Happy New Year!!! Less than 18 days to go and it’s a New Day!

Well, we made it through 2020 Sky Dancers!

Now. we have a countdown of 18 days to go to get rid of the Russian Potted Plant in the White House He’s still kicking and tweeting whatever possible dignity he ever had right down that gold toilet!  His Death Cult is up to no good too. But still, you can’t wake up to the first day of 2021 without being happy that a change is going to come for sure.

Via Politico and John F. Harris: “I’ve got a feeling ’21 is gonna be a good year …“

Can Biden fill the presidency? No, this isn’t about filling West Wing and Cabinet jobs. It’s about Biden filling his own job — projecting the aura of command that Americans associate with the presidency. At 78, he’ll be 78 days older on his first day than Ronald Reagan was on his last. On many days on the campaign trail, his frail bearing and meandering sentences made him seem every day of his age. Since the election, he’s typically been a crisper and more authoritative presence. Yet U.S. history has rarely presented a more vivid contrast between outsize challenges and a pedestrian leadership persona.

Can Trump still be Trump come Jan. 21? The president’s demagoguery with his baseless assertions of a stolen election, and his increasingly erratic behavior since the election, has put an old puzzle in a frightening new light: Does seemingly irrational behavior actually serve a rational purpose? I’m already on record with my hunch — not a prediction! — that Trump will fade faster than most people and probably even he assumes once he no longer occupies the White House. But this is the dominant question hovering over Republican politics. A subordinate question is whether his adult children have any real political sway of their own once dad is ex-president.

Which calls for one of my favorite Nina Simone Songs!!!

And then there’s this little–meager– thing coming into people’s checking accounts.  The stimulus program is half what it was in March.  There are some important differences too.  This is from the IndyStar: “New COVID-19 stimulus bill is half of March’s. How else it differs.”.

With no changes, this round of stimulus will cost about $920 billion, according to Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. That’s much closer to the $1 trillion package Republicans floated this summer — and a third of the bill House Democrats passed for earlier this year.

• Still, this package includes a mix of proposals from both parties:
• A renewal of the Paycheck Protection Program for small business loan forgiveness
• Funds for vaccine development and distribution
• Funds for COVID testing
• Funds to equip schools with protection equipment
• Renewal of unemployment benefits
• Direct stimulus payments

Check out the nifty graphic that outlines some of the major differences you may notice.

There will be some protests on next week when a one US Senator and a few Reps make total asses of themselves while simultaneously staging a coup.   Here’s some headlines on the protests but the usual right wing nutters, the Gohmert thing, and the vote to put every one on the record to say Biden was legally elected in our democratic Republic.

Mike Allen / Axios:
McConnell swats back at Trump amid Republican power struggle  —  It took four years and an election defeat.  But someone with real power inside the Republican Party is standing up to — and swatting back — President Trump: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Jake Tapper / CNN:
At least 140 House Republicans to vote against counting electoral votes, two GOP lawmakers say

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Hawley faces heat from Senate Republicans over Electoral College plans  —  The Missouri senator missed a Thursday call where Mitch McConnell asked him to explain his plans, emailing colleagues later instead.  —  Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

Dan Berman / CNN:
Pence asks judge to reject Gohmert lawsuit asking the VP to interfere in the Electoral College count

The only thing that concerns me is the protests by the usual nutters who are getting angrier and more aggrieved and finding more ways to convince themselves that every conspiracy theory Trump sends them is reality.

From USA Today: “‘Wild’ protests: Police brace for pro-Trump rallies when Congress meets Jan. 6 to certify Biden’s win.”

A city accustomed to mass protests is gearing up for especially intense ones over what should be the most mundane of political events: the counting of Electoral College votes during a special joint session of Congress.

At the urging of President Donald Trump, however, die-hard supporters are planning to descend on the nation’s capital Jan. 6, to pressure Republican lawmakers into aligning themselves with the doomed effort to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Knife fights, shouting matches, and verbal harassment of Trump opponents accompanied previous demonstrations following Biden’s election win in November. Now federal and local law enforcement are bracing for what may be the most intense Trump protest yet as Congress is poised to formally declare Biden president-elect.

Various Trump groups are promoting the demonstrations online. One called “#StopTheSteal” operates the website “WildProtest.com,” which proclaims that “PRESIDENT TRUMP WANTS YOU IN DC JANUARY 6.”

“Be there, will be wild,” says one flier.

The event has been co-signed by incoming members of Congress Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

All eyes are still on Georgia.  This is from the AJC: “Early voting ends with record 3M Georgia voters for US Senate runoffs”.  I’m just hoping we can settle into getting the virus under control, the economy back on line with more stimulus, and the federal government functional again.  Senate control changes would certainly improve our chances.

And then, climate change the global problem we need to be on top of …

To run his Energy Department, Biden has tapped former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a staunch clean energy advocate who worked closely with the Obama administration to bail out her state’s auto industry during the Great Recession — a program that also directed stimulus funds to build the LG Chem facility there that produces batteries for the Chevy Volt.

“Granholm was really good on this stuff when she was governor. She’s been even more engaged on the climate fights since she left,” said John Podesta, the former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton who later led Obama administration climate efforts. “She still has very strong connections to unions, to the auto companies.”

Granholm is already leaning into her argument that a clean energy transition can help the U.S. economy — and blue collar workers — weather the economic turmoil from the pandemic.

“We’re going to be working at the Department of Energy with the … states and the cities, to help give them incentives, little carrots, little sticks,” Granholm told ABC’s “This Week,” on Dec. 20, adding that “combating climate change is such an economic opportunity for this country.”

Hang in there!  Help is on the way!  We’ll be here together to virtually hold hands and hug as we undo the terrible Trumpist Regime’s rule of terror and ineptitude.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?