demmiblue
demmiblue's JournalYou have to think about electability
But you have to think about electability.
I just think people — again, not me, I’m on board, just … people — might not vote for this candidate. Because the candidate is a little, well, you know.
I mean, it doesn’t bother me. But think of people, other people, people maybe with trucks or something, people who aren’t as, well, enlightened as you and, of course, me. These benighted, backward people might not be ready to vote for … someone like this.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/25/you-have-think-about-electability/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.4d0ff2d3c550
https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1121499789760323584
Federal court: Michigan political maps illegally gerrymandered
Source: The Detroit News
Detroit — Michigan must redraw legislative and congressional districts for the 2020 elections because Republican lawmakers unconstitutionally gerrymandered current maps, a three-judge federal panel ruled Thursday.
The blockbuster ruling requires Michigan to conduct special state Senate elections for certain seats next year, cutting in half the four-year terms that current lawmakers are now serving.
The “predominate purpose” of the redistricting plan approved by the GOP-led Legislature in 2011 “was to subordinate the interests of Democratic voters and entrench Republicans in power,” said the unanimous decision written by U.S. Circuit Court Judge Eric Clay, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton.
“Therefore, the enacted plan constitutes a durable partisan gerrymander.”
Read more: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/25/michigan-gerrymandering/3576663002/
https://twitter.com/cskovron/status/1121491871543504897
https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1121492178302193664
Who Is Jill Biden? Former Vice President's Wife 'Excited and Proud' of 2020 Announcement
The 67-year-old former English teacher married Biden in 1977, five years after he became a U.S. senator for Delaware, and is his second wife. The veteran politician's first wife, Neilia Hunter, died in a 1972 vehicle crash, along with the couple's one-year-old daughter Naomi.
She is stepmother to Biden’s children from his first marriage, lawyer Hunter Biden and the late veteran and former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Together they have one child, Ashley Biden, a social worker.
Jill Biden was raised by her parents Donald Jacobs, a bank worker, and Bonny, a homemaker, in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, the eldest of five siblings.
https://www.newsweek.com/jill-biden-joe-2020-announcement-democratic-primary-1405768?utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social
https://twitter.com/Newsweek/status/1121448815318511618
Kids of WH Press Corps members are getting ready for a briefing with @PressSec.
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1121420121325604865
Those poor kids.
George Conway lashes out at 'Deranged Donald' on Twitter
“Deranged Donald is at back at it again. Deranged Donald can do things like this and it’s not even the top of the news, because it gets lost beneath all of the other deranged things Deranged Donald does,” Conway wrote on Twitter, including the hashtag “#DerangedDonald.”
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1121366385999925249
Conway was responding to a Wednesday report from The Washington Post about Trump's suggestion that the United Kingdom had helped the Obama administration spy on his 2016 presidential campaign.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/440587-george-conway-lashes-out-at-deranged-donald-on-twitter
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1121369171672088576
Joe Biden Officially Announces 2020 Presidential Run
Biden made the announcement in a video released on Thursday. He's expected to head to Pittsburgh, Pa., for a kickoff event next week, highlighting the focus the latest Democratic candidate places on winning back key states President Trump flipped in 2016.
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1121353260231688192
The 76-year-old former Delaware senator immediately becomes a top contender vying for the Democratic nomination, four years after passing on a bid for the White House in the wake of his son Beau's death. However, he will surely face questions about his age, past positions on policing and actions toward women in the wake of the #MeToo era. Biden is the 20th candidate to enter the Democratic primary race.
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/675382786/joe-biden-officially-announces-2020-presidential-run
Comcast executive to host Joe Biden fundraiser
Several of the vice president's supporters will also be attending the fundraiser, including Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, former Gov. Ed Rendell and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, as well as several members of Congress, mostly representing Pennsylvania. They include Reps. Brendan Boyle, Matt Cartwright, Madeleine Dean, Dwight Evans, Chrissy Houlahan, Mary Gay Scanlon, and Rep. Lisa Blunt Manchester, of Delaware.
Unlike many of his competitors, Biden is courting some of the party's traditional high-dollar donors to support his campaign, which is evident from the invitation to the fundraiser, obtained by CBS Philadelphia. The Cohens, along with cohosts who include top lobbyists and lawyers in Pennsylvania, are seeking donations of at least $2,800 to attend the fundraiser, though there is also a "young professional" donation level of $250 included on the invitation.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/comcast-executive-to-host-joe-biden-fundraiser/
Trump Backed Libyan Strongman's Attack on Tripoli, U.S. Officials Say
Source: Bloomberg
President Donald Trump indicated in a phone call with Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar last week that the U.S. supported an assault on the country’s capital to depose its United Nations-backed government, according to American officials familiar with the matter.
An earlier call from White House National Security Adviser John Bolton also left Haftar with the impression of a U.S. green light for an offensive on Tripoli by his forces, known as the Libyan National Army, according to three diplomats.
Trump’s April 15 call with Haftar, whom the White House addresses by the title “Field Marshal,” was publicly announced on Friday. The revelation that the U.S. president had tacitly recognized Haftar as an authority figure in Libya abruptly undermined the country’s internationally-recognized government led by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj.
Trump’s conversation with Haftar took place after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with the U.S. president on April 9 and urged him to back Haftar, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump also spoke with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a Haftar supporter, the day before the White House issued the statement acknowledging the call with Haftar.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-24/trump-libya-haftar-tripoli
Amazon's Alexa Reviewers Can Access Customers' Home Addresses
Source: Bloomberg
An Amazon.com Inc. team auditing Alexa users’ commands has access to location data and can, in some cases, easily find a customer’s home address, according to five employees familiar with the program.
The team, spread across three continents, transcribes, annotates and analyzes a portion of the voice recordings picked up by Alexa. The program, whose existence Bloomberg revealed earlier this month, was set up to help Amazon’s digital voice assistant get better at understanding and responding to commands.
Team members with access to Alexa users’ geographic coordinates can easily type them into third-party mapping software and find home residences, according to the employees, who signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from speaking publicly about the program.
While there’s no indication Amazon employees with access to the data have attempted to track down individual users, two members of the Alexa team expressed concern to Bloomberg that Amazon was granting unnecessarily broad access to customer data that would make it easy to identify a device’s owner.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-24/amazon-s-alexa-reviewers-can-access-customers-home-addresses?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter
Hmm: Former campaign aide Michael Caputo just left an Oval Office meeting with President Trump.
Caputo was Trump’s comms adviser in 2016 campaign. Despite advice the president has received in recent days to declare victory in the Mueller investigation and move on, Caputo said that is not the sense he got from Trump during their sit down.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1121080032695398400
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