<....RG: Because of that big polling miss, it makes it easier for (Joe Biden) to do that. But I’m curious if you think Democrats could have done better. What could they have done differently to make it an even better night?

AOC: Well, New York, I think, is the glaring aberration in what we see in this map. I have a front-row seat to what was going on here, so I think it’s natural for me to gravitate towards that. But I think even nationally, what happened in New York really bucks a lot of the trends in what we saw nationwide; I think that a lot of these races were much more uphill than what we saw in other places. I think, in New York, the way that those campaigns were run were different than the way a lot of winning campaigns across the country were run. And I think the role of the state party had very strong national implications. If Democrats do not hang on to the House, I think that responsibility falls squarely in New York State. And so I think we definitely could have done better there. And I think that that’s kind of like the glaring hole in where we did not perform as strongly as other areas in the map did.

RG: What were those key differences, you think between the way they were run in New York and elsewhere?

AOC: I think policing was a big one. I think the choice among certain Democrats to validate Republican narratives and amplify Republican narratives on crime and policing, running ads on it — validating these narratives actually ended up hurting them much more than a different approach. I think that what we saw in other races was that they were able to really effectively center either their narratives and the narratives that they wanted to run with, whether it was abortion rights, whether it was democracy, whether it was, you know, other key and top priorities.

I think Democrats in New York, they did a couple of things. They ran ads around that were explicitly very anti-defund, which only served to reinvoke the frame and only served to really reinforce what Republicans were saying. If we’re going to talk about public safety, you don’t talk about it in the frame of invoking defund or anti-defund, you really talk about it in the frame of what we’ve done on gun violence, what we’ve done to pass the first gun reform bill in 30 years. Our alternatives are actually effective, electorally, without having to lean into Republican narratives. So I think that was one prime mistake.

And I think another prime mistake is that in New York State, I think that — Cuomo may be gone, but his entire infrastructure, much of his infrastructure and much of the political machinery that he put in place is still there. And this is a machinery that is disorganized, it is sycophantic. It relies on lobbyists and big money. And it really undercuts the ability for there to be affirming grassroots and state-level organizing across the state. And so when that languishes and there’s very little organizing happening, yeah, I mean, basically, you’re leaving a void for Republicans to walk into. And so I actually think a lot of these Republican games aren’t necessarily as strong as they may seem, I think it’s really from an absence. And it’s a testament to the corruption that has been allowed to continue in the New York State Democratic Party.

We saw that with India Walton. We saw loud and clear there were a lot of canaries in the coal mine from the state ballot initiative. I mean, Jay Jacobs [the New York State Democratic Committee chair] — Republicans put millions of dollars into defeating the redistricting ballot measure last year that would have protected the map, that would have put us ahead. And so I really believe that we would have won Democratic seats, potentially gained Democratic seats in New York State, but Republicans put millions of dollars against this ballot measure, they organized against it, and the New York State Democratic Party didn’t drop $1 in making sure that we got this thing passed. And this was in an off-year election, this was in 2021. We could have done this. And the fact that that happened, and there still was no implication for the state [party], and for state party leadership. A lot of this was really about these calcified political machines being asleep at the wheel, and there being a complete lack of desire to hold any of it accountable....>

<....RG: The election did offer a clear mandate for abortion rights, not just the House and Senate races, but in every state it was on the ballot. Yeah, Kentucky, Montana, Michigan, California, Vermont — the pro choice side won. So what do you think Democrats can do with that mandate? You know, just saying like, “Vote again and vote harder in 2024” can’t really be all there is. What should Biden do? What should Congress do with this new mandate?

AOC: Depending on how slim this margin is, if Democrats are somehow able to eke this out with a one or two seat — a similar margin that we’ve had — I think we need to go all out: We need to codify Roe v. Wade. If we’re able to pick up our Senate margin, then we deliver on the things that we weren’t able to deliver before. I think we try again on a $15 minimum wage. I think we codify Roe v. Wade, I think we go for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, I think we go all out on the litany of legislation that was stalled by [Sens. Joe] Manchin and [Kyrsten] Sinema. And I think it’s a very unique opportunity for us to do that in a very big way.

Now, if the Republican caucus, it ekes this out with a very narrow margin — which some folks are saying may be the case — if that is the case, I think we take advantage of the disorganization of the Republican caucus. I do not believe that Kevin McCarthy is a strong leader whatsoever. And I think we inflict a lot of pain on this. And either it becomes enough of a liability with them that they have to let something through because they’re just getting killed on this issue, or they lose in two years.

But on top of that, I also think that the results of tonight or last night do give Biden actually a bit of a strengthened mandate, in that I believe that the message from the electorate was very clear. And I think that over the last two years, there has been a lot of self doubt about how far to go.

And I think we learned an economic lesson, which is that full employment is politically stronger than inflation, as opposed to when we were in the situation under Obama, where they tried the other tack and unemployment was punished much more severely. And so I think we learned that economic message on employment. I think we learned [the value of] a very strong message on abortion. And whether that means Biden leaning into his pen a little bit more on executive orders and other tools at his disposal, I think that that’s going to be very important, including the bully pulpit.

And I also think that there was [sic] very strong implications around public safety that, like, once and for all, after two years of the party insulting criminal justice organizers, accusing them of sloganeering [and] of trying to out the conservatives on this issue — I actually do believe that there was a very clear message here that the American electorate understands that the conversation about public safety extends beyond policing. And that it also includes many other issues as well.

Because it’s like what we say back home. We were able to communicate to our electorate, you know, are we here to talk about police? Or are we here to talk about bringing down crime? Because those are two different conversations. And I actually think that that’s starting to sink in for people more that this is not about rejecting safety. But this is about actually solving the problem and using evidence-based approaches to tackle this problem. And so I don’t think we run away from these things anymore, and I don’t think we run away against health care writ large. I think, depending on what happens with the House, if we have the opportunity, we also need to strike the Hyde Amendment as well. And I think that that’s going to be increasingly important. And if we retain the Senate, and even if the House goes towards Republicans, given the very narrow margin of Republican victories, they too are also going to have to negotiate, they too are also going to have to compromise. And I think that they are in a much weaker position as a party, which means they have more to concede — not us. And we can stand in that in that confidence, in that power a little bit more....>

<zed: Here's one...

Earliest known example of a Railroad Mate?>

<Somebody tell the ignorant fool that there is no Railroad Mate in this game. The Railroad mate was around long before the internet was invented. Writing words down doesn't make the statement correct.>

<Donald Trump sought to escape blame for the poor showing of his party in the 2022 midterms on Sunday and escalated his racist attacks against the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, his former secretary of Transporation, Elaine Chao.

The latest attack came in the form of another “truth” from Mr Trump’s Truth Social platform, and followed a dismal performance by the Republican Party in their bid to retake both the House and Senate. After Tuesday’s midterm elections Republicans stand to not only not take the Senate but may in fact be pushed further into the minority; meanwhile, a razor-thin House majority looks possible but not definite as a few races remain uncalled in western states.

Mr Trump has become his party’s scapegoat as a wave of editorials and opinion articles in conservative media blame the ex-president for valuing fealty above all other characteristics and leading the GOP down a path where its national presence was unpalatable for many Americans.

“It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault. Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates instead of backing Blake Masters and others was a big mistake. Giving 4 Trillion Dollars to the Radical Left for the Green New Deal, not Infrastructure, was an even bigger mistake. He blew the Midterms, and everyone despises him and his otherwise lovely wife, Coco Chow!” wrote the ex-president.

The obvious racist reference to Mr McConnell’s wife is only the latest in a line of increasingly ugly remarks that the ex-president has made about his former secretary of Transportation despite her now-total step back from the public sphere; Ms Chao has almost completely avoiding making public remarks of her own and has neither responded to the racist questions about her heritage from her former boss nor returned fire.

The bizarre, one-sided feud appears completely motivated by Mr McConnell’s continued status as the highest-ranking obstacle or opponent to Donald Trump’s dominance of the GOP, and in particular its members in the Senate. The minority leader whipped votes against efforts to contest the 2020 election results in Mr Trump’s favour in January of 2021, and has called the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 a “violent insurrection”. Though he also whipped members against the ex-president’s impeachment in both cases, Mr Trump continues to seek Mr McConnell’s ouster as GOP leader in the upper chamber.

Mr McConnell also continues to largely ignore the personal and racist attacks Mr Trump aims at his wife and in his public responses to questions on the matter merely asserts that he continues to have the support he needs to remain leader of his caucus.

He was pressed on the issue by CNN’s Manu Raju earlier this year, and did not use the word “racist” to describe the ex-presidents [sic] remarks; instead, he pivoted to defending legal immigrants like his wife for pursuing the “American Dream”.

“As I said, legal immigration has been a fulfilling of the American dream,” said the minority leader in July. “The new people who come here have a lot of ambition, a lot of energy, tend to do very well and invigorate our country. My wife’s a good example of that.”

Most GOP senators have refused or dodged attempts to get them to state their views on the ex-president’s racist remarks, though Senator Rick Scott of Florida addressed the issue in October during an interview on CNN.

“It’s never, ever OK to be a racist,” he said in October. “I think you always have to be careful, you know, if you’re in the public eye...You want to make sure you’re inclusive.”>

<The race for Colorado's third congressional district remains too close to be called, as Trump-endorsed Rep. Lauren Boebert is currently only slightly ahead of her rival, Democrat Adam Frisch.

But the incumbent congresswoman's narrow lead could once again be overturned if thousands of likely rejected votes in favor of her challenger were to be fixed, as a recount looms over the Colorado race.

Boebert was widely projected to win the midterms, with polling website FiveThirtyEight giving her a 97 in 100 chance of victory in the days ahead of the vote.

As of November 14 and with nearly all of the ballots being counted, Boebert is leading with 50.1 percent of the vote (162,040 votes) against Frisch's 49.8 percent (160,918 votes).

A recount could be called if the final margin between Boebert and Frisch is less than or equal to 0.5 percent of the leading candidate's vote total. At the moment, the gap between the two candidates is 0.38 percent.

Frisch could still oust the Republican incumbent, an election denier and one of Donald Trump's most ardent supporters, if thousands of votes likely rejected for signature verification were cast in support of the Democratic nominee.

Every year in Colorado, thousands of ballots are reportedly rejected for issues related to signature verification, such as a missing signature or a discrepancy in the signature. Local officials then alert voters of the issue, giving them a week time to fix the problem and make their vote count.

The process, which is done in 23 other state [sic] besides Colorado, is called "ballot curing."

There's no way of knowing right now how many votes might have been rejected this year, or whom these votes might have been cast in favor of, as the ballots remain close until the signature issues are resolved. But, on a national average, a majority of mail-in ballots are sent by Democrats.

According to the Secretary of State's Office, 21,838 ballots were rejected for signature verification in 2020. Nationwide, more than 560,000 were rejected. The Secretary of State's Office doesn't count how many votes were fixed.

Frisch is hopeful that the votes being cured, once fixed, could still bring him to victory.

"Ballots are still being cured in #CO03 and our campaign wants to make sure every vote is counted so we can retake the lead," the Democratic candidate wrote on Twitter, encouraging voters to check the status of their ballots.

If Boebert loses the race, her defeat would be yet another blow to MAGA Republicans and the former president, whose picks have performed much below expectations at the midterms.

But it would also mean that there's a possibility that Democrats could maintain control of the Senate and the House, which currently looks like it's going to go red.>

<On Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," former Republican congressman and House January 6 Committee adviser Denver Riggleman weighed in on the efforts to gain communications by key allies of former President Donald Trump.

This comes after the Supreme Court shut down a request by Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward, who is suspected of working with Trump's allies to create a list of fraudulent presidential electors, to shut down a subpoena of her phone records — a subpoena which, according to Riggleman, could produce valuable information.

"Let me tell you, metadata and data is very powerful," said Riggleman. "When you talk about Kelli Ward, you're talking about someone who could be in the political side and the legal and the militant side. So when you have individuals fighting their phone records, you wonder why. And there could be one or two calls that go to people that are rally or right extremist groups and there are White House numbers and who was she talking to in the White House around January 6."

"As far as the Secret Service texts, I would like to see what is policing," said Riggleman. "But the before and after could be very powerful. On the Secret Service texts, if they could put that thread together it is very interesting to see who thought Trump was doing the right thing and who was supporting him and things of that nature. As far as Kelli Ward, I think you have a factor for people whose data out there, whether they realize, that the technical teams have a millions of lines of data and there is a link system to see the connections very quickly. And it is very, very robust. So I think you see that is why people are fighting."

Furthermore, continued Riggleman, when it comes to Clarence Thomas — whose wife was heavily involved in pressuring Arizona lawmakers to throw out the 2020 election results, and who was one of only two justices to vote in favor of Ward's request, it is "not a surprise that he voted against this."

"I have a special place in my heart with the Thomases, and it is to a point that if there is not more investigation into Ginni Thomas, I don't know what to say," said Riggleman. "I think she's key. I was one of the first to see the text messages, I think we need to do a much deeper drive into Ginni Thomas and some of the people around her.">

How many lies can <yew> find in this, <fredthenonentity>?

<This crybaby clown page is reserved for smelly feet or lie to openly hunt bear three times a day. It's another pathetic example of the raging double standard that exists on chessgames. Punish honest people wanting good chess commentary who are perpetually trolled while cheats, liars, liberal losers roam free.

🤡🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤡

<George Conway: He was always going to run. Absent incarceration or interment, and perhaps only the latter, he inevitably would seek the presidency again. His narcissism, his megalomania, <<<his delicate>>> yet illimitable ego, would have it no other way. Donald Trump craves the power. Even more, he craves the attention. And more than ever — after an unprecedented two impeachments, a humiliating reelection defeat that he can’t even admit, and amid multiple criminal investigations and civil suits — he seeks vengeance.>

<The l’état c’est moi president who apparently tried to sic the IRS on his enemies (and perhaps succeeded), and who tried to extort Ukraine into smearing Joe Biden, can’t wait to get back on the job.>

Trump won’t succeed, as his <<<<successive losses>>> of the House, Senate, presidency and last week’s midterm results show.

Too many Americans would crawl on broken glass to vote against him, no matter who his general election opponent may be. They have seen enough.

That goes also for many Republicans, particularly the sophisticated ones. Their views were succinctly stated by Marc Thiessen just the other day: “Mr. President, it is not in your interest to run in 2024.

< The double standard of unfairness is clear. The administration allows dishonest trolling of fredthebear here, there, and everywhere. It was OK to troll fredthebear with three dozen sock puppets. Now it's OK to troll fredthebear with three accounts, AND DO SO ON AN ADMINISTRATION PAGE!!!

Pathetic, truly shameless operation. My impression of Pete was not this bad. This behavior doesn't fit. I think Pete's out of the office. This smells like Miss Scarlett's doing. She's supposed to be an editor but has turned a blind eye to the problem for years. She's doing the same thing on Biographer's Bistro, too.

Z and Miss Scarlett have made contact on the side. Z would be workin' it today like the pest that it is.

<Donald — suppose you gave a big speech announcing you were running for president, and nobody really cared? What if it was a speech that both your daughters skipped, and even your oldest son missed due to a “hunting trip”? A speech even your pals at Fox News cut away from, with other major networks airing instead programs like “Bachelor in Paradise”? And then what if the speech itself was so lacking in luster that Sarah Matthews, your own deputy press secretary, called it “one of the most low-energy, uninspiring speeches I’ve ever heard from Trump. Even the crowd seems bored. Not exactly what you want when announcing a presidential run”?

Well, it happened, Donald. You may stand accused of sedition and obstruction of justice and fraud, but we all know the worst crime of all is being blah. You’d think after most of your anointed candidates from Cloud Cuckooland got clobbered in the midterms, you’d have known you needed to bring your A-Game to the stage at Mar-a-lago last night.

Instead, we got the dreaded Teleprompter Don, with that sing-songy, almost sleep-inducing delivery. Oh, you mentioned all that blood running in American streets thanks to the Dems, and the laughingstock we all supposedly are overseas since you left office. But we could tell your heart just wasn’t in it. Where was that wild, riled-up guy we saw at all those rallies? The guy who’d shout and sputter about dark states and border walls until his orange skin turned bright red? Frankly, you seemed more like a tired old codger who’d rather be golfing even more frequently, were it not for your insatiable thirst for the power and attention only being Leader of the Free World commands.

So here we are: you, “Florida Man” (as the New York Post mockingly called you this morning), have made your “big announcement,” and it’s probably too late to say “Just kidding!” We’d suggest you step aside and let that nice Ron DeSantis have a turn, but we know that would be fruitless. Your old buddy Kayleigh McEnany just called DeSantis’ message “positive, it was sunny, it was forward-looking. It needs to be the future message for the party,” but we do realize Ron’s a threat to your ego, and thus permanently on your You Stink list. So we’re probably all of us stuck (including you and possibly Melania) with two more years of a Trump 2024 campaign.

While you face an uphill battle for sure, there are still a few things to be grateful for. You’ll always have QAnon. Right? Right? We must say we were a bit surprised when their dystopian theme song didn’t play last night, though. And alt-right Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich must have disappointed you when he wrote: “Losing always sucks, but at least no one has to suck up to Trump anymore. He’s going to feel the vibe shift real quick.” No one to suck up to you anymore? Say it ain’t so! Don’t worry, at least you still have J.D. Vance! Maybe!

The GOP is now, by most calculations, a bunch of losers, and we know how much you hate being around those. We honestly think it’s time for a GNP (Grand NEW Party), to go along with your snappy Truth Social platform. Third-party candidates have traditionally not won much of anything on a national scale, but then you’re no ordinary third-party candidate. All you need to do is take your shrinking base and just add a mere 50 or 60 million more, and you’re golden.

As for your “theme,” I think you picked a winner with last night’s “Things are really bad and they’re going to get a whole lot worse, and then you’ll come crawling back to me.” Ah, something to hope for! People do seem to be wearying of your constant whining and rehashing of 2020, however, so instead why not just start whining and “pre-hashing” about the 2024 election results? Or even 2028? Sometimes just changing a few words makes all the difference.

If you keep up with that excellent diet and exercise regimen (fending off federal charges is a great calorie-burner!) there’s no reason you can’t keep running and running and running until you either keel over or win decisively one of these years. But, Donald, you really need to put a little more oomph into your presentations. Ivanka isn’t around to tell you, so let me do it: Pretend to Give a Damn! If you’re feeling indifferent, just imagine the world feeling indifferent about YOU. Think about all those other, younger, more charismatic politicians nipping at your heels. Work yourself up into a lather on a regular basis, just to show you still care.

Thanks for hanging in, Donald, and remember — a dwindling percentage of the American public is rooting for you!>

<Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, faces incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in the nation’s most bruising election of the 2022 midterm cycle.

Both sides sunk [sic] a combined $241 million into the race while polls revealed a statistical dead heat between the candidates. Former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama campaigned for their party’s respective candidates. Even Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James got in on the action.

In the end, neither candidate earned the 50 percent mark required to seal the election on Nov. 6th. By Georgia state law, Walker and Warnock advance to a head-to-head runoff election. Walker, for his part, raised an eye-popping $3.3 million in the new cycle’s first 24 hours.

The campaign turned particularly nasty in its closing last week. The special runoff election will be no different judging from the barbs recently thrown by each candidate.

Earlier this week, Walker, whose campaign has been rocked by multiple scandals, accused Warnock of having his own skeletons. He asked why Warnock didn’t “keep his own kids.”

Warnock responded in kind while speaking at a rally in Augusta, Georgia.

“I know that politics is ugly,” Warnock said, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “People play all kinds of games, unfortunately. But Herschel Walker and his allies have crossed a line where my family is concerned.”

“I want to set the record straight: My children live with me. I am present with my children in every way that a father should be, from breakfast in the morning to bedtime prayers at night. I can’t continue to let him lie about my family.”

Georgia voters head to the polls on Dec. 6th.>

<As Colorado heads into its final day of ballot counting, one of the state's eight districts remains undecided: the unexpectedly tight race between Republican Representative Lauren Boebert and her Democratic challenger Adam Frisch.

Wednesday marks the final day to cure ballots, meaning it's the last chance for voters to fix any issues related to missing signatures or copies of identification, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's office.

Although the other seven districts have already been called—Republicans held two seats, while Democrats held three and won the competitive, newly-drawn 8th district—a return to Congress remains uncertain for Boebert.

The race between the conservative firebrand and Frisch is currently separated by 1,122 votes, with Boebert leading by 0.35 percent. It's the tightest race of the remaining uncalled House races at this time.

Because Colorado law requires a recount for any contest where the gap between the final two candidates is 0.5 percent or less, Colorado's 3rd district is likely headed for another round of tallying unless Boebert can break the threshold.

Of the four counties where there is still more than two percent of votes to be counted—and thus where either candidate is most likely to see a bump—Frisch is leading by an overwhelming margin in three. In Eagle, Pitkin, and San Juan County, the Democrat leads with 71.7 percent, 79.2 percent and 79.5 percent of the vote, respectively.

Boebert is leading in one county where a larger portion of ballots is still being tabulated: Otero County, with 58.7 percent of the vote.

The contest has been one of the biggest surprises in the midterm election. The district is not only a Republican stronghold, but Boebert has become a national GOP star since being first elected four years ago. FiveThirtyEight had projected her with a 97 in 100 chance of winning re-election.

Experts told Newsweek that the vote is largely a referendum on the congresswoman, who "has managed to alienate a number of unaffiliated voters and possibly some Republicans in her district," according to Seth Masket, the director of the Center of American Politics at the University of Denver.

While Frisch had led in the early vote counts, Boebert overtook her opponent with a razor-thin edge last Thursday.

On Wednesday, Frisch thanked his staff for helping his campaign "beat expectations" while the final votes were being counted.

"Waiting this long for election results is going to make firing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House that much sweeter," Boebert tweeted on Monday.

Under the calendar outlined by Colorado's Secretary of State, December 13 will be the final day to complete a mandatory recount and December 15 will be the final day to complete a requested recount.>

<The conservative National Review gave a hard "no" to Donald Trump's third presidential campaign.

The magazine's editorial board credited the former president for killing off the Clinton dynasty, reshaping the U.S. Supreme Court and passing tax cuts, but said any successes he offered to conservatives were undercut by "his erratic nature and lack of seriousness," and urged Republicans to turn the page for 2024.

"It’s too early to know what the rest of the field will look like," the editorial board wrote, "except it will offer much better alternatives than Trump."

The editors pointed out that Trump had cost Republicans congressional majorities and governorships since entering politics, and they said he doesn't even seem that enthusiastic about his own chances to win a second term.

"The answer to Trump’s invitation to remain personally and politically beholden to him and his cracked obsessions for at least another two years, with all the chaos that entails and the very real possibility of another highly consequential defeat," the editors wrote, "should be a firm, unmistakable, No.">

<In September, the American Conservative Union sent a “woke congressional leadership pledge” to GOP lawmakers seeking endorsements for leadership posts.

“The first step to earn our support is a new shared strategy to reprimand corporations that have gone woke,” the letter read.

The organization that puts on the annual Republican gathering, the Conservative Political Action Conference, called on lawmakers to punish corporations with “radical left policies” such as paying travel costs for employee abortions, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement or promoting “radical gender theory and gender modification onto our children.”

“With new, conservative majorities, these same corporate woke elitists will be back on Capitol Hill, trying to cozy back up to conservatives,” it warned. “CPAC calls on you to take a stand and not allow this to happen without a renunciation of woke policies.”

The GOP, once the party of big business, has unfriended it.

In recent months, Republicans have intensified their pressure campaign to stop corporate America from taking liberal stands, with punitive measures ranging from boycotts to legislation to shareholder fights.

Now that Republicans have regained control of the House, key conservative figures are threatening political consequences.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kevin McCarthy warn 'woke' corporations

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, the favorite to succeed Democrat Nancy Pelosi as the next speaker when a new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3, has already taken swipes at big business.

He recently told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which backed 23 House Democrats in the 2020 election, that he won’t work with its CEO Suzanne Clark and she should be replaced, Axios reported.

The House Republican Study Committee hosted a competing lobbying group, the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, at an official meeting in June.

Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has pledged that corporations that cut off GOP politicians who supported former President Donald Trump's claims of a "stolen" 2020 election would face congressional investigations.

“That’s not going to be forgotten,” Greene said on Steve Bannon's War Room last month. "There are going to be investigations coming."

A handful of companies that have angered the GOP and are likely to be asked to testify at congressional hearings are retaining law firms with Republican ties to prepare.

“If the Republican party goes back to business as usual, which many will want to, and they say, ‘look we’re in charge now so let’s let the companies all come in, let the Chamber of Commerce come in,’ the companies will never back out of woke,” Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, told USA TODAY.

The threats don’t carry any less weight even though the “red wave” the GOP predicted turned into a trickle. Republicans secured the 218th seat needed to flip the House from Democratic control Wednesday, more than a week after Election Day....>

<....“The GOP has the House, so pressure will be on,” said Paul Argenti, a professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth and author of a 2020 Harvard Business Review article, “When Should Your Company Speak Up About a Social Issue?”

Increasingly corporations will have to balance activist investors and employees prodding them to take progressive positions and conservatives punishing them for it, said David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester.

“Corporations are really caught in the middle of the culture wars,” Primo said.

“I firmly believe that most CEOs would much rather not speak out on abortion, they would much rather not have to be taking these positions but they are being put in the middle,” Primo said. “You are kind of in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position in a lot of these cases. The question is: What do you do? I don’t think there are a lot of easy answers here for companies.”

The populist wing of the Republican party has given rise to growing anti-big business fervor in recent years, observers say.

The broadside heard around corporate America? When Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek criticized a Florida law limiting what teachers can tell young students about gender and sexuality and Gov. Ron DeSantis stripped the company of a decades-old special tax district.

"We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations," DeSantis said in a speech after defeating Democratic nominee Charlie Crist in the midterm elections. "We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die."

Abhinav Gupta, associate professor of management at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, says that kind of heated rhetoric may be just that.

“There are political points to be scored by bashing woke corporations,” he said.

And corporate America will put up with browbeating from the Republican majority if it means lighter regulation and tax cuts, according to Gupta.

“In some ways, corporations have been somewhat emboldened to take more progressive public positions, and I think they are thinking twice about doing that going forward,” he said. “They are adjusting their behaviors and practices to stay out of the fray as much as possible.”>

<As testing grounds for election denialism go, you’d struggle to find better than Arizona in 2022. Despite its recent drift into swing-state status, Arizona’s Republican Party was taken over by extreme elements and nominated election deniers for every statewide office. And its defeated gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, looks like she might be the one big-name Republican to go whole-hog on baselessly claiming her election was stolen.

The verdict on the state GOP’s descent into denialism was already pretty clear, thanks to the losses of Lake and others like Senate nominee Blake Masters and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem.

But don’t sleep on the latest result out of the state: voters’ highly unusual rejection of a voter ID ballot measure. Proposition 309 trails by less than one percentage point, but the Associated Press projected Wednesday night that it has been defeated.

Despite state Republicans’ focus on “election integrity,” it appears to be the first time in a decade that voters — in any state — have rejected stricter voter ID.

Arizona already has voter ID. But the ballot measure sought to force everyone voting in person to use photo identification, whereas the law currently allows those without photo ID to provide two alternate documents, such as a utility bill. For mail voters, the measure would have required them to record their birth dates and either voter identification numbers, driver’s license or identification card numbers, or a partial Social Security number. Currently, voters only need to sign and date.

The rejection is notable not only because of the GOP’s focus on voter fraud (despite the lack of evidence that it’s truly a significant or pervasive problem). It’s also notable because voter ID is something the vast majority of Americans support, at least at surface level: A January poll from Monmouth University found that 80 percent of Americans supported “requiring voters to show a photo ID” to vote.

That number might overstate things: Some people might like the idea of voter ID in theory, but may not insist on a new rule strictly requiring a photo ID that not everyone has....>

<....But the rejection is still rather historic.

Ten years ago appears to be the last time a state’s voters rejected a voter ID law put to them on the ballot, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. Back in 2012, Minnesota voters rejected a measure that would have required photo ID, 54 percent to 46 percent.

But mostly, voters have been eager to sign off on strengthening such requirements:

Arizona voters in 2004 passed the current requirements. They did so by a 56-44 margin. Oklahoma, by a whopping 74-26 margin, passed a law in 2010 that required either photo ID, or for the voter to sign a sworn statement while casting a provisional ballot. (Such laws generally allow those without photo IDs to cast provisional ballots, which require jumping through additional hoops to have your ballot counted.)

Missouri in 2016 voted 62-37 for a measure allowing the state government to require voter ID, though not necessarily photo ID.

In 2018, both Arkansas and North Carolina passed new laws by 79-21 and 55-45 margins, respectively. Each required photo ID to vote in person. (The North Carolina law has yet to be enforced, as it has been blocked by the courts and the state Supreme Court deliberates on whether the law was tainted by the state’s illegal gerrymander.)

And as recently as this past election, Nebraska voters by a 66-34 margin passed a measure to amend the state Constitution to require photo ID.

Precisely why Arizona delivered this movement such an unusual defeat is complicated. There was a concerted push against the ballot measure, which opponents warned could disenfranchise voters. The Arizona Association of County Recorders, which represents local elections officials across the state’s 15 counties, opposed it. The association said it was too burdensome, could delay vote-counting and might even jeopardize voters’ data privacy by forcing them to transmit sensitive personal information through the mail.

And it also might have mattered that Arizona is a heavy vote-by-mail state, which meant voters didn’t necessarily see as much utility in requiring something to vote in person that isn’t required for voting by mail.

But the rejection of voter ID measures, often cast as the simplest ways to ensure election integrity, in a state where election denialism has been so pervasive shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

Voter ID has been on the march for years, most often courtesy of GOP-controlled state legislatures, but also, sometimes, thanks to voters themselves.

One needn’t be an election denier to support voter ID, but this was surely a measure of how responsive the public is to the kinds of election skepticism spouted by the Arizona GOP. That voters in Arizona decided this proposal went too far — in this place of all places and at this time of all times — is merely the latest indication that election denialism fell utterly flat in the 2022 election.>

<Rick Wilson: The last week in American politics has been almost unspeakably delightful.

It is a phase we call “The Finding Out” after the Republican party’s sordid, degrading affair with Donald Trump, his personality cult, and the collection of nationalists, populists, weirdos, conspiracy loons, skells, and authoritarian trash who comprise the “intellectual” wing of MAGA.

Today, the swaggering, dick-swinging media spin (which most of the political media in this country swallowed hook, line, and sinker and then leaped into the GOP boat and offered to filet themselves) is a smoking ruin.

They were very, very confidently predicting a Red Wave. Some even bragged the numbers would rival 2010 or 1994, with massive Republican victories resetting the political map for a generation.

No, really. I know you might think this sounds petty but watching the absolute agony of the Republican party I worked in for almost 30 years writhe in humiliation, fear, and regret is the most delicious vista imaginable.

Even now, I’m staring down into the Valley of Schadenfreude, overlooking the beautiful Lake of MAGA Tears and inhaling the sweet smoke of incinerated personal and corporate billions of dollars that went to dead-enders better suited for an asylum than office.

Mitch McConnell’s dream of a majority died in Las Vegas like a degenerate gambler. Even if he had taken the Senate, he’s lost control; the MAGA cohort is now a functional opposition that will cockblock his deal-making with more moderate Senators.

SINO (Speaker in Name Only) <<<Kevin McCarthy>>> is dead but too stupid to lie down and let the vultures do their work.

Margorie Taylor Greene runs the House GOP, not Kevin, and his vaunted Luntz Leftovers(™) Commitment to America will appear as “But What About Hunter Biden’s Laptop, Parts I-VII.”

Billions, and I mean billions of dollars, were given to the Republican campaign committees this year.

Billions, with a b. Rick Scott, Mitch McConnell, and their lackeys went through lobbyist and wealthy donor’s bank accounts with a flamethrower after failing to place more electable, McConnell-friendly candidates in a dozen Senate races.

Trust me, Herschel Walker was not their first choice, nor were Don Bolduc, Dr. Oz, Blake Masters, or the rest.

By the end, McConnell and Company were pouring money into red state races as a firebreak.

They spent heavily on J.D. Vance to…hold a seat in a deep red state. Great ROI, fellas.

Many of the Democratic House seats high on the GOP hit list -- Abigail Spanberger, Elissa Slotkin, and others held on.

Most of the GOP wins were direct effects of partisan redistricting, not messaging. Republicans did make pickups in blue states.

(I suspect the political monocultures of New York and California have atrophied their political muscles.)

The Red Wave was the Red Ripple, and now the GOP is staring Trump’s return in the face and engaging in an orgy of self-flagellation and panic.

All I can say is we warned you. Yeah, us. The assh0les. The men and women who wouldn’t break and bow to Trump.>

<Right-wing Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene dodged a question from The Independent when asked about her claims regarding the source of fentanyl crossing the US-Mexico border.

Ms Greene held a press conference on Thursday afternoon on her legislation calling for an accounting of all US dollars that had gone to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of the nation. During the press conference, she drew a parallel to the US-Mexico border, saying the United States was not adequately monitoring immigration.

Marjorie Taylor Greene dodges question about fentanyl being smuggled by US citizens

“We’re ignoring the dangers happening at our border and the national security crisis that’s happening in our country while we are completely protecting another country’s border and also waging a proxy war with Russia,” she said. She also noted correctly that 56,516 Americans overdosed on fentanyl in 2020.

“This is a tragedy that’s happening, and it’s practically invisible,” she said.

But when asked about the fact that most fentanyl comes not from illegal border crossings but from legal ports of entry from American citizens, Ms Greene dodged the question.

“I would ask for where’s your proof on that because that’s not what we’ve been shown,” she said. “When we go to the border and we’re speaking with border patrol agents, when we’re on the ground, that’s not at all what we are being told.”

Then citing a study from the CATO Institute, a libertarian organisation that cited US government data, she rebuffed the study.

“The CATO Institute is not the border patrol,” she said. “I’m sorry, is the CATO down there securing our border and stopping illegal aliens and human trafficking and drug trafficking. I’m sorry, you’re going to have to get a direct source and when you bring the border patrol in here and and quote that, then we may take you seriously.”

But according to an analysis of US Customs and Border Protection data from Immigration Impact found that 95 per cent of all fentanyl seized came from a port of entry or by a CBP vehicle checkpoint. Similarly, the CATO report cited data showing that according to the US Sentencing Commission, 86.3 per cent of convicted fentanyl traffickers were American citizens.>

<<.... She also noted correctly that 56,516 Americans overdosed on fentanyl in 2020....>>

Managed to nail down one fact, at least!