The Political Edition -- Sweep -- November 9, 2024

Locator: 48743POLITICS.

Texas: gorgeous north Texas weather this morning. Bright sunshine, no wind, absolutely clear skies, and it must be in the 60s. High for the day, forecast, 71°.  Morning in America.  

McDonald's: drive-through stretching around the block. I'm inside. Best deal in town is the $5.00 meal. Seriously. For $5.00, not sure how they can do it. The ice cream machine, I see, is working.

Local gasoline, regular: $2.49 is the best I see right now; generally about $2.79 around town. 

Inflation: the two things that will drop prices the fastest -- drop in price of oil ("drill, baby, drill") and continued cutting of the Fed rate. Both are likely to happen under Trump.

Clever: Trump knows he can't "fire" JPow and JPow says he's not going to step down early, so, how does one make JPow irrelevant? The market looks six months to one year out. Powell's term ends in 2026. Trump will nominate and get JPow's successor confirmed in 2025. The market will pay attention to the new Fed chair -- making JPow completely irrelevant. And completely unfettered by the administration. A win-win for everyone. 

Stock market: the market will finish two incredible years under Joe Biden. That becomes the new marker. If the market does more poorly under Trump than it did under Joe Biden, most folks will consider Trump's administration a failure. 

• the S&P is up 37% over the last full year (late 2023 - late 2024). 
• January, 2021 -- December, 2023: 4,770  - 3,690 = 29% over two years.
• those are going to be huge bars for Trump to beat.

Family income protection act? FIPA:

• no tax on overtime pay;
• no tax on social security;
• no tax on tips;
• and, yes, income limits for those tax-free benefits.

Joe Rogan: the new Rush Limbaugh?

Trump takes Nevada? Sweep? Trump did better in 49 states than Harris based on Harris (2024) - Biden (2020) votes?

Trump takes Arizona? This needs to be fact-checked. Getting incredibly little media coverage if accurate. If accurate: Trump swept swing states. Dukakis? McGovern? Harris? A trifecta.

Cable news ratings election night: link here.

Peanut. Wiki. Are you serious? Is this really what changed the election outcome?

$1 billion. Others are now asking the same question asked earlier -- how does a candidate who raised $1 billion against her opponent's $350 million lose to a convicted felon? By the way, apparently:

• the Harris campaign ends 2024 in debt; and,
• that Oprah interview with Harris? Paid for by Harris. $1 million to Oprah.

North Dakota governor Doug Burgum: energy czar for the Trump administration?

Gap term: right, wrong, indifferent -- best thing that ever happened for Trump ... will hit the ground running on January 20th. Has had four years to prepare for this day.

"Trump-proofing" their states. Amazing how governors of New Jersey, Minnesota, California are more concerned about undocumented murderers and human traffickers than protecting law-abiding citizens. Personally I don't get it.