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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

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

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

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

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

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

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

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

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

#AMQuickie: Feb 26, 2020

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn