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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Record numbers of Americans are filing unemployment claims. But the stock market seems unconcerned – optimistic, even – after the Senate’s big corporate giveaway.

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden address the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill now facing a House vote. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says the millions of Americans who’ve found themselves suddenly out of work don’t matter.

And lastly, the coronavirus death toll in America passes one thousand – officially. China closes its borders to foreigners, and US forces may be deployed to prevent Americans from fleeing to Canada – certainly, no one is running the other direction.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

New Labor Department figures released yesterday showed that some 3.3 million Americans filed unemployment benefit claims last week. It was a new record. Before the coronavirus pandemic and the oil price shock, only some 200,000 people had filed for benefits. The previous one-week record was set nearly four decades ago, in 1982. But back then fewer than 700,000 people filed unemployment claims. What’s happening now is much bigger. Analysts were using dire words like collapse, catastrophe, and Greater Depression to describe the US economy.

But the high-rolling gamblers on Wall Street don’t necessarily see it that way. The stock markets gained back some of their losses, led by higher prices for shares in companies that will receieve a chunk of the $2 trillion-plus Congressional bailout package passed unanimously by the Senate this week. It would be hard to find a more stark example than of how disconnected the economy of the elite is from the economy that most Americans inhabit. While tens of millions of people are suddenly afraid of being thrown out on the street, and wondering if help will ever come, corporate executives and financiers are thrilled that their hired help in Washington, DC, so quickly came to the rescue.

Action on the Congressional bailout -- or stimulis bill, as they prefer to call it – now moves to the House of Representatives. Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wants to bring the bill to a voice vote on the floor today, without requiring all four-hundred and twenty-nine

members to fly back to Washington. Some are under quarantine. But a Kentucky Republican, Thomas Massie, opposes the bill and threatened to delay the vote on procedural grounds. Outside Congress, many raised more substantive concerns about the bill passed by the Senate, particularly the aspects amounting to a blank check for lucky corporations, signed by taxpayers. Among the provisions it has emerged are buried in the 880-page legislation: a tax break worth $170 billion for America’s richest real estate investors. As The New York Times pointed out, Donald Trump, his family, and his inner circle, stand to directly benefit from the provision. The bailout tax break temporarily removes restrictions on how much wealthy individuals and corporations can write down as losses due to depreciation – although experts said these often amount to theoretical losses that exist only on paper. It sure pays to have money!

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders drew both criticism and praise for his actions leading up to the vote on the coronavirus spending bill. Many praised his actions to defend expanded unemployment insurance against Republican threats, but even some supporters said Sanders, along with Elizabeth Warren and other Senate progressives, should have held up the bill and demanded more aid for workers and less giveaways for corporations. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who currently holds a delegate lead over Sanders for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, had the luxury of not having to cast a vote on the bill. In a video statement yesterday, he called the Senate bill an important step and said the key would be in the execution – essentially letting Congress off the hook for the contents of the bill, and trusting that the public won’t bother to learn the details.

Sanders, by contrast, went through specific provisions he opposed, as well as what he favored, although he acknowledged the benefits for ordinary Americans did not come close to what he would have liked to see. Ultimately, he said, it is what it is – an answer that may or may not satisfy voters in the remaining future Democratic primary states, especially as the pandemic and its consequences unfold in the weeks and months to come. Sanders had proposed monthly payments of $2,000 for every American affected by the crisis, for however long it lasts. Instead what Congress is getting ready to pass will offer a one-time payment of $1,200 to a smaller group of Americans.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs executive and tax-avoidant hedge fund manager Steve Mnuchin, said he expects most Americans to receieve that money via direct bank deposit within three weeks. He also told CNBC that the record jobless claims just announced by the Labor Department simply did not matter. Mnuchin said, QUOTE I just think these numbers right now are not relevant ENDQUOTE. Which should come as news to 3.3 million Americans – and counting.

It’s getting uglier out there. The United States yesterday officially reported more confirmed coronavirus cases than any other country: over eighty-two thousand. Deaths in the US attributable to COVID-19 also passed the one thousand mark yesterday. But some doctors told reporters at BuzzFeed News that the official numbers from the federal Centers for Disease Control do not reflect what they are seeing on the front lines. In short, deaths are being underreported. In some cases, that is due to a lag in reporting. But often, doctors say, it is because people they see who are clearly sick with COVID-19 symptoms are not being tested either before or after they die.

What’s worse, Trump is also engaged in a new kind of direct meddling in states and localities responding to the crisis. He sent a letter to the fifty state governors announcing a plan to designate counties as either high, medium, or low risk, based on unspecified criteria. The implication was that higher-risk areas will be targeted for more aggressive testing. But the full meaning of the designation was unclear, as are Trump’s intentions and authorities in saying what specific places may operate as normal or under some kind of lockdown.

Elsewhere, the picture was mixed. China closed its borders to foreigners, even those already living legally in the country. The World Health Organization said it saw encouraging signs that European countries were beginning to get the pandemic under control. Britain’s Prince Charles, was seen on video for the first time since announcing he had COVID-19. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was in talks with Trump to prevent the deployment of US troops to their shared border. A White House official told the CBC that they are considering new ways to QUOTE limit unauthorized travel ENDQUOTE. The planned domestic deployment was reported in Canada but not the US. Which is somewhat concerning!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Venezuelan officials ridiculued drug trafficking charges against President Nicolas Maduro announced by the US Department of Justice yesterday. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister said the charges – and $15 million bounty for information -- reflected desperation and obsession of the Washington elite. US Attorney General William Barr has, in prior government roles, covered up at least one major drug trafficking scandal involving US intelligence agencies.

The Washington Post reported a new way in which Johnson & Johnson, the US-based multinational pharmaceutical firm, sought to profit from the opioid crisis that has savaged America. The company engineered a new variety of super poppy that produced vastly increased quantities of an opiate substance, while producing less of another kind of chemical. This allowed for much simpler purification and refinement into oxycodone and hydrocodone. Science marches on!

The main political rival of far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz of the Blue and White Party, reversed his previous promises and took a new position that set him up to form a government with Netanyahu’s Likud party. Remaining opposition leaders called it a dark day. A member of the Knesset from the Meretz party predicted that Gantz would QUOTE end up a rug ENDQUOTE under the feet of racist crook Netanyahu.

Not to be outdone by the singer Britney Spears, the comic actor Fran Drescher became the latest celebrity to condemn capitalism and call for nationwide work stoppages and protests. Drescher, best known for her role as TV’s The Nanny, attacked the wealthy owners of capital for hoarding coronavirus testing and treatment. She said labor was being treated as a sacrificial lamb, and concluded it was time for a general strike.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report.

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 Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill late last night after Bernie Sanders stood up to preserve unemployment benefits. And Joe Biden dodges new MeToo accusations by a former staffer.

Meanwhile, the pandemic exacerbates social divides within the United States and around the world. Ireland nationalizes its health sector so fast, you’d think it was easy.

And lastly, some news networks will stop running Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefings because they’re too full of lies. Naturally, Trump once again blames the media for his failures.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The United States Congress was not ready to vote last night on a $2.2 trillion so-called stimulus bill prepared in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Various factions of both parties had their reasons for delaying the measure – some valid, others less so.

A few Republican Senators, including Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, objected to provisions in the bill that would provide unemployment benefits to displaced workers. Others, like New York Governor Governor Andrew Cuomo, demanded more aid for certain of their constitutents. Vermont Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders placed a hold on the bill over those Republican objections, calling their opposition to benefits for workers morally objectionable. Sanders also said he was concerned by a part of the plan that would create a $500 billion slush fund to be doled out to corporations at the discretion of Donald Trump. Provided Republicans compromised, Sanders indicated he would favor the bill provided it put cash into the hands of working families, hospitals, and states and localities that desperately needed it.

Former Vice President and supposed Democratic Party presidential front-runner Joe Biden was accused of sexual assault by a former staffer, Tara Reade. Part of Reade’s story came out in The Intercept earlier this week, but more details emerged in an interview yesterday with Rolling Stone’s Katie Halper. Reade said in 1993 Biden put her against a wall, and without consent QUOTE penetrated me with his fingers. When I pulled away, he pointed at me and said, 'You're nothing to me' ENDQUOTE. The Biden campaign offered no response. The

candidate did however hold an online soiree targeting younger Americans, who have so far, by overwhelming margins, rejected his candidacy. It attracted fewer than three thousand viewers online -- and, judging by online commentary, many of those were waiting for him to say something they could make fun of on social media.

America is the new epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, with New York emerging as the nation’s own hotspot. Hospitals are overwhelmed and crucial medical supplies are still unavailable in the quantities they’re needed. The state’s morgues are full. By this weekend, officials expect they will be over capacity. (North Carolina and Hawaii also reported too many dead bodies to handle.)

Although Governor Cuomo has been receiving plaudits in some quarters for his handling of the crisis, many widely touted measures crumble under scrutiny. For instance, prisoners upstate who are supposedly making hand sanitizer on Cuomo’s orders told Vice News they were not manufacturing anything, but rather putting a commercial product in new bottles labeled N.Y.S. Clean.

Officials in San Francisco said yesterday they expect a crisis on par with New York’s. California Governor Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on mortagage payments. It emerged that half the state’s infections are among people between 18 and 49 years of age. Colorado will be ordering residents to stay home. Idaho already has. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, garbage collectors refused to pick up trash until they recieve hazard pay and protective gear. The Pentagon said it would halt all overseas travel for US service members and their families for sixty days, with a few exceptions, including troops leaving Afghanistan.

Mexico’s left-wing president promised to bail out the poor in his country, rather than banks and big companies. Brazil’s fascist ruler said coronavirus is not a problem – he called it the little flu. But drug gangs in the favelas are taking the pandemic more seriously, and have reportedly imposed strict curfews. A resident of the so-called City of God, a favela made famous by the movie of the same name, told The Guardian QUOTE The traffickers are doing this because the government is absent. The authorities are blind to us ENDQUOTE. I guess the drug gangs want to have some living, breathing customers when this is all over.

One in three canadians expects to miss mortgage or rent payments in coming months, and two-thirds either have lost work or expect to, according to a new survey reported by the

national broadcaster. But even conservative provinces are taking measures to aid workers and tenants. In Ireland, the government nationalized the entire healthcare sector for the first time. It was necessary, in the words of the country’s public health commissioner, because competition between the public and private sectors have created problems in delivering care.

The G-7 group of major industrialized nations was supposed to issue a joint statement yesterday. It did not. The reason? Trump’s Secretary of State -- the thoroughly unqualified fundamentalist Christian zealot Mike Pompeo – insisted that two specific words be included. Those words? In the following order: Wuhan virus.

That’s right, the White House prevented international action on the number one most urgent crisis facing humanity because representatives of six other countries – including three former Axis Powers – thought the language Trump’s henchman demanded was racist, unfair, and needlessly divisive.

The president himself seems to be losing it, though this hasn’t yet been reflected in his approval ratings. Yesterday he called reports that he was isolated in the White House fake news – and you know what that means. (They’re true.) He also said that the LameStream Media were trying to hurt his reelection prospects by keeping businesses closed and that who he called the Real People were just itching to get back to work. During a global pandemic. Right. Without me, Trump said, QUOTE you wouldn’t even have a country left ENDQUOTE. Also yesterday, his campaign sent out cease and desist letters to television stations that aired an ad criticizing his handling of the pandemic. CNN, NBC, and some NPR affiliates announced they would stop airing his live press briefings because they contained too many lies. And Americans around the country began receiving mailers from the federal Centers for Disease Control that promoted President Trump in big bold black type. One of the benefits of incumbency!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The terrorist who killed fifty-one Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand last year, reversed himself yesterday and pleaded guilty to all charges. Brenton Tarrant, aged twenty-nine, from Australia, sent written instructions to his lawyers to change his plea. His reasons remain unclear. Victims families were relieved by the news. Sentencing hearings will follow.

Two years ago, a group of federal prosecutors were ready to charge Walmart over its role in the prescription opioid abuse crisis. But then Trump’s political appointees got wind of the charges and killed the indictments. The story finally came out yesterday thanks to ProPublica. Rod Rosenstein played a special role in derailing the case to save Walmart, saying, QUOTE We are all capitalists here ENDQUOTE.

A retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Robert Levinson, held in Iran since 2007, is dead. This comes according to his family, which made the announcement yesterday. Reportedly working undercover for the Central Intelligence Agency, Levinson was the longest- held hostage in US history. Details remain vague. The CIA long denied his employment.

The Turkish government charged twenty Saudi citizens in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Two of the men charged reported directly to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. All were alleged to be directly involved in Khashoggi’s 2018 murder in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, reportedly on MBS’s orders. Arrest warrants were issued but the trials will be held in absentia. So it goes.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report.

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:

Wall Street rallies after Donald Trump promises to sacrifice the lives of workers and their families to protect corporate profits. And so, of course, stocks rebound!

Meanwhile, Joe Biden says he will refrain from criticizing Trump for his coronavirus pandemic response. But Bernie Sanders is taking the opposite approach.

And lastly, the head of Italy’s coronavirus respone says there could be ten unreported cases for every confirmed case of COVID-19. Which would mean half a million cases in the United States, as opposed to the fifty thousand just reported.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Defying the express wishes of every public health expert – including the ones that still work for him -- Donald Trump said yesterday that he wants America back to business as usual by Easter. That’s in a couple of weeks – April 12 to be exact. Why that particular Sunday? He just thought it sounded beautiful. That’s what he said anyway. No doctors told Trump this was reasonable or realistic. In fact, they’ve been telling him the opposite. If lawmakers and employers follow Trump’s prescription, millions of people could die unnecessarily because workers were forced to return to their offices and job sites, thus spreading COVID-19 and overwhelming hospitals.

Just in case it wasn’t obvious, Trump’s advise is intended to benefit the top one percent of people who own the economy at the expense of everyone else. And for the capitalist elite, at least, the message was received. The stock markets gained back some of their coronavirus- related losses after Trump came out for blood sacrifice. His fellow Republicans quickly fell in line and are giving up on all talk of aiding affected workers. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed forward with a $2 trillion so-called stimulus bill – though Trump economic adviser and designated bottle-opener Larry Kudlow said the total cost could total $6 trillion. I say so-called stimulus because none of the proposed measures in the latest Republican bailout come close to doing what other countries are doing to take care of their people during this pandemic. European countries including Britain, for instance, are covering up to eighty percent of people’s wages during the crisis.

If further proof were needed that the people of the United States are being systematically misinformed on a crucial life-or-death matter -- the reality of a deadly pandemic -- consider the following: Trump’s approval rating is higher than ever, according to a new poll by Gallup. Forty-nine percent of adults now approve of the job he’s doing as president. Sixty percent approve of how he’s handling the coronavirus pandemic – which, until recently, he refused to acknowledge was even a problem.

Despite what some corporate media talking heads would have you believe, the Democratic Party presidential primary continues.

Joe Biden appeared via video link on The View and said he had no intention to criticize Donald Trump, and wanted to avoid politicizing the coronavirus response – as though it hasn’t been already. Biden also garbled his ideas a few times, with statements that trailed off into gibberish. This happened again several times in interviews later in the day. The New York Times said the Democratic front-runner is struggling to be heard. The Intercept reported new details in the story of a Nevada politician who accused Biden of sniffing her hair and kissing her before a rally in 2014. The politician, Tara Reade, sought assistance from a prominent feminist organization in the wake of the MeToo scandals. But the group, the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, told Reade they would not take her case because Biden was a candidate for president. A spokesperson for Time’s Up said their decision to withhold support from Reade should not be interpreted as a statement of doubt about the truthfulness of her claims.

Bernie Sanders held another online panel discussion about the coronavirus response and spoke for the better part of two hours about what needed to be done to support displaced workers and overworked, under-supplied medical professionals through the crisis. The event featured Washington State Representative Pramila Jayapal, whose constituents were among the first Americans to face the brunt of the pandemic. A Centers for Disease Control viral outbreak specialist interviewed by Sanders told several truths that Trump refuses to: For instance, he said the US is now leading the world in new coronavirus cases. Heckuva job, Donnie! By this weekend, the CDC expert told Sanders, the US will have more cases than China -- and Trump’s incompetence and inaction are directly to blame.

Global confirmed coronavirus cases surprassed the four-hundred thousand mark yesterday. More than fifty thousand of those cases were in the US, with New York state alone accounting for half of the total. But there is growing reason to think that the official figures from various countries vastly understate the actual scale of the problem.

The chief of civil defense in Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries, is one official who is willing to come out and say as much. Career civil servant and Extraordinary Commissioner for the COVID-19 Emergency Angelo Borrelli said a more credible estimate was ten actual cases for every one confirmed case. Borrelli’s remarks were first reported in the Italian press and later publicized by Reuters news service. This knowledge has yet to filter in to the public conversation in the US, where denialism still rules at the top, as hospitalizations and fatalities mount. Atlanta, Georgia, hospitals yesterday reportedly ran out of space in their intensive care units.

As Republicans in the US ease up on public health measures, other countries are growing more stringent to save lives. India, home to over one billion people, went on national lockdown. People there have been ordered to stay in their homes for three weeks, although poverty and density will make that impossible or meaningless for many. Also, after much dithering by the organizers and the Japanese government, the Tokyo Olympics has been officially postponed until 2021. Easter Island reported its first coronavirus case, and the Washington Post called Antarctica, with zero cases as yet reported, possibly the safest place in the world. Hubei province in China, where the pandemic was first noted, is getting ready to start running trains again, after a long period of lockdown that helped slow the spread of the virus in that country.

QUICKER QUICKIES

A special commission mandated by Congress is recommending that women be made eligible for military conscription. The eleven-member commission set up in 2017 produced a final report that was presented to the White House yesterday, and may inspire new legislation. The report says registering women for the draft is both necessary and fair in times of national emergency. Is it though?

A German court convicted and sentenced eight members of a revolutionary neo-Nazi skinhead organization yesterday after a six month trial. The accused men, all between twenty-

two and thirty-two years of age, were sentenced to a little over two years in prison, with the ringleader getting five and a half years. The group systematically attacked minorities and were allegedly planning massacres with firearms.

The publishers of three major US news organizations – The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal – are publishing a rare joint declaration asking the government of China to let their reporters back in the country. The Chinese government last month decided to deny visas to reporters for those papers. The Trump administration has also been taking actions against Chinese news organizations in the US. The letter called on both countries’ leaders to let journalists do their important work in this time of crisis.

Britney Spears is making news again. The pop star posted took to Instagram to share demands for wealth redistribution and a general strike, which is a thing that’s never really happened in America when nobody goes to work until everyone gets what they need. Comrade Britney signed off with rose emojis, as often deployed by members of the Democratic Socialists of America. She’s a not a slave for you, or for anyone!

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report, home edition.

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 Republican party pivoted toward death today, as President Donald Trump openly considered easing preventative restrictions that slow the spread of the virus and allowing hundreds of thousands to die in order to prevent an economic recession.

Meanwhile, New York City has emerged as the dire center of the coronavirus epidemic in America, as its high population density means the virus is spreading like wildfire.

And lastly, an Arizona man died after ingesting chloroquine phosphate, a toxic chemical that he thought would protect him from the coronavirus, something that his grieving wife says was inspired by Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweets about the substance.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Republican party made it clear that it is willing to kill as many Americans as it takes to save its precious free-market economy.

I wish that were an exaggeration, but the actions of President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders on Monday have made their position clear.

During a press briefing on Monday, the president started openly floating the idea of re-opening the economy and easing social restrictions that have crippled business and destroyed jobs, an idea that horrifies pretty much every public health official who understands the crisis we’re in.

He said QUOTE:

“If it were up to the doctors, they’d say let’s shut down the entire world. This could create a much bigger problem than the problem that you started out with.”

ENDQUOTE.

Buddy, it should be up to the doctors!

The economic effects of these restrictions are real, but the public health risk without them is so much greater. And there’s always another option: pass a stimulus package that actual helps American workers, not the corporations trying to save their bottom line.

The New York Times reports that even if we relax the restrictions now, experts say the economy will still crash as new virus cases overwhelm the U.S.’s pitiful healthcare system and make the recession that we’re already in that much worse.

In an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s sociopath hour on Monday, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick claimed that there were quote “lots of grandparents out there” endquote who would be willing to take the risk of dying in order to save capitalism.

Sure sounds like a death cult to me.

New York City is now the center of the coronavirus in America, and the infection rates in the nation’s biggest city are starting to look truly dire.

The problem, of course, is New York’s population density. Since the state finally got its act together and began testing aggressively, there have been 13,000 confirmed cases in New York City, and 125 deaths. By comparison, Los Angeles, America’s second-biggest city, has only 500 confirmed cases and seven deaths, although it is far behind on widespread testing.

The virus’s quote “attack rate” in NYC is nearly one in one thousand, which the Times reports is over five times higher than anywhere else in the country.

On Monday, the New York Board of Corrections urged the city’s jails to start releasing vulnerable inmates and those being held on low-level offenses in order to curb the spread and protect them from the virus, which is spreading across the prison system.

So far, Mayor De Blasio has only released 23 inmates. New York also has roughly 400,000 people in crowded public housing buildings, which will surely be devastated by the disease.

As always, it’s the most vulnerable people that this is going to hurt.

An Arizona man died on Monday after ingesting chloroquine phosphate, a toxic substance that he mistakenly thought would prevent the coronavirus. His wife also took the substance and is in critical care.

Chloroquine does have medical uses, largely as an anti-malarial drug, and has been floated as a possible treatment for coronavirus - claims which have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

They have, however, been spread by the president, who has spoken and tweeted about the positive benefits of the drug, dangerously spreading unproven and incomplete information.

The couple didn’t take the medical version of the substance. Per NBC News, they ingested a small amount of an ingredient listed on a parasite treatment for pet fish, because they were quote “scared of getting sick.”

The wife told NBC news that they decided to take the substance because they thought it was what they had seen President Trump talking about on TV.

Within 20 minutes they both became extremely ill. Her husband died shortly after arriving at the hospital, one of the first direct casualties of Trump’s fast-and-loose response to the disease.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Michael Bloomberg’s laid-off staff members in Texas are suing his campaign, alleging that the former mayor of New York City promised them jobs and health care coverage through the November general election, but then laid them off when he dropped out of the race. The workers are suing for the pay and benefits that were promised to them.

Amazon workers in Chicago, Sacramento, and New York united to fight for paid time off and sick leave across the company, and recently succeeded in getting Amazon to change its policies and offer paid time off to all regular and seasonal employees. The company’s wider sick leave and time off policy is still miserable, however, so the fight continues.

In China, there are signs of recovery from the virus. Chinese officials lifted the total lockdown over Hubei [HOO-BEY] province on Tuesday. The city of Wuhan, where the original epidemic appears to have started, will remain on lockdown until April 8.

Lawmakers and activists in New York City and other major cities continue to call for a widespread rent freeze, freeing the millions of recently-laid off Americans from the burden of paying rent come April. Evictions in many states have been halted, but as of now, rent is still due and the fight continues.

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay well and stay inside. Sam will be with you this afternoon with the full show.

_ _ _

#AMQuickie: March 24, 2020

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 Senate will vote today on a new stimulus package to help the American people cope with the coronavirus, but Mitch McConnell is up to his usual tricks -- largely trying to push through a bill that mostly helps big corporations.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is quietly asking for new, draconian powers in the middle of the crisis, including the ability to indefinitely detain people without a trial.

And lastly, our wise president fired off an all-caps tweet late on Sunday night that appears to be catering to a new right-wing theory that saving the lives of millions isn’t worth tanking the economy through quarantines and lockdowns.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Senate is currently in open conflict over a bill to provide much-needed emergency relief to American people and businesses during the coronavirus crisis.

The bill, introduced by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is currently set up to heavily favor the classic GOP side.

It does include some Democratic concessions, however, including direct payments of $1,200 to most Americans and $500 to children. But Democrats aren’t happy with the rest of the bill, which includes hefty bailouts for corporations, including a massive $500 billion loan program that’s basically left up to the Trump-controlled Treasury department’s discretion.

Considering how the big industry CEO’s running airlines, cruise ships, casinos and oil have already been barking up Trump’s tree for bailout cash, the bill in its current state probably wouldn’t be a great deal for, you know, actual American people.

Late on Sunday night, however, McConnell tried to ram it through anyway, calling a procedural vote to advance the bill, knowing that he could blame Democrats when they voted it down. And guess what? Both of those things happened.

The blocked vote gives Democrats a bit more time to try to hammer out more concessions from the GOP that might actually help ordinary Americans, but the Senate is expected to see more procedural action later today.

We’ll have to wait and see how that shakes out, and what the bill’s final form looks like.

Amidst all the Washington infighting, Trump’s Department of Justice is quietly trying to do a little bit more fascism on the side.

Per Politico, the DOJ is asking Congress for the ability to ask judges to indefinitely detain people without trial quote “during emergencies,” endquote.

The justification for these powers, of course, is the current coronavirus crisis.

The bill essentially asks for the power to pause court proceedings, the statute of limitations on crimes, and basically any procedure the government wants until the end of whatever emergency is happening.

While it’s pretty unlikely that a bill like this would make it through the Democrats in the House, it’s still a troubling sign that the Trump Administration is continuing to use the crisis to expand its own power.

It doesn’t take a particularly active imagination to see how a bill allowing indefinite detentions and postponement of a fair trial could very quickly be abused by authoritarians in government. And as we know from everything after 9/11, there’s nothing like a national crisis to get our elected representatives to hand over civil rights in the name of collective safety.

The president was up late Tweeting last night, which is a relatable experience, except in this case he decided to fire off an all-caps screaming message that appears to fall right in line with a prominent far-right theory.

At 11:50 on Sunday night, Trump tweeted quote:

WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!

Endquote.

While that may be at first glance the ramblings of delusional egomaniac, the message behind the tweet is distressing.

The language about the cure being worse than the problem seems to imply support for a common far-right position, which largely boils down the argument that saving American lives from the disease is not enough to justify the crippling economic blow of mandatory lockdowns and quarantines.

Trump knows that a scientifically sound response to the disease, even with a stimulus package from Congress, is going to tank the economy. There’s almost no way around it now, although some progressive options could help spare everyday Americans from some of the pain.

So instead, it sounds like he might lean in to the truly inhuman option, which would be to half-ass the quarantine response and then relax restrictions to try to bump the stock market up before the general election.

Great Britain under Boris Johnson briefly tried this, before having to backpedal wildly once they realized it was a terrible idea.

We’ll see if Trump gives it a shot! After all, the only thing at stake is millions of American lives.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A 42-year-old Mexican man died while in ICE custody on Saturday, the tenth death in the 2020 fiscal year. In 2019, there were only eight deaths total -- and we still have more than six months to go this time.

Harvey Weinstein tested positive for the coronavirus while behind bars in the New York State prison system, and has been placed in isolation pending his treatment.

Save for a few audio-only phone calls with the press, Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden has been completely absent from the national conversation since last Tuesday’s primaries, the last time he was seen on video.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Saturday proposed a groundbreaking plan to boost the economy during coronavirus which included at least $3000 in payments to every American and also, the minting of two $1 trillion dollar platinum coins. Sounds pretty sweet.

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie. Stay tuned for the full show under lockdown later this afternoon.

#AMQuickie: March 23, 2020

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:

Californians are ordered to shelter in place to combat the coronavirus. US citizens are advised against all international travel.

Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard ends her Democratic presidential campaign and endorses Joe Biden. Bernie Sanders calls on Amazon to step up for its workers during the pandemic.

And lastly, at least two Republican Senators have been caught profiteering from the pandemic while lying to constituents. Will the disclosures increase scrutiny of how government officials have botched and exploited the pandemic response for personal gain?

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The US State Department issued an unprecedented global travel warning yesterday. American citizens are being told not to travel overseas. If they are already abroad, the State Department says citizens should either come back to the US now or prepare to hunker down wherever they are indefinitely. The level four travel advisory, the most severe type of warning the department issues, says Americans abroad may be on their own. Specifically, QUOTE have a travel plan that does not rely on the US government for assistance ENDQUOTE. The department ignored at least some press queries after making the announcememt.

California governor Gavin Newsom last night told nonessential businesses to close their doors and the forty million residents of America’s largest state to stay home.

Earlier in the day he said the state expected more than half of residents to fall ill with COVID- 19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus now pandemic to the globe. That would mean the state would need nearly twenty thousand more hospital beds than it currently has. The curfew measures are intended to slow the spread of the virus and keep hospitals from getting overwhelmed. Essential activities include buying groceries and taking neighborhood walks but close contact with others is discouraged and most stores will be closed.

A homeless shelter resident in California told the Guardian newspaper he expects to die if he catches the coronavirus. A man who died after a visit to Disney World in Florida before it

closed was only thirty four years old, so please do take this seriously. Even Wyoming, where police cannot stop drivers failing to wear seat belts, has ordered bars and restaurants closed.

Senate Republicans pushed forward a pandemic stimulus plan that includes one-time cash payments to many Americans, including $1,200 per adult in many families, but only $600 for poorer families. An analysis cited by the Washington Post said twenty two million Americans who make less than $40,000 per year would see no benefit under the Republican plan.

President Donald Trump spouted more lies at a pandemic response briefing. He claimed that an old malaria drug could be used to treat coronavirus, but medical experts said otherwise, and the Food and Drug Administration clarified that the drug was not approved for such treatment. White House press briefings are getting truly ridiculous as Trump seeks to pin all the blame on China and relies on Republican operatives in the press pool to bail him out.

The number of confirmed cases in the US doubled between Tuesday and Thursday, with more than 11,500 as of yesterday. Doctors say they still urgently need ventilators and masks. Some are being asked to reuse masks against the manufacturer’s advise.

More governments overseas are closing borders, including Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil. Chile is postponing a constitutional referendum. The G7 meeting of world leaders in June will be held via teleconference. In The Netherlands, a minister in charge of coronavirus response resigned after collapsing in parliament from exhaustion. We feel you.

Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary race yesterday. To the suprise of many, including her supporters, she endorsed the front-runner and establishment favorite, former Vice President Joe Biden. Gabbard said she was confided Biden would be QUOTE guided by the spirit of aloha respect and compassion ENDQUOTE. Biden said he was grateful for Gabbard’s support and said he looked forward to QUOTE working with her to restore honor and decency to the White House ENDQUOTE. Gabbard’s brother posted then deleted a claim that Sanders had refused her support.

Press speculation turned to who Biden might name as a running mate, though the campaign made no announcements. Sanders, for his part, yesterday demanded Amazon do more to take care of its workers, as the company hires up to expand its delivery business with more of

the world going on lockdown. Sanders said QUOTE The majority of Amazon's 800,000 workers are working in warehouses and are worried about their safety. We should ask Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, if he can afford to guarantee paid sick leave, hazard pay and safe conditions to all of his workers ENDQUOTE.

More than one million Americans may lose their jobs by the end of the month. Many are already having trouble claiming unemployment benefits. Gig workers are finding they aren’t eligible and have no choice but to keep working. Trump has asked states to stop releasing new unemployment numbers. Gee, he really became president this week, didn’t he?

A new scandal is brewing related to the US government’s coronavirus response. Some members of Congress have been saying one thing to the public about the crisis while doing quite another behind the scenes, and finding ways to profit from the pandemic.

As of last night at least two Republican Senators, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, were caught making big stock market trades based on information they received in an official briefing on the crisis. The trades took place after the Senators heard non-public information about the coronavirus, but before news got out -- and before the markets tanked.

Burr chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. NPR reported he shared inside info on the coronavirus with a select group of wealthy donors, who in turn sought to profit from the bad news. Ethics watchdogs called the trades uncoscionable, especially at a time when Republicans from Trump on down were denying coronavirus would be a problem. Now even Fox News’s Tucker Carlson is calling for Burr’s head. Burr, who worked as a corporate salesman for seventeen years before seeking office, voted against a bill to ban insider trading by members of Congress in 2012. Go figure!

Last night, scrutiny was growing on other members of Congress who recieved the coronavirus briefing. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein was among those reported to have made suspicious trades. Expect to hear more about this in the days to come. Hopefully we’ll also learn more about whatever angles Trump’s son-in-law and designated messenger Jared Kushner has been working with his shadow task force on the coronavirus.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

One-third of the US faces risk of flooding this spring, the National Weather Service said yesterday. The areas affected by the forecast cover twenty-three states and are home to 128 million people. It’s not supposed to be quite so bad as last year, but farmland soils are saturated and this means problems for harvests, which means higher food prices. So more of a Mud Bowl than a Dust Bowl with Great Depression Two.

Residents of a West Virginia tourist town at odds with a white nationalist non-profit group, V-DARE, which recently took the unusual step of buying a large castle overlooking their homes. A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center says the residents of Berkeley Springs are asking how and why the group, a favorite of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, paid $1.4 million cash for the nineteenth-century landmark castle. No word on whether any local maidens have been found drained of blood.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and alleged accomplice of the late sex trafficker to the elite, Jeffrey Epstein, is apparently alive. Maxwell has been hard to find since Epstein’s death last year. But she has reportedly filed a court complaint in the US Virgin Islands aginst Epstein’s estate, demanding payment for security and legal costs, and disclaiming knowledge of his crimes. One Epstein victims, Virginia Giuffre, responded QUOTE how dare you... I hope the judge ruling over this laughs you out of court and into jail. ENDQUOTE. Fair!

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report, home edition.

#AMQuickie: March 20, 2020

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:

Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau agree to close the US-Canadian border to most travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump claims new powers to nationalize industry, but so far he’s proven unwilling to stop medical shortages.

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is deciding what to do with his presidential campaign. Maybe he could assign a few tech-savvy Zoomers to help Joe Biden, who is canceling fundraisers due to technical difficulties.

And lastly, the US economy has been thrown into chaos as a result of the coronavirus, with stocks collapsing and unemployment soaring. Signs from abroad suggest it’s going to get worse very soon, with death tolls growing from Europe to Africa and beyond.

#AMQuickie: March 19, 2020

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:

Joe Biden won the primary elections in Illinois, Arizona and Florida by a landslide on Tuesday, effectively shutting down Bernie Sanders’ chance to mount a comeback against the party establishment’s chosen candidate.

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration and Congress are planning on direct cash payments to every American to offset the economic effects of the coronavirus -- which progressives worry may be insufficient to stop the working class’s bleeding.

And lastly, a new report out of the United Kingdom has shocked world leaders by suggesting that the death toll and catastrophic effects of the virus could be much worse than scientists initially feared.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Tuesday night once again belonged to Joe Biden. The former Vice President won primary elections in Illinois, Florida, and Arizona, despite more chaos and the threat of contamination at the polls.

Biden’s surging victories mean the Sanders campaign has almost no route to winning the nomination. Biden won by double digits and sometimes much more in each of the three states that voted.

The election process, once again, was extremely messy. Voters reported long lines, polls not stocked with hand sanitizer and other vital virus-prevention tools, and even unopened precincts.

Ohio, for its part, did not hold a primary, instead postponing its election until June at the last minute in defiance of a court order. The DNC responded to this with characteristic grace, threatening that states which held their primaries after a June 9 cutoff would have their delegates slashed.

In short remarks as polls closed, Sanders sought to put the focus back on his priorities for the country. It seems like once again, Bernie will return to tilting at the Democratic party’s windmill, and hoping that he can use the rest of his time in the race to drag Biden toward the left however he can.

The new bipartisan tactic to offset the terrible effects of the coronavirus for U.S. workers is cold hard cash.

The Trump Administration and high-ranking members of both political parties in Congress put forward plans to deliver Americans immediate cash payments to account for missed wages during lockdowns, quarantines, and the economic recession that is sure to follow.

But while everyone agrees that the American people need some help, the devil as always lurks in the details. Mitt Romney’s plan, which Trump expressed support for, is to give every American an immediate $1,000 cash payment.

This, of course, would be just a band-aid compared to what American workers have lost.

As progressives noted early on, mainstream Democrats are actually at risk of being outflanked by the Republican plan if they insist on some kind of overly-complicated means-tested plan that only serves certain people, instead of just outbidding the Republican plan and ensuring that any direct relief is coupled with student loan and other debt forgiveness.

Fortunately, a group of Senators led by Cory Booker, Michael Bennett and Sherrod Brown put forward a plan to send every American $2,000, with no means-testing and additional payments later in the year. Bernie Sanders’ campaign put out an even more ambitious plan calling for $2000 payments every month.

Whatever Congress decides, they better do it fast. Brown’s state, Ohio, saw 11,995 unemployment claims on Sunday, and 36,645 on Monday. The Sunday before that, when bars and businesses were still open across the country, there were only 536.

The worst coronavirus news comes last, unfortunately. In a new report released to the public on Monday and shared with world leaders in the UK and U.S., researchers warn that the death toll from the coronavirus could reach the millions in the U.S., completely overwhelming healthcare systems many times over.

The report, conducted by researchers at the Imperial College of London, appears to be one of the factors that finally made the Trump White House start taking the virus seriously.

Its key finding is that extremely dreastic restrictions on work, schools and social gatherings may be necessary for up to 18 months, until a vaccine to the virus can be found.

Researchers warn that anything short of this could result the virus still spreading at rates that would overwhelm health care systems in any developed country in the world. The strict social restrictions were the only way to keep it within manageable levels, although the study noted that they could be relaxed for short periods at intervals and then reinstated if cases began to flare up again.

The study’s lead author, Dr. Niall Ferguson, told the New York Times quote: “We don’t have a clear exit strategy. We’re going to have to suppress this virus — frankly, indefinitely — until we have a vaccine.”

There’s no way around it -- this will likely mean long-standing changes to everyday life. But the core of the strategy for beating the disease is still social distancing and mitigating personal risk, steps which we have already begun. It just may last a lot longer than anyone hoped.

One point of light from a miserable night across America: Marie Newman, an outspoken progressive, beat anti-abortion incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski in the Democratic primary for Illinois’s Third congressional district. Newman’s victory is the first major win for progressive activist group Justice Democrats since Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s historic election in 2018.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

In news that should surprise no one, the Trump administration is using the current crisis to do even more fascism, conducting ICE raids in the LA area amidst coronavirus lockdowns, and taking steps to close down the southern border to migrants, citing fears of the virus, while simultaneously shutting down asylum hearings and immigration interviews.

New York’s Attorney General suspended all medical and student debt collection until April 16, a policy that will hopefully convince other states to enact similar relief for their constituents.

And finally, Senate Democrats introduced a new bill to repair the gaps in the House’s woefully incomplete paid leave legislation, which House Democrats made even weaker earlier Tuesday. We’ll see how the Senate’s bill fares on Mitch McConnell floor.

That’s it for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay safe and healthy out there

#AMQuickie: March 18, 2020

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:

Trump sets new guidelines for limiting the spread of the coronavirus, as local jurisdictions lock down even more.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine defies a court’s decision and orders polling places to close on Tuesday, postponing the state’s primary election for fears of spreading the virus.

And lastly, Congress prepares to fight over bailouts. Are they for needy Americans suffering under the strain of a pandemic? Nope, they’re for the cruise and casino industry.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

President Donald Trump finally appears to be taking the novel coronavirus pandemic seriously -- clearing the lowest possible bar we could set.

In a live press conference on Monday afternoon, Trump announced new federal guidelines for managing the spread of the disease. They include basically the same rules for social distancing we should all know by now: avoiding groups of more than 10 people, refraining from traveling whenever possible, and often closures of bars, restaurants and other public spaces.

The rules are not mandatory, however: instead, Trump is largely leaving that discretion up to local jurisdictions, which are responding with varied levels of strictness. Seven counties in the San Francisco Bay area have gone on full lockdown, instructing residents to quote “shelter in place” and avoid all non-essential trips outside of the home.

Trump claims a nationwide lockdown on the scale of Italy won’t happen in the U.S., but it’s hard to tell if that’s a good or a bad thing -- if it’s necessary to stop the spread of the virus, we don’t exactly want a president to refrain from making the call because it looks bad politically. It’s just another sign the guy in charge may not know what he’s doing.

In a conference call earlier, Trump also sprang a fast one on local governments: he told state governors that they should not wait for federal help for much-needed medical supplies like ventilators, and should instead quote “try getting it yourselves.” Very reassuring!

The Democratic primary election is, you guessed it, in chaos today. Four states were due to vote: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio. But Ohio’s Governor is convinced the public health risk is too much to hold a primary, and is instead trying to put off physical voting by any means necessary.

On Monday, Ohio Governor Mark DeWine announced that he would order polling stations across the state to be closed on Tuesday, in open defiance of a court order that said it was too late to delay the election, a step that states like Kentucky and Georgia have already taken for their upcoming primaries.

In a statement, DeWine said quote: "It is clear that tomorrows in person voting does not conform and cannot conform with these CDC guidelines. We cannot conduct this election tomorrow."

It’s a bit unclear what happens now: DeWine said that the Ohio Secretary of State would petition the courts to quote “extend voting options.” DeWine wants to move the primary voting deadline back to June, when he hopes that people will be able to safely go the polls.

DeWine is a Republican, but he’s absolutely got a point: there really isn’t a safe or responsible way to ensure that busy polling stations don’t contribute to the spread of the disease.

Election officials in Arizona, Florida and Illinois disagreed, however, issuing a statement that their primaries would go on and be conducted in accordance with CDC guidelines for sanitizing voting equipment and limiting exposure at polling stations.

What does this mean for Biden and Sanders, both of whom will be looking to pick up delegates tomorrow? It means it’s an absolute mess. Sanders’ national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray has been publicly supportive of limiting in-person voting in today’s primaries, but it’s unclear what the conflicting orders and fear of the virus will do to turnout for either candidate.

With the Arizona, Florida, and Illinois elections going on as planned, we’ll just have to wait till the results start to come in to see.

President Trump is considering bailing out some of the most vulnerable and vital people in America: casino owners, airline tycoons, and oil and gas executives. See, you thought we were going to say “service workers,” but nope. Not in this administration!

According to the New York Times, lobbyists from the gambling industry have joined their voices to those in the cruise ship, airline and oil industries in asking the government for emergency help due to lost business from the global pandemic.

Congress will take up the case this week, as assistance for these specific industries is expected in the next aid package, which could come to the floor today. The Trump admin has already helped bail out the oil and gas industry, and the luxury travel and gambling industries want in as well.

This is the next major test for Congressional Democrats, after they resoundingly failed to pass an adequate paid sick leave bill in the last package of aid, instead leaving in huge holes for major corporations to go on treating their employees like dirt.

Will Nancy Pelosi fight to have bailouts, tax breaks, rent freezes or eviction protections included for actually vulnerable people in the next package of aid? We’ll see, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The government of Spain nationalized all private hospitals in the country, adding them to its public healthcare network to unify its response to the coronavirus and treat as many people as possible. Nice that they have that option!

California Governor Gavin Newsom, in an executive order, waived portions of California laws around residential and commercial evictions, giving hurting businesses and people more time to recover from the coronavirus recession without fear of being put out on the street.

In one of the most surreal stories from the global pandemic, a house full of reality TV contestants on Germany’s Big Brother have been insulated from the outside world for nearly the entire duration of the crisis, and have no idea of its extent. The producers plan to tell the cast in a live-aired episode on Tuesday night.

A court in Ohio ordered the release of hundreds of at-risk prisoners from county jail this weekend, in a move the ACLU said should be considered around the country, as prison populations are particularly vulnerable to the spreading coronavirus. The ACLU is also suing a Seattle-area ICE center for the release of vulnerable detainees.

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show this afternoon, and stay healthy and inside if you can!

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The rapid spread of the coronavirus across the U.S. makes Social Distancing a necessity -- and in many places, that means some pretty major changes to daily life.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faced off in their first one-on-one debate, clashing over their voting records on Social Security and multiple other issues, while CNN’s moderators did little to referee the fight.

And lastly, Nancy Pelosi’s paid sick leave bill, passed in a rush as part of a coronavirus aid package, covers only 20 percent of American workers, leaving gaping holes in the most vulnerable sections of the economy. Typical.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The coronavirus’s rapid spread through the United States provoked some widespread and drastic measures this weekend. In major metropolitan areas, bars and restaurants cut their attendance or closed outright, often by order of their local governments.

In New York City, which has seen over 300 confirmed cases and 5 deaths, all restaurants and bars will be forced to operate via delivery only starting Tuesday. For most of the country, this may become a benchmark, and for good reason.

Closing public spaces won’t be fun, but it will help with something public health experts call “social distancing.” The term may sound overly academic, but what it really means is staying the hell away from other people as much as possible.

You don’t have to live in constant fear, but what you should do is limit your social interactions as much as possible and spend as much time as you can at home.

The idea is to try to “flatten the curve,” or spread out the spike in new cases of the virus to an extent that they don’t overwhelm our already-precarious healthcare system.

The cautionary tale here is Italy, which saw its country’s fortunes turn in a flash as it went from isolated hot spots of cases to a full country lockdown in less than two weeks.

We might not have gotten to this point had the U.S. instituted robust testing measures and established proper quarantine policies early on into the outbreak. But instead, the Trump Administration waffled around until it was too late, and now we all have to pay the price -- especially the millions of service workers who will feel the economic impact of the social shutdown right away.

And of course, it’s not those workers who will get a bailout -- Trump’s more concerned about the cruise ship bosses and airline CEOs.

So when this crisis is all over, make sure to splurge on the tip.

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden went head to head for the first time on Sunday night with nobody, except a typically feckless CNN moderating team on stage to separate them.

The two candidates went at it from opposite ends of a small stage in CNN’s DC studio, with no live audience to mitigate possible exposure to the coronavirus.

The sharpest exchange of the night came over Social Security, as Sanders hammered Biden on his voting record on Social Security.

Biden floundered, and on several occasions outright lied about his support for the bankruptcy bill that left Americans drowning in medical debt, and on his past comments on cutting social security and other entitlements.

Bernie, delivering a luddite’s killing blow, implored the Amercian people to quote “go on the You Tube” and look up Biden’s past comments on the Senate floor.

It’s true! You can find all sorts of good things on the You Tube, including many, many instances of Joe Biden voting against the American working class. You can also find the Majority Report with Sam Seder. What a world.

Nancy Pelosi this weekend passed an expansive coronavirus relief package through the House, which included a paid sick leave bill that would ensure workers who fall sick have at least some time to recover from work. The only problem? The bill only covers a fraction of the actual workforce.

Pelosi celebrated the bill, even though any reasonable labor leader would consider it a massive failure.

The bill covers only 20 percent of the workforce, and the biggest corporations running aren’t beholden to it. Companies with more than 500 workers are exempt, and companies with fewer than 50 employees can apply for hardship exemptions from the Trump administration.

Why was it written that way? Well, because Republicans asked for it. In return for bipartisan support, House Republicans insisted on the exemptions, knowing that they could keep their corporate overlords happy and keep flogging the “small business” rhetoric they use every day.

And Pelosi fell for it, hook line and sinker, declining to use her majority in the House to push for anything more radical.

The Senate will take up the legislation today, so stay tuned to see if any Democrat in that body decides to stand up to the Republican’s crisis capitalism.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The New York Times reports that Donald Trump may be using the frantic coronavirus news cycle to slip in a pardon to disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Exploiting a crisis for open cronyism? So unlike him.

The man who bought almost 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer with the plan to sell them at marked-up prices online donated his entire stash on Sunday, right after the Tennessee Attorney General began investigating him for price gouging.

Donald Trump’s chaotic European travel ban caused massive lines, crowds, and delays at U.S. international airports as tourists and ex-pats rushed to get home in uncertain times, creating a fertile breeding ground for the virus.

Youth activists with the climate strike movement are keeping the momentum going online, swapping out street protests for online social media campaigns from home. With widespread school closures around the world, they’ve got a whole lot more bored teenagers to draw on, and that could be pretty formidable.

The Trump administration allegedly tried to persuade a German biotech firm working on a coronavirus vaccine to move its work to the U.S.. According to one anonymous source, the company was offered a quote “large sum” endquote of money to make sure the U.S. got the vaccine first. Sound like Trump to you? Yep.

I’m Sam Seder, and that’s all for the AM Quickie today. Check back in this afternoon for the full Majority Report.

#AMQuickie March 16, 2020

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn