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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Armed militants allied with Donald Trump have begun showing up at Black Lives Matter uprisings around the country. It’s not right to call them counter-protests, when their goal is to intimidate!

Meanwhile, soldiers for two nuclear-armed states are going at each other with clubs and fists in one of the most remote parts of the world. We give you the best information we have on the Himalayan border conflict between India and China.

And lastly: Oxford University researchers report a breakthrough COVID-19 treatment. Better still, it involves a cheap steroid drug that’s widely available across the world.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Trumpist Militants Swarm BLM

Peaceful protesters in at least ninety-eight cities across the US suffered chemical attack by police departments in recent weeks, according to the New York Times. Such indiscriminate use of tear gas has not been seen stateside since the 1960s and ’70s, when police used it to disperse civil rights and anti-war marches. But these crowd-control weapons are even more dangerous now, on account of the coronavirus.

In Buffalo, New York, the seventy-five-year-old white man attacked by police last week remains in rehab. Martin Gugino’s lawyer told CNN the police left him with a skull fracture, and he can no longer walk. In a statement through his lawyer, Gugino said QUOTE there are plenty of other things to think about besides me ENDQUOTE. All the same, best wishes.

Nearly sixty Buffalo cops resigned from their department emergency-response unit after the attack on Gugino. CNN also reported that officers in South Florida, Atlanta, and Minneapolis were resigning from crowd-control assignments – or from policework entirely. In Richmond, Virginia, the chief resigned after a police SUV drove through a crowd of protesters.

Donald Trump met privately with the family of Ahmaud Arbery, the young man murdered by white suburbanites while jogging in Georgia. Trump also signed an executive order yesterday

banning police chokeholds – unless the officer fears for his life. As critics noted, Trump’s order has loopholes big enough to drive an armored vehicle through.

Reactionary forces appear to be escalating their violence ahead of Trump’s rally in Oklahoma on Saturday. Some press are calling these counter-protests, but it’s more accurate to say they are shows of force by pro-Trump militants -- who are, to varying degrees, in league with police. In Missoula, Montana, hundreds of people rallied to protest the recent appearance of such militants at pro-BLM events. In the small town of Bethel, Ohio, seven hundred right-wing militants – some armed with guns or baseball bats, and belonging to motorcycle gangs -- showed up to intimidate a group of eighty BLM demonstrators. Police joined a Back the Blue event in South Philadelphia to defend a Columbus statue, and to support a police captain who accused journalists of inciting a riot. In Seattle, known members of violent rightwing groups showed up to make trouble at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. In Troy, New York, several men were arrested after bringing body armor and assault rifles to a BLM event. Police said they also carried a tactical manual from the rightwing New England Militia.

And in Albuquerque, New Mexico, rightwing militia claimed they had no knowledge of a man who was arrested after firing shots into a crowd of protesters. The shooter, Steven Ray Baca, sought to protect a statue of a sixteenth-century conquistador who slaughtered indigenous people. Police radio reportedly described the rightwingers as QUOTE armed friendlies ENDQUOTE. Despite such threats, uprisings continue around the globe. Our best count has more than thirty-five hundred protests since May 25, most of them in the US.

India-China Conflict Kills 20

Border skirmishes between India and China have escalated, and this is very bad news for the whole world. Both countries have nuclear weapons. At least twenty Indian Army soldiers died in fighting along the contested border with China in the Himalayas on Monday. They were the first soldiers to die along that border in forty-five years. Indian sources claimed the Chinese also suffered casualties, but China did not confirm this. China may have captured dozens of Indian soldiers, according to the New York Times.

Good information from the remote border region is hard to come by. Neither side claims shots were fired. Reports say the opposing soldiers went after one another with rocks, clubs, and fists. Some of the clubs may have been studded with nails or wrapped with barbed wire. That

this could take place in 2020 shows you how much sense it makes for any country to maintain nuclear weapons. The whole thing may have begun after an Indian officer fell into a gorge, leading to a call for reinforcements, according to the Guardian.

This is not the first recent skirmish in the border area, as listeners know, but it is the most deadly. China sees an ulterior motive in India’s expansion of road infrastructure. And the suspicion goes both ways. China has also fortified its position. Everybody, keep it cool. Please?

Breakthrough Coronavirus Treatment Reported

Scientists reported a major breakthrough in coronavirus treatment. For the first time, a randomized clinical trial showed that a cheap, commonly available drug can increase the chance of survival in COVID-19 patients. The drug, dexamethasone (DEXUH-METHO- ZONE), is used to treat the inflammation that goes with many conditions, including arthritis and asthma. The clinical trial was carried out by researchers at Oxford University. The results have not been peer reviewed. But doctors and scientists expressed strong optimism about what their British counterparts reported. Per the BBC, the trial found patients on ventilators who received the steroid drug were one-third less likely to die. And the drug may also prevent some of the organ damage caused by people’s own immune systems that can happen with COVID-19.

The lead researcher, Martin Landray, said the benefits are clear, and the drug is globally available. Essentially, he said, it costs thirty-five pounds -- or forty-four dollars -- to save a life. But what will the insurance companies say?

A breakthrough couldn’t come at a better time: yesterday Florida, Texas and Arizona all reported record one-day increases in coronavirus cases.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Pacific Gas and Electric pleaded guilty to eighty-four counts of manslaughter for its role in the 2018 Camp Fire. That fire claimed as many lives as there were manslaughter charges – plus one death, ruled a suicide. Yesterday the California utility’s CEO, Bill Johnson, stood in

Butte County court and answered guilty to every criminal charge. That certainly hurt more than the modest three-point-five million dollar fine agreed to in the plea deal with prosecutors.

A new book by Donald Trump’s only known niece describes the family as QUOTE a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse ENDQUOTE. The author, Mary L. Trump, is a trained clinical psychologist. Her book is titled Too Much and Never Enough. The publisher, Simon and Schuster, is also putting out former Trump adviser John Bolton’s book, which the White House is attempting to suppress.

The German public broadcaster reported yesterday that for three decades before reunification, officials in West Berlin knowingly placed homeless children with foster parents who were pedophiles. Researchers at Hildesheim University interviewed victims and pored over records to make the shocking determination. They found the so-called experiment was effectively sanctioned at the highest levels, and included prominent academics.

An internal Central Intelligence Agency report -- released yesterday to the public in redacted form -- found the largest data theft in Agency history took place because the people involved were too focused on building new weapons. The data theft took place in 2016 and was revealed in 2017 by Wikileaks, in the release the website called Vault Seven. No doubt everyone at the CIA has learned a lot of valuable lessons since then.

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

June 17, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

In a stunning 6-3 decision led by a conservative justice, the U.S. supreme court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights act protects gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination.

Meanwhile, new audio obtained by the New York Times shows that Vice President Mike Pence urged state Governors to repeat a B.S. claim about coronavirus infection rates in order to make the White House’s complete failure look a little less bad.

And lastly, a new report by the Intercept shows that Eliott Engel, the dinosaur Congressman from New York’s 16th district, has been taking dark money from a GOP linked group in order to fight off an insurgent primary campaign by a progressive middle school principal.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Supreme Court Sides With Trans Rights

The Supreme Court ruled on a historic set of cases on Monday that firing an employee for being gay, lesbian or transgender violates the 1964 civil rights act.

The court took into account two lawsuits over discrimination of gay men and the case of Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman who was fired from her job after she came out to her employer. Stephens died in May, but her estate continued her case.

The decision was shocking, as Trump’s two Supreme Court picks had basically locked in the majority of the court to the conservative side. But both Chief Justice John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch voted with the more liberal members of the court, leaving only Alioto, Clarence Thomas and of course, Bret Kavanaugh, to dissent. Gosuch, who was Trump’s first appointment, wrote the majority’s opinion.

But as we mentioned in yesterday’s quickie, this doesn’t mean trans rights are safe from the Trump administration -- last week, the administration made a rule change that severely endangered trans rights in respect to discrimination suits connected to healthcare.

The Trump administration has made it very clear where it stands on trans issues, and the three conservative judges who dissented also made it clear which side they’re on.

If you want an example, look no further than the court’s other major decision today: to not hear any cases on the doctrine of “qualified immunity,” which has served to protect police officers from facing consequences for mistakes they made on the job. Gorsuch and Roberts sided with liberals on the Equal Rights Act decision, but if their votes are what the greater struggle for progress relies on in the future, we’re still in a shaky place.

Pence Pushed Coronavirus Lies

Meanwhile, the liars in Trump’s inner circle just can’t stop. According to audio obtained by the New York Times, Vice President Mike Pence personally encouraged state governors to spread a debunked claim about the relationship between widespread testing and coronavirus infection rates.

The claim is basically that upticks in infection rates are just a result of us discovering more cases through testing, and don’t represent the virus actually resurging. But experts have found that the rate of cases is increasing faster than the increase in testing. Pence, or whoever writes his talking points, surely knew this, but they pushed it on governors anyway, asking them to QUOTE

“Encourage people with the news that we’re safely reopening the country.”

ENDQUOTE.

Pence minimized all this, of course, because human life clearly doesn’t matter when the big strong president’s optics are concerned. This is what the Administration’s response has always been: claiming that everything was fine, claiming that they were doing great when things were clearly proven to be not fine, and eventually just claiming that the whole crisis is over and we won.

None of these things are true, of course. The virus is rising in 22 states, and we have a long road ahead even in places where the curve has flattened out. But it is helpful to have concrete examples of how far the Trump administration is willing to go to preserve its image.

Engel Takes Dirty Dark Money

New York Rep. Eliott Engel, the current head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is in deep trouble in his primary for re-election. And a new report by the Intercept shows he’s willing to accept pretty much any help he can get to win -- even if it comes from the Republicans.

Engel represents New York’s 16th district, which is safely blue. But his primary opponent is a young, energized middle school principal named Jamaal Bowman. Bowman has recently picked up a number of high profile endorsements including AOC, Bernie Sanders, and the New York Times. Engel, meanwhile, got Hillary Clinton’s endorsement on Monday, and other establishment Democrats figures are circling the wagons around him.

According to a new report by the Intercept, Engel’s campaign is benefitting from a weird dark money chain by a GOP-linked super PAC.

The group, called Americans for Tomorrow’s Future, isn’t spending directly on his campaign, probably because it also funnels money to overwhelmingly Republican causes including Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign.

Instead, Americans for Tomorrow’s Future gave $100,000 to another Super PAC, Democratic Majority for Israel, which is in turn doing attack ads on Bowman.

Pretty shady stuff if you ask me! If the GOP is this interested in making sure Engel keeps his seat, maybe he’s not the best representative of the so-called opposition party. Just a thought.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A man shot a protester at a demonstration in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Monday night, following a confrontation in which protesters attempted to tear down a racist monument to a spanish Conquistador and were opposed by an armed far-right. Police responded to the scene and arrested members of the militia, and then faced off with protesters instead of taking their statements as to the shooting. It’s unclear if the shooter was a member of the militia, but this is sure to be a big story today, keep an eye out for more details as they come out.

The New York Police Department is eliminating the massive force of plain-clothes police officers that make up the force’s anti-crime teams, which have been responsible for numerous shootings and accusations of excessive force over the years. The officers aren’t getting fired of course, just reassigned, so it remains to be seen how much of a real reform this is.

After making a big splashy statement by painting Black Lives Matter on 16th street, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser has decided that well, that’s as far as she’s going to go. In an interview with NPR on Monday, she said she was still committed to her original budget, which proposes a 3.3 percent increase in the DC police’s funding.

North Korea is making a ruckus again, threatening to send troops into the Demilitarized Zone with South Korea if defectors don’t stop sending leaflets over the border. Early on Tuesday morning, South Korean authorities reported that the North had gone a step further, blowing up the joint liaison building where the two countries had previously negotiated.

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

June 16, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

In Atlanta, a police officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, who fell asleep in his car in a Wendy’s drive-through on Friday night, touching off another round of furious protests across the city, despite some promising steps to reform around the country.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases are on the rise in 22 states, as the disease’s first wave never really ended in many states.

And lastly, amidst national unrest, the Trump administration continued its assault on vulnerable Americans, scrapping Obama-era nondiscrimination protections for Trans and nonbinary people, non-English speakers, and people seeking abortions.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Another Death in Atlanta

As nationwide protests continue, this weekend brought yet another tragedy in Atlanta. On Friday night, Atlanta police officers shot and killed Rayshard Brooks after an extended interaction in a Wendy’s parking lot.

Brooks’ death was caught on video both by bystanders and by the officers’ body cameras. Brooks was detained by officers after falling asleep in his car; he said he was within walking distance of his sisters’ house and could just go home. When they attempted to arrest him, he struggled, eventually taking one of the officers’ Tasers and running away on foot. Officer Garrett Rolfe pursued him and shot him three times in the back.

Rolfe was fired on Sunday. Shortly after the shooting, Atlanta’s police chief, Erika Shields, resigned. The other officer involved, Devin Brosnan, has been placed on administrative leave.

It’s hard to know what to say at this point. There have been nationwide protests against police brutality for two and a half weeks, but Black Americans are still dying in the street. The highly charged political climate is having other potential fallout as well.

In California, two black men have been found hanging from trees in the past 10 days within 50 miles of one another. The cops ruled both to be suicides, but both families have doubts, and are urging the authorities to make a full investigation.

What all this is showing is that we have a very long road to changing the system.

Still, there are some baby-steps of progress already: in San Francisco, for instance, Mayor London Breed announced that police officers will be replaced with trained social workers for non-criminal emergency calls. This is one part of the big change many advocates say needs to happen before everyone in our country is free: stop sending people with a gun to address situations that don’t call for violence. We can only hope that more cities follow suit.

Coronavirus Comeback

Meanwhile, the country’s other crisis is starting to get worse. The CDC reports that the coronavirus death toll could be as high as 140,000 by July 4, according to the New York Times. The rate of infection is rising in 22 states, staying level in 8, and decreasing in the rest.

CDC officials say the spikes is caused by states opening up too early in many cases. While the news cycle has shifted to cover the vital protest movement sweeping the streets, the coronavirus is still ripping through many communities.

In New York City, where things were looking up, Governor Cuomo is now threatening to slow the next phase of his re-opening plan if people aren’t careful about masks and social distancing.

What’s interesting is CDC experts say the risk of spreading the disease is less at an outdoor protest where most attendees are masked, than at, say, an indoor Trump rally where no one is required to have a mask. And sure enough: Trump is making everyone who shows up to his June 19 rally sign a waiver that says they won’t sue if they get the disease.

All of these signs point to the disease continuing to disrupt us on a major scale for months on end.

Trump Tears Up LGBTQ Protections

It’s a familiar refrain at this point: while massive changes are happening to the rest of society, the Trump administration is trying to slip more unjust policies under everyone’s radar. This week, it’s a new rules package that overturns Obama-era anti-discrimination protections.

Trump’s new rules eliminate language that protected transgender people from being discriminated against in healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Under Obama, the language specified that it was illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their sex, which was ruled to be all encompassing across the sex and gender spectrum. But Trump is trying to change the rule to make “sex” in that context only mean men and women.

ACLU deputy legal director Louise Melling was furious, saying quote: "This is deadly and all of us should be outraged. This is beyond heartless." Endquote.

The end result of this rule change is that it could make it more difficult for transgender people to access health care -- they could be turned away or denied a procedure, like a transgender man being denied or charged more for ovarian cancer treatments. Trans people are already vulnerable to this kind of lack of access, and of course Trump is making it worse -- it’s our job to make sure he doesn’t get away with it.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

e New York Times endorsed Jamal Bowman, the middle school principal challenging entrenched dinosaur Eliott Engle for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 16th Congressional district. The Times’ endorsement is the latest high profile win for the progressive Bowman, who has also picked up the support of Bernie Sanders, AOC, and NYC public advocate Jumaane Williams.

Senate candidate Kris Kobach, a former Kansas Secretary of State known for his staunch opposition to any gun control laws, had four firearms stolen from his vehicle over the weekend. To be fair, with things as they are in Kansas, he should have no problem replacing them.

Denver Riggleman, a freshman Representative from Virginia, appears to have lost his seat in the primary election to Bob Good a strict “biblical conservative,” who blasted Riggleman over officiating a same-sex marriage. The upset may be a boon to Democrats, however, as Good neglected to correctly file the paperwork to appear on the November general election ballot. He may still get on it, but it’s clear the bible-basher isn’t running the tightest ship in the game.

And to close us out this morning, Trump’s strange appearance at the West Point Graduation ceremony has raised some questions about his health. Trump appeared to struggle to drink water during the speech, and slowly tottered down a very short ramp off the stage.

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

June 15, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Donald Trump threatens another American city with military invasion, and places sanctions on members of the International Criminal Court. You never go full dictator, man!

Meanwhile, unemployment continues to climb amid the coronavirus pandemic. Who will be left with any money to shop in all those businesses that are reopening?

And lastly, organized labor takes a stand against police violence and white supremacy. West Coast dockworkers are calling for a Juneteenth general strike next Friday, and plan to shut down the ports.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Biden Fears Trump Coup

Joe Biden said yesterday he fears Donald Trump might try to steal the election in November. However, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president also said he was confident the military would escort Trump from the White House, if he refused to recognize a loss at the polls. Separately, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley apologized for making himself seen on the ground last week in Washington, DC, as Attorney General Bill Barr ordered an assault on protesters. As a comissioned, uniformed officer, Milley said, it was a mistake I have learned from. And I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.

Oh, we’re learning, alright. We’re all learning a lot about America. As if we didn’t already look like a failed state, Trump found a way to make it worse. Anonymous White House officials yesterday told reporters that the US government is placing sanctions on the International Criminal Court. The Court, based in The Hague, investigates war crimes and human rights abuses by armed groups all over the world. One-hundred and twenty-three countries recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction – but the US is not among them. Trump is angry the court is looking in to US war crimes in Afghanistan. So, he is placing economic sanctions and travel restrictions on ICC workers who are investigating America’s role in torture, rapes, and other horrific abuses during the early stages of occupation. Way to convince the world you’re not an insane bloodthirsty dictator, Donny. This is just nuts.

Separately, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, a US-based aid group advocating for the lives and rights of civilians in war zones, made a statement on Trump’s domestic deployment of military forces against peaceful protesters. The statement said QUOTE the public is not an armed opposition group ENDQUOTE. To be fair, Trump does need clarification on this point. Yesterday he taunted politicians in Washington State and said if they didn’t take back Seattle from the anarchists who set up a police-free festival zone in an upscale, left-leaning neighborhood, then he would. Things were peaceful there through the day. As dusk fell, reporter Robert Evans described the scene at the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone as a very large block party with a lot of free food and art projects and, perhaps, the potential to be the nexus of real resistance to the police. Amen.

Trump’s threats get harder to take seriously the more his weaknesses are exposed by uprsisings around the country. Police also seem to be losing authority, through their own egregious conduct. In Chicago, Democratic Congressman Bobby Rush gave a news conference with an old rival, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and claimed city police had burglarized his office during protests last week. Surveillance footage from Rush’s office showed officers helping themselves to snacks and lounging around with their feet up on his furniture as protests raged outside. At least thirteen Chicago cops were involved, including three supervisors. Rush co-founded the Illinois Black Panthers before joining Congress in 1993.

Coronavirus Surging, Economy Floundering

Anyone planning on attending Trump’s hate rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma next week needs to be aware of the risks. These could include permanent organ damage or even death -- so we really don’t recommend it. But should you register for tickets in Tulsa, you’ll first have to sign a liability waiver. That is, if you want to see Trump speak, you have to agree not to sue him if you catch COVID-19. And here we thought coronavirus was no big deal in MAGA-land!

News of a surge in coronavirus cases across the country prompted the largest single-day stock market drop in three months. The Labor Department said another million-and-a-half Americans filed unemployment claims last week. On top of that, seven-hundred thousand people filed for benefits under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, designed for freelancers and others who aren’t eligible for traditional jobless benefits.

In Houston, Texas, local officials warned the city was on the QUOTE precipice of disaster ENDQUOTE, and facing a spike of coronavirus cases. County officials may try to reinstate lockdowns despite orders by the Republican Governor, Greg Abbott, mandating that businesses reopen. Georgia and Iowa are set to remove all capacity restrictions on restaurants and bars. Public health officials warn this will lead to preventable illness and death. When did stopping the spread go out of fashion? Is this some national death wish?

Dockworkers Back Juneteenth Strike

Pressure is building on organized labor to cut ties with so-called police unions. The Writers Guild of America, East, a union representing TV writers and digital journalists, this week called for the expulsion of police associations from their shared umbrella organization, the AFL-CIO. In a statement reported by The Guardian, the guild said:

As long as police unions continue to wield their collective bargaining power as a cudgel, preventing reforms and accountability, no one is safe. Therefore we believe that police unions do not belong in our labor coalition.

The AFL-CIO has fifty-six union affiliates representing nearly thirteen million members. The Writers Guild is the first affiliate union to formally call for the expulsion of the International Union of Police Associations, which represents the cops who’ve been beating up workers from coast to coast.

On the West Coast, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union this week staged an action demanding an end to racist police murders. The ILWU represents more than thirty- three thousand dockworkers and others in the US and Canada. On Tuesday ILWU members stopped working for eight minutes and forty-six seconds to honor the life of George Floyd and all victims of police brutality. ILWU organizer Clarence Thomas told Jacobin magazine that labor must fight white supremacy within its ranks as well as outside the movement. So next Friday, June 19 , the union will shut down all twenty-nine shipping ports on the West Coast for eight hours. And they’re calling on other unions across the country to join them. It’s time, Thomas said. Labor must begin to take a lead in the fight against racist police terror.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The federal agency that processes visa applications for visitors and immigrants to the US announced plans to take three-quarters of its workforce off the job. Next week US Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin sending furlough notices to fifteen thousand of its nineteen thousand workers. The agency, a division of Homeland Security, is funded by fees, and claims it needs an emergency appropriation from Congress to avoid the dramatic staffing cuts.

A California man accused of attacking Santa Cruz County deputies wrote messages in blood referencing a far-right extremist movement before he was arrested, NBC News reported. Steven Carrillo, former US Air Force sergeant, allegedly threw pipe bombs and fired shots at officers, killing one and seriously injuring another, on June 6. Last night, local press reprorts citing police linked him to a May 29 attack on police in Oakland.

The teleconferencing company, Zoom, was reportedly shutting down the accounts of Hong Kong activists known to be critical of the Chinese government. Several activists told the Guardian their accounts were blocked before they could host planned online memorials of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Zoom called the censorship regrettable but unavoidable. Easy for them to say!

Ithaca, New York, this week became the first city in the US to cancel rent during the coronavirus pandemic. A new city council resolution gives the mayor power to cancel rent debts for residential and small business tenants for the last three months. It also, according to Fast Company magazine, freezes rent increases, and requires landlords to offer lease extensions. Unfortunately, thanks to an order from Governor Andrew Cuomo, the resolution can’t take effect without approval from the state. Ithaca Autonomous Zone, anyone?

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

June 12, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Hundreds of former federal prosecutors call for an investigation into Attorney General Bill Barr. And Trump plans a rally in Tusla to gloat over the bodies of those killed by white supremacists.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden says he wants to give more money to the police. The man is on a mission to prove there’s no problem that can’t be solved with small business tax credits.

And lastly: Black Lives Matter wins massively in new public opinion polls. Anybody still crying over some fallen statues is deeply out of touch with the rest of the country.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Veteran Prosecutors Blast Barr

So much for law and order. Donald Trump’s campaign for permanent Republican Party rule keeps hitting one snag after another. Even the feds are getting – sorry -- fed up. Yesterday more than twelve hundred former Justice Department workers demanded an investigation of Attorney General Bill Barr, Trump’s authoritarian enabler. According to the Washington Post, the dissenters sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. They expressed deep concern about Barr’s role in ordering a violent assault on peaceful protesters last week in Lafayette Square near the White House. The signatories are career prosecutors, managers, and lawyers from both parties.

Separately, former federal judge John Gleeson, who was appointed to oversee the case against disgraced Pentagon intelligence chief Michael Flynn, filed court papers calling out Trump and the DOJ for brazen corruption. Flynn had already admitted lying to the FBI over his contacts with foreign powers. But Trump and Barr came to his rescue. Gleeson called the case against Flynn was straightforward aid said his attemped exoneration was a gross abuse of prosecutorial power. Barr recently boasted that history is written by the winners. I wonder if he feels so confident now?

Trump yesterday held another photo op, this time with black supporters who praised him up and down. He said that under no circumstances would he rename US military bases dedicated to the Confederacy. His campaign also announced its next big event. On June 19th

Trump will hold a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The timing and location are provocative. Ninety- nine years ago this month, Tulsa was the location of one of the worst racially motivated massacres in US history. And next Friday will be Juneteenth, the annual holiday commemorating black emancipation.

Also yeseterday: George Floyd’s brother testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Philonise (Phi-LOW-niss) Floyd said QUOTE they lynched my brother... he didn’t deserve to die over twenty dollars... Make it stop. ENDQUOTE.

The Minneapolis Police Department, whose officers killed George Floyd, said it was ending contract negotiations with the city. Local officials want to start from scratch. But leaders in neighboring Saint Paul are reportedly not on board.

In Louisville, Kentucky, police finally released an autoposy report for Breonna Taylor, shot by cops in her home three months ago. The four-page report was mostly blank. It said she sustained no injuries, though she was shot at least eight times. All three officers involved remain on the job.

In San Francisco, police told the transit agency to QUOTE lose our number ENDQUOTE after the agency said it would no longer ferry cops to protests.

In New York, conditions in jails where protesters have been sent are reportedly abysmal, with people denied water and masks to protect from coronavirus.

And in Arizona, migrants in federal custody were ordered to clean a private prison where COVID-19 has spread out of control. Inmates are pleading for protective gear and fear for their lives. There you go: that’s what law and order means in America today.

Biden: Fund The Police!

With nearly three thousand protests growing around the world, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Joe Biden, yesterday made his most extensive statement on police brutality. It was not what protesters hoped to hear. It was, however, perfectly in line with Biden’s message that nothing will fundamentally change if he wins the White House. In a column for USA Today, Biden called for an extra three hundred million dollars in federal funding to QUOTE reinvigorate community policing in our country. Every single police department should have the money it needs to institute real reforms ENDQUOTE. Got that?

With at least ten thousand Americans arrested over the past two weeks for exercising their First Amendment rights – and many times that number still out on the streets chanting defund the police – Biden wants to throw more money at the cops. He advocated several other no- brainer reforms such as banning chokeholds and a national use of force standard. But the protests have raised the bar for policy proposals, and Biden came up short. He even worked in a mention of tax credits for small business.

Also in election news, the Associated Press called the Georgia Democratic primary for US Senate in favor of Jon Ossoff. Yesterday’s vote was marked by absurdly long lines, machine malfunctions, missing poll workers and other forms of voter suppression. If the AP’s call proves accurate, Ossoff, a former journalist, will challenge first-term Republican Senator David Perdue in November. Even Perdue called yesterday’s election a meltdown. But he and his fellow Republicans have their own reasons for casting doubt on the results. If people think their votes don’t count, they won’t bother.

Georgia was of course only the latest state to go sideways on election day. Per NBC News, experts are warning that Americans won’t know who won the presidency on election night come November. Michigan and Pennsylvania in particular are expected to have problems with a big wave of mail-in ballots. The delays, NBC warned, could be used to undermine confidence in the outcome. Gee, who might benefit from that?

BLM Winning Public Opinion

Amid all this apparent chaos, there is plenty of hopeful news to be found. Polls show a dramatic shift in public opinion in favor of Black Lives Matter protesters and away from the instituions of racist policing. Online opinion research cited by the New York Times shows Americans favor the protesters by a twenty-eight point margin. Just a couple of weeks ago, that margin was only seventeen percent. Other polling sources show declining trust in the police and increased understanding of the discrimination faced by African-Americans. The Times concluded that Trump’s inflamatory Tweets on this issue may be counterproductive. This rapid shift in opinion may be permanent, because it jibes with long-term trends.

Monuments to racism and oppression continue to fall. Protesters in Saint Paul, Minnesota, pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus. Afterward, members of the American Indian Movement chanted and drummed in victory over the statue. In Virginia yesterday, a self-

professed member of the Ku Klux Klan was arrested after driving through a crowd of protesters on Sunday. In Richmond last night, protesters took down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Eighty miles away in Portsmouth, four Confederate statues were beheaded and then toppled.

Finally, in Washington, DC, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is making himself useful again. In a floor speech, Sanders called on Congress to ban the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray on protesters.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Twenty-one states are reportedly seeing increases in coronavirus infections, but reopening continues. At least two million cases have been recorded in the US, with more than one-hundred and twelve thousand dead. Even in deep blue California, polticians are at odds with health officials over the pace of reopening. Governor Gavin Newsom said the state will force workers to risk exposure QUOTE in a responsible way ENDQUOTE.

Police in Sweden closed the case on the assassination of prime minister Olof Palme. The left-wing and anti-apartheid icon was shot in the back in 1986, but the culprit was never caught. Most independent investigators placed blame on a wider right-wing conspiracy. Prosecutors concluded that an ex-military far-right extremist, Stig Engström, killed Palme. But fans of the novelist Stieg Larsson, who was obsessed with the case, may never be satisfied.

A Mayan spirit guide was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Guatemala over the weekend. Villagers reportedly accused him of witchcraft, set him on fire, and then posted videos of the killing online. The murdered Mayan herbalist, Domingo Choc Che, was working with international researchers to develop new cures based on traditional medicines.

The Federal Reserve predicts fifteen million people will still be unemployed through the end of this year, with high jobless rates for years to come. This was the takeaway in a news conference yesterday by Fed chairman Jerome Powell. Separately, a former Macy’s executive told CNBC he expects one-third of America’s shopping malls to close for good this year. Maybe we can tear up the parking lots and plant trees, huh?

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

June 11 , 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Georgia’s primary election devolved into an absolute mess on Tuesday, as voters and poll workers reported major problems with new voting machines and extremely long lines in a state that has struggled with overt voter suppression by the ruling Republican party for years.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump falsely accused the 75-year-old protester who was brutally injured by Buffalo, New York police of being a quote “Antifa provocateur,” further pushing the baseless conspiracy that blames widespread protests on far-left radicals.

And lastly, protesters in Seattle establish a quote “autonomous zone” on the city’s Capitol Hill, created when police abandoned their embattled East Precinct after days of demonstrations outlasted the cop’s brutal response.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Georgia Primary Mess

It was election day in Georgia on Tuesday, and across the state, people struggled to vote.

Georgia has a particularly troublesome history with voter suppression, and this election cycle was no different. Nikema Williams, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, told the New York Times that she got 84 text messages complaining of voting problems just 10 minutes after the polls opened at 7 a.m.

The main problem this time around appears to be the voting machines, which appear to have failed on a widespread scale, as well as new delays caused by sanitizing the machines and social distancing, which led some in-person voters to wait six to seven hours. If you remember, this is the same state where Bryan Kemp won the race for Governor after leading widespread voter roll purges during his time as Georgia Secretary of State.

Kemp’s own Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, ostensibly mailed everyone in the state a vote-by-mail ballot, but some people said they didn’t get them, and were forced to vote in person. Raffensperge blamed the long lines and voting delays on poll workers not knowing how to operate the new machines. Shouldn’t it be his job to, you know, teach them?

The chaos is bad for Georgia’s primaries, which will set the ballot for a lot of consequential state house and national offices in November, but it’s even worse as an omen for how that election will go. Georgia is expected to be a battleground state between Trump and Biden in November, and it’s clear that the Republicans are already testing out the various suppression measures they’ll use to keep it from being a fair fight.

Case in point: many of the delays and issues were worst in the two counties that comprise metro Atlanta, which lean Democratic.

And it wasn’t just Georgia: voters in South Carolina’s primary yesterday also reported long lines at polling stations. This is definitely going to be a nationwide trend in November, and it’s important that we recognize what it looks like before it happens.

Trump Claims Elderly Pacifist is Antifa

Donald Trump sank to, well, not his lowest point of the current news cycle, but certainly a new depth on Monday, when he said that the 75-year-old man critically injured by Buffalo police during a protest was a quote “Antifa Provocteur.” endquote.

In reality, Martin Gugino is a long-time peace activist, who marched in the Buffalo Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrated for many other causes over the years. On Thursday night last week, Buffalo police shoved him to the ground so violently that he cracked his head on the concrete. He’s still in the hospital.

That didn’t stop Trump from tweeting on Tuesday that Gugino was connected to a conspiracy theory promoted by the president’s new favorite source, One America News Network, that alleged Antifa were trying to knock out police radios with scanner devices.

This obviously makes no sense whatsoever: Neighbors, friends, and fellow activists described Gugino as an inquisitive, gentle and friendly person who loved to attend speaking events at the local radical bookstore and was once asked to critique student presentations for an environmental studies class at the University at Buffalo.

Gugino is still in a delicate state in the hospital, as friends say he’s still in immense pain whenever he sees bright light or moves his head. He may not consider himself antifa, but it’s pretty clear that he’s not on the same side as the fascists that nearly killed him.

Seattle Protesters Set Up Autonomous Zone

Protesters in Seattle have won a victory of sorts, setting up a semi-autonomous zone outside of police control in the vicinity of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct.

The cops abandoned the precinct on Monday, evacuating most of their supplies and reportedly moving in a mobile shredder unit to destroy documents.

The Seattle Police has been particularly brutal with protesters, waging battle with rubber bullets, flash bang grenades, pepper balls and massive amounts of tear gas night after night, despite elected officials’ promises to push them to de-escalate. But protesters have weathered it all, creating their own riot shields and steadfastly returning to the area around the precinct night after night to protest, according to Capitol Hill Seattle.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan says that the police’s retreat from the East Precinct was a deliberate attempt to de-escalate the strategy, and protesters have filled the void of violence by creating a strange, peaceful autonomous zone in the blocks surrounding it.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Capitol Hill Seattle blog reported that the protesters have used abandoned police barricades to block off sections of the area to traffic, creating a twisting maze and setting up tents to keep themselves dry when it rains. Activists also reportedly planned to stay the night on Tuesday night.

The conservative rumor mill, however, is convinced that antifa means to burn down the precinct, whereas leftist protesters worry that right wing agitators or the cops themselves are going to try something to incite more blame.

Either way, it’s a fascinating development to how the protests are remaking urban spaces and challenging the police’s role and presence in our cities. Keep an eye on this story today to see how the autonomous zone shakes out.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The boutique fitness world is in turmoil as CrossFit’s CEO Greg Glassman stepped down on Tuesday after telling gym owners that quote “we’re not mourning for George Floyd.” His comments provoked many gyms, which pay money to the global CrossFit brand to use its trademarks, to separate themselves from the system.

Vincent D’Andraia, the NYPD officer who was captured on video violently shoving a young woman to the ground, has been arrested and charged with assault. New York prosecutors are considering bringing misconduct or criminal charges against as many as 40 other NYPD officers in connection to their behavior at the protests.

The U.S. may be slowly reopening, but around the world the coronavirus is on the rise, particularly in Latin America, where many countries are being pushed to the brink by rising cases. On Sunday, new cases reached a global high at 136,000, mostly in that region and parts of South Asia.

And finally, remember Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, the so-called Democrat running against AOC in the primary for her seat in Congress? You know, the one who criticized AOC for living in a quote “luxury apartment” in DC? Turns out, she has a $40 million investment portfolio. AOC was a bartender until 2018, so it seems like Caruso-Cabrera probably shouldn’t try to pull the working-class card on here there.

That’s it for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show from Sam this afternoon!

June 10, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Joe Biden’s campaign said today that he is against the notion of defunding the police, which is a pretty good indicator of how much things would actually change for black people under his presidency.

Meanwhile, Propublica reports that Capital One and other major debt collectors are still coming after thousands of Americans, despite the economy-crushing pandemic.

And lastly, the much-needed aid set aside in the coronavirus relief CARES act for food banks and other key social welfare programs is way, way delayed: billions of dollars are still sitting around while needy people and programs starve.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Joe Biden’s campaign was never going to be on the far left of police reform, but a spokesperson for the presumptive Democratic nominee made it official on Monday: Biden opposes defunding the police.

This is slightly more coherent, but still consistent with Biden’s past comments on the subject, in which he suggested that the police perhaps shoot people in the leg instead of killing them. On Monday, campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates offered up this absolutely nothingburger of a statement to NPR. QUOTE:

“Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded. He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain." ENDQUOTE.

Great, glad that’s out of the way. But what would Biden support? Probably something along the lines of the new legislation introduced on Monday by Democrats in Congress, who marked the occasion by doing a photoshoot wearing traditional Kente cloth.

The package is definitely a step further than democrats have proposed before, calling for widespread reforms that include removing legal protections that enable police abuses, new restrictions on cops using deadly force, among others. But the key word there is still reforms -- the bill stops short of meaningfully changing the way police departments are funded and run in America. On the surface, things would probably get a little better, but all the systems that got us to this point stay right in place. Can’t think of a better analogy for the Biden campaign than that!

Capital One Keeps Chasing Debt

Working Americans have had a hard go of it during the coronavirus pandemic, which created an economic recession that has destroyed service industry jobs and forced layoffs in so many other industries.

But according to a Propublica report, the predators at the top of the capitalist food chain haven’t stopped hunting: lenders like Capital One are continuing to garnish hurting Americans’ wages, if they’re lucky enough to still have a job.

They’re helped along by a court system they created, which allows credit card companies and other lenders to exact millions of dollars in judgements which are then paid out by seizing debtors wages.

According to ProPublica, states like New York passed down orders that suspended new wage garnishments, but have failed to give relief for ones leveled before the virus hit. The New York City Bar urged Governor Cuomo for a moratorium, but so far he hasn’t done it.

The New York State courts told Propublica that wage garnishments continued because they were quote “existing orders were considered essential matters.” endquote. That’s right -- credit card companies managed to make taking people’s wages an essential service.

The Propublica story has several testimonies from people affected by this practice, and shows how a credit card balance of a little as $1,900 can hang over people’s heads for years with the big banks breathing down your neck.

The banks and collection agencies made generic comments to Propublica that they were trying to go easy on people affected by COVID-19, but it’s pretty clear where their priorities lie: in getting back what they’re owed no matter what it does to people struggling to pay the bills.

Congressional Relief Going Nowhere Fast

The federal government was supposed to help during all of this -- but like most things passed down through Congress, it hasn’t exactly gone smoothly.

According to the Washington Post, food banks, nursing homes, childcare facilities, firefighters, and a whole list of other essential social programs have only received shreds of the money ostensibly allocated to them by the CARES act.

Let’s look at some numbers, per the Post. Congress allocated $850 million for food banks, but less than $300 million has made it to them yet. It allocated 9 billion for community development block grants that can fund elder care, child care, health facilities and the like. So far, only $250 million has made it to specific programs. Of the $100 million of that was earmarked specifically for nursing homes not a penny has gotten spent. Same thing for the $100 million FEMA was supposed to use to get more PPE for firefighters.

It’s a little unclear what the specific problem is here: Democrats aren’t saying that the Trump admin is slowing down the funds on purpose, just that the federal bureaucracy in general is really bad at getting things done on time. What’s missing, they say, is any sense of urgency -- while the meager stimulus checks with Trump’s name on them got out the door quickly, the nuts and bolts of actual economic stimulation is still mostly just sitting around.

Who knows, maybe by November we’ll have someone new in charge who can get the wheels turning. Hopefully by then it won’t be too late.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The leadership council for the Writer’s Guild of America, East, a major union that represents workers at many of the biggest digital media organizations, voted unanimously on Monday to urge the AFL-CIO to disassociate itself from the International Union of Police Associations, arguing that organized labor shouldn’t put up with the abuses of cop unions any longer.

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, appeared in court for the first time on Monday, where his bail was set at $1.25 million. He’s charged with second degree murder and second degree manslaughter, and faces 40 years in prison.

Add another line to the protests’ list of incremental accomplishments: the New York State Assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act 140-3 on Monday. While we’re waiting for systematic reform, the more bills passed the better.

And finally, the upheaval in media continues, as both the editors in chief of Bon Appetit Magazine and Refinery 29 stepped down on Monday. The former was pictured in blackface at a party, and both had been accused of running organizations that were hostile to non-white employees for years.

June 9, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis city council pledged to disband the city’s police department, following over a week of worldwide protests against police brutality.

Meanwhile, New York City, the hardest-hit region of the U.S., is starting to take baby steps back toward normalcy, beginning phase one of reopening as the coronavirus epidemic begins to subside.

And lastly, New York Times Opinion section editor James Bennett resigned today after admitting that he didn’t even read Senator Tom Cotton’s racist, misleading, and downright dangerous op-ed about deploying troops to police American cities.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

In a historic, almost-unprecedented move, the Minneapolis city council announced on Sunday that it had a veto-proof majority of members pledged to disband the city’s police department.

In a written statement, City Council president Lisa Bender said QUOTE: “It is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety isn’t working for so many of our neighbors. Our efforts at incremental reform have failed.” ENDQUOTE.

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said he opposes disbanding the department, which earned him a chorus of boos and jeers on Saturday night. But if the city Council goes through with their plan, it’ll be out of his hands.

The question now is what community safety will look like in the absence of the MPD. The city council hasn’t offered any specifics. Camden, New Jersey, famously disbanded its police force in 2013, but then re-hired most of the officers in a new county-wide organization focused on community policing. It was a big improvement, but definitely shied more on the side of reforming, rather than abolishing, a deeply broken system.

In other words, the organization might change, but a lot of the cops probably aren’t going anywhere.

New York City, after bungling nearly every other aspect of the government response to the protests, is also planning some reform. Mayor Bill de Blasio finally backed down and lifted the city’s arbitrary curfew, and just in time, as he was about to get sued by the New York Civil Liberties Union. Big de Blas also committed to diverting a token amount of funding from the NYPD’s absurd $6 billion budget to social services. He didn’t say how much, but we’re pretty sure it won’t be enough.

What we’re seeing all over, however, is that the direct action of widespread protests is truly making an impact.

NYC Re-Opening

New York City felt the effects of the coronavirus harder than anywhere else in the country, but after 22,000 deaths and more than 200,000 cases, the city is very slowly starting to lift its lockdown restrictions.

On Monday, the city will start phase one of its reopening, which allows construction, manufacturing, and retail to start up again. Retail stores will still operate in a limited capacity -- you probably won’t be able to browse like before, but they’ll do curbside and in-store pickup for most orders.

After initially failing to control the disease’s spread, New York’s leadership has poured money into testing and contact tracing. The New York Times reports that new cases are down to about 500 per day.

Next down the line is phase two, in which New Yorkers will finally be able to get a haircut again, and most offices will open, given social distancing can be enforced.

The problem is the damage has largely already been done. Because the city and state’s leaders failed to get out in front of the disease, New York’s lockdown has been crushing for businesses, axing 885,000 jobs. The city’s economy isn’t expected to really rebound until 2022.

New York Times Editor Resigns

The New York Times Opinion section has been controversial for years, but last week, it finally jumped the shark -- and now the section’s top editor is taking a hike.

James Bennett, the editor of the Times’ Opinion section, resigned on Sunday after his team published a deeply flawed, largely inaccurate, and incredibly racist op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton.

The op-ed, titled quote “Send in the Troops,” endquote sent the Times’ newsroom into a frenzy, seeing as it misused historical comparisons and spread blatant fake news in order to make the case that the U.S. should send in the military to inflict further violence on protesters across the country.

The Times usually has a pretty strict wall between the reporters and journalists in its newsroom and the opinion-havers in Bennett’s section. But the Cotton op-ed was a step too far, sending the newsroom into open revolt, as the Times’ notoriously buttoned-up employees threw down the gloves and started firing back, posting a unified message on Twitter that running the Cotton piece could directly endanger Black staff members.

It turns out, Bennett didn’t even read the op-ed before it was published. His supporters -- the usual cast of conservative big-brains -- are trying to paint this thing as another censorship of right-wing voices scenario. You can sort that one out for yourself, but know that Cotton’s piece claimed that police had quote “borne the brunt” of the violence in the recent unrest, which he blamed on antifa. And it’s not like turning down Cotton’s essay is denying him a platform -- he’s literally a sitting U.S. Senator.

Times Opinion has some great, thoughtful, incisive writers, but it’s also got people like climate change denier Bret Stephens and college-obsessed PC-culture critic Bari Weiss, not to mention the dusty old guard of David Brooks and Thomas Friedman. That’s all to say it’s definitely ripe for a change.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The ghouls at the White House are still doing what they do best. On Friday, Trump signed a proclamation handing over 5,000 square miles of previously-protected waters off the coast of New England to commercial fisherman. Common Dreams reports that activists are worried the move will put several endangered species and delicate ecosystems at risk.

According to the Seattle Times, a man drove into a crowd of protesters on Sunday evening, then got out and brandished a gun, shooting and wounding a protester who tried to stop him. In the same city, police ran rampant again, covering streets in tear gas just days after they’d promised to stop using it for a month.

Speaking of protesters, one thread to follow is that crowd size is not in any way dying down. Protests in New York City, LA, and several other major cities were absolutely massive today, according to anecdotal reports on social media. It’s hard to estimate crowd size when there are dozens of protests across a city in a single day, but one things’ for sure: they were big.

Cops in Austin, Texas posted pictures of a massive pile of thank-you notes, which they claimed were from quote “several community members to include kindergartners and Austin families.” Endquote. Funnily enough, many of the cards were addressed in the same handwriting, and all of the kindergartens in Texas are still closed because of coronavirus. Since the protests started, the Austin Police Department has shot two people in the head with beanbag rounds.

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

June 8, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The police slaughtered peaceful people in cities across America, in a coordinated assault, journalists confirm. This could be it.

Meanwhile, Facebook is helping to incite violence with ads and propaganda. Other media companies were reportedly compromised.

And lastly, in Forks, Washington, four high school students used chainsaws to rescue a multi-racial family from Spokane accused of being Antifa.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The local, national, and global situation is uncertain, but for one thing: the power of all people united can overcome any terror.

Video reports gathered from trusted sources from around the US show men in uniform firing into peaceful crowds. Official sources have denied using tear gas. So what kind of gas is it? It seems war has come to many places all at once. Peace is all we want. Early in the day Chief Pig of the United States Bill Barr and FBI Director Chris Wray gave a press conference. Neither could name a single extremist group behind the chaos now playing out across the US and the world.

Army secretary Ryan McCarthy posed for a photo op with South Carolina National Guard some hours before the fighting began. At 8pm Eastern Time yesterday, the former Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Martin Dempsey, condemned the domestic deployment of the military but praised police for knowing their communities.

Boris Johnson made an overture for EU workers to one day return to the UK. Kashmir entered its third consecutive day of 2G Internet shutdown. The region has been cut off since August. Here in Western Canada, there are sirens, but no gunshots. We are planning for a long trip.

Elsewhere in the US: reports of white nationalist militia in suburbs from Kennewick, Washington to Long Island, New York. Seattle labor unions fought to expel the pigs’ so-called union. Habeas corpus is suspended in New York. But together we will be free

Online Disinformation Everywhere

Asked to address police brutality against African-Americans today at a choreographed press conference, Donald Trump said he had talked enough about George Floyd. Trump attacked the media and said he can get his word out QUOTE beautifully on social media ENDQUOTE.

Facebook ran an ad from Georgia Republican Paul Brown, shown holding an AR-15, encouraging violence. Facebook eventually removed it -- but only after a reporter called the company out. The top trending video on Facebook yesterday was reportedly Candace Owens calling for QUOTE justice ENDQUOTE for George Floyd, who she blamed for his own death.

Facebook employees reportedly denounced Mark Zuckerberg.

New York Times journalists lambasted Opinion staffer Bari Weiss, who was reported to have approved of the publication of Senator Tom Cotton’s call for military suppression of US dissidents.

Journalists in Buffalo, New York, published a viral video of uniformed men brutally charging an elderly white man, pushing him to the ground, and splitting his skull. One tried to help the old man but another cop moved him along.

Later, two Buffalo police were reportedly charged. But at least three of the men shown were involved.

Journalists were again targets for attack by police at many peaceful gatherings. Journalists of color at the Philadelphia Inquirer organized a sick-out after the paper ran an editorial titled QUOTE Buildings Matter Too ENDQUOTE.

Why do cops get to have all the surveillance gear in the world, but we can’t film them?

Oregon Republicans helped fascist propagandist Andy Ngo file a $900,000 lawsuit against Rose City Antifa and others, seeking discovery of evidence.

Campers Framed by Locals as ANTIFA

Trusted journalists in Washington State reported that in the town of Forks, a multi- racial family was accused of being members of Antifa. They were followed and prevented from leaving their campsite, local deputies said.

Four high school students cut the trees blocking their campsite with chainsaws to allow the family to leave, according to a press release signed Sergeant Ed Anderson.

The local Sheriff’s Office is actively conducting a criminal investigation into the incident and is seeking information regarding those involved, Anderson said.

Before camping, the family was confronted in town by seven or eight carloads of douchebags carrying what appeared to be semi-automatic rifles. They told deputies they heard gunshots and power saws nearby. Local teens cleared the roadway for the family with chainsaws.

LUCIE: And now for some Quicker Quickies.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Journalist David Sirota reported the pigs donated $1 million to Andrew Cuomo.

A Minneapolis City Council member said on Twitter he agreed with Attorney General Keith Ellison that the MPD should be dismantled and replaced with a QUOTE transformative new model ENDQUOTE.

The AFP reported that a sex worker was arrested on manslaughter charges following a man's death during a mystic ritual in which he inhaled psychedelic toad venom.

Actor Dwayne Johnson asked, QUOTE Where is Donald Trump? ENDQUOTE. Your guess is as good as ours.

May 27, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

People in thousands of cities and towns around the world joined uprisings against police brutality and systemic oppression, from London, England to Whitefish, Montana. Mass protests were ongoing across the United States, where security forces led violent and coordinated attacks on peaceful demonstrators.

Meanwhile, governments across the world struggled to keep a handle on rapidly developing events in the US – while facing crises of their own. At least one US embassy in Europe was attacked, apparently by protesters; border tensions were reportedly growing between China and India.

And lastly, some perspective, with a remarkable discovery from a lost civilization. A reminder that the monuments of oppression will not survive – but will protesters tear them down before Mother Nature does the job?

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

We hope you are doing okay out there. Here is how I feel this morning: [AD LIB]. And here’s what’s happening as of recording at [CURRENT TIME].

It seemed that everywhere across the US yesterday there were peaceful, powerful demonstrations calling for an end to police brutality, systemic racism, inequality, and injustice. And most places, it seemed, the authorities did not take kindly to these most basic demands. The police – and, in some places, the US military – responded to these acts of Constitutionally protected speech with horrifying violence and cruelty. Local news and activist videos suggested police reserved special mistreatment for blacks, Latinos, trans people, suspected anti-fascists, and other targeted groups first. But police attacks were also indiscriminate. Many it seemed were driven not only by their orders, which remain unclear, but by fear and paranoia. Disinformation abounded especially concerning outside agitators and threats to police. The tension was not helped by conflicting reports about what the US military was doing at the highest levels to support police violence. If you happen to know, please do share with the rest of us.

The morning began in Washington, DC, with more soldiers bearing no insignia or name tags surrounding the Episcopal Diocese while clergy staged an event inside. Some of the secret forces were widely identified as Bureau of Prisons Special Operations unit from Texas, others were said to from National Guard and other agencies. Donald Trump denied he had retreated to a bunker earlier this week but his story was quickly debunked by the Washington Post, which reported that the Secret Service rushed him away after two protesters tipped a movable barricade outside the White House. False claims about acts of terrorism by protesters around the country, featuring images sourced from local police, were posted then removed from the official White House Twitter account. The Post reports the following states have sent or will send National Guard troops to DC: Utah, Ohio, South Carolina, Indiana, New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee. States that reportedly declined: Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Some Guard and active-duty soldiers were refusing to deploy against civilians and are instead joining the peaceful uprisings against police brutality and for black lives. Such scenes were shown on ABC News before a young protester told people to get their news online as she was effusively praised by the anchor.

There were doubts about how long Defense Secretary Mark Esper would keep his job. The Joint Chiefs of Staff released a statement saying they were sworn to uphold the Constitution. A new ad by Joe Biden said QUOTE Donald Trump has turned our country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears. He thinks division helps him ENDQUOTE. Former President Barack Obama also released a video saying that your lives matter. And former Defense Secretary James Mattis also made a statement critical of the police and military crackdown.

Outside the bunkers of the wealthy and powerful, thousands suffered senseless violence by authorities. The NYPD charged into crowds with batons, fired gas and committed other assaults. Disinformation abounded regarding the extent of police injuries and several police radios were reported missing. The FBI was paying visits to protesters and asking about anti- fascist sympathies. Civil rights groups advised people to say nothing and ask for a laywer. An inmate reportedly died after being pepper sprayed in the Metropolitan Detention Center. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said of Bill DeBlasio, QUOTE What happened to

the mayor that ran on the blood and the tears of black lives? What happened to that man? He has disappeared ENDQUOTE.

Three people were arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of terrorist acts intended to stoke a civil war. In Minnesota, all four cops seen lynching George Floyd on video were at last criminally charged. But the police chief has stopped responding to the press and called for backup when a reporter knocked on his door. In New Orleans, police reportedly gassed protesters on a freeway causing a stampede. In Iowa City, police tear-gassed a peaceful crowd and were seen to assault medics. An incident in Huntsville, Alabama, illustrated the current risk to journalists and demonstrators: local and state police fired on a peaceful crowd, and directly at a reporter, while anchors in studio cast the protesters as criminals. They are saying police had no choice but to do what they did. It is a lie.

The ACLU of California demanded an end to curfews and First Amendment violations. Protesters in Oakland formed a white wall around black demonstrators to protect them from police. Diverse young people made powerful speeches for justice, peace, equality, and revolutionary change. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, in Vallejo, police shot dead a twenty-two- year-old man named Sean Monterrosa. They cops say he was looting. He was kneeling.

Free Speech Threatened Internationally

Outwide the US, the movement for justice spread rapidly. But the full extent of the reaction is uncertain and no doubt changing by the minute. A crowd of what appeared to be demonstrators torched the US Embassy in Athens, Greece, with molotov cocktails. There were also calmer rallies and demonstrations outside other American embassies, in solidarity with the oppressed, demanding justice and fundamental change.

Not all developments were encouraging. The border standoff between India and China intensified, according to reports from both countries. Hong Kong media said the Chinese government was eager to test new weapons systems in the contested region with India. That conflict was also said to be playing out over social media. And on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Beijing reportedly imposed a new law in Hong Kong that banned mockery of the Chinese national anthem.

Confederate Statue to Fall

Wonders never cease. Scientists discovered the largest and oldest known monument built by the Mayan civilization in Mexico. It is called Aguada Fenix and they say it was built around one thousand years BC. It was discovered using survey lasers and if you can find a picture online it’s quite something to behold. And to think about. All over the world, monuments to colonial oppression are falling -- or at least being defaced. There may be armored vehicles on the streets of Virginia, USA, but Governor Ralph Northam announced plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Richmond. It is a start.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

How is the weather? There was a five point one magnitude earthquake outside Los Angeles as police attacked protesters in the streets. The Los Angeles Times reports there have been five quakes of magnitude three or greater in the past ten days near Ridgecrest. A tropical storm was headed for Mexico’s Gulf Coast of Campeche. state and may near US shores on Sunday.

The official who devised Sweden’s hands-off pandemic strategy for coronavirus reportedly admitted he was wrong to do so. Global deaths due to COVID-19 passed 385,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than a third of those were in the US. The virus was also reported to be spreading fast and claiming lives in Brazil in record numbers.

There was an online dust-up over another terrible New York Times opinion column yesterday. This time around, the social justice warriors were up in arms over a piece purportedly written by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who called for the military to be deployed against civil rights protesters around the country. Cotton no doubt imagines he could be the next dictator. One wonders what his editors at the Times were thinking!

The governor of Tokyo announced next year’s Olympic Games may need to be QUOTE simplified ENDQUOTE. What shall it be, then? Running?

June 4, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn