I'm not very good at reading the tea leaves and I like getting the 10,000 foot view of what this all means for the future.

With dems taking the house, what can they do to hurt the Trump Presidency and what are the repercussions of obstructing the Trump Presidency? What should we expect of them?

With us picking up more seats in the senate, what can President Trump still do without being obstructed by congress?

From what I understand so far, the dems will investigate nothing burgers and harass The White House as much as they can but it will ultimately result in simply stalling any progress and possibly driving good staff out of The White House simply because they don't want to rack up legal fees defending themselves from pointless investigations.

They can push for impeachment but with a solid republican senate, nothing will come of it.

With a stronger senate, we can fast-track judicial appointments.

How does this all affect everything else like international policy, and budget approvals?

Tony.

Honestly, I'm more worried about my local / state choices than the national scene.

My state (OR) is super-majority Dems across the board with lots of gun control bills scheduled for the next session.

The Dems will flail and scream. The “blue wave” failed to materialize in spite of record spending by Hollyweird and media conglomerates. If the economy stays strong the Dems will continue to have zero to run on besides ORANGE MAN BAD!

With more Republican senators it will be easier to confirm a replacement AG for Sessions should Trump decide to make a change.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Honestly, I'm more worried about my local / state choices than the national scene.

My state (OR) is super-majority Dems across the board with lots of gun control bills scheduled for the next session.

I'm in the same boat as you. I live in North Plains.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Honestly, I'm more worried about my local / state choices than the national scene.

My state (OR) is super-majority Dems across the board with lots of gun control bills scheduled for the next session.

I’m sure you saw that happened here with I-1639

Hopefully the courts can overturn it.

It means I may have to shop for a backup TV if I see the Dragon Lady Polosi too much and end up smashing my screen.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Honestly, I'm more worried about my local / state choices than the national scene.

My state (OR) is super-majority Dems across the board with lots of gun control bills scheduled for the next session.

That is what's been occupying my head-space right now. CA has had one-party rule for over 30-years, the only GOP left are the rural and inland empire areas. Every new politician that gets elected feels the need to one-up the previous position holder, which means the regulations and restrictions get harsher, and social-engineering legislation become more pronounced.

Business as usual from the Left in D.C.; IL will circle the drain even faster now.

Getting the governorships in FL and OH bodes will for the 2020 presidential race.

However something in FL that may have gone below the radar might loom large going forward. They passed a referendum to allow ex-cons to vote. FL has about 1.6 million of them, and who do you think they're going to vote for.

And Las Vegas was my designated escape from NY destination. But NV is turning into East California, so I may have to rethink that.

D's have the House, so if they want they can go full retard and try to impeach, investigate, obstruct bills. But honestly if they go full retard, I really think they'll feel the pain in 2020, so while I think there will be words and bluster, it's only 15 months (at most) until the next House election cycle starts... And yes, they can make passing budgets hard / try to repeal the tax cuts by trying to shut down the Gov't but we see that NEVER works. Ever.

We have the Senate by a couple of seats now - 52 (min) or maybe as many as 54? So with Flake gone, the willy nilly Rs really don't matter much anymore and Trump / McConnell will stay on task packing the courts for the next 2 years and there isn't shit the Leftists can legitimately do about it. Plus if the House impeaches, the Senate will tell them to fuck off.

Winning the Govs in Florida, Jawja, and Ohio are important for the 2020 Presidential elections for redistricting, etc. Same with WI, MI, and the others that the R's lost.

Was it great for us? No, but only 4 times in history has a party / Pres held onto both House & Senate in the mid-terms. Considering the forces opposing the Pres, I still see it as a victory holding the Senate and limiting the damage in the house. Hopefully the Left will feel emboldened and badly overstep in the next 2 years.

Plus Trump is good at conflict. And it's not like Ryan's House was truly pushing the Trump agenda. If we had a hard core Speaker for the last two years I think this would have come off differently. Time will tell.

The Mississippi Senate runoff WILL go to the GOP candidate.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Honestly, I'm more worried about my local / state choices than the national scene.

My state (OR) is super-majority Dems across the board with lots of gun control bills scheduled for the next session.

Welcome to my world in San Diego

California continues to move left and taking on more debt in the form of bonds.

Nice.

The House is where tax bills originate - formally. Other than that, the question now is how many will be willing to cut deals to stay in office past the next election. Freshmen may be in a hurry to bang heads with Trump to distinguish themselves, or not if they think it'll make getting reelected tougher. IOW, there's no point in worrying until we know the specific parameters of the problem. IMHO the big question now is how many votes Pelosi can line up.

Seeing Pelosi, Waters, Schiff and Nadler become party and committee chairs is enough bring any conservative to tears. Nothing but gridlock and garbage for the next two years on most issues. A possible bright side is that they'll further expose themselves as the far left kooks that they are. What an utterly pathetic lineup! Really, worse than fiction.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:...
However something in FL that may have gone below the radar might loom large going forward. They passed a referendum to allow ex-cons to vote. FL has about 1.6 million of them, and who do you think they're going to vote for.
...

I pressed so hard on the "No" choice, I pushed thru my ballot, the legs of the booth creaked and flexed, and it almost punctured the plastic table.

People stopped and looked around, and when I went to put it into the slot, the guy said. "Yeah, me too..."

And they gave me two stickers...

One think that I see as being a dominant factor in the next two years in the 2020 presidential race. On the Dem side, there's no clear front runner, and we'll get to see all manner of wannabe's doing whatever they have to do in order to get noticed, especially by the Dem funders, an the left wing extremists that dominate the Dem primary voting. They're main way of doing this will be harassing Trump.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmanic:
Seeing Pelosi, Waters, Schiff and Nadler

Remember, there's a flip side to that which we'll see over and over between now and the next election. Pelosi has to line up a majority for every vote. Every one of those Congressweasels has to answer to the voters back home, build their career in politics, etc. There may be deals to be struck that will allow the Reps in the House (and the White House!) to hijack just enough Dems to put together working majorities on a vote-by-vote basis.

Come to think of it, Pelosi's been getting more and more serious challenges for the Leader position over the years. Let's see how this negotiating session goes for her. Just remember, if it's easy for her, that may mean that plenty of Dems are willing to let her have the title but may still be so uncommitted to her and her agenda that they're more, rather than less, likely to cut deals across the aisle.

The game board is set, let the play begin.

I see the glass half full. Losing the house was a disappointment, but not catastrophic. Not only did we keep the Senate, but like RHINOWSO posted, we could score more seats. And the odds are not in Ginsberg's favor as far as lasting another 2 years. The SCOTUS process will be easier than the latest shitstorm.

I feel bad for those in CA. God, if you think CA can't get even more worse, the voters proved it. Newsom is their new governor, their most leftist one ever. He makes Moonbeam look like a moderate republican. With a Supermajority, he is not going to hold back on anything, including more extreme gun laws. The next 4 years is going to be tough for our guys in CA.