June 7, 2021: Manchin Tanks Voting Rights; Israel Arrests Palestinian Journalists; Vaccination Rates Take a Dive

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TODAY'S HEADLINES:


Senator Joe Manchin announced on Sunday that he would vote
against the For the People Act, the Democrats’ landmark voting
rights legislation, because it was too partisan.


Meanwhile, Israeli police detain two Palestinian journalists who
had been documenting the ongoing aggressive takeover of the
Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.


And lastly, vaccination rates in the U.S. are declining again,
forcing a massive outreach program to meet President Biden’s goal
of 70% vaccinated by July 4.


THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:


Joe Manchin has abandoned all pretense of working for the
Democratic party. On Sunday, in an op-ed for the Charleston
Gazette, the supposedly Democratic Senator said he would vote
against his party’s landmark voting rights legislation,
effectively dooming its chances of becoming a law.


Manchin’s reasoning was as absurd as you’d expect. He called the
bill, known as the For the People Act, too partisan. His evidence
for this was that it had failed to attract a single Republican
vote of support. It’s obvious why this was: Republicans know that
they won’t win elections if the For the People Act is passed,
because voter suppression is the only play they have.


On some level, Manchin must know this. But in the same op-ed, he
also vowed to never vote against the filibuster, which makes his
stance perfectly clear: he wants to hold his own party hostage to
his own misguided agenda.


Manchin indicated that he would support another voting rights
bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement act, that doesn’t
go as far as the For the People Act. But without an end to the
filibuster, Manchin knows that bill doesn’t have much of a chance
of passing either. It’s enough to make you wonder which party
he’s really working for.


Israel Arrests Palestinian Journalists


Israeli police on Sunday detained two Palestinian journalists who
have been documenting the forced colonization of their homes
since they were children.


Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd are twin siblings who live in Sheikh
Jarrah, the neighborhood at the center of last month’s initial
conflict between Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents.
Their family home is one of those targeted for eviction by
Israeli court orders, and the El-Kurd twins have been documenting
the case and their lives under Israeli occupation since they were
kids, amassing a considerable following on social media.


On Sunday, Israeli officers arrested and handcuffed Muna at her
home, while Mohammed turned himself in after receiving a summons.
The police claimed Muna had participated in a riot in the
community recently, which is as thin and nebulous of an
accusation as it sounds.


They were released hours later. Muna El-Kurd said in a statement
on the Sheikh Jarrah Instagram page quote: "It's clear that these
are policies to silence people, policies to pressure and scare
people.” endquote.


The El-Kurds aren’t the first journalists targeted in recent
days. On Saturday, Israeli police violently arrested Al Jazeera
correspondent Givara Budeiri as she covered a sit-in marking the
54th anniversary of Israel's 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem,
the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. She was later released but
with an absurd condition: that she not report on the situation in
Sheikh Jarrah for at least 15 days. If that’s not direct
suppression of the press, I don’t know what is.


Vaccination Rates Take a Dive


Finally, the Washington Post reports that Joe Biden’s vaccination
blitz is not looking very blitz-like at the moment.


The United States is averaging fewer than 1 million shots per
day, a decline of more than two-thirds from the peak of 3.4
million in April, the Post reports. Biden wanted to have 70
percent of all adults vaccinated by July 4th, but that’s looking
less and less likely by the day.


In response, the Post reports that the government and local
health clinics are deploying small armies of health workers and
volunteers at vaccination sites, often out-numbering the people
who come to get the shot.


Vaccination rates are falling across the South and Midwest,
despite good numbers from the big cities on the East and West
Coast. The Post reports that this steep decline began in
mid-April, right when the government temporarily suspended the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine while they probed rare
blood-clotting reactions.


The group that still needs the vaccine is, predictably, the
people who are most resistant to it or the worst educated about
it. That puts the burden of public health on the government to
reach these people, but based on the current numbers, Biden’s
campaign is falling way short.


AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:


Did you miss him? Donald Trump held one of his first public
speeches in months in North Carolina on Saturday. You’ll never
guess what he talked about: conspiracies, voter fraud, and
far-right talking points. That’s what we have to look forward to
for a long time to come.


The White House says that 31 million Americans now have
healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act. That’s nice
and all, but there are almost 330 million people in this country,
and all of them deserve healthcare.


The New York Times reports that the U.S. withdrawal from
Afghanistan is predictably hindering the country’s other efforts
to wage war in the region, like impeding CIA efforts to continue
carrying out clandestine operations. It’s a good reminder that
troop withdrawals are only the tip of our country’s monumental
iceberg of war.


Global leaders agreed to the Biden administration’s proposed tax
plan over the weekend, giving the green light to a mandatory 15
percent minimum tax rate on corporate profits, regardless of
where those companies base their headquarters.


JUN 7, 2021 - AM QUCKIE


HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner


WRITER - Jack Crosbie


PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw


EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn