Thank You Stacey

Wonder Woman: A Black Baptist Minister and a Jewish Journalist walked into a bar, no one knows what they had to drink or if they even indulged but when they emerged they were walking arm in arm with Chuck Schumer and collectively the three were carrying Stacey Abrams, organizer extraordinaire, on their shoulders, or maybe she was carrying all three of them which given her super human powers is more than possible.  Okay, now to the facts, though some more votes still need to be counted it’s clear that with a 53,430 vote lead, Raphael Warnock, the Baptist Minister, has comfortably beaten his opponent Kelly Loeffler, who in classic Trump mode, insisted overnight that she still has a path to victory.  To be clear, she does not. Jon Ossoff, the 33 year old Jewish Journalist appears close to clinching a victory over the more well-known and connected Republican Senator, David Perdue, who while not a member of the chicken family is the cousin of the Secretary of Agriculture/Former two term Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.  As of this morning Ossoff leads Perdue by 15,770 votes, a narrow but, given the sources of the still to be counted votes, a likely to increase margin.  Warnock, who most Decision Desks have already declared the winner of his race will be the Democrats 49^th Senator. Assuming Ossoff’s lead holds up and that he survives challenges, a possible recount and all of Trump’s assertions that the Dominion voting machines were infested with Kraken guts, will become the 50^th.  With Vice President-to-be Kamala Harris serving as the tie breaker, Chuck Schumer will take over the Senate Leader position from Mitch McConnell, Democratic judges will get confirmed, Biden will get the cabinet of his choosing and those $2000 checks will probably start flying out the door.  

Bar Mitzvah Day:  Today’s the day that current VP Pence Mike Pence becomes a man. He doesn’t have to chant a Haftorah or read anything in a foreign alphabet but he does have to preside over a service of sorts assuming that he doesn’t flea, leaving President Pro Tempore/Senator Chuck Grassley to sing his portion. Though Trump has spent the better part of the past few days, including several indigestion inducing lunches, trying to convince Pence that he can recognize any slate Trump wants him to, the New York Times and several other outlets report that Pence has told Trump that like countless Bar Mitzvah boys before him, he has to do his community service and that his will involve the reading of the votes handed to him.  Pence is likely to placate Trump just a little by effusively flattering him and saying some disparaging things about the election process but at the end of the day he’s expected to follow his script. Suffice it to say Trump, who spent a good part of yesterday tweeting out that Pence will do what he tells him to do or else, is not happy and is going to grow increasingly frenzied as the day wears on. At least twelve Senators plus Kelly Loeffler, assuming she shows, are still planning to object to the tallies from a bunch of states starting with Arizona, despite what is expected to be a “principled” speech from Mitch McConnell telling them they shouldn’t.  Somewhere around 120 Congresspeople are expected to join the anti-democracy insurgency.  The day, is likely to begin with Trump egging on the Proud Boy crowd who spent the night disrupting the streets of Washington DC, but at some point late tonight or early tomorrow, after countless stupid, disruptive speeches, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be declared the winners, again, moving one step closer to their January 20^th inauguration.  Former President George Bush is so sure that will be the outcome, that yesterday he RSVPed his intention to attend the Biden/Harris inauguration.  Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who represented Trump on his recent call with Georgia Secretary of State Rafensperger is not expected, she’s also no longer a partner at her one time law firm.  Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio won’t be there either, or at least he better not show up.  He was released from custody yesterday but ordered to leave Washington DC.

Viral Musings: Yesterday’s US COVID death toll hit 3770, a daily record, bringing the country’s total to 357,398.  The vaccine rollout remains a mess, maybe someone should find out what Stacey Abram’s knows about health care logistics.  Sure she’s likely planning to run for Georgia Governor again, but maybe she could be persuaded to apply her super human organizational skills elsewhere for a few months.    

Fourteen Days, plenty of time for Trump to do lots more nasty off the wall things.