PS

@Hail

Well, your interpretation certainly does put Pence's "not my concern" statement in a much different light. You are probably right. You could sort of tell from Pence's aspect that he wasn't paying too much attention to what Tucker was saying during his long digression, but rather was formulating his reply - probably to the first question, as you said.

So, perhaps I was unduly harsh on Pence.

He's still a boring cuck though and I still wouldn't vote for him.

PS

- Ricky Vaughan trial update -

For readers' general interest:

"The name "Rubiobot" or "Rubio Robot" began to be heard by pro-Trump trolls (like Ricky Vaughan, a super-troll of the era who retweeted me more than once; Ricky Vaughan is on trial in 2023 by order of Attorney General Garfinkel for a joke about voting by text-message if you are a Democrat)..."

I just saw that Ricky Vaughan has already been convicted.

The Garland Justice Department sent a squad to arrest this man for his "vote by text message" joke-meme from years earlier, and his case sailed through. It was an easy conviction, for them. To normal people, the case obviously shouts out "grey area" and "artistic license (satire)," and of course also "selective prosecution."

The overseeing judge who convicted "meme prisoner" Ricky Vaughan is:

Ann Donnelly (b.1959).

Judge Donnelly is the one who issued an emergency "injunction" in Jan. 2017, legally blocking the "Muslim Ban" ("until we figure out what the hell is going on" --Trump). She is a 2015 Obama appointee.

Ricky Vaughan will be sentenced on August 16, 2023. If the Regime sees fit, he may be told that his prison-term shall be ten years. Ten years in prison for tweets.

PS

Mr. Anon says: "(Pence) might pick up one state (Indiana) if he makes it that far, and that'd be it."

The mathematics of the nomination are always complicated and always changing, but any candidate who thinks he can secure some number of delegates, and hold them as a bargaining chip, his incentive to try. That's when secret deals are made and people promised positions based on dropping out.

The most-extreme example of the "Secret Deal" art-of-politics in presidential nomination races: There was a day in either late-February or early-March 2020 when EVERY OTHER D-teamer candidate dropped out on the same day, almost "out of nowhere," to leave Biden the nominee. (That was "the Regime" at work, some of us like to say these days.)

That little political D-Day of early 2020 was, it would turn out, only a short time before the Corona-Panic Disaster reached its Rubicon-point, maybe even measurable in days not weeks. The conspiratorial-minded among us might say the D-teamers got their "ducks in a row," with that mass-drop-out to crown Biden the Regime presidential nominee, just before going all-in for the Corona-Panic of 2020.

PS

-- More on the Pence "Not My Concern" controversy and "talking points" phenomenon in politics and rhetoric --

The esteemed and estimable Moderator says:

"What was (Mike Pence's) mind doing that whole damn time Tucker was talking? Was he not listening and just simply waiting for Tucker to finish to give that quick answer? That seems kind of ... stupid, in another sense anyway. Is he a robot? Even, I coulda' done better. (I do have plenty of time here to think about it, granted!)"

I am reminded of the 2016 R-nomination campaign when Marco Rubio, having been coached on how to release talking-points, repeatedly ignored pointed questions with answers that he had rehearsed. This became obvious when too many nuanced questions were blasted at him and he didn't answer the question. The name "Rubiobot" or "Rubio Robot" began to be heard by pro-Trump trolls (like Ricky Vaughan, a super-troll of the era who retweeted me more than once; Ricky Vaughan is on trial in 2023 by order of Attorney General Garfinkel for a joke about voting by text-message if you are a Democrat).

I don't know that the Rubio-2015/16 case applies directly in the "Not My Concern" mini-controversy of 2023, here. But the general phenomenon of so-called "talking points" is a disservice to political debate. It also seems to have been unstoppable. Everyone does "talking points" now. Even Trump has his own version of them, and his rally material is always the same as he only seldom innovates any real freshened-up talking-points.

It used to be that politicians or other speakers would speak on a specific theme, like well-crafted essays delivered with varying levels of passion in front of audiences, rather than a stripped-down, bullet-pointed "talking points" version. This is a lot like the style of journalism promoted by "Axios," an ideology that says almost all writing should consist of bullet-points without details or elaboration or flair or personalized touch or Peak-Stupidity-style interesting-'asides.'

Some say the use of "talking points" as we know it (to redirect away from actual questions) only began in the 1990s. I don't know how to evaluate that claim.

PS

(Peak Stupidity comment-box formatting error involving a certain symbol again, cutting off subsequent words, also experienced by Mr. Kief earlier today):

.

SHOULD READ:

_______________

The current “implied chances to win the Republican nomination” are:

— 50% Trump
— 15% DeSantis
— 12% Vivek Ramaswamiey
— 7% Glenn Youngkin
— 6% Tim Scott
— 5% Chris Christie
— 2% Nikki Haley
— 2% Mike Pence
— 0% to LESS THAN 1% each: Romney, Cruz, Tucker Carlson, Tom Cotton, Donald Trump Jr., Rubio, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, Larry Hogan, Kristi Noem.

If we still use "tiers," clearly there is only one man in the "first tier." There is flux in the "second tier," in that people have been giving up on DeSantis....
_____________

Pence is a more-interesting* figure than his %-chances here suggest, as he was vice-president for four years and all, and he has chosen to embrace an anti-Trump role (which he doesn't need to do), guaranteeing disproportionate attention.

AFAIK, the politician known as "Nikki Haley" is also doing the same or moreso in attacks on Trump. Haley has also distinctly lost ground according to the money-market's movement's of her buying-price. Chris Christie has been known to blast anti-Trump one-liners as of 2023 in between donut bites. That's Pence now at 2%, Haley at 2%, Christie at 5%, total of a 12%-share for the overt anti-Trump candidates on the R side.

Not sure what to make of the hype around typical elite-immigrant con-man "Vivek Rammaswamiey," and I don't think Peak Stupidity has issued any statements on this man yet.

.

* -- Hah! the word "interesting" applied to Pence. There it is.v

PS

-- Pence support is down --

Pence is down to only a "2%" implied-chance-to-win-the-nomination, based on my preferred PredictIt betting-market data:

https://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2023/05/27/the-2024-republican-nomination-betting-market-update-may-2023-trump-50-desantis-28-other-22/#comment-51320

___________

The PredictIt betting-market added two new choices on June 28, 2023: the fast-talking, Hindu-Indian-origin Vivek Ramaswamiey, and the known-quantity fat-guy Chris Christie. Both are doing relatively well.

The current “implied chances to win the Republican nomination” are:

— 50% Trump
— 15% DeSantis
— 12% Vivek Ramaswamiey
— 7% Glenn Youngkin
— 6% Tim Scott
— 5% Chris Christie
— 2% Nikki Haley
— 2% Mike Pence
— 0% to

PS

Mr. Moderator: I am sure Ann Coulter is being ironic in any pro-Pence lines she delivers.

She would, though, probably praise him despite anything else if Pence unexpectedly came out with a plausible promise that he would deport all illegals including "Dreamers," ban birthright citizenship and begin mass-investigations into persons who acquired U.S. citizenship under fraudulent pretexts in past thirty years, use the military to build a border wall, and say he is willing to do a Stalinist-style purge of the military to crush Wokeness and opponents of the Wall. As if that would happen. But it is how she came to support Mr. Blumpf, to begin with, in 2015.

On Ann Coulter's style and ironic pro-Pence tweets: I don't know that she even HAS a "non-ironic" style that she can hold for very long. Her style is one thing that brought her renown back ca.2000 when she was a rising "pundit" (and before her turn towards a species of ethnonationalism, which defines her now).

People react a lot less well to this kind of irony, sarcasm, and negativity in an older woman than they did in the more-or-less younger woman she was ca.2000.

(Younger women indeed get a huge amount of leeway and sympathy, by nature. Mr. Kief's negative reaction to my criticism of the late-2010s-era social-media personality known as Lauren Southern, I believe to be a case of the same. Defending women's honor is a positive instinct in traditional society. BUt we live under a Wokeness-regime. Many younger women figure out their power and use it for dark purposes, our evolved society and laws have a limited ability to block it, and the Wokeness regime and tech-landscape have just terrible multiplier-effects on it all. Ann Coulter herself did benefit from an earlier version of the same phenomenon, beginning in the late 1990s... a long time ago, now...)

PS: Mr. Hail, finally, your 3rd comment makes a very good rebuttal to what we (Mr. Anon started this, haha!) have written. Your contention is that Pence just let the long polemic rant by Tucker go by and then answered the original question.

I agree with Tucker, of course. That doesn't mean that, as an interviewee or high official at the press conference, I wouldn't get sick and tired of questions that were actually long political statements. (There was a point to Tucker's one, but of course he could have shortened it up.) Could Pence have said, "OK, Tucker, your question was 'Your concern is that the Ukrainians...don't have enough tanks?' My answer is 'No, that's not my concern.' I also think we need to support, blah, blah, more Neocon crap..."

My question is, what was his mind doing that whole damn time Tucker was talking? Was he not listening and just simply waiting for Tucker to finish to give that quick answer? That seems kind of ... stupid, in another sense anyway. Is he a robot? Even, I coulda' done better. (I do have plenty of time here to think about it, granted!)

I never thought about the Trump and "Mexican rapists" thing before. For me, even if it was "they're" - and good quip by Mr. Derbyshire - it still has a connotation of "along with other people, plenty of them are rapists, thieves, etc." because, YES, there are plenty.

Even if you don't understand that the population replacement program is going on, you still may be wholly against the idea of letting violent criminals into the country. After all, if it's only 1 in 100, that's 10 - 30 thousand criminals annually! Trump may have actually meant it that way, as in, we like Mexicans, but we don't like criminals.

I'm sure you recall that Ann Coulter was so happy about Trump's putting that out there, as very likely taken from her book "Adios, America". She's absolutely right that this guy was a real let-down. The scorned thing is a bit too far, almost Trump-like, in fact. ;-}

PS: Mr. Hail, I do understand your idea of incentives for the middle-of-the-road candidate in our system. (There were never supposed to BE political parties, but that went to hell very early on...)

That video and other ones I've seen with Mike Pence talking about 1/6 is sickening. It makes it clear that he is a liar to anyone who hasn't just followed the Lyin' Press narrative alone. Sure, he was a HERO for staying in the capitol while the "insurrection" was in progress. Sickening, that's all...

PS: Thanks for the interesting comments, Mr. Hail.

First about the woman-scorned version of Ann Coulter that I see as of late. She's usually very logical. If she's really supporting, actually supporting, Pence due to his attacks on Trump, I've lost faith in that lawyer logic of hers. It's one thing to be glad someone's trying to bring Trump down - this could give DeSantis some room to get in there. Actually supporting the words of Mike Pence, though, sickening, especially after that 1 minute ad of yours I just watched - luckily after my breakfast had settled in fine.

Your last 2 lines from Miss Coulter would suggest that it's the former - she is glad for his help. That's fine, if people were to ever want to hear a word the guy had to say.

PS: Mr. Anon, there have been a lot of those just "being there" guys, boring, with no indication that they actually care about Americans (as is one difference with Donald Trump), both becoming candidates and getting into office. For candidates, just in the GOP, your Romney's, McCains, Doles, etc.

"Back-bencher midwits" is a good way to put it. Yes, Sailer's take on the professional campaigners is probably a real effect too. I wrote a post long ago about that Mary Matalin and the Ragin Cajun - married at some point, one a pro-GOP pundit and the other a Clinton hack. Now, politics doesn't have to be the basis of a marriage, but do these people really care about any of the stuff they spout, or is it just a good living?

Found it:

https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=626

"Pundit vs. pundit during the slow death of the Lyin' Press"

PS

-- The meaning of "Not My Concern" --

"Tucker asked Mike Pence, "Where's the concern for the United States in that?" Mike Pence: "That's not my concern."
Sure there's more to this...."

This is my interpretation of the "Not my concern" line:

Tucker was doing a political-polemic-essay interlude of his own, starting at 24:35, using the same tone and moral-outrage style he used to effect on his now-eliminated TV show. This kind of interlude is normally frowned upon for a political panel or debate moderator, even if it seems to inevitably happen these days, and the audience does kind of expect it from Tucker, as would the guests (like Pence).

Tucker's original question was (delivered 25:07-15) was: "Your concern is that the Ukrainians...don't have enough tanks?"

At the point this question gets asked, following its forty-second wind-up from Tucker in polemical-mode, you can see and hear that Pence has a response formulated. But Tucker won't be quiet and let the question hang. Pence is too polite to cut in and interrupt a person speaking. Tucker continues and redirects to a different question. When Pence speaks, he delivers the line he had formulated earlier in response to "That (i.e., tanks for Ukrainians) is NOT my concern." It makes 100%-normal sense in that context.

The notion that someone like Pence would say: "Oh, the welfare of the USA and its loser-people whose lives are getting worse, that is not my concern; I mainly only care about military-deliveries Holy Ukraine" -- this enters the realm of the absurd, or satire; as if a man running for U.S. president would ever say that. The anti-Pence people will claim it was a freudian slip, of course, but it's much-more classifiable as a grammatical slip while being off-balance from a hostile moderator.

The "Not My Concern" controversy reminds me a little of the "Rapists" line from Dernald Jay Blumpf in June 2015. As John Derbyshire has pointed out, Blompf was just stumbling around his words but he clearly meant "They're not sending their best; they're sending their rapists..." But because of the way it came out, the media all quoted it as "They're rapists," i.e., someone who has wide business interests and decades of fame would just out-of-nowhere declare all 60 million Mexican men are rapists ("they're rapists") instead of the actual point he was making about migrants up from Mexico are often laced with bad people ("they're sending their rapists"). Derbyshire declared that this the most momentous misinterpreted "their/they're" mix-up of the 2010s.

PS

-- (Has the Pence-2024 strategy evolved to direct-attacks on Trump?) --

Ann Coulter, commenting on a pro-Pence PAC tv-ad that "goes after Trump," says: "I take back any unkind word I've ever had for Mike Pence."

Here is the pro-Pence PAC ad in question. It began appearing in June 2023:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J34nDPhY5M
(1 minute)

The Youtube upload has low views but the same 1-minute video got millions of plays on "social media." Is is also said to have been playing on TV in the key places for the past weeks, which can (still in the 2020s) matter a lot more than Youtube-view-counts.

-If- this PAC ad represents the Pence-2024 campaign's attitudes and position: It's interesting to see they are at once trying to position as anti-Woke while abandoning (even antagonizing) the Trump-2020 voters and those who questioned the suspicious election results in some states. (The election-result dispute is now being branded as "tried to overturn the election," which I guess a Regime inner sounding-board ruled "overturn" to be classier word than "steal").

It is a legitimate political to take in a politics sense, the middle-of-the-road position. It would make more sense if there wee a proportional-representation system in which there is a Trump-MAGA party, a Pence party, a DeSantis party, and other small ones, against various parties of the aggressive-Wokeness-Left and several non-Wokeness-Left parties, all competing for votes to try to form and lead a coalition government. In this scenario, what Pence is up to would make sense. It is harder to achieve in the U.S. system. And even now, we still have not seen DeSantis ever directly attack Trump.

PS

Ann Coulter (still a DeSantis supporter) on Pence, commentary on the June 7, 2023, Republican town-hall (which all attended except Trump):

Ann Coulter says:
"Pence has stolen DeSantis's campaign slogan, 'the great American comeback!' I guess it's a good one! Luckily, Pence is too boring for anyone to notice."

Ann Coulter says:
"I'm warming to Pence during this Townhall, mostly because he keeps attacking Trump."

PS Mr. Anon: He could borrow one from Jeb! and put the exclamation point after his name to connote Excitement!

PS: "Max Boot for National Security Advisor? Lindsey Graham for Secretary of State? Liz Cheney as SecDef?" No, no, no. He's learned from his mistakes... so they say. Right!

PS

I hadn't known that Pence was an immigration-simp until I went back and read your previous post on him.

Yeah........another great personnel pick by The Donald.

Are we laying bets on whom Trump will appoint to his cabinet if he's elected in 2024? Max Boot for National Security Advisor? Lindsey Graham for Secretary of State? Liz Cheney as SecDef?

PS

@MBlanc46

"The guy’s. major party pol (if, that is, the Repubs still count as a major party). He’s got to stay on board the major party program. That means (1) “Fight the Evil Russkies!” and (2) “Orange Man Bad!” He’s a midwit and never was anything but a back-bencher until Mr Trump elevated him, but he’s going to try to play that elevation into the presidency."

I think that's a good summary of Pence: a back-bencher midwit. Probably a decent guy personally, but just a useless GOP drone as a politician.

You have to wonder if HE really thinks he can become President? Whenever I look at Pence, I am reminded of Tommy Newsom on the old Tonight Show, who would step in as band-leader whenever Doc Severinsen was on the road. He was the butt of many of Johnny Carson's jokes, who referred to him as "Mr. Excitement", playing off of Newsom's bland, boring exterior. (Newsom was actually a talented and accomplished jazz musician).

That could be Pence's nickname..........Mr. Excitement.

He's just so boring. Listening to him speak is like listening to an insurance agent, only duller. I'd put his chances of getting elected President at just about zero.

Is this another case of political operatives whispering in someone's ear "You could be President" just so they can bill some hours on his campaign for a year (a phenomenon that Steve Sailer has pointed out). Or is Pence doing it to promote his "Brand", hoping to trade whatever notoriety he gets for a cable-TV gig or something? Surely, he can't think he has any hope of getting the nomination. He might pick up one state (Indiana) if he makes it that far, and that'd be it.

PS: Good evening, Achmed,

Yes, those were made with an AI Art Generator...
https://hotpot.ai/art-generator

☮

PS

Mike Pence is a douche ... but that’s not my concern.

PS The guy’s. major party pol (if, that is, the Repubs still count as a major party). He’s got to stay on board the major party program. That means (1) “Fight the Evil Russkies!” and (2) “Orange Man Bad!” He’s a midwit and never was anything but a back-bencher until Mr Trump elevated him, but he’s going to try to play that elevation into the presidency. Of which, there is a vanishingly slim chance. But, it’s a chance, and I suppose that you can’t blame the guy for grabbing at it.

PS: It's like that July 4th post never happened or something, Dieter. Thanks for the comments and attempts thereto.

Adam, were those AI created?

Good morning, Peakers!

PS: Greetings, Dieter!

Third time's a charm... Happy Thursday!

☮

PS

PS oh - not myfault, Mod. - system error - -
PS
Under the DeSantis post from July the 5th, I collected Mike Penciana - - -

1) He's still >!!< wrong about the trustworthyness of Dominion voting machines;
2) still wrong about the law with regard to his role as vice-president in the voting process (his quotes of the constitution are - false, in that he left out crucial parts). And whiledoing so, he lectured people at a small rallye how they do not get thíngs right about the 2020 election !.
And - I have posted a Pence-paragraf there from an article in which blogger simplicius says thatPence said: Should Ukraine lose this war, "we" would have to fight Russia.

Would this disqualify him as a sewer inspector, Mod.? - Well, we're getting into these rather dark regions. I'd say no, not necessarily so, but I do see your point. If we assume he had a good reason to care for this one city or region he'd be responsible for. And in case his donors would not care much in this hindsight - he might well be willing to do a decent job.

These people, that look somehow decent, are maybe decent deep down inside, BUT: They have developped a routine of neglect of facts and appeasement to - the zeitgeist - that made it look (!) very easy for Tucker Carlson to dismantle them...

Its fair to say I guess, that the western world media risk that the public turns their back on them in ways that will hurt them badly financially (I get the impression we'd be already there in many places). Maybe that'll help.

PS oh - not myfault, Mod. - system error - -
PS
Under the DeSantis post from July the 5th, I collected Mike Penciana - - -

1) He's still (>!!

PS
Under the DeSantis post from July the 5th, I collected Mike Penciana - - -

1) He's still (>!!

PS: Kinda off topic...

https://i.ibb.co/12jn9vN/Scumbag-Mike.png
https://i.ibb.co/dtDvJCR/Not-My-Concern.png
https://i.ibb.co/nCNLspw/Whoa-Black-Greta-Bam-ba-lam.png

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