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Fraud and Death Throes at the NRA: 'BradCast' 5/5/2021
Guest: NRA expert and author Igor Volsky of Guns Down America; Also: Minors held in Border Patrol custody plummet 90%, media downplays; Trump kids still grifting tax-payer money from Secret Service detail...
By Brad Friedman on 5/5/2021 6:54pm PT
On today's BradCast, the end sure seems nigh for the indescribably corrupt, terrorist-supporting National Rifle Association, after some big news out of a federal courtroom in Texas this week. If it's too soon to discuss the news, I hope they'll understand that we're sending them our thoughts and prayers. [Audio link to full show is posted at end of summary.]
But first up, some more good news today, even if you'd be forgiven if you hadn't noticed, given the lack of media coverage. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced this week that the Biden Administration has "drastically reduced" the number of unaccompanied minors being held in Customs and Border Patrol facilities by nearly 90% over the past month. From almost 6,000 at the end of March --- when much of the non-wingnut corporate media had taken their cues from the wingnut media to declare a "Biden Border Crisis!" --- to fewer than 600 children held in CBP cages as of Tuesday. After covering the "crisis" in breathless headline after breathless headline at Washington Post over the past month, the paper noted the good news in an 8 paragraph squib that is almost impossible to find amid a long blog page of Tuesday news items, and comes days after both CNN and NYTimes and others (though probably not Fox "News") had already noted the development.
Then, some more news that --- given everything else going on --- has flown a bit under the radar. Amid the NRA's ongoing bankruptcy trial in federal court in Texas, a U.S. Dept. of Justice official from the U.S. Trustees office --- which enforces federal bankruptcy law --- has told the judge she opposes the gun group's petition for Chapter 11 protection. The unusual declaration may all but quash the NRA's hopes of going into bankruptcy in a corrupt scheme to avoid legal accountability in New York. State Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA last August to dissolve the state's 150-year old "charitable" organization, due to wildly corrupt violations of the state's charter for non-profits. The NRA had hoped to receive bankruptcy protection from the federal government in order to duck the suit by closing shop in NY and reestablishing themselves in Texas, which apparently welcomes cartoonishly corrupt "non-profits" with open arms. (With a state Attorney General who is currently under indictment himself for state felony securities fraud and facing a broadening FBI criminal probe for corruption of his office, that should come as little surprise.)
The latest NRA news, of course, was a stunner to the group as it was revealed in court near the end of their trial this week. It also comes on the heels of another series of mass shootings in recent months. But good luck finding any news in recent years that doesn't. It does underscore, however, the absurd scam that the NRA's Wayne LaPierre has been pulling off against his own duped members for decades now (with millions of dollars in expensive vacations, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on fancy suits, sweetheart contracts for himself and his friends, all on the NRA's dime) and the far worse con that they've been pulling off on the American people in their corrupt, willful misinterpretation and lies about the 2nd Amendment.
The late, conservative U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger knew about it. He said during an interview in 1991, the 2nd Amendment had been "the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud on the American public by special interest groups that I have seen in my lifetime." The current Chief Justice, however, may be willing to play along with that fraud in an upcoming NRA challenge, just accepted by the Court last week, that may upend more than 100 years of state gun laws barring weapons carried outside of the house without a permit.
We're joined today to discuss all of that --- and how, and if, Joe Biden and the Democrats can possibly take action on gun safety legislation in this environment --- by IGOR VOLSKY, author of Guns Down: How To Defeat The NRA And Build A Safer Future With Fewer Guns. He is founder of Guns Down America, and details today the astonishing news emerging from the NRA's attempt to escape accountability in NY, while suggesting that this may really be the end for the NRA gun lobby as we know it.
He accused me "understat[ing] the kind of revelations we've heard from the bankruptcy trial, in which Wayne LaPierre, NRA board members and many other top NRA officials admitted to many of the just jaw-dropping allegations that were made against it by the NY Attorney General. Just to underscore, one the admissions that really stunned the courtroom was the current NRA president admitting that she shred and burnt documents because she feared they could be used against the organization."
"The great fear, according to insiders, that at least Wayne LaPierre has, is that the next wave of charges are going to be criminal and that he's going to find himself in an orange jumpsuit," Volsky reports.
"They also took a very unusual approach for an organization that claims they can no longer pay their bills," he says. "They publicly said they're as strong as they've ever been, they're still the nation's premiere gun rights organization, but that they were simply using this maneuver in order to get outside of the New York Attorney General's jurisdiction and move to Texas, where the laws are much weaker. That's not how one uses bankruptcy. That's not the way bankruptcy law works." It's also very likely another violation of the law.
So, what do its members think of all of this? And who will replace the NRA if they really are shut down for good? Those are among the separate questions we discuss as well, along with much more related to this topic.
Finally, speaking of rightwing grifters, good government group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) has obtained records from the Secret Service, suggesting that, while Donald Trump may no longer be in office, he is continuing to steal a whole lot of tax-payer money for himself and his company. While the children of most Presidents no longer receive Secret Service protection after a new President is sworn in, before leaving office, Trump signed off on protection for his kids and three top appointees for and additional six months. Those kids do a LOT of travel and spend a LOT of time at Trump-owned properties --- in Bedminster, NJ, Palm Beach, FL, and Briarcliff, NY, to name a few --- and when they do, guess who receives tens of thousands of dollars from the Secret Service for accommodations?
Yup. The Trump grift never ends...
Article Categories: Texas, Washington Post, BRAD BLOG Media Appearance, New York, Mainstream Media Failure, Accountability, Dept. of Justice, Immigration, U.S. Supreme Court, KPFK, Donald Trump, NRA/Gun Violence, BradCast, Ken Paxton, Warren Burger, Trump Organization, Letitia James, HHS, CBP, Wayne LaPierre, Alejandro Mayorkas
Woodward Goes Wayward in What Sirota Calls 'The Biggest Scandal in Modern Journalism': 'BradCast' 9/10/2020
Guest: Journalist David Sirota; Also: DHS whistleblower and new report reveal U.S. Intelligence now fully corrupt, upside-down under Trump...
By Brad Friedman on 9/10/2020 6:59pm PT
We warned you weeks ago to "buckle up" for what was to come between then and Election Day. On today's BradCast, a mountain of reminders as to why we issued the warning, as we hope that everyone remains buckled up until the madness comes to a full and complete stop. [Audio link to full show follows below.]
We begin today with the news that rocked the nation on Wednesday and continues reverberating today. Excerpts of audio recordings from Bob Woodward's eighteen separate interviews with Donald Trump for his new book revealed (among many other things) that the President was fully aware of the dangers of the coronavirus crisis as early as the beginning of the year, even while he was misleading the public about it. During one recording on February 7th this year, Trump told the Washington Post's Watergate journalist that the virus was transmitted through the air, was "more deadly than your strenuous flues" and was "deadly stuff". By March 19th, he is heard on tape telling the best-selling author that the COVID-19 disease was also affecting "plenty of young people" and that he "wanted to play it down" because, according to the recordings, he didn't "want to create a panic".
At the exact same time that he was telling Woodward one thing, Trump was lying about the virus publicly as more than 190,000 Americans have now died in the months since he first made clear to Woodward that the disease was wildly contagious and lethal. In mid-March, when he explained his strategy of down-playing the virus, only 150 Americans had died. Still, Woodward sat on the information until this week.
No doubt you've seen the reactions by now from many Democrats, including Joe Biden and even from anti-Trump Republicans. But what of the responsibility that Woodward himself had to warn the public about what Trump knew but was refusing to acknowledge publicly --- and, in fact, was lying publicly about?
We're joined today by investigative journalist DAVID SIROTA, former speech-writer for Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign and now founder of the "Too Much Information" (TMI) newsletter. On Wednesday, in his TMI column, Sirota charged (as we long have) that Trump's actions constitute "a horrific crime against humanity," but, he adds, "it was aided and abetted by the popular face of investigative journalism: Mr. All The President's Men himself."
"The President of the United States said something to the nation's most famous reporter, and the most famous reporter sat on that information for seven months while tens of thousands of people died," Sirota says today. "Donald Trump committed a crime against humanity and Bob Woodward drove the getaway car."
Sirota is not the only journalist, progressive or otherwise, who has been highly critical of Woodward over the past 24 hours. So has Esquire's Charlie Pierce. So has The American Prospect's David Dayen. So has even the Washington Post's own Margaret Sullivan. And so are we.
"As a journalist, your job is to get the news from elected officials and to, at minimum, report what they say, and certainly report discrepancies in what they are saying," Sirota argues. "Your job is not to suppress that information, to hold that information while tens of thousands of people die, and to hold it to juice your book sales later on at a more opportune time. That is what happened."
Woodward has attempted to defend himself in several interviews since WaPo released the stunning recordings (which also reveal much more than Trump's secret views and/or knowledge about COVID-19). Sirota responds to Woodward's limp defense and to Trump's use of Woodward as "a human shield" today, when the President tweeted that Woodward's failure to release the information earlier was evidence that Trump's remarks were not "bad or dangerous," otherwise Woodward would have "immediately report[ed] them in an effort to save lives."
Sirota describes the entire fiasco as a "collision of both the corrupt political system and a deeply corrupt media culture" and tells me: "I genuinely believe that this is the biggest scandal in modern journalism."
As journalists, he asserts, we have "a duty to warn". Ironically, as the Poynter Institute, a journalism think-tank and fact-checking organization, reports in its own story asking "Was it unethical for Bob Woodward to withhold Trump's coronavirus interviews for months?", Woodward himself is very aware of that duty --- if, perhaps, not for himself. "Woodward will be on CBS's '60 Minutes' Sunday," Poynter's Al Tompkins reports. "In an excerpt of that interview, Woodward told CBS's Scott Pelley, 'The president of the United States has a duty to warn.'"
Next up --- if you're still buckled in --- a new report from Microsoft today finds that Russia's military intelligence agency, the G.R.U., the same group alleged to have hacked and leaked email from the Hillary Clinton Campaign in 2016, is back at work in 2020 and has become more adept at covering their tracks. Moreover, the findings of the report contradict the Trump Administration's claims about both Russia and China. And for good reason. The Administration has corrupted U.S. intelligence to report what Trump wants the public to believe, rather than actual facts.
The new report alleges that Russia is attempting to access material from both the Trump and Joe Biden campaigns, and that China --- which Trump and the White House National Security Advisor and the U.S. Attorney General all claimed to be a greater threat to the 2020 election than Russia --- is actually focused on hacking Biden, not Trump. The Administration has claimed, falsely apparently, that China prefers Biden over Trump. Today's report, however, suggests just the opposite.
Given the extraordinary whistleblower report released on Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee from one of Trump's senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security, none of this should be a surprise. The official, Brian Murphy, details in his complaint how he was instructed to change intelligence to remove references to Russian interference and add threats from China and Iran instead, because Russian interference in the U.S. election "made the president look bad," according to complaint.
Murphy's complaint also details how he and others were instructed to change intelligence assessments to match Trump's misleading claims and rhetoric regarding "antifa", to minimize the greater threat of White Supremacy groups, and to downplay anything about Russia all together. He says he was also instructed to change data to match the Administration's false narrative about terrorists coming across the U.S.-Mexico border, and about the dismal conditions in Central America that were undermining the Trump Administration's asylum policies. The result, Murphy charges, is intelligence assessments that "more closely resemble a policy document...than an intelligence document."
As noted on today's show, this is decidedly not how intelligence gathering and analysis is supposed to work. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Murphy refused to make the changes mentioned, and he was eventually cut out from work on the national Homeland Threat Assessment and demoted from Deputy Under Secretary in the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis to a position in the agency's Management Division.
Finally, as if all of this wasn't nightmarish enough, the delightful Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report on the man-made climate change-fueled wildfires now exploding up and down the West Coast, the media's failure to tie them to our climate crisis, and Trump's pre-election flip-flop on offshore oil drilling to try and win votes in the battleground state of Florida...
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Article Categories: Florida, California, Oregon, Washington Post, BRAD BLOG Media Appearance, Whistleblowers, New York Times, Mainstream Media Failure, Accountability, Environment, Joe Biden, KPFK, Donald Trump, DHS, Russia, Oil, Climate change, Extreme weather, China, BradCast, Election 2020, Bob Woodward, Microsoft, Coronavirus/COVID-19, Brian Murphy
IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY AT LAST: 'BradCast' 9/24/2019
Guest host Angie Coiro with all the breaking news, and psychoanalyst Justin Frank puts 'Trump on the Couch'...
By Angie Coiro on 9/24/2019 5:14pm PT
On today's BradCast, I'm in for Brad and Desi – Angie Coiro, of In Deep with Angie Coiro. Continued love and good wishes to Brad and Desi – and thanks to you all for making Nicole and me so welcome during their time off!
Of course Nancy Pelosi's announcement of impeachment proceedings are the big story, but there's a lot else going on – including what that move could mean for gun control. Lots of news stories wrapped into today's round-up.
In the midst of all this, the Toddler in Chief still had the bandwidth to snark Greta Thunberg upside the head, and to sic the EPA on California again. On that latter point – my guest today is DR. JUSTIN FRANK. He's the psychoanalyst behind the books Bush on the Couch, Obama on the Couch, and now Trump on the Couch. His insights into the man to whom no laws apply are intriguing.
Download MP3 or listen online below...
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Article Categories: CNN, California, MSNBC, Washington Post, New York Times, Impeachment, United Nations, Accountability, Environment, Mitt Romney, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Hawaii, Rachel Maddow, EPA, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Climate change, NRA/Gun Violence, John Lewis, BradCast, Gavin Newsom, Beto O'Rourke, Mazie Hirono
Bigger Priorities than the Integrity of the Vote?: 'BradCast' 9/16/2019
Guest hosted by Angie Coiro with Patrick Poblete and Richard Clarke on UAW Strike, Wisconsin Voting Machines, Cybersecurity...
Welcome to another BradCast! I'm in for Brad and Desi today - Angie Coiro, heard on some of these same stations and streams with my own show, In Deep with Angie Coiro.
Best wishes to Brad and Desi while they take care of family business. If you haven't read Brad's post about what's going on, please do. There's no better time than now to support the Blog in every way you can.
First up is what I imagine would be Brad's headline story, too: the latest in the ongoing Wisconsin voting machine drama. PATRICK POBLETE from WisPolitics covers the story. The jawdropper: state officials felt they had bigger priorities than to check out reports of potential vote-hijacking.
A big fat news roundup includes two Elizabeth Warren stories: her campaign's endorsement by the WFP, and her newly-announced plan to attack DC corruption. Some of it strikes me as a bit pie-in-the-sky, but why not aim high?
Then a long excerpt from my interview earlier this year with RICHARD A. CLARKE, about his book The Fifth Domain.
And more more more. Check it all out!...
Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Election Reform, Washington Post, Voting System Certification, National Security, Wisconsin, Paper Ballots Legislation, New York Times, Touch-Screen DREs/BMDs, United Nations, Internet Voting, Yemen, Elizabeth Warren, BradCast, Election 2018, Election 2020, Twitter
Pelosi Nails Trump Word by Word; Impeachment, Again; Tubman Scares Trump; Packing the Courts: 'BradCast' 5/24/2019
Guest-hosted by Angie Coiro w/ David Levine, Elizabeth Cobbs and Kate Kendall...
I'm Angie Coiro of In Deep Radio, here on today's BradCast to give Brad and Des a breather. They're back post-holiday!
As I note in the show (audio link below) you don't have to agree with Nancy Pelosi's tactics and goals --- hell, you don't even have to like her --- to still doff your cap to her rhetorical skills. Her press conference this week gives a sentence-by-sentence master class in piercing your opponent with a smile, undermining his bombast with grace, and evincing humility while kicking him where it hurts. I walk you through her best-landed blows in today's show.
Then I go over Trump's court losses this week, the specter of impeachment, and even the possibility of Trump pardoning himself with DAVID LEVINE of UC Hastings Law. Spoiler about the self-pardon: no one knows how that would play out, because it's never happened before.
Putting this week's slam on Harriet Tubman into perspective is ELIZABETH COBBS of Stanford. Bottom line: she was a better person and patriot than he could ever pretend to be.
Finally, I have some time with someone I deeply admire. KATE KENDALL did powerhouse work at the head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights for twenty-two years. Now she's heading up Pack the Courts, formed to expand the number of SCOTUS seats to give justice a fighting chance. She explains it all in depth, including that choice of 'potentially-inflammatory name'...
Article Categories: Texas, Washington Post, CIA, National Security, New York Times, Impeachment, Accountability, U.S. House, Dept. of Justice, Hillary Clinton, FBI, Barack Obama, Immigration, Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Supreme Court, Nancy Pelosi, Yemen, Donald Trump, Russia, Election 2016, Vladimir Putin, BradCast, Saudi Arabia, Merrick Garland, Mike Pompeo, Election 2020, Robert Mueller, William Barr
House Action Against Trump Helped by Repubs; What's Next for Abortion Laws? 'BradCast' 5/10/2019
Guest-host Angie Coiro w/ UCSF's Dr. Monica McLemore, NARAL's Amy Everitt...
I'm Angie Coiro, host of In Deep with Angie Coiro, in for Brad and Desi on today's BradCast.
One story after another is piling out of the House today: subpoenas, threats of fines for unanswered subpoenas, and more. Chelsea Manning is out of jail for now. The Pentagon is shifting important funds to building a border wall. Chobani steps in to save a school lunch program. And the interview by the BBC's conservative Andrew Neil with the right-wing Ben Shapiro is a lesson in how journalism should be done --- and why being coddled by friendly interlocutors in the past did Ben no favors.
Then a deep dive into a topic that will never die: abortion. This week's "heartbeat" law and shenanigans in Alabama are just the latest in the non-stop assault on women's health care and autonomy. UC-San Francisco's DR. MONICA McLEMORE and NARAL's AMY EVERITT tackle the topic from both the medical and legal angles. You can hear the whole one-hour conversation on the In Deep website.
Article Categories: CNN, California, Washington Post, Mexico, Corporate Media, New York Times, U.S. House, Democrats, Republicans, Jerrold Nadler, ABC, Nancy Pelosi, WikiLeaks, Bradley/Chelsea Manning, Donald Trump, BradCast, Steve Mnuchin, Robert Mueller
Virginia's Stunning Political Crisis is Far More Shamefully GOP-Engineered Than Most Realize: 'BradCast' 2/7/2019
A decade of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering led to this moment...
On today's BradCast: Yes, Virginia, there is a problem with race (and hate) in the Commonwealth. But Democrats would be wise to take a breath and notice what's really going on there before making critical political decisions out of fear. [Audio link to show follows below.]
The media are all over the astonishing crisis that has overtaken VA state politics in the past week, since a Republican website revealed a racist photo on Governor Ralph Northam's 1984 yearbook page, and a serious sexual assault allegation leveled against Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, while Attorney General Mark Herring subsequently announced that he had donned blackface while dressing as one of his favorite rappers for a party 40 years ago when he was 19. The political futures of all three Democrats now hang precariously in the balance, with top Dems (and media elite) both inside and outside of VA demanding Northam resign, despite the complete lack of evidence to suggest he is a racist in the 35 years since the photo was published. As we discussed on Monday's program, Northam claims he knew nothing about the photo until last week, as he hadn't purchased the yearbook.
But with Fairfax --- an African-American and first in line to succeed the Governor, should he step down --- facing a serious assault allegation (which he has repeatedly denied) and some calls for Herring --- second in the line of succession --- to step down, echoing those leveled against the Governor, the next state official in the line of succession is Republican House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox.
Cox is in that role, thanks only to a questionably "tied" Delegate election in 2017 that left the GOP in control of the House, after a Republican election judge changed his mind in order to create the tie, and a subsequent lot was drawn from a ceramic bowl to break it.
Far more notably, and far less reported, is that a decade of unconstitutionally gerrymandered House of Delegates districts drawn by the GOP to dilute the voting power of African-Americans gave Republicans as many as 8 more delegates in the House than they likely would have won with fair districts. One of those districts was "won" by Speaker Cox himself, according to a new district map ordered for use in this year's 2019 House elections by a panel of federal judges just weeks ago. Without the racial gerrymander, he likely wouldn't be in the House at all, much less in a position to become the next Governor, replacing a guy who admitted only that he put shoe polish on his face to dress as Michael Jackson in a dance contest 25 years ago.
We break down the entire mess today to, hopefully, shed some light on the FULL story of what's going on there, and how Democrats' fearful and breathless rush to avoid charges of hypocrisy may be serving to simply do themselves in for no good or even smart reason.
Also today: Republicans are freaking out about wildly popular ideas such as increasing taxes on the wealthy and a "Green New Deal" (a resolution officially introduced today by Democratic freshman Rep. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D-NY] and veteran Senator Ed Markey [D-MA]). They are so alarmed that over at Fox "News", anchors are describing increased taxes on rich people as an attack on Capitalism itself, and programs like the Green New Deal as "Venezuela-styled socialism". But the laugh out loud part is when one wingnut Fox personality explains why, he claims, that such programs are now so popular among voters of all political persuasions. AOC's Twitter response was priceless.
Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us for details on all of that and with the latest Green News Report, on Trump's "disgraceful" failure to mention climate change at this week's State of the Union Address, despite hundreds of Americans killed and displaced over this past year alone, which is now, officially, the fourth hottest year since record-keeping began...
Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Fox 'News', Election Reform, Washington Post, BRAD BLOG Media Appearance, Virginia, Accountability, U.S. House, SOTU, U.S. Senate, Democrats, Republicans, KPFK, Donald Trump, Climate change, Ed Markey, Venezuela, BradCast, Race, Election 2017, Ralph Northam, Gerrymandering, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Election 2019, Green New Deal, Justin Fairfax, Mark Herring, Kirk Cox
Trump's True Colors: Build a Wall or Confront the Opioid Epidemic: 'BradCast' 12/28/2018
Guest-host Angie Coiro with Robin Marty on the Post-Roe World; Navy Seal James Hatch, Pt. 2...
By Angie Coiro on 12/28/2018 5:33pm PT
On today's BradCast, you have me as your host - Angie Coiro - as Brad and Desi catch some breath over the holiday.
In our first few minutes, stay with me while I connect some dots: Trump's wall demands, and the opioid death toll in America. What he's willing to spend on those two issues tell us a lot about him: time, money, interest, commitment, and especially honesty. It's a bit numbers-heavy, but worth the time, I think.
Robert Mercer is stepping back into the shadows, putting out less to buy elections and reportedly losing influence as a result. Then the latest in the eternal riddle: why the hell does anybody trust Wells Fargo with their money?
We take a good long look at abortion today - starting with the latest from Ohio - and tomorrow, as ROBIN MARTY discusses her new book, A Handbook for Post-Roe America. She makes a good case that it doesn't really matter if Roe gets overturned in court; we're fighting a system that's biting away at it so efficiently and relentlessly, we need to prepare anyway.
And we wrap with the second part of my interview with JAMES HATCH, Navy Seal and survivor of the effort to free Bowe Bergdahl in Afganistan. He tells his story - and that of his charity, Spike's K9 Fund, in his book Touching the Dragon.
Article Categories: CNN, NBC, Texas, AP, Washington Post, 9/11, New York Times, Environment, PBS, Barack Obama, Immigration, Democrats, U.S. Supreme Court, Economy, EPA, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, Coal, BradCast, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Water, Steve King, Civil disobedience, Steve Bannon, Wells Fargo, Election 2018, Gender equality, ICE
One Child Dead, One Still Hopeful: 'BradCast' 12/26/2018
Guest-host Angie Coiro on Trump's chronic paucity of character; Also: Rep. Jackie Speier on Jonestown, abortion, the 2019 Dem agenda...
On today's BradCast, I'm in again for Brad and Desi, who are on the road for a bit of fa la la la la! I'm the host of In Deep with Angie Coiro, heard alongside the BradCast on many stations and streams.
Come along with me (please, I need all the company I can muster) as I traipse through the latest Trump-tinged headlines. I combine two stories that, on the face of it, have not much to do with each other: the latest child death under the watchful eye of the Border Patrol, and a grimly comical conversation about Santa Claus between Donald Trump and a young girl he just had to dominate. When you dig down, the latter reveals a lot about why we're witnessing the former.
Other headlines: Trump's hypocrisy in Iraq. I mean, the man stood in front of Americans serving us all overseas, and said "We're no longer the suckers, folks" --- addressing the very military he suckered by claiming "bone spurs" to stay home from Vietnam. The same day, ironically, the New York Times ran its story on how his exemption may have come about.
Then I'm so pleased to bring you extended excerpts of a recent onstage conversation with REP. JACKIE SPEIER. Her picture belongs in the dictionary under "indomitable" - undefeated by five gunshot wounds in Jonestown, by the persistent patriarchal hold on America's political power, by the politicians who want to paint late-term abortion as heartless murder - who she countered on the floor of the house with the heartbreaking truth of her real-life abortion.
Speier's account of her life is in her new book Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back. I recommend it without reservation: it's honest, it's not self-aggrandization, and (I say this about very, very few books) genuinely inspiring.
Enjoy!...
Article Categories: California, NBC, Iraq War, Texas, Washington Post, Rights And Freedoms, New York Times, U.S. House, Immigration, Democrats, Economy, Donald Trump, BradCast, Steve Mnuchin, Election 2018, Trade, Trans Mountain Pipeline, Jackie Speier
'If We Don't Get What We Want, I Will Shut Down the Government': 'BradCast' 12/11/2018
Trump's Oval Office tantrum; The 'Bottomless Pinocchio'; New misconduct in NC-9 election fraud probe; FL's late absentee ballots; The 'Axis of Oil'...
By Brad Friedman on 12/11/2018 6:29pm PT
On today's BradCast: A preview of the unimaginably worse dysfunction that awaits us all after Democrats take over the U.S. House majority in January and Donald Trump becomes even worse and more dishonest at his job? [Audio link to show follows below.]
First up today, some quick news headlines, including Time Magazine's announcement that several journalists, killed or imprisoned, are "Person of the Year" for 2018, and a life sentence plus 419 years recommended by the jury for the neo-Nazi who murdered activist Heather Heyer by plowing a car into counter-protesters during the August 2017 "United the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Also, the Washington Post Fact Checkers have been forced to create a new category to describe Donald Trump's dozens of endlessly repeated lies, such as his claims that Mexico would pay for his border wall (he's demanding U.S. tax-payers do so instead) and that his tax cuts were the largest in U.S. history (they weren't. They were the 8th largest.) The new category will be called "Bottomless Pinocchio" and will apply to lies that repeated more than 20 times after they've long been debunked by the fact-checkers as a falsehood. To date, Trump is the only politician to merit such a rating. At least 14 of his most frequently repeated lies have already earned the dubious new distinction.
Then, Trump's bizarre on-camera pageant in the Oval Office today with presumptive, soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. During a media avail before what was to be a meeting regarding the impending federal budget deadline, the three bickered about Trump's threat to shut down the U.S. Government if a budget deal fails to include billions for his southern border wall. "If we don't get what we want," Trump threatened the Democrats during the lengthy and bizarre televised negotiation, "I will shut down the government."
Pelosi and Schumer tried to convince the President to accept one of two bi-partisan deals they say could be immediately passed by both the House and Senate. But Trump, the great deal-maker, failed to budge --- so far. Trump's threat to shutdown the U.S. Government despite the costs to Americans and the economy, comes even while Republicans still control both chambers of Congress. Things are likely to get much uglier once Dems take over the House with their (at least) 40-seat majority on January 3.
Speaking of which, we've got a few more new details today on the GOP election fraud scandal in North Carolina's still-uncertified 9th Congressional District race. Republican Mark Harris is said to have won the election in November by just 905 votes over Democrat Dan McCready. But evidence of absentee ballot fraud by a GOP contractor hired by Harris (in both the general election and Republican primary) has delayed certification of the race by the State Board of Elections. They will decide whether to order a new election or declare one of the two candidates the winner. The Board had planned to review evidence from the ongoing investigation by December 21, but has now told a state court they they may need more time, given that the Harris Campaign has been slow in responding to documents subpoenaed by the Board.
Also, new evidence this week reveals that election workers in Bladen County (one of two NC counties at the center of the probe), illegally tabulated early vote results and leaked them to non-election officials (the Harris campaign?) several days prior to the close of polls on November 6th.
Meanwhile, election officials in Florida have now revealed that more than 6,600 vote-by-mail absentee ballots sent and post-marked by Election Day went uncounted in the Sunshine State's midterm election. Those numbers don't yet include ballots from Palm Beach County, a Democratic stronghold. The untabulated ballots might have effected a number of close races in FL, including those tallied in statewide "recounts" for U.S. Senate, Governor and Agricultural Commissioner. While state law allows ballots post-marked by Election Day from overseas military votes to be included in the tally if they are received up to ten days after the election, all other "late" ballots are ignored.
Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report with news from COP24, the U.N. climate conference in Poland, where the U.S. has joined Russia and Saudi Arabia in an "Axis of Oil" and is, literally, being laughed at for pushing coal while youth protesters demand fossil fuels be kept in the ground. Back home, the Trump Administration is now planning to reclassify high-level nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state (and other facilities) in order to avoid billions of dollars in clean-up at the nation's most polluted former nuclear weapons site...
Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Florida, North Carolina, Washington Post, BRAD BLOG Media Appearance, Election Fraud, Military/Overseas Voting, Journalist Intimidation, Accountability, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, Washington State, Immigration, Republicans, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Vote-by-Mail, Time Magazine, KPFK, Donald Trump, Nuclear power/weapons, Climate change, Rick Scott, BradCast, Saudi Arabia, Race, Dept. of Energy, Election 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, Mark Harris, Dan McCready
Trump Appointment Spree; Cohen 'Deserves' Prison Time: 'BradCast' 12/7/2018
Guest-Host Angie Coiro with a slew of Mueller news and three new Trump noms; Revisiting the Bush Legacy; Huawei as spy?; And guest Lara Bazelon on justice for the wrongly imprisoned...
By Angie Coiro on 12/7/2018 6:17pm PT
On today's BradCast, I'm your host - Angie Coiro, host of In Deep with Angie Coiro.
Donald Trump's tweet fingers were a'twitchin', as he tried to keep up with the flow of Mueller investigation news while churning out headlines of his own. For starters, he made three key appointments/nominations:
Army head General Mark Milley will move over to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
Former H.W. Bush Attorney General William Barr is up for confirmation as Trump's next A.G.;
Former Fox 'News' talking head Heather Nauert is up to replace Nikki Haley as UN ambassador.
I've got the whys and wherefores on those for you. Also, Trump went into rage mode at word of his former Sec. of State Rex Tillerson's very frank discussion on Thursday at a public interview with CBS news veteran Bob Schieffer. Tillerson's explanation of Trump's incomprehension of basic issues, along with his trademark lack of discipline, provoked high-minded Trump tweets calling Tillerson "dumb as a rock" and "lazy as hell".
The BBC has a good basic rundown if you're trying to catch up with the case of Chinese telecom Huawei's alleged spying. I bring you the highlights plus updated news.
Meanwhile, a Swiss paper has published a conversation with Fox's Tucker Carlson who damned the White House occupant as "incapable" of fulfilling his promises. And he went further: "I don't think he's capable of sustained focus. I don't think he understands the system. I don't think the Congress is on his side. I don't think his own agencies support him."
Then, legal expert and journalist LARA BAZELON joins me to discuss her work on restorative justice for wrongly-convicted parolees. She's covered the topic for years for Slate.com, and has now released a book called Rectify. The full version of our conversation will be posted here over the weekend. Don't wait for that, though - I've brought you a big chunk of it right here on The BradCast!
Plus, so much more! It's a bellyful of news today. Check it out!...
Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Fox 'News', CNN, USA Today, Tucker Carlson, Mainstream Corporate Media, Washington Post, Rights And Freedoms, New York Times, United Nations, In Memoriam, San Francisco, Hillary Clinton, FBI, Dept. of Defense, Republicans, LGBTQ, CBS, Bush Legacy, Jeff Sessions, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, Russia, Prison Industrial Complex, Election 2016, China, Vladimir Putin, James Comey, BradCast, Germany, Exxon Mobil, Nikki Haley, Social Media, Rex Tillerson, Ivanka Trump, Mike Pompeo, Jared Kushner, Robert Mueller, Switzerland, Angela Merkel, John Kelly, George Papadopoulos, Heather Nauert, Matthew Whitaker
Death Penalty for Abortion: 'BradCast' 11/21/2018
Guest hosted by Angie Coiro, with wisdom from historian Adam Hochschild; Abortion rights update; John Roberts vs. Donald Trump; Saudi Arabia torture reports; urban housing insights, and more!...
On today's BradCast, I'm in for Brad today --- Angie Coiro, host of In Deep with Angie Coiro.
Quite the contrast between all the news Brad and Desi had to fit in yesterday, and the relatively quiet developments today; everyone's hitting the road. Except Donald, who's hitting Twitter, and SCOTUS chief John Roberts, who's hitting back.
We start with a round-up of news, including three abortion stories (yes, politicians in Ohio want you dead if you get or give an abortion); three tales of adults adulting, even in DC; and a story out of Saudi Arabia that makes it even more astounding that Trump loves the Crown Prince (and Saudi-tied profits) so dearly. Plus a look at Robert Reich's antitrust take on Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
Then long-time historian/journalist ADAM HOCHSCHILD discusses his book, Lessons from a Dark Time --- a collection of his work from over the decades. (A warning here for those who are sensitive to sexual assault discussions, as that does come up.) We talk about prison reform, redefining gun issues, and how far the Nazi Germany metaphor might play out in the US.
Housing activist and journalist RANDY SHAW has a book, too, and it has an unusual take on the urban housing crisis: it's a generational thing. Generation Priced Out documents his investigations in twelve major US cities, seeking both factors and fixes. In addition to the more universally-recognized culprits, he sees a less-discussed one: Baby Boomer resistance to housing the next generations.
And at the very tail end of the hour, a little something to make you smile --- to get you into the Thanksgiving spirit of gratitude. I'll let you check it out for yourself.
Article Categories: CNN, AP, Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco, Barack Obama, FEC, Los Angeles, Torture, Economy, Donald Trump, Robert Reich, IRS/Taxes, BradCast, Saudi Arabia, Civil disobedience, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amazon, Jamal Khashoggi
Ignoring the Cries of Stranded Children: 'BradCast' 10/12/2018
Guest-host Angie Coiro with Tina Vasquez on ICE, family separation; Bill Browder on Jamal Khashoggi; Sarah Craft on death of the death penalty in WA; Eliza Griswold on one family's fight against fracking...
On today's BradCast, I'm your host as Brad and Desi make their way along the road. Some of you hear my show, In Deep with Angie Coiro, alongside the BradCast on the same stations and streams.
We're awash in immigration stories this week, none of them good. Between Donald Trump's ongoing snit that there's no border wall, and his dead-eyed sidekick Stephen Miller's pleasure that the first round of sobbing, damaged children was a such grand success, a new round of detentions and separations is in the works. While reports are that grabbing wailing children from their families and losing them in the system isn't the plan this time around, the proposed "binary choice" isn't a whole lot better. Captured families can sit together in detention while justice slowly creeps toward them, or - their wailing children will be grabbed from them. That sounds awfully familiar.
TINA VASQUEZ has an article published simultaneously on Rewire.News and the New York Review of Books. She talks with me about the organizations shooting for the moon, working to #Abolish Ice. In fact, some go further, with dreams of open borders and Jeff Sessions put out to pasture.
Then the latest on the disappearance and probable murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. BILL BROWDER is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management. When his lawyer was tortured and killed by the Russians, Bill campaigned in the US for sanctions against Russia for the crime. The result is the 'Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act' - the same act Congress cites in its requests to Trump to investigate Khashoggi's fate. Trump so far continues to twiddle his thumbs. Bill talks to me about what justice in this case looks like to him.
SARAH CRAFT brings us tidings of great joy. Yesterday the state of Washington's top court found the death penalty unconstitutional. Sarah - with Equal Justice USA - says it's a trend that seems to be growing.
Finally, ELIZA GRISWOLD, poet and journalist. She spent three years with the Haney family, on the edge of Appalachia. Stacy Haney watched her son grow sicker and weaker, pets die, farm animals born deformed, and the family's drinking water turn black. She realized all that was connected to the fracking down the road. But in a town getting rich on fracking leases, she was ostracized in her fight against the company. Eliza's book is Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America.
Next time: the return of Brad and Desi! I'll be back soon. You take care of yourselves.
Article Categories: CNN, Pennsylvania, Washington Post, Whistleblowers, New York Times, Death Penalty, Environment, Washington State, Immigration, Turkey, EPA, Fracking, Donald Trump, Coal, BradCast, Agriculture, Saudi Arabia, Mining, Jamal Khashoggi
The Daily Sociopath Report: 'BradCast' 8/17/2018
Guest-host Angie Coiro w/ 'Gaius Publius' (Thomas Neuburger); Also: Keeping the arts alive in the era of Trump, w/ David Gans, Meredith Hagedorn, Ronit Widmann-Levy...
Today's BradCast is guest hosted by me, Angie Coiro, host of In Deep with Angie Coiro.
The Toddler-in-Chief gives us all more fodder than we can stand for a news review: telling Vietnam vets they can't tell the difference between napalm and Agent Orange; doubling down on pulling security clearances, because anyone dared challenge his authority to do so (those puny blowhards in the military and from the CIA!); and blaming everyone but himself for the skyrocketing price tag of his vanity parade. He showed us! He'll go to Paris and look at their parade, and buy himself some new fighter jets.
Then it's 'GAIUS PUBLIUS' - or rather, THOMAS NEUBURGER, who's now publishing his commentaries under his real name. You may know his prolific work at Down with Tyranny. He's asked some provocative questions about unions vs. liberals, and how the Democrats fit into that picture. Just as we were speaking, word came down about Trump threatening to pull Bruce Ohr's security clearance. He had some choice words about that, too.
Finally: how arts groups and independent performers are navigating the dual challenge of diminishing funding and politically divided audiences. DAVID GANS is an itinerant independent musician; MEREDITH HAGEDORN founded the small, eclectic Dragon Theatre in a Silicon Valley suburb; and RONIT WIDMANN-LEVY is Director of Arts and Culture at the Oshman Family JCC , a multiple-venue events space. They all face different hurdles keeping their art vibrant.
Article Categories: MSNBC, Washington Post, Blogging, CIA, U.S. Constitution, Environment, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Democrats, Rush Limbaugh, U.S. Supreme Court, Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Economy, Donald Trump, Koch Industries, Canada, Oil, Election 2016, John Brennan, BradCast, Anthony Kennedy, Water, Italy, Neil Gorsuch, Election 2020, Robert Mueller, Vietnam, Paul Manafort, DCCC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brett Kavanaugh, Omarosa Manigault Newman
Religious Freedoms, Ltd.; 'BradCast' 7/30/2018
Guest-host Angie Coiro with Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dave Johnson...
On today's BradCast, you won't hear Brad or Desi --- because you'll be very busy hearing me. I'm the host of In Deep with Angie Coiro.
You may have been fooled for a second --- nah, you're too smart --- but casual observers might mistake Jeff Sessions' announcement of a new DOJ "Religious Liberty Task Force" as an effort to address genuine hate crimes, including attacks on Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans, and Sikh Americans. But of course not. He made it clear it's about bakers afraid of serving LGBTQ customers, or taxpayers having to support icky women – that sort of thing. ANNIE LAURIE GAYLOR is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. She puts this latest news in the wider context of Trump's pro-Christian pandering. While we're at it, we look at how bad for basic civil rights Brett Kavanaugh would be on the Supreme Court.
More news headlines, then DAVE JOHNSON of Seeing The Forest ponders how the concepts of markets, capitalism, and socialism get contorted by propaganda. Even respectable journalists fall victim...
Article Categories: Fox 'News', Washington Post, Raw Story, Rights And Freedoms, U.S. Constitution, Freedom of the Press, Journalist Intimidation, Mainstream Media Failure, In Memoriam, Environment, Dept. of Justice, NPR, Republicans, Marriage Equality, U.S. Supreme Court, FCC, Economy, Donald Trump, Climate change, Election 2016, IRS/Taxes, BradCast, Religion, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, The Hill, Mike Pence, Steve Mnuchin, Election 2020, Vietnam, Nazis, Infrastructure, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brett Kavanaugh
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