January 6, 2021

One of Donald Trump's final legacies in office appears to be leading the Republican Party to defeat

Georgia runoffs cap a Democratic comeback: Last election of the Trump era may lock GOP out of power
One of Donald Trump's final legacies in office appears to be leading the Republican Party to defeat in Georgia

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
JANUARY 6, 2021 11:26AM


(Salon) As I write this, the results of the two Senate runoff races have not yet been officially certified, but most of the smart election analysts project both Democrats have won. The Cook Reports' Dave Wasserman issued his famous "I've seen enough" early Tuesday evening for Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock, who successfully challenged unelected incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, and a couple of hours later tweeted the same for Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has apparently defeated Republican multimillionaire David Perdue to become the first millennial in the Senate.

Anything's possible in close races so I am withholding my euphoria — but if this holds, it's hard to overstate just how important this result is going to be. If the Senate is ultimately tied 50-50, Kamala Harris is able to cast the deciding vote as vice president.

Georgia's election results mean the difference between the U.S. finally controlling the pandemic to recover economically and ... not doing that. Lives will be saved and families and businesses will be able to get back on their feet. That is the immediate crisis we face and with the Congress in Democrats' hands, the Biden administration can move much faster and more efficiently than if Mitch McConnell remained in the way as majority leader of the upper chamber.

....(snip)....

What happens now is anyone's guess. But now that the Senate appears to be in Democratic hands I would be lying if I didn't admit to feeling a tremendous sense of schadenfreude at what's about to take place in the Republican Party. It couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of people. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/06/georgia-runoffs-power-a-democratic-comeback-last-election-of-trump-era-may-lock-gop-out-of-power/

January 6, 2021

The media keeps pumping this narrative of thousands of Trump supporters descending on DC.....

..... but CNN just did an aerial of the crowd waiting on Trump to speak -- not that big, quite honestly.

January 6, 2021

A year ago, if you had told me Georgia would go blue in the presidential race AND elect 2 Dem Sens..

..... I would have told you to put down the Stoli. .......

See, 45 has done at least one useful thing.

January 6, 2021

Lindsey Graham wins the Nostradamus Award

https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/727604522156228608?s=20

January 6, 2021

Georgia on My Mind

January 6, 2021

Beavis rage tweets at Republicans who are disloyal to the coup attempt

As the ballots continue to roll in from tonight’s run-off elections in Georgia, it appears that President Donald Trump’s lasting legacy to the Republican Party will be to hand Democrats control of the House, Senate, and Presidency.

While the race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Perdue is still yet to be called, it’s clear that Rev. Raphael Warnock has overcome the appallingly racist campaign of billionaire and trucker cosplayer Kelly Loeffler — and judging from the reactions of the Trump boys, they are NOT happy about what’s going on.

Eric Trump took to Twitter late on Tuesday night to sound the death-knell for the Republican Party as we know it, promising to primary every Republican Senator or Congressman that refuses to go along with the President’s laughably clumsy and transparent attempt to steal the 2020 election.

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1346667063193063426?s=20

While it’s hard to imagine Eric Trump personally “working” to do anything at all, if he and the rest of the Trump klan are intent on punishing each and every Republican legislator who tries to jump ship at the last minute, by all means, have at them! Splitting the Republican electorate down the middle between MAGA fanatics and whatever remains of your garden variety conservative is the best thing we could possibly hope for. ..........(more)

https://occupydemocrats.com/2021/01/05/eric-trump-launches-vindictive-meltdown-against-republicans-as-georgia-runoffs-tilt-democrat/?

January 6, 2021

NYT: The 10-year Stacey Abrams project to flip Georgia has nearly come to fruition.

As the Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock inched closer to flipping Georgia’s two Senate seats from the incumbent Republicans, credit began to flow to one person broadly acknowledged as being most responsible for Georgia’s new status as a Democratic state: Stacey Abrams.

Ms. Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia state House, has spent a decade building a Democratic political infrastructure in the state, first with her New Georgia Project and now with Fair Fight, the voting rights organization she founded in the wake of her losing campaign for governor in 2018. ......(more)

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/05/us/georgia-elections/the-10-year-stacey-abrams-project-to-flip-georgia-has-nearly-come-to-fruition

January 6, 2021

Florida man rides airboat on neighborhood streets, deputies say

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/01/04/florida-man-rides-airboat-on-neighborhood-streets-deputies-say/


BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida man who rode his airboat through the streets of his neighborhood on New Year’s Eve threatened to kill deputies as they were taking him into custody, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said they were called to Mimosa Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Thursday and saw a man, later identified as Joseph Prohaska, 40, riding an airboat on the streets before pulling it into a yard. ...........(more)

January 6, 2021

Small nugget of encouraging runoff news....

One Rural Georgia county is proving to have some enlightning information about the Senate runoff in the state Tuesday.

In Early County, with nearly all of the votes (82 percent) in, Jon Ossoff is doing even better than he did in November.

Early County went for President Barack Obama and then switched to President Donald Trump in 2016. But when they voted for Ossoff in November they cast 43 percent for him. Today they cast 55 percent for Ossoff.

https://www.rawstory.com/georgia-county-goes-dem/?

January 5, 2021

It's a dark place': Trump's call a window into a President consumed

]Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump had been trying for weeks to get Georgia's secretary of state on the phone.

Aghast at the thought he lost a state Republicans have held for decades, and desperate to reverse the result, the President insisted to his advisers he could persuade the state's top election official to validate his false claims of voter fraud -- if only he could speak with him directly.

So, for more than a month, operators at the White House tried reaching Brad Raffensperger. Eighteen attempted calls came into his Atlanta office from the White House switchboard in the weeks after the November 3 election.

....(snip)....

Ghost town

Despite Trump's efforts to stay in power, the West Wing is becoming more like a ghost town. Several senior staffers have departed in recent days and more are expected to do so soon as officials line up their next jobs. The few senior staff who are left have sought to distance themselves from Trump's efforts out of fear of possible legal exposure.

Some senior aides, including Hope Hicks, are spending less time at the White House than previously. And Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, was headed to Saudi Arabia early this week for a ceremony marking the end of the Gulf crisis involving Qatar rather than remaining in Washington.

"No one wants to be around anymore," one official said. "It's a dark place." ...........(more)

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/donald-trump-georgia-call-mindset/index.html