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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Donald Trump tells America not to worry about the coronavirus. You know what that means.

Meanwhile, is there growing pressure on free speech from big money? Ask Michael Bloomberg -- or James O’Keefe. Those guys seem fine.

And lastly, fascist leaders around the world are making shows of force. But democratic resistance is also growing, even in the US Marine Corps.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Donald Trump took time out of his busy complaining schedule to deliver an important public health message to America.

That message was: I don’t know the specifics, but don’t worry. We had too many doctors just sitting around at the Centers for Disease Control. That’s why I cut the payroll. But if we do need more doctors because the coronavirus gets bad, I can hire them quickly. Not that it will get bad. But it could! Nancy Pelosi wants you to panic. But not me, the president. Who said yesterday, of the deadly new disease COVID-19, QUOTE There's a chance it could get fairly substantially worse. But nothing's inevitable ENDQUOTE. Really, who’s to say?

The president used a global health emergency to spread xenophobia while falsely accusing critics of exaggerating the severity of the virus. He said, QUOTE If you feel like you have a flu, sort of quarantine yoursellf, don't go outside ENDQUOTE. He whined about getting embraced by a sick man. He said schools across the country should be prepared, but he offered no information on what they should do. He ended an informational press conference without giving CDC officials time to inform people. Those experts this week portrayed the virus as of grave concern. The White House said Trump had everything under control. Clearly not.

Trump promised to investigate reports of medical price gouging. But his administration told Congress it won’t supply a coronavirus vaccine to everyone, should one be developed.

The president also raised the possibility of border closures and travel restrictions. But the headline was, Trump puts Vice President Mike Pence in charge of coronavirus response. Pence doesn’t believe in evolution. Or climate chinge. He’s not sure cigarettes cause cancer. When he was governor of Indiana, his stubborn ignorance directly led to an HIV outbreak. Pence also ran from the press yesterday. In charge, is he?

After the White House farce, California public health officials announced they had discovered a coronavirus case of unknown original. That means they could not trace the infection back to someone who had traveled abroad. Which means Trump’s border talk was bigoted nonsense.

Democratic presidential front-runner Bernie Sanders said on Twitter QUOTE I am deeply concerned not just by the rise of cases of coronavirus worldwide, but by the inadequate and incompetent response we have seen from Donald Trump and his administration... We need a vaccine that is available to all, not just those who can afford it ENDQUOTE. (And amen).

It’s been a bad week for freedom of speech in the Trump regime, and beyond. First came a denial from the comically bloated campaign of former Republican Democratic presidential candidate, and billionaire oligarch, Michael Bloomberg. He may have slipped up at the debate and said he QUOTE bought ENDQUOTE several members of Congress. But he did not, the campaign says, pay for people to cheer for him at this week’s debate in South Carolina. OK, whatever you say, sir. You can’t see, but I am winking.

New reporting puts scrutiny on the nature and extent of Bloomberg’s propaganda machine. A report in the Guardian characterized his nearly half-billion dollar campaign as polluting the infomation ecosystem and underiming trust in news. And a report yesterday in The Markup, a tech news site, showed that Google was delivering way more of Bloomberg’s messages past email spam filters than his Democratic rivals. Seventeen percent of Bloomberg’s emails made it to the Inbox, a study found. That’s compared to zero of Elizabeth Warren’s emails and two percent of Bernie Sanders’. Silicon Valley darlings Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang fared far better than even Bloomberg, with sixty-three and forty-seven percent of emails delivered. They must know something we don’t. Or more likely, they know someone.

Meanwhile, ABC News suspended a correspondent who said in a secretly recorded private conversation that he was a socialist. The reporter, 56-year old Emmy and Peabody award-

winning war correspondent David Wright, faces corporate sanction because of a sting by the paid Koch Brothers agent and proven fabricator James O’Keefe. At NBC, former Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davison said he was QUOTE forced ENDQUOTE to apologize after making a joke about Dan Cranshew, the Trump-loving former Navy SEAL.

Anyway, thanks for supporting independent media.

Fascists are on the march around the world, with some hopeful signs of resistance from the public and from institutions. The confirmed death toll in India, where Trump just visited and sanctioned horrific anti-Muslim pogroms led by the government, rose to twenty-seven. In Brazil, Trump’s other fascist ally Jair Bolsonaro lent his support to upcoming rallies attacking democracy and promoting a return to military dictatorship.

There is better news on this front -- though none of it, obviously, is not ideal. The US Marine Corps announced it was banning the display of all Confederate symbols. But what took so long? The Civil War ended in 1865.

The Justice Department announced it arrested five leaders of the neo-Nazi terrorist group, Atomwaffen Division. The group had multiple murders to its name and had threatened to kill several journalists, including a ProPublica reporter named in the court filing, and multiple friends of the show. Separately, the House of Representatives passed a bill making lynching a federal hate crime, and named for the fourteen-year-old civil rights martyr Emmett Till. However, four Congressmen voted against the bill. They were Justin Amash of Michigan, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ted Yoho of Florida, and Louie Gohmert of Texas. Of those four, only Amash voted to impeach Trump.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

A gunman killed five coworkers at the Molson Coors headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was yesterday, the same day that Trump said QUOTE They're going to destroy the Second Amendment. But, no, what we're talking about is the virus. And after we

win the election the stock market is going to boom like it's never boomed before. ENDQUOTE. He forgot hopes and prayers, but he did send condolences.

A union representing four thousand thousand commercial property janitors in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota announced it would join a student climate strike to demand green jobs. Solidarity with Service Employees International Union Local Twenty-Six who will walk out next week. One striking cleaner, born in Mexico, said she would have been afraid to demand better wages four years ago, but is no longer afraid.

Jordan Peterson’s daughter Mikaela posted a photo of the two of them in Moscow this week. It’s proof of life for the best-selling author, academic, and right-wing YouTube personality. Mikaela said Jordan was in some kind of secret Russian rehab for his benzo addiction after doctors in North America refused to sign off on his preferred treatment plan, a potentially fatal cold-turkey detox, and his all-beef diet. No one has yet verified the family’s incredible story.

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

#AMQuickie: Feb 27, 2020

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn