Folks! The AM Quickie podcast is taking a break. Take a listen for some important updates from Sam and Lucie about what the AMQ team will be doing to bring you the news in the meantime. Thanks so much for listening and for all your support! #leftisbest

AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITERS - Jack Crosbie & Cory Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Biden administration strikes its first significant deal with Republican members of Congress, and it’s for an infrastructure package. But progressive Democrats say the deal doesn’t offer enough to win their support.

Meanwhile, the search for answers begins after a terrifying and sudden residential building collapse in Surfside, Florida. The death toll is uncertain but as many as ninety nine people are missing.

And lastly, a new analysis of government data shows that almost everyone who’s dying of the coronavirus in the United States now is unvaccinated. Which means those deaths don’t need to happen at all.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This report from the political sausage factory comes from the Washington Post. President Joe Biden signed off yesterday on a bipartisan agreement crafted by ten senators that would pump hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending into infrastructure projects across the country. We have a deal, Biden said alongside the five Democrats and five Republicans who had negotiated for weeks on a package to revitalize the nation’s road and transit systems, while upgrading broadband and investing in other public-works projects. The proposal was crafted by Senators Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio; Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona; and eight others in the Senate. The new agreement is nowhere near as expansive as the $2.2 trillion American Jobs Plan, Biden’s own infrastructure measure that he detailed in April. But Democratic leaders have made it clear that they hope to push through a separate package encompassing priorities such as climate initiatives, paid leave and expanded education.

The Post says the bipartisan agreement will spend $973 billion over five years, with $579 billion of that being new spending. That includes $312 billion for transportation projects, $55 billion for water infrastructure and $65 billion for broadband. The Congressional Progressive Caucus polled its ninety five members on the infrastructure package and found a strong majority prepared to vote against the bill without a separate package that moves simultaneously and includes key priorities, such as funding for eldercare, expanding Medicare, and affordable housing. Because bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake helps no one – except a few politicians.

Cause Unknown In Florida Condo Collapse

This report of crumbling infrastructure comes from the Miami Herald. Lightning streaked the skies yesterday afternoon as search-and-rescue teams picked their way through a pile of rubble nearly two stories high – the remains of a collapsed twelve-story condo – hoping to hear the cries of survivors. As many as ninety nine people are reported missing. The oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo crumpled with a bang a little after 1:30 am, trapping an unknown number of sleeping residents inside the wreckage. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava called it, "a terrible, terrible nightmare." Footage of the sudden collapse looked eerily similar to a demolition, minus the flash of explosives. The cause is unknown, with one expert deeming it "an oddity of biblical proportions."

According to the Herald, nearly twelve hours after the collapse, the death toll was uncertain. Officials confirmed at least one death, and said thirty five people were pulled from the wreckage, with ten injured people treated at the scene and two sent to a hospital. Officials estimated that fifty five units were involved in the collapse. Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer said the building was undergoing a required forty-year recertification to ensure its structural integrity, and that the building’s roof was being redone. It is unknown if any construction activity contributed to the disaster. President Biden said it’s up to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency so federal resources, including FEMA help, can be deployed. Here’s hoping they find more survivors.

Vaccines Drive Down Covid Fatalities

We’re in a new phase. The Associated Press reports that nearly all Covid-19 deaths in the US now are in people who weren’t vaccinated. It is a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been. It’s also an indication that deaths per day – now down to under three hundred – could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine. An AP analysis of government data from May shows that breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than twelve hundred of more than eight hundred and fifty three thousand Covid-19 hospitalizations. That’s about zero point one percent.

The AP analyzed figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Director Doctor Rochelle Walensky said on Tuesday that the vaccine is so effective that nearly every death, especially among adults, is, at this point, entirely preventable. She called such deaths particularly tragic. About sixty three percent of all vaccine-eligible Americans – those twelve and older – have received at least one dose, and fifty three percent are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Experts predict the preventable deaths will continue, with unvaccinated pockets of the nation experiencing outbreaks in the fall and winter. In Arkansas, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation – with only thirty three percent of the population fully protected – hospitalizations and deaths are rising. To the extent that people aren’t getting vaccinated because they can’t get paid time off, that must be addressed, so we can beat Covid once and for all.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Guardian reports that a First Nation in Canada’s Saskatchewan province is treating a defunct residential school as a crime scene following the discovery of seven hundred and fifty one unmarked graves. The total of unmarked graves discovered in the past month is about one thousand, with experts predicting more will come as provincial governments announce funding to help Indigenous communities conduct their own searches. This reckoning is long overdue.

Politico reports that the Biden administration unveiled a raft of measures to prevent people who lost income during the pandemic from losing their homes yesterday, including by extending nationwide eviction and foreclosure bans until July 31st. Maybe it’s time to commit to keeping everyone in their homes permanently – sound good?

According to the Washington Post, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House will form a select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, one month after Senate Republicans blocked an effort to form a bipartisan commission. The panel will provide recommendations to prevent similar attacks in the future. Keeping Donald Trump’s movement far from power should help.

The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani faces the possibility of disbarment after a court ruled yesterday that he made demonstrably false statements while fighting the results of the 2020 election on behalf of Trump. The New York State appellate court suspended Giuliani’s law license after finding he had sought to mislead judges, lawmakers and the public. Better late than never!

AM QUICKIE - JUNE 25, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The wheels of justice keep turning for those charged in the January 6th assault on the US Capitol. An Indiana woman has become the first to be sentenced, and a member of the Oath Keepers pleads guilty while agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Meanwhile, following the grim discovery of hundreds of buried Indigenous children at residential schools in Canada, the United States government will investigate what happened to Native American children in this country. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the historical probe this week.

And lastly, a socialist nurse has defeated an entrenched Democratic machine candidate in the race for mayor in Buffalo, New York. Don’t call it a miracle – it’s a sign of the times.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This courtroom update comes from the Associated Press. An Indiana woman yesterday became the first of nearly five hundred defendants to be sentenced for the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol – and she avoided time behind bars. Anna Morgan Lloyd of Indiana was ordered by a federal judge to serve three years of probation, perform one hundred and twenty hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution after admitting to entering the Capitol. She pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge under a deal with prosecutors. Lloyd, forty nine, apologized to the court, the American people, and her family. At her sentencing, Lloyd said she was ashamed the day became "a savage display of violence." In seeking probation for Lloyd, prosecutors noted that she was not involved in any violence and destruction. Lloyd was invited by her hairdresser to drive to Washington to hear Donald Trump speak. US District Court Judge Royce Lamberth said he was giving her a break, but didn’t want others to think that probation – and not a stiffer sentence – would be the norm.

Also yesterday, the AP reports, Graydon Young, a member of the Oath Keepers extremist group, pleaded guilty to charges in the insurrection and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in a major step forward for the massive investigation into the insurrection. It was also the first guilty plea in the major conspiracy case brought against members of the Oath Keepers. Something tells me their sentences will be a bit stiffer.

U.S. Will Probe Native Schools Abuses

This look at our national traumas comes from the New York Times. The United States will search federal boarding schools for possible burial sites of Native American children, hundreds of thousands of whom were forcibly taken from their communities to be culturally assimilated in the schools for more than a century, the interior secretary announced on Tuesday. The initiative is likely to resemble a recent effort in Canada, where the discovery of the remains of two hundred and fifteen children at the site of a defunct boarding school rekindled discussion of the traumatic history and treatment of Native populations. Addressing a virtual conference of the National Congress of American Indians, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said the program would "shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past, no matter how hard it will be." The forced removals were a result of the Civilization Fund Act of 1819. In the years after the law was enacted, residential boarding schools were established across the nation and used to house relocated Indigenous children, suppressing American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian cultures.

The Times says the new program, called the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, will identify the facilities and sites where there may have been student burials. It will also mine records that were kept by the department, which had oversight of the facilities. A final report will be sent to Secretary Haaland by April 1. And there’s no question it will make for painful but necessary reading.

Socialist Victorious In New York

Amazing news here, in case you missed it on the Majority Report. NBC News reports that a socialist candidate in Buffalo, New York, defeated the city’s four-term mayor in a major upset in Tuesday's Democratic primary. India Walton beat Mayor Byron Brown, fifty two percent to forty five percent, with one hundred percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press called the race late yesterday morning. Walton told MSNBC yesterday, "I believe we won because we organized. We have a message of care love and hope that is resonant with working class Buffalo." If Walton, thirty nine, wins the general election in November, she will become the first socialist mayor of a large American city since 1960, when Frank Zeidler left office in Milwaukee. Her chances of winning are high since Buffalo hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1965.

According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Walton is a a nurse and community organizer. She had the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America as well as the Working Families Party. She campaigned on a platform of boosting affordable housing in the city and reforming the criminal-justice system. Brown, a former state senator, had been entrenched as Buffalo's mayor since he was first elected in 2005. A longtime ally of Governor Andrew Cuomo, Brown served a stint as the chairman of the state Democratic Party before relinquishing the post in 2019. Now that’s one hell of an upset – and a big win for the American left!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Guardian reports that the antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in his cell in Spain, hours after the country’s national court approved his extradition to the United States. He was wanted on tax-related criminal charges that carry a prison sentence of up to thirty years. The Spanish authorities say it was suicide.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs. The measure does not specify what will be done with the survey results. But DeSantis suggested budget cuts could be looming if universities are found to be "indoctrinating" students. As if he needed an excuse to make cuts!

NBC News reports that the US Supreme Court yesterday limited the ability of union organizers to enter the private property of growers in order to reach farmworkers in California. In a six-three decision, the court said unions violate the Constitution when they enter a grower's private property without paying. Which is outrageous, because California enacted its rules on this because farmworkers often live on their employer’s property.

According to CBS News, dozens of cows escaped a slaughterhouse in Southern California and roamed free for over an hour on Tuesday, injuring four people. One of the animals was fatally shot by deputies after authorities said it charged at a family. That ending is sad and somehow predictable, but at least those cows went down fighting.

AM QUICKIE - JUNE 24, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

A leaked U.S. military document describes socialists as terrorists and lists them alongside neo-Nazis and the far right, according to a report by the Intercept.

Meanwhile, Motherboard reports that the Teamsters union is about to announce a coordinated nationwide effort to organize Amazon workers.

And lastly, the U.S. appears to have seized Iranian news sites under suspicious circumstances

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Intercept has a shocking, yet somehow predictable report from the U.S. military today.

According to a leaked document, soldiers are being told that anarchism and socialism both represent so called terrorist ideologies.

The document, according to military sources interviewed by the Intercept, is part of a longer training manual designed for the Navy’s internal police. It’s part of the military’s wider internal push against extremism inside its ranks.

The Intercept reports that a section of the training document subtitled “Study Questions” includes the following question: “Anarchists, socialists and Neo-Nazis represent which terrorist ideological category? A source told the Intercept that the correct answer was quote “political terrorists.” endquote.

This is basically the what we all worried about when the military announced it would crack down on domestic extremists in its own ranks. Puting socialists, and even anarchists, on the same level as neo-Nazis and far-right groups who actively wish harm against other Americans doesn’t make any sense.

But it does help push resources and the power of the status quo into suppressing leftist thought. As one anonymous military official told the Intercept::

“It’s just ineffective training because whoever is directing the Navy anti-terror curriculum would rather vilify the left than actually protect anything. Despite the fact that the most prominent threat is domestic, right-wing terror.”

Teamsters Take Aim at Amazon

Motherboard reports that the Teamsters union, one of the largest and most powerful forces in organized labor, is about to get serious with Amazon.

The Teamsters are expected to announce publicly today that they’ll be embarking on a coordinated, nationwide effort to unionize workers at Amazon.

Randy Korgan, the Teamster’s National Amazon Director, said in a video obtained by Motherboard that the union would quote “build the types of worker and community power necessary to take on one of the most powerful corporations in the world and win. That video was set to play at the Teamsters convention on Tuesday, and on Thursday, delegates from Teamsters local unions will vote on a similar resolution, which Motherboard reports should pass comfortably.

That resolution will create and fund a specially designed Amazon Division within the Teamsters, to aid Amazon workers in unionizing and defend standards in the logistics industry. But unlike the massive NLRB election in Bessemer, the Teamsters plan to take on Amazon with a more guerilla warfare strategy. Motherboard reports that the union is going to try to apply direct pressure wherever possible, with work stoppages, petitions, and other collective action.

The hope is that it also cuts down the opportunities Amazon has to throw its massive pocketbook into anti-union campaigns, like it did in Bessemer.

Details on the rest of the program are still scarce, but Motherboard reports that the union says it has committed “tremendous resources” to the effort.

U.S. Seizes Iranian Websites

The U.S. government seized dozens of American website domains connected to the government of Iran on Tuesday, saying that they were connected to disinformation campaigns.

The AP reports that the domains of a handful of sites, including Iran state television’s English-language arm Press TV, redirected to a federal notice saying the sites had been seized by the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement and the FBI.

A U.S. official anonymously told the AP that these sites were linked to disinformation campaigns, but otherwise the reasons for their seizure is unclear. Iran tightly controls much of its state media, as do many other countries. And though it’s not a perfect comparison, there’s plenty of disinformation coming out of our own news sources as well.

What that means is this action is most likely a shot in a broader conflict with the Iranian government. Actions like this don’t usually happen in a vacuum, especially considering the ongoing international talks about Iran’s nuclear program and the country’s new hard-line president.

This story was still developing as of script time on Tuesday evening, but we may have a clearer picture of what this means for Iran’s relationship to the U.S. in the coming days.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Daily Beast reports that back in 2019, Donald Trump asked his advisors and lawyers what the FCC, courts, and the DOJ could do to mess with or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel and other TV hosts, proving that once again that he was the thinnest skinned president we’ve ever had.

The LA Times reports that a top aide to LA’s mayor Eric Garcetti mocked labor icon Dolores Huerta in a private facebook group, and has been placed on administrative leave -- just in case you’re wondering what people in the halls of power think of activists and social justice leaders.

BuzzFeed News reports that The Biden administration will let immigrants sent or deported to Mexico without a court appearance under a Trump-era policy seek entry into the U.S., a major change for some families stuck in immigration limbo for months if not years.

Joe Manchin said on Tuesday that he would vote to open debate on the Democrats Voting Rights bill, which he previously said he didn’t support. This isn’t an endorsement of the bill, just a vote to move procedure along, however, so we’re really not far from where we were last week.

AM QUICKIE - JUNE, 23, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Supreme Court yesterday struck down another challenge to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. But it also said American companies can benefit from child slavery in Africa, so, you know, hold your applause for the honorable Justices.

Meanwhile, audio recordings reveal that Bolivia’s right-wing coup leaders were organizing yet another plot against the pro-democracy politician who won last year’s election. And this time they planned to go big, and bring in hundreds of mercenaries from the United States.

And lastly, US health officials announced a $3 billion program to speed up research on a pill to fight the coronavirus in people who’ve already been infected. The research could also help stop future pandemics in their tracks, which, after all we’ve been through, is an obvious win.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This legal news comes from the Washington Post. The Supreme Court yesterday said US chocolate companies cannot be sued for child slavery on the African farms from which they buy most of their cocoa. But the court stopped short of saying such a lawsuit could never go forward. Six African men sought damages from Nestlé USA and Cargill, alleging that as children they were trafficked out of Mali, forced to work long hours on Ivory Coast cocoa farms and kept at night in locked shacks. Their attorneys argued the companies should have better monitored their cocoa suppliers in West Africa, where two-thirds of the world’s cocoa is grown and child labor is widespread. The companies asked the Supreme Court to toss the lawsuit, arguing that courts in the United States are the wrong forum and that the applicable law permits such cases against individuals but not corporations. The court’s splintered decision was written by Justice Clarence Thomas.

Also yesterday, the Post reports, the Court dismissed the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, saying Republican-led states do not have the legal standing to try to upend the law. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the court’s seven-to-two decision, which preserves the law that provides millions of Americans with health coverage. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra called the court’s decision, "a victory for all Americans, especially people with a preexisting condition." It’s a bittersweet victory, though, because I can’t stop thinking about those child slaves.

Recordings Expose Bolivia Coup Plot

Here’s some retro Reagan-era intrigue! The Intercept reports that a top official in the outgoing Bolivian government plotted to deploy hundreds of mercenaries from the United States to overturn the results of the South American country’s October 2020 election. The aim of the mercenary recruitment was to forcibly block Luis Arce from taking up the presidency for MAS, the party of former Bolivian President Evo Morales. The plot continued even though Arce, a protégé of Morales, trounced a crowded field, winning fifty five percent of first-round votes. Disagreements between ministers and divisions within the armed forces appear to have undermined the plan. It was never executed.

According to the Intercept, Arce’s eventual victory last fall was a stunning rejection of the right-wing shift overseen by coup leader Jeanine Áñez. The Bolivian right wing, however, was not ready to relinquish power. A recorded call with Áñez’s defense minister sketches a coup plot even more flagrant than the one in October 2019. Several of the plotters discussed flying hundreds of foreign mercenaries into Bolivia from a US military base outside Miami. These would join forces with elite Bolivian military units, renegade police squadrons, and vigilante mobs in a desperate bid to keep MAS from returning to power. Two US military sources confirmed that Special Operations had gotten wind of the Bolivia coup plot. But nothing ever came of it, they said. All those out-of-work Yankee mercenaries will just have to wait until the next time a leftist wins a Latin American election.

US Funds Anti-covid Pill Research

This promising health news comes from the New York Times. The US government spent more than $18 billion last year funding drugmakers to make a Covid vaccine, an effort that led to at least five highly effective shots in record time. Now it’s pouring more than $3 billion on a neglected area of research: developing pills to fight the virus early in the course of infection, potentially saving many lives in the years to come. The new program, announced yesterday by the Department of Health and Human Services, will speed up the clinical trials of a few promising drug candidates. If all goes well, some of those first pills could be ready by

the end of the year. The Antiviral Program for Pandemics will also support research on entirely new drugs – not just for the coronavirus, but for viruses that could cause future pandemics.

According to the Times, Doctor Anthony Fauci, a key backer of the program, said he looked forward to a time when Covid-19 patients could pick up antiviral pills from a pharmacy as soon as they develop Covid-19 symptoms. Fauci’s support for research on antiviral pills stems from his own experience fighting AIDS three decades ago. In the 1990s, his institute conducted research that led to some of the first antiviral pills for HIV. Even if the next generation of pills doesn’t arrive for a few years, scientists say the research will be a good investment. Imagine a future where Covid is no big deal. It’s nice!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

CBS News reports that the House yesterday approved a bill to repeal the 2002 authorization for use of military force in Iraq, a measure which has the backing of the White House. The bill now goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he will bring it to the floor for a vote this year. Next we need a bill to make everyone who supported that stupid war publicly apologize.

The Washington Post says today will be a holiday for federal employees following President Joe Biden’s signing yesterday of legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in Texas. Employers who don’t honor this holiday are now officially on notice.

Speaking of Texas: The Associated Press reports that Texas will now let people carry handguns without first getting a background check and training, becoming the latest and largest on a growing list of states to roll back permitting requirements for carrying guns in public. Republican Governor Greg Abbott called it a measure of freedom and self-defense. It’s more like self-harm.

Politico reports that a little-known GOP candidate in Florida was secretly recorded threatening to send a Russian and Ukrainian hit squad to a fellow Republican opponent to make her QUOTE disappear ENDQUOTE. During the call, William Braddock repeatedly warned a conservative activist to not support Anna Paulina Luna in the Republican primary for a Tampa Bay-area congressional seat because he had access to assassins. Look out, Texas – here comes Florida!

AM QUICKIE - JUNE 18, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

A new report says eight million Americans are at imminent risk of getting thrown out of their homes. President Joe Biden could spare them with the stroke of a pen, but he hasn’t yet made a move to do so.

Meanwhile, research shows the country’s richest families have done spectacularly well during the pandemic. That’s in part because they still aren’t paying their fair share of taxes.

And lastly, months after the Capitol insurrection, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are strapped for cash and bleeding members. Where’s Daddy Trump when you really need him?

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

More Americans will be homeless very soon, this report from CBS News suggests. Even as the nation rebounds from the pandemic, more than two million homeowners are behind on their mortgages and risk being forced out of their homes in a matter of weeks, a new Harvard University report warns. Most of the homeowners at risk are either low-income or families of color, said researchers behind the 2021 State of the Nation's Housing report. Congress has dedicated $10 billion to help homeowners get caught up on payments, but it’s unclear if that funding will make it to families before foreclosure notices arrive. Separately, millions more renters are on the brink of eviction, the researchers found. Census data show that six million households are still behind on rent and could face eviction at the end of June, when federal eviction protections expire. The Center for Disease Control order halting some evictions, and federal liminations on foreclosures for federally backed housing, both expire on June 30. Advocates have pushed for the Biden administration to extend both, but there is no indication an extension will happen.

CBS reports that more than seven million homeowners took advantage of the foreclosure moratorium passed as part of the Cares Act last spring. The provision was extended by the Biden White House. As of March 2021, most of those homeowners have started repaying lenders. But that leaves about two point one million still behind on their mortgages. Biden must act now to keep these families, including renters, housed.

Richest Families Gained $136B During Pandemic

This status check on the rich and useless comes from the Guardian. Ten of the US’s richest families, including the Walmart family and the dynasties behind industries including candy and cosmetics, saw their assets balloon over the pandemic, with a shared increase in their combined net worth of over $136 billion in fourteen months. That’s according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies published yesterday. The report details how these families have not only increased their wealth by billions in the last year, but have also worked to ensure the system supports this exponential growth over decades. In 1983 the Walton family, who founded Walmart, were worth $2.15 billion. By the end of 2020, the Waltons had a combined net worth of over $247 billion, an inflation-adjusted increase of four thousand three hundred percent. The wealth of the Mars candy dynasty increased by three thousand five hundred percent over the same period.

According to the Guardian, Chuck Collins, a co-author of the report, said these families weren’t just making more money, they were also getting better at putting it out of reach of taxation. The report outlined several proposals to curb this wealth accumulation, including the Make Billionaires Pay Act, a proposal introduced in 2020 to institute a one-time sixty percent pandemic wealth tax on billionaires. But more must be done, Collins said, to stamp out tax loopholes, offshore tax havens and certain trusts that allow families to hide their wealth. Or we could simply eat the rich.

Proud Boys In Poor Shape

This delicious update on Donald Trump’s loyal foot soldiers comes from the Wall Street Journal. The far-right group the Oath Keepers is splintering after board members accused the founder of spending its money on hair dye, steaks and guns. The leader of the Proud Boys, choked off from the financial system, is printing Black Lives Matter T-shirts to make money. The finances of the two most visible groups with members involved in the January 6th riot at the US Capitol are sputtering. Leaders are low on cash, struggling with defections and arguing over the future. The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have seen more than three dozen of their members arrested in connection with January 6th. Within both groups, an escalating crackdown and the departure of Trump from office has spurred new levels of disarray.

The Journal reports that Oath Keepers membership has dropped eighty percent from its peak. The organization had less than $10,000 in its bank account as of April. Bank records show thousands of dollars of Oath Keepers funds spent on goods and services in Montana, where founder Stewart Rhodes lived until recently. That includes $12,000 at an auto-repair shop, $886 at a bar, and $229 at a lingerie shop called Alley Katz Nighties ’N‘ Naughties. The Proud Boys aren’t faring much better. Members have turned to cryptocurrency, local credit unions and alternative payment brokers to replace a mainstream financial system that has largely cut them off. There’s a lesson here, folks: anti-fascist organizing gets results!

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Politico reports that the US and Russia will return their ambassadors to Moscow and Washington, DC, respectively, following President Joe Biden’s summit with Vladimir Putin yesterday. They concluded their summit, which Putin called constructive, earlier than expected, after about four hours with breaks. Coulda been a Zoom call!

The AP reports that Israeli aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip yesterday. There were no immediate reports of casualties. They were the first such raids since a shaky cease-fire ended the war with Hamas last month. The new Israeli government is not off to a great start.

NBC News reports that Minnesota authorities charged the driver of an SUV that plowed into a protester-filled intersection with second degree murder. The Sunday crash killed one woman and injured another person. Nicholas D. Kraus, thirty five, is jailed on $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court today. He has a lot to answer for.

The Associated Press reports that the US Education Department yesterday expanded its interpretation of federal Title Nine sex protections to include transgender and gay students. The move reverses Trump-era policy and stands against anti-transgender proposals in many states. Here’s hoping this new directive holds back the tide of discrimination in those Republican states that are trying their hardest to persecute transgender students.

AM QUCKIE - JUNE 17, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Nuclear weapons are high up on the agenda as the presidents of the United States and Russia meet today. Former top military commanders and diplomats from both countries have been urging the leaders to cooperate to reduce the size of nuclear arsenals.

Meanwhile, emails just released by House Democrats investigating the January 6th Capitol insurrection show how Donald Trump tried to get the Justice Department to help overturn last November’s election. The details are as loopy as you might imagine.

And lastly, two of the biggest states, New York and California, have lifted many pandemic restrictions thanks to progress in their vaccination campaigns. Covid will be with us for a long time, but public health measures are working, and the return to normalcy is happening just about on schedule.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This read on the day’s big diplomatic news comes from Politico. Expectations are low that Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin can reach any significant accommodation during their first presidential summit today in Geneva – with one possible exception: nuclear arms control. Washington and Moscow have publicly expressed a desire to use the summit to reestablish formal talks on the issue. In the days leading up to the tense meeting, ex-defense chiefs, foreign ministers and retired nuclear commanders from both nations also proposed a series of steps the two leaders could take to help constrain the world’s deadliest arsenals. Those steps range from a simple pledge to resume regular negotiations, to a more ambitious public commitment to reduce current arsenals as a goodwill gesture.

Politico says no one is banking on detailed agreements to emerge from Geneva. The definition of strategic threats has only grown more complex now that cyber attacks, political warfare and other forms of mischief can destabilize entire nations. But both governments have been striking a similar tone in recent days on the nuclear front, at least rhetorically. National security adviser Jake Sullivan expressed the administration’s desire to get back to a regular dialogue with Moscow on nuclear matters. Sullivan’s comments came a day after

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also hinted at a desire to reach common ground on nuclear issues. The two countries may never agree on some things, but if Biden and Putin can agree to keep a lid on the nukes, that’s no small victory.

Trump Pressured Rosen On Election

This deep dive into Donald Trump’s outbox comes from the Washington Post. Trump’s staff began sending emails to Jeffrey Rosen, the Number Two at the Justice Department, asking him to embrace Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election at least ten days before Rosen assumed the role of acting attorney general. That’s according to new emails disclosed by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. On the same day as the electoral college met to certify the election results, Trump’s assistant sent Rosen an email with a list of complaints concerning the way the election had been carried out in Antrim County, Michigan. The file included a so-called forensic analysis of the Dominion Voting Systems machines the county employed, alleging they were calibrated to create fraudulent results. The claims were false.

According to the Post, the email sheds light on the type of pressure Trump was putting on the Justice Department to take up his crusade against Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. The campaign swiftly accelerated once Rosen was appointed acting attorney general. On January 1st, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows forwarded Rosen a YouTube link. The subject line suggested it was a video in which a retired CIA station chief argued that the 2020 election totals were altered by the Italians. Rosen forwarded the email to his acting deputy, Richard Donoghue, who responded simply: QUOTE Pure insanity ENDQUOTE. So Trump’s flunkies knew his election lies were crazy, but said nothing. More like pure cowardice!

New York, California Lift Restrictions

It’s a mixed bag on the pandemic front. The Associated Press reports that the US death toll from Covid-19 topped six hundred thousand yesterday. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that the vaccination drive has drastically brought down daily cases and fatalities and allowed the country to emerge from the gloom and look forward to summer. The milestone came the same day that California and New York lifted most of their remaining restrictions, joining other states in opening the way, step by step, for what could be a fun and close-to- normal summer for many Americans.

The AP says that with the overall picture improving rapidly, California – the most populous state and the first to impose a coronavirus lockdown – dropped state rules on social distancing and limits on capacity at restaurants, bars, supermarkets, gyms, stadiums and other places. They’re billing it as California’s Grand Reopening, just in time for summer. Disneyland is throwing open its gates. Fans will be able to sit elbow-to-elbow and cheer without masks at Dodgers and Giants games. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that seventy percent of adults in the state have received at least one dose of the vaccine. And he announced that the immediate easing of many restrictions will be celebrated with fireworks. Massachusetts and Kansas yesterday lifted their states of emergency. And Maryland’s governor announced that the emergency there will end on July 1, with the state no longer requiring masks. It’s time for slightly socially anxious barbecues!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

According to the Washington Post, more than forty million Americans are in the crosshairs of triple-digit heat this week, with some spots soaring over one hundred and twenty degrees. The heat in many areas is dangerous, prompting excessive-heat warnings in seven Western states. So there you go, homebodies: an excuse to stay inside post-vaccination.

Stars and Stripes reports that Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal yesterday called on US Army leaders to investigate a QUOTE blood curdling ENDQUOTE news report that found nearly two thousand military firearms went missing during the last decade. An Associated Press investigation found that some of the lost or stolen firearms turned up at the scene of violent crimes. Whoops!

The Los Angeles Times reports that Harvey Weinstein will soon be extradited to California to stand trial on charges that he sexually assaulted five women in LA and Beverly Hills. A New York judge’s ruling yesterday sets the stage for a second trial focused on the mogul’s alleged pattern of sexually abusing actresses and models. That’d make two trials and, let’s see... eighty victims. Sounds like Harvey’s still ahead!

NBC News reports that the manager of a New York City Shake Shack said he was unlawfully detained and taunted by police after he was falsely accused last year of poisoning three officers' milkshakes. The manager, Marcus Gilliam, is now suing members of the New York Police Department, seeking damages for defamation and deprivation. Thank you for your service, Mister Shake Shack Manager, sir.

The New York Times reports that President Biden has named Lina Khan, a prominent critic of Big Tech, as the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission. Her appointment was a victory for progressive activists who want Biden to take a hard line against big companies. Let's hope she makes Mark Zuckerberg sweat -- I mean, even more than usual.

AM QUICKIE - JUNE 16, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that he wouldn’t even consider letting Biden seat a new Supreme Court Justice if the GOP takes back the Senate in 2022.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration said that it supports a new resolution to end the 2002 Authorization of Use of Military force.

And lastly, Texas may be headed for another major power crisis as the state’s fragile power grid expects record use in June.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Mitch McConnell has thrown down the gauntlet, and the Democrats are, well, sort of just standing there looking at it.

In an interview on conservative talk radio, McConnell said that if Republicans take back the Senate, he would block any prospective Supreme Court nominee that Biden sent him.

This is not exactly a surprise. McConnell pretended that his resistance to a new nominee would be from his typical election year nonsense, saying that he’d block a nominee in 2024 just like he did in 2016 at the end of the Obama years. But we all know what the score is.

McConnell’s life’s work is the judiciary and he’s done a very good job of securing it for the business-friendly, person-hostile policies of conservatives for generations to come.

But what it does indicate is just how futile any Democratic expectations of bipartisanship have become. It also means that the party has to be looking for 82-year-old Stephen Breyer to retire while there’s still a chance of getting a liberal replacement confirmed.

There’s a permanent solution to all this, of course: packing the court. But McConnell knows that Democrats and liberal justices on the bench already don’t really have the guts. He said this about Justice Breyer, quote:

“I do want to give him a shout-out, though, because he joined what Justice Ginsburg said in 2019 that nine is the right number for the Supreme Court. And I admire him for that. I think even the liberal justices on the Supreme Court have made it clear that court packing is a terrible idea.”

Glad everyone’s on the same page!

Biden Wants to Kill 2002 AUMF

The Biden Administration made a huge announcement on Monday: it formally supports a push by Rep. Barbara Lee to end the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force.

The 2002 AUMF, as it’s called, is the legal document we used to justify invading Iraq. In the years since, it’s been trotted out as evidence that the U.S. can legally engage in all kinds of military activities in the country. It’s a disgrace that it was ever passed, of course, but it’s an even bigger disgrace that it hasn’t been repealed yet, so the fact that it may finally get tossed is a good thing.

However, it doesn’t mean a whole lot as far as U.S. wars overseas go. The Biden Administration’s statement itself notes that quote:

“the United States has no ongoing military activities that rely solely on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis, and repeal of the 2002 AUMF would likely have minimal impact on current military operations.”

In other words, all of our bombing and killing overseas is going to be just fine.

That’s because the 2002 order isn’t the only AUMF -- there was another one in 2001 after 9/11 that’s even more broad. And in recent years, presidents haven’t even needed the AUMF’s to do what they want -- they’ve been able to pursue narrower military actions at their own discretion thanks to the steady increase in executive power since Bush was elected.

Biden’s statement notes that the administration wants to work with Congress to replace these so-called outdated orders, but it’s pretty clear that its ability to wage war isn’t going to be affected all that much.

Texas Braces for Second Power Crisis

Another power crisis is shaping up in Texas, this time due to the massive summer heatwave rolling through the state.

ERCOT, the state’s energy grid operator, asked customers on Monday to conserve as much energy as possible through, as many of its generators were down for repairs. On top of that, ERCOT estimated that June could see record-breaking demand for power.

This is a very similar situation to the disastrous, deadly outages in Texas this winter, when millions went without power during a brutal cold snap. Now, ERCOT’s customers are once again facing the prospect of blackouts, this time as temperatures spike to over 90 degrees in much of the state. ERCOT is asking Texans to Set thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, turn off lights, and avoid using large appliances until the end of the week.

Those steps might help, but it’s not really the everyday consumer’s job to fix Texas’s hugely unstable energy grid. Austin’s local NPR affiliate reports that experts have warned power problems like this will keep happening unless the state moves away from coal and gas generators and overhauls its wildly deregulated system. Until then, the government is basically forcing regular Texans to bear the heat.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Meanwhile, a driver plowed into protesters in Minneapolis late on Sunday night, killing one and injuring several others, in a similar attack to the ones that menaced protests last summer. The crowd was protesting the death of Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 33-year-old Black man, who was killed by U.S. Marshalls on June 3.

President Biden gave his first speech to NATO on Monday. The key issues looming over the Cold War era alliance are Ukraine’s possible entry into the group, especially ahead of Biden’s upcoming summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. In his speech, Biden stressed that he wasn’t looking for a confrontation with Putin. We’ll see how that goes!

Reality Winner is out of prison! The former intelligence contractor who was prosecuted for leaking state secrets to the Intercept was released to a halfway house on Monday, her lawyer announced.

A Washington Post analysis found that coronavirus infections are dropping where most people have been vaccinated, and rising where they are not. That may seem obvious, but it underscores just how far some states and communities have to go to keep their constituents safe.

AM QUICKIE - JUNE 15, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israel’s far-right, heavily corrupt prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is finally out. He’s been replaced by another far-right tech entrepreneur.

Meanwhile, the normally tight-lipped Apple said it turned over data about Trump’s former White House Counsel Don McGahn.

And lastly, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez went on CNN and dared to point out the biggest flaw in her party’s plans to enact any sort of agenda.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

It finally happened. After 12 years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is out, replaced by a strange government coalition of basically everyone outside of his party in the Israeli government.

But before we get too excited, let’s meet the new Prime Minister. Taking over for Bibi is Naftali Bennett, a former tech entrepreneur whose politics may be just as right wing and reactionary as his predecessor’s.

Bennett has only been in politics about 8 years, and before that made millions in the tech sector. He’s also a former Israeli Commando whose latest post in government was as Minister of Defense, and he’s reportedly bragged about killing Arab people, saying quote: “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there’s no problem with that.” endquote.

Yeah, sounds like this guy isn’t exactly a step up from Netanyahu. He’s also vehemently supportive of Israel’s colonialist settlers.

Bennett took over thanks to a razor-close vote in Parlaiment authorizing a new government by just one vote, 60 to 59, with one abstention. Bennett’s party itself only holds 7 seats in Parlaiment, and managed to take the top slot by creating an eight-party monster coalition aimed at taking Bibi down.

In other words, none of this is particularly stable, and none of it looks particularly good for the Palestinians still suffering after Netanyahu’s final acts of war against them.

AOC Calls Out Centrist Cronies

The Democrats have a problem -- they all know it, but almost none of them will come out and say it. It’s pretty simple: the Republican-friendly coalition of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are essentially stonewalling any bill that Biden wants to pass.

Naturally, most inter-party criticism falls on the left. Which is why Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was on CNN on Sunday defending progressive’s decision to pre-emptivly reject the centrist infrastructure compromise plan that Manchin and co are putting together.

CNN’s Dana Bash tried to corner Ocasio-Cortez into saying whether or not she’d vote for such a marginal compromise bill, to which Ocasio-Cortez responded; “The thing is, is that this isn't the best that we can get."

Then she launched into one of the few open declarations of what’s actually going on;

"I do think that we need to talk about the elephant in the room which is Senate Democrats blocking crucial items in a Democratic agenda for reasons that I don't think hold a lot of water."

The key point that Manchin and his block are trying to make is that there are ten Republicans who can be convinced to play ball, and that Biden and every Democrat to the left of him should place their policy ambitions in those centrist hands. But as we all know, that’s a myth. AOC knows it too, and said as much: “That doesn't really hold water, particularly when we can't even get 10 senators to support a January 6 commission."

We covered this back when it happened. If Manchin couldn’t get Romney and some of the less-Trumpy GOP to back an inquiry into an attempted coup earlier this year, then only a massive idiot would assume that they’re going to get the GOP’s help passing an infrastructure bill. The Democratic party leadership has to know this too which makes the real question clear: what are they going to do about it?

DOJ's New Privacy Boogaloo

The Trump Administration continues to deliver weird news gifts, even from beyond its political grave. This one comes from the New York Times, which reports that in 2018, the Justice Department subpoenaed data from Apple so it could look into White House Counsel Don McGahn.

The exact reasons behind this decision aren’t clear, and probably have something to do with the complicated mess left behind by Trump’s nebulous associations with Russia. But what’s weird about this case is that the Justice Department kept it secret for over two years, and forbade Apple from telling McGahn about it.

And it fits in to the larger context of what’s been going on in the privacy space in the past few months. We’ve recently learned that Trump’s Justice Department aggressively hunted for leakers, going as far as to try to obtain phone records and other data from reporters for the Times, CNN, and Washington Post.

This is all stuff that Biden’s new Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to have to untangle. And right now it’s not quite clear what side he’s going to come down on. The Biden Administration ordered the DOJ to stop seizing reporter’s email, calling it quote “simply wrong.”

But the New York Times notes that there are still a ton of variables as to what the new rules will look like, as far as who’s protected and who’s considered a journalist. If you remember, The Obama administration was particularly zealous at rooting out leaks, so that doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Joe Biden met with the Queen of England on Sunday and managed to not commit any real social faux pas, only telling her that she reminded him of his mother. Isn’t that nice! What a difference from Trump. At least our good president Biden loves and respects a Monarch, which is really what America is all about if you think about it.

CNN reports that GOP Governors are pushing to end mask mandates in schools, once again blaming government overreach for the policy. Kids under 12 won’t be eligible for the vaccine till about Thanksgiving, so the masks make sense, but of course you can’t tell that to the GOP.

A mysterious auction winner paid more than $28 million to ride to space with Jeff Bezos on July 20, becoming one of the first private space tourists to get ripped off by a billionaire’s vanity project. Congrats to whoever that person is! Have a nice flight!

A bipartisan group of lawmakers released two bills on Friday that could completely overhaul the competition and anti-trust system that let big tech establish world-spanning monopolies. We’ll see how well they fare against the tech giant’s inevitable onslaught of lobbying.

AM QUICKIE - JUNE 14, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Child labor is on the rise, and the pandemic is making it worse. A new report by the United Nations puts numbers on a problem that is pervasive, yet hidden to many Americans.

Meanwhile, California’s Democratic leadership gears up for a major courtroom fight over gun control. And Gavin Newsom has nothing at all nice to say about the federal judge who struck down the state’s assault weapons ban.

And lastly, new opinion polling reveals that the world feels way better about the United States now that Donald Trump is no longer in the picture. Can Joe Biden leverage these warm fuzzies for diplomatic advantage on his big international trip?

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This concerning update on one of the most shameful practices in global capitalism comes from CBS News. The world has marked the first rise in child labor in two decades, the United Nations said yesterday. And the coronavirus crisis threatens to push millions more youngsters into the same fate. In a joint report, the UN’s International Labor Organization and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said there were one hundred and sixty million children laborers at the start of 2020 – an increase of eight point four million in four years. The rise began before the pandemic hit. It marks a dramatic reversal of a trend that had seen child labor numbers shrink by ninety four million between 2000 and 2016, the report said. Children and teens between five and seventeen years old who are forced out of school and into working are considered child laborers.

CBS reports that just as the Covid-19 crisis was beginning to pick up steam, nearly one in ten children globally were stuck in child labor, with sub-Saharan Africa affected most. Even in regions where there has been some headway since 2016, such as Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, Covid-19 is endangering that progress, the report said. The agencies warned that unless urgent action is taken to help ballooning numbers of families falling into poverty, nearly fifty million more kids could be forced into child labor over the next two years. Sometimes it feels like we’re racing back to the nineteenth century.

California Fights Gun Control Ruling

This report on the struggle for safety from gun violence comes from the Los Angeles Times. California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday filed an appeal to a federal court decision that overturned the state’s ban on assault weapons, arguing that the law is needed to protect the safety of Californians. The appeal seeks to reverse last Friday’s decision by US District Judge Roger Benitez, who said the state’s three-decade ban on assault weapons is an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of California gun owners. Newsom, who was elected on a platform that included expanding gun control laws, said, "California’s assault weapons ban has saved lives, and we refuse to let these weapons of war back onto our streets." Newsom criticized Benitez, calling his decision shameful. He said Benitez was a stone-cold ideologue and "a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun lobby."

The Times says the case has implications for gun laws beyond California. Six other states and the District of Columbia followed California in adopting their own assault weapons bans, and Congress enacted a ban in 1994, although it expired ten years later. Though other courts have upheld assault weapon bans, supporters of the gun law worry Benitez’s decision is part of a strategy by the gun lobby to get cases to the US Supreme Court, where appointments by Donald Trump are seen as more sympathetic to Second Amendment arguments. In the meantime, there was another deadly shooting yesterday – three dead in a Florida Publix.

US Image Rebounds Under Biden

This check-up on the national image comes from the Washington Post. President Joe Biden has promised the world that America is back. As he takes his first trip abroad as president, a Pew Research Center global survey released yesterday shows that many believe it. Trust in the US president fell to historic lows in most countries surveyed during Donald Trump’s presidency. Under Biden, it has soared. In the twelve countries surveyed both this year and last, a median of seventy five percent of respondents expressed confidence in Biden to do the right thing regarding world affairs. That’s compared with seventeen percent for Trump last year. Sixty-two percent of respondents now have a favorable view of the United States, versus thirty four percent at the end of Trump’s presidency.

The Post notes that the findings come a day after Biden touched down in England on the first leg of a trip through Europe. On his agenda: a meeting of the Group of Seven nations in Cornwall, a NATO summit in Brussels, and meetings with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Pew findings suggest that he will encounter leaders whose publics are confident in his leadership. But skepticism about the United States’ dependability remains. Among the sixteen publics Pew surveyed in 2021, the proportion of respondents who said the US is very reliable was below twenty percent in every place. Good vibes are always contingent on the outcome of the next elections.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports that police in Frankfurt have decided to disband the city's Special Task Force, or SEK, following the discovery of far-right extremist messages in group chats. Seventeen officers were suspected of spreading hatred-inciting texts and symbols of former Nazi organizations. Hey, maybe they can find jobs in America?

The New York Times reports that famine has afflicted at least three hundred and fifty thousand people in northern Ethiopia’s conflict-ravaged Tigray region. It is a starvation calamity bigger at the moment than anywhere else in the world, the UN and international aid groups said yesterday. And it’s not at all clear whether help is on the way.

CNN reports that the Senate yesterday voted to confirm Zahid Quraishi to be a US District Judge for the District of New Jersey, making him the first Muslim American federal judge in US history. Prior to his confirmation, Quraishi has been serving as a United States magistrate judge in New Jersey. How telling that it took this long to mark such a first.

The Washington Post reports that the Labor Department released a workplace safety standard for risks posed by the coronavirus yesterday after more than a year of debate. The emergency temporary standard will apply only to health-care facilities – a much narrower purview than many advocates, labor unions and Democrats had pushed for. This is a bust for the Biden administration. Every worker deserves protection.

AM QUICKIE - JUNE 11, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn