Good morning! Today, in my faith tradition, we step into a new period, leaving the Christmas season as we celebrate Epiphany. Most of you will have removed decorations nearly two weeks ago, which is far more customary now in the United States, but my family will spend today taking ours down.
It’s also National Bean Day, apparently. You probably have some in your cupboard, so today would be a good day to partake. Just please don’t withhold food from your child for six hours to prove a point in the process, yeah?
Let’s get onto the news, because it’s kind of a big deal today…
Pat Conroy
- We have two brand new U.S. Senators! Congratulations to Senators-elect Warnock and Ossoff. (And yeah, they’ll both win.)
- It looks like Bubba McDonald will retain his seat on the Public Service Commission. (Alternate link.)
- The obvious lesson for Republicans is that to win statewide, do your job, run on actual ideas rather than scare words, and don’t tell people their elections are rigged when they clearly are not.
- In case you haven’t read enough analysis about voter outreach in the runoff election, this article on engaging young voters is particularly interesting. Tinder? Really? (Alternate link.)
- The other big news yesterday was that the new, more highly-contagious COVID strain is present in Georgia.
- Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer on The Call, has resigned from her law firm.
- President Trump lost in court again yesterday in his attempt to overturn our November election. (Alternate link.)
- President Trump didn’t want to do the Dalton rally. It showed.
Alice Walker
- Republicans are now worried that today’s Electoral College stunt will come back to haunt them. (Spoiler alert: It will.)
- Vice President Pence had to tell President Trump that he will not have the authority to overturn the Electoral College vote during today’s count.
- The protests over the Jacob Blake decision remained peaceful overnight in Kenosha.
- This was not the case for the Trump rally in DC.
- You can now order a COVID test via Amazon for $110.
- Pennsylvania Republicans, who hold a majority in their state senate, shamefully refused to seat a Democrat who won his election yesterday, and then they kicked the lieutenant governor out of the chamber. (Alternate link.)
- Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri claimed Antifa attacked his Virginia home, but unfortunately for him, the facts don’t back him up. (Alternate link.)
- A U.K. judge has rejected the U.S.’s extradition request for Julian Assange.
- China has blocked the World Health Organization’s attempt to study COVID’s origin.
- Hong Kong has arrested 53 pro-democracy advocates in raids overnight as part of the new “security law”.
Flannery O’Connor
- A sword taken from a Revolutionary War statue in the 1980s has finally been returned.