Congressional Democrats plan to use their new-found majorities to permanently expand vote-by mail after an election that saw both record turnout and former President Donald Trump’s failed attempts to block New Jersey and other states from making it easier in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The bill would let anyone could vote by mail for any reason and receive postage-paid envelopes for requesting and returning ballots. States would have to set up secure drop boxes for completed ballots. Any ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to 10 days later would count, and voters whos...

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https://www.rawstory.com/vote-by-mail/

What did they have in common? Three things: They were white, almost to a man and woman, they were supporters of Donald Trump, and they were Republicans. They are, in fact, the Republican Party. That's why the political party that once nominated Abraham Lincoln isn't even a party anymore. It's a mob. They were there at the Capitol to do what their members of congress and senators were already at work doing in the well of the House of Representatives: attempting to block the certification of electoral ballots, trying to claim that the election was fraudulent and that it had been stolen from Donald Trump. Their aims were identical. Inside and outside the Capitol, they were there for Donald Trump.

Their president had sent them, directing them to "walk down to the Capitol" in his speech on the Ellipse. They didn't have to be told what to do when they got there. They understood what Trump was telling them. They were his voters, the lot of them. They were the people who put him in the White House. They voted for the Republican representatives and senators who were at the very moment of Trump's speech trying to overturn the election of Joe Biden. They were the Republican Party, and they were a riotous, violent mob.

Have you asked yourself why you have heard only a handful of Republicans criticize the mob that yelled "fight for Trump," and "hang Mike Pence," and "we're coming for you Pelosi"? Oh, a few Republicans like Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois have stood up to the mob, and because they did, their fellow Republicans are moving to censure them and run against them and beat them in primaries when they run for office again next year. The rest of them — in effect, the entire Republican Party — have remained silent. Have you heard even one of the Republicans who voted to support Trump's bogus claims in the House and Senate criticize the mob for assaulting 81 Capitol police officers and 58 members of the D.C. Metropolitan police force? Those are the numbers of cops who reported being injured during the attack on the Capitol, according to a document filed in federal court in Washington by the Department of Justice this week. Have you seen any television footage of Republican members of the House or Senate displaying the damage done to their desks or offices by the mob? Have you seen even one of them stand next to one of the shattered leaded-glass windows in the doors to the House chamber and point to the damage and denounce the people who committed that crime? Did even one of them hold a press conference and denounce the attack on the Capitol by a mob waving Trump flags and screaming "Fight for Trump"?

No, you haven't, because the Republicans in the House and Senate know they can't criticize the people who assaulted the Capitol and turned the chambers of both houses into crime scenes — because all that damage was done by the mob, not just in Donald Trump's name, in an attempt to overturn the election, but in their name too. Those congressmen and congresswomen and senators who stood on the floors of their respective chambers only a couple of hours after they had been overrun by a mob and voted to reject the electoral ballots for Joe Biden in the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania — they believed (or pretended to believe) the fantasies about fraud and stolen ballots and Dominion voting machines and Hugo Chavez just like the mob believed them.

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/30/republicans-are-no-longer-a-political-party-theyre-a-mob/

The Senate Majority Leader and Minority Leader are two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief Senate spokespersons for their respective political parties holding the majority and the minority in the United States Senate. They also manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate. They are each elected as Majority Leader and Minority Leader by the Senators of their party caucuses: the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate Republican Conference.

By Senate precedent, the Presiding Officer gives the Majority Leader priority in obtaining recognition to speak on the floor of the Senate. The Majority Leader serves as the chief representative of his or her party in the Senate. They also serve as the chief representative of their party in the entire Congress if the House of Representatives, and thus the office of Speaker of the House, is controlled by the opposition party.

The Assistant Majority and Assistant Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, commonly called Whips, are the second-ranking members of each party's leadership. The main function of the Majority and Minority Whips is to gather votes of their respective parties on major issues. As the second-ranking members of Senate leadership, if there is no floor leader present, the Whip may become acting floor leader.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_leaders_of_the_United_States_Senate

Nuclear Option

The nuclear option is a parliamentary procedure that allows the United States Senate to override a standing rule of the Senate, such as the 60-vote rule to close debate, by a simple majority of 51 votes, rather than the two-thirds supermajority normally required to amend the rules. The option is invoked when the majority leader raises a point of order that contravenes a standing rule, such as that only a simple majority is needed to close debate on certain matters. The presiding officer denies the point of order based on Senate rules, but the ruling of the chair is then appealed and overturned by majority vote, establishing new precedent.

This procedure uses Rule XX to allow the Senate to decide any issue by simple majority vote, regardless of Rule XXII, which requires the consent of 60 senators (out of 100) to end a filibuster for legislation and 67 for amending a Senate rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

Suddenly, Florida has a new raison d’être: America’s designated Trump sump, a depository for our departing (hopefully, please God, just make him go) president and his offspring.

After a subtle nudge from 81 million American voters, 59 unfavorable court decisions, 306 electoral college electors, followed by repudiation from both a congressional majority and his personal butler Mike Pence, the president and his clan are finally abandoning Joe Biden’s Washington for oh-so-indulgent Florida.

Here, they’ll find themselves embraced by a worshipful contingent of MAGA zealots, including (depending on the range of his court-ordered GPS ankle monitor) that grinning Manatee County rioter who paraded through the halls of Congress toting Nancy Pelosi’s lectern. (As Jimmy Kimmel noted Wednesday evening, “It took them a couple days to scrub the Florida off of it, but the lectern should be good to go.”
.........
For too many of the Trumps and Trump cultists in Washington that awful day, going home means they’re coming our way.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-com-grimm-trumps-in-florida-20210115-klfw76pyvjdoxi4j7xbmkx6gtm-story.html