#StrongerTogether ! "Trump is no longer the worst person in government, Opinion by George Will" Or Shining the spotlight on Pence

Focused Read in 3-4 minutes

Personal Commentary ~

So, if I had to go to the dictionary I am going to guess others will have to, too, so I'll save you the trouble! (Good Grief, who does George Will write for?)

oleaginious: adjective

  1. rich in, covered with, or producing oil; oily or greasy; 2. exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious. 

(toadyism, obsequiousness & lickspittle, unctuousness all fall into the same category, i.e. Pence, & a lot of GOP, by the way, is a suck-up!)

"Trump is no longer the worst person in government

(Opinion by George Will)

Donald Trump, with his feral cunning, knew. 

The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most repulsive public figure.

 And Pence, who has reached this pinnacle by dethroning his benefactor, is augmenting the public stock of useful knowledge. Because his is the authentic voice of today’s lickspittle Republican Party, he clarifies this year’s elections: 

Vote Republican to ratify groveling as governing.

Last June, a Trump Cabinet meeting featured testimonials offered to Dear Leader by his forelock-tugging colleagues.

... The vice president chimed in but saved his best riff for a December Cabinet meeting when...Pence praised Trump once every 12 seconds for three minutes: 

“I’m deeply humbled. . . . ” Judging by the number of times Pence announces himself “humbled,” he might seem proud of his humility, but that is impossible because he is conspicuously devout and pride is a sin.

Between those two Cabinet meetings, Pence and his retinue flew to Indiana for the purpose of walking out of an Indianapolis Colts football game, thereby demonstrating that football players kneeling during the national anthem are intolerable to someone of Pence’s refined sense of right and wrong.

 Which brings us to his Arizona salute last week to Joe Arpaio, who was sheriff of Maricopa County until in 2016 voters wearied of his act.

Noting that Arpaio was in his Tempe audience, Pence, oozing unctuousness from every pore, called Arpaio “another favorite,” professed himself “honored” by Arpaio’s presence, and praised him as “a tireless champion of . . . the rule of law.”

 Arpaio, a grandstanding, camera-chasing bully and darling of the thuggish right, is also a criminal, convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a federal judge’s order to desist from certain illegal law enforcement practices. 

Pence’s performance occurred eight miles from the home of Sen. John McCain, who could teach Pence — or perhaps not — something about honor.

... on Jan. 27, 1838, Lincoln, then 28, delivered his first great speech, to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield. 

Less than three months earlier, Elijah Lovejoy, an abolitionist newspaper editor in Alton, Ill., 67 miles from Springfield, was murdered by a pro-slavery mob... Lincoln lamented that throughout America, “so lately famed for love of law and order,” there was a “mobocratic spirit” among “the vicious portion of [the] population.”

So, “let reverence for the laws . . . become the political religion of the nation.” 

Pence, one of evangelical Christians’ favorite pin-ups, genuflects at various altars, as the mobocratic spirit and the vicious portion require.

It is said that one cannot blame people who applaud Arpaio and support his rehabilitators (Trump, Pence, et al.), because, well, globalization or health-care costs or something. Actually, one must either blame them or condescend to them as lacking moral agency. 

Republicans silent about Pence have no such excuse.

There will be negligible legislating by the next Congress, so ballots cast this November will be most important as validations or repudiations of the harmonizing voices of Trump, Pence, Arpaio and the like. 

Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. 

Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.

You can read more here

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* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )

The Democratic Party Website

The Democratic Party on Facebook

The Democratic Party on Twitter

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Website

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Website

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Website

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee Website  

Also, NOT exactly a Democratic Party specific source but a good place for to hear and to watch speeches & hearings directly C-SPAN 

→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists 

in alphabetical order...

FactCheck.org

FlackCheck.org

PolitFact 

Snopes

Washington Post Fact Checker

( You can read more on fact checking here )

→ Some of my favorite, most active organizations existing to elect Democrats:

"FLIP STATES. RESTORE DEMOCRACY" here 

→ Some of my favorite, most informative

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Malcolm Nance   

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC

Kurt Eichenwald

⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author

Ari Berman

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones 

→ Some of my favorite, highly credible media -- at the moment:

📰📰📰 Mother Jones

📰📰📰📰 The Washington Post

📰📰📰📰 The New York Times

💻💻💻 News And Guts on Facebook

→ Some of my favorite Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:

📺📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC

📺📺📺📺📺 AM w/Joy Reid on MSNBC

📺📺📺 Chris Cuomo on CNN

📺📺📺📺 The Beat With Ari on MSNBC

📺📺📺📺 Individual programs: Velshi Ruhle Co-hosted program: Velshi & Ruhle on MSNBC

📺📺📺📺 Nicolle Wallace On MSNBC

→ Some of my favorite media/panelists -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:

✅✅✅✅ Joan Walsh national affairs correspondent for The Nation; CNN political contributor

✅✅✅ Heidi Przybyla USA TODAY Senior Political Reporter

✅✅✅ Jennifer Rubin Conservative blogger at @WashingtonPost's Right Turn, MSNBC contributor

✅✅✅ Natasha Bertrand Staff writer @TheAtlantic covering national security & the intel community. @Bigness/@MSNBC contributor 

✅✅✅ Betsy Woodrow's Daily Beast Reporter

( 📎 Interesting to note: Wallace, a former Republican (or an inactive Republican I believe she calls herself) is new to the job but for right now she has clearly put country over party and  her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO... )

...for Networking for Democrats today!

g. (Unapologetic Democrat)

📎 Note: I rarely get involved in primary races -- outside of those in my own area. And, unless there is a glaring reason that can not be ignored, I support Democratic Party nominees winning in general elections. 

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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.

It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."

You can read the Democratic Platform here

→ Focused Monthly Inspiration 

( #its2018now )

   

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Curated by Gail Mountain, this blog is often gently edited and/or excerpted for quick reading, with occasional personal commentary in the form of the written word and/or in the form of emphasis noted. Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!

( You can also find me on Twitter 

at here )

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See the League of Women Voters website:

 Vote411 here 

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Thank you for Focusing!

g., aka Focused Democrat

✊ Resisting "Fake News"

#StrongerTogether ! "The Real Mike Pence: A Lifetime of Attacks on the LBGTQ Community," Courtesy of HRC

Focused Read in 3 minutes -- for the introduction...

the full read of the linked PDF is about 8 minutes

"The Real Mike Pence"

A Lifetime of Attacks on the LBGTQ Community

"On March 4th, 1841, in the early afternoon, William Henry Harrison was sworn-in as the 9th President of the United States. 

On March 26th, Harrison became ill with a cold. 

On April 4th, at 12:30 am, less than 31 days after taking office, he died.

... And every four years, the phrase “a heartbeat away from the presidency” is trotted out by pundits to underline the importance of dissecting vice presidential nominees.

And yet, no vice president in history has wielded more influence, with less scrutiny, than Mike Pence. 

While Donald Trump’s scandals and erratic tweets dominate the airwaves, Pence has operated largely out of public view, 

stacking the administration with members of his inner circle,

 pushing his long-standing legislative priorities, 

and currying favor with donors and candidates across the country.

 He has even become the first vice president in history to have his own Super PAC. 

And yet, many Americans do not know anything about Mike Pence or his record.

Pence serves in an administration that has spent its first year in office bending the rules, defying the Constitution, and upending the norms that protect the system of accountability for our elected officials. 

The Trump administration has changed the game, so to speak. 

The vice presidency has also changed.

 The experience-bereft nature of Trump on everything from budgetary analysis to foreign policy has inflated the stature and influence of his second in command. 

... as the two men played golf, Pence asked what his job description would be if they wound up in the White House together. 

Trump gave him the same answer he’d been dangling in front of other prospective running mates for weeks: 

He wanted “the most consequential vice president ever.”

Pence was sold.

 Some have sought to peg Pence as a “sane” voice in an otherwise chaotic administration, but those closest to him

 — including the president — 

know his extremism is a defining element of his character.

In a meeting with a legal scholar, as the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump pointed to Pence and said “Don’t ask that guy — he wants to hang them all!”

Pence wields inordinate power in this administration, stealthily influencing policy decisions, stacking the administration with his own loyalists, and pushing his extremist ideology. Meanwhile, he has laid the groundwork for a presidential run, as his aides have said that he “wants to be ready” to run for president in 2020.

 ... in each office Pence has held, his extreme positions seeking to undermine the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people, women and others has been a defining element of his agenda.

During his 12 years in Congress...His real focus was on impeding progress — on everything from marriage equality to open service of LGBTQ people in the military to funding for Planned Parenthood.

As governor, Pence was aggressively destructive in his policies. 

He forced through legislation to discriminate against LGBTQ people, restricted needle exchanges that would help combat the state’s HIV crisis, and sought to prevent legalized same-sex marriages from being finalized in Indiana. ...

Today, as vice president, Pence has been fully complicit in the distractions and lies of the Trump administration, while carrying water on legislation that would have taken health care coverage from millions of people, lobbying Congress to pass an irresponsible tax bill, and working behind the scenes to ban transgender members of the military from serving their country.

This report, which details Mike Pence’s long track record of attacks on the LGBTQ community and others, aims to begin placing a greater spotlight on Mike Pence’s extreme agenda.

 The American public deserves to understand the motivations and ideology of a vice president that is largely unknown, but inordinately powerful within a tumultuous White House.

In word and deed, Pence has attacked LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, refugees, workers, and voters. He has attacked science, health, transparency, education, justice, and public safety. Pence as vice president is already dangerously advancing his outdated agenda. 

But now he continues to do all of this — just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

You can read more here

( Courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign )

Focused Thought in 30 seconds

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This is a repeat action, in case you missed it because, it's really important, IMO! You can share it here

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→ Direct sources for Democrats:

* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )

The Democratic Party Website

The Democratic Party on Facebook

The Democratic Party on Twitter

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Website

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Website

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Website

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee 

Also

C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))

→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists 

in alphabetical order...

FactCheck.org

FlackCheck.org

PolitFact 

Snopes

Washington Post Fact Checker

( You can read more on fact checking here )

→  Some of my favorite, most informative

 follows on Twitter include:

Malcolm Nance   

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC

Kurt Eichenwald

⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author

Ari Berman

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ You can find Verrit:"Media for the 65.8M" here

→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:

📰📰📰 Mother Jones

📰📰📰 The Washington Post

📰📰📰 The New York Times

💻💻💻 News And Guts on Facebook

→  Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:

📺📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC

📺📺📺📺📺 AM w/Joy Reid on MSNBC

📺📺 Chris Cuomo on CNN

📺📺📺 The Beat With Ari on MSNBC

📺📺 Velshi & Ruhle on MSNBC

📺📺📺 Nicolle Wallace On MSNBC

( 📎 Interesting to note: Wallace, a former Republican (or an inactive Republican I believe she calls herself) is new to the job but for right now she has clearly put country over party and  her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO... )

...for Networking for Democrats today!

g. (Unapologetic Democrat)

📎 Note: I rarely get involved in primary races -- outside of those in my own area. And, unless there is a glaring reason that can not be ignored, I support Democratic Party nominees winning in general elections. 

.

.

.

(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.

It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."

You can read the Platform here

→ Focused Monthly Inspiration 

Eleanor Roosevelt with female reporters

 at her first White House press conference 

on March 6, 1933. 

“ … At first Eleanor Roosevelt adhered to her own...political topics. She told about her daily schedules, discussed the prints on the White House Walls, and shared low-cost menus for Depression-era households. But reporters pressed the First Lady for more news on public policy, and the press conference sessions soon broadened their scope. As early as April 1933 Eleanor Roosevelt provided a political scoop; she announced that beer would be served in the White House once Prohibition ended. By the end of 1933, according to UP reporter Ruby Black, the First Lady had defended low cost housing, the subsistence homestead program, equal pay for equal work, old age pensions, and the minimum wage. “Tea Pouring Items Give Way to Big News,” Black declared. “No newspaperwoman could have asked for better luck,” reporter Bess Furman recalled. The First Lady, she wrote, “conducts classes on scores of subjects, always seeing beyond her immediate hearers to ‘the women of the country.’” … “ ( You can read more here ) 

( #its2018now )

   

 *

Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!

( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )

  *

See the League of Women Voters website:

 Vote411 here 

*

Thank you for Focusing!

g., aka Focused Democrat

✊ Resisting "Fake News"