EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
The Holidays are just around the corner. We are all trying to avoid the fear of flu and Covid and getting in the groove of the season. I wish for all of our readers to have a wonderful and peaceful holiday.
As expected by many polls, Democrat Raphael Warnock won the runoff election in Georgia. Now, the Democrats have a 51 to 49 seat majority in the Senate. Herschel Walker, a former football legend, lost the initial general election. But per Georgia rules, if no one receives 50% plus one vote, the top two vote getters (Warnock and Walker) would have a runoff election within 30 days after the general election. As per the news on Dec. 6, Warnock received 1,814,847 (51.4%) votes while Walker received 1,719,393 (48.6%) votes and 99% votes are already counted. Walker conceded on Tuesday night and Warnock was declared the winner.
In India, Narendra Modi, maybe the most popular prime minister, campaigned the last few weeks of the election to save the majority for the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in his own state of Gujarat. According to exit polls, his party won about 2/3 majority in the state. However, another party, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, won with the majority for the municipal election of Delhi, the capital city of India.
The January 6th Committee will issue referrals to the Justice Department but did not conclude its report. If it is referrals, then no one is charged, and the Committee has a lot of power until the end of this year. Still, they did not turn out a clear case against Donald Trump, which was their main goal.
A Manhattan jury found two of the Trump organization’s businesses guilty on all charges for fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax reports and pay taxes on compensation to top executives. However, the Trump family was not charged with any of the charges. Approximately, they may be fined $1.6 million.
The Mario Cuomo Bridge (Tappan Zee) will see toll hikes and will be $2.00 more for New York residents by 2027 – 50 cents higher each year. By 2027, residents from other states will pay about $13.50 to cross the bridge. It seems like we all are working for the government, and more and more business-like minded persons are jumping into politics. Politics became a big business and just in the Georgia runoff election, both parties combined spent about $90 million in a month. They got support from big businesses and organizations, but the same big businesses and organizations will receive their money back one way or other.
Since the 2020 election, Trump and his supporters claimed that the election was rigged. Now the Supreme Court is hearing a case, Moore v. Harper, about the power of the state on an election. The case will decide autonomy about redistricting and other election laws by state legislators over the federal election commission and it will impact our democracy. The Supreme Court is listening to both sides of the argument before they decide their rules and give judgment. It may change what our forefathers envisioned the way our democracy would be.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
