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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Senior United States military officials are increasingly nervous about what sort of orders Donald Trump might give in his final days in power. The words martial law have been used inside the Oval Office, for example.

Meanwhile, it’s another first as Joe Biden names a Latino to be his secretary of education. But he’s already reneging on promises about how fast he’ll fix the damage Trump has done to the immigration system.

And lastly, prosecutors in Pennsylvania have at long last uncovered a clear-cut case of voter fraud in the November election. Of course – of course – it’s a Trump supporter who did it.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Our mad king is making the military nervous. CNN reports that with less than thirty days to go before Joe Biden’s inauguration, there is growing anxiety in the ranks about what Donald Trump might do. Will he invade Iran? Or will he declare martial law and use some bogus emergency to stay in power? The scenarios are troubling enough that military leaders have gone so far as to say they will not play a role in deciding an American election.

CNN spoke to nearly a dozen currently serving officers and the conversations were all unsettlingly similar. Concerns have been rising since Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper last month and replaced him with acting Secretary Chris Miller, then installed political loyalists in key civilian positions. One officer said people are making lists of everything they can think of that Trump might do. Several worry there could be a round of firings or forced resignations of more top officers. That sounds bad, but it gets worse.

Last Friday night, the idea of using the military to change the election outcome reached directly into the Oval Office. Trump hosted a raucous meeting that included lawyer Sidney Powell and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, where the idea of declaring martial law to overturn the election came up. Yeah, I’d say that sounds pretty bad. Several military officials told CNN that for the remainder of his term, if Trump issues any orders, the key will be whether they are determined to be legal. We’re guessing a self-interested declaration of martial law would be illegal, and people would resign rather than carry out those orders, but CNN isn’t totally clear on that point. Fingers crossed!

Padilla Heads To Senate

Alex Padilla, California’s secretary of state, was chosen yesterday by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s seat in the US Senate. The Los Angeles Times says the appointment tears down a barrier that has stood as long as California’s statehood, as Padilla becomes the first Latino to represent the state in the Senate. Also yesterday, the New York Times reported that Biden plans to name Miguel Cardona, Connecticut’s education commissioner, to serve as his education secretary. This means, pending confirmation, a Latino will be the nation’s highest education policymaker. But it’s not all warm fuzzies from the Biden campaign for Latinos.

Top Biden advisers said yesterday they will not immediately roll back asylum restrictions at the Mexican border and other Trump immigration policies, the Washington Post reports. In short, the transition team is walking back some promises about what Biden will do on Day One. Speaking to reporters on a conference call, several members of the Biden transition team said the incoming administration would need time to undo damage to the US immigration system. The press call came a day after Biden advisers Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan told the Spanish-language news agency EFE that it would take months to restore asylum processing at the border.

Kennji Kizuka, a senior researcher and policy analyst Human Rights First, told the Post that migrants in Mexico are struggling to make a living and to protect themselves in high-crime border cities. Human Rights First has tracked at least thirteen hundred acts of violence against migrants in Mexico, including murder. Kizuka said there needs to be some sense of urgency from the Biden administration. He added QUOTE It can’t all happen on Day 1. But it also shouldn’t wait until June ENDQUOTE. Hear hear. We’re watching you, Joe!

One Illegal Vote Found

Hey, we found the voter fraud. And it takes a page from Psycho. Prosecutors say a Pennsylvania man admitted to illegally casting a ballot in the general election for Donald

Trump as his dead mother, HuffPost reports. The man also allegedly registered his dead mother-in-law to vote with the intent to do the same. Bruce Bartman, seventy, has been charged with two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. For this he is facing up to nineteen years in prison. He allegedly went online and registered both deceased women to vote as Republicans in the November 3 election, using either their driver’s license or social security number. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Bartman admitted to detectives that he did this to further the Trump campaign. Sad!

Bartman’s ballot for his mother, who died in 2008, was successfully counted in the election, HuffPost reports. Bartman, a registered Republican, also successfully submitted a ballot in his own name. Though Bartman successfully registered his mother-in-law to vote, despite her dying in 2019, he never requested a ballot for her. Bartman’s lawyer, Samuel Stretton, said his client is taking responsibility for his actions and is cooperating with authorities. Stretton said that in his political frustration, Bartman QUOTE chose to do something stupid. And for that he is very sorry ENDQUOTE. I get the sense this Bartman character is no criminal mastermind.

Stollsteimer said they are not prosecuting the case because of who Bartman voted for, HuffPost reports. The county’s top prosecutor also stressed that Bartman’s ability to cast a vote on behalf of his deceased mother is not evidence of widespread voter fraud. Of course not. But it’s rich that after all of Trump’s bluster about voter fraud, it’s one of his voters who catches charges.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

This is the deadliest year in US history, due mainly to the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reports. Preliminary numbers suggest that the US is on track to see more than three point two million deaths this year, or at least four hundred thousand more than in 2019. What can I say? It’s terrible.

Congress overwhelmingly passed a $900 billion stimulus package yesterday. Hundreds of dollars in direct payments may start going to American households as soon as next week, according to the New York Times. Who wants to be a hundredaire?

Donald Trump’s longtime banker at Deutsche Bank, who arranged for the German lender to make hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to his company, is stepping down from the bank, the Times reports. Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director and senior banker in Deutsche Bank’s wealth management division, recently handed in her resignation, though it’s unclear exactly why. Best of luck in her future endeavors!

The Justice Department is suing Walmart, alleging that the nation’s largest retailer knowingly filled thousands of problematic prescriptions that contributed to the opioid crisis, the Washington Post reports. The DOJ is seeking civil penalties that could total billions of dollars. Between 2006 and 2012, Walmart ordered five point five billion oxycodone or hydrocodone pills, which sounds like more than enough, frankly.

LUCIE: That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon for the last episode of the Majority Report in the supremely exhausting year of 2020.

DEC 23, 2020 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn