(NewsNation) — The Democratic National Committee might totally upend their primary system and move the first contest to Michigan or South Carolina, according to various reports.

For decades, Iowa made or killed presidential dreams. Candidates for the highest office in the land often auditioned in the living rooms of Iowa farms.

During a Thursday appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Scott Bolden, former chairman of the D.C. Democratic Party, said that “diverse voters” would benefit most from such a political shake-up.

“There’s been a real push, and a very logical push. Whoever wins really does get a boost, not only in money, but in media coverage,” Bolden said.

In a letter to the rulemaking arm of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday, President Joe Biden said that Democrats should move past “restrictive” caucuses and embrace diversity in the order of their presidential nominating calendar.

Biden does not mention specific states he’d like to see go first. However, he notes that Black voters for decades “have been the backbone of the Democratic Party” and says it’s “time to stop taking these voters for granted.”

The Associated Press reports Biden favors South Carolina going first, but the Detroit News reports he’s also floated Michigan.

The Democratic rules committee will gather in Washington on Friday to consider shaking up the presidential primary calendar starting in 2024.

If the rulemaking committee takes up Biden’s recommendation, Iowa would be knocked from a position it has held for more than four decades after technical meltdowns marred results of the 2020 caucus and amid a larger party push to let a more diverse state go first.

Bolden added that he does not think Biden losing in Iowa and New Hampshire is the driving force behind the recommendation.

“The drive behind this is Iowa caucuses being confusing … And you didn’t get a winner… It took a couple of weeks to get a winner.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In a world of monsters it’s easy to miss, but Ron DeSantis is a bigger than average monster. In order to appreciate just how big a monster he is, you have to remember what he became famous for. As you may recall, in December of 2020 DeSantis tweeted a photo of himself and his family maskless and “enjoying a meal out” in the middle of what proved to be the deadliest pandemic in American history. In short, Ron DeSantis became famous for “being brave” by encouraging other people to die.

The result has been death by political party in Florida. Statistics have shown that in the state of Florida the Covid death rate has proved to be substantially higher among Republicans than among Democrats. Prior to the introduction of the Covid vaccines, the excess death rate in Florida was 76% higher for Republicans than Democrats. Since the introduction of vaccines that gap has actually widened! Statistics indicate that only in the states of Ohio and Florida did the pandemic actually become worse after the introduction of the vaccines. For Florida the fault could be down to two men who live there, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.

Fully seventeen percent of Covid deaths in the United States happened in Florida, yet Florida has only 6.5 percent of the country’s population. That disparity is the fault of DeSantis and Trump, and both men have, bizarrely, made substantial political capital out of the deaths they have caused. Though DeSantis has fared better than Trump.

It’s a paradox for which it is hard to find an equal. Both men made it a point to display public contempt for wearing a mask. Both men pitted Republicans against Democrats over taking simple precautions against the pandemic. Both helped promote the idea that mask-wearing was somehow “unmanly” and an inconvenience that they often and bizarrely equated with America’s founding fathers’ struggle against tyranny. And because so many people were influenced by them, many of those people died.

Politically, not only has DeSantis gotten away with it, he has apparently prospered because of it. His was the election exception that proved the rule in 2022. Just about everywhere else the much-vaunted Republican “red wave” turned out to be a pink puddle. But it was a triumph deluxe for DeSantis, who was reelected with a whopping 59% of the vote.

That vote came on the heels of his most cruel and probably illegal stunt. In October DeSantis tricked dozens of Central American asylum seekers into boarding a plane to Martha’s Vineyard, cruelly lying to them that they were headed for a “better life” and then dumping them there without any provisions for their care or comfort. Apparently enough Floridians liked that exercise in human despicableness to reelect him for it.

It is now clearer than ever that DeSantis intends running for president. On Wednesday DeSantis announced the publication of his new campaign-style book called “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Renewal.” The book is to be published by Broadside Books, a conservative imprint of HarperCollins, on 28 February 2023.

No doubt “The Courage to Be Free” is intended to be a political testament for Ron DeSantis, full of sanctimonious chest-beating about his re-election victory, and intended to show just what a “brave” man he is for letting people die, for cruelly deceiving harmless and decent asylum-seekers with vicious and evil lies. We are not fooled. Ron DeSantis is just another Republican monster, a monster slouching towards Washington. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

The post Ron DeSantis is even more of a monster than you think appeared first on Palmer Report.

On Dec. 1, in a unanimous per curiam decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled to reverse an order issued by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to appoint a special master to oversee the review of classified documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-lago residence on Aug. 8.

The 11th Circuit found that Cannon “improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction” in hearing the case and that the entire proceeding should be dismissed. Notably, the court also found that regardless of the status of a document in question (personal or presidential), the government maintains the authority to seize it under a warrant supported by probable cause.

The panel wrote, “The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

You can read the opinion here or below:

Peru’s Congress approved on Thursday a motion to start impeachment proceedings against President Pedro Castillo, a move promoted by opposition lawmakers that marks the third formal attempt to oust the leftist leader since he took office last year.

Earlier on Thursday, the high-level mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) recommended a “political truce” between Peru’s executive branch and the legislative branches, as it delivered its preliminary report on its visit to the Andean country in late November.

The South American country lives in a constant political confrontation between the two powers, and has including Castillo had five acting presidents since 2016, due to dismissals and resignations.

(NewsNation) — Even among rising prices and a series of aggressive rate increases, there are some indicators that show the economy is headed to a better place, or at least stabilizing.

The government said on Wednesday that the U.S. economy grew at a 2.9% annual rate from July through September. This rise in the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), or the economy’s total output of goods and services, follows two straight quarters of contraction, according to the Associated Press.

“Despite higher borrowing costs and prices, household spending — the driver of the economy — appears to be holding, which is a positive development for the near-term outlook,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

This news comes at a time when two straight quarters of contraction had raised fears that the economy might have slipped into a recession at an already volatile time for American consumers.

So is the economy improving —or at least recovering?

Ahead of the November jobs report coming out on Friday, here are some items to consider when weighing the economy:

Gas Prices Are Down

Just a few months ago, the national average for a gallon of gasoline topped $5.

Now, though, AAA is putting the average gas price at around $3.50 — and it could drop even more, according to GasBuddy

NewsNation partner The Hill reports that though that number is still 10 cents above last year’s national average, it is below the record $5.02 average from this past June.

“All the metrics look very positive for motorists as this week is likely to continue seeing falling gasoline prices, with many areas falling to the lowest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February,” GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan said. “It’s entirely possible the national average price of gasoline could fall under $3 per gallon by Christmas.”

Rent is Down Slightly

The December 2022 Apartment List National Rent Report shows the national index declined for the third straight month, dropping to 1% in November. This is also the biggest drop in a single month since 2017, per Apartment List data.

“The timing of the recent cooldown in the rental market is consistent with the typical seasonal trend, but its magnitude has been notably sharper than what we’ve seen in the past, suggesting that the recent swing to falling rents is reflective of a broader shift in market conditions beyond seasonality alone,” Apartment List said.

Although rent is still growing faster than it did in pre COVID-19 pandemic years, this growth is shrinking. From January through November 2022, rents went up by a total of 4.7%. That, Apartment List points out, is much closer to the growth rates seen in 2018 and 2019 than it is to the 18% growth seen at this point last year. Bloomberg reports that this is a sign that a “key cost” tracked by the Federal Reserve could be easing up.

Going forward, the Apartment List predicts rents will continue to decrease ahead of a winter slow season for the market.

Unemployment

The number of Americans applying for new jobless claims went down last week to 225,000 for the week ending Nov 26. That’s a decline of 16,000, according to the Labor Department, although the four week-moving average of claims went up to 227,000.

This data indicates that American workers are enjoying good job security at the moment. However, at the same time, recurring applications, for those who have already received unemployment benefits, rose by 57,000 last week, Bloomberg reported — the largest hike in a year. Bloomberg economist Eliza Winger also points out that drop the initial jobless claims report last week is likely more because of “notoriously volatile data around holidays such as Thanksgiving” than job market vigor.

Still, unemployment remains at a historically low level. Since March, it has been in a narrow range of 3.5% to 3.7%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Inflation is Easing

Prices rose 6% in October, compared to a year ago. That’s down from the 6.3% increase year-over-year increase reported in September.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation over the previous 12 months was 5%, less than the 5.2% annual increase in September.

Stocks Climbing

Bloomberg reports that U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was more than 20% its September low. This surge, according to Bloomburg, meets what some investors call a “bull market,” which is a term used during a period of time in financial markets when the price of an asset, or security, rises continuously.

Bull markets are “characterized by optimism, investor confidence, and expectations that strong results should continue for an extended period of time,” according to Investopedia, although it is difficult to predict when trends in the market could change.

Because of a slower pace of rate increases, and the “latest batch of corporate earnings,” per Bloomberg, the Dow “has been on a tear” since October, when it had previously been considered in a “bear market.” According to Investopedia, bear markets are sustained periods of downward trending stock prices — and often paired with a recession and high unemployment.

Although there have been a number of positive indicators pointing to an improved economy, there are also factors that are less so.

Layoffs in Tech

A number of layoffs happened in big tech companies like Twitter, Meta, Lyft, Netflix and Shopify this year, while Amazon and Apple announced hiring freezes.

ReachOut Technology founder Rick Jordan told NewsNation last month that the tech sector is going through a correction.

“It’s great to see that inflation seems to be curving a little bit right now. But we still have a ways to go, you’ll see more layoffs,” he said.

While in some companies such as Meta and Twitter overextended themselves in spending, Jordan said, Amazon, Stripe and others saw softening demand that led to job losses.

“We’re facing an unusual macro-economic environment, and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said in a message to employees.

CNBC notes, however, that these high-profile companies aren’t necessarily indicative of the larger economy or labor market.

Mortgages are expected to keep rising in the new year

After the doubling of mortgage rates from a year ago, sales of previously occupied homes have dropped for nine straight months.

Even though this slowdown in home sales transactions lead to a moderation in home price growth, Realtor.com and other analysts don’t expect homebuying costs to come down. In fact, they expect them to keep rising.

Realtor.com is forecasting a 7.4% average for mortgage rates in 2023, and 7.1% for year-end. In comparison, Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is 6.49% as of Dec.1.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Interest Rates

Aiming to combat rampant inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate six times since March. More federal rate hikes are expected to increase borrowing costs and slow economic activity.

The Fed’s key rate now stands in a range of 3.75% to 4%, which is the highest it’s been in 15 years. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday the central bank would push them even higher than previously expected, and that they would stay there for an extended period until inflation is kept under control. However, he added that the size and pace of these increases could be sloawed down from ones made at the Federal Reserve’s last four meetings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The United States, South Korea, and Japan have imposed sanctions on North Korean officials connected to the country’s weapons programs after Pyongyang’s latest and largest intercontinental ballistic missile test last month.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday named the individuals as Jon Il Ho, Yu Jin, and Kim Su Gil, all of whom the European Union designated for sanctions in April.

South Korea’s foreign ministry announced sanctions on seven other individuals, including a Singaporean and a Taiwanese, and eight entities. All are already under sanctions by the United States imposed between January 2018 and October 2022, the ministry said.

Japan also designated three entities and an individual for new sanctions, Japan’s foreign ministry said, including the Lazarus Group suspected of carrying out cyberattacks.

China and Russia have blocked recent efforts to impose more United Nations sanctions, saying they should instead be eased to jumpstart talks and avoid humanitarian harm. That has left Washington to focus on trilateral efforts with South Korea and Japan, as well as European partners.

The latest sanctions follow a Nov. 18 ICBM test by North Korea, part of a record-breaking spate of more than 60 missile launches this year, and amid concerns that it may be about to resume nuclear weapons testing, which has been suspended since 2017.

A Treasury statement said Jon Il Ho and Yu Jin played major roles in the development of weapons of mass destruction while serving as vice director and director, respectively, of the North Korea’s Munitions Industry Department.

It said Kim Su Gil served as director of the Korean People’s Army General Political Bureau from 2018 to 2021 and oversaw implementation of decisions related to the WMD program.

“Treasury is taking action in close trilateral coordination with the Republic of Korea and Japan against officials who have had leading roles in the DPRK’s unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs,” Treasury Under Secretary For Terrorism And Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in the statement, using the initials of North Korea’s official name.

“Recent launches demonstrate the need for all countries to fully implement U.N. Security Council resolutions, which are intended to prevent the DPRK from acquiring the technologies, materials, and revenue Pyongyang needs to develop its prohibited WMD and ballistic missile capabilities.”

The sanctions freeze any U.S.-based assets of the individuals and bar dealings with them, but appear largely symbolic.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said the latest move was part of its efforts to sternly respond to North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats.

Decades of U.S.-led sanctions have failed to halt North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated missile and nuclear weapon programs.

“Targeting senior officials inside North Korea responsible for WMD and missile activities and working with South Korea and Japan are important, but it is an inadequate and symbolic response to 60+ missile tests, including 8 ICBM tests,” said Anthony Ruggiero, who headed North Korea sanctions efforts under former President Donald Trump.

“The Biden administration should sanction Pyongyang’s revenue and force Kim Jong Un to make difficult decisions about his strategic priorities,” he said.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said earlier Washington was committed to using pressure and diplomacy to entice North Korea into giving up its nuclear arsenal.

He said the administration had no illusions about the challenges, but remained committed to holding Pyongyang accountable.

A spokesperson at the White House National Security Council said sanctions had been successful in “slowing down the development” of the weapons programs and Pyongyang had turned to “increasingly desperate ways to generate revenue like virtual currency heists and other cybercrime to fund its weapons programs.”

“The DPRK’s decision to continue ignoring our outreach is not in their best interest, or in the interest of the people of the DPRK.”

Related Galleries: