Hanukah Miracle

Sweet Home in Alabama:  Democrat Doug Jones is the new Senator of Alabama and it wasn’t even that close, he received just under 50% of the vote compared to molester Moore’s 48%.  Jones’ margin of victory in one of the most Republican states in the country is large enough to preempt an automatic recount though as of 6 AM today the vanquished Moore still hasn’t conceded.  Black voter turnout exceeded expectations, making up 28% of the voters, 2% more than in the 2016 presidential election, 96% of Blacks voted for Jones.  While Jones won 57% of the women vote, he did that largely with the help of the 98% of black women who voted for him because 63% of white women stuck with the child molester.  Earlier in the day, in expectation of a Moore win, Majority Leader McConnell had scheduled a meeting to address how to deal with the seating of a pedophile, he also announced that he intended to wait until January to seat the election’s winner, an effort that would have given him time to deal with Moore’s win and now, with Jones’ victory, could guarantee enough votes for the passage of the final tax reform bill. McConnell can now cancel his pedophile meeting. For their part Democrats will now press for Jones to be seated as soon possible.  Last night Trump tweeted an anemic acknowledgement of Doug Jones huge victory saying “Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!“   Senator Corey Gardner, chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee, a group that unlike the Trump controlled National Republican Committee, did not support Moore, reached out to Jones by saying that he hopes he “will do the right thing and truly represent Alabama by choosing to vote with the Senate Republican Majority.” Though the moderate Jones’ voting pattern will probably look more like middle of the road Joe Manchin than progressive Bernie Sanders, that’s a pipe dream, he’ll be voting with the Democrats.  McConnell’s Republican majority is now razor thin.  Trump is already deflecting, the candidate he went all out for is now being described as flawed and the person he’s blaming for the Moore loss is Mitch McConnell.  As to Steve Bannon, Trump’s Mr. Outside, who up until the end promised that his candidate would win a resounding victory, leading to Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s demise, he slithered away from Alabama while Meghan McCain effectively communicated what many were thinking with her three word tweet, “Suck it. Bannon.”

Attacking Gillibrand:  Though molester Moore won’t be joining the Senate, the unfit, multiple harasser Trump remains president.  Yesterday he once again proved just how much he doesn’t belong in office by going after Senator Kristen Gillibrand, one of the four Senators who, on Monday, had called for him to step down, a number that now stands at five since Hawaii’s Mazie Horono has joined in.   He tweeted "Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office 'begging' for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!"  Response to the sexually charged tweet was immediate.  Gillibrand called Trump’s comment a sexist smear saying “you cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak out about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the Oval Office.”  Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted  “Are you really trying to bully, intimidate and slut-shame @SenGillibrand? Do you know who you're picking a fight with? Good luck with that.”  Congressman Elijah Cummings called for Trump to apologize to Gillibrand and for him to “take down this tweet, halt your efforts to silence women who speak out, and stop degrading the Office of the Presidency.” USA Today’s Editorial Board called Trump out writing “With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office, rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low." The usually moderate editors then added “a president who would all but call Senator Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.”  USA Today would be justified in saying the same thing about Sarah Huckabee Sander, she also found a new low, defending Trump’s tweet by alleging that he wasn’t being sexist, he was just being “obvious,” whatever that means. She added that anyone thinking that his tweet was full of sexual innuendo just has their “mind in the gutter.”  With steam billowing from her twitching ears, she followed-up by launching into a bitter attack of Gillibrand, saying that no one is more controlled by her political contributors and that she is an example of the very Washington swamp that Trump pledged to drain. Has Sanders ever met her boss, does she know that Vice President Pence is the billionaire Koch Brothers toady?  Does she realize that the whole tax reform plan is structured to meet the needs of Republican mega donors?  For her part Gillibrand probably went home smiling, after taking heat for pushing for Al Franken’s ouster, with Trump’s help, she is quickly becoming a feminist hero.  Can you spell presidential candidate?

Dissenting Views:  Dissent was in the air on Tuesday.  After willingly placing a series of Trump’s incapable, unfit judicial candidates to lifetime court seats, Republican Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee finally found two candidates that even he can’t bear.  He asked Trump to reconsider the nomination of one, who is a KKK sympathizer and another who referred to transgender children as being part of “Satan’s plans.”  Secretary of State Tillerson days may be numbered but he continues to try to exercise his diplomatic chops.  Yesterday, after contradicting Trump by acknowledging that the Russians had interfered in the 2016 election, he said that the US would be willing to sit down and talk with North Korea without any preconditions, contradicting Trump who says that nothing has changed in our position towards meeting with the Rocket Man crowd.  Legal spokesman Jay Sekulow also acted out but his target is the investigation into Trump team collusion and obstruction. In an effort to disrupt Special Counsel Mueller’s work, with the support of the White House, he is pushing Attorney General Sessions to appoint a second special counsel to investigate the FBI agents who are working on the Russia probe as well as officials at the Department of Justice for any possible conflicts of interest.  So far Republican leadership is not on board.  Everything seems to come back to Sessions, it’s his appointment to Attorney General and subsequent recusal from the Russia investigation that got Mueller appointed in the first place and now Doug Jones, the man who won his Alabama Senate seat, will make the implementation of Trump’s agenda that much more difficult. Thank you Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, your qualifications for serving as the head of the Justice Department remain suspect, but your role as a Trump foil exceeds expectations.      

Happy Hanukah to all!