Unlike in November, I did not pre-emptively take today off so that I could stay up all night on Zoom with my friends watching election results roll in.
So when I get up, this post will be posted and we may or may not have results from Georgia.
Follow along here:
Results trickle in for Georgia elections as turnout exceeds expectations – live
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/jan/05/georgia-senate-runoff-election-trump-republicans-biden-latest-politics-live
Have they SEEN John Fetterman? The dude is like 10 feet tall.
Pennsylvania Republicans block seating of Democratic state senator, take control from lieutenant governor
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/05/pennsylvania-senate-fetterman-brewster/
Wut?
Stonks!
U.S. stock futures slip as traders await results from Georgia runoff elections
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/05/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
Have a good day!
Press outlets are starting to call Warnock the winner over Mrs. Howdy Doody, and Ossoff has a slim lead with mostly Atlanta mailed ballots left to be counted.
Now if we get over the hump of today’s EC certification vote, Democrats will be officially tasked with recovering from a bifurcated recession, a global pandemic that somehow has intentional superspreaders trying to go to malls, three or four nations that are actively trying to hurt the US, two hot wars and a couple more undeclared ones, then also deal with justice system reform, tech industry reform, whatever the fuck Boeing is doing with the Max, a stalled vaccination rollout, 30+ million unemployed, figuring out how to reintegrate mostly mothers into the workforce after figuring out how to return kids to schools, figure out what kind of damage was done to higher ed after the dust settles on universities’ “responses”, find assistance for blown-up state finances, bring forward energy and environmental policies, find assistance for arts industries, expand healthcare access and coverage, replenish the Foreign Service, root out trumpies from the Secret Service, the FBI, the military, etc.
Also, they’ll have to keep ahead on campaigning lest they lose the ability to govern in 2022.
2021 will be a wilder ride than anyone is mentally prepared for, folks.
Could be worse. We could have an orange imbecile and his pet tortoise ignoring or exacerbating all of those things.
As of right now, Warnock has been declared the winner and Ossoff leads with 16,000 votes with 98% of the vote in and mostly Democratic counties left. Never say never, but I think we might pull this off.
Hello from the future. It got worse!
Let the litigation begin!
As you all probably know the AP has called the race for Warnock. The AP is pretty infallible so that’s probably a lock.
Something called Decision Desk HQ has called it for Ossoff and no one has called it for Perdue. I don’t know what Decision Desk HQ is and their website isn’t particularly helpful but a couple of outlets are reporting their call, including Business Insider, which, again, I know their stuff gets linked a lot but I don’t exactly know what they are either.
Recounts in Georgia aren’t automatic in Georgia is the race is won by .5% or more, which Warnock seems to have. I suppose Loeffler and her odious husband and other “interested parties” could fund one or more, but good luck with that, Kelly (or Karen, as Trump referred to her in his unhinged public appearance on Monday night.)
Ossoff is much closer and that battle, upon which the control of the Senate hinges, will probably haunt us for a good long time. I hope Ossoff has taken precautionary measures against the lunatic fringe.
And of course today in downtown DC and on Capitol Hill all kinds of mayhem promises to erupt. I read this morning that nutty as it is, if the elector slates are challenged, as they will be in both Houses of Congress, that could lead to hours of debate. Because of course it will.
It’s going to be a long day and a long two weeks. Yesterday I took the precaution of bottling some homemade limoncello. I’me mentioned this here before. It’s really simple. Get some decent vodka, as flavorless as possible. Zest some lemons. Put this in a bottle and seal very tightly. Put it in a dark, cool place so the vodka infuses. Two weeks is a good amount of time to leave it. Chill it and when ready to serve strain it. I will be serving it on January 20th. The Ossoff race might still be lingering but getting Trump out of the White House (especially if Twitter bans him) will be a huge reason to celebrate.
God I miss the edit function. Can that be brought back?
…I think we all miss that edit button…but as I understand it the chances of it returning in the short term are not great
…it’s a bit of a technical nightmare & the plugin that was adapted to provide it was causing a lot of headaches…though I’m also pretty sure that if our prophet can figure it out he’d be approximately as delighted as the rest of us?
We should all proofread our own work before we post it so really the fault is my own. I wish the spellcheck function weren’t so rambunctious. I managed to get an “I’me” in place of “I’ve.” Why did it think that’s what I meant?
…there may never have been a more poorly-named function than “autocorrect”…that shit is responsible for 90%+ of my typos these days
From Google Search: Decision Desk HQ is an American website that focuses on reporting election results in the United States. The website was founded in 2012 by Brandon Finnigan as an alternative to what he deemed “slow” election calls by the Associated Press.
Business Insider (or just “Insider”, as it seems to appear some of the time) is this weird sort of mix of HBR-type articles and things that come up in searches, but wind up being one step up from content farm pages.
…it seems like the race they’ve “called” gave warnock a lead of upwards of 50,000 votes while the other one only has ossoff leading by less than 15,000…but on the other hand (at least according to NBC) there’s less than 2% of the votes left to count…which is less than 100,000…so presumably there’s some proportional line that makes the balance of probabilities enough to make a call
…in at least some ways it seems more optimistic than I was thinking it might be at this point…but since it took several days to ascertain that the runn-offs were going to be a thing I guess I was expecting it to be days (plural) before we’d really know?
…for what it’s worth…business insider is (I think) owned by a german bunch who have been pushing for high traffic numbers for years but I don’t think of them as source of news so much as a redistributor
That python just introduced a new wave of nightmares. WTF.
Not even gonna watch that one!
That’s why we have doorknobs in our house. For snakeproofing.
As far as I can tell antifa is trotted out whenever right-wingers want to deflect from their dirty deeds. If you ask a trumper about the proud boys they will immediately start on antifa. How is it a bad thing to be against fascism? Assuming you know what fascism means…
Anyway, GEORGIA SAVES AMERICA, is a pretty stunning thought for the day.
…it somehow managed to amaze me that I read something in which the proud boys were saying they had deliberately chosen to dress in the manner associated with antifa (all black…which I’m not sure is necessarily unique to any one group but…whatever) in order to “infiltrate” antifa groups in DC
…while trying to make the argument that any violence would be instigated by antifa rather than them
…all in advance of them overtly picking fights with the police…as though somehow it would be convincing when they tried to claim “it was antifa”?
…also…we saw footage of ranks of mothers withstanding teargas/pepper-bombs/rubber-bullets & full-on riot police back when the BLM marches were at their height…& these “boys” don’t seem to have been able to cope with a much more restrained response from the authorities…not saying it’s surprising…but it does seem telling that they talk big but fold under a vastly lesser degree of pressure
…there’s a saying that may not be popular stateside (or entirely seem like it makes sense) but seems appropriate…all mouth & no trousers
Who had incite violence, blame “Antifa” and invoke martial law on their January 2021 bingo card?
Is that snake a metaphor for all of my election fears?
If GOP commercials are to be believed, we’re all going to be forcibly gay married to an illegal immigrant and go vegan by next week, so that might be a bit of a hiccup to my life.
Don’t forget if you legit need a cop you won’t be able to get one – because that’s what defund the police means.
It is very discouraging that the collective attention span is so short that people can’t be bothered to actually understand issues. May the best slogan win.
Honestly, though, the left does have shitty messaging chops. Like it or not, this country is full of barely educated people who will not (or cannot) spend the time necessary to investigate the meaning behind certain slogans. They take them at face value. So, “defund the police” is a terrible slogan, but I’m hard pressed to find a snappier version of “reallocate funding from policing to agencies which are better able to handle mental health, community, and poverty services, while still retaining law enforcement’s core function.”
…given that it’s taxpayers’ money…& there are a lot of things those taxpayers arguably need more than a militarized police force I’d maybe be tempted to start with “you get what you pay for”?
…mainly though I wish there were a way of getting across the disparity in budget allocations to more people…it’s hard not to see one of those bar charts where other municipal spending barely shows up (because the scale required for the police budget not to be “off the charts” forces them to look practically vestigial) & not think “huh…that seems like it’s out of whack”
Maybe we should add all those things and re-brand the whole bundle as “public safety.”
Thing is, I’ve lived in a number of places that actually have “Public Safety” instead of “Police” slapped on their patrol cars. So, if something like that were to be done across the board, then there would have to be some hardcore oversight to make sure that the “police” part of “public safety” isn’t eating up 90% of the budget. On a practical level though, I’m betting that if more movement is done on this issue, that’s probably how it will be handled to keep the pearl clutchers at bay.
I mean, I’ve seen some people saying we should say “reallocate resources” instead, but that’s certainly not snappy or even specific.
Honestly, I find myself more and more leaning towards abolishing the police altogether. It sounded insane to me at first (as a middle class white lady), but over time… Do police solve more problems than they cause?
It’s a giant problem for the left that nobody on our team ever seems to give the slightest shit about or ever has any ideas on how to improve.
I know. I have a similar reaction to “antifa.” It’s sloppy shorthand that’s allowed the radical right to co-opt it and weaponize it for use with deplorables. If the term “anti-fascism” was used, it would be a whole lot more difficult to demonize. “Down with anti-fascism.” “Wait, you’re in favor of fascism?”
I suppose we could try to find someone to wordsmith to the lowest common denominator, in much the same way Frank Luntz used to do for the GOP.
Gaaaaah!!!!! The stupid “But the cops won’t BE there to SAVE us!!!!” narrative…
So.much.ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!🙄😠😡🤬🤬🤬🤬
Having watched the looting, and been outside & TALKING to the MPD cops, who were driving around on one of those nights, this, “Don’t forget if you legit need a cop you won’t be able to get one”
Is something I KNOW those Trumpublicans are delusional about….
🙄🙄🙄
Ffs, in shit like went down here, the damn HERD of cops won’t even go walk around the corner, to show enough presence to scare off folks blatantly stealing.🙄😒🤨
They literally stood outside Target, doing NOTHING, for at least a half-hour *that* trip…
But when a few of us told them the liquor store *around the corner* was being looted, they said “Oh we’re not going to do analyzing about it, we’re not going over there.”
That night, hours before, and before the liquor store was broken into?
I tried to call 911, to report the break-in BEFORE it actually happened… when folks with crowbars & hammers were walking around the damn building, trying the doors…
I called 911 three different times in that stretch, before giving up & knowing there was nothing I could do to stop what was gonna happen…
The first call didn’t even engage, it just clicked off. Second call rang for minutes with no response, and the third call rang for a bit, then got dropped.
The Cops don’t DO much, but cover their own asses, in big, bad situations like we had those nights…
HELL, MPD were too cowardly to even stand guard & hold the line so that the Mpls Fire Department crews could fight the fires those nights…
So fuck the narrative that “Defund the Police is TERRIBLE!!!!”🙄🙄🙄
Anyone ELSE who gave up & turned-tail on their jobs in stress would be (rightfully!) lambasted, if MOST of the job was supposedly about them “Protecting & Serving” when the shit hits the fan…
Same ought to hold for the cowards hiding behind the power trip of a badge & gun.
🤨😒🤔
Yeah, it’s stressful. Yes, they COULD BE SHOT –MAYBE KILLED at work.
You know who ELSE gets shot or killed–pretty damn regularly in this country,up until Covid?
Folks in Education.
Thing is, WE want funding for the mental health & poverty crisis side of our work–because we know THAT is how we get a handle on the violence parts…
We’re NOT asking for military-grade weaponry to keep ourselves “safe from the bad guys,” we want Mental Health practitioners, social workers to help folks in need get to the services that can help meet their needs, housing, addiction services, etc., etc., etc….
ALL those “good for society” things, that folks who mean “Defund the Police” talk about funding, with the monies which could be diverted from “Police Militarization” budgets…
It drives me CRAZY, that the average Republican dumbasses *freaking out* over “Defund the Police” honestly think cops WILL just automatically show up to “save the community” when shit goes down…
Most of those cops AREN’T “from the community.”
They HAVE no “skin in the game,” anymore–it’s literally JUST A JOB.
One MANY of them can, and will, and DO entirely walk away from the duties of, when they feel vulnerable or threatened… or you know–like a “regular” person, and not one who has special super powers/invincibility, if the job suddenly gets difficult.
Grrrr🤬🤬🤬
So.Many.Typos. (sorry!😖😱)
Same with prison guards. Just a job, and an extremely low-paid one at that.
Also, a relative of mine used to live near a police station. The number of times they were nearly hit at sleepy residential intersections by police officers running red lights over the speed limit and barely catching themselves short of a collision was too much to bear. Not to mention witnessing several officers flashing their sirens and lights to turn a red light green, then immediately switching them off once they’d crossed the intersection. So many small yet idiotic abuses of power they didn’t care enough to even be less blatant about in public.
Also, if you read the NY Times, we’ll need to spend every day in a diner in Ohio listening to Trump supporters, really listening, so we can break out of our bubbles and understand why they feel the way they do.
We’ll need to stop drinking our soy hazelnut lattes and imported French pastries and order a cup of regular coffee and a donut, which the Times informs us is beyond our experience, and reach out to these people who are definitely all former Democrats who are worried about the economy and most definitely not upper income patronizing longtime right wing Republican activists obsessed with race and guns.
You see, as the Times will remind us every day, we don’t have any real experiences or know any real people, and it will be important for us to understand why Trump and the foaming Right are the real winners here.
That couple who threatened peaceful protesters at gunpoint over the summer are, quite frankly, being held up as paragons and invited to speak at the RNC precisely because they are more representative of the base than media outlets and the Democratic strategists seem to understand. You can still have a “Cletus” mindset euphemized as “economic anxiety” whilst clinging to your guns on the lawn of your rather large house.
Also, all of our possessions and money will be confiscated while we will all be relocated to communal farms where our children will attend reeducation schools.
Well, ho-lee shit. Color me straight up shocked. However, I will refrain from celebration until such time as Warnock and Ossoff are actually sworn in. Until then, they still have to get past any recounts, litigation and other bullshittery.
If they manage to hold on and Democrats take the Senate, the good news is that they’ll be able to set the agenda and actually bring bills from the House to the floor. The bad news is that Republicans will ultimately continue to run the Senate, just like they do every other time when they’re in the minority. All they have to do is threaten a filibuster (not actually engage in one) and call Democrats bad names like “socialist”, and we can always count on a couple of chickenshits (looking at you, Manchin and Kaine) to bail on anything consequential. But, we might actually get some movement on dealing with the pandemic on a medical level, but almost certainly not on an economic level. So, the economic recovery will be long, slow and hard, just like Republicans want it. The strategy didn’t work out for them in 2012, but they have no reason to hope it won’t work in 2024.
Also, Chuck is completely outmatched against Mitch and always has been. He’s not worth a damn as leader.
The number one strategy for Schumer and Pelosi has to be pushing straightforward popular measures and daring the GOP to stop them.
They need to stop futzing with delayed implementation of means tested tax credits that are geographically targeted toward residents of municipalities that qualify based on a 12 stage application process. Just get out front on another emergency relief check.
They need to launch a simple public school funding program, and hell, propose a simple one time bonus for cops and firefighters. I realize legislation can be complicated and needs negotiations, but it doesn’t have to always be that way. Turn the GOP into the party of whiners and naysayers, and stop listening to the Rahm Emmanuels who think they’re realistic but don’t know how to make a PBJ sandwich without creating a commission.
That’s certainly the way to go. I won’t hold my breath on the Republicans backing down though. They’ve proven perfectly willing to block all kinds of measures that have broad approval across the political and demographic spectrum. Their voters are morons who will believe whatever messaging is thrown at them on their right wing medium of choice, and Republicans definitely don’t want to piss off their corporate overlords.
The GOP is pure evil, but the Democrats need to drop the fretting so much over Trump’s base and start thinking harder how to drive wedges between them
Those wedges won’t be ideology based, but there are at least four guys in the Senate who are desperate to be president and who hate each others guts, and more at the state level. The GOP is the party with a failed president causing division within. If the Democrats push some simple popular projects, the GOP will still oppose them, but don’t be surprised if the rivalries in the GOP worsen more than if the Democrats offer mush.
I actually think that the number one thing we can hope for at this point is that the narrative about a brewing GOP civil war actually breaks out into the open. The more divided they are, the better chance we have of actually being able to govern and win more elections. This is the place where DJT might actually prove useful.
This is a good little known perk if things hold…
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/georgia-wins-would-empower-dems-to
He’s been jamming through some really awful public land giveaways to oil and mining companies designed to permanently ruin those places, which include areas deeply important to Native Americans. Blocking those administrative decisions would be fantastic, and it helps that Biden’s nominee for Interior Secretary is the first Native American to lead the department.
Looks like Merrick Garland has been nominated for AG!
I saw that, so much for any investigations.
@Loveshaq I’m hoping he’s been stewing over the GOP dashing his SCOTUS dreams and is feeling vindictive.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. The AG is supposed to avoid any direction of prosecutions and investigations. The picture becomes clearer based on who is nominated for the deputies in charge of corruption and white collar crime. The election yesterday helps a lot, because it stops McConnell from easily holding up an agressive nominee, if we get one, of course. He still holds leverage, but it’s more likely to delay rather than block.
Oh how easy it is to control thousands of BLM “rioters” across the country for months and months but a few hundred pro Trump “protestors” waltz into the Capitol, with advanced notice, virtually uncontested.
At what point will the US media call them terrorists instead of protestors?
THIS!!!!!
Jesusmotherfuckingchristonabun!!!
But it’s white folks, so OF COURSE.🤬🤬👺
Funny, isn’t it, how they can refrain from use of deadly force on white armed terrorists, but pre-emptively shoot unarmed people for “existing while black” because they suspect they’re armed [but, again, are not]?
They just used tear gas in the fucking capitol building! It is time to shoot these fuckers & Trump needs to be hung for treason.
…really?
…because I haven’t seen anything on the coverage I’ve been watching that shows anything like that much of a response…I’m seeing armed capitol police barricaded inside the rotunda & shit…& “protestors” in hard hats & cammo (& a few with riot shields) “spontaneously” forcing their way into the building to disrupt a process twittler told them they should put a stop to
…I’m finding the idea that some subset of these people weren’t working from a premeditated playbook extremely unconvincing around about now
…so I’d be delighted to hear they got a faceful of teargas…or better still get to watch that instead of what I’m seeing?
Well MSNBC is calling it terrorism. I’ll admit I’ve taken a… Oh 4 year hiatus from tv news, but I’ve never heard talking heads speak so plainly and be so pissed.
Tweets by igorbobic
Is this… are we… are we literally witnessing a coup in real time? Is this how the United States falls apart?
I don’t know about that but this is definitely how these idiot Rethuglicans learn that their words have consequences. Cruz & friends think this is all a show but it will be interesting if some things change as the proceed with this charade.
The politicians have been doing theater, but their followers are making it real. I wonder if that’s a feature or a bug?
No. Trump has seriously fucked up here. It’s one thing to create a photo-op, but he’s encouraging and abetting crimes. Trump has already alienated a large swath of the Republican Party. Corporations have turned against him. Any of his bootlickers that took part in this shitshow (Cruz, Hawley) are going to face serious repercussions from establishment Republicans.
I think what we are witnessing is the end of the Republican Party. It’s splintered into the greedy corporate shills against the power-hungry nutjobs, and it’s never going to recover as a political force. Old line Republicans are going to need to rebrand, badly. And their numbers, which are already lower than Democrats, are about to get cut in half by lunatics who can’t understand politics and don’t have the capacity to establish a legitimate party structure. They’re watching their party circle the drain.
Trump is going to get crucified. Not by the Republicans, but by business leadership. All of his loans are about to become due and payable right now. West Palm Beach is going to freak out — those old rich people do NOT want this in their backyard. Chaos is not good for rich people. It does not serve their interests.
One can only hope. But I’ve seen the likes of the Five Star Movement in Italy arise from a mouthy demagogue into actual political forces with parliamentary representation, so… Ugh.
Fair. But Italians are better educated than Americans.
I mean, many (like columnist Beppe Severigni) claimed they’d already elected their embarrassingly racist and corrupt leader in Berlusconi, but he was far less consequential overall. The similarities were surface-level.
Golden Dawn, Farscy could probably ‘splain at us for HOURS on Geert Wilders (🤢🤢🤢), France just squeaked by–luckily–and kept Le Pen out of office,last go-round…
Then there’s the crap going on in Poland, and the other former Soviet-Bloc/Eastern European nations. 🙃
I truly hope you’re right.
Yes on question 1… it’s been slow-moving up ’til today, but YES, that is what they’re trying for.
Maybe somewhere between coup and “second civil war,” tbh.🙃
Because TONS of militia folks, *and* the Q-anons have been getting *allllll jazzed up* for at minimum a couple years now, for “The Storm”/ Boogaloo/ “The War,” and just waiting & frankly hoping it’s gonna happen.
Much like the tech/frat-bros who have delusions of “going to New Zealand, and using their *executive skills* should society collapse!” these dumbfucks have deluded themselves into thinking that THEY will be the glorious leaders in a “new society”🙄🙄🙄
<Groan.> Just kill me now. I do NOT want to live in that brave stupid new world.
History. Live on tv.
I know there’s so much else going on, but the second race has just been called for Ossoff. #SenateMinorityLeaderMcConnell
Yes!
and I’m already hearing this bullshit on multiple outlets…
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/manchin-50-senate-tie-democrats-majority-b1782997.html
and maybe now we know how these asshats got in?
https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-police-selfie-rioters/
Have fun in DC jail, bitches. I hope you don’t get bail.
So is anyone else starting to worry about the inauguration? Like can we maybe do it over zoom like everything else?
…I think they did plan to have some stuff/people be a virtual feed…but, yeah…I hear that (as the saying goes)
That was one of my first thoughts. As in, why not do it indoors instead of in such a vulnerable outdoor location? I’m sure Biden would appreciate not being in the cold during an pandemic and reduxing William Henry Harrison.