Today, the 117th Congress begins and in 17 days, Biden/Harris will be inagurated

As a follow up to this:

http://www.politicalforum.com/index...iden-harris-will-be-inaugurated.583049/unread

Today is Sunday, January 3rd, 2021. Again, Happy New Year to you all!

Today, the 117th Congress of the United States of America will begin its work, presumably around noon ET. If you wish to follow the proceedings, CSPAN is providing free-streaming to such HERE. Usually, the start of a new Congress is relatively boring, but today, I suspect that there could be some interesting fireworks!!! We may need to have a new version of "Schoolhouse Rock" when this saga finally ends.

At the moment, the US HOR appears to have the following partisan breakdown:

D 222 / R 211 (with 1, perhaps 2 vacancies at current), D +11.

However, since Cedric Richmond has not officially resigned yet, it may be D223 / R211, D+12.

Both vacancies are (or will be) in Louisiana, where Rep.-Elect Luke Letlow (R-LA-05) died from COVID-19 just a few short days ago. RIP, Mr. Letlow. He was only 41 and I hear, a decent fellow. Further, in LA-02, Democrat Cedric Richmond has been selected to serve in President Biden's cabinet. Both of these congressional seats are extremely solid for their respective party, so once the vacancies are filled, the Democratic majority will still be +11 (D223 / R212). That's a slim majority, but not the slimmest ever. Until the vacancies are filled, majority in the HOR = 217 votes instead of 218 if the total number of Representatives = 433, but if Cedric Richmonds is still serving, then 218 would be, as usual, the magic number.

Louisiana's Govenor, Jon Bel Edwards, has set March 30th, 2021 as the date for the election for a LA-05. March 30th is the date for the already scheduled spring elections in LA, so this makes sense. Gov. Edwards has not yet announced that the election will also be for LA-02 as Cedric Richmond has to my knowledge not yet resigned and probably will not do so until first casting his vote for the Speaker of the HOR today. So, it's just a matter of protocols and timing right now.

In the US-Senate, the majority will be decided after Tuesday's double run-off elections in Georgia. Right now, it's R51 / D 48 with one vacancy, but wait, how can that be?!?!

Junior Senator Kelly Loeffler (R) is allowed to continue as Senator until the results of Tuesday's election are over with, since she was appointed. However, David Perdue, is, as of today, no longer part of congress and his status will be clarified after the runoff election on Tuesday. This is due to Georgia election law. If the Ds win both runoffs, then the Senate would be D 50 / R 50 (technically, D 48 + 2 I who have already declared that they will continue to caucus with the Ds), which means the Senate stays in Republican hands until January 20th, 2021, with Vice President Mike Pence serving in his double-role of President of the Senate the next 17 days. Once Kamala Harris is sworn-in, she will have the same double-role as every other Vice-President and will then become President of the Senate. In this scenario, the Senate would then have a Democratic majority. We saw something similar happen 20 years ago, in 2001.

If however, even just one of the two Republicans up for election on Tuesday wins, then the Senate will remain in Republican hands, but with Kamala Harris (D) as President of the Senate. BTW, Harris has not yet resigned from the Senate. This is not unusual. In 2009, then Senator Joe Biden stepped down from his Senate seat and resigned from Congress 5 days before the inauguration.

With over 3,000,000 votes having been cast early in Georgia, the majority of them from Democratic strongholds and with a measurable rise in the black vote (31%) even over the 2020 GE (27.1%), the only prediction that we all can make is that the races will be close and surely will not be called right away on Tuesday night.

The next day, on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021, both chambers of the 117th US Congress will convene in a joint-sesson and, as proscribed in the Constitution, will open the envelopes with the electoral votes of the 50 states plus DC. Mike Pence's role is a 100% ceremonial role, as has been the case with every single other Vice-President: he is to instruct the tellers to open the envelopes (4 tellers, 2 from the Senate, 2 from the HOR, 1 apiece for each chamber by party) and read the votes out loud. Then the total will be announced and Joe Biden will be officially, for the zillionth time, declared the winner of the presidency and Kamala Harris will be officially, for the zillionth time, declared the winner of the vice-presidency. The votes will be read separately.

We know that the proceedings will be interrupted by challenges from a dozen GOP Senators and over 100 GOP Representatives, who are just hell-bent on embarrassing themselves, but even Ted Cruz, whose father of course killed JFK and whose wife is ugly as sin (I mean, Trump said this about Cruz and yet Cruz still kneels and kisses Trump's ring so it must be the truth, right??), who is leading this circus, has already publicly admitted that the attempt to overturn the results of 51 fair, free and correctly-conducted elections will fail, and miserably at that. So, it's all just a show.

Exactly two weeks later, on Wednesday, January 20th, 2021, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as the 46th POTUS and 49th VPOTUS, respectively and the Biden administration will begin its work in the middle of a deadly pandemic that was horribly managed by the former administration, also a failing economy, the climate-change problem, racial strife and a host of social issues that are constantly biting deeply into the fabric of our Republic.

I would like to add 3 points of insight into this:

-Starting an administration in the middle of a week brings some real advantages to it: the new Congress and the new administration have 3 full (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) days available to get all sorts of clerical stuff cleared up and since President-Elect Biden is planning on a drastically reduced inauguration ceremony due to COVID-19, he will likely get to work on the very same day.

-An inauguration ceremony is not absolutely required by law. In the Constitution, the only thing that is required is that the new President takes the oath of office. That's it. The trappings, the pomp-and-circumstance all around the oath are indeed nice and considering that the POTUS is still the most powerful leader in the world, seemingly well-deserved. Traditionally, the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS administers the oath to the incoming Vice-President and President, but this is also not explicitly required in the Constitution.

When President Warren G. Harding ("G." stands for Gamaliel, btw, and with that correct answer I once won $$$ on a local game show in my hometown, in 1985) died, then-VP Calvin Coolidge was visiting his family's farm in Vermont and his own father, a certified justice of the peace, swore him in.

On November 23rd, 1963, immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, then VP-Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn-in aboard AF1 by Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes (the very first and until now, the only time that a President was sworn in by a woman). I have no memory of this, was less than 2 weeks old when this happened and at that time, was very content, I am told, to nurse on my mother's breasts.

But since 1797, in the overwhelming majority of inaugurations, the Chief Justice has indeed administered the oath. This will be the 5th time that Chief Justice John Roberts will have administered the oath of to a President/Vice President, after 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017.

-After the entire shitshow that ensued following Donald Trump's unsuccessful re-election bid, I think we are going to need to change a number of laws in order to remove the circus from this stuff in the future.

Mark my words: in 17 days, the Democratic ticket, which won the November election by +7.1 MILLION votes nationwide, broke over 81,000,000 total raw votes and beat Trump in the electoral count 306 / 232, D +74, WILL be inaugurated. As of 12:00 ET on January 20th, 2021, the reigns of power will change hands from team red to team blue. It's that simple. No amount of braying, screaming, ranting, raving, threatening, cajoling, bargaining, begging, pleading or crying is going to change this outcome.

-Stat

 

This was very biased and you made it clear you don't like Donald Trump so don't expect Trump supporters to be interested in responding. You call it a shitshow and blame Trump for covid 19 as if he was the worst president ever.

If you only want to have these discussions with Democrats then go ahead and keep bashing Trump. I just wanted to point out you are completely missing a entire side on this topic.

 

Oh, I really couldn't give a **** whether or not "Trump supporters" respond. First, responding requires people to be able to read and reason like adults, which sets the bar pretty high for some homo-sapiens. Second, I rather prefer to deal with patriotic Americans who actually love their land and are not trying to destroy our democratic process. So, no, I am not missing an "entire side" on this topic. The information in the OP does not require two sides.

Also, I don't need to coddle the Trumpkins of the world. Their unamerican, unpatriotic, treacherous, treasonous temper-tantrums do not interest me.

So, you just keep on a weepin' and a wailin' and I will keep laughing that the wannabe nazis of the world.

 

The Trump monster is dead lol! Let's tear down some statues and enable anti-establishment types to celebrate. Word to the political elite: They'll be coming for you like they're coming for Pelosi now. Just wait.

 

Where our response to the pandemic is concerned, he is the worst ever and it continues to be a shitshow.

 

My question, will Bunker Boy leave for Florida, before or after the 6. of January

 

Now we have the call to the Georgia State Secretary.
Find me 11780 votes, just call it recalculation.

Once upon a time there was a guy called Nixon......................................

Tja

Will be funny to watch how the Cult will spin that call.

Asking a person to commit a crime.
Hope a GA prosecutor picks it up, so he can not pardon himself.

Jan 20 can not come early enough.

 

As was expected, Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives and Kevin McCarthy was elected House Minority Leader.

 

Rep. Don Young (R-AK), the Dean of the House of Representatives, swore Nancy Pelosi in as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Before he did that, he spoke some very honest, heartfelt words about bi-partisanship, words that have been sorely missing the last many years.

 

I have a prophecy for you, just based on what we know about Trump and how everything he says and does is self-serving. I could be wrong, but ... I think he'll keep whining right up until congress does its duty on Wednesday. Then if his last minute pleas and attempts at strong-arming everyone from Pence on down doesn't give him the result he wants, two things are likely:

1. The rabid bulk of his base supporters are already gathering in DC, so expect rioting.

2. He'll resign, Pence will be sworn in, and Pence's first action will be to issue a pardon for Trump.

 

I don't know why the OP expects this congress to be any different than usual.

In fact it's probably going to be one of the least productive for the next two years with nothing but blaming Trump.

Good luck keeping the house in the midterms.

And Harris as president of the senate means absolutely nothing, she isn't even allowed in chambers without permission.

The only power she has is to cast a tie breaking vote.

I find it absolutely hilarious that the left thinks everything will get better but it won't and they will put all the blame on Trump.

This is why no liberal here wants to discuss Biden, because he has no plan and they know it.

The only way he could govern is if he had a supermajority in congress and he would even screw that up. Just watch, not a single thing for the next four years will be Biden's fault, nothing.

 

Bullshit. We discuss every president on forums lkke this. It's what they're for. And I know I've given you links to Biden's website where his plans are detailed, so your post is disingenuous at best. Your extreme partisanship is showing. Again.

 

We were force fed your “side” for four years.

The voters of the US told y’all where to put your response

 

From Pence’s actions of late I don’t see that happening imo. I disagree with his policies but he has a tremendous amount more integrity than trump could even dream of in his best days.

I do expect incel larpers to cause a scene but we will just have to see how far they take their worship.

 

Some of them have nothing to say for Biden because even they know he is pathetic.

 

That is a great question.
Will Trump actually wait to be dragged out on Jan. 20th?

After hearing that GA phone call, Trump is clearly mentally-unstable and delusional.

He is (literally) capable of anything between Jan. 6th and Jan. 20th.

 

Not ME.

I Love Biden.

Biden has more Character and Honor in his little finger that Trump has in his Entire Treasonous Dishonorable Morbidly-Obese Body.

It will be great to have a Man of Honor (who is not the Laughingstock of the World, like Trump) in the Oval Office.

That said, referring to Biden as "pathetic" represents an acceptance of Biden as President.

Glad to see that the "Uncle Joe Bad" crowd is getting an early start on the shady comments.

The 7 stages of grief

• Acceptance and hope.

 

Very True.

It will take Biden that long just to clean up Trump's Mess

''

 

And there you go.

 

Yep, they are trying to delay any focus on him in case he decides to speak or something or busted sniffing little girls hair again,

 

A political fond farewell from British-Indian novelist Hari Kunzru...

"Mike Pence you repressed joyless would-be witchfinder, every time you spoke you always looked like you were straining to expel an enormous bolus of your own hypocrisy from your clenched sphincter.

Betsy DeVos you blandly foolish soulless entitled child-stealing witch, rotting like a corpse inside your Chanel suit.

Kayleigh McEnenay, you evacuated husk of a mean-girl cheerleader, the cavity where your heart once was pumped full of spite and moronic lies.

Bill Barr you vast pompous pus-filled bladder of casuistry, you are an enemy of justice, bloated with resentment and cruelty, wobbling like a jelly at the feet of the oligarchs.

Jared Kushner you vacuous dainty preening overpromoted nub of mediocrity, squeezed like an entitled smear of toothpaste into a silk suit bought with tear-stained dollars wrung out of the suffering tenants of your slum apartments.

Ivanka Trump you monstrous slug of vanity, you infantile ninny so marinaded in self-regard that in your pea brain you believe we ought to love you for your crimes.

Mike Pompeo, you bubble, you booby, you flatulent zero, that roiling in your ample guts that you mistake for world shaking significance is just the acid reflux of irrelevancy.

Don Junior, you scabrous single-nostriled unloved elephant-murdering human wreckage, vibrating with bitterness and impotent rage at all the opportunities you’ve squandered.

Interlude: all you staffers and interns, so eager to crunch your way in your shiny new work shoes over the bodies of the poor and powerless, I smite you and cast you out one by one.

Eric Trump, you pallid clammy suppurating nocturnal semi-human grub, your absence of charisma is your only notable trait and the act of flushing you from memory will so be smooth and painless that in a month people will find it hard to picture your moon face.

Rudy Giuliani, you capering cartoonish skull-faced bag of graft and corruption, too stupid even to ask who’s pulling your strings just so long as you can cake your crusty face in tv make-up and clack your jaw at a camera.

And of course Stephen Miller, you weeping pustule upon the social body, you dreg, you homunculus, you noxious slime felched from the gaping cavity of Jim Crow, one day may you find yourself walking barefoot across hot sand, desperate for water, crying for your missing child.

With that I'll rest a while, and go to find a street corner to dance on."


Hari Kunzru

 

Biden will blame Trump for things
Trump blamed Obama for things
Obama blamed Bush
and so on

Everyone thinks that their side is right and the other wrong. The cycle will continue

 

Biden will blame every single problem on Trump.

Get ready to hear this a lot, "I had no idea it was this bad".

And the media will print the lies and the left will never hold Biden accountable for anything, except any positive news of course.

 

and Trump blamed Obama non-stop

In 2024 - if the Republican win - they will blame Biden

That is what politicians do

 

He hardly ever mentioned Obama.

He was too busy blaming current politicians, Obama was irrelevant to him.

I can't believe people just throw stuff they know is completely false out there.

Absolutely no point in even engaging with people like you.