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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The United States recorded 1,000 deaths in a single day for the first time this month, right as expanded unemployment benefits are about to expire, and Trump admits that the virus will get quote “worse before it gets better.”

Meanwhile, a Republican Representative from Florida fully lost it at Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, calling her a quote ​“fucking bitch,” after an argument over poverty and crime rates on the Capitol steps.

And lastly, Twitter announced late on Tuesday evening that it would be cracking down on QAnon conspiracy accounts on its service. You know what they say -- better 3 years late than never!

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The U.S. logged 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a day for the first time in July on Tuesday.

That’s a long way from the peak of the New York City epidemic, which pushed the country to a staggering 2,752 deaths in a day, but now the increasing wave of death is nationwide, not confined to a few hot spots.

The rising death toll and sinking poll numbers prompted a slightly different press conference from Trump today, where he admitted that quote: “It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better,” endquote.

He also urged everyone to get a mask. Clearly, someone has realized that if he continued his current path of denial and disruption there’s no way he stands a chance in November.

But though credulous commentators claimed once again that Trump was taking on a new, more somber tone, he had just been ranting on Twitter about the China virus, Michael Flynn, and mail-in voting. They may have calmed him down for one presser, but don’t be fooled by the new act.

All of this is happening as the American working class is about to get slammed. The expanded unemployment benefits passed as part of the coronavirus relief package are set to expire at the

end of July, just over a week away. According to the New York Times, that means more than 20 million Americans could see their weekly income fall by half, or more.

GOPer Flips Out on AOC

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez weathered a shockingly blatant and vulgar attack from a colleague on Tuesday, after Republican Ted Yoho accosted her on the Capitol building’s steps.

Yoho, in typical GOP fashion, took issue with AOC’s accurate analysis that systemic causes like poverty and unemployment might be driving a rising crime wave in New York City. According to the Hill, which first reported the exchange, Yoho told AOC she was quote “disgusting,” and then said quote “You are out of your freaking mind,” endquote.

AOC told him he was being rude, and the two parted ways. But as Yoho was walking away, the Hill reports that he said quote “fucking bitch.” The epithet wasn’t said directly to AOC, but it’s pretty clear who it was describing. Yoho is now trying to spin the thing, of course, with a spokesperson saying that he used a “barnyard epithet” to describe her policies, not her. Sure man, that’s what you meant.

The confrontation is shocking in its sexism, of course, but even outside the context of a spat between two professional politicians it’s telling. If correctly analyzing the systemic roots of crime gets Republicans so riled up, it’s pretty clear that their party has zero desire to change things for the people that crime actually affects.

Instead, like every other problem, their solution is to throw more cops at it. For the past two months, we’ve been seeing in real time how that goes.

Twitter Bans QAnon Posters

In news that we should have gotten years ago, Twitter finally decided to do something about the rampant abuse of its platform by QAnon conspiracy cultists.

On Tuesday night, the platform banned 7,000 QAnon accounts and restricted 150,000 others, according to NBC News.

Most of the outright bans came down on accounts that had violated Twitter’s harassment policies, or their policies against using multiple accounts to evade suspensions.

The big step is that the platform will stop recommending QAnon accounts to users who follow similar accounts. That’s a big step in stopping these accounts from spreading to users and limiting the reach of the conspiracy, and it’s frankly shocking it’s taken Twitter this long to do it.

But hey, QAnon has only been around since 2017, so it’s only had almost three years to spread unchecked around the internet. Better late than never, I guess.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Justice Department accused two Chinese hackers of trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research data on behalf of their government. The DOJ’s complaint notes that this is part of a years-long effort to steal U.S. technology, but there’s no question that the story fits very conveniently into the Trump administration’s efforts to scapegoat China for our own country’s terrible pandemic.

Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder and four of his close associates and colleagues were arrested on Tuesday after a bribery investigation involving a $1 billion nuclear bailout plan and dark money payments to a shell company set up by the Speaker.

Ilhan Omar’s primary challenger, Antone Melton-Meaux, has some extremely weird spending habits, namely that nearly 65 percent of his campaign spending has gone to three strange, anonymous companies. That means it’s very difficult to tell who’s actually being paid by the campaign, as the anonymous companies could be paying out to basically anyone.

And lastly, the Trump administration is still attempting to use the 2020 Census to crack down on immigrants and undocumented people, by introducing a provision that would mean undocumented people are not counted.

July 22, 2020 - AM Quickie

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 search for a coronavirus vaccine yielded some promising results on Monday, as the vaccine developed by Oxford University researchers successfully and safely provoked an immune response in several studies.

Meanwhile, two women file a dire lawsuit against Fox News, accusing recently fired host Ed Henry of rape, and accusing both Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson of sexual harassment.

And lastly, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez introduces legislation to force federal cops to identify themselves, as a response to Portland’s semi-anonymous arrest squads.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

We are still a long way from a usable coronavirus vaccine, but researchers at Oxford University took a pretty significant step on Monday.

They claim that they’ve got a safe vaccine that can produce an immune response, based on the results of several studies. An immune response is the thing people are looking for that could mean that a vaccine can actually prevent people from being infected.

They’ve got to do a lot more testing to nail it down though -- the scientists noted that they need far wider studies to confirm the early findings and figure out if the vaccine can actually stop new infections. In the limited study, the vaccine produced an antibody response within 28 days and a T-cell response within 14 days. Most patients looked like they could fight off the virus after one dose, but researchers are recommending a two-shot treatment just in case.

The drug company AstraZeneca, who’s making this vaccine, says it can produce up to 2 billion doses. Multiple countries have already signed on to take whatever they can make if it works.

In the U.S., new outbreaks have gotten so bad that Congress is mulling another stimulus package and Trump has finally embraced wearing a mask.

The Oxford vaccine isn’t the only remedy under development, which is good because at this point we’ll need everything we can get.

Fox Anchors Face Sexual Assault Allegations

A new lawsuit levels some incredibly serious allegations against Fox News’ biggest personalities.

In a new civil suit filed in New York on Monday, Jennifer Eckhart, a former associate producer at Fox Business, accused recently-fired anchor Ed Henry of rape and a litany of other sexual crimes.

Meanwhile, her co-plaintiff, Cathy Areu, a regular guest on the network, filed a sexual harassment claim against Henry, as well as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Howard Kurtz.

Fox has clearly been trying to do damage control on this for weeks. The network conducted an independent investigation of Henry and fired him. And today, Salon reported that the network knew of the allegations against Carlson four days before his allegedly “pre-planned” vacation that also coincided with one of his staff members being outed as a white supremacist.

Eckhart’s allegations against Henry are shocking and graphic, detailing a horrific period of abuse and coercion. The lawsuit claims that the network knew about many of these offenses as far back as 2017, but continued to promote Henry.

Areu claims she was humiliated publicly by Hannity in front of his crew, propositioned by Carlson, and frozen out of a career at the network when she refused to sleep with anchors and executives. It’s pretty clear that the moral rot at Fox goes far beyond it’s on-air content, and didn’t stop with Roger Ailes.

AOC Cracks Down on Anonymous Feds

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Washington, D.C., Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton plan to introduce legislation this week to force federal law enforcement agents to clearly identify themselves.

The Nation got their hands on a draft of the bill, which is a direct response to the aggressive, dystopian strategy by federal officers in Portland, Oregon over the past few days. Federal agents have been involved in escalating violence against Portland’s protesters for weeks, but things came to a head last week when Customs and Border Patrol agents started throwing protesters in unmarked rental cars and detaining them with no clear reasoning.

AOC’s bill would require on-duty federal agents to display their last name, the name of their agency, and their personal identification number. All things that should be no-brainers, but somehow aren’t yet.

The bill can’t pass soon enough, because it looks like the Trump administration’s designated federal force won’t stop at Portland. On Monday, the Chicago Tribune reported that more agents are poised to deploy to Chicago, and Trump himself said he may send forces to Detroit, New

York, Philadelphia and other major cities controlled by Democrats. This is all an intimidation tactic, but as yet, it’s unclear if the leaders of these cities can do anything to stop it. Portland officials reportedly asked the DHS to please get off their streets, and acting secretary Chad Wolf flatly refused. Who knows if any other city’s leadership will put up more of a fight?

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The St. Louis couple who waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside of their mega-mansion have been charged with unlawful use of a weapon, a class E felony, according to the area’s circuit attorney.

Florida’s largest teachers union is suing Governor Ron De Santis and members of his administration to overturn a sweeping emergency order that would require the state’s schools to open up for in-person classes five days a week in the fall.

Keep an eye on big oil over the next few days: Chevron is buying Noble Energy for $5 billion, which experts think may be the first domino in a wave of industry consolidation as the pandemic takes a heavy toll on big companies.

A new AP report suggests that John Kasich, the Republican former governor of Ohio, is expected to speak in support of Joe Biden at the DNC, which probably says all you need to know about the constituency Biden is trying to build.

That’s all for the AM Quickie today. Before we go, we’d like to talk about the rest of the Majority Report this afternoon. Yesterday we lost Michael Brooks to a sudden medical condition. All of us are devastated, and we’re going to spend the show this afternoon talking about what he meant to us, and about his constant desire to show people that the world could be a better place. We’ll see you then.

July 21, 2020 - AM Quickie

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 ACLU filed suit against the Trump administration on Friday over its allegedly unconstitutional use of federal stormtroopers to curb protests in Portland, Oregon -- action which continued unabated over the weekend.

Meanwhile, congress ponders a new stimulus bill, and lobbyists and special interest groups are already scheming to get in on the new wave of cash.

And lastly, Trump came a little unglued during his Sunday media appearances, spouting lie after lie until even the Fox News anchor questioning him had to call him out. Spiraling poll numbers and nationwide outrage seem to be getting to the big guy.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Feds were hard at work in Portland this weekend, clashing with protesters again and again on the streets and hauling more people into unmarked vans. Trump’s personal secret police, made up of federal agents from Customs and Border Protection’s specialized BORTAC teams, U.S. Marshals, and others all reinforced the already out-of-control Portland Police and have been running amok all across the city.

The Feds in particular have been so out of line that the ACLU of Oregon filed suit against the Trump administration. The ACLU says its first suit is one of many, which is a good thing as it’s pretty limited: it only aims to block federal agents from using force on journalists and legal observers. Obviously, the protesters are taking the brunt of Trump’s secret police violence.

If you’re wondering just how absurd the feds’ actions have been, a DHS memo obtained by the New York Times notes that the BORTAC goons weren’t even trained in riot control or responding to mass demonstrations. Of course, proper training may have just given them more tools to beat protesters up, but as it stands it sure looks like Trump released DHS’s tactical units onto the streets with far more violence than planning.

Portland officials including Mayor Ted Wheeler have called for the feds to stay away, but police leadership seems more than happy to have them there.

On Saturday night, however, protesters did carry out a pretty significant action: they burned the headquarters for the Portland Police Association, the union that represents most of the city’s cops. Despite local officials wishes, the Feds don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon

-- although their presence appears to be backfiring. Since they started rounding people up, the size of the protests has swelled, with more and more people hitting the streets.

Corporate Vultures Eye New Relief Bill

It’s a tale as old as time, or at least as old as the current crisis. Congress is currently mulling another coronavirus relief package, of indeterminate size. The House wants $3 trillion, the Senate wants about $1 trillion. And as soon as those numbers started floating around, the vultures started circling.

The New York Times reports that big industries and special interests are all lobbying fiercely for a piece of the pie. Some of these groups, like Broadway actors, probably deserve a bailout, but others -- like the giant airline corporations and military contractors, are all just trying to milk as much slush money from the Trump administration as possible, and they’ve got the suits in DC to do it.

This isn’t a new story, if you remember: most of the aid packages passed by Congress so far have been utterly pillaged by special interest groups and big businesses that made off with the majority of the cash.

The Times reports that most of the lobbyists are focusing on the Senate, figuring the GOP-controlled house is where they’ll be able to slip in the favorable provisions they want. What’s important is looking for what the groups are fighting for: the Broadway actors, for instance, are lobbying for an expansion to unemployment insurance to include people like them with unconventional jobs.

But now take the airlines, for instance, who are effectively holding their own employees hostage and forcing them to help lobby for them, saying that their jobs could go away unless their industry gets a bailout. Business as usual for the CEOs, in other words.

Trump Melts Down on Fox News

Donald Trump got pushback from an unlikely source on Sunday, lying so much that even Fox News was forced to check his facts on live air.

Trump went on a ludicrous lying spree about his response to the coronavirus in an interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace, which the network teased on Friday. In it, Trump insists that the U.S. had quote “one of the lowest fatality rates in the world” endquote from coronavirus. In reality, we have third worst mortality rate.

The lie was so bad Wallace had to insist quote “That’s not true, sir.” endquote. Trump clearly did not expect someone on his personal propaganda network to suggest he was utterly full of crap, and the interview was noticeably tense. Wallace also didn’t let Trump get away with saying that

Joe Biden wants to defund the police -- because he doesn’t, which prompted the President to insist that his staff bring him highlights of a charter Biden worked on with Bernie Sanders about police reform.

Wallace, to his sort-of-credit, is one of Fox’s few token actual journalists who largely provide cover for the rest of the network’s propaganda.

Case in point: when confronted by his sinking poll numbers in a Fox News poll, Trump had this to say quote: “I’m not losing, because those are fake polls.” Endquote. For his most loyal fans, that’s probably all he’s gotta say.

The question now is what that means for the general transfer of power if Trump loses. In the same interview, he refused to say whether or not he’d accept the results of an election he loses, adding that he thinks mail-in voting is going to rig the results. Right now it’s all lies and bluster, but come November, who knows?

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Roger Stone wasted no time after having his sentence commuted by his buddy the president, and promptly went right back to his old ways. By that we mean referring to his interviewer, a black man, by a racial slur while appearing on a radio show. Did we mention this is a guy the president let out of jail?

Marco Rubio made a classically Marco Rubio mistake on Saturday in his haste to pretend he’s not a racist GOP stooge. Rubio tweeted a picture memorializing the late Representative and Civil Rights icon John Lewis. Except it wasn’t a picture of Lewis -- it was a photo of Rubio and another late black politician, Rep. Elijah Cummings. And he wasn’t the only one -- Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska made the same error. Telling on yourselves a little there guys.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which comprises 90 members of the House of Representatives, announced that it would formally oppose the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the Pentagon’s massive budget, unless the military agreed to eliminate wasteful spending. Leaders proposed an amendment that would cut the $740 billion budget by at least 10 percent.

And finally, according to a new report by the New York Times, professional internet troll and sometimes-entrepreneur Elon Musk talked about starting a new media publication with coronavirus contrarian Alex Berenson, one of the leading voices on the lunatic “this isn’t a big deal” fringe. We’ll be giving that one a miss!

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show with Sam this afternoon.

July 20, 2020 - AM Quickie

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:

Elected officials in Oregon say Donald Trump has sent armed forces to invade their state as a reelection stunt because he wants to look tough. Activists on the street share details of their kidnapping by federal forces without insignia who drive unmarked vans.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden comes nearer to closing his fundraising gap with Trump, who is still the star of a reality show in his mind. His latest campaign shakeup got highly dramatic, as if the real world that the rest of us live in wasn’t exciting enough.

And lastly: Barcelona cracks down on landlords who leave their properties vacant in the middle of a housing crisis. If they don’t find tenants, the city takes over the property – simple.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Did Donald Trump just invade an American city? A sitting governor and a US Senator seem to think so, along with a whole lot of residents. We told you yesterday about apparent federal forces snatching people off the street and throwing them into unmarked vans. Today we have more details thanks to the local press in Portland, Oregon, which Trump has made the showcase of his supposed law and order reelection campaign – though it looks more like a campaign of state terror by any old right-wing dictatorship. A victim of one of those federal abductions told Oregon Public Broadcasting that after being thrown in a van he was detained for several hours, blindfolded by his own hat. Only later did the kidnapping victim learn he was inside a federal courthouse. No explanation was given. He thinks he was detained for wearing black while walking near protests downtown.

Acting Department of Homeland Security secretary Wolf was in Portland yesterday to observe or oversee the assaults on protesters. Wolf published a raving, error-riddled statement in the afternoon blaming local leaders for letting a violent mob of anarchists run rampant. Again, it is police who are out of control. Wolf said vandalism at a courthouse was an attack on America. If America is under attack, it is by Trump and his goons. Federal officers shot a protester in the head this week and fractured his skull. Local elected leaders have not asked for their help, and outright told them to leave the city. In a characteristically weak statement, Portland Mayor

Ted Wheeler said he wished the feds weren’t there. Others were more forthright. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said Trump and Wolf are QUOTE weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with right-wing media ENDQUOTE. Senator Jeff Merkley said Wolf should leave the city rather than inflame the situation. Governor Kate Brown said Wolf was on mission to provoke confrontation. And former Portland Democratic Socialists of America Chair, the novelist Cari Luna said as follows: QUOTE Hey, America! The feds are here in Portland, grabbing folks off the streets and throwing them into unmarked vans! It’s real. It’s happening. Your city is next. What are you going to do about that? ENDQUOTE. Zakir Kahn, the board chair of the Oregon Council on American-Islamic Relations, said plainly that the Trump administration is attempting to take over Portland. And that about sums it up.

Biden's Fundraising Is Up

Joe Biden had another quarter of increased fundraising, according to new campaign finance filings reported by the New York Times. From one point of view, the extra fundraising is a mark of improvement in the Biden campaign. From another, it’s a sign of increased influence on the presumptive Democratic nominee by powerful monied interests that are arrayed against positive change.

Trump still leads Biden in fundraising with $295 million now in the bank. But Biden has come a lot closer to closing the gap. Biden reported $242 million cash on hand at the beginning of this month. He started April with only $60 million. Biden’s biggest donors included powerful financiers, Silicon Valley billionaires, and Hollywood producers.

Despite Trump’s cash advantage over Biden, the his reelection campaign has been a shambles. This week he replaced his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, with another adviser, Bill Stepien. According to Politico, Trump orchestrated a dramatic pass the torch ceremony, described by two attendees as an emotional affair. It sounds like Trump thinks he’s still doing The Apprentice, as thousands die every day from coronavirus and his armed agents run amok in the cities.

Barcelona Expropriates Lazy Landlords

The city of Barcelona, Spain, is warning big landlords that they need to fill vacant units or else their property will be annexed and put to productive use. According to Bloomberg News: the city’s housing department wrote to 14 companies that collectively own 194 empty apartments, warning that if they haven’t found a tenant within the next month, the city could take possession of these properties, with compensation at half their market value.

Once the city owns the empty properties, it plans to rent them out to lower-income tenants as public housing. In addition to forced sale below market value, landlords with vacant properties could face fines of up between one hundred thousand and one million dollars.

Many of the vacant properties are owned by the successors to speculators who went bust in 2007. City housing commissioner Lucia Martín told a Spanish newspaper QUOTE We are not here to expropriate. What we want is for apartments to be rented ENDQUOTE. Seems reasonable enough. Why not here?

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Former Trump adviser and longtime Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone appeared on Alex Jones’ Infowars yesterday to sign what he said were official documents from the White House commuting his sentence. Media Matters said Stone thanked several right-wing media figures including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. So all those guys are happy.

Morgues are filling up in Texas and Arizona, so officials are turning to refridgerated trucks to store the bodies of pandemic victims. The chief medical officer of one health system in San Antonio told reporters that there are only so many places inside a hospital to put corpses. Funeral homes are also out of space, according to Ars Technica.

The Polish opposition is challenging election results that showed a narrow victory for the incumbent right-wing president, Andrzej (AND-RAY) Duda. The formal protest to the Polish supreme court reportedly seeks to delay the certification of the election long enough for it to be declared invalid. According to the New York Times, the opposition cites longstanding problems with election integrity.

A longtime incumbent Brooklyn assemblyman, Felix Ortiz, lost reelection to a young candidate endorsed by the DSA, the Working Families Party, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ortiz represented the fifty-first district, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, since 1994. He lost to Mitaynes, who migrated to the US from Peru as a child, and works as a tenant organizer.

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

July 17, 2020 - AM Quickie

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:

Federal forces deploy in Democratic cities across the United States, as Donald Trump says parts of America look like a war zone. That would be his fault.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases continue to rise as more state and local authorities -- and even large corporate chains – require masks. But new federal reporting rules for hospitals are said to actively harm pandemic response efforts.

And lastly: Twitter faces the worst hack in its history. For a brief while, the bots and the unverified Berniebros built a utopia free of the navel-gazing media controversies du jour.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

A disturbing online video showed men in green camoflauge tactical uniforms grabbing a person off the street in Portland, Oregon, and taking them away in an unmarked minivan with Florida plates. The uniformed men did not respond to shouted comments and questions from witnesses on the street. Portland’s mayor this week asked federal agents to stay inside their offices or leave the city, after armed feds severely injured a protester by shooting him in the head. Separately, the New York Times reported that the Border Patrol, acting on Trump’s orders, deployed tactical agents to select sanctuary cities. Those cities included New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit and Newark, New Jersey. The deployment includes units from BORTAC, described as essentially the Border Patrol’s SWAT team. They receive Special Forces-type training and were intended to capture the most dangerous criminals. Now, apparently, they are operating among the general public. Trump appeared from the White House with Attorney General Bill Barr yesterday. The president described some American cities as warzones and said he was deploying federal forces to quell violence because liberal, left-wing Democrats could not. Clearly he and his forces are causing the violence.

A new review by the Times of recent NYPD use of force cases conclusively proved that the police made brutal and completely unwarranted attacks on protesters. And, an analysis by The Intercept of leaked police information showed that whatever Trump, Barr, or anyone in

power says, police at all levels know that right-wing extremists, not anti-fascists, are the real pressing violent threat. The NYPD arrested thirty-seven people on the Brooklyn bridge yesterday. Prosecutors in Kentucky charged eighty-seven people with felonies after a peaceful sit-in on the state attorney general’s lawn. We are getting a taste of Trump’s so- called law and order. It’s foul.

Federal Rules Impede Hospitals

More jurisdictions, including Alabama and Montana, are instituting mandatory mask orders as coronavirus cases continue to rise in at least forty-one states. Businesses, too, are filling in the gap in public health policy. That gap was left by Donald Trump when he decided the federal government would do absolutely nothing helpful in regards to this pandemic. Walmart will require masks for all shoppers in all its stores across the country.

New federal reporting rules route COVID-19 through political middlemen before it is delvered from the Health and Human Services Administration to the Centers for Disease Control. Hospital officials told the Washington Post that this additional bureucratic step could impede the distribution of critical medicines.

Virginia became the first state to institute workplace safety rules in response to the pandemic. According to the Post, an emergency temporary standard adopted by the state health codes board requires businesses to implement safety measures to protect people from catching the coronavirus at work. Violators could face fines of over $100,000.

Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, became the first state leader to report a positive test result for COVID-19. And Brazil’s fascist ruler Jair Bolsonaro was said to test positive for coronavirus for at least the second time.

Twitter Hacked Big Time

Some called it the Twitter Rapture. Users of the social media service were spared from seeing new messages by verified accounts for several hours, as company engineers struggled to get a handle on a major cyber attack. Verified accounts with millions of followers, including Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos were compromised. At least some of the hacked accounts posted links to a Bitcoin scam. Security experts with the BBC said the fact that so many top accounts were hacked at once suggested the social media platform was compromised at the highest level. Vice News reported that Twitter was removing images of a purported administrator panel for the website, a software feature that may have been related to how the verified accounts got hacked. The Verge, a tech news site, called it the most catastrophic security breach in company history.

But for a time, Twitter users enjoyed an absence of almost all discussion about the Harper’s Letter (or Letters), the New York Times Opinion section, Hamilton, and other obsessions of elite mainstream journalists. Hopefully nobody lost any money buying crypto-currencies.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is back home after being discharged from the hospital, the court said. She had to have a blockage from a bile duct stent that doctors fitted her with during a previous hospital stay.

After agreeing to settle a lawsuit brought by advocates for the homeless, California’s Transportation Department will have to reimburse people whose belongings were taken or destroyed by work crews. The class-action lawsuit was filed in 2016 but covers a period of time between 2014 and 2019 when the department chose to deprive homeless people of their only belongings. Payouts will range from $200 to $5,500. It’s not enough for what these people have endured thanks to our miserly and cruel society.

NPR News reports that at least four states have agreed to share drivers license and other identifying information to the Trump administration. Trump officials want to figure out the citizenship status of every adult living in the country. The states that are cooperating are Iowa, South Carolina, South Dakota, Nebraska. We will keep you posted if more are confirmed.

Sebastian Gorka is back in federal office after Trump named him to the National Security Education Board. Gorka, currently a failing talk show host, is most famous for wearing the pin of a definitely not-Communist European militia. But this is the proper occassion to recall that he submitted a PhD dissertation that was widely mocked by his professional peers in the field of national security education. Congratulations, Doctor Gorka!

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

July 16, 2020 - AM Quickie

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 White House may be ready to reauthorize enhanced unemployment benefits during the pandemic. It may be a reprieve, but it’s a long way from economic justice.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden launches an ambitious new climate plan. Is this the influence of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party?

And lastly, another policy walk-back from Donald Trump’s White House. International students may not get deported during the pandemic after all.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

More than thirty million Americans are claiming unemployment benefits. Those benefits are the only things preventing them from going hungry or homeless. The benefits effectively filled a $70 billion hole in the economy created by the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the financial sector panic. And they’re scheduled to run out in two weeks, along with the special federal program that permits a six-hundred-dollar-per-week increase to those benefits on account of the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans from Donald Trump on down have complained about those benefits, saying they discourage people from returning to work. As though work itself weren’t a discouragement from returning to work – let’s be real. But now, according to the Washington Post, there are signs that the White House may be willing to extend the benefit.

Some Republicans favor a compromise that would involve cutting the six-hundred dollar weekly benefit to somewhere between two and four hundred dollars. Then they’d send another round of twelve hundred dollar stimulus checks – presumably signed by Trump, as with the last batch. But Congressional Republicans haven’t reached agreement among themselves what their position should be during the worst economic crisis in generations. They don’t have a lot of time to figure it out, either. The enhanced unemployment benefit expires in forty-nine states on July 25, and in New York state on July 26. And the Senate session resumes on next Monday, July 20. Clock’s a tickin’! If the benefits don’t come through then take our advice: invest in pitchforks and torches.

Biden's Climate Plan Praised

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders put out a video statement yesterday calling on progressives to think and act strategically in the months ahead. Sanders, who remains on the ballot in most states, said that he understood that many of his supporters have differences with the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden. However, Sanders said, his supporters who went on to advise Biden’s team after Sanders suspended his campaign did succeed in pushing Biden to adopt better policies. As if to supply the evidence, Biden yesterday announced a $2 trillion climate plan that went far beyond what he had previously proposed on energy or the environment.

The plan calls for substantial spending on upgrading buildings, vehicles, and electrical plants, over four years. Additionally, the Biden climate proposal calls for the US to be using one- hundred percent renewable energy within fifteen years. Biden said, When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is hoax. When I think about climate change, the word I think of is jobs. Also among those praising Biden’s proposal was Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, who said, it was not a status quo plan. According to the New York Times, the plan also calls for establishing an office of environmental and climate justice at the Justice Department, to address the country’s long record of dumping pollution on and around communities of color.

Reprieve For international Students

In Australia, international students are reportedly turning to food banks and getting by on one meal per day, the Guardian reported. As temporary visa holders, they are not covered by government benefit programs during the pandemic. But there was good news for thousands of international students in the US yesterday. The Trump administration is backing away from a policy announced last week that would have forced foreign students to leave the country if their universities moved classes online in the fall. Two days after the policy was announced, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the government to stop the policy, soon joined companies that rely on a pipeline of educated workers. A separate lawsuit including seventeen states and hundreds of universities was also filed.

The Trump policy was so ill-considered that the US Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed to rescind it five minutes into the first court hearing on Harvard and MIT’s lawsuit. That’s according to the Verge, which also reported that ICE will revert to the policy it adopted for this past spring semester. That is, students on temporary visas whose classes have moved online will be allowed to remain in the US.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The eighty-seven-year-old liberal US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital yesterday, according to the Associated Press. Apparently she has an unspecified infection. A statement from the Court says Ginsburg is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment.

Ghislaine Maxwell, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan yesterday to charges of abetting serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. US District Judge Alison Nathan also denied Maxwell’s request for bail, agreeing with prosecutors that she might try to flee and go back into hiding. This week the Mail on Sunday, a British tabloid, reported that Maxwell was being moved from cell to cell to avoid potential assassins.

New research published in the journal Nature Communications blames car tires for microplastic pollution that is chocking the world’s oceans. More than half a million tons of particles smaller than one-tenth of a millimeter fall onto roads from car tires and brakes. Those particles then get blown around by the wind. Roughly half make their way to the oceans. They also contaminate the food supply, yum yum.

An unnamed European rich person purchased a private island off the south coast of Ireland for eight point five million dollars, and never once set foot on it. The wealthy buyer relied on online video to make their decision. That’s according to the Guardian, which says the island comes with seven houses, a pier, a tennis court, and a helipad. And no guillotines.

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

July 15, 2020 - AM Quickie

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 study finds that 5.4 million Americans have lost their employer-provided health insurance as the pandemic sweeps through the country.

Meanwhile, a federal court struck down Georgia’s puritanical 6-week abortion ban, ruling that the law preventing abortions anytime after the first 6 weeks of pregnancy was unconstitutional.

And lastly, Rep. Joaquin Castro is making a big move toward a key committee chair seat, as pressure mounts for Nancy Pelosi to nominate someone more progressive to the warhawk Democrat Eliott Engel’s seat at the top of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The fact that healthcare is tied to full time employment is an almost uniquely American disgrace, and one that continues to harm everyday people at shocking rates.

Case in point, a distressing new study shows that 5.4 million Americans have lost their employer-provided health insurance over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. The study comes out today, but some news organizations got an early look at the data, which tells a brutal story: the jump in uninsured workers is 40 percent higher than it was in the 2008 recession.

And bear in mind, we’re nowhere near the end of the recession caused by the virus. Just today, the U.S. recorded its second highest ever day of new cases, logging more than 61,000 cases of the virus.

The new wave is so bad that many states are starting to shut back down again. Amidst a frankly insane debate about re-opening schools, some states have realized they may need to enact full lockdowns again to keep people safe. But those measures are sure to be inconsistently applied, and all of this makes the economic fallout even worse.

All of this is going to continue leaving more people uninsured, evicted, homeless, or unemployed. Joe Biden is campaigning on extending the Affordable Care Act, which provides opportunities for some people to get some modicum of care, but falls far short of universal healthcare. The hope is that at some point, elected officials will wake up to the fact that an employer-tied system is no longer feasible, and we’ll get some long-awaited change.

Courts Shoot Down Abortion Laws

Abortion rights activists and human beings in general scored a couple of huge court wins on Monday, as a federal district court shot down a draconian Georgia law that restricted abortions to only being performed in the first six weeks of pregnancy.

Almost simultaneously, a separate federal court in Tennessee blocked similar sweeping abortion restrictions just hours before Republican Governor Bill Lee would have signed them into law.

Both decisions are huge wins. Georgia’s decision is the final word, as well: the state is permanently blocked from enforcing the law, not just temporarily prevented from doing it. However, the case will now move up in the court system, so there’s a chance it could get overturned, but the district court was pretty explicit: the law, known as a “heartbeat bill,” was unconstitutional.

As the Huffington Post noted, many of these puritanical laws are part of an organized campaign by religious conservatives to erode the landmark Roe V Wade Supreme Court decision with constant legislation that they know will go to court battles.

These bills inevitably affect already-persecuted communities first: Georgia has the worst maternal mortality rate in the country, and in the state black women are 3.3 times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications than white women.

So far, the courts seem to be tossing out harmful laws that would worsen these circumstances, but it’s going to take a lot more concerted action to protect a woman’s right to choose.

Castro Hunts for House Committee Chair

The House of Representatives’ many, many committees don’t usually get a ton of attention in everyday politics, but they wield tremendous power over how the country is run. According to the Washington Post, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro is expected to throw his hat in the ring for one of the most powerful on Monday.

In late June, Jamaal Bowman unseated Eliot Engel, a bajillion-term congressman who has spent his last term at the top of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, an extremely powerful body inside the House. That means Engel’s chair will be open assuming the Democrats hold the House in 2020, and Castro represents the more progressive wing of the party’s best shot at keeping another warhawk out of the seat.

Engel was for decades one of the biggest congressional supporters of Israel, and supported the war in Iraq.

Castro isn’t just going to walk into the seat, however. He’s up against two more senior Representatives: Brad Sherman of California and Gregory Meeks of New York.

What this comes down to is Pelosi, basically. Sherman and Meeks have a much better shot at the chair position, but more than 60 liberal groups signed an open letter recently urging Pelosi to replace Engel with someone more progressive. It appears that Castro is stepping up as the challenger. Sherman is almost as hawkish and Engle was, and while Meeks didn’t vote for the Iraq war, he doesn’t really have a stellar legislative record or strong background for the job.

Castro, meanwhile, is coming on strong, saying quote “Our foreign affairs committee needs to catch up with where Democrats are in terms of foreign policy,” endquote. We’ll see if Pelosi’s listening.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Tucker Carlson is probably frantically packing fishing gear in his car tonight, after he announced that he’d be going on a quote “long-planned” vacation. Surely this doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that one of his lead writers was forced to resign over the weekend after his old extremely racist message board posts got surfaced. Totally normal vacation here, nothing to see!

The Supreme Court cleared the way for federal inmate Daniel Lewis Lee to be executed by the state, overturning a D.C. district court judge’s injunction that stayed Lewis Lee’s execution just hours before it would have been performed on Monday. There are two more federal executions scheduled for this week, besides Lewis Lee.

California’s Orange County made the near-unanimous decision to send kids back to school in the fall, as the school board voted 4-1 in favor of in-person instruction with no masks or social distancing requirements. The only saving grace is that the board left the decision to re-open up to individual school districts, so if individual districts are wiser than their bosses, they could keep their kids safe.

And finally, Hong Kong’s citizens are still pushing back against the Chinese government’s crackdown on civil rights in the semi-autonomous territory, voting in massive numbers for primary election candidates that oppose the pro-mainland incumbents in power.

July 14, 2020 - AM Quickie

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 coronavirus is running almost unchecked through Florida, in what has become the country’s fastest-growing outbreak to date. On Sunday, the state recorded 15,300 new cases of the disease in the prior 24 hours, the largest single-day increase in any state since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump commuted the sentence of Roger Stone, his long-time friend and advisor who was convicted of numerous felonies, in one of the most shocking acts of open corruption to date. He hasn’t shot anyone on fifth avenue yet, but we’re not far off at this point.

And lastly, the oil and natural gas industry is starting to go down in flames -- but they might just take the world with them. The New York Times has a new report on how bankrupt gas companies are leaving taxpayers to clean up their mess.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Florida Covid Cases Skyrocket

The coronavirus pandemic has set in in Florida, and there’s almost no telling how bad it’s going to be. On Sunday, the state recorded 15,300 new cases of COVID-19, shattering the single-day record for any other state.

Governor Ron De Santis, meanwhile, is knowingly dooming his constituents. He’s ordered schools to re-open five days a week in the fall and allowed theme parks like Disney World and Universal Studios to start taking in guests again. Hospitals in his state are already starting to fill up, so it’s unclear what could possibly cause him to take more drastic measures to control the virus at this point.

In Washington, the current fight is over whether or not schools should open in the fall. Trump has been pressing hard to get classrooms open, despite the fact that experts say it’s not safe.

According to a report by CommonDreams dot com, the American Academy of Pediatrics has joined several teachers groups in proposing a massive investment plan that would allow schools to make themselves safe to re-open. The changes, like cleaning equipment, ventilation, and lower class sizes to allow for social distancing, would represent a huge jump in quality of life for students even outside of a pandemic.

The Trump administration doesn’t have any plan to do these things, of course. In an interview with CNN, Education Secretary Betsy De Vos couldn’t even say how bad an outbreak would have to be to get a school to close down. There’s no safety plan in place, which means kids in the fall could get fed right into petri dishes of disease with no ways to mitigate their risk.

Trump Pardons Stone

And now, to check in once again with the Donald Trump corruption meter: today’s reading: off the charts! That’s because on Friday, as you may have heard, Trump commuted Roger Stone’s 40-month sentence.

That’s right, Stone is scot free after being convicted of seven different felonies. A fun fact: Stone has a back tattoo of Richard Nixon’s face. At this point, Stone should be Nixon’s hero, not the other way around.

If you remember, Trump had already pressured his justice department to slash Stone’s sentence from the seven to nine years prosecutors recommended to just 40 months. On Friday, he decided even that was too long, and announced that Stone wouldn’t even be reporting to prison after all. Trump fired off a tweet to mark the occasion, claiming that Stone was the victim of a quote “witch hunt.”

So that’s where we’re at! It’s become increasingly clear that with Trump in office the Department of Justice will be explicitly serving the interests of the president, and isn’t accountable to the people in any way.

It’s possible, I suppose, that if Biden wins he could rekindle some of the many criminal investigations into Trump’s activities in office, but while the president is in power, the absolute best we can hope for is that he won’t contest the results of the election if he happens to lose. If he does, we’re in for a lot worse than a free Roger Stone.

Gas Companies Make Stink on Way Out

In an ideal world, oil and natural gas companies going bankrupt would be a good thing. But a new report by the New York Times suggests that instead of quietly drying up, the amoral industry is spilling its trash into the environment while executives run off with the money.

According to the Times, the coronavirus pandemic and a global price war has destroyed the profit margins for most oil and natural gas companies. If the global response to this was to double down on renewable energy, that’d be a great thing. But the unfortunately reality is that the vultures at the top of these companies are just using bankruptcy as an excuse to get out with a golden parachute, and leaving everyone else to clean up their mess.

Here’s how it works: an oil company goes bankrupt, and claims that because it’s in debt for so much money, it can’t possibly pay the fees in order to safely close its wells, fracking sites, and refineries. One Texas company, for instance, has a well that is as you listen to this most likely still leaking tons of methane into the atmosphere. But guess what -- its ceo made $8.5 million in consulting fees during the bankruptcy proceedings.

It’s pretty clear what’s going on here: the execs at the top are looting their own companies and letting the horrific machinery they’ve torn up the earth with for decades to rot. In many cases, it’s going to continue spreading poison into the environment until taxpayers front the bill to clean it up.

And we can’t look to Joe Biden to save us either, as he’s essentially promised that fracking jobs won’t be on the chopping block in his administration. Seems unlikely he’ll want to go after the executives either. That means it’s our job to remember what they did and make sure that they face consequences in the administration after Biden, or the one after that, or however long it.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The NFL Team in Washington, D.C. will retire its name, a racial slur for a Native American, on Monday. The team has yet to announce a new name, but any change is probably going to be an improvement on the former one.

Elsewhere in the world of sports, ESPN suspended perhaps the best-known basketball reporter in the world, Adrian Wojnarowsky, after he replied “F- you” in an email to Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. In a just world, he’d have been commended for telling Hawley to stuff it, which everyone should do pretty much every time they have the opportunity.

the first federal inmate in 17 years is expected to be executed on Monday. The inmate, Daniel Lewis Lee, has been on death row for decades after being convicted of killing a family of 3 in the 90s. His family is expected to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, which has until 4pm Monday to stop the execution.

And lastly, remember Robert Mueller? Well heeeee’s back! Sen. Lindsey Graham is expected to call the former special counsel before his bad-faith panel aimed to discredit Mueller’s original investigation. We’re sure this appearance will be productive for everyone involved, especially the American public.

July 13, 2020 - AM Quickie

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 rules that much of the state of Oklahoma rightly belongs to Native American tribes. Republicans, predictably, freak out.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden unveiled a new campaign slogan in Pennsylvania. It’s union-made and wrapped lovingly in Old Glory.

And lastly, do not mess with the TikTok teens. Repeat: Do Not. Mess. With. The TikTok. Teens. Or they will mess with you.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

A large swath of Oklahoma including the state’s second largest city, Tulsa, belong to Native American tribes, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. In a five-to-four decision, the Court sided with the Muscogee (MUSK-OH-GI), also known as the Creek Nation. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who usually votes with the conservatives, here sided with the majority.

The case concerned a tribal member named Jimcy McGirt who was convicted of sex crimes. His defense argued that only the federal government, not state authorities, could prosecute him. They argued that was the case because the crime took place on land that had not been ceded by the tribe to the state of Oklahoma, and Congress had never clarified the matter. The court found this convincing. Justice Gorsuch wrote, QUOTE, “On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise... Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word ENDQUOTE. There’s a first time for everything, huh?

Native groups hailed the ruling. But Republicans freaked out. Ted Cruz, the Senator from the neighboring state of Texas, had a juvenile freak-out, and Tweeted that Neil Gorsuch and the four liberal Justices just gave away half of Oklahoma, literally. Manhattan is next, Cruz said. On Fox News, Lou Dobbs said the Supreme Court was compromised by the Deep State, was out of control, and acting like squirrels. What does that even mean? Squirrels? Is that a Q- Anon thing? Or did he just coin a slur?

The areas affected by the ruling also affect other tribes: the Cherokee, the Choctaw (CHOCK- TAUGH), the Chickasaw (CHICKA-SAW), and the Seminole. The nations also promised to coordinate law enforcement with state and federal officials, since Oklahoma state courts have lost jurisdiction over much of the eastern half of the state. The ruling means hundreds of convictions could be overturned. It also means that McGirt, the alleged sex criminal who prompted the fight over jurisdiction, may be tried federally. But ultimately, as the Cherokee writer Rebecca Nagle put it, the decision affirms that it’s been Indian country all along.

Biden: "Build Back Better"

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign rolled out a new slogan yesterday. Are you ready? It’s Build Back Better. Biden called his new slogan both bold and practical. The former vice president spoke yesterday at a metal works in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Advisers told reporters the new campaign focus takes aim at what they call Trump’s two main issues: the economy and nationalism. If Trump’s slogan is America First, Biden’s new message might be called, America, Seconded.

In Pennsylvania Biden talked about rebuilding the country’s manufacturing base, and announced two new spending programs: $300 billion for high-tech research and development and $400 billion for new federal procurement of products made inside the US. He praised the middle class and working families. He attacked Wall Street bankers, CEOs, the wealthy investor class, and shareholder capitalism. Aside from the flag-waving stuff, he sounded a lot like Bernie Sanders. Biden said, QUOTE You know who built the middle class? Unions built the middle class ENDQUOTE.

Trump campaign aides were both surprised and annoyed by Biden’s new focus on American- made products. According to the Washington Post, Trump’s people were preparing to roll out their own Buy American campaign before Biden beat them to the punch. And they point out that Biden supported free-trade agreements that are now widely unpopular among members of both major parties, both during his time in Congress in the 90s and as vice president in the Obama administration. But with record unemployment, a looming wave of evictions, and all the other signs of economic disaster, who besides members of the Trump cult can believe that he will really turn things around with another four years in office?

TikTok Teens Target Trump

The TikTok kids mean business. And they’ve claimed another victory. This time, users of the short-video social network flooded the Trump 2020 campaign’s official campaign app with negative reviews. Allow us to quote some of them here: Disgusting – don’t download. Total trash. Scarred for life. Do not download – dog held hostage. Thanks for killing grandma, Trump. This app ruined my life. Absolutely horrible. Worst app ever in history. You get the idea.

As Bloomberg News reported, TikTok fans left the bad reviews as a means of retaliation. Trump threatened to ban the app. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, and hugely popular with American teens. One 19-year-old user in California told Bloomberg, QUOTE If you’re going to mess with us, we will mess with you ENDQUOTE. Okay then!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

In another ruling yesterday, the US Supreme Court decided that Trump’s tax returns must be released to prosecutors in New York. However, the Court decided that Congress, which also wanted access to Trump’s financial records, will have to wait. Some political observers called it a win for Trump, however, bottom line, the Court rejected Trump’s claim of blanket immunity during his tenure as president.

According to the Associated Press, federal authorities feared that Ghislaine (GILL- AYNE) Maxwell might kill herself while in custody, in much the same manner as her alleged accomplice, the late Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell was arrested last week in New Hampshire. Per the AP, she is now confined at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with federal guards from outside the Bureau of Prisons.

One in seven state lawmakers in Mississippi has the coronavirus, according to PBS Newshour. It’s the largest outbreak in any elected body in the US. Although many Republicans with a national profile, like Mike Pence, have taken to wearing masks, it has reportedly been rare to see a Mississippi legislator from either party wearing a mask. Now at least twenty-six members have tested positive, though none have yet been hospitalized.

Palantir (PAL-ANN-TEER), the super-creepy surveillance startup founded by Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel (TEEL), wants to go public. The Wall Street Journal says the company has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin the process of selling shares publicly. The company is deeply involved with Trump’s deportation machine. And it’s worth pointing out that for many Silicon Valley companies, an initial public offering is not a sign of success, but rather, the final toss of a hot potato.

July 10, 2020 - AM Quickie

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 is a menace to public health and also to school district budgets. Federal funding could be at stake for districts that don’t hold in-person classes in the fall, pandemic be damned.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court ruling revokes birth control coverage for thousands of women. Employers can now claim a religious exemption under the Affordable Care Act.

And lastly, Washington, DC, is set to restore voting rights for incarcerated citizens. In forty- eight states, people who are or have been in prison for a felony still can’t vote.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Trump threatened yesterday to cut off federal funding for school districts that don’t fully reopen with in-person classes in the fall. Luckily, in the US, most school districts don’t rely completely on federal funding, instead raising money through local property taxes. But Trump’s threats do unfortunately put emergency pandemic funds at risk everywhere. Many if school districts started rolling out their reopening plans this week, and many are on course to defy Trump’s wishes. The country’s largest school district, New York City Public Schools, plans as of yesterday to send students back for in-person classes only two or three days each week, in order to maintain social distancing. At more crowded schools, the New York Times reports, students might receive only one day per week of in-person instruction. And there is still no plan to provide families with childcare on days when the kids are doing their lessons online. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the plan will influence how the rest of the city reopens. As in many states, the governor also has authority over when and how schools reopen. Andrew Cuomo has yet to comment on de Blasio’s plan. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom wants to leave many details of reopening up to local districts. But in a leaked recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times, LA County’s top public health official told district superintendents that they needed to be ready to hold all classes online come fall. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the superintendants it would be irresponsible not to have a backup plan that included all distance learning, all the time.

If that’s irresponsible, what can one say about Trump’s threats? That they’re outrageously reckless? Borderline homicidal? Mike Pence announced yesterday that the Centers for Disease Control would be release new guidance for schools next week. He made it clear the new guidelines will favor in-person classes, just like Trump wants. Sure seems like health experts have different ideas. But when is the last time this government listened to them?

The public health director in Tusla, Oklahoma, said a surge in coronavirus cases followed Trump’s rally there two and a half weeks ago. Separately, Johns Hopkins University reported that US coronavirus cases passed the three million mark. That’s one case for every a hundred people in the country. The virus is out of control, and it seems like the White House is determined to make sure every American gets exposed. It’s just nuts.

Supreme Court Upholds Patriarchy

More than a hundred thousand women, and millions more in the future, stand to lose their health insurance coverage for birth control, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling yesterday. With a seven-to-two vote, the Court upheld a Trump administration regulation that grants employers a religious exemption to providing birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Justice Elena Kagan voted with the patriarchy, I mean the majority. Which is technically a patriarchy. But still.

The case stemmed from a challenge by the states to the Trump rule creating a religious exemption for birth control. Pennsylvania and New Jersey argued that the state treasuries would be left to pick up the tab for health care that should fall to employers. A federal appeals judge granted an injunction last year that preserved health care for many women – but the Supreme Court’s word is now final. I guess we’ll just need to find a better Supreme Court.

DC Enfranchises 4,000 Voters

City leaders in the District of Columbia are preparing to end voter disenfranchisement for felons, at least locally. If Mayor Muriel Bowser signs an emergency bill put forward by Councilmember Charles Allen, more than four thousand people will regain their right to vote. The emergency measure is expected to pass. And Councilmember Allen told The Appeal, a news website covering justice issues, that the Council could make the measure permanent as

part of its budgeting process later this month. The emergency bill will let convicts and incarcerated felons vote in the November election, by request. Beginning next January, DC will be obliged to provide voter information and ballot access to people in prison. The bill also includes some limited police reform, including bans on chokeholds, tear gas, and rubber bullets. DC will join Maine and Vermont in allowing all incarcerated people to vote. According to The Appeal, DC has a higher incarceration rate than any state – and over ninety percent of its incarcerated population are Black. It’s nice to see a win for voting rights, for a change.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Newly released transcripts based on body camera footage show that George Floyd told Minneapolis cops more than twenty times that he couldn’t breathe, before he finally died under Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee. The transcripts were contained in court filings. According to the New York Times, which reviewed the texts, Chauvin told Floyd to stop talking after Floyd said officers were going to kill him. He added, QUOTE it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk ENDQUOTE. Chauvin faces second-degree murder charges and up to forty years in prison.

A new study by a former Google worker revealed thousands of previously unreported contracts between Silicon Valley companies and the US military. The researcher, Jack Poulson, protested Google’s work with Chinese censors and the US security state, before quitting the company in 2018. Per NBC News, he analyzed thirty million government contracts and subcontracts from the Defense Department and federal law enforcement going back five years. He found that Amazon had more than three-hundred fifty subcontracts since 2016, and Google had two-hundred fifty. Microsoft had more than five thousand, most of which, I’m guessing, involve asking the feds if rebooting their computers solves the problem.

Torrential rains and severe flooding in Japan have killed at least fifty-eight people, according to the Washington Post. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on lawmakers to declare an extreme disaster. Landslides are also reportedly wreaking havoc in affected areas, mostly southern and central Japan. Those parts of the country still face another foot of rainfall in the forecast this week.

A new DNA study claims to have proven once and for all that people from the Polynesian islands share an ancestral connection to Native Americans from Mexico down to Chile. The study appeared in the Journal Nature. The findings confirm that Polynesian sailors traversed more than forty-two hundred miles of open ocean to travel to South America some eight hundred years ago. That’s several hundred years before that enormous poseur, Colombus. And not only did the Polynesians bring sweet potatoes to the New World, they managed to avoid waging a murderous religious crusade across two continents. Give them a statue, for chrissake.

July 9, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn