I post this not just for the historical significance, but the clown car of promoters is ascendent again.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is considering creating a special hotline just for CEOs to report alleged threats to their safety after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in the middle of Manhattan earlier this month, according to a report. Social media users were shocked by the news and questioned why the New York governor would consider using taxpayer dollars to fund the hotline for multi-millionaire CEOs and billion-dollar companies. "I don't seem to remember this kind of a state response and resources going to NYC when the homicide rate spiked around 2022 but I guess that was just regular people," X user @lukewgoldstein shared.
A Republican senator launched into an anti-vaccine rant Tuesday when reporters asked about confirming noted health conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy was forced to backtrack this week following reports that one of his key aides tried to get the polio vaccine certification revoked in the United States. "What I was excited to hear him about was getting away from guessing, into facts. Do science, get behind the science, stay with it, don't be guessing. That's a lot of what these vaccines have done," said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). The senator then went on to baselessly suggest that "everybody" in the room probably knew someone who died from a COVID-19 vaccine injury.
A House Republican said Tuesday that he believes there "will be some cuts" to Social Security and Medicare as he entered a conference room at the U.S. Capitol for the first meeting of the DOGE Caucus, a new congressional group formed to support an advisory commission led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump's popular-vote margin has shrunk to about 1.5 percent"one of the tightest in the past half century"and because some votes went to third-party and independent candidates, he'll fall just short of winning a majority of the vote nationwide. And in the House, they gained a seat, leaving the GOP with the second-smallest majority in history.
Head of [Russia Today] Margarita Simonyan, a decorated state TV propagandist and Kremlin insider, has spilled not only Russia's hopes and dreams for Donald Trump's second term in office but also Moscow's strategy for suckering him in. She believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has an irresistible sway over Trump and will extract the desired outcome - but only if they meet face-to-face, without any influence or interference from other American power brokers, a la Helsinki, where the two men held discussions in secret. Read more
Honda and Nissan are understood to have held exploratory talks about a potential merger to help them compete against electric vehicle (EV) makers, particularly in China. In March, the two Japanese car makers agreed to explore a strategic partnership for EVs. The firms responded to the BBC with identical statements, which said: "As announced in March of this year, Honda and Nissan are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration, leveraging each other's strengths." Read more
Tom Cruise has been awarded the US Navy's highest civilian honour for "outstanding contributions" to the military with his screen roles. Cruise's lead role in the 1986 smash hit Top Gun shot him into celebrity status, and the film's record-breaking success spiked military enlistment. The Distinguished Public Service Award was presented to Cruise during a ceremony on Tuesday at the Longcross Film Studios in Chertsey, Surrey. Read more
The Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) notified America First Legal (AFL) that American Airlines has agreed to abandon the discriminatory employment practices AFL outlined in its federal civil rights complaint against the company. The airline acknowledged that recruiting and hiring based on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) violates federal laws and equal employment opportunities. On January 17, 2024, AFL filed a complaint against American Airlines with the OFCCP, requesting an immediate investigation into the airline for non-compliance with federal contracting requirements. Read more
The 1986 American Heritage Dictionary defines fascism as:
"fascism (fsh'z'am) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism." We're about to be there. Read more
Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson continues to make history outside of the nation's highest court. Last Saturday (Dec. 14), the 54-year-old made her Broadway debut in the musical comedy & Juliet in a specially created one-night-only walk-on role at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, according to Playbill. With the performance, Jackson achieved a lifelong dream, reviving her acting career hopes for the singular affair. For Jackson, it stands as a full-circle moment as she penned in her Lovely One memoir her goal of becoming the first Supreme Court Justice to perform on Broadway. "I think that it means that anything is possible," explained the Harvard graduate to CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King after the show. "Five years ago, I was a district court justice; nobody knew who I was. To have both of the pieces of my fondest dreams come true in this little bit of time has been extraordinary for me."
A new report out from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), accuses Amazon of manipulating data on worker injuries and ignoring safety concerns.
President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wants the FCC to crack down on news broadcasters that he perceives as being unfair to Trump or Republicans in general.
About a month after President-elect Donald Trump emerged victorious in the 2024 presidential election, three Democratic legislators have introduced a constitutional amendment that would abolish the Electoral College if passed. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii,) Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) have voiced concerns about the fact that, in the past two decades, the Electoral College has allowed for the election of a candidate who did not win the popular vote on two separate occasions: George W. Bush in the 2000 election and Trump in the 2016 election. Both of these candidates were from the Republican Party. However, Trump still would have won the 2024 presidential election even if the winner was decided by popular vote, as he garnered roughly 2 million more votes than his Democratic counterpart, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Almost no one foresees an imminent pop. Virtually every Wall Street analyst predicts US stocks will continue outperforming the rest of the world in 2025. But all this enthusiasm only tends to confirm that the bubble is at a very advanced stage.
If the consensus on "American exceptionalism" is so overwhelming, who is left to hop on the bandwagon and inflate it further?
Trump's landslide victory wasn't just defined by the swing states. He picked up territory nationwide, securing 10-point gains in some counties in Texas and making huge inroads in California. Washington was the only state that did not swing towards the Republicans in 2024, illustrating the extent of the political shift that occurred. As such, Trump is on course to become the first Republican candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years.
