Irish Prime minister to challenge Pence on Gay marriage views

Irish Independent ^ | 12th March 2018 | Phillip Ryan

[Ennis85]

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has said he is concerned Irish whiskey could be targeted as part of the escalating trade war between the US and the EU.

Speaking on the first day of his week-long visit to the US, Mr Varadkar said when he hears the EU threaten to put import tariffs on US bourbon, it concerns him that Irish whiskey could also be hit with tariffs.

“When I hear bourbon whiskey I think the next response could be tariffs against Irish whiskey,” he said.

Speaking at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Mr Varadkar warned that a cross-Atlantic trade war would be “bad for everyone”.

During his visit to the festival, the Taoiseach met former Californian Governor and Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who invited him to visit his home town of Santa Monica.

The Taoiseach told the ‘Terminator’ star “I love your work” when they chatted in the corridors of the Hilton Hotel in Austin.

Meanwhile, in a wide-ranging interview with ‘Texas Tribune’ chief executive Evan Smith, Mr Varadkar discussed US President Donald Trump’s administration and a raft of domestic issues in Ireland.

Asked for his view of Mr Trump, the Taoiseach said “he’s definitely not a career politician”, adding that this was one of the reasons he was elected as president.

On Vice-President Mike Pence’s stance on marriage equality, Mr Varadkar said he always saw the US as a “beacon of freedom”, but added it is “really tough” to see that America is no longer a “world leader” on gay rights.

He said he thinks the majority of American people agree with him on marriage equality “even if the administration doesn’t”.

The Taoiseach said he intended to raise LGBT rights with Mr Pence when they meet on Friday.

On the issue of migration, Mr Varadkar said he would not comment on US policy, but he got a round of applause when he said 17pc of people living in Ireland were not born there and “we are all the better for it”.

Today he travels to Oklahoma where he will meet the Choctaw Nation and pay tribute for their relief efforts during the Great Famine. The tribe collected $170 – equal to several thousand dollars today – for famine relief in Ireland.

[Don Corleone]

Poor Ireland. Saint Patrick must be crying.

[miss marmelstein]

He thinks the USA will collapse if we stop importing Jameson. What world does he live in? I’m going to buy some Kentucky Bourbon to celebrate Ireland’s sad demise.

[The Deplorable Miss Lemon]

Why do we insist on inviting insufferable people into our country? Another lecture from another non-entity.

[utahagen]

“The Ireland of my ancestors is now just another European cesspool.It saddens me deeply to say that but facts are facts.”

Ditto. Can you believe that DIVORCE WAS ILLEGAL IN IRELAND A MERE 25 YEARS AGO?

[Maudeen]

The Prime minister needs to read his Bible to see what God has to say on the matter!

[Ouderkirk]

The court didn’t legalize same-sex “marriage” to advance freedom, but to use it as a battering ram against freedom.

[onedoug]

Pence is a Christian. That’s what this degenerate really hates.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
FReepers, it's far beyond time to wrap up this FReep-a-thon.  Lets do it today.  Please chip in.

President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.

Ramirez political cartoon:  Where is Everyone LARGE VERSION 03/11/2018: LINK  LINK to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).
Garrison political cartoon:  The Showdown LARGE VERSION 03/11/2018: LINK  LINK (scroll down) to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).

FReepers, 87.248% of the Third Quarter FReep-a-thon goal has been met.  Click above and pencil in your donation now.  Please folks, lets end this FReepathon.  Thank you!
...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $662.00 dollars to 88.00%

[DiogenesLamp]

Very non irish sounding surname

First thing I noticed too. Looked him up. His parents are from India.

A Homosexual of Indian descent is now the representative of Ireland.

[keat]

...but added it is “really tough” to see that America is no longer a “world leader” on gay rights.

Coming from a man who's country has never lead the world in anything, except perhaps desperate emmigration. Hopefully Pence invites him to shove it up his asre.

[gigster]

I did not know that Arnold’s “Home Town” was Santa Monica.

[Unam Sanctam]

Given the Supreme Court has already imposed same sex pseudo marriage on all fifty states, Vice President’s personal views, that in a free society he has every right to hold, are none of this guy’s freakin’ business. And as someone who works in a European company, I am sick to death of Europeans pontificating about the US and our politics!

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Whenever you think you’ve got it rough, just imagine being Anthony Kennedy in front of the Great White Throne.

[rmlew]

I watched a PBS show on the 1915 Irish uprising last night. Little did they know that a century hence, Ireland would be colonized by the non-Eurpeans of the British Empire, native Irish face the prospect of become minorities in their homeland, and the IRA would become a communist organization that attacks anyone opposing this.

[rmlew]

The saddest part of the this is taht the homosexual PM is from Fine Gael, which used to a be a Christian Democratic and Free Market party.

[wardaddy]

Brave new world DO

What can I say...

[fwdude]

This is what has become of generations of longing and martyrs for a free and independent Ireland.

In a large part caused by our own putrid exports during the 50's, 60's and 70's, the music being a very large part of that.

[DiogenesLamp]

Brave new world DO

Humanity has been down this road before. The only thing different now is more people and fancier technology, but depravity becoming popular has happened many times before.

It's old world paganism trying to make another return.

[Pelham]

“A Homosexual of Indian descent is now the representative of Ireland.”

That description sounds a lot like the loser that the GOPe selected to run for Gov of California last time around. Neel Kashkari. Not a fag himself but pro gay marriage, pro amnesty, abortion, climate change agenda, he even voted for Obama twice.

That’s who the national GOPe and their mouthpieces- Romney, Bush, Condi Rice, Karl Rove, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved insisted on over tea party choice Tim Donnelly, whom they smeared as a xenophobic nativist “appealling only to white conservatives”.

Not one of those treasonous GOPe fools lives in California, and yet freepers love to blame Californians for the cancer that this state has become.

[DiogenesLamp]

That’s who the national GOPe and their mouthpieces- Romney, Bush, Condi Rice, Karl Rove, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved insisted on over tea party choice Tim Donnelly, whom they smeared as a xenophobic nativist “appealling only to white conservatives”.

I've noticed with an entire series of conservative candidates that the Establishment wing of the party would rather have a Democrat than a conservative. They've torpedoed half a dozen of our candidates.

I've come to realize they are not actually on our side, though they play like they are on television.

I keep telling people that Lincoln created a government heavily embroiled in influence schemes and patronage, but certain other people with whom I argue simply refuse to accept the notion that the worst of it started with Lincoln's expansion of the government.

We've been living with this "establishment" system ever since, and the only thing about which they seem to care is to insure the money spigot keeps flowing so they can keep dealing out influence.