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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Congress finally agreed on a $900 billion emergency relief bill that should be approved and perhaps passed sometime today. It’s woefully insufficient, but at least it’s something. We’ll go over what’s inside.

Meanwhile, scientists are concerned that Britain may be feeling the effects of a new, mutated strain of the coronavirus. In the U.S., a federal panel says that adults over 75 and front-line workers should be next in line to get the vaccine.

And lastly, Trump is spiraling as his last day in office creeps closer, and appears to be trying to rally his last pitiful allies for a final challenge to the electoral college’s decision.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

We have a deal, finally. On Sunday night, Mitch McConnell announced a new, $900 billion coronavirus aid package that he expects Congress to move quickly on and pass in the next few days.

That sentence alone should be enough to tell you that the bill isn’t even remotely enough. But here’s what we are going to get.

The bill includes an extension of a $300 per week expanded unemployment benefit. It also includes $600 checks for every adult. It does have the surprise medical billing legislation that’s been haggled over in the past, and it also includes decent chunks for schools, childcare, transportation and 284 billion for new PPP loans.

That’s basically the crumbs of what America needs to get back on its feet. And even those scraps come with a cost. Republicans successfully barred hazard pay for essential workers and a ton of aid for state and local governments. They didn’t succeed in getting their corporate liability bill in there, which is a blessing at least, but they did get in another corporate gift in the form of a tax break for corporate meal expenses.

In other words, it’s something. There’s money in there for vaccine distribution, as there must be or else the entire country is truly going to implode, but besides those bare minimums, it’s pretty clear that very few people on Capitol Hill are interested in fighting for what the American people actually deserve.

Virus Mutates, Vaccine Moves

Meanwhile, the virus isn’t slowing down. A new strain of the coronavirus detected in England has the country’s capital locked down and has halted flights to most of Europe. The good news is that scientists don’t think the new strain is resistant to the various vaccines, but it does appear to spread significantly faster than the original version.

That means that getting the vaccine out as fast as possible is the most crucial thing. A CDC advisory group recommended on Sunday that Grocery store employees, teachers, emergency workers and other people on the front lines workers should get the vaccine next, along with any adult over the age of 75.

This recommendation hasn’t stopped every member of Congress getting the jab, of course, as part of a “continuity of government” provision that makes sure all our elected representatives are protected even if they’re not doing their job in the slightest.

How the vaccine actually gets rolled out is mostly in State officials’ hands. 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have already been distributed, though not all of them have been used yet. The Moderna vaccine also started shipping out on Sunday.

The front-line workers and people over 75 are part of a so called second wave who experts say should get the vaccine. The third wave will be a bigger part of the population, some 129 million people who are second-tier essential workers, adults over 65, and any adult who has a high risk medical condition.

But at this point, it’s still mostly guesswork as to when or how you’re personally going to get the shot. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.

Trump Scrapes Bottom of Barrel

Donald Trump is scraping the bottom of the barrel in his dangerous quest for allies that can help him stay in office.

His latest recruit: Senator-elect and former College football coach Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, quite possibly one of the dumbest people we’ve ever allowed to sneak into the halls of power.

Tuberville suggested last week that he supports Trump challenging the Electoral College’s decision that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

The plan right now looks to be some combination of the Texas attorney general’s lawsuit against four swing states and the crackpot scheme cooked up by Qanon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to use an 1880s law that allows the House and Senate to vote on

overturning the electoral college’s decision. Other options include Michael Flynn’s suggestion to declare martial law, which is pretty scary.

Fortunately, none of these stand a very good chance of working out for Trump -- because Mitch McConnell and the rest of the rational Republicans in the Senate already appear to have cut him loose.

But they do set a pretty serious precedent if a more competent and powerful president decides to try a coup in a closer election. And it means that the transition of power in January might be a bit messier than anyone would like.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Politico reports that Congressional negotiators may have finally allowed tens of thousands of Marshall Islands citizens living in the United States to sign up for Medicaid, reversing a two-decades-old mistake that kept victims of America’s deadly nuclear testing in the region from getting proper healthcare.

Before the Coronavirus deal could get inked, McConnell kept on pushing for his number one priority: stacking the judiciary. McConnell used Saturday and Sunday’s emergency congressional session to advance the confirmation of yet another one of Trump’s judicial appointees.

Lou Dobbs, who has long been one of Fox News’s biggest liabilities, appears to have run afoul of the law yet again, as he was forced to debunk his own lies on air following a legal threat from the voting technology company he’s been ragging on for days. A great mind at work over there!

The massive cyberattack on U.S. government systems and private companies is turning into a blame-war between two factions of politicos: Trump’s camp, that wants to suggest China did it to ramp up tensions, and the liberal establishment and centrist Republicans like Mitt Romney, who want to shift our fear onto Russia. Trump’s own State Department admits it was probably the latter, but the bigger picture is both sides using it to drum up xenophobia at a time when nobody around the world needs it.

DEC 21, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn