Jimmy Dore On America Being A Failed State

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce4b_qfi0MM&ab_channel=GrahamElwood

Celebrations break out across the US after Biden wins election

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJuJ97IcfSo&ab_channel=TheIndependent

Glenn Greenwald & Richard Medhurst LIVE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S2CWhQJIgg&ab_channel=RichardMedhurst

Biden announces the creation of a transition team to implement anti Covid-19 plan

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDrsGSiK1YY&ab_channel=TeleSUREnglish

Why Democrats Are Losing Senate & House Seats

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlLMi7Rm9is&ab_channel=TheJimmyDoreShow

How the election impacts balance of power in the Senate

Which party will control the chamber in 2021?

By Kendall Karson,Benjamin Siegel, and Meredith Deliso
November 7, 2020, 3:56 PM
• 8 min read


https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/election-impacts-balance-power-senate/story?id=73856525




The control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance, with four races in three states still undecided days after the general election. With Joe Biden now the apparent winner of the presidency, the Democrats have some help in their hopes for a majority.

The chamber appears to be deadlocked 48-48 as of Saturday afternoon, based on ABC News projections, with Democrats appearing to flip two seats and Republicans one so far.


Four races are still undecided, including two in Georgia that are projected to go to a runoff. That leaves the question of majority control -- and if Biden will be buoyed by a Democratically-controlled Senate and House -- likely unclear for several more months.

Up 1, down 1

With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority going into election night, Democrats needed to win back at least four seats -- three, if they also won the White House, since the vice president breaks 50-50 ties -- for control of the Senate.

The last time Republicans and Democrats wrestled over control for the chamber two years ago, the GOP expanded its majority, reinforcing its influence over the president’s agenda, Cabinet and judicial nominees.

This year, the contours of both party’s front lines ran through roughly a dozen competitive states. Republicans were defending over 20 seats, a less advantageous map compared with Democrats, who only had 12 incumbents seeking another term.



Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, two of the most endangered Republicans, were seeking reelection in states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.


For Democrats, only Michigan Sen. Gary Peters and Alabama Sen. Doug Jones are competing in states President Donald Trump won in 2016.

In those races, each party likely flipped one seat, with ABC News projecting that both Gardner and Jones have lost to their challengers. Meanwhile, Collins and Peters appear to have held on to theirs.

Democrats do appear to have gained another seat in Arizona, where ABC News has projected that Mark Kelly won over Sen. Martha McSally, the incumbent who was appointed to fill the seat of the late Sen. John McCain, in a special election.

All told so far, as of Saturday afternoon, Democrats are projected to have gained one seat and Republicans to have lost one. Add in the two senators who caucus with the Democrats, and the chamber is deadlocked 48-48. With Biden the apparent president-elect, that now means Democrats need to win two more seats to get a majority in the Senate, with the vice president breaking the tie.
The 4 undecided races

All eyes are on four Senate races that have not yet been projected.

Two in Georgia may determine the Senate majority control, and ABC News has projected that both will go to a runoff on Jan. 5.

Georgia election law requires a candidate to secure over 50% of the vote. In the highly competitive campaign between Republican Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, the incumbent is currently leading, but is just under the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.



In the crowded special election, the top two finishers are Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock, with 33% of the vote, and Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, with 26%, advancing the two to the runoff.

MORE: Election 2020 undecided races: When we'll know more about the presidency, key states and Senate contests

In the other uncalled races, Alaska Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan leads by a 31-point margin as of midday Saturday, with a little more than half of the votes reported.

Over in North Carolina, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has a slight lead on Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, with over 95,000 votes as of Saturday afternoon and 95% of expected votes reported.
Impact of COVID-19

Complicating the race for the GOP, it seemed, was the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended nearly every aspect of the election. The party that once saw its most vulnerable contained to a handful of seats was fighting to hold on over an expanded battlefront throughout the year.

With the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic sinking his popularity, the number of competitive races across the map expanded beyond battleground states like Arizona, Maine and North Carolina into traditionally red territory like Texas, Georgia and even South Carolina, where Democrats became more bullish about their prospects.

Some of the most vulnerable Republicans, including Sens. McSally of Arizona, Gardner of Colorado, Collins of Maine, Tillis of North Carolina, and Joni Ernst of Iowa, sought to put distance between themselves and the president by cultivating their own local brands and running their own campaigns.

In the final days leading up to the election, the outlook appeared increasingly bleak for Republicans -- so much so that even Trump admitted it will be "very tough" to keep the Senate, according to a Washington Post report about his remarks at a private fundraiser in October.

In the days since the election, the Senate races weren't the decisive blowout the Democrats were hoping for, but the majority is still up for grabs. With the Georgia runoffs not until early next year, it may be unclear if the Republicans still hold control until two weeks before the inauguration.

Will Mitch McConnell Destroy Biden’s Presidency?

https://dianeravitch.net/2020/11/05/how-mitch-mcconnell-could-destroy-bidens-presidency/





Paul Waldman, a regular columnist for the Washington Post, lays out a nightmare scenario in which Senate Majority Leader McConnell stifles Biden’s presidency.


It now looks likely that on Jan. 20 of next year, Joe Biden will become president of the United States. And after the inaugural balls are over that evening, he will take off his tuxedo, put on a scratchy jumpsuit and check into a prison cell whose keys are held by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

For months, we’ve been contemplating a world in which Biden wins the White House and Democrats narrowly take control of the Senate. We asked ourselves if they should get rid of the filibuster (yes, they should) or grant statehood to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico (also yes).

But we didn’t spend nearly enough time contemplating what it now looks like will be the reality: a Democratic president and a Republican Senate.

We’ve seen this before, most recently in the last two years of Barack Obama’s second term. But this will be far, far worse than it was then. We’re about to witness something unprecedented in American history.

In 2014, McConnell became majority leader after Obama had already achieved most of his major legislative goals, including passing the Affordable Care Act. But now he has a chance to sabotage a Democratic president right from the start. Just as important, he knows that no matter how far he goes, the Republican Party is likely to pay only a small political price. What they get in return will be worth every penny and more.

As of now, Democrats lost one Senate seat and gained two, giving them 48. While it’s theoretically possible for them to get to 50 given the races where votes are still being counted, it looks extremely unlikely. Which means McConnell will remain as majority leader.

What does that mean? For starters, you can take all those meticulously prepared policy plans Biden and his team devised during the campaign and toss them in the trash. There will be no expansion of health coverage, no aggressive legislation to address climate change, no move toward universal child care, no increase in the minimum wage, no new Voting Rights Act and no infrastructure spending. None of it.

Nor will there be a new stimulus bill to help the economy recover from the pandemic, since McConnell knows that Biden will be blamed if the economy continues to struggle. At most — and even this is no guarantee — McConnell may allow continuing resolutions that keep the government open at its current funding levels. There will be no other significant legislation as long as Republicans retain control.

That’s just the beginning. McConnell now clearly believes that conservative domination of the courts is his most lasting legacy. Between now and January, during Trump’s lame duck period, McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) will run a conveyor belt to confirm judges to every last open seat at every level.

And then the confirmation process will simply shut down. Forget about filling a Supreme Court vacancy if one occurs; McConnell won’t permit Biden to fill any judicial vacancy. Not one.

“Oh, come on,” you might be saying. “He’d never go that far.” You don’t think so? Just wait.

We’re not done. The president gets to fill about 4,000 positions throughout the executive branch, and a remarkable 1,200 of those require confirmation by the Senate. What if McConnell and the Republicans just decided to confirm none of Biden’s appointments? No secretary of the Treasury, no EPA administrator, no assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management — none of them. We’ve already got all those bureaucrats, Republicans will say, why do we need to keep adding more?

Or at the very least, they’ll tell Biden: You can have a secretary of State if you really want one. But we get to tell you who it can and can’t be. First rule: It has to be a Republican. Take it or leave it.

Such a comprehensive stonewall would be unprecedented in American history. But McConnell has shown not just a willingness but an eagerness to violate any norm or rule if it serves his party’s purposes and he thinks he can get away with it. He’ll come up with some ludicrous justification (“No president whose election was decided when it was 52 degrees in Washington in a year ending in zero has ever had his Cabinet confirmed!”), then every Republican will dutifully repeat it, and eventually Democrats will stop complaining, because what are you gonna do?

Biden’s presidency would then limp along pathetically until the midterm elections in 2022, when there would be at least a glimmer of hope. More Republican Senate seats will be up that year; I count six that could be vulnerable, especially in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

But midterm elections usually favor the opposition party. Are Democratic voters going to turn out in droves to help a president who has been unable to deliver on any of his promises?

Of course, this all depends on every Republican senator going along with McConnell’s plan for the Mother of All Stonewalls. Which they will. They’ve shown again and again that they don’t care what norms are violated — if they can do it, they will do it. Just ask Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Then in four years, Republicans will say, “Look what a failure President Biden has been! Democrats can’t get anything done!”

I wish I could say that the voters will rise up in outrage and cast them out. But right now it’s hard to feel optimistic.