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It’s going to be agonizingly close.

Putting the cart waaay ahead of the horse here, but if Dems take senate 50-50 + VP, how long before Breyer retires?

Nate Cohn and David Wasserman are both making some very encouraging posts and observations about the Dems chances right now, especially Warnock. Tight, even very tight still, but looking/leaning blue at the moment.

Dave Wasserman@Redistrict ·1m
“Here's the story right now:
1. Black turnout looks, frankly, phenomenal.
2. Perdue/Loeffler are approaching Trump %s of the vote in a lot of deep red rural counties, but turnout there isn't anything special.
3. It's getting harder to see a path for either R, but esp. Loeffler.”

Hmmmm.

Based on the results so far with 78% of the vote counted and a very careful tabulation of what is left to be counted, the NYTimes needle now has Warnock winning by 1.7 points and Ossoff by 0.9 pts!

Crazy. It’s going to be razor thin. But.. rigged, of course.

Holy shit! Wasserman has just called the race for Warnock!!!!!!!!!

Looks like Warnock is in a little better position than Ossoff.
It’s up to DeKalb and Savannaugh with 79% in. Wow.

Jesus Christ, blanquito, we're going to win the fucking Senate.

Wasserman just called the second race for the Dems!

Incredible!!!

Stacey Abrams is my newest and biggest hero.

Senate goes to the Dems!
Next up, watch Pence wriggle and squirm.

Poetic that Charlie Daniels died in 2020.

An incredible day in the USA.

Good "Opinion" article by Jeff Flake calling out fellow Republicans who are siding with Trump. Includes a reference to his first experience in Congress in 2001 when Al Gore announced Bush as the electoral college winner.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opin ... d=em-share

OrlandoRobert wrote:

DavidG wrote: That said, the Rs are going to cripple the Biden administration, just like they did with Obama. Getting a decent-sized chunk of the 74 million loonies to distinguish fact from fiction and vote the power-mad sycophants out is the only way to fix this, and that isn't going to happen any time soon. If ever. What really needs fixing is the rampant stupidity, and you know the saying...

Obama had a crippled Administration? Amazing how effective he was notwithstanding. I still think he’s our greatest modern era President. Not to mention the classiest. Not a single scandal that I can recall. Now that said, I think Biden is a good man but a weak President at this late stage in his life. Voted for him, glad he’s in, but depressing that we had no younger superstars in the party to take over. I worry about 2024, I do not see a Biden second term, whether because of capacity or just having to go through another election cycle four years later. And I do not see Harris as the successor. Perhaps she will prove me otherwise. Whatever we have, it is 1000x great than the thug in office. There are not enough nasty words in the dictionary or in slang to describe how despicable and horrible of a human being Trump is.

I agree that Obama was classy, erudite, scandal-free. I doubt history will judge him as a great President other than in comparison to the two who bookend him.

Obama's one great legislative accomplishment was the ACA. I give him huge credit for that. He barely got it through even though it was based on a R concept. R obstructionism.

The other major domestic issue of the day was the Great Recession. The recovery package under Obama was a half-loaf compromise. Not entirely his fault - it was R obstructionism that stifled a more aggressive response. We should have spent much more. Had we done so employment and wages would have recovered much faster.

On foreign policy I’ll give him credit for getting Bin Laden but that was not of great global consequence. The rest of his foreign policy was muddled. He managed, but wasn’t stellar internationally.

Much of Obama's domestic policy and legislative agenda was crippled by R obstructionism. This is well documented and widely accepted. Ds didn’t really "control" the Senate for more than 4-6 months because their majority there was most often effectively reduced to less than 60 reliably D seats between Kennedy, Franken, Lieberman, etc. Once Ds lost the House in 2012 he got almost nothing through and when Rs took over the Senate in 2014 it was game over. Future Jeopardy question: "Who is Merrick Garland?"

Obama loses a few more points in my eyes for failing to rally the Ds. The House and Senate both went R under him. Not really his fault? Can’t blame him given the now apparent but then hidden racism? Maybe, but I think he takes some responsibility. And he was unable to find an effective response when faced with the serious threat to our electoral system posed by Russian interference. I’m not sure what he could have done given the proximity to the election and the mood of the country. Maybe kicking the can down the road is the best anyone could have done. He didn’t distinguish himself there.

It’s tough to make a case for "great" based on "not his fault he couldn’t do more." Maybe my expectations are too high in these politically polarized times.

As to Biden, we agree for the most part. Not my favorite candidate but a much needed stabilizing influence. I don’t expect great things. Just getting rid of the rampant corruption and constant lying will be a huge relief.

And with Ds holding 50 seats plus the VP in the Senate, at least Biden will be able to make some judicial appointments. Getting more substantive legislation through will still be extremely difficult without a 60-seat majority as I expect even more fervent obstructionism from the Rs. We shall see.

For now, I’m going to revel in the removal of Mitch McConnell as Senate majority leader.

I’ll hold off until January 20 to celebrate fully but I think Trump will be gone despite his ongoing seditious attempts to overturn the election.

The biggest thing about winning the Senate is being able to control the chairs of the committees.

An ugly day in DC. Very few of these "people" are wearing masks as our area surges with corona outbreaks. Several people arrested for firearm violations already. While the DC National Guard is present, they are not armed. I worry about the police being out numbered. Trump on at 11 to address his fanclub as he is already being blamed for losing the Senate seats in Georgia.

When do we expect the martial law declaration, before or after Congress convenes?

Rudy's take per the WP

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, deployed violent imagery Wednesday in describing the president’s efforts to overturn Biden’s win, calling for the White House race to be settled by “trial by combat.”

As he addressed a crowd gathered outside the White House awaiting Trump’s remarks, Giuliani asserted that Pence has the power to unilaterally reject the electoral vote tally, even though the vice president has no such authority.

“Every single thing that has been outlined as the plan for today is perfectly legal,” Giuliani told the crowd. He falsely claimed that the vice president “can decide on the validity of these crooked ballots or he can send it back to the legislatures, give them five to 10 days to finally finish the work.”

Giuliani, who has spent much of the past few months promoting false allegations of widespread voter fraud, added that if the president and his team are wrong, “we will be made fools of.”

“But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail,” he said, to cheers from the crowd.

“So, let’s have trial by combat,” Giuliani said. “I’m willing to state I’m willing to stake my reputation — the president is willing to stake his reputation — on the fact that we’re going to find criminality there. Is Joe Biden willing to stake his reputation that there’s no crime there?”

The US Capitol is now under siege by protestors who have forced their way into the building.

Armed standoff on the House floor. How could that possibly have been allowed to happen.

Media reporting shots fired.

Lovely. MAGA.

Reap what you sow.

Will there be any fallout? Arrests? Shouldn't Guiliani go to jail for inciting this, along with Trump?

Blanquito wrote:Will there be any fallout? Arrests? Shouldn't Guiliani go to jail for inciting this, along with Trump?

Trump would shoot them were roles reversed. I concur.

And reinforcements arrive... three hours later. WTF.

The camera evidence and witnesses to the vandalism, seditious acts and numerous crimes will keep the federal prosecutors and DC DA offices quite busy. The quiet roundup needs to commence immediately.

The Capitol police, a federal agency under Steve Sund, needs to be investigated for allowing the protestors through, posing for photos with rioters and a clearly inept and embarrassing performance of their duties. Now metro police and national guard have to restore order.

I imagine some bull shit notion of blanket pardon will keep the "rioters" further emboldened.
I hope the spike in google searches on sedition and treason penalties might educate those who witness and participate.
A reckoning is coming.

There was a homicide in the congressional building as well

We should have locked that asshole up 2 years ago.

Some of these pictures coming out of the House and senate chamber are insane.
How could this possibly have been allowed to happen.

That Jason Crow guy from Colorado, I've been really impressed with him.

Soon on big screen, a new documentary : USA, the newest banana republic!

What is that? Gross.

You know, it’s crazy, but lost in all of this were two great speeches by Mitch McConnell!

A fire in the rotunda and this would have been 1933 Germany.

Hm$

Of all the insanity that happened today, the one thing that I need to have an answer on is...

How the fuck did a dozen or so of these jokers breach through the halls of Congress, and break into the chambers of the House and the Senate, a few feet away from where the Vice President and the 538 top elected officials in the country were standing, how were they sitting at Pelosi’s desk, rummaging through the desks of Henry Clay and Jack Kennedy on the senate floor, and then we sat there for like four hours before any meaningful security arrived?

How in fuck’s name did that happen?

JimHow wrote:You know, it’s crazy, but lost in all of this were two great speeches by Mitch McConnell!

Bit fucking late, but guess better late than never. Up til now MM has been complicit

One of the best Twitter posts I saw was this:

https://twitter.com/davidschneider/stat ... 9371080710

JimHow wrote:Of all the insanity that happened today, the one thing that I need to have an answer on is...

How the fuck did a dozen or so of these jokers breach through the halls of Congress, and break into the chambers of the House and the Senate, a few feet away from where the Vice President and the 538 top elected officials in the country were standing, how were they sitting at Pelosi’s desk, rummaging through the desks of Henry Clay and Jack Kennedy on the senate floor, and then we sat there for like four hours before any meaningful security arrived?

How in fuck’s name did that happen?

You know how
The Capitol police was overwhelmed
Trump was too "busy" tweeting his supporters to call the National Guard
Pence needed to get the White House legal counsel approval before calling the National Guard himself.

I have no words. This could have been a lot worse, there could have been countless deaths.

JimHow wrote:
How in fuck’s name did that happen?

Did you see the picture of a capitol policeman getting in a selfie with one of the rioters? That's how it happened.

Racer Chris wrote:

JimHow wrote:
How in fuck’s name did that happen?

Did you see the picture of a capitol policeman getting in a selfie with one of the rioters? That's how it happened.

Yes, and then these domestic terrorists were just allowed to leave on their own. (Almost) no arrests, no IDs taken or noted, nothing. They broke into the Capitol building, vandalized it, embarrassed us in front of the whole world, tried to replace the American flag with a Trump flag, and then the police just let them walk away.

This cannot stand.