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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

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

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

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

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Trump Says Cop Killing Was "Retribution"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Smoke Chokes West

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

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

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

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

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

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

LA Sheriffs Rough Up Reporter

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

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

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

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

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

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

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

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

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

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

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

Sept 14, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

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

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

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

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Republicans disrupt ballot preparations

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

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

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

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

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

Shooting witness fears retaliation

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

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

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

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

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

Seafarers' solidarity action victorious

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

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

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

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

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

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

Sept 11, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

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

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

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

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Thousands flee Western fires

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

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

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

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

Trump blabs to Woodward

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

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

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

Rochester police leaders resign

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

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

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

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

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

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

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

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

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

Sept 10, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

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

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

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

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Cohen decries Trump 'cult'

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

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

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

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

Back to school bugs

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

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

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

Lula takes on Bolsonaro

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

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

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

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

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

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

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

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

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

Sept 9, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

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

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

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

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

General Election Kicks Off in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump Truck Rally Round 2

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

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

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

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

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

Michigan Graduate Students Strike

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

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

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

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

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

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

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

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

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

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

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

Sept 8, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

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

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

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

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

California Burns Again

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

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

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

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

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

DeJoy Gets Caught Doing Corruption Again

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

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

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

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

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

Trump Leans In to White Nationalism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

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

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

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

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

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

Sept 7, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

It appears the Republican Party is preparing a bounty of October Surprises. There are plans for an accelerated antitrust case against Google, as well as for a coronavirus vaccine that could come well ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump clarifies that when he told people in North Carolina to vote twice, he meant that they should vote twice. If he was soliciting voter fraud, that’s actually illegal in and of itself.

And lastly, the polls remain encouraging for Joe Biden. Both national and battleground state surveys show him holding a strong lead over Trump, with both parties’ nominating conventions now in the rear-view.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Google facing antitrust investigation

The US Department of Justice plans to bring an antitrust case against one of the world’s largest technology companies, Google, as early as this month. That’s according to the New York Times, which broke the story yesterday.

And there’s a twist: the lawyers who were investigating Google on behalf of the Department aren’t happy about the case moving forward. They reportedly felt rushed after higher ups at the DOJ told them to wrap up their inquiry by the end of September. Several lawyers on the forty-odd person team left over the summer. Others said they’d refuse to sign the antitrust complaint against Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

There is, apparently, some concern that the end-of-month deadline is arbitrary and politically motivated. Donald Trump has accused Google of being biased against him, and Attorney General Bill Barr may wish to bring the case to a conclusion in order to give Trump something to brag about on the campaign trail.

Separately, Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar yesterday told CBS News that a recently announced November 1 timeline for a coronavirus vaccine has QUOTE nothing to do with the election ENDQUOTE. The Centers for Disease Control told state governors in a letter

last week to be ready to distribute a vaccine by that date. Three potential vaccines are in the third and final stage of clinical trials in the US, well ahead of what experts originally said was a reasonable timeline. Azar attributed the success of the so-called Warp Speed vaccine research effort to President Trump’s leadership. No politics at play in that department, no sir.

Trump says vote twice

As the Washington Post and the New York Times so delicately put it, Trump yesterday sought to clarify remarks he made late the previous day, in which he told supporters in North Carolina to vote twice. Which is very much against the law. By clarify, they must have meant repeat. Because what he told supporters yesterday on Twitter was to vote twice, first by mail and then in person. Just to make sure their postal vote got counted, you see.

Twitter put a warning label on Trump’s posts, saying they violated the company’s policies around election integrity. But they left the post up because they said doing so was QUOTE in the public interest ENDQUOTE. Facebook said it would delete a video of Trump’s original comments telling people to vote twice, unless it was shared in order to correct the record.

Forgive me if I’m repeating myself here, but it sure seems like when Trump complains about the upcoming election being rigged, it’s because he’s doing his damndest to make it so. The executive director of North Carolina’s board of elections said in a statement yesterday that checks would be in place to prevent double voting, which is illegal. It’s also illegal to solicit someone to vote twice, but who will dare bring charges against Trump for this? Finally, the board urged people not to follow Trump’s instructions and line up on election day to check that their mail-in ballots had been counted, for two reasons. One, it’s not necessary. And two, it could spread coronavirus. What a mess, cripes.

Biden maintains polling lead

Joe Biden maintains a strong lead in the polls over Donald Trump, NBC News reported yesterday. The party conventions held over the past couple of weeks did not seem to sway many people one way or the other.

National polls show Biden with a lead of anywhere between seven and eleven percentage points over Trump. And Biden continues to perform better than Hillary Clinton did at the same

point in 2016. That year, Trump held a fifteen-point lead over Clinton on the question of which candidate was more honest and trustworthy in a CNN poll. Now, Biden leads Trump on the same question by seventeen percentage points.

Signs are good for Biden in state polls, as well. Fox News polls show Biden beating Trump by eight percentage points in Wisconsin, by nine points in Arizona and by four points in North Carolina. The race appears closer in Pennsylvania, however, especially with models that predict lower turnout.

If his polling lead holds true, NBC reported, Biden could defeat Trump with similar margins as Barack Obama’s victory over the late Arizona Senator John McCain. Democratic voters can’t rest on their laurels, but despair would be premature at this stage.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Americans can expect more extreme weather this Labor Day weekend. Over twenty million people in the mid-Atlantic states face a severe storm warning. Four million people in the South and Midwest are under flash flood watches. And forty-four million people in the West and Southwest will be warned to watch out for record-setting heat and dry conditions that could exacerbate the threat of wildfires. So it might be a nice weekend to stay inside, unless of course you are being told to evacuate.

At least five mayors in Democratic cities around the US have temporarily moved out of their homes on account of ongoing protests on their doorsteps. Those cities are, according to the Washington Post: Portland, Oregon; Chicago; Seattle; Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The protests, generally speaking, decry police violence and call for justice for Black lives. Do the right thing, folks. Leave no mayor behind!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed yesterday that her private, maskless visit to a San Francisco hair salon, in violation of city pandemic restrictions, was QUOTE clearly a setup ENDQUOTE. At a press conference, the White House played security camera footage of Pelosi’s salon visit on a loop. The stylist Pelosi visited also released a statement supporting Pelosi’s account and accusing the salon owner of forcing stylists to work in violation of public health orders. Now you’re up to speed.

Best wishes to the family and friends of David Graeber, an anthropologist and writer best known for his books Bullshit Jobs and Debt_: The First Five Thousand Years_. As an activist with Occupy Wall Street, Graeber coined the slogan We Are The Ninety-Nine Percent. Denied tenure at Yale for supporting a graduate student union, Graeber went on to join the London School of Economics as a professor. According to his widow, Nika Dubrovsky, he died in a hospital in Venice. May he rest in peace.

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

SEPT 4, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Donald Trump administration announces new sanctions on The Hague. It all seems a little bit backwards.

Meanwhile, Joe and Jill Biden visit Kenosha, Wisconsin today. The campaign set a one- month presidential fundraising record in August.

And lastly, doctors say new guidelines for coronavirus treatment represent a sign of hope in the fight against the virus. The World Health Organization now says chronically and severely ill COVID patients should be treated with steroids.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

In a shocking and damning move, the United States has imposed sanctions on senior officials of the International Criminal Court at the Hague. The ICC prosecutes war criminals around the world. The US sanctions include the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. Bensouda was once justice minister of her home country, The Gambia. Her experience in international justice includes advising a United Nations tribunal that prosecuted key figures in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The new sanctions allow the US to block assets of those targeted, as well as bar them from entry to the US.

So why is the US sanctioning The Hague prosecutors now? Well, it’s simple: The ICC has been investigating American war crimes in Afghanistan. Announcing the sanctions, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called those ICC investigations QUOTE illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction ENDQUOTE. The US is one of a dozen countries including China, India, and Russia that have refused to recognize the ICC’s authority, according to BBC News. The court was created by a UN treaty in 2002.

Balkees Jarrah, a senior counsel on international justice with Human Rights Watch, said the sanctions mark a shameful new low for US commitments to justice for victims of the worst crimes. They are, Jarrah added, a stunning perversion of US sanctions that were devised to penalize rights abusers and kleptocrats. Instead, they will be used to harrass those seeking

justice for victims of war crimes. Folks, just ask yourselves: Is this how a country operates when it has nothing to answer for, nothing to hide?

The Bidens visit Kenosha today

Joe Biden and his wife Jill are visiting Kenosha, Wisconsin today. Biden said that there were overwhelming requests for him to visit in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake and the subsequent killing of two protesters by a seventeen-year-old armed with an assault rifle. In advance of the visit, Biden said he hopes to be a positive influence toward healing. He certainly couldn’t do worse than Donald Trump’s loathsome, inflammatory performance there on Tuesday.

There was no indication that Biden’s vice presidential pick Kamala Harris would join him and his wife in Kenosha. However, the Washington Post reported that Biden has deployed Harris elsewhere as an ambassador to Black activists. For instance, Harris joined a conference call with one hundred Black male leaders, including the civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Blake family. The Post said Crump and Harris addressed the Blake shooting and police violence against Black men in general, but offered no details.

Also on the campaign trail, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the lineup for three debates between Biden and Trump. The first debate will take place on September 29 and be moderated by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace. The second debate will be moderated by C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully, and take place on October 15. The third and final debate will take place on October 22nd and be moderated by Kristen Welker, a White House correspondent for NBC News and co-anchor of the weekend “Today” show. There will also be a single vice-presidential debate to be moderated by Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief of USA Today. That’s on October 7.

Finally, Biden reportedly broke a campaign fundraising record, raising three-hundred and sixty-four and a half million dollars in August. More than two-hundred and five million came through online donations. The previously monthly record in a presidential race was set by Barack Obama in September 2008, when he raised more than two hundred and two million.

New coronavirus treatment guidelines

The World Health Organization released new treatment guidance yesterday for the coronavirus. The updated guidance is based on new research, also published yesterday, in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research consisted of five separate articles including three studies, an editorial, and an analysis of seven randomized clinical trials. From all that, the evidence was clear: Doctors should use steroids to treat patients who are severely or critically ill with COVID-19. The only other drug shown to be effective in seriously ill patients is remdesivir, according to the New York Times, summarizing the research.

Per the Times, steroids can have harmful side effects, especially in elderly patients, who make up the majority of very ill coronavirus patients. The drugs may leave patients vulnerable to other infections, may raise blood glucose levels, and may cause confusion and delirium.

The new research doesn’t answer every question. Only the sickest patients were treated with steroids in the clinical trials that were studied. The optimal dosages and duration of treatment remain uncertain. But the good news is that these drugs are cheap and widely available. And they reduced deaths in critically ill patients by twenty percent. What this means: If your loved ones are diagnosed as severely or critically ill with coronavirus, they should be getting treated with cortico-steroids – and if they aren’t, the doctors should have a good reason why not, based on the individual circumstances of the patient. If they are sick enough for these drugs, they may already be on mechanical ventilation. But if they are in a gray area, receiving perhaps only a few liters of oxygen, doctors may conclude steroids are too risky.

All ins and outs aside, this is a rare bit of good news for the fight against the dreaded ’rona.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Indigenous people in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands are reportedly now threatened by the coronavirus. Most cases are asymptomatic, but experts quoted by NBC News fear that uncontacted people on nearby islands could be next. The population of the Great Andamanese tribe for instance, is just over fifty people. Ten of them are now hospitalized with coronavirus, according to NBC News. Luckily, for now, all are asymptomatic, but there are concerns for tribal elders on the most remote islands.

A Homeland Security Department official who resigned in April told NPR News that the Trump administration is fanning the flames of violence and right-wing extremism. This won’t be news to most listeners of this program, but it’s something else to hear it from a person like Elizabeth Neumann, former assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention at DHS. Neumann also said, unequivocally, QUOTE The threat of domestic terrorism is not from antifa. ENDQUOTE. To paraphrase Trump, put that in your soup and throw it!

Survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 filed a lawsuit on Tuesday demanding reparations from the city government. The lead plaintiff is Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, who is one hundred and five years old. The lawsuit says the local law enforcement deputized white Tuslans to murder, loot, and burn a Black district of the city. It also names the local chamber of commerce, which backed a form of indentured servitude for some Black internees after the massacre. Per the Washington Post, no one was ever arrested for the violence.

Staff at the Voice of America are in open revolt over the conduct of their boss, Michael Pack. Pack was appointed to head up the US Agency for Global Media and confirmed by the Senate in June. He commenced to purge employees on a political basis, adding unfounded and xenophobic claims of espionage. Solidarity to all journalists fighting for their independence, and for the free speech of all!

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

Sept 3, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Trump administration, desperate for political goodwill, is using the Center for Disease Control’s authority to hand down a temporary eviction moratorium for anyone making less than $99,000 per year, but it comes with some other pretty strict qualifications.

Meanwhile, Amazon is cracking down on labor organizing and spying on its own employees in unprecedented ways, Motherboard reports, while delivery drivers are leaving smartphones hanging from trees to try to eke out a living from the company’s algorithm.

And lastly, Incumbent Senator Ed Markey appears to have fended off Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the Democratic primary. We’ll chat about that and break down some of the other races to watch in the State’s primary.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Trump administration passed down a temporary federal eviction moratorium on Tuesday night, using the CDC’s quarantine authority to bar evictions for individuals making less than $99,000 a year.

There’s a pretty easy way to read this: the looming eviction crisis is so bad that even Trump’s advisors have recognized that if it hits before the election, he’s screwed. Sure enough, the CDC’s moratorium only lasts until December 31.

It also requires people to self-identify, basically making an official claim that they can’t pay rent but they’re trying to, and that they meet the required income bracket. And, crucially, it doesn’t convert that rent debt into consumer debt, meaning that you could get evicted right after the moratorium expires in January 2021.

In other words, it’s a stopgap measure aimed at preserving some of Trump’s flagging support. Don’t get me wrong, it will still be a major lifeline to families living on the edge, giving them a few more crucial months to figure out a better situation, and it’s a far stronger provision than the original moratorium in the CARES act. But that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the crisis -- similar to the payroll tax deferrals we talked about earlier in the week, it basically postpones some of the pain of this recession, rather than alleviating it entirely.

Amazon Doing Evil Again

Amazon had a huge day yesterday, and by huge day I mean got exposed for doing a whole bunch of evil stuff. So basically a normal Tuesday for them.

Let’s take a look at the evil in particular though. Item one: the company is hiring two quote “intelligence analysts” for its security division to track a whole host of threats including protests, crises, and geopolitical conflicts that could affect the company’s operations. So a corporate spy, essentially. But one bit of the job description stands out: according to Motherboard, the job listing mentions “labor organizing” three times. Essentially, the company is hiring private spooks to spy on labor organizers.

Which brings us to item two, another scoop by Motherboard: an internal report shows that Amazon is quietly surveilling its Flex drivers and other employees in dozens of private facebook groups. Like many gig-work behemoths, Flex drivers have private facebook groups where they chat about the job and blow off steam, but now it’s on the record that Amazon has plants in pretty much all of those groups making sure none of the pesky working people get any ideas about organizing, protesting, or calling a strike.

Bear in mind what these people’s jobs are like. Item three: Bloomberg reports that savvy drivers are literally hanging smartphones from trees near Amazon warehouses in an attempt to get the jump on their competitors. Amazon feeds off of this lowest-possible-fee, dog-eat-dog competitive atmosphere for workers who have been mistreated and underpaid for years, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

We’ll have to wait and see how Obama’s old press secretary Jay Carney, who’s now an Amazon spokesman, wriggles out of this jam!

A Kennedy Falls in Massachusetts

It finally happened: a candidate with the last name Kennedy lost an election in Massachusetts. Senator Ed Markey appears to have struck down the youngest rising star of the dark Kennedy Dynasty, Joe Kennedy III, in the Massachusetts senate primary.

Most networks called the race for Markey on Tuesday night, and as we were scripting this, it wasn’t even close. Markey was up by double digits, giving the much younger and much more nakedly ambitious Kennedy the thrashing his power-hungry family deserves.

Unfortunately, the other big progressive race in the state appears to have gone the opposite way. House Ways and Means chairman Richard Neal appears to have beaten progressive challenger Alex Morse, after a contentious, borderline corrupt primary that saw a devastating smear campaign against Morse. Morse bounced back when the Intercept’s reporting exposed the smears against him as fake, but he wasn’t able to oust the incumbent Neal.

Other races to watch: Jesse Mermell, a progressive, is in the lead in the open primary to fill Kennedy’s House seat that he left to challenge Markey. Mermell ran a pretty left-focused campaign, but one of her challengers, Ihssane Leckey, looked very promising as well. Keep an eye on that race, as it hasn’t been called as of script time, and the closest rival candidate to Mermell is a big money-funded centrist.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Joe Biden’s campaign is launching new yard signs... in a video game. In the popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can now proclaim yourself team Joe. And now all I can think about is how Hillary Clinton said Pokemon Go to the Polls.

According to a new book, Melania Trump used multiple private email addresses, iMessage, and the encrypted messaging app Signal while in the White House. Remember when this was a huge national security story when Hillary Clinton did it? Neither do I, because I had a voluntary lobotomy after the 2016 election.

In slightly brighter Republican primary news, the Massachusetts congressional candidate who was openly linked to Qanon did NOT win his primary election. So that’s one thing the GOP’s got going for it, I guess.

Trump’s personal physician denied that the President experienced a stroke last year during a sudden medical emergency, and denied that Pence had been put on standby if the President had gone into surgery. The allegations were made in, would you guess, a new book about the Trump administration by a New York Times reporter. So that clears all that up, it’s clear the big man is in perfect health!

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM quickie today. Sam’s got you in the afternoon.

Sept 2, 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:

President Trump defended militia member Kyle Rittenhouse, refusing to condemn the two killings the 17-year-old Trump supporter committed in Kenosha, Wisconsin last week.

Meanwhile, New York City’s teacher are preparing to strike if Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn’t meet their demands for mandatory testing, which would be one of the largest actions in the ongoing nationwide battle over reopening schools.

And lastly, a whistleblower report alleges that the L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy who shot 18-year-old Andres Guardado was quote “chasing ink,” or attempting to join one of the violent gangs that exist inside the Sheriff's department.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

At this point, nobody should be expecting Donald Trump to condemn the things his supporters do, but after last week’s shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the president appears to have thrown his lot entirely behind the right-wing defense of Kyle Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse shot three protesters, killing two, during a chaotic incident in the middle of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

When asked about the shooting at a press conference on Saturday, Trump leaned into the right-wing narrative that Rittenhouse’s shootings were committed in self-defense, saying quote: “I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed,” endquote.

Trump also refused to condem the widespread violence perpetrated by his supporters in Portland over the weekend, where a truck convoy of Trump supporters sprayed protesters with mace and shot them with paintballs. Trump referred to his supporters as quote “Peaceful,” and added quote “paint is not bullets.” Those confrontations also ended in violence, when one right-wing militia member was shot and killed in the city on Saturday.

The Trump campaign and other conservative voices have sought to blame the increasing violence at protests around the country on Joe Biden, alleging that Biden is somehow supportive of incidents of violence, looting or rioting. But in a speech on Monday, Biden wasted no time in decrying all such behavior. He said quote:

“I urge the President to join me in saying that while peaceful protest is a right — a necessity — violence is wrong, period. No matter who does it, no matter what political affiliation they have. Period.

“If Donald Trump can’t say that, then he is unfit to be president, and his preference for more violence — not less — is clear.”

Trump plans to visit Kenosha on today, so look out for even more dangerous rhetoric from him then.

NYC Teachers Prepare to Strike

The battle over returning to school is coming to a head in New York City, as the city’s powerful Teachers Union says a strike is still on the table if mayor Bill de Blasio doesn’t meet their demands.

The sticking point right now is a mandatory testing program for students and staff returning to school. United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew said quote:

“I cannot and I will not back off the fact that I said we would not go back unless independent medical experts gave us a stamp of approval. So it’s not like the mayor is going to convince me not to have a mandated testing program. It’s not happening.”

If that wrinkle isn’t ironed out, Mulgrew left the door open for a major labor action, including a strike.

The UFT is also pushing for a delayed start to the year, which is supposed to begin on September 10.

While many teachers across the country have already been pushed back into classrooms, this battle in one of the largest school systems in the country could set a precedent for other unions fighting for mandatory testing as well.

Earlier in the year, Chicago’s powerful teachers’ union, which has gone on strike just last year over contract negotiations, threatened another strike in July if the city did not meet their demands to hold remote classes -- and hours later, got what they wanted.

Now, New York is laying the same threat on the table. We’ll see how de Blasio responds.

Killer LA Sheriff Was Chasing Gang Ink

A new whistleblower complaint claims that the L.A. Country Sheriff’s Deputy who shot 18-year-old Andres Guardado was in fact “chasing ink,” or trying to join an organized police gang that rewards its members for brutality.

The fact that there are active, violent gangs inside the LA Sheriffs Department is nothing short of absurd.

But Guardado’s killing came after knowledge of the gangs was widespread, which means that the forces inside the department weren’t cowed by external pressure or an FBI investigation.

According to the new complaint, Deputy Miguel Vega was trying to get into an exclusive clique inside the Sheriffs Office known as the Executioners.

Another deputy, Art Gonzalez, alleged in a sworn whistleblower statement that the Executioners have more than a dozen members with matching tattoos, who often host parties after an officer has shot someone in which they may be inked.

In other words, Guardado’s death may have come at the hands of a cop looking to kill someone to buy his way into a gang. Gonzalez, the whistleblower, testified for nearly six hours under oath, according to Spectrum News 1 in LA.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Trump’s environmental protection agency is quietly relaxing another key anti-pollution measure, this time weakening Obama-era regulations on coal waste. The new rules drastically increase the daily thresholds for amounts of toxic elements that plants can release into the water supply.

Spain is officially going through a true “second wave” of coronavirus infections, as its rate of infections has been higher than the U.S., France, Germany and most of the rest of Europe in the past week. Spain had a brutal first wave of infections which were only broken by a strict lockdown -- but after a rapid reopening program, the virus is creeping back in.

Airlines are making one major change in the attempt to coax customers into flying again: they’re permanently dropping change fees for most domestic flights. Delta, United and American are all following this plan, which will certainly give travelers who have to fly a bit more peace of mind, as it’s clear the actual process isn’t and won’t be safe for a while.

In slightly terrifying news, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg officiated a wedding and was pictured not wearing a mask just weeks after being hospitalized for liver cancer. The bride claimed that quote “we tested negative,” but still. Probably not a great risk to take.

Sept 1, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn