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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Hundreds of former federal prosecutors call for an investigation into Attorney General Bill Barr. And Trump plans a rally in Tusla to gloat over the bodies of those killed by white supremacists.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden says he wants to give more money to the police. The man is on a mission to prove there’s no problem that can’t be solved with small business tax credits.
And lastly: Black Lives Matter wins massively in new public opinion polls. Anybody still crying over some fallen statues is deeply out of touch with the rest of the country.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Veteran Prosecutors Blast Barr
So much for law and order. Donald Trump’s campaign for permanent Republican Party rule keeps hitting one snag after another. Even the feds are getting – sorry -- fed up. Yesterday more than twelve hundred former Justice Department workers demanded an investigation of Attorney General Bill Barr, Trump’s authoritarian enabler. According to the Washington Post, the dissenters sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. They expressed deep concern about Barr’s role in ordering a violent assault on peaceful protesters last week in Lafayette Square near the White House. The signatories are career prosecutors, managers, and lawyers from both parties.
Separately, former federal judge John Gleeson, who was appointed to oversee the case against disgraced Pentagon intelligence chief Michael Flynn, filed court papers calling out Trump and the DOJ for brazen corruption. Flynn had already admitted lying to the FBI over his contacts with foreign powers. But Trump and Barr came to his rescue. Gleeson called the case against Flynn was straightforward aid said his attemped exoneration was a gross abuse of prosecutorial power. Barr recently boasted that history is written by the winners. I wonder if he feels so confident now?
Trump yesterday held another photo op, this time with black supporters who praised him up and down. He said that under no circumstances would he rename US military bases dedicated to the Confederacy. His campaign also announced its next big event. On June 19th
Trump will hold a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The timing and location are provocative. Ninety- nine years ago this month, Tulsa was the location of one of the worst racially motivated massacres in US history. And next Friday will be Juneteenth, the annual holiday commemorating black emancipation.
Also yeseterday: George Floyd’s brother testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Philonise (Phi-LOW-niss) Floyd said QUOTE they lynched my brother... he didn’t deserve to die over twenty dollars... Make it stop. ENDQUOTE.
The Minneapolis Police Department, whose officers killed George Floyd, said it was ending contract negotiations with the city. Local officials want to start from scratch. But leaders in neighboring Saint Paul are reportedly not on board.
In Louisville, Kentucky, police finally released an autoposy report for Breonna Taylor, shot by cops in her home three months ago. The four-page report was mostly blank. It said she sustained no injuries, though she was shot at least eight times. All three officers involved remain on the job.
In San Francisco, police told the transit agency to QUOTE lose our number ENDQUOTE after the agency said it would no longer ferry cops to protests.
In New York, conditions in jails where protesters have been sent are reportedly abysmal, with people denied water and masks to protect from coronavirus.
And in Arizona, migrants in federal custody were ordered to clean a private prison where COVID-19 has spread out of control. Inmates are pleading for protective gear and fear for their lives. There you go: that’s what law and order means in America today.
Biden: Fund The Police!
With nearly three thousand protests growing around the world, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Joe Biden, yesterday made his most extensive statement on police brutality. It was not what protesters hoped to hear. It was, however, perfectly in line with Biden’s message that nothing will fundamentally change if he wins the White House. In a column for USA Today, Biden called for an extra three hundred million dollars in federal funding to QUOTE reinvigorate community policing in our country. Every single police department should have the money it needs to institute real reforms ENDQUOTE. Got that?
With at least ten thousand Americans arrested over the past two weeks for exercising their First Amendment rights – and many times that number still out on the streets chanting defund the police – Biden wants to throw more money at the cops. He advocated several other no- brainer reforms such as banning chokeholds and a national use of force standard. But the protests have raised the bar for policy proposals, and Biden came up short. He even worked in a mention of tax credits for small business.
Also in election news, the Associated Press called the Georgia Democratic primary for US Senate in favor of Jon Ossoff. Yesterday’s vote was marked by absurdly long lines, machine malfunctions, missing poll workers and other forms of voter suppression. If the AP’s call proves accurate, Ossoff, a former journalist, will challenge first-term Republican Senator David Perdue in November. Even Perdue called yesterday’s election a meltdown. But he and his fellow Republicans have their own reasons for casting doubt on the results. If people think their votes don’t count, they won’t bother.
Georgia was of course only the latest state to go sideways on election day. Per NBC News, experts are warning that Americans won’t know who won the presidency on election night come November. Michigan and Pennsylvania in particular are expected to have problems with a big wave of mail-in ballots. The delays, NBC warned, could be used to undermine confidence in the outcome. Gee, who might benefit from that?
BLM Winning Public Opinion
Amid all this apparent chaos, there is plenty of hopeful news to be found. Polls show a dramatic shift in public opinion in favor of Black Lives Matter protesters and away from the instituions of racist policing. Online opinion research cited by the New York Times shows Americans favor the protesters by a twenty-eight point margin. Just a couple of weeks ago, that margin was only seventeen percent. Other polling sources show declining trust in the police and increased understanding of the discrimination faced by African-Americans. The Times concluded that Trump’s inflamatory Tweets on this issue may be counterproductive. This rapid shift in opinion may be permanent, because it jibes with long-term trends.
Monuments to racism and oppression continue to fall. Protesters in Saint Paul, Minnesota, pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus. Afterward, members of the American Indian Movement chanted and drummed in victory over the statue. In Virginia yesterday, a self-
professed member of the Ku Klux Klan was arrested after driving through a crowd of protesters on Sunday. In Richmond last night, protesters took down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Eighty miles away in Portsmouth, four Confederate statues were beheaded and then toppled.
Finally, in Washington, DC, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is making himself useful again. In a floor speech, Sanders called on Congress to ban the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray on protesters.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
Twenty-one states are reportedly seeing increases in coronavirus infections, but reopening continues. At least two million cases have been recorded in the US, with more than one-hundred and twelve thousand dead. Even in deep blue California, polticians are at odds with health officials over the pace of reopening. Governor Gavin Newsom said the state will force workers to risk exposure QUOTE in a responsible way ENDQUOTE.
Police in Sweden closed the case on the assassination of prime minister Olof Palme. The left-wing and anti-apartheid icon was shot in the back in 1986, but the culprit was never caught. Most independent investigators placed blame on a wider right-wing conspiracy. Prosecutors concluded that an ex-military far-right extremist, Stig Engström, killed Palme. But fans of the novelist Stieg Larsson, who was obsessed with the case, may never be satisfied.
A Mayan spirit guide was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Guatemala over the weekend. Villagers reportedly accused him of witchcraft, set him on fire, and then posted videos of the killing online. The murdered Mayan herbalist, Domingo Choc Che, was working with international researchers to develop new cures based on traditional medicines.
The Federal Reserve predicts fifteen million people will still be unemployed through the end of this year, with high jobless rates for years to come. This was the takeaway in a news conference yesterday by Fed chairman Jerome Powell. Separately, a former Macy’s executive told CNBC he expects one-third of America’s shopping malls to close for good this year. Maybe we can tear up the parking lots and plant trees, huh?
That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report.
June 11 , 2020 - AM Quickie
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Corey Pein
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn