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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[Hamilton Samuels]

How the Dems fucked themselves over, and why they won't get far without changing their tune:

No wonder so many Republicans turned out to vote. Democrats proved to be the most effective GOTV operation for the GOP imaginable.

Yes, Trump and the Republican cheerleading section online and on cable news and talk radio harped on every extreme proposal. But this wasn't just a function of the fallacy of composition, where one loony activist says something off the wall and the GOP amplifies it far beyond reason in order to tar the opposition unfairly. These were prominent Democrats — progressive politicians, activists, and scholars and prize-winning journalists at leading cultural institutions — talking this way. Joe Biden himself usually did the smart thing and tried to distance himself from the most radical proposals. But in the end it wasn't enough to mollify fears of an ascendant left hell bent on entrenching itself in power and enacting institutional reforms that would enable it to lead a moral, political, and cultural revolution.

And therein lies a paradox that should be obvious but apparently isn't: Democrats live in a country with a large, passionate opposition. Arrogant talk of demographic inevitabilities and transformative changes to lock Republicans out of power in the name of "democracy" has the effect of inspiring that opposition to unite against them, rendering political success less assured and more tenuous.

https://theweek.com/articles/947824/left-just-got-crushed

[Hamilton Samuels]

And why Joe Biden may be done in before he gets started.

NOT winning the Senate is a HUGE error: In a functioning country with responsive institutions, it would be time for Democrats to pop the champagne. But the United States' anachronistic institutions grant a minority of the population outsized power, and even though Democrats held onto the House of Representatives, Republicans have a very good chance of hanging on to a bare majority in the Senate. This means any Biden agenda other than ruling through executive orders is basically out the window.

Trump's fervent attempts to spread misinformation about the election results are being described as a nightmare scenario come true. But I don't know how to describe a Biden presidency facing a hostile Senate and a 6-3 Supreme Court majority as anything but a nightmare as well.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will feel rightly emboldened that his endless hardball maneuvering has delivered the courts to the GOP for a generation, with the threat of court expansion now at least temporarily in the rearview. If the Roberts court invalidates the Affordable Care Act, Biden and the Democrats will have no legislative route to a fix. Congress will be unable to pass laws protecting reproductive rights if Amy Coney Barrett and her pals overturn or gut Roe v. Wade. The Court is also likely to dramatically constrain Biden's ability to direct the executive branch, setting the stage for multiple constitutional crises. You should go ahead and Google the GOP's long and now very plausible plot to dismantle what they call "the administrative state."

And that's just the beginning. McConnell could hold up all Biden appointees to the federal judiciary just as he did during the last two years of the Obama presidency. We will return to the painful, nonstop budget showdowns of the later Obama years, only this time Democrats will be squaring off against an even more radicalized Republican Senate, full of Trump acolytes and a GOP that will unapologetically return to rigid austerity politics after four years of letting trillion-dollar deficits pile up under Trump. There will be no coronavirus relief package that remotely meets the needs of the moment, and Americans will just have to pray that the economy's underlying resilience can overcome the unforgivable refusal of the U.S. government to help people...

https://theweek.com/articles/947825/biden-presidency-might-essentially-over-before-begin

[Hamilton Samuels]

Former Vice President Joe Biden has now received more votes for president than any other candidate in U.S. election history, officially surpassing former President Barack Obama's 2008 popular vote numbers on Wednesday afternoon. Biden had 69,949,918 votes as of 2:30 p.m. ET with several states still tallying results, while Obama notched 69,498,516 total.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/947822/biden-now-received-more-votes-president-than-other-candidate-history

But remember, now, there can be faithless electors. 

At least 32 states and the District of Columbia have laws that attempt to bind the votes of electors. Those states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.


Pennsylvania and Georgia are not on the list.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/04/electoral-college-2020-faithless-electors/6159795002/

[josh]

Looks to me as if Ossoff may get enough votes in GA to force a runoff, though I doubt it will be enough for him to win.

It's not nothing.

[barton]

Quite impressive in Georgia.

Politico has called AZ,  and puts the election six electorals away.   Media seem to have considerably varying levels of confidence in AZ.   

[facilitatorn]

Early mailed ballots outnumber late Maricopa drop offs by about 4-1 and no less than 3-1. Ganja was on the ticket. Arizona is going Blue Dream, not a bad strain.

Charlie Kirk is trying to make money of the butt hurt about it by staging shenanigans there this weekend.

[barton]

And why Joe Biden may be done in before he gets started.

A pessimistic article.   We may found out if Joe's still got that bipartisan mojo that's been so talked about.   But the mojo may have no force against a monkey wrench gang in the Senate.   Interesting times.   Glad MJ is now legal in my state.   

[barton]

Yep,  anticipating weeks of shenanigans.   It will be one of life's great pleasures to see 45 dropkicked out of the White House. 

[bambu.]

Yep,  anticipating weeks of shenanigans.   It will be one of life's great pleasures to see 45 dropkicked out of the White House.

Did it his way, not the way to be re-elected.

[Kam]

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1324078979775684608

[josh]

Quite impressive in Georgia.

Gap is under 45k in Georgia with 180k remaining to count.

Trump is suing to try to stop the counting there, too.

[josh]

Quite impressive in Georgia.

Gap is under 45k in Georgia with 180k remaining to count.

Trump is suing to try to stop the counting there, too.

I am confused by why MSNBC's numbers don't align with AP's or Politico's - with Trump having more and Biden fewer votes on MSNBC's.

MSNBC also has 100k more votes remaining than one of the others.

[josh]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/04/democrats-trump-voters-434100

"What's wrong with you?" asks Biden voters of Trump voters.

[josh]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/04/gop-pennsylvania-blocking-ballots-lawsuit-434045

A federal judge gave a skeptical reception Wednesday to a Republican lawsuit seeking to throw out votes in a Pennsylvania county that contacted some voters to give them an opportunity to fix — or “cure” — problems with their absentee ballots.

During a morning hearing in Philadelphia, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Savage said he was dubious of arguments from a lawyer for GOP congressional candidate Kathy Barnette, who argued that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had concluded that the law prohibits counties from allowing voters who erred in completing or packaging their mail-in ballots to correct those mistakes.

“I’m not sure about that,” said Savage, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “Is that exactly what was said or is what was said was that there is no mandatory requirement that the election board do that?....Wasn’t the legislative intent of the statute we are talking about to franchise, not disenfranchise, voters?”

“This isn’t disenfranchising voters,” insisted Thomas Breth, an attorney for Barnette. “They can’t do this unless the election code provides them the authority to do this.”

But Savage chafed at the lawyer’s suggestion that a miscast absentee vote blocked a voter from fixing that ballot or casting a provisional ballot at the polls.

“It counts as your vote, but your vote is not counted,” the judge said quizzically.

The suit zeroes in on the practice of election officials in suburban Montgomery County to allow voters to fix so-called “naked ballots” as well as others with technical errors. The case appeared to challenge the county’s outreach effort as well, but Breth said Barnette isn’t objecting to that, only to the decision to permit so called “curing” of the ballots.

Montgomery County Chief Operating Officer Lee Soltysiak testified at the hearing that while he told reporters Tuesday that 49 ballots were cured, he now believes there are 93 votes in that category. He said they’re now in a locked cabinet under 24-hour surveillance.

Breth said even that limited number of votes could be pivotal.


“These ballots may determine the outcome of the election,” the GOP attorney said. “There is concrete evidence that this could impact not only the congressional [race], but also the entire election in the commonwealth.”

During the legal arguments, Breth repeatedly invoked the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore, saying that it established the principle that the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws was violated when election officials in a particular state followed different procedures in different jurisdictions.

“I know it pains people to mention Bush/Gore, but that’s the analysis that would apply to this,” the GOP lawyer said. “There’s a disparity between those that have submitted defective ballots and those that have been able to ‘cure,’ to use their terminology, and those that have not….It is creating the same situation that Florida dealt with in 2000.”

He later told reporters that there must be uniformity across the state and all of its counties.

“When you have one or more counties that deviating from uniform standards it begs into question the state’s entire electoral process.”

Breth’s law firm is also involved in a lawsuit that’s being heard today in Harrisburg, Pa. That suit is seeking to block election officials from counting provisional ballots submitted by voters whose absentee ballots were disqualified.

An attorney for Montgomery County, Michele Hangley, urged the judge not read into the code a prohibition that it does not contain.

“The election code is not meant to be a trap. It’s not meant to trick voters into losing their vote,” said Hangley. “The code gives counties the authority and the discretion to administer the election law….It’s a very complicated process. There’s a lot of discretion there.”

Democrats also argued that Barnette and another voter Breth represents lack legal standing to pursue their claims. Treating every potential election law violation as grounds for a federal equal protection lawsuit would lead to legal chaos, the Democratic lawyers contended.

Breth asked the judge to order that the absentee ballots that were corrected in Montgomery County be set aside and not counted until their validity can be determined.

However, Montgomery election officials said their policy has been in place for years, so the plaintiffs should have filed suit well before they did so on Election Day.

Towards the end of the hearing, Savage was very blunt in his skepticism of Breth’s arguments.

“I do not understand how the integrity of the election was affected,” he said.

Breth will file a supplemental brief by 9 a.m. Thursday, and Hangley can respond by 9 a.m. Friday. Then it’s expected that the judge will issue a ruling.

[LarryBnDC]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/04/democrats-trump-voters-434100

"What's wrong with you?" asks Biden voters of Trump voters.

Look in my eyes, what do you see?
The cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
I've been everything you want to be
I'm the cult of personality
Like Mussolini and Kennedy
I'm the cult of personality
The cult of personality
The cult of personality
Neon lights, a Nobel Prize
Then a mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set me free
I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your T.V.
I'm the cult of personality
I exploit you still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
I'm the cult of personality
Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi
I'm the cult of personality
The cult of personality
The cult of personality
Neon lights a Nobel Prize
A leader speaks, that leader dies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set you free
You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You gave me power in your own god's name
I'm every person you need to be
Oh, I'm the cult of personality
I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of
I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of personality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9FeMNR_fto