Here's a belated Happy New Year to our readers. When 2020 ended, we thought we'd leave it all behind and start anew. With Joe Biden elected and COVID vaccines coming out, it certainly looks like brighter days ahead. That said - there are good and bad already, and today is looking to shape up to be one of those days.

Yesterday was finally the runoff election for the remaining two Senate seats that could decide control of the Senate. Per GA law, a candidate must win 50%+1 of the votes to be declared winner. Since none of the Senate candidates won that much back in November, this runoff was necessary. If you've ever contributed to a Democratic candidates election in the past, you've undoubtedly been inundated with requests via email, text, etc.

There are still mail-in ballots to be counted, and most of them are from Democratic-strongholds in the state. At this point, Democrat Raphael Warnock is being called the winner over the wretched Kelly Loeffler. Democrat John Ossof enjoys a narrow lead over David Perdue (who is the cousin of Sonny Perdue - former governor of GA and current Sec. of Agriculture). With most of the remaining votes to be counted coming via mail-in from Atlanta metro counties, this lead will likely broaden. If the end result is close enough, there may be a recount, but that would be a mere formality.

This means that Moscow Mitch McConnell is looking at losing his death grip on legislation coming from the House. That doesn't mean bills will necessarily pass, but it does mean that they'll at least get a hearing, which is all we've been asking for - an up-or-down vote. It also means that nominees by Biden won't get blocked.

pResident tRump is of course trying to poison the well. He predicted that election officials will "find" a large block of votes that will nullify any gains made by the Republicans during the vote counting. This, of course, is nonsense.

With this news of the GA results, Congress meets today to accept the already delivered Electoral votes. In years past this was a mere formality, rarely warranting even a single news cycle (do you remember hearing it talked about for several days prior to the event?). With the tRump cult being what it is, and tRump trying to reap the whirlwind of the chaos he has sown, things are getting dicey here in DC:

There are some Republicans in Congress who plan to disrupt the process with challenges to the electoral votes from the swing states (there is a "test case" for this going on in the PA state Senate). They and tRump are counting on Pence to be the firewall. Unfortunately for them, Pence let tRump know he can't do that. I guess he spoke to a few lawyers who actually know Constitutional law and congressional procedure.

So let's enjoy the good news out of GA, and prepare ourselves for the messy (and possibly violent on the fringes) turnover of power that will happen today. The voters have spoken, and they have said to the Republicans: