unclevlad

The final margin wasn't that different between the two races...but Warnock was declared the winner over Loeffler FAR earlier...some time Tuesday night. Ossoff wasn't declared the winner until, IIRC, very late Wednesday morning. I believe it was before the joint session opened, but not that much. The number alone doesn't tell you that much. You have to put it in context. Warnock won 51-49, and had that 1+% lead much of Tuesday night, so the pattern was clear. Ossoff's margin was much smaller; Perdue might even have had a very small lead well into Tuesday night. It was definitely in recount range until mid-morning Wednesday. But oscillation is to be expected because different areas will have different voting patterns and will report/get counted at different points in the process. BUT the difference between Warnock's and Ossoff's final total was only about 17,000. That's really small; had that been the margin between Ossoff and Perdue, that's automatic recount range. So Loeffler managed to turn off 17K more voters. Heck, for all we know, that might be nothing but a sexist reaction. The difference between the 2 races is really too small to try to draw much of a conclusion.

My deepest sympathies extended to all Michigan football fans. Hairbrain's contract was extended to 2025 today.

And they edited to make it quick. They left time for a last tribute sequence and a dedication. Thank you, Alex Trebek.

I know how that goes. I still haven't found out whether Yvette Herrell voted for one or two of the objections...but I also decided it didn't matter in the end, as both votes were held WELL after the attack on the Capitol. Once is too much.

Without violence, we would probably be looking at the approaching 75th anniversary of American independence, instead of 250th. However, it is also true that it is far easier to misuse violence, and that the times when violence is appropriate are extremely scarce. We're all familiar with massive social media gaffes. Read it again before you hit Send, right? Before you agree to something violent, don't read it again just once, but over and over again. Is it really, truly appropriate? Is there systemic, widespread oppression against the people in general, or is this simply a personal affront? Part of the problem is the consideration of what is considered "oppressive" is no longer shared. archer: the 2 votes to decertify were 93-6 and 92-7. (I stayed up way too late.) The difference was, IIRC, Scott of Pennsylvania didn't vote for the Arizona decert, but did vote for the Penn decert. The bigger switch was that, IIRC, 15 more Reps voted for Penn than for AZ.

You mean people PAID to watch that team?

Tonight is the broadcast of Mr. Trebek's final show.

For my fellow number junkies https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-did-nfl-teams-score-so-much-this-season/

I felt like losing lunch after 30 seconds.

It might not, but there are 2 political reasons for it, beyond the fact that he deserves to be impeached. 1. It's that much more pressure on Trump to resign. I said I think that would be the best result, because it does get him out. Yes, sure, making sure he can never hold office again is great but I'd rather the surety that he is out and can't do ANYTHING more. 2. It's a line in the sand. If you vote for Trump on this, you vote for the riot. It's pretty much that cut and dried. DoJ and FBI have assigned a very large cadre to investigate. Along with, I believe state police from several states and presumably DC police. Also, with the death of a law enforcement officer from this, the effort will be that much more intense.

Yeah, I hear ya. My case isn't as bad, but our district's freshly elected 1st term Congresswoman voted to block the election results...at least one of em, perhaps both, but I don't care. I think my feelings about that have been made quite clear. But that's not as bad as your situation, or Hawley. Pelosi is intending to bring impeachment charges on Monday, according to CNN. The article is based on incitement of insurrection, and includes this: "President Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021 was consistent with his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election. Those prior efforts include, but are not limited to, a phone call on January 2, 2021, in which President Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ‘‘find’’ enough votes to overturn the Georgia presidential election results and threatened Mr. Raffensperger if he failed to do so. In all of this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States."

The man who broke into Pelosi's office and spent such effort to pose and prance in her chair, has been arrested. As has a state legislator from West Virginia who posted video of himself as he entered the Capitol. His lawyer is claiming "nothing illegal" but as part of a mob breaking in??? Puh-lease.

It might be thin, cheap plate in the overall scheme of things, but there is a silver lining here. There is no way Trump is in office on the 21st. I would also say that there are few areas where he can probably do serious damage in the time left...pardons would be an exception here. Things like oil leases might be another. Figure he's got plenty of pro-development people entrenched so, even if they don't believe in him, want the same thing. But that should be a much smaller subset.

2 years is not that long. These comments will be brought back up against her in the primary election in 2022, and if she survives that, they'll be blasted across the airwaves during the general election. But I suspect she won't get past the primary. Oh heck...my brain needs more coffee clearly. Connection took a while. No violence, huh? Tell that to the family of the Capitol Police officer who just died!!!!!!!!!! DAMN YOU, Ms Weaver!!! NYT routinely does a roundup of the late-night talk show comics. There are a great number of excellent lines from Wednesday night. This one is, I think, worth repeating here: "And the wildest part is these MAGA marchers think Donald Trump cares about them. He doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about your wife or your job or your health care or the air you breathe, the water you drink. He cares about himself. And only about himself. Unless you were pushing a lawn mower, he wouldn’t let you into his golf club. He’d roll his limo right over you to get a Chick-fil-A sandwich.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

I'm beginning to think it *possible* that Trump resigns, but I can't be any more definite than that. Everything we believe about him says it can't happen but the pressures from all over, including places like the Wall St Journal, might mean he does. And Trump has said, he's not going to the inauguration. Just as well. The best case right now would be for Trump to resign and slither out. I think Biden could shake hands with Pence...maybe not the most cordial handshake ever but not the worst. Not with Trump. Also...I don't know flag protocol details but if you fly a flag, I'd think it appropriate to fly it at half mast today. A Capitol police officer died today from injuries suffered Wednesday.

I wonder if this was more or less expected. He was in the hospital for 2 months before being released just Tuesday, and for heart issues. Or maybe "expected" is too strong; more like, there really wasn't anything more that could be done. Rather give him time at home with family. Very sad in any case. I'm also VERY much afraid that Vin Scully might pass on very soon, because his wife Sandy died this week too. And now another long-time friend. Scully is 93 as well. That makes this an extremely tough time for him.

How STUPID can you be to selfie yourself while at the site of a violent protest? Yes, well, employers have no sense of humor here. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/capitol-riots-people-fired-jobs-trnd/index.html It's a start. Do many deserve a lot more? Sure, but just think of it as a down payment. Because this is going to tarnish their employment records forever.

Schumer announced intent to can the Senate sergeant at arms. It's something of a Majority Leader privilege position in any case. And ya gotta concede that it'd be kind of hard to have confidence in them. I think there's going to be a bumper crop of "Trump tell-all" books this summer by a whole lot of those he's betrayed. To a degree, ok, there's still going to be a core element that will never waver, but I'm talking a herd's worth of cow manure is gonna be dumped on him, and from too many sides, so most of his support will disappear. That's also assuming there isn't an impeachment effort come February or so. Get another coronavirus relief bill passed; get agreement on virus distribution plans and get those in place. Then impeach. It also assumes that even without impeachment, what criminal charges might be filed, up to and including seditious conspiracy? All the fraud and tax evasion charges? And I can see particularly Hawley capitalizing should Trump fall from grace. Cruz might be a bit too connected, but Hawley can maybe pick up the "I'm with you, I hear you; Trump was flawed but his heart was right for us." And sell it. Hawley MIGHT end up being more dangerous because we've already seen his lack of scruples is on par with Trump, but he probably doesn't have Trump's major flaws. Last point: does anyone think Trump will clean up his social media act meaningfully? So he will probably be blocked on all the major platforms.

Yeah, they can. No problem there. However, even the major figures like the QAnon Shaman pale by comparison to every official government rep who blatantly set aside their oaths of office and chose to support a cause that lock, stock, and barrel is Trump's, and for the express intent of attempting to deny the democratic process. All of them are betrayers of country, in Dante's categorization, and belong in the 2nd ring of the 9th circle of Hell. Of course they deny this, but that's self-serving. Or if true, they should be removed from office for incompetence.

I prefer the wall of shame that's been posted: every Senator or Congressman who voted to overturn the election results.

Another take, and I thought this with Chao: not enough members are backing it, and/or Pence is signaling he's unwilling to do it. The latter is simpler; if he says No, I'm not kicking off the process, it won't happen.

Being reported by WaPo and CNN as well. Correction: reported by everyone. EDIT: Excerpts from her resignation letter, quote in NYT: EDIT 2: while, OK, one can criticize these resignations at this hour, after having continued to serve so long, but recognize something. ESPECIALLY when the blame is dropped squarely into Trump's lap, this is ratcheting up pressure on the Congressional Republicans if the 25th Amendment route can't be used. (And at this point, it feels very murky.) And for that matter, on Pelosi to bring articles of impeachment forward.

274K+ new cases. 4134 deaths. Another day where 1/3 of the new cases in the world, are ours. And think about it. Just today, 1 out of about every 1200 Americans tested positive. Today. About 4600 people will die from it. Just from today's cases.

But if the point of the effort was to disrupt certification of the electoral college result...and the timing says that was EXACTLY the intent...then it was an effort to prevent the normal transfer of power. That is a coup, by my lights. An extremely cowardly one, too. Also remember that 2 bombs were found in the Capitol. Perhaps they were purely intended to intimidate; perhaps they weren't very well built. Or they were on a timer to go off when Congress had returned. THAT would've almost certainly stopped the proceedings for a considerable time.

A crock pot is a slow, usually wet, cooking process that's great for things like stews where you simmer the ingredients together for an extended period. (A simmer is around 170-180 degrees, IIRC. In a good simmer, there are bubbles breaking the surface every couple of seconds. If there's a steady stream, you're boiling. That's fine too, but it can be TOO fast. A boil can cause the water to evaporate too much if, for example, you're cooking a stock overnight.) Instant Pot is a brand name for a broad line of pressure cookers. A pressure cooker has a tight, locking lid creating an airtight seal. That means that, as any liquid in it boils, it's still trapped, which means it expands and raises the pressure inside the cooking chamber. As you raise the pressure, the temperature at which water boils, also rises, so the piece cooks through faster. So they're kinda the converse of each other. Crock pot pot roast, you'll typically toss everything together right after breakfast, go to work, and come home; it'll be done. Pressure cooker pot roast, you'll toss everything in when you get home from work, then pour yourself the appropriate preprandial libation or two as you kick back and relax.