February 5, 2020

How pathetic is this?

https://twitter.com/jwpetersNYT/status/1224897876129697792


Republican members of Congress came with Sharpie pens and stood near the aisle so they could ask Trump for autographs. And he obliged. Even signed a tie.




Trump staffers probably handed out the sharpies beforehand.

February 5, 2020

Morning Joe is fact checking Trump's SOTU

Rattner said job growth was higher under Carter, Clinton and Obama than under Trump.

February 5, 2020

BREAKING: Remember America? We do. #ImpeachmentDay Eleven Films

https://twitter.com/Eleven_Films/status/1224906560616316930

February 5, 2020

The Daily Show has a Trump sniff counter

He got up to 30 tonight, lol



https://twitter.com/TrumpSniffCount/status/1224894173192630274

February 5, 2020

Tim Ryan just walked out of the SOTU

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1224892837000445954


Rep. Tim Ryan: "I just walked out of the #StateOfTheUnion. I’ve had enough. It’s like watching professional wrestling. It’s all fake."

February 5, 2020

Trump Had America's Top TV News Anchors Over for Lunch--and Ate Them Alive

Much to the disappointment of folks at CNN, nobody at the long table—who included NBC’s Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, ABC’s David Muir and George Stephanopoulos, and CBS’s Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan—bothered to ask why the president had gone out of his way to exclude the cable network run by Trump’s former friend Jeff Zucker.


“MSDNC isn’t here as well,” Trump quipped—to polite chuckles but zero protests (not even by Meet the Press and MSNBC anchor Todd) from his captive audience, who were there ostensibly for a briefing on tonight’s State of the Union address but instead were treated to a lot of presidential boasting about his poll numbers and the “through-the-roof” stock market, and a lot of gloating about the “fiasco” of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses and the general disarray in the out-of-power party.

Trump made sure to criticize his Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for declining to lower interest rates further. Asked about the exploding trillion-dollar deficits his administration has created, the president claimed that lower interest rates will allow him to reduce the red ink in his second term.“He was chill,” said a lunch guest. “He wasn’t angry at all. He was friendly, outgoing, and relaxed. He was confident that he’ll be re-elected.”

Trump also was sanguine about his participation in the fall presidential debates, saying, ”Yeah, I’ll do it,” even though, he claimed, “the debate commission is filled with a bunch of Never Trumpers.” At one point Trump recalled that he had been an early donor to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s first House race, and added: “AOC is gonna run against him in the primary and she’s gonna kick his ass,” a lunch guest quoted the president as predicting.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-had-americas-top-tv-news-anchors-over-for-lunch-and-ate-them-alive?via=twitter_page

Too bad they didn't have enough respect for their colleagues and refuse to attend.


https://twitter.com/maxwelltani/status/1224769777497001984

I reached out to several of these networks asking why they were still participating despite the CNN snub. No one would speak about it on the record.

February 5, 2020

Upstate GOP leaders plotting to meddle in SC Democratic primary by boosting Bernie Sanders

COLUMBIA — A group of prominent Upstate Republicans are preparing to launch a wide-scale effort this week to encourage GOP voters across South Carolina to vote for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Feb. 29 Democratic primary, The Post and Courier has learned.

The Republican plan to meddle in the Democratic race, emerging just weeks before the “First in the South” primary, has two goals: Boost the candidate who the Republicans believe presents the weakest general election threat to President Donald Trump and pressure Democrats to support closing state primaries in the future.

The S.C. GOP executive committee voted last year to forgo their 2020 presidential primary, so the Democratic election will be the only one held Feb. 29.Greenville GOP chairman Nate Leupp, Spartanburg GOP chairman Curtis Smith, Anderson GOP chairwoman Cheryl Cuthrell and the leaders of multiple Tea Party activist groups in the Upstate are behind the effort to undermine the Democratic race, with other officials still considering joining them.

The group is set to formally announce its plans at a news conference at the Greenville GOP headquarters on Thursday morning, at which point they intend to spread the message across Republican social media pages in South Carolina and push it on conservative talk radio shows.

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/upstate-gop-leaders-plotting-to-meddle-in-sc-democratic-primary/article_f1e7abd2-4788-11ea-aa9f-33a1d262994c.html

You should not have open primaries in red fucking states!

February 4, 2020

Trump to award Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh

President Donald Trump plans to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian award in the U.S. – to conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh after learning of his advanced cancer diagnosis, the president told television anchors at a private lunch.

Limbaugh, 69, revealed his cancer diagnosis on his popular radio program Monday afternoon, telling listeners that his treatment plan likely means “there are going to be days when I’m not able to be here.” A Florida resident himself, Limbaugh has repeatedly been spotted golfing with Trump at the president’s Mar-a-Lago beach club and dining at the clubhouse afterwards.

Trump told network anchors earlier Tuesday that he was saddened by the news of Limbaugh’s diagnosis and had extended a last-minute invitation for him to join the first lady in the gallery at the State of the Union, according to four people familiar with the conversation. The president also said he plans to award the Medal of Freedom to Limbaugh as soon as next week.


One person at Tuesday’s lunch said Trump appeared to be “ shaken up” by the news, and kept mentioning that he and Limbaugh saw each other in West Palm Beach, Fla. as recently as December, when the president was in town for an extended holiday stay.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/04/trump-presidential-medal-freedom-rush-limbaugh-110757

February 4, 2020

Twitter says state-backed actors may have accessed users' phone numbers

https://twitter.com/Anthony/status/1224703251532206085


Twitter says state-backed actors may have accessed users' phone numbers

Twitter said it had identified a “high volume of requests” to use the feature coming from IP addresses in Iran, Israel and Malaysia.





SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter said on Monday that it had discovered attempts by possible state actors to access the phone numbers associated with user accounts, after a security researcher unearthed a flaw in the company’s “contacts upload” feature.

In a statement published on its privacy blog, Twitter said it had identified a “high volume of requests” to use the feature coming from IP addresses in Iran, Israel and Malaysia. It said, without elaborating, that “some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors.”

A company spokeswoman declined to say how many user phone numbers had been exposed, saying Twitter was unable to identify all of the accounts that may have been impacted.

She said Twitter suspected a possible connection to state-backed actors because the attackers in Iran appeared to have had unrestricted access to Twitter, even though the network is banned there.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-security/twitter-says-state-backed-actors-may-have-accessed-users-phone-numbers-idUSKBN1ZY07G

February 4, 2020

Re: Turnout , the caucus process is intimidating

Note re: turnout

The caucus process is intimidating and super time-consuming. Met lots of Iowa Ds who weren’t caucusing because 1) they’re too busy, 2) they don’t know how, 3) they’ll vote for anyone vs. Trump

Dangerous to draw conclusions from Iowa, about this or anything else





https://twitter.com/TimAlberta/status/1224711313194090510