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Flat tire on Salvation Mountain

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Mike Pence has very poor judgement

I like Mike Pence. I think he is a decent human being who is obeying the early tenets and conditioning of childhood as best as he knows how. I believes that he loves his wife, family and country. 

Having said that, I also can admit that I can't think of a single issue on which I agree with him and think he would be a terrible and divisive president. In summation, I don't trust his judgement, in basically any way.


Today, Dana Bash interviewed the former V.P. on CNN. The conversation went like this:

“Everyone in our movement are the kind of Americans who love this country, are patriotic or law-and-order people who would never have done anything like that there or anywhere else,” Pence told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday’s State of the Union. “I have more confidence in the American people than that. I hear my former running mate’s frustration in his voice, but I'm sure the American people will respond in our movement in a way that will express, as they have every right to under the First Amendment, to express concerns that they have about what they perceive to be unequal treatment of the law. But I'm not concerned about it beyond that.”

The winding answer seemingly left Bash flabbergasted, prompting her to note why someone like Pence of all people should be concerned.

“It’s pretty remarkable that you’re not concerned about it, given the fact that they wanted to hang you on on Jan. 6,” she said through a laugh before attempting to move on.

But Pence wouldn’t let that stand, refusing to let the CNN anchor “use a broad brush” to classify everyone at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as being perpetrators of violence.

“The people in this movement, the people who rally behind our cause in 2016 and 2020, are the most God-fearing, law-abiding, patriotic people in this country,” he said. “And I just I won’t stand for those kinds of generalizations because they have no basis in fact.”

These god fearing, law abiding patriots tried to kill you Mike. According to wiki, by the end of June 2023, about 700 defendants had been found guilty (most by pleading guilty, the rest convicted at trial), and over 550 of them had been sentenced. Hundreds were still awaiting trial or sentencing. It is estimated that over 2000 people took part in the riot or insurrection, whatever you choose to call it, I don't really care. These people were despicable and committed despicable actions. A small sampling:

On April 11, 2023, Robert Sanford was sentenced to four years and four months. He hit two police officers in the head with a fire extinguisher and threw a traffic cone at another officer.[44]

On April 14, 2023, Vincent J. Gillespie was sentenced to five years and eight months. He grabbed a police shield from officers, rammed it into them and pulled another officer into the mob of protestors.[45]

On April 14, 2023, Patrick McCaughey III was sentenced to seven years and six months. He crushed a police officer in a doorframe with a riot shield.[46]

On April 28, 2023, Jeffrey Scott Brown received a sentence of 54 months. He assaulted police with pepper spray.[47]

On May 5, 2023, Peter Schwartz was sentenced to 14 years and 2 months in prison. He sprayed a "super soaker" canister of pepper spray at retreating officers. He had 38 prior convictions over the previous 30 years.[48]

On May 24, 2023, Richard Barnett was sentenced to 54 months. He had carried a stun gun into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, propped his foot up on a desk, and bragged about stealing an envelope from the office.[49]

On May 25, 2023, Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison, the longest sentence associated with the attack delivered to date. He was charged with seditious conspiracy, receiving an increased sentence due to his actions being ruled as terrorism by U.S. District Judge, Amit Mehta. Rhodes was the founder of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist militia, and was the first to be convicted of seditious conspiracy and terrorism in relation to the attack.[50]

On May 25, 2023, Kelly Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A leader of the Oath Keepers' Florida chapter, Meggs was charged with seditious conspiracy for his role during the attack.[50]

On May 26, 2023, Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson were sentenced to 102 months and 48 months, respectively. Both convicts were members of the Oath Keepers, with Watkins' crimes including merging her local Ohio armed group with the Oath Keepers in 2020, and Harrelson serving as the right-hand man to Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter. [51]

On July 7, 2023, Barry Bennet Ramey was sentenced to five years. He was connected to the Proud Boys and pepper-sprayed police in the face.[52]

On July 13, 2023, Kyle Fitzsimons was sentenced to 87 months. He attacked Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell and D.C. Police Sgt. Phuson Nguyen. While in the mob, Fitzsimons was hit by another rioter and received a bloody head wound that later required staples.[53]

On July 14, 2023, Audrey Ann Southard-Rumsey was sentenced to six years. Brandishing a flagpole, she knocked over a police officer.[54]

Anyone who has seen the raw feeds know that this lynch mob was there to commit violence. Simply read the convictions and see how many of these god fearing folk were brutalizing poor outnumbered cops, smashing them with flagpoles, macing them and trying to turn over the government. They admit this in their own words. Blue lives suddenly didn't matter, eggs had to be broken to put the dear leader back on his throne. 

Read the harrowing tale of Trump appointee Federico Klein, a state department employee found guilty with two co-defendants.

This mob was on no ordinary sightseeing trip. They were there to commit mayhem and overturn the government. And Mike Pence is either confused or willfully cognitively dissonant, he refuses to condemn them, perhaps afraid of antagonizing his political base. And this is why I not only mistrust him but have no faith whatsoever in his judgement.

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