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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

As federal forces swarm to crush protests around the country, resistance also grows. Federal judges and state legislatures are joining the public in pushing back against Donald Trump’s full-on assault on the First Amendment.

Meanwhile, cancel culture claims another victim: the Republican National Convention. And Trump’s camapign staff blame Don Junior’s girlfriend for a drop in fundraising.

And lastly, a defense contractor tells the New York Times the US military has recovered vehicles not from this world. They’re not saying it was aliens... but maybe it was aliens.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Despite assurances from the secretary of Homeland Security that the situation in Portland was unique, there were reports last night of further deployments by the DHS tactical forces to other Democratic cities with large protest movements. Last night the New York Times reported that one such team was deployed to Seattle. The deployment came despite assurances to the city’s mayor earlier in the day that the feds had no plans to do so.

It’s unclear exactly how many federal agencies may be involved in Trump’s so-called law and order campaign, which mainstream media critics are increasingly calling a kind of war on the population. A report in The Nation magazine based on leaked government documents suggested Homeland Security deployments are larger than have been reported. Unidentified camoflauged police carrying rifles were even filmed assaulting and arresting Black Lives Matter protesters in small-town Gastonia, North Carolina. The Intercept reported that an Air Force surveillance aircraft has been flying tight circles over Portland, where most of the media attention has been focused. In a press conference, Defense Secretary Mark Esper – a lobbyist, like his Homeland Security counterpart Chad Wolf – ducked questions about possible military involvement. The Daily Beast cited unnamed Pentagon sources claiming the administration has been agitating for overwhelming force in cities like Chicago for years. The Beast report also quoted a top Justice Department source claiming that Attorney General Bill Barr actually reigned Trump in, and scaled down the federal deployments he wanted around

the country. Trump reportedly hoped for a show of force that would leave civilians QUOTE shaking in their boots ENDQUOTE. But as protests grow, he is the one who looks weak and cowardly.

Resistance to the crackdown is growing, not only among the people but within government. After a referral by the US Attorney for Oregon, the Inspector General of the Justice Department yesterday announced an investigation into use of force by federal forces in Portland. Also in Portland, US District Judge Michael H. Simon reportedly issued a restraining order forbidding federal law enforcement from using force, threats, or dispersal orders against journalists and legal observers at the protests there. In Colorado, every Democrat in the state legislature signed a letter expressing shock and horror, as well as opposition to any uninvited federal intervention there. A solidarity march is planned in New York City for Saturday. And from Rojava, Syria, a group of antifascists sent a photograph showing support for the pro- democracy movement in Portland and the United States.

AOC demolishes sexist Yoho

A new poll by Quinnipac University shows Joe Biden with a stunning thirteen percentage point lead over Trump in the Republican-leaning swing state of Florida. Coincidentally or not, Trump announced yesterday that he was effectively cancelling the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. The event, scheduled for August, was originally supposed to take place in North Carolina. Trump is blaming coronavirus, but there are many signs of growing panic in his reelection campaign. And we’re not just talking about the deployment of federal troops to Democratic cities. Politico reported yesterday that some on the campaign were blaming Donald Junior’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, for poor fundraising performance. Among other complaints, they say she insists on taking private planes to fundraising events. Maybe that’s out of line, but is it really any surprise that a group of desperate, failing Republicans would try to blame the woman? It’s like they never considered that Trump’s disastrous presidency might keep people from donating money.

Speaking of misogyny. In case you missed it – and it would be a shame if you did – New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded yesterday to her sexist pig colleague from Florida, Ted Yoho, who recently called her a bitch. Yoho later delivered a lame non- apology in which he hid behind the women in his life. As AOC put it, QUOTE I do not need

Representative Yoho to apologize to me. Clearly he does not want to. But what I do have issue with is using women – wives and daughters – as shields or excuses for poor behavior. I am someone's daughter too. I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter, and they did not raise me to accept abuse from men ENDQUOTE. Tell it!

Military recovered unworldly vehicle

The New York Times reported some surprising further details about the US military’s formerly secret program to track and study UFOs – or, as the government now calls them, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs. In part, the program was aimed at figuring out whether strange objects seen by US military personnel – some of which moved at incredible rates of speed and seemed to violate the known laws of phsyics – had been developed by another country, perhaps Russia or China. That is not so surprising when you think about it. What is surprising is that last October, staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee received briefings on retrievals by the military of unexplained objects. There were other briefings. According to Eric W. Davis -- an astrophysicist working for the Aerospace Corporation, a major defense contractor – he delivered a briefing as recently as this March to the military. The subject? Recoveries of QUOTE off-world vehicles not made on this earth ENDQUOTE. Oooookkkaayyyy then! Davis has worked as a consultant on the formerly secret UFO program since 2007. He told the times that classified research on the recovered materials led scientists to conclude they could not be produced by any existing American technology. Does that mean we’ve been visited by aliens? Maybe, maybe not. It certainly raises the possibility. In a serious news article. In the New York Times. With on-the-record sources. From the government. Strange. Days. Indeed.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A federal judge in Manhattan ordered Trump’s former laywer, Michael Cohen, out of prison – again. Previously Cohen was allowed to serve his sentence at home on account of coronavirus. But federal probation officers ordered him back to prison. Yesterday a judge found that order was invalid, because it was retaliatory. Apparently the feds were mad that Cohen wouldn’t sign away his rights to write a book about the president. Now he gets to serve the rest of his three-year sentence for campaign finance violations, among other crimes, at home. Congratulations, Michael Cohen.

A coalition of human rights groups has found that much of the global fashion industry relies on forced labor in China. Specifically, according to the Guardian, as many as one in five cotton products sold across the world rely on forced labor from Uighur Muslims in China. Affected name brands include Gap, C&A, Adidas, Muji, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, but activists say it’s likely almost every brand is complicit in this form of modern slavery.

Ecuador’s government effectively ended its democracy this week. The National Electoral Council removed the party of left-wing leader Rafael Correa, Citizens Revolution, from participating in the next presidential and parliamentary elections, in 2021. The opposition has vowed to pursue all legal means to keep the delisting from becoming final.

The US yesterday passed four million known cases of coronavirus, and the New York Times, citing experts, say the actual number could be thirteen times higher in some areas. Trump said last night he plans to divert federal funding from school districts that fail to fully reopen in the fall away from those public schools and to private charter schools. Teachers in Virginia are organizing to demand virtual classes until it’s safe to hold them in person again. They’re gonna need our support to stop this pandemic from claiming more lives.

That’s all for the AM Quickie. The Majority Report will return on Monday.

July 24, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn