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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Donald Trump made his most blatant attempt to prevent Joe Biden from taking office in the coming days, directly asking Georgia officials to find him over 11,000 votes to overturn the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, a new Congress takes over, and Nancy Pelosi is predictably re-elected Speaker of the House. Some things may never change!

And lastly, the U.S.’s rollout of the coronavirus vaccine is already devolving into a mess, as the predictable holiday surge of cases starts to mount.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

There are only 16 days left in Trump’s term as president, but the big guy won’t let that stop him, because we’ve got at least one more big scandal on his way out.

On Sunday, the Washington Post both reported on a taped call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the President demanded that Republican officials find him over 11,000 votes and overturn their decision that Joe Biden won the state. Here’s the quote:

“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” ENDQUOTE

Trump went through every humiliating stage of grovelling and begging on the hour-long call. The Post released the full audio, if you really want to get into that, but the highlights are mostly Trump repeatedly insisting that there’s no way that he lost Georgia while Raffensperger repeatedly has to say things like this:

QUOTE

“Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.” ENDQUOTE

Meanwhile, in Congress, an alarming number of GOP elected officials have signed on to the President’s conspiracy-laden attempt at preventing a peaceful transition of power.

In the Senate alone, 11 Republican Senators or Senators-elect have said they will vote against certifying the election. They obviously don’t have the numbers to actually prevent Biden from

becoming President, but what this all shows is that with a more capable president who has control of both houses of Congress and the executive branch, this kind of coup could be a lot more successful. This is the political reality that we face from here on out, unless we figure out a better system for transitioning between administrations.

New Congress on Capitol Hill

Speaking of Congress, let’s talk about the new one. The 117th Congress was sworn in on Sunday, putting all eyes on the razor-thin race for Speaker of the House.

Democrats still have a majority, of course, meaning that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was almost certain to keep her slot, but Pelosi’s deep unpopularity with various factions of the Party and the Democrats’s slim lead in the House overall meant that the final vote tally was far closer than last year.

Still, Pelosi carried the vote over Republican Kevin McCarthy 216-208, effectively ending the argument in recent weeks that progressives like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez should use the slim margin to hold the Speaker vote hostage in order to force progress on bills like Medicare for All. AOC, who eventually voted for Pelosi, has explained that she and her Squad of like-minded legislators have used that bargaining power to seek less-visible advances than a big showy floor vote for Medicare For All. With Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush adding two more votes to the AOC-led block in the House, we’ll see how much they can get done in what Pelosi says will be her last turn in the big chair.

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, the GOP is eating itself alive as the Mitch McConnell faction wars with the Trump die-hards. Mitch and most of the GOP have clearly decided to cut Trump loose, whereas the new Trump hardliners like openly corrupt Kelly Loeffler and Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville want to start their time on the hill by screaming about election conspiracies, as we mentioned in the last story block.

This strategy and infighting is going to get tested tomorrow, when the Georgia Runoff elections decide the final makeup of the Senate. If Ossoff and Warnock both win, they could hand the Democrats their first control of House, Senate and the Presidency since 2015.

COVID Vaccine Rollout Is a Mess

The U.S. is once again far behind Government targets in controlling the coronavirus, as vaccine distribution continues to lag behind across the country.

According to the CDC, more than 4.2 million people received the initial vaccination dose as of Saturday, but the government’s goal was 20 million by the end of December. That means we’re way, way behind.

Coupled with a new case surge brought on by holiday travel, that means we’re looking at some more dark months to come. According to a report by NPR, part of the breakdown is that the Federal government doesn’t have a comprehensive plan on how to allocate the vaccine, and has largely left it up to state and local governments to figure out who gets what and when.

All kinds of stuff is causing delays: shortages in virals, bureaucratic red tape, and long lines for the places actually administering the vaccine.

In New York, for instance, Governor Andrew Cuomo has placed a hefty $1 million penalty on any administrator who gives the vaccine to someone who’s not authorized to get it yet. While this is clearly intended to stop the rich and corrupt jumping the line, what it also does is adds a further layer of bureaucracy in between getting the most people the vaccine as fast as possible.

This kind of blunder is leaving millions of doses in freezers at hospitals where they could expire before they manage to actually get into peoples’ arms. NPR reports that local officials are blaming some of the holdups on the meager federal aid they’re receiving as well, which is unsurprising given how stingy the recent relief bill was.

There were almost 300,000 new cases of the disease nationwide on Saturday. We’ve got to figure this one out, quickly.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

In news that should surprise no one, Biden’s cabinet has a long track record of raking in cash for big corporate speaking appearances. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen has collected more than $7 million in the past few years, and prospective Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has also collected more than a million. So glad things are back to normal over there!

According to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Report, the world’s 500 richest people added a combined $1.8 Trillion to their collective worth in the past year, as the entire rest of the world struggled with a deadly pandemic and widespread economic collapse.

Israel is being touted by some as a success story in vaccine rollout, with one obvious caveat: Palestinians in the blockaded West Bank and Gaza Strip have little to no access to the treatment, while Israel’s government prioritizes illegal settlers instead.

The New Year gave us one last look at Trump’s court of fools, as the President’s Mar a Lago resort hosted its annual party complete with a performance from Vanilla Ice and hundreds of unmasked participants. With any luck, this is exactly the kind of supid, hedonistic future Trump himself will be relegated to in just over two weeks.

JAN 4, 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:

Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell really doesn’t want you to get a $2,000 check from the government. But the fight over survival checks is shaping up to test his control over the legislative process in the closing days of the one hundred and sixteenth Congress.

Meanwhile, a new investigation reveals the use of forced labor in Apple’s supply chain. Many Muslims in China are reportedly given the choice between grueling work making iPhones or getting sent to a detention center.

And lastly, a judge in Georgia has overturned a Republican-led purge of thousands of voters. Every vote counts as the state prepares to vote in a crucial runoff elections next week.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The fate of what Democrats are calling survival checks remains in limbo as the Congressional session comes to a close at the end of the week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday thwarted Democrats’ bid to immediately increase the survival checks from $600 to $2,000, Politico reports. McConnell acknowledged Donald Trump’s conditions for signing a coronavirus and economic relief bill, which include increased payments. But he did not make an explicit commitment to tackling those issues in the coming days. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, insisted McConnell would have to offer a path forward on larger checks. That’s their demand in return for securing a quick vote to overturn Trump’s veto of the defense spending bill, which is McConnell’s priority. All of which means it’s not yet clear how much money the government will be sending you in the weeks ahead.

There’s been movement toward embracing the larger direct payments among Republicans, Politico reports. Trump and many House Republicans want it. The handful of Senate Republicans who’ve endorsed larger checks includes Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both of whom are in run-off races that will determine Senate control next year.

But getting those checks to the floor before then looks like a steep task after yesterday’s brouhaha, according to Politico. First Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to pass the House-approved bill increasing the checks to $2,000, which McConnell rejected. Then

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders asked McConnell to at least set up a roll call vote to follow the veto override. McConnell spurned that request too. Sanders responded by blocking quick passage of the veto override, leaving the possibility of keeping the Senate in session into New Year’s Day to finish consideration of the defense bill. A lot of people had to work over the holidays – the Senate can, too. Doncha think?

Forced Labor In iPhones

How much do you know about the technology you use every day? Where does it come from? Whose hands touched it before yours? One of the oldest and most well-known iPhone suppliers has been accused of using forced Muslim labor in its factories, according to documents uncovered by a human rights group and shared with the Washington Post. The documents, discovered by the Tech Transparency Project, detail how thousands of Uighur workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang were sent to work for Lens Technology. The company also supplies Amazon and Tesla.

Lens Technology is one of at least five companies connected to Apple’s supply chain that have now been linked to alleged forced labor from the Xinjiang region, the Post reports. Apple has faced criticism for its labor practices in the past, particularly in China. Some Uighur workers have told human rights groups that they were given a choice between taking a job in a far-flung factory or being sent to a detention center. In some cases, workers have said that when they accept the job, they live in heavily guarded campuses and are rarely allowed to leave. Whether the Uighurs are paid, and exactly how much, is unclear.

Apple has dispatched lobbyists to Capitol Hill regarding legislation that would hold US companies accountable for using forced labor from the region, the Post reports. The lobbyists are trying to water down the bill, according to congressional staffers. Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, told the Post that the alleged use of forced labor in Apple’s supply chain may explain why the company is lobbying against a bill now before Congress that would sanction companies for their involvement in human rights abuses in China. Well, it’s probably no coincidence, that’s for sure.

Georgia Voter Purge Overruled

There’s some encouraging news for Democrats from Georgia. Two Georgia counties must reverse their decision to purge thousands from voter rolls in advance of the state’s January 5 runoff elections, the Guardian reports. As we mentioned before, the results will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the US Senate. Federal judge Leslie Abrams Gardner said in an order filed late on Monday that the two counties appeared to have improperly relied on unverified change-of-address information to invalidate voter registrations. Per the ruling, those registrations must now be honored. Judge Abrams Gardner is the sister of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic activist who lost a race for Georgia governor in 2018, and led a voter registration drive that was crucial to Joe Biden’s victory in the state. National Democratic Party attorney Marc Elias, who litigated the case, hailed the decision as a blow to GOP voter suppression. He said the party continues to monitor how other Georgia counties respond to the suppression scheme and QUOTE where necessary, we will sue and we will win ENDQUOTE.

Of the more than four thousand registrations that officials tried to rescind, the vast majority were in Muscogee County, the Guardian reports. President-elect Joe Biden won this county during the November election. Another one hundred and fifty were in Ben Hill county, which Donald Trump won with a sizable margin. Almost two point one million people – more than twenty-five percent of Georgia’s registered voters – have voted in the Senate runoff election that started on December 14. Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are facing off against GOP incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively.

The deeply significant runoff has prompted record-breaking fundraising, the Guardian reports. Ossoff and Warnock each raised more than $100 million in a mere two months – surpassing their conservative opponents. These races are shaping up to be very close, folks. And very hard-fought.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

NBC News reports that at the current rate of vaccinations, it will take almost ten years to inoculate enough Americans to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. Twenty million doses were promised in short order by the Trump administration – but so far, only about two million people have received a shot. Joe Biden administration hopes to pick up the pace in the

new year. The President-elect yesterday named Bechara Choucair, a Kaiser Permanente executive, to be the nation's Covid-19 vaccine coordinator.

A park ranger was seen on video tasering a Native American man who was walking his dog with his sister at a national monument in New Mexico on Sunday, NBC News reports. Darrell House, who is Oneida and Navajo, often prays at the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. The ranger tased him for refusing to show ID. Since when does one need ID to pray?

Another indigenous environmentalist has been killed in Honduras, the Guardian reports. Félix Vásquez, a veteran leader of the indigenous Lenca people, was shot dead at home on the night of December 26 – just weeks after reporting death threats linked to his work. Hopes for justice are reportedly low. But the world is watching.

Small drones will be allowed to fly over people and at night in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday, according to Reuters. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said the new rules get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations, such as the delivery of packages. Tip your delivery drivers, folks – it’s a hard job, and now they’ve got competition coming.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. The Majority Report returns on Monday, as do we. Happy New Year!

DEC 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:

The Democratic controlled House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming majority yesterday to increase Coronavirus relief checks to $2,000, matching Trump’s demand for bigger payments and sending the bill to the GOP-controlled Senate and a perturbed Mitch McConnell.

Meanwhile, an innovative aid group is attempting to improve medical care for migrants on their way to the United States. They’ve already helped thousands of people at a refugee camp on Mexico’s border with Texas.

And lastly, tenants’ rights advocates are praising new legislation to prevent evictions just passed by lawmakers in New York. It doesn’t solve the problem of unpaid back rent, but it should save some people from getting thrown on the streets in a pandemic.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

In the House of Representatives yesterday Democrats led passage of an increase in covid payments from 600 to 2000 dollars. the Democrats voted near unanimously to support the measure and were joined by over two dozen republicans for a 275-134 vote. Because this vote required a suspension of the normal rules of the house a 2/3 majority bar had to be overcome and was.

The bill now heads to the senate where Mitch McConnell surely has plans to kill it. McConnell has a dilemma- as does his caucus- will they buck the president, the most popular politician in their party, or will they help the American people and economy with a Democratic President taking the oath only weeks from now? But even more problematic and immediate for McConnell is how denying a vote to provide hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of relief, for struggling American families will impact the Georgia run-off elections happening a week from today. Majority control of the senate hangs in the balance.

According to Politico- McConnell now has one more massive headache to deal with- Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders announced last evening that he intends to filibuster the Senate’s vote to override Trump’s veto of the Defense Authorization Act unless McConnell allows a vote on the House approved increase in relief checks. It was this override vote that brought House and Senate lawmakers back into session early from christmas vacation.

Politico reports that in an interview Monday night Sanders said ““McConnell and the Senate want to expedite the override vote and I understand that. But I’m not going to allow that to happen unless there is a vote, no matter how long that takes, on the $2,000 direct payment,” According to Politico Sanders can’t ultimately stop the vote but he can delay it to the New Year- which will keep Perdue and Loeffler off the campaign trail in the days leading to their run off elections in Georgia against Democratic challengers Jon Ossof and Rapheal Warnock respectively.

It will also draw far more attention to McConnell’s denying of Americans the help they need. This may be a losing fight but it is one which may exact a very high price for the Republicans. Fingers crossed on the relief and the runoffs.

Migrant Aid Group Innovates

From the Associated Press comes this story of a nonprofit aid group bringing care to people stuck in refugee camps thanks to Donald Trump’s border policies. Led by US military veterans, Global Response Management is staffed primarily by American volunteers. The group also employs paid asylum seekers who are medical professionals. They have treated thousands of migrants over the past year at two clinics in Matamoros, Mexico, including one inside the camp there. Among those who’ve benefited is Aurora Leticia Cruz, who fled Guatemala more than a year ago. Cruz has tried to keep up with her blood pressure medication, but being stuck in the sprawling camp has made that hard. On one recent day, Cruz felt woozy as her blood pressure skyrocketed. It could have ended in tragedy, leaving her 17-year-old granddaughter and two great-grandchildren under 3 alone in the camp. But instead, a nurse from Oregon and a Cuban doctor were able to pull up her medical record and prescribe the correct dosage.

Medics with the group have innovated to bring care to the austere environment, building on what they learned in countries such as Bangladesh and Iraq, the AP reports. They have used telemedicine to consult specialists in the US and connected a portable device to an iPhone to perform a sonogram. They have also worked with local leaders in the camp to control the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging mask wearing, among other things. Only one person from the camp has been hospitalized with the virus, even as medical facilities in the area struggled to keep up with infected patients this summer.

With public hospitals overwhelmed by virus cases, migrants with heart conditions or problematic pregnancies have nowhere to go, the AP reports. Others have been prescribed ineffective medications because doctors lacked their medical histories. The group is working to connect migrants to health care by asking them what they need via WhatsApp. The idea is to treat their health problems before they worsen, and create a system where their records can be accessed by doctors along the way. It is a daunting task. Hats off to these aid workers who are doing their best to improve a miserable situation.

NY Passes Evictions Moratorium

SAM: Do you hear? It’s the sweet sound of landlords crying. The New York Legislature yesterday passed one of the most comprehensive anti-eviction laws in the nation, the New York Times reports. Under the new measure, landlords would be barred from evicting most tenants for at least another sixty days. A tenant in danger of being kicked out of a home could submit a document stating financial hardship related to the coronavirus to postpone an eviction. The legislation would also make it harder for banks to foreclose on smaller landlords who are themselves struggling to pay bills. But advocacy groups for landlords said the bill could leave many in a lurch. Well boo-hoo. Join the club!

As of late November, there have been thirty-eight requests for eviction warrants in New York City, the Times reports. Every one of those cases began before the pandemic. Most involved properties in central Brooklyn. Tenant lawyers and advocacy groups said the state law would prevent landlords from throwing thousands of cash-strapped renters onto the streets in the winter as virus case numbers continue to rise. Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told the Times QUOTE It’s going to save a lot of people’s homes. It’s going to save lives ENDQUOTE.

The new law is by no means a panacea, the Times reports. Tenants will continue to owe landlords any back rent they haven’t paid, once the moratorium ends. The $1.3 billion in rent relief authorized by the federal government should help, but it will not be enough to cover all tenants’ back rent. Michael McKee, the treasurer of Tenants PAC, praised the law as close to everything his organization wanted. But he also warned that there will still be people owing thousands of dollars in back rent they cannot pay. Sounds like a job for Joe Biden.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The House of Representatives voted last night to override Donald Trump’s veto of the annual military spending bill. Trump had objected to a provision in the bill directing the military to strip the names of Confederate leaders from bases. Despite this latest failure, he may be remembered as the most successful Confederate president.

Here’s a scary story for you, folks. The New York Times reports that a small number of Covid patients who had never experienced mental health problems are developing severe psychotic symptoms weeks after contracting the coronavirus. It really ain’t the flu, folks.

The suspect in a deadly shooting Saturday night at an Illinois bowling alley is a Green Beret, CBS News reports. Duke Webb, a 37-year-old Florida resident, allegedly killed three people and wounded three others at Don Carter Lanes in Rockford, Illinois. His commander issued a statement calling his actions abhorrent and absolutely not representative of the Special Forces Regiment, which prefers all such bloodshed to take place overseas.

The twenty-seven European Union member states yesterday gave unanimous support to a twelve-hundred page trade and security deal with Britain, the Guardian reports. But is it a better deal than Britain had before Brexit? Even the government doesn’t seem sure, with cabinet minister Michael Gove warning that the road ahead will feature some QUOTE bumpy moments ENDQUOTE. Love that British understatement!

That’s all for the AM Quickie. The Majority Report returns next Monday.

DEC 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:

After threats and waffling, Donald Trump signed the compromise-laden relief bill, meaning suffering Americans will get at least some federal aid in the coming days.

Meanwhile, authorities identified the 63-year-old man who detonated a car bomb in an RV camper in Nashville on Friday, in a bizarre attack that killed only the bomber.

And lastly, to catch everyone up -- Trump dropped some of his most outrageous pardons yet right before Christmas, wiping the sentences of four Blackwater mercenaries convicted of killing children in Iraq, as well as a laundry list of his political allies.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Here’s the good news: after an absurd period of whining and complaining, Donald Trump signed Congress’s lackluster relief bill into law on Sunday night, meaning that we’re all going to get another measly $600 from the government and state and local agencies will get some of the aid they need. We also avoided a government shutdown. Hooray.

But here’s the bad news. Once again, the bill is wildly insufficient for what Americans actually need. And to make matters worse, Trump’s delay let the expanded unemployment benefits millions of Americans are relying on expire. While those benefits have been restored for the future, it’s unclear what that will mean for the immediate week after the lapse.

Of course, while all this was going on the Trump White House was on vacation. Mike Pence is currently in Vail, Colorado, Trump himself is down in Florida as always, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin flew his private jet down to his resort in Mexico for the holidays. They’re not even pretending to care at this point.

Strangely, Trump’s initial resistance to the relief bill came because he actually wanted bigger checks to go out to everyone. Trump was pushing for $2,000, a number that sounds a lot better than $600. No one would have complained, except the Republican party of course, so Trump threw a tantrum and picked a fight with his own party and threatened to call the whole thing off.

Fortunately, he had an abrupt change of heart on Sunday night, and now the American people will get at least something to keep them going.

Authorities ID Nashville Bomber

A bizarre bombing in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday night has worried and perplexed pretty much all of us for several days. If you’re not caught up, on Friday night an RV drove through downtown Nashville, playing music and a pre-recorded message for people to evacuate because it had a bomb inside. It parked outside an AT&T transmission building, and then exploded around 6:30 a.m. Fortunately, police officers responding to reports of gunfire found the van and managed to evacuate most of the surrounding buildings.

On Sunday, authorities identified the perpetrator as 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner. Warner’s remains were found at the site of the blast. No one else was killed, and only three people were injured.

The blast knocked out cell service in some areas and briefly shut down flights at Nashville’s airport. Warner’s motive is still unclear, as is whether or not he was deliberately targeting the AT&T building.

Also on Sunday, police discovered a large box truck parked outside of a convenience store near Nashville playing the same music. That could be a coincidence, however, as no explosive device was found. We’ll hopefully know a little bit more about the motivations of the bomber in the coming days.

Trump Pardons Child Killers

Trump gave out one last round of perverse Christmas gifts last week as well. In an unexpected but somehow unsurprising move, Trump pardoned a list of corporate crooks, corrupt politicians, and outright killers.

In one day, Trump pardoned Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Jared Kushners crook of a father Charles Kushner. He also wiped the convictions of George Pappadopolous and Alex van der Zwaan, who both caught charges as a result of the Mueller investigation. Oh, corrupt former Congressmen Duncan Hunter, Steve Stockman, and Chris Collins also got a pass.

It’s pretty clear that Trump knows he’s on the way out at this point, and is using his final days to clear the records of all his buddies and bank some favors for his return to a world where he’s not President. But what’s telling is who he’s willing to let out at the same time.

See, Trump also pardoned some of the only people held accountable for atrocities during the Iraq war, a group of four former soldiers who participated in a massacre while working as contactors for the notorious mercenary company Blackwater. Blackwater, if you’ll remember, was at the time owned by a man named Erik Prince, whose sister is Trump’s secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

The Blackwater guards were convicted for their role in a massacre at a checkpoint outside of Iraq’s Green Zone in 2007, which left 17 civilians dead including two children. These are the type of people Trump wants to go to bat for, just in case that wasn’t clear.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The new strain of coronavirus that originated in the UK has jumped its borders, as several European nations as well as Japan, Lebanon, Canada and others reported cases. Once again, this is cause for concern, not panic, but it certainly means full vaccination can’t come soon enough.

A new report by Huffington Post found that Donald Trump’s donors funneled some $10.5 million into his businesses during his presidency, largely through costs charged by Trump’s golf courses and hotels. That’s shocking by normal standards of course, but in the grand scheme of things you’d expect a smarter crook to pocket more than 10 million while literally running the country.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who’s spent the last four years letting Trump officials come on his air and lie to him about whatever they want, tried to do a little bit of hand waving about it by bragging to Brian Stelter about how he’d never booked Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany or advisor Jason Miller because they quote “tell lies the way that most people breathe.” endquote. Then again, Tapper does regularly interview CNN contributor Rick Santorum, so win some, lose some, Jake.

And finally, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned once again of a surge in COVID cases after the holidays. We saw exactly this effect after Thanksgiving, and Christmas is unlikely to be any different. With the vaccine on the way, it’s crazy to start throwing caution to the winds now. Take care of yourselves out there.

DEC 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:

Senior United States military officials are increasingly nervous about what sort of orders Donald Trump might give in his final days in power. The words martial law have been used inside the Oval Office, for example.

Meanwhile, it’s another first as Joe Biden names a Latino to be his secretary of education. But he’s already reneging on promises about how fast he’ll fix the damage Trump has done to the immigration system.

And lastly, prosecutors in Pennsylvania have at long last uncovered a clear-cut case of voter fraud in the November election. Of course – of course – it’s a Trump supporter who did it.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Our mad king is making the military nervous. CNN reports that with less than thirty days to go before Joe Biden’s inauguration, there is growing anxiety in the ranks about what Donald Trump might do. Will he invade Iran? Or will he declare martial law and use some bogus emergency to stay in power? The scenarios are troubling enough that military leaders have gone so far as to say they will not play a role in deciding an American election.

CNN spoke to nearly a dozen currently serving officers and the conversations were all unsettlingly similar. Concerns have been rising since Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper last month and replaced him with acting Secretary Chris Miller, then installed political loyalists in key civilian positions. One officer said people are making lists of everything they can think of that Trump might do. Several worry there could be a round of firings or forced resignations of more top officers. That sounds bad, but it gets worse.

Last Friday night, the idea of using the military to change the election outcome reached directly into the Oval Office. Trump hosted a raucous meeting that included lawyer Sidney Powell and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, where the idea of declaring martial law to overturn the election came up. Yeah, I’d say that sounds pretty bad. Several military officials told CNN that for the remainder of his term, if Trump issues any orders, the key will be whether they are determined to be legal. We’re guessing a self-interested declaration of martial law would be illegal, and people would resign rather than carry out those orders, but CNN isn’t totally clear on that point. Fingers crossed!

Padilla Heads To Senate

Alex Padilla, California’s secretary of state, was chosen yesterday by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s seat in the US Senate. The Los Angeles Times says the appointment tears down a barrier that has stood as long as California’s statehood, as Padilla becomes the first Latino to represent the state in the Senate. Also yesterday, the New York Times reported that Biden plans to name Miguel Cardona, Connecticut’s education commissioner, to serve as his education secretary. This means, pending confirmation, a Latino will be the nation’s highest education policymaker. But it’s not all warm fuzzies from the Biden campaign for Latinos.

Top Biden advisers said yesterday they will not immediately roll back asylum restrictions at the Mexican border and other Trump immigration policies, the Washington Post reports. In short, the transition team is walking back some promises about what Biden will do on Day One. Speaking to reporters on a conference call, several members of the Biden transition team said the incoming administration would need time to undo damage to the US immigration system. The press call came a day after Biden advisers Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan told the Spanish-language news agency EFE that it would take months to restore asylum processing at the border.

Kennji Kizuka, a senior researcher and policy analyst Human Rights First, told the Post that migrants in Mexico are struggling to make a living and to protect themselves in high-crime border cities. Human Rights First has tracked at least thirteen hundred acts of violence against migrants in Mexico, including murder. Kizuka said there needs to be some sense of urgency from the Biden administration. He added QUOTE It can’t all happen on Day 1. But it also shouldn’t wait until June ENDQUOTE. Hear hear. We’re watching you, Joe!

One Illegal Vote Found

Hey, we found the voter fraud. And it takes a page from Psycho. Prosecutors say a Pennsylvania man admitted to illegally casting a ballot in the general election for Donald

Trump as his dead mother, HuffPost reports. The man also allegedly registered his dead mother-in-law to vote with the intent to do the same. Bruce Bartman, seventy, has been charged with two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. For this he is facing up to nineteen years in prison. He allegedly went online and registered both deceased women to vote as Republicans in the November 3 election, using either their driver’s license or social security number. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Bartman admitted to detectives that he did this to further the Trump campaign. Sad!

Bartman’s ballot for his mother, who died in 2008, was successfully counted in the election, HuffPost reports. Bartman, a registered Republican, also successfully submitted a ballot in his own name. Though Bartman successfully registered his mother-in-law to vote, despite her dying in 2019, he never requested a ballot for her. Bartman’s lawyer, Samuel Stretton, said his client is taking responsibility for his actions and is cooperating with authorities. Stretton said that in his political frustration, Bartman QUOTE chose to do something stupid. And for that he is very sorry ENDQUOTE. I get the sense this Bartman character is no criminal mastermind.

Stollsteimer said they are not prosecuting the case because of who Bartman voted for, HuffPost reports. The county’s top prosecutor also stressed that Bartman’s ability to cast a vote on behalf of his deceased mother is not evidence of widespread voter fraud. Of course not. But it’s rich that after all of Trump’s bluster about voter fraud, it’s one of his voters who catches charges.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

This is the deadliest year in US history, due mainly to the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reports. Preliminary numbers suggest that the US is on track to see more than three point two million deaths this year, or at least four hundred thousand more than in 2019. What can I say? It’s terrible.

Congress overwhelmingly passed a $900 billion stimulus package yesterday. Hundreds of dollars in direct payments may start going to American households as soon as next week, according to the New York Times. Who wants to be a hundredaire?

Donald Trump’s longtime banker at Deutsche Bank, who arranged for the German lender to make hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to his company, is stepping down from the bank, the Times reports. Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director and senior banker in Deutsche Bank’s wealth management division, recently handed in her resignation, though it’s unclear exactly why. Best of luck in her future endeavors!

The Justice Department is suing Walmart, alleging that the nation’s largest retailer knowingly filled thousands of problematic prescriptions that contributed to the opioid crisis, the Washington Post reports. The DOJ is seeking civil penalties that could total billions of dollars. Between 2006 and 2012, Walmart ordered five point five billion oxycodone or hydrocodone pills, which sounds like more than enough, frankly.

LUCIE: That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon for the last episode of the Majority Report in the supremely exhausting year of 2020.

DEC 23, 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:

Scientists are monitoring a new, highly infectious strain of the coronavirus, spreading throughout the United Kingdom -- here’s what we know so far.

Meanwhile, a far-right armed mob descended on the Oregon Capitol building, to protest a special session of the state legislature, airing a confusing mess of grievances, and forcing their way into the building.

And lastly, a watchdog group finds that the New York City Police Department grossly mishandled Black Lives Matter protests this summer, violating protesters' first amendment rights, and exposing systemic flaws in the department’s organization.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The new coronavirus strain we mentioned yesterday continues to spread throughout Europe, setting off the now-familiar chain reaction of flight closures and falling stock prices.

As we mentioned yesterday, scientists don’t think that this strain is going to resist the vaccines already going out across the world. But there is some evidence that some of the new mutations have made this version of the virus more infectious, but not necessarily more deadly.

In response, various European countries started closing their borders to British travelers. The United States followed suit in some cases on Monday, as state governors like New York’s Andrew Cuomo asked airlines to require a negative COVID test before allowing passengers to fly into the city.

The big question at the moment is how far the new strain has spread. There’s a similar version of the virus in South Africa, and many of these mutations could happen concurrently. The granular level research on virus strains is a bit slower moving than other data so it may take a bit for us to know exactly where it is.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that U.S. officials should quote “follow it carefully, but don’t overreact to it.” endquote. That seems like sound advice for now.

Far Right Crashes Oregon Capitol

If there’s one thing you can count on through all this, it’s that the armed far right is always going to make a bad situation even worse.

On Monday, groups of assorted right-wing refuse gathered outside the Oregon Statehouse, staging a chaotic, violent protest against everything from the 2020 election to the state’s coronavirus restrictions. The latter grievance appears to be the main impetus behind the demonstration, where protesters clashed repeatedly with riot police and at one point forced their way into the building.

Oregon’s state legislature was having a closed-door session to push forward specific relief bills and new restrictions, like a statewide mask mandate and relief for landlords as well as tenants. They were also discussing whether or not to allow bars and restaurants to serve cocktails to go. In other words, pretty much the basic functions of a state government these days.

But the protesters outside wanted none of that, and repeatedly tried to force their way past riot police, who declared an unlawful assembly and struck back with crowd control munitions and devices. It’s one of the first times that police took a fraction of the firepower they’ve been using on leftists and Black Lives Matter Protesters, and used it on the far right.

Report Finds NYPD Guilty

A city investigation into the New York City Police Department’s conduct during widespread protests this summer found that the nation’s largest police department committed gross abuses of power, violently infringing on protesters first amendment rights on multiple occasions.

The report, released on Friday, concluded that the NYPD’s aggressive tactics often violated the first amendment, and said that police officials were unprepared and untrained for handling the large crowds that sprang up. When overwhelmed, the report says they often resorted to violence.

Margaret Garnett, the commissioner for the Department of Investigation, said at a news conference on Friday quote: “The response really was a failure on many levels,” endquote.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio, who spent most of the summer ignoring direct evidence that his cops were out of control, finally expressed some contrition after the report was released, saying quote:

“I look back with remorse. I wish I had done better. I want everyone to understand that. And I’m sorry I didn’t do better.”

Endquote.

Obviously that’s too little, way too late, but at least he’ll be out of a job next year. And if you take a wider view, the NYPD’s response was similar to that of many other departments around the country. Also on Friday, the Appeal reported on previously unreleased bodycam footage that

showed Boston cops engaged in an ugly mob mentality as they joked about brutalizing protesters and targeting nonviolent demonstrators for arrest. These reports are just the tip of the iceberg as we continue to unpack a summer of lawlessness perpetrated by those who are supposed to protect and serve.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A new, shocking report by the Intercept shows that CIA-trained and enabled militias are still wreaking havoc on Afghani civilians even as the U.S.’s official troop presence wanes in the country. This is the future of the forever war. And it looks just as ugly as the start.

In one final, oddball decree, Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that prohibits new federal buildings from being built in any architectural style other than Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, or Art Deco. That’s right everyone: no more of that commie brutalism or anything that doesn’t smack of strong western values while Trump is in charge. This will almost certainly be overturned, but it’s equal parts funny and repressive while it lasts.

Rebekah Jones, the Florida Data Scientist who was first fired, and then had her house raided for the crime of trying to accurately track and report the state’s coronavirus cases, is suing the state’s law enforcement agency, saying it violated her rights when agents raided her house at gunpoint earlier this month.

And in one final injustice to the woefully inadequate relief bill process: the wider government funding package that the relief bill is part of also includes a final $1.375 billion for Trump’s border wall and border security. Even at the very end of his time in office, he’s still trying to build his stupid wall -- or at least toss some more slush money at various contractors and friendly agencies.

That’s it for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie. Sam, Emma and the gang will be LIVE today at noon eastern on The Majority Report.

DEC 22, 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:

Congress finally agreed on a $900 billion emergency relief bill that should be approved and perhaps passed sometime today. It’s woefully insufficient, but at least it’s something. We’ll go over what’s inside.

Meanwhile, scientists are concerned that Britain may be feeling the effects of a new, mutated strain of the coronavirus. In the U.S., a federal panel says that adults over 75 and front-line workers should be next in line to get the vaccine.

And lastly, Trump is spiraling as his last day in office creeps closer, and appears to be trying to rally his last pitiful allies for a final challenge to the electoral college’s decision.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

We have a deal, finally. On Sunday night, Mitch McConnell announced a new, $900 billion coronavirus aid package that he expects Congress to move quickly on and pass in the next few days.

That sentence alone should be enough to tell you that the bill isn’t even remotely enough. But here’s what we are going to get.

The bill includes an extension of a $300 per week expanded unemployment benefit. It also includes $600 checks for every adult. It does have the surprise medical billing legislation that’s been haggled over in the past, and it also includes decent chunks for schools, childcare, transportation and 284 billion for new PPP loans.

That’s basically the crumbs of what America needs to get back on its feet. And even those scraps come with a cost. Republicans successfully barred hazard pay for essential workers and a ton of aid for state and local governments. They didn’t succeed in getting their corporate liability bill in there, which is a blessing at least, but they did get in another corporate gift in the form of a tax break for corporate meal expenses.

In other words, it’s something. There’s money in there for vaccine distribution, as there must be or else the entire country is truly going to implode, but besides those bare minimums, it’s pretty clear that very few people on Capitol Hill are interested in fighting for what the American people actually deserve.

Virus Mutates, Vaccine Moves

Meanwhile, the virus isn’t slowing down. A new strain of the coronavirus detected in England has the country’s capital locked down and has halted flights to most of Europe. The good news is that scientists don’t think the new strain is resistant to the various vaccines, but it does appear to spread significantly faster than the original version.

That means that getting the vaccine out as fast as possible is the most crucial thing. A CDC advisory group recommended on Sunday that Grocery store employees, teachers, emergency workers and other people on the front lines workers should get the vaccine next, along with any adult over the age of 75.

This recommendation hasn’t stopped every member of Congress getting the jab, of course, as part of a “continuity of government” provision that makes sure all our elected representatives are protected even if they’re not doing their job in the slightest.

How the vaccine actually gets rolled out is mostly in State officials’ hands. 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have already been distributed, though not all of them have been used yet. The Moderna vaccine also started shipping out on Sunday.

The front-line workers and people over 75 are part of a so called second wave who experts say should get the vaccine. The third wave will be a bigger part of the population, some 129 million people who are second-tier essential workers, adults over 65, and any adult who has a high risk medical condition.

But at this point, it’s still mostly guesswork as to when or how you’re personally going to get the shot. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.

Trump Scrapes Bottom of Barrel

Donald Trump is scraping the bottom of the barrel in his dangerous quest for allies that can help him stay in office.

His latest recruit: Senator-elect and former College football coach Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, quite possibly one of the dumbest people we’ve ever allowed to sneak into the halls of power.

Tuberville suggested last week that he supports Trump challenging the Electoral College’s decision that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

The plan right now looks to be some combination of the Texas attorney general’s lawsuit against four swing states and the crackpot scheme cooked up by Qanon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to use an 1880s law that allows the House and Senate to vote on

overturning the electoral college’s decision. Other options include Michael Flynn’s suggestion to declare martial law, which is pretty scary.

Fortunately, none of these stand a very good chance of working out for Trump -- because Mitch McConnell and the rest of the rational Republicans in the Senate already appear to have cut him loose.

But they do set a pretty serious precedent if a more competent and powerful president decides to try a coup in a closer election. And it means that the transition of power in January might be a bit messier than anyone would like.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Politico reports that Congressional negotiators may have finally allowed tens of thousands of Marshall Islands citizens living in the United States to sign up for Medicaid, reversing a two-decades-old mistake that kept victims of America’s deadly nuclear testing in the region from getting proper healthcare.

Before the Coronavirus deal could get inked, McConnell kept on pushing for his number one priority: stacking the judiciary. McConnell used Saturday and Sunday’s emergency congressional session to advance the confirmation of yet another one of Trump’s judicial appointees.

Lou Dobbs, who has long been one of Fox News’s biggest liabilities, appears to have run afoul of the law yet again, as he was forced to debunk his own lies on air following a legal threat from the voting technology company he’s been ragging on for days. A great mind at work over there!

The massive cyberattack on U.S. government systems and private companies is turning into a blame-war between two factions of politicos: Trump’s camp, that wants to suggest China did it to ramp up tensions, and the liberal establishment and centrist Republicans like Mitt Romney, who want to shift our fear onto Russia. Trump’s own State Department admits it was probably the latter, but the bigger picture is both sides using it to drum up xenophobia at a time when nobody around the world needs it.

DEC 21, 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:

California’s healthcare system is being pushed to the breaking point by a winter wave of coronavirus cases. They’re setting up field hospitals and rolling out the morgue trucks.

Meanwhile, federal security officials are blaming Russia for what’s said to be the worst hacking attack in United States history. Details are scarce, but it sounds serious.

And lastly, Google is facing another antitrust case, this time from the states. Silicon Valley is bringing Republicans and Democrats together in contempt for its business practices.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

It’s grim out west, folks. California is the new epicenter of America’s coronavirus crisis, the Washington Post reports. Unprecedented surges of seriously infected patients are threatening to overwhelm hospitals and overflow morgues there. On Wednesday, the state posted more than forty one thousand infections. If California were a country, it would be among the world leaders in new coronavirus cases, ahead of India, Germany and Britain.

The number of available beds in intensive care units is plummeting, the Post reports. Christina Ghaly, director of Los Angeles County’s Department of Health Services, told reporters QUOTE Our hospitals are under siege, and our model shows no end in sight ENDQUOTE. California has already reenacted tough restrictions meant to curb the coronavirus’s spread, yet it has continued unabated. Governor Gavin Newsom laid out the state’s mass fatality plan on Tuesday: Sixty refrigerated storage units, each fifty three feet long, to store the bodies that won’t fit in morgues – and five thousand more body bags.

The LA Times reports that local hospitals are filling up as never before. There are now about six hundred new patients with Covid-19 needing hospital admissions daily. Officials expect that that could rise to more than thirteen hundred a day by New Year’s Eve. Ghaly previewed what would happen if the healthcare system does become overwhelmed: exhausted doctors and nurses stretched beyond their capacity, increasing the chance that the sick will die and medical staff will be forced to ration ICU beds. Hospitals in LA County are desperately trying to free up beds by discharging patients as quickly as possible. Ghaly urges that people cancel

gatherings such as Christmas parties. Vaccine doses are being distributed, but the worst of this pandemic hasn’t yet passed. Stay safe.

'Worst' Government Hack Ever

LUCIE: Well, this sounds ominous. US authorities expressed increased alarm yesterday about an intrusion into computer systems around the globe, the Associated Press reports. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the intrusion has compromised government agencies as well as critical infrastructure in a sophisticated attack that was hard to detect and will be difficult to undo. Officials suspect Russian hackers.

The agency did not say which infrastructure was breached or what information taken, the AP reports. The attack appeared to have begun in March. One anonymous official said the hack was severe and extremely damaging, although the Trump administration was not yet ready to publicly blame anyone for it. The official said QUOTE this is looking like it’s the worst hacking case in the history of America. They got into everything. ENDQUOTE. The administration is working on the assumption that most, if not all, government agencies were compromised. But the extent of the damage is not yet known.

The New York Times raises the possibility that the goal of the hackers went beyond espionage, and that the Russian actors could use their access to take command of industrial processes. The Washington Post reports that purging the intruders could take months. Closing the digital back doors initially created by the Russians won’t suffice because they appear to have stolen keys to an unknown number federal and private corporate systems, according to investigators at FireEye, a cybersecurity firm that also was hacked. Separately, the Guardian reports that Dutch prosecutors have confirmed that a man in the Netherlands hacked into Donald Trump’s Twitter account by guessing his password: MAGA 2020. The man will not be punished because he reported the breach according to ethical hacking guidelines. Maybe that Dutch fella can help out with this other hacking situation? Just spitballing!

38 States Sue Google

Big Tech is on its back foot again. Nearly forty states filed a wide-ranging antitrust lawsuit against Google yesterday, the Washington Post reports. They allege the tech giant

fiddles with search results to give its own products greater rankings over rivals. The rigged results deprive web users from seeing the best options when they search for shopping, dining, travel and more. The lawsuit marks the third competition case filed against Google since October, reflecting the growing national dissatisfaction with Silicon Valley.

The Post reports that in the latest legal salvo, attorneys general from thirty-eight states, led by Colorado and Nebraska, took aim at a broad swath of Google’s digital empire. They claim that Google has solidified its monopoly through an array of anti-competitive tactics. Chief among them are the special deals that Google makes to ensure it is the default option on web browsers and connected devices. State investigators also faulted Google for requiring companies to purchase ads to rise to the top of users’ pages.

The states’ attorneys general said yesterday they would seek to consolidate their lawsuit with the Justice Department’s earlier complaint so that the cases would be argued together, the Post reports. The Democratic and Republican state leaders opened the door for a judge to order broad penalties, including potentially forcing Google to sell off its business. They stopped short of calling explicitly for Google to be broken up. Why go through all this trouble just to pull punches? Of course Google should be broken up, and now’s our chance!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose again last week to eight hundred and eighty five thousand, the AP reports. It is the highest weekly total since September, and worse than economists expected. Try to keep up, economists!

President-elect Joe Biden named yesterday New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland to head the Interior Department. She will reportedly be the first Native American Cabinet secretary. Biden also named Michael Regan to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Regan runs North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality and will become the first Black man to run the EPA.

Nearly a dozen immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement were kept in solitary confinement for more than two months, including two people who were isolated for more than three hundred days, BuzzFeed News reports. A draft Homeland

Security Inspector General’s report calls those incidents serious violations of protocol. I could call them some other things: Disgusting. Depraved. Inexcusable. Criminal. You get the idea.

Sesame Street is introducing two Rohingya Muppets to help children living in a Bangladesh refugee camp learn to cope with the trauma of their experiences, NBC News reports. The Muppets are Rohingya Muslim twins named Noor Yasmin and Aziz and I dare you to think about this for more than thirty seconds without crying.

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

DEC 18, 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:

Emails show one of Donald Trump’s political appointees pushed repeatedly for more Americans to be infected by the coronavirus as a matter of policy. The good news is that the appointee, Paul Alexander, is already out of government.

Meanwhile, Congress is finally nearing a deal on a coronavirus relief bill. It will likely include another round of direct payments to individuals, but not so much as last time.

And lastly, an ex-cop in Texas is facing charges after pulling a gun on a man who he falsely accused of mass ballot fraud. What’s weirder, Republican megadonors paid the former cop more than a quarter million dollars for his dead-end investigation.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Here’s a story that’s both shocking and yet unsurprising. A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a herd immunity approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, Politico reports. On July 4, then-science adviser Paul Alexander, wrote to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, to endorse the reckless strategy. Alexander wrote that young and middle-aged people alike could be used to develop herd immunity in the population, adding QUOTE we want them infected ENDQUOTE. On July 24, Alexander suggested officials should open up the country and QUOTE flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected ENDQUOTE. Caputo later asked Alexander to research the idea, according to emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee's select subcommittee on coronavirus.

Officials told Politico that they believed that when Alexander made recommendations, he had the backing of the White House. Senior Trump officials have repeatedly denied that herd immunity was under consideration. On October 2, HHS Secretary Alex Azar testified in a hearing before the House coronavirus subcommittee. He said QUOTE herd immunity is not the strategy of the US government with regard to coronavirus ENDQUOTE. And in a statement, an HHS spokesperson said Alexander’s demands for herd immunity did not shape department strategy. I guess we’re supposed to forget these emails and take their word for it?

Politico reports that Alexander also spent months attacking government scientists and pushing to shape official statements to be more favorable to Trump. On September 16, HHS announced that Alexander would be leaving the department, just days after news broke about his efforts to stifle government scientist Anthony Fauci. South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, who chairs the coronavirus subcommittee, said the documents show a pernicious pattern of political interference by administration officials. Not to mention utter callousness as to whether people live or die – which is what you’d expect from a Trump appointee.

Congress Nears Stimulus Deal

In the grand scheme, it’s a day late and a dollar short. Congressional leaders are closing in on an agreement on a coronavirus relief measure worth $900 billion, the New York Times reports. They are racing to complete both a pandemic aid package and a catchall federal spending measure to avoid a government shutdown on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky warned senators to prepare to remain in Washington through the weekend as lawmakers finalize the details.

Republicans and Democrats are nearing a compromise that would include both another round of direct stimulus payments to Americans and additional unemployment benefits, the Times reports. The package is also expected to provide billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and support for schools and small businesses. South Dakota Senator John Thune said the direct payments were likely to be around $600 per person, about half the size of the checks included in the $2.2 trillion stimulus enacted in March. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who pushed for the payments, said QUOTE this is a good start ENDQUOTE. President-elect Joe Biden called the stimulus package QUOTE encouraging ENDQUOTE.

Negotiators are still haggling over an expansion of unemployment benefits and how long they would last, the Times reports. They are also discussing reinstituting federal supplemental jobless payments, which provided $600 per week until they lapsed over the summer. Those would likely be revived at a smaller amount. Maybe there should be a law that members of Congress have to live on such paltry benefits before they can pass legislation like this. I wonder how that might change things.

Ex-Cop In Election Intrigue

This wild tale of red-blooded American insanity comes from Texas by way of the Washington Post. In late October, an air-conditioning repairman was driving his truck through Houston when a black SUV slammed into his tail. When he got out, the SUV’s driver leaped out and pointed a gun at his head. When police arrived, the gunman offered an incredible tale: The driver, he said, was the face of a vast election-fraud scheme and had about seven hundred and fifty thousand fake ballots stuffed inside his truck. That story was totally bogus, however. The Post reports that the man’s truck was full of nothing but air conditioning parts. The gunman – Mark Anthony Aguirre, a former Houston Police Department captain – had been paid more than $250,000 by a right-wing organization to pursue far-fetched voter-fraud conspiracy theories. It’s not bad work if you can get it.

On Tuesday, Aguirre was arrested and charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as part of a bogus voter-fraud conspiracy, the Post reports. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said QUOTE He crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime and we are lucky no one was killed ENDQUOTE. An attorney for Aguirre, sixty three, disputed the charges, calling the case political.

According to the Post, Aguirre had received $266,400 from the Liberty Center for God and Country, a Houston-based organization funded by Republican megadonors. Aguirre spent twenty four years in the Houston Police Department before he was fired in 2003 over his role in a failed raid in a department store parking lot. Aguirre was released after he posted a bond of $30,000. He is expected back in court today. No word on whether the disgraced ex-cop has asked Trump for a pardon yet, but it may be only a matter of time.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Dodge City, Kansas, Mayor Joyce Warshaw resigned on Tuesday, reportedly due to personal safety concerns after the city commission voted to require everyone in town to wear masks indoors. For Warshaw, the flood of messages she got telling her to burn in hell was simply too much. Seriously, what is wrong with people?

The United States poverty rate has surged over the past five months, with seven point eight million Americans falling into poverty, the Washington Post reports. It is the biggest jump in a single year since the government began tracking poverty sixty years ago. Congratulations to Donald Trump on setting new records.

NBC News reports that Trump has come so close to firing FBI Director Christopher Wray in recent months that the White House counsel’s office has warned him not to do so because it could put him in potential legal jeopardy. Administration sources said firing Wray does not appear imminent, but they also point out that Trump could make such a decision on a whim at any time. You don’t say?

China’s lunar probe returned more than four pounds of rock and soil from a volcanic plain on the moon back to Earth yesterday. Scientists say the samples should shed light on lunar history and evolution. The spacecraft, Chang’e-5, is named after a Chinese moon goddess. Good job, lady!

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

DEC 17, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

A looming wave of evictions is expected to hit Black and Latino families especially hard. As local governments struggle to distribute federal aid to renters ahead of a December 30 deadline, housing advocates want Congress to extend that deadline and approve more aid.

Meanwhile, the GOP’s intra-party feuding in Georgia is reaching new heights of absurdity. Donald Trump is busily raising money for the Senate runoff in the state – but there’s a real question how much of it his party’s candidates will actually see.

And lastly, federal regulators are poised to approve a second coronavirus vaccine later this week, this one from Moderna. And, for the first time in the United States, a take-home Covid- 19 test is soon headed to drug store shelves.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This cruel winter will soon take an even harsher turn for many. Politico reports that the expiration of the federal eviction ban at the end of the month will hurt Black and Latino tenants most, financially hobbling them for years and worsening the United States’ staggering racial wealth gap. Black and Latino people are twice as likely to rent as white people. Just twenty nine percent of Black renters and thirty one percent of Latino renters reported having high confidence they would be able to make their rent this month, Politico reports, citing the most recent Census survey. That’s compared with half of white renters.

The Centers for Disease Control’s nationwide ban on evictions expires December 31, Politico reports. Landlords are expected to rush to initiate eviction proceedings in the three weeks before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated. Housing advocates are pushing for lawmakers to pass a relief package with tens of billions of dollars in rental subsidies when the next Congress convenes. And there’s growing bipartisan support for rent relief as the best way to protect both tenants and landlords.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that bureaucrats nationwide are scrambling to unload hundreds of millions in federal aid for tenants before the December 30 deadline. More than four hundred state and local governments have used money from the federal CARES Act to

set up funds to cover at least $4.3 billion in rental assistance. But many jurisdictions are reporting trouble spending it. They are on pace to have more than $300 million left over. Tenant advocates, landlord organizations and local-government associations have called on Congress to extend the December 30 deadline. That should be an easy win for either party.

Trump Hoards Georgia Fundraising

Joe Biden was in Georgia yesterday to campaign for the Democratic US Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Back in Washington, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally congratulated Biden on his victory – more than a month after Biden actually won. With Donald Trump still refusing to concede, the Washington Post reports that McConnell’s bow to reality sets up a struggle for control of the GOP. Speaking to that point, Utah Senator Mitt Romney told CBS News yesterday that Trump’s presidency has thrown his party’s core principles into doubt. Forgive us for wondering what those principles were to begin with.

The Senate was the best shot Trump had to at least gum up the works of Biden’s ascension to the presidency, the Post reports. But Trump has very much not given up on overturning the election. He even retweeted lawyer L. Lin Wood’s call yesterday morning for Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to go to jail, because he feels Kemp hasn’t fought hard enough for him. Trump’s machine is raising money to fight off the Democrats in Georgia, Politico reports – but most of the money is going to Trump’s own political action committee. Not a cent of the money Trump raises is going to the party’s US Senate candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Which is hilarious. But Trump’s fundraising prowess is also one measure of his ongoing sway over the Republican party.

Meanwhile in Virginia, State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase yesterday called on Trump to declare martial law to prevent his removal from office. Chase bills herself as QUOTE Trump in heels ENDQUOTE. Really. Nobody needed that image.

Moderna Vaccine Nears Approval

At last. Hundreds more hospitals around the country began dispensing Covid-19 shots to their workers yesterday in a rapid expansion of the US vaccination drive, the Associated

Press reports. Meanwhile, a second vaccine moved to the cusp of government authorization. A day after the rollout of Pfizer’s coronavirus shots, the Food and Drug Administration said its preliminary analysis confirmed the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. A panel of outside experts is expected to vote to recommend the formula on Thursday, with the FDA’s green light coming soon after.

The Moderna vaccine uses the same technology as Pfizer’s and showed similarly strong protection against Covid-19, the AP reports. However, Moderna’s vaccine is easier to handle because it does not need to be kept in deep freeze. Another weapon against the outbreak can’t come soon enough: The number of dead in the US passed a staggering three hundred thousand on Monday. On average, there are now twenty four hundred deaths and over two hundred and ten thousand new cases per day. Hospitals are strained nationwide. The Los Angeles Times reports that LA County – home to ten million people – has fewer than one hundred beds available in intensive care units.

Also yesterday, regulators approved the first home test for Covid-19 that doesn’t require a prescription. According to the AP, the test from Australian manufacturer Ellume will soon be available at pharmacies and for purchase online, priced around $30. Currently the US is testing nearly two million people daily. Most health experts agree the country needs to be testing many times more. Maybe this will do the trick.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Former Ohio state senator and Bernie Sanders surrogate Nina Turner made her bid for Congress official yesterday. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports that Turner is the third candidate to join the primary for Representative Marcia Fudge’s congressional seat. (Joe Biden recently named Fudge to head the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.) Turner will face Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown and former Cleveland City Councilman Jeff Johnson. This race is one to watch.

In other Biden Cabinet news, Biden will reportedly nominate former McKinsey consultant, presidential candidate, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to lead the Department of Transportation. Does South Bend have a transit network? Does it matter?

The International Criminal Court has decided not to pursue an investigation into China’s mass detention of Muslims, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors in The Hague said they would not, for now, investigate allegations of genocide targeting the Uighur minority, because the alleged crimes took place in China, which is not a party to the court. How convenient.

Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and alleged accomplice of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, are urging a judge to free her to await trial, CBS News reports. Maxwell’s proposed $28.5 million bail package would include armed guards to ensure she remains safe and doesn’t flee a New York City residence. The identities of seven friends and family members willing to pledge about $5 million of their own assets toward the bail package were not revealed. Maybe check Epstein’s little black book?

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

DEC 16, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn