Nearly 140,000 voters left GOP in 25 states in January
“Nearly 140,000 voters left the Republican Party in 25 states in January, according to an analysis of public voting records obtained by The Hill.
Some of the steepest drops in Republican Party affiliation were seen in California, where over 33,000 registered voters left the GOP; Pennsylvania, where over 12,000 voters defected; and Arizona, where more than 10,000 Republicans changed their voter registration.” via The Hill
Angry’s Thoughts: It’s almost like being sedition-curious isn’t a great plan for maintaining a political party. Almost.
On a serious note, losing voters in PA and AZ is huge – the GOP doesn’t have margin to play with in those states. If we do our jobs, the GOP will be relegated to the minority for several election cycles.
The party is fracturing, and they’re going to have to decide whether the Romney/Kinzinger/Cheney faction or the Greene/Boebert/Gaetz faction is going to win. It looks like they’re going to pick the clown show, but we’ll see.
McConnell Signals Trump Conviction Is a GOP Conscience Vote
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling to fellow Republicans that the final vote on Donald Trump’s impeachment is matter of conscience and that senators who disputed the constitutionality of the trial could still vote to convict the former president, according to three people familiar with his thinking.
The Kentucky Republican has also suggested that he hasn’t made up his mind how he’ll vote, two of the people said, even though he voted Tuesday to declare it unconstitutional for the Senate to hear the case against a former president.” via Bloomberg
Angry’s Thoughts: I still find it highly unlikely that they’ll vote to convict, but this is an interesting move by McConnell. During the first impeachment, he was actively whipping votes and lobbying to keep his members in line. Without pressure from leadership, we may see a few more defectors in the overall vote.
Georgia Prosecutors Open Criminal Investigation of Trump Phone Call
“Prosecutors in Fulton County have initiated a criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results, including a phone call he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Mr. Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to help him reverse his loss.
On Wednesday, Fani Willis, the recently elected Democratic prosecutor in Fulton County, sent a letter to numerous officials in state government, including Mr. Raffensperger, requesting that they preserve documents related to “an investigation into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election.”
While the letter does not mention Mr. Trump by name, it is related to his intervention in Georgia’s election, according to a state official with knowledge of the matter. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.
“This investigation includes, but is not limited to, potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration,” the letter states.” via The New York Times
Angry’s Thoughts: While Trump is the obvious target here, it looks like Lindsey Graham might be about to go through some things.
Trump hid his calls with Putin. Now, Biden has access to them.
“Few Trump-era mysteries are as intriguing as what the 45th president said to Vladimir Putin in at least a dozen rambling, off-the-cuff calls and meetings over four years. Understanding what was said between the two could help illuminate whether Trump ever revealed sensitive information or struck any deals with the Kremlin leader that could take the new administration by surprise.
Now that President Joe Biden is in the White House, he can see for himself.
“They don’t need our approval to see those [records],” a former Trump White House official said, referring to the new Biden national security team. “Biden owns all the call materials. There is only one president at a time.”
The Biden White House did not comment on whether it had seen the content of the calls. But so far, at least, the National Security Council has not registered any complaints with their ability to access relevant call records from the previous administration.
“It is a national security priority to find out what Trump said to Putin” over his four years in office, said one former national security official who is close to the new president. “Some things, like what happened in some face-to-face meetings where no American translator or note-taker was present, may never be fully known. But I would be very surprised if the new national security team were not trying to access” the call records.” via Politico
Angry’s Thoughts: The server that became famous during Trump’s era is a highly-classified server that is designed to handle code word level intelligence. In the Obama White House, it was fondly referred to by those who were read in as the “Bin Laden Server.”
I was never too concerned about Trump’s team removing anything they shouldn’t, or otherwise altering any of the intelligence on that server because it’s protected by a suite of sophisticated logging software; it’s only accessible to a small number of people, and everything done on it is electronically recorded. If anything was improperly removed and/or altered, we would know exactly who did it, and they would be in jail.
Ukrainian PM: Russia using COVID vaccine for influence
Russia is trying to use its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to gain political influence in the embattled territories of eastern Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Shmyhal, who arrived in Brussels on Tuesday for three days of meetings with senior EU officials, told POLITICO in an interview that the EU’s credibility hinged on being able to help partner countries like Ukraine that are struggling to obtain vaccines on their own.
“It is important to admit here that the Russian Federation is trying actually to impose its own domestically produced vaccine especially as a tool for influencing some of those regions, specifically those that are not currently controlled by the Ukrainian government,” Shmyhal said. “And that is the case not only here but also in many Eastern European countries.” via Politico
Angry’s Thoughts: Nobody thought Putin would do anything but use the vaccine as leverage, right? This story is absolutely disgusting, but it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
Florida water treatment facility hack used a dormant remote access software, sheriff says
“A hacker who last week tried to poison a Florida city’s water supply used a remote access software platform that had been dormant for months, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told CNN on Tuesday.
The cyber-intruder got into Oldsmar’s water treatment system twice on Friday — at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. — through a dormant software called TeamViewer. The software hadn’t been used in about six months but was still on the system.
“How they got in, whether it was through a password or through something else, I can’t tell you that,” said Gualtieri.
However, Oldsmar’s assistant city manager, Felicia Donnelly, told CNN that a password was required for the system to be controlled remotely.
Once inside, the hacker adjusted the level of sodium hydroxide, or lye, to more than 100 times its normal levels, Gualtieri said. The system’s operator noticed the intrusion and immediately reduced the level back. At no time was there a significant adverse effect to the city’s water supply, and the public was never in danger, he said.
The identity of the hacker, or hackers, isn’t yet known.” via CNN
Angry’s Thoughts: Thankfully, this hacker wasn’t a professional. The hack itself has been described as ham-handed and unsophisticated, but it also begs the obvious question: if a ham-handed and unsophisticated attack can get this close to causing serious injury or loss of life, what could a near-peer accomplish?
Biden announces sanctions on Myanmar after coup
President Joe Biden announced sanctions on Myanmar Wednesday, urging that nation’s military to release elected leaders who were detained in a coup earlier this month.
The new sanctions on Myanmar, which is also commonly referred to as Burma, will target military leaders, their business interests and close family members.
“We will identify a first round of targets this week,” Biden said.
The new executive order also will limit the Burmese military’s access to $1 billion of Myanmar government funds held in the United States.
In addition to those measures, the U.S. will add “strong export controls,” Biden said, noting that the sanctions would be careful to not hinder support of “health care, civil society groups, and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly.” via Politico
Angry’s Thoughts: It’s refreshing having a Commander in Chief who immediately responds to bad actors. It’s going to take a little bit before our allies allow themselves to believe that Trump was simply an aberration, but as long as Biden keeps a strong, ally-centric message in his foreign policy, we’ll get there.
Judge orders Proud Boy charged in Capitol riot held without bond
One of the Proud Boys arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol told a court on Wednesday that he was duped by President Donald Trump’s “deception” and “acted out of the delusional belief” that he was responding patriotically to the commander in chief.
However, those arguments were not enough to convince a federal magistrate to release Dominic Pezzola, 43, a native of Rochester, N.Y., who was arrested about a week after last month’s riot.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather called her decision to detain Pezzola “a close call,” given his lack of a criminal record before joining in the takeover of the Capitol.
Her announcement followed a half-hour-long hearing on Wednesday afternoon in which a prosecutor and Pezzola’s defense attorney squared off about whether the Proud Boys member is so dangerous that he should remain behind bars.
“I conclude the government has demonstrated that Mr. Pezzola should be held without bond,” the judge said.
Angry’s Thoughts: The judge said she was worried that Pezzola might try something similar in the future, because he *still* believes that the current government is illegitimate. This is one of the many dangers of radicalization -it’s extremely difficult to deradicalize them.
This is also why so many of us spoke out against Trump from the beginning. It was clear from as early as the Bannon days in the White House that his “break glass in case of emergency” plan was violence, and he spent his entire four years in office convincing his cult that everything was rigged against them. He made them angry. He isolated them. He purposely blurred the lines between fact and fiction. He made it “us” vs “them.” It was textbook radicalization on a scale that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.
So very glad to be hearing from you again. Welcome back.