Activist Coalition Has Big Plans for Chicago DNC - The Friday AM Quickie 5/10/24

By Corey Pein — May 10, 2024

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THE BIG NEWS

Elections Watch: 'Existential' Threat from Far-Right Parties in EU Elections Next Month

Trump Demanded $1 Billion in Donations from Oil Executives in Return for Throwing Out Biden's Climate Policies Trump made his pitch at a Mar-a-Lago dinner last month, telling the Big Oil honchos that $1 billion would be a "deal" because of the tax and regulatory gifts he would give them on "day one" of his second term; the industry is already writing executive orders for him to sign. via the Washington Post and Politico.
GOP Poison Pill Threatens to Keep Biden Off of Ohio's General Election Ballot In exchange for bending a ballot deadline for Biden, Ohio Republicans want Democrats to ban donations to initiative campaigns from foreign nationals; Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss has been a big donor to groups pushing a constitutional amendment for abortion rights. via the New York Times and the Associated Press.
65-Plus Activist Groups form Coalition to 'March on the DNC' in Chicago in August, File Lawsuit Over Protest Permits "I want to assure people that it's not 1968. I am not the mayor of 1968," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Black former union organizer, says, referring the notorious protest crackdown at that year's convention ordered by Mayor Richard Daley. via the AP and the Chicago Sun-Times.
'He's Not Really an Anti-Vaxxer,' Trump Says of RFK Jr. in Panicky Truth Social Video Rant Meanwhile, it seems signature gatherers for Kennedy's independent presidential campaign have been hiding his name from New York voters while seeking to get him on the state's November ballot. via HuffPost and the New York Times.
Arizona Green Party Says Both Major Parties Planted Candidates on Its Primary Ballot in Senate Race The Arizona Green Party "suspects that one candidate for its nomination, Arturo Hernandez, is being boosted by Republicans and that the other, Mark Norton, is actually supported by Democrats"; neither candidate has been a volunteer or a dues-paying member, and the party is urging members to write in "Eduardo Quintana, who did not gather enough signatures in time to officially make the ballot." via the Washington Post.
2 Democratic Operatives Close to Crooked Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar Take Plea Deals with Justice Department Former Cuellar campaign manager Mina Colin Strother and Texas businessman Florencio "Lencho" Rendon reportedly set up a "sham consulting contract" to funnel $598,000 in bribes from Mexico and Azerbaijan to Cuellar's wife; Cuellar is still seeking reelection despite his indictment. via NBC News and the Post.
Rival Candidates Each Declare Themselves the Winner in Chad's Presidential Election Prime Minister Succes Masra claims the official results favoring military leader Mahamat Idriss Deby, who seized power in 2021 following the killing of his long-ruling father, were rigged. via the AP and Al Jazeera.

MORE STORIES TO WATCH

California Unions Aim to Build on Fast-Food Victory By Expanding $20 Minimum Wage

The Los Angeles Times reports that many low-wage workers in California are asking for more since the state's $20 mandatory minimum wage for fast-food workers took effect last month. The state legislature separately approved a $25 minimum wage for hospital workers that takes kicks in in 2026, and janitorial and hotel workers unions are also now demanding $25 an hour. The state's November ballot includes an $18 minimum wage ballot measure "that just a few years ago was seen as radical." But last week workers' advocates led a rally outside the Capitol in Sacramento calling for a statewide $20 minimum wage in all sectors. "There's no way around raising wages at this moment. People are just saying, 'I cannot afford to do this anymore,'" One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman tells the Times. "If you see every other price go up and the wages have not, you're going to end up with massive staffing crises in every low-wage sector." Indeed, that's already happening among sectors like retail and child care that haven't increased wages to match the gains in fast-food. Also noted: To keep pace with heightened worker demands, the Fight for $15 campaign also changed its name last week to Fight for a Union.

Ba-Da-Da-Da-Daa-Da-Da: Tequila! Border Patrol Leaders Under Investigation for International Bribery

NBC News reports that two top U.S. Border Patrol officials are under an internal investigation for their chummy relationship with a wealthy Mexican tequila maker. Border Patrol chief Jason Owens and Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sector chief Gloria Chavez were seen on social media partying last summer with distiller Francisco Javier González, grandson of the founder of Don Julio tequila, at his company's complex in Jalisco, Mexico, Tequila Casa de los González. The distiller apparently told Owens and Chavez he wanted to make a Border Patrol-branded tequila to mark the agency's 100th anniversary later this month at a multi-day celebration in El Paso, Texas, sponsored by CBP contractors. The Customs and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility is looking into "whether the officials disclosed their contact with a foreign national, a requirement for those who receive top security clearances, and whether they accepted anything that could be a violation of ethical rules." As project on Government Oversight director Danielle Brian puts it, "This scenario raises a million red flags." Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Republicans are predictably not satisfied by President Joe Biden's latest attempt to appease xenophobic sentiment by limiting the internationally guaranteed right to asylum.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

U.N. General Assembly to Vote Today on Rights and Membership for Palestine Meanwhile in Malmo, Sweden, police helicopters hovered over thousands of cease-fire protesters outside the Eurovision song contest; Israeli contestant Eden Golan previously drew criticism for performing in Russian-occupied Crimea. via the Associated Press and the Washington Post.
New York Judge Denies Another Trump Motion for a Mistrial in Criminal Hush Money Case Trump's list of business contacts was entered into evidence yesterday; it included Joe Scarborough, Jeanine Pirro, Jerry Falwell Jr., a number of big names in pro sports, casinos and entertainment – and Stormy Daniels. via HuffPost and Politico.
Video: Florida Cop Shot and Killed Black Air Force Airman Immediately After He Opened the Door "We remain adamant that the police had the wrong apartment," says civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of Senior Airman Roger Fortson, killed in his home last week at the age of 23 by an Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy. via NBC News and the Washington Post.
Argentina's Unions Lead 2nd General Strike Against Milei's 'Brutal' Far-Right Economic Policies The one-day mass walk-out in support of a "dignified wage" closed schools, banks, shops, ports, and public transport. via Reuters and the Buenos Aires Times.

SOME NUMBER

1,250,000

That's how many seed samples, collected from 6,000 crop varieties in nearly every country, are stored inside a "doomsday vault" built into a mountain on the Arctic Norwegian island of Svalbard. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault's founders, Cary Fowler and Geoffrey Hawtin, designed it as a backup for crops destroyed by wars, climate change, or other disasters; this week the two scientists won the World Food Prize for their "critical role in preserving crop diversity."

ON THE SHOW TODAY

5/10: It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma speak with Ryan Grim, D.C. Bureau Chief at The Intercept and co-host of Counter Points, to round up the week in news.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

'I Wouldn't Vote for You Because You're Indian' - Coulter Goes FULL RACIST to Vivek's Face

He respectfully disagrees.

Israel Says Biden Is Hamas Now

It was inevitable.

PARTING WORDS

"I offer to eat five more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate. I feel confident of the result even with a six-worm handicap."

-- Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., responding on X yesterday to a New York Times report that revealed that he had a dead parasitic worm in his brain, in addition to mercury poisoning. Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, explained to CNN that such worms do not feed on brain tissue, but merely reside within it as they draw nutrients from the host body. The more you know!

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