November 20, 2024

TRUMP REGIME

Meet our new Education Secretary

Independent, UK - President-elect Donald Trump has chosen financial services CEO and transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to be his commerce secretary.  Trump announced the news on Tuesday afternoon, saying that the billionaire and Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda.”

The office is currently separate from the Commerce Department and has in the past usually been a cabinet-level position reporting to the president. Lutnick has been active in the media defending Trump’s agenda and personnel choices in his role as co-chair of the transition, including explaining how Trump is set to use tariff.

 LA Times -  President-elect Donald Trump has promised to arrest thousands of homeless people sleeping in American streets and move them to large tent cities on “inexpensive land,” one of several planks of his agenda that would upend a national strategy that focuses on finding people housing on a voluntary basis. “We will use every tool, lever and authority to get the homeless off our streets,” Trump said in a video announcing his policy last year. “There is nothing compassionate about letting these individuals live in filth and squalor, rather than getting them the help that they need.”

Homeless advocates, who have fought for decades to remove the stigma around people who lack a place to live, are bracing for a multi-pronged battle against policies they deem inhumane.

But Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is trying to combat one of the nation’s largest homelessness crises, said she is eager to work with the incoming administration, and believes she and Trump can find common ground in housing the city’s estimated 46,000 homeless people.

NBC News -  Women and racial diversity are vital to the strength of the U.S. armed forces, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an exclusive interview, as he prepares to exit the top military post after four years. “They do impact readiness. They make us better. They make us stronger,” Austin said of women serving in the military. Pete Hegseth, a former Army National Guard major, is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to take over Austin’s post but his past comments about women in combat have raised concerns.

Guardian -  Donald Trump has chosen Mehmet Oz, best known for starring in his eponymous daytime talkshow for more than a decade and leaning heavily into Trumpism during his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The cardiothoracic surgeon, who faced immense backlash from the medical and scientific communities for pushing misinformation at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, will oversee the agency that operates on a $2.6tn annual budget and provides healthcare to more than 100 million people. 

NBC - Trump named Linda McMahon as his pick to lead the Education Department. McMahon, a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive, would oversee a department that Trump has said he plans to “get rid” of as it currently exists

COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES

Boston U Suspends Admissions to Humanities and Social Science Ph.D. Programs

CARS

Guardian -  Ford has said that it will cut 4,000 jobs in Europe, becoming the latest carmaker to seek to reduce costs amid slowing growth in electric car sales and competition from China. The American carmaker said on Wednesday it would cut 800 jobs in the UK and 2,900 in Germany. The company’s UK sites in Dagenham and Halewood will not be affected. The cuts represent about 14% of its 28,000 workforce in Europe and will be completed by the end of 2027.

Ford is the latest in a series of global carmakers to aim for cost savings as the industry struggles with waning demand while also trying to invest in the transition to electric cars.

 

MEANWHILE. . .

Study Finds -  Could a large chunk of the Pacific Coast disappear in the near future? Imagine the ground beneath your feet slowly but steadily sinking — so dramatically that canals crack, wells break, and entire landscapes transform. This isn’t a disaster movie; it’s the stark reality unfolding in California’s San Joaquin Valley. A new study documents how the earth is literally collapsing under the weight of our water demands. A groundbreaking report by Stanford University researchers reveals a startling trend: the valley’s land is sinking at a rate of nearly an inch per year, a phenomenon scientists call “subsidence” that threatens one of the world’s most critical agricultural regions.

DONALD TRUMP

Independent, UK -  President-elect Donald Trump’s approval rating is now more than 20 points higher than when he left the White House in early 2021. A majority of Americans now approve of the work Trump is doing as he makes his unorthodox cabinet picks, such as nominating former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general and Fox & Friends weekend host Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defense.

The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found that 54 percent approve of Trump, while 40 percent disapprove. Ninety-one percent of Republicans approved of Trump’s job performance, while 49 percent of independents and 22 percent of Democrats said the same. Among Democrats, nearly three-quarters said they disapproved. The same was true for around 40 percent of independents. Trump’s final approval rating as president in January 2021 was 29 percent in a Pew Research Center poll.

 

HEALTH

Guardian -  Being physically fit can lower the risk of dementia and delay someone developing it by almost 18 months by boosting brain health, research has found.Regular exercise is so useful for maintaining cognitive function that it can even help people who are genetically more predisposed to dementia to reduce their risk by up to 35%.

Medical Express -  In research published in Child Psychiatry and Human Development, a research team led by the University of Minnesota Medical School has found that Creativity Camp, a two-week arts intervention delivered as a day camp, had a positive impact on mental health and well-being in adolescents with depression. The idea behind the study is that engaging in the arts offers a pathway for exploring and expanding new ways of thinking, developing insights and sparking self-discovery.

"As a , I am deeply aware of the urgent need for new treatment options for teens with depression. The findings in this report are promising, and I hope they will encourage more research investigating whether and how arts-based interventions like Creativity Camp can help adolescents with depression to recover and thrive," said Kathryn Cullen, MD, a professor at the U of M Medical School and child and adolescent psychiatrist with M Health Fairview. She is also a member of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain.

MIDDLE EAST

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Via ian bremmer

 

MONEY

 RBReich - Do you know how much CEO pay has skyrocketed since 1978?

100%? 500%?  Try 1,085%

Meanwhile, the $7.25/hr fed. minimum wage hasn't budged in 15 years and the tipped min. wage has been $2.13/hr since 1991.


DEMOCRATS

Roll Call -  For the first time since the Watergate era, independents appear to have surpassed one of the major political parties to rank second in terms of party identification. This should be a big red flag for Democrats trying to understand their election losses, but this dramatic change has largely gone unnoticed by the shell-shocked party, the media and the pundit class in the past two weeks of nonstop analysis.  

While the Edison Research exit polls are still being finalized, current numbers show that the 2024 election could go down in history as the election the Democratic Party ID hit an all-time low. This extends a downward trend for Democrats that began in 2012, a shift that has the potential to make a huge difference for Republican prospects going forward. 

Exit polls ask voters which of the two major parties they identify with, or neither, as the case may be. Comparing the composition of the electorate in the 2024 presidential race with the one in 2020, Democrats dropped a significant 6 points in party ID, going from 37 percent to 31 percent and becoming, de facto, the country’s third party, behind both Republicans and independents. 

ELECTION

 These Races Still Don’t Have a Clear Winner Two Weeks After Election Day

INTERNET

 Axios - The Justice Department is expected to present proposals today to limit Google's power in the wake of an August court ruling that the giant abused its search monopoly, Axios managing editor for tech Scott Rosenberg writes. Google's leaders will be distracted by the government's antitrust assault, just as the firm faces the greatest challenge in its history from the OpenAI/Microsoft alliance.

The DOJ will ask the presiding judge to force Google to sell off or spin out the Chrome browser, according to a Bloomberg report.  It's also likely to urge the judge to demand that Google license its search results and data to third parties and competitors.  Estimates of Chrome's market share vary but they all give Chrome billions of users on mobile and desktop — and half or more of the global browser market...

Extracting Chrome from Google would require finding a buyer willing to pay up to $20 billion, per Bloomberg... Much of Chrome's popularity rests on the convenience of its integration with Google's search and other products.  As Daring Fireball author John Gruber put it: "It's like saying I have to sell my left foot. It's very valuable to me, but of no value to anyone on its own."  Share this story.

WORKERS

Robert Reich -  GM just announced a round of layoffs, impacting 1,000 workers. But the company reported Q3 earnings that put it on track for record profits this year. Its CEO received $27M in compensation in 2023. And GM announced $6B in stock buybacks this June.

Axios -- Employers are sitting tight with hiring, says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at job site Glassdoor. That means "fewer opportunities for workers to climb the career ladder," he says. They're still plugging away at the same role they've had for years, without the opportunity to move up internally or at a new company.  65% of the professionals surveyed by Glassdoor last month said they feel stuck in their current roles.

SHOPPING

WalletHub  released its report on the Best Places to Shop on Black Friday in 2024

Best Black Friday Retailers (Avg. Discount)  
1. JCPenney (76.20%) 6. The Home Depot (32.43%)
2. Belk (72.68%) 7. Amazon (32.05%)
3. Macy’s (57.13%) 8. BJ’s (28.86%)
4. Kohl's (43.55%) 9. Target (28.65%)
5. Walmart (37.75%) 10. Best Buy (28.43%)
  • The overall average discount for Black Friday is 38%. Consumers should aim for this discount amount or higher to avoid Black Friday traps.
     
  • The “Computers & Phones” category has one of the biggest shares of discounted items, 29.32% of all offers, whereas the “Consumer Packaged Goods” category has the smallest at 2.43%.
Full report

CLIMATE CHANGE

 Axios - Climate change strengthened the maximum wind speeds of Atlantic hurricanes by an average of 18 mph during the past five years, a new study published today shows....

A hurricane that reaches high-end Category 2 intensity, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, would have a damage potential that is 21 times greater than that of a 75 mph Category 1 storm, according to NOAA.

Meteorologist Kerry Emanuel, who invented the metric of maximum potential intensity and has studied it intensively, told Axios he would be more cautious about attributing so much of the temperature increase in the North Atlantic Basin to human-driven climate change. He noted, as does the study, that other factors at work on a regional level — such as declining air pollution from North America — may be partly or largely to blame for the trends found.In an email to Axios, he cautioned against pinning most of the explanation on increasing greenhouse gases, saying they "may have played a minor role."  More

Guardian - Eight times as many children around the world will be exposed to extreme heatwaves in the 2050s, and three times as many will face river floods compared with the 2000s if current trends continue, according to the UN.Nearly twice as many children are also expected to face wildfires, with many more living through droughts and tropical cyclones, according to the annual state of the world’s children report.Globally, greater numbers of children will live through extreme climate and environmental crises in the 2050s, but with significant regional variation. The greatest increases in children experiencing extreme heatwaves are expected in east and south Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and north, west and central Africa. River floods are expected to affect children in the same areas, as well as east Africa and the Pacific.

 

WEATHER

 Washington Post - The weather hasn’t really felt like November in the Northeast and Great Lakes, where temperatures have commonly been 5 to 10 degrees above average for this time of year. Nationwide, it’s been the fifth-slowest start to the snow season since at least 2008.

But that’s about to change.A buckle in the jet stream will give rise to a multifaceted storm system in much of the eastern half of the United States, bringing wet snow, much-needed moisture, blustery conditions and some of the coolest conditions since April.

Beginning Thursday into the weekend, conditions will contrast sharply with the tranquility that fall 2024 has been known for, with the potential for wet snow across more than a dozen states — from Wisconsin to Maine, and as far south as the mountains of western North Carolina.

 

FLYING

 Daily Passport -  If you fly a lot, chances are that you’re no stranger to turbulence. It’s not rare for the fasten-seatbelt light to be switched on midway through a flight, nor is it uncommon for passengers to experience short periods of bumpiness. Even though it can be unpleasant, turbulence is usually mild and rarely anything to worry about. But if you travel often and have been noticing more frequent bumps in the sky, you’re not alone: According to recent reports, flight turbulence is on the rise...

According to a 2023 study carried out by the University of Reading in the U.K., one particular kind of turbulence known as clear air turbulence is becoming far more likely to impact flights than in previous years.Clear air turbulence is caused when different air masses collide, each with varying wind speeds and directions. In the findings, published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal, datasets taken between 1979 and 2020 demonstrated large increases in clear air turbulence of all magnitudes. Particularly worrisome is that incidences of severe turbulence grew by 55%.

 

November 19, 2024

DONALD TRUMP

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Via Annie

CNN - The Manhattan district attorney said Tuesday it would agree to postpone Donald Trump’s sentencing to give them time to litigate the president-elect’s expected motion to dismiss the hush money case. In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, the district attorney’s office also acknowledged that Trump is not likely to be sentenced “until after the end of after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term.”

The developments cap an historic and unprecedented turnaround for Trump’s legal and political fate. One year ago, Trump was facing four separate indictments. Now as he prepares to retake the White House, the strategy of Trump’s lawyers to try to push all of his cases beyond the 2024 election has proven wildly successful, with the two federal cases about to be wound down, the Georgia state case long dormant and the New York case poised to end without a sentence.

National Memo -  Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters defended on Monday his decision to force his state’s public schools to show students a video in which he spews right-wing rhetoric and asks students to pray for Donald Trump.

Walters told CNN’s Pamela Brown that his video is following through on Donald Trump's call for bringing prayer back to schools.

"President Trump has a clear mandate. He wants prayer back in school. He wants radical leftism out of the classroom, wants our kids to be patriotic, wants parents back in charge with school choice," Walters said, avoiding Brown’s question about what authority he has to demand students be shown his Christian nationalist prayer. 

National Memo - President-elect Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 26 women, has appointed at least three men to his cabinet who have also been accused of sex crimes.

ELON MUSK

Indpendent UK -  The race to fill Trump’s remaining Cabinet positions fell under the shadow of the newest member of the president-elect’s entourage: Elon Musk. The Twitter/X CEO — who now travels with Trump frequently and hangs around Mar-a-Lago when not — is using his massive platform and his access to the president-elect in an attempt to shape the incoming administration.

On Saturday, his latest effort took form as he endorsed Howard Lutnick, Trump’s transition team co-chair, for the position of Treasury Secretary. Lutnick’s key competitor for the job, Scott Bessent, had auditioned for the job just a day prior. That makes the timing of Musk’s endorsement look extremely convenient.

And there’s more. CNN reports Musk has been “weighing in on staffing decisions – making clear his preference for certain roles”. And Axios reported on Monday about a blow-up between Musk and Boris Epshteyn, one of the president-elect’s longtime close advisers. According to the news outlet, Musk angrily accused the Trump loyalist of leaking to the media about other Cabinet nominations and accused Epshteyn of having too much influence over Trump. What was described as a “huge explosion” played out in front of Mar-a-Lago guests and club members, according to the report.

New Republic - Elon Musk is starting to clash with Donald Trump’s team on some of the president-elect’s key issues, especially tariffs. The Washington Post reports that Musk is trying to persuade Trump regarding Cabinet picks and economic policy, drawing the ire of the president-elect’s other advisers. On Saturday, Musk praised Argentine President Javier Milei in a post on X for cutting tariffs in his country. The central pillar of Trump’s economic program is raising tariffs. 

In another post later on Saturday, Musk endorsed Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition team and CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, for the post of treasury secretary over hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, who is in the running for the position. Both posts from Musk aren’t going over well with the rest of Trump’s team. 

“People are not happy,” one person in contact with campaign officials told the Post anonymously. Musk’s posts seemed to reflect that the tech CEO and world’s richest man was acting like a “co-president” and beginning to overstep his role, the person added.

 

MONEY

Reason - Until 2010, Americans paid more in Social Security taxes than the program paid out in benefits. The extra money wasn't saved but passed on to be spent by the rest of the federal government in return for IOUs. That point passed as the ratio of workers to retirees dropped and seems unlikely to shift back given the country's declining birth rate and aging population. That means the difference between revenues and expenditures is now made up, as it is across the rest of the federal government, by borrowing. As Social Security cashes in those IOUs, the Treasury will borrow an estimated $4.1 trillion plus interest to fund the program between now and 2033...What's so special about 2033? That's the year the well of IOUs is expected to start running dry.
 
 
PBS News In the 1980s, about 70% of clothes sold in the U.S. were made in the country. Today, it’s down to just 3%.

HEALTH

NBC News -  Violent crime in hospitals is up, according to a 2023 report by a nonprofit organization that works to improve U.S. health care by accrediting and evaluating facilities. Last year was the first in which a category that includes assault, rape, sexual assault and homicide was among the top five patient safety events reported by hospitals, according to the report.

THANKSGIVING

Record 80 million Americans expected to travel for Thanksgiving holiday, industry group says

POVERTY

 A record 1 in 8 NYC students experienced homelessness last school year

LATINOS

HISTORY

 Sam Smith - Thanks to my wife, last night I watched a documentary about Leonardo da Vinci, one of the brightest humans ever and about whom, in high school and at Harvard College, nobody ever mentioned other than in passing. The first edition on PBS last night was stunning and the second part will start at 8 pm Eastern tonight. Here's some more info. 

Wikipedia -   Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.

Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519....

Leonardo is identified as one of the greatest painters in the history of Western art and is often credited as the founder of the High Renaissance. Despite having many lost works and fewer than 25 attributed major works – including numerous unfinished works – he created some of the most influential paintings in the Western canon. ...

Revered for his technological ingenuity, he conceptualised flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, a ratio machine that could be used in an adding machine,  and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, geology, optics, and tribology, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.

 

 



ENVIRONMENT

EcoWatch -   The most recent Global Carbon Budget report has found that the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels reached a record high in 2024, pushing the planet further off track from avoiding the most destructive impacts of global heating. The 2024 Global Carbon Budget — produced by the Global Carbon Project team of 120-plus scientists from around the world — projects that emissions from fossil carbon dioxide will reach 37.4 billion tonnes in 2024, an increase of 0.8 percent over the previous year, according to a press release from the Global Carbon Project.

Nice News -  Just as many wounds heal on their own, so can rainforests, according to a recent study. An international team of scientists found that over 800,000 square miles of deforested lands could recover naturally with minimal human involvement.

“A rainforest can spring up in one to three years — it can be brushy and hard to walk through,” Matthew Fagan, a conservation scientist and co-author of the paper, told Grist. “In five years, you can have a completely closed canopy that’s 20 feet high.”

Five countries (Brazil, Indonesia, China, Mexico, and Colombia) accounted for the majority of the estimated potential regrowth. The study noted that when forests bounce back on their own, they can sequester significant amounts of atmospheric carbon and improve water quality in the process. In this sense, instead of voraciously planting the same species of tree (“à la Johnny Appleseed,” the outlet writes), the better approach may be to do less.

TRUMP REGIME

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Via Dutchy Patric
EcoWatch -  A new report by the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University explains the high cost that would come to the U.S. if the incoming Trump administration repeals existing climate policies. According to the report, Donald Trump’s plans to undo climate policies would cost the U.S. billions of dollars. Rolling back policies such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) would create lost opportunities for U.S. manufacturing and trade, leading to job losses, tax revenue declines and losses in exports, the report authors said.

“Our scenario analysis shows that U.S. repeal of the IRA would, in the most likely scenario, harm U.S. manufacturing and trade and create up to $80 billion in investment opportunities for other countries, including major U.S. competitors like China,” the authors wrote. “U.S. harm would come in the form of lost factories, lost jobs, lost tax revenue, and up to $50 billion in lost exports.”

As The Guardian reported, these repealed policies would lead to a loss of opportunities in clean energy for the U.S., while China and other nations will gain money and power when it comes to developing solar and wind energy infrastructure, electric vehicles, battery storage and more. 

In 2023, China already installed more solar panels in one year than the U.S. has in total. As of July 2024, Global Energy Monitor found that China had projects with about 180 gigawatts of utility-scale solar power and 159 gigawatts of wind power in progress, which is about double the capacity of utility-scale renewables under construction compared to the rest of the world.

Even if the U.S. invests more in fossil fuels and strips back investments and progress in clean energy projects under the new administration, the rest of the world is continuing the transition to clean energy, which has already led to economic gains globally. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported, clean energy made up 10% of economic growth in 2023, and clean energy accounted for about 80% of new electricity capacity additions last year. There has also been a growth in electrified transportation, with one in five cars sold globally being EVs.

New Republic - An authoritarianism scholar sounded alarm bells that Donald Trump’s incoming Cabinet nominees will do far more than usher a new conservatism into the federal government. Instead, they’ll challenge the system to the point of rendering federal agencies practically ineffective and vulnerable to complete dismantling. In an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder insisted that Trump’s nominees to lead the executive branch aren’t just “poor choices in the traditional sense.”

“Each of them individually is historically bad,” said Snyder. “But taken together, these are not people who are going to be bad at their jobs in some sort of normal sense. Taken together, these appointments suggest an attempt to actually make the American government dysfunctional, to make it fall apart, to pervert it, to have it do things that it’s not supposed to do until it’s not capable of doing anything at all.”

Guardian -  Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration would declare a national emergency and use the US military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. 
Washington Post - Trump allies have discussed making big changes to Medicaid and food stamps.

 Alternet -  Liberal economist Paul Krugman, in his November 11 column for the New York Times, warns that grocery prices will soar if Trump follows through on his mass deportations plan.

"I've written about the likely inflationary impact of Donald Trump's policies," Krugman explains. "All of that still stands. But there's an issue that I haven't stressed as much as I probably should have: the specific effects of his proposed deportations on grocery and housing prices, both of which have been political flashpoints."

According to Krugman, Trump's "mass deportations" would "degrade productive capacity, balloon deficits and - yes - bring inflation roaring back."

"If you're upset about grocery prices now," Krugman explains, "see what happens if Trump goes after a huge part of the agricultural workforce. Immigrants are around three-quarters of agricultural workers - and roughly half of them are undocumented. And do you really doubt that many workers legally here will be caught up in Trump's threatened dragnets?"

MSNBC - The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 directs the FBI to conduct...  background checks “expeditiously” for “individuals that the President-elect has identified for high level national security positions.” But what if he never formally identifies and submits his picks to the Department of Justice and the FBI? In his last administration, Trump overrode security adjudicators who denied clearances for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and many others, after FBI background checks resulted in national security concerns. This time, he appears poised to dispense with the FBI checks and potentially with the Senate confirmation process by making recess appointments.

That leaves us with two pertinent memorandums of understanding which should enable President Joe Biden and/or the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to quickly do something to preserve national security and the Constitution’s advice, and consent powers conferred on our elected lawmakers...

First, Biden should rely upon the existing MOU between the Department of Justice and his office, as well as the Presidential Transition Act, to investigate the people Trump says he wants to put in office. The MOU sets out procedures for requesting background investigations of nominees “at the request of the president.” It doesn’t say the president-elect, it says “president.” That’s you, Joe. As for the transition act, it reads as applying to people “…the President-elect has identified” for high-level positions. Well, the president-elect has already publicly identified those people. And Biden should respond.

What happens if a nominee refuses to cooperate, won’t provide his consent to be investigated or won’t fill out any forms? The MOU has a remedy for that: “The DOJ and FBI may consider a request from the President for a name check or BI without the consent of the appointee if justified by extraordinary circumstances.”....

The Senate Judiciary Committee has its own pertinent MOU with the Counsel to the President. That document says the committee “shall have access to” the FBI reports on nominees for attorney general, FBI director or summaries for “all other DOJ nominees and non-judicial nominees.” Emphasis on all other and non-judicial. We know senators want the details of the House Ethics Committee inquiry into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump's pick for attorney general. An FBI background investigation would certainly include a request to review that report, as well as the DOJ criminal investigation, now closed, into Gaetz. The Senate Judiciary Committee should make a bipartisan request for an FBI background check of Trump's picks now. Regardless of party affiliation, if senators relinquish their advice and consent authority or confirm a nominee without benefit of knowing the risk they pose, then they set a precedent for never again exercising their constitutional powers.

 

CARS

CNN -  If you haven’t been car shopping in a while, brace yourself. Americans paid a whopping $47,612 on average for a new car last month — nearly $10,000 more than they did five years ago, shortly before the pandemic.

WEATHER

NY Daily News - New York City has been placed under a drought warning, with city agencies now under water restrictions and repairs to the city’s main water aqueduct put on pause as the city’s dry spell continues, Mayor Adams announced Monday. The city’s water supplies are lower than normal and hundreds of fires have burned in recent weeks as the city is currently experiencing its driest stretch in decades.

 

MEDIA

Variety - The Associated Press is making cutbacks in staff as the not-for-profit news organization seeks to “accelerate” its digital-first focus, according to Daisy Veerasingham, the AP’s president and CEO.The AP will reduce its workforce by 8% through a combination of voluntary buyout offers and layoffs, Veerasingham wrote in a memo to staff Monday, a copy of which was obtained by Variety. A rep for the AP declined to disclose how many employees the organization has.

The reductions are necessary as the AP “must evolve to align with changing customer and market needs,” she wrote. “We all know this is a time of transformation in the media sector. Our customers — both who they are and what they need from us — are changing rapidly. This is why we’ve focused on delivering a digital-first news report. We now need to accelerate on this path. Doing so will require making some difficult changes so we can invest more fully in our future.”

 Where many people get their news

Pew Researchout one-in-five Americans – including a much higher share of adults under 30 (37%) – say they regularly get news from influencers on social media.

  • News influencers are most likely to be found on the social media site X, where 85% have a presence. But many also are on other social media sites, such as Instagram (where 50% have an account) and YouTube (44%).
  • Slightly more news influencers explicitly identify as Republican, conservative or pro-Donald Trump (27% of news influencers) than Democratic, liberal or pro-Kamala Harris (21%).
  • A clear majority of news influencers are men (63%).
  • Most (77%) have no affiliation or background with a news organization.

How many Americans get news from influencers, and what is their experience?

  • About one-in-five U.S. adults (21%) say they regularly get news from news influencers on social media, according to a survey of 10,658 Americans conducted in summer 2024. This is especially common among younger adults: 37% of those ages 18 to 29 say they regularly get news from influencers. But there are minimal differences between Republicans and Democrats on this question.

Jump to more findings from the survey of U.S. adults, or a broader analysis of Americans’ news habits on social media.

Most news influencers are on multiple sites, but X is the most common

  • Far more of the news influencers in our study have an account on X than any other social media site: 85% are on the site, compared with 50% who are on Instagram, the next-most popular site.

 

 

WORKERS

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Robert Reich

Fastest growing jobs

  • Wind turbine service technician is the fastest-growing job, with a projected growth rate of 60% by 2033. Turbine techs earned a median salary of nearly $62,000 in 2023. 

  • Solar photovoltaic installer, someone who assembles and maintains solar panels, is the second fastest-growing profession. Installers made a median salary of about $49,000. 

  • Nurse practitioner ranks third among the fastest-growing jobs — and it’s one of eight healthcare roles in the top 20. The median income for this role was just over $126,000.
     
  • The home health and personal care aides profession is expected to more than double the jobs of any other occupation, with potentially 820,500 new positions by 2033. Last year, these roles had an average median salary of $33,530. 

  • Computer and information systems manager is the highest-paying role among those growing occupations. These professionals earned a median salary of just under $170,000 in 2023