He’s already picking out his running mate He’s making a list and he’s checking it twice: With his last vice president seemingly gearing up for his own White House run, Donald Trump is now sifting through binders full of MAGA women to find his next running mate. Rather than choose a safe and conventional option, as he did in 2016, Trump appears intent on running with a loyalist this time––someone who, unlike Mike Pence, would walk into the fires that he will inevitably spark instead of trying not to get burned themselves. Atop the former president’s 2024 VEEP list, which was detailed in a Daily Beast report Thursday, are GOP representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elise Stefanik, both of whom have been steadfast defenders of his since he left office. At present, Greene seems to be the most viable option on the reported list, despite (or by virtue of) her long track record of outrageous remarks and incidents.
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So he invents one He’s at it again: In the midst of implementing its own controversial new program for dealing with the flow of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, the White House on Wednesday criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for deploying the National Guard to handle the arrival of undocumented immigrants from Cuba. “We are talking about people who are coming from countries, who are dealing with political strife,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Wednesday’s press briefing. “They’re trying to find asylum — and he’s treating them like pawns.” She charged that DeSantis was “not dealing with the problem. He’s actually creating a problem.” Last week, DeSantis deployed the National Guard to deal with what his office described as an “alarming influx of migrants landing in the Florida Keys,” though it was unclear just what the Guard’s role would be. According to the governor’s office, 300 migrants fleeing Cuba and other countries landed at Dry Tortugas National Park last week, and another 45 made landfall at Key West.
Baby sloth! On Thursday, the London Zoo announced the birth of its first animal in 2023 — a two-toed sloth born on New Year’s Day. Before sixteen-year-old mom Marilyn gave birth, she was closely monitored with regular ultrasounds during her 10-11 month pregnancy, the U.K. zoo said in a press release. Because of a sloth’s long gestation, the nocturnal mammals native to South America are well-developed at birth, so they can eat food and hold on tight to their mother shortly after entering the world. “We were delighted to finally spot a tiny baby exactly where it should be, clinging onto Marilyn’s tummy, as she curled up in her favorite tree,” sloth keeper Veronica Heldt said of the first time the zoo spotted the baby animal. “We’ve nicknamed the little one Nova, which means ‘new’ in Latin, as we couldn’t have asked for a better start to the new year,” the zoo shared in its release. The London Zoo won’t know the youngster’s sex until vets confirm it through a DNA test. Male or female, the newborn is a valuable addition to its species.
Will anyone hear about it? We’re obsessing today on the Joe Biden documents case hour after hour so I doubt many of you have heard about this. Dean Baker reports: The December Consumer Price Index (CPI), following a great December jobs report, shows the economy has turned the corner and seems on a path to stable growth with moderate inflation. The CPI showed prices actually fell by 0.1 percent for the month. This brought the annualized rate of inflation over the last three months in the overall index to just 1.8 percent. With the drop in prices reported in December, the real average hourly wage for all workers is now 0.3 percent above its pre-pandemic level. For production and non-supervisory workers it is 0.8 percent higher. And, for production and non-supervisory workers in the low-paying hotel and restaurant sector it is up 5.7 percent. The overall index for December was held down by a 4.5 percent plunge in energy prices, but the 0.3 percent rise in the core index should not be terribly troubling.
No shame. But you knew that. The right is addicted to daily outrage like a meth addict to crank. It is the fuel without which Tucker Carlson has no show and the Matt Gaetzes cannot show out. There is no close-up magic artistry to it. That their daily performances of outrage are strained and obvious is of no more concern than a dope-slap is to fans of the Three Stooges. Subtlety is not part of the shtick. But gas stoves? The GOP once felt obliged to dog-whistle its prejudices. But that was pre-Trump. Nowadays MAGAs wear their animus on tee shirts or fly it from the back of a white Dodge Ram. That said, a whispering campaign on the part of the GOP against one of their own almost evokes nostalgia for the Karl Rove-era (Politico): As Harmeet Dhillon seeks the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, opponents have begun raising concerns about her Sikh faith — a development that has left some members of the committee unsettled. Two supporters of Dhillon, who is challenging incumbent RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, told POLITICO that McDaniel allies have brought up Dhillon’s religious affiliation with them in recent weeks.
Budgets are moral documents The cartoon at the top has stayed with me since I first spotted it. “This is my list of things I don’t want others to have” describes in a dozen words the conservative governing philosophy in a way that might otherwise require a doctoral dissertation. The entire Jim Crow era was based upon keeping black people from sharing in freedoms, privileges and power white people enjoy. New Jim Crow voting restrictions being passed today are based on it. Every time a conservative utters the phrases “real American” or “real America” they are making a claim to privileged status they believe is their birthright. Others equally American, at least in theory, must prove themselves worthy in a world where conservatives claim a veto over their advancement. Typically, whenever conservatives feel their social status threatened. Republican budget priorities and fixation on tightening election rules reflect a narrow, exclusionary view of who counts as a citizen and who does not. Catherine Rampell examines the new rule set House Republicans just passed and finds the same bias towards the right’s kind of people.
It's always someone else's fault – according to the party that has been in power for 13 years (although not according to its cheerleaders), writes Iain Overton
Mystery remains around a Government fund that invested heavily in developing countries where a company run by Conservative Party donor also has significant investments
Quatro coronéis da cúpula da corporação suspeita de ser cúmplice de terrorismo são próximos de Jorge Oliveira, presenteado por Bolsonaro com cargo no TCU.
The post PM do Distrito Federal é comandada por colegas de turma de homem de confiança de Bolsonaro appeared first on The Intercept.
I mentioned the possibility of the Democrats and some swing district Republicans using the discharge petition as a way to get the debt ceiling raised against the will of the GOP House majority. It’s not a very promising route unfortunately. Semafor’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig explains(subscription only): The discharge petition may be ill-suited to raise the debt ceiling, which carries a hard deadline before causing economic calamity. The process for forcing a vote is clunky and time-consuming and some experts believe House leadership could throw up additional roadblocks along the way. “It’s kind of like trying to do open heart surgery with an ax,” Josh Huder, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, told Semafor.