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reddanceragain · 7 days ago

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Heather Cox Richardson

March 8, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Mar 9

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to slash the federal government and to privatize its current services. As the stock market has dropped and economists have warned of a dramatic slowdown in the economy, he told CNBC “There’s going to be a natural adjustment as we move away from public spending to private spending. The market and the economy have just become hooked, we’ve become addicted to this government spending, and there’s going to be a detox period.”

Bessent’s comments reveal that the White House is beginning to feel the pressure of the unpopularity of its policies. Trump’s rejection of 80 years of U.S. foreign policy in order to prop up Russia’s Vladimir Putin has left many Americans as well as allies aghast. Trump’s claims that Putin wants peace were belied when Russia launched massive strikes at Ukraine as soon as Trump stopped sharing intelligence with Ukrainian forces that enabled them to shoot down incoming fire.

The administration’s dramatic—and likely illegal and unconstitutional—cuts are infuriating Americans who did not expect Trump to reorder the American government so completely. While billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump repeatedly say they are cutting only “waste, fraud, and abuse” from the government, that insistence appears to be rhetorical rather than backed by fact. And yesterday, new cuts appeared to continue the gutting of government services that generally appear to be important to Americans’ health, safety, and economic security.

Also as of Friday, nearly 230 cases of measles have been confirmed in Texas and New Mexico, and two people have died.

The secretary of HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is frustrating even allies with his response to the outbreak. Kennedy, who has long been an anti-vaccine activist, said last week that measles outbreaks were “not unusual,” and then on Sunday he posted pictures of himself hiking above Coachella Valley in California. On Monday the top spokesperson at HHS, a former Kennedy ally, quit in protest. As Adam Cancryn of Politico reported, Kennedy has said that the measles vaccine protects children and the community, but has said the decision to vaccinate is personal and that parents should talk to healthcare providers about their options. He has also talked a lot about the benefits of nutritional supplements like cod liver oil, which is high in Vitamin A, in treating measles. In fact, vaccines are the key element in preventing people from contracting the disease..

“It’s a serious role, he’s just a couple of weeks in and measles is not a common occurrence, and it should be all hands on deck,” one former Trump official told Adam Cancryn, Sophie Garder, and Chelsea Cirruzzo of Politico. “When you��re taking a selfie out at Coachella, it’s pretty clear that you’re checked out.”

In another blockbuster story that dropped yesterday, the Social Security Administration announced it will begin to withhold 100% of a person’s Social Security benefits if they are overpaid, even if the overpayment is not their fault. Under President Joe Biden the agency had changed the policy to recover overpayments at 10% of monthly benefits or $10, whichever was greater.

(HOW UTTERLY FUCKING EVIL!!!!! PEOPLE WILL DIE!)

Those who can’t afford that level of repayment can contact Social Security, the notice says, but acting commissioner Leland Dudek has said he plans to cut at least 7,000 jobs—more than 12% of the agency—although its staff is already at a 50-year low. He is also closing field offices, and senior staff with the agency have either left or been fired.

Dudek yesterday retracted an order from the day before that required parents of babies born in Maine to go to a Social Security office to register their baby rather than filling out a form in the hospital. Another on Thursday would also have stopped funeral homes from filing death records electronically.

One new father told Joe Lawlor of the Portland Press Herald that he had filled out the form for his son’s social security number and then his wife got a call saying they would have to go to the Social Security office. But when he tried to call Social Security headquarters to figure out what was going on, the wait time was an estimated two hours. So he called a local office, where no one knew what he was talking about. “They keep talking about efficiency,” he said. “This seemed to be something that worked incredibly efficiently, and they broke it overnight.”

The administration did not explain why it had imposed this rule in Maine. Senator Angus King of Maine, an Independent, said he was glad the administration had changed its mind, but added that “this rapid reversal has raised concerns among Maine people and left many unanswered questions about the Social Security Administration’s motivations.”

Trump has said that Social Security “won’t be touched” as his administration slashes through the federal government.

(AND YOU KNOW EVERYTHING THAT COMES OUT OF HIS MOUTH IS A FREAKING LIE!!!)

Trump also said there would not be cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, but on Wednesday the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which figures the financial cost of legislation, said that Republicans will have to cut either Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program in order to meet their goal of cutting at least $880 billion from the funding controlled by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Cutting the funding for every other program in the committee’s purview would save a maximum of $135 billion, Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post noted, meaning the committee will have to turn to the biggest ticket items: healthcare programs.

(CUT THE TAX BREAKS TO THE WEALTHY AND EVERYTHING IS FIXED!!!!)

Also yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security said it was getting rid of union protections for the approximately 47,000 employees of the Transportation Security Administration who screen about 2.5 million passengers a day before they can board airplanes. A new agreement in May 2024 raised wages for TSA workers, whose pay has lagged behind that of other government employees. Union leaders say the move is retaliation for its challenges to the actions of the administration toward the 800,000 or so federal workers it represents.

As Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times have reported more detail about the Cabinet meeting Trump convened abruptly on Thursday, we have learned more about Musk’s determination to cut the government. As Musk appeared to take charge of the meeting, he clashed with Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who complained that Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency is trying to lay off air traffic controllers.

Swan and Haberman report that Duffy asked what he was supposed to do. He continued by saying: I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers? Musk said it was a lie that they were laying off air traffic controllers, and also insisted that there were people hired under diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives working as air traffic controllers. When Duffy pushed back, Musk said Duffy should call him with any concerns, an echo of the message he gave to members of Congress. Like them, Cabinet members are constitutionally part of the government. Musk is not.

What Musk is, according to an interview published today by Aaron Rupar and Thor Benson in Public Notice, is a businessman who believes that there is waste wherever you look and that it is always possible to do something more cheaply. Ryan Mac and Kate Conger, who wrote a book about Musk’s takeover of Twitter, Character Limit, said that creating confusion is part of the point. Musk creates drama, Conger said, to scare away workers he doesn’t want and attract ones he does.

The pain that he is inflicting on the country is not making him popular, though. Protests at Tesla dealerships that handle his cars are growing, as are instances of vandalism against Tesla dealerships and charging stations, which now number more than a dozen, including attacks with bottles filled with gasoline and set on fire. Pranshu Verma and Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post report that Tesla’s stock has dropped more than 35% since Trump took office. Tesla sales have dropped 76% in Germany, 48% in Norway and Denmark, and 45% in France.

On Thursday, another of Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded, raining debris near south Florida and the Bahamas. The Federal Aviation Administration said 240 flights were disrupted by the debris.

The New York Times editorial board today lamented the instability that Musk is creating, noting that the government is not a business, that “[t]here are already signs the chaos is hurting the economy,” and that “Americans can’t afford for the basic functions of government to fail. If Twitter stops working, people can’t tweet. When government services break down, people can die.”

The editorial board did not let Trump hide behind Musk entirely, noting that he has increased instability not only with DOGE, but also “with his flurry of executive orders purporting to rewrite environmental policy, the meaning of the 14th Amendment and more; his on-again-off-again tariffs; and his inversion of American foreign policy, wooing Vladimir Putin while disdaining longtime allies.”

One of the things that the radical extremists in power hated about the modern American state was that it was a nonpartisan machine that functioned pretty well regardless of which party was in charge. Now Musk, who is acting as if he is not bound by the constitution that set up that machine, is taking a sledgehammer to it.

In the Public Notice interview, Thor Benson asked Ryan Mac: “What’s something about Elon’s huge role in the Trump administration that people perhaps aren’t understanding?” Mac answered that Musk is the manifestation of the nation’s extreme wealth inequality. “What happens,” he asked, “when there is unfettered capitalism that allows people to accumulate this much money and this much power?”

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misfitwashere · 7 days ago

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March 8, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 9

On Friday night, employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—about 80,000 of them—received an email offering them a buyout of up to $25,000 if they resign and giving them a deadline of March 14 to respond. Also as of Friday, nearly 230 cases of measles have been confirmed in Texas and New Mexico, and two people have died.

“It’s a serious role, he’s just a couple of weeks in and measles is not a common occurrence, and it should be all hands on deck,” one former Trump official told Adam Cancryn, Sophie Garder, and Chelsea Cirruzzo of Politico. “When you’re taking a selfie out at Coachella, it’s pretty clear that you’re checked out.”

Trump has said that Social Security “won’t be touched” as his administration slashes through the federal government.

On Thursday, another of Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded, raining debris near south Florida and the Bahamas. The Federal Aviation Administration said 240 flights were disrupted by the debris.

—

#heather cox richardson #letters from an american

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 1 year ago

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A sign of the Unification Church, or the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is seen in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in this Oct. 20, 2022, photo. (Mainichi/Hiroshi Maruyama)

October 6, 2023

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government is making arrangements to seek a court order to disband the Unification Church as early as Oct. 13, government sources said Friday. •

The move would follow a months-long probe into the religious group found its practices, including pressuring followers to make massive donations, constituted violations of the law.

The Cultural Affairs Agency is considering convening a meeting of an advisory body on religious institutions next Thursday before proceeding with its dissolution request to the Tokyo District Court, which will make a judgment based on the evidence submitted by the government, the sources said.

Scrutiny of the group intensified after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot during an election campaign speech last year over his perceived links to the entity, an incident which also brought to light its connections with many ruling party lawmakers.

The government apparently aims to restore public trust by taking a firm stance against the religious group.

"As there are concerns about protests and other issues, we hope to file the request for dissolution after the (agency) meeting without delay," a government official said.

So far, only two religious organizations have received a dissolution order from a Japanese court because of legal violations. One was the AUM Shinrikyo cult, which carried out the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.

It took around four months for the dissolution order to AUM to be issued following the filing of the request, and it is expected that the Unification Church's case will also be prolonged.

The agency has invoked its authority to question and obtain documents from the group seven times since last November, while also collecting statements from victims pressured into making massive donations.

Examination of this information led the agency to conclude that the group's practices meet the requirements for a dissolution order under the Religious Corporations Act.

The law allows Japanese courts to order the dissolution of a religious group that has committed an act "clearly found to harm public welfare substantially."

If dissolved, the Unification Church, founded in South Korea in 1954 and formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, would lose its status as a religious corporation in Japan and be deprived of tax benefits, although it could still operate as an entity.

Many in Japan have reported financial problems involving the Unification Church. It has also been notorious for "spiritual sales," in which followers are forced to buy vases and other items for exorbitant prices through coercion, such as invoking negative "ancestral karma."

The group has also been found responsible in some civil lawsuits filed over huge donations.

___________________________

Lawyers Report Huge Fraud Claims Against Unification Church, ‘Over ¥1.9 Billion Since March 2009’

Shocking video of UC of Japan demanding money – English transcript

Why did a Japanese UC member kill her Korean husband?

Suicide of Japanese ‘Moon money mule’ in Uruguay. Mother of three children

How “God’s Day” was established by Sun Myung Moon in 1968

Nansook Hong, transcripts of three interviews, including ‘60 Minutes’

6,500 Japanese women missing from Sun Myung Moon mass weddings

Moon extracted $500 million from Japanese female members

#unification church #hak ja han #ffwpu #cult #moonies #sun myung moon

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newstfionline · 2 years ago

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Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Seas have drastically risen along southern U.S. coast in past decade (Washington Post) Scientists have documented an abnormal and dramatic surge in sea levels along the U.S. gulf and southeastern coastlines since about 2010, raising new questions about whether New Orleans, Miami, Houston and other coastal communities might be even more at risk from rising seas than once predicted. The acceleration, while relatively short-lived so far, could have far-reaching consequences in an area of the United States that has seen massive development as the wetlands, mangroves and shorelines that once protected it are shrinking. An already vulnerable landscape that is home to millions of people is growing more vulnerable, more quickly, potentially putting a large swath of America at greater risk from severe storms and flooding. The increase has already had major effects, researchers found. One study suggests that recent devastating hurricanes, including Michael in 2018 and Ian last year, were made considerably worse by a faster-rising ocean. Federal tide gauge data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that the sea level, as measured by tide gauge at Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, is eight inches higher than it was in 2006, just after Hurricane Katrina.

Congress Today Is Older Than It’s Ever Been (fivethirtyeight) Older members of Congress are notorious for their lack of familiarity with modern technology. Late last month, at least three different representatives in a hearing on TikTok called the popular app “Tic Tac,” a breath mint available in many store checkout lines. This is only the latest in a long line of amusing tech-related congressional miscues: Back in 2006, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens described the internet as “a series of tubes,” and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer copped to his struggles when in 2022 he held up his flip phone and said he was “not very tech-oriented” during a speech on the Senate floor. Don’t expect such unfamiliarity to change anytime soon: As it turns out, Congress today is older than it’s ever been. Across all senators and representatives, the median age of the 118th Congress is 59 years old. The median senator is 65 years old, a record high; the median representative is about 58, for the fourth Congress in a row.

25 years after Good Friday Agreement, cold peace prevails in Northern Ireland (Washington Post) “Peace walls,” they call them. Separation barriers topped with spikes. They were supposed to come down by now, 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement ended the horrors of three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. But still they stand. As a symbol, embarrassment and necessity. On Lanark Way, the barrier separates the mostly Catholic Falls Road from the mostly Protestant Shankill Road. A faded mural reads: “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.” It is both a popular tourist site and a scene of what locals call “recreational rioting.” The rusted gates open every morning and close with a clang at 10:30 p.m. every night, effectively limiting free movement in a modern European capital. In the communities on each side, people say that Belfast is a far, far better place than it was during the Troubles—when Northern Ireland was the scene of petrol bombings, targeted killings and mass rioting that left 3,600 people dead, 47,000 wounded and many more living with the heavy load of their memories. But they are also skeptical of the celebratory mood as President Biden, former president Bill Clinton and other luminaries descend on Belfast this week to mark the “tremendous progress” brought by the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement. There is peace now. But it is a cold peace.

Fancy a dip? An Olympic reboot for Paris’ toxic River Seine (AP) Even before he has dipped his toes into the murky waters of Paris ′ famous but forbidden River Seine, French triathlete Thibaut Rigaudeau is already fielding questions from disbelieving friends. “Are you scared of swimming in the Seine?” he says they ask him. “It looks disgusting.’” For decades, it was. Though immortalized in art, literature and song, and cherished by lovers who whisper sweet nothings or tearfully part on the privacy of its banks, the river was too toxic for most fish and for swimmers, largely useful only as a waterway for goods and people or as a watery grave for discarded bicycles and other trash. Swimming in the Seine has, with some exceptions, been off-limits since 1923. Now, however, a costly and complex cleanup is resuscitating the Seine just in time for it to play a starring role in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Russia plans electronic call-up papers to help mobilisation (Reuters) Russia will soon draft men into the army by sending them electronic call-up papers via an online portal in addition to traditional letters, according to draft legislation due to be debated on Tuesday that aims to facilitate mobilisation. More than 300,000 former soldiers and ex-conscripts are believed to have been called up since President Vladimir Putin announced an emergency draft last year to support Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Currently, conscription papers in Russia have to be delivered in person by the local military enlistment office or via an employer, but the proposed changes to legislation would see conscription papers being sent via recorded mail and online. Once an electronic summons is received, citizens who fail to show up at the military enlistment office will be automatically banned from travelling abroad. The initial announcement to introduce mobilisation prompted thousands of draft age men to flee abroad last year.

Lethal Surprises Hidden in the Grass: Russia’s Trip Wires and Land Mines (NYT) With a practiced calm, a Ukrainian de-mining expert gingerly pushed aside stalks of dry grass, revealing a lethal surprise—a hand grenade rigged to a trip wire, waiting for someone to heedlessly step on it. The discovery, near the Ukrainian town of Lyman, was just one small development in a wider cat-and-mouse struggle between mining and de-mining teams that is becoming a pivotal element in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mines, trip wires and booby traps are go-to defensive tools for Russia’s military, inflicting grievous wounds on infantry or stalling armored vehicles. Easy to rig, bury in dirt or cover with debris by the side of a village road, they are devilishly hard to find. Ukrainian land is covered in thousands of Russian mines, trip wires and booby traps. An area four times as large as Switzerland is unsafe because of land mines, the United Nations has estimated. They kill or maim hundreds of civilians each month. In March, land mines killed 226 civilians and wounded 724 others. Throughout Ukraine, about 350 de-mining teams work continually.

When exactly will India surpass China as most populous? (AP) India will surpass China’s population this month. Or maybe in July. Or, perhaps it’s happened already? Demographers are unsure exactly when India will take the title as the most populous nation in the world because they’re relying on estimates to make their best guess. But they know it’s going to happen soon, if it hasn’t occurred by now. China has had the most people in the world since at least 1950, the year United Nations population data began. Both China and India have more than 1.4 billion people, and combined they make up more than a third of the world’s 8 billion people. “Actually, there is no way we can know exactly when India will surpass China,” said Bruno Schoumaker, a demographer at Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. “There is some uncertainty, not only about India’s population, but also China’s population.”

Myanmar’s Forgotten Crisis (Foreign Policy) Myanmar’s ruling military junta on Tuesday carried out a devastating airstrike on the village of Pazigyi, located in the country’s rebel-held northwest Sagaing region, killing at least 100 people, including around 30 children. Images from social media showed decimated buildings and roadways. The Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known, acknowledged responsibility for the strike but said it had targeted “terrorists,” not civilians. More than 13,000 children have been killed since the military took power, and over 17,500 people have been arbitrarily detained. At least 17.6 million people need humanitarian assistance, and tens of thousands more have fled to neighboring nations. Although the coup initially drew international media attention and condemnation from Western governments, attention has since waned, eclipsed by crises elsewhere, including in Ukraine. And Myanmar’s military leaders have taken advantage of this. Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, said, “The junta are like mushrooms; they thrive in the dark. I think because of the lack of attention, there is a lack of political will.” In this way, he fears the lack of an effective international community response will only worsen the crisis.

US, Philippines hold largest war drills near disputed waters (AP) American and Filipino forces on Tuesday launched their largest combat exercises in decades to be highlighted by a ship-sinking rocket barrage in waters across the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, where Washington has repeatedly warned China over its increasingly aggressive actions. The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan—Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder”—will run up to April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel. It will be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration strengthens an arc of alliances to better counter China, including in a possible confrontation over Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing claims as its own. That dovetails with efforts by the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, by boosting joint military exercises with the U.S. and allowing rotating batches of American forces to stay in additional Philippine military camps under a 2014 defense pact.

Egypt secretly planned to supply rockets to Russia, leaked U.S. document says (Washington Post) President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi of Egypt, one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East and a major recipient of U.S. aid, recently ordered subordinates to produce up to 40,000 rockets to be covertly shipped to Russia, according to a leaked U.S. intelligence document. A portion of a top secret document, dated Feb. 17, summarizes purported conversations between Sisi and senior Egyptian military officials and also references plans to supply Russia with artillery rounds and gunpowder. In the document, Sisi instructs the officials to keep the production and shipment of the rockets secret “to avoid problems with the West.” Dozens of highly classified U.S. military and intelligence documents have been leaked online, revealing a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine, as well as analysis and sensitive information on Russia and other countries—from classified sources. The leak has far-reaching implications for the United States and its allies.

Yemen’s peace prospects (Foreign Policy) The world’s worst humanitarian crisis may have glimpsed hope for the first time in almost a decade. Saudi and Houthi officials met in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, this weekend to discuss peace talks for the nine-year war. Oman mediated the discussion. The talks centered on reopening Houthi-controlled ports and Sanaa’s airport, rebuilding infrastructure, and establishing a timeline for foreign forces to exit the region, among other issues. This break in tensions comes after China successfully negotiated a reopening of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the latter of which supports the Houthis.

Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn (Washington Post) When the U.S. government was looking for help to scour Southeast Asia’s rainforests for exotic viruses, scientists from Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University accepted the assignment and the funding that came with it, giving little thought to the risks. Beginning in 2011, Thai researchers made repeated treks every year to remote caves and forests inhabited by millions of bats, including species known to carry diseases deadly to humans. The scientists collected saliva, blood and excrement from the wriggling, razor-fanged animals, and the specimens were placed in foam coolers and driven to one of the university’s labs in Bangkok, a metropolis of more than 8 million people. The goal was to identify unknown viruses that might someday threaten humans. But doubts about the safety of the research began to simmer after the virus hunters were repeatedly bitten by bats and, in 2016, when another worker stuck herself with a needle while trying to extract blood from an animal. What if they encountered an unknown virus that killed humans? What if it infected their families and neighbors? In spring 2021, the Thai team’s leader pulled the plug, deciding that the millions of dollars of U.S. research money for virus hunting did not justify the risk. “To go on with this mission is very dangerous,” Thiravat Hemachudha, a university neurologist who supervised the expeditions, told The Washington Post. “Everyone should realize that this is hard to control, and the consequences are so big, globally.”

#headlines #news

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pikapeppa · 5 years ago

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FenHawke baby fluff: Memories At Sea

@lethendralis-paints requested some Fenris x Rynne Hawke spending time with their little man Faren, and how could I resist?? So for @dadrunkwriting Friday, here is a little Papa Fenris fluff!

This takes place in my “Fenris the Inquisitor” AU, so this is post-Trespasser, after FenHawke have settled in a cabin on the Rivaini coast. And yes, Fenris has both his arms, for Reasons™.

~2600 words. Read on AO3 here.

***********************

Hawke smiled at Fenris. “Ready?”

“I’m ready,” he said. The late afternoon sun was still high enough to be warm, but not so high as to be blinding. It was low tide, and the waves washing up along the white-sanded Rivaini shoreline were little more than gentle ebbs and flows.

“All right,” Hawke said, and she smiled at six-month-old Faren. “Here we go!” she cooed. “Are you ready to feel the sea on your feetsies?”

Faren blinked his big coppery eyes at her, and she chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She kneeled at the shoreline and settled Faren on her lap with his chubby little feet touching the sand.

She leaned in close to Faren’s ear. “Here it comes,” she murmured. “The tide’s coming in… and… oop!” She gasped playfully as a gently breaking wave lapped at Faren’s feet.

Faren’s eyes went huge, and his feet jerked. Fenris chuckled and crouched down beside them. “Shocking at first, isn’t it?” he said to his son. “You wouldn’t expect it to be so cold, given the warmth of the day.”

“The water’s not cold!” Hawke protested. “It’s practically bathwater!”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Bathwater for whom? Fereldens? The Avvar, perhaps?”

She chuckled. “If Dorian was here, he’d say your Tevinter is showing. You hot-weather boys and your complaints.” She tickled Faren’s knee. “I hope you get my sturdy constitution, Faren. I don’t mind a little cold.”

“Says the woman who spent the entirety of our time in Emprise du Lion begging me to share my body heat,” Fenris said pointedly.

“Oh, I wasn’t cold then,” she said. “I was just horny.”

Fenris scoffed and rubbed his mouth to hide his smile, then gave her a chiding look. “Can you refrain in front of the baby?”

“No can do, sorry,” she said cheerfully. “Let him know how much his mum is gagging for his dad. Oh, here comes another wave! And… oop!”

This time when the water touched Faren’s feet, he smiled and haphazardly waved one hand, and Fenris smiled at his raven-haired son. “It is better once you’ve had some time to get used to it,” he told Faren. “We will have you swimming in no time.”

Faren gave him a gummy smile. Another wave began crawling up the sand toward them, and this time when it touched Faren’s feet, he squealed happily and waved both his hands.

Hawke laughed — that lovely sparkling laugh that never failed to lift and ease Fenris’s heart. “Such an adventurous little turnip!” she crooned. “I think we should get you standing up now. Yes, I do.” She lifted Faren onto his feet and supported him carefully beneath his armpits as he tottered, very slowly and clumsily, on the damp shoreline.

Another wave began to climb up along the sand, and Faren bounced excitedly in Hawke’s hands as the wave approached. When the wave reached him, it washed up to his knees with a tiny splash, and Faren shrieked again.

Hawke and Fenris both laughed, and Fenris watched adoringly as Hawke chatted to Faren while supporting his chubby body. Faren was only six months old, so there was no chance that he would remember this particular moment — his first time ever touching the sea. But still, this would be the first of many such moments in the sea: the first of a string of peaceful and pleasant little moments with his parents holding his little hands and encouraging his curious nature.

Over time, these moments would build on each other like layers of lacquer growing more lustrous and brilliant with time, until one day Faren would have a concrete memory in his mind of splashing in the sea and loving it, thanks to his mother’s tender hands and her bright and brilliant laugh.

His memory of the sea will be so different than mine, Fenris thought. After all, his first memory of the sea was during his time in Minrathous under Danarius’s control.

He still remembered that first time following Danarius to the docks on one of the rare times that Danarius deigned to go somewhere so common. The Nocen Sea coastline was busy and noisy and grim, populated by magisters lording over their browbeaten slaves, and when Fenris had looked at the sea for the first time that he could remember, all he could see was a brownish-green fathomless depth that echoed the deadened emptiness in his heart.

But the Nocen Sea was only the first coastline that Fenris had seen. Years later, after he’d arrived in Kirkwall and made Hawke’s acquaintance, he saw the sea for the first time again.

A few weeks after he began travelling around with Hawke and her friends, they’d taken a trip to the Wounded Coast, and Fenris still remembered taking in that stark landscape for the first time. The sky was a surreal haze of orange and pink that reflected off of the oddly still waters of the Waking Sea, and there were stony spires of rock jutting out of the water like enormous splintered rib cages piercing into the sky.

“Well, it’s official,” he said. “I have travelled all the way from the northern coastline to the southern.”

“You know this isn’t the end of the continent, right?” Hawke said.

He gave her a chiding look. “I’m well aware, Hawke.”

“Good,” she said brightly. “For a second I thought you’d forgotten all about Ferelden.”

“I haven’t, no,” he said. “But I’ll become acquainted with one foreign land at a time.”

“Ooh, a one-country-at-a-time sort of fellow, are you?” She batted her eyelashes at him. “I like that in a man.”

On her other side, Varric scoffed. “I can’t decide whether you or the Rivaini is the worse flirt.”

“Hey, that’s unfair,” Hawke complained. “I’m at a disadvantage. Isabela’s got her gorgeous rack to do half her talking for her.”

Fenris studied her surreptitiously as she bantered with Varric. Her body might not be as lushly curved as Isabela’s, but Fenris still found himself eyeing her more often than he felt strictly comfortable about, considering that he and Hawke were still practically strangers. And considering that she was a mage.

He forced his gaze back to the coastline instead. It was so calm here – so quiet. Aside from the giant spiders and bandits they’d encountered on their way here, of course. But compared to the noisy, busy, depressing docks of Minrathous, the stark and intimidating scenery of the Wounded Coast was more than welcome.

“I wonder why it’s called the Wounded Coast?” Hawke mused. “Is this near the Injured Cliffs, maybe? Or the Limping Hills?” She smirked up at Fenris. “Maybe we’re off the coast of Massive Head Trauma Bay?”

Varric snorted, and Fenris frowned slightly. “If you don’t like it here, why did you lead us here?”

Her eyes widened. “What makes you think I don’t like it here?”

“Your unflattering remarks?” he said dryly.

She waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, I’m just being silly. I actually think it’s pretty here.”

“You do?” He was surprised. He’d been thinking the same thing, but he was surprised that he wasn’t the only one to appreciate the rather barren landscape.

“Of course!” she said. “It’s striking, isn’t it? I mean, it’s no Orlesian cultured garden, but it’s still pretty.” She pointed to the jutting peaks of stone. “Those spiky rock things are really… I mean, all right, they’re spiky. But I love the way the water’s carved patterns into the stone.”

Fenris eyed her in silence for a moment until she looked up at him. She blinked. “What?”

“You’re quite the optimist, aren’t you?” he said.

She laughed. “You say that like an insult.”

“Not an insult,” he said. “An observation.”

“A critical observation?” she said with a mischievous smile.

“I…” He frowned, then awkwardly rubbed his hair. “My apologies. I don’t mean it to be. It’s just…”I’ve never met anyone quite like you before, he thought. Her own circumstances of being in Kirkwall were far from rosy or ideal, but one would never know it from the way she joked and flirted.

He couldn’t say any of that, though. It felt far too personal considering he hardly knew her.

She chuckled. “I’m just teasing you. Of course I’m an optimist.” She bowed dramatically to him. “Rynne Hawke, cavalier fool and optimist at your service.”

Varric tapped her arm. “Maybe we should go be cavalier and optimistic with the others. They’ve run off ahead.”

“Yes yes, of course!” Hawke chirped. “We can’t let them kill every thug on the coast without us.”

Varric smirked and walked away, and Hawke turned back to the view and scoffed. “Wounded Coast, they say? More like Picturesque Coast.”

Fenris raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.”

“It doesn't, does it?” she said agreeably. “I’ll have Varric come up with a better name. Either way, it’s a pretty coastline.” She winked at him and wandered away.

He pursed his lips. Trust Hawke to find the beauty in something wounded.

He admired the peaks of stone rising from the water to reach toward the sky. Then he turned away from the view to follow Hawke’s carefree steps.

“Fenris? Are you coming?”

He blinked and looked up. Hawke was standing ankle-deep in the water with Faren in her arms.

He smiled and nodded, then stepped into the water to join her. Faren gurgled and reached for Fenris, and Hawke kissed his plump cheek before handing him over.

“You disappeared for a moment there,” she said to Fenris. “What were you thinking about?”

“The sea,” he said. “What it’s like to see it for the first time.” He looked away at the horizon, stretching off into the distance as far as the eye could see. “Faren won’t remember what it’s like to set his eyes on the sea for the first time,” he said softly. “It’s… strange to think he won’t remember something so momentous.” He stroked his son’s back and thought of that moment again, of seeing the Waking Sea for the first time with Hawke by his side, and how her sunny spin had elevated that moment from something mundane to something special – something that stuck in his mind even to this day, fourteen years later when he and Hawke were taking their child into the sea for the first time.

Hawke stroked his arm. “But it’s good though, right? Having him grow up somewhere with such a gorgeous view? He can wake up every day and voilà, there’s the beach just a few steps away!” She gestured grandly at the aquamarine expanse that swished and flowed around their calves.

“Of course it’s good,” Fenris said. “I don’t mean to suggest otherwise. I’m simply… awed by the contrast, I suppose.” He pressed his lips to Faren’s raven-haired head and inhaled his baby-sweet scent, then gazed at Hawke. “The only early life I can recall was written in pain and blood. I could remember clearly that I remembered nothing, and that blankness was…” He swallowed hard. “It became more painful than the marks, in time.”

“I know,” she said softly.

He smiled faintly at her, then gently patted Faren’s back. “His memories are an unwritten book. They will be seamless and whole. He won’t know why he loves the sea, but that love will be written there. A page of his story, tucked safely in his mind.”

Hawke shifted closer to him and looped her arm around his waist. “Are you sure you don’t want to regain your memories?” she asked. “Cole could help. We could try and write him a letter. Do a little Avvar ritual to get his attention from the Fade.” Her tone was playful, but her smiling amber eyes were serious.

“I do consider it sometimes, still,” Fenris admitted. Then he smiled at her. “But not today. This day is not about the past.” He bounced Faren gently in his arms. “This is a day for new memories, isn’t it, little man?”

Faren cooed and patted Fenris’s face, and Fenris chuckled. “All right. There is a wave approaching, so let’s see how you feel about this…” He crouched until the water was up to his waist.

The water was licking at Faren’s calves. Faren squealed and gripped Fenris’s ear, and Fenris smiled. “Brace yourself. Here it comes.”

The wave washed up to the middle of Faren’s back. Faren’s eyes grew impossibly wide, then his face started to scrunch.

Fenris winced in anticipation of the impending wail. “Uh-oh.”

“No no!” Hawke said quickly. She knelt in the water and tickled Faren’s neck. “Don’t you cry! The sea is wonderful, look!” She watched another incoming wave with a huge smile, and when it washed over herself and Faren and Fenris, she gasped and clapped her hands. “Yay!” she cheered. “The sea is such fun, isn’t it, Daddy?”

“Yes, it is,” Fenris said with a smile. Faren was staring wide-eyed at Hawke, and his face was no longer squinched into an almost-wail. When the next wave came, the baby smiled.

“Yes, that’s it!” Hawke said brightly. “It’s fun, you see? Look!” She took a big breath and ducked her head beneath the water, then popped back up a second later. “Ta-dah!”

Faren squealed and waved his hands. Hawke played peek-a-boo with Faren a few more times, and it wasn’t long before Faren was laughing uproariously in that pure and uncontrolled sort of way that never failed to make his parents laugh as well.

Hawke sighed happily and slicked her wet hair back from her face. “Ooh, come here, you little turnip.” She gently took Faren from Fenris’s arms, and he smiled helplessly as his wife and son laughed together.

“He sounds just like you when he laughs,” Fenris said.

She grinned at him. “He does not!”

“He does,” Fenris said. “He sounds exactly like you.”

She giggled, then tipped her chin up and batted her eyelashes. “Well, he looks just like you. The two most handsome boys I’ve ever seen.”

Fenris scoffed, then leaned in and kissed her smiling lips. A moment later, she pulled away and beamed at the baby. “How about we take another dip, hm? Yes, let’s do just that!” She waded a little further into the water, and Fenris watched them with a feeling of warmth and fullness in his chest. She was pointing to the waves and to the gulls floating lazily overhead, telling Faren how lovely and interesting everything was, and Fenris realized something sweet: as different as his and Faren’s early memories would be, there was one enormously important thing – one enormously important person – that would tie them both together.

It was Hawke. More than ten years ago, she’d spoken to Fenris of the beauty of the sea, and now she was pointing out the very same beauty to their son.

He waded toward her and slid his arms around her waist from behind, and she smiled at him and continued speaking to Faren. “... and one day, when you have better control over your own arms and legs, Auntie Isabela will teach you to dive for treasure, and you can see all the fishes and corals and crabs that live under the water! Ooh, that will be so exciting.”

Faren burbled and patted her chin, and she laughed — the same joyful burbling laugh that she’d passed on to their son. Fenris inhaled the salty sea air and held his family in his arms, and as the rolling waves tugged at his legs and washed soothingly around his waist, he cherished the making of this new memory in the sea.

#fenris #fenris fic #fenhawke #fenris/hawke #fenris x hawke #fenris/femhawke #fenris x femhawke #fenris x f!hawke #fenris/f!hawke #fenrynne #pikapeppa writes

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amnestynulondon · 2 years ago

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Student Conference Blog

Hidden in the web of streets of Shoreditch sits the Amnesty International UK headquarters. From the 28th to 29th of January, students from across the UK gathered to talk about all things activism, the right to protest and student power. That was all before lunch on day one!

After an introduction to all the members of STAN (the Student Action Network, which is run by NCH's own Lilli Duberlly) we had an incredible visit from Ben Smokes, part of the phenomenal Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants group or 'The Stansted Fifteen’. They demand justice for those being targeted for deportation by the UK Government. After a brief introduction including some shocking pieces of legislation passed by our elected officials, we heard about one of the most impactful demonstrations of human rights protesting in recent years, and one that dominated the news. Amongst all the jokes that had us sniggering, Ben recounted the story of how this human rights group was founded at a party in North London before the pandemic. The action network quickly grew from a group of tipsy friends to a meeting at a local community centre and after hearing stories from people that had faced deportation and racial prejudice in our communities, escalated to the action that shocked headlines- locking themselves to planes used for mass deportation. Ben didn't shy away from the enormity of this decision. He and his friends were more than aware of the possible repercussions. But, after hearing from an incredible woman facing deportation, their minds were made up.

Over the weekend, there were several workshops, seminars and group tasks including a student-led panel about the Stop Killer Robots Campaign, the right to food, reproductive rights, community organising and art as a form of protest. We also heard from Angel Arunta about her experience growing up as a person of colour in Ireland (a country that is 99% white) and her journey to self-acceptance. Our group split up throughout our time there, and everyone said the sessions they attended were phenomenal. From LGBTQ+ rights to a chance to share what we were thinking as young activists, this was a place that genuinely felt buzzing with social progress, acceptance and safety.

One session that really stood out to me was a panel discussing the UK Government’s proposed Legacy Bill that would have massive implications on outcomes of investigations following illegal and immoral acts that took place during the period of trouble in Northern Ireland. The discussion was read by the Student Action Network’s Northern Ireland and Wales representative Leah Ennis, and the most striking part of this session was that she discussed the situation with people that had been affected on both sides of the conflict. As well as talking to an individual whose family was hurt by the British occupation, she welcomed the thoughts of a young man whose brother was killed by the IRA when he was off-duty. They both believed the proposed legislation to be not only a disgusting dismissal of suffering, but a huge infringement on fundamental human rights. If the Bill were to become an Act, it would protect perpetrators of extreme violence on both sides with diplomatic immunity. For the families of victims and the collective identities of many people in Northern Ireland, this feels like erasure of the highest order, explained an individual whose young sister was tragically killed by British troops. The Northern Ireland head of Amnesty Uk Grainne Toggart summed up the proposal as ‘a wrecking ball to a fragile peace settlement’ as it directly violates the Good Friday Agreement and has already faced international condemnation from organisations such as NATO and the UN Commission for Human Rights. Though this was a bleak and harrowing discussion to witness, the genuine goodwill and empathy between two people from opposing sides was touching. As one of the speakers remarked, ‘you might expect us to sit here and blame the other for what happened, but that is not the case today. We stand against a common evil’. When asked if he had anything to say to the students in attendance that I could write in this blog, he summed it up with ‘I am delighted to meet students today and share these experiences. I wish them all the best in the future’.

As well as exploring wider social and political issues, Amnesty were also keen to talk about the right to striking and civil protests in the UK with Lydia Parker- the campaign manager of the ‘Protect the Protest’. Because this event took place right in the middle of rail and nurses strikes, the country was already thinking about its right to act on unfair conditions and the right to work. The Public Order Bill was also on our minds. But, in a room full of university students, the topic felt a lot closer to home due to the strikes of lecturers, academic staff and researchers taking place with the University and Colleges Union. We started by thinking about why unions are so vital in the first place- weekends, parental leave and minimum wage to start with- before hearing from a postgraduate researcher about the impact on their mental health. Some shocking statistics about the pay gap in academia: 16% between male and non-male academics and 17% between able-bodied and disabled individuals. With the taste for civil unrest, we then made our way to Liverpool Street Station to talk to people about the Right to Food Campaign.

This weekend left me feeling hopeful. Though we had fun and it was a great chance to spend time away from our studies, the issues discussed were of international significance. We were lucky enough to meet Amnesty student groups from up and down the UK, and the atmosphere was phenomenal because we were all united by a common interest.

I asked the group if they had any closing remarks:

“It was a lot more chilled than I thought”.

“All of the STAN members seem lovely!”

“Amazing to engage in issues in a way that’s personal and not just about the headlines”.

“Shout out Ben Smokes!”

-Anna Langston, Vice-President.

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atlanticcanada · 3 years ago

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Expect large police presence in downtown Ottawa as trucker convoy arrives

Ottawa's police chief is urging people to avoid downtown Ottawa this weekend with a large convoy of truckers set to arrive downtown.

Chief Peter Sloly also issued a stark warning to any protesters who break the law: they will be prosecuted.

“Let me be very clear: we are prepared to investigate, arrest if necessary, charge and prosecute anyone who acts violently or breaks the law in the demonsrations, or in association with the demonstrations," Chief Peter Sloly said Friday morning ahead of the convoy's arrival.

The trucker convoy protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other public health measures left Kingston, Ont. shortly after 8:30 a.m., according to police there. They are scheduled to arrive in Ottawa around 12 p.m.

Sloly said the convoy's organizers have assured police the demonstration will be peaceful, and the planned events will take place on Saturday and Sunday.

However, Sloly said he anticipates other "lone wolf" protesters not directly affiliated with the main group. He also warned of "social media actors who may or may not actually come to the city ... but who are nonetheless inciting hate, violence and in some cases criminality to take place in our city."

Sloly said police still don't have a confirmed number of demonstrators and don't know how long they will stay, but anticipate "major traffic safety issues" over the weekend.

Kingston police said the departing group included 17 full tractor-trailers, 104 tractors without trailers, 424 passenger vehicles and six RVs. More truckers are expected from other parts of the country.

Police have been managing small protests from people who have already arrived in the past 24 hours, which Sloly said have been "peaceful and uneventful."

He warned the weekend's events will be "unique, fluid, risky and significant."

"These demonstrations are national in scope, they are massive in scale, unfortunately they are poloarizing in nature." Ottawa residents can expect a ramped-up police, national security and other emergency services presence Friday and into the weekend.

They will also be out in force on major highways and roads in and around the city.

Convoys from western Canada are scheduled to arrive in Arnprior, Ont. late Friday afternoon, before travelling into downtown Ottawa Saturday morning. Convoys from eastern Canada will roll into Vankleek Hill this evening, before completing the journey to Ottawa on Saturday morning.

What is the Freedom Convoy?

The freedom convoy is calling for the end of vaccine mandates in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"On January 15th, a small team of Alberta truckers, their family members and friends, came to the decision that the Government of Canada has crossed a line with implementing Covid-19 vaccine passports and vaccine mandates," said a statement Wednesday on the Freedom Convoy 2022 Facebook page.

"As of today, we now have the support of millions of Canadians from across the country."

The list of demands includes the federal and provincial governments terminating the vaccine passports and all other "obligatory vaccine contact tracing programs", and terminate COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The protest was initially sparked by outrage over a vaccine mandate imposed this month on cross-border truckers, but has since garnered support from anti-vaccine mandate groups.

Police urge drivers to avoid Ottawa highways, downtown

Ontario Provincial Police are urging motorists to avoid Hwy. 416 and 417 this weekend. In a message on Twitter Thursday, the OPP said, "OPP advises motorists to avoid travel on Hwy 417 and Hwy 416 in the Ottawa area, beginning Friday afternoon and on Saturday."

The Ottawa Police Service is asking people not to travel in Ottawa this weekend, and if you do travel to expect delays. People should do their shopping on Friday if possible.

"Expect major disruptions to traffic throughout Ottawa and especially in the downtown core. If you have appointments, children in activities, are expecting food deliveries, please be prepared to adjust your plans," said Ottawa police.

Sloly warned of "sifnigicant impacts" for people who live and work downtown, and said there may be limited mobility in the core for drivers, cyclists and even pedestrians depending on where demonstrators are.

Ottawa police are working with the RCMP, OPP, the Parliamentary Protective Service and other local police forces.

Ottawa Public Health has closed two vaccination clinics in the Glebe and Lowertown in anticipation of traffic disruptions this weekend. The Ottawa Public Library has also closed two branches due to expected road closures.

Do not travel if you can avoid it this weekend in Ottawa, plan accordingly and expect delays. (2/3)

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) January 27, 2022

OC Transpo

The city of Ottawa warns OC Transpo and Para Transpo service may experience delays this weekend due to the convoy.

Stay up to date on the latest transit information by visiting octranspo.com.

Freedom Convoy routes on Friday

Here is the schedule for the 'freedom convoy' moving into Ottawa and eastern Ontario on Friday, according to the Canada Unity website.

Kingston to Ottawa

The convoy is scheduled to depart Centennial Drive in Kingston at 8:30 a.m. and travel to Angelo's Truck Stop at Hwy. 401 and Hwy. 416.

It will depart Angelo's Truck Stop at 11 a.m. and arrive at Parliament Hill at 12 p.m.

The convoy is scheduled to travel along Hwy. 401 to Hwy. 416, then along Hwy. 416 to Hwy. 417. There is no word on the route the convoy will take from the Queensway to Parliament Hill.

North Bay - Pembroke - Arnprior

Trucks travelling along the west route are scheduled to arrive in Pembroke and Arnprior today.

According to the Canada Unity website, the convoy will arrive in Pembroke at 4:30 p.m., and then travel along Hwy. 17 to the Antrim Truck Stop in Arnprior, arriving at 6 p.m.

The convoy is scheduled to depart the Antrim Truck stop at 11 a.m. Saturday, travel along Hwy. 17/Hwy. 417 to Ottawa and arrive at Parliament Hill at 12 p.m.

Arriving in Vankleek Hill

The Canada Unity website says trucks travelling along the east route will arrive in Vankleek Hill on Friday.

The convoy is then scheduled to depart 21160 Service Road in Vankleek Hill at 10:30 a.m. Saturday for Ottawa.

Canadian Trucking Alliance

The Canadian Trucking Alliance has made it clear it does not support "any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges."

In a statement last weekend, the association noted the vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated.

"The Government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. This regulation is not changing so, as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate," said CTA president Stephen Laskowski.

Mayor: 'Please come peacefully'

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson reiterated his message to the truckers Friday morning, asking people to come peacefully and respectfully.

"We're asking the protesters, please come peacefully," he said. "Protest is part of our democratic rights, but make sure that you follow our rules and regulations when you get here. You're coming into another community's neighbourhood and it's important to respect that."

Watson asked the demonstators to leave lanes available for emergency vehicles and wear masks when entering local businesses.

"Don't harass someone, a 17-year-old employee making minimum wage, because you won't wear a mask. Be sensible and be kind to one another.

"This is going to be a stressful time for the next two days, at least."

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/3r7xYGt

#new brunswick #prince edward island #nova scotia #news #politics #canada #CTVAtlantic

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patriotsnet · 4 years ago

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What Will Happen If Republicans Win

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-will-happen-if-republicans-win/

What Will Happen If Republicans Win

So How Can Republicans Win Without Texas

Lets take the 2016 map with Texas flipped as a starting point. Republicans were at 268 Electoral College votes, meaning that they would only need to flip one Democratic state to win the election. The simplest way to do that would be to target states like Minnesota , the only midwestern state the Republicans failed to pick up in 2016, minus solid blue Illinois. Lets flip Minnesota and see how the map looks then.

This is one way in which Republicans can win an election without Texas. The ten extra Electoral College votes from Minnesota push the Republicans to a victory, albeit by a small margin but a victory nonetheless. Of course, this begs the question, how realistic is this map? Well, Minnesota was by no means a comfortable victory for the Democrats in 2016; Clinton won the state by just one-and-a-half points or roughly 44,000 votes out of a total of 2.7 million votes cast. Its not unrealistic to think that, with some extra effort in campaigning, Republicans could flip the North Star State.

Republicans could also target Nevada , which was ranked as a lean-Democrat/battleground state in 2016. Clinton eventually won Nevada and its six Electoral College votes, but only by a margin of around 30,000 from just over a million cast. Heres how that map would look.

A smaller margin than if the Republicans flipped Minnesota, but a victory nonetheless.

All maps courtesy of 270towin.com

TAGS

What If The Republicans Win Everything Again

Total victory for the G.O.P. would mean Trump unleashed.

Opinion Columnist

The end of Robert Muellers investigation. The loss of health insurance for several million people. New laws that make it harder to vote. More tax cuts for the rich. More damage to the environment. A Republican Party molded even more in the image of President Trump.

These are among the plausible consequences if the Republicans sweep the midterm elections and keep control of both the House and Senate. And dont fool yourself. That outcome, although not the most likely one, remains possible. The last couple of weeks of polling have shown how it could happen.

Voters who lean Republican including whites across the South could set aside their disappointment with Trump and vote for Republican congressional candidates. Voters who lean left including Latinos and younger adults could turn out in low numbers, as they usually do in midterm elections. The Republicans continuing efforts to suppress turnout could also swing a few close elections.

No matter what, Democrats will probably win the popular vote in the House elections, for the first time since 2012. Trump, after all, remains unpopular. But the combination of gerrymandering and the concentration of Democratic voters in major cities means that a popular-vote win wont automatically translate into a House majority.

A Division Of Power In Government Is Common In The Us With The Republicans And The Democrats Often Splitting Control Of The White House And Congress

Joe Biden may have been announced as President Elect but there are still some crucial decisions to be made on how America will be governed for the next four years. The presidential election appears to have been a pretty resounding win for the Democrats but the picture is less clear in the Senate, when both parties retain hope of having a majority when the Upper House reconvenes next year.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement after Bidens victory was called, saying: “A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate would be the biggest difference maker to help President-elect Biden deliver for working families across the country.

Sen. Chuck Schumer: “There has been no evidence of any significant or widespread voter fraud. Joe Biden won this election fair and square. The margins of his victory are growing by the day.” pic.twitter.com/bvAFNdVAw5

The Hill November 9, 2020

All elections in Georgia, not just those for the Senate, require the winning candidate to pick up over 50% of the votes cast. This year neither of the states two Senate races had a majority winning so a run-off will be held on 5 January, with both the Democrats and the Republicans holding out hope of securing the vital seats needed to give them a majority in the Senate.

Why is control of the Senate so important?

How would a Republican Senate affect a Biden presidency?

How likely is it that a Republican Senate compromises with President Elect Biden?

What If Republicans Win The Midterms

March 3, 2018

WASHINGTON A sizable portion of the American population has been convulsing with outrage at President Trump for more than a year. Millions of people who previously took only mild interest in politics have participated in protests, fumed as they stayed riveted to news out of Washington and filled social media accounts once devoted to family updates and funny videos with furious political commentary.

Yet public life on the whole has remained surprisingly calm. A significant factor in keeping the peace has surely been anticipatory catharsis: The widespread expectations of a big Democratic wave in the coming midterm elections are containing and channeling that indignation, helping to maintain order.

What will happen if no such wave materializes and that pressure-relief valve jams shut?

The country was already badly polarized before the plot twist of election night in 2016, of course, but since then liberals and much of what remains of Americas moderate center have been seething in a way that dwarfs the usual disgruntlement of whichever faction is out of power. While nobody can know for sure whether Mr. Trump would have lost but for Russias meddling, many of his critics clearly choose to believe he is in the White House because Vladimir Putin tricked the United States into making him its leader.

This November, if the wave turns out to be a mere trickle, we could see the accomplishment of that goal take hold.

Gold If Republicans Win The Election

Oliver said if President Donald Trump pulls out a surprise victory in the election, the gold price could plunge, just as it did after the 2016 election. That happened against expectations.

While he denounced “left-wing populism,” he also said that Trump “has his own populist streak” because he likes high tariffs, cutting taxes, increasing spending and “a central bank that prints to fund internal improvements and a rising stock market.”

“The precious metals offer safe haven from the approaching political and economic turbulence,” Oliver wrote. “After a relatively brief correction, gold and silver have resumed their climb.”

He added that if the market demands that the dollar be backed on-third by gold like it was between the 1690s and the `908s, gold would need to trade at $8,927 an ounce. On the other hand, if the Federal Reserve is forced to back its liabilities by two-thirds, which he said would be more appropriate for a crisis, the gold price would have to rise to $17,854 an ounce. Further, as the Fed’s balance sheet grows, these numbers for the gold price will increase.

“Given the economic and political risks, $1,900/oz is a bargain,” he declared.”

TAGS

Reality Check 1: Biden Cant Be Fdr

Theres no question that Biden is swinging for the fences. Beyond the emerging bipartisan infrastructure bill, he has proposed a far-reaching series of programs that would collectively move the United States several steps closer to the kind of social democracy prevalent in most industrialized nations: free community college, big support for childcare and homebound seniors, a sharp increase in Medicaid, more people eligible for Medicare, a reinvigorated labor movement. It is why 100 days into the administration, NPR was asking a commonly heard question: Can Biden Join FDR and LBJ In The Democratic Party’s Pantheon?

But the FDR and LBJ examples show conclusively why visions of a transformational Biden agenda are so hard to turn into reality. In 1933, FDR had won a huge popular and electoral landslide, after which he had a three-to-one Democratic majority in the House and a 59-vote majority in the Senate. Similarly, LBJ in 1964 had won a massive popular and electoral vote landslide, along with a Senate with 69 Democrats and a House with 295. Last November, on the other hand, only 42,000 votes in three key states kept Trump from winning re-election. Democrats losses in the House whittled their margin down to mid-single digits. The Senate is 50-50.

Lessons Democrats Can Learn From The 2020 Elections

Why are the elections taking place now?

These are runoffs. Georgia does things a little differently than most other states. Back in November, if one of the Senate candidates had gotten 50% plus one vote, that candidate would have won the election outright and the state would have avoided a runoff in that race. But that didn’t happen in either contest.

Perdue came closest he won 49.7% of the vote to Ossoff’s 47.9%. Calculated another way, out of almost 5 million votes cast, Perdue missed avoiding a runoff by a little over 13,000 votes.

The Loeffler-Warnock race had another hurdle. Because it was a special election, there weren’t primaries and everyone ran on the same ballot together at once.

In a field of 20 candidates, including a prominent Republican challenger, Loeffler got just over a quarter of the vote.

Warnock actually finished ahead of her, with about a third of the vote. But when the votes were combined by party in that race, Republicans were narrowly ahead of Democrats, 49.4% to 48.4%.

Interest is high, given not just the money spent, but the high early-vote turnout, which began Dec. 14 and continued through Friday.

Column: What Happens If Republicans Win The Senate

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For most of the year, it seemed almost certain that Republicans would win the six additional U.S. Senate seats they need to oust the Democrats from their majority and take control of Congress.

But the outlook has turned murkier in recent weeks. While a GOP majority is still the most likely outcome, its no longer as sure a bet. Endangered Democratic incumbents in North Carolina and Alaska are waging surprisingly strong campaigns, and a Republican incumbent in Kansas is in unexpected trouble. We dont have a lock on this thing at all, one GOP strategist told me recently.

It even seems possible that Senate elections could end in a draw, with a 50-50 split, in which case Vice President Joe Biden would cast votes as a tiebreaker.

And thats not even the most exotic possibility.

One scenario is a Senate in which neither major party wins 50 seats. The next Senate will include two, maybe three independents. Incumbents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, whose seats arent up this year, may be joined by Greg Orman, a newcomer who leads the polls in Kansas. Sanders, a socialist, would continue to vote with Democrats, but King and Orman, both centrists, would be wooed by both parties and could instantly become two of the most powerful politicians on Capitol Hill.

But the most intriguing scenario for next years Senate, paradoxically, is the least exotic one: What happens if Republicans win a slim majority of 51 or 52 seats?

More Tax Cuts For The Wealthy And Further Spending Cuts For Middle

Most legislation needs 60 votes in order to break a filibuster in the Senate, but a congressional budget resolution can establish parameters for subsequent legislation to be enacted through the reconciliation process, which only requires 51 votes to pass a measure. The budget resolution itself cannot be filibustered and also only requires 51 votes to pass the Senate. As a result, it is easier for the majority to pass a budget resolution and a reconciliation bill than most other legislation.

The current conservative economic and fiscal roadmap is the fiscal year 2015 budget put forward by former vice presidential nominee and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan . The Ryan budget would provide those with incomes of at least $1 million another $200,000 per year in tax cuts while cutting nondefense spending by $4.8 trillion. Roughly $3.3 trillion of those cuts, or nearly 70 percent, target programs that help low-income and middle-class families, such as Medicaidwhich provides health coverage for low- and moderate-income familiesand Pell Grants, which help students pay for college.

When given the opportunity, Senate Republicans voted for the various Ryan budgets in 2011, 2012, and again in 2013. Previous Senate Republican actions make it clear that the budget that would result from a Republican majority would most likely feature many of the same components as Rep. Ryans past budgets.

Here Is What’s In The Covid

What does the early voting tell us?

It’s always a little tricky to interpret early-voting data and ascribe real meaning to it, but Democrats see some hopeful signs.

Three million people cast ballots early. That’s a record already for total votes cast in a Georgia runoff election. And who is voting is what’s giving Democrats optimism: Black voters are making up a higher percentage of voters than they did for the Senate races in November, and turnout in Democratic congressional districts is higher than in GOP-held ones.

Of course, Democrats saw hope in early-voting numbers in Texas before Nov. 3, and Trump wound up winning that state by 6 points, a wider margin than the polls had predicted.

How much money has been spent on the races?

Almost $500 million has been spent on advertising between the two races in just the two months since the presidential election, according to the latest numbers provided to NPR by AdImpact, a political ad-tracking firm. The figures measure ad reservations between Nov. 4 and Jan. 5.

With outside groups included, Republicans have outspent Democrats $271 million to $218 million.

What Happens When Republicans Simply Refuse To Certify Democratic Wins

Its something we need to start preparing for now.

What will the institutions of liberal democracy do when Republican officials simply refuse to concede Democratic victories? The question isnt as far-fetched as it may seem, and the reckoning may be coming far sooner than most expect.

The entire left-leaning political world has spent the months after the 2020 election obsessed over the fairness of elections, and conservative attempts to rig the vote through gerrymandering and voter suppression. This is for good reason, of course: Republicans know they lack the support to win majority support in a fair contest, but believe they have the right to rule nonetheless for reasons that ultimately boil down to white supremacy, religious dominionism and antiquated patriarchal beliefs. So Republicans have been busy passing bills to restrict voting among young people and non-whites, while doing their best to ensure that exurban conservative whites continue to be dramatically and unfairly overrepresented in the House, Senate and Electoral College.

Its hard to overstate how dangerous this is, and what its consequences might entail in the very near future. As Greg Sargent notes, the GOP appears to be plunging headlong into a level of full-blown hostility to democracy that has deeply unsettling future ramifications.

And no, thats not an exaggeration. Everything were seeing from the Republican Party is pointing directly to it in 2024.

Support Nonprofit Journalism

A Vote To Repeal The Affordable Care Act

Senate Republicans have indicated one of their first votes, should they be in the majority, would be to repeal the ACA. This would most likely occur during the first months of 2015, the same time that millions of Americans will be shopping in the state and federal marketplaces to sign up for health coverage.

Moreover, Senate Republicans would be voting to repeal the ACA when the law is working: The uninsured rate has dropped to a record low, according to a Gallup poll: 7.3 million people were enrolled and paying their premiums in the marketplaces as of August, and another 8 million people have health coverage through Medicaid, not to mention the 5 million people who signed up for ACA-compliant plans outside the marketplace. In addition, millions of Americans benefit from the consumer protections that ban insurers from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition and from putting both lifetime and annual coverage limits on their care.

For some reason, congressional Republicans want to return to old political fights at a time when the rest of the country is ready to move forward. Having a substantive debate on how to improve the ACA and the nations health care system is one thing. Scoring political points on a law that is delivering for Americans is another.

What To Watch For

Activists and a number of Democrats have been heavily pressuring left-leaning Justice Stephen Breyer to retire while Democrats still have the power to confirm Bidens chosen nominee without Republican interference. While control of the Senate will next be determined through the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats have urged Breyer to act sooner, as Democrats slim majority in the Senate50 votes plus Vice President Kamala Harris as a tie breakermeans the party could lose their majority sooner, should one Democratic senator become incapacitated or unexpectedly have to step down. Breyer, for his part, has so far given no indication that he plans to imminently retire, and has spoken out against the idea of the Supreme Court being subject to political interferenceeven soon publishing a book on the topic and how judges try to avoid considerations of politics.

How Challenges To States Electors Will Work

For a challenge to proceed, at least one lawmaker from each chamber must object to a states electors. More than two dozen House Republicans have said they will try to challenge results, and a dozen GOP senators will join them even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged senators to stay away from this.

Lawmakers dont have to give a detailed explanation of why they object; they just object in writing, which Pence will read out loud.

If theres an objection to a states electors raised by both a House and Senate lawmaker, the chambers have to split up and vote on that objection. Most of this will be done silently, save for Pence reading out loud the objections.

They have up to two hours to debate each one. That means there will be simultaneous debates in the House and Senate. We expect congressional leaders in both chambers to move to put down the challenges as quickly as possible. In the House, Pelosi will let lawmakers from the states being challenged do the speaking on the Democratic side.

What If The 2020 Election Audits Show Trump Really Won

We just don’t know. We just don’t know what comes next. It is all a calculated guess. The US Constitution is silent. Even if, if, if, it is so very clear through professional forensic election audit results, that the presidential election of 2020 was stolen and President Trump actually won, there appears to be no obvious remedy stated in the US Constitution to right this wrong. We just don’t know.

The Founding Fathers did not write up a “what if” in the Constitution to make things right. The Founding Fathers wrote up nothing in the Constitution in case mail-in ballots or the internet were used to manipulate the vote. The scary part is that since the answer to possible election fraud appears not to be in the Constitution, nor in federal law, nor in federal court cases, then the answer-the remedy will come from somewhere else. That somewhere else, we know not. But probably not from the words within the US Constitution. Much of this is conjecture.

I. This we do know…

* With a strict constructionist view of the wording in the Constitution, the words are not there to “road map” how to fix possible presidential election fraud.

* The Constitution mentions nothing about the Electoral College re-convening. Historically, the Electoral College has never re-convened for a second time for a presidential certification.

* We know that President Trump is planning something very big and important this summer, and America might look and feel very different by Labor Day Weekend.

Texas Republican Suggests Civil War Will Happen If Democrats Win Georgia Senate Runoffs

As voters in Georgia go to the polls today in a runoff election that will decide who represents them in the U.S. Senate, a Texas Republican suggested Monday evening that if Democrats win those races, conservatives might just declare civil war.

During an appearance on Fox News, Rep. Chip Roy told host Tucker Carlson:

Heres the thing. What happens tomorrow in Georgia if we have a Democratically controlled Senate, I mean, were now basically at full-scale hot conflict in this country, whereas right now were in a cold civil war. Weve got a major problem in this country where the American people, the regular people out there that are working every day, hardworking Americans, they are getting trampled by a system that is rigged against them.

The system is rigged against them? Well, Donald Trump is currently the president and Republicans control the Senate, so wouldnt that mean the rigged system is being perpetuated by those in power, i.e. the GOP?

But that wasnt all Roy had to say. He added:

That is what is at stake, and if the American people in Georgia dont show up, if Georgians dont show up and ensure that we hold the Senate in Republican hands, then thats whats happening. Two additional votes coming out of the Senate in Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, they lock it down for good.

i uh..i think a republican member of congress just threatened civil war if the dems win in georgia tomorrow pic.twitter.com/yZhwB75Up1

Andrew Lawrence January 5, 2021

Weakening Of The Investigations Against Trump

If Democrats dont control the House or the Senate, they cant initiate investigations of Trump or some of his more controversial cabinet members, such as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation at least for a while.

We dont really know why Trump, despite his constant criticisms of the investigation, has not fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or why he has not directly tried to stop the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. Maybe Trump, despite his rhetoric, has some real respect for the rule of law. I think its more likely that Trump understands that firing Rosenstein or making a drastic move to stop the Mueller probe would increase both the chances of Democrats winning the House and/or Senate this year, and the odds that the resulting Democratic-led chamber would feel compelled to push to impeach Trump. But if the GOP emerges from 2017 and 2018 without losing control of the House or the Senate, I suspect that, with the next election two years away, the president will feel freer to take controversial steps to end the Russia probe. And I doubt Republicans on Capitol Hill would try to stop him.

What Congress Is Doing On Wednesday

Throughout November and December, states certified their results. Then the electoral college voted Dec. 14 based on those results and made Biden the winner. States sent their electoral college vote totals to the new Congress to be counted and confirmed. This counting will happen on Wednesday. Its largely a formality, since election law says Congress has to treat states results completed by the safe harbor deadline of Dec. 8 as conclusive.

Wednesday is the penultimate step in the post-election process. All thats left after that is to inaugurate Biden.

I Do Not Buy That A Social Media Ban Hurts Trumps 2024 Aspirations: Nate Silver

sarah: Yeah, Democrats might not have their worst Senate map in 2022, but it will by no means be easy, and how they fare will have a lot to do with the national environment. And as we touched on earlier, Bidens overall approval rating will also make a big difference in Democrats midterm chances.

nrakich: Yeah, if the national environment is even a bit Republican-leaning, that could be enough to allow solid Republican recruits to flip even Nevada and New Hampshire. And then it wouldnt even matter if Democrats win Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

One thing is for sure, though whichever party wins the Senate will have only a narrow majority, so I think were stuck in this era of moderates like Sens. Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski controlling every bills fate for at least a while longer.

sarah: Lets talk about big picture strategy, then, and where that leaves us moving forward. Its still early and far too easy to prescribe election narratives that arent grounded in anything, but one gambit the Republican Party seems to be making at this point is that attacking the Democratic Party for being too progressive or woke will help them win.

What do we make of that playbook headed into 2022? Likewise, as the party in charge, what are Democrats planning for?

With that being said, the GOPs strategies could still gin up turnout among its base, in particular, but its hard to separate that from general dissatisfaction with Biden.

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statetalks · 4 years ago

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What Will Happen If Republicans Win

So How Can Republicans Win Without Texas

youtube

A smaller margin than if the Republicans flipped Minnesota, but a victory nonetheless.

All maps courtesy of 270towin.com

TAGS

What If The Republicans Win Everything Again

Total victory for the G.O.P. would mean Trump unleashed.

Opinion Columnist

A Division Of Power In Government Is Common In The Us With The Republicans And The Democrats Often Splitting Control Of The White House And Congress

The Hill November 9, 2020

Why is control of the Senate so important?

How would a Republican Senate affect a Biden presidency?

How likely is it that a Republican Senate compromises with President Elect Biden?

What If Republicans Win The Midterms

March 3, 2018

What will happen if no such wave materializes and that pressure-relief valve jams shut?

This November, if the wave turns out to be a mere trickle, we could see the accomplishment of that goal take hold.

Gold If Republicans Win The Election

Oliver said if President Donald Trump pulls out a surprise victory in the election, the gold price could plunge, just as it did after the 2016 election. That happened against expectations.

“The precious metals offer safe haven from the approaching political and economic turbulence,” Oliver wrote. “After a relatively brief correction, gold and silver have resumed their climb.”

“Given the economic and political risks, $1,900/oz is a bargain,” he declared.”

TAGS

Reality Check 1: Biden Cant Be Fdr

Lessons Democrats Can Learn From The 2020 Elections

Why are the elections taking place now?

Perdue came closest he won 49.7% of the vote to Ossoff’s 47.9%. Calculated another way, out of almost 5 million votes cast, Perdue missed avoiding a runoff by a little over 13,000 votes.

The Loeffler-Warnock race had another hurdle. Because it was a special election, there weren’t primaries and everyone ran on the same ballot together at once.

In a field of 20 candidates, including a prominent Republican challenger, Loeffler got just over a quarter of the vote.

Warnock actually finished ahead of her, with about a third of the vote. But when the votes were combined by party in that race, Republicans were narrowly ahead of Democrats, 49.4% to 48.4%.

Interest is high, given not just the money spent, but the high early-vote turnout, which began Dec. 14 and continued through Friday.

Column: What Happens If Republicans Win The Senate

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For most of the year, it seemed almost certain that Republicans would win the six additional U.S. Senate seats they need to oust the Democrats from their majority and take control of Congress.

It even seems possible that Senate elections could end in a draw, with a 50-50 split, in which case Vice President Joe Biden would cast votes as a tiebreaker.

And thats not even the most exotic possibility.

But the most intriguing scenario for next years Senate, paradoxically, is the least exotic one: What happens if Republicans win a slim majority of 51 or 52 seats?

More Tax Cuts For The Wealthy And Further Spending Cuts For Middle

youtube

Here Is What’s In The Covid

What does the early voting tell us?

It’s always a little tricky to interpret early-voting data and ascribe real meaning to it, but Democrats see some hopeful signs.

Of course, Democrats saw hope in early-voting numbers in Texas before Nov. 3, and Trump wound up winning that state by 6 points, a wider margin than the polls had predicted.

How much money has been spent on the races?

With outside groups included, Republicans have outspent Democrats $271 million to $218 million.

What Happens When Republicans Simply Refuse To Certify Democratic Wins

Its something we need to start preparing for now.

And no, thats not an exaggeration. Everything were seeing from the Republican Party is pointing directly to it in 2024.

Support Nonprofit Journalism

A Vote To Repeal The Affordable Care Act

What To Watch For

How Challenges To States Electors Will Work

Lawmakers dont have to give a detailed explanation of why they object; they just object in writing, which Pence will read out loud.

What If The 2020 Election Audits Show Trump Really Won

I. This we do know…

* With a strict constructionist view of the wording in the Constitution, the words are not there to “road map” how to fix possible presidential election fraud.

* The Constitution mentions nothing about the Electoral College re-convening. Historically, the Electoral College has never re-convened for a second time for a presidential certification.

* We know that President Trump is planning something very big and important this summer, and America might look and feel very different by Labor Day Weekend.

Texas Republican Suggests Civil War Will Happen If Democrats Win Georgia Senate Runoffs

During an appearance on Fox News, Rep. Chip Roy told host Tucker Carlson:

But that wasnt all Roy had to say. He added:

i uh..i think a republican member of congress just threatened civil war if the dems win in georgia tomorrow pic.twitter.com/yZhwB75Up1

Andrew Lawrence January 5, 2021

Weakening Of The Investigations Against Trump

youtube

More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation at least for a while.

What Congress Is Doing On Wednesday

Wednesday is the penultimate step in the post-election process. All thats left after that is to inaugurate Biden.

I Do Not Buy That A Social Media Ban Hurts Trumps 2024 Aspirations: Nate Silver

What do we make of that playbook headed into 2022? Likewise, as the party in charge, what are Democrats planning for?

With that being said, the GOPs strategies could still gin up turnout among its base, in particular, but its hard to separate that from general dissatisfaction with Biden.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-will-happen-if-republicans-win/

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eretzyisrael · 7 years ago

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"More journalists than protesters..." — Björn Stritzel, German journalist.

Protests against Israel and the US are not uncommon on the streets of Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem. But for the "war correspondents," there is nothing more exciting than standing behind burning tires and stone throwers and reporting from the heart of the "clashes." Such scenes make the journalists look as if they are in the middle of a battlefield and are risking their lives to bring the story home to their viewers. They might even receive an award for their "courageous" reporting from danger zones!

Jerusalem is tense, and has long been so, because the Palestinians have not yet managed to come to terms with Israel's right to exist. That is the real story. The Palestinians rage and rage for only one reason: because Israel exists. Put that in a story and publish it.

The Palestinians declared a three-day-long "rage" spree over US President Donald Trump's announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Thus far, however, it seems that the real anger is showing up in the international media, not on the Palestinian street.

Question: How many foreign journalists does it take to cover the Palestinian reaction to Trump's announcement? Answer: As many as the Israel-Palestinian-conflict-obsessed-West can manage to send.

The massive presence of the international media in Jerusalem and the West Bank has taken even the Palestinians by surprise. Since Trump's announcement on December 6, dozens of additional journalists and camera crews have converged on Israel to cover "the big story."

The American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, once a favorite haunt of international reporters, is once again packed with journalists from around the world.

Some of these reporters, including those working for American networks, have been flown in from their working posts in London, Paris, Cairo and New York to cover what many of them are already calling the "New Palestinian Intifada." But is it really a new intifada, or is it simply wishful thinking on the part of the swarm of Palestinian and foreign reporters?

In the past few days, we have seen wild exaggeration in the media as to what is really happening in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. What is evident, however, is that the number of journalists and photographers covering the protests in the city has thus far exceeded the number of Palestinian protesters.

Let us start with Friday, December 8, the final day of the announced Palestinian "rage." The Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian groups told us to expect mass rallies and protests after Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. So did the reporters.

By early morning, at least six television production trucks were stationed in the small parking lot outside the Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. The trucks belonged to various television stations were presumably brought there to film live broadcasts of the anticipated mass protests. Another 70-80 journalists and photographers were waiting, some impatiently, for the Muslim worshippers to finish their prayers and start their protests against President Trump's announcement.

What we got in the end was a small and peaceful protest of some 40 Palestinians, who chanted slogans against Israel, the US and Arab leaders -- including Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, who was dubbed a "traitor" and "Israeli spy."

Björn Stritzel, an honest and brave German journalist, tweeted from the scene: "More journalists than protesters after Friday prayers."

The media frenzy was echoed by several other reporters. "Three days of 'rage' have passed since Trump's Jerusalem declaration and Armageddon hasn't arrived," remarked journalist Oren Kessler. "One is loath to make predictions of continued calm in the region, but thus far the doomsday prophecies have not materialized."

French journalist Piotr Smolar, who also waited for the "big" protest, wrote: "Dozens and dozens of journalists at Damascus gate, where nothing has happened until now."

Joe Dyke, a reporter with Agence France Press (AFP), tweeted this photo showing more journalists than protesters at Damascus Gate. He wrote: "Small Palestinian protest at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem broken up by the Israeli police. They seemed to object to a picture of Trump as a toilet."

Dyke later reported that he had "just walked through Jerusalem's Old City and the situation is very calm. More police on streets but no issues as yet. Tourists milling about."

The following day, Saturday December 9, we witnessed a repetition of the same scenario in Jerusalem. The city was relatively quiet, but the presence of journalists and photographers loomed large. At noon, a small group of Palestinians (25-30) staged a protest on the main business thoroughfare of east Jerusalem, Salah Eddin Street, while chanting slogans against Israel and the US.

Here is how the journalist Seth Frantzman of The Jerusalem Post, who was at the scene, described the situation: "There are more people with cameras here than anyone clashing (with police) at the moment."

Frantzman later had this to say about the "clash": "There are as many media and onlookers taking photos here as there are youth and police waiting for the clashes."

There are nearly 300,000 Arabs living in Jerusalem, and the truth is that the vast majority did not take part in any of the small protests, which were staged deliberately as a show for the dozens of journalists who converged on the city. In fact, there were more protesters on the streets of Berlin, Cairo, Valencia (Spain) and Istanbul than in Jerusalem itself. With the exception of the two incidents at Damascus Gate and Salah Eddin Street, the remaining 28 Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem were mostly quiet, with nothing dramatic happening.

The bored journalists were forced to don their helmets and bullet-proof vests and head to the West Bank, in the hope of capturing scenes of the "New Intifada." What they found in the West Bank, however, was not unusual: minor "clashes" between stone throwers and Israeli soldiers occur almost every day.

That is what happens when you are afraid to go to Yemen, Libya, Syria or Iraq to cover the real bloodshed.

Let us be frank. The large number of journalists dispatched to Israel expected -- even hoped -- that Trump's announcement would trigger a new Palestinian intifada.

This way, the media could blame Trump for "igniting violence," instigating instability and "derailing" the peace process. It is all about media-based Trump-hatred. Of course, it is also about media-based Israel-hatred, searching for any excuse to blame the Jews for the "suffering" of the Palestinians. The journalists, however, will not let those pesky facts get in their way; they continue to report as if Jerusalem is engulfed in flames. The reality on the ground, though, is far from that.

A Palestinian man uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli border police near Ramallah, on December 9, 2017. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

No peace process is about to be "derailed," for the simple reason that there was not one on the first place -- and there has not been one for years. Why? Mostly thanks to Palestinian rejectionism, indoctrination and incitement. The protests and violence we are witnessing in parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank constitute daily life here. It is not as if the Palestinians have not been carrying out terror attacks against Israel all these years. And it is not as if the Palestinians used to love Israel -- or even recognized its right to exist -- until Trump made his announcement last week.

Newsflash for the journalists: There's nothing new on the Palestinian street. Palestinian threats of violence and walking out of any "peace process" is old, old news. Jerusalem is not on fire. Jerusalem is tense, and has long been so, because the Palestinians have not yet managed to come to terms with Israel's right to exist. That is the real story. The Palestinians rage and rage and rage for only one reason: because Israel exists. Put that in a story and publish it.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim based in the Middle East.

#Israel #Jerusalem #President Trump #Israel's Capital #USA

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conservativefreepress · 4 years ago

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New Post has been published on Conservative Free Press

New Post has been published on http://www.conservativefreepress.com/politics/if-trump-is-so-awful-why-do-they-always-have-to-lie-about-him/

If Trump is So Awful, Why Do They Always Have to Lie About Him?

It’s a thought that’s occurred to us countless times over the last four or five years: If Donald Trump is such a terrible person, why is it that the left constantly has to lie about him to make that point?

You would think that if this man is such a racist, dictatorial, conspiratorial threat to the nation that his critics could make that case without resorting to outright falsehoods. Falsehoods like: He called illegal immigrants “monsters,” he had a statue of MLK removed from the Oval Office, he called white supremacists and neo-Nazis “very fine people,” and on and on. It seems to us that if you’re confronting a man of such immense evil, you would be able to persuade others of that evil using only true facts.

But yet, it keeps happening.

And boy, were the lies ever flying this week after the siege at the U.S. Capitol.

There is a reasonable argument to be made that Trump played a role in inciting the rally-goers. You can make that case. You can make the case that he should have known better than to encourage them to march to the Capitol, armed with the theory that the election had been ripped out from under them by a massive fraud. We don’t happen to subscribe to that theory, but you can make the argument.

What you can’t do is make the FACTUAL claim that Trump sent these supporters into the Capitol to do his bidding. Yes, Trump encouraged them to march. Yes, he encouraged them to protest. But he never – ever – told them to rush the barricades, go onto the grounds, lay siege to the property, break into the building, break into congressional offices, and engage in all the other mayhem of that day. You can scour his rally speech from beginning to end, and you’ll never hear the slightest hint that he was encouraging that kind of behavior. And yet, that’s all we’ve been hearing from his critics on cable news, the mainstream news media, and the Democratic Party.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

But that’s not the end of the lies about the Capitol violence. When Joe Biden took to the stage on Thursday for his denouncements, he echoed many in the media when he drew comparisons to this summer’s protests in Lafayette Square – the idea being that when Trump saw (gasp!) BLACK PEOPLE protesting, he didn’t hesitate to use violent means to quell the peaceful gathering.

The truth – which is not something you can ever expect from the mainstream media – is that those protests outside the White House were anything but peaceful.

“On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, OK, there were violent riots in- at Lafayette Park where the park police were under constant attack at the — behind their bike rack fences,” Attorney General William Barr said after the criticism had reached a fever pitch this summer. “On Sunday, things reached a crescendo. The officers were pummeled with bricks. Crowbars were used to pry up the pavers at the park and they were hurled at police. There were fires set in not only St. John’s Church, but a historic building at Lafayette was burned down.

“All I heard was comments about how peaceful protesters were,” Barr continued. “I didn’t hear about the fact that there were 150 law enforcement officers injured and many taken to the hospital with concussions. So it wasn’t a peaceful protest.”

Joe Biden and his Democrat friends in the media don’t seem to understand that the constant lies coming from their side of the divide are largely to blame for what happened at the Capitol on Wednesday. When a group decides (not without cause) that they can believe in no one but themselves, you get chaos.

Rebuilding that trust should be the #1 priority of the media and the U.S. government. Unfortunately, from what we’ve seen this week, they don’t seem interested.

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Friday, March 26, 2021

Border crossings strain resources in Rio Grande Valley (AP) Elmer Maldonado spent a week in immigration custody with his 1-year-old son after crossing the Rio Grande through Texas to request asylum. One night, the Honduran father and son slept on the dirt under a bridge shivering from the cold temperatures at an intake site where large groups of migrants turn themselves in to Border Patrol officers. His experience illustrates a cycle that is repeating itself thousands of times a week amid a dramatic rise in migrant children and families at the U.S.-Mexico border: They arrive in the middle of the night by the dozens and are kept at outdoor intake sites, then taken to overcrowded detention facilities well past the 72-hour court-imposed limit. From there, the families are either released into the U.S. or expelled to Mexico, the lucky ones dropped off at a COVID-19 testing site with documents. Children traveling without their parents go to federal shelters that are also quickly filling up. The process is largely out of the public eye. The Associated Press has not been allowed in any of the Border Patrol facilities. Journalists are often limited by authorities even when going to the banks of the Rio Grande to witness the process and talk to immigrants.

Capitol fencing removed 77 days after deadly riot (USA Today) An imposing fence-line strung with razor wire has been removed from the outer perimeter of the U.S. Capitol complex, more than two months after the deadly siege. Capitol Police said Wednesday that local streets blocked by the network of barriers also had been re-opened to traffic, though authorities said they are prepared to “quickly ramp up security at a moment’s notice, if needed.” An inner-perimeter fence around the actual Capitol building will remain in place while police and lawmakers continue to hash out a long-term security plan.

US saw estimated 4,000 extra murders in 2020 amid surge in daily gun violence (Guardian) For exactly a year during the pandemic, the United States did not see a single high-profile public mass shooting. But a surge in daily gun violence contributed to an estimated 4,000 additional murders throughout 2020, in what experts warn will probably be the worst single-year increase in murders on record. Early estimates suggest the US may have seen at least 4,000 more murders last year than in 2019, and potentially as many as 5,000 more, according to projections based on FBI data, though complete official statistics will not be available until the fall. Many of the homicides are concentrated in communities of color that have historically seen the worst burden of daily gun violence, including in Philadelphia, St Louis, Chicago and Oakland.

In Myanmar, a New Resistance Rises (NYT) In a jungle in the borderlands of Myanmar, the troops sweated through basic training. They learned how to load a rifle, pull the pin of a hand grenade and assemble a firebomb. These cadets are not members of Myanmar’s military, which seized power last month and quickly imposed a battlefield brutality on the country’s populace. Instead, they are an eclectic corps of students, activists and ordinary office workers who believe that fighting back is the only way to defeat one of the world’s most ruthless armed forces. After weeks of peaceful protests, the frontline of Myanmar’s resistance to the Feb. 1 coup is mobilizing into a kind of guerrilla force. In the cities, protesters have built barricades to protect neighborhoods from military incursions and learned how to make smoke bombs on the internet. In the forests, they are training in basic warfare techniques and plotting to sabotage military-linked facilities. The opposition is a defensive response to the military’s mounting reign of terror. The Tatmadaw has cracked down on peaceful protesters and unarmed bystanders alike, killing at least 275 people since the coup, according to a monitoring group.

Torch relay for Tokyo Olympics kicks off its 121-day journey (AP) The torch relay for the postponed Tokyo Olympics began its 121-day journey across Japan on Thursday and is headed toward the opening ceremony in Tokyo on July 23. The relay began in northeastern Fukushima prefecture, the area that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and the meltdown of three nuclear reactors. About 18,000 died in the tragedy. About 10,000 runners are expected to take part, with the relay touching Japan’s 47 prefectures.

Taiwan beefing up its defenses (South China Morning Post) Taiwan has begun mass production of a long-range missile and is developing three other models, a senior official said on Thursday, in a rare admission of efforts to develop strike capacity amid growing pressure from mainland China. The island’s armed forces are in the middle of a modernization program to offer a more effective deterrent, including the ability to hit back at bases deep within mainland China in the event of a conflict.

Some Australians return home as others evacuated in floods crisis (Reuters) Australians hit by devastating floodwaters began returning to their homes on Thursday as skies cleared and authorities accelerated clean-up efforts, though fresh evacuation orders were issued in some areas where water levels were still rising. Relentless rains for five straight days—the worst downpour in more than half a century—burst river banks, inundating homes, roads, bridges and farms and cutting off entire towns in Australia’s east. More than 40,000 people were forced to move to safe zones and two men were killed after their cars became trapped in floodwaters. Water continued to flow from overloaded dams and rivers on Thursday, particularly in New South Wales state, leading authorities to urge caution. Major flooding also continues in Sydney’s western suburbs of North Richmond and Windsor, while fresh evacuation orders were issued for some areas in the centre of the state.

One man’s mission offers Beirut neighbourhood a vision of hope after blast (Reuters) The sheer scale of the destruction in Beirut’s Karantina district after the massive explosion at the port last August made rebuilding a daunting feat. That was where Marc Torbey El Helou, a charity worker, came in. The low-income neighbourhood was one of the closest to the blast that killed 200 people. It stands across from the giant, mutilated grain silo that has become a symbol of the tragedy. Helou decided a day after the explosion to dedicate himself, and the aid group he runs, to rebuilding the neighbourhood. Just removing the rubble required 300 truckloads. Some buildings needed immediate help to stop them collapsing. Helou says the same of Karantina’s residents. “There were children here who would not laugh or play for months.” Helou’s charity, Offre Joie (Joy of Giving), has repaired Lebanese districts hit by war and violence since 1985. “Unfortunately, it means we have the experience for this,” said Helou, 33, who has used a wheelchair since a diving accident in 2016. With the Lebanese state hollowed out by decades of corruption and failure, it fell to aid groups and volunteers like Helou to rebuild the city. Offre Joie took on six blocks in Karantina and nearby. That includes the homes of about 350 families. More than seven months after the explosion, one of the largest non-nuclear detonations on record, many residents have yet to return. But the streets are bustling with life again, and the buildings never looked so good. The charity’s budget was trapped in the bank thanks to controls imposed during Lebanon’s financial crisis. But donations poured in from abroad: up to three million dollars in cash, construction material and containers full of food. Thousands of volunteers also came, including engineers and psychologists.

Musical Chairs But The Song Never Ends (NYT) Four elections in two years have failed to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the necessary 61 seats to form a coalition government with a majority in Parliament. With more than 90% of Wednesday’s vote counted, Netanyahu’s right-wing alliance had 52 seats and his opponents had 56. And the gridlock extends beyond the election. Administrative stagnation has left Israel without a national budget for two consecutive years in the middle of a pandemic, and with several key Civil Service posts unstaffed. The idea that the political deadlock paralyzing the country isn’t going to get better, and in fact appears to have gotten worse, has Israelis pondering the viability of their electoral system, the functionality of their government and whether the divisions between the country’s various politics—secular and devout, right-wing and leftist, Jewish and Arab—have made the nation unmanageable. A Tel Aviv-based analyst said Israel isn’t yet a failed state, like Lebanon, because it still has institutions. “But there is definitely erosion,” she said. “Not having a budget for two years—this is really dangerous.”

Saudi official denies threat to harm UN Khashoggi investigator (Reuters) A senior Saudi official denied on Thursday he had threatened to harm the human rights expert who led the U.N. investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after the United Nations confirmed the expert’s account of the threat. Agnes Callamard, the U.N. expert on summary killings, has said that a Saudi official threatened at a Jan. 2020 meeting in Geneva that she would be “taken care of” if she was not reined in following her investigation into the journalist’s murder. She said the remark was interpreted by U.N. officials as a “death threat”. The United Nations confirmed her account on Wednesday, describing the remark as a “threat”. Neither Callamard nor the United Nations has identified the Saudi official who made the remark. However, the head of Saudi Arabia’s human rights commission, Awwad Alawwad, identified himself as the official on Thursday, while denying he had intended any threat.

Stuck ship in Egypt’s Suez Canal imperils shipping worldwide (Washington Post) A skyscraper-sized cargo ship wedged across Egypt’s Suez Canal further imperiled global shipping Thursday as at least 150 other vessels needing to pass through the crucial waterway idled waiting for the obstruction to clear, authorities said. The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula. In the time since, efforts to free the ship using dredgers, digging and the aid of high tides have yet to push the container vessel aside—affecting billions of dollars’ worth of cargo. Overall, famed shipping journal Lloyd’s List estimates each day the Suez Canal is closed disrupts over $9 billion worth of goods that should be passing through the waterway. A quarter of all Suez Canal traffic a day comes from container ships like the Ever Given, the journal said. “Blocking something like the Suez Canal really sets in motion a number of dominos toppling each other over,” said Lars Jensen, chief executive of Denmark-based SeaIntelligence Consulting. “The effect is not only going to be the simple, immediate one with cargo being delayed over the next few weeks, but will actually have repercussions several months down the line for the supply chain.”

#headlines #news

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George Floyd: New York and Washington see security ease

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption National Guardsmen watch on as a protester demonstrates in Washington DC

Security measures in the US have been lifted as unrest over the death in police custody of African-American George Floyd eases.

New York ended its nearly week-long curfew and President Donald Trump said he was ordering the National Guard to start withdrawing from Washington DC.

The unrest has largely been replaced by largely peaceful worldwide protests against racism and police brutality.

Black Lives Matter protests continued on Sunday in European nations.

George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on 25 May. Video showed him pinned to the floor, with a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes.

Officer Derek Chauvin has been dismissed and charged with murder. Three other officers who were at the scene have also been sacked and charged with aiding and abetting.

Mr Floyd’s funeral is scheduled for Tuesday in Houston, his home city before he moved to Minneapolis.

US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is due to travel to Texas on Monday to meet Mr Floyd’s family ahead of the service and offer his condolences, two senior aides told Reuters news agency. He is not expected to attend the funeral.

Mr Biden also took to Twitter on Sunday to hit out at Mr Trump’s handling of the protests, saying he had “callously used his [words as a president] to incite violence, stoke the flames of hatred and division, and drive us further apart”.

Hours earlier, President Trump had tweeted that the National Guard could start withdrawing from the capital as “everything is under perfect control”.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media caption“Keep pushing”: Washington DC protesters on keeping the momentum going

“They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!” he said.

The National Guard is the reserve military force that can be called on by the US president or state governors to intervene in domestic emergencies.

Washington had seen angry protests outside the White House, particularly last Monday when demonstrators were cleared for Mr Trump to walk to a nearby church.

Saturday’s massive protest in the capital was peaceful.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted: “We are lifting the curfew, effective immediately. Yesterday and last night we saw the very best of our city.”

The end of the curfew comes a day before New York enters the first phase of its plan to reopen after more than two months of lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption New York City police approach people out after the 20:00 curfew on Friday

“Tomorrow we take the first big step to restart. Keep staying safe. Keep looking out for each other,” Mr de Blasio said.

New York has seen its fair share of violence in the past week, with looting of luxury stores in Manhattan, scores of arrests and the burning of dozens of police cars.

There were also accusations against the police, including the beating of protesters. One patrol car was also driven into a crowd of protesters, sparking a row between politicians.

Many major US cities that saw unrest have now lifted curfews, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, although a few protests have still led to clashes.

Where are protests continuing now?

Sunday has seen more demonstrations taking place across Europe under the banner of Black Lives Matter.

In Madrid, thousands of people marched carrying anti-racism placards and wearing masks to observe coronavirus measures, although images showed social distancing was not being followed.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption A huge protest was held in Madrid on Sunday

Outside the US embassy in Madrid, protesters shouted “I can’t breathe”, echoing Mr Floyd’s last words. Others took a knee to observe the mark of protest that originated in the US against police brutality and racism.

Similar protests were held in Rome, where protesters fell silent for roughly the same time that George Floyd was pinned down.

There have also been events in Brussels, Copenhagen and in several places in the UK.

Protesters in Bristol tore down a statue of Edward Colston, a prominent 17th Century slave trader.

What happened on Saturday?

Huge peaceful rallies took place across the US.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington DC, in the city’s largest protest so far, many of them at the newly renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza outside Lafayette Park.

There were also massive protests in San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionThe US’s history of racial inequality has paved the way for modern day police brutality

There was even a protest in the small, east Texas town of Vidor, once infamous as a Ku Klux Klan stronghold.

Dozens of white and black protesters carrying Black Lives Matter banners rallied in a place previously known as a “sundown town” because blacks did not venture out after dark.

Though the vast majority of protests were peaceful, both Portland and Seattle saw unrest on Saturday night, with projectiles thrown and arrests made.

Meanwhile, people paid their respects to Mr Floyd in North Carolina, where he was born, with a memorial service held.

TAGS

What If The Republicans Win Everything Again

Total victory for the G.O.P. would mean Trump unleashed.

Opinion Columnist

A Division Of Power In Government Is Common In The Us With The Republicans And The Democrats Often Splitting Control Of The White House And Congress

The Hill November 9, 2020

Why is control of the Senate so important?

How would a Republican Senate affect a Biden presidency?

How likely is it that a Republican Senate compromises with President Elect Biden?

What If Republicans Win The Midterms

March 3, 2018

What will happen if no such wave materializes and that pressure-relief valve jams shut?

This November, if the wave turns out to be a mere trickle, we could see the accomplishment of that goal take hold.

Gold If Republicans Win The Election

Oliver said if President Donald Trump pulls out a surprise victory in the election, the gold price could plunge, just as it did after the 2016 election. That happened against expectations.

“The precious metals offer safe haven from the approaching political and economic turbulence,” Oliver wrote. “After a relatively brief correction, gold and silver have resumed their climb.”

“Given the economic and political risks, $1,900/oz is a bargain,” he declared.”

TAGS

Reality Check 1: Biden Cant Be Fdr

Lessons Democrats Can Learn From The 2020 Elections

Why are the elections taking place now?

Perdue came closest he won 49.7% of the vote to Ossoff’s 47.9%. Calculated another way, out of almost 5 million votes cast, Perdue missed avoiding a runoff by a little over 13,000 votes.

The Loeffler-Warnock race had another hurdle. Because it was a special election, there weren’t primaries and everyone ran on the same ballot together at once.

In a field of 20 candidates, including a prominent Republican challenger, Loeffler got just over a quarter of the vote.

Warnock actually finished ahead of her, with about a third of the vote. But when the votes were combined by party in that race, Republicans were narrowly ahead of Democrats, 49.4% to 48.4%.

Interest is high, given not just the money spent, but the high early-vote turnout, which began Dec. 14 and continued through Friday.

Column: What Happens If Republicans Win The Senate

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For most of the year, it seemed almost certain that Republicans would win the six additional U.S. Senate seats they need to oust the Democrats from their majority and take control of Congress.

It even seems possible that Senate elections could end in a draw, with a 50-50 split, in which case Vice President Joe Biden would cast votes as a tiebreaker.

And thats not even the most exotic possibility.

But the most intriguing scenario for next years Senate, paradoxically, is the least exotic one: What happens if Republicans win a slim majority of 51 or 52 seats?

More Tax Cuts For The Wealthy And Further Spending Cuts For Middle

Here Is What’s In The Covid

What does the early voting tell us?

It’s always a little tricky to interpret early-voting data and ascribe real meaning to it, but Democrats see some hopeful signs.

Of course, Democrats saw hope in early-voting numbers in Texas before Nov. 3, and Trump wound up winning that state by 6 points, a wider margin than the polls had predicted.

How much money has been spent on the races?

With outside groups included, Republicans have outspent Democrats $271 million to $218 million.

What Happens When Republicans Simply Refuse To Certify Democratic Wins

Its something we need to start preparing for now.

And no, thats not an exaggeration. Everything were seeing from the Republican Party is pointing directly to it in 2024.

Support Nonprofit Journalism

A Vote To Repeal The Affordable Care Act

What To Watch For

How Challenges To States Electors Will Work

Lawmakers dont have to give a detailed explanation of why they object; they just object in writing, which Pence will read out loud.

What If The 2020 Election Audits Show Trump Really Won

I. This we do know…

* With a strict constructionist view of the wording in the Constitution, the words are not there to “road map” how to fix possible presidential election fraud.

* The Constitution mentions nothing about the Electoral College re-convening. Historically, the Electoral College has never re-convened for a second time for a presidential certification.

* We know that President Trump is planning something very big and important this summer, and America might look and feel very different by Labor Day Weekend.

Texas Republican Suggests Civil War Will Happen If Democrats Win Georgia Senate Runoffs

During an appearance on Fox News, Rep. Chip Roy told host Tucker Carlson:

But that wasnt all Roy had to say. He added:

i uh..i think a republican member of congress just threatened civil war if the dems win in georgia tomorrow pic.twitter.com/yZhwB75Up1

Andrew Lawrence January 5, 2021

Weakening Of The Investigations Against Trump

More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation at least for a while.

What Congress Is Doing On Wednesday

Wednesday is the penultimate step in the post-election process. All thats left after that is to inaugurate Biden.

I Do Not Buy That A Social Media Ban Hurts Trumps 2024 Aspirations: Nate Silver

What do we make of that playbook headed into 2022? Likewise, as the party in charge, what are Democrats planning for?

With that being said, the GOPs strategies could still gin up turnout among its base, in particular, but its hard to separate that from general dissatisfaction with Biden.

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