There are times when Pence is even a more vapid, vile, venal hypocrite than his boss. This is such a time.
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Trump cares NOTHING about “ the appropriations process.” Nothing. He’s made it part of his mission to render “the appropriations process” meaningless.
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This is off topic and yet somehow apropos, but Jay Rosen cited a great article about the pitfalls of political reporting. The article covers both British and American politics and warns about the trap of teleological thinking among the members of the 4th estate especially.
Historians warn about “the teleological view of history” – assuming a fixed endpoint and then telling the story as if it was always heading for that end point. Something similar has happened, over and over again, in political journalism.
The seductive power of the conventional narrative is one of the most distorting forces in political journalism. Jeremy Corbyn is useless, Donald Trump is a joke, Theresa May is the Iron Lady, Remain will win, the Liberal Democrats are finished, Nigel Farage has retired from politics. All of these seem true, until – suddenly – they are not. For commentators and reporters on the left, that is particularly tricky terrain to navigate, because the printed press is dominated by the right, and therefore the consensus tends to be sympathetic to that point of view.
For me, indulging in the teleological view of history is the first deadly sin of political journalism. It is also the easiest to cure – just stop doing it! Ask questions even if they seem odd or niche. Pin down politicians on under-considered scenarios. We must try to tune out what everyone else is obsessed with, and ask ourselves: what could happen that no one is talking about?
Because political journalists are stuck in the Commons and on Twitter – real world and digital versions of Versailles – they are prone to panic about not representing “real people”. But who gets depicted as the authentic voice of unheard Britain is governed by implicit assumptions that are grim when exposed to the light. Why are the views of a retired steelworker in Grimsby about “where the country has gone wrong” more important than those of a second-generation Nigerian-British nurse in Plaistow? Citizenship is supposed to transcend personal identity, and yet we still indulge an idea of the “volk”. This tendency applies equally in America, where retired steelworkers in Pennsylvania were held up as the Great Unheard, but the same epithet was not bestowed on black voters in Detroit.
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Christianity is a money making controlling organization set up to take from the poor and give to the rich.
A sin is committed by thought, word, and deed, unless you have the money to buy forgiveness.
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Yeah, we cannot give detained Mexican, Salvadorean, Nicaraguan, Guatemalan children soap and toothbrushes, because Congress won’t fund the Wall.
This is the culmination of the embrace Ronald Reagan gave to the fake Southern Christians who went and founded religious schools after Brown v Board of Ed, and found the perfect cover. Like Jerry Falwell, Jr., Pence, who began as a Right Wing “Christian” Radio Talk Show Host, then became a congressman before being the Governor of Indiana, is a fake Christian who Jesus Christ would spit on and pummel with his fists. This is the FOX propaganda demographic.
BTW- does anyone know why the fuck we all have to subsidize FOX and Pat Robertson’s cable propaganda in our standard cable packages? I think this is an Anti Trust Violation, what used to be called an Illegal Tie In Operation, making me buy something I have no fucking use for and do not want, in order to get something I do want and have use for. Yet another example of the Corporate Welfare that the Sports Monopolies and Right Wing Grift Masters perpetrate on the population of this country while preaching about creeping socialism and the Nanny State and all their buzz words for any social spending.
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Conservatives would not go on CNN and etc if this was not de rigueur.
Makes a person miss the hell out of Jon Stewart. When he did an interview, that shit did not happen.
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As I said, I’m used to being disappointed by Tapper’s “work.”
My expectations are low – but, in this case, he exceeded them.
You say that “half the time he sounded like he was agreeing” with Pence. I didn’t hear it that way.
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It’s very difficult to walk in Jesus’s shoes, but very easy to put pious bumper stickers on your car or to pray in public to impress your neighbors or to quote scripture as if you actually understand them. It’s past time Pence lost his undeserved image as a pious Christian, because he’s nothing of the sort.
And tell me again how this is in no way like a concentration camp.
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Pro-life until they’re born. Pence is an effing disgrace.
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A white weasel weaseling.
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Everybody knows that it is everybody’s fault except Trump and Pence. Give the white guy a break.
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Well, they’re brown. So why waste soap and water on them when you can’t see the dirt anyway?
Such a godly man. /s
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Succinct.
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One can cut the cord/cable.
I liked Dish when I had them back 2002 -2007.
They let me pay $5.99 for about ten local channels and nothing else. I live outside of antenna range. I think I even paid it for nearly a year after my TV quit because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to live without TV.
Turns out I could and did.
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It is Sunday morning so let’s find out what Jesus actually said about self-righteous guys like Pence.
Luke 18:9-14
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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If only Jake tried harder, Pence would come around during their few minutes together. Bad Jake, bad Jake
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And if only they constructed logical traps that would make Pence burst out crying and run out of the studio. Oh, never are the right questions asked.
P.S. running into the city cannot respond to clever or outraged ripostes. Just have a nice day.
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The eyebrows are a nice touch.
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