Tag Archives: Mike Pence

Democrats Demand Trump Reverse ‘Irresponsible’ Order as States Lose Access to Crucial Covid-19 Data

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“The Trump administration’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 response and refusal to heed public health expertise continue to put the country in a dangerous position.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-19-2020

TMD testing for COVID-19 on 6-15-2020. Photo: TMD

Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate are demanding that the Trump administration immediately reverse an order requiring hospitals to send Covid-19 patient information directly to a Health and Human Services database instead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a change that threw the data-collection process into chaos as states struggle to cope with soaring infections.

NPR reported Friday that “hospital data in Kansas and Missouri is suddenly incomplete or missing” following the Trump administration’s directive, which took effect on July 15 to the dismay of experts and local officials who previously relied on the CDC system to track the coronavirus and allocate resources. Continue reading →

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Trump Accused of Suppressing CDC Warning That Full School Reopenings Pose ‘Highest Risk’ of Covid-19 Spread

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“By trying to bury what the CDC recommends, Trump is betraying every student, teacher, and parent in this country. Shame on him. Shame on those who enable him.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-13-2020

President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, takes questions from reporters during a Coronavirus Task Force update Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020,. Photo/White House/flickr/CC

The leader of one of the largest teachers’ unions in the U.S. accused President Donald Trump over the weekend of “trying to bury” federal guidelines warning that fully reopening schools and universities in the fall poses a high risk of spreading Covid-19 and endangering the health of students, faculty, and parents.

A 69-page packet (pdf) of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention materials obtained by the New York Times and labeled “For Internal Use Only” cautions that the “more people a student or staff member interacts with, and the longer that interaction, the higher the risk of Covid-19 spread.” Continue reading →

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Pro-Coup Venezuelan Soldiers Who Fled to the US Now Locked Up in ICE Detention Center

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In an ironic twist worthy of an Alanis Morissette song, participants in U.S.-backed coup are now in an ICE detention camp.

By Alan Macleod. Published 12-27-2019 by MintPress News

Screenshot: NBC News

 

The Venezuelan soldiers who participated in the U.S.-backed coup attempt in April of this year and subsequently fled to the U.S. have been incarcerated in ICE detention camps ever since. Telemundo, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, secured an interview with Major Hugo Parra, the highest-ranking of the handful of soldiers who answered self-declared President Juan Guaidó’s call to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. After the coup ended in spectacular failure, Parra revealed that he fled the country, ending up in the United States on April 11, where he expected to be given a hero’s welcome for his part in the Trump-approved insurrection.

Instead, he was immediately detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), first kept in a facility in Texas, then later transferred to the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. He has been refused all requests for bail or appointments to see a judge, one of nearly 42,000 people, most of them from Latin America, currently locked up in ICE prisons. Continue reading →

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How Mike Pence’s Office Meddled in Foreign Aid to Reroute Money to Favored Christian Group

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Officials at USAID warned that favoring Christian groups in Iraq could be unconstitutional and inflame religious tensions. When one colleague lost her job, they said she had been “Penced.”

By Yeganeh Torbati Published 11-7-2019 by ProPublica

Vice President Mike Pence presiding over the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, during the Senate’s vote on Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos. On Tuesday night, Pence returned to the chamber again to a break another tie. This time it was to make sure it’s easier in the future for financial service companies and other Wall Street darlies to make it easier to rip-off consumers. (Photo: Senate Television)

 

Last November, a top Trump appointee at the U.S. Agency for International Development wrote a candid email to colleagues about pressure from the White House to reroute Middle East aid to religious minorities, particularly Christian groups.

“Sometimes this decision will be made for us by the White House (see… Iraq! And, increasingly, Syria),” said Hallam Ferguson, a senior official in USAID’s Middle East bureau, in an email seen by ProPublica. “We need to stay ahead of this curve everywhere lest our interventions be dictated to us.” Continue reading →

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New Data Reveals ‘Alarming Escalation’ of Threats Towards Abortion Facilities

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“Anti-choice individuals and groups have been emboldened by the rhetoric of President Trump, Vice President Pence, and other elected officials.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-24-2019

“It is time for the demonizing of abortion providers and their patients to end,” said The Very Reverend Katherine Ragsdale, interim president and CEO of NAF. (Photo: ACLU)

As reproductive rights face continued attacks on the state and federal levels, just-released data reveals an “alarming escalation” in violence and harassment aimed at abortion providers and those seeking their services.

The statistics (pdf), reflecting incidents in 2018, were released Friday by the National Abortion Federation (NAF). Continue reading →

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US Blamed Venezuelan President for Burning AID Trucks. Wrong.

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“They tried a false flag operation, that supposedly the people of Venezuela had burned a truck carrying rotten food — no, no, no — it was they themselves”

By Common Dreams. Published 3-10-2019

Aid trucks burn on Venezuelan-Colombia border, February 23, 2019. Media around the world got it wrong. The Panama Post headline: “Police forces loyal to Maduro burnt trucks with humanitarian aid; The dictatorship’s repressive authorities allowed three trucks of humanitarian aid to cross the border, only to set them on fire once they were over the bridge.” (Twitter)

On February 23, a caravan of large cargo trucks was crossing a bridge from Colombia into Venezuela delivering food and other aid when they dramatically went up in flames. US officials seized upon the event as evidence of a “sick tyrant” stopping food from getting to hungry people:

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted: Continue reading →

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Fears of US-Backed ‘Coup’ in Motion as Trump Recognizes Venezuela Opposition Lawmaker as ‘Interim President’

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In response to Trump declaration, President Nicolas Maduro gives diplomats from ‘imperialist’ U.S. 72 hours to leave the country

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-23-2019

Protester holding a sign criticizing what the Venezuelan state media tells its citizens.. Photo: FEGO3011 [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons

President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela officially cut off dipomatic ties with the U.S. government on Wednesday—and gave American diplomats 72 hours to leave the country—in response to President Donald Trump declaring formal recognition of an opposition lawmaker as the “Interim President” of Venezuela, despite not being elected by the nation’s people for that position.

“Before the people and nations of the world, and as constitutional president,” declared Maduro to a crowd of red-shirted supporters gathered outside the presidential residence in Caracas, “I’ve decided to break diplomatic and political relations with the imperialist U.S. government.” Continue reading →

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In ‘Victory for Women,’ Appeals Court Upholds Ban on Pence’s Indiana Law Requiring Ultrasounds Before Abortions

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“This is another repudiation of the unnecessary and unconstitutional attempts by Indiana politicians to interfere with women’s reproductive rights.”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-26-2018

Reproductive rights advocates in Indiana protested then-Gov. Mike Pence’s anti-choice legislation in April of 2016. (Photo: @MaureenHayden/Twitter)

Reproductive rights groups celebrated “a victory for women” after a federal appeals court upheld a ban on a provision in an Indiana law—signed by former governor and current Vice President Mike Pence—that forced any woman considering an abortion to undergo an ultrasound 18 hours before the procedure.


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Women Dressed as ‘Handmaids’ to Confront ‘Vicious Theocrat’ Mike Pence in Philadelphia Over His Anti-Choice Agenda

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“Pence is one of the most dangerous reactionary figures in modern history. He is a key figure in ushering in a theocratic society right out of the Handmaid’s Tale.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-23-2018

Since President Donald Trump assumed office last year, many women have taken to dressing as handmaids from the TV series and book “The Handmaid’s Tale” to protest Trump’s anti-choice agenda. (Photo: Carlos Lowry/Flickr/cc)

Resisting the Trump-Pence administration’s anti-choice and anti-woman agenda, dozens of woman dressed as handmaids from the novel and TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” are planning to greet Vice President Mike Pence when he arrives in Philadelphia on Monday for a GOP fundraiser.

The white bonnets and red dresses and capes worn by the protesters will mimic those of handmaids in Hulu’s dramatic series and Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel, in which women are forced to give birth to the children of powerful men. Continue reading →

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Pence Wins Gold for Hypocrisy: Calls Trump Military Parade Chance to ‘Celebrate’ But North Korea’s a ‘Provocation’

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A new poll finds that 89 percent of Americans are opposed to a potential U.S. military parade

By Julia Conley, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 2-9-2018

Photo: Twitter

Vice President Mike Pence applauded the Trump administration’s plans for a potential military parade on Friday seconds before denouncing North Korea’s showing of its military might a day earlier.

With no apparent sense of irony, the vice president told reporters in Pyeongchang, South Korea that President Donald Trump’s possible parade would be an opportunity “to celebrate the men and women of the Armed Forces,” while the parade held by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was a “provocation.”

Watch: Continue reading →

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