Mike Pence to give speech at NRA convention, where for his protection no guns will be permitted. Wait, what?

Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee:  

Guns won’t be allowed when Vice President Mike Pence speaks Friday at a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas in order to protect his safety. 

The NRA says the Secret Service ordered the ban, but survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting are calling the move hypocritical, noting the organization’s fierce opposition to gun-free zones in most public places. 

No firearms or weapons of any kind will be allowed at the NRA Leadership Conference at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, during Pence’s appearance, according to an NRA website. The notice emphasizes that the U.S. Secret Service is responsible for security at the conference, given Pence’s attendance.

So wait, everybody being armed makes everybody safer, EXCEPT the Vice President?

As you might imagine this smacked of hypocrisy for many people, including the Parkland survivors.

The NRA has evolved into such a hilarious parody of itself. pic.twitter.com/6Pw6NTQAe6

— Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) April 28, 2018

And the parents of those who did not survive the Parkland school shooting.

On so many levels, this is enlightening. According to the NRA, we should want everyone to have weapons when we are in public. But when they put on a convention, the weapons are a concern? I thought giving everyone a gun was to enhance safety. Am I missing something? https://t.co/f4wgNhJ7RI

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) April 28, 2018

We also need to keep in mind that this is not the first time that the NRA has been caught being complete hypocrites.

It's really strange that when the NRA has a speaking event, or at CPAC, or at a Trump rally... it's a "gun free zone". I wonder why? Probably because guns kill people. #GunReformNow pic.twitter.com/MZ7ZPSPS2F

— Alternative NOAA (@altNOAA) February 25, 2018

The NRA is going to have to finally decide whether or not guns keep EVERYBODY safe, or if they are only dangerous to people that they care about.

Really can't have it both ways. 

John Oliver turns his attention to Vice President Mike Pence. Poor Mike Pence. Update!

Courtesy of the AV Club: 

With the chaos at the Trump White House mounting every single day to what seems like an inevitable flashpoint involving a constitutional crisis, impeachment, indictment, diversionary declaration of war, or simply a White House staffed with no one but Trump relatives and their wedding planners, it’s tempting to look ahead to the theoretically more stable prospect of President Mike Pence. But, as John Oliver lays out in the main story of Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, be very fucking careful what you wish for.

Oliver, calling Pence “the opposite of whatever a silver fox is” (settling on “ashen weasel”), takes a hard, typically incisive and hilariously pissed off look at exactly how extreme the positions of the (current) Vice President are. From his vocal opposition to women in the military, his prayer-based non-response to an HIV outbreak in Indiana when he was governor, to his ongoing abetting and excusing of literally every ignorant, hateful, or outright lunatic and untrue thing that dribbles out of his boss’ mouth, Oliver presents a portrait of a man whose outward appearance of un-Trump-ian sanity barely conceals the frothing, right wing loon within. Especially when it comes to the LGBTQ community, where Pence’s long history of bigotry includes overt, verifiable support of one James Dobson and the organization Focus on the Family, your go-to zealots for “shock ‘em ‘til they’re not gay anymore” “conversion therapy.”

Of course the point Oliver is trying to make is that Mike Pence is a fucking three car pile up, which we all seem completely oblivious to because he is always standing next to the human train wreck.

Look I want Trump out of office at least as much as the next guy, probably more actually, but if we take him out and leave Pence in place we may simply find ourselves exchanging one walking nightmare for another.

Update: So apparently John Oliver's bunny book is outselling Mike Pence's bunny book.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:  

On Sunday night John Oliver announced on HBO’s Last Week Tonight that A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a children’s book about a gay bunny, named after a pet rabbit owned by the family of Vice President Mike Pence, would be available immediately. That meant it beat a rival children’s book, Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President, written by Pence’s daughter, Charlotte, and illustrated by his wife, Karen, by mere hours to the digital shelves. 

As of Monday afternoon, Last Week Tonight’s book—which was written by Jill Twiss and illustrated by E.G. Keller, an artist from Pence’s home state of Indiana—was the No. 1 seller on Amazon, with the Pences’ book lagging noticeably behind at No. 6. With over 1,200 user reviews by that time, the Last Week Tonight book earned a rare five-star rating. The Pences’ effort had less than 50 reviews, and a woeful one-and-a-half-star rating.

I swear John Oliver is a national treasure. 

Study finds that belief in religious fundamentalism partly due to a brain impairment. Tell me something I didn't know.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness. 

Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group. 

Religious fundamentalism refers to an ideology that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and discourages progressive thinking about religion and social issues. Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview.

Once again this is one of the those things which seems so blatantly obvious, and which we are supposed to be too polite to say out loud.

If you literally believed in leprechauns, unicorns, or zombies people would legitimately be concerned about your mental health, but if you wrap it in a religious shroud then suddenly your insistence that magical beings are all around us looking out for our well being is taken as a testament to your deep faith.

Remember how Joy Behar was forced to publicly apologize for suggesting that Mike Pence was mentally ill for saying that Jesus Christ talked to him?

Joy Behar of `The View’ apologizes for comments she made about Vice President Mike Pence and Christianityhttps://t.co/KF1sNAcoYJ

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) March 13, 2018

Well obviously she was right.

So Mike Pence predicts that legal abortion will end in our lifetime. I'm sorry, what?

No abortion for you, no abortion for you, nobody gets an abortion.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Vice President Pence predicted Tuesday that legal abortion would end in the U.S. "in our time." 

"I know in my heart of hearts this will be the generation that restores life in America," Pence said at a luncheon in Nashville, Tenn., hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List & Life Institute, an anti-abortion organization. 

"If all of us do all we can, we can once again, in our time, restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law." 

Pence has long championed anti-abortion policies, as a congressman, as the governor of Indiana and as vice president. 

He told the crowd he has seen more progress in the Trump administration's first year in office than he has in his entire life. 

Okay, well this seems bad.

Perhaps Mike Pence does not realize this, but the Supreme Court decided that access to legal abortions in this country is a woman's right.

It was a little case called Roe vs Wade. You may have heard of it, it was in all the papers.

So the vice president can do nothing to erase that, nor can he do it once he replaces an impeached Donald Trump as our new president.

But the fact that he is so determined to try is extremely troubling, and just one more reason that in the 2018 election cycle we need to elect as many Democrats as possible and send them to Washington.

While in Jerusalem Mike Pence calls Stormy Daniels allegations "baseless," and then goes on to defend Trump's "shithole" comments.

#ArtOfTheDeal pic.twitter.com/kUVEF2X0Vd

— BlueVotr (@BlueVotr) January 22, 2018

Courtesy of CBS News:  

Vice President Mike Pence says reports that an adult film star had an alleged affair with President Trump are "baseless allegations." 

Pence spoke to The Associated Press during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday. He said he was "not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president."

Okay, has Mike Pence read the In Touch article yet?

I'm sorry what was I thinking? Has Mike Pence's wife read him the In Touch article while Pence gripped a Bible and muttered "Away with thee Satan" over and over again, yet?

And does he also know that Trump's attorney opened an LLC specifically to funnel money to Daniels in order to buy her silence right before the election?

Because once you know all that, it makes it VERY hard to call these allegations "baseless."

There are enough facts available for a watchdog group to feel they have sufficient evidence to launch a complaint with the federal elections committee that the payment to Daniels violated campaign finance law.

But clearly Pence is not going to let a little thing like facts stand in the way of his adoration of Donald Trump.

In that same interview, Pence also defended Mr. Trump over his disparaging comments about immigrants from Africa and Haiti. 

Pence told the AP that he "knows the president's heart." He says Mr. Trump is determined to implement a merit-based system that encourages immigration by those who will "contribute to a growing American economy and thriving communities" and one that does not take into account the immigrants' "race or creed."

Once again that is an absolute denial of what Trump has tweeted, stated publicly, or been quoted as saying in behind door meetings.

Besides it is too late for Pence's revisionist history, the American people already know exactly what is in Donald Trump's heart.

Stormy Daniels: “We had really good banter. He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter.”  

Yes that, big dollops of McDonalds saturated fats, and overriding racism. Those are the things inside Donald Trump's heart.

Mike Pence is rapidly losing top aides while talk swirls about a possible interview with Robert Mueller.

Courtesy of CNN:

Vice President Mike Pence's chief lawyer and domestic policy director are leaving his office at the beginning of the new year, according to four sources familiar with the staff turnover. 

The moves come amid high tensions and staff turnover in the Trump administration thanks to the ongoing Russia probe and a new tell-all book about West Wing happenings. 

"These moves have been in the works for weeks," the vice president's communications director confirmed to CNN. 

CNN has learned that longtime senior staffers Mark Paoletta and Daris Meeks are leaving Pence's office. The announcement was made by chief of staff Nick Ayers in a staff meeting at the beginning of the week. 

Paoletta and Meeks' departures follow two other top Pence aides who have left the Office of the Vice President: chief of staff Josh Pitcock and press secretary Marc Lotter. The vice president's staff is considerably smaller than the West Wing, making the departures a more notable shift at the beginning of the new year.

There has been talk for over a month that Pence will soon have his time testifying before the Muller team, which of course makes sense since Pence was in charge of the transition, and has been present at a lot of meetings with Flynn, Jared, and Donald Jr..

Apparently this possibility really troubled Steve Bannon who tried to keep Pence insulated from some of the more troubling goings on in the Trump White House.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

It’s been widely reported that former White House political strategist Steve Bannon thought that Donald Trump Jr.’s infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian officials was “treasonous.” 

However, author Michael Wolff also claims that Bannon worried that Vice President Mike Pence was similarly attending problematic meetings — and he worked to protect him from them because he saw Pence as a solid backup plan in the event of President Donald Trump’s impeachment. 

Specifically, Bannon worried about Pence taking meetings with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and First Daughter Ivanka Trump, whom he’d decided were, in Wolff’s words, “Russia toxic.”

“Bannon observed a hapless Pence in a lot of ‘wrong meetings,’ and helped to bring in the Republican operative Nick Ayers as Pence’s chief of staff, and to get ‘our fallback guy’ out of the White House and ‘running around the world and looking like a vice president,'” writes Wolff.

Bannon apparently believed that at some point Trump would definitely be forced from office, and he wanted to keep Pence squeaky clean so that he could carry the agenda forward once Trump was no longer gumming up the works. 

Here's hoping that his attempts to protect Pence failed to work, and that Mueller has significant dirt on him as well.

Donald Trump seems to believe that the GOP tax bill has killed Obamacare. It hasn't.

Pres. Trump on repeal of individual mandate in tax bill: "When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed...Obamacare has been repealed in this bill." https://t.co/8qXJjj5j9V pic.twitter.com/ThnXHuECJS

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 20, 2017

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

Almost none of this is true. Indeed, it reveals the opposite. Trump recognizes that he has no chance to repeal Obamacare, so he is instead pretending to have killed the law that his base loathes (but which the country as a whole likes quite a bit). 

Most of Obamacare remains in place. That includes such things as reforms that have helped hold down medical inflation, the expansion of Medicaid to cover the poor, subsidies for individuals to buy insurance, and regulations to prevent insurers from cherry-picking the healthy and excluding the sick. “When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed. Because they get their money from the individual mandate,” Trump “explains.” 

It is possible he thinks this is true. It isn’t. The law is primarily financed by other taxes. It is correct that repealing the individual mandate will impair the effectiveness of the marketplaces that sell insurance to people who can’t get coverage through their employer. That will make premiums more expensive, and possibly drive insurers out of some markets. States that want to have a highly functioning marketplace will be able to impose a state-level mandate, though, an outcome that could make insurance cheaper in blue states than red ones.

My favorite part of this is how smugly self satisfied Trump looks as he spews his bullshit.

However believe it or not this is not the most awkward statement made by Republicans after they passed the GOP tax bill.

Beating him out by a mile was Orrin Hatch's oral gratification of Donald Trump right out in public.

Here's the transcript of Sen. Orrin Hatch's effusive speech about Trump: pic.twitter.com/fVda0dLoGL

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 20, 2017

Damn, that is hard to read.

But still that has NOTHING on Mike Pence who essentially prayed at the altar of Donald Trump. 

Good Lord, you need to watch this. After Ben Carson's Prayer, Mike Pence actually delivered a prayer of thanks to Trump. Must watch. pic.twitter.com/sAq9OQnQT9

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 20, 2017

"You shall have no other gods before Me."

"You shall not worship false idols."

I can't remember where I read it, but it seemed important.

Perhaps Mike Pence needs to go back to church and get a little Biblical tune up. 

Mike Pence's wife finds Donald Trump "reprehensible...totally vile."

Mike Pence's wife Karen finds Donald Trump “reprehensible -- just totally vile," a former campaign aide tells @mckaycoppins: https://t.co/HTJr56F6Fd

— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) December 5, 2017

My first reaction to this was, "Who doesn't?"

But also if this is the case, and we all know that Pence is afraid to wipe his ass without his wife's permission, then why did she allow him to share the ticket with this pig?

The simple answer is power, and the possibility that if Trump is impeached that Karen Pence might become the First Lady.

Christian values are great and all, but they do not stand a chance against access to unfettered power and prestige.

As promised in his tweet Donald Trump signs executive order to start process to repeal Obamacare.

Since Congress can't get its act together on HealthCare, I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people - FAST

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 10, 2017

Courtesy of CBS News:  

President Trump on Friday announced he is "starting that process" of repealing and replacing Obamacare with his executive order to unilaterally change some aspects of health insurance coverage. 

Mr. Trump, surrounded by top administration officials, business leaders and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, praised his executive order as step towards repealing and replacing his predecessor's signature health care law. 

Mr. Trump, stuck with a Republican-led Congress that hasn't passed a bill to undo Obamacare, announced earlier this week that he is resorting to his "pen" instead. Mr. Trump, who began to walk out of the Oval Office Friday before signing the order until Vice President Mike Pence reminded him to sign it, used that pen on Friday. Mr. Trump said the order will cost the federal government "virtually nothing," and will force insurance companies to start "fighting" to sign people up for care. 

"You'll get such low prices for such great care," he said. Mr. Trump didn't back down on his desire to repeal Obamacare and fulfill a signature campaign promise, despite the GOP-led Congress' inability to agree on how to do that. 

Mr. Trump said he is still committed to working with Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare, "once and for all." The president's executive order is intended to make lower-premium plans more widely available. Mr. Trump has long talked of his desire to make plans available across state lines, something he says this order will do. 

The White House views this as an action that will "increase the healthcare choices for millions of Americans, potentially allowing some employers to join together across state lines to offer coverage," according to a background call before the order's signing. 

Okay as I think everybody is aware there is nothing about this that is going to increase anybody's health care choices. Those are just the bullshit talking points that Trump is using while he prepares to strip away all of the safeguards and benefits that the Affordable Care Act worked to provide.

Of course this executive order does not really accomplish anything at this point except to allow health insurance companies to sell crappy polices that will be of little use once the policy holder gets very sick or badly injured, and it is sure to be challenged by medical groups, blue states, and even some of his fellow Republicans.

Obamacare had a lofty goal, and that was not only to get more people health insurance, but also to make sure those policies covered them completely, and that they could not be kicked off when they desperately needed to be covered.

This is the first step to handing more power back to the insurance companies, and if past is prologue they will abuse that power until somebody makes them stop.

Now it is more important than ever to start talking seriously about single payer, and to take this power away from these insurance companies permanently.

By the way apparently Trump almost walked away again without signing the executive order, but he was stopped by Mike Pence.

Yeah, fuck Mike Pence.

He needs to be removed from office right along with his orange tinted Fuhrer. 

Trump fundraising committee uses Mike Pence's NFL walkout to raise money.

Mike Pence walkout 'stunt' at NFL game after players kneel 'cost at least $250,000' #PenceResignhttps://t.co/cVi8ITCxQz

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 8, 2017

Courtesy of Bloomberg: 

President Donald Trump’s joint fundraising committee sent an email Monday asking donors to show support for Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to leave an NFL game in Indianapolis after some members of the San Francisco 49ers kneeled during the national anthem. 

The solicitation from the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, which jointly raises money for Trump’s presidential campaign committee and the Republican National Committee, asks supporters to give at least $5 to the campaign to receive a “I STAND FOR THE FLAG” sticker. 

“Immediately after the vice president’s honorable display of leadership and patriotism, the Fake News Media relentlessly ATTACKED him,” the email says. “The media is NOT going to win this fight, because we have the AMERICAN PEOPLE standing on our side.”

So the whole thing was a phony ass attempt to get the suckers to pony up more money.

Gee, I so wish I could feign surprise here.

VP Mike Pence got his tiny little feelings hurt and went home when some mean old football players took a knee during the national anthem. Update!

I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem.

— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017

While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem

— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017

Pence thought this was so important that it warranted an official statement.

I stand with @POTUS Trump, I stand with our soldiers, and I will always stand for our Flag and our National Anthem. pic.twitter.com/B0zP5M41MQ

— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017

Drama queen.

I imagine that Pence thought this was somehow going to be his shining moment, when he demonstrated his independence and took a stand for America.

But Trump can't allow that, now can he?

I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2017

So much for being your own man there Mikey, now the whole world knows that you are just Trump's tiny yapping little lapdog.

Update: And yes this was all premeditated: 

Maybe you agree with Trump and Pence and believe kneeling during the anthem is an affront to the country. Or maybe you side with the players’ workplace-granted right to protest. Or perhaps you just don’t care (the third group is arguably the largest here). 

No matter what, this was almost certainly a predetermined attempt to gain political points by stirring up an issue that, once again, had begun to die down. Pence even quickly released a statement expressing his outrage.

Trump and Pence believe these tactics work with their ever shrinking base, and that is really the only people they care about.

Update 2:

Pence's stunt likely cost more than $250,000 at minimum. https://t.co/Y9E9LqvhPG

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 8, 2017

Yeah screw the taxpayers, Trump and Pence have a base to pander to. 

Mike Pence is angry at the press, because he feels they are angry at Trump, for not being angry enough at the White supremacist terrorists.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Speaking during a visit to the South American nation of Colombia, Pence said that it was appropriate to criticize not only the white supremacists behind the "Unite the Right" march but also counter-protesters on the scene.

"I will say I take issue with the fact that many in the national media spent more time criticizing the president’s words than they did criticizing those that perpetrated the violence to begin with," he said, speaking in a joint news conference with Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos. 

"We should be putting the attention where it belongs, and that is on those extremist groups that need to be pushed out of the public debate entirely and discredited for the hate groups and dangerous fringe groups that they are."

It should be pointed out that today Trump took to Twitter to attack the Democrats for being "obstructionists" and Ken Frazier  for leaving his Manufacturing Council (By the way he's a black guy who is quitting specifically BECAUSE of Trump's weak ass response to the violence in Virginia.) , but not a word about the murder in Charlottesville.

As for the press, virtually every single newscaster and commentator, who was not appearing on Fox News, has condemned the White Nationalists who beat protesters and murdered that young woman in the strongest terms.

These statements by Mike Pence, which also attempts to blame "both sides" for the violence, proves that he is almost as bad as his boss.

However he did at least say this: 

"We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo-Nazis or the KKK. These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms," he said.

This kind of forced Trump's hand so today he finally came out with this:

Trump: "Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, Neo-Nazis, & White Supremacists" pic.twitter.com/pYnjQXDvyU

— Axios (@axios) August 14, 2017

Damn talk about too late to the party.

But now the question is "What is he going to do about it?"

Under the leadership of Trump and Pence the focus has been taken off of homegrown hate groups like the KKK and Neo-Nazis, and they have clearly grown stronger  and prospered as a result.

If Mike Pence and Donald Trump really want to do something to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again they need to stop focusing all of their counter terrorism efforts on Islamic terrorists and recognize that White Nationalists pose as great, if not a greater threat to this country. 

Top Republicans launch shadow campaign to replace Donald Trump on the ticket in 2020.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

President Trump’s first term is ostensibly just warming up, but luminaries in his own party have begun what amounts to a shadow campaign for 2020 — as if the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue weren’t involved. 

The would-be candidates are cultivating some of the party’s most prominent donors, courting conservative interest groups and carefully enhancing their profiles. Mr. Trump has given no indication that he will decline to seek a second term. 

But the sheer disarray surrounding this presidency— the intensifying investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the plain uncertainty about what Mr. Trump will do in the next week, let alone in the next election—have prompted Republican officeholders to take political steps that are unheard-of so soon into a new administration. 

Asked about those Republicans who seem to be eyeing 2020, a White House spokeswoman, Lindsay Walters, fired a warning shot: “The president is as strong as he’s ever been in Iowa, and every potentially ambitious Republican knows that.” 

But in interviews with more than 75 Republicans at every level of the party, elected officials, donors and strategists expressed widespread uncertainty about whether Mr. Trump would be on the ballot in 2020 and little doubt that others in the party are engaged in barely veiled contingency planning. 

“They see weakness in this president,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. “Look, it’s not a nice business we’re in.”

Some of the Republicans identified as conducting these "shadow campaigns" are Senators Tom Cotton and Ben Sasse, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and least surprising of all, Mike Pence.

This should not be surprising in the wake of sanctions bill the Senate Republicans forced Trump to sign, and the fact that they are making it impossible for him to make any recess appointments. 

Clearly the Republicans see the writing on the wall, and are becoming convinced that Trump will not be a viable candidate in 2020.

Considering of course that he even lasts that long.

The White House just released the personal information of citizens concerned that the new election commission will release their personal information.

They exposed peoples addresses and email addresses, I'm sure so these folks could be harassed/intimidate others 😡

— Jeremy M (@thismyshow) July 14, 2017

Courtesy of Vox: 

The White House just responded to concerns it would release voters’ sensitive personal information by releasing a bunch of voters’ sensitive personal information. 

Last month, the White House’s “election integrity” commission sent out requests to every state asking for all voters’ names, party IDs, addresses, and even the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, among other information. The White House then said this information would be made available to the public. 

A lot of people did not like the idea, fearing that their personal information could be made public. So some sent emails to the White House, demanding that it rescind the request. 

This week, the White House decided to make those emails from concerned citizens public through the commission's new website. But the administration made a big mistake: It didn’t censor any of the personal information — such as names, email addresses, actual addresses, and phone numbers — included in those emails. 

In effect, the White House just released the sensitive personal information of a lot of concerned citizens giving feedback to their government. That’s made even worse by the fact that the White House did this when the thing citizens were complaining about was the possibility that their private information would be made public.

In response to outrage over this a spokesperson for Mike Pence said this: 

“These are public comments, similar to individuals appearing before commission to make comments and providing name before making comments,” Marc Lotter, press secretary to the vice president, said. “The Commission’s Federal Register notice asking for public comments and its website make clear that information ‘including names and contact information’ sent to this email address may be released.”

Seriously it is like we are living inside a parody of American politics these days.

But that does NOT mean that anybody should unregister in response. And here is a video explaining why that is a dumb idea.

If you cancel your voter registration, Trump wins. Please share this message and tell everyone you know to stay registered. pic.twitter.com/NpI4b7j38g

— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) July 14, 2017

Our forefathers, and yes foremothers, fought too long and hard for our right to vote for us to just give it up in response to this trollish bullshit.

For those of you who held out hope that Mike Pence was the smart one. Not so much.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Vice President Mike Pence apparently couldn’t help himself. 

He caused concern on Thursday by blatantly ignoring a safety sign during a tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

Pence was shown some critical space flight hardware, including a piece covered by a sheet of paper with the instruction “DO NOT TOUCH.” But as this snap by Reuters photographer Mike Brown shows, he totally disregarded the warning.

I wonder if the nuclear football comes with child safety locks?

The White House is now at war with itself.

I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart.

Courtesy of McClatchy: 

Republicans are growing concerned that the staffs of Donald Trump and Mike Pence are starting to feud, the latest trouble to hit a White House that has spent months battling crisis after crisis. 

They worry that any rift could be delaying decisions, distracting aides from their already stalled legislative agenda and could lead to more infighting and leaks, problems that have plagued the White House since Inauguration Day. 

A half-dozen Republicans, including four who advised or worked for Trump’s campaign or transition and are still in contact with their former colleagues, said they think the two sides are talking less, disagreeing more and occasionally bad mouthing each others’ bosses. One said the staffs are “walled off” from each other. Several of the Republicans asked to not speak publicly because of the sensitivity of the situation. 

“There is clearly tension between the two staffs,” a former Trump adviser said. “There’s so much internet chatter. That’s going to fuel the animosity.” 

Republicans say it’s only natural that some of the president’s aides are reconsidering who they can trust as the White House continues to reel from an undisciplined president and multiple inquiries into whether Trump associates joined Russia in meddling in the presidential election. 

“The administration doesn’t know who to trust,” Republican strategist Michael Steel said. “When you’re under attack the circle tightens.” 

At the same time, Republicans say, some of the vice president’s aides say they are frustrated over Trump’s many self-inflicted wounds, some of which the conventional and even-keeled Pence is forced to try to explain away as he looks to smooth over hurt feelings with members of even his own party. 

“Trump does something and Mike Pence has to do cleanup,” Republican strategist Doug Heye said. “That can be very frustrating for staff.”

You know I've been waiting for this, because you knew it had to happen. 

Mike Pence only signed onto this three ring circus because he probably believed that the ringmaster would probably end up imploding and leaving him to run the show.

However though Trump is shooting himself in the foot almost every single day there is no sign that he will leave voluntarily, or that the Republicans in the House and Senate have the will to remove him forcibly.

That leaves Pence careening down the tracks on a runaway train that may never completely lose its grip on the tracks.

So what is Pence to do?

Continue on as the good soldier in the hope that in the end he will be rewarded?

Or does he start to sabotage from within in order to hasten the end of the Trump presidency?

Ooh, ooh, I vote for number two.

And even if Pence is not engaging in those types of behaviors I wonder how Trump will respond if he starts to believe that he is?

By the way, on a completely different topic, who do you think keeps leaking information to the media about what is happening inside the White House?

Trump's Election Integrity Commission wants the name, address, voting history, social security number, and party affiliation of every voter in America. Did anybody else just feel a cold chill?

Courtesy of WaPo: 

The chair of President Trump's Election Integrity Commission has penned a letter to all 50 states requesting their full voter-roll data, including the name, address, date of birth, party affiliation, last four Social Security number digits and voting history back to 2006 of potentially every voter in the state. 

In the letter, a copy of which was made public by the Connecticut secretary of state, the commission head Kris Kobach said that “any documents that are submitted to the full Commission will also be made available to the public.” 

On Wednesday, the office of Vice President Pence released a statement saying “a letter will be sent today to the 50 states and District of Columbia on behalf of the Commission requesting publicly available data from state voter rolls and feedback on how to improve election integrity.”

Can you say "Massive voter suppression?"

I don't know about you but I would not trust this administration to water my plants for the weekend, much less hand them all of my voter information.

Don't forget that Donald Trump once volunteered super classified information, gathered by an Israeli spy, to the two Russians that he invited into the White House.

Besides if this is in fact "publicly available data" then why can't they gather it their own damn self?

(And I don't know about everybody else but my social security number is certainly NOT "publicly available data.")

Fortunately almost half of the states are already refusing to cooperate.

All of this of course is in response to the in person voter fraud that the Republicans believe is happening all over the country, and for which there is absolutely no supporting evidence.

(And let's not forget that we have a president who is convinced that he would have won the popular vote if it was not for 3 million illegally cast votes for his opponent.)

But in my opinion the real plan is for the Trump Administration to get their hands on this information so that they can challenge the legality of votes in the next upcoming elections, and once again undermine our Democracy.

Hell if they pull this off they may not even need the Russians to help them again.

Vice President Mike Pence reminds us why we may not be in such a hurry to impeach Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Vox: 

Vice President Mike Pence popped into the 40th anniversary celebration of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family to remind members he’s a devout Christian politician who has his back. And, he says, so is President Donald Trump. 

After the group’s president Jim Daly introduced Pence as “one of us,” the vice president spoke for 30 minutes on Friday, on both foreign policy and domestic issues. Unsurprisingly, Pence focused quite a bit on abortion, reiterating the Trump administration’s commitment to what he characterized as the "timeless values” Focus on the Family advocates first. 

He repeatedly referred to the president himself as both an “unwavering ally" of Christian evangelicals and a believer himself — calling him “a leader, a believer, a timeless defender of the values that will make America great again.” He described Trump as someone who “advocated in the public square for values our public needs to hear, now more than ever.” 

Pence’s comments are hardly surprising: after all, his evangelical faith and religiously-motivated stances on abortion and LGBTQ rights are well-known. But the intensity in expressing them on Friday was striking. Pence announced that he would donate an ultrasound machine in his own name to a faith-based crisis pregnancy center. (These centers, which are marketed like typical abortion clinics, but are set up to persuade women to avoid abortions, make up a major part of Focus on the Family’s efforts).

By the way Pence's assertion that Trump is an "unwavering ally of Christian Evangelicals" is the very definition of fake news.

Donald Trump is the unwavering ally of Donald Trump, and ONLY Donald Trump.

Mike Pence on the other hand is a tent revival attending, evangelizing, self proclaimed warrior for the almighty, and he would love nothing more than to return this country back to the days when women stayed in the kitchen, black folks stayed in the fields, and gay people stayed so deep in their closets that they needed to stuff mothballs down their pants.

I mean the man donated an entire ultrasound machine just to stop women from aborting their babies for fuck's sake.

That is why Senator Al Franken suggested that folks might want to think long and hard about trying to get Trump impeached.

Courtesy of the International Business Times:

“Pence ran the transition and some of the very worst nominees, I felt — [EPA chief Scott] Pruitt, [Education Secretary Betsy] DeVos, [HHS Secretary Tom] Price, [Budget director Mick] Mulvaney — were Pence selections, clearly, I think,” Franken told IBT. “He's ideological, I consider him a zealot, and I think that in terms of a lot of domestic policy certainly would be worse than Trump.”

Look I still think that Trump is a criminal, who had help in stealing this election, and I want him to either quit or be impeached.

But if we don't come up with some way to take Pence down with him, I fear that we may well go from the frying pan directly into that fire and brimstone.

The Special Counselor is now looking in to Trump's son-in-law's business dealings, and VP Mike Pence lawyers up.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is investigating the finances and business dealings of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, as part of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. 

FBI agents and federal prosecutors have also been examining the financial dealings of other Trump associates, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Carter Page, who was listed as a foreign-policy adviser for the campaign. 

The Washington Post previously reported that investigators were scrutinizing meetings that Kushner held with Russians in December — first with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and then with Sergey Gorkov, the head of a state-owned Russian development bank. At the time of that report, it was not clear that the FBI was investigating Kushner’s business dealings.

Oh yeah, that noose is getting much tighter now.

So tight in fact that Mike Pence has decided that he needs legal assistance before it starts cutting off his air supply.

Also courtesy of WaPo:

Vice President Pence has hired outside legal counsel to help with both congressional committee inquiries and the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia. 

The vice president’s office said Thursday that Pence has retained Richard Cullen, a Richmond-based lawyer and chairman of McGuireWoods who previously served as a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Here is Rachel Maddow explaining why this is such a big deal:  

Maddow said Thursday that Pence hiring lawyer Richard Cullen as his personal attorney is evidence that he is running scared. 

“It’s very interesting that the vice president has felt the need to hire private counsel, right?” she said. “The specific private counsel he’s chosen? Who knows if we should extrapolate from those previous experiences in previous Republican presidential scandals. … But, you know, it would appear that Vice President Mike Pence does have stuff to worry about here. … It’s not surprising that the vice president has now found himself a private lawyer, but oh what a private lawyer he has got.” 

Cullen also had involvement in other Republican scandals like former President Nixon’s Watergate and President Reagan’s Iran-Contra.

That is a pretty big hitter to hire if Pence really believes has nothing to worry about.

And just to drive that point home it appears that the Senate is seeking to once again have James Comey provide testimony under oath.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wants former FBI Director James Comey to return to Capitol Hill to testify before her panel — and says Democrats are willing to back a subpoena for Comey if he refuses. 

I have a feeling that now that we know Trump is being investigated for obstruction that these questions to Comey will be a bit more targeted.

I think I know now what inspired Trump's Twitter tantrum this morning. 

Wyoming mayor takes down portraits of Donald Trump and Mike Pence and puts up photo of Native American chief instead.

Chief Washakie-Shoshone, NOT a Putin puppet.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

A Wyoming mayor’s decision to remove portraits of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence from the town hall and replace them with a picture of a Native American chief has some community members up in arms. 

Mayor Pete Muldoon of Jackson, Wyoming, directed town staff members to make the swap on June 5, saying there is no requirement to have a picture of the president displayed in the building. 

“When the Town Of Jackson decides to honor such a divisive person, it is taking sides against some of its residents,” Muldoon said in the statement. “The Town Council has made no such decision, and until and unless it does, that kind of honor will not be bestowed.”

Muldoon said he isn’t sure who hung the photographs of Trump and Pence in January, but that the town council, a non-partisan body, never authorized their display. 

“We aren’t required to display signs of respect ― our respect is earned, not demanded,” Muldoon said. “Dictators like Joseph Stalin required their portraits to be displayed everywhere. Luckily, we do not live in a dictatorship.”

And this is in Wyoming?  Damn that's awesome!

Apparently the pictures of the current president of the united States has had a place on the wall of this town hall since the 1800's, but that was before we got stuck with this Russian operative.

Some of the residents are not happy with this decision, but I am willing to bet that they will be coming around at some point.