A new Axios/Harris survey of American adults finds 63 percent rating their personal financial situation as “good” – of them 19 percent saying “very good” – and 66 percent saying 2024 will be better than 2023 and 85 percent optimistic that they can change their situation for the better.
“It’s broadly understood that economic well-being influences electoral outcomes. By the same token, however, political affiliation influences the responses that Republicans, in particular, give when they’re asked about the economy. So asking about personal finances rather than the broader economy can reveal optimism not seen in consumer-sentiment polls,” Axios writes, blithely admitting that the GOP-friendly “vibes” often seen in their political coverage are all horseshit.
CFPB press release: “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today proposed a rule to rein in excessive overdraft fees charged by the nation’s biggest financial institutions. The proposal would close an outdated loophole that exempts overdraft lending services from longstanding provisions of the Truth in Lending Act and other consumer financial protection laws. For decades, very large financial institutions have been able to issue highly profitable overdraft loans, which have garnered them billions of dollars in revenue annually. Under the proposal, large banks would be free to extend overdraft loans if they complied with longstanding lending laws, including disclosing any applicable interest rate. Alternatively, banks could charge a fee to recoup their costs at an established benchmark – as low as $3, or at a cost they calculate, if they show their cost data.”
“‘Decades ago, overdraft loans got special treatment to make it easier for banks to cover paper checks that were often sent through the mail,’ said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. ‘Today, we are proposing rules to close a longstanding loophole that allowed many large banks to transform overdraft into a massive junk fee harvesting machine.’ The proposed rule would apply to insured financial institutions with more than $10 billion in assets, which covers approximately the 175 largest depository institutions in the country. These institutions typically charge $35 for an overdraft, even though the majority of debit card overdrafts are for less than $26, and are repaid within three days.”
A new ad by the DCCC hammers George Santos’s “amazing friend” and would-be Republican replacement Mazi Melesa Pilip over her running on “the New York Conservative Party” ticket in next month’s special election to fill in the seat. The Empire State’s stupid system for some reason allows Republican and Democratic candidates to appear redundantly on ballots as the nominees for minor parties no one’s ever heard of – and that rarely if ever actually run their own candidates.
Most of the time this is meaningless, but Dems are going all in for former NY-03 Congressman Tom Suozzi and leaving no stone such as the “Conservative Party” platform’s pro-national abortion ban unturned, per Punchbowl News. “They’d ban abortion even in New York, even in cases of rape or incest,” says the ad, purposely omitting Pilip’s probably fake pro-choice rhetoric.
Separately The Messenger reports Republicans have yet to make any significant investment in the district, quoting some NRCC spokesworm brushing the disparity off with “Democrats know that their policies are hurting New Yorkers and causing voters to seek relief. No amount of money can undo the disastrous Biden-Suozzi agenda of open borders and rising crime,” as if that’s going to do it.
Dems are (correctly) thinking much bigger. “If we win this, it shows momentum, it shows donors that there’s a real viable chance of… flipping back some seats that have been trending red,” said a Democratic House strategist, adding “If we can win this back, that’s a pretty great start of 2024 for us. If we can win this seat now, it is non-competitive for Republicans in November… Let’s mark this one off the board early… It’s just one less headache down the road if we can.”
“Hate and exclusion should not have any place in our society… The idea of so-called ‘re-migration’ is inhumane,” Jochen Hanebeck wrote in a LinkedIn post referring to the plan for a mass expulsion of immigrants – even those with German citizenship – being plotted by the AFD leadership should they seize a majority in parliament. “As a CEO, I believe that an economic and social policy aimed at isolation is harmful to us all and a threat to prosperity,” Hanebeck continued in the post.
Bloomberg reports that Hanebeck’s post, echoing that of BDI Federation of German Industries President Siegfried Russwurm calling AFD’s momentum “dangerous for the economy” at a press conference last week and Dusseldorf Airport CEO Lars Redeligx posting that the ultranationalist “mindset is poison for Germany as a business location,” are extraordinary as Deutschland’s business leaders have long traditionally stayed out of politics – which means this shit is getting serious.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a woman who had threatened one of the two Republican Wayne County, Michigan canvassers who in November 2020 initially refused to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the jurisdiction under pressure from fat former President Trump, the AP reports.
Katelyn Jones, 26, formerly of Olivet, Michigan, and now living in Epping, New Hampshire, had sent a pic of a dead body to Monica Palmer, one of the two assholes recorded being told by Trump and feckless RNC chair Ronna Not-Romney that they would get them lawyers is they refused to do their jobs. Jones last year pleaded guilty to threats of violence through interstate commerce.
Prosecutors from the Special Counsel’s Office–the other one, about Hunter Biden–argued in a California courtroom that the charges the President’s son faces regarding the purchase of a handgun while a drug addict are really important because drugs are bad and guns are dangerous and laws are laws and no, Hunter Biden isn’t being prosecuted solely because he’s the President’s son.
In support of their 40-page filing asserting such, prosecutors also noted in a hearing that investigators found cocaine residue on the pouch containing the gun Hunter’s girlfriend ditched in a California trashcan less than two weeks after Hunter bought it. “To be clear, investigators literally found drugs on the pouch where the defendant had kept his gun,” prosecutors said according to Politico.
“The test of any presidential race: Are you better off than you were for years ago?” podcaster with a taxpayer-funded side gig Senator Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo) says forcefully into the camera, unaware that four years ago this week, things started to go to shit. Like pandemic shit. “And I gotta say for just about every person in America, the answer is ‘hell, no.'”
Trump Fulton County co-defendant and nearly-momentary Attorney General Jeffrey Clark’s disbarment from the DC bar will face delays after one of Donald Trump’s remaining attorney Todd Blanche sent Clark a letter demanding Clark respect Trump’s claims of executive privilege while the issue plays out in the courts, Politico reports. Conversations between Clark and Trump, Blanche claimed, were covered under “Trump’s executive privilege and other related privileges, including law enforcement privilege, attorney client privilege, and deliberative process privilege.”
A 38 year-old Quebec man who posted a bunch of bullshit on Facebook accusing the government of setting the wildfires that ravaged the country last June pleaded guilty on Monday to having set at least 14 of the wildfires in remote northern reaches of the vast province, the CBC reports.
The best part is that the cops had seen Pare in the area around one of the fires on June 2nd, and asked if he seen anything, noticing that he had “demonstrated a certain interest in fires.” They then started watching his Facebook profile and decided to start following him around. The CBC’s article doesn’t show any screenshots or get into the content of the posts, which is lame.
ABC News and co-sponsor WMUR announced it canceled Thursday’s planned Republican presidential candidate debate because no one really cared to hear Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis spew their talking points while Donald Trump either holds a rally elsewhere or posts ranting bullshit–and neither Haley nor DeSantis would confirm they would attend.
“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” ABC News said in a statement. “As a result, while our robust election coverage will continue, ABC News and WMUR-TV will not be moving forward with Thursday’s Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire.”
Iowa Sentr Chuck Grassly has gone 2 hospital 4 tremnt of nfection, CNN rpter Manny Raju twtd. His office sd Grassly in good spirit / tho if goes bad they have to tell wife sorry ur husband dead.
“I should be in New Hampshire, campaigning and fighting for our Country, and I will be later today, but for now I had to spend time in a Federal Courthouse with a Trump Hating, Radical Left Judge, on a case that is another politically biased WITCH HUNT – ONE DAY AFTER IOWA, AND JUST AHEAD OF THE IMPORTANT NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY. THIS HOAX, WHICH THE ‘BULLY’ JUDGE CHOSE TO HAVE AS TWO TRIALS INSTEAD OF MERGING INTO ONE, IS A DISGRACE, AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT. His former Law Clerk(?) is on the other side. Anyway, I’ll be in New Hampshire at 6:30 PM, a BIG crowd is waiting. MAGA!!!” writes disgraced former President Trump on Truth Social.
The fat bastard didn’t need to be in Manhattan for the jury selection. Defendants are not required to be present at civil trials and indeed he walked out before the opening statements. The reason why there were two trials is because the first one was conducted in federal court under New York State law and this one is in a federal court. He knows this and he’s full of shit, but in doing so he also forgot to lie about being tied down with his mother-in-law’s funeral.
The two potential jurors considered for deciding damages to award to writer EJ Carroll in her federal defamation trial against fat former President who, per MSNBC’s Lisa Rubin, had “admitted they think Trump has been treated unfairly by the legal system,” were passed over for selection and sent to go serve on some other case or whatever who cares. Rubin also described the obese orange defendant as “attentive” toward the prospective jurors – and those jurors as wanting to work the case.
Later Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn asked to speak to the court, to which Judge Lewis Kaplan asked if he was a member of the bar of “this court.” Epshteyn said he’s a member of the New York State Bar, which was a no. “Alright, then please have a seat,” Kaplan said. Trump then left the courthouse before Carroll’s attorneys began their opening statements, per Politico’s Erica Orden.
The House Rules Committee on Tuesday announced they won’t be taking up a vote to advance a resolution referring Hunter Biden for criminal contempt while idiots James Comer and Jim Jordan continue negotiations with Hunter’s legal team on an interview, CNN’s Melanie Zanona reports.
“The Putnam County SPCA announces the arrest of Mark Kuhn, a 62-year-old resident of the Town of Patterson. The Putnam County SPCA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police worked in conjunction after being alerted by the Putnam County Probation Department that Mr Kuhn, who is on Probation for an unrelated crime, admitted to illegally trapping squirrels on his property, spraying them with apple-red colored ‘Rust-Oleum Paint + Primer,’ then releasing them at another location within the Town. After a short investigation, PC SPCA Detectives and NYS DEC Officers interviewed Mr Kuhn at his residence on 1/13/2024. PC SPCA Detectives charged Mr Kuhn with three (3) counts of Poisoning or Attempting to Poison Animals, a misdemeanor in the New York State Agriculture and Markets Law. The NYS DEC Police charged Mr Kuhn with several violations under the New York State Environmental Conservation laws.”
“The PC SPCA seized two traps from the property, as well as the Rust-oleum spray can, allegedly used on the squirrels that were caught. The PC SPCA thanks the Putnam County Probation Department, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Police, Southeast Animal Hospital, and the local Wildlife Rehabilitators who assisted in this investigation,” says the Putnam County, New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in a statement posted to Facebook.
Nimrata “Nikki” Haley managed to avoid getting cornered by CNN’s Dana Bash on a tough topic Tuesday, on whether being found by a court of law to have raped a woman is a bad thing.
“ABC News and WMUR-TV have officially given Donald Trump and Nikki Haley’s campaigns a deadline of 5:00 pm EST today to commit to the Republican presidential primary debate planned for Thursday, Jan 18 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. We will update our plans accordingly,” said a Tuesday joint statement from ABC News and New Hampshire affiliate.
Asked to comment on the deadline by Semafor’s Shelby Talcott, large-headed Trump spokesman Steven Cheung responded only with “There’s a debate?” which we guess is the campaign’s answer.
