Mississippi's is next level. They scrapped their 1890 system in the last eletion that created a Electoral College-like deal for statewide elections. Shout out to those dudes though, as they transparently indicated at the time why they were doing it. No need for coded language in 1890.

Wasserman has seen enough!

https://twitter.com/redistrict/statu...934650880?s=21

https://twitter.com/politics_polls/s...592491010?s=21

Political Polls also calls it for Ossoff

It is over. Networks just want to keep ratings up.

Warnock will win by 90-100,000. Ossoff by 50-60,000.

NYTimes says there are 93,000 votes left to count and the Dems estimated share of those would be 77%-Ossoff would win by 69,000. Warnock would win by 106,000

But what is Newsmax reporting?!?

SI

I am completely dumbfounded that it appears to have played out if the Dems take control of the Senate this way. I am not getting my hopes up until it's called, but fuck, am I going to enjoy the shit out of it if they do.

Warnock declared winner by most outlets. Ossoff up by around 10 thousand votes with mail in ballots in Democratic area to come.

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This is a great ducking morning, hopefully the rest of the day goes well too

The elections are not going to be certified until January 22. How does McConnell proceed until then?

They are covering the birth of a prize county fair pig

Didn’t they call it super early for Warnock?

Yeah, they did. I remember seeing that and thinking it was strange, but then I thought that maybe Newsmax wasn’t what I thought it was.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN29A147

Probably can call it now.

Congrats Biden, you have your Congress. Go do your thing for the next 2 years.

Definitely ready to see how you get us out of the Covid mess and also what you'll do on immigration now.

Van Jones with a great line. Black joy vs white rage and black joy won.

If Georgia didn't have the runoff system, GOP would control the Senate 51-49.

Nobody wants to support the party that has turned in to cry babies and cheaters?

I don't get all of these hot takes about how this is a rejection of Trump's tactics after the election, as if we didn't know who he was after him being president for a full term. It seems pretty clearly this was a case of buying the vote - neither Trump or Biden were at all shy that that is what they were going for, and it was also obvious they weren't going to get it with a GOP Senate.

The rest I'm sure had some impact as well, and perhaps we'll get more data on what people say is the why in the coming days, but it seems pretty transparent that's a major cause.

I am sure there are plenty of unwritten rules and conventions he can ignore and subvert ...

What a great morning to wake up to the overnight count tally verifying where it looked like things were headed.

Hey Lindsey, you were right all along! GOP got destroyed and you deserve it.

Would he go so far as to deny seating them over the 'controversy' that is sure to follow? His own attempt to retain power?

I’m sure he’ll ignore some of the written ones too

At least 40% of the country supports them and what they're doing today, and a little more than that in Georgia.

It strikes me that if someone pitched what happened in Georgia as a movie (or a West Wing episode), it'd be rejected for being too far fetched.

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The historical retrospective on this time will be incredible if it's eventually shown to be the dumpster fire it is. Of course, if the trumpers win in the end, and we're all subjected to the USofT for eternity, then we'll all be reading about how the dynasty saved the world.

No idea. Was largely meant in jest, because these past few months have really driven home how fragile, cumbersome and inefficient the US democratic system really is.

But then again, i don't have to live in your crazy world of politics trying to somehow entrust democracy to man's adherence to a 200 year old documents and what it's creators may or may not have intended for a nation/society not in the slightest comparable anymore.
Granted, it took 2 World Wars and unspeakable tragedy spread under the guise of legitimate governmental procedure to get our shit together and close various detrimental loopholes ...

Merrick Garland is Biden's pick for Attorney General

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Fucking awesome. I hope he goes after every last one of them

Was hoping for Yates once the Georgia Senate seats flipped. I guess they don't have to worry about filling judges but Garland is such a bland pick.

I agree on him being bland. It does feel like a decent move. 2 1/2 stars.

It gets an extra 1.5 stars up to 4 stars for the giant middle finger at the GOP

Nobody in the GOP cares about Garland. He's the guy they fucked over, who cares what he does with the rest of his life?

Oh, I don’t know. If the guy you fucked over is now in a position to investigate and possibly bring charges against you, you might care a little.

I think the bigger deal is being able to replace him on the DC Circuit.

Graham came out today to applaud the Garland pick. He's a moderate who won't touch the white collar stuff they care about. It is not a middle finger.

Which fucking idiot on the Dem side will come out first alking about how we need to reach across the aisle?

Nevermind Chris Coons did it this morning lol

Ossoff is up over a point now. Warnock is almost at 2 points. I couldn't be more proud of my state, which I rarely get to say.

If those hold, it will be impressive how accurate the Election Needle was. It closed at 3:00 AM with Warnock at 2.0 and Ossoff at 1.1. I believe at that time Warnock was up by .4-.6 and Ossoff was close to tied.

I wonder if/when Perdue will concede. Seems like it would be nice for Georgia to have two senators at a time like this.

This crap has already started. The next two years is going to be having to kowtow to Manchin on everything.




There are quite a few republicans who support it. The good news is that votes can actually be scheduled now, right?

I'm fine with West Virginia not being a part of the stimulus

Could, but Congress is not coming back until Biden is sworn in (unless it is for impeachment).

Posturing is all part of the normal legislative back and forth.

It has been so long since we've had a normal executive/legislative relationship that we've forgotten what it is supposed to look like.

They are *supposed* to argue and debate in the media. And in backrooms. And then they agree to something that isn't quite what everyone wants but that lets everyone go back to their constituents and say "see, look what I did for you!"

I actually think this is a situation that Biden and maybe only Biden can overcome. I have no doubt he can make a deal with Manchin.

Perdue officially concedes. Nothing like a coup to get people to back off their "never concede" stances.

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Wow.

Timeline now is that the counties have until the 15th to certify. The SOS has until the 22nd, but they can and probably will certify sooner. They should be sworn in before the 20th.

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Biden is doing an all time takedown of Trump in this press conference.

Lol, Biden saying Trump not showing up to the inauguration is one of the few things we agree on.

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it would be nice if the amounts were like dependent on income :P

and oh boy...so are we in for 2 years of Democrats not doing anything because THEY block each other now?

Since Loeffler conceded, wouldn't Warnock be certified much sooner? Or do both races have to be certified at the same time?

Nevermind, saw Perdue conceded. I thought conceding sped up the process?

I don't think so, at least not officially. It's just that normally we have an election, the loser concedes, and we never hear anything else about it again...

I think Biden and the Democrats would be smart to push for DC statehood now. The district was turned into a military occupation over the Summer by the government. The government let terrorists run roughshod over them the other day. These people have no representation or voice in government.

That's the argument you make. These people are at the mercy of a federal government they have no representation in.

I counter with "You spit in the face of Betsy Ross to invalidate all her hard flag-sewing work"

Hmmmm Betsy Ross...Betsy Devos....OMG....It's the same woman!

I second the DC statehood idea.

Me Three

Me four, but then I have long supported statehood for DC and Puerto Rico. I have a really hard time with taxation without representation.

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The Dems have both houses of Congress and the White House and an argument for D.C. Statehood that is fresh in people's minds.

If they lack the political courage to do it now, they will never do it.

If they do, maybe the 50 star flag will become the new Confederate flag.

dola: And considering our Hurricane Maria response, we should make Puerto Rico a state (or two) as well.

May as well take the "They want Black and Hispanic people to have Senators" political hit all at once.

Can I talk you into the Wyoming Rule by chance?

Interesting development here. Kind of wonder if maybe a Senator or two would be willing to go independent. Might help the Democrats not have to rely on Manchin. Romney is practically a blue dog Dem who wouldn't be forced to stick with the Republicans on issues he agrees with.

Funny thing is Puerto Rico is not a lock for Democrats. Their Governor (well as of the election) and non-voting member of the House both endorsed Trump. Puerto Ricans voted for Trump in the mainland. It might actually be a swing state.

There actually have been rumors that Murkowski is considering going Independent and caucusing with the Democrats.

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Has Puerto Rico had an official vote on whether they want to be a state or not? If not, I'd say they should get that first and if they support it, then we should let them in, whether it would be a Democratic or Republican state.

Murkoski actually today said that Trump should resign and she questioned that she could remain in the party if they don't distance themselves from Trump.



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I think that PR should be a state (if they want), and that it would actually be good if it were neither a D nor an R lock b/c that might make the issue able to pass.

Mitch cares only about GOP power.

If Murkowski, Romney, Sasse, Collins (LOL), Toomey all go to Mitch and say "Either the Senate removes Trump, or we all become independents and you will never get a majority again," that would inspire Mitch to action.

Albion, that would absolutely work.

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They had a non-binding vote in November which resulted in a Yes.

I actually think it would benefit Republicans more in the long term. Puerto Ricans are one segment of Hispanic voters that are conservative. They would have a good shot of not just winning Senate seats but building support in the mainland with the changing demographics of the country.

Short term it might hurt since they are all in on the white supremacist stuff.

Trump made gains among Puerto Ricans, but even in Florida, where he had some of his best performance among Hispanic voters, he only got about 33% of Puerto Ricans.

Also, the current Governor, who just got elected on November 3rd, endorsed Biden.

My favorite bit is that it would be Murkowski, Romney, et al, and they would tell Mitch "And Senator Collins told us to tell you that she is seriously considering joining us."

No joke. Ossoff slapped him around and took his lunch money.

I’m sure Perdue was just still shaken up from Ossoff eviscerating him in a debate that basically sent Perdue into hiding because he got owned so hard https://t.co/7coEZOG4bu

— Jeanna Kelley (@jeannathomas) January 8, 2021

Interesting article (detailed stats in the article). Essentially there are a lot of FL Reps switching to Independent. Some Dems also switching to Independent but in much lower numbers.

Wonder if this is similar to rest of southern states. If it is, probably good for Biden overall.

Florida sees some post-riot voter registration changes - South Florida Sun-Sentinel

This is the kind of bullshit traps that the Trump administration is leaving for Biden. Now either Biden has a serious and dangerous stand-off with China, or they paint him as "soft on China."

Wow: Pompeo announces lifting of 'self-imposed restrictions' on US-Taiwan relationship, including lifting of regulations on US officials and service members' interactions with Taiwanese government counterparts pic.twitter.com/eAmnBYdimX

— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) January 9, 2021

But, hey, there's no harm in leaving Trump in the office for the next 2 weeks. He didn't just run roughshod over LBGT protections on Thursday and then this.

SI

To be fair, Pence wouldn't have stopped either.

I'm sure Pence was involved in both more than Trump. Part of why conservatives love Trump is because he pays no attention and lets them do whatever they can et away with.

MSM is reporting that Biden is getting some GOP pressure to ask Pelosi to stop the impeachment. I feel sorry for Biden because he obviously would not want his administration to start with recriminations, controversy etc. and he does need to work with the GOP.

But it is principle and the country & world is watching so I'm all for impeachment regardless of what the Senate does or not.

Re: Cruz and Hawley and others, he shouldn't get involved. Let Congress deal with it in their own way and process.

The GOP doesn't want to go on record with a vote and further split their party. Fuck 'em, they deserve everything that comes from this and the Dems shouldn't do them any favors.

GOP had four years to do anything and had plenty of reasons to do something last January. They didn’t. Let them implode and don’t let them off the hook.

That doesn’t even get into the real matter which is the President incited a fucking riot where his followers sacked the US Capitol. If that isn’t an impeachable offense what is?

And Biden should tell them to fuck off. Rs in Congress say impeachment would further divide us after they spent months supporting this election fraud crap that led to a violent insurrection. And years supporting Trump destroying our country.

And their entire argument last impeachment was that we shouldn't impeach because the voters should decide. Then we decided and over half of them voted to throw our votes out.

It's not the GOP hurt feelings I care about.

We need to give Biden a chance to work with GOP and get things done. Bring back some semblance of bi-partisanship.

I know, I know. Many of you now "got yours" (e.g. Presidency and Congress) and don't care about working with the opposition party. I get that.

But I voted for Biden, and one big reason is because I hoped we could go back to the old days (pre-Obama) where (stereotyping) politicians made deals with a quid-pro-quo handshake, sipping cognac in a smoke filled room.

So in a perfect world, Biden get a nice, fresh start but in reality, he'll have to deal with repercussions of the impeachment.

Ok, honest question here. If McConnell said to Biden: "Look, you guys drop the impeachment thing, and I will give enough hall passes for $2000 stimulus and most (if not all) of HR1 to get past the filibuster", would you say it's a bad deal to take it?

I mean, let's put the supposed "bi-partisanship" and "Wanting to make a deal" to the test early.

The impeachment should have nothing to do with politics or dealing. It is to punish a terrorist.

I also think if you have a politician of import, say the president of the United States saying things over and over like “fight!” And then telling those same people to go to the capital.... and they do. Then they kill a police officer and get more people killed while chanting to hang the VP something has to be done or else... when? That was pretty insurrection like behavior no? I get it that we all want to move on but as Susan Collins might ask, “hopefully they learn their lesson,” but with no penalties at all what lesson is being learned?


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Really good hypothetical question for a nice discussion. I had to look up what HR1 says, see below. For me it's a good first try but no cigar (pun intended). The $2000 is not much of a bargaining chip, Biden and Dems will pass something anyway. Bullets 1 & 3 are less of a big deal to me but 2 is a little tempting. Not so much safer and easier to vote, but "ending gerrymandering" is a good prize.

IMO, it's not just one resolution (important as it is), it's the tone for the entire 4 years and it's also how the nation and world looks at the US.

Now what would move the needle for me? In addition to HR1, effectively guarantee the passage of Biden's first 100 days plans and

+ Trump censure with the majority of GOP Senators voting for it

I'm not sure what Biden's 100 days plans (which will take rest of his term to do) are but assume - Covid, economic assistance, holistic immigration reform, gun reform, student debt, something for climate change, corporate tax cuts, criminal justice reform, and strengthening Obamacare.

So yeah, a quid-pro-quo of HR1 + 100 days plan + Trump censure is definitely worth dropping the Trump impeachment #2. I'd take 100 days + Trump censure.

This is where I am - I think you have to hold Trump to account at the very least, probably Don Jr, Guiliani and maybe Cruz. I don’t know enough about what Hawley did/said before this week, but I see he is lumped in with Cruz in most discussions.

But beyond that, I think an olive branch probably is the best course of action for the long term, and it strikes something of a middle ground between accountability and rapprochement

As others have said, there's zero chance of that happening anytime soon, because that requires both parties to want to do that. The only chance it has of happening the long term is if there are real consequences to egregious actions.

I'm convinced there need to be public congressional hearings on what happened. All of it needs to be made public, the planning, the response, the specific events, everything. Don't let the story end with whatever the media can dig up.

Yes, I agree this is reality. It will not happen anytime soon if at all.

But it doesn't mean we can't try to do this, start the process, test the waters ... whatever. Because of Biden's history in Congress and many on both sides seems to think he's a likable fella, if anyone can succeed (maybe not 100% but if he moves the dial some), it will be him (certainly more than Bernie or Warren).

I don't think having impeachment #2 is the "only chance of it happening longer term". Per the hypothetical question above, it's the right quid-pro-quo where both sides perceives a win-win. Compromise.

Again I'll ask, why is it always up to the Dems to be reaching across the aisle and bi-partisan. One party has spent the better part of 12 years (maybe more) in bending rules, breaking rules, and going out of their way to not compromise. Obama was a moderate, Hillary was a moderate, but few on the R side want to deal. I mean, this is a party that would not allow for a SC nomination months before an election, and then jams theirs through weeks before they are about to lose power, even laughing at themselves saying they would not do it 4 years ago. Yet the ball is in the Dems court to be the party of compromise?

Because do you want a better country, which will only happen is there is less of a schism, or do you want petty revenge?

In my hypothetical answer to SirFozzie's hypothetical question, there is much the GOP would be compromising on e.g. HR1, Biden's 100 days, Trump's censure

In real life, Biden has said he wanted to find ways to work across the aisle (as he should). Picking at scabs from the past ain't gonna help.

The way to do that is negotiate where both parties see it as win-win not a win-loss, and compromise will be needed. So give him a chance to make it happen (admittedly lower odds). With that said, not going forward with impeachment #2 and not forcing GOP to vote yea-nay is a big prize and will need a big concession(s) from the GOP.

The first step to compromise is the gop go back to being the gop and cut out the cancerous cult that has hostilely taken it over and admitted to doing so.


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