Democrats Projected to Win Both U.S. Senate Campaigns in Georgia –

This sunrise view of the Smoky Mountains from here was taken on a phone cam by my housemate here, Kay Newton

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — My eyes eased open just before sunrise this morning to that pre-sunrise orange glow coming up over the smoky mountains in view from the upstairs window facing east toward the peaks.

You know, I’ve written about that before in the intro to my memoir, Jump On The Bus: Make Democracy Work Again.

On this day, the feeling in my gut was calm and relaxed, not tensed up with dread, and not because of any drug. It’s much like the feeling you get waking up after taking a hit of Xanax the night before.

The feeling was surprising to me, considering I went to bed early Tuesday night without even a glass of wine, an IPA or even a CBD gummy, and because of the news expected to hammer the world on Wednesday. You know what I mean.

So I swung my feet out of bed slowly, donned my new Christmas cotton lounge pants from Santa, and eased down to the kitchen to make the coffee, a caramel truffle we picked up at the Fellini Kroger on North Broadway Street. (Remind me to tell you the story of why we call it the Fellini Kroger another time).

For some reason I still felt this unusual morning calm as I cranked up the souped-up Mac Mini and connected to the internet and checked the email messages and headlines.

“Good morning. The Democrats appear to have won both Georgia runoffs, giving them Senate control,” wrote David Leonhardt, the New York Times editor who handles “The Morning” email newsletter.

Ahh, that’s good news, although only one of the two races had been called publicly in the news stories on the web and TeeVee.

Under the headline, “A huge night for Biden,” the Times wrote, “The Democratic Party’s 2020 victory just got a lot bigger. And Joe Biden’s chances of signing ambitious legislation — to fight climate change, reduce economic inequality and slow the coronavirus pandemic — got a lot bigger, too.

“The Democrats appear to have won both Senate runoffs in Georgia last night, giving them control of the Senate. The Rev. Raphael Warnock has beaten Senator Kelly Loeffler by about 2 percentage points, according to Times estimates. Most news organizations have not yet called the race between Jon Ossoff and Senator David Perdue, but Ossoff leads by about 16,000 votes and the outstanding votes come from Democratic-leaning areas.

“The Times’s Nate Cohn, who analyzes election returns, said he believed Ossoff would likely end up with a lead of more than 0.5 percentage points — large enough to avoid a recount. David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report wrote that he considered both races to be over. The apparent victories will give Democrats control of both the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time in 10 years.”

That comes as great news for democracy and the planet, in spite of quotes in some news stories this morning from Trump supporters jumping on buses to go to Washington to try to keep democracy breaking.

As you know, Congress will meet today to certify the Electoral College results and debate could go on well into the night.

“President Trump has pressured Vice President Mike Pence, who presides over the ceremony, to overturn the result,” the Times reports. “But Pence told Trump yesterday that he does not have that power.”

Some Republican members of Congress have said they will object to certain states’ results. Each time they do, members have up to two hours to debate and then vote.

“Republicans lack the votes to change the results,” the Times reassures, and my gut relaxes and my mouth says “yes!”

Representative Mo Brooks of my native state of Alabama has said he will move to contest the results from as many as six states. He will be joined by four Republican senators, including Tommy Tuberville of Alabama who was recently elected over incumbent Democrat Doug Jones, along with Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who just lost his bid for reelection, if the projected vote count holds up.

Dozens of Republicans in the House and 11 senators have said they plan to vote against certifying Biden’s victory in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. So there could be as much as 12 hours of debate on Wednesday, and a half-dozen votes, according to the Times.

At the same time dozens of right-wing nut job Trump supporters are gathering in the streets and parks of the nation’s capital to protest Biden’s election victory along with their deposed leader, Heir Trump. While their actions could result in some minor violence, my gut tells me their efforts will be a bit of a show but not much else.

Meanwhile, in other headlines, CBS News is reporting an exclusive which includes an audio file obtained from someone in the air traffic control system that issues an apparent Iranian threat to fly a plane into the U.S. Capitol building on the same day Congress is set to count and certify the Electoral College votes. The threat cited Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the U.S. military on orders from President Donald Trump last year.

I suspect this is just a hoax designed to scare people, however, so I remained in my new 2021 state of calm. The F.B.I. emails contained nothing of particular concern this morning.

So like most Americans, I will go about my business this morning hoping for the best. Once the final results are reported in Congress and Georgia, I will write up the stories and keep planning for our comeback from the brink of the ultimate disaster in 2020.

Related, in case you missed it during the holiday break.

Hellscape 2020: Year In Review in Words and Pictures

We Made It to 2021: Now What?