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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is backpedaling as fast as possible after finally facing some Congressional pushback, and now claims that his aggressive cost cutting measures will be rolled back before the election.

Meanwhile, it’s night two of the DNC, which is now basically just the RNC from 2004 -- we’ve got Colin Powell up tonight and a tribute to Cindy McCain, while the party quietly eliminates language that calls for an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

And lastly, the GOP led Senate Panel, after much hemming and hawing, reveals some pretty conclusive evidence in the Russiagate scandal. Maybe now we can move on?

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW

There is a small light at the end of the fascist tunnel for the Post Office, as public pressure appears to have cowed Trump lackey Louis DeJoy.

DeJoy, the postmaster general who previously ordered aggressive cost-cutting measures that crippled the already-struggling agency’s ability to do its jobs, now claims he will roll back some of those cuts until after the election, to quote “avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.” endquote.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit too late for that: we all know the score. But the blatant nature of DeJoy’s corruption appears to have provoked enough backlash that things might slightly change. Like many of Trump’s corrupt schemes, this one appears to be partly undone because the administration didn’t quite dot the “i”s and cross the t’s legally.

Two states, Washington and Pennsylvania, have filed lawsuits against the government to challenge DeJoy’s policies.

Per CNN, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson claims Dejoy quote “acted outside of his authority to implement changes to the postal system, and did not follow the proper procedures under federal law.”

DeJoy’s cost cutting measures like slashed overtime, reduced office hours, and processing facility closures would be postponed, but we know that’s not going to be enough -- we’re going to have to pump way more funding into the agency rather than just stop the bleeding**:**

DNC Night 2: Party Like It's the RNC '04

Night two of the RNC, sorry, I mean DNC, but honestly, it’s getting hard to tell at this point.

On Tuesday, Biden’s GOP buddies included Colin Powell, who has endorsed Democrats in the past. Powell has also, of course, lied to the American public in order to sell us on the Iraq war, but we can’t hold that against him. If supporting the Iraq war were a disqualifying factor in Democratic politics, of course, Joe Biden wouldn’t be the nominee.

But he is, and plenty of Democrats are pleased about that. Biden formally got the nomination tonight, beating Bernie Sanders in the official delegate count.

Progressive Rep. AOC was one of two speakers who nominated Sanders, not Biden, which immediately caused something of a centrist panic online. What they don’t realize is that AOC’s speech is a traditional formality when there’s a runner-up candidate like Bernie whose name is still on the convention’s ballots.

AOC used her time well, giving a forceful, short speech shouting out several progressive causes and problems with the country, like the looming eviction crisis, that have until now gone unnoticed by the Democrats and Republicans at the convention.

Meanwhile, in a blink-and-you’ll miss it moment, the Huffington Post reported on Tuesday that the DNC had quietly dropped language from its party platform that demanded an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Says a lot about whose votes they’re gunning for.

And on that note -- we also heard from Cindy McCain, who spoke about her husband’s long friendship with Biden. That sounds lovely for them. McCain presence fit the issue of national security that other speakers, like former Secretary of State John Kerry, also spoke on -- hyping up Biden’s steady hand over the military, which in context basically means he won’t tweet at Iran as much but might bomb them anyway.

To close out the night, Jill Biden spoke as a character witness for her husband, who joined her briefly at the end of her speech. We’ll surely be seeing a whole lot more of them as the week goes on.

Senate Finds Russiagate Dirt

A massive Senate report on Tuesday confirmed what most sane people already knew: Trump campaign officials in 2016 had contact with Russian intelligence officers, Kremlin officials and other Russian nationals.

Russiagate isn’t the only reason Trump won the 2016 election, of course, but Tuesday’s report shows that even the GOP-led Senate has been forced to admit that members of the Trump campaign actively sought Russian help, and the Russians, in some cases, provided it.

The Senate report, like Robert Mueller’s exhaustive, exhausting investigation, stopped short of calling the contacts “collusion,” but that’s basically just semantics. What the new report shows is that Paul Manafort buddy Konstantin V. Kilimnik was in fact a Russian intelligence officer, and that Kilimnik had ties to the Russian government’s election interference operations.

Russiagate can be a fraught topic on the left, as it’s been used as a cudgel and a crutch by liberals trying to find a scapegoat to blame for botching the 2016 election and dooming the country to at least four years of Trump.

But you don’t have to go full Red Scare to acknowledge the facts that the Mueller investigation and the new Senate report show. Maybe once we’re all on the same page, we can move on and make sure neither the foreign interference or the embarrassing loss to a fascist candidate ever happen again.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES

Notre Dame University has become the latest college to rapidly shut down after opening for the school year, canceling in-person classes after an outbreak. Michigan State and UNC-Chapel Hill both took similar steps almost immediately after starting classes. Seems like... maybe opening schools isn’t the right idea right now.

Well folks, it actually happened. Notorious weird islamophobic troll Laura Loomer won her primary in Florida’s 21st congressional district. The 21st is heavily Democratic, so it’s highly unlikely Loomer will actually win, but it’s sure setting up one hell of a surreal general election.

Elsewhere in Florida’s primary, the Bernie Sanders-backed candidate for Ninth Circuit State Attorney, Monique Worrell, won election and will replace departing Democrat Aramis Ayala. Worrell is a staunch criminal justice reform advocate, and is now in a position to really change lives in the state.

And finally, cops in Portsmouth, Virginia are doing their level best to sideline a progressive prosecutor from handling cases relating to the vandalism of Confederate monuments. The same

cops, of course, are pushing for felony charges for civil rights leaders and public defenders who participated in protests that damaged the statues.

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for more DNC madness with the full show this afternoon.

Aug 19, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn