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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

New details shed more light on the dangerous negligence that caused the catastrophic Beirut explosion yesterday.

Meanwhile, stimulus plan talks stall between Democrats and Republicans, and Biden decides to skip an in-person appearance at the Democratic Convention in Milwaulkee.

And lastly, Iowa finally overturns its ban on voting for people with felony convictions.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The explosion in Beirut yesterday was catastrophic beyond what most of us can imagine. At least 135 people are dead and thousands are injured, to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed by the blast.

The details coming in paint a pretty damning picture of neglect by Lebanon’s government, which has repeatedly struggled to provide for and guide its citizens through refugee crises, pandemic, economic strife and everyday city management in its largest metropolis.

Here’s what we know: the main explosion was caused by a massive store of ammonium nitrate, that had been left lying in a warehouse in Beirut’s port for more than six years.

According to the New York Times, port officials made several requests to Lebanese courts to get the stockpile moved, but got nothing back from the government, even when they warned of the danger.

The blast has devastated several of the capital city’s most prosperous and lively neighborhoods, causing as much as $3 billion in damage in a country that is already deep in a financial crisis. And the human toll may be far worse than just the casualty numbers.

Brian Castner, lead weapons investigator for Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Team said the blast was quote “the biggest explosion in an urban area in decades. The human impact of it is the important thing, and it affected people a dozen kilometers away.”

All told, the Times reports that some 300,000 people may be displaced from their homes. That’s a staggering number, considering that roughly 1.5 million, or over 30 percent of Lebanon’s total population are already refugees from the Syrian war and other conflicts.

Congress' Stalled on Corona Relief

Let’s check in briefly with the government’s response to the coronavirus. We’ll keep it brief, because it doesn’t look pretty.

Republicans and Democrats are nowhere near an agreement, as of Wednesday evening. The holdup now appears to be a dispute over funding the Post Office.

How the fight is playing out is pretty simple: pandemic cutbacks to the Post Office have resulted in mail delays, for obvious reasons.

The GOP is then using those delays to say that the Post Office doesn’t deserve more funding, and simultaneously to cast doubt on mail-in voting. Basically, they’ve crushed the Post Office and are using it to mess with the election.

Democrats want $3.6 billion in the new aid package to make sure mail-in voting goes smoothly, but of course the GOP is against it.

Congress is also still haggling over an extension to the increased unemployment benefits, which is basically like juggling with people’s entire lives as the jobless rate continues to climb. To top it off, the GOP is also fighting against aid measures that would help state and local governments stop laying off public sector workers.

As far as the election itself goes, it’s looking like nothing we’ve seen before. Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he wouldn’t be traveling to Milwaulkee for the Democratic National Convention, and will instead deliver his acceptance speech from his home state of Delaware.

Three months to go, people. Buckle up.

Iowa Gives Felons Voting Rights

There is some good news on the horizon, however! On Wednesday, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican, ended the state’s draconian ban on voting rights for felons.

Most importantly, it stipulates that people with felony convictions can vote regardless of outstanding fines and fees, one wrinkle that less scrupulous Republicans have used to try to deny voting rights in Florida.

Unfortunately, they still don’t get the right back until they’ve completed their sentence and parole, so there’s still work to be done. And the order doesn’t apply to people with felony homicide convictions.

Still, it’s a pretty significant step toward justice in a state that’s been without it for too long.

The next step, activists say, is pushing to make the order an official part of the Iowa state constitution, so it can’t be undone by another executive order from a more punitive governor.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Remember the whole scandal at the State Department including investigations into Secretary Mike Pompeo? Well it just got a bit more suspicious: acting Inspector General Stephen Akard is leaving the organization just three months after the Trump administration forced out the last Inspector General. Seems like someone doesn’t want any inspecting going on.

Common Dreams reports that watchdogs are up in arms after pharmaceutical giant Moderna announced plans to charge between $32 and $37 per dose for a COVID-19 vaccine it’s developing, after receiving massive amounts of funding from the U.S. federal government.

Twitter banned the Trump campaign from tweeting and forced it to delete a post on the campaign’s account that included a link to a Fox News clip claiming that children were quote “almost immune” from COVID-19. Facebook took similar steps, outright deleting the video from its service.

Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said that the DHS was quote “moving rapidly to replace” endquote the intimidating camouflage uniforms worn by federal officers during protests in Portland, after widespread backlash against federal cops dressing up like invading soldiers. We’ll see just how rapidly they move to make that change.

That’s it for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show this afternoon.

August 6, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn