Say, maybe you are wondering what-all is going on in Mississippi. Well, for some reason the AP hasn't predicted a winner. That might be because at the moment (3:45 pm ET), the vote count is Scott Colom (D) 462,857, Cindy Hyde-Pick-a-Protein-Smith (R) 462,792. ~~~
~~~ Lauren Harvey & Verlicia Gavin of WLBT (Jackson): “Democratic challenger Scott Colom declared confidence Wednesday morning in Mississippi’s uncalled U.S. Senate race, telling supporters he believes outstanding ballots will carry him to victory over incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Because federal general elections in Mississippi do not trigger a runoff, the candidate who finishes with a plurality will claim the seat. 'Where we are, where the ballots are, we’re gonna win, Colom said as he addressed supporters at a 10 a.m. news conference. 'This is our election. We’ve won it. The people have done it. They’ve decided to go in a new direction. I’m confident of that.' The outcome now hinges on uncounted ballots. According to reporting from Mississippi Today, the Colom campaign estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 affidavit [i.e., provisional] ballots remain outstanding statewide.” ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, in Alaska, the current (3:55 pm ET) count is Mary Peltola (D) 102,701; Dan Sullivan 1 (R) 102,075, and Gerald Heikes (R) 4,821. ~~~
~~~ Kaia Hubbard of CBS News: "The Senate race in Alaska remains unresolved
Wednesday, as a contest that has garnered widespread attention over the two candidates named Dan Sullivan faces a lengthy ballot-counting process. Incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola are facing off in the race, which also has two other candidates on the ballot: an independent candidate and retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan, and another Republican, Gerald Heikes.... The count in Alaska could stretch on. Alaska has a ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank as many or as few candidates as they'd like in order of preference. If no candidate secures support from more than 50% of voters as their top choice, the count goes to a second round."Beth Reinhard of the New York Times: “Troy Jackson was nobody’s first choice to run for the U.S. Senate from Maine. Only weeks before stumbling into one of most consequential races in the country, he had come in third in the Democratic primary for governor. He looked like a political washout. But today he is a giant slayer, having toppled a five-term Republican incumbent, Senator Susan Collins, in Tuesday’s election. How Mr. Jackson, a former logger and state lawmaker from a struggling northern outpost, got from there to here — in just 101 days, no less — is an extraordinary story of the man meeting the moment.... A fortuitous mix of personal narrative, message and timing powered him to a victory no one could have imagined just months ago.... Perhaps even more important, Ms. Collins, despite her efforts to assert her independence, could not escape the shadow of an exceedingly unpopular president — especially in a state hit hard by his tariffs and war with Iran, inflating costs for Mainers dependent on heating oil and trade with their Canadian neighbors.” The link is a gift link.
Jack Healy of the New York Times: “A string of stunning upset victories in governors races across the country will put Democrats in charge of deep-red states where they have not held the top jobs in decades. Democrats flipped five governors’ seats, all in states that ... [Donald] Trump won in 2024, sometimes by double digits. The victories gave them a total of 29 governorships and control of a majority of American governorships for the first time in a generation. A race for the Republican-held governor’s seat in Alaska had still not been called by Wednesday morning. Their wins could expand the state-level resistance to Mr. Trump’s policies on tariffs and immigration, while also putting new Democratic-run states into play as potential swing states in the 2028 presidential election.... Their wins were a remarkable turnaround from eight years ago, when Democrats held just 16 of the country’s 50 governorships. They steadily gained ground to hold 24 governor’s seats going into the midterm elections. After Tuesday’s elections, about 75 percent of Americans will live in a state with a Democratic governor, according to the Democratic Governors Association.” The link is a gift link.
Lily Boyce, et al., of the New York Times: “Voters of every demographic group nationally — across race, age, gender and education — swung back toward the Democratic Party, reversing a broad shift in support toward Republicans in 2024. The reversal was most notable among young voters and voters of color, two groups whose change in support in the 2024 election were critical to Mr. Trump’s victory. White voters without a college degree — often seen as stalwarts of the Republican base — also made a sharp turn to the left. This analysis is based on preliminary data on U.S. House vote shifts from Times Voter Trends, which estimates the results of the 2026 election by age, race, education and gender for every state.” The link is a gift link.
Texas. A Trump Dirty Trick That Didn't Work. Will Hammann & Gabby Birenbaum of the Texas Tribune: "In 2025, Texas Republicans, pushed by ... Donald Trump, redrew the state’s congressional map before the midterms, converting five Democratic-held districts into ones Trump would have carried by at least 10 percentage points. The move backfired: GOP candidates lost four of five seats their new congressional map was designed to flip and lost two of their own. That means Texas Republicans will head to Washington in January with 24 U.S. House seats, one less than they had at the start of the current Congress. When the state Legislature in Austin pursued the controversial mid-decade gerrymander, Republicans had hoped for a 30-8 split in the delegation but will end up instead at 24-14." The story outlines the results for U.S. House candidates. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In today's Comments, RAS looks to the heartbreaking cost in human lives of Trump's immigration "policies." Take a look at the new gubernatorial map below [gift link] for some "heartening" news: Every U.S. state along the U.S./Mexico border is now governed by a Democrat. That border wall of blue should help. At least a bit: ~~~
Florida. Andrew Atterbury & Riya Misra of Politico: “Gov. Ron DeSantis eviscerated the state of Republican politics Wednesday after the party’s devastating midterm losses, blaming everything from the Epstein files to members of Congress trading stocks. The GOP governor maintained the Democratic wins in his state and beyond were more about voters rejecting Republicans in Washington than supporting liberal policies. And while the elections were 'close to an extinction-level event for Republicans,' DeSantis took a proud victory lap on how the GOP performed in his state, where they swept state Cabinet races and staved off defeats like those suffered in conservative strongholds like Iowa, Kansas and Texas.”
What was the POTUS* doing on the day after this "near-extinction-level" loss? Regrouping? Mending fences? Nah. ~~~
~~~ Cheyanne Haslett of Politico: “In the midst of the GOP reckoning with massive losses in the midterms..., Donald Trump on Wednesday hastily called the press in to cover his first public remarks from the White House since the Democrats overwhelmingly wrestled control of both the House and Senate. But for 20 minutes, the president didn’t address the history-making renouncement of his administration that voters delivered Tuesday night. Instead, the president, standing in the construction site of the White House ballroom in front of a large beam, spoke to a crowd of construction workers about his many passion projects to 'beautify Washington' — first and foremost, the massive ballroom befit with 50-foot ceilings and the capacity to hold hundreds of guests.” ~~~
~~~ Athena Dawson of the Daily Express/U.S., republished by AOL: "... Donald Trump appears to be hinting at using his veto power in response to the midterm election results that have been widely announced. The president posted a picture of a red hat with the word 'VETO' emblazoned in white across it to Truth Social Tuesday evening. In recent interviews, Trump has proclaimed himself as 'Mr. Veto' if the Democrats take control of Congress. Trump's post came moments after he posted that the GOP would have won 'IN A LANDSLIDE' if he were on the ballot."
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: I'm going to quit for a while, but I will get back to it.
New York Times banner headline: "DEMOCRATS TAKE SENATE. Stunning Upsets Across the Country in National Rebuke to Trump." The Washington Post's banner headline: "HISTORIC BLUE WAVE."
For specifics results of Tuesday's elections, see the next "page." Also, the New York Times has interactive maps with results ~~~
~~~ for the U.S. House,
~~~ for the U.S. Senate,
~~~ and for state governorships. All three links are gift links.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: “The Democratic wave in the congressional elections on Tuesday amounted to a stinging rebuke of a deeply unpopular president after more than a decade in which he has dominated the national stage. More than any of his predecessors, Mr. Trump deliberately made the midterm contest a referendum on himself, only to pay the price. The electoral backlash extended even into deep red states and indicated that Mr. Trump has lost his hold over the coalition that lifted him to the White House twice. Frustrated by high gas prices, an intractable war with Iran and allegations of flagrant profiteering by Mr. Trump and members of his circle, voters who previously took a chance on an outsider promising change either rejected his party or stayed home.
“As of early Wednesday morning, the Democratic margin of victory in the overall national vote for House seats ... will dwarf even the margins that the Republicans won in their two big landslide victories of modern times ... in 1994 and ... in 2010.... Americans are signaling the beginning of the end of the Trump era.... Mr. Trump quickly tried to save face by insisting that the rout by Democrats was not really a rejection of him since he was not actually on the ballot — never mind that he told voters repeatedly to vote as if he were. 'I wasn’t on the ticket, and because I wasn’t on the ticket, we couldn’t get enough people out to vote,' he told The Times in an interview Tuesday night.” The link is a gift link.
~~~ Huh. The Oracle of Delphi (initials RAS) predicted yesterday, before a single vote was published, that Donald would say, "I don't take any responsibility at all."
Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: “Even some Democrats were stunned by the extent of their wins, which included defeating Greg Abbott, the three-term Republican governor of Texas; and Susan Collins, the five-term Republican senator from Maine.... As Wednesday dawned, there were signs that the country was entering a new and uncertain political time, in which both parties would be forced to consider how to navigate a post-Trump political era.... [Democrats'] wins were a powerful sign of renewal as a new generation of rising stars captured the country’s attention.... For Republicans, the losses were a generational defeat, giving Democrats a foothold from which to build a robust political operation in places that had been long out of reach.
“In Seward County, Kan., a majority-Hispanic area, the Democratic Senate candidate, Adam Hamilton, won by double digits. Just two years ago, Mr. Trump won there by 40 percentage points. In Iowa, a largely agricultural state, Democrats won the governor’s mansion and a U.S. Senate seat and flipped three of the state’s four congressional seats. And in South Texas, Democrats won three heavily Latino border districts that Republicans had redrawn to be more favorable to their party.” The link is a gift link.
How'd That Happen? Albert Sun, et al., of the New York Times: “Democrats seized control of the Senate on Tuesday in a sweeping repudiation of ... [Donald] Trump just two years after his triumphant return to Washington. Propelled by concerns over affordability and broad dissatisfaction with the president, the Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats in a map that was daunting for the party, according to results tallied as of early Wednesday morning. Most of the seats had not elected a Democrat to the Senate since former President Barack Obama was elected in 2008. For Kansas, it has been almost a century.
“The resurgence penetrated states long thought of as bedrocks of conservatism, with Democrats pulling off unexpected upsets in Kansas and South Carolina and clinching Texas.... In this divided era, only a sliver of the electorate had appeared open in recent elections to crossing party lines. On Tuesday, that presumption was largely shattered. Five states that voted for Mr. Trump by more than 10 points in 2024 instead opted for Democrats.... Across the seven states that flipped to Democrats, the voters that moved significantly toward Democrats included Hispanics, voters under 30, and working-class whites without college degrees, according to Times Voter Trends.” The link is a gift link.
David Corn of Mother Jones: Donald Trump's "braying that Democrats are USA-hating commies who want to force gender-transition surgery on children and destroy the nation could not distract a majority of voters from the in-your-face realities of Trump 2.0: high prices, a misconceived and poorly executed war of choice in Iran, a cruel mass deportation crusade, erratic and unproductive economic policy, vast and brazen corruption, creeping authoritarianism, and loads of his signature chaos.... After nearly two years of crisis, autocracy, brutality, grift, plutocratic policies, and assorted bizarreness, voters have for the third time rejected a Trump presidency. That means Trump has never received a positive performance review from the electorate.... He did this to himself and his party. This election was a loud no to ICE, to a trade war with Canada, to cozying up to Vladimir Putin, to democratic backsliding, to an attempt to swipe Greenland, to the damn ballroom and the freakin’ arch."
Tim Balk, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump quickly sought to deflect blame, declaring that the drubbing happened because he was not on the ballot. Almost as quickly, Republicans began to point their fingers back at the president. They said their party’s loss of control of both the House and Senate, its worst midterm showing in decades, was the direct result of a series of choices the president had made in the year leading up to the election. They cited Mr. Trump’s tariff policies. They pointed to his decision to take the country to an unpopular war in Iran that drove up prices. And they questioned his political instincts, arguing that he had imperiled his party’s chances by supporting weak candidates and going on an unconvincing tour in the final weeks of the campaign.” The link is a gift link. Read on.
~~~ Marie: At least some Republicans put their fingers on what Trump did wrong. What they don't seem ready to admit is what they did wrong, which among other things, included deciding not to govern. At all.
Laura Meckler & Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: “Amid palpable anxiety that the Trump administration would interfere with the midterms, Tuesday’s elections unfolded smoothly, with mostly minor, standard-issue hiccups. The Justice Department sent more than 900 monitors to polling locations across the country, a historically large deployment. But fears that they would interfere with the day’s operations — or that troops or ICE agents would be deployed — proved unfounded. With sweeping wins for Democrats in both the House and the Senate..., Donald Trump told the New York Times late Tuesday night that he would accept the results. And across the country, losing candidates conceded their races to their opponents rather than suggesting any form of malfeasance. More tests may arrive over the coming days and weeks as states complete their ballot counts and close contests are flyspecked.... But experts, buoyed by Tuesday’s smooth operations, said American democracy had passed a critical test in the face of enormous pressure.”
Shane Goldmacher & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: “The [elections] results amounted to an unambiguous mandate from the public for a check on a president who has pushed the limits of his power, and they imperiled whatever was left of a legislative agenda for Mr. Trump. Now he and his administration will face investigations that are expected to consume much of the next Congress. Here are eight takeaways from a brutal night for Republicans[.]” The link is a gift link. Worth a read.
Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: “The 'celebration can absolutely begin,' declared Rachel Maddow just after 10 p.m. Eastern on MS NOW, where she and a band of beaming liberal pundits had just projected a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives.... It wasn’t long until actual candy was being passed around on set, and that was before the Democrats were projected to win the Senate, too.... Over on Fox News, the mood was subdued. The buoyancy of Mr. Trump’s 2024 election night was replaced with pensive exchanges about what it meant for the Republican Party to be repudiated so starkly. In a rare concession, Sean Hannity, perhaps Mr. Trump’s most loyal television defender, acknowledged that the president’s foreign policy had proven politically unsound.... As CNN’s John King zoomed in on House races in Ohio on his 'Magic Wall map, he told viewers, “... That’s just a whole lot of blue.'” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In fairness to the MS NOW panel, they were cheering for more than a good night for their team. They were celebrating the victory of democracy over autocracy, what Lawrence O'Donnell aptly called "the end of the Trump reign of terror."
Sui-Lee Wee, et al., of the New York Times: “Stock markets gained on Wednesday, reversing early losses, as it became clear that Democrats were set to seize control of Congress.... S&P 500 futures rose nearly 1 percent and European stocks gained even more in early trading on Wednesday. When early results pointed to a landslide victory for the Democrats, Asian stocks tumbled on concerns that greater scrutiny of the data center boom could derail a prolonged rally in the region’s technology stocks. But in other areas, analysts said that Washington faces political gridlock, which has unclear implications for government spending and foreign policy but has tended to accompany market rallies after past elections. 'The U.S. midterms are a political tornado,' said Mike Bell ... [of] RBC BlueBay Asset Management. 'But for all the political whirlwinds that the vote is likely to stir, the markets are less likely to be blown around by this result.'” The link is a gift link. ~~~
BUT. Ryan Mac of the New York Times: “Elon Musk spent nearly $500 million supporting Republican candidates in the midterm elections. After Democrats claimed sweeping victories, claiming both houses of Congress and other important state races, shares of SpaceX and Tesla, which are both run by Mr. Musk, fell sharply in premarket trading on Wednesday. Tesla’s stock fell over 6 percent before markets opened, while SpaceX was down 5.6 percent, dropping below $135, the price it sold shares for in its blockbuster public offering in June. The declines stood out among tech stocks, as Nvidia, Meta, Google and the wider stock market rallied before the official start of trading. SpaceX and Tesla are exploring a merger, which could be complicated by a Congress controlled by Democrats, some of whom have already signaled their intent to investigate the world’s richest person and his companies. In recent years, Mr. Musk has antagonized Democrats, spending heavily to elect ... [Donald] Trump, involving himself deeply in the federal government and aligning his companies’ interests with those of the current presidential administration.” The link is a gift link.
California. Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Xavier Becerra, a Democrat and former Biden administration official, began the race for California governor with poll numbers so low that his own party chairman urged him to drop out. Now, Mr. Becerra will become the next governor of the nation’s most populous state, The Associated Press said on Tuesday, a rise that was considered improbable a year ago. Mr. Becerra, 68, is the first Latino elected as governor of California, a milestone that punctuates a decades-long demographic shift in the state. In California, many election outcomes remain unknown for days, but Mr. Becerra had so large an advantage that his win was called immediately after polls closed on Tuesday....
“Mr. Becerra is likely to govern as an establishment Democrat, having won the backing of major labor unions, industry groups and the California Chamber of Commerce. He refrained from making many detailed promises during the campaign and instead sold voters on his long résumé of government experience, including his four-year tenure as state attorney general and more than two decades as a congressman. Mr. Becerra also benefited from voters’ overwhelming disapproval of Mr. Trump in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a roughly two-to-one margin.” The link is a gift link.
Michigan. Erin Cox of the Washington Post: “Democrat Abdul El-Sayed ... defeated Republican former congressman Mike Rogers in Michigan to become the country’s first Muslim elected to the Senate. El-Sayed, born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, overcame a well-financed campaign of anti-Muslim rhetoric spearheaded by ... Donald Trump and his allies. The race exploded Sunday when Rep. Haley Stevens, El-Sayed’s opponent in the Democratic primary, crossed party lines to endorse Rogers.... Stevens ... might have helped El-Sayed: Her defection outraged Democrats and brought him millions of dollars in donations. El-Sayed, a medical doctor and epidemiologist who has headed the Detroit and Wayne County health departments, rankled many in his own party with a pugnacious style and a vow to upend how politics work in D.C. He took a narrowly focused message of economic populism, campaign finance reform and Medicare-for-all to even the deep-red parts of Michigan that helped elect Trump.”
New Hampshire. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “Representative Chris Pappas, Democrat of New Hampshire, will be the Senate’s first openly gay male senator with his victory over former Senator John E. Sununu, a Republican, on Tuesday. Like other candidates on the precipice of breaking a barrier, he did not spend much time emphasizing the milestone on the campaign trail. But it is a notable breakthrough in the Senate, as L.G.B.T.Q. rights have faced pushback in some states and some gay rights activists have warned about a decline in public support. While his husband was in attendance at some of his campaign events, Mr. Pappas largely focused his message on the themes that most Democrats highlighted: a pledge to deal with high prices and health care costs, and opposition to Washington corruption, among others.” The link is a gift link. MB: Don't think his opponent John Sununu (R) didn't try to make sure voters knew Pappas was gay. Sununu's own campaign didn't say so, at least in their ads, but an affiliated PAC ran an ad against Pappas thousands of times that referred to "his husband."
Texas. David Goodman & Lauren McGaughy of the New York Times: “Texas may never be the same. Democrats shattered the 32-year-long Republican grip on statewide offices in what had been, until Tuesday, the nation’s most populous conservative state. James Talarico’s victory over Ken Paxton, a scandal-scarred Republican candidate, in the U.S. Senate race was only the beginning of a series of seismic victories for Democrats on Tuesday in Texas. Gina Hinojosa made history with her defeat of Gov. Greg Abbott, the third-term governor and political powerhouse who, just a few months ago, appeared to have a lock on winning a record fourth term. She becomes Texas's first Hispanic governor. In one night, the state was transformed.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: “Texas’s next U.S. senator and governor — Democratic colleagues in the state House of Representatives — met up after their victory parties at (where else?) Whataburger, the place where Texas teams celebrate. Scores of supporters filled a location in Austin as James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa hugged and were joined by Texas Comptroller-elect Sarah Eckhardt (D) to cheers and applause. Outside, car horns honked and drivers cheered a blue wave that swept Republicans from power in the state for the first time in decades. Their supporters stayed to celebrate with jalapeño burgers, fancy ketchup and onion rings.” MB: It's been more than half-a-century since I've had a Whataburger, and I don't remember it fondly. Maybe they're better now.
Other News
Maura Judkis & Meg Kelly of the Washington Post: “During a Monday afternoon event at the base of the Lincoln Memorial..., Donald Trump said that the second round of renovations on the Reflecting Pool — necessary after the liner began to flake off earlier this year — was 'a complete job and we’re very proud of it.'... But when two Washington Post reporters walked the full perimeter of the newly reopened Reflecting Pool immediately after the speech, they observed several spots where the coating appeared to be cracked or beginning to peel. There were at least 20 other areas where the coating’s color was distinctly uneven, with areas streaked with light blue instead of the 'American flag blue' that the president mentioned in his speech. 'The Reflecting Pool has never look this beautiful and it’s all thanks to President Donald J. Trump,' said an Interior spokesperson via an unsigned email. 'He’s an expert builder who was able to repair the pool in ways Obama and Biden could never even dream of.'”
Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: “CVS Health plans to split in two, in a major unraveling of the country’s largest health care conglomerate after years of rampant expansion, the company announced on Wednesday. Under the breakup, planned for the first half of 2028, a new spinoff company, to be called CVS Pharmacy, will house the conglomerate’s approximately 9,000 retail pharmacies, in-store clinics and a warehouse-based operation that sends prescriptions through the mail. A second company will retain the name CVS Health and house the major insurer Aetna and the giant pharmacy benefit manager Caremark, along with other businesses that provide home visits and primary care to older people.
“CVS Health has been under mounting scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators and others who say the company — along with its peers, UnitedHealth Group and Cigna — has grown too dominant. Critics say the conglomerates have exploited conflicts to profit from their web of businesses, driving up medical costs and stifling competition.... The planned breakup would end a nearly decade-long chapter in which CVS Health reached into nearly every corner of the health care system.” The link is a gift link.
~~~ Marie: I have to admit, within the narrow confines of my own personal life, CVS and it's rude, officious, careless employees have done more to harm me than Donald Trump has (though he did raise my taxes). In the larger context of course that isn't true; it's much worse to live under the rule of a careless dictator than it is being a guinea pig in torture program of a relentlessly careless pharmaceutical clerk. I will soon be out from under Mr. Trump's reign, but my forced entanglements with the CVS Nazis likely will never end.
33 comments:
So...what to do now that we can?
The new Congress will have plenty of advice, ranging from mounting an impeachathon to concentrating on kitchen table items.
I'd go with the kitchen table. With these majorities in hand, Congress should be able to take care of at least two festering problems. They can assure the long-range health of Social Security and move toward establishing Medicare for all. And for laughs, whether they chose to raise it or not, they could brand the federal minimum wage as the joke has been for decades and use it as a symbol of what is wrong with Republican leadership.
Of course, I'd like to see the likes of the Pretender, Musk, and selected Cabinet members drawn and quartered, but...kitchen table first.
Elizabeth Beavers
"literally perfect end to the graham legacy that Iran did regime change in South Carolina lol"
The Porker in Chief, Thief in Chief, Deluxe Liar, Douchebag Dictator, and Head Traitor directed voters to act as if he were on the ballot. He was. They did.
TV news rundowns typically end with what's called a Sig Out, a sign off from reporters, you know, "For XXX News, this is Bob Roberts reporting" sort of thing. Fat Hitler's sig out is that ridiculous rubber stampified "Thank you for your attention to this matter". It doesn't matter is he's bombing a school full of children or announcing another billion dollar scam for his Crime Family, everything is "Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Well, voters gave plenty of attention to this matter.
They told him to fuck off.
So, American voters who colored in the little squares for Democrats, "thank you for your attention to this matter."
(As a tiny bit of juvenilia, I rejected the chance to color in the little square that said "Straight Democratic Ticket" and instead thoroughly enjoyed coloring in each and every square for a Democrat, even though in my blood red state, almost all local races had no Democratic opposition. It was a historic day and I wasn't gonna waste it on a single square. So sue me.)
Brian Beutler
"What We Should Hear From The Winners Tonight
Democratic Party leaders should thus try to use their moment in the spotlight this evening as an opportunity to flex power before they officially claim it—and thus deter Republicans from committing further abuses in the lame-duck period.
Their message to Republicans and the public should convey something like this: 1) We’re done looking only forward; we’ll be looking backward this time, too. 2) We’re being vigilant in the here and now, and will thwart the tricks and acts of subversion Republicans try to pull in the lame-duck period. 3) It’s a new day, and our eyes are open now: we will revisit your bad acts on you in the future—no more unilateral disarmament."
Covie
"Pete Hegseth wanted people to watch a public execution, well they're seeing it tonight."
Republicans Don't Believe They Need Congress
"The White House has developed a secret plan to keep major parts of Donald Trump’s political agenda on track if Democrats seize control of Congress in the midterm elections. Senior White House officials, including Stephen Miller, have spent months drawing up a plan that would allow Mr Trump to continue to pass laws without congressional approval. Will Scharf, the White House counsel, and his team are also looking at “what Mr Trump can legally do on his own, where he could push the limits of his authority and how to defend those decisions in court.”"
"A powerful and heartbreaking display serves as a reminder of the human lives behind immigration enforcement headlines."
It is crazy that there is a decent chance if all the ballots get counted Mississippi could have a Black Democratic Senator. Supposedly the outstanding ballots that haven't been counted could lean towards Colom. Crazy night.
Despite this enormous victory of democracy over tyranny, greed, and treason, we can't get too crazy here. The Orange Ogre will veto anything Democrats try to pass. He says he's gonna work with Democrats but we all know a big fat lie when we hear one, and bigger lies have never come from another pretend human being than issue from that never shutting the fuck up pie hole.
What to do? Investigate. Prosecute, Imprison.
My hope is that Democrats hire Jack Smith to oversee our very own Nuremberg Trials for the traitors and scammers. We now control the congressional budget. ICE's budget should be reduced to water bottles and toilet paper (single ply only). And aside from the elected traitors, we should make sure to subpoena and eviscerate some of the worst offenders to humanity, Polio Bob, No Tab Pete, Stephen fucking Miller, and of course, Jarhead and Witless. And not forgetting the South African Chainsaw Maniac. He needs to answer for his DOGE atrocities.
But Democrats also need to get their shit together. The Times is just ITCHING to rerun their biggest hits, like "Dems in Disarray". We also need to look to the future (which is right fucking now). Kids, tell me the truth. Are youse guys thrilled at the thought of Chuck (let's all be nice) Schumer as Senate Leader? Christ. Did you hear his "victory" speech? It sounds like he's happy that his kid got second place in the school's Halloween costume contest. He says "Oh...we picked great candidates." C'mon. Do you think Chuckie was jumping for joy when they told him Abdul El-Sayed was running? So there's that. We need some fire breathers. I'm also not thrilled about Hakeem (crumpets with Jared) Jeffries. Nancy Pelosi he ain't. Can you imagine Pelosi going hat in hand to a little twerp like Jared Kushner to see how we can all sing Kumbaya together? Fuck no!
We MUST hold the criminals and traitors to account. Fatty will veto a bill to repaint crosswalks. And while we're at it, the budgets for his Arch and his golf course and ballroom must be zeroed out. No more money for self-aggrandizing bullshit. My idea is we get Fatty a miniature model of his Arc de Trump so's he can dance around it like the little people in the Stonehenge scene from "This is Spinal Tap" where an 18 inch model of Stonehenge is lowered onto the stage. He can dance around it in his Depends! MAGAts could cheer and Natalie could gush and blow kisses. Anything more would be a blot on the nation's history.
But in the meantime, for the nonce, let us rejoice! We beat the bastards but good.
RAS,
A black senator from Mississippi? Yow! How awesome would that be? Of course, you know what that means. Little Johnnie Roberts and the other traitor Swine will have to go back to the drawing board to make sure no blacks can vote, or maybe even run for office. He thought they stabbed the VRA in the neck, and they did, but black Americans haven't learned their lesson yet? That they don't count?
Anyway, with the prospect of a black senator from Mississippi, I'm reminded of that old joke about Governor George Wallace dying, going to heaven and finding out that god is a black woman who sends him down to the kitchen to make sure the sweet tea is ready.
To your point Akhilleus,
"Trump Posts “VETO” Hat After Dems Sweep Congress"
But now we have some power to do things in Congress - budget, hearings, investigations, subpoenas, committees, impeachment. Before we could only make noise, now we can make trouble. Also all those Republicans saw that their safe seats in Congress are not as safe as they believed. There are limits to what the public will put up with and that has to seep into their calculations as they consider their own futures. It may not be much, but not all of them are MAGA cultists willing to light themselves on fire for Trump.
Clearly, a blue wave over Texas - Here's what the Democrats won today in Texas
Ahh....Sweet mystery of life, at last I found thee.....
Some especially wonderful bits of schadenfreude this morning...
Susan Collins...Concerned(™) no longer.
Greg Abbott to the Abbottoire...
Ken Paxton....Poxy bastard fucked sideways like he deserves
Michigan Mike rogered, Haley hails a taxi to Permanent Insignificance
Blight House denizens lawyering up
AND...Party of Traitors big wigs having a sad....boo hoo, boys.
Ahh...Sweet mystery of life...ain't no mystery at all. Democracy has spoken. No wonder autocrats hate it.
Adam Serwer, for The Atlantic, on Blexas - Texas Republicans Get Washed
"As the more moderate, business-oriented party of the George W. Bush era gave way to Ken Paxtons and Bo Frenches, Texas Republicans seemed to become more focused on making the lives of millions of Texans miserable, rather than better. It was a strategy premised on the idea that disdain for out-groups and culture-war nonsense about vegan tacos and solar energy would be sufficient to distract Texans from corruption and misgovernance. It worked, until it didn’t.
In his victory speech last night, Talarico addressed this strategy directly. “We are tired of being told to hate each other,” Talarico said. He might not have spoken for every Texan, but he was speaking for most of them."
Whataburger -- I'm not sure if that was the brand (we called it "Someburger" , which is a pun on Schlumberger, a humongous oilfield service company), but the burger joint just off campus, i.e. walkable, and the $ Buck .98 Steakhouse (needed to talk someone into driving), were staples of Sunday life my first two years of college at Rice U. There was no dinner on Sunday with the board meal plan, and no cooking in the dorm ... so cheap calories in large amounts were the order of the day.
Under those circumstances we loved large, greasy, cheap calorie-rich burgers, which are just so Texas.
Once again -- anonymous by default, Patrick by birth
So funny to see the MSNOW panel eating candy as the Fat Monster is dipped into despondency and eternal douchebaggery. It's worth pointing out however, that even Halloween was not protected from the clutches of Trumpian economic catastrophe. I had to do a double take last week as I walked down the diabetes aisle at the grocery store and saw bags of Halloween candy priced at $30 and $40! Forty bucks for little Hershey bars and Kit Kats? Holy Cacao, Batman. I doubt Marie Antoinette was paying top dollar for her cake mixes, and they cut her head off! Fatty should be happy Dr. Guillotin's invention isn't in use any longer.
In a nutshell....accent on nut...
So here's a quote from an article linked above:
"'The Reflecting Pool has never look this beautiful and it’s all thanks to President Donald J. Trump,' said an Interior spokesperson via an unsigned email. 'He’s an expert builder who was able to repair the pool in ways Obama and Biden could never even dream of.'"
Um...yeah. My guess is that Obama and Biden had more important things to do. For Fatty, the only really important stuff is making sure he looks good and things like "fixing" the Reflecting Pool (ie, making it worse than before) take precedence over unimportant things like the economy, world peace, strong and viable foreign policies, public health, and good governance.
Performative is not the same as performing your job well. Reflect on that, motherfuckers.
Wendy's link to the Texas takings, down at the bottom, notes that ALL FIVE of the Texas gerrymandered House Districts were taken by Democrats. This is ... Shakespearean ... in comedy denouements.
Rats Desert Ship! Read All About It!
Bible Mike sez "No mas!"
"Speaker Mike Johnson will step aside as the top House Republican leader after Tuesday’s GOP defeat, concluding an unlikely and meteoric rise to power three years ago.
Johnson of Louisiana announced his plans on a private call with staff Wednesday morning, according to two people on the call. His decision comes after Republicans lost at least 21 seats in the midterm elections, returning Democrats to power after four years."
Meteoric rise? Why do they use this phrase? Pretty much the only meteors we ever see crash to earth or burn up in the atmosphere. Another odd turn of phrase.
But in honor of the Bible guy who had a deal with his son for each of them to monitor each other's pronouns intake, shall we review the PoT Squeakers since 2000?
First, good ol' Denny (hey little boy...) Hastert. His Wikipedia page begins "...an American politician, educator, and criminal..." He seems nice.
Then, John (three fingers) Boehner he came, he saw, he drank
Followed by Paul Ryan, the granny starver whose single accomplishment over 20 years in congress was getting a post office renamed. Oh wait....he washed some pots once, remember? Whadaguy.
After the Granny Starver we had My Kevin McCarthy, good ol' 15 Ballot Kev. His Wikipedia page sez "During his tenure as speaker, very few bills were passed..." Ouch.
Finally....Bible Mike! Maybe the worst of all. A testicle cozy for a rapist.
Looks like Steve Scalise and Gym Jordan will be wrestling for the position of House Leader of the No Govern traitors. Steve better watch out....Gym supports sexual assaults.
So...over a quarter century of PoT "leadership"...a clown car of patsies and losers.
"Pronoun intake"??? hahaha...sounds like a woke meter. I meant to say "porn intake" but pronoun intake is even funnier.
Marie,
Meant to say this earlier but giddiness got in the way. Thank you so much for staying on top of things last night til the wee, wee hours. Just running down the page makes me tired. Sheesh! Great job, comme d'habitude.
Akhilleus,
Thanks for the clarification. Thought "pronoun intake" was maybe akin to all those mysterious crossword clues referencing things added to the social and entertainment milieu after I stopped paying attention to them. Did lead to some speculation, tho.
In another enjoyable read on last nights results, Helen Lewis, for The Atlantic, notes that Finally, the president’s actions had consequences.
"In the end, not even Jon Husted’s phenomenal ass was enough to save the Republicans. Nor Elon Musk’s $500 million in campaign donations. Nor those helpful visual aids showing the great improvement in the caulking of the Reflecting Pool. Honestly, voters are so ungrateful. You break your promises, make stuff more expensive, and champion a slate of gargoyles distinguished only by their slavish loyalty to you, and suddenly everyone is all “Do we really need a ballroom, sir?” and “Could you talk less about glutes and more about grocery prices, Mr. President?”"
A few "World Media, Leaders React To Trump's Drubbing"
Exit Polling
Jake Wright
"NY TIMES when Trump wins by 1%: He speaks with the Mandate of Heaven. We welcome the Thousand Year Reich!
NY TIMES when Dems deliver a world-historical ass beating: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here!"
Lame Duck a l'orange speaks!
In the wake of a humiliating rejection of everything he stands for, demands, wants, crimes for, waddles for. the lame duck a l'orange goes to his crappy ballroom for comfort. The obese infant self soothes by saying stupid things.
"'You could put as many helicopters as you want on the roof,' Trump told a group of assembled administration officials and workers inside the construction site on Wednesday. It’s a very powerful ceiling. It's drone-proof, it’s missile-proof, it’s bullet-proof,' he said. 'No drone can pierce it, no bullet can pierce it, not matter how big.'"
Gee...just this morning I was wondering "How many helicopters could you put on the roof of Fatty's bordello-ballroom thingie?" Because that's a question for the ages. And by the way, unless the ceiling is fifty feet of concrete and tempered steel, it is not missile proof. That's another one of those Fatty Brags that has no basis in fact.
But whatever, he also said again if he were on the ballot it would have been a landslide win. And you know what? He's right! He WAS on the ballot. Every single PoT pol up for election was a slavish MAGA sycophant which put him squarely on the ballot. And it WAS a landslide win. For Democrats.
Good job, fat boy. Keep it up.
Only now, he has a couple of months with a traitor controlled congress. I've been reading that he might try to get Alito to resign so he can shove a much younger Nazi onto the Swine Court. He might try a lot of things. At this point, he has no reason to do anything sane or logical (not that he's been big on sanity of logic for the last few years). So any crazy thing is possible.
One other nice benefit of last night's ass kicking is that the Couch Fucker won't be able to extricate himself from the MAGA shitpile when he tries to run for president in 2028. May MAGA shit follow him to the end of his rancid days.
And we might expect to see Fatty, Nixon-like, waddling around his unfinished ballroom in the dead of night talking ragtime to himself. Oh, and to Natalie, who will no doubt be there to remind him of his glory days when his goons could shoot down innocent Americans and get away with it. Oh, those wonderful days!
Back on January 15, 1991, Gov. Ann Richards (D-TX), wound up her inaugural address with these few lines. They resonate 35 years later.
"... Because when my time in office is finished, I want us to be able to look back together and say we—not he, not she, not me—but WE came to this moment with a vision worthy of a great heritage . . . and WE realized that vision in a way that was worthy of a great future.
And as we turn the corner on a new millennium, I want us to be able to look forward . . . to see a small child with a textbook . . . thumbing through the pages . . . coming upon a picture of a group of people standing on the Capitol steps . . . looking out at that child across years and changes that we cannot even begin to imagine.
I want us to read words beneath that picture that say that on this date in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-one a new era began in Texas.
And I want us to know that what we started here today will reach out across time to that child . . . and do us honor. ... "
I miss her, and Molly, both of whom knew how hard it is to do this business in Texas. And I am not a Texan, but was when I was a child.
Despite being a lifelong Texan (aside from 35 years in the middle), I've never been to Whataburger and didn't understand the symbolism of holding a post-election celebration there, but, fortunately, someone on Threads explains it.
It’s where regular folk go
"The chain began in Texas in 1950 in Corpus Christi. Its food is legendary. It’s where regular folk go after football games, church, school, homecoming, prom, little league.
So these two Texas leaders have made a statement. They aren’t toasting with a $1000 bottle of wine at Three Forks: instead, they drink from a Whataburger styrofoam cup filled with what probably is Dr. Pepper."
----
Like Patrick, I miss Ann and Molly (I can only imagine how Molly would have covered t****), and Barbara Jordan and Frances “Sissy” Farenthold who ran for governor in 1972, long before the new era of republican rule began.
"Austin Texas sounds like an Eastern European city that just overthrew a dictator"
Wilie Nelson speaks (sings)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CjH7hOuq_Q
Election night in the belly of the beast....it wasn't pretty
"Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there early in the evening, but could not be found anywhere later on. By the time the House was called for the Democrats at just before 10pm Eastern, the room had largely emptied – and the staff weren’t just leaving the party, they were leaving the building, heading out to drown their troubles at a nearby DC watering hole. The Cheesecake Factory food was left on the tables, uneaten
Two floors up, the President was seething."
And then there's this interesting suggestion:
"Meanwhile, other senior White House officials were already naming the men they expect to pay for Tuesday’s defeat: Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. ‘Tonight would have looked very different without the Iran War,’ one official told the Daily Mail. ‘I believe you’ll ultimately see POTUS hold Hegseth accountable.’
A second top official laid it on Rubio’s state department. And a top Republican Party donor agreed: ‘Rubio is over. Though that’s maybe also true for all Republicans who touched Trump’s foreign policy.’"
Fatty is saying his stoopid Iran War was necessary but if he believes (or wants to believe) that it brought on his demise, someone will have to pay, someone not named Donald. He might decide that if Pete wasn't so drunk, he might have won the Iran War in a couple of days.....Aieeee! It's all Pete's fault! Will this type of demented thinking envelop Little Marco?
One can only hope.
Gotta love the Cheesecakes though...tee-hee.
Post a Comment