WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that he will make a decision “by the spring” about whether to seek the presidency and suggested that he would pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee if that’s a condition of participating in primary debates.

“If I’m a candidate, I’m sure I’ll meet whatever the requirement is for debates,” Pence told NBC News in an exclusive interview.

As for his timing, Pence said he has a little while before he has to make a decision. “We’re listening, we’re reflecting, we’re talking to firms,” Pence said, adding that “by the spring, our family expects to have a very clear sense of our calling.”

His timing could be complicated by special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into former President Donald Trump. Smith is asking a federal judge to compel Pence to testify before a grand jury about Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/pence-says-nearing-decision-2024-presidential-bid-rcna72258

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by several million votes and things are only going to get worse for the Republicon Party.

By 2024, the Republicon base will have become smaller as more voters over 65 die and the 18-24 voting block increases its numbers.

The fatal wound for the GOP is its “platform,” which embraces: the 1950’s when women and minorities knew their place; the Gilded Age when the many were subservient to the few; and the Middle Ages when the only classes in existence were the Royals and the Serfs.

As the table shows, the only voting bloc in which the Republican Party dominates is the over 65 group, to which FOX and other right wing media outlets have been spoon feeding their propaganda for more than a generation.  Some from that bloc continue a slow drip over time to the Democrats, as former Republicans leave the party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When death occurs, there are the inevitable death throes.  So when you see Donald Trump screaming about a stolen election that wasn’t stolen, Marjorie Taylor Greene screaming about 6 billion illegal immigrants and Jewish space lasers, or Tucker Carlson parroting Russian talking points, do not fret.  This is just the death throes of a dying rat.

Do not worry about the future.  Vote, and look forward to what is coming.  It is going to be good.

Kentucky health officials have warned people who attended a large “spiritual revival” to be on the lookout for any measles symptoms after an unvaccinated participant came down with the disease.

Measles are re-emerging as a concerning health issue as anti-vaxxers have spread their message to cover other vaccines. Some religious groups also preach against vaccines. Measles can have serious complications, such as pneumonia and encephalitis. Nearly 250,000 kindergarten children are now vulnerable to the disease amid a drop off in vaccinations, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control.  (COMMENT:  Let’s hope the anti-vaxxers die off from diseases that the rest of us are protected from.)

“Anyone who attended the revival” at Asbury University in the town of Wilmore on Feb. 18 “may have been exposed to measles,” Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, warned in a statement. “Attendees who are unvaccinated are encouraged to quarantine for 21 days, and to seek immunization with the measles vaccine, which is safe and effective.”

He also warned anyone with symptoms not to show up at hospitals, clinics or emergency rooms without advance notice so health care workers can take precautions to protect themselves and others. Measles is extremely contagious.

The latest case is the third in three months, according to officials, but cases can spike quickly.

Symptoms may include fever, cough, runny nose and a rash three to five days after symptom onset.

The Kentucky Health Department is working with local agencies to boost the number of children who receive the combination measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination. MMR vaccine coverage among Kentucky kindergarten children is among the lowest in the nation, according to CDC statistics. (COMMENT:  “among the lowest in the nation . . . “!!!  After all, this is Kentucky.)

Your Daily News Headlines for the Foreseeable Future

“Marjorie Taylor-Greene humiliates herself with latest insane remarks.”

“Lauren Boebert proves she’s even dumber than previously thought.”

“Hunter Biden’s laptop still being investigated – GOP insists ‘smoking gun’ evidence will be found any day now.”

“Mike Lindell says he has irrefutable proof that 2020 election was stolen – and this time, he really means it.”

“Kari Lake claims her ‘installation’ as Arizona governor imminent.”

“George Santos adds six more university degrees to his resume.”

And the inevitable …

“Trump still acting like deranged lunatic at ever-shrinking ‘rallies’.”

By first world standards, the American rail system, like much of our other infrastructure, is totally antiquated. That makes it inherently dangerous.

Why you ask? There are two main reasons. FIRST, the railroad industry is making big profits from their obsolete systems thank you very much, and has no incentive too improve anything that might diminish those profits. Cleaning up derailments is a cost of doing business and its far cheaper than upgrading the system. SECOND, and here is the main point that is being missed, the Obama regulation that Trump abandoned was so tiny as to be almost meaningless. Its main purpose was an attempt to keep Bakken oil unit trains (100 to 120 cars all carrying that single cargo) from burning down another town such as the 2013 disaster in Lac Megantic, Quebec which killed 47 people. It would have had no effect on other trains. That rule mandated improved braking systems in one class of train while leaving the vast majority of obsolescent trains unaffected.

The entire rail system is obsolescent from top to bottom.

• Many rail beds are in poor repair from being pounded by ever heavier trains (the same is true for interstate highways). Weakened road beds force reduced speeds and cause trains to shimmy and rock unnecessarily making derails more likely.
• We are still using creosoted wood ties, an environmental nightmare in themselves, which have to be replaced periodically. As those ties deteriorate trains again become less safe. The rest of the first world systems went to concrete ties years ago.
• Significant parts of traffic control systems are also obsolete. The vast majority of our rail lines are single track which puts an especially high demand on control systems. Most first class systems are double track. Double track lines can carry more freight, more efficiently, with greater safety.
• A large percentage of rail cars are old and obsolescent. Many should be replaced a.s.a.p. A contributing factor to many of the destructive Bakken oil fires was that the tank cars were of single walled construction. At least for those specific cargoes, those old tankers have been replaced by double walled tankers that are much less prone to rupture. As far as I could tell, all of the hazardous chemical tankers involved in the Ohio derail were single walled. Improved braking on a few unit trains is meaningless until every car on every train is upgraded or replaced with new cars incorporating the newer systems.
• Finally, in the interest of maximizing profits, many of the railroads have eliminated employees that were tasked with watching for hazardous situations and preventing accidents before they happen. Companies have not built enough automated sensors to replace those employees.
• Oh, and BTW, maybe we could create a passenger rail system efficient and fast enough (not to mention more comfortable), to compete with air travel. All of these changes could help to reduce our carbon footprint.

I have tried to point out how large the problems of railroad safety are. As I have said, there are no real incentives for the railroads to change. A few tweaks to regulations, no matter how well intended, are not going to cure the problems. Too bad we don’t have a Congress that is interested in governing. Congress could mandate that all of these safety problems must be comprehensively addressed. The problems really are more extensive than what the industry can address on its own.

A massive Railroad Investment Infrastructure bill, spent over decades, budgeting funds for everything from right-of-way acquisition, total rebuilt of the old lines, replacement of obsolescent equipment, especially the electrification of the entire fleet of locomotives to replace dirty diesel units, and hiring of more personnel, would be required to do the job. Not only would that bill be a creator of a vast number of new jobs, it would be and investment in the future of the country in an ever more competitive world.

A federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump, the ex-president, and FBI Director Chris Wray can both be deposed in sworn testimony in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former senior FBI official Peter Strzok and a case alleging unlawful release of personal text messages, filed by Lisa Page. A noted legal expert is applauding the decision.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson Thursday afternoon ordered Trump and Wray to be questioned in a case alleging the two former FBI agents were “targeted for retribution,” according to The Washington Post. There’s one caveat: President Joe Biden must agree to not invoke executive privilege. He has one month to weigh in.

“Strzok seeks reinstatement and back pay over what he alleges was his unfair termination for criticizing then-president Trump,” The Post reports. “Page alleges officials unlawfully released a trove of politically charged text messages she exchanged with Strzok, with whom she was having an affair.”

Judge Jackson “was right to rule that ex-POTUS Donald Trump and sitting FBI Director Christopher Wray may both be questioned in the lawsuits by ex-FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page,” constitutional law expert and University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University Laurence Tribe tweeted. Tribe is also the co-founder of the American Constitution Society.

“It’s called the rule of law, guys,” he added.

Earlier this month, as Politico’s Josh Gerstein suggested at the time, Trump brought this on himself when he “boasted” about getting Strzok and others fired:

As the court filing from Strzok on Feb. 3 noted, one day earlier Trump told Hugh Hewitt: “Don’t forget, these guys, before I even got in, they were spying on my campaign, long before I got in. This didn’t just happen. And if I didn’t fire Comey, and if I didn’t fire McCabe and Strzok and Page and all of that scum that was in there, you would have had, they were trying to do an overthrow. And they, just think of it. They spied on my campaign from the time I came down the escalator. And here I am, innocently running to do something great, and I have this garbage that’s in there headed up by Comey and the group. They spied on my campaign, and I got rid of them all. I got rid of them all. But it was more than them. It was more than them, and you know that. And you know that’s coming again.”

Trump’s next utterance will be:  “It’s so unfair.  Why am I being treated this way?”

The high profile case of Ashli Babbitt, whose death on Jan. 6 became a rallying point for conservatives, has since lost the limelight and her wrongful death lawsuit is still up in the air.

A new report by local news outlet ABC8 San Diego detailed a battle that has erupted over money that was intended to be used to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

The lawsuit was supposed to be funded by an online crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly a half million dollars, $462,735 to be exact. The goal was $500,000.

Gerhardt Fox spearheaded the fundraising campaign. But a disagreement between Fox and one of the other campaign organizers led to a separation, which has led to the case stalling.

According to Fox, other organizers were seeing the opportunity as a money grab and didn’t have Babbitt’s memory as their top priority.

It has been exactly a year since the law firm behind the successful crowdfunding campaign withdrew itself from the case, according to state court records. The law firm is Roberts and Wood.

The prior communication between the law firm and Babbitt’s widower has been publicly documented.

Two months after Roberts and Wood withdrew their firm from the case, firm owner Terry Roberts wrote a letter to her widower, Aaron Babbitt, stating, “if you have not retained a lawyer by May 30, 2022, I will take for granted that a lawsuit is not going to (be) filed, and I will refund the crowd-funding money back to the donors.”

Aaron Babbitt then hired a new attorney and filed a petition to transfer the money to Ashli Babbitt’s estate in May 2022. However, in June 2022, a probate judge denied the petition, leaving the half million dollars in a state of uncertainty.

Babbitt was shot after being on the scene of the Jan. 6 insurrection as she broke through a window, in the US Capitol in an attempt to attack members of Congress.

President Jimmy Carter created more jobs per year than Ronald Reagan & George W. Bush combined.