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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

A massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon’s port area has killed over 70 people and injured hundreds more in the city, which was buffeted by the blast’s enormous shockwave. The cause of the explosion is still unclear.

Meanwhile, some key primary races are heating up, as mail-in ballots continue to be counted in elections in Michigan, Kansas and several other states. But so far, it looks like Rep. Rashida Tlaib has fended off her primary opponent from 2018, back for round two.

And lastly, 13 college football players in one of the most competitive leagues in the country are threatening to sit out the upcoming season unless their schools change inadequate coronavirus policies, taking a bold stand against the powers pushing for unpaid athletes to put on a fall season without the right support.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

An enormous explosion rocked the city of Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday evening, killing at least 78 people and injuring hundreds more.

The explosion followed a raging fire and smaller blast in the city’s port area, where Lebanese officials said explosive materials had been stored. It’s unclear what the disaster’s initial cause was.

The blast was enormous and its shockwave shattered windows and cracked walls miles away from the epicenter. The area around the port was ravaged, including several hospitals which were so damaged they had to send their existing patients to other centers already overwhelmed by victims of the blast.

The Lebanese government said that a large cache of ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound used to make both fertilizer and explosives, had been stored in the area for years after it was captured. The New York Times reported that an accidental detonation of a large quantity of ammonium nitrate was behind a similar explosion in Texas City, Texas in 1947 that killed 581 people.

President Trump told reporters that his military leaders quote “seemed to think it was an attack” endquote, despite the fact that Lebanese officials had not confirmed or speculated that the blast was deliberate.

Primaries for Tlaib, Kansas, and More

Amidst all this, the U.S. still held primary elections on Tuesday, although with mail-in voting we may not know the results for a few days. Some races are pivotal on a national scale. In Michigan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib faced another primary against her 2018 opponent, Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones.

Tlaib beat Jones by around 900 votes that year, but this year had the weight of the Democratic establishment on her side, despite her outspoken stances as part of the House’s young progressive caucus, and has a pretty commanding lead as votes continue to be counted.

In Missouri, meanwhile, Justice Democrats-backed activist Cori Bush appears to have pulled off a massive upset against 20-year incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay. Clay had the party establishment’s full backing, however, but has been sitting making little waves on a safe House seat that he effectively inherited when his father retired. Bush lost in 2018 by 20 points, but fought to a huge victory, winning by just over 4,600 votes late on Tuesday night.

Some of the Republican primaries are interesting as well. In Kansas, for instance, former Secretary of State Kris Kobach tried to out-Trump his rivals in a contentious Senate primary. Mainstream Republicans were terrified of him winning, because he was a reviled figure that he might put what’s usually a pretty safe seat in danger of going blue in the general. It looks like he’ll fall short of that bid though, as fellow Trump-supporter Peter Meijer is way ahead.

Again, mail in voting means there may not be quick or easy calls to elections like we’re used to. Trump has been railing against the practice for weeks, but abruptly changed his tune when he saw that he was in danger of losing Florida, telling voters to request mail-in ballots and insisting that it was safe in that state. If his lies about election security are fooling anyone, it’s pretty much their own fault at this point.

College Football Players Stage Protest

Across the country, resistance to Republican leaders and greedy college executives alike is coming from an unlikely group: Division 1 football players.

13 players from the PAC-12 conference, one of the largest football leagues in the NCAA, announced on Tuesday that they would opt out of the coming season and refuse to play until their schools had addressed systemic failings in their coronavirus response.

The PAC-12 protest is the latest in a series of developments where organized athletes are punching above their weight to put pressure on their schools and local governments. In Mississippi, governor Tate Reeves announced that he would enact a statewide mask mandate, saying quote: “I want to see college football. The best way for that to occur is for us all to realize is that wearing a mask, as irritating as that can be & I promise I hate it more than anyone watching, is critical.” endquote.

College football! The one power that can actually make Conservatives hellbent on sabotaging themselves see sense.

And remember it’s not just state governments that these players are up against. The Pac-12 protest is more about forcing schools to actually take care of their athletes’ safety, especially considering, you know, they aren’t paid at all for their incredibly valuable labor.

The season itself is completely up in the air, as schools face losing out on one of their biggest revenue drivers if the epidemic doesn’t get under control in their states.

Jaydon Grant, a senior defensive back at Oregon State, did not mince words. Quote:

“The people who are deciding whether we are going to play football are going to prioritize money over health and safety 10 times out of 10.” Endquote.

Here’s hoping that more players start to speak up and actual hold their schools -- and governments -- accountable. In an ideal world, they wouldn’t have to, but that’s where we’re at.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

New York City’s health commissioner resigned on Tuesday after a very public clash with hapless mayor Bill de Blasio, citing her quote “deep disappointment” with the mayor’s handling of the virus. Dr. Oxiris Barbot [ox-sear-riss bar-bow] said that De Blasio had not used the city’s quote “incomparable disease control expertise” endquote well enough during the pandemic, which killed more than 20,000 residents.

In a wild, bizarre, and shocking sideshow of an interview with Axios’s Jonathan Swan, President Trump floundered hopelessly when confronted by facts on coronavirus, beefed with the late John Lewis who quote “didn’t attend my inauguration.” His best moment came when he sputtered quote “you can’t do that” when Swan directly refuted his bogus coronavirus claims.

As schools reopen across the country, teachers have had enough. Small but widespread protests took place across the country as teachers used the hashtag #DemandSafeSchools to

protest against in-person teaching. The coming school year spells almost certain suffering for students and teachers alike as the disease continues to ravage most of the country’s states.

And finally, the Republicans appear to be weakening in negotiations on the next coronavirus relief package, as Mitch McConnell said he might be willing to accept an extension of the vital $600 per week unemployment insurance benefits if Democrats would compromise in other areas. It remains to be seen what the final bill will look like, but Congress is running out of time.

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

August 5, 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 look inside the unemployment department of the most populous state in the union reveals chaos, as millions await payment of their benefits. California’s broken system forces state workers to rely on the same lousy website as the general public for finding information.

Meanwhile, New York prosecutors are investigating Donald Trump for bank and insurance fraud. It’s an expansion of the hush-money case involving Stormy Daniels.

And lastly: Trump’s never-ending rants against Vote By Mail may backfire on Republicans. At least, that’s the fear of some down-ballot officials and campaign staff.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Tens of millions of Americans who’ve lost their jobs in recent months have no doubt been wondering what could possibly be going wrong inside their state unemployment offices. Thanks to an in-depth report by the Los Angeles Times, we have some answers. California’s Employment Development Department is so overwhelmed that Governor Gavin Newsom has admitted that the backlog of claims won’t be cleared until the end of September. More than nine million claims have been made since March. Of that, nearly one million unpaid claims are in limbo because the state requires more information to process them. Which means all those people who paid into the system and are entitled for benefits won’t get them when they are most in need. Current and former EDD officials spoke not only with the Times about internal problems but with state lawmakers during a hearing last week.

One veteran state worker who transfered to EDD to help out with the claims backlog said her training was carried completely online. She was given an eight-hundred page manual and then left to fend for herself with an outdated computer system. Supervisors change every week, and many are reportedly unwilling to help subordinates resolve problems. The worker quit the agency after nine weeks. She said QUOTE I know I’m part of the problem because I don’t know what I am doing. I really feel bad for anyone trying to deal with EDD — particularly if they obviously do qualify for unemployment funds. ENDQUOTE. Another worker, hired through a temp agency for sixteen bucks an hour, said his training was inadequate. Not only

that, the computer system was designed in such a way that he could not resolve people’s claims. When issues were sent to other departments within EDD, he could not attach notes to let colleagues know what problems needed to be solved. When people reach a benefits worker on the phone, they are often so frustrated that they are in tears, or so angry that they yell down the phone. Wait times for callbacks from EDD are four to six weeks. Some officials say the reliance on low-paid temporary workers is a leading cause of problem. But even experienced staff who know how to resolve claims say they aren’t empowered to act. Some frustrated EDD workers have advised callers to contact their elected officials if they want claims resolved in a more timely manner. Newsom has assembled a so-called strike team to develop a plan to improve the system, but a fix can’t come soon enough. California isn’t the only state with an overwhelmed unemployment system. In Nevada, the Times reported, three top state officials in the employment department have quit in recent months. The Nevada agency’s interim director left her job in June QUOTE due to threats to her personal safety ENDQUOTE. It’s pitchforks and torches out there, folks.

Trump investigated for fraud

New court filings show that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is investigating Donald Trump and his company for bank and insurance fraud. The new federal court filing argues that Trump’s accountants should be made to comply with a subpoena seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. According to the New York Times, the filings suggest a broader inquiry by New York prosecutors than they have previously acknowledged. Until now, the Times says, Vance’s inquiry appeared focused on hush-money payments by Trump to two women who said they slept with him: Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Those allegations involved less serious criminal charges than the allegations of financial fraud contained in the filings, made yesterday.

Prosecutors cited newspaper investigations about Trump illegally inflating his net worth and the value of his companies in order to secure loans and insurance. They also cited comments made to Congress by Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, alleging Trump committed insurance fraud. Cohen made that admission in response to questions from New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Trump’s new lawyers argue that the subpoena for financial records is illegal because, as a sitting president, Trump is immune from investigation. I guess we’ll see about that.

"Rigged election" rhetoric backfires

State and local Republican officials fear Trump’s constant attacks on mail-in voting may backfire for the party come fall. According to the Washington Post, leading Republicans in battleground states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa are increasingly worried about the effect of Trump’s personal campaign to discredit the integrity of the election before it even takes place. Some, the Post says, are trying to create a false distinciton between mail-in balots and absentee ballots. Whereas mail-in ballots are bad, according to Trump, absentee ballots are supposedly more safe and secure. In reality, they are the same thing. Both go through the mail. Both get counted in the same way.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill told the Post that voters in his state have been deeply confused by such rhetoric. He said feels felt compelled to explain to voters that there is only one kind of mail-in voting in Alabama, and that it is safe and secure. As downballot Republicans promote absentee balloting, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are fighting the expansion of mail-in balloting during the coronavirus pandemic.

But some Trump advisers have warned him he is going to far in attacking mail-in ballots as rigged. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and deputy campaign manager Justin Clark have all reportedly encouraged Trump to promote the use of absentee ballots. Nevertheless, Trump has shown no signs of backing off his rhetoric about the election being rigged. Both Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Bill Barr have also warned about what they claim is an increased risk of fraud with mail-in ballots, though they’ve offered no evidence.

At least seventy-seven percent of American voters will be able to vote through the mail in the fall, according to the Post. A Monmouth University poll of Georgia voters taken late last month found that sixty percent of Democrats are at least somewhat likely to vote by mail in the fall, compared to only twenty-eight percent of Republicans. Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster, told the Post that in one swing state he studied, only fifteen percent of voters planning to cast ballots by mail were Trump supporters.

Maybe Republicans will actually listen to their leader, and sit this election out.

And now for some Quicker Quickies.

According to Vice News, Amazon warehouse workers shut down a distribution center in the San Francisco Bay Area for several hours on Saturday. Demands by workers in the apparent wildcat strike included extra pay to cope with the cost of living and additional safety measures during the pandemic. A group called Bay Area Amazonians parked a caravan of cars in the warehouse lot, blocking delivery vans from leaving. Bravo, bellissimo!

Spain’s former king Juan Carlos will soon enter a self-imposed exile, he said in a letter. The decision comes after revelations about his entanglements with secret offshore funds linked to Saudi Arabia. The letter didn’t say where the scandal-prone former king will go, but his decision is expected to take some heat off of his son, the reigning King Felipe.

The Nation magazine reported yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security are targeting antifascist activists and attempting to link them to foreign powers. An intelligence report obtained by the magazine showed the Department built dossiers on several American citizens, including their social security numbers, home addresses, and social media accounts. Targeted individuals included Brace Belden, a journalist and labor organizer who fought against ISIS in Syria alongside a left-wing Kurdish militia. Belden responded QUOTE, the US government has been spying on and smearing communists for a hundred years, but they usually have the decency not to call a Red an anarchist! ENDQUOTE.

At least four people planted mystery seeds that were mailed to addresses in more than a dozen US states from China. The US Department of Agriculture warned people last month not to plant the seeds, fearing invasive species. But not everybody heard the warnings, which went viral on social media. In some cases the seeds failed to grow. But one man in Arkansas said the seeds grew into a plant with orange flowers that produced large white fruit. The USDA is reportedly uncertain what the thing is, though it resembles a squash plant. No magic beanstalk, sorry.

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

August 4, 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:

School is already back in session in some states. You know what that means: coronavirus is already spreading through the schools.

Meanwhile, Border Patrol tactical teams raided a humanitarian camp in the southern Arizona desert where migrants were receiving water and medical care. Worse yet, it looks like the agents used the occassion as an excuse to film some action shots for propaganda purposes.

And lastly, Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is in shambles. It seems like some of those much-sought after suburban voters simply may not hate Joe Biden all that much.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Within hours of opening on the first day of classes last Thursday, officials at Greenfield Central Junior High School in Indiana got word from the county health department that one of their students had coronavirus. The student was put into isolation. Then everyone who came into close contact with the student was ordered to quarantine for fourteen days. Families with students the school were given the option of attending classes online. But only fifteen percent opted for online learning.

Against the best advice of public health experts, some school districts are beginning to reopen with classes in person, as though there wasn’t a pandemic to worry about. According to the Washington Post, at least four schools across the country have had a student test positive for coronavirus during the first week back in session. Three of the schools are in Indiana and one is in Mississippi. There are no consistent policies across districts, cities, counties, and states for how to deal with this situation. There is not even consistent data collection. According to the Mississippi Free Press, school-age children are now the primary drivers of the state’s increasing COVID-19 caseload. Experts there fear a pediatric COVID crisis will overwhelm schools and hospitals this fall if schools hold classes in person. In Oregon, over ten percent of COVID cases were children younger than eighteen. The New York Times cited some sobering research from the University of Texas at Austin. They estimate that more than eighty percent of Americans live in a county where at least one

infected person would be expected to show up to school in the first week. The highest-risk areas include Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; and Las Vegas, Nevada. In Tennessee, officials have decided not to collect data on coronavirus cases and deaths in schools. In Arizona, one school superintendant told the Post that a quarter of his students live with grandparents, who are at high risk for COVID complications. The super said QUOTE It’s not safe. There’s no way it can be safe. If you think anything else, I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy. Kids will get sick, or worse. Family members will die. Teachers will die. ... So why are we getting bullied into opening? ... Why are they threatening our funding? I keep waiting for someone higher up to take this decision out of my hands and come to their senses. I’m waiting for real leadership, but maybe it’s not going to happen ENDQUOTE.

Arizona migrant camp raided

Customs and Border Patrol’s goon squads are at it again. This time, instead of engaging in open-ended urban warfare on Black Lives Matter protesters, tactical Border Patrol units have returned to an old favorite: Depriving desperate border-crossers of water and medical care. On Friday night, Border Patrol raided a humanitarian aid camp in southern Arizona. The camp was set up and operated by No More Deaths, a religious aid group that based in Tucson, Arizona.

According to the Intercept, camouflaged, rifle-toting agents in armored vehicles were backed up by at least two helicopters during the raid. Agents zip-tied volunteers’ hands behind their backs and reportedly confiscated their cellphones, as well as the organization’s medical records. More than thirty undocumented immigrants were receiving treatment at the camp after a long trek through the desert in the middle of heat wave. All were arrested.

It wasn’t the first time Border Patrol targeted No More Deaths. The same camp was targeted in a raid three years ago. This latest raid came only two days after No More Deaths published a set of documents related to the first raid. So it’s possible the raid was retaliatory. After seizing volunteers’ phones, agents proceeded to film the raid themselves, at times seeking out dramatic angles for filming as their colleagues made arrests. Nobody thinks you’re cool, Border Patrol guys. Nobody is ever going to think you are cool.

Trump's reelection prospects dimming

As if his idea to delay the election wasn’t a big enough clue, the Washington Post reports that Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is in crisis. There is talk of an August reset. On account of the coronavirus, Trump isn’t able to hold the large hate rallies he loves so much. Following a major staff shakeup at the top, the campaign is pulling ads from the airwaves. New ads targeting the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, are set to begin running today, after six days of broadcast silence. Biden still leads by double-digits in national polls. And in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that’s important for Trump’s victory strategy, Biden has led Trump in all twelve public polls released since the beginning of June, per Politico. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016. But Biden’s lead in that state now stands at six percentage points. And remember, these are the older white voters Trump covets most. More than half the electorate lives in the suburbs. As one Democratic Congressman put it, hating Joe Biden doesn’t juice up their base in quite the same way as going after Nancy Pelosi or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

One more clear sign of Trump’s weakness: news broke over the weekend that journalists would be banned from attending the Republican National Convention. The convention, first scheduled for Florida, was relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s supposed to happen on August 24. It’s unclear even if C-SPAN will be allowed to have a camera running during the Republican’s nominating party. Party officials initially blamed coronavirus restrictions for the decision – then said no final decision had been made on whether to allow journalists. Either way, the Democrats are still making room for media coverage at their convention, set for Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 17 through the 20th.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Tropical Storm Isaias skirt the Eastern Seabord of the US yesterday, after being downgraded from a hurricane. The strong storm with winds of sixty-five miles per hour has already caused damage in the Caribbean. It is expected to make landfall in the Carolinas on early Tuesday and exit by way of Maine late on Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center has warned of possible flooding along the entire East Coast.

A US citizen was murdered while facing trial for blasphemy in Pakistan late last week. Tahir Naseem of Illinois had claimed to be a prophet. It is unclear how the killer smuggled a weapon into the heavily guarded courthouse in Peshawar, but he surrendered to police immediately following the murder. Online video showed thousands rallying in support of the killer. Naseem belonged to a minority group regarded as heretical by the Muslim majority.

Thousands of people marched outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s house over the weekend, calling for the Israeli prime minister to resign. I should say houses, because there were protests both at his official residence in Jerusalem and at his beach house in Tel Aviv. With an estimated ten thousands participants, it was reportedly the largest protest to date calling for Netanyahu’s removal, and it has been a long summer of protests in Israel.

According to NBC News, citing government statistics, in the third week of July, thirty percent of adults reported symptoms of depressive disorder, as compared to six point six percent last year. Further, thirty-six percent had symptoms of an anxiety disorder, compared to eight point two percent last year. Gosh. Wonder why.

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

August 3, 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:

It’s official – the United States economy has endured the largest decline since the invention of modern statistics. How’s your week going?

Meanwhile, Donald Trump doubles down on a threat to push back the date of the November election. Other Republicans aren’t quite sold on that idea – not yet, anyway.

And lastly: Funeral services were held in Atlanta for the late Congressman John Lewis. In his eulogy for the late civil rights leader, former president Barack Obama called on Americans to summon Lewis’s courage for the struggles ahead.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

It seems the economists who warned of a Greater Depression were not off-base. The US economy shrank by nine point five percent in the last quarter, measured by Gross Domestic Product and as reported by the Department of Commerce. That’s one point eight trillion dollars worth of economic activity gone. At an annualized rate, which is the standard way of reporting these figures, the drop was closer to thirty-three percent. It’s the largest recorded GDP decline ever. But there are other ways to measure the economy. And they don’t look good either. For the nineteenth week in a row, new unemployment claims exceeded one million. New claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program intended to cover freelancers and other workers who aren’t eligible for traditional unemployment benefits, totaled eight hundred and thirty thousand, according to the New York Times. Consumer spending dropped by over ten percent, the largest drop on record by far. The stock markets fell too. And according to Bloomberg News, thirty million Americans reported that they hadn’t gotten enough food to eat at some point in the week ending July 21. That represents approximately one in ten Americans going hungry, at least for a while. Five million of those surveyed by the Census Bureau said they were often without enough food.

Millions more are facing eviction. Ananya Roy, director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Guardian that the scale of eviction and mass displacement was almost unimaginable. According to Roy, QUOTE This

will be worse than the Great Depression ENDQUOTE. Activists are calling on state leaders to cancel rent-related debts and keep people in their homes. In the meantime, they’re taking action with or without the help of elected leaders. In New Orleans, housing justice activists surrounded and effectively shut down a municipal courthouse where evictions are processed. It’s a start. This week has been a very long year, folks.

Trump Threatens Election Delay

Donald Trump said on Twitter yesterday morning that he might try to change the date of the November general election. Before proposing an unspecified delay, he said that mail-in voting would make 2020 QUOTE the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history...[and] a great embarrassment to the USA, ENDQUOTE.

Legally, the date of the election is not something Trump can do. The date is set by the Constitution and only Congress has the power to change it. But the record of his first term shows that Trump’s Republican Party cares more about holding power than following the law. Many Congressional Republicans suggested Trump was joking. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told a local television station that the country has voted as scheduled through wars and depressions and that QUOTE we’ll find a way to do that again this November 3, ENDQUOTE.

As election experts interviewed by the Washington Post pointed out, there are other things Trump can do to muck with the process as well as the result. Rick Hansen, a professor of law and political science at UC-Irvine, suggested Trump could claim emergency powers to keep people in cities from going to polling places in person. Or, Hansen said, Trump could pressure state legislatures to take voting for president away from citizens entirely in the name of public safety. That is to say, state lawmakers could select presidential electors without direct public input, as they did prior to 1824 – and this would be, theoretically, constitutional. Like I said, it’s gonna be a looooong year.

Obama Eulogizes John Lewis

A litany of American dignitaries attended the funeral services for the late Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis yesterday. Lewis helped organize the 1963 March on

Washington with the Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior. He joined Congress in 1987 and represented Georgia in the US House until his death two weeks ago today. He was eighty years old. Lewis lay in state this week after a horse-drawn carriage carried his casket over the bridge in Selma, Alabama where police attacked civil rights marchers on Bloody Sunday – March 7, 1965.

Yesterday’s services were held at Doctor King’s church, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta, Georgia. Speakers at the service honoring Lewis yesterday included former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Jimmy Carter offered a written rememberance. Trump did not attend. Delivering his eulogy, Obama asked Americans to imagine the courage of young Lewis as he challenged an entire infrastructure of oppression through non-violent civil disobedience. He also called Lewis one of the founding fathers of a fuller, fairer, better America. Obama’s eulogy was also a call to action. He said QUOTE Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself ENDQUOTE. Rest in power, Congressman.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Associated Press analyzed the more than two hundred arrest records related from the protests in Portland, Oregon. They found that most of the protesters were not engaged in violent conduct before their arrests. Ninety-five percent were local residents, contradicting police claims of a transcontiental conspiracy. The vast majority had no criminal record, and the average age was twenty-eight. Keep up the good work, kids.

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has died after contracting COVID-19. Reports suggested he may have contracted the disease at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, where he and others refused to wear masks. Cain was seventy-four.

A fifteen-year-old girl in Michigan who was jailed because she didn’t do her homework may be released soon. The girl, known has Grace, has been in juvenile lockup since May. Her lawyers asked for an emergency hearing on Monday. According to ProPublica, prosecutor Jessica Cooper has reversed her position and now supports Grace’s release. Cooper is up for reelection next week.

Lawmakers from more than a dozen countries decried the obstruction of the democratic process in Hong Kong, the South China Morning News reported. The international group, led by Republican US Senator Marco Rubio and Britain’s Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, condemned the government’s decision to disqualify twelve opposition candidates from upcoming Legislative Council elections. Four of those disqualified under a new national security law are incumbents. Meanwhile, several Hong Kong media outlets reported the government might delay the election for a year. How about that.

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

July 31, 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:

Health experts say the second wave of coronavirus infections isn’t coming – because the first wave never really stopped, it just got bigger. And the editor of an esteemed medical journal accuses Donald Trump of a crime against humanity.

Meanwhile, online video shows New York police making a kidnapping-style arrest during a protest in Manhattan. As federal troops reportedly prepare to withdraw from the Pacific Northwest, the Homeland Security Department’s camoflage-clad goons look for fresh targets.

And lastly: Silicon Valley executives take some heat in a Congressional antitrust hearing. But does this Congress really have the wherewithal to hold powerful corporations accountable?

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Dozens of places around the world are reporting record numbers of new coronavirus cases, the Washington Post says. The surge in cases has arrived weeks after these places squashed the curve and reopened their economies. Japan, Israel, Lebanon, and Hong Kong have reported record new cases. Belgium and Spain are among those reimposing restrictions. As one epidemiologist explained to the Post, the pandemic is like a fire that leave embers everywhere. When people relax their vigilance, it takes off again.

The United States, Brazil, and India account for two-thirds of new cases in the past week. Deaths in the US passed one-hundred and fifty thousand yesterday, with an average of one thousand virus-related deaths per day over the past week. No one state or city represents the epicenters. There are, instead, multiple epicenters. According to experts interviewed by the New York Times, there is no longer any point in doing contract tracing in most states, because the virus is so widespread. Everywhere across the country, people of color are suffering disproportionately. California and Florida continued to break records in terms of COVID-19 deaths. Workers in agriculture, factories and food processing facilities are being hard hit.

The editor of the respected Lancet medical journal, Richard Horton, has a new book out in which he accuses Donald Trump of a crime against humanity for his handling of the pandemic. In a White House press conference yesterday, Trump again defended a quack

doctor he promoted on Twitter. The doctor, Stella Immanuel, is also a pastor who believes that demons make people sick by having sex with them in the night, and that alien DNA is being used in medical treatments. Would you believe it, she also has a coronavirus miracle cure to sell you, and it’s the same one Trump was hawking for months. Trump again told reporters yesterday that he was very impressed with the quack, Doctor Immanuel. There’s no mystery why we’re in such bad shape. Our leadership is both corrupt and insane.

Police Execute Kidnapping in NYC

The Wall of Moms protest movement that began in Portland, Oregon is spreading around the country, the Times reports – to Oakland, California; Aurora, Colorado; Missouri, North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Chicago, Maryland, New Mexico and beyond. Yesterday morning, Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced that federal troops would be withdrawing from Portland starting today, after negotiations with Vice President Mike Pence. However, Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf quickly contradicted that statement, saying that federal troops would stay put until their job was done. Their job, apparently, is to gas and shoot into crowd of people exercising their First Amendment rights, and lock up any suspected anarchists. Washington State leaders announced the other night that the feds would withdraw from Seattle, a claim that Wolf did not contradict.

However, the Justice Department announced that its so-called Operation Legend would expand to Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Legend is not the only operation involving increased federal presence in cities. It’s unclear how much of the mixed messaging around federal deployments is a result of incompetence and miscommunication within the administration, and how much is deliberate and intended to confuse and demoralize protesters. Whatever Chad Wolf or Attorney General Bill Barr says, abundant accounts from reliable local news sources show that protesters are the real targets of federal force at this time. The feds are reportedly telling regional leaders they want state and local police to finish the job of clamping down on Black Lives Matter protests. As we have seen this week in New York, local cops can be fast learners indeed. Online videos showed NYPD officers grab a young transwoman named Nikki Stone off a Manhattan street and throw her into a van as nearby BLM protesters screamed in terror. The incident resembled another recent federal kidnapping in Portland, except it took place in broad daylight. After New York politicians at all levels began demanding answers, the NYPD said Stone was a wanted

suspect. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tweeted: QUOTE Our civil liberties are on brink. This is not a drill. There is no excuse for snatching women off the street and throwing them into unmarked vans. To not protect our rights is to give them away. It is our responsibility to resist authoritarianism ENDQUOTE.

Congress Berates Tech Execs

Silicon Valley was on the defensive yesterday, as chief executives from top ech companies appeared before Congress for a hearing on antitrust. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai all appeared before a House Judiciary subcommittee via video link, according to the Washington Post. Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline (SISS-ILL-EEN) framed the hearing by saying that the Big Tech companies were disruptive in harmful ways and risked not only business competition but the future of democracy itself. Cicilline said QUOTE “Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy ENDQUOTE. Congressional questioning was at times inept, with one member asking why Republican emails always seemed to wind up in the spam folder. But when Democrats were on point and pressing the tech executives about substantive antitrust issues, they dodged the questions and claimed ignorance or forgetfulness.

Separately, Holocaust survivors around the world joined a campaign that launched yesterday asking Zuckerberg to remove denialist material from Facebook. The campaign, organized by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, plans to release one video per day under the hashtag No Denying It. Each will feature a Holocaust survivor asking Zuckerberg to remove hate speech from the website, along with Holocaust denial pages, posts, and groups, according to the Los Angeles Times. Zuckerberg has refused to meet personally with the survivors, instead sending deputies.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Four hundred thousand Puerto Ricans were without power yesterday, hours before a tropical storm was forecast to hit. Executives and workers for the bankrupt utility company reportedly could not agree what caused the blackout. Take care down there.

On Trump’s orders, twelve thousand US troops are preparing to leave Germany. That’s approximately one-third of the longstanding US force in that country. Some six thousand will remain stationed elsewhere in Europe with the rest reportedly coming home.

State media in Belarus reported the capture of a Russian mercenaries purported to work for the notorious Wagner Group. More than thirty Wagner mercenaries were said to be arrested near Minsk, allegedly on a mission to destabilize the country ahead of a presidential election next month. President Alexander Lukashenko is seeking a sixth term and has, according to Agence France-Presse, jailed his leading rivals ahead of the vote.

After a thirty five-day investigation, police detectives in Los Angeles, California determined that a Starbuckers worker did not place a tampon in an officer’s drink. Detectives concluded the object in the officer’s coffee was a cleaning rag that had fallen in his cup by mistake. Case closed, good show boys.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us as Jamie Peck and Matt Binder take over the Fun Half this afternoon on the Majority Report.

July 30, 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:

Attorney General Bill Barr testified to Congress yesterday, and folks, it was not a reassuring performance. Listening to America’s top cop defend human rights abuses across the country, it’s easy to understand why over a hundred genocide experts signed a letter warning of mass atrocities against civilians in the United States

Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats signaled their willingness to give up fighting for extended unemployment benefits for tens of millions of Americans thrown out of work during the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats, we’re begging you: Do better.

And lastly, the American Federation of Teachers national convention was held yesterday, online. Members will go on strike in the fall if the government cannot ensure the safety of students and educators alike.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

One of the highest-ranking officers in the Washington, DC National Guard who was present for the violent clearing of Lafayette Square last month testified to Congress yesterday.

Major Adam DeMarco, an Iraq war veteran, told an investigative panel in the US House of Representatives that the crowd of protesters was peaceful before they were, “subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.” DeMarco said he believes people’s First Amendment rights were violated. He also said he saw Park Police attack protesters who were fleeing with clubs and chemical agents.

Attorney General Bill Barr, who oversaw the violent June 1 crackdown, also testified to the House yesterday. The questioning was intense and at times emotional. Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana told Barr to keep the name of the late civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis out of his mouth. Barr had mentioned Lewis in his opening statement. Barr insisted the police aren’t racist and praised the abuse of protesters by federal forces in DC and in Portland, Oregon, where local leaders have called for a federal “cease-fire.” Barr also made no apologies his intervention in the criminal case of former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, whose sentence Trump commuted.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York asked Barr what he would do if Trump loses the election but refuses to leave office. Barr said he himself would leave office “if the results are clear.” Barr also declined to answer whether the president can move the date of the presidential election, although, as the American Civil Liberties Union noted, the Constitution grants that power to Congress alone.

Separately, a group of over one-hundred human rights, counterterrorism, and democratization professionals with experience in war zones and authoritarian countries issued a joint warning statement yesterday. The signatories included Elizabeth Shackelford, a career diplomat who served in South Sudan during the civil war, and who resigned from the State Department in 2017 in protest of the Trump administration’s disdain for human rights.

The experts’ letter said, in part: “We write to issue an unequivocal warning to the leaders of the United States of America that without urgent action the country risks having a mass atrocity event and constitutional crisis that will threaten both human security and the future of the republic.”

The group urged local authorities to regain complete control of their police and and mandate an immediate cessation of violence against civilians and the press. They also urged Congress to make preparations for Trump’s refusal to leave office.

Democrats Caving on Unemployment

Bad news from Congress for thirty million unemployed Americans. The US House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, told CNN yesterday that Democrats are willing to concede on the six hundred dollar monthly benefits bonus that expires in three days. The party’s position, Hoyer says, is not, as he put it, six hundred dollars or bust. He said Democrats entered into negotiations over the expanded unemployment benefit with values, not redlines. I tell you what, a lot of people would value that money. Six hundred bucks wasn’t enough, anyway!

Mckayla Wilkes, Hoyer’s progressive challenger in Maryland’s fifth congressional district, who lost the Democratic primary in June, spoke for many yesterday. On Twitter, she asked, QUOTE Why are we immediately publicly caving on the only thing keeping millions of people afloat? What is the point of this? ENDQUOTE.

According to CNN, Hoyer conceded the Republican’s argument that the soon-to-expire $ six hundred dollar benefit was too generous and created a disincentive for people to return to work. Republicans want to cut the enhanced benefit to two hundred dollars for two months

only, after which, people would receive a paltry seventy percent of their prior earnings. If the Democrats go along, they’ll ensure that some families will go hungry and homeless in the weeks ahead. In the richest and supposedly greatest country in the world, there is no excuse for this kind of cruelty.

Separately, House Democrats Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut joined California Senator Kamala Harris to introduce a bill that would fund legal assistance for twelve million Americans facing eviction soon. Not housing – legal assistance.

Teachers Plan Safety Strikes

The American Federation of Teachers is considering of so-called safety strikes to protect teachers, kids, and families from the coronavirus as many public schools prepare to reopen in a matter of weeks. In a speech to members attending the union’s national convention yesterday, AFT president Randi Weingarten said strikes would be a last resort. She promised that just as organized labor has fought to protect healthcare workers, her union would fight on all fronts for the safety of students and their educators.

The union’s executive committee approved a resolution that effect last Friday. Union members were polled in June about returning to work, and seventy-six percent said they would be comfortable doing so if proper safeguards were in place. But now, Weingarten said, they are angry and afraid. Many are quitting, retiring, or writing their wills, she said.

In so many words, Weingarten told Congressional Republicans and the White House to sit in the corner and think about what they’ve done. She said Trump offers no funding, has no plan, and has, frankly, no idea what he is talking about when he calls on schools to hold classes as normal during the pandemic.

The AFT represents some one point seven million members. Its resolution says that in addition to providing protective gear and enforcing distancing protocols, districts should only reopen schools in areas where the infection rate for coronavirus is below five percent and where the transmission rate is below one percent. Sooooo.... Strikes it is, then!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A nonpartisan election watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center, yesterday filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against Trump’s reelection campaign. The complaint says the campaign intentionally obscured the recipients of one-hundred and seventy million dollars in expenditures, using so-called pass-through vendors. The ultimate recipient of the funds remains unknown, but former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is implicated in the scheme.

Construction commenced yesterday in France on the world’s largest nuclear fusion project. French president Emmanuel Macron congratulated representatives from the European Union, Britain, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US who are contributing to the twenty-three-billion-dollar Iter project. First conceived in 1985, the reactor is supposed to be up and running in a little over five years from now.

Twitter placed restrictions on the account of Donald Trump Junior after he shared a viral video with a dodgy doctor promoting a bogus cure for COVID-19. The Daily Beast reports that the doctor, a Houston woman named Stella Immanuel, also believes that demons have sex with people in their dreams, reptilian aliens run part of the US government, and that witches are trying to seize control of children. Aliens and demons and witches, oh my!

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced his plan for Black, Native American and Latino Americans to overcome poverty. Are you ready? It involves spending thirty billion dollars on something called a small business opportunity fund for entrepreneurs. The plan also includes as refundable tax credits for first-time home buyersfklakdkflknz sz zzz. .. Sorry, must’ve dozed off there for a second.

July 29, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The GOP is seeking to obliterate expanded unemployment benefits from the next coronavirus aid package, asking for a two-thirds cut to the past plan of $600 a week as millions of Americans face the possibility of eviction at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez continues to push back against the military’s student to soldier pipeline by introducing a proposal that would end federal funding for military recruitment in middle and high schools around the country.

And lastly, The DNC held a virtual meeting on Monday afternoon to approve a party platform before the national convention, and you’ll never guess what happened to an amendment supporting Medicare for All.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The GOP is looking for a major, drastic cut in unemployment benefits in the height of the pandemic, seeking to reduce the $600 a week keeping millions of Americans afloat to only $200.

The GOP cuts will, of course, hit low-income Americans the hardest. Their replacement plan is just $200 a week, or a payment that caps at 70 percent of a person’s prior income before they lost their job. The current unemployment benefits end on Friday.

All of this is coming as millions of renters stare down the barrel of another month’s rent, this time with no restrictions on evictions after the federal moratorium expired on Friday.

According to CNBC, one estimate found that up to 40 million Americans could be evicted during the crisis. John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel told CNBC quote: “It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen.” endquote. Pollock said there were 2.6 million evictions in 2016, and we could be looking at that many in August of this year alone.

One study found that up to 40 percent of renters could be in danger of eviction if the unemployment benefits vanish. In states like West Virginia, where large low-income populations are already living on the edge, that number jumps to as much as 60 percent.

All of this now goes into the crapshoot of negotiations between the Administration, the GOP Senate, and Nancy Pelosi’s House Democrats. The Democrats claim they’ve been ready to negotiate for weeks, but the GOP is pushing things down to the wire.

Military Recruiting Could Change

For the past week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has been firing shots in a new legislative war on predatory military recruiters. The process is playing out in the fine print of a House appropriations bill on military funding. On Monday, AOC proposed an amendment to the bill that would bar the military from using federally designated funding to conduct recruitment in middle and high schools.

Multiple studies and reports have show over the years that the military disproportionately targets poorer communities for recruitment, and has since 9/11 drastically stepped up recruitment in schools thanks to a series of laws passed in the Bush administration.

Last week, AOC introduced a similar bill that would prevent the military from using congressional funds to maintain a presence on video game livestreaming platforms like Twitch, where multiple branches had recently started esports teams aimed at enticing young gamers.

These amendments are a long way from laws -- it’s unclear now if they’ll even get a vote on the full House floor.

But they do show that elements of the progressive wing are starting to look critically at the way the military gets its manpower, and how its current practices often only further inequality in our society as a whole.

DNC Ditches Medicare for All

The DNC held a virtual meeting on Monday to approve a policy platform ahead of the planned convention in Milwaulkee.

The platform itself isn’t much of a surprise -- it’s largely a middle-of-the-road jaunt that makes nods to some progressive points of view without actually endorsing them in any way.

Where the drama played out, however, is when progressive elements of the party tried to push for explicit endorsements of the causes they favor -- and got shot down, hard.

An amendment to the platform to fully support Medicare for All was sunk 125 to 36, with 3 abstentions among committee delegates. The body also shot down language that was more forceful in condemning Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

One of the strangest examples, however, came with an amendment proposing marijuana legalization, something that is massively popular among Democratic voters. The committee, however, doesn’t appear to represent those voters, and shot down the amendment.

The DNC claims the platform is the most progressive it’s ever put forward, but that’s clearly a pretty low bar.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Major League Baseball’s season, which pushed ahead despite widespread problems with coronavirus, is already falling apart: after just four days, a team had a major outbreak, with 14 members of the Marlins testing positive. Maybe... we’re really not ready for sports.

For an update on Portland: the Trump administration is sending more federal agents to the city to reinforce the multi-agency force currently battling Portland residents outside the city’s federal courthouse every night.

Legendary civil rights icon John Lewis is lying in state at the U.S. Capitol. Trump has told reporters he won’t be attending the memorial events, after publicly feuding with Lewis during his life. Remember that next time the Right starts to cry about civility!

California’s Attorney General is investigating Amazon’s labor practices, according to a new court filing, taking a closer look at the company’s policies for safeguarding workers from coronavirus. Per the LA Times, San Francisco Department of Public Health and California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health have also opened investigations.

July 28, 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 has deliberately made the ongoing violence by federal agents in Portland and other cities into a campaign strategy, according to a new report by the Washington Post which claims the president is taking a direct interest in the DHS’s tactical decisions and egging on the violence.

Meanwhile, coronavirus testing is now widespread and readily available -- but the massive backlog is making getting the actual results a nightmare. Here’s what that means for the spread of the virus.

And lastly, remember Bernie Sanders? Fortunately, he’s still a Senator, and on Friday introduced a bill with Rep. Ilhan Omar in the House to end the massive taxpayer subsidies to fossil fuel companies.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Federal police continued to escalate clashes with protesters in Portland, Oregon this weekend, sparking a wave of sympathy protests in Seattle and other cities.

According to a new report by the Washington Post, the President has been watching all of this play out directly, and even incorporating it into his campaign strategy.

The fed deployments even have an official, ludicrous name: “Operation Diligent Valor.” The Post reports that Trump sees it as way to stoke the flames of a culture war and lean into his law and order message.

In Portland, at least, Trump is at times almost personally directing the violence. The Post, citing White House officials, reports that Trump is staying up late at night and calling Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf directly for updates on what’s going on.

His plan is clear: continue to demonize protesters, particularly in major cities where he can already stoke fears of crime waves, and then repress them as brutally as possible, aided by numerous federal agencies and complicit police forces. And as tensions rise, so do the risks to the people on the streets: in Austin, an armed protester was shot and killed after an altercation with a driver.

The Post also reported that Trump is doing his best to make Chicago into another Portland, with a new federal deployment, but as yet, local officials have managed to keep the DHS’s presence to a minimum. But it’s going to be a long summer either way.

Testing Takes Too Long

Coronavirus testing is finally, after months and months, reasonably available in most major cities and hot spots. But of course that means the next step in the process is breaking down.

The New York Times reports that federal, state, and local officials in multiple states all agree that in many cases, it’s taking far too long to get results back.

Most of the testing is being carried out by private labs, which are quickly becoming overwhelmed by demand. As the Times notes, if it takes several days to get a result back, the test isn’t exactly effective because the patient could have spread the virus in that period.

The federal government is giving one private company called Hologic $7.6 million to ramp up its testing program to do two million tests a month, but says those developments won’t be ready until January of next year. Not super helpful in the short term!

To make matters worse, the Trump administration seems to be lukewarm on funding testing in a new relief bill, objecting to a provision that would have allocated $25 billion for testing and contract tracing, according to a report in the Times last week. So if the private labs are overwhelmed and the government doesn’t want to help, where does that leave states seeing spiking death rates?

Here’s what New Mexico’s governor Lujan Grisham had to say after her state hit their single-day case record on Thursday. Quote:

“There is no national strategy. I still spend most of my days chasing testing supplies for our state. It is the worst abdication of a national response and responsibility to protect Americans I have ever seen in my government career.” Endquote.

Sanders, Omar Take on Fossil Fuel

It’s easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom of our current political reality, but behind the scenes it’s good to know that a few of our elected representatives are still doing the work. So let’s check in with that.

You know the names coming up: Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar introduced a bill on Friday that took aim at the federal government’s bankrolling of the fossil fuel industry through taxpayer-funded subsidies.

According to Common Dreams, the bill would close tax loopholes, end taxpayer-funded subsidies and federal funding for fossil fuel research, as well as stop companies from extracting resources from federal lands. Advocates, like Greenpeace USA climate campaigner Charlie Jiang, are pleased, saying quote:

"A bill to end giveaways for the fossil fuel industry—which is saddled with debt and recklessly polluting Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities—is long overdue. It's time to shift our investments to protect people on the frontlines of the climate crisis and support fossil fuel workers in the transition to a world beyond fossil fuels."

As you know, the bill’s going to face the same uphill battle to make it through the Republican Senate that any other actually useful piece of legislation does. But the more times we sketch out bills like this and get them on record, the more we build consensus and precedent for pushing for these accomplishments when or if a more progressive party takes power.

For right now, it may not be much. But it’s a lot more than some of our electeds are doing.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Senator Tom Cotton took the mask all the way off this weekend in an interview with the Arkansas Post Gazette, when he referenced the Founding Fathers referring to slavery as a quote “necessary evil.” That he still agrees with that point about says it all!

Donald Trump had big plans for the Yankees game on August 15, claiming on Thursday that he’d been invited to throw out the first pitch. But on Sunday, he had to walk that back, saying that due to his quote “strong focus” on the coronavirus response, he wouldn’t be able to make the game.

Jessee Waters, a long-time Fox News cretin, stepped a little bit too far outside Fox’s comfort zone this weekend when he said that QAnon, the wildly popular conspiracy theory, had quote “uncovered a lot of great stuff.” Waters is now frantically trying to walk things back, but come on: he knew what he was doing.

And lastly, it’s almost August, and rent is about to be due. But the Senate GOP let the national eviction moratorium expire on Friday, adjourning session last Thursday without taking action to extend the policy.

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

July 27, 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:

As federal forces swarm to crush protests around the country, resistance also grows. Federal judges and state legislatures are joining the public in pushing back against Donald Trump’s full-on assault on the First Amendment.

Meanwhile, cancel culture claims another victim: the Republican National Convention. And Trump’s camapign staff blame Don Junior’s girlfriend for a drop in fundraising.

And lastly, a defense contractor tells the New York Times the US military has recovered vehicles not from this world. They’re not saying it was aliens... but maybe it was aliens.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Despite assurances from the secretary of Homeland Security that the situation in Portland was unique, there were reports last night of further deployments by the DHS tactical forces to other Democratic cities with large protest movements. Last night the New York Times reported that one such team was deployed to Seattle. The deployment came despite assurances to the city’s mayor earlier in the day that the feds had no plans to do so.

It’s unclear exactly how many federal agencies may be involved in Trump’s so-called law and order campaign, which mainstream media critics are increasingly calling a kind of war on the population. A report in The Nation magazine based on leaked government documents suggested Homeland Security deployments are larger than have been reported. Unidentified camoflauged police carrying rifles were even filmed assaulting and arresting Black Lives Matter protesters in small-town Gastonia, North Carolina. The Intercept reported that an Air Force surveillance aircraft has been flying tight circles over Portland, where most of the media attention has been focused. In a press conference, Defense Secretary Mark Esper – a lobbyist, like his Homeland Security counterpart Chad Wolf – ducked questions about possible military involvement. The Daily Beast cited unnamed Pentagon sources claiming the administration has been agitating for overwhelming force in cities like Chicago for years. The Beast report also quoted a top Justice Department source claiming that Attorney General Bill Barr actually reigned Trump in, and scaled down the federal deployments he wanted around

the country. Trump reportedly hoped for a show of force that would leave civilians QUOTE shaking in their boots ENDQUOTE. But as protests grow, he is the one who looks weak and cowardly.

Resistance to the crackdown is growing, not only among the people but within government. After a referral by the US Attorney for Oregon, the Inspector General of the Justice Department yesterday announced an investigation into use of force by federal forces in Portland. Also in Portland, US District Judge Michael H. Simon reportedly issued a restraining order forbidding federal law enforcement from using force, threats, or dispersal orders against journalists and legal observers at the protests there. In Colorado, every Democrat in the state legislature signed a letter expressing shock and horror, as well as opposition to any uninvited federal intervention there. A solidarity march is planned in New York City for Saturday. And from Rojava, Syria, a group of antifascists sent a photograph showing support for the pro- democracy movement in Portland and the United States.

AOC demolishes sexist Yoho

A new poll by Quinnipac University shows Joe Biden with a stunning thirteen percentage point lead over Trump in the Republican-leaning swing state of Florida. Coincidentally or not, Trump announced yesterday that he was effectively cancelling the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. The event, scheduled for August, was originally supposed to take place in North Carolina. Trump is blaming coronavirus, but there are many signs of growing panic in his reelection campaign. And we’re not just talking about the deployment of federal troops to Democratic cities. Politico reported yesterday that some on the campaign were blaming Donald Junior’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, for poor fundraising performance. Among other complaints, they say she insists on taking private planes to fundraising events. Maybe that’s out of line, but is it really any surprise that a group of desperate, failing Republicans would try to blame the woman? It’s like they never considered that Trump’s disastrous presidency might keep people from donating money.

Speaking of misogyny. In case you missed it – and it would be a shame if you did – New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded yesterday to her sexist pig colleague from Florida, Ted Yoho, who recently called her a bitch. Yoho later delivered a lame non- apology in which he hid behind the women in his life. As AOC put it, QUOTE I do not need

Representative Yoho to apologize to me. Clearly he does not want to. But what I do have issue with is using women – wives and daughters – as shields or excuses for poor behavior. I am someone's daughter too. I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter, and they did not raise me to accept abuse from men ENDQUOTE. Tell it!

Military recovered unworldly vehicle

The New York Times reported some surprising further details about the US military’s formerly secret program to track and study UFOs – or, as the government now calls them, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs. In part, the program was aimed at figuring out whether strange objects seen by US military personnel – some of which moved at incredible rates of speed and seemed to violate the known laws of phsyics – had been developed by another country, perhaps Russia or China. That is not so surprising when you think about it. What is surprising is that last October, staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee received briefings on retrievals by the military of unexplained objects. There were other briefings. According to Eric W. Davis -- an astrophysicist working for the Aerospace Corporation, a major defense contractor – he delivered a briefing as recently as this March to the military. The subject? Recoveries of QUOTE off-world vehicles not made on this earth ENDQUOTE. Oooookkkaayyyy then! Davis has worked as a consultant on the formerly secret UFO program since 2007. He told the times that classified research on the recovered materials led scientists to conclude they could not be produced by any existing American technology. Does that mean we’ve been visited by aliens? Maybe, maybe not. It certainly raises the possibility. In a serious news article. In the New York Times. With on-the-record sources. From the government. Strange. Days. Indeed.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A federal judge in Manhattan ordered Trump’s former laywer, Michael Cohen, out of prison – again. Previously Cohen was allowed to serve his sentence at home on account of coronavirus. But federal probation officers ordered him back to prison. Yesterday a judge found that order was invalid, because it was retaliatory. Apparently the feds were mad that Cohen wouldn’t sign away his rights to write a book about the president. Now he gets to serve the rest of his three-year sentence for campaign finance violations, among other crimes, at home. Congratulations, Michael Cohen.

A coalition of human rights groups has found that much of the global fashion industry relies on forced labor in China. Specifically, according to the Guardian, as many as one in five cotton products sold across the world rely on forced labor from Uighur Muslims in China. Affected name brands include Gap, C&A, Adidas, Muji, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, but activists say it’s likely almost every brand is complicit in this form of modern slavery.

Ecuador’s government effectively ended its democracy this week. The National Electoral Council removed the party of left-wing leader Rafael Correa, Citizens Revolution, from participating in the next presidential and parliamentary elections, in 2021. The opposition has vowed to pursue all legal means to keep the delisting from becoming final.

The US yesterday passed four million known cases of coronavirus, and the New York Times, citing experts, say the actual number could be thirteen times higher in some areas. Trump said last night he plans to divert federal funding from school districts that fail to fully reopen in the fall away from those public schools and to private charter schools. Teachers in Virginia are organizing to demand virtual classes until it’s safe to hold them in person again. They’re gonna need our support to stop this pandemic from claiming more lives.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. The Majority Report will return on Monday.

July 24, 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:

Thanks to Donald Trump’s cruel and inhumane policies, large numbers of immigrant children are being held without their parents in hotels before being deported to an unknown fate. An investiation finds that it’s not even clear whether their temporary caretakers have passed criminal background checks.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden says something kind of ignorant while trying to say something substantive about Trump’s racism. But, hey, he’s got a new video out with Barack Obama, so maybe it’s all a wash, huh?

And lastly, Trump announced yesterday that he’ll be sending more secretive federal forces to Democratic cities around the country, in a sign of weakness and desperation in the months leading up to the election. Now one urban prosecutor says he’ll bring charges against any federal agents who try to kidnap people in his city, as they’ve done to protesters in Oregon.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

An investigation by the Associated Press found that the Trump administration is detaining QUOTE masses of children ENDQUOTE in hotels for weeks at a time before deporting them to their home countries. Some of the children are as young as one year old. Records and accountability are scarce.

Trump’s current policy in dealing with asylum seekers is to deport them immediately. The policy goes against federal anti-trafficking laws, a two-decade-old court settlement, and international humanitarian law. But documents show that unaccompanied immigrant children are winding up in three Hampton Inns and Suites in Arizona and Texas. Lawyers and advocates are challenging the policy on the grounds that they were not set up to care for children. They also say the contractors carrying out this policy have unclear credentials. Immigration and Customs Enforcement refuses to say whether the contractors are licensed child care professionals or have received FBI background checks. The Hilton corporation, which owns the Hampton Inns chains, also refuses to say how many rooms are being used to detain children, or how much they’re charging the government for them. But one hotel

company manager told the AP they did not know the rooms would be used to hold migrant children until they actually showed up. The children are reportedly being transported in unmarked white vans with no government insignia.

Advocates described chaotic scenes across two floors of one hotel, with gates placed over the doors, and the sounds of crying children in the hallways. Leecia Welch, an attorney at the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law told the AP, QUOTE, There really aren’t enough words to describe what a disgraceful example of sacrificing children this is ENDQUOTE.

At least two thousand unaccompanied children have been expelled since March, when Trump announced the no-entry policy, the AP reports.

New Obama-Biden video

Joe Biden yesterday called Trump America’s first racist president. We’re not sure how Biden arrived at that figure, considering that at least twelve past presidents owned slaves. Many people immediately pointed out that it would be faster to come up with a list of non- racist presidents, than to count all the racist ones. Biden made the comments during an online town hall meeting hosted by the Service Employees International Union. According to the Washington Post, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was responding to a health-care worker who was concerned about Trump’s scapegoating of Asians during the coronavirus pandemic. Biden said QUOTE No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never... We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed. They’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has ENDQUOTE. Trump might be the most racist president, but even that is debatable. But he’s no more the first racist president than Bill Clinton was the first black president.

Anyway, maybe this will help: Biden is releasing a video today that’s a conversation between himself and former president Barack Obama. The Post says it’s basically a trash talk session targeting Trump. The Obama-Biden meeting took place earlier this year at Obama’s offices in Washington, DC, and it was reportedly the first time the two men had talked since April. And, per the Post, Biden spends as much time listening as he does talking in the video. That’s probably wise.

Philadelphia warns federal agents

The progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said yesterday that he would prosecute any federal agents who assault and kidnap people. He is the first US prosecutor to say he would pursue charges against federal agents who make unlawful arrests as they have done to protesters in Portland, Oregon. In a statement, Krasner said QUOTE My dad volunteered and served in World War II to fight fascism, like most of my uncles, so we would not have an American president brutalizing and kidnapping Americans for exercising their constitutional rights and trying to make America a better place, which is what patriots do. Anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges from my office ENDQUOTE. In a follow-up interview with Bloomberg News, Krasner said the tactics on display in Portland look like methods from a dictatorship.

Other elected Democrats have made similar statements. And Oregon’s Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, is seeking a judicial injunction to prevent such tactics in her state. But Krasner is the first local leader to promise immediate action to stop federal kidnappings. And his statement couldn’t have come at a better time. Yesterday Trump, along with US Attorney General Bill Barr, announced a QUOTE surge ENDQUOTE of federal law enforcement to Democratic-run cities around the country. They say it’s to combat crime. Democrats are catching on that it’s more about political control. Targeted cities include, at least for now, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. But local elected leaders aren’t the only line of defense against encroaching fascism. Everywhere Trump’s troops crack down, they provoke more people from all walks of life to join uprisings for democracy.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

California now has the most reported coronavirus cases of any US state – more than four hundred and thirteen thousand – according to the Los Angeles Times. While New York has seen infections, deaths, and hospitalizations drop, California’s numbers are still climbing. However, three times as many New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 as have Californians, so far. Mask up and stay safe, everybody.

The Trump administration ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, accusing the diplomats there of participating in a larger program of spying and sabotage. Asked for specifics, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Chinese government actions were costing American jobs. According to Bloomberg, China accused the US of harassing diplomatic staff, intimidating Chinese students, and detaining them without cause.Trump said yesterday more consular closures were possible. According to Reuters, China may retaliate by closing the US consulate in Wuhan. Separately, Taiwan’s foreign minister warned that the risk of a military clash with China was increasing.

A sixty million dollar racketeering case against Ohio’s Republican state House Speaker, Larry Householder, was revealed this week in federal court filings. According to the Columbus Dispatch, citing affidavits from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the scope of the pay-to-pay allegation will grow even beyond what was initially reported, to ecompass other corrupt legislative and campaign activities. Householder allegedly arranged a one billion dollar ratepayer bailout of a failing nuclear power company in exchange for millions of dollar in dark money campaign donations.

A new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center reveals that the pro-Trump media personality Jack Posobiec (Po-So-Bick) met with a Polish fascist group in 2017, around the time Trump spoke in Warsaw. Posobiec didn’t meet with the group, called ONR, which participated in Nazi terrorism against Jews in the Second World War. He also promoted their propaganda online, the SPLC reports. Posobiec, a former Naval intelligence officer, is currently employed as a correspondent for the One America News Network, which is a completely looney tunes operation.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. There is no Majority Report today as we mourn the passing of co-host Michael Brooks. But MR will be back soon, and AM Quickie will be here for you tomorrow.

July 23, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn