Well, 2021 is getting off to a quick start, isn’t it? Here are the big 3 for the week:
Yesterday, the 117th Congress was sworn in. It boasts the largest number of women ever (118), the 1st Korean-American women, the 1st openly gay Black man, the 1st Iranian-American person, & the youngest member. Also, Nancy Pelosi was re-elected to be the Speaker of the House. The Democrats currently have a slim majority at 222 members (four more than the 218 needed). There are still two races that are undetermined (Iowa’s 2nd District & New York 22nd District).
Fun fact: Only 99 Senators were sworn in. David Perdue’s term ended this weekend, and his seat will remain vacant until the Georgia runoff election is certified. Which bring us to…
Tomorrow, on January 5th, we have the crucial Georgia runoff elections for the two Senate seats, the Georgia Public Service Commission open seat, and two special elections in the Virginia House of Delegates (Districts 2 & 90).
According to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, a record 3 million Georgians have voted in the early voting period for the runoff races. Although no votes will be counted until Election Day, it appears that more Democratic voters have voted early than Republicans. But Republicans generally turn out in higher numbers on Election Day. No one can predict how this race will turn out, so it is incumbent on all of us to keep reminding folks to take matters into their own hands and vote.
And then on January 6th, we have the joint session of Congress which is when they will count the Electoral College votes. You’ve no doubt heard a lot about this counting of the votes. If you’d like to read the law that outlines how this process works, you can do that HERE. (It’s not that long.) Essentially, the leaders of the House and Senate announce each state’s certified electoral votes. If a legislator from both the House and the Senate object to a state’s electors, they go back to their own chambers and debate it for no more than two hours after which they take a vote. Since the House has a majority of Democrats, there is zero chance that they will vote to exclude any electors and therefore this stunt by Republicans to object to electors is doomed to fail. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be recognized by Congress as the rightful winners.
Take Action
I’ll write more on Wednesday about this legal, yet deeply undemocratic stunt that the Republicans are pulling, but there is one thing we all need to do today. Which is to call our two Senators and one Representative and tell them how we want them to act. If they are one of the Republican House or Senate members planning to object to the vote, demand that they recognize the will of the voters in each state and the integrity of each state’s election process which audited and certified the will of the voters. If they are not planning to object, demand that they speak out publicly and clearly about what their Republican colleagues are doing and why it is so dangerous for our country. You can find your House rep’s contact information HERE and your Senators’ contact information HERE.
Thank you for taking action!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tokyo, after reading about editorials from conservative papers The New York Post and Wall Street Journal who say cut the crap and certify that Biden won, with the Post calling the efforts to unwind the Biden win as am “undemocratic coup,” the US Chamber of Commerce was joined by two other business groups in making a public statement.
From a CNBC article a few minutes ago called “Major business leaders tell Congress to certify Biden won electoral college; Trump lost” by Dan Mangan, the following two paragraphs speak volumes:
“Major U.S. business leaders on Monday urged Congress to certify this week President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Donald Trump, who has refused to recognize his loss in the 2020 election.
Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Partnership for New York City separately issued statements calling for an end to efforts to undermine Biden’s win.”
This is directed at folks like Cruz, Johnson, Brooks, Hawley, Gohmert et al and is telling them to get out of the pool. But, the best evidence of the corrupt actions of the president, come from no other than the president as he tried to coerce a Republican Sec of State in Georgia to cheat for him. He said “no.” By the way, what the president did may be a crime. Keith
As I understand it, officials in Georgia might already be looking at whether or not it’s a crime.