Policies and rhetoric that exclude or reject LGBTQ youth can lead to increased risk for suicide and depression, and it’s our organization’s mission to end suicide among LGBTQ young people.  With your help, we hope you will change your school’s student and employee policies to accept LGBTQ students and employees.”lgbt flag