WELCOME TO THE INDIANA CAPITAL BUILDING NOT MY VP VANCE AUGUST 2025 & The Creator of the J.D. Vance Couch Joke Has Zero Regrets 31JUL2024

NOT MY vp vance gets the welcome he deserves.....

The Creator of the J.D. Vance Couch Joke Has Zero Regrets

And says he was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson

July 31, 2024

JM McNab

Even after rumors of a Simpsons-esque dolphin fetish surfaced online, a story about J.D. Vance’s penchant for couch-humping continues to dog the vice presidential candidate. Sure the story is clearly untrue, but nobody seems to mind.

The joke’s longevity has now been further extended by Vance himself, after he made a comment about his wife forcing him to sleep on the couch. It’s unclear how many injuries were sustained by people frantically rushing to their devices to make jokes.

The Vance rumor clearly began as a joke, an easily-debunkable claim on social media that the 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis contained a graphic remembrance of the time Vance got intimate with “an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions.” In retrospect, it’s too bad that we never got to see this scene brought to life by Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard.

The user behind the claim, @rickrudecalves, ended up deleting their account soon after after the joke took on a life of its own — not just on social media, but on cable news, where Fox News host Jesse Watters demanded to see video evidence of a teenage J.D. Vance defiling a chesterfield. 

Even Kamala Harris’ campaign account has made subtle references to the rumors.

But now the architect of the funniest political scandal of the year is speaking out. And he doesn’t seem to be too regretful about all that’s happened. As “Rick” told Business Insider, “I have really enjoyed thinking about (Vance’s) team and all of the idiots associated with him having to grapple with this,” adding, “I think by the time the AP (fact check) came out, I was talking to one of my sisters and saying, ‘Oh, yeah, Trump is already calling him a couch-fucker.’”

In his defense, Rick namechecked Werner Herzog, stating that the couch rumors represent what Herzog calls an “ecstatic truth,” which the legendary director describes as “a kind of truth that is the enemy of the merely factual.”

Rick also revealed the origin of the fake story, which apparently had nothing to do with the hormonal exploits of Jason Biggs. According to Rick, he was inspired by Lyndon Johnson’s infamous (perhaps apocryphal) “pig fucker” strategy, in which he asked his campaign manager to invent a salacious pork-based rumor about a political opponent, as recounted in Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ‘72. 

Johnson supposedly knew that such an allegation was wildly untrue, but he wanted to “make the sonofabitch deny it,” which could explain why Vance has yet to deny the rumors about his furniture kink. 

Rick including fake page numbers in his post, making the Vance story both believable and extremely easy to double-check, owes a debt to literary greats like Jorge Luis Borges and John Fowles, who similarly played with fictional citations. “It’s something I’ve found funny my entire life,” the former English major claimed. 

Although as far as we know, The French Lieutenant's Woman contained no references to sofa sex. 

VIDEO: INDIANA LT GOVERNOR GETS SCHOOLED ON DUE PROCESS BY HIS CONSTITUENTS

 THE only explanation for the constitutional ignorance of the lt governor of Indiana is his schooling in neo-nazi, fascist authoritarianism which is all to common in that state. THANK GOD many people in Indiana, as shown in this video, know and understand our laws, civil liberties, civil rights, human rights and our Constitution and are not intimidated by punks like their lt governor!

Beckwith, a Christian pastor by trade, was elected to the state's second-highest office last year alongside Republican Gov. Mike Braun.

The lieutenant governor has frequently split with Braun on state policy issues and garnered headlines for his taxpayer-funded purchase of a $88,000 SUV, lack of neutrality as the Indiana Senate's presiding officer and his belief that the federal government is using airplanes to control the weather.

PERIODS FOR PENCE; ‘Everything is flowing nicely': Women are calling Indiana’s governor to tell him about their periods 7APR16

I think women in Indiana, and from across the country, in solidarity with Indiana women should call gov pence's office (317 232 4567) or e mail him (use this address to complete the form, The Snatchel Project, 4750 N Meridian Street, Indianapolis, IN 46208 3540) and report on their menstrual flow. I think women should soak tampons in chunky salsa and pour it on sanitary pads  and mail them to gov mike pence's office (Office of Governor mike pence, State House, Room 206, Indianapolis, IN 46204 2797) and tell him to check them for menstrual miscarriages. And the knit your congressperson a uterus campaign should be reactivated and sent to gov pence and all the other neanderthal governors (find their addresses at ( http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/staff-directories--contact-infor/col2-content/governors-office-addresses-and-w.default.html ) who have signed these uber restrictive abortion restrictions into law. AND CHRISTIANS, especially those who have had abortions, should be asking these governors if they are so pro life why they insist on cutting funding for the very social safety net programs that provide for the children they insist on being born and their families. Where is the Christianity in that??? From the +Washington Post .....

‘Everything is flowing nicely': Women are calling Indiana’s governor to tell him about their periods

By Tusha Mittal April 7 at 1:39 PM

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in 2015. (Michael Conroy/AP)

The office of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has been fielding some unusual calls this week. In response to a new abortion law, women are reporting the details of their menstrual cycles to befuddled staff.

“Hello, everything is flowing nicely this month, little heavier than normal,” one woman said she told Pence’s office. “My vagina and I had an amazing weekend,” another said. “I just wanted to inform the governor that things seem to be drying up today,” a third said.

These calls come from Indiana residents protesting the state’s new abortion law, which bans abortions motivated by the fetus’s race, gender or disabilities such as Down syndrome and makes doctors liable if they perform them. The law also states that the remains of a “miscarried or aborted fetus must be interred or cremated.”

[Indiana just banned abortion if a fetus has Down syndrome]

To one suburban mother in Indiana, the burial provision crossed the line into absurdity. She created a Facebook page called Periods for Pence 10 days ago.

“Any period could potentially be a miscarriage without knowledge,” she wrote. “I would hate for any of my fellow Hoosier women to be at risk of penalty if they do not ‘properly dispose’ of this or report it. Perhaps we should contact Governor Pence’s office to report our periods. We wouldn’t want him thinking that thousands of Hoosier women are trying to hide anything, would we?”

In a generally conservative and antiabortion state, the Facebook page has picked up more than 30,000 likes and has provoked a heavy influx of calls to the governor’s office. The creator of the page says this law crossed a line that bothered even Christian and Republican women.

“I’m not an activist and I’ve never been politically involved, but I’ve voted Republican,” she said. She asked to remain anonymous, because she works with children at a Christian organization.

“If I revealed my identity, I’d lose my job by next Monday,” she said. “There is a perception in the Christian community that you’re not religious if you’re pro-choice. But I go to church every weekend and think of myself as a good Christian.”

[Pope Francis connects the environment, abortion and ‘throwaway culture’]

The Christian research group LifeWay Research recently surveyed 1,038 women who have had abortions. It found that 70 percent had a Christian religious preference and that 43 percent reported attending church monthly or more often. More than half of churchgoers who have had an abortion said they did not tell anyone at their church about their decision.

Pence’s office has not officially responded to the tongue-in-cheek phone calls, except to say staffers are “always willing to take calls from constituents who have questions, concerns or are looking for assistance.” The governor’s supporters have suggested the calls come from Democrats.

“The people who are joining this weren’t going to vote for him anyhow,” Republican strategist Mike Murphy said to Fox 59. “Right to life in this state is a winning issue, hands down.”

But several women who have participated in the Periods for Pence campaign say they have previously been Republican voters.

[Doctors worry about how Indiana abortion law will affect their patients]

Krystle Berger, 30, said she has always voted Republican, based on economic policy. “But as he has openly promoted socially backward laws regardless of how much they grow the government, I can’t support Governor Pence any longer,” she said.

Indianapolis resident Michelle Moore, 49, said that she emailed Pence a question: “How would I know if my teenage daughter expels fetal tissue? Should I be checking my teenage daughter’s period or will the state be sending someone around monthly?”

She said she has liberal views but used to be open to voting for Republicans. She consistently voted for longtime Republican Sen. Richard Lugar.

But this law might change her views. “I had a miscarriage at 5.5 weeks between my two kids,” she said. “You feel very guilty. It’s a horrible feeling.”

She said, “If someone said, ‘Now take these remains and have a funeral service,’ I can’t even imagine how much more painful it would have been.”

The founder of the Facebook page said people have called these women’s phone calls to Pence “childish” and “immature.”

“But this is a ridiculous response,” she said, “to a ridiculous bill.”

The last honest conservative: Meet the brilliant Ronald Reagan appointee making Antonin Scalia’s life very difficult 2SEP14

WHO knew? Thank God there are some well placed judges who understand justice is not determined by the masses. From +Salon .....
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2014 05:17 PM EST

The last honest conservative: Meet the brilliant Ronald Reagan appointee making Antonin Scalia’s life very difficult

On three high-profile cases bound for the Supreme Court, Judge Richard Posner has seen through right-wing blather

Eric J. Segall

Richard Posner, Antonin Scalia (Credit: Reuters/John Gress/Brendan Mcdermid)

Judge Richard Posner has written nearly 40 books, hundreds of articles and thousands of judicial opinions. He is, by far, the most cited legal scholar alive today (probably ever). Nominated by Ronald Reagan, he sits on the United States Court of Appeals, just below the Supreme Court. He has publicly feuded with Justice Antonin Scalia over how judges actually decide, and should decide, cases. And, over the last year, he has spoken truth to power in three high-profile cases all likely to be decided by the Supreme Court.
On issues of abortion, same-sex marriage and religious objections to Obamacare, Posner said exactly what needed to be said with honest, unequivocal and, to some perhaps, startling clarity.
The University of Notre Dame didn’t want to provide certain forms of required contraception to its students and employees so it went to court seeking a religious exemption. The bizarre thing about the case is Notre Dame was already exempt. What it wanted was not to fill out the form that would have guaranteed the university an exemption. Notre Dame claimed, to most people’s disbelief, that filling out the short form and asking for the exemption was itself a substantial burden on its religious exercise.
Posner would have none of it. At the oral argument, he took a harsh tone with the lawyer for Notre Dame who refused again and again to answer directly how filling out a piece of paper could possibly be a “substantial burden on religion.” Becoming more and more frustrated, Posner eventually asked the lawyer to “stop babbling,” and “stop fencing,” eventually warning him that “if you don’t cooperate with me, I’m not going to let you continue your argument.” The judge’s frustration stemmed from his perception that Notre Dame’s claims had no merit, and the lawyer was simply bobbing and weaving.

---

---

Eventually, Notre Dame lost (the court of appeals uses three-judge panels) and the final opinion written by Posner said this: “The novelty of Notre Dame’s claim–not for the exemption, which it has, but for the right to have it without having to ask for it–deserves emphasis … What makes this case and others like it involving the contraception exemption paradoxical and virtually unprecedented is that the beneficiaries of the religious exemption are claiming that the exemption process itself imposes a substantial burden on their religious faiths … The process of claiming one’s exemption … is the opposite of cumbersome.  It amounts to signing one’s name and mailing the signed form to two addresses.”
From the oral argument through the decision, Posner seemed shocked at the idea that Notre Dame would challenge an exemption given to it by the federal government on the basis that it, gasp, had to ask for it. He couldn’t be more right.
A few months later, Posner, again along with two other judges, reviewed the validity of a brand-new Wisconsin law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The law, if valid, would make it much more difficult for clinics in Wisconsin to provide abortion services because, of the four clinics in the entire state that perform abortions, two would have been shut down.  Although the case came to the court on a preliminary motion (an emergency stay had been granted by the lower court), Posner took the opportunity to demonstrate why he thought the plaintiffs would eventually prevail.
In affirming the stay, Posner noted that “no documentation of medical need for such an admitting privileges requirement was presented to the Wisconsin legislature when the bill that became the law was introduced.” He also noted that no “other procedure performed outside a hospital, even one as invasive as a surgical abortion (such as a colonoscopy) …  and even if performed when the patient is under general anesthesia … is required by Wisconsin law to be performed by doctors who have admitting privileges at hospitals within a specified, or indeed any, radius of the clinic at which the procedure is performed.”  Posner added that the risks of colonoscopies are three to six times greater than the risks of abortions (yet doctors can perform them in outpatient centers without having admitting privileges), and that, based on a report by the state, out of 1,192 abortions that were reported, there were only 16 complications, a rate of less than 1 percent.
Throughout the opinion, Posner implied, though didn’t go as far as to conclude, that the obvious purpose of the law was not to further women’s health but simply to make abortions more difficult to obtain. For example, on the issue of the timing of the law, he said “it has been 40 years since Roe v. Wade … was decided, legalizing (most) abortion throughout the United States, and it could not have taken the State of Wisconsin all this time to discover the supposed hazards of abortions performed by doctors who do not have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.”
Posner saw through the litigation and the alleged health benefits of the admitting privileges law. His opinion will make it virtually impossible for Wisconsin to win this case if and when it returns for a final disposition, and rightfully so.
Finally, Posner was recently one of three judges to hear oral argument in a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin and Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage. Although the case has not yet been decided, there is no question how Posner will vote. When the lawyer for Wisconsin justified the ban based on “tradition,” Posner responded by saying “It was tradition to not allow blacks and whites to marry — a tradition that got swept away.” He also said the ban stems from “a tradition of hate … and savage discrimination” against same-sex couples.
During the argument, the state argued that the purpose of the ban had something (ill-defined) to do with procreation and biology. Posner responded, “It’s arbitrary. You’re allowing all these sterile people to get married. Why are you doing that if you’re so concerned with procreation? Why do you let them?”
Posner also asked the state’s lawyer about the harm to children of same-sex couples denied benefits that children of opposite-sex couples receive and further chided the lawyer by saying that “You are concerned with the unfortunate children produced by accidental births … many of these (unintended children) are adopted by same-sex couples, and these children will be better off if their parents can marry, no? Isn’t that obvious?”
Posner thought it was “obvious” that filling out a form cannot possibly be a substantial burden on religion, that the state of Wisconsin and Indiana didn’t care one bit about women’s health when it decided to require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals, and that bans on same-sex marriage have little to do with permissible concerns Wisconsin may have about marriage and children and everything to do with unlawful and arbitrary discrimination. As a matter of law he is right about all three cases. As a matter of politics, we will have to wait until the Supreme Court decides to have our final answers.

Eric Segall is the Kathy & Lawrence Ashe Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. He is the author of "Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court Is Not a Court and Its Justices are Not Judges" and has written numerous law review articles on constitutional law and other legal topics. He appears regularly on "StandUp With Pete Dominic" on XM Radio and tweets at @espinsegall.

More Eric J. Segall.

GOP Rep. Introduces Totally Sane Abortion Bill 10MAI12

PROVING not all republicans are right wing tea-bagging extremist Rep Robert Dold R IL has introduced legislation to prohibit discrimination against health care providers that perform abortions and so protects a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion. He is taking the moral high ground unlike so many other legislators on the state and national level, recognizing that pro life doesn't end at birth and sometimes, no matter how much we may not like to admit it, a woman has the right to choose to have an abortion. This from Mother Jones / MOJO.....

—By Kate Sheppard

neontommy/Flickr

Going against the broader trend among House Republicans, Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) rolled out a bill on Wednesday that would protect women's access to abortion. The freshman lawmaker introduced the "Protecting Women's Access to Health Care Act," which would strengthen laws prohibiting discrimination against health care providers that provide abortions. The bill is meant to counter Dold's GOP colleagues' efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.
GQ's Marin Cogan reported from Dold's tiny press conference to unveil the bill, noting that the Republican congressman didn't have any cosponsors with him—instead, supporters from Planned Parenthood and Republican Majority for Choice were at his side. "This is an opportunity that we've got to do the right thing," Dold told Cogan.
It's already illegal to discriminate against healthcare providers for also offering abortions. So when states pass laws barring federal family planning money—called Title X funds—from going to groups that also provide abortions, the federal government cuts off those states' access to all federal family planning money. So far, that hasn't stopped a number of states, including Indiana, Texas, and Kansas, from passing laws that discriminate against abortion providers anyway. Dold may be hoping that by strengthening the legal prohibition against such discrimination, he can tempt some states to reconsider—and, perhaps, that he will get some media attention to remind voters in his new, much more Democratic district that he identifies as pro-choice.

Kate Sheppard

Reporter

Kate Sheppard is a staff reporter Mother Jones' Washington bureau. For more of her stories, click here. She Tweets here. RSS | Twitter

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/gop-rep-introduces-totally-sane-abortion-bill?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Motherjones%2Fmojoblog+%28MotherJones.com+|+MoJoBlog%29 

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Senate GOP Candidates In Hot Water Over Taking Earmarks, Government Funds 26AUG10

THE song remains the same for the gop, scream, bitch, moan, groan about the budget deficit, TARP, earmarks and the stimulus to deceive the public into believing they are against these things while working the system to get as much as they can, often for their own benefit or for the benefit of wealthy corporate contributors. Yes, Democrats do the earmark thing too, but at least a majority of them will admit to it and tout the benefits of the spending programs they sought funding for. From HuffPost....
There has been and, it appears, always will be tension between the strict anti-earmark and government spending philosophy of the modern Republican Party and the occasional demands of governance.
In the past week, a series of stories have surfaced in local papers calling Republican candidates to task for making a big show about government spending in public while either requesting or taking federal funds in the former or current capacities.
The most glaring example was surfaced by the Denver Post on Thursday. The paper reported that Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck had requested at least $5 million in earmarks for projects in the county where he served as attorney general. On the campaign trail, Buck has railed against pork-barrel projects including signing a pledge to refuse earmarks in the next session of Congress.
A similar scenario has taken place in Wisconsin, where a local television station reported that Senate candidate Ron Johnson received a $2.5 million government-issued loan in the 1980s to expand his factory. Like Buck, Johnson has made railing against government spending a main feature of his run for office.
In Indiana, meanwhile, Senate candidate Dan Coats has run on a platform of preventing a government takeover of private enterprise, only for it to be discovered that he lobbied the Senate on the TARP for a company he represented.
Coats isn't the only one facing charges of duplicity in his state. Gov. Mitch Daniels -- a much-discussed potential presidential candidate -- reversed course this week on a pledge he had made to reject federal aid for teachers and Medicaid. (Daniels had actually been supportive of the aid before he came out against it during a national television appearance).
Each of these lawmakers had individual explanations. Buck said that by accepting federal funds he didn't forfeit his beliefs that government spending needed to be axed. Johnson's campaign has insisted that his loan was not a payment or subsidy. It was, in the end, paid back in full. Daniels, meanwhile, had his hand forced predominantly by state lawmakers who recognized a need for the stimulus money and pushed him to accept it.
The anecdotes, nevertheless, are already being used as fodder for Democrats intent on labeling the Republican Party as housed with fiscal conservative frauds.
Whether howling about contradictions can be an effective political charge seems doubtful. Shortly after the stimulus package was passed, Democrats made a major fuss over revelations that GOP officials were not only appearing at ribbon-cutting ceremonies for stimulus projects but also privately lobbying government agencies for the funds. Republicans kept on criticizing the stimulus, however, and have suffered little in the realm of public opinion for the seeming hypocrisy.

• 2010 Elections

There has been and, it appears, always will be tension between the strict anti-earmark and government spending philosophy of the modern Republican Party and the occasional demands of governance. In ...

There has been and, it appears, always will be tension between the strict anti-earmark and government spending philosophy of the modern Republican Party and the occasional demands of governance. In ...

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Dems Slam Mike Pence for Hosting Job Fair with Stimulus-Backed Employers 11AUG10

(Credit: Getty Images/Alex Wong)

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, like other Republicans in Congress this week, excoriated Democrats for their $26 billion extension of stimulus aid, which President Obama signed into law this week, as a state "bailout" that enables states to put off hard budget decisions.

While on the House floor criticizing the aid package on Tuesday, Pence pointed to a jobs fair he hosted yesterday in his district as an example of Americans "reaching for a better future." He failed to mention, however, that a number of the employers present at the job fair were recipients of stimulus funding.
But Democrats say Pence's job fair is yet another example of Republicans taking credit for jobs created by the stimulus while at the same time criticizing the program. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called the House Republican leadership "blatant hypocrites."

"If such blatant hypocrites like Mike Pence, Eric Cantor, and John Boehner had their way, the jobs in their districts that they've been trying to take credit for wouldn't even be there," DCCC spokesperson Ryan Rudominer said.

However, Republicans maintain that, with unemployment hovering at close to 10 percent, the president's policies have clearly failed to create jobs.
"At this very hour more than a thousand Hoosiers are gathered at a job fair in my district," Pence said on the House floor yesterday before Democrats passed the $26 billion bill, which will provide funds for Medicaid and teacher salaries. "Some 65 companies have come together with a few cherished openings. My duty is here. But to be honest with you, I would rather be there, standing with those courageous Hoosiers who have come out, put on their Sunday best, and are reaching for a better future."
Pence continued, "Congress ought to be taking action; but not this, not more of the same. Here we go again. Another jobs bill, another bailout. Washington, D.C. -- now after a year and a half of failed economic policies, a stimulus and borrowing and spending and bailouts and takeovers -- says we need to do another jobs bill, so let's do another bailout."
On his website, Pence hailed the success of the Sixth Congressional District Job Fair, which drew about 1,200 citizens in a county with a 12 percent unemployment rate.
Pence told the Star-Press newspaper that it was "a priority" for companies participating in the job fair to be hiring.
At least 16 of the 65 companies at the job fair received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including Ball State University -- the location of the job fair -- and at least three more benefited indirectly from the stimulus. The impact the stimulus had on those employers was varied. Brevini Wind USA, Inc. of Yorktown, Indiana benefited greatly, receiving $12.75 million to open a new manufacturing facitlity that will produce parts for wind turbine manufacturers.
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor similarly came under fire last year for holding a job fair with stimulus-funded employers while blasting the stimulus.
Democrats have pointed to such figures as examples of hypocrisy from Republicans.
Matt Lloyd, a spokesperson for Pence, said that the nation's unemployment rate shows that Democrats have failed at creating jobs.
"While the Obama administration advances a public relations campaign to convince America that borrowing more money from future generations will heal the economy, the American people continue to ask, 'Where are the jobs?'" he said. "Congressman Pence hosted a job fair to help underemployed and overtaxed constituents get back to work."