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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
The total failure of the White House to deal with the coronavirus sent stocks into a record dive. How many people will die because of Republican incompetence?
Meanwhile, old-school rap legends Public Enemy will play at a Bernie Sanders rally in Los Angeles ahead of Super Tuesday. And Joe Biden’s campaign admitted he was never arrested while trying to meet with Nelson Mandela, as Biden repeatedly claimed.
And lastly, the Justice Department is investigating new evidence that members of the intelligence community conspired with a Mexican drug cartel to kidnap, torture, and kill an American cop. But Bill Barr’s DOJ did not want the story to get out.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Two years ago this month, the White House announced an eighty percent cut to the Centers for Disease Control’s epidemic prevention programs in thirty-nine of forty-nine countries where it operated. Now we are witnessing how short-sighted Trumpian mismangement fares during a bona-fide global health crisis. So far, so bad. Not good. Very bad.
The man Trump put in charge of COVID-19 response, Mike Pence, made time yeterday to attend the CPAC conference of right-wing loons. The New York Times reported that the Vice President had muzzled federal health officials, demanding to sign off in advance on any public statements they make. Which means they cannot do their jobs. Trump’s CDC director, Robert Redfield, was reportedly a member of a rightwing Christian groups denying AIDS science.
Administration incompetence already seems to have played a role in spreading the coronavirus. The Washington Post reported that Alex Azar, the Big Pharma lobbyist Trump put in charge of Health and Human Services, overruled the Centers for Disease Control and sent untrained, unprotected employees to greet returning Americans after their release from quarantine in Asia. The news came from an HHS whistleblower who was threatened with termination after raising concerns through formal channels.
Trump’s press conference the other day did not reassure his friends on Wall Street. They are panicking. The New York Stock Exchange yesterday marked the largest single-day point decline in history. On business news channels, disembodied screams from the trading floor could be heard loudly enough to disturb the anchors on business news channels. Pence announced that the loathed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the gregarious White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow would join his join coronavirus task force.
State and local leaders attempted to pick up the slack. California health officials said they were monitoring more than eight thousand people for signs of infection. Seven hundred were being asked to QUOTE voluntarily self-isolate ENDQUOTE in New York. Overseas, things are more intense. Japan closed the schools. India stopped inbound flights from Iran, and Iran banned Chinese nationals from entering. Also, an Iranian vice president was himself infected with the coronavirus. In Hong Kong, a dog tested positive.
Independent public health experts said the pandemic will likely go global. Ninety-eight percent of people who infected with the current mutation of the coronavirus are expected to suffer no life-threatening symptoms. However, large numbers of mostly old and infirm people could die – more than necessary, thanks to the Republicans.
Standard government preparedness advice entails keeping several weeks’ worth of food and water at ready in the home.
Democratic primary news hinged around speculation around the role of superdelegates in the Democratic National Convention this summer.
The New York Times surveyed dozens of these elite delegates and found many who said they wanted to stop front-runner Bernie Sanders from obtaining the nomination -- even if it meant damaging or destroying the party. And losing to Trump in November.
The Sanders campaign announced legendary rap group Public Enemy would perform at a rally in Los Angeles ahead of the California primary on Super Tuesday. No comment yet from Tipper Gore, who led the Democratic Party’s anti-rap and rock music crusade in the 1990s, and singled out Public Enemy for criticism. The group also collaborated with the artist and activist Sister Souljah, who Bill Clinton compared to Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in his 1992 run for president.
Joe Biden’s campaign finally conceded that he was not, in fact, arrested in apartheid South Africa while trying to visit Nelson Mandela in prison. Biden has repeatedly told and embellished upon the fabricated event in an effort to shore up support from older black voters ahead of tomorrow’s South Carolina primary.
After dropping his presidential campaign, Andrew Yang quickly struck a deal to be a CNN commentator. Yesterday it emerged he was under consideration as a potential vice president on the ticket of former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Congratulations to Yang on the upward failure – not always easy.
An investigation by USA Today revealed the secret role of officials with the Central Intelligence Agency and Drug Enforcement Administration in the torture and murder of a young DEA agent in Mexico in 1985.
The story of agent Enrique Camarena (CAMA-RAYNA) provided the plot for the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico.” But new evidence being examined by the Justice Department indicates the agent was betrayed by federal agents in league with the very drug cartels they were supposedly fighting. It was the war on drugs, after all.
DOJ employees and the murdered agent’s widow told the paper that prosecutors had collected statements regarding the alleged conspiracy to murder a law enforcement officer. However, the sources were not authorized to speak. Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr, helped the Reagan administration cover up Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s. But Barr’s name does not appear in the USA Today story. The Justice Department as well as the DEA, and the CIA, all refused to answer questions.
Among the witnesses interviewed by the DOJ were several Mexican police who also spoke to USA Today. Reporter Brad Heath wrote that these new details add weight to old and QUOTE startling stories, alleging that U.S. officials had secretly been involved with a cartel that was then delivering huge quantities of marijuana and cocaine to the United States ENDQUOTE. Agent Camarena, then thirty-seven, was abucted by gang members in Guadalajara, blindfolded, burned, and beaten until he died. A CIA operate and a DEA official were present at a cartel meeting where Camarena’s torture and murder were planned. Mexican police secretely recorded that meeting and gave the tapes to the DEA.
A man convicted in themurder spent thirty-two years in prison before being set free on the basis of bad evidence. Perhaps Barr will soon name the real killer.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
Workers told the Guardian that after raising their wages last year, the Target Corporation rolled out a QUOTE modernization plan ENDQUOTE that dramatically cut workers’ hours while piling on to their workloads. A survey by Target Workers Unite that found more than half of Target workers had run out of food. Another twelve percent experienced homelessness. The company employs at over a third of a million Americans. Do better!
The Justice Department announced the creation of an office devoted to de- naturalization – which means, simply, stripping people of their right to stay in the country. Its first targets are supposed to be terrorists, war criminals, and QUOTE other fraudsters ENDQUOTE. Terrible news for Dick Cheney, his family, and all his friends.
Two independent studies determined that there was no fraud in the last Bolivian elections. Vague allegations of fraud were the main excuse used to justify the military coup against exiled president Evo Morales last year. The studies, by the Massachusets Institute of Technology and a think tank called the Center for Economic and Policy Research, contradicted initial allegations by the US-backed Organization of American States. Something to remember for the next coup!
That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report!
#AMQuickie: Feb 28, 2020
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Corey Pein
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn