December 20, 2019

Chris Christie wades into Senate impeachment fight

Source: Politico

Chris Christie is launching a big-money effort aimed at giving Senate Republicans air cover on impeachment — and positioning the former New Jersey governor as a counterweight to liberal billionaire Tom Steyer.

The newly formed issue advocacy organization, Right Direction America, is set to begin a seven-figure TV and digital advertising offensive Monday. The nonprofit group will be focused on a half-dozen states where key 2020 Senate races are taking place: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine and North Carolina.

Christie is looking to offset a multimillion-dollar offensive funded by Steyer, a Democratic presidential candidate and hedge fund executive, who is targeting Senate Republicans over impeachment. Steyer’s organization, Need to Impeach, has spent around $3.5 million across a handful of states pressuring GOP senators. Need to Impeach has also begun a $350,000 national TV ad campaign going after House and Senate Republicans on impeachment, and a spokesman for Steyer’s group said the funding would likely increase as the Senate trial gets underway.

While conservative groups poured millions into TV advertising in House districts during the impeachment push, Steyer’s offensive in Senate battlegrounds has gone largely unanswered. Christie said he aimed to change that.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/20/chris-christie-senate-impeachment-088506

December 20, 2019

Perhaps Bernie Sanders could use a catchy slogan like: "a choice, not an echo"

It worked great for Goldwater.

December 20, 2019

"People of Faith have a choice"

https://twitter.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1208113299776299008

December 20, 2019

Kevin Costner endorses Pete Buttigieg

https://twitter.com/NikkiSchwab/status/1208084605401612288

December 20, 2019

Matt Bevin defends pardon of convicted child rapist in radio interview

Source: Louisville Courier-Journal

Former Gov. Matt Bevin on Thursday defended his controversial last-minute pardon of a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old, saying there was no physical evidence of her abuse.

...snip...

"There was zero evidence," Bevin said.

Bevin also revealed publicly for the first time the victim's relationship to Schoettle and said that the victim's sister was present during the alleged assaults. The sister has denied the assaults took place, Bevin said.

"Both their hymens were intact. This is perhaps more specific than people would want, but trust me. If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically," Bevin said.

Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/19/matt-bevin-defends-child-rape-pardon-radio-interview/2704244001/

December 20, 2019

United pulls 737 Max from its schedule until early June

Source: CNBC

United Airlines is pulling the Boeing 737 MAX from its schedule through June 4, a date that is two months later than when other U.S. airlines plan to resume flights of the troubled planes.

By pushing the return of the MAX into June, United raises the question of whether U.S. carriers will have the Max in their fleets by the start of the summer travel season, the busiest period of the year for airlines.

Just last month, United said it would target bringing the Max back in early March. So why is it moving back that date another three months? Mainly because the carrier wants to give passengers more certainty when they are booking tickets for trips this spring and summer. In announcing the move, United said, “we’ll continue to take extraordinary steps to protect our customers’ travel plans.”

In the last week, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines both pushed their respective target dates for resuming 737 MAX flights into early April. If the current schedules hold, the total number of MAX cancellations since it was grounded last March will be just over 146,000 flights.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/20/united-pulls-737-max-from-its-schedule-until-early-june.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar

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Do they know something?

December 20, 2019

Carnival Glory slams into Carnival Legend in Cozumel

Source: ABC News

Cruise ship Carnival Glory struck Carnival Legend and nearly hit Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas in Cozumel today, as seen in video posted by a passenger on board one of the ships.

Matthew Bruin posted the video to his Twitter account showing the Carnival Cruise Line ship as its starboard side of the ship near the stern plowed into the bow of Carnival Legend.

The video was taken from Oasis of the Seas and passengers in the video can be heard concerned that the Carnival ship would also strike the Royal Caribbean ship, although it did not.

Damage to Carnival Glory was visible, but Carnival Cruise Line said both ships should be able to continue sailing.

https://twitter.com/BruinMatthew/status/1208031005644341248

Read more: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/florida-cruise-guide/os-tr-cru-carnival-glory-slams-into-carnival-legend-cozumel-20191220-nmdrumkfcvajpfthw63vkg6bte-story.html?cid=ed_npd_bn_tw_bn

December 20, 2019

Candidate Debate Speaking Time

I'll reiterate a point I made from the audience point of view: Yang doesn't attempt to inject himself into discussions. Other candidates were quick to signal to the moderators that they wanted to respond to a point...or just jumped in. Yang never did.

December 20, 2019

DNC Announces Details For Seventh Democratic Presidential Primary Debate

The DNC and CNN, in partnership with the Des Moines Register, today released the qualification criteria for participation in the seventh debate. To qualify for the January debate stage, candidates must demonstrate broad-based support by meeting both a grassroots fundraising requirement and one of two polling requirements. The deadline for qualifying polls and donations is January 10 at 11:59 P.M.

The official threshold rules are below:

QUALIFICATION CRITERIA FOR THE JANUARY DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DEBATE

To qualify for the January debate, candidates must meet one of two polling requirements (“Polling Threshold”) and the unique donor requirement (“Grassroots Fundraising Threshold”) as detailed below.

Polling Threshold. To meet the Polling Threshold for the January Debate, candidates must meet either the “Four-Poll Threshold” or the “Early State Polling Threshold” as described below:

Four-Poll Threshold. Receive 5% or more support in at least four polls (which may be national polls, or single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada) meeting the Qualifying Poll Criteria described below. To meet the Four-Poll Threshold, each one of a candidate’s four qualifying polls must be sponsored by different Qualifying Poll Sponsors, or if by the same Qualifying Poll Sponsor, must be in different geographical areas.

https://blog.4president.org/2020/2019/12/dnc-announces-details-for-seventh-democratic-presidential-primary-debate.html

Early State Polling Threshold. Receive 7% or more support in two single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and/or Nevada that meet the Qualifying Poll Criteria described below. To meet the Early State Polling Threshold, any candidate’s two qualifying polls may be in the same or different geographical areas and from the same or different Qualifying Poll Sponsors.

For a poll to be counted towards the Four-Poll Threshold or Early State Polling Threshold, it must meet each of the four requirements described below (“Qualifying Poll Criteria”):

Each poll must be sponsored by one of the following 16 entities or pairs of entities (“Qualifying Poll Sponsors”): Associated Press; ABC News/Washington Post; CBS News/YouGov; CNN; Des Moines Register; Fox News; Monmouth University; National Public Radio; NBC News/Wall Street Journal; NBC News/Marist; New York Times; Nevada Independent/Mellman Group; Quinnipiac University; University of New Hampshire; USA Today/Suffolk University; Winthrop University. For individual entities that are included only in Qualifying Poll Sponsor pairs but are not listed individually, independent polling by such individual entities or polling conducted in new partnerships with such individual entities shall not meet the Qualifying Poll Criteria. The DNC reserves the right to add a Nevada-specific poll sponsor to this list in the near future.

Each poll must be publicly released between November 14, 2019 and 11:59 P.M. on January 10, 2020.

Each poll’s candidate support question must have been conducted by reading or presenting a list of Democratic presidential primary candidates to respondents. Poll questions using an open-ended or un-aided question to gauge presidential primary support will not count.

Each polling result must be the top-line number listed in the original public release from the approved Qualifying Poll Sponsor, whether or not it is a rounded or weighted number.

Grassroots Fundraising Threshold. To meet the Grassroots Fundraising Threshold, candidates must submit a certification, executed by the candidate’s campaign Treasurer, by 11 A.M. on January 11, 2019, demonstrating that the campaign has received donations from at least (1) 225,00 unique donors; and (2) a minimum of 1,000 unique donors per state in at least 20 U.S. states, U.S. territories, or the District of Columbia. Qualifying donations must be received by 11:59 P.M. on January 10, 2020. An acceptable certification must provide or attach adequate verifiable evidence to show that the fundraising threshold has been reached and may include verification from ActBlue or NGP VAN regarding the campaign’s fundraising.

December 20, 2019

ONE NATION, TRACKED

New York Times

Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files. The Times Privacy Project obtained one such file, by far the largest and most sensitive ever to be reviewed by journalists. It holds more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans as they moved through several major cities, including Washington, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Each piece of information in this file represents the precise location of a single smartphone over a period of several months in 2016 and 2017. The data was provided to Times Opinion by sources who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to share it and could face severe penalties for doing so. The sources of the information said they had grown alarmed about how it might be abused and urgently wanted to inform the public and lawmakers.

After spending months sifting through the data, tracking the movements of people across the country and speaking with dozens of data companies, technologists, lawyers and academics who study this field, we feel the same sense of alarm. In the cities that the data file covers, it tracks people from nearly every neighborhood and block, whether they live in mobile homes in Alexandria, Va., or luxury towers in Manhattan.

One search turned up more than a dozen people visiting the Playboy Mansion, some overnight. Without much effort we spotted visitors to the estates of Johnny Depp, Tiger Woods and Arnold Schwarzenegger, connecting the devices’ owners to the residences indefinitely.