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Donald Trump To Announce Mike Pence As Vice-Presidential Running Mate (theguardian.com)

Donald Trump has selected Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate. A senior GOP official, cited by many media outlets today (including the WSJ), confirmed the news, adding that the announcement will be made Friday. The Guardian reports: Pence brings several qualities to the Trump campaign that Republicans have found lacking, not least of which experience in government. The 57-year-old spent 12 years in Congress, including two years in a leadership role with the House Republican Conference. He was elected governor of Indiana in 2012, and gained a degree of national notoriety that's to a controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which he signed into law and then wanted revised, after many argued it would allow discrimination against LGBT people. A Trump-Pence ticket could send a message to Republican dissenters who feel they cannot support a candidate who has proven inconsistent on guns, abortion, LGBT rights and other social conservative issues. Just before the Indiana primary election, the staunchly conservative governor endorsed Ted Cruz, Trump's leading opponent and a far-right senator from Texas.An anonymous reader shared a BuzzFeed article on Pence today. The article digs into some of the opinion pieces Pence has penned over the years. In one such article, Pence wrote that "smoking doesn't kill." "Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill," he wrote. In another piece, he argues that Carbon Dioxide "can't be the cause of increased global temperatures" because it is "a naturally occurring phenomenon in nature..." not an unnatural one.

22 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. Indian? by bws111 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Editors, do you do anything???

  2. Meh by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reaction from conservatives and Republicans on this will be little to zero excitement.

    Pence shriveled up in the face of the challenges in his state when the religious freedom act came under assault, and he really bears no marks of being a person who could be sold as a moderating influence to Trump.

    However, I suspect that Trump has left himself with few friends and fewer qualified choices, so this is what the Trumpsters get. Mike the Generic Guy.

    1. Re:Meh by HangingChad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      he really bears no marks of being a person who could be sold as a moderating influence to Trump.

      But he looks good on TV. I would like to state with conviction that wouldn't be a deciding factor but we all know better.

      --
      That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    2. Re:Meh by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Trump wasn't elected by "fascists", for the most part. He was elected by white, working class people who finally woke up and realized that the mainstream Republican policies weren't working for them, and the mainstream GOP politicians were just lying to them and pandering to them.

      Unfortunately, instead of just abandoning the GOP altogether, they picked the one guy in the GOP (who conveniently joined the GOP just before the election cycle) who told them what they wanted to hear, and really isn't a very good candidate.

      But they were right to be angry at the mainstream GOP.

      Unfortunately, despite all the (rightful) populist anger, we're going to wind up with two absolutely terrible candidates running in November, one who's part of the party that always pushes Big Business but voices support for populist policies (that probably won't help, like building a wall), and another who's part of the party that claims to be for the common main but is clearly sold out to Wall Street and private prisons.

    3. Re:Meh by cfalcon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > It is possible that Trump is really doing this to put a final nail in the coffin of the Republicans as a Democratic "operative".

      You could pick WAY worse than this guy. This piece slams him (and plenty more will too), but that would happen whomever he picked. Christie, you got the bridge thing, Newt you got the divorcing the wife with cancer thing, etc.

      Every politician in contention for VP will have something to be fried on- remember when Quayle went with the spelling on the card for "potato" as "potatoe"? People didn't stop talking about that until halfway through the Clinton administration, he was The Dumb Guy.

      This thing where good men are attacked endlessly for fictional vices has achieved its end effect of clearing the way for men with many serious vices to run, because the attacks and claims are the same in both cases.

      In this vein- once everyone in the center bought that McCain was waging a "war on women", and Romney's strict insistence on adequate female representation in his potential administration became part of a "war on women" ("binders of women")- once every Republican had to bear the brunt of being a sexist, even if not, all that did was remove the social cost of ACTUALLY being a sexist. Far too much wolf-crying from the left to attack men on the faults they don't have, has removed the incentive to not just run men who actually DO have those faults.

      Anyway, if you were trying to sink the candidacy, there are much more screwed up candidates to pick. But no one will bother researching whatever Sessions or whomever did anymore, because now the decision has (apparently) been made. The same will be true of the Democrats soon enough.

    4. Re:Meh by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You are right. The working class people have a right to be upset. Both parties have abandoned them a long time ago. +1 insightful.

  3. Re:Nice previously researched spin in the "article by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Turing should have been tried as a war criminal for violating the privacy of U-Boat crews. #revisionism

    I get the joke you're going for here, but considering what happened to Turing, it's pretty fucking tone deaf.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  4. Re:Trump will succeed because... by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So Donald Trump and Mike Pence aren't one of the "elites"? They are both multimillionaires. The only people that Trump "resonates with" are white trash.

  5. Re:Trump will succeed because... by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1, Insightful

    but at least it would shake things up

    This is cute and all, but when some of the things being shaken up include 4 of the top ten world economies, the biggest military, and a few thousand nukes, you can understand why people might think that sentiment makes you look like a dipshit.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  6. Re:Trump will succeed because... by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People are tired of the elite ruling, making decisions based on cronyism and who lines their pockets. Trump isn't afraid to call them out.

    Right... because Trump isn't a multi-billionare elite looking to do nothing but line his own pockets...

  7. Re:Nice previously researched spin in the "article by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it might soon be legal to smoke marijuana but not tobacco.

    You say that like it's a bad thing.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  8. Re:Trump will succeed because... by The-Ixian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People are tired of the elite ruling

    I don't understand this line. Isn't Trump part of the "elite"

    He currently has the power to change the course of thousands of lives if he so chose.

    He runs in the same circles as the "elite" right now.

    How does that not make him a part of the ruling class?

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  9. Re:Nice previously researched spin in the "article by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then Trump's perfect running mate. Between the two of them, they can create a cloud of incoherence so thick that no one will be able to tell what the hell they're talking about.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  10. Re:Nice previously researched spin in the "article by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Never mind whether it's even harmful or not. It's arrogant and rude to force other people to breath your fumes, whether they come from your cigarette or -- uh, elsewhere.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  11. Indepent thinker by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah I am sure you hate Obama because of his "flip-flop on telecom immunity". You guys are so transparent. You hate Obama because of "flip flopping" but Bush was great, right?

    Actually, I hate Bush more.

    Taking the country to war under false pretences, torturing prisoners... that's a lot of sin to wash away.

    Obama caved to the establishment and is generally ineffective, but he hasn't done anything that rises to that level of evil.

    I'm an independent thinker, not a party hack.

  12. Re:Nice previously researched spin in the "article by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The funny thing is that Conservatives don't even really oppose big government, they just want it to be a big, harmful, theocratic government. It's government that helps people that they object to. They're fine with treating The Handmaid's Tale as an instruction manual.

  13. Re:Bleah! by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's a really dumb interpretation of laws allowing transwomen to use the women's bathroom where they won't be attacked by ignorant Conservative men, and transmen to use the bathroom where they won't frighten women. I mean REALLY dumb, like even worse than the absurd Conservative propaganda in the issue.

  14. protip about quoting. by edittard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anything marked as a quotation should be lifted verbatim.
    Exception: If you add something (such as an explanation or clarification) it should be in square brackets.
    Exception: If you omit something for brevity, mark the missing section with an ellipsis in square brackets.
    Exception: If you spot a grammatical error and you want to draw attention to it, add [sic] after it.

    Original Grauniad article:

    He was elected governor of Indiana in 2012, and gained a degree of national notoriety thanks to a controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act [...]

    Slashdot summary:

    He was elected governor of Indiana in 2012, and gained a degree of national notoriety that's [sic] to a controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act [...]

    As soon as you start frigging around with tenses, pronouns, voices or any other form of paraphrasing, even a tiny bit, it ceases to be a direct quote and should NOT be marked as one. This is Journalism 101.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  15. Re:Trump will succeed because... by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How does that not make him a part of the ruling class?

    Because all the actual, real members of the ruling class hate him. There are plenty of people as rich or wildly richer than Trump. Unlike many of them, he hasn't been hip-deep in real politics all his adult life. He's a fairly successful person with an outlook on life that is shared by millions of people, and an awareness (say, halfway through his life) that his own success could be bolstered by adding "entertainer" to his box of tricks. But if he's "ruling class," then so is Michael Jordan, Steven Spielberg, Taylor Swift, Richard Branson, or JK Rowling. "Running in the same circles" isn't even vaguely like being, say, a Clinton.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  16. Re:Nice previously researched spin in the "article by Pfhorrest · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if it's just substituting marijuana for tobacco in all the same places and contexts, then yeah it is a bad thing, as bad as the current status quo, which is already inexcusable.

    marijuana and tobacco should both be legal in and ONLY IN contexts where OTHER PEOPLE aren't FORCED to take your fucking drugs with you. so away from public places, contained on private property, with consent of the property owner, but even then only where you don't have dependents like children or employees who can't just leave your space. if that means that only childless homeowners can smoke, and only in their own homes, then tough shit.

    if keep it out of my fucking air then i don't fucking care, but KEEP IT OUT OF MY FUCKING AIR, and deal with whatever the fuck you have to deal with to accomplish hat.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  17. Re:Nice previously researched spin in the "article by kqs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Indeed. The Republican Party Platform, as of now, wants government to:
        * Regulate the porn industry and control what you're allowed to see.
        * Regulate who you can marry.
        * Regulate what operations your doctor can do on you (especially if you are a woman).
        * Regulate what bathroom you can use.
        * Spend more and more on the military.
        * Pay for it all by cutting taxes, mostly on the wealthy.

    Not what I would call small government.

    But they want to be sure that fewer people have health care, so they have that going for them, which is nice.

  18. Re:would have voted for Trump had it been Gingrich by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Conservative Republicans are green. They just need to have that pointed out to them. The stereotypical Republican is a hunter. Hunters are green. They just aren't the same green as the hippies. They want wild game to be able to live, and that requires some care for the environment.