What Happens Next - The Georgia Senate Runoffs

[Tiny]

The upcoming Senate runoffs in Georgia will be make or break.

Will Republicans and Mitch McConnell control the Senate? Or will Chuck Schumer be the new majority leader and Kamala Harris the deciding vote?

Will the filibuster become history and the Supreme Court packed, as Schumer has hinted?

Will Biden swing toward the center and work fruitfully with McConnell like he has many times in the past? Or will the far left, progressive wing of his party call the shots?

Are we looking at higher taxes and more regulation, that will choke off the Ryan/Trump miracle? An economic miracle that resulted in a one year increase in median household income greater than the combined change in the previous 18 years? That dropped the unemployment rate to the lowest level in over 45 years? The resulted in record low poverty levels? And accomplished this for all Americans, black and white, brown and yellow?

Who will be the next Secretary of the Treasury? Will it be Elizabeth Warren, who's totally unqualified and supports policies that would run the economy into the ground? Or someone like Robert Rubin, Timothy Geithner, or Lawrence Summers who understands the economy and markets? If Republicans control the confirmation process in the Senate, the latter is much more likely.

This is all or none. There's no in between. Most people going to the polls in Georgia will vote for either both Republicans or both Democrats.

I've got my fingers crossed the Republican candidates, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, will come out on top. I can't vote, but I'm contributing to their campaigns:

https://secure.winred.com/david-perdue/perdueforsenate

https://secure.winred.com/georgians-...nred-directory

[eccieuser9500]

Treasury Secretary Warren? Progressives Line Up to Press Their Agenda on Biden


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/u...en-warren.html

Most liberals recognized that Mr. Biden was almost certain not to support all of their priorities or accept all of their proposals, regardless of the outcome in the Senate. They were, for instance, under no illusion that he would appoint progressives to every cabinet position or pass policies like “Medicare for all.”

Yet their more downbeat mood is a drastic shift from just days ago. Buoyed by a new class of progressives heading to the House of Representatives — including Jamaal Bowman, in a New York district that includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, and Cori Bush in St. Louis — the party’s left flank was planning a three-pronged strategy to push Mr. Biden, should he win, on personnel, legislation and institutional change.

Becoming Labor Secretary Might Not Be the Best Way for Bernie to Aid Workers


https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/l...-sanders-biden

While we cannot rule out a mass strike wave that forces labor law reform onto the political agenda in the coming years, we cannot bank on it either. But even if a massive and desperately needed legislative overhaul of labor law is not in the cards, a strong Secretary of Labor, be it Bernie or someone else, would have considerable room to enact substantial policy reforms that will make a difference to millions of workers.

This could get messy.

[eccieuser9500]

Will all of Kentucky get affordable and potable water? He's the most powerful Republican in the country (showimg his face, of course), but can McConnell deliver?


First These Kentuckians Couldn't Drink The Water. Now They Can't Afford It


https://www.npr.org/2019/10/31/77267...an-t-afford-it

The water that comes out of Martin County taps can be cloudy at times. There are boil-water advisories and pipes so leaky that most of the water is lost before it reaches residents' taps. For years, residents received monthly advisories that some people exposed to the chemicals in their water "may experience problems with their liver, kidneys, or central nervous system, and may have an increased risk of getting cancer."

Local officials are trying to fix all that, and they say the water is now safe to drink, save [sic] for occasional problems. But this has taken a lot of money, and the cost of that has been passed on to customers. After a series of increases, water rates went up 41% last year alone.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by eccieuser9500

Treasury Secretary Warren? Progressives Line Up to Press Their Agenda on Biden
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/u...en-warren.html

Interesting article. Our friends here who fear the end of the world is nigh because of the defeat of President Trump should read it. It reduced my level of paranoia a bit anyway. If Republicans maintain control of the Senate, they may be happier with what occurs over the next four years than the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by eccieuser9500

Will all of Kentucky get affordable and potable water? He's the most powerful Republican in the country (showimg his face, of course), but can McConnell deliver?


First These Kentuckians Couldn't Drink The Water. Now They Can't Afford It

This is not really an article about McConnell, but I believe it should not reflect badly on him for three reasons,

1. Clean, affordable water is the responsibility of the local and state governments, not the federal government.

2. The fact that the Federal Government didn't come swooping in to fix this problem with massive aid may reflect that McConnell isn't loading massive amounts of pork for his home state into spending bills.

3. I've lived most of my life in places where it either wasn't safe to drink the water or the water tasted like horse piss. So nobody drank tap water. And it wasn't a big deal for people who lived where I did.

I realize this post, especially "3" above, is going to further your belief, based on my Black Lives Matter posts, that I'm bat shit crazy. So be it.

[eccieuser9500]

Pork? These are rural citizens. No Wal-Marts around.

When state and county officials are ignored, this happens:

[eccieuser9500]

Moscow Mitch hates his state.

[Redhot1960]

We got some unfinished buisness here, Tiny -->https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...729001472.html

[eccieuser9500]

[dilbert firestorm]

Originally Posted by eccieuser9500

Pork? These are rural citizens. No Wal-Marts around.

When state and county officials are ignored, this happens:

oh really? what I see is one jackass trying to ruin the peace in that restaurant. those people were defending him from this jackass.

[winn dixie]

Thats what passes for humility in the dim party!

[eccieuser9500]

Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm

[/CENTER]


oh really? what I see is one jackass trying to ruin the peace in that restaurant. those people were defending him from this jackass.

One person's jackass is another person's hero. Snowflake.

I hope your dumbass doesn't . . .

misinterpret what I mean.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by Redhot1960

We got some unfinished buisness here, Tiny -->https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...729001472.html

It's very unlikely the CIA created false votes for Biden. The bald headed guy sounds like a nut case. But yeah, investigate the election results. We'll come up with some fraudulent votes, and ideas about how to make the system more secure. If it's determined that Pennsylvania should not have counted ballots received after election day and that moves Pennsylvania to the Trump column, I'd be a happy camper. The Democrats need to know they can't threaten peoples' jobs, like those of oilfield workers in western Pennsylvania, without repercussions.

So yes, do it. But is it going to change the big picture? The Trump team probably will have to change the results in three states to win in the electoral college. That's not going to happen.

As to Levine's idea of having a state legislature determine how the electoral votes are allocated, that might make sense if the results were truly in doubt because of fraud. But Levine appears to want to do that in every swing state, or certainly in at least the three states that would be required for a Trump victory. Does he truly believe, like The Waco Kid, that Donald Trump is our Lord and Savior, so that different rules should apply to him than every other president in our modern history? Well, probably he does.

Face it, Biden got a lot more votes. If Republicans are going to win in 2024 they need to nominate someone besides Donald Trump. Someone who's not so divisive and can attract independents. In 2016, ideologically I would have preferred Ted Cruz as the Republican nominee. Actually, Rand Paul, but he was out of the running by the time the primaries rolled around to Texas. But I voted for John Kasich, because I figured he'd beat Hillary Clinton like a rented mule. The Democrats did something like that this time around. Many of them would have preferred Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Pete Buttigieg. But they selected the person who they thought would be most likely to win in the general election.

[eccieuser9500]

Well said Chiquito.

[Tiny]

These are not good developments from my point of view. Trump's refusal to accept Georgia election results and his criticism of the governor and secretary of state is tearing the Republican party apart. Some Georgia Republicans are saying they'll stay home and not vote in the runoffs, because they don't believe their votes will count anyway. The Republican candidates for Senate played right into this by asking for the Republican secretary of state's resignation:

Linda Satterfield, a 72-year-old retired trucking company owner, cast her ballot this year for President Trump. As Georgia now faces twin runoff races that will determine whether Republicans retain control of the U.S. Senate, she is so angry about his defeat in her home state that she is questioning the point of voting.
“Trump won Georgia,” she insisted Friday after hearing Vice President Mike Pence campaign here for Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom were forced into runoff elections against Democratic rivals after falling short of the 50% threshold earlier this month. “How serious am I going to be about voting in January when our votes were pulled out from under us?”

On the same day, Georgia’s Republican-led government certified that President-elect Joe Biden won the state by 12,670 votes. Satterfield wasn’t alone in rejecting that finding: “Everybody I talk to is saying: ‘Why should we go vote?’ They stole the biggest election of this year from us. Why bother?”

With just over six weeks until the pivotal Senate special election Jan. 5 — a time when Georgia Republicans most need to be united — they instead are engulfed in bitter infighting. Trump’s supporters continue to question his loss, echoing his barrage of unsubstantiated claims of election fraud even as Republican state leaders reject them.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has insisted there is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud or voting system problems. In turn, he has been assailed from within the party, though he has the tacit support of Gov. Brian Kemp, who certified Georgia’s results Friday while urging Raffensperger to address concerns about verifying signatures on ballot envelopes.

Perdue and Loeffler previously called on Raffensperger to step down. Rep. Doug Collins, a vocal Trump ally, has railed against Raffensperger’s “incompetence.” David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, has raised questions about “serious election irregularities.”

Some Republicans fear the squabbling is not only distracting party voters from the Senate race, but undermining faith in the electoral process in a way that could dampen conservative turnout.

“I’m hearing from people already, ‘Why would I bother voting when the whole system is rigged?’” said Buzz Brockway, a former Republican state representative. “Now maybe that’s just the emotion of the moment,” he added with a nervous laugh. “But if that seeps in, then Republicans have a real problem.”


https://www.latimes.com/politics/sto...l-senate-races

Meanwhile Joe Biden is planning a trip to Georgia to stump for the Democratic candidates:

President-elect Joe Biden will likely visit Georgia to boost campaign efforts for the two Democratic candidates in the January Senate runoff, according to his top aide.

The president-elect’s newly named Chief of Staff Ron Klain said on Sunday on ABC's “This Week” that Biden is likely to visit Georgia, as Democratic victories for both Senate candidates would result in a 50-50 split in the upper chamber of Congress.

“Winning those two Senate seats in Georgia is important, but we're going to do everything we can to help those two … great candidates in Georgia,” Klain said. “We've already moved people who were working on the Biden campaign on the recounts down there over to be supportive in the field work for our two candidates down there, and I expect you'll see the president-elect travel down there before Election Day.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top...ossoff-warnock