WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

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1/ Trump displayed a doctored National Weather Service map to "prove" that Alabama would, in fact, be affected by Hurricane Dorian. The storm's projected path on the map was extended to include Alabama with a black marker in an apparent attempted to retroactively justify Trump's incorrect tweet over the weekend warning that Alabama could be affected. "This is original path that we thought – and everybody thought that this was about a 95 percent probably," Trump said. When asked whether the chart had been drawn on, Trump said: "I don't know; I don't know." By law, knowingly issuing a false weather report is a violation of the law subject to imprisonment and or fine. (Washington Post / NPR / ABC News / The Guardian)

• ???? Day 957: Trump refused to retract his claim that Hurricane Dorian was poised to hit Alabama, even though the National Weather Service said he was wrong. The NWS office in Birmingham rejected Trump's assertion that Alabama was in the storm's path, tweeting: "We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama." Trump, meanwhile, explained that it's "Always good to be prepared!" (CNN / New York Times / The Hill / Yahoo! News)

2/ The Trump administration relaxed requirements for energy efficient light bulbs that Congress passed in 2007. The Energy Department's filing in the Federal Register will now prevent new efficiency standards for inefficient incandescent and halogen bulbs from going into effect on Jan. 1st. (New York Times)

3/ The FBI is tracking people protesting U.S. immigration policy at the border and monitoring their social media. The FBI office in Phoenix sent an "external intelligence note" to other law enforcement and government agencies saying these groups are "increasingly arming themselves and using lethal force to further their goals." Almost all of the evidence cited in the report involved nonviolent protest activity. Civil rights advocates say that the government is classifying legitimate protests and legally protected speech as violent extremism or domestic terrorism. (Yahoo News)

4/ Mitch McConnell reiterated that he is open to bringing gun legislation to the floor of the Senate – but only if Trump supports it. Democrats are urging McConnell to bring the House's universal background checks bill to the Senate floor. McConnell said he would be happy to put the bill on the floor if Trump "is in favor of a number of things that he has discussed openly and publicly, and I know that if we pass it it'll become law." (Politico)

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