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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Democrats just might have pulled off two massive wins and taken the Senate, as Rafael Warnock appears to have won his race in the Georgia Runoffs and Jon Ossoff is also a heavy favorite to win as we’re recording this.

Meanwhile, Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts declares that undocumented workers at the state’s meat processing plants will not receive the coronavirus vaccine, despite their already-despicable working conditions on the front line of the pandemic.

And lastly, Kenosha’s District Attorney announced on Tuesday that no charges would be filed against Rusten Sheskey, the Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, delivering another disappointing, disgusting, and unfortunately predictable ruling.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Democrats appear to have done it, taking the Senate back for the first time since losing it in 2014. Reverend Rafael Warnock successfully unseated Senator Kelly Loeffler, one of the most openly-corrupt appointed officials we’ve seen in the past few years. Jon Ossoff’s race against David Perdue came down to the wire, but as of midnight or so Tuesday night he was heavily favored to win.

Warnock and Ossoff rode a wave of massive voter turnout, out-performing even Joe Biden’s performance in the state.

Warnock won a bit more comfortably, with the race called by some pollsters around 10 p.m. last night, while Ossoff’s race was quite a bit closer.

David Wasserman, a pollster who has been extremely consistent this election cycle, called the race for Ossoff a few minutes before midnight, although he noted that it’s possible Ossoff’s victory could be less than the .05% margin necessar for an automatic recount. So there’s still a bit of uncertainty there, but things look good.

Warnock’s win would make him the first Black Democratic Senator from the Deep South. And indeed, it looks like it was massive black voter turnout and proactive early voting that tipped the scales on election day.

This means the Democrats now have the Senate, thanks to VP Kamala Harris’s tiebreaker vote. That’s a far slimmer margin than any ruling party wants for a new administration, but it’s one that can actually produce results, provided that so-called Democrats like Joe Manchin get on board with what the party is doing. But that’s a battle for further down the line. Today, everything looks pretty good for the Democratic party.

Nebraska Dooms Undocumented Workers

Nebraska’s governor Pete Ricketts has taken one of the most explicitly brutal and inhumane positions of the pandemic, announcing on Tuesday that undocumented workers in the state’s meat processing plants will not be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine alongside their documented colleagues.

Ricketts, who is the son of billionaire Joe Ricketts, claimed that meat packing plants weren’t legally allowed to hire undocumented workers, so they naturally wouldn’t get the vaccine. Quote:

“Again you’re supposed to be a legal resident of the country to be able to be working at those plants, so I do not expect that illegal immigrants will be part of the vaccine with that program.”

Endquote.

But in reality, undocumented workers make up roughly 14% of the industry’s workforce, according to the Migration Policy institutue. Meat processing workers are some of the front-line employees hit hardest by the disease, as many facilities have weathered severe outbreaks among staff, even prompting a lawsuit by the ACLU.

If 14 percent of that workforce isn’t eligible for the vaccine, it might as well be crippling the industry as well as prolonging the disease. But that’s exactly the kind of smart policy you’d expect from a soulless politician working for an overtly fascist party!

No Charges In Jacob Blake Shooting

Kenosha, Wisconsin’s District Attorney Michael Graveley has finally made his decision in the shooting of Jacob Blake. There will be no charges filed.

That means that Rusten Shesky, the Kenosha Police Officer who shot Blake seven times in the back, will face no criminal penalties for his actions.

Businesses around Kenosha had boarded up their windows again in anticipation of protests, which started soon after the DA’s decision came down. Livestreams on Tuesday night showed protesters marching on the frigid, snow-lined streets, while large numbers of National Guard troops surrounded the courthouse and other federal buildings.

DA Graveley’s decision was based on a review of over forty hours of video and hundreds of pages of police reports. Wild how in all those police reports he didn’t find enough evidence to

bring charges. The New York Times reported that prosecutors thought the case against Shesky would be too hard to win, as the ironclad argument that the cop was just protecting himself would somehow apply. Again, Blake was shot seven times in the back.

Graveley, who is a white guy, admitted his own inadequacy in dealing with the case, saying quote:

“I feel in many ways completely inadequate for this moment. I have never in my life had a moment where I had to contend with explicit or implicit bias based on my race.”

Endquote.

And that, taken together, is all it took to let a cop off the hook for seven bullets that nearly ended a man’s life.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The GOP mounted a dangerous power-grab in Pennsylvania, forcing Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman from presiding over the State Senate when he opposed a Republican motion to block an incoming State Senator from taking his seat. The actual situation is a bit complicated procedure-wise, but sets a scarily chaotic tone for how the post-Trump GOP is going to conduct themselves in state governments across the country.

As a short follow-up to yesterday’s story about the Proud Boys -- a judge banned their leader, Enrique Tarrio, from the District of Columbia, in an order released Tuesday shortly after his release from jail. He’s allowed to re-enter the city to meet with his lawyer or appear in court, but definitely not to attend any more of his little rallies.

Californian workers are already feeling the effects of the state’s devastating passage of Prop 22. Earlier this week, Vons and Albertsons’ grocery stores fired all of their on-staff delivery drivers except the unionized ones in the Bay Area, shifting their jobs instead to third-party gig workers at Instacart and other companies.

In more positive news: Google has a union! A group of more than 200 employees at the tech behemoth’s parent company, Alphabet, announced that they had formed a union under the Communication Workers of America, providing a wide umbrella for more of the company’s thousands of employees to join going forward.

JAN 6, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn