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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Conditions are still atrocious for thousands of migrant children in US government custody. Why hasn’t the Biden administration come up with a humane way to house these kids until they can be reunited with their families?

Meanwhile, a review of recent state Republican leadership elections shows that the party is still getting Trumpier, even though he’s out of office. And the trend is stronger in swing states.

And lastly, AOC and some fellow House Democrats are introducing a resolution to stop a massive arms sale to Israel, as the assault on Gaza continues. Better late than never!

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This spotlight on America’s national shame comes from CBS News. Migrant children housed at two makeshift US government shelters, an Army base in west Texas and a Houston warehouse, described subpar living conditions, including limited access to showers, soiled clothes and undercooked food. Unaccompanied children at the two Department of Health and Human Services emergency housing facilities – which are not licensed to care for minors – also reported feeling sad and desperate while in US government custody. That’s according to attorney Leecia Welch, who cited recent interviews with more than thirty migrant girls and boys. Several migrant children reported suicidal thoughts and talk of self-harm among other youths, Welch said. The minors longed to be with their families, she added, but some had not spoken to case managers charged with facilitating their reunifications.

CBS reports that over the past several weeks, the Biden administration has dramatically reduced the number of unaccompanied children stuck in ill-suited Border Patrol facilities. However, the government is still housing more than nineteen thousand unaccompanied youths in facilities overseen by HHS, including the mass makeshift shelters, four of which are housing more than one thousand minors each. Welch said, "From a child welfare perspective, I disagree with housing hundreds of kids in shelters to begin with. And now we're being told the best long-term plan our government can come up with is to warehouse thousands of kids in tents on a military base?" Biden’s team really needs to fix this – and fast.

Swing State Republicans Getting Trumpier

Vice News brings us this update on GOP extremism. The Republican Party chairs of Texas and Wyoming have flirted with secession from the United States. Oklahoma’s Republican chair has called Islam a cancer. The Oregon GOP called the Capitol insurrection a false flag operation. And at least nineteen Republican state chairs publicly pushed Trump’s big lie about the election. A review of public positions of all fifty GOP state chairs shows many are pushing conspiracy theories, spouting unhinged rhetoric, and undermining voters’ trust in democracy. That includes the chairs of nearly every swing state in the US. And the trend is accelerating: Many of the most extreme chairs just won their chairmanships or have been reelected since Trump left office four months ago, a number of them with his endorsement. Former GOP officials say it was predictable that state parties would get Trumpier while he was president, but found it notable that the trend has continued since he left office.

According to Vice, it’s coming from the top down, too. The Republican National Committee launched a so-called Election Integrity Commission in February. Of the six state party chairs on the commission, just one has come close to acknowledging the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 victory – South Carolina’s Drew McKissick. Three others on the commission pushed Trump’s claims that the election was stolen. There are plenty of Republican chairs who haven’t been willing to echo Trump’s lies. But most of them have refused to stand up for the truth. Profiles in cowardice!

AOC Seeks To Stop Israel Arms Deal

The Squad is working to protect Palestinian lives. Jewish Currents reports that amidst Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan, and Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib are preparing to introduce a resolution that would block the United States’ planned $735 million sale of bombs to Israel. The resolution would halt the transfer of so-called J-DAMs, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions, and of Small Diameter Bombs. Both are bombs outfitted with special guidance systems to hit their targets. Both are made by Boeing. Israel has used J-DAMs and

Small Diameter Bombs in its current attack on Gaza. Additional co-sponsors include Representatives Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Pramila Jayapal, Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley.

Jewish Currents says that even if it doesn’t pass, the resolution could set up an unprecedented debate in the House of Representatives on the propriety of a bomb sale to Israel. As such, the proposed legislation is a rebuke of the Biden administration’s policy of facilitating the flow of weapons to a country that has killed at least two hundred and twenty Palestinians in ten days, including sixty three children. The US gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military assistance, money that is used to purchase American weaponry. Tlaib said, "You cannot claim to support human rights and peace on Earth and continue to back the extremist Netanyahu regime, it’s that simple."

Finally, Israel’s Channel Twelve reports that a cease-fire will begin tomorrow. We’ll see.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Washington Post reports that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will oppose legislation to create a commission tasked with investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol – a signal that the legislation will not have the votes to get through the Senate. The House voted yesterday to pass a bill creating the commission. If Congress fails to fully investigate, at least we still have the press.

The Associated Press reports that the European Union took a step toward relaxing travel rules for tourists yesterday when EU ambassadors agreed on measures to allow in fully vaccinated visitors. But EU countries will keep the possibility to impose restrictive measures on tourists such as quarantines. So don’t imagine that summer travel will be stress-free.

Reuters reports that twenty-two people accused of trafficking children to work on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast have received prison sentences of up to twenty years. The case follows the rescue by police this month of sixty eight children working on cocoa farms. Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer and is under pressure to crack down on child slavery.

According to NBC News, the New York attorney general’s office is pursuing a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization, in addition to the ongoing civil probe. But, on the bright side, it looks like he might get state approval to open a casino at his resort in Doral, Florida. Win some, lose some!

AM QUICKIE - MAY 20, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

An international advisory body that’s long been seen as providing cover to the oil and gas industry made some jaws drop with a new report. The International Energy Agency now says new fossil fuels projects need to be put to a stop immediately.

Meanwhile, a formidable Democratic challenger has emerged to take on Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio. Progressives can’t get too excited, however – she’s a former cop.

And lastly, both chambers of Congress have now passed a bill designed to address the spike in anti-Asian hate crimes. Sixty three Republicans stood to oppose it, for reasons only they will ever truly understand.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This agenda-setter comes from the Houston Chronicle. The International Energy Agency, the body that advises governments on energy and is widely respected among Republicans and Democrats, warned yesterday that nations need to halt oil and gas development this year if they are to meet their target of net zero emissions by 2050. In a new report the IEA advises nations to shift their economies to run largely on electricity, with ninety percent of that energy coming from renewables such as wind and solar. Such a shift in less than thirty years represents a daunting challenging for governments, who would need to overhaul their energy systems in a fraction of the time of past energy transitions, such as the move from wood to coal. Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director, calls this, "perhaps the greatest challenge humankind has ever faced."

The Chronicle reports that to make it happen, the IEA is recommending several things. It says governments should end subsidies for fossil fuels and put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. It also says they should mandate the end of technologies including internal combustion cars, gas-powered furnaces and coal plants.

Separately, the Washington Post reports that President Joe Biden yesterday cast the US as being in an urgent race with China to build electric vehicles. Biden was visiting a plant in

Dearborn, Michigan, that is about to unveil the electric version of its popular F-150 pickup truck. Can we do this without the gratuitous nationalism, please?

Val Demings Takes On Marco Rubio

Here’s a battleground race to watch. The Washington Post reports that Democratic Representative Val Demings, who raised her national profile as one of the House managers prosecuting Donald Trump’s first impeachment, plans to run for the Senate in Florida in a bid to unseat Republican Senator Marco Rubio. Demings is now the most high-profile Democrat seeking to take on Rubio. If she wins the party primary, she will be a formidable opponent against the incumbent. The race will certainly receive national attention, but Rubio won’t be easy to beat. Trump won Florida in 2020, and Rubio has former president’s full support. Still, the former Orlando police chief-turned-politician has seen her star rise in her brief time in Washington, even making the shortlist of President Biden’s possible vice-presidential picks.

The Post says Rubio is viewed favorably by more Florida voters than not, but his approval is under fifty percent, which suggests he has some vulnerability. A Democrat with knowledge of Demings’s strategy said the congresswoman is entering the race early in the hope of galvanizing support from key players to box out other potential candidates and avoid a messy primary. Key among them is Representative Stephanie Murphy, another rising star in Florida Democratic circles and the first Vietnamese American woman to be elected to Congress. Murphy has been on a listening tour across the state in anticipation of her Senate run. She’s also a moderate, so there’s still room for a strong progressive in the primary.

Biden Will Sign Hate Crimes Bill

The opposition here is puzzling. NBC News reports that the House yesterday passed a Senate bill to address the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono introduced the bill in March alongside New York Representative Grace Meng, both Democrats. Last month the Senate passed it ninety four to one. Yesterday’s House vote was three hundred and sixty four to sixty two. All sixty two No votes were from Republicans. Texas Republican Representative Chip Roy said ahead of the vote that he didn’t support the measure because he didn’t think it would be effective. Suuuure.

According to NBC, the legislation directs the Department of Justice to expedite the review of Covid-related hate crimes that were reported to law enforcement agencies, and help them establish ways to report such incidents online. The bill also directs the attorney general and the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance on how to mitigate racially discriminatory language in describing the pandemic. Ahead of the vote, House Democrats maintained the legislation will help prevent the spate of attacks against Asian Americans. Meng, who represents a district in Queens with a large Asian-American population, said her community has faced despicable and sickening acts of hate and violence over the last year and a half. The bill's passage in the House paves the way for it to head to President Biden’s desk. He’s expected to sign it later this week. Now we should ask, what more can be done?

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Guardian reports that Chile’s elections resulted in resounding victories for leftist and independent candidates while rightwing politicians crashed to dismal electoral defeats. Across two days of voting, Chileans cast votes for the one hundred and fifty five delegates who will write a new constitution to replace Augusto Pinochet’s 1980 document and the neoliberal model it enshrined. It’s an inspiring moment of political optimism.

The Associated Press says that with the war showing no sign of abating, Palestinians staged a general strike yesterday. One protester was killed and more than seventy wounded – including sixteen by live fire – in clashes with Israeli troops in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and other cities. Israel continued its airstrikes into Gaza. Optimism here is harder to find.

CBS News reports that Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order yesterday that will bar public schools and most other government entities from requiring masks. The order bans any government entity from mandating masks, with fines of up to $1,000 for those who don’t comply. Talk about useless grandstanding.

Axios reports that the FBI is investigating what it describes as a massive scheme to illegally finance Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins’ 2020 reelection bid. The FBI believes a Hawaii defense contractor then called Navatek illegally funneled $150,000 to a pro- Collins super PAC and reimbursed donations to Collins’ campaign. Collins helped the contractor secure an $8 million Navy contract before most of the donations took place. What a way to say you’re welcome!

AM QUICKIE - MAY 19, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The United States has agreed to send a further 20 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine abroad, in addition to the 60 million doses currently stuck in FDA limbo. Hopefully this batch will get out the door ASAP.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court says it will hear arguments in a case from Mississippi that could directly challenge Roe V. Wade and change the future of abortion rights in America.

And lastly, new emails uncovered by the NLRB show the corrupt lengths Amazon went to to disrupt the union vote in Bessemer, Alabama.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The United States is finally getting its act together and shipping some of our massive surplus of vaccines to the countries who need it most.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that it would send 20 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccines to countries still struggling with the pandemic.

That’s in addition to the 60 million doses of the Astra Zeneca vax that we’ve already pledged. The AZ doses, unfortunately, are still held up by FDA approval, so they haven’t gone out yet.

Biden says the new doses should be shipped by the end of June.

Biden said, “Just as in World War II America was the arsenal of democracy, in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic our nation’s going to be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world. We’ll share these vaccines in the service of ending the pandemic everywhere.”

That might be getting ahead of things a little.

While the U.S.’s contribution is large, it’s still a drop in the bucket of what the world needs. India, which is currently still in the throes of one of the worst outbreaks since the pandemic began, has only fully vaccinated 3 percent of its population. That means there are over a billion people who still need a shot in that country alone.

As we reported yesterday, we also need Biden to stand firm on his promised patent waivers, so big pharma can’t swoop in to extract their price.

Supreme Court Takes Abortion Case

The big one that liberals have feared for years may be coming. The Supreme Court annonced on Monday that it would hear a case from Mississippi that could directly challenge the judicial protection of abortion outlined in Roe v Wade.

According to the New York Times, the new case concerns a state law that seeks to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This won’t be a quick process: the Times reports that the court will hear arguments in the case during its next term, which starts in October, and probably make a decision in the spring or summer of 2022.

But by now we all know the score. Conservatives have a 6-3 majority on the court, and Donald Trump’s hand-picked justices all seem poised to tear up Roe V Wade at their first opportunity.

The Supreme Court last heard a major abortion case in 2020, when it struck down a restrictive Louisiana law. But that was before Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death, and only went down because of centrist Chief Justice John Roberts tiebreaking vote.

Now, liberals are outnumbered, which means the Biden administration has a choice: make changes to the structure of the court, or go down as the administration who sat and watched as Donald Trump’s legacy of bigotry and injustice came to pass.

NLRB Finds Amazon Union Shenanigans

It’s been a minute since we checked in with the union-busting activities of Amazon, but it feels like just yesterday. Today, new National Labor Relations Board documents show that Amazon specifically lobbied the U.S. Postal Service to install an illegal ballot dropbox in its Bessemer facility during its vote-by-mail election.

In emails about the mailbox surfaced by the NLRB and reported by More Perfect Union, an Amazon executive writes:

“This is of the utmost importance for our senior leadership. I am not joking at all when I say that I will drive to Alabama myself to install it if need be.”

The order reportedly came from Dave Clark, Amazon’s SVP who oversees warehouse operations. What happened next was even more blatant. Not only did Amazon security guards have the key to the USPS mailbox, the company then installed a tent around the mailbox with anti-union messaging on the side.

The postal service claimed it didn’t know about the tent, but it’s pretty easy to see the score here. The only question now is what the NLRB is prepared to do about it.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

President Biden had a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin [BIN YA MIN] Netanyahu on Monday, and reportedly pushed for a ceasefire in the country’s assault on Gaza. Meanwhile, of course, he’s continuing to push for a new $735 millon weapons deal to Israel. Congress has the power to block that, but do they have the will?

Andrew Cuomo’s disgustingly self-serving book about leadership during COVID fetched a whopping $5.12 million book deal, which is being paid out over the next few years. Of the 1.4 mil he got this year, Cuomo donated 500 thousand to United Way and put the rest in a trust for his daughters. Lucky them! Unlucky for the thousands of New Yorkers who died under his leadership.

LiveScience reports that the reactors under the Chernobyl nuclear site have started to smolder again, like “the embers in a barbecue pit.” This isn’t cause for global panic, as any resulting accident would be on a far smaller scale than the original meltdown, but certainly sounds ominous!

And finally, the Intercept reports that the Pentagon will begin monitoring the social media of military members for extremist content, as part of a wider attempt to crack down on extremism in the service. This attempt, however, raises some pretty severe privacy concerns, as such policies inevitably aren’t just used to root out Nazis.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 18, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no clear end in sight to the violence in Palestine, as the death toll from Israeli strikes continues to climb despite widespread international calls for a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the GOP has a new target in their war on voting rights: poll workers. They’re seeking to levy harsh penalties for anyone who makes a mistake while working on an election.

And finally, the Intercept reports that Big Pharma is doing all it can to lobby lawmakers toward stopping Joe Biden’s support for worldwide access to generic COVID vaccines.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Israeli forces killed dozens more Palestinians over the weekend and destroyed the building housing both the Associated Press and Al Jazeera’s offices in the Gaza strip in an airstrike, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no end in sight to the violence.

Palestinian authorities say Israeli strikes have killed at least 192 people, including 58 children. Rocket attacks launched from Gaza have killed at least 10 people in Israel.

Those numbers show just the tip of the iceberg of violence unleashed on the Gaza strip in the past week. Israeli forces have destroyed apartment buildings, damaged medical facilities, and leveled family homes, all under the familiar auspices of “fighting terror.”

That was their excuse yet again when on Saturday, airstrikes destroyed the building that housed both the Associated Press and Al Jazeera offices in Gaza.

Israeli officials claimed that Hamas forces were also using the structure, and warned journalists to evacuate before leveling the building. Yet Netanyahu gave no clear evidence that Hamas was in the area.

Meanwhile, international calls for a cease-fire are mounting. The Times reports that Biden spoke to both Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to broker a ceasefire, but to no avail. The U.N. Security Council met to discuss the issue, but took no concrete action. And all the while, the people of Palestine continue to suffer.

GOP Takes Aim at Poll Workers

The New York Times has a new story out about a disturbing aspect of the GOP’s push to kill democracy. New laws in Texas and several other states would specifically target poll workers and election officials, making any small mistake punishable by extreme fines and even in some cases jail time.

The Times reports that poll workers say they’ve experienced a severe uptick in harassment by poll watchers and other partisan agents in recent elections. In addition to that, new voting laws across the country have started to crack down on these workers, as well as nonpartisan election officials.

The Times reports that various laws are leveling the threat of felonies, jail time and fines as large as $25,000 over the heads of election officials who make innocent mistakes in the process. All of this is a direct result of the GOP’s embrace of election conspiracies and Donald Trump’s continued insistence that he won the 2020 election, of course.

Listen to this quote from Chris Davis, the county election administrator in Williamson County, Texas:

“These poll workers don’t ever, in our experience, intend to count invalid votes, or let somebody who’s not eligible vote, or prevent somebody who’s eligible from voting. Yet we’re seeing that as a baseline, kind of a fundamental principle in some of the bills that are being drafted. And I don’t know where it’s coming from, because it’s not based on reality.”

Poll workers work extremely long hours for very little pay, often out of a sense of duty. But experts think these draconian penalties will start to scare some of the most experienced among them away. That’s bad for democracy -- or in other words, good for the GOP.

Big Pharma Lobbies Congress to Stop Patent Waivers

The Intercept reports that Big Pharma is up to its usual tricks: lobbying behind the scenes to make the world a more miserable place.

Last week, the U.S. announced that it would support the World Trade Organizations’ proposal to temporarily waive enforcement of the patents on COVID vaccines, which would allow many struggling nations to develop their own generic vaccines and get them to their citizens without paying an arm and a leg to U.S. companies.

According to new documents the Intercept obtained, Pharma lobbyists have been goading a core group of House Republicans into opposing this effort at all costs. Many lobbyists in question work for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group that represents Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and other big firms -- in other words, exactly the people who will profit from keeping a tight lock on the patents.

Their effort was enough to convince 29 House Republicans to sign on to an as-yet-unsent letter to Biden urging him to roll back his support for the WTO plan. The letter leans into the lobbyists talking points, also obtained by the Intercept, which claim that the waiver would cost American jobs and allow China to “profit from our innovation.”

The play they’re making is simple: try to use Chinese and Russian fearmongering to get Biden to back down. With any luck, the President is going to see right through that -- but who knows how many corporate Democrats might be susceptible to the same kind of crap. One to keep an eye on, for sure.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Neera Tanden finally made her way into the White House, after her humiliating failure to gain an actual confirmed seat at the OMB because of her awful Twitter feed, she will be joining the Biden Administration as a senior advisor. My guess is she probably won’t be giving social media advice!

The Military Times reports that U.S. Space Force Lt. Colonel Matthew Lohmeier [LOW MEYER] was dismissed from his post after he went on a podcast to promote his new self-published book, titled “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military." Sounds like the Space Force isn’t attracting America’s finest.

There’s a new George Bush on the scene! Yep, you heard that right. George P. Bush, the large adult son of one Jeb Bush, is considering a run for Texas Attorney General. We will never be free from this family at this rate!

The messy Matt Gaetz cycle continues. A new report by the Daily Beast alleges that Gaetz’s associates gave a kushy county government contract to an influencer, model, and escort that Gaetz frequently partied with, allowing her to collect thousands of dollars in taxpayer money for doing, well, not a whole lot.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 17, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

If you’re fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the US government says you no longer need to wear a face mask in most places. That’s great news for about one-third of the population, but everyone else still needs to hurry up and get the shot.

Meanwhile, a new investigation reveals that Project Veritas ran a secret campaign to discredit Donald Trump’s imagined enemies inside the government. With the help of a former British spy, it even targeted FBI agents for hidden camera sting operations.

And lastly, nearly two million Americans in sixteen Republican-ruled states are facing imminent cuts to their jobless benefits. This is what they consider good government: making people suffer for no good reason.

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This cause for celebration comes from the Washington Post. Americans who are fully vaccinated can go without masks or physical distancing in most cases, even when they are indoors or in large groups, federal officials said yesterday. The announcement paves the way for a full reopening of society. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy. Based on the continuing downward trajectory of cases, the scientific data on the performance of our vaccines and our understanding of how the virus spreads, that moment has come for those who are fully vaccinated." More than one hundred and fifty four million Americans have had at least one shot and one hundred and seventeen million are fully vaccinated, about thirty five percent of the population.

The Post says Walensky cited a growing body of real-world evidence demonstrating the efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines. She noted the shots offer protection even against more contagious variants circulating in the United States. The relaxation of masking does not apply to airplanes, buses, trains and other public transportation, to healthcare settings, or where state or local restrictions still require them. Officials also noted that some business settings may require masks, especially since some workers remain unvaccinated. Walensky urged those who are immune-compromised to speak with their doctors before giving up their masks. For everyone else, enjoy feeling the air on your face.

Hidden Camera Sting Targeted FBI

This dive into conservative skullduggery comes from the New York Times. A network of conservative activists, aided by a British former spy, mounted a campaign during the Trump administration to discredit perceived enemies of Donald Trump inside the government, according to documents and people involved in the operations. The campaign included a planned sting operation against Trump’s national security adviser at the time, HR McMaster, and secret surveillance operations against FBI employees, aimed at exposing anti-Trump sentiment in the bureau’s ranks. The operations against the FBI, run by the conservative group Project Veritas, were conducted from a large home in the Georgetown section of Washington that rented for $10,000 per month. Female undercover operatives arranged dates with the FBI employees with the aim of secretly recording them making disparaging comments about Trump.

Central to the effort, according to the Times, was Richard Seddon, a former undercover British spy. Seddon was recruited in 2016 by the security contractor Erik Prince to train Project Veritas operatives to infiltrate trade unions, Democratic congressional campaigns and other targets. The scheme against McMaster was one of the most brazen operations of the campaign. It involved a plan to hire a woman armed with a hidden camera to capture McMaster making inappropriate remarks that his opponents could use as leverage to get him ousted as national security adviser. He eventually resigned anyway to avoid being fired by Trump. Which suggests this Project Veritas campaign was yet another bottomless pit for conservative donors’ money.

GOP States Slash Jobless Benefits

Republican cruelty is also bottomless. The Washington Post reports that more than one point nine million Americans in Alabama, Mississippi and fourteen other Republican-led states are set to have their unemployment checks slashed starting in June, as GOP governors seek to restrict jobless assistance in an effort to force more people to return to work. The cuts are likely to fall hardest on roughly one point four million people who benefit from stimulus

programs that Congress adopted at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, including one targeting those who either are self-employed or work on behalf of gig-economy companies such as Uber. Beginning next month, many of these workers are likely to receive no aid at all.

According to the Post, the looming cliff reflects an emerging campaign on the part of GOP leaders to combat what they consider a national worker shortage. Arizona and Ohio became the latest states yesterday to announce plans to scale back benefits out of a belief that the federal payments have deterred people from returning to their old positions. The reality is more complicated. The slowdown in hiring may instead reflect workers’ concern about their safety and difficulty obtaining child care, or their trouble finding suitable positions in hard-hit industries on top of mounting frustration about wages they consider too low. That means the loss of unemployment benefits over the next month threatens to inflict new financial harm on those who say they’re already struggling. Our sympathy to all those affected in red states.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Associated Press reports that Hamas sent a barrage of rockets into Israel yesterday as Israel pounded Gaza with more airstrikes and shells and called up nine thousand reservists who could be used to stage a ground invasion. And Reuters reports that individuals involved in the new eruption of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed may be targeted by an International Criminal Court investigation now under way. War criminals beware.

According to Bloomberg News, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo this week set an audacious new benchmark in her campaign to reduce car use: a ban on most vehicle traffic crossing the city center. The plan would stop through traffic from a large zone covering Paris’ core, to cut pollution and noise and free up more space for trees, bicycles and pedestrians. Très magnifique!

USA Today reports that a Marine Corps officer was arrested yesterday and charged with assaulting police officers at the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Major Christopher Warnagiris, forty, of Woodbridge, Virginia, is the first service member on active duty charged for his role in the deadly riot. Semper Fuggedaboutit!

The Washington Post reports that Joel Greenberg, a Florida politician who is central to the investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz for possible sex trafficking of a minor, signaled yesterday that he will plead guilty in his own federal case. It’s a a troubling development for the congressman as it suggests prosecutors have secured a potentially important witness against him. Too bad for Gaetz that Trump pardon fell through.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 14, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli government officials vowed to continue their military attacks on Gaza as mob violence consumed the streets. As international leaders call for peace, the United States is sending a special envoy, for what it’s worth.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is trying to flip the script on free trade deals. It’s invoked a special provision to protect worker rights at a General Motors factory in Mexico.

And lastly, Bernie Sanders is taking on the biggest wasters of taxpayer money in the country: US military contractors. And just to drive the message home, he’s quoting a Republican president while doing it.

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Here’s an ominous phrase, if there ever was one. The Guardian reports that Israel will not stop its military operation in Gaza until it achieves what the country’s defense minister called, "complete quiet.". Airstrikes and rocket fire continued throughout the day yesterday. Sirens sounded every few minutes in communities close to the border. The Israeli military said it had killed four senior Hamas commanders and a dozen more Hamas operatives in a series of strikes. Hamas’s armed wing later confirmed the death of a senior commander and a number of fighters. After the Israeli military operation, Hamas fired fifty rockets towards Ashdod, a city close to the Gaza border. A spokesperson for the Israeli army said he expected the fighting to intensify. Gaza’s death toll has risen to fifty three, including fourteen children. More than three hundred people have been wounded. Six Israeli civilians, including two children, have been killed by rocket fire and dozens wounded.

According to Al-Jazeera, violence between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli Jews has resumed. In Bat Yam, a Tel Aviv suburb, a group of black-clad Israelis smashed the windows of an Arab-owned ice cream shop. Israeli ultranationalists could be seen chanting Death to Arabs! on live television.

Speaking to reporters, President Joe Biden said he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday. Biden said he hopes and expects the violence to end soon, but also said Israel has a right to defend itself. Which means the violence will continue, as promised.

US Acts On Worker Rights In Mexico

Can trade agreements be used for good instead of mere greed? The Washington Post reports that, in the first action of its kind, the Biden administration has formally asked the Mexican government to investigate reports of serious violations of worker rights at a General Motors plant in central Mexico. The move marks the first use of an innovative labor rights provision in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which took effect last year. It also represents the first time the US government has acted on its own to raise labor concerns under any trade agreement, though Washington has previously done so in response to complaints lodged by unions. Yesterday’s action showcased the administration’s aim to deliver a worker-centered trade policy, according to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. At the issue is whether workers at the GM facility, which exports pickup trucks to the United States, are being denied their right to organize and to bargain collectively.

The Post reports that under a 2019 Mexican labor law, workers must vote to reaffirm or reject existing contracts negotiated by company-controlled unions. Voting at the Silao plant began last month. But amid reports that the company-controlled union was tampering with ballots, the Mexican government intervened to halt the vote. The Labor Ministry now will organize a second vote without the union’s direct involvement. If the review finds that workers’ rights have been violated, Mexico and the US will discuss potential remedies. Here’s a suggestion: let the workers run the factory. Surely they know it best.

Sanders Lambastes Pentagon Contractors

This tale of a wholesome bipartisan effort to exercise fiscal responsibility comes from the Washington Post. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says he will use his powerful new position atop the Senate Budget Committee to exercise tougher oversight over the United States’ national security establishment, including defense contracts. In an interview with the Post, Sanders criticized the Pentagon for failing to keep track of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. Citing former president Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the military industrial

complex, he excoriated defense agencies over hundreds of billions of dollars in cost overruns on programs. And he said defense conglomerates, as taxpayer-funded entities, should face the same standard of accountability as their government counterparts. Sanders said, "We have a very powerful military industrial complex, and I don’t think they get the scrutiny that they deserve."

In letters signed jointly with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and obtained by the Post, Sanders asked executives from the top three defense contractors – Lockheed, Boeing and Raytheon – to attend a budget hearing yesterday focused on waste, fraud and abuse in the defense sector. All three companies declined to make their executives available. Lockheed Martin got $35.2 billion from taxpayers last year. That’s more than many federal agencies. Sanders has pointed to the soaring salaries of executives at defense firms and posited that spending far surpasses what the US needs to defend itself. Is it too much to ask these war profiteers to justify their existence before Congress? Apparently so!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

According to the Associated Press, US health advisers endorsed use of Pfizer’s Covid- 19 vaccine in kids as young as twelve yesterday. The American Academy of Pediatrics also urged that kids twelve and older get the Pfizer vaccine – and agreed with federal advisers that it’s fine to give more than one vaccine at the same time. Double ’em up, why not?

CBS News reports that a judge in the Derek Chauvin case has found aggravating factors exist that would allow for a longer sentence than Minnesota sentencing guidelines suggest. In this case, that means longer than ten years. The fired officer will face sentencing next month for the murder of George Floyd. One aggravating factor: Chauvin acted with particular cruelty. We know, we saw.

The New York Times reports that, in a display of loyalty to Donald Trump, Republicans moved to purge Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from House leadership yesterday. The action came during a raucous closed-door meeting that lasted just fifteen minutes. Cheney made a defiant final speech, warning that Republicans would follow Trump to their destruction. She got booed.

The AP reports that Americans can now apply for $50 off their monthly internet bill as part of an emergency government program to keep people connected. The $3.2 billion program is part of the $900 billion December pandemic-relief package. See Get Emergency Broadband Dot Org to find out if you qualify. You can get the discount even if you owe your cable company money. Win!

AM QUICKIE - MAY 13, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli forces continue to escalate violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, destroying a 13-story residential building with airstrikes, prompting a fresh wave of rocket fire from Hamas.

Meanwhile, a federal judge dismissed the NRA’s bankruptcy plea in court, dealing another blow to the corrupt gun-rights lobbying group.

And lastly, prosecutors rule that the Atlanta spa shootings in March were hate crimes, and that they will seek the death penalty for the perpetrator.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The violence in Israel’s Gaza strip continued this week, as Israeli forces destroyed at least one 13-story residential apartment building in an airstrike. Widespread protests continued across the country, and Hamas launched a retaliatory wave of rocket attacks against the city of Tel Aviv.

The country appears to be on the brink of war.

With all the chaos, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the power dynamics between the two sides have not changed.

Hamas’s rocket attacks forced many Israeli residents into bomb shelters and killed at least three people.

But the Palestinian residents of Gaza and the West Bank, by and large, don’t have the luxury of bomb shelters. Instead, they’ve been subjected to airstrike after airstrike, on top of the heavy police persecution at protests elsewhere in the country.

The Palestinian Authority said Israel’s airstrikes had killed at least 30 people, including 10 children, and injured over 200 others.

What this shows us is that the violence is very clearly not the same on both sides. The conflict began over a legal effort by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinians from their homes, inspiring protests at a holy mosque during the end of Ramadan. In response, Israeli police attacked the mosque, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters and worshipers alike.

But the status quo in Israel is backed by the most powerful government on Earth.

Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki noted her “serious concern” for the situation on Tuesday, but mentioned that the U.S. thought Hamas’s rocket attacks were “unacceptable.”

She didn’t have much to say about the airstrikes. And so it goes.

Judge Tosses NRA's Bankruptcy Filing

It’s always refreshing to hear bad news about the NRA, and the past few months have been bountiful on that front.

On Tuesday, a federal judge threw out the gun rights organization’s petition for bankruptcy, which it filed in January in an attempt to circumvent a massive corruption investigation.

New York AG Tish James is leading that investigation, which could essentially shut down the group due to a whole bunch of fishy spending and shadiness. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre is at the center of most of that mess, and clearly thought that declaring bankruptcy would help him skate away from some of the things James is going to try to nail him on, and protect his ass from the group’s board of directors.

In short, it didn’t work.

Dallas federal court judge Harlin D. Hale, in his decision, agreed with James’s office that this wasn’t how bankruptcy courts were meant to be used. It looks likely that the NRA’s board of directors won’t be pleased either, considering LaPierre has spent $5 million on bankruptcy-related expenses and a whopping $72.6 million in outside legal fees over the past three years.

But really, this all couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of bloodthirst amoral people. We wish LaPierre all the best in wriggling out of this jam.

GA Prosecutors Call Atlanta Shooting Hate Crime

Prosecutors will seek hate crime charges in the case against the Atlanta Spa shooter, who killed eight people, the majority of whom were Asian women. They will also seek the death penalty for the shooter’s crimes.

The death penalty doesn’t bring justice, only more death, but the shooter’s case will still be a test of how Georgia’s new hate crime legislation will be applied.

The Atlanta attacks came during a time of increased fear among the Asian-American community after many people of Asian descent were targeted with beatings and other violence across the country.

Prosecutors on Tuesday said that the shooter, Robert Aaron Long, chose his victims because of their quote “actual or perceived race, national origin, sex, and gender.” endquote. Hate crime penalties would add to Long’s sentence if the jury convicts him of murder.

At the time, there was fierce debate over the shooter’s motive, and his lawyers will surely try to argue that the crimes were not racially motivated.

Still, it’s hard to make that case when so many of his victims came from the same demographic: women who came to this country to make a better life, and died to a uniquely American form of violence.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Ghislane Maxwell, the former girlfriend of international pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, will go on trial on November 29. Maxwell is charged with sex trafficking a minor, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.

A group of hackers who infiltrated the Washington D.C. police department last week released more internal personnel files, in a continuing ransomware attack. The group is threatening to reveal more confidential information if it doesn’t get paid.

Liz Cheney took to the House Floor to once again defiantly stand against Trumpism, ahead of her expected ouster from the GOP leadership tomorrow. Remember, Cheney really doesn’t like this new conservatism -- she only likes the old conservatism, which was basically the same thing but less rude.

Arizona’s GOP hopped on the voter suppression bandwagon, passing a law on Tuesday that will strike people from the automatic list to receive an early voting mail-in ballot if they don’t vote every two years.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 12, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli military and police forces continued their campaign of violence against Palestinians on Monday, killing somewhere around 20 people, including 9 children, after responding to sporadic rocket fire with several airstrikes.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden announces some big changes to the country’s pandemic unemployment system, shifting the balance of power right back into the hands of the nation’s bosses.

And lastly, some good news: the Biden administration rolls back a Trump era policy and ensures that health care providers cannot discriminate against transgender patients.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Violence continues across Palestine and Israel as the Israeli military launched airstrikes on Monday, reportedly killing as many as 20 people, including nine children.

Israel launched devastating airstrikes on the Gaza strip in retailiation for a flurry of ineffective rocket fire by Hamas forces, following days of police violence against Palestinian protesters.

The airstrikes came after Hamas launched 7 rockets. They would eventually launch more than 150, lightly injuring one Israeli, according to government officials. In retaliation, Israel killed nine children and 11 other people, according to Palestinian officials.

This lopsided violence is nothing new, and it’s worth noting that Hamas’s rocket attacks came after days of police violence on protesters and peaceful worshipers alike at one of Islam’s most holy sites.

Israeli police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, injuring hundreds of people since they first began cracking down on protests on Friday night.

On Monday, right-wing Israelis contributed to the tensions by staging marches through Palestinian neighborhoods.

The current violence stems from a legal effort by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem’s Old city, but has ballooned into a country-wide campaign of violence. And as usual, only one side wields the vast majority of bombs, guns, and deadly force, while the other side is forced to mourn more deaths.

Biden Moves to Restrict Unemployment

On Monday, President Joe Biden directed the Department of labor to work with states to reinstate the work search requirements for unemployment benefits.

In case you’re not familiar with how things were, during the pandemic the government was guaranteeing that people would receive some base level of unemployment benefits whether or not they were actively looking for a job.

This was, of course, a massive boon to many families who simply couldn’t find work or couldn’t work, for all the reasons that should be evident in a massive global pandemic. It also gave lower-wage workers, particularly in service jobs, some leverage against employers who had underpaid and overworked them for years. Republicans hate this arrangement and blamed it for causing a so-called labor shortage, which of course could be solved simply by offering higher wages.

But on Monday, Biden announced that the era of kinder government benefits was ending. He said, “We’re going to make it clear that anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits.”

That sounds somewhat reasonable on paper, but what it also means is that people will basically be forced into the first job they get offered or else lose their way to pay rent. That’s a gift to employers who are looking to reinstate the status quo.

29 states have already gone back to the job search requirements that Biden was talking about, but now the final 21 will have to join them.

That means things are going to get that much harder for families who were depending on, or even, dare we say it, benefitting from the increased government assistance during the pandemic.

Trump-Era Trans Discrimination Lifted

However, things weren’t all bad on the Biden front today. Wherever you look, there’s always a barbaric Trump policy to overturn, and today was no different.

The Biden Administration announced on Monday that the Department of Health and Human Services will once again prohibit federally-funded health care organizations from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.

This reversed a Trump-era policy that, well, said the opposite, specifically saying that the 2010 affordable care act’s anti-discrimination policies didn’t protect trans people.

The Trump administration’s policies weren’t rooted in anything other than bigotry, so this is a pretty easy fix for the Biden administration -- it’s honestly surprising that it took this long.

Still, there’s some work to go to fully untangle them. The New York Times reported that the Biden Administration is still working to hash out formal provisions and new rules, such as whether the provisions apply to health insurers as well as health care providers.

This is all fine print, and of course that’s where a lot of people fall through the cracks. But with some luck and good legal work, the decision should improve some trans peoples’ access to healthcare.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The FDA officially authorized the Pfizer covid vaccine for use in children aged 12 to 15, which means another key demographic of school-age kids can get the jab. Schools have lagged behind in reopening plans, mainly due to the massive hurdles of making sure everyone is safe, and this will be a major help in getting middle and high schoolers back in the classroom.

NBC announced that it will not air the 2022 Golden Globes ceremony, after an L.A. Times investigation and other reports found that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had a systemic lack of diversity and other questionable labor practices.

The FBI blamed a new hacking group named DarkSide for the massive ransomware attack that took down the Colonial Pipeline on the East Coast this weekend, and vowed to quote “disrupt and prosecute” the group from making future attacks.

The Texas GOP is preparing for an all-out onslaught on voting rights, pushing through a bill that severely restricts access that could get signed into law as early as this week. Texas’s monstrous governor Greg Abbott has already said he’s excited to sign it, which should make it pretty clear what it would do.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 11, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Israeli police brutally cracked down on protests over the weekend, further persecuting a Palestinian community already threatened by Israeli settlers trying to forcibly evict them from their homes.

Meanwhile, the GOP is once again in turmoil, as House leaders move to bench Liz Cheney for criticizing her own party’s entertainment of Donald Trump’s idiotic election conspiracies.

And lastly, a new report reveals that the Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Washington Post journalists’ phone records, and even sought to get their emails.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Israeli police have been running rampant throughout the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, savaging protesters and bystanders alike on Friday and Saturday nights.

The recent violence came in response to Palestinian protests over forced evictions sought by Israeli settlers. The first clash came on Friday, which Israeli police stormed a protest at the Al-Aqsa [AL-AKSA] Mosque, catching thousands of bystanders in the melee while they were at their evening prayers.

The mosque is a huge complex. It’s the third most holy site in the world for Muslims, and thousands of people were inside worshipping the final Friday of Ramadan when police stormed in. At least 205 people were injured.

On Saturday night, Police cracked down on protests across the city, injuring at least 90 protesters, including several children, according to Al Jazeera. Israeli police claim 17 of their officers have been injured.

Sunday night was more subdued, but tensions are expected to rise again on Monday, which is known as Jerusalem Day to Israelis to celebrate occupation and later annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967. Al Jazeera reports that right-wing Israelis are expected to march through Palestinian neighborhoods, which will surely do the opposite of calm things down.

GOP Moves to Oust Cheney

House Republicans are once again squabbling amongst themselves, this time over -- you guessed it -- loyalty to former President Donald Trump.

This time it’s Liz Cheney in the hot seat. Cheney has been openly critical of her party’s support of Trump’s stolen election theories, saying that they are quote “poisoning our democratic system.” endquote.

In response, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News on Sunday that he supports removing Cheney from her post. She’s currently the number 3 republican in the House and the party’s highest-ranking woman. McCarthy wants to replace her with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has been a staunch Trump loyalist.

Listen, we’re not going to waste any tears over Cheney, the daughter of the most famous Dick to ever hold office, but it is telling that the House GOP still isn’t humoring any critiques of Trump.

According to AP, McCarthy is generally betting that there’s no way the GOP can take back the house in 2022 without running on a strictly pro-Trump line. To be fair, he’s probably right: Trumpism is basically all the GOP has left, but it’s still a powerful ideology.

And because Trump himself is such a sensitive little baby, McCarthy knows he’s got to shut down any criticism well before those midterms hit. After all, we know that Trump’s down there in Mar a Lago glued to the TV, just waiting for people to say his name.

Trump DOJ Snagged Reporter's Cell Records

phone records of some of their journalists while they were reporting on Trump’s connections with Russia in early 2017.

According to the Post, the Justice department sent out letters to the reporters involved on May 3 of this year telling them that they’d had their phone records pulled. A Justice Department spokesperson, in some complicated legalese, effectively admitted that they were trying to figure out who had leaked to the Post during that reporting.

The Justice Department got their hands on some combination of home, cell, and work phone records from three reporters who were involved in Trump Russia reporting. They also got a court order for non-content email records, but never got the actual records themselves.

This isn’t a new thing for the Justice Department, but it is rare and troubling. According to the New York Times, the specific reporting the Justice Department was seeking had to deal with media leaks that infuriated Donald Trump.

Bill Barr was in charge of the DOJ at the time, so you can imagine how quickly he sprang to do Trump’s bidding.

Trump wasn’t the first president to aggressively pursue leakers, of course: Obama did it before him. It remains to be seen how hard Biden will crack down on reporters and their sources when these issues come before him.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The longest gas pipeline in the U.S. was forced to shut down on Friday after a cyberattack. In a vaguely worded statement, the company that owns the 5500 mile Colonial Pipeline said that it had to shut down to contain the breach, which sounds ominous. Newest reports say it may be shut for days, which could impact the fuel supply on the East Coast.

Afghanistan is still in mourning after a horrific triple bombing outside of a girls’ school in Kabul killed at least 50 people, painting an ominous picture of what the country’s future will look like after decades of U.S. occupation and a newly-resurgent Taliban.

Bo, the Portugese Water Dog adopted by the Obamas in 2009, died at the age of 12. Barack Obama said in a statement on Twitter that Bo “had a big bark but no bite,” which could be interpreted as a dig at Joe Biden’s bitey German Shepherd Major. Who knows!

New York Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang came out strongly against any notion of defunding the NYPD on Sunday, after a shooting in Times Square left three people, including a child, injured. The current number 2 in the polls, Eric Adams, is a former NYPD officer who also opposes that platform, so the nation’s biggest city probably won’t get much in the way of police reform anytime soon.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 10, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Florida has become the latest state to pass Republican legislation making it harder for people to vote. Voter advocacy groups are already challenging the new law in court.

Meanwhile, Brazilian police committed a massacre in one of Rio’s largest favelas. At least twenty five people were killed in what police described as a campaign to ensure public safety.

And lastly, the United States is reportedly turning a corner in the pandemic. Public health experts are expressing cautious optimism about declining infection numbers, but they also warn against letting our guard down too soon.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This dispatch from the Republican war on democracy comes from the Associated Press. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a major rewrite of Florida’s elections law yesterday, tightening rules around drop boxes and mail-in voting. Critics say the changes will make it harder for voters, particularly the elderly and people of color, to cast ballots. It’s the latest victory in the nationwide push by Republicans to restrict access to the polls. The campaign has been fueled by Donald Trump’s false claim that his reelection was stolen from him. Florida’s Republican legislators passed this law – without a single Democratic vote – even though they acknowledged there were no signs of fraud in the state.

The AP reports that DeSantis, widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate, clearly saw the political advantage in fighting for what his party describes as election integrity. In an extraordinary move, he staged his bill-signing live on Fox and Friends, with no other media outlets allowed. Elections supervisors did not ask for the changes, warning that some of the new rules may prove cumbersome. Voter advocates assailed the law as a blatant attempt to impede access to the polls so Republicans might retain an advantage. Patricia Brigham, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, called the law despicable, undemocratic, unconstitutional, and un-American. The league joined the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans and others in assailing the new law in a federal lawsuit filed minutes after the signing. May the courts strike it down!

Rio Police Commit Massacre

The news from Brazil is ugly. The Guardian reports that at least twenty five people have been killed after heavily armed police stormed one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas in pursuit of drug traffickers. Activists called it one of the deadliest raids in the city’s history. About two hundred members of Rio’s civil police launched their incursion into Jacarezinho (Haca-ray-zeenho) in the early hours yesterday, sprinting into the vast redbrick community as a bullet-proof helicopter circled overhead with snipers poised on each side. By lunchtime at least twenty five people were reported dead, including a drug squad officer who was shot in the head. Police and local media described the other victims as suspects but offered no immediate evidence for that claim.

Photographs and videos taken by residents and shared with the Guardian showed bloodied corpses splayed out in the favela’s narrow alleyways and beside the heavily polluted river from which Jacarezinho takes its name. Police officials and their cheerleaders in Rio’s tabloid press celebrated the mission as an essential attack on the drug gangs who have for decades used the favelas as their bases. But there was outrage from human rights activists and public security specialists as the scale of the carnage became clear. Pedro Paulo Santos Silva, a researcher from Rio’s Centre for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship, said, " It’s extermination – there’s no other way to describe it. This was a massacre." The least we can do is bear witness.

US Pandemic Case Numbers Falling

Good news! The New York Times reports that after weeks of coronavirus patients flooding emergency rooms in Michigan, the worst Covid-19 hot spot in the nation, hospitalizations are finally falling. On some recent days, entire states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia, have reported zero new deaths. And in New York and Chicago, officials have vowed to fully reopen in the coming weeks. Americans have entered a new, hopeful phase of the pandemic. Local officials have joined in the newfound optimism, rapidly loosening restrictions. Public health experts remain cautious. But they said that while they still expect surges in the coming weeks, they do not think they will reach past peaks. The nation is recording about forty nine thousand new cases a day, the lowest number since October.

Hospitalizations have plateaued at around forty thousand, a similar level as the early fall. Nationwide, deaths are hovering around seven hundred a day, down from a peak of more than three thousand in January.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post says the pandemic could be at least temporarily throttled by July if the vast majority of people get vaccinated and continue with precautions. That’s according to a strikingly optimistic paper released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she expects the current infection numbers to continue their recent decline. She also warned against complacency. She said, "If we’re not humble at this point, we have a problem." And remember, it’s not over until it’s over everywhere.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Washington Post reports that months after the Trump administration weakened the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, allowing industry and individuals to kill any number of birds, the Biden administration proposed a new rule that would revoke that change. The proposal announced by the Interior Department yesterday would restore protections that governed accidental killings of birds. Oil companies are mad, so you know it’s good.

According to CBS News, refusing to wear a mask or other unruly behavior on an airplane has gotten more than four thousand people banned by US airlines over the past year. Airlines have referred more than thirteen hundred passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration for unruly behavior since February, after the agency announced a zero- tolerance policy. Is it really that hard to keep your mask on?

The New York Times reports that New York City is launching a new program to provide funding to artists for public works. Officials said the city will spend $25 million on the program, called the City Artist Corps. It’s expected to create jobs for more than fifteen hundred artists. Color us excited.

Gizmodo reports that informants working for the FBI committed more than nine thousand six hundred crimes under the bureau’s supervision during Donald Trump’s first two years in office. That’s according to unclassified government reports known as Otherwise

Illegal Activity reports, which detail the number of crimes committed by what the bureau calls confidential human sources. Want to break the law? Get a cop’s permission first!

MAY 7, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn