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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Bolivia’s Movement Towards Socialism wins big, by a margin so decisive the U.S.-backed right-wing government has no choice but to accept defeat.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump flirts with corruption in a public speech and denigrates Dr. Fauci while the Presidential Debates Commission changes the rules so that they can mute his microphone during Thursday’s debate.

And finally, an investigation into New York State’s legal system found shocking, systemic racism throughout the state’s courts, coming from judges, court officers and lawyers alike.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Right after we filed the Quickie Sunday night, early results started to come in from Bolivia’s landmark presidential election that day. Over the day on Monday, we got a clearer picture at what this means -- and it’s a massive win for former president Evo Morales’s left-wing party.

Morales’s chosen successor, Luis Arce, had such a huge lead in exit polls on Monday that his conservative opponent Carlos Mesa conceded the election. Official results won’t be available for days, but if the right-wing groups that pushed Morales out of power and installed a racist reactionary government in his place think Arce’s lead is too big to contest, it’s a good sign that the left is about to take back power.

At around midnight on Sunday, one pollster had Arce at 52.4 percent of votes compared to Mesa’s 31.5 percent.

Mesa was the chosen candidate for the conservative forces that, with the support of the U.S. and Bolivia’s military, forced Morales to resign and installed Jeanine Añez in power. Añez passed the reins to Mesa, after cracking down on protests and persecuting Morales’s supporters for over a year. And Mesa promptly got thrashed. Sometimes, elections just work!

Trump Teases Corruption, Torches Fauci

It was a big news day for Donald Trump, as the President once again lied, blustered and trash-talked his way into multiple headlines.

First, during a campaign event in Arizona on Monday, Trump spouted off about corporate donations, at one point inventing a phone call between himself and the CEO of Exxon Mobile. The clip was taken out of context, and went viral as it appeared to show Trump admitting that he

would call up the heads of major corporations and promise regulatory favors for big-budget donations. That’s not too far from the truth given how money works in our political system, but Trump was in this explict case being hyperbolic: the full scope of his remarks show him bragging that IF he could take money from corporations directly, he’d be incredible at fundraising. Sure buddy, nobody’s going to challenge you on that.

Following Dr. Anthony Fauci’s interview on 60 minutes last night, Trump also popped off in a call with campaign aides, calling the leading infectious disease expert a disaster and saying quote “People are tired of hearing Fauci and these idiots, all these idiots who got it wrong.” endquote.

This kind of animus toward scientists trying in vain to stop him from destroying the country isn’t exactly new, but the understated row between Fauci and Trump appears to be getting ugly right before the election.

One place we hopefully won’t hear about it thought? The debate on Thursday night. The Commission on Presidential Debates recently announced a rule change that will let them mute either Trump or Biden’s microphone so the second debate isn’t a repeat of the first one’s septuagenarian shout-fest.

Court Report Finds Racism Surprise

And lastly, a new report in New York State finds shocking and pervasive institutional racism inside the state’s court system. If this is what it looks like in one of the biggest and most liberal states in the country, you can imagine what more conservative judicial systems look like.

The New York Times details the findings of the report, which was commissioned by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore after the nationwide protest movement this summer called attention to the fact that most of the country is extremely racist.

The Times story is punctuated by stunning examples of this, like a white court officer posting an illustration of President Barack Obama with a noose around his neck, another officer referring to one of his black colleagues as quote “one of the good monkeys,” and other officers joking about shooting unarmed black men during firearms tests.

The report also found that the state’s court system is overburdened, under staffed, and has a quote “dehumanizing effect” endquote on people of color who move through it. Yep, that sounds about right. The Times also notes that the current report documented bias that was almost identical to that found in a report over thirty years ago. In other words, nothing has changed.

But who knows: the protests this summer sparked this report. Maybe they’ll be able to finally ensure some actual change.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A federal appeals court sided with the Miami Herald in its bid to make public Ghislane Maxwell’s sealed court testimony in a past lawsuit, which could have major ramifications for the many global figures caught up in Jeffry Epstien’s web of crime.

A new poll by Data For Progress has Joe Biden up by one point, 47 to 46, in Texas, of all places. Sure, we’ve still got weeks to go, but the great flip of the lone star state is looking all the more possible.

What seemed like most of the political and media Twitter-sphere erupted in a frenzy on Monday after Vice broke the news that New Yorker Staff Writer and star CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was caught masturbating on a work-related video meeting. We’ll let the Toobin jokes on that one write themselves.

And lastly, the U.S. State Department has agreed to take Sudan off its list of countries that sponsor terrorism, paving the way for the country to normalize relations with Israel and seek international assistance. But because this is the Trump administration, it was announced like a business deal, as the president claimed Sudan would make a $335 million restitution payment to American victims of terrorism.

That’s all for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie Today! Stay tuned for the full show later today.

Oct 20, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn