January 1, New Hampshire Cliffhanger

This Day in History | 2012

Whitney Houston dies in a bathtub inside her hotel room at the Beverly Hills Hilton. 

Good morning Middle Americans, 

The voting has started in New Hampshire and it’s anyone’s race. Well not really anyone’s – but between the top three or four candidates, it’s going to be a close race on the Democratic side of the contest.  As it stands right now Bernie Sanders is sitting at the top of the polls, but there are still a lot of undecided voters and someone like Amy Klobuchar, or Pete Buttigieg could have a very big night. Joe Biden on the other hand, is expecting to have a bad night and move on to South Carolina to save his campaign.  But it may be too little too late. 

When it comes to donations for the 2016 campaign, Bernie Sanders is leading all the candidates when it comes to donations from people who work for the big tech companies.

The Justice Department has charged four Chinese military officials with hacking credit reporting agency Equifax. 

Finally today, Sen. Chuck Schumer is asking all the inspector generals to investigate the firing of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and U.S. Amb. to the EU Gordon Sondland. 

Read all about it!

– Fraser Dixon

Just Hours to Go, New Hampshire Primary Voters Still Can’t Make Up Their Minds

(LA Times) – They’ve been pummeled by millions of dollars in TV ads, had repeated chances to see the major candidates up close, sometimes in neighbors’ living rooms, and they’ve watched debates play out on television. Now, they’re about to cast ballots — but for whom?

“I don’t know yet,” said Sarah Glass, a high school teacher from Hanover, N.H. “I’m super-undecided.”

Standing a few feet away, in a Lebanon high school gymnasium where Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was due to speak, Doreen Somers of Grantham acknowledged similar indecision.

“It’s tough. It’s exciting. But it’s tough.”

New Hampshire’s voters are, of course, notoriously picky — spoiled, some would say — as a result of the attention they get every four years. But this year’s indecision appears to go deeper, with many voters appearing almost paralyzed, not just by the breadth of choices they face, but by the weight of the stakes as they struggle to find a candidate they believe can beat President Donald Trump.

Find out more here

Bernie Sanders Getting Tons of Support from Big Tech Employees

(Vox) – Despite his criticisms of companies like Amazon, Bernie Sanders is raising more money from Big Tech than any other 2020 presidential candidate.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter employees funneled almost $270,000 into the Sanders campaign during the last three months of 2019, according to new fundraising disclosures filed this weekend. Almost half of that money came from employees of Google, according to an analysis for Recode by GovPredict.

Looking at contributions from workers at five large companies doesn’t tell the complete story of Silicon Valley’s financial support. But it offers one concrete way to stack-rank how the “tech industry” — so nebulously defined — is splitting when it comes to political support.

Read more here

Related: Sanders: ‘Being Pro-Choice is an Absolutely Essential Part of Being a Democrat’

US Charges 4 Chinese Military Hackers in Equifax Breach

(AP) — Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said Monday, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target consumer data.

The 2017 breach affected more than 145 million people, with the hackers successfully stealing names, addresses, Social Security and driver’s license numbers and other personal information stored in the company’s databases.

The four — members of the People’s Liberation Army, an arm of the Chinese military — are also accused of stealing the company’s trade secrets, including database designs, law enforcement officials said.

Read more here

Schumer Asks Inspectors General to Investigate Whistleblower Retaliation After Vindman Firing

(Politico) – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking that every agency inspector general investigate retaliation against whistleblowers who report presidential misconduct, after the firing of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council.

Schumer’s letters to 74 inspectors general, which will be sent Monday, comes after Vindman, a star witness in the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, was removed from his position at the White House on Friday, along with his twin, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, an ethics lawyer at the NSC. Both brothers are active-duty Army officers and were reassigned to the Pentagon.

Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union and another key witness, was also recalled from his post.

In a letter to Acting Inspector General Glenn Fine at the Defense Department, Schumer described the NSC firings as “part of a dangerous, growing pattern of retaliation against those who report wrongdoing only to find themselves targeted by the President and subject to his wrath and vindictiveness.”

Read more here