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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Donald Trump’s flunkies are getting more and more desperate in their attempts to overturn the election. It doesn’t help their case that Attorney General Bill Barr now says there’s no evidence of massive fraud, as Trump claims.

Meanwhile, progressives are seething over some of Joe Biden’s staff picks. The latest name to draw fire from the left: Rahm Emanuel.

And lastly, the Supreme Court hears arguments for holding American corporations responsible for child slavery in Africa. Your holiday sweets may taste more bitter after you hear this report, folks.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The world’s stupidest coup attempt continues. Donald Trump filed a lawsuit yesterday in Wisconsin seeking to disqualify more than two hundred and twenty one thousand ballots in two Democratic counties, the Associated Press reports. It’s a longshot attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s win there. Trump filed the day after Democratic Governor Tony Evers certified Biden as the winner. Trump asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case directly. He also wants it to order Evers to withdraw the certification, the AP reports. Could it work? Wisconsin’s high court is controlled four to three by conservatives, but conservative judges didn’t favor his lawsuits elsewhere. The Biden campaign called the lawsuit QUOTE completely baseless ENDQUOTE. So, typical.

Trump is running out of time to undo the election. The Electoral College meets on December 14. Congress will count the votes on January 6. With that timetable in mind, Politico reports that Trump will soon be down to one final, desperate maneuver: pressing his allies on Capitol Hill to step in and derail Biden’s presidency. Federal law gives individual members of the House and Senate the power to challenge the results from the floor. Several House Republican lawmakers, including Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, told Politico they’re considering this rarely used mechanism to aid Trump. An obscure 1887 law called the Electoral Count Act spells out the process. It also gives a tiny number of lawmakers enormous

power to challenge the results, per Politico. If a single House member and a single senator join forces, they can object to entire slates of presidential electors.

Still, for this to work, Politico says Trump would need a legal victory akin to a miracle. A court, perhaps the Supreme Court, would have to embrace the Trumpistas’ effort and scrap federal statutes giving governors the power to certify results. And that hypothetical court would need to ignore findings by Trump’s own Justice Department. Attorney General Bill Barr yesterday told the AP that to date QUOTE we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election ENDQUOTE. Sounds like Barr isn’t on board!

Biden Picks Infuriate Progressives

Joe Biden’s selection of Neera Tanden, a Hillary Clinton loyalist, to lead the Office of Management and Budget isn’t the only staffing decision he’s made that’s annoying progressives. The New York Times reports that lefties are looking askance at Biden’s likely pick for a Covid-19 czar: Jeffrey Zients [ZYE-ENTS].

Zients was the head of the Obama administration’s National Economic Council and is currently co-chairman of Biden’s transition team. A progressive advocacy grop called the Revolving Door Project has been urging Biden to keep corporate influence out of his administration, the Times reports, and has compiled a thirteen-page document about Zients. The file highlights his wealth, his appetite for deficit reduction and his recent work as chief executive of an investment fund called Cranemere. The group points to the majority stake that Cranemere took in NorthStar Anesthesia in 2018. It cites negative reviews that NorthStar Anesthesia received through the Better Business Bureau, including allegations of surprise billing and a threat to send a dental patient’s bill to a collection agency. Seems a little dodgy!

Meanwhile, the Intercept reports that workers who helped elect Biden are outraged that he is considering former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lead the Department of Transportation. John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL- CIO, told the Intercept that an Emanuel appointment would be a nightmare – and a betrayal. He went on QUOTE We didn’t work our asses off [for Biden] to have Rahm Emanuel as the secretary of transportation... The truth of the matter is that Rahm Emanuel is the type of Democrat that got Trump elected to begin with ENDQUOTE. That about says it.

Corporations Defend Child Slavery

Chocolate lovers may want to sit down for this one. The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday about whether United States chocolate companies should be held responsible for child slavery on the African farms from which they buy most of their cocoa, the Washington Post reports. Six Africans are seeking damages from Nestlé USA and Cargill. They allege that as children they were trafficked out of Mali, forced to work long hours on Ivory Coast cocoa farms and kept at night in locked shacks. Their attorneys argue that the companies should have better monitored their cocoa suppliers in West Africa, where about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa is grown and child labor is widespread.

According to a recent report sponsored by the US Department of Labor, the world’s chocolate companies depend on cocoa produced with the aid of one point six million West African child laborers. Most of those laborers were involved in tasks considered hazardous such as wielding machetes, carrying heavy loads or working with pesticides, per the Post.

Court filings for the six Africans argue that these companies could end the system, but instead they chose profits over ending their exploitation of children. Nestlé USA and Cargill have asked the Supreme Court to toss the lawsuit, arguing that courts in the US are the wrong forum for the Malians’ complaint. They also claim that the applicable law permits such cases against individuals but not corporations. Is that what they call good corporate citizenship? Both sides faced skepticism from the justices yesterday, the Post reports. Here’s hoping the plaintiffs succeed and the corporations learn that society won’t tolerate child slavery. Because we’d really like to believe that’s the case.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Food banks across the country are bracing for a dwindling supply of food as federal aid nears its end, NBC News reports. The head of one South Florida food bank said shipments have plummeted from one hundred and sixty trailer loads of food per week at the start of the coronavirus pandemic down to fourteen – though demand has not let up. Consider making a donation, folks.

An influential government advisory panel convened yesterday to decide who should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available, the AP reports. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is reportedly prioritizing health care workers and nursing home patients, two groups comprising nearly twenty four million people. It will meet again later to decide who should be next in line, though state authorities and ultimately doctors get the final say.

Former federal cybersecurity chief Christopher Krebs, who was fired last month for contradicting Donald Trump’s election-related conspiracy theories, suggested yesterday that he may pursue legal action against a Trump campaign attorney who said he should be shot, Politico reports. Trump lawyer Joe DiGenova said in a Monday interview on right-wing talk radio that Krebs should QUOTE be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot ENDQUOTE. Sounds like someone needs a nap!

CNN reports that the Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to a court record unsealed on Tuesday by the chief judge of the DC District Court. The news broke after it was reported that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani had requested a pardon, and after Attorney General Bill Barr visited the White House. It all sounds too obvious to be real.

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

DEC 2, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn