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Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: Trump leaned into nationalism and the culture wars in events across Fourth of July weekend, although he appeared to flounder in front of lackluster crowds and a strange, sad party at the White House. Meanwhile, the ongoing protests in Seattle suffered yet another tragedy on Saturday, when a driver plowed through protesters on a closed section of Interstate 5, killing one person and seriously injuring another. And lastly, two of the nation’s largest utility companies announced that they would be canceling the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a destructive natural gas line that would have hacked its way through the Appalachian trail. It’s a huge win for environmentalists, who have been suing the project into oblivion for years. THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW: Trump Grasps for Nationalism We’ll start today with a quick wrap-up of Donald Trump’s weird, sad weekend, which kicked off on Friday night with a jingoistic rally in front of Mount Rushmore aimed almost entirely at stoking racial and cultural resentment among his white base before election day. In other words, business as usual. But let’s pull a quick snippet from the Rushmore Rally to illustrate just where he’s coming from. During the rally, he said quote “this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution,” endquote. He then continued, saying that the left’s goal was to quote “end America.” endquote. The rest of the speech leaned into similar themes: the end of western civilization, calling on the American people to stop their history being taken away from them, all that kind of stuff. You can see how that directly ties into the bigoted arguments like “heritage not hate” that racists use to try to justify monuments to the confederacy. Trump followed the Rushmore speech with a strange party on the White House grounds, complete with fireworks, a military flyover, and a Navy band singing songs from the Lion King. Pretty surreal stuff, in other words. It’s worth putting all this stuff in context: Trump is absolutely floundering right now. His poll numbers compared to Biden are circling the drain, per a new Monmouth poll that came out last Thursday Even his most stable age groups, like the 50-64 demographic, are starting to slip away -- He’s down 5 points in that group. He’s clearly hoping that by ralling the fires of white nationalism he can scare people into re-electing him. And in the mean time, he seems to be distracting himself pretty well with golf -- visiting one of his courses for the 273rd time on Friday. Protester Killed By Car in Seattle Seattle’s protest movement suffered another violent tragedy this weekend, after a protester was killed and one other seriously wounded after a driver plowed through a demonstration on Interstate 5. The murdered protester was identified as 24-year-old Summer Taylor. Another protester, 32-year-old Diaz Love, is in serious condition. The driver was identified as Dawit Kelete, 27. The authorities don’t have any guess as to motive at the moment, but regardless, it’s another tragic loss that’s part of a frightening trend of protesters being killed while participating in the broader social movement against police brutality. In Louisville, for instance, on protester at a vigil for Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in late June. Throughout the protests, multiple people have been killed by police; in the same city, cops shot a local barbecue owner while enforcing a curfew in the early nights of the protests. Seattle has also suffered more than its share, as shootings plagued the autonomous zone set up by protesters in the city center. Seattle police announced that they would no longer let protesters march on Interstate 5 as a response to the deaths. Conservative media, unsurprisingly, has focused almost entirely on vandalism, like burning Wendy’s, and overlooked the fact that Americans are literally dying for the cause on the streets. Environmentals Smack Down Pipeline To close out our main stories today, we’ve got a huge environmental victory to share. A few months back we talked about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a major natural gas line that was poised to slash through the Appalachian trail and numerous communities along the way. On Sunday, Duke Energy and Dominion Energy, the two power companies trying to build the pipeline, announced that they were canceling the project, saying that it was taking too long and costing too much to build. These delays and price spikes are the direct result of lawsuits filed by environmental activists and dedicated protesting against the pipeline. The energy companies themselves admitted that the lawsuits had driven the pipeline’s expected costs from around four and a half billion dollars when it was announced in 2015, to a whopping 8 billion dollars. The environmental lawyers did not mince words: they’re definitely rubbing this one in. Gillian Giannetti, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council said QUOTE “As they abandon this dirty pipe dream, Dominion and Duke should now pivot to investing more in energy efficiency, wind and solar — that’s how to provide jobs and a better future for all.” The victory was so crushing that Dominion Energy is getting out of the industry altogether, selling its gas transmission and storage assets to a firm linked to Berkshire Hathaway. So the rich are probably still getting richer, but today, it’s environmentalists that get the win. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES: The Aurora Police Department fired three officers who took mocking chokehold selfies outside of a memorial for Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old slain by police. Interim Chief Vanessa Wilson called their actions quote “a crime against humanity and decency.” Donald Trump’s favored Senate Candidate to take on Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama used to be a hedge fund manager -- and it turns out he wasn’t very good at it. A New York Times report on Sunday found that Tommy Tuberville was sued by his investors for fraud, and his business partner was sentenced to ten years in prison for various shady financial crimes. Sounds like Trump’s kind of guy! Iran acknowledged a destructive fire at one of its major nuclear fuel plants, which it says will set its nuclear program back months. Iran and some unnamed intelligence officials say that Israel planted a bomb in the facility. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time Israel or the U.S. for that matter had attacked the Iranian nuclear program. While the rest of the country was celebrating July 4th, the U.S. military was once again on the move: Two aircraft carriers are on their way to the South China Sea in a significant show of force, ostensibly to stage a rival boat party to China’s planned military exercises in the region. Because sure, we might as well throw more armed tension on top of a global pandemic. Why not! That’s all for the AM Quickie today. Sam’s on vacation this week, but keep tuning in to the Quickie -- we’ll keep you posted on what’s going on in the world every morning. July 6, 2020 - AM Quickie HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Jack Crosbie PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn