I guess this is the worst possible outcome for Republican machiavellists. Trump is defeated, but not so soundly, that his politics style is clearly discredited. They can't just jump ship, because Trumps base is still powerfull enough to sink their lifeboats, but they can't really get anywhere on the ship, they are on either.

If Biden hangs on to Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania, his Electoral College margin of victory will be bigger than Trump's. He will have also won the popular vote by a bigger margin than Hillary Clinton.

The fact that it was very close in several swing states, and the fact that the Democrats didn't outright win the Senate does give the MAGAs something to hang on to, and the threat of being primaried has still scared some major Republicans like Lindsay Graham into supporting Trump's conspiracy theories. For now. But they will likely fail to overturn the results and then Trump won't be of much use to them anymore.

Unfortunately I think Trump's style of politics will stick around. The Republicans were heading in that direction anyway and they will never stop playing to their increasingly unhinged base. Never Trumpers don't call themselves Republicans anymore so Mitt Romney style politicians will not be viable.

Apparently the AP decided not to wait for Fox to get over their issues, and called Pennsylvania and the election at 11:30 Eastern. I'm wondering if they can hear the temper tantrum from Pennsylvania Avenue.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the Democrats somehow manage to win both of the upcoming special elections for the Senate in Georgia. That makes the Senate 50-50, with Vice President (elect) Harris breaking ties.
How long do you suppose it would take the currently still Democratic House to pass a bill to make DC a State, thence to see it pass the Senate by 51-50, thence to be signed into law by President (elect) Biden? Assuming the people of DC are willing to be so admitted into the Union (which is similar to assuming that water will be wet), then the Senate will immediately become 52-50 and Harris can have her day job back.

Why not Puerto Rico as well? I would kinda like it, if Trump was the indirect reason for Puerto Rican statehood.

It's Georgia. The chances of super racist Georgia electing two Democratic senators is not high.

Georgia's chances wouldn't normally be great; but Biden has very likely just flipped it. So given what's at stake? Who knows.

Btw, I just saw a tweet where someone noted that the Secret Service has a new name for Biden: POTUS. I was amused. Now all we need to do is substitute the wrong code for the nuclear weapons for a few weeks, and we may get through this in one piece.

Puerto Rico needs to decide they want to be a state; the US doesn't just annex territories and dub them states. Annex, sure; but the second step is more formal. There's a referendum down there on that question right now, but it's not a given statehood will win. DC is a given.

In passing, I suspect Trump might be the one who gets the folks of PR off their butts on this issue; the apparent advantages of not being a full state might look less appealing than having Congresscritters and Senators after the way Trump treated them. We'll see.

Re: Georgia, I assume the state is divided into two pieces to elect their senators, and only one of those pieces contains Atlanta, right? No way the other piece votes for Democrats.

Senators are state wide. Everyone will be voting for both.

I thought Puerto Rico had decided that at some point in the past. I guess i misremerbed something.

With Georgia i guess it's about turnout. Trump is no longer on the ballot, so voters, who specifically are motivated for or against Trump might not show up.

I guess for the senate races it would be most advantagous, if Trump barricades himself in the white house.

Puerto Rico has had several referendums on the question of statehood, but has never really come out with a clear decision one way or the other. Statehood won on the last round, but not by much and a lot of the folks boycotted the ballot. Granted it would not have mattered if every single inhabitant was desperate for it to become a state; the Republicans in Washington don't give a damn and won't do it. Which would stop mattering come the day the Democrats get a trifecta in Washington.

SO why is it both Georgia senators are up for re-election? I thought senator's terms were always staggered so that didn't happen?

Yeah, why are both up for reelection at the same time?

Ah I see. One is a special election to replace a Senator who resigned. So I guess going forward Georgia will be the only state that elects both senators at the same time. Unless the replacement senator doesn't get a full term. edit: And it looks as though that is indeed the case. The winner of the special election won't get a full term, they just serve the remainder of Isakson's term.

It looks like half the Republicans have accepted that Biden won and the other half are still clinging to Trump's fantasy lawsuits. The latter group includes Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, who apparently still believe that Trump can destroy their careers when he is no longer president.

So the lawsuits are 99% made-up nonsense, but what are the chances they are all decided by judges partisan enough to buy any marginally plausible storyline Giuliani can spit out?