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May 26, 2021: Congress Prepping Bezos Bailout; Biden OK's Israel Arms Deal; Centrists Cash in Conservative Clout May 26, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Intercept reports that the Senate is preparing a $10 billion bailout fund for Jeff Bezos’s vanity spaceflight company Blue Origin.

Meanwhile, the State Department approves a $735 million arms deal to Israel, while sending only a paltry 5 million to Palestinian reconstruction efforts.

And lastly, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema try to leverage their conservative clout to beg Republicans to support a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The hottest luxury for billionaires right now is a private space company. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are both in on the trend, but the former’s big rocket adventure isn’t going so well. But don’t worry! Our government is preparing to save him.

The Intercept reported that Bezos’s company Blue Origin recently lost out on a massive, multi-billion dollar government contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. But now, Congress is trying to slip in an amendment to a bill that would make sure Blue Origin still gets a big chunk of taxpayer money.

According to the Intercept, the slush money was added in as an amendment to the Endless Frontier Act by Washington Senator Maria Cantwell. It would go to NASA first, which would then use it for a Blue Origin contract. And quick: you’ve got one guess as to where Blue Origin’s headquarters are. That’s right, Washington.

The amendment might face some opposition, however. Bernie Sanders quickly slid in an amendment of his own to cut out the $10 billion, telling the Intercept quote:

“It does not make a lot of sense to me that we would provide billions of dollars to a company owned by the wealthiest guy in America.”

That’s a great point, Bernie!

It’s worth placing some of this information in the wider context, which is that spaceflight in general is becoming more and more privatized. Instead of NASA building the ships that carry our astronauts and satellites to the ISS and beyond, those contracts are now going to people like Musk and Bezos. The specific contract Blue Origin lost was to put astronauts on the moon, something we haven’t done since 1972.

The difference is back then, we could truly say we the people put someone on the moon. Now, we can only say we paid for a private company to do it.

White House OK's Israel Arms Deal

On Tuesday, the Biden Administration officially committed to sending $5 million in relief funds to rebuild Palestine’s bombed-out Gaza strip. But days before that, it also agreed to send an order of magnitude more in deadly weapons to Israel.

Jewish Currents magazine reports that on May 21, the Biden State department granted the U.S. based company Boeing an export license to sell $735 million worth of laser guided munitions to Israel.

If you remember, this is the arms deal that progressives in the House and Senate were trying to stop.

Jewish Currents reports that Bernie Sanders office learned that the sale had been greenlit on Friday, and immediately used his leverage to place a hold on all new State Department nominations, stopping them from being approved by the Senate. Sanders only lifted that hold when the Biden administration committed to some humanitarian relief for Gaza.

But the dollar amounts at play tell the whole story. The government is letting Israel buy $735 million in U.S. bombs, which makes its 5 million in relief to Gazans seem like pennies.

As Jewish Currents notes, that’s a pretty good indication that the Biden Administration’s policy toward Israel’s violence in Palestine is going to look like much more of the same.

Manchin and Sinema Cash in Conservative Clout

Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have spent the first months of the Biden Presidency building clout with their colleagues across the aisle, largely by stopping their own party from getting anything done.

Now, they’re finally cashing that in, in a last-ditch attempt to get several GOP Senators to support the creation of a January 6 commission.

The proposed commission would be modeled after the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks, and represents basically the only shot at getting a formal government breakdown of who did what during the Capitol Insurrection.

The GOP, of course, largely does not want this to happen, probably because several of their colleagues were directly involved or implicated. The proposal was somewhat bipartisan, and won 35 votes in the House. But in the Senate, it’s in trouble, because Mitch McConnell unsurprisingly does not want to play ball, calling the commission a quote “purely political exercise” endquote.

Instead Manchin and Synema are reportedly working the same little cadre of moderate Republicans like Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, some of whom want tweaks to the commission to give the GOP more power over how it works.

We’ll see if all that boot-licking and bill-sabotaging pays off for them!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The New York Times reports that the Navy has finally dropped its opposition to parts of the California coast being used for wind farms, clearing the way for the Biden Administration to push forward on a long-sought clean energy goal.

One more note about the Democratic spoiler crew mentioned in our third story tonight: the Washington Post reports that the bipartisan centrist lobby is now privately designing a new and not-improved version of Biden’s ambitious infrastructure bill in case the first one falls apart. That’s progress, baby! Moving steadily backwards.

Daniella Frazier, the 17-year-old girl who filmed Derek Chauvin’s murdering George Floyd last year, spoke publicly for the first time in a Facebook post. Here’s a quote:

“It changed me. It changed how I viewed life. It made me realize how dangerous it is to be Black in America. We shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells around police officers, the same people that are supposed to protect and serve.”

And finally, the CDC says it will stop investigating mild COVID infections in vaccinated adults, indicating that they’re confident that the vast majority of these breakthrough cases will not be life-threatening. The vaccines, it seems, are doing their jobs, though the Washington Post reports that some scientists are lamenting the loss of potential data.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 26, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

May 25, 2021: New COVID Variant Spreading; Supreme Court Turns Down Firing Squad Request; One Year Since George Floyd May 25, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

A new coronavirus variant that has been ravaging India is now spreading throughout the UK and other European countries, and could pose problems in communities that haven’t yet received a vaccine.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court turns down a request by a Mississippi inmate on death row who asked to be executed by a firing squad.

And lastly, George Floyd died one year ago today, and while activists have won some victories in the struggle since, police department funding is rising again as the status quo re asserts itself.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The new coronavirus variant that has been fueling India’s out of control epidemic has made its way to Europe, where researchers are starting to get a picture of what it represents for the future of the pandemic.

First, some good news: existing vaccines still offer pretty high levels of protection against this variant. But like others before it, there is evidence that it is more infectious, according to a report by the New York Times.

So far, the U.S. has only detected 800 cases of this specific variant, which is called B dot 1 dot 617 dot 2. You’d be forgiven for not keeping track of all these numbered variants -- there’s a simpler way to interpret this news. The newer variants of the virus are more infectious, which means they eventually slowly replace the older strains in places they make it to.

What this means is that they’ll be particularly dangerous to unvaccinated communities, and as both America and the general global vaccination efforts slow down, this is what we’re going to be dealing with.

The Times reports that people who have only gotten one shot of the vaccine should still be careful, as the more infectious strains are more resistant to the vaccine. In other words, like most of the scary news of new variants, the advice here is the same: keep track of your own risks and stay safe until you’re fully vaxxed.

Supreme Court Turns Down Firing Squad Request

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request from Mississippi death row inmate Ernest Johnson, who asked to be executed by firing squad.

The Court’s conservative majority voted to not hear the case, despite strong dissent from the bench’s liberals. Johnson suffers from epilepsy, and was requesting a firing squad as he fears that lethal injection will cause incredibly painful seizures.

The Court’s liberals fiercely argued for Johnson’s right to choose his death. While a firing squad may be unusual and barbaric, evidence suggests that it’s also a much quicker and less painful death than lethal injection or the electric chair.

Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent that Johnson’s petition was simple. Quote:

“In other words, he asks that the courts decide between an execution that is ‘cruel’ and one that is ‘unusual.”

Johnson had previously petitioned to be executed with nitrogen gas rather than lethal injection, and was turned down by a lower federal court. He then tried to amend this petition to request the firing squad, which was the decision the Supreme Court decided not to hear.

One Year Since George Floyd

George Floyd died one year ago today. After months of protests, activists won some key reforms, but now the status quo is creeping back in.

The New York Times reports that major cities like Los Angeles are starting to funnel money back to their police departments after getting spooked by a rise in violent crime statistics. LA is hiring 250 more cops less than a year after city leaders promised to take $150 million away from the LAPD.

The right wing has leaned into the narrative of crime surges, and placed the blame squarely on movements like defunding the police. Research shows, of course, that surges in crime are often linked to gaps in social services and economic hardship, which have swept the country during the pandemic.

And some of the biggest changes activists seek do little to defund police, instead seeking to hold them accountable. New York City moved earlier this year to become the first city to end qualified immunity for its police forces, a major change that would let people file civil suits against cops who abuse their power.

But on a national level, even those small changes have stalled. On Monday, for instance, the Supreme Court declined to take up a case that would have challenged qualified immunity on a broader scale.

What this means is that this fight is far from over -- and we can only hope that elected officials feel just as much pressure from the people this summer as they did last.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

After Belarus’s shocking abduction of a journalist on a civilian airliner this weekend, European officials agreed to level sanctions against the dictator Aleksadr Lukashenko’s regime, also moving to stop E.U. airlines from flying into Belarus’s airspace, which would be a significant blow to the country’s economy.

The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration is moving to let more government employees than ever to work from home even after the pandemic ends, continue the experiment in remote work that the federal government has been slow to adopt.

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and other democrats reintroduced legislation on Monday to slash spending to the U.S.’s massive nuclear arsenal, dubbing it the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act, or SANE. They promise that it will save $73 billion over the next decade, if it passes.

And finally, New York City, once the epicenter of the U.S.’s coronavirus outbreak, has announced that it will not have any form of remote learning starting next school year, heralding that the city expects to be fully back open by that time.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 25, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

May 24, 2021: Belarus Hijacks Airline to Abduct Journalist; Gaza Sees Rise in Covid Cases; Biden Gives Haitians Protected Status May 24, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The far-right dictator of Belarus used a fighter jet and a fake bomb threat to force down a civilian airliner flying over his country, allowing him to arrest a journalist and dissident who was on board.

Meanwhile, Israel’s violence against Gaza is still having ripple effects after a ceasefire, as health officials report hospitals overwhelmed with wounded civilians are now also facing a surge in coronavirus cases.

And lastly, the Biden Administration finally granted Temporary Protected Status to thousands of Haitian immigrants living in the U.S., shielding them from deportation back to a country that is dealing with both a political crisis and a brutal COVID epidemic.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Belarus’ dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko carried out a shocking abduction of a journalist on Sunday, using a fighter jet and a faked bomb plot to force down a civilian airliner carrying the dissident and then arresting him on the ground.

On Sunday, dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was on a Ryanair flight from Greece to Vilnius, Poland, where he has been living in exile. Protasevich is the 26-year-old former editor of NEXTA, a channel on the Telegram app that has become one of Belarus’s largest opposition media companies.

The flight passed through Belarussian airspace, at which point Belarussian air traffic control claimed that there was a bomb threat aboard. Lukashenko then used that as pretext to personally order Mig-29 fighter jet up to force the plane to land in Minsk, although it was by that time far closer to its destination of Vilnius, according to the BBC.

After seven hours on the tarmac in Minsk, the flight eventually made it to Vilnius. But Protasevich was not aboard, as he had been abducted by Belarussian agents when the plane was forced to land. One passenger on the flight told AFP quote:

“He was not screaming, but it was clear that he was very much afraid. It looked like if the window had been open, he would have jumped out of it.” Protasevich reportedly told other passengers that he was facing the death penalty.

Lukashenko has, in recent months, brutally repressed protests against his authoritarian rule, but has been staunchly defended by the Russian government and faced little to no consequences for his policies. European governments and the U.S. have strongly denounced the shocking hijacking, but it’s unclear what concrete action they can or actually will take -- prior sanctions on the Lukashenko regime have clearly done little to dampen his brazen authoritarianism.

Gaza Sees Rise in Covid Cases

Israel agreed to stop its outright bombardment of the Gaza strip on Friday, but the aftershocks of its brutal campaign of violence are still shaking the captive population there.

According to the Washington Post, Gaza’s hospitals are starting to experience a new wave of COVID cases, as Israel’s bombardment forced many residents into close-packed bomb shelters.

Those cases are in addition to the 1,900 people who were injured directly by Israel’s bombing. To make matters worse, the Post reports that an airstrike destroyed the only lab in Gaza that was doing PCR tests for COVID.

All of this is even more outrageous when you consider the disparities between Israel and Gaza’s access to the vaccine. Outside of the strip, Israel has conducted one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world. But inside Gaza, only 2 percent of the population has been vaccinated. Much of this shortage is in thanks in part to the Israeli blockade that stops medical supplies getting through to people there.

Even before the recent bombardment, Gaza’s ICUs were completely swamped. The country has only 60 ICU beds for a population of almost 2 million.

The International Red Cross said that damage inflicted by Israel during the conflict cut water supplies in Gaza by 40 percent and had cut power to 700,000 Gazans at one point or another.

Lest we forget: all of this damage is intentional. Israel knows what will happen when it drops its bombs. And even though it claims to be targeting Hamas, it’s Gaza’s citizens who suffer the most.

Biden Gives Haitians Protected Status

Some good news from the Biden Administration. Biden’s head of the DHS announced on Saturday that Haitians living in the U.S. would be extended Temporary Protected Status, reversing Trump-era efforts to deport them or force them out of the country.

Some 150,000 Haitians have been living in the U.S. since the devastating 2010 earthquake, and recent political crises and the pandemic there have only made their predicament more dire.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the head of the DHS, acknowledged that the country’s recent plight has made it all the more important to offer these people shelter.

The temporary protected status order will last for 18 months, and is a continuation of policies the Obama administration started for Haitians after the 2010 quake. The New York Times reports that it originally stems from a 1990 law that allowed foreigners who had to flee their homes because of natural disasters and conflict to work and live in the United States.

This decision is far from fixing the disastrous trend of U.S. immigration policy, but it will certainly be a welcome relief for thousands of Haitians fearing for their lives and livelihoods. The U.S. was founded to offer refuge to the needy, and policies like this are the least we can do to live up to that ideal.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Some more good news for the coronavirus watch in the U.S. Our cases are down to their lowest rate since last summer, with fewer than 30,000 new cases a day. That’s still a lot, but at least 50 percent of Americans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine now, so we should see those continue to drop.

The Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Read, said on Sunday that he supports assigning independent prosecutors to sexual assault cases in the military, cutting out the role that unit commanders had played in investigating their own troops.

Shareholders at Tribune Publishing, the company that owns the Chicago Tribune and many other newspapers, approved a sale of the company to Alden Global Capital, one of the most bloodthirsty vulture capital funds that has been destroying newspaper chains across the country, in another blow to the greater journalism industry.

In news that should surprise no one, GOP Senator Rand Paul has announced he will not get the COVID vaccine. What can we say -- I guess the only thing Rand is afraid of is that neighbor who beat the crap out of him a few years back, and not a deadly pandemic. A smart guy, that Rand.

AM QUICKIE - MAY 24, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

May 21, 2021: Republicans Ban History Education; FEMA Workers Are Exhausted; Gaza Ceasefire Takes Effect May 21, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Republican state legislators across the country are passing laws to micromanage the history that gets taught in schools and make it seem like racism doesn’t exist. For some reason the party of bigoted white men is touchy about this particular subject.

Meanwhile, forecasters are predicting another year of intense storms and wildfires. So it’s rather concerning that FEMA’s workforce is reportedly stretched to the breaking point.

And lastly, after eleven days of fighting, Israel has agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza. The work of rebuilding is urgent, as Palestinian medical facilities are overwhelmed.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The curriculum wars continue. CBS News reports that this month, Idaho Governor Brad Little became the first Republican governor to sign into law a bill that restricts educators from teaching a concept called critical race theory. And more could follow: Nearly a dozen states have introduced similar Republican-backed bills that would direct what students can and cannot be taught about slavery in American history and the ongoing effects of racism. But critics say the legislation isn’t aimed at what children are learning in the classroom. Idaho’s law prohibits teaching that individuals are responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same sex, race, religion, et cetera. A proposal in Rhode Island would prevent teaching that the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist. However, proponents of critical race theory say it does not teach that any race is inherently racist, but how race is ingrained in our history.

Jazmyne Owens, of the think tank New America, told CBS that the wave of legislation is; "aimed at erasing and whitewashing American history." For example, Owens pointed to a Texas bill that just passed in the state's House that bans discussion of privilege and white supremacy. The state bills have similar goals as two executive orders Donald Trump introduced, one that called for patriotic education and a one that sought to ban diversity training for federal workers. President Joe Biden has revoked both. But at this rate, Republicans will soon be pushing to ban schools entirely.

FEMA Workers Are Exhausted

This report on essential worker burnout comes from the New York Times. Workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been scouting shelters for migrant children. They’ve been running coronavirus vaccination sites in Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington. And they are still managing the recovery from a string of record disasters starting with Hurricane Harvey in 2017. On the cusp of a destructive season of hurricanes and wildfires, just thirty eight hundred of the agency’s nearly fourteen thousand emergency workers are available now to respond to a new disaster. That’s twenty nine percent fewer than were ready to deploy at the start of last year’s hurricane period. FEMA has seldom been in greater demand – becoming a kind of 911 hotline for some of President Biden’s most pressing challenges. And the men and women who have become the nation’s first responders are tired. Deanne Criswell, Biden’s pick to run the agency, identified employee burnout as a major issue during her first all-hands FEMA meeting, according to Steve Reaves, president of the union local that represents employees.

According to the Times, the shortage is severe for some categories of workers. Among the agency’s senior leadership, just three out of fifty three are currently available to deploy. Other specialized personnel have less than fifteen percent of their workers available. In interviews, current and former FEMA employees described twelve-hour days, canceled vacations, and not enough time to recover between assignments. Sounds like they should hire and train more staff and create some good-paying government jobs.

Gaza Ceasefire Takes Effect

At last, a breather. Al-Jazeera reports that Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire yesterday to halt eleven days of fighting in the Gaza Strip. A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the security cabinet had unanimously accepted an Egyptian initiative for an unconditional ceasefire. Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad then confirmed the ceasefire in a statement. At least two hundred and thirty two Palestinians, including sixty five children, have been killed. On the Israeli side, twelve people, including two children, have been killed. Following the announcement of a ceasefire, Egypt’s representative at the United Nations announced to member states that it will fund efforts to rebuild Gaza.

And there is much rebuilding to be done. According to the Associated Press, the Gaza Strip’s already feeble health system has been brought to its knees. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with waves of dead and wounded from Israel’s bombardment. Many vital medicines are rapidly running out in the tiny, blockaded coastal territory, as is fuel to keep electricity going. Two of Gaza’s most prominent doctors, including the Number Two in Gaza’s coronavirus task force, were killed when their homes were destroyed during barrages. Just as Gaza was climbing out of a second wave of coronavirus infections, its only virus testing lab was damaged by an airstrike and has been shut. Health officials fear further outbreaks among tens of thousands of displaced residents crowded into makeshift shelters after fleeing massive barrages. And absolutely none of this needed to happen.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Wall Street Journal reports that prosecutors in the case of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with abetting Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd told an appellate court yesterday they are considering adding a third-degree murder charge against the three men. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are expected to stand trial next March. They could have stopped Chauvin, but didn’t.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed legislation that bans abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy and, in a first, would give nearly any Texan the ability to sue providers who they believe have broken the law. It is one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation and is certain to face legal challenges. Strike it down on the double!

The Intercept reports that the Department of Homeland Security will be shutting down the controversial immigration prison in Georgia where dozens of women were subjected to nonconsensual gynecological procedures, including hysterectomies. The Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, run by LaSalle Corrections, was the focus of criticism last fall when a nurse alleged pervasive medical misconduct. Good riddance.

The Guardian reports that relations between the US and Russia have taken a tentative step forward after the Kremlin welcomed a decision by the Biden administration not to impose sanctions on a Russian pipeline delivering gas to Germany. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, also reacted positively. Let’s everybody just hug it out, okay?

AM QUICKIE - MAY 21, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

May 20, 2021: Migrant Children Still Suffer In Us Custody; Swing State Republicans Getting Trumpier; AOC Seeks To Stop Israel Arms Deal May 20, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Conditions are still atrocious for thousands of migrant children in US government custody. Why hasn’t the Biden administration come up with a humane way to house these kids until they can be reunited with their families?

Meanwhile, a review of recent state Republican leadership elections shows that the party is still getting Trumpier, even though he’s out of office. And the trend is stronger in swing states.

And lastly, AOC and some fellow House Democrats are introducing a resolution to stop a massive arms sale to Israel, as the assault on Gaza continues. Better late than never!

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This spotlight on America’s national shame comes from CBS News. Migrant children housed at two makeshift US government shelters, an Army base in west Texas and a Houston warehouse, described subpar living conditions, including limited access to showers, soiled clothes and undercooked food. Unaccompanied children at the two Department of Health and Human Services emergency housing facilities – which are not licensed to care for minors – also reported feeling sad and desperate while in US government custody. That’s according to attorney Leecia Welch, who cited recent interviews with more than thirty migrant girls and boys. Several migrant children reported suicidal thoughts and talk of self-harm among other youths, Welch said. The minors longed to be with their families, she added, but some had not spoken to case managers charged with facilitating their reunifications.

CBS reports that over the past several weeks, the Biden administration has dramatically reduced the number of unaccompanied children stuck in ill-suited Border Patrol facilities. However, the government is still housing more than nineteen thousand unaccompanied youths in facilities overseen by HHS, including the mass makeshift shelters, four of which are housing more than one thousand minors each. Welch said, "From a child welfare perspective, I disagree with housing hundreds of kids in shelters to begin with. And now we're being told the best long-term plan our government can come up with is to warehouse thousands of kids in tents on a military base?" Biden’s team really needs to fix this – and fast.

Swing State Republicans Getting Trumpier

Vice News brings us this update on GOP extremism. The Republican Party chairs of Texas and Wyoming have flirted with secession from the United States. Oklahoma’s Republican chair has called Islam a cancer. The Oregon GOP called the Capitol insurrection a false flag operation. And at least nineteen Republican state chairs publicly pushed Trump’s big lie about the election. A review of public positions of all fifty GOP state chairs shows many are pushing conspiracy theories, spouting unhinged rhetoric, and undermining voters’ trust in democracy. That includes the chairs of nearly every swing state in the US. And the trend is accelerating: Many of the most extreme chairs just won their chairmanships or have been reelected since Trump left office four months ago, a number of them with his endorsement. Former GOP officials say it was predictable that state parties would get Trumpier while he was president, but found it notable that the trend has continued since he left office.

According to Vice, it’s coming from the top down, too. The Republican National Committee launched a so-called Election Integrity Commission in February. Of the six state party chairs on the commission, just one has come close to acknowledging the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 victory – South Carolina’s Drew McKissick. Three others on the commission pushed Trump’s claims that the election was stolen. There are plenty of Republican chairs who haven’t been willing to echo Trump’s lies. But most of them have refused to stand up for the truth. Profiles in cowardice!

AOC Seeks To Stop Israel Arms Deal

The Squad is working to protect Palestinian lives. Jewish Currents reports that amidst Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan, and Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib are preparing to introduce a resolution that would block the United States’ planned $735 million sale of bombs to Israel. The resolution would halt the transfer of so-called J-DAMs, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions, and of Small Diameter Bombs. Both are bombs outfitted with special guidance systems to hit their targets. Both are made by Boeing. Israel has used J-DAMs and

Small Diameter Bombs in its current attack on Gaza. Additional co-sponsors include Representatives Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Pramila Jayapal, Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley.

Jewish Currents says that even if it doesn’t pass, the resolution could set up an unprecedented debate in the House of Representatives on the propriety of a bomb sale to Israel. As such, the proposed legislation is a rebuke of the Biden administration’s policy of facilitating the flow of weapons to a country that has killed at least two hundred and twenty Palestinians in ten days, including sixty three children. The US gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military assistance, money that is used to purchase American weaponry. Tlaib said, "You cannot claim to support human rights and peace on Earth and continue to back the extremist Netanyahu regime, it’s that simple."

Finally, Israel’s Channel Twelve reports that a cease-fire will begin tomorrow. We’ll see.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Washington Post reports that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will oppose legislation to create a commission tasked with investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol – a signal that the legislation will not have the votes to get through the Senate. The House voted yesterday to pass a bill creating the commission. If Congress fails to fully investigate, at least we still have the press.

The Associated Press reports that the European Union took a step toward relaxing travel rules for tourists yesterday when EU ambassadors agreed on measures to allow in fully vaccinated visitors. But EU countries will keep the possibility to impose restrictive measures on tourists such as quarantines. So don’t imagine that summer travel will be stress-free.

Reuters reports that twenty-two people accused of trafficking children to work on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast have received prison sentences of up to twenty years. The case follows the rescue by police this month of sixty eight children working on cocoa farms. Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer and is under pressure to crack down on child slavery.

According to NBC News, the New York attorney general’s office is pursuing a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization, in addition to the ongoing civil probe. But, on the bright side, it looks like he might get state approval to open a casino at his resort in Doral, Florida. Win some, lose some!

AM QUICKIE - MAY 20, 2021

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

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