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  • Sept 18, 2020: Another Trump Assault Claim
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    Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    Donald Trump faces yet another claim that he sexually assaulted a woman. His accuser says she wants her daughters to know that it’s not okay to treat women the way Trump does.

    Meanwhile, it turns out the United States Postal Service had a plan to send free masks to every home address in the country. But guess who put the kibosh on that idea.

    And lastly, is Attorney General Bill Barr climbing down into the bunker with Trump? He’s now openly at odds with Justice Department prosecutors and the head of the FBI

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Another Trump assault claim

    Another woman has come forward with an allegation of sexual assault by Donald Trump. Amy Dorris told the Guardian that Trump assaulted her when she was twenty four years old and he fifty one, and married to his second wife, Marla Maples. The assault allegedly took place outside the bathroom in Trump’s VIP box at the US Open tournament in New York. It was September 5th, 1997.

    Dorris had been invited there by her boyfriend at the time, who was in real estate and friendly with Trump. When she went to the bathroom to adjust her contact lenses, Trump followed her and waited outside. She told the Guardian that Trump QUOTE shoved his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him off. And then that’s when his grip became tighter and his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything. I was in his grip, and I couldn’t get out of it ENDQUOTE. She added that she pushed Trump’s tongue out of her mouth with her teeth, and may have hurt his tongue.

    Dorris provided the Guardian with evidence to support her account, including her ticket to the US Open and six photos showing her with Trump over several days in New York. The newspaper says her account was also corroborated by several people she confided in... They include a friend in New York and Dorris’s mother, both of whom she called immediately after the alleged incident, as well as a therapist and friends she spoke to in the years since.

    Dorris now lives in Florida. She is 48 and a mother to twin daughters. It was for their benefit she said she decided to come forward now. Trump denied the assault through his lawyers.

    USPS abandoned mask program

    A huge trove of US Postal Service documents obtained by the Washington Post shows that the agency was ready to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in a big way – but then didn’t. In April, the documents show, USPS leaders prepared a news release announcing plans to distribute six hundred and fifty million facemasks. That’s five masks for every household in the country. For free. And the plan would have ensured they got sent to the hardest-hit areas first. But Trump’s White House nixed that helpful idea, as it is wont to do.

    The internal documents came to light thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by a watchdog group called American Oversight, which shared them with the Post. The info-haul comprised nearly ten thousand pages of emails, legal memos, presentations and other documents. The papers mostly span March and April, before Trump’s flunkie Louis DeJoy took over the Postal Service.

    The documents also show tense negotiations with Amazon; internal appeals by mail carriers who were fearful of exposure to the coronavirus; and attempts at partisan subterfuge by the Republican Party. But the abortive plan to distribute masks by mail took all the headlines yesterday. One administration official told the Post that there was concern from the White House Domestic Policy Council and vice president Mike Pence’s office that mailing out masks might create a panic. These absolute schmucks!

    "God-awful" Barr remarks

    There are some signs lately that Trump’s key allies and enablers, among them Attorney General Bill Barr, are increasingly isolated. For instance, Federal Bureau of Investigation director Chris Wray testified to the House Homeland Security Committee yesterday, and directly contradicted Barr on a matter of fact. Barr has portrayed Antifa as a dangerous extremist group. But when asked about it under oath, Wray said Antifa was QUOTE not a group or an organization — it’s a movement or an ideology ENDQUOTE. He added that racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists were responsible for the most lethal

    attacks in recent years, with white supremacists making up the largest portion of those killings, NBC News reported.

    Barr was under fire yesterday for his comments equating pandemic mask mandates to slavery. House Majority Whip James Clyburn yesterday said Barr’s comparison was QUOTE the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful thing I've ever heard ENDQUOTE. And Barr lashed out at his own staff this week, comparing some to preschoolers and likening his own Justice Department to a trade association for federal prosecutors. He made those comments in a speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan on Wednesday.

    Another sign of White House allies adopting a bunker mentality: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was a no-show at yesterday’s House hearings. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Michigan, said Wolf’s decision to ignore a subpoena should appall every member of Congress.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    Graduate students at the University of Michigan voted to end their nine-day strike and returned to classes yesterday. University administrators this week sued the Graduate Employees’ Organization over the strike; the union represents about two thousands students who teach classes or assist faculty. Per the Associated Press, the union says it achieved critical progress on childcare options, coronavirus testing and concerns about campus police.

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday knocked the Green Party presidential ticket off the ballot, on the grounds that the candidates did not submit signed filing papers in person, as required by state rules. The decision means election officials can resume preparing ballots for delivery to voters. In separate rulings favoring Democrats, the court allowed for voters to submit ballots via a drop box in addition to the Postal Service, and partially blocked a Republican plan for partisan poll watchers.

    During anti-Trump protests in Washington, DC, in early June, the military considered deploying an experimental heat ray against peaceful crowds. The news emerged via the Washington Post yesterday thanks to a whistleblower in the DC National Guard, Major Adam

    DeMarco, who testified to Congress in July. The weapon, called the Active Denial System, was reportedly not used in Iraq or Afghanistan on account of ethical and safety concerns.

    The Financial Times reported this week that the king of Thailand has built up a large fleet of thirty-eight helicopters and airplanes, including four fighter jets. The king is a billionaire who spends a lot of time at his estate in Germany. The revelation comes as student protesters and opposition politicians grow bolder about challenging the increasingly unpopular monarchy, which is protected by lese majeste (LESS MAJ-ESS-TAY) laws banning criticism. It’s unclear why the king of Thailand needs his own private air force. Maybe, like Elon Musk, he just really hates traffic.

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

    Sept 18, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Corey Pein

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 17, 2020: Democrats Demand Hysterectomies Investigation
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    Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    More details emerged about forced hysterectomies at a prison for immigrants in Georgia. At least seventeen women may have been subjected to the procedures by one doctor, though the full scope is yet to be revealed.

    Meanwhile, low-income students are giving up on college as a result of the pandemic. Experts fear a new lost generation in higher education.

    And lastly, there were some big wins for progressive candidates in Delaware this week. A social worker won an upset victory over a forty-year incumbent in the state senate.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Democrats demand hysterectomies investigation

    New information emerged yesterday regarding the unsettling account of forced hysterectomies at a for-profit immigration detention center in Ocilla, Georgia. Washington State Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal released a statement after meeting attorneys for the women who were subjected to the sterilization procedure.

    Jayapal said QUOTE It has become clear that the initial reports are likely part of a horrific pattern of conduct. There may be, at minimum, seventeen women who were subjected to unnecessary procedures from just one doctor, often without appropriate consent or knowledge, and with the clear intention of sterilization ENDQUOTE. Jayapal added that it's possible there are similar cases for individuals who were already deported.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also demanded an investigation yesterday, calling upon the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General to inquire into what she called QUOTE a staggering abuse of human rights ENDQUOTE. More than one hundred and sixty Democrats signed a letter demanding that the I.G. investigation begin immediately.

    In the meantime, other details about what has been happening at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility emerged from Jayapal’s preliminary Congressional investigation, which she pledged to continue. As Jayapal said:

    One woman, who was nearly deported, consulted the doctor simply about her menstrual cycle. She was put under for what she was told would be a simple procedure, only to wake up and find that the doctor had removed part of her reproductive organs without her knowledge or consent.

    Another woman, already deported, apparently went in to see the doctor for a simple condition related to diabetes and ended up having gynecological surgery. Two additional women apparently were shackled to the bed, reported to have had surgical procedures including a hysterectomy.

    The new details add substance to the whistleblower account we told you about yesterday. All information has so far come through attorneys for the women who have been victimized, but the public hasn’t yet heard from those women directly. Nor have we seen any documents or other evidence about the nature and scope of the procedures. It will take time to get all the answers, but we haven’t heard the last on this story, that’s for sure.

    Poorer students dropping college

    Across the country, low-income students are dropping out of college. Others are making the decision not to enroll at all. According to the Washington Post, some one hundred thousand fewer high school seniors completed financial aid applications this year.

    What’s more, an August survey by the US Census found that students from families annual with incomes under seventy five thousand dollars are nearly twice as likely to cancel all their plans to take classes this fall, compared to students from families with incomes over one hundred thousand dollars. And tuition deposits are down down eight point four percent among families making less than sixty thousand dollars a year. Enrollment trends so far show especially steep drops among Black students and rural white students. While some students are adapting to the situation by applying to lower-cost colleges, enrollment at community colleges seems to be hard hit.

    The drop in enrollment is unique to the pandemic, the Post says. During the 2008 Great Recession, college enrollment grew, as is typical during economic downturns. Bill DeBaun, data director for the National College Attainment Network, said the ultimate fear is this could be a lost generation of low-income students. A number of students told the Post they couldn’t justify the expense of full tuition in order to take online classes, without the benefits of college attendance such as access to a library and other facilities.

    Progressive upset in Delaware

    Political primary season is over. And there were some stunning results this week in Delaware’s state primary, which concluded on Tuesday.

    In the thirteenth district, social worker Marie Pinkney, a political newcomer running on a progressive platform, defeated the powerful and long-serving Senate President Pro Tem David McBride. According to the Associated Press, McBridge joined the Delaware state senate in 1980 and hadn’t faced a primary challenger since 1986. Pinkney advances to face Republican Alexander Homich in the general election. Pinkney was one of four Delaware candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party to win seats this week. The others were Larry Lambert in House District Seven, Eric Morrison in House District Twenty-Seven, Madinah Wilson-Anton in House District Twenty-Six, and Shané (SHAW-NEIGH) Darby for Wilmington City Council district two. All minus Morrison are people of color.

    There was another result worth mentioning: Lauren Witzke, another Q-Anon kook, won the US Senate Republican primary, and will challenge incumbent Democrat Chris Coons in November. According to the Daily Beast, Witzke has also endorsed the idea of Trump becoming a lifelong king of the United States, and said she believes that the earth is flat. Fortunately, Coons is favored.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    Hurricane Sally, a storm that meterologists said seemed to come out of nowhere, slammed Florida and Alabama yesterday. It was downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall, but it still brought massive and destructive flooding. Georgia and South Carolina are in line to be hit by the center of the storm today. Batten your hatches, folks.

    Attorney General Bill Barr last week suggested to federal prosecutors that they might charge some protesters with sedition – that is, the crime of conspiring to overthrow the US

    government. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news yesterday, as well as the fact that some federal prosecutors were taken aback by Barr’s suggestion. As well they should be!

    Michael Caputo, the Health and Human Services spokesman who posted an unhinged Facebook Live rant about left-wing insurrectioninsts in his department and called upon Trump supporters to stock up on ammunition, will be taking a leave of absence. According to the New York Times, Centers for Disease Control director Robert Redfield told a Senate panel yesterday that he was deeply saddened by Caputo’s comments and said his remarks about government scientists committing sedition were false and offensive. To say the least.

    Decolonization news: the country of Barbados announced it would remove England’s Queen Elizabeth the Second as its head of state. The move toward full sovereignty will take effect next November, when Barbados celebrates fifty-five years of independence. Per CBS News, both Buckingham Palace and the British Foreign Office said the matter is up to Barbados, which, historically speaking, is a big step forward for the Brits.

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

    Sept 1, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Corey Pein

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 16, 2020: Breonna Taylor's Family Wins Settlement
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    Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    A shocking whistleblower complaint reveals that an ICE detention facility has been performing a staggering number of hysterectomies on immigrant women, effectively practicing eugenics on a vulnerable population in the government’s care.

    Meanwhile, the city of Louisville, Kentucky settles with the family of Breonna Taylor, who will receive $12 million. But there’s not dollar price on death, and her killers have yet to face justice.

    And lastly, Israel signs two landmark agreements to normalize relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. But the newfound cooperation will do little to change the suffering of the Palestinian people.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Eugenics at ICE Facility

    A new whistleblower complaint filed Monday reveals one of the most depraved practices normalized by this country’s barbaric immigration system.

    The complaint specifically names the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, which houses ICE detainees but is run by a private prison company. It was filed on behalf of several detained immigrants as well as a nurse, named Dawn Wooten, and has multiple women alleging that hysterectomies were overly frequent among detainees. One woman said she’d met five other women who had hysterectomies while being detained in a two-month period between October and December in 2019.

    What’s worse, the woman told a Georgia nonprofit that the inmates were often sent to see one particular gynecologist outside of the prison.

    She said quote: “When I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp. It was like they’re experimenting with their bodies.” endquote.

    The complaint phrases these incidents as quote “jarring medical neglect.” But what it easily sounds like to a layperson is straight-up eugenics. A hysterectomie is major, life altering surgery that permanently removes a woman’s ability to have children -- and in some cases, the complaint alleges that women weren’t even sure why they were having the procedure, according to Wooten, the Irwin nurse who helped file the complaint. She said quote:

    “We’ve questioned among ourselves, like, goodness, he’s taking everybody’s stuff out. That’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector. Everybody he sees, he’s taking all their uteruses out or he’s taken their tubes out.” Endquote.

    The shocking reproductive violence in the complaint makes its other abuses seem almost mundane. According to Wooten, the inmates’ protections from coronavirus are woefully lacking as well. In a statement to Vice News, ICE deferred questions to the Office of the Inspector General, but said that quote “anonymous, unproven allegations” endquote should be treated with skepticism. It’s probably best to take that statement with a healthy dose of skepticism as well.

    Breonna Taylor's Family Wins Settlement

    The city of Louisville will pay a $12 million settlement to the family of Breonna Taylor, who was murdered in her bed by police officers.

    Money does not buy justice, but some kind of remuneration for the shocking crimes committed by the Louisville Police Department is the least the city can do.

    The agreement was reached quickly, at least in relative terms for this sort of wrongful death suit, coming six months after Taylor was killed, and after over three months of sustained protests throughout the city and country.

    The city was not required to acknowledge wrongdoing in the settlement. That says about all of it.

    If you needed more evidence that there’s no real justice here, take this: the New York Times reports that legal experts don’t think there will be any legal charges brought against the officers who killed Taylor. That decision comes from the fact that Taylor’s boyfriend fired a weapon at officers first, believing them to be home intruders, as they burst into the apartment in the dead of night.

    Lexington’s leadership has agreed to a series of police reforms, many of which are procedural fixes as to how warrants are approved and served. It’s pretty apparent that these are all just a bandaid, like the $12 million in blood money paid out to wash away the crime of another black life lost at the hands of police.

    Bahrain, UAE, Leave Palestinians High and Dry

    The Arab world is slowly normalizing its relationships with Israel. On Tuesday, representatives from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates signed agreements with Israel to establish diplomatic relations and other economic ties. These are the first such agreements Arab countries have made with Israel since Jordan in 1984, but what unites the two groups isn’t exactly an altruistic desire for peace.

    You can tell that immediately by the fact that the Palestinian people have been almost completely left out of the equation. The agreements only mention the long running apartheid system in Israel in brief, saying they wish for a quote “just, comprehensive and enduring resolution of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.” endquote.

    In response to the news, Palestinians and their supporters held a hundreds-strong rally outside of the White House. One demonstrator told Al Jazeera that the new accords were a quote “stab in the back” for the Palestinian people.

    The Trump administration is hailing this as a tremendous victory, of course. Given the relationships in the region, Saudi Arabia could eventually take similar steps, which would be a huge development. But what’s clear is that the wealthy rules of these Gulf states have decided that the economic gains of working with Israel far outweigh their desire to advocate for a just future for Palestinians.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    Donald Trump’s Justice Department is coming for John Bolton, and while it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, it still sets a dangerous precedent. The Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation as to whether Bolton’s recent book disclosed classified material.

    As his poll numbers with Latino Voter continue to slip, Joe Biden pulled out his cell phone and played a snippet of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” during a campaign event in Florida. That’s sure to get ‘em, Joe!

    The New York Times reports that the U.S. Military is pressing for new authority to drone strike terrorists in portions of eastern Kenya, which would mark a new expansion of the forever-growing, forever-lasting war zone we’re fighting in across the globe.

    The Delaware primary was Tuesday night, and though votes are still being counted as of script time, it looks like Sarah McBride will win the Democratic nomination for a State Senate seat in a safely-blue district, making her the country’s highest ranking openly transgender politician. McBride said quote: “My hope is that this result can help reinforce for a young kid trying to find their place in this world, here in Delaware or anywhere else in this country, that this democracy is big enough for them, too.”

    That’s it for the Majority Report’s AM quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show.

    Sept 16, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Jack Crosbie

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 15 2020: 'Blood on My Hands' Says Facebook Whistleblower
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    Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    An explosive internal memo obtained by Buzzfeed News shows the massive, destructive influence Facebook has had over politics and violent conflict in dozens of countries.

    Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Joe Biden trade barbs over the climate catastrophe, while the president Tweets that he wants to do a four-hour debate with his challenger on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Yep, it’s going to be a stupid kind of day, folks.

    And lastly, on that note, the stupidest man alive has struck again. A Daily Beast report shows that mega-moron provocateur Jacob Wohl hired an actor to play an FBI agent and pretend to raid his frequent co-conspirator Jack Burkman’s office.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Buzzfeed Catches Huge Facebook Scoop

    “I know that I have blood on my hands by now.” That’s what Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang wrote in her last-ever post on Facebook’s internal messageboard before she was fired.

    Zhang’s post was leaked to BuzzFeed news. The information it revealed is both horrifying and in the public interest.

    The main gist of the post deals with what Facebook calls “inauthentic activity” around politics and elections. Zhang wrote that her team detected widespread disinformation campaigns and fake account networks at work for various political causes in Honduras, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Spain, the United States and others.

    These cases influenced everything from elections to bloody revolutions and governmental responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them Facebook took action on, some of them they did not, because Zhang said her team was often forced to de-prioritize certain cases due to their own workload.

    Basically, the people in charge of making sure Facebook doesn’t ruin elections are overworked, and things are slipping through the cracks. Zhang wrote that Facebook leadership often didn’t care much about the democratic process in smaller companies, and only acted when she repeatedly raised the issue internally.

    All of this led to her leaving the company, and allegedly turning down a $64,000 severance package so that she wouldn’t have to sign a non-disparagment agreement, and could criticize the company publicly. Still, she specifically wrote that she didn’t want it to go public in the event that it undermined Facebook’s attempts to keep the 2020 election safe. But it’s pretty clear that the public deserves to know, largely because Facebook hasn’t been transparent at all about the stuff that it does catch.

    Biden, Trump... and Joe Rogan?

    The Trump and Biden campaigns continued their spat over the future of America in the dumbest possible way today: with verbal barbs and promises to go on the Joe Rogan podcast. That’s right everyone we’ve got an update from the dumbest timeline today.

    Here’s the scene. Trump once again has said quote “I don’t think science knows” endquote, in relation to the causes of the massive wildfires sweeping the west coast. This is stupid, because science does know: it’s decades of negligent policy that has enabled corporate interests to create a rapidly warming, drastically flammable ecosystem that bursts into flame at every possible opportunity.

    In response, Biden called Trump a quote “climate arsonist,” which means. Well. I’m not completely sure what it means. That Trump is responsible for climate change? Yes, true. That Trump is actively trying to enable the forces who have changed the climate? Also true. Ok, we figured out what it means.

    You’d almost be forgiven after all that for forgetting that Biden himself has been dragging his feet on climate change for years. Since winning the primary, he’s released a slightly more promising climate plan, but still has obstinately refused to outright denounce harmful practices like fracking.

    Anyway, all of this culminated in one of the dumbest toplines of the day. Podcaster extraordianer and or sentient stack of hardboiled eggs Joe Rogan offered to moderate a four-hour debate between Trump and Biden. Even better, Trump said he’d be in on Twitter. That means we could have a situation where the Biden campaign, who went after Bernie Sanders for agreeing to go on Rogan’s sometimes incoherent, occasionally bigoted podcast, agrees to do the exact thing to debate the always incoherent, always racist president.

    Personally I can think of much better podcasts to host a presidential debate.

    Worlds Stupidest Man At it Again

    In slightly lighter, somehow even dumber news, we have a new report on the activities of the stupidest grifters alive. We’re talking about Jacob Wohl, of course.

    Wohl, the famous boy-wonder behind such schemes as “Elizabeth Warren slept with a buff Marine” and “Robert Mueller did sexual assault while also appearing in court in a different state, defying the laws of space and time” is back with another scheme. This time, he staged a fake FBI raid on his scam-partner Jack Burkman’s apartment.

    The Daily Beast spoke to an actor who says he responded to a Craigslist ad and was paid $400 to wear an FBI windbreaker or shirt and act out a series of scenes inside Burkman’s apartment.

    Pictures and videos were then sent by a Twitter account under the name of Bev Donahue to various reporters. Donahue is suspected to be an alias for Wohl, who has used fake accounts on basically every social media service thus far.

    The most embarrassing part is that the Washington Post fell for it, reporting on the raid as if it was real. According to the Beast, Burkman was insinuating that high-level government officials were retaliating against him for his efforts to root out corruption in Washington. Right.

    The actions of Wohl and Burkman are usually so stupid that they’re harmless, and this case is no exception. But they’re noteworthy if only for the reason that it’s often incredibly hard to distinguish dangerous conspiracy theories from utterly farcical ones, which means that dreck like this often filters into real life politics through major movements like Qanon. One of Wohl’s frequent associates, Laura Loomer, recently won the GOP primary for a Florida cong

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    One more dispatch for WTF-World. Akon, the famous R&B singer, announced today that he is backing a $6 billion smart city in Senegal, called Akon City. Residents inside will use a cryptocurrency called Akoin. You could not make this up, unless you were Akon or his shadowy investor, who may very well be making this up.

    In slightly darker news, September 14 marked the 19th birthday of the War on Terror. Peace talks between the Taliban and Afghani government are currently underway in Qatar, proving that we’ve accomplished almost nothing but an enormous amount of pain.

    Astronomers announced something weird on Monday: they’d found potential signs of life on Venus, not Mars. Contrary to the dated cliche about gender binaries, the researchers did not find women hanging out on the inhospitable planet. Instead, they found traces of a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may be present. Never thought much of that cliche anyway.

    And finally, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that Governor Tom Wolfe’s coronavirus lockdown orders were unconstitutional, saying that quote “even in an emergency, the authority

    of government is not unfettered.” endquote It’s not too likely that this will have national implications, as the Supreme Court has upheld California restrictions on religious gatherings and many other courts have upheld similar rulings.

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

    Sept 15, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Jack Crosbie

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 14, 2020: Trump Calls Cop Killing 'Retribution'
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    07:55

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

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    Donald Trump said the police killing of a self-proclaimed Antifa member and suspected murderer was “retribution,” despite reports that the suspect was not threatening and did not fire at police before he was shot.

    Meanwhile, the west coast wildfires are driving air pollution off the charts, increasing the misery of people safe in their homes as well as the thousands of displaced evacuees.

    And lastly, the ambush shooting of two L.A. County Sheriff's Deputies has put the city on edge, as police responded by brutally arresting a clearly-identified journalist reporting on the event.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Trump Says Cop Killing Was "Retribution"

    Donald Trump added one final escalation to the politically fraught story of Michael Forest Reinoehl, a self-proclaimed anti-fascist who was suspected of the murder of a right-wing protester in Portland on August 29.

    Last week, Reinoehl was shot dead by federal agents who arrived ostensibly to arrest him. We discussed some of the particulars of this case on Friday: Reinoehl had previously admitted to the shooting of Trump supporter and far-right militant Aaron Danielson, claiming that the killing was in self defense. Police said their killing of Reinoehl was also justified, saying that he quote “produced a firearm” when confronted by officers. But a witness to the shooting told the Washington post that Reinoehl was just walking to his car, eating a gummy worm when officers arrived and shot him without announcing themselves first.

    In an interview with Fox News on Saturday Trump said QUOTE: “"This guy was a violent criminal, and the U.S. Marshals killed him. And I'll tell you something—that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution." ENDQUOTE

    This isn’t a surprising thing for the president to say, at this point. But let’s put it in a bit of a broader context. Earlier in the interview Trump noted that he urged federal agents to quote “go get him,” endquote, referring to Reinoehl. Federal agents did his bidding and gunned down Reinoehl in what were at best murky circumstances, at worst in complete cold blood.

    Compare this to, say, the arrest of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old militia member who killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was arrested peacefully and gently a day after the incident. What Trump is saying here is that the standard of justice applies differently to violent actors on the left and the right. Politically, Reinoehl was an enemy of the president. And

    Trump’s made it clear that he thinks his enemies deserve death at the hands of the state, no due process included.

    Smoke Chokes West

    The wildfires in the west are not letting up, but we’ve moved to a new phase of the disaster. With thousands displaced from their homes and at least 24 dead, even those who are still safe are dealing with the fallout from record-breaking, inescapable smoke pollution.

    The LA Times reports that ozone pollution levels spiked to their worst point since the mid 1990s this weekend in the city. Meanwhile, in Washington State, air pollution from the wildfire smoke got so bad it temporarily broke the data systems monitoring it, as the computer rejected the values it was taking in as unrealistically high. Visibility in Portland, Oregon, was only 50 feet in some areas.

    For people living through it, this means respirators or N95 masks are almost essential for going outside. It’s also provoked a massive run on indoor air purifiers, leading some people to try to DIY their own with HVAC filters and box fans.

    The battle lines are also being drawn in the political fight over the fires as well. Donald Trump and the GOP largely blame the fires on poor forest management and leadership, while Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders have placed the focus squarely on climate change.

    In reality, it’s a bit of both: fire management has been poor across the West Coast for decades, thanks to an unreasonable focus on fire prevention and suppression in areas that have evolved to burn every few years, but the changing weather and unreasonably high temperatures have also contributed greatly to the fires.

    And of course, this is all for show, as Biden isn’t exactly the greatest supporter of a Green New Deal, and Trump’s calls for “forest management” are mostly an excuse to deregulate big corporations so they can desecrate more federal lands.

    LA Sheriffs Rough Up Reporter

    Two L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputies were shot in an unprovoked ambush on Saturday night, by a gunman who is still at large. The shooting provoked an immediate response from police, who clashed with protesters outside the hospital where the two deputies were being treated, and then went on to rough up and detain a credentialed reporter trying to do her job on the scene.

    It’s a chaotic situation, so we’ll try to sum it up. There’s three incidents at play here that contribute to the recent tension. On Friday, deputies in riot gear showed up in force and surrounded a peaceful press conference by activists protesting the killing of Dijon Kizzee, a 29-year-old who was killed after officers stopped him while he was riding a bicycle. On Saturday

    night, an unknown gunman shot two deputies who were sitting in a parked patrol car. After the officers were rushed to the hospital, a small group of demonstrators gathered there to continue pressuring the department on its misconduct. That’s when things got really hairy: as cops pushed the protesters away from the hospital, they also swept up a local reporter, Josie Huang, who works for KPCC and LAist.

    The Sheriffs roughly detained Huang, who was clearly identified as press and who captured video of herself shouting that she was press to the officers, and then arrested her for obstruction of justice. She was in custody for over five hours.

    The event has provoked an immediate outcry from press freedom advocates across the country, but it’s not really something out of the ordinary, considering police department’s across the country have been roughing up journalists all summer. The L.A. Sheriffs Department has just made it clear that they don’t particularly care for any part of the first amendment, whether it’s protesters or press.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    After a strange bidding war ignited by tweets from the president criticizing it’s ties to China, the viral video app TikTok will likely sell its American operations to the big tech firm Oracle, if the White House approves. Oracle beat out Microsoft and other U.S. companies to nab the app.

    Donald Trump held his first indoor rally since June 20 in Nevada on Sunday, showing that while he may have taken a mid-summer break from actively spreading the coronavirus, we are fully back in business this fall.

    Israel is headed for a second strict lockdown as its coronavirus cases are spiking once again. The country saw over 4,000 new cases in a single day last week, so malls and many other business are shutting down all over again.

    OSHA, the government agency meant to protect workers, is going easy on big corporations under Trump, slapping a paltry $13,494 fine on Smithfield Foods for its miserable handling of the coronavirus. Smithfield, for reference, ran facilities where more than 1,294 workers caught the virus, and four died.

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

    Sept 14, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Jack Crosbie

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 11, 2020: Republicans Disrupt Ballot Reparations
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    09:27

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

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    A new survey shows most Americans want to vote by mail this year, but even more aren’t confident that their ballot will be counted. And Republican lawyers are working overtime to prevent states from mailing out voting packets in a timely fashion.

    Meanwhile, a witness to a deadly police shooting in Washington State fears for his safety after speaking out. The victim in this case had already confessed to shooting a right-wing demonstrator last month – but, before his death, told reporters he acted in self-defense.

    And lastly, labor power scores a victory for Burmese sailors trapped aboard a ship docked at port. Stay tuned for high drama involving the Finnish Seafarers' Union.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Republicans disrupt ballot preparations

    Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are expected to visit Shanksville, Pennsylvania today, for an event commemorating the 9/11 anniversary near the scene of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.

    A poll commissioned by the Washington Post shows that six in ten registered voters nationwide want to cast their ballots before Election Day. However, only three in ten say they are very confident that their mail-in ballots will be counted accurately. Seven in ten remain very confident in in-person voting. But just under half of those surveyed say they are uncomfortable going to a polling place this fall, and a majority are worried about their family being infected by the coronavirus.

    Apart from Trump’s fear-mongering, there are signs that voting may be complicated in battleground states. The conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court yesterday ordered a halt in the mailing of absentee ballots, until further notice. Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell told the Associated Press the decision is QUOTE potentially a huge disaster... [it’s] deeply irresponsible and jeopardizes the integrity of our election ENDQUOTE. The city of Madison alone already has one hundred thousand requests for absentee ballots on file.

    In Nevada, attorneys for Trump’s campaign are also asking a federal judge to block the distribution of mail-in ballots. The campaign argues argues that the state’s plan to send out ballots to some one point seven million active voters will impede Republicans’ ability to elect candidates QUOTE because the law will ‘confuse’ their voters and ‘create incentive’ to stay away from the polls ENDQUOTE. The state disagrees and says the Trump campaign doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

    Separately, Microsoft said that hackers from Russia, China, and Iran are still seeking to disrupt hundreds of people and institutions involved in the upcoming election. And Twitter said that it would label or remove any posts – from a certain White House occupant, say – that prematurely sought to claim victory. Specifically, per Politico, Twitter said it will flag posts claiming victory before election results have been certified or seeking to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. It will do the same with disputed claims about the electoral process, including unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results. It’s gonna be an unholy mess, isn’t it?

    Shooting witness fears retaliation

    A witness to the police killing last week of an anti-fascist suspected of shooting a far- right militant in Portland, Oregon, say the man was carrying a cell phone and eating a gummy worm when police started shooting. The witness, Nate Dinguss, told the Washington Post that police did not announce themselves or try to arrest the suspect, Michael Forest Reinoehl. The series of events has some observers calling the law enforcement action akin to an extrajudicial killing. Attorney General Bill Barr called Reinoehl’s shooting by police a QUOTE significant accomplishment ENDQUOTE.

    Prior to his death last week, Reinoehl confessed on camera to Vice News that he shot Trump supporter Aaron J. Danielson at a protest on August 29 – but said he did so in self-defense. A multi-agency team of police tracked Reinoehl down at an apartment complex in Lacey, Washington, some ninety minutes’ drive north of Portland.

    Official details have been scarce on what exactly happened next. Previous accounts by neighbors said only that people heard many shots fired. But it was never clear whether Reinoehl was armed. Dinguss, the witness who shared his account with the Post, says he saw two unmarked police vehicles converge on Reinoehl as he walked to his car.

    He says officers they immediately began firing, prompting Reinoehl to duck behind his car, which was blocked in by police vehicles. Dinguss says he never saw Reinoehl try to get inside his car or reach for a weapon. Police paused once to shout “Stop!” before resuming their fire, according to the witness.

    Dinguss is reportedly an ordained minister. Per his attorneys, he fears retaliation by both the far right and law enforcement for speaking out now. Local police and the US Marshals declined comment to the Post on the new witness account.

    Seafarers' solidarity action victorious

    You may have heard one of the horror stories involving crews stuck at sea during the coronavirus pandemic. The following comes from the public broadcaster in Finland, YLE.

    The Finnish Seafarers' Union has imposed a blockade on a merchant ship in the port of Rauma, taking the action in support of seamen on board who are claiming an estimated [eighty three thousand dollars] in unpaid wages.

    The Panamanian-flagged ES Venus is believed to be Chinese-owned and docked in Rauma to load recycling materials for shipment to Turkey. Half of the crew [of twenty-one] are [from Myanmar] and the other half are Chinese. According to the Finnish Seamen's Union, the [Burmese] workers have been oppressed on board.

    [Police were called at one point because the ship's captain did not want to let six seamen off the ship to meet with union officials.] The union's aim is to repatriate the men after they have received their wages.

    [A union official] told YLE that the situation is one of the worst he has encountered in his career. "Seamen were practically held captive on board," he said.

    The blockade has not so far interfered with other normal operations at the port. And as of yesterday, a lawyer for the shipping company based in Singapore, confirmed to YLE that a settlement has been reached with the union.

    Ya hear? That’s a win for international labor solidarity.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    Democrats yesterday blocked a paltry and pathetic Republican coronavirus relief bill from passing through the US Senate. The GOP bill would have afforded three hundred dollars per month in additional unemployment benefits, down from six hundred in the bill that passed last spring. Meanwhile, new jobless claims continued to exceed eight hundred thousand. According to the Washington Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s message to Democrats before yesterday’s vote was QUOTE we don’t want to go home without a bill, but don’t be a cheap date ENDQUOTE.

    The US is ending enhanced coronavirus screening for many international passengers. The Centers for Disease control says the procedures have limited effectiveness for catching sick people, because many cases are asymptomatic. A CDC spokesperson told the Washington Post that six hundred and seventy five thousand people underwent the screenings, but fewer than fifteen were identified as having COVID-19. Yeah, I’d say that’s a sign of limited effectiveness.

    A Brazilian government expert on isolated Amazon peoples was shot and killed by an arrow as he attempted to make contact with members of a previously uncontacted tribe. According to the Guardian, the official, Rieli Franciscato, had spent his career trying to establish reservations for the tribes. A policeman who accompanied the expedition said Franciscato cried out, pulled the arrow from his chest, ran fifty metres and collapsed, lifeless. Expert noted that the tribespeople have no way to tell friend from foe and are under increasing threat from illegal land grabbers.

    The latest toll in California’s wildfires has twelve people dead and more than three thousand nine hundred strucutures burned. The fire situation remains dangerous not only in California but in other western states. Here, via the Los Angeles Times, is what experts say to keep in your Go Bag in case you’re called on to evacuate: Water and nonperishable food; a flashlight; a first aid kit; batteries and chargers for your devices; several days’ worth of clothing; moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties; a battery- or crank-operated radio; a whistle to signal for help; and local maps in case GPS isn’t working. Stay safe out there!

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

    Sept 11, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Corey Pein

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 10, 2020: Thousands Flee Western Fires
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    07:41

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

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    As the American West burns, scientific experts warn of rising global temperatures. At least one Democratic governor has had it with climate change deniers.

    Meanwhile, Why did Donald Trump spend so much time on the phone with Bob Woodward? Someone must have warned him it might not be a good idea – I mean, right?

    And lastly, police leadership in Rochester, New York, takes early retirement after public outrage over another killing by officers. More and more cops are doing it: resigning, that is.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Thousands flee Western fires

    Nearly one hundred wildfires are burning millions of acres across the American west, destroying towns and prompting mass evacuations. Eerie images showed red and orange skies filled with ash from the San Francisco Bay to the outskirts of Portland and beyond. In Colorado, the fires still smoldered under a fourteen-inch blanket of snow that fell suddenly in a storm the other night.

    California and Oregon are suffering some of the worst at this time, but fires also raged across Washington State, Nevada, Utah, and Montana. Compared to the same point in last year’s fire season, state officials said, California has endured a two thousand percent increase in acres burned. And there are still four months left in the fire season. California Governor Gavin Newsom said he had no more patience left for climate change deniers. Oregon Governor Kate Brown said her state was facing what could be the largest loss of life and property due to fire in its history. The entire county of Clackamas (Clack-Uh-Mass) outside of Portland, comprising over four hundred and twenty thousand people, was put on notice to evacuate. The entire city of Medford, population eighty-two thousand, was also under an evacuation order, along with prisons and nursing homes elsewhere in the state. Tens of thousands of people lost power due to downed lines in Oregon; in California, more than one hundred thousand are waiting to have their electricity service restored.

    Hot, dry, and windy weather accelerated the spread of the fires and slowed containment efforts. In Oregon, six of the largest firefighting helicopters were unavailable to aid in the all-hands effort because they had been sent to Afghanistan to help with the ongoing military occupation, according to the Portland Tribune. In California, at least fourteen firefighters have been injured, and one is reportedly in critical condition. For those directly threatened by the fires, local news radio is proving to be indispensable.

    Separately, the United Nations World Meterological Organization reported that global temperatures risk exceeding a limit set by the Paris climate change agreement in 2015. And some twelve thousand people in Europe’s largest refugee camp, on the Greek island of Lesbos, were left homeless once again after a fire tore through their tents. Arson was suspected.

    Trump blabs to Woodward

    It’s a big week for books about Donald Trump. First Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, came out with his tell-all. Now excerpts are coming out from veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s book on Trump, titled “Rage.”

    Trump apparently spoke on tape with Woodward for eighteen hours, and even more than usual, seems to have let his guard down. Among Woodward’s revelations are an apparent secret nuclear weapons development program, possibly in violation of international treaties. But what captured headlines yesterday was Trump’s open admission to Woodward that he purposefully played down the threat of the coronavirus even after being briefed on its deadliness in January. At a time when Trump knew the virus would be deadly and dangerous, he was telling the public it was no more serious than a seasonal flu.

    Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was quick to respond to the revelations. Speaking at a United Auto Workers training facility in Warren, Michigan, Biden lambasted Trump’s fatal negligence, noting that the news came on a day when America hit one hundred and ninety thousand dead from COVID. Biden said Trump, "knew how deadly it was. He knew and purposely played down. Worse, he lied to the American people. He knowingly and willingly lied about the threat it posed to the country for months. He knew how deadly it was. He had the information. He failed to do his job on purpose. ... If he acted two weeks sooner, fifty-four thousand lives would have been spared in March and April alone. ... It's beyond despicable. It’s a dereliction of duty. It’s a disgrace." Well put, Joe.

    Rochester police leaders resign

    Top police in Rochester, New York, have voluntarily resigned amid protests and scrutiny of the department’s treatment of Daniel Prude, a Black man suffering a mental health crisis who died after officers put a hood over his head. Prude was forty-one years old. He died in March but video footage was released by his family’s lawyers last week, sparking outrage.

    Seven police officers have been suspended from the city’s force, according to the Washington Post. And New York attorney general Letitia James said she would impanel a grand jury as part of an ongoing investigation. Then on Tuesday, Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary and Deputy Chief Joseph Morabito sudden announced their imminent retirement. Per the Post, they are only the latest in a growing list of police resignations: Chiefs in Atlanta, Louisville and Seattle lost their jobs or resigned amid the public outcry, and also on Tuesday, the police chief in Dallas announced her plans to step down later this year.

    An attorney for Prude’s family, Antonio Romanucci, called Chief Singletary’s retirement an important step and said Prude’s treatment was inhumane, and the subsequent coverup was unacceptable. Joe Prude, Daniel’s brother, has said he called 911 seeking help after his brother disappeared. He told NPR, " I didn’t call them to come help my brother die. I called them to come help me get my brother some help.".

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    A new whistleblower complaint alleges top Homeland Security officials doctored intelligence assessments to suit Donald Trump’s agenda. The complaint, reported by CNN, says acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told officials to play down Russian interference and instead focus on China and Iran. Agents were also told to downplay the threat posed by white nationalist groups and instead hype the threat from Antifa and anarchist groups. Surprise!

    US military commanders announced the draw-down of forces in Iraq by approximately one-half, to three thousand soldiers. The withdrawal will begin later this month and has been long in planning. At the height of the war, the US had more than one hundred and fifty thousand troops in Iraq. So while Trump will brag about this on the campaign trail, the biggest military draw-downs took place before his tenure.

    Vice President Mike Pence will attend a fundraiser in Montana next week hosted by a wealthy couple who have promoted the Q-Anon conspiracy theory. Caryn and Michael Borland have both shared Q memes on social media, according to the Associated Press. Together they have donated more than two hundred and twenty thousand dollars to Trump’s reelection campaign. Cukoo money is still green.

    Attorney General Bill Barr yesterday defended as "perfectly legitimate" the Justice Department’s shocking decision to intervene in a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump. The complaint was filed last November by E. Jean Carroll, who says Trump lied about raping her in the 1990s. This week the Justice Department effectively took over Trump’s defense in the case, an unprecedented intervention that Barr told NBC News was perfectly normal. Nothing to see here folks, provided you think there’s nothing wrong with the Attorney General using public resources to clean up after Trump’s many abuses.

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

    Sept 10, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Corey Pein

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 9, 2020: Cohen Decries Trump 'Cult'
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    09:07

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

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    Donald Trump’s one-time errand boy, Michael Cohen, has a book out. He warns once again that Trump will do anything to stay in the White House.

    Meanwhile, it’s back to school for millions of American kids this week. But for many, what that means is a glitched-out website and a ton of frustration.

    And lastly, Brazil’s former leader, Lula de Silva, may be planning a comeback. In a new video, Lula blasts the country’s fascist president, Jair Bolsonaro, for turning the coronavirus into a weapon against the poor and vulnerable.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    Cohen decries Trump 'cult'

    A new Trumpworld tell-all book was released yesterday. This one is by Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen. It’s titled “Disloyal: The Memoir,” and it’s full of juicy anecdotes and observations. Cohen describes Trump as a racist cult leader and says he hopes his message will resonate to people still inside the cult. He also writes that QUOTE Trump was a mobster, plain and simple ENDQUOTE in addition to being a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, [and] a con man. One example of gangsterism: Cohen apparently helped facilitate the evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, Junior’s endorsement of Trump in 2016, in exhange for suppressing sexually explicit photos of Falwell.

    In an interview with NBC News to promote the book, Cohen expanded on of the dire warnings he delivered to Congress in testimony before he was led to jail. Cohen said QUOTE Donald Trump will do anything and everything within which to win. And I believe that includes manipulating the ballots. I believe that he would even go so far as to start a war in order to prevent himself from being removed from office. My biggest fear is that there will not be a peaceful transition of power in 2020 ENDQUOTE.

    Cohen is partway through a three-year prison sentence for financial crimes and lying to Congress for Trump’s benefit. Since July, on account of the coronavirus, he has been allowed to serve that sentence from home.

    Trump’s intense anti-Black racism, as described by Cohen, has already sparked an international incident of sorts. Cohen quotes Trump saying that all countries run by Black people are shitholes, including South Africa under the late liberation leader Nelson Mandela. Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, released a statement saying Trump is not fit to comment on Mandela’s accomplishments, and that QUOTE All freedom-loving people of the world are appalled by these insults, which come from a person who himself is not a model of competent leadership ENDQUOTE. Nevertheless, per the Associated Press, the ANC statement said that if Mandela was alive today, he would reach out to discuss international issues with Trump. For all the good it would do.

    Back to school bugs

    Millions of American children went back to school this week after Labor Day. Many if not most are holding classes online. Some southern and midwestern states have been back to school for a month already, and in places that are holding in-person classes, coronavirus outbreaks have been reported.

    It’s not going great. In addition to growing class-based disparities associated with online learning, schools have been plagued by internet outages, software glitches, and hackers. A ransomware attack forced schools in Hartford, Connecticut, to postpone the start of classes yesterday. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, students and parents were unable to access online classes on the first day of school on account of an internet outage. Seattle’s system crashed last week, and the Miami-Dade school district’s went down the week before. In some cases, students are suspected of orchestrating cyberattacks to shut down classes. But other snafus are more mundane. Parents with kids in elementary school say their children are struggling with logins, passwords, connection problems, and other software functions like chatting or raising their virtual hands. Bad tech design also plays a role in all this. According to the Associated Press, the online learning platform Blackboard, which provides technology for seventy of the nation’s hundred biggest school districts and serves more than twenty million US students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, reported that websites were failing to load or were loading slowly, and users were unable to register on the first day of school.

    In Texas, the Dallas Morning News reported, more than nineteen thousand students have dropped out of contact with teachers entirely since the transition to remote learning. And more than one hundred thousand children never participated in their online assignments last spring. Here’s hoping for a smoother fall term.

    Lula takes on Bolsonaro

    Brazil’s former president, the leftist icon Lula de Silva, may be planning a comeback. Lula released a slickly produced twenty-four minute video this week attacking the country’s current fascist leader, Jair Bolsonaro. Among other things, Lula said Bolsonaro had turned the coronavirus pandemic into a weapon targeting the people, especially those who are poor, Black, vulnerable, and abandoned by the state. At least one hundred and twenty seven thousand Brazilians have perished from COVID-19.

    According to a partial translation in the Guardian, Lula said QUOTE We are in the hands of a government that attaches no value to life and trivialises death. An insensitive, irresponsible and incompetent government that flouted World Health Organization guidelines and turned the coronavirus into a weapon of mass destruction... I put myself at the disposal of the Brazilian people, especially the workers and the excluded. From the bottom of my heart, I tell you: I’m here. Let’s rebuild Brazil together ENDQUOTE.

    Lula, who is seventy-four years old, is technically barred from running for office on account of his 2018 corruption conviction. However, the legitimacy of that conviction has been attacked as a part of a scheme by Bolsonaro, his cronies, and foreign powers with a financial interest in the outcome. And, per the Guardian, there is a chance it will be overturned, paving the way for Lula to challenge Bolsonaro at the polls in 2022. Failing that, Lula’s former deputies in the Worker’s Party suggested he might run as vice-president, or throw his support to another candidate who shares his values.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    A new report by the Costs of War project at Brown University says at least thirty-seven million people have been displaced in the wars America has launched since September 11, 2001. That means the US has created more refugees in the global war on terrorism than have been made by any other conflict with the exception of World War Two. The authors of the report say their estimate is conservative, and the real number of refugees created by America’s wars over the past twenty years could be as high as fifty-nine million.

    There’s a chance that voters in Maine will be able to use ranked-choice voting on their ballots this November, thanks to a court ruling yesterday. The state’s Supreme Judicial Court overruled a lower court’s hold on the voting system, long advocated by smaller political parties. Maine Republicans, who oppose the ranked-choice voting system approved in 2016, are seeking a referendum on the matter. All that said, I’m struggling to imagine someone who would rank Donald Trump as their second choice after voting for Joe Biden.

    US Senate Republicans yesterday introduced a three hundred billion dollar coronavirus aid bill, which Democrats said is way too small. In a joint statement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said QUOTE Senate Republicans appear dead-set on another bill which doesn’t come close to addressing the problems and is headed nowhere. This proposal is laden with poison pills Republicans know Democrats would never support ENDQUOTE. The bill would provide expanded unemployment insurance benefits of three hundred dollars per week, down from six hundred in an earlier relief bill.

    For the third year in a row, Forbes magazine named Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man. The rich continued to get richer as the collected wealth of the Forbes Four Hundred list rose to three point two trillion dollars – a new record. One exception was Donald Trump, who fell seventy-seven spots in the rankings and saw his estimated net worth decline from three point one billion down to two point five billion dollars. The coronavirus has not been kind to those in the hotel business.

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

    Sept 9, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Corey Pein

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 8, 2020: General Election Kicks Off in WI and PA
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    08:03

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

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    The general election is off, with Kamala Harris and Mike Pence hosting deuling events in the battleground state of Wisconsin. All the while, of course, the economic picture continues to get worse and worse for American workers.

    Meanwhile, yet another massive Trump Truck rally outside of Portland and other right-wing rallies around the state results in violence, as videos show right-wing hate group members chasing down anti-fascist activists with bats and mace.

    And lastly graduate students at the University of Michigan announce a full-on strike to protest the University’s reopening plans, vowing to use their considerable labor power on campus to shut things down until the school agrees to their demands for more coronavirus protections.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    General Election Kicks Off in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania

    Labor day is the unofficial start to the general election, as we’re about two months away from voting, so let’s break down how the race is set up for the next week or so.

    Kamala Harris and Mike Pence hosted dueling events in Wisconsin, which is likely to be a major battleground state again in 2020. In 2016, Trump took the state by just under 1 percent, so it’s almost certainly in play for both parties this year. Last week both Biden and Trump visited Kenosha, the city that’s been rocked by protests since the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

    The top of both tickets will be in Pennsylvania this week, which is another major battleground. Biden spoke in Harrisburg on Monday, and will be returning Friday to mark the anniversary of 9/11 in Shanksville, where United Flight 93 crashed. Trump’s planning to head there too that day.

    Here’s what to look for. Kamala’s appearance in Milwaukee in particular is geared at turning out voters, because the Democrats have zeroed in on low urban turnout in the city in 2016 being part of Clinton’s loss. So while the Biden-Harris campaign may not be offering much more in the way of policy than Hillary, they’re at least attempting to avoid some of her electoral mistakes.

    The president, meanwhile, spent most of Labor day tweeting about everything from Trump boat parades to his denials of the Atlantic story that alleged he referred to dead U.S. servicemembers as quote “losers.”

    The backdrop to all of this is a steadily worsening economic picture. Analysis by the Morning Consult showed that while some Americans have gotten back to work, those who are still unemployed face dismal prospects of getting another job.

    To make matters worse, things in Washington aren’t going well. The New York Times reports that a wave of statewide budget cuts is starting to roll through the country in the absence of a new aid package making it through Congress. Look out for both campaigns to try to harness that pain into electoral support over the next few weeks, because that’s how politics works in this country.

    Trump Truck Rally Round 2

    In Portland, yet another massive Trump Truck Rally convened in a suburb outside of the city. Some more aggressive right wing supporters peeled off for a demonstration in Salem, Oregon, which quickly devolved into on-foot mayhem as right-wing demonstrators affiliated with the Proud Boys and other militias or hate groups charged at left-wing protesters while the police looked on.

    Video shot by journalists at the scene showed armed militia members and Trump supporters charging a group of anti-fascist counter-protesters, overhwhelming on with strikes from a bat. A woman then maced the fallen activist on the ground.

    This kind of violence is typical for the running battles between Portland protesters and right-wing militias that have raged this entire summer, but the police response in Salem on Monday evening was particularly telling. According to a New York Times reporter on the scene, cops quote “pleaded” with right wing groups to move their lines back toward the designated area for their demonstration.

    They did make some arrests of right-wingers who singled out and attacked a counterprotester in the park, but largely refrained from deploying the same aggressive, warlike tactics against the Proud Boys and militias that they’ve used for months now against Black Lives Matter protesters.

    It’s still early in Oregon as of script time. After the last Trump Truck rally, one right-wing demonstrator was shot, so keep an eye out for more incidents as the dust settles on Tuesday.

    Michigan Graduate Students Strike

    The University of Michigan’s Graduate Employees Organization, a powerful on-campus union that represents more than 2000 TAs and researchers, voted on Monday to go on strike until the university changes its COVID-19 policies.

    The graduate students are asking for the right to work remotely, transparency in opening plans, and more money to be diverted from the university’s security budget to it’s covid planning.

    79 percent of the union voted to authorize the strike. GEO Secretary Amir Fleischmann told the Michigan Daily that negotiations with the university had ground to a deadlock. Quote:

    “It’s the feeling of our bargaining team that there was not much more progress to be made at the bargaining table. And that’s why we feel it’s necessary to resort to these tactics. Because the University has shown that it’s not really been willing to compromise on a lot of these issues.”

    Graduate students are a powerful force on campus, as their labor is relied upon heavily to keep the everyday workings of university classes running. The union plans to picket in person and remotely. The strike is technically a wildcat strike, as the union’s contract and state law prevents public employees from striking. But remember: there are no illegal strikes, just unsuccessful ones.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    A legal observer for Amnesty International was denied remote access to the beginnings of the Julian Assange trial this weekend, raising concerns from some press freedom advocates already worried about the ramifications of Assange’s indictment and incarceration. Assange is accused of violating the U.S. espionage act, and is currently in the trial phase of a hearing which will determine if he is extradited to the U.S. to face punishment there.

    Jacob Blake has spoken publicly for the first time since being shot seven times by the Kenosha Police department. In a video uploaded by an activist, who spoke to Blake in the hospital, Blake spoke about the nature of his injuries, saying quote: “Every 24 hours, it’s pain — it’s nothing but pain. “It hurts to breathe; it hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat.”

    One of California’s most recent destructive wildfires, the El Dorado fire in San Bernardino County, was caused by an explosive device at a gender reveal party. This would be monumentally stupid even if it was the first time it’s happened -- which it’s not.

    Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte added another instance of callous despotism to his record on Monday by issuing a full pardon to Scott Pemberton, a U.S. Marine convicted of murdering Jennifer Laude, a transgender woman, in 2014. Local human rights groups called Duterte’s pardon a quote “despicable and shameless mockery of justice and servility to the imperialist interests of the United States.”

    That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM QUickie today! Stay tuned for the full show this afternoon.

    Sept 8, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Jack Crosbie

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

  • Sept 7, 2020: Trump Leans In to White Nationalism
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    Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

    TODAY'S HEADLINES:

    California is once again burning, as new fires rip up national forest in the Sierra Nevadas and the rest of the state suffers a brutal heat wave.

    Meanwhile, a new report alleges that Trump toady Postmaster General Louis DeJoy pressured employees at his last job to donate to GOP candidates and causes.

    And lastly, the Trump campaign is increasingly leaning in to white nationalism to claw their way back into the general election race.

    THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

    California Burns Again

    California is once again being hit with a double blow of climate change woes, this time in the form of devastating wildfires and a brutal heatwave throughout the rest of the state.

    Of course, California isn’t the only state suffering this summer: most of the U.S. west is plagued by fires, including major cities like Denver. But California got hit hard this weekend. In the Sierra Nevadas, the explosive Creek Fire went from a few hundred acres to 45,000 in the span of a weekend. It’s zero percent contained as of Sunday afternoon.

    The Creek Fire rose up so fast that dozens of hikers had to be airlifted to safety by the National Guard. So far there’s no reports of deaths or casualties, as the residential areas its devastated were evacuated on time.

    Elsewhere in the state, waves of smoke from previous fires have given way to heat, heat, and more heat. In parts of the LA Basin, temperatures climbed above 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Meteorologists told the LA Times those digits could break all time records in some cities.

    What the heat wave means is that fire season is nowhere near over. These conditions are only going to get worse in the early fall and come back year after year.

    DeJoy Gets Caught Doing Corruption Again

    At this point, open corruption should sort of be the norm for the Trump administration, but it’s always fun when some of the worst characters in it get caught red handed. Up this weekend is Louis DeJoy, Trump’s toady Postmaster General last seen gutting his own agency to appease

    Republican goals of voter suppression. According to a new report by the New York Times, DeJoy has been corrupt since way before Trump. Multiple former employees at New Breed Logistics told the paper that DeJoy pressured them to make political contributions to GOP candidates and causes, and rewarded them with bonuses if they did so.

    This is following a report last week that showed that the Postal Service had paid one of DeJoy’s other former companies $286 million since 2013. So clearly he’s been in this game for a while.

    The latest charge might stick, however, as the kind of corruption taking place at New Breed Logistics might actually be a crime. The difference rests on whether or not investigators can prove that DeJoy’s “bonuses” were reimbursing employee’s donations, instead of just incentivizing them.

    Democratic leaders have immediately called for an investigation, but who knows if that due diligence will actually happen under Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr.

    Trump Leans In to White Nationalism

    Over the weekend, it’s become a lot more clear what Donald Trump thinks his pathway to victory in November in. You probably won’t be surprised to know the answer: it’s white nationalism.

    The first new red flag came on Friday, when Trump ordered the federal government to cancel contracts that it had paid out for its branches to undergo racial sensitivity training.

    Trump called such programs, which attempt to change systemic racism by generally teaching people how to not be racist in the workplace, were quote “divisive, anti-american propaganda.” Endquote. He then followed that quote up with another storm of tweets on the subject, saying basically the same thing.

    So racism is American, being anti-racist is anti-American. Got it.

    All of this is getting folded into his electoral strategy. As the New York Times points out, the RNC made its token appeal to minority voters with some black and hispanic speakers who claimed Trump wasn’t racist.

    But the candidate himself has doubled down on racist rhetoric, decrying everything from the banning of the Confederate flag at Nascar races to the Black Lives Matter movement, while simultaneously pushing racist talking points about crime coming for Suburban households.

    This isn’t a new strategy for Republicans, of course, but Trump has taken it to its most extreme. We’ll find out if it pays off -- to everyone’s detriment -- in November.

    AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

    There’s an old labor movement saying: a rising tide lifts all boats. And now for a completely unrelated story: at a pro-Trump boat parade on a lake near Austin, Texas this weekend, five boats sank when their wakes collided to make a turbulent pit of water. No one was injured, so we can all laugh at this guilt free.

    A newly declassified court ruling found that the F.B.I. had committed “widespread violations” of Americans’ privacy, without warrants in a surveillance program that’s existed since the Bush years. The court then signed off on another year of the program, which let investigators search through email repositories without a warrant. Sounds about right.

    Northeastern University dismissed 11 students who threw a party in a hotel room despite coronavirus restrictions, and will not refund the tuition they had already paid. Let’s be real: the party was incredibly stupid, but expelling students and keeping their money after charging them over 35,000 for a study abroad program seems wildly harsh.

    The mayor of Rochester, New York is promising police reform after widespread protests following the release of video depicting the death of Daniel Prude, who died in police custody in March. The promise of change may not do much to sway the protesters on Rochester’s streets, however, as police continue to deploy the standard tear gas, pepper balls, and rubber bullets.

    That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Happy Labor day! Organize your workplace.

    Sept 7, 2020 - AM Quickie

    HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

    WRITER - Jack Crosbie

    PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn