Republicans float a quiet conspiracy theory that Biden won't be on the ballot
“So here’s the scenario that I think is perhaps the most likely and most dangerous,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on his podcast last month. “In August of 2024, the Democrat kingmakers jettison Joe Biden and parachute in Michelle Obama.”
“I view this as a very serious danger,” he said.
“In 2023, Hegseth paid the complainant as part of a civil
confidential settlement agreement and maintains his innocence,” Timothy
Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, said in a statement.
He also denied that the encounter between Hegseth and an unnamed woman, which she alleges happened in 2017, was sexual assault. ...
Parlatore denied the allegation, saying, “This is a situation where a consensual encounter occurred and, unfortunately, the woman had to come up with a lie to explain why the woman had not come back to her husband’s room that night.”
His Wikipedia entry indicates he cheated on his second! wife sometime in 2016 with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet who had his baby in August 2017. By October 2017 he's cheating on her! with a married woman! also supposedly conservative! referenced in the confidential settlement by CNBC:
Hegseth and his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, divorced in 2009.
He married his second wife, Samantha Deering, in 2010; they have three children.
In August 2017, while still married to Deering, Hegseth had a daughter with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet, with whom he was having an extramarital relationship.[25] He and Deering divorced in August 2017.
Hegseth and Rauchet, who has three young children from her first marriage, married in August 2019.[69]
Hegseth lives in Tennessee. He is a member of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship,[70] a church in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.[71][72]
In October 2017, a 30-year-old conservative group staffer accused Hegseth of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room after he spoke at a California Federation of Republican Women event in Monterey, California.[73] She went to an emergency room the next day for a rape kit test.[74] Hegseth described the allegations as a "he-said, she-said" dispute about a consensual encounter.[75] No charges were filed in the case.[73] Hegseth paid the accuser as part of a non-disclosure agreement in 2020.[76]
... elected Democratic officials in Philadelphia and three other counties — Bucks, Centre and Montgomery — voted this week to defy these and other court decisions at the request of lawyers for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey ...
Mr. Casey has almost certainly lost this race. The Associated Press called it for Mr. McCormick on Nov. 7. Mr. Casey’s deficit still appears insurmountable. The three-term incumbent sees it differently and has every right to plead his case in court. State law also entitles Mr. Casey to a statewide recount because Mr. McCormick’s margin of victory is smaller than half a percentage point, though not by much. A recount is unlikely to change the outcome.
More.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright's nomination delivers.
"He's s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America's fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: "Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first."
More.
Scott's approval rating in Vermont in 2021 made him the most popular governor in the entire country. He describes himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
Your new Director of National Intelligence, ladies and gentlemen, whom Bernie assured us in 2019 was no Russian asset.
Donald Trump was just a working class stiff flipping hamburgers a few weeks ago, so Tulsi hanging with the left eight years ago is no big deal, right?
But, yeah, ridiculous once upon a time NeverTrump gasbags like Charlie Kirk think they are going to remove John Thune.
Donald Trump once laughably thought the same thing about Kelly Armstrong.
Ayotte 435,990
Harris 418,351
Trump 395,397
And politics is nothing if it's not irrational:
GOP control of the US House at 218 would be secure, if it weren't for Trump poaching from this field to populate his government.
Not. Very. Bright.
It also tells you that the poached aren't very bright either: Stefanik, Waltz, Gaetz, and Rubio from the US Senate also.
Special elections are required for the House district vacancies. The governor of Florida can appoint Rubio's replacement, but that is only temporary.
Democrats said electing Trump would be a return to chaos.
They were correct about that.
Here.
Levin argues the Senators owe their elections to Trump's coattails, and therefore their unqualified support.
Of fifteen Republicans elected to the US Senate in 2024, that might be true of eleven.
But in four cases it's not: Wicker in Mississippi, Curtis in Utah, Barrasso in Wyoming, and Ricketts in Nebraska were all more popular than Donald Trump, each garnering more votes than Trump did in their states.
Levin often talks about "constitutionalism" on his show, you know, like the separation of powers, where the Congress isn't simply the president's rubber stamp machine.
You might say Levin runs his mouth about it.
Some US Senators actually doing their jobs and voting not to confirm the worst of Trump's appointments is a good thing.
With any luck the US Senate will not confirm RFK Jr.
CNBC: Wholesale prices rose 0.2% in October, in line with expectations
Wholesale prices nudged higher in October, though largely in line with expectations and mostly consistent with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates again in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
The producer price index, which measures what producers get for their products, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, up one-tenth of a percentage point from September though matching the Dow Jones consensus forecast. On a 12-month basis, headline wholesale inflation was at 2.4%.
Excluding food and energy, core PPI rose 0.3%, also one-tenth more than September and also matching expectations. The 12-month rate was at 3.1%.
"Largely in line" and "mostly consistent" lol. Both 12-month measures were higher than the consensus expected, which was 2.3% for headline and 3% for core. The year over year measures are the most important anyway, especially core.
Why lie about it?
CNN: Wholesale inflation heated up again last month, reversing recent progress
US wholesale inflation picked up more than expected in October, indicating that some price pressures persist at the producer level.
The Producer Price Index, a measurement of average price changes seen by producers and manufacturers, rose 0.2% on a monthly basis and 2.4% for the 12 months ended in October, marking an acceleration from September, when prices ticked up 0.1% for the month and grew 1.9% annually, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday. ...
FactSet consensus forecasts called for a 0.2% monthly gain and for the annual rate to heat up to 2.3%.
Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to be volatile, core PPI rose 0.3% on a monthly basis, marking an acceleration from 0.2% in September. Annually, core PPI heated up from 2.9% to 3.1%, the largest increase since June. Economists projected a 0.2% monthly gain and a 3% annual rate.
Obviously not all prediction models were the same. FactSet projected a 0.2% monthly gain for core vs. 0.3% for core shown above by FXStreet.
But again, the year over year is up MORE THAN EXPECTED for BOTH measures in most models. CNN mentions it, CNBC does not.
You can clearly observe that overall, headline wholesale prices year over year have been trending higher since June 2023. That bottom came out in July 2023, when the Fed last hiked the interest rate in the current cycle and then paused for good.
That was a big mistake.
The rise in wholesale prices since then is as good an indicator as any that higher inflation is deeply embedded in the economy and that the Fed stopped hiking too soon. Arguably core prices sent the same signal, but not starting until after December 2023.
Paying attention to core could explain the Fed's mistake, but for the fact that if the Fed were truly listening to this information, it wouldn't have then cut by 50 basis points in September 2024. I mean, c'mon man.
Jay Powell represents the interests of the bankers and Wall Street, for whom inflation is a good thing because it is the screen behind which the pipeline from prices to profits gets juiced.
He does not represent the people.
Who appointed that guy anyway?!
Mostly because of Olson's role in Bush v Gore in 2000.
Levin never mentions that Olson himself, a thorough-going amoral libertarian who worshiped freedom above all other things, thought his greatest legacy was overturning California's same-sex marriage ban, glowingly covered by WaPo:
Mr. Olson said he considered his greatest legal legacy to be his role in invalidating California’s Proposition 8, a measure banning same-sex marriage that had passed in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote after the state’s Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.
He had come to the case in a most unlikely way, through Rob Reiner, the film director and liberal activist who was among those intent on reversing the recently approved proposition.
Reiner had a decidedly low opinion of Mr. Olson, stemming from what he regarded as Bush’s ill-gotten 2000 election win. But Mr. Olson told Reiner that he found Prop 8 “wrong, morally and legally,” and Reiner was convinced that the lawyer could appeal to conservatives.
“It is a conservative value to respect the relationship that people seek to have with one another, a stable, committed relationship that provides a backbone for our community, for our economy,” Mr. Olson later told the Los Angeles Times. “I think conservatives should value that.”
Mr. Olson endured taunts from former supporters on the hard right, some of whom unleashed homophobic vitriol. Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh denounced him on the radio. Others declined invitations to dine at his home near the Potomac River.
Mr. Olson also said he wasn’t trusted by gay rights advocates who feared that Americans were not ready for same-sex marriage and that challenging the ban in court might backfire and set back the cause for years. Some marriage-equality supporters said they feared that Mr. Olson took the case intending to throw it, a notion he dismissed. “I don’t take cases to lose,” he declared.
In part to allay those suspicions, Mr. Olson asked David Boies — an impeccably credentialed trial lawyer and a registered Democrat who had argued Gore’s case in 2000 — to take the marriage case with him. To the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Olson explained that the case was not a partisan matter but rather one about “human rights and human decency and constitutional law.”
Mr. Olson delivered the opening statement on Jan. 11, 2010, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“In California,” he said, “convicted murderers and child molesters enjoyed the freedom to marry,” he said. “What Prop 8 does is label gay and lesbian persons as different, inferior, unequal and disfavored. It says to gays and lesbians, ‘Your relationship is not the same.’ … It stigmatizes them. It classifies them as outcasts. It causes needless and unrelenting pain and isolation and humiliation.”
Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who heard the case without a jury, ultimately found Prop 8 violated the guarantee of equal protection under the law. Although the decision had an immediate effect only in California, it was a major rallying point nationally for gay rights proponents.
In 2013, the Supreme Court avoided ruling on the merits of same-sex marriage, although it affirmed Walker’s decision, finding that opponents of same-sex marriage lacked standing to defend Prop 8 in court.
Still, the win was credited with paving the way for the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which extended marriage equality nationally.
On Thursday, an attorney for the woman who alleges she had a sexual relationship with Gaetz when she was a minor said the Ethics panel should release the report.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report,” John Clune, a partner at Hutchinson Black and Cook, wrote on X.
“She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” the lawyer added.
Trump picks vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary
Kennedy, in a post on X, thanked Trump and wrote, “I’m committed to advancing your vision to Make America Healthy Again.” ...
Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy for the advocacy group Center for American Progress, in a statement called Trump’s choice of Kennedy “nothing short of disastrous for the country.”
“His track record and open skepticism of longstanding medical science could jeopardize the incredible public health gains we’ve accomplished as a nation – including the gains we’ve made in combatting infectious disease through childhood vaccination programs and in making our food supply safer through pasteurization,” Ducas said.
Sure, sure it is.
