Obama Adviser: Nation Can Afford Big Stimulus Plan; Must Limit Spending Once Economy Recovers

“Former President Jimmy Carter, a man who redefined what a post-presidency could be, died Sunday. He was 100,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. “The only Georgian ever elected to the White House, Carter left office after a single term that was highlighted by forging peace between Israel and Egypt, but was overshadowed by the Iran hostage crisis.“ Washington Post: “As the nation’s 39th president, he governed with strong Democratic majorities in Congress but in a country that was growing more conservative.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY.) warned his Republican colleagues on Sunday about potentially removing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from his post when the 119th Congress is sworn in this week, Axios reports. Said Lawler: “The fact is that Mike Johnson inherited a disaster when Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics.” He added: “Removing Mike Johnson would equally be as stupid.

Judd Legum: “Musk spent nearly $300 million to elect a president with a virulently anti-immigrant agenda and now is telling Trump’s anti-immigrant supporters to ‘Fuck yourself in the face.’” “Unclear who Musk thought was voting for the guy who blamed immigrants for all of America’s economic problems.”

Washington Post: “The country is girding for the return of Donald Trump, who many here see as an existential threat to Canada’s security. He has threatened to slap 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, levies that could crush the economy of a country that sends nearly 80 percent of its exports to its southern neighbor.” “And he has taken to mocking embattled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the ‘governor’ of the ‘great state of Canada’ in middle-of-the-night social media posts that officials here have sought to cast as lighthearted ribbing but others view as not-so-neighborly and not-so-funny.

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The United States, with its enormous highways, sprawling suburbs and neglected public transport systems, is one of the most car-dependent countries in the world. But this arrangement of obligatory driving is making many Americans actively unhappy, new research has found. The car is firmly entrenched as the default, and often only, mode of transport for the vast majority of Americans, with more than nine in 10 households having at least one vehicle and 87 percent of people using their cars daily.

“Losing to a twice-impeached convicted felon has left a small, but growing, number of Democrats wondering if their party brand is so toxic that they should shed the label — particularly in battleground and red states,” Politico reports. “The deliberations, some of which are taking place in private, reflect the extent to which Trump’s win has made the party unsure of what to do next.