The White House is now insisting that all scientific and government-health related communication about the cdc be routed through the Trump administration before going public. And that person in charge of this communication funnel? Vice President Mike Pence, who as a governor previously took his sweet-ass time doing anything to address a major HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana.

From The New York Times:

The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.

[…]

Officials insist the goal is not to control the content of what subject-matter experts and other officials are saying, but to make sure their efforts are being coordinated, after days of confusion with various administration officials showing up on television. And they say they are not focused on specific news releases rather with a streamlined effort around television appearances.

The instinct to try and control epidemic news isn't necessarily bad if it's in good faith. People can panic and make bad decisions when they're scared,  which can also make it easier for predatory conmen to exploit that fear for profit. Scared and panicked people could potentially overwhelm medical services out of paranoia, preventing people who are actually infected with the condition from getting the help they need. Hell, I can even understand why my own doctor lied to me about swine flu. Read the rest

Illegitimate, popular vote losing President Donald Trump's spokeslackey and vice president Mike Pence visited Ireland on official United States business this week, and did so in a way that will personally enrich Donald Trump and his idiot spawn. Read the rest

Vic Berger makes CPAC 2019 even weirder, with edits that reveal the hidden darkness we missed while watching it unfold live last weekend. Read the rest

“The vice president will essentially call out Iran for their actions. He will give a message to those groups that are there, that, you know, if you stand with us, we’ll stand with you,” a White House official said.

Lady Gaga interrupted her performance during her Enigma show in Las Vegas this weekend to chew out Mike Pence.

While singing "Million Reasons," she stops mid-song to say, "If the fucking president of the United States could please put our government back in business. There are people who live paycheck to paycheck and need their money." She then moves on to Pence.

“And to Mike Pence, who thinks it's acceptable that his wife work at a school that bans LGBTQ, you are wrong. You say we should not discriminate against Christianity. You are the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian. I am a Christian woman, and what I do know about Christianity is that we bear no prejudice, and everybody is welcome. So you can take all that disgrace, Mr. Pence, and you can look yourself in the mirror, and you'll find it right there."

Via NBC Read the rest

Last week, incoming Senator Kyrsten Sinema [D-AZ] was sworn in by Mike Pence, in his aspect as President of the Senate, choosing to take her oath on a book containing both the Constitutions of the United States of America and Arizona, a tome repeating the framers' prohibition on the US government's establishment a state religion or discrimination on the basis of faith or lack thereof. Read the rest

As Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence was significantly to the right of the mainstream, even for his own party -- so it's no surprise that in the days after his resignation (to become vice president of the USA), his successor and state Republican lawmakers: pardoned an innocent man who'd been locked up for 20 years (whom Mike Pence refused to help); allowed a town to declare a state of emergency; greenlit a needle-exchange; and overrode his vetoes, which would have allowed university cops to keep their records secret and which prevented strict environmental rules. Read the rest

Indiana is one of many GOP-led states that assume that the poor performance of schools in poor neighborhoods is the fault of bad teaching -- and not, say, systemic poverty, the absence of funds raised by rich parents, hunger, mass incarceration -- and so teachers are offered bonuses for "improving" their students' outcomes, which generally means their standardized test scores (since presumptively bad teachers can't be trusted to evaluate their students' qualitative improvements). Read the rest

VP-elect Mike Pence's political career has consisted of a series of attacks on the rights of LGBTQ people and women, and his new neighbors in the navy blue precincts of DC know it, and they want him to know that his medieval views are considered aberrant by good people, so they've festooned their homes with rainbow flags that he'll have to pass during the transition -- until he gets to move into the new VP's residence in the basement of Trump Tower. Read the rest

Vice President-elect Mike Pence went to see Hamilton last night; he was booed on the way to his seat, but afterward, the cast acknowledged him with a brief set of remarks written by the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda: "We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf all of us." Read the rest