The Long Count: It’s day three of counting and there’s still no determination of which party will control the House and Senate.

  Republicans have taken 211 seats in the House, just seven short of what they need for control. 

  The critical Senate races in Nevada and Arizona are net yet decided and Georgia will have to wait until the December 6^th runoff between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

  This morning, the Democrats have 48 Senate seats and the Republicans 49. Both need two seats for control. Remember, the Democrats have the vice president for tie-breaking votes.

  In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto by less than a percent with 90 percent of the vote counted.

  In Arizona, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly leads Republican Blake Kelly 51.7 percent to 46.1 after 82 percent of the vote has been counted.

  Arizona officials announced last night that they have as many as another 410,000 votes to count, which will take them into the weekend. Arizona has a clumsy system in which absentee ballots can be personally delivered as late as election day, and then they must be verified with a signature check.

  Kari Lake, the candidate for governor who’s well acquainted with this system because she covered it as a news anchor, nonetheless claims some kind of conspiracy. Lake said in an interview with Newsmax that, “They’re dragging their feet and they’re slow rolling the results and they’re trying to delay the inevitable. We will win this, I’m 100 percent sure of that.” 

  This morning lake trails Katie Hobbs with 49.3 percent of the vote to 50.7 for Hobbs.

  But Lake went on, “They’re trying to slow walk all of these election results to try to pour cold water on this movement,” referring vaguely to whatever kind of conservative movement she believes herself  to be a part of. But, she said,  “This movement is on fire. No amount of water, no amount of ice can slow it or cool it,” and she finished saying, “We’re taking our government back.”  From whom, or what, she did not say.

 Trump World: Former President Donald Trump has gone to political war with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose big win on Tuesday positions him as the most likely Republican to displace Trump at the head of the party.   Trump is expected to announce his third run for president at 9 pm Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

  Trump issued a rambling statement saying, “Governor Ron DeSanctimonious an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn’t have to close up his State, but did, unlike other Republican Governors, whose overall numbers for a Republican, were just average—middle of the pack—including COVID, and who has the advantage of SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was, just like I did!”

  Now really, is that a presidential intellect?

Econ 101: Stocks jumped on the news that inflation is 7.7 percent so far in the year through October. Investors evidently are encouraged that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are working to tame inflation.

  The 7.7 percent is less than the 7.9 percent expected and down from 8.2 percent in the year through September. As a result, the S&P 500 went up 5.5 percent, and the Dow nearly 4 percent. It’s best one-day performance in the markets since April 2020. 

The War Room: Ukrainian troops have been advancing cautiously after Russia announced that it is abandoning the strategic port city of Kherson. Ukraine says it has re-taken a dozen villages in the region, but being cautious about whether the invaders have really left. 

  Russia has had as many as 40,000 troops in the region and it’s unknown how many have retreated. Russia says its pullout is complete. Videos posted by Ukrainian officials claim to show Ukrainian soldiers standing in front of a tank and their country’s flag in one reclaimed village.

  The Institute for the Study of War says, “The battle of Kherson is not over, but Russian forces have entered a new phase—prioritizing withdrawing their forces across the river in good order and delaying Ukrainian forces, rather than seeking to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive entirely.”

  Ten months into the war, the US estimates that Ukraine and Russia both have lost about 100,000 troops killed, wounded, and missing. It’s the highest estimate so far. “You’re looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Economic Club of New York. “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.”

  Milley also said that about 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war and 15 million to 30 million have been displaced.

  In addition to personnel losses, as many as half of Russia’s main battle tanks have been destroyed, according to Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy. By one so-called “open source” estimate, the Russians have lost 1,450 tanks, half their pre-invasion force.

The Spin Rack: A Connecticut Judge ruled that Alex Jones must pay an additional $473 million in punitive damages to the families of victims in the Sandy Hook School massacre defamed by the conspiracy monger. That brings the total judgement to $1.5 billion, in addition to $50 million ordered in a Texas case. — Nikita Dragun, a transgender online “influencer” was put in a men’s unit of a Miami jail this week after his/her arrest on charges of misdemeanor disorderly conduct and felony battery of a law enforcement officer, court records show.  

Below the Fold: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that, “I’m sure our enemies are quacking in their boots while we are still over here trying to count ballots.” That’s ridiculous. No one needs to wear boots while they are quacking.

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