I thought he was a democrat but I could be wrong...I usually am. He was recalled when I moved to Fresno in 2003.
I overlooked the gubernatorial race, where the dems picked up 7. I didn't bother to look at statehouse swings, so not clear if any implications. The national popular vote appears to be stalled further, which is not a bad thing. Of the 7 governorships only 3 would have had any impact on advancing that movement, and the electoral votes would still come up short. With the census coming up, it might even retrace some steps, given population movements and the legality of the citizenship question, some of those states already in the movement may lose a few seats. As far as charges about gerrymandering districts... both sides have engaged in that activity.
Which, I suspect, is why Trump is supporting her for Speaker of the House. He even suggested that he could get enough Republican votes to carry her over a challenge. The best thing for Republican elections is to have Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, although she'll be annoying as well.
@Bobby Cole " .......what do the changes mean to you guys?" I hesitate to say what I really feel, as I am apathetic to all this. Only several issues are truly important to me, in my life, as they may affect it's course and my well-being, as well as my wife's. I'll list them categorically, in order of importance a.f.a.i.concerned. Clinton's Crime Bill was allowed to expire in 2003 by a Congress that was charged by law with evaluating it's results as they affected our crime rates. They neglected to even look at it, reason enough to have kicked them all out for at least malfeasance, President Bush ignored it, and the 10 years lost to manufacturers of civilian ordnance resumed full steam ahead. Pity those who spent $100+ during those 120 years to buy a high capacity magazine for their $300 Glock pistol, as soon they were down to twenty bucks! Obama promised tighter gun regulation after several illegal uses; nothing came of it. More killings happened, more pity and wailing and bemoaning our "lax laws", and nothing came of it. Talk abounds pertaining to reducing S/S benefits, altering structure of the program, raising eligibility age, etc., etc., with NO REFERENCE to clamping down on Congressional squandering of the fund elsewhere, much less paying back monies illegally removed from it, considering FDR's declaring the fund sacrosanct to pillaging. Keeping ourselves "doctored" both under Obamacare and outside of it has become more and more difficult an effort. What happens next? The National Debt seems beyond help. So, " .......what do the changes mean to you guys?" To me, nothing. Frank
Sessions was expected to step down if the Republicans kept the Senate, as when he recused himself from the "Russia Investigation", he became afraid to defend the Administration on anything, which is one of the duties of the Attorney General. I always like Mr. Sessions and he was one of Trump's early supporters. I think Jeff did a good bit in the way of straightening out immigration enforcement, and he did a little bit to remove some of the corrupt actors in the Justice Department but not all by any means. As far as the budget goes, the budget process was modified in the '70s following the Nixon and Carter years, and Congress took on the power of disciplining itself on the budget by removing Presidential input for the most part. As we all know, Congress has no discipline, and has continued to pay off special interests with Federal programs since then (that is when a reduction in spending growth became a "cut" to a program). Unfortunately, therefore, when any attempt to reduce the spending on any program was proposed, such as requiring changes for Social Security for those 35 years old and younger is proposed, it is spread through the media and such as "a cut to Social Security" and all the old people get the impression that someone (usually the Republicans) are going to take away their Social Security income, when nothing of the kind is being proposed. That has led to skyrocketing budget deficits with no recourse until the payments of interest on the debt meets or exceeds the total Federal income, at which time we will be in default and the Republic as we know it will be at an end. No idea when that will be, but it approaching more quickly that I would wish.
Sessions was a fairly reliable conservative while in the Senate, and he traveled with Trump during the campaign, appearing with him in several stops, and replacing him in others. His behavior (or lack of) has seemed very strange, as I am sure they must have discussed something during the campaign or before his appointment as Attorney General. Since he has held this office, he has not only refused to defend any part of Trump's agenda but has been supporting the deep state in their defiance of congressional oversight, which is the opposite of draining the swamp. This just seemed strange, as if he was being blackmailed or something.
@Chrissy Cross Naive little girl.......by now it seems self-evident that a politician NEVER resigns in reality, though that is always the reason stated, as are most other political statements lies, in one way or another. Frank
It is looking like Rod Rosenstein might be the next one to leave. He has an appointment with President Trump this afternoon (according to what I have been reading), and the new Attorney General Whittaker is taking over the investigations. Many people think that Sessions will be called up as a witness, and since he can’t be both a witness and the prosecutor, he has to leave the AG position. Apparently, Trump suggested that most of Sessions job would be finished by mid-terms, so I believe this was probably a planned resignation.
@All "To me, nothing." Apathy is evidently the key to going unnoticed! Took long enough to find it....... Frank
I guess that we have mostly been discussing the q-anon information in the conspiracy section, and even though it is pretty much out in the open now, it is probably better to discuss it there, so I apologize, will remove the Q-post picture, and try to keep things in the right areas from now on. It is more of a movement than a person, at least that is my understanding, but still, not what we are going to see on the news channels.
Q has become a cult figure that feeds into the conspiracy mindset, but as has been discussed here before, it is not known if Q is one person or a group. Both @Yvonne Smith and @Martin Alonzo know more than I do about Q, so I defer to their statements. I think there is a lot of blackmailing that goes on in Washington. I appears that Lindsey Graham was, in fact, being blackmailed for years by John McCain and has become a completely different person after his death, although Mr Graham says nothing bad about Mr. McCain and speaks of him as a mentor. I think Sessions was always supposed to be an interim AG, but I don't know how long he was supposed to serve. His "defection" to the "dark side" and Trump's railing against him in public while retaining an apparently friendly demeanor towards him when they were together may have been a ruse to allow Deep-State folks to feel comfortable around him and reveal secrets that no investigation could reveal. This info could be used to keep the House in check in the years to come. We'll just have to see. That is all speculation on my part, with no inside information to back it up, but the relationship between the two men has been a mystery to me, and I have heard from sources that much of Trump's tweeting that so annoys his opponents and adherents alike, is actually strategically done to serve a purpose, either to call attention to an issue or as a misdirection.
I have read that very thing, too, @Don Alaska , and that President Trump is “playing 4-D chess”. And says things that mean something to a very few in-the-know people , and look like typing mistakes to those who dislike him and think that he is a stupid person, and not a stable genius. One of the biggest ones, that still is found everywhere, is the comment about “covfefe”, which came at the end of an unfinished sentence. Something like “in spite of the bad press reports, cofveve”. The press secretary tried to explain that there were people who did know what it meant, but he was laughed at, and I think the general consensus was that the president could not even spell “coffee” correctly. What I read was that it is an old experession in and ancient language, and it means “in the end, we win”, which fits perfectly with the rest of the sentence.