Tag Archives: Mike Pence

How the US Gains Enemies and Alienates Friends, by Brian Cloughley

Posted on October 22, 2018 | Leave a comment

Sanctions, bullets, bombs, and espionage just aren’t doing it for the US anymore. From Brian Cloughley at strategic-culture.org:

It was hardly earth-shattering news that the Pakistan Navy had withdrawn its two warships from the multi-national Combined Task Force (CTF 151) that has been operating in an anti-piracy role in the western Indian Ocean since 2009. CTF 151 is one of these little-known but important international associations that are not only successful in what they aim to achieve, but extremely effective in establishing and firming bonds between nations. For example, command of the Task Force rotates between nations (Pakistan Navy officers have commanded it five times) and over the years much trust has been forged between participating navies (which include those of Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Singapore, the UK and the US). One of the goodwill aspects of the grouping was that the US refuelled Pakistan’s ships at no cost.

No longer.

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Make Sports, Not War, by Eric Margolis

Posted on February 10, 2018 | 1 comment

Mike Pence reportedly refused to stand when South and North Korean athletes marched jointly into the Olympic Stadium. If that’s true, both Pence and American foreign policy look like spoiled brats, upset because they’re not the center of attention. From Eric Margolis at lewrockwell.com:

Considering that a nuclear conflict over North Korea appeared imminent in recent weeks, the winter Olympics at Pyeongchang, South Korea, is a most welcome distraction – and might even deter a major war on the peninsula.

The highlight of the games was the arrival of Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korea’s ruler, Kim Jong-un. This was the first time a member of North Korea’s ruling Kim dynasty had come to South Korea. Her handshake with South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in was a historic and welcome moment.

So too the planned joint marches by North and South Korean athletes under a new reunification flag.  For all Koreans, this was a deeply emotional and inspiring ceremony.

But not for US Vice President Mike Pence, who was sent by Trump to give the Olympics the evil eye.  He even refused to stand for the joint marchers in a surly act that spoke volumes about his role.  Whether he meets President Moon or Kim Yo-jong remains to be seen. Even a cup of tea between Pence and Kim could end all the crazy talk about nuclear war. Does anyone in Washington know that North Korea lies between China and Russia?

All this drama is happening as the Trump White House is advocating giving North Korea a `bloody nose.’  Meaning a massive bombing campaign that could very likely include nuclear weapons.  Trump, who received a reported five exemptions from military service because of a little bone spur in his foot, revels in military affairs and thinks a ‘bloody nose’ will warn Kim Jong-un to be good. Trump is planning a big military parade at which he will take the salute.

This writer went through US Army basic and advanced infantry training with a broken bone in my foot, and has no sympathy with the president’s militaristic pretensions.

To continue reading: Make Sports, Not War

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Military, Sports, Uncategorized, War

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VP Pence Confirms US Will No Longer Certify Iran Deal, by Mike Pence

Posted on January 23, 2018 | Leave a comment

If the Trump administration refuses to certify the Iranian Nuclear Agreement, it just about guarantees that Iran will restart their nuclear program. That’s the only way it can protect itself from US sponsored regime change. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

While President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans battle to reopen the federal government, Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Israel this week to meet with dignitaries and visit a handful of historic sites – including the Holocaust Memorial.

But during a speech to the Knesset – Israel’s parliament – Monday afternoon (local time) , Pence surprised his audience by declaring that the US would not re-certify the Iran deal when it comes up for renewal in May, virtually guaranteeing that the US will reimpose economic sanctions against the Iranian regime. Trump re-certified the deal earlier this month “for the last time”, part of a deal with Democrats to buy them some time to work out a compromise.

Here’s the Associated Press:

Vice President Mike Pence is calling the Iranian nuclear deal a “disaster” and says the Trump administration will no longer certify it.

Instead, Pence told the Israeli parliament on Monday that the administration is “committed to enact effective and lasting restraints on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”

Pence has received a warm welcome in Israel, which has praised the American decision last month to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among the fiercest opponents to the nuclear accord the Obama administration reached with Iran, saying it could pave a path for the Islamic Republic acquiring a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel’s existence.

Pence says that the deal is not fixed and that in the coming months, the United States will “withdraw from the deal.”

While a wave of economic protests that momentarily threatened the government’s grip a few weeks ago have mostly subsided, Iranians are still struggling with massive youth unemployment and runaway inflation.

The US bowing out of the deal would most likely lead to its collapse, as Iranian leaders have warned they would consider the whole pact – which also involves Germany, the European Union, Russia, China and France – null and void if the US were to pull out.

To continue reading: VP Pence Confirms US Will No Longer Certify Iran Deal

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This Picture Of Mike Pence ‘Triggered’ An Entire Campus Of California Private College Kids, by Tyler Durden

Posted on August 16, 2017 | Leave a comment

The usual adjectives—ludicrous, ridiculous, insane, bizarre—seem inadequate to describe this sort of idiocy. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

When McKenzie Deutsch posted a picture of herself posing with the Vice President of the United States at the White House she probably didn’t expect to set off a mass ‘triggering’ event at her ritzy Southern California private institution of higher indoctrination, Scripps College, but that’s exactly what happened.

According to the Daily Caller, Deutsch, a rising junior at Scripps, was an intern this summer in the office of U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and was excited by the opportunity to meet the Vice President.  So, after snapping the pic below she posted it to Facebook with the caption: “The places you’ll go, the things you’ll see, the people you’ll meet… What a day it was in DC!”

Pence

Of course, it wasn’t long before Deutsch was effectively tried and convicted of a hate crime by her peers at the ritzy, $70,000-per-year college.

 “I don’t know if you understand that Pence want me and the people I love to be erased by any means possible. I don’t know how to express to you how it feels to see a fellow Scrippsie in this photo with someone who has shown himself so willing to commit institutional violence,” one angry student wrote under Deutsch’s photo with Pence.
“Posing next to someone who is a direct threat to LGBT+ groups and other marginalized communities and posting this photo with a pleasant caption is not a politically neutral act,” the student declared. “It shows you as a person who smiles with our oppressors for the sake of a photo op.”

Another student said the photo of Pence — snapped 2,636 miles away in Washington, D.C. — made her feel “unsafe.”

“To post this photo with pride is to make LGBTQ+ folks feel unsafe, as Pence has incredibly violent, homophobic views,” the student wrote, adding that she was “shocked at the continued inability to listen to marginalized people about the impact of this picture on us.”

A third student was downright hostile.“Hmmmmm how many lgbtq folks do you need to help send to conversion therapy in exchange for reproductive rights from Pence?” the student asked.

To continue reading: This Picture Of Mike Pence ‘Triggered’ An Entire Campus Of California Private College Kids

 

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Is Pence the Deep State’s Insurance Policy? by Darius Shahtahmasebi

Posted on March 11, 2017 | Leave a comment

There’s one sure bet: the Deep State would much rather see Mike Pence as president than Donald Trump. From Darius Shahtahmasebi at theantimedia.org:

Last month, Anti-Media reported on leaked intelligence that forcibly ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn from the Trump administration. Flynn’s successor, General H.R. McMaster, is far more hawkish, and in comparison to Flynn, takes a much more anti-Russian stance. It isn’t too much of a stretch to assume McMaster’s job will be secure if he continues to perpetuate the anti-Russian narrative we have become so familiar with in recent decades.

Despite this, the media still perpetuates anti-Russian hysteria and repeated claims regarding the Trump administration’s ties to Russia — despite the fact that Flynn, Trump’s supposed go-between with Russia, has already relinquished his power.

Why would this be?

As most people are aware, Trump was able to secure his seat in the White House by offering a markedly different vision for America than Hillary Clinton, who largely mirrored Obama’s presidency. Both Clinton and Obama had very hawkish approaches to Russia and Russia’s strategic allies in the Middle East. In contrast, Trump was clear that he respected Russia’s president and wanted to forge closer relations.

The first thing to note is that Trump has been keeping most of his campaign promises to date — even the most outlandish ones. The second is that Flynn was actually in the process of offering a deal on economic sanctions against Russia and a ceasefire in Ukraine, suggesting there was substance behind Trump’s pro-Russia rhetoric. The issue with this, of course, is that ultimately, there are people within the intelligence community who view a warming of relations with Russia to be a deal breaker with the Trump administration.

To continue reading: Is Pence the Deep State’s Insurance Policy?

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Is The Fix in? by Eric Peters

Posted on July 15, 2016 | Leave a comment

Eric Peters gives two cheers for Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Mike Pence, on a guest post at theburningplatform.com:

Trump is no dummy.

Because he did not pick Newtie.

Had he done so, he might as well have put Romney at the head of the ticket and retired to Mira Lago. The selection of Pence shows that while Trump is no Libertarian, he’s not another “bipartisan” – and so Born to Lose – Republican.

With Pence, Trump makes his victory in November more rather than less likely – as would not have been the case with someone like Newtie as his Better Half.

This is smart politics, regardless of our (as Libertarians) approval of his politics.

Trump needs the snake handlers and tongue-talkers – just as Hillary must have the Millennial Redistributionists and Social Justice Warriors.

Like it or not, that is brass knuckle electoral reality.

Pence appeals to the snake handlers and tongue talkers because he is one himself. A “born again” guzzler of the theocratic Kool Aid. Newtie panders to the drinkers of the Kool Aid – and while they may be addled, they intuit his fraudulence just like the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. They know he doesn’t read The Good Book (except perhaps for its entertainment value) and doesn’t care which body parts get put into what other body parts, either. He is a smart, cynical, utterly corrupt DC insider.

Just like Romney.

And just as unelectable at this critical mass moment in American politics.

And so, Trump picked Pence.

Yes, he’s a warmonger in addition to a Bible-thumper. He not only supported the unprovoked attack on Iraq (a la Germany and Soviet Russia into Poland in 1939, a war crime according to the Nuremburg Tribunal, for which the Nazi neo-con leaders were hanged while our neo-con leaders get book deals) he supports further unilateral attacks on (among others) Iran. He opposes closing the American gulag at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He supported the American version of Germany’s Enabling Act, which like its historical antecedent suspended civil liberties in this formerly sort-of free country.

All of this is understandably appalling to Libertarians but necessary for Trump to secure the support of the people who will decide the election in his favor. Without whom he cannot win.

And if he loses, so do we.

We get Hillary.

And probably Mr. Justice Obama.

The certainty of Obamacare forever.

That the Second Amendment will become like the Fourth and Fifth and Tenth Amendments – a nullity. We can look forward to yet more “diversity” at gunpoint. The likely criminalization of dissenting views. Carbon taxes. Et cetera.

Pence is no prize, either. Among other things, he is afflicted by the priapic urge to rain bombs on people in faraway lands with preferences for alternative religious fantasies and forms of political tyranny that differ in structure from the democratic ideal. But he will be vice president – not president.

He will help elect the president.

After which, he becomes a superfluity.

To continue reading: Is The Fix in?

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