The political stories and election updates you need to know to start your day- all in five minutes or less. Co Hosted by Sam Seder and Lucie Steiner. Powered by Majority.FM

April 14, 2020: Biden's Bro Bernie
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Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden, starting his campaign to support the presumptive nominee just a few short days after exiting the 2020 race. Maybe that will shut up the centrists moaning about Bernie Bros for a while, but probably not.

Meanwhile, a new study by Data For Progress shows that the coronavirus crisis has once again crushed the financial futures of millennials and young people: 54 percent of people under the age of 45 have lost their jobs or had their hours cut, leaving an entire generation in the lurch.

And lastly, in Wisconsin, a huge win. Liberal judge Jill Karofsky, ousted conservative incumbent Justice Daniel Kelly from his seat on the state’s supreme court, which could have major general election ramifications in a key swing state currently battling conservative assaults on voting rights.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Say what you will about Bernie Sanders, he’s never shied away from doing the work. Despite the fact that Joe Biden is about as far from him as another so-called Democrat can be, the Senator endorsed the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee in a joint livestream on Monday.

Sanders did not mince words, saying quote: “We need you in the White House. And I will do all that I can to see that that happens.” Endquote.

Bernie has always said he’d support the eventual nominee, just like he did in 2016. The hope is that he manages to extract some meaningful concessions from the Biden campaign in return for the endorsement -- because so far, what Biden’s offered has been almost insulting.

The New York Times reports that Senator Elizabeth Warren, who held off on endorsing Sanders during the most competitive heat of the race, is expected to endorse Biden soon.

The only question that remains is whether or not Bernie’s support will be enough to absolve him if Biden does lose in November. After all, Sanders’s support for Hillary in 2016 didn’t stop the bad-faith centrists in the party for blaming him for that loss.

For the sake of his movement, Sanders really doesn’t have a choice of whether to support Biden. Fortunately, the rest of us sure do! We’ll have to wait to see if the Biden campaign can make it worth it.

Coronavirus crushes millennial futures

A new study by Data For Progress shows that an absolutely crushing 54 percent of people under the age of 45 have lost their jobs or had hours cut during widespread shelter-in-place orders and business closures.

It’s clear now that the realities of the coronavirus crisis are just starting to set in, and so much of the pain is yet to come. And the data shows some people are going to hurt more than others.

45 percent of all black people, regardless of age, have felt the same losses of work, compared to 33 percent across the entire population, based on DFP’s survey of registered voters. 62 percent of black Americans said they expect to have trouble covering costs and bills next month.

Meanwhile, the federal stimulus checks of $1200 are completely inadequate. Forty percent of respondents said that kind of money would cover roughly a month of expenses, and 37 percent said it wouldn’t even get them that far.

What this shows is that the rough beginning to April was just that, a beginning. When May starts and rent is again due, the country could be in an even worse place.

Does Congress plan to do anything about it? Oh gosh, nope, they sure don’t: Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said today that quote “absent an emergency, the House is not expected to meet prior to Monday, May 4, 2020.” Endquote. That begs the question… what does Congress consider an emergency, if this one doesn’t count?

Upset win in Wisconsin's Supreme Court

In Wisconsin, Monday was a night to break out the fancy cheese, because we’re celebrating a huge win.

Liberal judge Jill Karofsky ousted conservative Justice Daniel Kelly from his seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a shocking victory that could have huge implications in November.

Karofsky’s victory by over 120,000 votes was a massive upset over Kelly, who boasted a personal endorsement from Trump. And her placement on the court can’t come a moment too soon.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, if you remember, is the same body that shut down efforts by the Democratic party to postpone the election or move to a vote-by-mail system in order to minimize voter’s risk of contracting the deadly coronavirus.

Come November, the court could also play a huge party in deciding which way Wisconsin swings. There’s a current case moving through the appeals process which will decide whether or not 200,000 Wisconsinites are purged from the voter rolls, and Karofsky could tip the balance to keep those voters in the mix.

As we all know by now, more people voting is good for Democrats, which is why Republicans seem so disgusted by the whole idea of democracy or whatever lately.

On Monday, at least, democracy had a pretty good night.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Amazon fired two of its tech employees who were leaders in the company’s internal push for climate activism after they both helped raise awareness and money for the retail giant’s suffering warehouse workers. Doesn’t really like Amazon’s trying to hide the evil anymore -- there it is!

In Scotland, care workers are getting an immediately 3.3 percent pay raise, backdated to April 1, as the country grapples with the very real toll of the virus in assisted living facilities. Sounds like a policy a few other countries should try!

Miami Police are launching a probe after a viral video showed police handcuffing a black doctor who was leaving his home with supplies to aid a local homeless outreach group. Crazy idea but maybe we should… not arrest the doctors.

And finally, in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has declared pro wrestling an essential business, exempting it from coronavirus-related business closures. I guess if we can’t find a cure for the virus, we can just suplex it on live TV.

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

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn