What A Day - Glory Be To Georgia

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

Votes are coming in from the Georgia runoff elections, with the results generally looking positive for Democrats… but we’re still waiting on the final calls. Congress meets today to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory, with about a dozen Republican senators and more House Republicans set to object and add hours of needless debate.Yesterday, the Surgeon General said that the CDC guidelines for the order of vaccinations should not be used to allow doses to sit in freezers. This runs counter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been doing in his state.And in headlines: the police officer who shot Jacob Blake won’t face criminal charges, Trump’s EPA fights war on birds, and Amazon is disrupting shirts.

It's Wednesday, January 6th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we are continuing our policy of absolutely loving Georgia. Yeah, we love Georgia. We love the Bojangles at the ATL airport. We love the show Atlanta. I have the word stanchonia tattooed on my forehead. Few people know this, but it's true. On today's show, strategies over vaccine distribution, who to give it to and when, then some headlines. But first, the latest. And we are going to start with Georgia, where results started to come in last night from the

two Senate runoffs between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler and Democrat John Ossoff and Republican David Perdue. At stake, of course, is control of Congress. So let's get into what we know so far. All right. So we are recording just after 1130 p.m. Eastern. At this point, neither race has been officially called. Currently, Warnock is leading his race to unseat Loeffler by about half a percent, which is awesome. And Ossoff is trailing in his race to unseat Perdue by less than a tenth of a percent, which is also pretty dang good.

You know, both races are very tight with about 95% of the results in. But before your hearts beat out of your chests, most of the votes still left to come in are in the Democratic counties around Atlanta, like DeKalb, where over 80% of the vote is currently going towards Democrats. So while I don't expect to be up for a full week

watching Karnacki use a touchscreen, it could be a really late night or early morning to get those votes in. But Democrats are feeling optimistic so far. And just to give you a sense of the dynamics in some of these counties where we do have full numbers, in Democratic-leaning Macon County, a rural county with a 61% Black population, Warnock and Ossoff had a higher advantage than Joe Biden did in November,

and turnout was over 90% of the general. Whereas in Republican-leaning Rabun County, Purdue and Loeffler underperformed Trump, and turnout in that county was only 88% of what it was in November. And the one thing we knew for sure was that this would be close and Republicans really needed major same-day turnout. And so far, it's not exactly looking to be the case. Yeah, it might be tough when everything is rigged, according to the president. Going into the day, we knew the turnout was through the roof already, with more than 3 million Georgians participating before the actual day of the runoff. And for comparison, 3.9 million votes had been cast before the general election in November.

But this is actually a record for a statewide runoff in Georgia. So that is huge. And that's not the only place where records were set here either. These two Senate races are the most expensive congressional races in history, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Perdue-Ossoff race actually won the prize for the most ever. And the Warnock-Loffler race was second most. Just out of this world numbers, particularly for contests that we know are probably going to end up being razor thin one way or the other. So that's

a lot about the early stuff. But again, we'll have to see the full picture on election day vote totals to know what this all means. Yeah, really fingers crossed for the sweep. But regardless of the outcome, the organizing effort in Georgia to get to this point has been really incredible. If you want to hear more about that effort, you should definitely check out Cricket's new podcast, Gaining Ground, The New Georgia. Meanwhile, in other political news today, Congress will meet to certify Joe Biden's presidential victory. As we've discussed, about a dozen Republican senators and a majority of House Republicans are planning to object to the results. According to reports, their objections will center on at least three states, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. Shock surprise. Each objection can trigger up to two hours of debate, and more states could be added

to the list. Again, this really isn't expected to go anywhere at all. It's just going to add hours of needless, reckless debate. Yeah, especially needless if Republicans end up losing the Senate seats in Georgia. I wonder if they will look at themselves and say, why did we do all this? But while we wait for more news on those stories, there have been quite a few developments on vaccine distribution in the U.S. and elsewhere. So first, let's start with some of the adjustments that the federal government and states are making in response to this slow vaccine rollout. So yesterday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that the CDC guidelines for the order of vaccinations per group should not be used to allow for doses to sit in freezers. Seems to make sense to me. Get them out as fast as you can. The context here is that some states are being slow to administer their doses while sticking pretty rigidly to the CDC plan, which was to prioritize

healthcare workers and nursing homes, while others have opened it up to other groups. Sometimes that has happened in these crazy haphazard ways, with that one extreme example being the Eventbrite catastrophe in Florida we talked about on yesterday's show. That's not the way to do it. But Adams basically said, if in certain locations, healthcare workers aren't getting vaccinated, or there is a surplus, just use those for the next priority groups like essential workers and people older than 75. And the CDC has basically said the same thing. You don't need to necessarily get everyone in one group before you move on to the next one. Yeah, like if they're just going to sit there, I'm ready and I'm available to take the vaccine. Like whatever group I'm in, bump us up.

Well, what has the response been like to this so far? Other than what you just said, which I fully agree with, there's been at least one prominent example of a governor not wanting to do this just yet. And that's New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said he didn't want to expand the eligibility for the vaccines in the state as of now. So according to the New York Times, Cuomo said that the state's overall supply was not big enough to start adding more groups, given that they have only about 900,000 doses and over 2 million healthcare workers in that first group to take care of. And Cuomo is largely blaming the slow administering of the vaccines on various hospital systems. And he said that some could be reapportioned to other facilities that are moving more quickly. He had also said that fines could actually be imposed on hospitals, which was viewed by many

as being, how shall we say, not extremely helpful. Yeah, all of this runs counter to what New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said, though. That's right. What is new there? De Blasio said that he wants people over 75 and essential workers to be eligible now, given that by yesterday morning, only about 118,000 people overall had been vaccinated in a city of 8 million. And that's pretty common in terms of the percentages across the country.

More vaccination sites in the city and state are apparently coming soon, according to them as well. So we're going to have to see what other local leaders are thinking as time goes on. But for now, at least there's been a lot of finger pointing that is happening during this disappointing rollout. Yeah. And I just want to say that my fingers are all pointed towards the people who aren't giving me the vaccine. I've been ready. I'm open. I'm downfield. I'm waving my arms. Throw me the vaccine. Well, yeah. And, you know, then there was all this talk about chopping doses in half potentially, which again, I'm on the record saying I'm against, but what's going on there? It looks like people have listened

to you and that is not happening just yet. So basically Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, which worked on the vaccine with them, the Dolly Parton one that is, are reportedly studying whether this is actually feasible. And it could take a couple of months to figure that out. But on Monday night, after the idea was first raised by an official with Operation Warp Speed, the FDA put out the statement saying that the proposal was, quote, premature and not rooted solidly in the available science. Yikes. So basically, according to Dr. Fauci, that's because the evidence on the half doses comes from a phase two trial, which didn't actually measure the effectiveness of the vaccine overall, it just measured the immune response. So now what the FDA would need to do is start by looking at the phase three trial and figure out what immune response correlates with

actual protection from COVID. That's per the New York Times reporting. In short, it could happen, but it's not happening yet. Got it. And across the pond in the UK, they were also talking about tinkering with their vaccines, you know, maybe just doing the cool little cocktail. What's up there? Yeah, they have entered a new stricter national lockdown for now. And basically, the word from Prime Minister Boris Johnson is that they're going to remain that way until the four most vulnerable groups are vaccinated. Those are folks in nursing homes, people over 70, healthcare workers, and people with certain health conditions. And getting through all of those groups could actually take until mid-February, and that's if vaccinations pick up speed. So they might be on

lockdown for quite some time. That also comes, as Johnson said on Tuesday, that an estimated one in 50 people in the country have been infected. So tons to keep following on vaccines. That is the latest for now. It's Wednesday WOD Squad, and for today's Temp Check, we're talking about a classic piece of IP. The Great Gatsby came into the public domain at the start of this year, meaning it's now free for anyone to use, reuse, and build upon without having to pay a fee. Already, novelist Michael Farris Smith has published Nick, a prequel focused on the book's narrator. And online, many are calling for the tale of class, ambition, and the American dream to be recreated using Muppets in the style of The Muppets Christmas Carol. So, giddy old sport. How else would you like to see The Great Gatsby Remix? Or what other Muppet-fied classic books are you interested in seeing?

Oh, this is tough. I think the Muppified classic book series has worked really well. Like I'm thinking of, there's a Treasure Island, right? Totally. And there's a Christmas Carol. Yeah, that's for sure. Those both rocked. So I think I would be happy to see any. I think I leaned Treasure Island when I was younger.

So maybe something like Moby Dick, which is also an adventure on the high seas. Kermit, you know, could be a vengeful sea captain who's trying to kill a whale. I think I'd be in for that. Yeah, I kind of love that. I mean, I feel like the sea animals does bring it kind of back to Treasure Island, but that's okay. Because like, there are a lot of animals in books. That's fine. You know, and the Muppets are great and they,

they, they only add value. They never take away, but yeah. Same question or same questions. Actually, Akilah, are you like,

what else would you want to see done with Gatsby? Or are you thinking about Muppifying other classic books? I got to say that Muppifying anything is like the right way to go. I also like that we went from Muppetified to Muppetified to Muppetized. It's fine. It's a lot of Muppets. I can't say it. I think that I would like to see something that's really unexpected.

I mean, I think A Christmas Carol is a little dark for kids. So like Muppeting it up is like helpful. So maybe the same could be done for like crime and punishment. You know, Dostoevsky has, I don't know. I want to say the count wandering on the beach, just wondering why he's alive. Why he's done the things, looking at his cigarettes and his matches. I just love it. I love it for them.

It's good to introduce existential dread to children when they're young so they're not surprised later on that that's all that they think about all the time yeah they don't have to wait till 10th grade to be like oh this is what i've been feeling yeah i am gonna die and maybe one day a black hole will swallow the entire planet it's just good to get that out of the way when you're younger exactly i totally feel that but that. But as far as like, you know, the Great Gatsby being remixed, I think Baz Luhrmann has remixed everything to the furthest extent. Like anytime he touches something, that's as far as it's allowed to go. Like, unless maybe it's a musical.

Since they're doing the Moulin Rouge musical now, maybe that works. That would be fun. Yeah, I do think that, yeah, he has taken things to their final form because it's always like an 11 with him yeah i don't i don't need to see the 12 that's just me exactly it's already enough well just like that we've checked our temps stay safe uh if you see a car speeding towards you don't run out in the road and have your boob flop that was a part of the book and we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines.

Headlines. The police officer who shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will not face criminal charges. Last August, Officer Rustin Sheskey shot Blake several times in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down. Sheskey has since been on administrative leave. Kenosha's district attorney made the decision not to seek charges against him yesterday, and lawyers for Sheskey claim the officer thought Blake was fleeing the scene and kidnapping children in his car, though multiple witnesses say Blake was trying to break up an argument and the children were confirmed to be his own kids. Blake's father told reporters earlier this week that the family plans to take their case to the federal level. Meanwhile, Kyle Rittenhouse,

the teenager that shot and killed two people in Kenosha during protests sparked by Blake's shooting, pleaded not guilty yesterday to five felonies, including multiple homicide charges. On the night of the protests, he was seen being greeted by police despite being out past curfew and clearly carrying an assault weapon. It's just terrible. In the final days of Trump's presidency,

his EPA is doing the same thing it's done for the past four years, coming up with new ways to destroy the environment. Yesterday, the agency rolled back rules meant to protect birds from being killed by oil spills, toxic waste ponds, and environmental disasters. This was another win for oil and gas companies who want to avoid fines for murdering birds through environmental negligence. I would not put it past some of the more vengeful birds to team up and do a sully on Trump later

this month when he takes off for his final flight from the White House. The old bird rule was used in a settlement against BP in 2010 after the company killed around one million birds in the Deepwater Horizon spill. Earlier this week, the EPA also added a new rule that will restrict the types of scientific studies its regulators can use to limit pollution. Specifically, studies won't be given as much weight unless researchers disclose their raw data, and critics say this is an arbitrary rule meant to avoid new regulations. Anyway, let's make sure we get the names and addresses of all the outgoing EPA people into the sharp talons of birds.

Yes, those talons are going to be doxing. Watch out. Tech companies are finally disrupting shirts. Last month, Amazon launched Made For You, a service that lets customers buy custom fitted t-shirts by uploading photos of their bodies. The app uses these photos to make a 3D copy of the customer who can don V-necks, crew necks, and long sleeves. It's kind of like a create a character screen from a video game where you score points by blending in and being normal. Your bespoke shirt costs 25 bucks, but of course, Amazon is getting more than just money. Presumably the data they collect will be used for Amazon fashion businesses or maybe even for an

offshoot way down the line that'll let you buy an exact clone to fight bullies for you. Made for you might not be such a tough sell since people are now pretty used to giving up their biometric data. Bad news, but if your phone won't open unless your face looks right, your measurements already live in several spreadsheets. Sorry. Man. One of history's great romances could be coming to an end, as reports say Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are headed for a divorce. Say it ain't so. Last year wasn't easy on the couple, with Kanye running for president and enduring widely publicized mental health struggles and Kim facing blowback for the simple act of having a million dollar Tahitian birthday party during a pandemic.

Over the holidays, Kanye stayed in his home in Wyoming while Kim celebrated with family in Calabasas. Now, Page Six says that was part of a process of separation that has also seen Kim hire Laura Wasser, a celebrity divorce lawyer she's worked with previously, who is maybe the basis for Laura Dern's character in the movie Marriage Story. In a conflicting report, TMZ said yesterday that the couple is in marriage counseling, but they, quote, haven't given up. For me, I choose to picture them in their most blissful state, riding a fake motorcycle across the country while making out and not watching the road in the Bound To music video. The height of American culture right there. Uh-huh, honey. And those are the headlines. That's all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, honor Chesley Sully Sullenberger, and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just Amazon's measurements of your body like me. Well, today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And let's hope for a sweep. Oh, I would love it. I would love it.

It's the only way to do it. These student loans aren't going to cancel themselves. That's true. I will not keep paying one way or the other. We can do this the nice way or we can do it the hard way. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein,

and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kshaka.