Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Donald Trump conquers the federal judiciary. And top former security officials warn of a full-blown crisis in government.
Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg has spent a fortune on advertising, but why bother? Reports confirm his plan is to squeeze through at the Democratic National Convention.
And lastly, the Saudis planted spies inside Twitter. Next, M.B.S. slides in to your D.M.s.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Before the news, this statement, from a noted supporter of President Donald Trump: QUOTE All traitors must die miserable deaths. Those that represent traitors shall meet the same fate. We will hunt you down and bleed you out like the pigs you are, ENDQUOTE.
And so on.
This message was emailed by an unemployed construction worker, Brittan Atkinson, to Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys for a US government whistleblower who helped Democrats make the case for impeachment. Atkinson sent the threat one day after a rally in which Trump held up the attorney’s photo for the cameras to see.
And now the Trump supporter faces federal charges in Michigan that could put him in prison for up to five years. The news broke yesterday in Politico, which noted that Trump had tweeted about the whistleblower more than five dozen times, calling him a Deep State coup plotter, among other things. Atkinson’s wife told NBC her husband was an unemployed former construction worker and gamer. She was surprised her husband got arrested for sending death threats. She said, QUOTE, Was his email tactful? No, it wasn't. Was it kind of disturbing? Yes, it was. But him along with several other people in this country are fed up with the bullshit. They just want the country to run ENDQUOTE.
Meanwhile, former Trump adviser Roger Stone got off with a relatively light sentence, despite having issued threats of his own against the judge in his witness tampering trial and obstruction trial. Stone’s prosecutors had asked for a seven to nine year prison sentence. Yesterday, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Stone to forty months. All the prosecutors resigned over interference from the administration, and Trump himself attacked
the judge. Shortly after the sentencing, Trump said Stone would be exonerated. Stone’s lawyers have already asked for a new trial.
Following his Senate acquital, Trump has not only bent the judicial system to his will, he has caused what former C.I.A. director John Brennan yesterday called a QUOTE full-blown national security crisis. ENDQUOTE. Trump’s unqualified nominee to be the new Director of National Intelligence, announced this week, yesterday said he would only be in the role temporarily. Trump reportedly fired the previous director because he supplied information to Congress – another branch of government Trump has effectively conquered. He and Vice President Mike Pence hold another rally today in Las Vegas. Stay tuned to find out who’ll be getting death threats next!
His terrible debate performance may be irrelevant to the campaign strategy of former Republican billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
He doesn’t care how people feel about him. Politico reported that Bloomberg’s state-level advisers have a plan to get Bloomberg nominated on the second ballot at the Democratic National Convention in July. To that end, his employees have been targeting supporters of Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg as well as uncommitted D.N.C. members. Politico predicted this undemoratic gambit would result in QUOTE havoc at the convention, raising the prospect of party insiders delivering the nomination to a billionaire over a progressive populist ENQUOTE. Sounds about right!
Although he tried to make light of his bad night in Las Vegas yesterday, Bloomberg also shared a doctored video of the debate. The clip was deceptively edited to turn a brief silence into a very long one, and make it seem like Bloomberg had one-upped the Democratic candidates. The opposite was the case, as even Bloomberg’s supporters admitted. He has already spent nearly half a billion dollars on his own campaign, burning through cash at a rate of seven million dollars per day. As if his image could not get worse, it emerged that Bloomberg’s longtime public relations, Arick Wierson, went to work for Brazil’s fascist ruler, Jair Bolsonaro. Who is great friends with Donald Trump by the way.
The more Democrats get to know Mike Bloomberg, the more he looks like his old golfing buddy, Trump. Bloomberg capped off the day by saying Democrats could not win the White House by nominating the front-runner, Bernie Senators, whom the hideous billionaire said has a QUOTE small base ENDQUOTE. Tens of thousands of people have been showing up to
Sanders rallies. Bloomberg has to pay people to say nice things about him. Or, in several dozen cases involving women, to say nothing about him.
Agents of the Saudi monarchy infiltrated Twitter and stole private information on thousands of users.
The two Saudi agents, who had obtained jobs at Twitter and were reportedly well-liked, passed on that compromising information to a deputy of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The spy game at Twitter was revealed in an F.B.I. indictment, first reported by BuzzFeed.
The most likely targets of the data breach were Saudi dissidents abroad, who have been targets for assassination by the US-backed monarchy. With the knowledge and blessing of Donald Trump’s son in law and Middle East advisor, Jared Kushner, Crown Prince M.B.S. previously ordered the murder of a Washington Post journalist. He also hacked the phone of Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. So, who knows what M.B.S. has in mind for our Twitter D.M.s! Presumably, he sees all of Trump’s texts. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way to Riyadh to negotiate a missile deal. Only the beast deals!
Separately, Reuters reported that the Defense Information Systems Agency, which handles secure communications for Trump, Pence, the Secret Service, and the Joint Chiefs of staff, was compromised. The extent of the breach was unknown. A Pentagon spokesman said affected individuals were offered advice and QUOTE free credit monitoring ENDQUOTE.
SAM: And now for some Quicker Quickies.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
The Trump administration overruled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a matter involving hundreds of US citizens hundreds under quarantine in Asia over the deadly new coronavirus. The Washington Post reported that the CDC had wanted to delay the return flights of fourteen cruise ship passengers infected with the coronavirus, for fear they could spread the deadly new disease, COVID-19. However, Trump appointees in Washington, DC, decided CDC experts were wrong. Dotard knows best!
An update on the mass shooting reported yesterday in Hanau, Germany: it was a neo- Nazi after all. Police said the forty-three year old killer was an extreme right-winger motivated
by racist hate. In a manifesto circulated online, the terrorist described himself as an incel, called for the genocide of non-whites, and espoused conspiracy theories that cast Donald Trump as a world-conquering savior. This is of course profoundly disturbing.
Although international attention has moved on, fighting has escalated in Syria this year. One million people have been made into refugees this year alone. And humanitarian groups reported that more than three hundred people, including children, have died since January. The Syrian government is attempting to recapture a breakaway province, Idlib. United Nations officials made new calls for an immediate cease fire in the conflict, which amounts to a proxy war between the US and Russia. What a week it has been.
That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report!
#AMQuickie: Feb 21, 2020
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Corey Pein
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn