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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Donald Trump has deliberately made the ongoing violence by federal agents in Portland and other cities into a campaign strategy, according to a new report by the Washington Post which claims the president is taking a direct interest in the DHS’s tactical decisions and egging on the violence.

Meanwhile, coronavirus testing is now widespread and readily available -- but the massive backlog is making getting the actual results a nightmare. Here’s what that means for the spread of the virus.

And lastly, remember Bernie Sanders? Fortunately, he’s still a Senator, and on Friday introduced a bill with Rep. Ilhan Omar in the House to end the massive taxpayer subsidies to fossil fuel companies.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Federal police continued to escalate clashes with protesters in Portland, Oregon this weekend, sparking a wave of sympathy protests in Seattle and other cities.

According to a new report by the Washington Post, the President has been watching all of this play out directly, and even incorporating it into his campaign strategy.

The fed deployments even have an official, ludicrous name: “Operation Diligent Valor.” The Post reports that Trump sees it as way to stoke the flames of a culture war and lean into his law and order message.

In Portland, at least, Trump is at times almost personally directing the violence. The Post, citing White House officials, reports that Trump is staying up late at night and calling Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf directly for updates on what’s going on.

His plan is clear: continue to demonize protesters, particularly in major cities where he can already stoke fears of crime waves, and then repress them as brutally as possible, aided by numerous federal agencies and complicit police forces. And as tensions rise, so do the risks to the people on the streets: in Austin, an armed protester was shot and killed after an altercation with a driver.

The Post also reported that Trump is doing his best to make Chicago into another Portland, with a new federal deployment, but as yet, local officials have managed to keep the DHS’s presence to a minimum. But it’s going to be a long summer either way.

Testing Takes Too Long

Coronavirus testing is finally, after months and months, reasonably available in most major cities and hot spots. But of course that means the next step in the process is breaking down.

The New York Times reports that federal, state, and local officials in multiple states all agree that in many cases, it’s taking far too long to get results back.

Most of the testing is being carried out by private labs, which are quickly becoming overwhelmed by demand. As the Times notes, if it takes several days to get a result back, the test isn’t exactly effective because the patient could have spread the virus in that period.

The federal government is giving one private company called Hologic $7.6 million to ramp up its testing program to do two million tests a month, but says those developments won’t be ready until January of next year. Not super helpful in the short term!

To make matters worse, the Trump administration seems to be lukewarm on funding testing in a new relief bill, objecting to a provision that would have allocated $25 billion for testing and contract tracing, according to a report in the Times last week. So if the private labs are overwhelmed and the government doesn’t want to help, where does that leave states seeing spiking death rates?

Here’s what New Mexico’s governor Lujan Grisham had to say after her state hit their single-day case record on Thursday. Quote:

“There is no national strategy. I still spend most of my days chasing testing supplies for our state. It is the worst abdication of a national response and responsibility to protect Americans I have ever seen in my government career.” Endquote.

Sanders, Omar Take on Fossil Fuel

It’s easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom of our current political reality, but behind the scenes it’s good to know that a few of our elected representatives are still doing the work. So let’s check in with that.

You know the names coming up: Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar introduced a bill on Friday that took aim at the federal government’s bankrolling of the fossil fuel industry through taxpayer-funded subsidies.

According to Common Dreams, the bill would close tax loopholes, end taxpayer-funded subsidies and federal funding for fossil fuel research, as well as stop companies from extracting resources from federal lands. Advocates, like Greenpeace USA climate campaigner Charlie Jiang, are pleased, saying quote:

"A bill to end giveaways for the fossil fuel industry—which is saddled with debt and recklessly polluting Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities—is long overdue. It's time to shift our investments to protect people on the frontlines of the climate crisis and support fossil fuel workers in the transition to a world beyond fossil fuels."

As you know, the bill’s going to face the same uphill battle to make it through the Republican Senate that any other actually useful piece of legislation does. But the more times we sketch out bills like this and get them on record, the more we build consensus and precedent for pushing for these accomplishments when or if a more progressive party takes power.

For right now, it may not be much. But it’s a lot more than some of our electeds are doing.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Senator Tom Cotton took the mask all the way off this weekend in an interview with the Arkansas Post Gazette, when he referenced the Founding Fathers referring to slavery as a quote “necessary evil.” That he still agrees with that point about says it all!

Donald Trump had big plans for the Yankees game on August 15, claiming on Thursday that he’d been invited to throw out the first pitch. But on Sunday, he had to walk that back, saying that due to his quote “strong focus” on the coronavirus response, he wouldn’t be able to make the game.

Jessee Waters, a long-time Fox News cretin, stepped a little bit too far outside Fox’s comfort zone this weekend when he said that QAnon, the wildly popular conspiracy theory, had quote “uncovered a lot of great stuff.” Waters is now frantically trying to walk things back, but come on: he knew what he was doing.

And lastly, it’s almost August, and rent is about to be due. But the Senate GOP let the national eviction moratorium expire on Friday, adjourning session last Thursday without taking action to extend the policy.

That’s it for the Majority Report’s AM Quickie today. Stay tuned for the full show with Sam this afternoon.

July 27, 2020 - AM Quickie

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn