Just Peachy: In a major upset for the Republican Party, Democrat Raphael Warnock has been projected the winner of his race for US Senate in Georgia and it’s looking like fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff also will win by a narrow margin.

  Warnock beat Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to fill a vacancy. He did better than Joe Biden in November. Warnock becomes the first ever black senator from Georgia, but he’ll have to run again in two years. 

  In the other contest, Ossoff leads incumbent Republican David Perdue by just over 16,000 votes with 98 percent reported. He claimed a win this morning, but it’s not official. Overseas and military votes arriving through Friday can still be counted.

  President Trump is already feeding suspicion of vote fraud, tweeting last night, “Looks like they are setting up a big ‘voter dump’ against the Republican candidates. Waiting to see how many votes they need?” His assumption is that if the Republicans lose, the vote was rigged, even though Republicans run the voting in Georgia.

  It’s hard to overestimate how big this will be for the Democrats and Joe Biden if Ossoff also wins and gives his party control of the Senate. The odious Mitch McConnell will be reduced to minority status. Biden’s cabinet appointments are likely to sail through and the Democrats might quickly approve a $2,000 stimulus check.

A Day at the Races: With the Senate still too close to call, President Trump is holding a massive rally in Washington today as Congress takes up and debates objections to certifying the Electoral College vote in the November election.

  It promises to be a political, procedural, and maybe even an actual riot. More than a dozen Senators and 140 members of the House are expected to file objections that require debate. At the same time thousands of Trump voters who refuse to accept that the President lost, will be in the streets as Congress wrestles inside the Capitol. 

  President Trump tweeted a frightening message in the middle of the night saying, “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!”

  It’s fiction and wishful thinking.

  Trump met with Mike Pence yesterday. Video shot through the Oval Office window revealed the sour-faced President vehemently gesturing at Pence. Trump has claimed on Twitter that Pence has the power to call the  election. “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Trump tweeted. Even if that’s true — and it’s not — none of the electors has been found to have been fraudulently appointed.

  Insiders informed reporters that Pence told Trump he does not have the power to do what Trump wants.

  The following is all the Constitution says about the powers of the vice president in the counting of Electoral College votes; “The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President.”

  The role of the vice president is clearly pro forma and ceremonial.

Viral News: Nearly 4,000 Americans died of the coronavirus yesterday; 3,757 to be exact.

  As the pandemic reaches epic proportions in California, Los Angeles is running out of oxygen for patients. Ambulance crews have been told not to transport heart attack patients with little hope of survival.

  California is running third among states for deaths in the US. More than 27,000  have died. In Los Angeles County, more than 7,600 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 and 21 percent of them are in intensive care.

  The recording industry’s Grammy Awards, which were to have been held January 31st, have been postponed to March 14^th because of the Covid-19 crisis in Los Angeles.

  In Cleveland, just ahead of the team’s first NFL playoff game in 18 years, the Browns’ Head Coach Kevin Stefanski, two assistant coaches, and two players tested positive for the coronavirus. Stefanski will have to miss the game Sunday night against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

Firing Line: Kyle Rittenhouse, an “open carry” proponent who shot and killed two people, wounding a third this past summer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, pleaded not guilty yesterday to homicide charges. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, brought his assault rifle to a street demonstration over the police shooting of a black man. Also yesterday, the local prosecutor decided not to press charges against the officer who had shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, paralyzing him, and sparking the demonstration in which Rittenhouse opened fire.

The Sports Page: Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith has been awarded college football’s Heisman Trophy. Most years it goes to a quarterback. Smith is the first wide receiver to win the Heisman since 1991.

The Obit Page: Actress Tanya Roberts, who was reported to have died on Sunday then pronounced alive late Monday, has once again been declared dead at age 65.  Her representative said she died of a urinary tract infection that to major organs and eventually her blood stream.

Big Emotions: American Airlines announced that it will no longer allow passengers to bring “emotional support” animals into the cabin. Passengers can bring only trained service animals. No more emotional support rabbits, raccoons, goats, and miniature ponies in the seats.

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