June 10, 2021: US Will Donate 500m Pfizer Doses; Idaho Lt Governor Meets Militia Leader; Biden Plans Guantanamo Bay Closure

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


TODAY'S HEADLINES:


You can’t stop a worldwide pandemic without an international
effort, and the US is about to go big in that regard. The country
will be donating not millions, but hundreds of millions of
vaccine doses to countries that desperately need them.


Meanwhile, Idaho’s lieutenant governor, who is
seeking higher office, is caught on video palling around with a
militia leader. It’s just another day for the Republican Party!


And lastly, Joe Biden wants to close Guantanamo
Bay by the end of his first term. And he’s taking an approach
that’s a little bit different than Barack Obama’s – basically
hoping that if they don’t make a fuss about it, maybe the
opposition in Congress won’t notice.


THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:


Finally we’re talking serious numbers. The Washington Post
reports that the Biden administration is buying five hundred
million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to donate to the
world, as the United States dramatically increases its efforts to
help vaccinate the global population. The first two hundred
million doses will be distributed this year, with the rest shared
in the first half of next year. The doses will be distributed by
Covax, the World Health Organization-backed initiative, and they
will be targeted at low- and middle-income countries. Pfizer is
selling the doses to the US at a not-for-profit price. President
Joe Biden is slated to announce the plan at the Group of Seven
meeting in Britain this week amid growing calls for rich
countries to do more to boost the global supply of coronavirus
vaccine.


According to the Post, the question of how to end the pandemic is
expected to be front and center at the G-7 summit this week. In
the lead-up to the meeting, Biden’s vaccine-sharing strategy has
been under intense scrutiny. Questions about how to proceed have
intensified in recent weeks as cases in the United States have
receded, and infections have surged in some developing countries,
leading to charges of vaccine apartheid. More than half the
populations in the US and Britain have had at least one dose,
compared with fewer than two percent of people in Africa. It’s a
disparity that can only prolong the global pandemic but,
fortunately, some powerful people seem to realize that.


Idaho Lt Governor Meets Militia Leader


This snapshot of the far right’s rise comes from the Guardian.
Idaho’s Republican lieutenant governor and gubernatorial
candidate, Janice McGeachin, attended a gathering where she was
endorsed in a glowing speech by a rightwing militia leader. A
video shows Eric Parker, who was charged over his role in the
standoff in 2014 at Bundy Ranch in New Mexico, reminding
McGeachin that she previously told him, "if I get in, you’re
going to have a friend in the governor’s office.". In the same
speech, Parker says that when he sought McGeachin’s assistance in
the case of Todd Engel – another Bundy Ranch attendee who was
sentenced to fourteen years in prison – he showed her sealed
evidence from the trial. He recalled saying to her, I’m not sure
this is legal, and that she replied, I want to see it. Afterward,
she started writing letters to the Justice Department and
rallying support on behalf of the imprisoned man.


According to the Guardian, Parker posted the speech video on his
Telegram channel on May 19, the same day that McGeachin announced
her candidacy for governor, where she may be up against the
incumbent, fellow Republican Brad Little. McGeachin has
encountered previous controversies involving links with extremist
groups. In 2018 she refused to answer questions as to whether she
was using Three Percenters as security during her gubernatorial
run. She has also offered support to anti-mask protesters in the
state. For the new model Republican, there’s no such thing as too
extreme.


Biden Plans Guantanamo Bay Closure


Can Joe Biden succeed where Barack Obama failed? NBC News reports
that President Biden has quietly begun efforts to close the US
military prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He is using an
under-the-radar approach to minimize political blowback and to
make progress in resolving a long-standing legal and human rights
morass before the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks
of September 11, 2001. After initial plans for a more aggressive
push to close the facility, the White House changed course. The
administration has opted to wait before it reaches out to
Congress, which has thwarted previous efforts to close the camp,
because of fears that political outcry might interfere with the
rest of Biden's agenda. The administration hopes to transfer a
handful of the remaining terrorism suspects to


foreign countries, and then persuade Congress to permit the
transfer of the rest – including 9/11 suspects – to detention on
the US mainland. Biden hopes to close the facility by the end of
his first term.


According to NBC, the low-key strategy is a response to
miscalculations that Biden administration officials believe Obama
made. The administration is leaning against the option of
transferring detainees to US military installations, another
shift from the Obama administration's approach. The Biden
administration may, instead, propose that any detainees who are
not eligible for transfer to foreign countries be moved to
so-called Supermax security prisons on the US mainland, notably
the one in Florence, Colorado. It’s not justice, but it’s
probably better than the status quo.


AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:


CNN reports that the Trump administration battled with the
network to obtain the email records of a reporter. The pursuit –
which started in July 2020 with a demand for two months’ of
Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr’s email logs – continued
even after a federal judge told the Justice Department its
argument was, 'unanchored in any facts." We’re only finding out
now because the government demanded secrecy. Sketchy!


The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration will
toss out Donald Trump’s efforts to scale back the number of
wetlands that fall under federal protection. Michael Regan, head
of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Trump’s rollback is
leading to significant environmental degradation. Guess he
drained the wrong swamps.


NBC reports that the wife of El Chapo has agreed to plead guilty
to helping him run his Mexican drug cartel. Emma Coronel Aispuro,
a former beauty queen, will appear by video to enter her plea
this morning. So that’s a wrap for the war on drugs, right?


The Associated Press says a Moscow court last night outlawed the
organizations founded by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
by labeling them extremist. The label carries lengthy prison
terms for activists who worked with the organizations, anyone who
donated to them, and even those who simply shared the groups’
materials. Maybe Biden can sort this out when he meets with
Vladimir Putin in Geneva next week, ya think?


AM QUICKIE - JUNE 10, 2021


HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner


WRITER - Corey Pein


PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw


EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn