I like this summary illustration of the shift resulting from yesterday’s election.
Susan Collins is out at last, as is Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton, and there’s been a general sweep of most of the Trump fanatics getting booted out of office. Unfortunately, my local representation is still Republican, not even a blue tsunami against the patent corruption of the ruling party can dislodge ignorant farmers clinging to the rock of their conservative churches.
I’ll take it. I have avoided looking at the news until just now, fearing disappointment, but it looks like I should be generally optimistic. Progress has been made.
Now the Democrats have to consolidate their wins and accomplish good things. Sure, impeach Pete Hegseth and end the war with Iron, and cripple Trump so that he has nothing to do but play golf, but also pass laws to lock in gay and trans rights, start rebuilding the NIH/NSF, restore health care, repair the economy by finally stripping the rich of their selfish gains, you know, all the easy stuff. There is a daunting amount of work to do.
Much as I hate to piss on your cornflakes, I can’t see how any kind of progressive laws will get passed. Trump has already indicated he intends to veto everything, and even in the absolute best case of Democratic seats (including Fetterman and his ilk), a 2/3 majority to override that in Senate doesn’t seem feasible.
As Britain has showed, it takes a short time to wreck a society and many years to repair it.
.
America needs Danton and Robespierre, but has Jeffries and Schumer.
At least they can start investigating.
Later ehen Hegseth, RFK Jr. , Stephen Miller et al have been found out lying to congress and you have a (D) president you can nail them for perjury, for a start.
“dislodge ignorant farmers clinging to the rock of their conservative churches.“
Well, they are people of the land. The common clay of the new west…
When I said “the easy stuff,” I was being sarcastic.
Do you mean the steel war with Canada?
You don’t seem to have screamed loudly enough to wake sleepy Donnie. He think’s it’s all a normal progression of what happens during these voting interruptions when awesome presidents get annoyed by the populace. You’re not going to get the change you want/need.
I wanted to write about the graphic. That is an effective visualisation. Catches the eye and easily shows the magnitude of the change.
As a pessimist, I mourn the failure to get a Dem governor of Florida, missing the target by just 2 % (which is very good for Florida conditions).
And the Nebraska independent candidate, Osbourne, was only 5 % short of becoming senator.
Arizona had no senatorial elections, but in a lot of minor elections the (R) thugs have had their asses handed to them.
The muskrat dumped a ton of money into Texas, without success. I forgot the exact amount.
.
BTW I also forgot the name of the dirty-tricks weasel that once helped Dubya become Texas governor by spreading lies about the then (D) woman governor three decades ago. Maybe Texas can name a sewage treatment plant after him, so he is remembered for posterity.
The To Do list of the new congress is very long.
PZ already mentioned some of the obvous ones.
Not least is getting rid of ultra rich tech bros before they kill millions and wreck the USA even more.
Start with the South African Nazis who managed to infiltrate the USA.
.1. Peter Thiel of Palantir.
Peter Thiel hates democracy and says so often.
It is perfectly legal to advocate the peaceful overthrow of the US government.
Palantir and Thiel make their money off of government contracts and that makes them huge security risks.
It is also perfectly legal for the US government to stop funding groups that want to destroy it.
Thiel is a Nazi and he knows it. He has already bought a bunker to run to in Argentina.
.2. Elon Musk.
Arrest and try him for mass murder.
Guy is a mindless killer and a war criminal who is largely responsible for killing tens of thousands.
The first batch was the tens of thousands killed when we abruptly stopped the US Aid programs. We were literally destroying food rather than distribute it to starving people.
The second were all the Ukrainian civilians killed by the Russians when he sided with Putin and shut down Starlink.
Starlink, was built and and is funded by billions of dollars from the US government.
.3. Zuckerberg is guilty of a lot of things and Meta is blatant about it.
He obviously never thought he was going to get caught.
Time is up, fascist.
Power to the people
Power to the people
Right on!
Down here in once red Texas, it has been a clean sweep. Abbott and Paxton out. Plus mass defeats for the GOP down ballot. The Texas supreme court, once all Republican is now going to have 5 out of 9 justices elected Democrats. This is a big deal.
Also, time to lay the groundwork for Puerto Rico to become a state, if the people there want it.
That way, after the next hurricane they will get more than paper towels thrown by an evil clown.
(Also, you get two more senators from a people who will remember the latest Republican president with revulsion)
During a call with Politico, he said he wanted to work with Democrats (he didn’t say “Dumbcrats”) and not just veto everything for two years. I don’t trust him though but that’s what he said.
BTW have the Dem congresscritters sign a petition to approve criminal investigations of even minor federal employees and contractors that have violated the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers.
.
Last time Trump was on the way out, the border guards and immugration thugs had fun mistreating people being deported, because they knew there was no way Biden was going to bother with enforcing “laws”. Especially for brown people. Seriously, I know you regard Biden as the best available at the time but even he could have done a lot more.
Make it clear that the grassroots will not tolerate people who write ‘strongly worded letters’.
The relevant part happens in the first two minutes.
https://youtu.be/SsMn7tr1bNg?si=4hnw7TEzpbGL0Z2L
Probably he will.
Don’t forget, Trump is deep into senile dementia.
He has no idea what he is doing from one day to the next.
The US congress still has a lot of power because the Democrats control both sides.
They are in control of US finances.
They can defund ICE to start with.
The US people elected the Democrats to fight back agains the fascists.
And, that is what they need to do.
To evade vetos of laws Democrats pass, PROMINENTLY (first paragraph) include a provision to rename a post-office after Trump.
If said “post-office” is actually a broken down shack in the hinterlands of Alaska? Still good.
From Huffington Post (article updated 5 hours ago)
.
“Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race was too close to call early Wednesday morning, with just 43 votes separating Democratic candidate Scott Colom and GOP incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.”
.
Don’t worry, the Republicans will claim 44 of the voters were not egible to vote.
I love that the pretend moderate, Susan Collins, is out on her ass.
And Fetterman is now irrelevant.
The scary muslim is going to the senate.
Talarico should launch a brand of cute, plushy dolls called “Talafreaco” just to rub in how useless the R rhetoric was.
BTW, all D senators should now have a female gopher carrying a portable printer with them wherever the politicians go to remind people how ridicilous The Idiot (TM) is.
And sell stickers saying “Make Ohio a US state”.
Snarki@14 has the germ of an idea. Find some contract post office out in the hinterlands where folks voted Republican, not a Postal facility, something like the corner of a general store with a contractor for the postmaster, post office boxes, and rural routes. There are lots to choose from.
“If this were my [former] employer’s opinion, I wouldn’t be allowed to post it.” — Norman Diamond
I think there might be something to this “name a something insignificant after Trump” as a veto-evasion strategy. Though I worry he’s at that dangerous level of cognitive deficiency that he can be unpredictable at the worst moments.
All that and (I want this in 72 pointdayglogreenflashingtrumpetssounding font) RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!!
@ Walter Solomon, #10: Trump also made a point to congratulate the Democrats on their wins. A little late to suck up now…
The Blue Wave (2013)
One thing that will matter is that this is a big wave. All the cases the DOJ has been throwing around over voting were not really going to matter for the actual voting, I think a lot of it was just setup so that the DOJ and Republicans could contest the election if it was close. If the Democrats had only a small margin in either or both houses then throw cases around to delay things and have the Republicans in Congress refuse to seat some Democrats. The Democrats have a big enough win that isn’t going to work.
One thing the Democrats need to do is work on fixing the election system itself. There are a lot of things that need done or could be done depending on how aggressive the Democrats are willing to be.
I’m surprised Trump is sounding this conciliatory — I was expecting him to go full-on VOTER FRAUD!!! Instead he seems to be playing to his self delusion as a great deal-maker. Did one of his saner advisors get him to listen to sense, for once? But give him time; he may wake up tomorrow and forget what he said this morning….
Are there any final seat-count projections available yet? I gather the Dems are unlikely to get a Senate super-majority; any chance enough Repubs would be willing to pry their lips off Trump’s ass and support an impeachment action? Or even just pass veto-proof bills? (60 votes, I believe?)
When tRump leaves office, his name should come off of everything. With 2 exceptions. Since he was directly responsible for both, tRump Screwworm and tRump Diarrhea can remain.
As for Musk. Doge stuck like 15000 SSN’s in the dead people list. That is falsifying government information. And while (don’t know, haven’t looked it up) the penalty might be light, like $1000 fine and 6 months in jail. There are 15000 counts and they should have to serve their sentences consecutively. I would even be ok with the judge being nice and only making them server half the 15000 sentences.
Anybody know how to get a hold of Jamie Raskin. He should put out the info somehow that if anybody’s boss is asking them to shred any files they are really being asked to go to jail for their boss.
Remarkable day indeed. I’ve been in meteorology and climate research for four decades, and in all that time, I’ve never seen a wind vector plot of a low pressure system any like it… ; )
Yeah, Hakeem Jeffries has already come out saying that he’s not interested in pursuing “retribution”. So if he becomes Speaker of the House, there will be zero accountability for the Trump administration, and it will send the clear message that there will be no consequences for continuing to destroy the nation.
This blue wave is only another bankruptcy to Trump. He is happily walking away will the billions of dollars he made so far. That was what his presidency was about. That and putting his name on everything he could. To him, the money and the naming rights to Washington DC were a success.
@ 16 birgerjohansson
“I love that the pretend moderate, Susan Collins, is out on her ass.
And Fetterman is now irrelevant.
The scary muslim is going to the senate.”
That stuff makes me feel good.
And Trump announces he’s going to defund Israel – just as it’s becoming obvious that Netanyahu is going to have to concede after all.
birgerjohansson @ # 6: … the name of the dirty-tricks weasel that once helped Dubya become Texas governor …
Karl Rove – he lurks around on False Noise at times, but seems to have lost all power in his party.
The Dems here in Florida seem to have failed across the board – no governor, no senator, still a minority in the state legislature, at most (some still undecided) 8 out of 28 seats in the US House. No traces of any leverage with which to dump the state party apparatchiks mostly* responsible for possibly the worst state party performance in the country this year.
*Florida also has some of the most mediocre news media imaginable – f’rinstance, our local paper’s website’s front page has more stories about crimes & entertainment (including football) than politics this morning.
While the congressional sweep is very important, there are a few other outcomes that are significant.
First, Democrats also dominated in governor races.
Women: It seems to me that a lot of women got elected. I haven’t seen an actual breakdown of that but that would be significant. I realize that’s no guarantee of better governance…ahem, Sue Collins lost…but I feel more women in government is a step we need. “Put a woman in charge.”
Minorities: The new governor of Texas is Latina and the new governor of California is a Latino. The new governor of New Mexico is the first Native American elected to a governorship and a woman. The new governor of Georgia…you know the “Capital of the South”…is the first Black woman governor.
A perhaps another side outcome: some of these folks won their races despite being hugely out-spent by their GOP opponents. Perhaps the billionaire class will reconsider the role their money can play in elections. Elon blew a lot of money for nothing.
@26 John Small Berries: Jeffries is also talking about “mandate for dramatic change’. I wouldn’t take anything he says today too seriously, it’s political posturing. He doesn’t want to look too mean when Trump is talking about working with Democrats.
There are also practical concerns. He may want to avoid some investigations until 2028 because right now any cases would be referred to Todd Blanche for final decision to indict and prosecute. For political and practical reasons it may be better not to drag Hegseth in front of Congress until the war is over, or at least stable.
If the Dems are smart (yeah, yeah, I know) they will start, right out of the gate, legislating popular left-leaning reforms: Shutting down ICE, raising the minimum wage and connecting it with the cost of living, immigration reform, campaign finance reform, taxing the billionaires, AI and data center regulation, etc.. Yeah, Trump will veto them and you probably won’t find enough Republicans, if any, who will help overturn that veto, but you then hang their opposition and obstruction around their necks and run on that in 2028. Paint the Republicans as the out-of-touch, racist, plutocrats that they are. Be fierce, be radical, and be unapologetic even as the MAGA knuckle-draggers and corpo media screams “COMMUNIST” at you or threatens another Jan 6.
And, most importantly, DON’T GET COMPLACENT AND GO BACK TO “BUSINESS A USUAL” LIKE YOU DID AFTER 2020! Clinging to norms and bipartisanship isn’t going to help America right now. THIS IS WAR. Thinking that all is well and that the bad guy has been permanently defeated is what toppled the Biden/Harris administration. It will happen again if you start thinking the Republicans are your friends and colleagues. They aren’t. They are the enemy.
You have a mandate, start using it.
Akira @ #33 — I saw a headline in the Guardian that reads, “Democrats need to not blow it”. Amen to that. More of the same a la 2020 is exactly the wrong direction. Of course, that complacence might encourage the further emergence of this new Democratic Socialist movement.
@ 32
Agreed, but in the meantime, collect evidence and push the narrative that Hegseth, Kennedy, Miller, etc. really are criminal scum who deserve punishment. That way, if we do retake the presidency and have a AG who isn’t a total foot-dragging milksop like Garland, we can finally punish these scums.
Of course, Trump can issue a last minute pardon for himself and his creatures, but that’s just something we can use against the Republicans from then on out.
@2:
I’m dissatisfied with Jeffries and Schumer… and would be even more dissatisfied with Robespierre (and on balance Danton, although that’s a closer call). The entire point of representative democracy is that one does not trample one’s political opponents and all of their friends and family after taking power; one does not accuse someone who holds a nuanced, opposing position of therefore being disloyal; one does not blithely condemn all friends and family members of the losers to at-best ignominy (even when those friends and family members are the ones who provided the evidence to condemn some of the most-execreble losers — Danton’s main failing).
There’s a relatively accurate general conclusion, backed up with a lot of decent-or-better science, that abused children are much more likely to later become abusers themselves (of their own children, their own other family members). The French Revolution is an excellent example of that on the broader scale; so too are Northern Ireland and the Middle East. A true democracy has to resist this temptation, because it leads to precisely what the current US administration did during its first term and has accelerated so far in this term: Notwithstanding policy preferences or facts, govern via personal retribution and irrelevant theological preferences.
Hold an actually fair trial, based on actual evidence of actual previously-contemplated wrongdoing, and deal appropriately (not vindictively) with the miscreants. Don’t sweep against people who hold different opinions, and most especially not against their friends and families, absent evidence of actual misconduct… especially since there’s plenty of such evidence regarding the actual malefactors. We simply don’t need “courts” that kangaroos would reject as unreasonably biased, nor “zero-tolerance” policies with extreme results — because that’s what got us here. I require that the despicable have a reasonable chance to defend themselves, and I won’t sink to their level of despicableness out of a need for vengeance, if only because it doesn’t actually work (<superciliioussmirk> plus, I’m better than that </supercilioussmirk>).
However, I thoroughly expect that there will be plenty of those aspiring to be Robespierres and Dantons (and Lenins, Stalins, Maos, the Austrian who shall not be named, etc.). That’s what post-fall-of-Rome revolutions almost inevitably lead to; the irony that the American revolution is an outlier that generally did not do so bears consideration.
<
blockquote>Hold an actually fair trial, based on actual evidence of actual previously-contemplated wrongdoing, and deal appropriately (not vindictively) with the miscreants.
<
blockquote>
That’s the retribution I want. I worry that following the law and punishing proven criminals will again deemed “vindictive” and “excessive.”
No, we don’t need or want a new reign of terror.
That is what the GOP had going for it with ICE and look how that worked for them.
What we do need though is to re-establish Rule of Law and consequences for criminal activity and corruption. Fascism is basically a system where criminals rule and direct all the money and power to themselves. This is what Victor Orban did in Hungary. His elected successor put it well.
“Since
12 AprilNovember 03, the era of consequence-free governance has definitively come to an end.”Everyone is going to get a fair trial with bail and lawyers and juries and our judicial system.
birgerjohansson @ # 6: the then (D) woman governor three decades ago was Ann Richardson, who could be as salty as LBJ. “One night on the river on a canoe trip, while we all listened to the next rapid, which sounded like certain death, Ann drawled, “It sounds like every whore in El Paso just flushed her john.” https://www.creators.com/read/molly-ivins/09/06/remembering-ann-richards-d8e5f334.
Here’s Molly Ivins relating her drolly telling a dick joke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tprw8jiv5Q.
Her keynote address at the ’88 DNC:
https://youtu.be/c1ojTS8_ZsM?t=113. She ate Reagan and Bush (“he was born with a silver foot in his mouth”) alive. But 90% of what she talked about could have been scripted for the Democrats who ran in this election, because so little progress has been made in the last 38 years. Same as it ever was. Pity she had to stump for Dukakis.
Gods, I miss Molly and Ann.
Now I find myself circled-back to where I was a couple years ago: “the Maladministration must be impeached!”
Sure, call it a dream, if you must.
This book explains empirically why some nations fail and others succeed.
This isn’t an obscure book at all.
The authors won a Nobel prize for their work.
The tl;dr version.
To succeed nations need at least three conditions.
.1. A strong central government.
.2. Taxes at least 10% of GDP.
.3. Rule of Law to establish a level and open playing field.
This explains why “free markets” don’t naturally exist. They are made by societies and governments.
What was totally lacking during the Trump regime was Rule of Law.
People were literally getting murdered in the streets by right wing thugs and nothing happened to them.
Money was being stolen from the Federal government by the billions and no one who had any power cared. To take one example, that Appleton prison for sale in Minnesota for $75 million sold for $450 million.
The Trump regime withheld money whenever and wherever they wanted to, which is blatantly illegal under US law.
Rule of Law isn’t optional if we want to have a functioning democracy.
It is absolutely necessary.
That is why the era of consequence-free governance has to definitively come to an end.
Investigate, arrest, indict, and try the criminals. They get fair trials like everyone else.