Let’s Get Down, Let’s Get Down To Business!

Give you one more night, one more night to get this. We’ve had a million, million nights just like this, so let’s get down, let’s get down to business!

The Democrats almost ran the table last night. It could have been worse because, in one respect, I like how Republican Byron Donald became the first person of color to get elected the Governor of Florida; however, David Jolly almost won. If the Democratic Party would have backed him, he could have maybe squeaked through that one because, again, though I think it is cool how a black man became the Governor of the Porky’s (as in the movie) State, I do not really like his personality. He comes off a bit over the top, in your face and blustery in every interview and speech I have seen of him. I feel like it is his way or the highway, so to speak. It cannot be that way any more. If he is smart, he will have to stray from Trump and him saying whatever Trump wants him to say from now on.

The Senate

I also think that Democrat Mary Peltola, up in Alaska, underperformed against Republican Dan Sullivan. Sullivan has 100,751, or 48.49%, while Peltola is right there too at 99,074, or 47.68%. Both are under the 50% needed to win. Now, from November 4–13, more ballots are counted, and then on November 18, they do the ranked-choice count. If no one gets more than 50% of the first-choice votes, the lowest-ranking candidates are eliminated from the race, and their voters’ next preferences are transferred. And, barring any delays or legal complications, the expected certification is on November 25. Therefore, if the end were today, Gerald Heikes and his 2.16%, along with the other Daniel Sullivan and his 1.66%, get transferred.

Therefore, either candidate can win at this time.

Because of the overall win for the Democrats, this delay will not even matter in the broader scheme of things. Plus, the way things shook out, they would exceed my cap of 54 Democrats in the Senate.

That is because of Democrat Adam Hamilton in Kansas.

The funny is that after I wrote this post a few weeks ago (use this link if you did not read it), I did not even really count him in as any way to he could win. Then, someone in their own interview, which I forget who it was, and nor do I remember the show it was on, but he added at the end, asking if he is allowed to promote something, or if he time left, and the announcer said sure. That person then said, if you want to know someone cool, and I am paraphrasing, as you can figure, look up this guy Adam Hamilton. He went on to say that he is a really cool guy and a great candidate. I then started to pay attention to him, and after two interviews and one speech, I was impressed with this guy. Remember, it has been since 1935 since a so-called Democrat was elected into this office in the State of Kansas. Then, Chris Hayes had him on this week, and I thought he was excellent in the interview. By the end of it, I wanted to continue to talk to the guy myself.

To be honest, aside from what I mentioned Senate-wise (and not considering Mississippi, which, by the way, is also astounding that is not even called yet, let alone even being talked about), and one House race in Florida that I thought Democrat Angie Nixon could have beaten Republican Ashley Moody. Moody won approximately 50.9% to Nixon’s 48.0%.

The Democrats otherwise ran the board. Everything else went above and beyond perfect for them. They won everything else they were supposed to win, including many no one even knew they had a chance to win or be close. They also did this pretty handedly all across the board. It was astounding watching it come in all night.

He is not even going to be able to snap at reporters, calling them adolescent names, while having no self-awareness and being so hypocritical considering how he looks physically and what he says to people. He can’t do that now. I am also not sure how to handle the demolition on the White House grounds, but it must get honed in, and all parties, and us, need to be part of it. Unless there are laws stating the person in office can renovate it at will and to his liking, this needs to be collective. It also needs to get done. I am sick of looking at the demolition and the cranes on the grounds of the White House. Get it done. But, we cannot be going all Gold, and it cannot look ridiculous. Same with whether we want the Arc de Trump, and, most of all, we must debate how to get out of this war right away.

I think that we are done with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool issue because that was Trump’s closing message for the midterms. He did this big press thing outdoors, I think on Monday, and he talked a lot about that pool. He also started telling us about the Corinthian stones, which I presume are for the White House renovation and for columns inside the WH. They just need to get it done. I agree that it needs work. I just wish there was a plan everyone could check out while it gets decided.

The Agenda

It does look like that when you set aside the be-nice-to-everyone message, the Democrats can legislate while investigating ways to unfix the rigged system. Hakeem Jeffries has been saying for some time how they would try to reinstate the Affordable Care Act’s health care premium subsidies. He also said how he wants to reverse $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts both right away or in the first 90 days. They were part of Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts Act. “Well, Day One plan is going to be to make sure we’re going to be focused on healthcare, focused on driving down, right, the high price of groceries and gas and housing.”

Speaking of January 3rd, I wonder what will happen from now until then.

Senator Cory Booker, who also won big yesterday, reiterated that these same two things can be done right away on today’s Morning Joe show. That seems to be the initial agenda.

Chuck Schumer, now poised to return as the Senate Majority Leader, was also on the star-studded Morning Show today (along with Jeffries, for that matter, too), said that the people in office now need to be checked, and yeah, I think he may have said investigated.

I get that is going to be part of the plan, and it should; just do not impeach. Not now at at least, and only if everyone gets on board for it. I do not even want to hear the ‘I’ word anytime soon.

“Well, we haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out because we’ve made clear that we’re focused on addressing the affordability crisis,” said Jeffries.

According to Punchbowl, he said that “It’s a critical tool in the constitutional toolbox, and we will not hesitate to use it if we think that the benefits exceed the costs.” “But the one thing everybody’s well aware of is that impeachment trials and impeachment motions soak up a lot of energy and oxygen.”

The point is to teach by action now. The perception is that the people in the GOP cannot execute anything, and so they should use that while doing a great job. By doing things that people will see right away also sets the Democrats up for 2028’s General Election. It will be easy to point to failures and successes as two-year intervals.

Therefore, the Democrats are in a great position to actually get some things done, and in doing that, teach by way of action. They can do things to show the people how they get things done. They can totally prove their worth by actions alone. If the POTUS vetoes anything, let the world know it. Let the people deal like they did yesterday. Getting things done is key.

What truly won this race in such astonishing fashion is that, for the first time in the Trump era, the people could feel what is wrong. They saw costs and prices going up, but what surprises me, too, is how this time so many people knew that at the same time, there was an element making bank money without any risk. Those people happen to also be part of Trump’s family.

Why now, and how did they figure that out, when for years most Trump people would just say whatever he said and do whatever he said to do, while giving him a pass on anything and everything? He never did anything for the people. There are some scraps in the Big Beautiful Bill for the common folk, but compared to the 1%, they make more for the buck, considering the percentage is way higher when you have a ton of money. Regardless, he has been lying to everyone so blatantly for years, and 8 million people went along with it just two years ago, as if someone with a gold toilet would be the answer for the common folk. I do not know what news outlet leaked these stories to the far right, but they somehow found out and then had some revelation.

The House Democrats will also look to legally stop or, at the very least, get control of the trade policy by getting rid of Trump’s tariff plan.

Iran

Then again, right away, they must find some way to end the war in Iran. I have no suggestions, let alone any answers for this, because I never understood it in the first place. It was never debated, and Iran was not close to being able to create nuclear bombs. I get that we do not want them to have any, which they did not. That and the Hormuz issue, and how it would affect us, would have been worked out if we had a real debate about it. That was such a basic miscalculation. I cannot believe anyone was so duped so easily because we did it to ourselves. We literally spent all that money and lost 17 lives because of us not planning it and executing it in any viable way.

I would like to get a true reading of where we are really at with Iran today. Then, I want to know how to side step the issue for us to get oil a lot cheaper. What I mean are their new pipelines being made to transport it some other way, maybe on land to some other part of the region? I would also want to know what did we destroy using our military? If all of their ships are in the ocean, as Trump said, how many of them, do they have more ships, and is that even true?

That is the worst problem: I have no clue what is true, and what I said in my initial article about that war when we went in that day, it seems like there is a military and arms industry that could make bank money during this war. Otherwise, what is the MO besides that lie about them having nukes? Now, it smells corrupt to me, and remember, they went in unilaterally. There was no debate. There was not even a plan. And, we in the USA today are worse because of it in a lot of ways. That region is worse for the USA today and because of it. Honestly, that is a colossal screw up. None of it was executed in any sane way. Let alone strategic. This was their plan going into it, and that was it: ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.’

Most of all, if the Democrats were bold, they would start to get us back on track to not be so dependent on foreign oil. We have the coolest EVs, and those prices are going down, considering where it was with just Teslas on the market, which was only a few years ago.

I want autonomous driving cars. I want one in my driveway. Hell, I want an eVTOL!

Unless oil is used to make the vehicle, they are all electric or battery. Oil is never needed any longer. They should get electric cars and vehicles down in price so everyone can use them.

Regardless, if you get control of those initial talking points, setting aside the ones I made up, like the eVTOL portion, there is no mention of climate or anything like that, yet, at least in the first 90 days.

The rest would, in essence, take care of the affordability issue everyone campaigned on, and that would, of course, take care of lowering the cost of eggs and groceries, along with things like healthcare and gasoline prices.

Jeffires said last month, while him and Booker reiterated it today in so many words on Morning Joe, “House Democrats will be united around the effort to reverse the Medicaid cuts and extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits right out of the gate as part of our effort to fix a broken health care system that Republicans are actively destroying, and then we’ll have to take on the battle of reversing the reckless war of choice that has skyrocketed gas prices on the American people and is deeply unpopular throughout the country, we’ll have to battle the administration.”

The Epstein Files

As far as what investigations, are people still clambering about the Epstein files, and what have we seen or not seen in the Epstein files? I suppose so, because that is in part why Jon Ossoff’s campaign blew up. He referred to it as the Epstein class. From that point on, he surged way ahead and never looked back.

What will we get out of it?

I think they should worry about who put the hit on Epstein. That is more intriguing to me than who had sex with young girls. The sleeping with young girls, and maybe boys too, is just something I just do not get. It would never enter my life. It is very odd behavior if an adult does it, and it just does not look right. I have now seen every Law & Order Special Victims Units. I cannot believe there are how ever many stories about this issue.

As for what wis in the files, do the people incriminated in it get thrown in jail Liv-style if we know that someone had sex with an underaged kid? On TV, she seems to be able to get around statute of limitations if that is an issue, but let’s be clear: anyone and everyone should be thrown in prison if they slept with underaged kids. If these files show that happened, they need to be arrested.

If we are not going to imprison these people that broke the law, and if that is what is happening now by holding it back, this needs to be dealt with at once. If the Epstein files will uncover who did what to whom, they need to be released. They then need to be turned over to SVU, and whomever did it needs to be arrested.

Representative Robert Garcia tweeted for them to lawyer up last night, which, honestly, why would you do that? He has been spearheading the Epstein investigation on the Democrats’ end. He said that he wants to hold public hearings instead of the behind-closed-door meetings held to date. Garcia wants to subpoena Attorney General Todd Blanche over the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein files. Evidently, there are pages being withheld, which is corrupt. That shows that someone has something to hide. And, according to ABC News, they want the testimony of many White House officials.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s sweetheart deal while in prison is something I am wondering about too. What did she give Blanche that day for the better prison lifestyle?

Then, I mentioned Epstein’s death; someone wanted him dead. Obviously, there are things certain people did not want let out.

Corruption & Accountability

Then, Jeffries went on to speak about corruption with the administration: “There is a cost to corruption.” “Pardons are apparently being paid for in exchange for turning a blind eye to corporate offenses, or in some instances, contributions apparently are being made in exchange for governmental actions that are taken that ultimately result in making life more expensive for the American people. These are all things that are going to need to be thoroughly investigated as part of our pledge to hold the crooks accountable, beginning on day one.”

Blanche said that the Democrats’ accusations of ‘pay to play’ as a non-issue in a Senate hearing back in June. “Look, the power to pardon in our Constitution is given to the President of the United States,” Blanche said at that hearing. “The Constitution does not require him to provide any explanation for who he chooses to pardon or not pardon, or commute or not commute.”

That is just admitting it.

Also, at this point, everything done in the last two years need to be called a wash for now. If not for nothing, the Democrats allowed it to happen in the first place. If someone like Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner or anyone in the Trump family made money in illegal ways, so be it. That should be dealt with by law. By also fixing a rigged system, it would handle that issue and stop it. Therefore, them making money in the last two years was most likely diabolical, and not illegal. If something was done illegally, that should be dealt with appropriately. If not, yet you have an problem with regard to ethics, that went out the window in the first term. Let alone now.

Low healthcare costs, lower food prices and costs and gas needs to be dealt with right away. Then, you can go on with any investigations that may or may not be effective. If the Democrats fix those issues, it will be fair game for people to ask them to get even more things done.

There was also a mention, for instance, in Garcia’s plans for the first 90 days to deal with the murders and deaths because of ICE agents:

At first, I was thinking to say to not go in that direction right now until I listed the names all out. That is a lot of deaths in a short period of time, so I get it. I can safely say that all of them were the fault or the neglect of the ICE agency.

We saw a few murders on video, for God’s sake.

I would also like a committee to reunite everyone with their respective families. This administration and that organization just sent these so-called illegal immigrants to random countries, and it is astounding to me that that is allowed by any laws. Besides that, whoever thought of that plan needs to get any other job. That is something in our new immigration plan that bothers me. Get everyone back to their family, or at least to their country where they have family.

Next, the no-bid contracts, I suppose, is an issue, but if you hone in the White House demolition, and by making sure the reflecting pool is nice, that would take care of that issue, and my point is becoming that, collectively, maybe this all looks bad. At the same time, he was in charge of these issues, and I think he had the right to do it. If I am wrong and if Trump is breaking the law, it needs to be dealt with at once. Otherwise, what is done is done.

If it is allowed by law, that would stop by them fixing the rigged system. If not, or if there is some loophole that allows it, they must now put that issue in some legislation to stop it. It goes without saying that you cannot trade stock while you are in office. That is an easy conflict to see in front of our faces. Things like that are wghat rigs the system for certain people, and that needs to be stopped, even though I feel that by law is already in place. I think the people in Congress, Trump’s kids, family and friends just did not care and did it anyway, which is insider trading in the real world. If you and I knew about certain things, and then used it to manipulate or gain a lot of money from stock the next day, that is illegal for us.

If they fix the rigged system, that would also fix the no-bid contract issue. As far as the no-bid contract with regard to the Reflecting Pool, the incompetence to execute anything in any way, let alone any great way, was the real problem. Even thsat they blundered and failed at. It is the problem this administration has on every level. Everything but the tax cuts never get executed well.

Also, both parties spend like mad, but the Republicans spent or wasted much more when they have had control. That never gets called out, but do the math since Reagan.

Oversight

Rep. Jamie Raskin has said how they want to investigate the Trump family businesses along with the DOJ and FBI and anti-trust issues that include corporate issues like certain mergers.

I’ll be honest, the DOJ and the FBI need to be honed in on too: the prosecutions, investigations, and grand jury hearings aimed at Trump’s political enemies has to stop. It was funny because I had Kitchen Nightmares on yesterday, and that restaurant owner started yelling “86” over and over at the top of his lungs. Granted, how stupid is it to put the term “86 47” spelled out in seashells on a beach? The fact that an adult did it was stupid. But it also has nothing to do with murder, and no, they never used it in The Sopranos like someone said this week. Maybe Artie Bucco did, but no, it was never used to imply killing something. I would just say that this guy has too much time on his hands to have done it in the first place, but that is it.

With that said, you have former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, John Brennan, ex-CIA, the guy at the Reflecting Pool, Louise Lucas, the Virginia Democratic state senator, David Morens, John Bolton, Cassidy Hutchinson, Marc Elias, Gavin Newsom, Adam Schiff, Ilhan Omar, Jerome Powell, Lisa Cook, Mark Kelly, Jack Smith, and Christopher Krebs all have had their lives upheaved because of Trump not liking them for something they did or did not do.

Talk about a lot of time on its hands. Raskin also says that he will also investigate that $1.8 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization fund.’

Rep. Adam Smith now says that wants oversight of the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In reality, Hegseth will be gone by Christmas, if not sooner, in the next few weeks. Smith says that he needs “more transparency on what the Pentagon is up to, more transparency on what the war plans are in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and with the boat strikes.” Smith also questions how we began the war in Iran, considering it was pretty much decided by Netanyahu and, in essence, Trump. You have to figure that 17 U.S. service member were killed in action, and there are neglect issues with regard to having certain resources and living standards on the ships.

Adams also mentioned those strikes on the drug-smuggling boats that were the size of a row boat, which, honestly, was alarming to see. I have no clue why they just did not capture the people on the boats and arrest them.

Then, both the DOJ and the Pentagon had key firings that were most likely not legal in the real world of Human Resources, and in most cases, very much unwarranted. Both divisions and agencies hired or put loyalists in place for the reason like being able to go to war at will and for them to be able to prosecute people without any real claim.

The House Homeland Security and Education and Workforce are also expected to have oversight hearings.

Although never mentioned, they also need to reverse the reversal of the climate laws the administration unilaterally set back in place with Executive Orders that allow companies and certain organizations to pollute and plunder the earth. Like the Executive Order that allowed companies to pollute their wastes into this particular river in the Midwest. Trump made that possible again for the company.

Money In Politics

Most of all, they need to figure out how to limit or get rid of the Citizens United decision. That is also an easy conflict because all that does is allow the wealthiest people to donate however much money, which in today’s politics is some quid pro quo, pay-to-play scheme. No one cares if anyone has a lot of money. However, if you got it corrupt, like maybe from the financial crises in ’08, or in some corrupt way, you should not be the one making decisions for the people. If you get a free house and you can help sway some Supreme Court Decisions, I have to assume that the person giving you that free house wants some input. So to speak, of course, and so on, and that is a real thing in case you did not know about it.

The irony, though, is that today and yesterday, that issue did not matter in the end.

I saw it as a too-little-too-late thing when initially heard about it last month, where even though there was a ton of walk-up yesterday, it was too little too late because it did not work.

But, when I would watch football in other markets the last few weeks, those games were inundated with political ads and, moreover, Trump ads. One after another, and that is what Trump did in the ’24 election. In the last six weeks, they spent a ton of money on ads everywhere, which I feel in part was why they won that race. They did nothing for months and then, boom, they flooded us the last month or so with their ads.

I had that in my mind leading up to yesterday, but in the end, money did not matter, and all of it was wasted. What really surprised me was to what level it did not work.

The Results

Like I said, only a few races were lost yesterday by the Democrats, and then if you compare how people voted in ’24 compared to this election, there were 70% swings. There were also many 50% to 70% swings everywhere. Even the close ones were never close in my lifetime. Mississippi being up the air. Kansas going Blue. Georgia Republicans are losing two huge seats.

The firsts yesterday were also everywhere. You had so many firsts: first women, first men and women of color, first Native American, and some first same-sex winners. I am forgetting them because they were everywhere. Maybe a nonbinary person, whatever that means.

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