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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
The Russian government allegedly placed bounties on American troops in Afghanistan, hoping to provoke the Taliban and other extremist fighters to further enflame the endless conflict there. New reports show that Trump was briefed months ago about this, and did, well, nothing. Remind me why we’re even in Afghanistan anymore?
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court struck down a Lousiana law that could have decimated the state’s remaining abortion clinics, thanks to Chief Justice John Robert’s switch to side with the liberals. He’s still a conservative, so don’t take this as any more than a lucky break.
And lastly, the Kentucky Senate primary between progressive Charlie Booker and establishment darling Amy McGrath in Kentucky is still too close to call, but should be resolved later today when the last of the state’s absentee ballots are counted up.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Russian Bounty Boogaloo
A new story involving the Russians and America’s neverending war in Afghanistan is sweeping through the media.
Here are the broad strokes: multiple outlets have now reported that starting as early as 2019, the Russian military was offering bounties to the Taliban and other extremist groups in Afghanistan for successfully killing U.S. troops. The U.S., of course, has been half-heartedly trying to negotiate and uphold a peace deal with the Taliban, but it makes sense that Russia would want to throw a wrench in that process by any means necessary.
But the scandal now has become when, exactly, the Trump administration was aware of the fact that a foreign power was putting out hits on its troops. The Trump administration has stressed that the president wasn’t briefed on the issue, but several reports say that’s B.S. The Associated Press reports that quote “top officials” in the White House were aware of the intelligence report way back in 2019. The New York Times, meanwhile, reports that our spies gave Trump himself a written briefing on the matter in February.
Russia, of course, denies putting out the bounties. Sure.
If Trump knew about it month or even a year ago, many Republicans and Democrats in Congress are understandably pissed off that he didn’t do anything or respond in any way.
The problem is there’s no real winner here: if Trump knew about it and did nothing, that sucks, but at the same time, Trump’s response to Russia’s action could have been disastrous. He can’t exactly be trusted to put out a logical, measured response, let alone a decent one, like, say, just getting all of our troops out of Afghanistan in the first place.
Warhawks will want to weaponize this story to goad the U.S. to further conflict with Russia, or Afghanistan, or whoever else gets in the way, which we should have learned by now is a bad idea. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a mess, but it’s almost certainly going to dominate headlines for the next few days, so keep an eye out for updates.
John Roberts Temporarily Rescues Abortion Rights
The Supreme Court delivered its second shock ruling in as many weeks on Monday, as Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Court’s four liberal justices to strike down an abortion law in Louisiana.
If upheld, the law could have reduced the state to a single solitary abortion clinic, and obvious massive barrier to a woman’s right to choose in the state. Roberts’ decision to side with the liberals enraged conservatives: Ted Cruz, for instance, ranted about Roberts’ quote “political gamesmanship,” endquote.
But before we get too hopeful, it’s useful to look at why Roberts made the decision he did. Sure, he sided with the liberals on this one case, but not really for altruistic reasons. The law in question was almost identical to a Texas law the Supreme Court rejected in 2016.
Roberts only voted against the Louisiana law because of stare decisis -- the theory that courts should be bound by their past decisions.
But what he also did was point the way that conservatives could write a more legally sound law that would get through the court, and crush abortion rights that way.
This is similar to Robert’s ruling on the DACA program, which he upheld last week. He sided with the liberals, but only because the conservative case was so legally sloppy he didn’t want to rubber stamp it.
In other words, Roberts is just telling the conservatives who want to do more fascism toward immigrants and women that they need to do their homework and get back to him.
For now, abortion clinics in Louisiana are safe, relatively speaking. But if the courts stay in Roberts’ hands, it’s only a matter of time before the conservatives come for them again.
Kentucky Primary Too Close to Call
Elections aren’t one-night affairs anymore, and Kentucky’s Democratic Senate Primary has lasted a whole week.
The race, between progressive Charles Booker and the former fighter-pilot, Democratic establishment darling Amy McGrath, is way, way closer than anyone thought it would be. A few months ago, it looked like McGrath had the whole thing locked up, with a massive campaign warchest and the endorsement of pretty much everyone who’s anyone in the Democratic old guard.
But with just weeks to go before the election, Booker started surging, as people realized there wasn’t much to Amy besides a fat wallet of DNC cash. Booker, meanwhile, stepped up during the nationwide protests against police brutality and continued to push his progressive, medicare-for-all and universal basic income platform.
Now, the two are neck and neck. As of early Tuesday morning, McGrath is up by under 3,000 votes, and there’s still a ton of absentee ballots to count. Booker has been crushing it in in-person voting, but the worry is that some of the mail-in ballots were cast before he got his big surge in momentum.
Most of the absentees that are still out are from Fayette and Jefferson Counties, the state’s most populous areas. The county election boards are expected to convene early Tuesday morning to tally up final results, which should be announced sometime in the late morning today, but could very well get pushed to the afternoon. You know how these things go. I’m sure we’ll be discussing it on the full show this afternoon.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
China passed a sweeping, controversial new law that gave the mainland government a massive amount of power to crack down on dissent in Hong Kong, a move which is almost certain to enflame the massive protest movement there. This would be a huge change for Hong Kong, which until now has largely existed with civil liberties the heavily repressive Chinese government denies the rest of its people.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council appear to have agreed on a budget that sort-of-not-really cuts $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget. Activists warn though that the bill is mostly a load of B.S. aimed at shuffling money around, and not actually defunding the department.
Elsewhere in out-of-control police, Aurora, Colorado’s local CBS outlet reports that at least three Aurora Police officers are under investigation for taking inappropriate, disrespectful photos after violently breaking up a peaceful vigil for Elijay McClain, a young man who was killed by the same department last year. Officers reportedly re-enacted the chokehold that killed him.
And lastly, big pharma continues to take lives for money, as Gilead Sciences announced an absurd price of around $520 per dose of a new coronavirus treatment drug. Advocates claim the drug could be produced for as little as $1 a dose, but you can’t tell that to the capitalists in charge of healthcare in this country.
June 30, 2020 - AM Quickie
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Jack Crosbie
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn