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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Michael Bloomberg quits the presidential race, and Elizabeth Warren is thinking about it. Will she support fellow progressive Bernie Sanders, or establishment fave Joe Biden?

Meanwhile, a new study says threatened forests may be losing their ability to generate oxygen. As if on cue, Greta Thunberg reminds us nature does not respect moderation.

And lastly, hundreds of millions of kids around the world are missing school because of coronavirus. But food service workers in the US can’t get paid sick leave.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg held back tears as he announced the end of his presidential campaign yesterday. Boomberg spent as much as two-hundred and twenty dollars per vote in order to lose spectacularly in the Democratic primaries. Yesterday, he said, QUOTE It’s still the best day of my life ENDQUOTE. Which is sad, really.

Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign may be coming to a close, as well. Her poor showing in fourteen state primaries on Super Tuesday leaves her few options. But her role in the process is not yet over. And she could still wind up in the White House, although maybe not as president.

The Washington Post reported that surrogates from the Warren and Bernie Sanders campaigns have begun discussions over how the two Senators might join forces to ensure a progressive victory. Though he far outperformed Warren, Sanders lost more states than he hoped to former Vice President Joe Biden. Warren and Sanders surrogates will hold a conference call today to discuss the possibilities. After the Post’s initial report, the paper cited two anonymous sources who said Warren associates had also discussed maybe joining or supporting the Biden campaign.

The latest reporting had Sanders with only fifty fewer delegates than Biden after Super Tuesday. Nearly two thousand delegates are required to win outright, neither candidate is yet close, and most states haven’t voted. Yesterday, Sanders called the race neck and neck. He said Biden was a decent person. But QUOTE Joe is going to have to explain to people, and union workers in the midwest, why he has supported disastrous trade agreements

ENDQUOTE. Not to mention Social Security cuts and the Iraq war. Sanders noted that his campaign swept with people of color in California, the largest state.

After his red state victories, Biden received a flood of donations from Wall Street. Health insurance stocks also rose on the news of Biden’s strong showing. And it emerged that a former Biden aide who formed a Super PAC on his behalf also registered as a foreign agent of Azerbaijan. The State Department has cited Azerbaijan for arbitrary killing, torture, imprisonment, and attacks on journalists. That’s a fact, jack!

Joe Biden’s voters may be as confused as he is. His website says he supports the Green New Deal. He does not. For instance, he refuses to support a ban on fracking. Biden’s climate plan calls for net-zero fossil fuel pollution by 2050. That’s two decades after scientists now say we will be dealing with the full scale of climate catastrophe.

Nevertheless, Biden set the same far-off target 2050 target as centrist European leaders in a new climate law under debate in Brussells. Yesterday the seventeen-year-old, two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and climate change activist Greta Thunberg lambasted world leaders over delaying action yet again.

The 2050 targets, she said, are an announcement by world leaders that they will sell out their children’s futures. She said, QUOTE This climate law is surrender. Because nature doesn’t bargain. And you can’t make deals with physics ENDQUOTE.

Global temperatures continue to rise. Last month was the second-hottest February on record. And a major new study in the journal Nature found that tropical forests are removing one-third less carbon from the atmosphere than they did a few decades ago. The reasons? Deforestation, and higher temperatures resulting from humanity’s use of fossil fuels. By the mid-2030s, the study estimated, the Amazon rainforest could actually become a source of carbon pollution as the ecosystem collapses. So maybe by 2050 we’ll do something.

House lawmakers yesterday approved $8.3 billion in emergency spending on the fast- spreading coronavirus. The Senate is expected to take up the measure today. Most of the money will go to agencies dealing with the virus, with some $500 million for Medicare

providers to administer remote online consultations to the elderly. It’s not nothing – it’s QUOTE tele-health ENDQUOTE. Such virtual visits may not result in a treatment prescription.

The Centers for Disease Control expanded its testing criteria for the virus after criticism over under-diagnoses. Now doctors can approve tests directly. A tenth person died in Washington State after contracting the coronavirus. And the first person with the virus to die outside Washington did so in California, which declared a public health emergency yesterday. The virus is spreading rapidly in Europe, and more than one hundred people have now died in Italy. Nearly three hundred million students around the world are missing days and weeks of school because of the virus, the United Nations said. And the Washington Post reported that nearly seven million food service workers in the US recieve no paid sick leave. Fox News says none of this is a problem.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts broke with tradition and chastized a leader from a coequal branch of government by name. Roberts attacked US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer yesterday over comments Schumer made at an abortion rights rallying criticizing Roberts and his fellow Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Schumer said they would pay the price for denying women’s rights. Roberts cast Schumer’s comment as threatening, inappropriate and dangerous. But he’s fine with Trump.

The worker who killed five coworkers before shooting himself at the Molson Coors headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last week was a target of racist abuse. Which was reportedly endemic in that workplace. The shooter, who was black, had found a noose in his locker. Racist graffiti and bulling was frequent. The local police chief said QUOTE I don’t believe that was a factor ENDQUOTE. Case closed, I guess.

ViacomCBS, the giant merged corporate media conglomerate that does not include Comcast or Disney, said it was getting out of the books business and selling Simon and Schuster. The reason? According to CEO Bob Bakish, the venerable publisher is not a QUOTE core asset. It is not video based. It doesn't have significant connectivity ENDQUOTE. I guess this guy has never heard of e-books!

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the video-based Majority Report, which will never be sold, not for that price!

#AMQuickie - March 5, 2020

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:

There are hundreds of thousands of votes still to count, but it appears Bernie Sanders did not walk out of Super Tuesday with the result he was looking for. While Sanders did well in several western states, Joe Biden roared back into the race on the backs of his endorsement party last night, and is poised to win several states in the south and northeast.

Meanwhile, the Coronavirus is spreading despite all attempts to contain it. As it plays havoc on financial markets, some banks are trying to use the chaos to push for more deregulation.

And lastly, some overlooked stories on Super Tuesday: downballot races you might have missed.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

There’s no two ways around it: Super Tuesday did not go as well as it could have for Bernie Sanders.

Thanks in part to the new super-centrist coalition behind Joe Biden, the former VP surged to win nine states with one still hanging in the balance. Sanders, meanwhile, has secured the win in three but has a commanding lead in California, one of the biggest delegate hauls of the night.

As of early Monday morning, Biden had won Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Minnesota and Massachusetts, and has a narrow lead in Maine.

Sanders won Vermont, Utah and Colorado, and looks on track to win California, but it clearly wasn’t the showing he was hoping for.

Before you get too alarmed, however, Sanders’ strong showings in competitive big states like Texas means he’s still picking up a whole lot of delegates.

The New York Times has Biden with 667 delegates and Bernie with 587, but again, those numbers are just projections that will fluctuate as more of the vote comes in from the Western states.

Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, had another dismal night. But nevertheless, she persisted, sending out a message to supporters urging them to keep this quote “momentum” endquote going into the next round of primaries.

She hasn’t won a single state, so I’m not sure what momentum means in this context, other than her dropping out and endorsing Bernie doesn’t seem super likely in the near future!

And after dropping hundreds of millions of dollars, Michael Bloomberg managed to buy a handful of delegates and one outright primary win -- in American Samoa. He says he’ll reassess his campaign tomorrow.

I’d personally like him to assess giving me one million dollars and then retreating from public life forever, but as we saw last night, things don’t always go they way they should.

What this means, however, is that we’re effectively in a two candidate race. It’s Bernie versus Biden in an all-out slog to the convention. It’s a very different race than it was a week ago, but then again, that was a very different race than it was two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus… still looks bad! The death toll is up to nine people, all in Washington State, and a new report suggests that some initial deaths at a nursing home came on faster than previously reported.

The disease’s growing presence has already caused several peaks and valleys in global financial markets. Of course, some of the worse big bankers have decided to use this instability to push for less regulatory oversight.

CommonDreams reports that the heads of BPI, a lobbying group that represents a who’s who of the biggest banks in the country, asked the Federal Reserve to basically allow them to do a whole bunch of the lending that regulations have prevented them from doing -- for good reason. That includes cutting back on “stress tests” that the Fed performs to make sure the banks could handle a financial crisis, like, say, the one caused by a rapidly spreading virus.

Financial experts immediately blasted the move, calling it quote “transparently opportunistic.” Sounds like the big banks all right!

**Now that we’ve done an update to our impending national health crisis, let’s skip back to an aspect of Super Tuesday that might fall by the wayside: down ballot races outside of the Bernie-Biden showdown. **

Texas incumbent Democrat Harry Cuellar appears to have edged out progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros, who was the chosen as Justice Democrats’s next attempt to get another AOC-type candidate in the house.

Other outspoken progressives or socialists are also struggling in Texas. DSA-member Heidi Sloan lost to slightly-more-mainstream progressive Julie Oliver, who also ran in 2018 and will get a second shot at toppling the Republican incumbent in her district.

There were signs of light, however: progressive lawyer Lulu Seikaly advanced to a run-off primary election with her nearest rival, fellow lawyer Sean McCaffity, in Texas’s 3rd district.

In California, meanwhile, Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur will not be representing the 25th district in Congress anytime soon. Leading Democrat Christie Smith and the leading Republican, defense contractor Mike Garcia, will advance to a runoff for the rest of former Rep. Katie Hill’s term, and then another for a new two-year term in a highly competitive district.

Keeping the House will be a major priority for Democrats come November -- but at least this year, there isn’t a clear victory for progressives like AOC’s upset of Joe Crowley in 2018.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

California officially had its driest February ever. In the entire month, some areas of the state saw not a single drop of rain, a dire sign of the climate change and one that could make the upcoming fire season more tragic than ever.

Tornadoes killed 25 people in Tennessee on Monday, devastating small towns across the center of the state and causing wreckage across a swathe of Nashville.

Virginia became the first southern state to ban licensed medical professionals from practicing conversion therapy on minors, which will hopefully end some cases of the still-widespread amoral practice.

The New York Times reports that some conservative communities are trying to become “sanctuary cities” for the anti-abortion movement, banning abortion in their local jurisdictictions.

And lastly, koalas may become endangered again, as a new report claims bushfires in Australia may have killed as many as 5,000 in New South Wales alone, bringing their numbers down by as much as two thirds.

That’s all for the AM Quickie today. We’ll have a lot more Super Tuesday content this afternoon as votes continue to come in and the delegate counts firm up.

#AMQuickie: Mar 4, 2020

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:

It is Super Tuesday, perhaps the biggest day of the primary election.

Bernie Sanders’s lead over Joe Biden will be tested in 14 different states, as the growing centrist coalition of former candidates throw all their might behind Biden to stop Sanders winning the nomination.

Meanwhile, a new report shows that Bernie Sanders fought to preserve prescription drug legislation in the 90s that would have stopped big pharma companies from charging huge prices for things like vaccines. And guess who voted against it: Joe Biden.

And lastly, Chris Matthews, the long-time MSNBC host with a penchant for sexism and generally being a moron, abruptly announced his retirement on Monday’s episode of his show Hardball, following several weeks of criticism for overtly insensitive comments regarding Nazis, Communism, and other televised embarrassments.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The centrist’s plan to take down Bernie Sanders is in full swing, just in time for Super Tuesday. Following Joe Biden’s commanding win in the South Carolina Primary, the remaining centrist candidates almost immediately consolidated behind the former vice president.

Pete Buttigieg was the first to drop out, almost immediately making plans to join Biden in Dallas for a rally. Amy Klobuchar, perhaps out of spite, followed shortly after.

And, as icing on the Dallas-rally cake, dark horse former candidate Beto O’Rourke showed up to lay a final knife in the progressive movement’s back by also endorsing Biden.

This makes the primary essentially a two way race, between the newly united centrist mega-campaign behind Biden and Bernie Sanders’ grassroots movement.

Michael Bloomberg’s effect on the race is still unclear, although he’s not competitive in most of the states voting today. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, is hanging on for dear life, stubbornly refusing to give the progressive wing of the party the same unity by dropping out and endorsing Sanders.

The new centrist block and Biden’s post-Carolina bump is already affecting polls across the country in states like Virginia. While Bernie is still favored to win big states like California and Texas, the more Biden closes the margins the lower Bernie’s chances of winning the primary outright become. And if it comes down to a contested convention, Sanders will be going up against the full might of his own party even if he enters July with a plurality of votes.

In other words, the race could all come down to today. It’s clear where the lines have been drawn. It’s on all of us in a voting state today to decide which side of them we’re on.

Here’s a quick story about why the United States is the way it is, which provides the core of a story published by the Intercept on Monday.

In 1995, Bill Clinton’s administration caved to pressure from big pharma and rescinded a key piece of drug-pricing legislation, known as the “reasonable pricing” rule.

The rule, when it was in place, required companies to sell drugs that they’d developed with the help of federal research funds for, well, reasonable prices. Seems sensible, right? But Clinton’s party had just lost big to the Republicans in the midterms, and so the rule hit the chopping block.

House-member Bernie Sanders did not agree with the change, and sent up an amendment that would reinstate the rule. It failed in the House. In the Senate, concurrent legislation was also pushed to the floor, where it was shot down by a vote to table. Guess who voted to shoot it down? Joe Biden.

Both of those politicians are running for president, at a time when a new virulent disease threatens to sweep across the country. If and when a company discovers a vaccine for the coronavirus, it will then hit the chaotic, unequal markets of the U.S. healthcare system.

But as the Intercept notes, there is a way to make sure Americans have some chance of getting a vaccine without going bankrupt -- reintroducing Sanders’ resolution from all those years ago as part of a funding package Congress is considering to combat the disease. Will they do it? Probably not. But it’s good to know that if things do get bad, we know who was trying to save lives years before this crisis even started.

Chris Matthews has pitched his last hard ball. The 74-year-old MSNBC anchor abruptly announced his retirement at the beginning of his Monday evening show, which, if we’re sticking with the baseball metaphor here, has been throwing wild pitches all over the place for the past several weeks.

Matthews has for years carried a reputation as a sexist creep, but his recent performances on politically-charged live television finally pushed him into a position so tenuous that MSNBC likely suggested he go out to pasture.

Some of these performances have been outrageous, like Matthew’s comparison of Bernie Sanders’ success in the Democratic Primary to the Nazi invasion of France.

Others have been largely par for the course, like his condescending interview of Elizabeth Warren about Michael Bloomberg’s sexual harassment allegations.

And some have been purely farcical, like when he mixed up the identities of a sitting black Senator and a black candidate for Senator on live TV.

In short: pretty much every time Matthews has been on TV in the past few weeks, he’s been a complete embarrassment, and NBC decided to pull the plug.

Matthews’s departure is at least a token acknowledgement that the mainstream liberal news network may have overstepped in its efforts to criticize the more progressive wing of the party.

The network was reportedly on the hunt for “smart, pro-Sanders” voices to anchor the network in the reality that we currently live in, and not whatever Cold-War fever-dream Matthews was apparently living in. We’ll see how that goes for them.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A 22-year-old California man was sentenced to five and a half years in prison after cyberstalking and harassing survivors of the 2018 Parkland shooting, as well as victims’ families.

The World Meteorological Organization now predicts that the warm-weather effects of climate change will be as strong as the famed El Niño phenomenon, as many traditionally-cold regions have experienced unusually winters ever this year.

Some Americans who have been held in government quarantine after brushes with the coronavirus say they’ve received surprise medical bills after being forced into mandatory medical procedures.

Just two days after it was signed, America’s peace treaty with the Taliban in Afghanistan is already dissolving, after the terrorist group immediately resumed attacking Afghan government forces on Monday.

And lastly, workers at Trader Joes are attempting to unionize, according to a rapidly-growing Twitter account that is attempting to jumpstart the process at chains nationwide. The major grocery company prides itself on social good and caring for its employees -- we’ll see how that holds up.

That’s all for the AM Quickie today. Make sure you’re with us later today for the Majority Report’s full coverage of the Super Tuesday madness.

#AMQuickie - March 2, 2020

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 won the South Carolina primary in a relative landslide, beating frontrunner Bernie Sanders by almost 30 percentage points, and Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer decided to call it quits.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials report the second death from Coronavirus in the United States, and the first case of the disease has been confirmed in New York City.

And lastly, the U.S. signed a peace deal with the Taliban on Saturday, beginning the process of ending America’s 19-year-old war in the country, which accomplished next to nothing besides killing a whole bunch of people.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary. Good for him! It only took him three presidential campaigns to win a state, but he did it comfortably this weekend, winning over 48 percent of the vote. Bernie Sanders came in second with about 20 percent.

Biden’s big win makes him by far the biggest centrist threat to the progressive wing of the party, and signs show that establishment consolidation may come a little quicker than expected.

That’s because Pete Buttigieg dropped out today, which means there’s one less firmly centrist candidate in the running to split the vote. Tom Steyer also dropped out after finishing third in South Carolina.

Sanders still has a lead in most states going in to Super Tuesday, but Biden’s inevitable post-South Carolina bump and Buttigieg’s exit could make it a whole lot more competitive of a race.

Basically any voters that shift toward making Biden viable in states he might not have been viable in saps eventual delegates from Bernie and pushes the race closer to a contested convention -- the nightmare situation for progressive voters, because it’s highly unlikely anything resembling democracy comes out of it.

That said, the Sanders camp is still pretty strong, raking in 46 million dollars in February alone. It really all comes down to the showings on Super Tuesday tomorrow, especially in the big-delegate states like California and Texas.

The coronavirus has now killed two people on U.S. soil. Both were patients at the same hospital in Kirkland, Washington, which has confirmed six cases among patients and quarantined dozens of others.

On Sunday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also confirmed the disease’s first case in New York City, which affected a late 30s Manhattan resident who had recently returned from Iran.

In other words, the virus is still a very rare occurrence in the states, but it is spreading. And as more and more cases get confirmed worldwide, it’ll get harder and harder to stop.

As you’ve surely read by now, part of the problem with the virus is that it’s difficult to detect early on and can therefore spread before people even know they’ve got it. Officials think it may have spread undetected for weeks in Washington state, meaning there could be any number of cases still waiting to be confirmed.

The president, of course, isn’t making any of this any easier, accusing Democrats of over-reacting and even calling concern over the disease QUOTE: “their new hoax” ENDQUOTE.

So while the disease may be limited at the moment, there are a lot of big questions as to how well a Trump-led America will be able to handle it if it becomes widespread. So far, he’s not exactly inspiring confidence.

America’s longest war in the Middle East may finally be ending, on roughly the note it deserves: bitter regret and shame.

On Saturday, the U.S. signed a peace deal with the Taliban, the fundamentalist terror group that it overthrew in 2001 and then battled unsuccessfully for 19 years.

The peace agreement, signed after a year of negotiations in Doha, Qatar, did not involve the U.S.-backed Afghan government. While the deal does provide for the majority of the 12,000 U.S. troops still deployed to the country to come home, critics warn that it lacks, well, pretty much everything else.

Representative Barbara Lee, who has been an outspoken critic of the war since it began in 2001, said that the deal QUOTE “lacks the critical investments in peacebuilding, human-centered development, or governance reform needed to rebuild Afghan society.” ENDQUOTE.

In other words, it doesn’t even come close to leaving behind a system that makes amends for the damage we’ve already done. What’s worse, officials fear that the power vacuum left behind may make terrorist groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban themselves even stronger.

That means that thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Afghans lost their lives for a cause that amounts to basically nothing. Does the peace deal mean this entire disgrace is finally over? Who knows.

While it should be clear at this point that a military solution in the country is idiotic, other experts warn that the plan lacks quote “any strategy for long-term peace.” endquote. And all that can mean is more war.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Turkey openly declared war on the Syrian regime under dictator Bashar al Assad this weekend, mounting a massive counteroffensive against Syrian government forces three days after losing over 30 men to Syrian and Russian air bombardment.

Thousands of Puerto Ricans are still sleeping on the streets, afraid to return to their damaged homes after a powerful 6.7 earthquake shook the island in January. Aftershocks continue to make the situation worse, and federal aid is disorganized and scarce.

Protestes in Minnesota shut down a campaign event for Amy Klobuchar on Sunday evening, occupying her stage for more than an hour while hammering her on her prosecutorial record in a key case involving a black teenager and demanding she drop out of the race.

Despite previously saying they would not attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference, both Klobuchar and former candidate Pete Buttigieg will send in pre-recorded “video addresses” to the event. We’re not sure of the catering outlook for AIPAC, but it sure looks like some people are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show later this afternoon, available wherever podcasts are found.

#AMQuickie - Mar 2, 2020

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 total failure of the White House to deal with the coronavirus sent stocks into a record dive. How many people will die because of Republican incompetence?

Meanwhile, old-school rap legends Public Enemy will play at a Bernie Sanders rally in Los Angeles ahead of Super Tuesday. And Joe Biden’s campaign admitted he was never arrested while trying to meet with Nelson Mandela, as Biden repeatedly claimed.

And lastly, the Justice Department is investigating new evidence that members of the intelligence community conspired with a Mexican drug cartel to kidnap, torture, and kill an American cop. But Bill Barr’s DOJ did not want the story to get out.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Two years ago this month, the White House announced an eighty percent cut to the Centers for Disease Control’s epidemic prevention programs in thirty-nine of forty-nine countries where it operated. Now we are witnessing how short-sighted Trumpian mismangement fares during a bona-fide global health crisis. So far, so bad. Not good. Very bad.

The man Trump put in charge of COVID-19 response, Mike Pence, made time yeterday to attend the CPAC conference of right-wing loons. The New York Times reported that the Vice President had muzzled federal health officials, demanding to sign off in advance on any public statements they make. Which means they cannot do their jobs. Trump’s CDC director, Robert Redfield, was reportedly a member of a rightwing Christian groups denying AIDS science.

Administration incompetence already seems to have played a role in spreading the coronavirus. The Washington Post reported that Alex Azar, the Big Pharma lobbyist Trump put in charge of Health and Human Services, overruled the Centers for Disease Control and sent untrained, unprotected employees to greet returning Americans after their release from quarantine in Asia. The news came from an HHS whistleblower who was threatened with termination after raising concerns through formal channels.

Trump’s press conference the other day did not reassure his friends on Wall Street. They are panicking. The New York Stock Exchange yesterday marked the largest single-day point decline in history. On business news channels, disembodied screams from the trading floor could be heard loudly enough to disturb the anchors on business news channels. Pence announced that the loathed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the gregarious White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow would join his join coronavirus task force.

State and local leaders attempted to pick up the slack. California health officials said they were monitoring more than eight thousand people for signs of infection. Seven hundred were being asked to QUOTE voluntarily self-isolate ENDQUOTE in New York. Overseas, things are more intense. Japan closed the schools. India stopped inbound flights from Iran, and Iran banned Chinese nationals from entering. Also, an Iranian vice president was himself infected with the coronavirus. In Hong Kong, a dog tested positive.

Independent public health experts said the pandemic will likely go global. Ninety-eight percent of people who infected with the current mutation of the coronavirus are expected to suffer no life-threatening symptoms. However, large numbers of mostly old and infirm people could die – more than necessary, thanks to the Republicans.

Standard government preparedness advice entails keeping several weeks’ worth of food and water at ready in the home.

Democratic primary news hinged around speculation around the role of superdelegates in the Democratic National Convention this summer.

The New York Times surveyed dozens of these elite delegates and found many who said they wanted to stop front-runner Bernie Sanders from obtaining the nomination -- even if it meant damaging or destroying the party. And losing to Trump in November.

The Sanders campaign announced legendary rap group Public Enemy would perform at a rally in Los Angeles ahead of the California primary on Super Tuesday. No comment yet from Tipper Gore, who led the Democratic Party’s anti-rap and rock music crusade in the 1990s, and singled out Public Enemy for criticism. The group also collaborated with the artist and activist Sister Souljah, who Bill Clinton compared to Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in his 1992 run for president.

Joe Biden’s campaign finally conceded that he was not, in fact, arrested in apartheid South Africa while trying to visit Nelson Mandela in prison. Biden has repeatedly told and embellished upon the fabricated event in an effort to shore up support from older black voters ahead of tomorrow’s South Carolina primary.

After dropping his presidential campaign, Andrew Yang quickly struck a deal to be a CNN commentator. Yesterday it emerged he was under consideration as a potential vice president on the ticket of former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Congratulations to Yang on the upward failure – not always easy.

An investigation by USA Today revealed the secret role of officials with the Central Intelligence Agency and Drug Enforcement Administration in the torture and murder of a young DEA agent in Mexico in 1985.

The story of agent Enrique Camarena (CAMA-RAYNA) provided the plot for the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico.” But new evidence being examined by the Justice Department indicates the agent was betrayed by federal agents in league with the very drug cartels they were supposedly fighting. It was the war on drugs, after all.

DOJ employees and the murdered agent’s widow told the paper that prosecutors had collected statements regarding the alleged conspiracy to murder a law enforcement officer. However, the sources were not authorized to speak. Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr, helped the Reagan administration cover up Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s. But Barr’s name does not appear in the USA Today story. The Justice Department as well as the DEA, and the CIA, all refused to answer questions.

Among the witnesses interviewed by the DOJ were several Mexican police who also spoke to USA Today. Reporter Brad Heath wrote that these new details add weight to old and QUOTE startling stories, alleging that U.S. officials had secretly been involved with a cartel that was then delivering huge quantities of marijuana and cocaine to the United States ENDQUOTE. Agent Camarena, then thirty-seven, was abucted by gang members in Guadalajara, blindfolded, burned, and beaten until he died. A CIA operate and a DEA official were present at a cartel meeting where Camarena’s torture and murder were planned. Mexican police secretely recorded that meeting and gave the tapes to the DEA.

A man convicted in themurder spent thirty-two years in prison before being set free on the basis of bad evidence. Perhaps Barr will soon name the real killer.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Workers told the Guardian that after raising their wages last year, the Target Corporation rolled out a QUOTE modernization plan ENDQUOTE that dramatically cut workers’ hours while piling on to their workloads. A survey by Target Workers Unite that found more than half of Target workers had run out of food. Another twelve percent experienced homelessness. The company employs at over a third of a million Americans. Do better!

The Justice Department announced the creation of an office devoted to de- naturalization – which means, simply, stripping people of their right to stay in the country. Its first targets are supposed to be terrorists, war criminals, and QUOTE other fraudsters ENDQUOTE. Terrible news for Dick Cheney, his family, and all his friends.

Two independent studies determined that there was no fraud in the last Bolivian elections. Vague allegations of fraud were the main excuse used to justify the military coup against exiled president Evo Morales last year. The studies, by the Massachusets Institute of Technology and a think tank called the Center for Economic and Policy Research, contradicted initial allegations by the US-backed Organization of American States. Something to remember for the next coup!

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

#AMQuickie: Feb 28, 2020

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Donald Trump tells America not to worry about the coronavirus. You know what that means.

Meanwhile, is there growing pressure on free speech from big money? Ask Michael Bloomberg -- or James O’Keefe. Those guys seem fine.

And lastly, fascist leaders around the world are making shows of force. But democratic resistance is also growing, even in the US Marine Corps.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Donald Trump took time out of his busy complaining schedule to deliver an important public health message to America.

That message was: I don’t know the specifics, but don’t worry. We had too many doctors just sitting around at the Centers for Disease Control. That’s why I cut the payroll. But if we do need more doctors because the coronavirus gets bad, I can hire them quickly. Not that it will get bad. But it could! Nancy Pelosi wants you to panic. But not me, the president. Who said yesterday, of the deadly new disease COVID-19, QUOTE There's a chance it could get fairly substantially worse. But nothing's inevitable ENDQUOTE. Really, who’s to say?

The president used a global health emergency to spread xenophobia while falsely accusing critics of exaggerating the severity of the virus. He said, QUOTE If you feel like you have a flu, sort of quarantine yoursellf, don't go outside ENDQUOTE. He whined about getting embraced by a sick man. He said schools across the country should be prepared, but he offered no information on what they should do. He ended an informational press conference without giving CDC officials time to inform people. Those experts this week portrayed the virus as of grave concern. The White House said Trump had everything under control. Clearly not.

Trump promised to investigate reports of medical price gouging. But his administration told Congress it won’t supply a coronavirus vaccine to everyone, should one be developed.

The president also raised the possibility of border closures and travel restrictions. But the headline was, Trump puts Vice President Mike Pence in charge of coronavirus response. Pence doesn’t believe in evolution. Or climate chinge. He’s not sure cigarettes cause cancer. When he was governor of Indiana, his stubborn ignorance directly led to an HIV outbreak. Pence also ran from the press yesterday. In charge, is he?

After the White House farce, California public health officials announced they had discovered a coronavirus case of unknown original. That means they could not trace the infection back to someone who had traveled abroad. Which means Trump’s border talk was bigoted nonsense.

Democratic presidential front-runner Bernie Sanders said on Twitter QUOTE I am deeply concerned not just by the rise of cases of coronavirus worldwide, but by the inadequate and incompetent response we have seen from Donald Trump and his administration... We need a vaccine that is available to all, not just those who can afford it ENDQUOTE. (And amen).

It’s been a bad week for freedom of speech in the Trump regime, and beyond. First came a denial from the comically bloated campaign of former Republican Democratic presidential candidate, and billionaire oligarch, Michael Bloomberg. He may have slipped up at the debate and said he QUOTE bought ENDQUOTE several members of Congress. But he did not, the campaign says, pay for people to cheer for him at this week’s debate in South Carolina. OK, whatever you say, sir. You can’t see, but I am winking.

New reporting puts scrutiny on the nature and extent of Bloomberg’s propaganda machine. A report in the Guardian characterized his nearly half-billion dollar campaign as polluting the infomation ecosystem and underiming trust in news. And a report yesterday in The Markup, a tech news site, showed that Google was delivering way more of Bloomberg’s messages past email spam filters than his Democratic rivals. Seventeen percent of Bloomberg’s emails made it to the Inbox, a study found. That’s compared to zero of Elizabeth Warren’s emails and two percent of Bernie Sanders’. Silicon Valley darlings Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang fared far better than even Bloomberg, with sixty-three and forty-seven percent of emails delivered. They must know something we don’t. Or more likely, they know someone.

Meanwhile, ABC News suspended a correspondent who said in a secretly recorded private conversation that he was a socialist. The reporter, 56-year old Emmy and Peabody award-

winning war correspondent David Wright, faces corporate sanction because of a sting by the paid Koch Brothers agent and proven fabricator James O’Keefe. At NBC, former Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davison said he was QUOTE forced ENDQUOTE to apologize after making a joke about Dan Cranshew, the Trump-loving former Navy SEAL.

Anyway, thanks for supporting independent media.

Fascists are on the march around the world, with some hopeful signs of resistance from the public and from institutions. The confirmed death toll in India, where Trump just visited and sanctioned horrific anti-Muslim pogroms led by the government, rose to twenty-seven. In Brazil, Trump’s other fascist ally Jair Bolsonaro lent his support to upcoming rallies attacking democracy and promoting a return to military dictatorship.

There is better news on this front -- though none of it, obviously, is not ideal. The US Marine Corps announced it was banning the display of all Confederate symbols. But what took so long? The Civil War ended in 1865.

The Justice Department announced it arrested five leaders of the neo-Nazi terrorist group, Atomwaffen Division. The group had multiple murders to its name and had threatened to kill several journalists, including a ProPublica reporter named in the court filing, and multiple friends of the show. Separately, the House of Representatives passed a bill making lynching a federal hate crime, and named for the fourteen-year-old civil rights martyr Emmett Till. However, four Congressmen voted against the bill. They were Justin Amash of Michigan, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ted Yoho of Florida, and Louie Gohmert of Texas. Of those four, only Amash voted to impeach Trump.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A gunman killed five coworkers at the Molson Coors headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was yesterday, the same day that Trump said QUOTE They're going to destroy the Second Amendment. But, no, what we're talking about is the virus. And after we

win the election the stock market is going to boom like it's never boomed before. ENDQUOTE. He forgot hopes and prayers, but he did send condolences.

A union representing four thousand thousand commercial property janitors in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota announced it would join a student climate strike to demand green jobs. Solidarity with Service Employees International Union Local Twenty-Six who will walk out next week. One striking cleaner, born in Mexico, said she would have been afraid to demand better wages four years ago, but is no longer afraid.

Jordan Peterson’s daughter Mikaela posted a photo of the two of them in Moscow this week. It’s proof of life for the best-selling author, academic, and right-wing YouTube personality. Mikaela said Jordan was in some kind of secret Russian rehab for his benzo addiction after doctors in North America refused to sign off on his preferred treatment plan, a potentially fatal cold-turkey detox, and his all-beef diet. No one has yet verified the family’s incredible story.

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

#AMQuickie: Feb 27, 2020

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:

Bernie Sanders may be a democratic socialist. But it was billionaire Michael Bloomberg who defended the communist politburo at the debate in South Carolina.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court ruling sold out non-citizens and will embolden violent cops. With Donald Trump in charge, what could possibly go wrong?

And lastly, Trump lies about the coronavirus. Public health officials are now directly contradicting the White House about the spread of a deadly disease.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

CBS News badly mishandled last night’s Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina. For starters, the network ran an advertisement for one of the candidates, former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg, during a commercial break. Worse, the moderators failed to get answers from the candidates or hold their focus on any topic. It was a free-for-all. And with Bernie Sanders claiming three straight victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, the other Democrats fought with one another to stay relevant.

Sanders mostly held back as they yelled over each other and, when called upon, talked about his plan for universal healthcare. He and Elizabeth Warren both took every opportunity to attack Bloomberg. Everyone else jostled for the chance to attack Sanders, hoping to chip away at his lead in the polls. Bloomberg tried to recover from his disastrous debut in Las Vegas by joking about his poor performance, as well as his stature. But even his paid cheering squad missed his laugh lines. It was crickets, just crickets! And his attack on Sanders as some kind of radical communist backfired spectacularly.

Bloomberg was asked about his financial entanglements with the Chinese Communist Party and his defense of its leader, Xi Jinping. Bloomberg defended Xi as a kind of democratic figure, although he fired employees from his news business over an investigation into corruption in the Chinese elite. Bloomberg said of Xi, QUOTE In terms of whether he's a dictator, he does serve at the pleasure of the Politburo ENDQUOTE. Which prompted Sanders to ask, who elects the politburo? Which may be the first criticism of a communist

party from the left in a US presidential debate. Sanders spoke of his pride in being Jewish and the months he lived in Israel before attacking the reactionary government of Benjamin Netanyahu and the need to support Palestinian rights. Sanders said the biggest misconception about him was that he was radical, and quoted Nelson Mandela: Everything is impossible until it happens. Warren and Pete Buttigieg concluded with nods to the New Testament. Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, and Tom Steyer failed to communicate a message. Or maybe we missed it! South Carolina voters will let us know on Saturday.

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday five to four that a US Border Patrol agent who shot a Mexican boy on Mexican soil cannot be held accountable.

The case, Hernandez versus Mesa, concerns a shooting that took place in June 2010. Fifteen-year-old Sergio Hernández Güereca was playing near the southern side of a fence along the border. Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa had detained one of the boy’s friends. Hernandez ran to Mexican soil, and the American border agent shot him. Mesa later claimed the boys were throwing rocks.

The Supreme Court was not concerned so much with the facts around the shooting. It considered whether Güereca’s family had standing to sue Mesa in US court. And the conservative majority decided the answer was no.

Yesterday’s ruling challenged precedent and came in for harsh criticism, even beyond the human rights groups that filed briefs on behalf of the grieving family. One one level it granted license to violence by US agents on the border. But the ruling also undermined public oversight over law enforcement agencies, and will make it harder seek redress for abuses of power by all kinds of people with badges and guns.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. Ruth Bader Ginsburg provided the dissent. She wrote there is QUOTE no good reason ENDQUOTE why the grieving parents should face a closed courtroom door. And she noted it was not an isolated killing.

Separately, the federal judge who sentenced former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone took measurers to protect a juror from threats incited by the president. Trump also said yesterday

that Justices Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor should recuse themselves from any cases that are QUOTE Trump-related ENDQUOTE. Or else what?

In an effort to improve Donald Trump’s reelection prospects and avoid further damage to financial marketes, the White House is spreading disinformation about the the new coronavirus and the deadly, flu-like disease it causes, COVID-19. The federal Centers for Disease Control says the virus, still mostly afflicting China, needs to be taken more seriously. But the White House says it is already contained. Trump himself said the virus was QUOTE well under control ENDQUOTE.

State and local governments are beginning to take action in lieu of the White House. The city of San Francisco declared an emergency over the virus. Other countries are also acting in response to an increase in confirmed cases. International Olympics Committee officials said the Tokyo Olympics would be canceled if the virus was not under control by May. As of yesterday, all but a few thousand of the eighty thousand confirmed cases were in mainland China, where internal and external travel has been heavily restricted.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Bob Iger resigned as chief executive of the evil Disney corporation. Separately, Disney decided to censor the HBO host John Oliver over an episode of his show exposing Narendra Modi’s fascist rule in India, as Donald Trump wrapped up his visit there. Disney controls Oliver’s distribution in India. Trump’s visit coincided with an escalation in deadly pogroms by Hindu nationalist supporters of Modi. None of which makes for polite discussion if you want to stay on good terms with the Mar-A-Lago regime.

Trump’s new acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, failed to report a large payment from the right-wing government of Hungary. The trade magazine GovExec reported that Grenell’s consulting firm received a hundred-thousand-dollar payment from an organization directly linked to the fascist prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. Foreign interference: it’s not just for Russia, folks! Or America.

The US National Transportation Safety board concluded its investigation of a fatal crash involving a Tesla on QUOTE autopilot ENDQUOTE. It turns out the driver in the 2018 crash, an Apple engineer, was playing a video game on his work-issued iPhone when his car drove hit a highway median. But the federal body said his distracted state did not absolve both Apple and Tesla for serious failures. It said Tesla’s Auto-steer software was QUOTE completely inadequate ENDQUOTE. It almost makes you feel better about the subway.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report for the full run-down on the South Carolina debate!

#AMQuickie: Feb 26, 2020

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:

Abortion rights groups have had a rough start to the week, as a federal appeals court upheld the Trump administration’s “gag order” on title x funding to clinics that refer patients to abortion services. And in the Senate, Mitch McConnell is expected to bring two controversial anti-abortion bills up for votes on Tuesday, further pushing the conservative’s repressive agenda.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus is on the verge of becoming a truly global pandemic, which is beginning to weaken the world’s financial markets. Some experts are resigned to the disease spreading widely across the globe, only comforted by its relatively low death rate.

And lastly, Michael Bloomberg vowed to “defend the banks,” in a closed-door speech to Goldman Sachs executives in 2016. His campaign says the comment was in jest, but did not deny his other quotes from that night, which included saying that Elizabeth Warren and the progressive movement were just as scary as the far right.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

A key court decision on one of the Trump administration’s most callous policies and two new bills expected to come to a vote in the Senate today have severely endangered women’s reproductive rights in the country.

The people behind it? Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence and Donald Trump -- exactly the kind of guys you want calling the shots as to how more than half of the country treats their own bodies.

The first blow was a 7-4 decision in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in favor of the Trump Administration’s “gag order” on Title Ten federal funding. The order prevents federal funding from going to health clinics that provide referrals for abortions.

Federal funding already does not go to facilities that directly provide abortions, and activists say that the gag order will severly impact the federally subsidized clinics that often provide contraceptives, preventative care, family planning and STI testing to vulnerable and poor populations. The American Medical Association president Patrice A. Harris blased the decision, saying quote:

"It is unconscionable that the government is telling physicians that they can treat this underserved population only if they promise not to discuss or make referrals for all treatment options,” endquote.

Republicans, however, continue their culture war unabated. In the Senate, majority leader Mitch McConnell is planning to call a vote on two anti-abortion bills on Tuesday.

One bill harshly restricts late-term abortions, banning almost all cases after 20 weeks of pregnancy, despite the fact that such cases are extremely rare and often only happen due to traumatic circumstances or medical emergencies that would endanger the life of the mother.

The other goes even further in persecuting the rare practice: levying fines and penalties against doctors who fail to do everything in their power to preserve an aborted but potentially living baby’s life.

This, again, only applies in exceedingly rare cases, and doctors say it’s unnecessary as they already provide that care. The only thing it does, of course, is give the government more options to criminalize doctors trying to counsel and aid patients going through an often traumatic experience. Sounds about right for the crusty misogynists in power.

In other distressing medical news, the coronavirus is starting to look uncontainable.

Global financial markets started to feel the strain of a possible worldwide pandemic, as stocks fell for the second day in the row. In South Korea, manufacturers may be forced to shut down some factories as China did, which could have a ripple effect on many different industries that depend on Korean-made parts.

For those of us who don’t have extensive investment portfolios, of course, a global pandemic is worrying on a greater than financial level. The disease has started to spread throughout Europe, greater Asia and the Middle East.

Experts fear that in Iran, particularly, the lack of transparency on the part of the Iranian regime and large, mobile population could contribute to a region-wide quote “recipe for a massive viral outbreak.” endquote.

The Atlantic reports that the conclusions of some experts are beginning to look both grim and measured, if that’s possible. The bad news is that several expert epidemiologists now predict that as much as 70 percent of the world’s population may eventually get the virus.

But while that may sound like a cause for mass panic, those numbers don’t mean that all of those people will be deathly ill. Instead, experts think the coronavirus and related strains will become a consistent reality during cold and flu season: most people will get it occasionally, but it won’t kill all that many of them.

There are dozens of companies working on a vaccine, but it won’t be ready for an estimated 12 to 18 months if we’re being optimistic. In other words, stock up on tissues, but don’t panic just yet.

In all this chaos, there is at least one constant in the world: Michael Bloomberg getting caught saying horrible stuff on tape.

Per a new report by CNN, Bloomberg said that his presidential platform would be to “defend the banks” during a private meeting with Goldman Sachs executives in 2016.

His campaign says that line was a joke, which, sure man. The campaign did not, however, deny the other parts of Bloomberg’s speech, which CNN reports was full of billionaire-brain soundbites.

When Bloomberg was asked about the rise of the far right in Europe, which has ushered in a new slate of understated or overt fascists into political office across the continent, the candidate immediately flipped the question around, saying quote “The progressive movement is just as scary.”

He then name-dropped Elizabeth Warren, equating her to the far-right elements of the Republican party. This was all back in 2016, of course, but it’s pretty clear which side he’s more comfortable with -- he also said that his endorsement of Obama in 2012 was quote “back handed,” as he actually though Mitt Romney would do a better job of advancing his interests. All true!

Later in the speech, he referred to the Goldman Execs at the meeting in Yankee Stadium as “his peeps,” and later delivered this banger about being president, quote: "No, I mean, you think about it, you have Predators, and the Predators have missiles, and I have a list of everybody that's annoyed me or screwed me for the last 74 years, and bang-bang-bang-bang."

That’s clearly a very very bad joke. Which also describes Bloomberg’s campaign!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Donald Trump took some shots at Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Ginsberg in the middle of his trip to India, taking a break from his fascist field trip to demand that the two liberal judges recuse themselves from all cases that involve him. This will uh... probably not happen.

The extradition trial for Julian Assange began in London on Monday. Initial stages of it are set to last a week, with the Wikileaks publisher facing extradition back to the United States for a litany of alleged crimes related to publishing government secrets, which could have disastrous implications for press freedom worldwide.

Human rights activists are outraged after a graphic video showed Israeli forces dragging the body of a dead Palestinian man from a bulldozer. Israeli forces shot the man after suspecting him of planting a bomb, but desecrating his body seems like a clear war crime regardless of the circumstances.

Donald Trump announced that he was finalizing a 3 billion dollar arms deal with India during a trip to the country this week. India’s fascist leader Narendra Modi is currently waging a protracted campaign of persecution and violence against the country’s Muslim minority, and we’re about to sell him more guns to do it with.

That’s all for the AM Quickie today! Be sure to tune in to the full Majority Report with Sam Seder later today.

#AMQuickie: Feb 25, 2020

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:

Bernie Sanders steamrollers ahead after a decisive, overwhelming win on Saturday in the Nevada Caucuses, and centrist democrats are starting to panic.

Meanwhile, Trump heads to India to hang out with fellow overt fascist leader Narendra Modi and host one of his biggest rallies yet, named Namaste Trump.

And lastly, The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday on a strange, thrilling case that could have major implications for U.S. energy policy, when the Appalachian Trail goes up against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Nevada caucuses put Iowa to shame this weekend, proceeding without any major catastrophes and ushering in a new era of Bernie Sanders’s campaign, cementing the Vermont senator as a dominant frontrunner in the race.

Sanders won the state by an enormous margin -- with 88 percent of precincts reporting, he currently has over 47 percent of the vote, demolishing all of his competitors by over 20 points. His closest rival in the state is Joe Biden, with 21 percent of the vote.

Per a new report in Politico, however, Sanders’ impressive momentum is absolutely terrifying centrist Democrats.

Listen to this stuff: Matt Bennett, a VP at the centrist think tank Third Way, said quote “It’s this incredible sense that we’re hurtling to the abyss. Today is the most depressed I’ve ever been in politics.” endquote. The most depressed he’s ever been? Because Bernie Sanders won Nevada? Buddy. Get a grip.

Bennett and status-quo fetishists’ argument basically boils down to this: they think Sanders is too radical and would lose to Trump, possibly having wide down-ballot fallout for Democrats nationwide. It’s unclear where they’re getting this from, as almost every national poll has Bernie ahead of Trump in a hypothetical general election.

It’s also particularly hysterical because the results in Nevada decisively showed that Sanders is capable of mobilizing an extremely diverse, highly motivated coalition of traditional Democratic voters and newcomers alike.

It’s unclear whether the two-party fence-sitters at Third Way are oblivious to that or if they just don’t care -- after all, their version of the Democratic party probably doesn’t include the poor, brown, black, young and other minority demographics that Sanders brought in in Nevada.

Donald Trump is in India for the next 24 hours or so, touching down in the country early on Monday for a quick trip.

More than 100,000 people showed up for a massive, joint rally with India’s fascist president Narendra Modi in the western city of Ahmedabad on Monday afternoon local time. The two leaders palled around onstage, with Trump praising the stadium he was speaking in and the relationship between the two countries.

It’s clear to see why the two get along. Trump has struggled to enact a Muslim ban on immigration in the U.S., while Modi has just dispensed with the formalities and enacted a country-wide campaign of outright persecution against Indian Muslims, particularly those in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

Modi even put up a wall of his own, erecting a six-foot barrier along the side of a road Trump may have taken to the stadium to shield an a slum from his eyes. It simply would not do for our glorious leader to see a poor person on his way to the largest cricket stadium in the world.

The visit likely has several political aims for Trump. One, he’s still trying to negotiate a trade deal with the country, and two, he’s hoping that Modi’s popular support in India could carry over to some Indian-American swing voters in key states come November.

While the Indian diaspora tends to lean Democratic, Modi’s new right-wing populism is growing in India, and Trump likely wants to tap into that particular alliance.

And as for the Kashmiris who face daily violence and persecution at the hands of the state? Well, a senior administration official told the Washington Post that Trump would “raise the issue” with Modi in private. Sure.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a strange case involving conservation, oil pipelines, complicated bureaucracy, and hiking. Yeah, hiking. I know.

The case is over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile planned oil pipeline that will take the fracked fruits of natural gas drilling from West Virginia to Virginia and the and North Carolina. But there’s one small problem standing in its way: the Appalachian Trail.

The trail is the longest and one of the most popular through-hikes in the country, and is beloved by casual hikers and the small set of endurance junkies that do the whole 2,192 miles of it.

Big Oil lobbyists have been pretty successful in getting the permits necessary to carve up parts of National Forest land, often overlapping with Native American heritage sites, in order to move their crude product across the country.

But the Appalachian Trail, see, is administered by the National Parks Service, not the Forest Service. And federal law technically prevents authorizing pipelines in the Parks system.

A local environmental group, the Cowpasture River Preservation Association, challenged the ACP’s permit on these grounds, and the case has now made it all the way to the Supreme Court. If the Court rules in favor of the Cowpasture crew, it could have massive ramifications across the country.

There are more than 10 proposed pipelines that cross the Appalachian trail, and a recent New York Times op-ed suggests that if the trail stops them in their tracks, it could force the region to begin a shift away from natural gas and toward renewable energy.

And there seems to be a pretty good case for it. The last appeals court to hear the case held that the U.S. mineral leasing act doesn’t let the Forest Service give a company a permit to blast through National Parks land.

If the case makes precedent, who knows? Maybe the next president will start declaring a whole lot more hiking routes to be under the purview of the National Parks service.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Brigham Young University removed quote “homosexual behavior” from its strict honor code, allowing queer students to openly date on campus. It’s not much, but it’s progress, considering the school and larger Mormon Church’s attitude toward any form of sex or gender diversity.

The Coronavirus has hit Europe, with a fresh rush of cases in Italy, forcing officials to cancel schools, sports, and cultural events across the country and especially around Milan, where there are a reported 150 cases.

The Trump administration issued a memo last week that could affect the 750,000 federal contractors working for the Department of Defense forming or participating in a union. In an utterly surreal argument, the memo states that in some cases, a unionized workforce could present a threat to national security.

Health officials in rural Tennessee are going as far as to teach six year old children how to administer Narcan, a nasal spray that can save lives in the case of an opioid overdose, in a grim reminder of just how desperate that crisis is in some communities.

And on that note, that’s it for the AM Quickie today. Make sure to catch the full Majority Report with Sam later today.

#AMQuickie: Feb 24, 2020

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 conquers the federal judiciary. And top former security officials warn of a full-blown crisis in government.

Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg has spent a fortune on advertising, but why bother? Reports confirm his plan is to squeeze through at the Democratic National Convention.

And lastly, the Saudis planted spies inside Twitter. Next, M.B.S. slides in to your D.M.s.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Before the news, this statement, from a noted supporter of President Donald Trump: QUOTE All traitors must die miserable deaths. Those that represent traitors shall meet the same fate. We will hunt you down and bleed you out like the pigs you are, ENDQUOTE.

And so on.

This message was emailed by an unemployed construction worker, Brittan Atkinson, to Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys for a US government whistleblower who helped Democrats make the case for impeachment. Atkinson sent the threat one day after a rally in which Trump held up the attorney’s photo for the cameras to see.

And now the Trump supporter faces federal charges in Michigan that could put him in prison for up to five years. The news broke yesterday in Politico, which noted that Trump had tweeted about the whistleblower more than five dozen times, calling him a Deep State coup plotter, among other things. Atkinson’s wife told NBC her husband was an unemployed former construction worker and gamer. She was surprised her husband got arrested for sending death threats. She said, QUOTE, Was his email tactful? No, it wasn't. Was it kind of disturbing? Yes, it was. But him along with several other people in this country are fed up with the bullshit. They just want the country to run ENDQUOTE.

Meanwhile, former Trump adviser Roger Stone got off with a relatively light sentence, despite having issued threats of his own against the judge in his witness tampering trial and obstruction trial. Stone’s prosecutors had asked for a seven to nine year prison sentence. Yesterday, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Stone to forty months. All the prosecutors resigned over interference from the administration, and Trump himself attacked

the judge. Shortly after the sentencing, Trump said Stone would be exonerated. Stone’s lawyers have already asked for a new trial.

Following his Senate acquital, Trump has not only bent the judicial system to his will, he has caused what former C.I.A. director John Brennan yesterday called a QUOTE full-blown national security crisis. ENDQUOTE. Trump’s unqualified nominee to be the new Director of National Intelligence, announced this week, yesterday said he would only be in the role temporarily. Trump reportedly fired the previous director because he supplied information to Congress – another branch of government Trump has effectively conquered. He and Vice President Mike Pence hold another rally today in Las Vegas. Stay tuned to find out who’ll be getting death threats next!

His terrible debate performance may be irrelevant to the campaign strategy of former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

He doesn’t care how people feel about him. Politico reported that Bloomberg’s state-level advisers have a plan to get Bloomberg nominated on the second ballot at the Democratic National Convention in July. To that end, his employees have been targeting supporters of Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg as well as uncommitted D.N.C. members. Politico predicted this undemoratic gambit would result in QUOTE havoc at the convention, raising the prospect of party insiders delivering the nomination to a billionaire over a progressive populist ENQUOTE. Sounds about right!

Although he tried to make light of his bad night in Las Vegas yesterday, Bloomberg also shared a doctored video of the debate. The clip was deceptively edited to turn a brief silence into a very long one, and make it seem like Bloomberg had one-upped the Democratic candidates. The opposite was the case, as even Bloomberg’s supporters admitted. He has already spent nearly half a billion dollars on his own campaign, burning through cash at a rate of seven million dollars per day. As if his image could not get worse, it emerged that Bloomberg’s longtime public relations, Arick Wierson, went to work for Brazil’s fascist ruler, Jair Bolsonaro. Who is great friends with Donald Trump by the way.

The more Democrats get to know Mike Bloomberg, the more he looks like his old golfing buddy, Trump. Bloomberg capped off the day by saying Democrats could not win the White House by nominating the front-runner, Bernie Senators, whom the hideous billionaire said has a QUOTE small base ENDQUOTE. Tens of thousands of people have been showing up to

Sanders rallies. Bloomberg has to pay people to say nice things about him. Or, in several dozen cases involving women, to say nothing about him.

Agents of the Saudi monarchy infiltrated Twitter and stole private information on thousands of users.

The two Saudi agents, who had obtained jobs at Twitter and were reportedly well-liked, passed on that compromising information to a deputy of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The spy game at Twitter was revealed in an F.B.I. indictment, first reported by BuzzFeed.

The most likely targets of the data breach were Saudi dissidents abroad, who have been targets for assassination by the US-backed monarchy. With the knowledge and blessing of Donald Trump’s son in law and Middle East advisor, Jared Kushner, Crown Prince M.B.S. previously ordered the murder of a Washington Post journalist. He also hacked the phone of Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. So, who knows what M.B.S. has in mind for our Twitter D.M.s! Presumably, he sees all of Trump’s texts. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way to Riyadh to negotiate a missile deal. Only the beast deals!

Separately, Reuters reported that the Defense Information Systems Agency, which handles secure communications for Trump, Pence, the Secret Service, and the Joint Chiefs of staff, was compromised. The extent of the breach was unknown. A Pentagon spokesman said affected individuals were offered advice and QUOTE free credit monitoring ENDQUOTE.

SAM: And now for some Quicker Quickies.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Trump administration overruled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a matter involving hundreds of US citizens hundreds under quarantine in Asia over the deadly new coronavirus. The Washington Post reported that the CDC had wanted to delay the return flights of fourteen cruise ship passengers infected with the coronavirus, for fear they could spread the deadly new disease, COVID-19. However, Trump appointees in Washington, DC, decided CDC experts were wrong. Dotard knows best!

An update on the mass shooting reported yesterday in Hanau, Germany: it was a neo- Nazi after all. Police said the forty-three year old killer was an extreme right-winger motivated

by racist hate. In a manifesto circulated online, the terrorist described himself as an incel, called for the genocide of non-whites, and espoused conspiracy theories that cast Donald Trump as a world-conquering savior. This is of course profoundly disturbing.

Although international attention has moved on, fighting has escalated in Syria this year. One million people have been made into refugees this year alone. And humanitarian groups reported that more than three hundred people, including children, have died since January. The Syrian government is attempting to recapture a breakaway province, Idlib. United Nations officials made new calls for an immediate cease fire in the conflict, which amounts to a proxy war between the US and Russia. What a week it has been.

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

#AMQuickie: Feb 21, 2020

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn