RandySF
RandySF's JournalS&P 500 ends 2023 just shy of record, ushering in 2024 election year
Investors will ring in the New Year with the S&P 500 just shy of an all-time high, rising 24% to close out 2023.
This is the largest one-year point and percentage gain for the broadest measure of U.S. stocks since 2021, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group, and investors say there is more to come in 2024.
"History tells us good years tend to follow great years. The average is about 10% vs. a more normal 7% when you follow an up-year," CFRA Chief Investment Strategist Sam Stovall told FOX Business.
A potential tailwind for U.S. equities in 2024 — the forthcoming presidential election.
"In a presidential year, the average return for the S&P 500 is about 11.28% since 1928, so that means the ‘Magnificent Seven’ or the large caps are going to do less well next year than they did this year, and the opportunity is going to be in small and mid-caps," said Great Hill Capital Chairman Thomas Hayes during an interview with FOX Business.
The "Magnificent Seven" that Hayes noted includes Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Tesla and Nvidia.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/p-500-ends-2023-just-130000207.html
'Swatting' at Maine secretary of state's house after Trump kept off primary ballot
Maine’s top election official, who could face an impeachment attempt in the state Legislature over her decision to keep former President Donald Trump off the Republican primary ballot, had a hoax threat called into her house Friday night.
The "swatting call," as such hoaxes are known, involved a person calling police about 8:15 p.m. to say he'd broken into Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows' home in Manchester, Maine, according to state police.
No one was inside at the time, troopers found, including Bellows, and nothing suspicious was found, according to police, who were still investigating Saturday.
"The Maine State Police is working with our law enforcement partners to provide special attention to any and all appropriate locations," a police representative said in a statement, without sharing more details about the call.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/politics/maine-secretary-of-state-who-opted-to-keep-trump-off-primary-ballot-faces-threat-of-impeachment/3391624/
GOP leaders in swing state panicked party is 'on the verge of implosion' before election
Infighting within the Republican Party's ranks has not only been apparent in the halls of Congress: It's now also threatening the stability of the GOP's operations in a state that's played a deciding role in the last two presidential elections.
According to a Saturday report in the New York Times, eight of Michigan's 13 Republican congressional district Republican Party chairs have now co-signed a letter asking Michigan GOP chair Kristina Karamo to resign and "put an end to the chaos." The letter came after approximately 40 of the party's state committee members called for a meeting to discuss Karamo's future by the end of the year. However, that meeting has yet to take place. Meanwhile, the Mitten State's Republican leaders are growing more anxious by the day about their party's outlook next year.
"The Michigan Republican Party is on the verge of imploding. I have more money in my campaign account than the state party has in its,” State Representative Mark Tisdel said. “Sooner or later, the creditors are going to come calling.”
Since her tenure began in February, Karamo — a former community college professor and 2020 election denier — has seen the Michigan GOP's debt load grow to $620,000. This effectively scared off would-be donors to contributing to the state party's coffers, under the assumption that it would go toward debt service rather than electing Republican in Michigan. Karamo proposed enlisting 500,000 supposed right-leaning businesses to contribute as little as $10 per month to the party, though that idea has so far been unsuccessful.
https://www.rawstory.com/michigan-gop-karamo/
Pornhub blocks access by Montanans, citing bill to protect minors
An adult content website that’s blocking Montanans from pornography has Sen. Willis Curdy expecting a bill he sponsored will be challenged in court sooner or later.
Curdy, a Missoula Democrat, said adjustments are part of the legislative process, and changes can be made, but his goal is clear.
“The point is I just want to protect kids,” Curdy said.
Senate Bill 544 restricts sites with more than one third of their content being “material harmful to minors on the internet” by requiring “reasonable age verification.” It defines harmful material as including sexual body parts and sex acts, along with content “designed to pander to the prurient interest.”
https://dailymontanan.com/2023/12/30/pornhub-blocks-access-by-montanans-citing-bill-to-protect-minors/
Colorado secretary of state receives death threats: 'I will not be intimidated'
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said she received death threats in the wake of the lawsuit that was filed in her state that eventually led to former President Trump being kicked off the ballot in her state.
“Within three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, I received 64 death threats. I stopped counting after that,” Griswold said on X Saturday, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I will not be intimidated. Democracy and peace will triumph over tyranny and violence.”
Griswold also linked to a HuffPost article from last week in which she discussed her fears about violence on behalf of the former president. In the article, she also noted that it wasn’t her that filed the lawsuit, but a watchdog organization named Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Griswold recently praised her Maine counterpart, Shenna Bellows (D), for her decision to kick Trump off of the ballot in the Pine Tree State Thursday under the 14th Amendment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4382720-colorado-secretary-state-receives-death-threats/
My political predictions for 2024
1. Joe Biden will be re-election with the same electoral states as 2020.
2. Democrats will win the House and lose the Senate
3. Republicans will win the NC governorship, lose NH.
4. Republicans will win the MI House due to new districts, but Democrats will pick up the AZ, NH legislatures and at least one chamber in Wisconsin.
5. Abortion rights will pass in NY, MD, AZ and NE (maybe more depending if it's on the ballot elsewhere) but fails to reach the required 60% threshold in FL.
6. Ted Cruz is narrowly reelected in a titanic senate election.
7. Republicans pick up the WV and MT senate seats.
8. Joe Biden gets a new Supreme Court justice.
9. Arizona Democrats have a breakout year by winning the presidential and senate races and pick up seats in Congress and state legislature.
10. Donald Trump is convicted SOMEWHERE but never sees the inside of a prison.
11. The Trump business empire crumbles after under a huge NY tax penalty.
Anxiety and the approaching new year.
The final few days of the calendar year fill me with a combination of dread and anxiety, no matter what there may be to look forward to. Does anyone else experience the same emotions? How do you cope with them?
Nebraska governor stands firm on rejection of federal money to feed food-insecure children
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s Republican governor on Friday reiterated his rejection of $18 million in federal funding to help feed children who might otherwise go hungry while school is out.
Nebraska will not participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children — or Summer EBT — program, Gov. Jim Pillen said in a written statement. That statement came as advocates for children and low-income families held a news conference outside the Governor’s Mansion in Lincoln to call on Pillen to change his mind before the Jan. 1 deadline to sign up for the program.
The program — part of federal assistance made available during the COVID-19 pandemic — would provide pre-loaded EBT cards to families whose children are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches at school. Those families would receive $40 per eligible child per month over the summer. The cards can be used to buy groceries, similar to how SNAP benefits are used.
“COVID-19 is over, and Nebraska taxpayers expect that pandemic-era government relief programs will end too,” Pillen said in his statement. Pillen announced on Dec. 19 that Nebraska would not participate in the program. He has drawn a firestorm of criticism for later defending that stance at a news conference by saying, “I don’t believe in welfare.”
https://apnews.com/article/nebraska-summer-ebt-food-program-children-789f2d04bd195086d2e41d0d43b8111c?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
Texas GOP rejects ballot question asking if state should secede
A Texas secessionist group plans to sue the state GOP for rejecting a ballot measure asking if Texas should leave the U.S.
The Texas Nationalist Movement claims it collected the necessary signatures required to add the “TEXIT” question – asking “The State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation. For or against” – to the primary ballot. Under state law, the minimum number of signatures “that must appear on the petition is five percent of the total vote received by all candidates for governor in the party's most recent gubernatorial general primary election.”
But state party leaders say the group submitted the signatures after the Dec. 10 deadline, and that most of the signatures were invalid.
Texas GOP chairman Matt Rinaldi wrote in an open letter that only about 8,300 of the purported 139,000 signatures the Texas Nationalist Movement collected were in the petition signer’s own handwriting, and the rest electronically submitted.
https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2023-12-29/texas-gop-rejects-ballot-question-asking-if-state-should-secede
Vince Fong (R) secures last-minute victory to appear on ballot for Kevin McCarthy's House seat
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – California Assemblyman Vince Fong prevailed in his battle with state officials over his right to compete for the congressional seat left vacant by Kevin McCarthy’s resignation – at least for now.
Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced she would appeal the ruling made Thursday by a Sacramento Superior Court judge. She previously deemed Fong ineligible to run for Congress because the two-term Assemblyman had already filed for reelection in his district.
State election code prohibits a candidate from running for two offices simultaneously, Weber argued. But Fong saw it differently. His attorneys argued the law was written a century ago, when political parties had more say in nominating candidates.
California has since moved to a so-called “jungle primary” system, in which all candidates from all political affiliations run against each other directly. That means two candidates from the same party can compete against each other in the general election, a possible outcome in the battle to replace McCarthy.
https://www.kvpr.org/local-news/2023-12-29/vince-fong-secures-last-minute-victory-to-appear-on-ballot-for-kevin-mccarthys-house-seat
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