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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Military and intelligence agencies warned three years ago about the dangers of a new viral pandemic, and guess what the White House did? The answer starts with N and ends with O_t-A-Goddamn-Thing_.

Meanwhile, it seems like the Democratic National Convention won’t happen as scheduled. But party officials haven’t yet come up with a Plan B, and people are getting agitated.

And lastly, the record unemployment claims don’t capture how bad the economic picture really is. As for those $1,200 stimulus checks: turns out there’s some fine print there, too.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Donald Trump keeps saying nobody could have known how bad it would be. That’s a lie. A classified 2017 report given to The Nation magazine by a Pentagon official warned that new, highly contagious respiratory diseases were among the most likely and significant threats the country could face. Military planners and intelligence agencies have been warning White House officials about coronaviruses, specifically, for at least five years. The 103-page plan anticipated a shortage of hospital beds and medical ventilators, along with protective gear – all of which is now in desperately short supply. The Pentagon report was not the first clear warning that Trump ignored. But of course he is blaming everyone else for the consequences of his own catastrophic negligence. In short, the problem was not that Trump and his people weren’t warned about this pandemic – it’s that they didn’t listen.

Let it not be said that the ruling Republicans have done nothing. They’ve done a lot worse than nothing. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has be acting as a de facto White House chief of staff, was apparently the one who decided to punish New York state for disloyalty. New York is so far the hardest-hit place in the country for COVID-19 cases. Vanity Fair reported yesterday that Kushner believed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was being alarmist when he requested thirty thousand additional ventilators. Kushner said, according tothe magazine, QUOTE I have all this data about I.C.U. capacity. I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators

ENDQUOTE. Days later, Trump made similar comments in an interview with his advisor and booster Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Separately, Congressman Adam Schiff of California, who led the House impeachment, wants to set up a special commission to investigate the coronavirus response. No details yet other than it would be bipartisan. Certainly there’s plenty to investigate.

Democratic Party officials are grappling with a big problem: when, where, and how to hold the party’s national convention.

Currently scheduled for mid-July in Milwaukie, Wisconsin, more delegates and party leaders – including the presidential front-runner, Joe Biden -- are saying the event should be canceled, because restrictions on travel and large public gatherings will make holding a traditional convention impossible. This is a big deal because the convention is where the party will pick its nominee for president. Although former Vice President Biden holds a sizable delegate lead over his opponen, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, nothing is a done deal until the convention. But as CBS News reported yesterday, delegates are growing frustrated that contingency plans are not being made quickly enough. Many have already canceled flghts. All are waiting on guidance from top party officials like DNC chairman Tom Perez. Patience is wearing thin.

Yesterday the Sanders campaign requested that the upcoming Wisconsin primary, scheduled for April 7, should be postponed. The campaign’s statement called on Wisconsin to join fifteen other states in delaying their primary elections, and joined with growing calls for a complete transition to a vote-by-mail system on account of the coronavirus pandemic. A national new survey of nearly two thousand respondents showed support for Sanders’ signature policy, Medicare for All, at a nine-month high. The new Morning Consult poll showed support for single-payer healthcare growing fastest among independents.

Also yesterday, Sanders said Trump’s inaction has cost the lives of many, many Americans. And Biden, who has said he would wait and see how Trump performed in the crisis, responded to a demand by Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway that he call the WhiteHouse and offer his support. How did Biden respond? By offering to call the White House and give Trump his advice. The White House did not respond publicly to Biden’s offer.

Americans are acting out on their pandemic fears in the same way they tend to grapple with many other anxieties: by loading up on guns. The Guardian reported that over 3.7 million background checks for firearm sales were conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last month. It was the highest number on record – and up by one million in March over February. Unemployment claims are hitting record levels, too. And according to Politico, the hodgepodge of state systems for processing benefits is overwhelmed. The computer systems in Michigan crashed this week. California is experiencing major delays. And some in New York have been forced to call hundreds of times before getting through to a human being. What this means: last week’s record numbers, of nearly 3.3 million new unemployment claims, were too low. States are actually receving more claims than the US Labor Department was able to record and report. So much like coronavirus cases and casualties, the official numbers don’t reflect reality. The reality is worse.

Also yesterday the Washington Post reported that at least 15 million Americans on Social Security will not receive $1,200 stimulus checks they were promised, because like many people, they didn’t make enough money to file a tax return. Most high school seniors and college students won’t get money either, because children over age sixteen were specifically excluded from the bill passed by Congress.

Elsewhere: Italy is extending its national lockdown. Spain reported a new spike in cases. Russia is declaring an emergency, and officials in Moscow want to introduce a mandatory surveillance app for infected people.

Turkmenistan banned the word coronavirus. People who talk about it, or who wear face masks, could be arrested. Bosnia is forcing thousands of refugees into camps. India is undergoing the largest internal migration since the end of British rule, with millions of hungry people fleeing cities on foot. In the United Kingdom, only thirty ventilators were delivered as promised by manufacturers this week. The government promised eight thousand.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Donald Trump threatened Iran, Venezuela, and Mexico yesterday, possibly to distract from his other failures. But Iran, at least, isn’t taking chances. A top Iranian general, and the successor to Qassim Soleimani – assassinated on Trump’s orders this year – visited Baghdad to try to build alliances among the ruling factions. Reports indicate that if Trump’s act of war accomplished anything, it was to increase Iranian influence in Iraq.

With a few exceptions, yesterday’s annual online April Fools’ Day festivites were canceled, according to the Washington Post. Major brands like Google and T-Mobile canceled their promotional pranks. Did anyone miss them? It’s true, there’s no going back to normal.

A new study in the journal Nature by German and British researchers confirmed that the icy continent of Antartica used to be covered in a great rainforest. Granted, this was when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The new findings come from core samples drilled out of Antarctic glaciers that are now rapidly melting due to human-caused climate change. They found roots and pollen down there. Maybe a few missing socks, too.

The US Census began yesterday. The sooner you fill it out, the less likely it is that a worker will be dispatched to knock on your door during the pandemic. There are no questions about immigration status. The population count is used to decide how many members of Congress each state gets. It’s important! Go to My 2020 Census dot gov if you didn’t get a form.

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

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn