Summary

Mike Pence opposed Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of HHS, citing Kennedy’s support for abortion access as a sharp departure from the Trump-Pence administration’s pro-life stance.

Pence urged Senate Republicans to reject Kennedy’s nomination, claiming Kennedy supports “abortion on demand” and restoring Roe v. Wade.

Both pro-life and abortion rights groups criticized Kennedy’s appointment, with pro-life leaders expressing concerns about his past positions and abortion rights advocates calling him unfit.

  • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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    6 hours ago

    Gee, a republican accidentally doing the right thing for the worst possible reasons.

    What are the odds of that?

  • Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    20 hours ago

    I’m hoping the infighting really slows down the fascism just a lil bit. I’m really hoping we can get trump and musk to fight because they’re both egotistical assholes. Please somebody ask them who’s smarter during a public appearance.

    • TheFogan@programming.dev
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      19 hours ago

      Honestly I’m at the point where I just don’t know which way minimizes casualties. I feel like it’s like trying to calculate if the nukes in WW2 saved more lives than they cost.

      Stopping facism seems off the table. If something manages to moderate it, it may kill less per year, but may last decades longer.

      Letting it run without rails it may kill millions, may start a war, but it might collapse on itself sooner.

      IMO the real mystery is, did the people who had the spine to say no to trump in 2016-2020… part of why he got elected again… if trump had say been allowed to launch a nuke into a hurricane, would he have been able to make his comeback.

      • zarp86@sh.itjust.works
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        2 hours ago

        I feel like it’s like trying to calculate if the nukes in WW2 saved more lives than they cost.

        I know you are just using this as an analogy, but if you are curious:

        According to most estimates, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan killed between 140,000 and 210,000 people, with the majority of deaths occurring on the day of the bombings, August 6th and 9th, 1945 respectively

        And:

        During World War II, 1,506,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured, many in anticipation of the estimated casualties resulting from the planned Allied invasion of Japan. By the end of the war, even accounting for medals lost, stolen, or wasted, nearly 500,000 remained. The total combined American military casualties of the seventy years following the end of World War II—including the Korean and Vietnam Wars—did not exceed that number.

        I think the horrors of nuclear weapons were at least responsible for ending the war quicker and saving lives that would have been lost during a ground invasion if Japan never surrendered.

        • Anti-Face Weapon@lemmy.world
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          18 minutes ago

          I think it’s pretty well documented that an invasion of mainland Japan would have resulted in a greater loss of life on both sides. Furthermore most likely the Soviets would have invaded as well, meaning Japan would be split down the middle to this day.

        • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          I believe we are still issuing Purple Hearts from that 500,000 surplus to our troops.

          It’s also interesting to note that we’re basically lucky the Japanese surrendered after the second bomb. We didn’t have any more ready to go.

          Personally, I’m of the mind that we did save both American and Japanese lives by dropping the bombs versus invading the Japanese mainland. People forget how fiercely loyal the WWII-era Japanese soldier was to their cause. They had to play messages from the emperor to get the military to surrender, otherwise they just believed it was propaganda, and the Japanese propaganda of the day told them the American soldiers were coming to rape and kill every last one of them.

          One of the proposed weapons for an assault on the main Japanese islands was a bat-incendiary bomb. The bomb would be filled with bats that were strapped with time-delay incendiary bombs. The bomb would land and break apart, and the bats would scatter and hide amongst the houses in attics and what not. Eventually the bombs would detonate, and whatever Japanese town/city would be engulfed in flames city-wide.

    • Daemon Silverstein@thelemmy.club
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      19 hours ago

      Please somebody ask them who’s smarter during a public appearance.

      Excellent idea. Here’s my idea to improve it: someone should throw a golden apple with the carved words “τη εξυπνότερους” (“The smartest”, alluding to the “Ti Kallisti” inscription from the Apple of Discord), to make Eris proud.

      • Ooops@feddit.org
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        15 hours ago

        But I thought we were trying to not let that shitshow evolve into a full scale war.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    21 hours ago

    Mike Pence: I’m so wrong that even when I accidentally suggest the right thing, it’s because I’m so wrong.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      On the other hand, RFK has said more than once that AIDS isn’t caused by a virus, it’s caused by gay people partying. You’d think Pence would be on board with that.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      21 hours ago

      Funny how he still thinks anyone in the Republican party cares about what he has to say.

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    21 hours ago

    🤣

    What is this world

    Criticizing not because its a foolish pick, but because"omg hes too ‘left leaning’, omg abortion access omg will someone save the children"

    Edit: Also Pence you forgot you aren’t VP anymore.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Also Pence you forgot you aren’t VP anymore

      ABC also forgot, how the hell this moron’s opinion is worth a whole ass news article is completely beyond me

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Who fucking cares what Mike Pence thinks? Republicans hate his guts since Trump turned on him and everyone else has always hated him, and he doesn’t have any political power, so his opinion has like negative news value these days. I guess mainstream media companies just can’t resist his dynamic intellect and incredible charisma /s (that “/s” doesn’t really feel sufficient, he makes Jeff Sessions look smart and Jared Kushner seem human)

    • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      I have a little respect for him because he refused to give in to Trump’s demands to mess with the certification process on January 6th.

      I disagree with him on most everything, but he is a principled person. More than you can say for Trump.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        2 hours ago

        Pence didn’t refuse trump because he’s principled – he explored everything he could think of to go along with trump, even calling Dan Quayle to ask for more options:

        "Over and over, Pence asked if there was anything he could do.

        "‘Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,’ Quayle told him.

        "Pence pressed again.

        "‘You don’t know the position I’m in,’ he said, according to the authors.

        “‘I do know the position you’re in,’ Quayle responded. ‘I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power.’”

        Source: How Dan Quayle saved democracy. Yes, really.

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Nah, he was just looking out for himself and liked his odds better with the armed officers than with the angry mob. Fact is if he thought he could get away with imposing his ideal Christian dictatorship on all of us he’d do it in a heartbeat.

        He’s an asshole and an idiot who was stupid enough to work for Donald Trump in the first place, and thinking that moron dirtbags like him have anything valuable to say is only going to dig America into a deeper hole.