Republicans boasting about their great election mandate may want to hold the euphoria. As the final results trickle in from the late state of California, the GOP looks set to have the narrowest House majority in more than a century. The Democratic gerrymander in California, plus those in New York (19-7 Democratic to GOP seats), Illinois (14-3) and Massachusetts (9-0), means four states will deliver 85 of the Democratic total of 215 seats. The GOP could have as few as 220. One message is that while voters rejected the Biden-Harris administration, their support for Republicans is provisional. The GOP did better in the Senate, gaining a three-seat edge. But they narrowly lost winnable seats in Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada despite fielding strong candidates. Another message is that the GOP has about a year to get anything done. The party is likely to lose the House in 2026, if midterm history is any guide, and the partisan Senate map is challenging. The GOP had better pass legislation it wants in 2025 before attention turns to political survival in 2026. This will require House Republicans in particular to stick together as they haven’t in years. Matt Gaetz will be out of Congress, saints be praised, but other performance artists are still around to blow things up and blame everyone else. Perhaps Donald Trump can keep them in line behind Speaker Mike Johnson. But factionalism will mean the end of a functioning majority and guaranteed defeat in 2026. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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Linda McMahon, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s multi-million-dollar buddy donors, is his pick to head the U.S. Department of Education — a department he wants to eliminate. With no teaching background, McMahon, who chairs the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute think tank, shares the president-elect’s goal of dismantling education policy at the federal level. The nominee, Trump proclaimed in his Truth Social selection announcement, will “... send Education BACK TO THE STATES.. .” It’s expected that as secretary of education, the former WWE pro wresting executive will work to stop schools from teaching “inaccurate” and “unpatriotic” versions of American history. She’s likely to expand voucher programs to send more public funds to private and religious schools, and home schooling. Great, right? Why teach history’s thorny chapters? What good does learning about slavery, treatment of Native Americans, voting rights, the Depression, the Holocaust, civil rights, human rights, critical thinking and civics do for our children? Forget all that un-American woke stuff! Let’s teach children, preferably in their own homes or in private and religious schools, patriotic lessons like the Ten Commandments and reading the Bible. Let’s illuminate slavery’s “positive” impacts, and Hitler’s, too. Let’s mandate that schools screen reruns of old TV programs showing only white families, with fathers in charge and mothers running suburban households wearing dresses, pearls and pumps . Let’s shove gay people back in the closet. And let’s never, ever, question authority. “ Daddy’s home and he’s angry! ” according to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, comparing America to a “bad girl” who needs a ”vigorous spanking” from Trump and his administration. “Mommy Linda” is going to set American education right. Make America great again. Right? Ann M. Pompelio, Brigantine Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com . RECOMMENDED • nj .com Privatizing is best fix for aging N.J. water, sewer systems | Letters Nov. 24, 2024, 8:20 a.m. N.J. nursing home saga: America doesn’t care about its elderly | Letter Nov. 21, 2024, 2:50 p.m. Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion . Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook . XxxxxxxxxOf course, as goes NVDA, so goes the market, and after last night's beat (but disappointing revenue forecast), the giantest of giant tech companies swung around like a penny stock, adding and subtracting $100s of billions in market cap in an instant... Bear in mind that the vol market had pegged an 8% swing - Jensen's comments helped rescue the stock: "I believe that there will be no digestion until we modernize a trillion dollars with the data centers." Interestingly, while NVDA managed to hold on to gains, the Mega-Cap tech basket was hit hard and could not bounce back to green... Source: Bloomberg ... as GOOGL was clubbed like a baby seal... Source: Bloomberg All the major indices ended the day green (though Nasdaq lagged), as Small Caps ripped... ...thanks to a huge short squeeze (again)... Source: Bloomberg On the macro side, it was 'bad news': Philly Fed fell hard in November (from +10.3 to -5.5 vs +8.0 exp), Continuing Jobless claims topped 1.9mm Americans for the first time in three years (initial claims dropped), and the Leading Index dropped 0.4% (more than expected). Initial claims and existing home sales were positive to offset some of the negative but overall, the US Macro Surprise index actually rolled over... Source: Bloomberg Treasury yields were marginally higher on the day with the short-end lagging (2Y +3bps, 30Y +1bps). That pulled the short-end higher on the week, while the belly is outperforming on the week... Source: Bloomberg Rate-cut expectations continued to slide with less than three full 25bp cuts now priced-in by the end of 2025... Source: Bloomberg As bond yields rose, so did oil prices with WTI holding back above $70... Source: Bloomberg The dollar rallied back up near post-election highs... Source: Bloomberg But, the big news of the day was in 'alternate' currencies with bitcoin continuing to charge higher (topping $99k) as Gensler announced his retirement and Trump's crypto council takes shape... Source: Bloomberg ...and Gold also soared back above its 50DMA... Source: Bloomberg ...up for the 4th straight day after 6 straight down following the election... Source: Bloomberg And finally, Bitcoin finally took out its record high relative to gold... Source: Bloomberg Do you feel lucky?
Canadian men win RAN Sevens tournament, qualify for World Rugby Challenger SeriesCanada thumped Trinidad and Tobago 38-0 to win the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens on Sunday and qualify for World Rugby’s second-tier Challenger Series. The tournament-favourite Canadian men outscored their opposition 169-0 over five matches in a first step back up the rugby sevens ladder since being relegated from the elite HSBC SVNS circuit in June. The top four teams from the three-event Challenger Series will face off against the bottom four from the HSBC SVNS at the SVNS World Championships May 3-4 in Carson, Calif., in a promotion/relegation playoff. “I think it’s just about continually building,” said Canada captain Elias Hancock. “We know what we’re capable of. We’ve shown it at times. It’s just time to get back to that place where we know we belong.” Prior to relegation, Canada had been a core team on the top sevens circuit since 2012-13 and lifted the trophy in Singapore in 2017. The Canadian men finished eighth at the Tokyo Olympics. Trinidad had plenty of the ball in the first half of Sunday’s final at Larry Gomes Stadium. But Canada, helped by several penalties, scored first with Hancock touching down under the posts for a try converted by Thomas Isherwood. Matt Oworu, beating two defenders, added another converted try for a 14-0 lead at the break. Cooper Coats added a converted try early in the second half. And Hancock, Jack Shaw and Noah Bain added late tries after Trinidad lost a man to the sin-bin for two minutes midway through the second half for an infraction off a Canadian kickoff. Earlier Sunday, the Canadians defeated Jamaica 26-0 in semifinal play and the Cayman Islands 38-0 in the quarterfinal. Trinidad and Tobago made it to the final — for the first time since 2013 — with a 19-7 comeback win over Mexico. Jamaica defeated Mexico 12-0 to finish third. Weather was a factor during the three-day tournament in Arima, some 30 kilometres east of Port of Spain. After enduring 30-plus C heat and humidity Friday, their final Pool A game against Barbados was abandoned Saturday due to a storm. On Sunday, the Canadians played the Cayman Islands in a downpour and the skies opened again at halftime of the Jamaica game. Alex Russell, Josiah Morra, Coats and Hancock scored tries against Jamaica for Canada, which led 12-0 at the break. Thomas Isherwood added three conversions. Morra and Hancock each scored two tries against the Caymans and Ethan Hager and D’Shawn Bowen added singles for Canada, which led 19-0 at the half. Canada added four conversions. Canada, which blanked Guyana 29-0 Friday, dispatched Bermuda 38-0 Saturday and was leading Barbados 10-0 when the game was halted in the first half due to heavy rain and high winds. While play eventually resumed, the interrupted Canada game was ruled a scoreless draw. The Canadian men are coming off a disastrous 3-36-0 HSBC SVNS season that ended with a 22-14 loss to Spain with relegation on the line. It was a 29th straight defeat. After being relegated, coach Sean White’s team fell short in an Olympic repechage tournament in late June in Monaco, finishing fourth after losing 26-0 to eventual winner South Africa in the semifinals. The Blitzboks went on to claim bronze in Paris. The 13-man roster for the RAN 7s includes six players who were part of the relegation playoff in Madrid: Hancock, Isherwood, Morra, Coats, Oworu and David Richard. Morra, Coats and Oworu joined the sevens team from Bucharest where they were part of Kingsley Jones’ Canadian 15s squad for test matches against Chile and Romania. The Canadian men are scheduled to play in an invitational men’s sevens tournament taking place at B.C. Place Stadium alongside the HSBC SVNS Vancouver stop in February. The Canadian women left Sunday for Dubai and the opening stop of the 2005 HSBC SVNS season. The Olympic silver-medallist Canadians open play next Saturday against Japan before facing Brazil and Olympic champion New Zealand.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) -- A fast-moving storm swept through the Bay Area Sunday, dumping a lot of rain and causing flooding in parts of the North Bay. Firefighters say much of the rain has nowhere to go because the ground is so saturated. An overnight storm drenched the North Bay where the ground is already waterlogged. Some vineyards in the Russian River Valley are underwater. Flooding from a swollen creek inundated Mark West Station and Starr Roads in Windsor Sunday with more than a foot of water, closing both roads to traffic because it's too dangerous to drive through. The intersection has flooded before in past storms and it's done it again, looking more like a river. "It's been a very wet month," said Santa Rosa Fire Marshal and Division Chief, Paul Lowenthal. MORE: High Surf Advisory has authorities urging public to stay away from Bay Area beaches Lowenthal says it's no wonder why creeks and streams are rising fast. "That's why we are seeing these quickly issued flood advisories from the National Weather Service because how saturated the soils are following back-to-back storms we received this year. We now typically get those rapid rises at streams and creeks with the rainfall we receive," said Lowenthal. Rain made for some dangerous driving, causing spinouts like one in Santa Rosa. In the East Bay, the Moraga police says slick roads may have contributed to a crash on St. Mary's Road where a driver lost control, hitting a road sign. Nobody was hurt. In Walnut Creek, rainwater was running off and umbrellas were up across town. MORE: 2 die in storm flooding-related incidents in Sonoma County, officials say "We're trying to put away before the next rain, we had to give back our tent," said Hazel Flett. The rain brought challenges for vendors and shoppers at the Sunday Farmers Market in Sebastopol. "I've been here holding down the tent at times, the coffee always becomes a social event when it's pouring rain, you can barely move in here because people are trying to get out of the rain," said Daniel Harting from Volo Roasting Company. There's no doubt rain is a welcome end-of-the-year gift. It's an insurance for the future. "The reservoirs are all full, that's what counts so," said Phil Leech from Santa Rosa. As the storm passed, a rainbow stuck around over Sonoma County.US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin said Wednesday that she's "starting to feel a little bit more human" after suffering a puncture wound in a giant slalom crash but confirmed she won't race at Beaver Creek, Colorado, this month. "This is another fairly ambiguous injury and really hard to put a timeline of when I'll be either back on snow or back to racing," Shiffrin said in a video posted on social media. "But I do know that I will not be starting in Beaver Creek."Canadian men win RAN Sevens tournament, qualify for World Rugby Challenger Series
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