2016 Oct 6^th

Everyone is recovering from the sleeper that was last night’s debate. It didn’t draw much of an audience and for Clinton fans that was just as well for Tim Kaine did not distinguish himself. Kaine spent much time trying to interrupt Pence to point out Pence’s misunderstanding of Trump’s positions on various issues. That was a loser because whatever Trump’s position was, say, on keeping out Muslims until, “…We can find out what the hell is going on,” Trump apparently now knows what the hell is going on so he has changed course on Muslims. Trump changes his position on most issues daily so it is hard to attack him on much of anything. He does stay constant on his border wall and on Mexico paying for it.

The Pence performance was interesting on several counts: he doesn’t agree with his leader on how to deal with Russia and his evaluation of Putin. Pence proposes a much harder line than does Trump. Trump tells us how nice it would be if we just got along with Russia and that he admires Putin. Pence, during the debate, called Putin a small bully and claimed that if Trump was elected we would deal with Russia from a “position of strength.” Here is another Pence comment about Aleppo: “If Russia continues to be involved in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the US needs to be prepared to strike military targets of the Assad regime to prevent them from [taking part in] this humanitarian crisis taking place in Aleppo,” These strikes would involve military action against Russian forces.

Did Pence deliberately undercut Trump’s make nice response to all things Russian? You may remember the sudden removal from the Republican platform of a plank authorizing arms for the Ukraine when Trump had secured the nomination. Pence’s position here is not Trump’s position; why?

Is it possible that Governor Pence is preparing for the inevitable defeat of Donald Trump in next month’s election. The man is 57 years old and may be pushing himself toward a more traditional Republican position on Russia than Donald Trump holds.

Nevertheless, Pence comes with some heavy baggage of his own. As Governor he pushed for the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; sounds great but it was a license to discriminate against serving anyone whose sexual preferences you found religiously unacceptable. An explosion from the business community followed when many organizations decided to leave Indiana. Pence capitulated and modified the bill.

In 2000, Pence stated, “Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexual’s [sic] as a ‘discreet [sic] and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.” He called for “an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus” and instead advocated that resources be directed towards Conversion Therapy programs.

Not only is the man a sexual bigot but hopelessly ignorant as well; Conversion Therapy is not only punitive, but also worthless.