The thing on the right is now facing two charges for luggage theft

 That's some weird fetish :

Sam Brinton [is] the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

The 39 House Republicans Who Voted for the Same-Sex Marriage Bill, annotated

 The New York Times :

• Representative Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota

• Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska [re-elected 2022 with 51.3% of the vote]
  

• Representative Ken Calvert of California [re-elected 2022 with 52.3% of the vote]
  

• Representative Kat Cammack of Florida

• Representative Mike Carey of Ohio

• Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming [voted to impeach Trump, defeated in 2022 primary]
  

• Representative John Curtis of Utah

• Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois [defeated in 2022 primary by fellow Republican in redistricting-forced battle]
  

• Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota [House GOP Majority Whip]
  

• Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania

• *Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin [flipped from Nay in summer to Yea now]
  

• Representative Andrew Garbarino of New York

• Representative Mike Garcia of California

• Representative Carlos Gimenez of Florida

• Representative Tony Gonzalez of Texas

• Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio [voted to impeach Trump, retiring]
  

• *Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington [voted to impeach Trump, defeated in 2022 primary, flipped from Nay in summer to Yea now]
  

• Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa

• Representative Darrell Issa of California

• Representative Ch[r]is Jacobs of New York [retiring after flipping position on guns after Buffalo mass shooting and angering supporters]
  

• Representative David Joyce of Ohio [leader of House Republican moderate caucus]
  

• Representative John Katko of New York [voted to impeach Trump, retiring]
  

• Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina

• Representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York

• Representative Peter Meijer of Michigan [voted to impeach Trump, defeated in 2022 primary]
  

• Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa

• Representative Blake Moore of Utah

• Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington [voted to impeach Trump]
  

• Representative Jay Obernolte of California

• Representative Tom Rice of South Carolina [voted to impeach Trump, defeated in 2022 primary]
  

• Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho

• Representative Elise Stefanik of New York

• Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin

• Representative Chris Stewart of Utah

• Representative Mike Turner of Ohio

• Representative Fred Upton of Michigan [voted to impeach Trump, retiring]
  

• Representative David Valadao of California [voted to impeach Trump, re-elected with 51.5% of the vote]
  

• Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri [Republican phony of the year LOL: “This district is home to me, and there is no better feeling than representing our conservative, Midwest values in Congress.”]

• Representative Tim Waltz of Florida [LOL: NYT has Democrat Tim Walz, Minnesota Governor, on the brain; the actual name is Republican US Rep. Michael Waltz, who ran unopposed in FL-6 and was re-elected in 2022; the newspaper of record smdh]
  

We've had two months of smartly increasing continued claims for unemployment, a sign job losers aren't getting rehired quickly

 

Why Sam Bankman-Fried of Alameda/FTX isn't in jail already

 

Data here.

If you haven't saved enough for an emergency, it's on you, and borrowing money for an emergency when you have it is another stupid thing which is on you

Two stupids don't make a smart.

 

“It’s a terrible idea to take money out of your 401(k),” said Ted Jenkin, a certified financial planner and co-founder of oXYGen Financial, based in Atlanta. ...

Households should weigh all their options for cash before resorting to tapping a 401(k) plan, said Jenkin, a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.

For example, households without an emergency fund might be able to free up money for a relatively small short-term cash need by canceling or reducing membership plans, or by selling little-used or unneeded items on Facebook Marketplace or a garage sale, he said. A short-term loan or home equity line of credit would generally also be better than tapping a 401(k).

More.

There's nothing like paying a steep price for a mistake to keep you from making it again. Only morons pay twice.

 

What else would you expect someone to say who makes his living selling retirement products?

 

Only morons borrow money for weddings

 

If you need help covering large wedding expenses, consider these 5 personal loan lenders

39 House Republicans join 12 Senate Republicans to pass Democrat bill overthrowing the Defense of Marriage Act

 The Respect for Marriage Act passed the Democratic-led House in a 258-169-1 vote, as 39 Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting it. It also won bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled Senate in late November: 12 GOP senators crossed party lines to vote for the legislation. ...

The Respect for Marriage Act formally repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. That bill denied same-sex couples federal benefits and permitted states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

The Supreme Court would later go on to invalidate the key provisions of DOMA in two watershed rulings, United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito dissented in Windsor against Kennedy in 2013, same in Hodges in 2015.

There's always a minority of Republicans who exist only to advance the Democrats' godless agenda. 

It's never the other way around, unless it has to do with money.

Story.

Flashback: Outdoor mask hysteria, State of Washington, Cascade Mountains, the day before New Year's Eve 2020, removing a downed tree in a roadway

 

Biden chooses England over New England

 

U.S. pledges to ramp up supplies of natural gas to Britain as Biden and Sunak seek to cut off Russia

 

 

 

The State of Georgia, population 10.9 million, is 33% black

 

Drudge right now vs. the truth

 ANOTHER MAGA DOWN

DEM WINS GA

KGRR climate update through Nov 2022

2022 mean average temperature eleven months through Nov = 50.4

Mean average temperature through Nov since 1892 = 50.0

28 inches of snow, second highest November on record, all melted now.

 

 

Meanwhile consumers of the really important things like food and energy are getting pounded with persistent, huge price increases

 

So-called "core" inflation rose to 5-ish percent from early 2021 and hasn't budged from there in twelve months

Puny Fed rate hikes have done nothing to stop it.

The metric was less than 2% under Trump.

 

The traditional 60/40 portfolio is now down only 13.76% in 2022 through November, not adjusted for inflation north of 6%

Total stock market index, VTSAX:  -14.51% through November

Total bond market index, VBTLX:  -12.64% through November

The dollar buys 12.5% less after two years of Joe Biden: The damage was already done by June when the Fed first hiked by 0.75

 

Jay Powell is a bitter disappointment, pledging today to moderate rate hikes when he's hardly begun to fight inflation after waiting a year to start

 Jay Powell is such a clown:

  ". . . it makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down,” he added. “The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting.”

Story.

Making sure his pals profit under the umbrella of inflationary pressures is worse than insider trading, because we all pay.

We're the marks!

I haven't been this disappointed in a federal official since Donald Trump betrayed his immigration promises in 2017-2018.

And how did stocks respond?

Before the election Biden declared the pandemic over, then he declared it on again afterwards but WaPo just ignores that

Biden still hasn't "shut down the virus".

 

 

Life insurance payouts soared past $100 billion in 2021 as pandemic took over 800,000 total US lives by year end

 Payouts rose 11% in 2021 to $100.19 billion, most likely due to the pandemic, according to the American Council of Life Insurers. The increase was on the heels of a 15% year-over-year rise in 2020, when death-benefit payments totaled $90.43 billion. ... The year-over-year increases are among the largest since the 1918 flu pandemic, when payments surged 41%. They are far above the 4.9% average from 2011 to 2021, the ACLI said. Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. jumped 20% in 2021 to approximately 460,000, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More.

An unappreciated factor in the relatively poor Republican performance in Election 2022 is the death of many of their voters due to the pandemic

 Older voters skew Republican, and COVID-19 victims skew overwhelmingly older.

A 3- to 4-point Republican advantage among a million deaths of older Americans is up to 40,000 voters nationwide who didn't vote in the election, which doesn't seem like much until you consider that 15 US House races were won by margins of 50% and a fraction.

Republicans won 6 of those races, with one additional race undecided with the Republican leading by just 600 votes.

But Democrats won 8 of those races, and each one by approximately 1,300 to 7,000 votes versus all competitors. In four of those races, with Republican opponents only, the Democrats won by just 1,300 to 3,000 votes.