It's Wednesday morning, what do we know?
Heroes are honored, a villain suffers more defeats and Warnock prevails
What do we know?
Incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock defeated GOP candidate Herschel Walker in Georgia’s runoff election on Tuesday, improving on his margin of victory from November’s general election. Warnock overperformed his November results in blue districts statewide, giving him the victory over the Georgia football legend, and father to many. The win gives Democrats a clear 51-49 majority in the Senate, providing some wiggle room in simple majority votes, ending the power sharing arrangements in committees and banking one extra seat ahead of a daunting 2024 map
Two minor events and one significant one in Trumpworld on Tuesday. In New York, a jury found the Trump Organization guilty on 17 counts related to tax fraud and other financial crimes. The guilty verdicts will cost Trump’s business less than $2 million and have little overall impact on either the Trump family or the future of the Trump Organization. In Washington, the January 6th Committee announced it would submit criminal referrals related to January 6th to the Department of Justice. A criminal referral is a recommendation to the Justice Department that it should investigate possible wrongdoing, nothing more. It seems likely the DOJ is already aware there may have been some crimes committed during Trump’s attempted coup, but I’m just speculating. In one piece of significant news, Politico reports Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office has issued an avalanche of subpoenas to individuals across the country who were either involved in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election or have direct knowledge. The subpoenas, which appear to have been drawn up a few days before Smith took over, are likely related to the false electors investigation
The real world impact of Tuesday’s news notwithstanding, the two weeks since Trump announced his 2024 bid have looked like this:
The Eleventh Circuit ruled against Trump in the special master case, vacating the totality of Judge Aileen Cannon’s order, a major blow to Trump’s legal prospects in the documents case
The Supreme Court ruled the House Ways & Means Committee can have a look at Trump’s tax returns
Another of Trump’s handpicked statewide candidates lost, joining Lake, Dixon, Masters and Oz
A NY jury found Trump Org guilty of fraud
Trump's only public appearance of note was dinner with the world’s most famous antisemite, who brought along a well-known white supremacist
Trump’s most newsworthy “tweet” (aka truth) suggested terminating the U.S. Constitution, forcing GOP lawmakers to issue stark rebukes and Trump to unsuccessfully attempt to walk it all back
A flurry of subpoenas spilled out of the Special Counsel’s office, a sign Jack Smith is officially on the job and moving forward with some velocity
At The Capitol on Tuesday, the law enforcement officers who defended lawmakers from Trump’s mob on January 6th were honored as heroes. The hundreds of men and women who defended democracy at great personal cost were awarded Congressional Gold Medals in an emotional ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “January 6 was a day of horror and heartbreak; it is also a moment of extraordinary heroism —staring down deadly violence and despicable bigotry,” and hailed the officers for “courageously answering the call to defend our democracy in one of the nation’s darkest hours.” The family of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died following the attack, refused to shake hands with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and traitorous invertebrate Kevin McCarthy, both of whom voted against an independent commission to investigate January 6th. McCarthy, of course, has gone much further in attempting to whitewash the day’s events and almost immediately resumed his sycophancy of the man responsible for the tragedy, Donald Trump
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan banned TikTok and other Chinese and Russian-based platforms from the state's executive branch computer systems on Tuesday, citing (rightly) security concerns. Hogan’s move follows a similar ban by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem last week. Chinese-based companies are legally required to give the PRC/CCP access to all the data they collect from users
Iran’s theocratic totalitarian regime attempted to bend on Tuesday for fear of breaking. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for "revolutionary reconstruction of the country's cultural system" in response to the protests that began after the country’s morality police murdered 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The regime has been unable to quell the protests, despite a violent crackdown by the Revolutionary Guard and its paramilitary henchmen, the Basij
Today is the 81st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
What do we know in Ukraine?
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid tribute to Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday—December 6th is Ukraine's Armed Forces Day—by making an unannounced trip to Donetsk Oblast to meet with troops. Zelenskyy sent out a message recorded near the city of Sloviansk, about 30 miles from the eastern front in Bakhmut, telling soldiers, "Today, the east of Ukraine is the most difficult direction, and I am honored to be here now with our defenders in Donbas."
Drones, presumably from Ukraine, struck Russian targets for a second consecutive day on Tuesday. The drones struck an oil facility not far from an air base in Kursk, about 135 miles north of Kharkiv and 80 miles inside Russian territory. The attacks on consecutive days deep inside Russia—using Soviet-era Russian “Swift” drones—are a worrying development for Moscow and laid bare the ineffectiveness of Russian air defenses
Excellent recap as always. Crazy busy news cycle. At some point I’d like to understand more about the 2024 map and your perspective.
Love the photo of NAncy and officer Fanone.