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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

U.S. coronavirus cases passed 3 million on Tuesday, a grim milestone that we flew past a breakneck speed, as Florida’s ICU’s start to hit capacity all at once and the president uses his time to officially withdraw the country from the World Health Organization and push to reopen schools.

Meanwhile, a new report by the Intercept shows that oxycodone death-dealer Purdue made political contributions even after it went bankrupt, showing that there are no depths too low for the Sackler family of murderers.

And lastly, Tucker Carlson launched a wave of aggressive, racist attacks against Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Rep. Ilhan Omar, who dared to suggest that the U.S. supports a quote “system of oppression.”

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The coronavirus hit a grim new milestone on Tuesday: 3 million cases in the United States alone.

According to CNN, the country averaged almost 50,000 new cases per day last week, more than double the rate of a month ago. Texas alone reported more than 10,000 cases on Tuesday.

Trump’s head of the coronavirus task force, Dr. Deborah Birx, noted that the Administration hadn’t expected the massive community spread among young people, who had generally been pretty diligent about social distancing.

Put this all together, and we’ve got a horrifying summer ahead. The Trump administration, meanwhile, is following through on its flailing attempts to pass the buck to the WHO, formally announcing on Tuesday that the U.S. will leave the international organization. It’s still a mostly empty threat: the U.S. won’t back out until April of 2021, so if Trump loses in November, Biden or whoever ends up in the Oval could just keep us in.

But Trump’s not content to just sabotage U.S. participation in international organizations -- he’s actively making the crisis worse at home. The new benchmark the Trump admin wants is for schools to reopen in the fall, which is a step that many schools do not want to do.

Yesterday we talked about the completely absurd student visa rule, which the New York Times reports could be part of Trump’s plan to exert pressure on schools to offer in-person classes.

In other words, he’s holding schools’ students hostage in deportation purgatory to try to force them to reopen in a pandemic. Just so we’re clear about what’s going on here.

Bankrupt Purdue Bankrolls Politicians

Purdue Pharma, the drug company owned for years by the Sackler family, is one of the most evil corporations in the world.

That much is not really up for debate at this point: for decades, Purdue almost singlehandedly created the modern U.S. opioid crisis by aggressively marketing their deadly narcotic oxycodone to any patient who had so much as a toothache.

Last September, Purdue filed for bankruptcy, the product of a mountain of lawsuits filed by cities seeking some sort of justice for the addiction epidemic it unleashed on their streets. But the Sacklers pulled a fast one on the plaintiffs, making off with over 10 billion in company funds.

According to a new report by the Intercept, the drug giant still had enough left over to make political donations.

The Intercept reports that Purdue gave $50,000 to both the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association in December of 2019, months after filing for bankruptcy, and right on time to sway politicians as states debate whether or not to put more taxes on opioids.

To date, only 5 states have implemented a tax on opioids. The 50 grand to Dems and Republicans might not seem like much, but remember that Purdue was donating much larger sums to parties involved in these decisions before it got sued into oblivion. The company itself may be bankrupt, but the Sacklers are doing just fine, and their billions will surely keep growing, fed by the blood of the American working class.

Tucker Carlson Does Racism Again

Tucker Carlson is at it again. And by “it,” we mean racism and general bigotry. Imagine that!

The latest controversy swept up both Rep. Ilhan Omar, a favorite target of the ruling racists in the country, as well as Sen. Tammy Duckworth. It all culminated in an unforgettable Tucker moment in which he put up photos of Omar and Duckworth side by side with a full-screen chyron stating quote “We have to fight to preserve our nation and heritage.” Endquote. That’s only ten words, but it’s pretty close to white nationalist America’s favorite 14-word slogan.

It started on Monday night, when Carlson mocked Duckworth for saying that we needed to have a national conversation over the removal of racist Confederate monuments. Carlson acknowledged Duckworth’s military service, but then called her a quote “deeply silly,” “unimpressive person,” and suggested that she hates America. Duckworth, who lost both of her legs in Iraq, shot back on Twitter, asking Carlson to quote “walk a mile in my legs.”

Carlson wasn’t cowed, and dragged Ilhan Omar into the already-stupid hating American controversy on Tuesday night, after the congresswoman said in a press conference that America had a quote “system of oppression.”

All of this led to the unforgettable chyron during Tucker’s show on Tuesday night. There’s some context to this: Duckworth is reportedly on the long or maybe short list for Biden’s VP slot, and Omar is one of the racist Conservative press’s favorite targets. Linking the two of them is probably advantageous to everyone, like Tucker, who wants to see Trump get a second term. Let’s uh... make sure that doesn’t happen, especially to see the look on Carlson’s face.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

July 8, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn