The Roundup

Former Vice President Mike Pence declines to endorse Donald Trump, Trump threatens a "bloodbath," Vladimir Putin "wins" the Russian election, and more!

US Election News

Mike Pence, who served as vice president under Donald Trump, has announced that he “cannot in good conscience” endorse Trump for his second White House run. In a way it's not surprising. Mike Pence is a staunch conservative but he is also a principled person who still believes in the Constitution and the rule of law. That was why he refused to obey Trump's order to overturn the 2020 election results while he was ceremonially overseeing Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s win at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

It didn't help that when pro-Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol on that same day, some of them had chanted “HANG MIKE PENCE!!!” Some of them had even erected a makeshift gallows outside of the US Capitol building.

Mike Pence has also said that he will not vote for Joe Biden nor will he support a third party candidate.

And speaking of Donald Trump, he keeps on going in his presidential campaign despite numerous videos of his speeches showing a cognitive decline and facing so many legal problems that it would be enough to derail other political candidates in that same situation. Ever since I first became aware of him in the 1980s I've repeatedly seen him get into the kind of trouble (such as bankruptcy) that would permanently alter another person's life yet he kept on making comeback after comeback. I'm sure that a fawning news media more concerned about profits and ratings than in educating the public about the dark side of Donald Trump has definitely helped him.

But Donald Trump has this amazing inability to keep his mouth shut. He feels that he must speak publicly anout everything. And I mean everything. Here's a clip from a recent interview where he literally incriminated himself when he spoke out about one of his criminal charges regarding his possession of classified documents.

As Robert Reich had put it in a recent essay about Trump: Seriously, again, how dumb is Trump? And why has his extraordinary stupidity fallen off the radar during his third run for the presidency?

We also need to be aware of every time Donald Trump drops even the slightest hint of violence in any of his speeches. At a Buckeyes Values PAC rally in Dayton, Ohio last Saturday Donald Trump said this:

“Now, If I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

Given Donald Trump's previous history regarding his incitement of the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, we should never assume that he was just blowing off steam, he was just being a big mouth, he was just kidding, or he really didn't mean what he said. We need to take all of his threats of violence very seriously. We need to prepare as if he will pull off another violent event if he loses the election in November because, given his past, he could very well do something like this in the future.

Despite his numerous problems, including his violent rhetoric, Donald Trump still has plenty of fans. Check out this YouTube Short about a guy who is such a major Trump fan that he literally covered every square inch of his home's interior (including the kitchen cabinets) with photocopied photos of Donald Trump.

Russian Election News

In other election news, the least surprising outcome is that Vladimir Putin has been reelected to another term as the leader of Russia. (Yawn!) He won with an overwhelming 87% of the vote. There was all kinds of wacky entertainment at the polling places last weekend, as this video shows, including a man dressed as a pirate.

But this election wasn't 100 percent smooth. This next video is a compilation that shows voters protesting the election in a variety of ways, including setting a polling booth on fire.

On Sunday there was a silent protest called Noon Against Putin where voters were encouraged to show up at polling places at noon on the final day of voting. That action was endorsed by Alexei Navalny shortly before his death last month. Huge numbers of people converged at polling stations, as this next video shows.

There were some criticism over this Noon Against Putin, as this tweet states: “I still can't wrap my head around these people seriously deciding that showing up to ‘vote’ in Putin's ‘election’ is some kind of act of defiance. Unfathomable idiocracy.”

He gave an example of a better act of defiance, a screenshot of Russian liberation forces taking control of the village of Gorkovsky in the Belgorod region.

There were two young people who bravely told the YouTube channel 1420 why they decided not to vote for Putin at the ballot box. Their responses were candid and frank considering the fact that being too outspoken entails risk of arrest and serving time in prison.

Even Putin's own campaign had done everything possible to ensure his reelection, including what has to be, so far, the creepiest election campaign ad of 2024. It looked like something that Gerard Johnstone, the director of last year's horror movie hit Megan, could have made.

Accusations Against Joe Biden and His Family are Really Kremlin Propaganda

Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian American business man and former associate of Rudy Giuliani, testified this week on Capitol Hill that Giuliani, Donald Trump, various right-wing media figures like Sean Hannity, and various congressional legislators—both past and present—have been spreading misinformation about the Bidens and the source of that misinformation has come from the Kremlin. This testimony is further evidence of the great lengths that Vladimir Putin will go through to ensure that Donald Trump gets reelected in November.

An Important Message Regarding Openly Supporting Terrorism

It is possible to be concerned about the plight of both the Israelis and the Palestinians without supporting terrorist organizations like Hamas. In fact, as this next tweet mentions, being too openly supportive of terrorists like Hamas, Hezbollah, Anshar Allah, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other groups of their ilk can open you up to charges of providing material support for terrorism.

If you are unable to show concern about the plight of unarmed civilians in a war zone without supporting terrorist groups, you need to take a hard look at yourself on why do you feel that way and seriously considering adopting new morals and values.

The Most Hilarious Tweet Posted Online This Week

In a previous post on the mainstream media's open deference towards Donald Trump I mentioned that, in an effort to prove that Joe Biden's family history is just as criminal as Donald Trump's, Jonathan Turley went back a few generations to discover that Biden's great-great grandfather was convicted of attempted murder but he later received a pardon from President Abraham Lincoln.

Well Turley is being weird again. He went on Twitter/X where made this tweet regarding the testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and he mentioned Judge William Henry Pauley III had slammed Cohen's testimony in the courtroom this week on the grounds that Cohen committed perjury. The problem with that tweet: It received a Community Note saying that Judge Pauley had died in 2021, which his Wikipedia page verified.

Maybe Turley needs to lay off of the Ouija board and focus more on which living people are actually in the courtroom that he is supposed to be covering.

The Worst Tweet Posted Online This Week

This week Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron, turned 18, which means that he is now legally an adult. On Twitter/X Mike Sington tweeted this: “Barron Trump turns 18 today. He's fair game now.”

No, Barron Trump is not fair game for anyone just because he's now 18. He may be a legal adult but he is still a teenager who's attending high school. I think it's wrong to go after him just because he's 18 now. Yes, his father is a disgusting fascist dictator wannabe who is currently facing multiple legal problems that are all of his own making but you can't go after Barron for what his father has done. Barron wasn't involved in any of his father's misdeeds because he was simply too young to participate. Barron didn't have a choice of fathers when he was born nor does he have any direct control over his father's actions both past and present.

In a way I feel bad for Barron because of the father he ended up with. In the four years that Donald Trump spent in the White House he spent most of his weekends playing golf at one of his clubs. In fact, he played more golf games in four years than his predecessor Barack Obama played during his eight years as president. In all that time that Donald Trump played golf, not once did I see him bring Barron along on any of those trips. You'd think that he would have occasionally brought Barron along on such a trip for a special father-son outing but he never did. Additionally I don't recall Donald Trump taking walks around the White House grounds with Barron nor take Barron with him on any short drives around DC or even take Barron on a special outing to the National Zoo or one of the Smithsonian museums. It was like Donald Trump couldn't even be bothered with his own son.

To me I think that right now the general public should leave Barron Trump alone because he's not the threat to American democracy—his father is. Barron should be left alone unless he ends up following his father and three older half-siblings into criminal activity disguised as a business named the Trump Organization or if he somehow gets into legal trouble on his own. If that happens then he should be fair game for public criticism. As this tweet puts it succinctly: “For everyone asking if Barron at 18 is now fair game, please remember: He hasn't solen from charities. He hasn't grabbed Chinese trademarks or Saudi billions. All he's done wrong is to be the son of a schmuck. Pls [Please] don't punish him for the sins of his father. That's not who we are.”

Personally I'm hoping that he'll end up being like his half-sister Tiffany and just live a quiet life. Last I heard from Tiffany was that she got married to a man from a wealthy billionaire family a couple of years ago and she's been living quietly out of the public spotlight since then. Maybe Barron Trump will end up the same way and we won't hear much from him in the years to come.

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