We shine a spotlight on a whole lot of hypocrisy — both corporate and political — on today’s BradCast. [Audio link to show follows below.]
But first, we begin with the seeming unending string of natural disasters slamming North America of late. After a quick riposte from French President Emmanuel Macron in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s failure at the U.N. General Assembly to mention “climate change” or his withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement on Tuesday — even as yet another Category 5 hurricane was about to slam the U.S. — we cover the latest on several ongoing disasters. In Mexico, hundreds are dead and as many as a thousand still unaccounted for following Tuesday’s catastrophic earthquake. And, in Puerto Rico, the power is out across the entire island after the record winds and rain of Hurricane Maria slammed ashore early on Wednesday, putting some 3.5 million U.S. citizens in dire danger.
Then, amidst all of that, Republicans continue their last ditch frantic attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare before a deadline will make it much more difficult to do so at the end of the month. That, despite the Affordable Care Act’s continuing success in helping to provide medical care to tens of millions of Americans, and the fact that the latest GOP repeal scheme will seriously hurt those in both ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states with enormous cuts to health care funding and the gutting of many long-sought protections offered by the Affordable Care Act.
Most galling, perhaps, is the hypocrisy of Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (pictured above), one of the new bill’s lead sponsors and a doctor himself. Cassidy had publicly promised, during the last round of GOP attempts to gut ObamaCare, that he would vote against any scheme that did not pass what he dubbed at the time as “The Jimmy Kimmel Test”. That was a reference to the touching story regarding the late night comedian’s son who was born with congenital heart disease during the previous attempts by Republicans to kill the ACA earlier this year.
On Tuesday night, at the top of his show, Kimmel offered a sharp and very well-informed response to Cassidy’s hypocrisy. We share that accurate response on today’s show.
Finally, speaking of remarkable hypocrisy, we’re joined by investigative journalist RACHEL LEVEN of The Center for Public Integrity to discuss her new exposé this week, with Jamie Smith Hopkins, documenting dozens of major U.S. corporations — from Google to eBay to Walmart to Coca-Cola to General Electric and more — who publicly declared their “opposition” to Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, even while those very same companies invested millions of dollars in a Republican political group leading the fight to kill the Obama plan meant to meet the emissions reduction standards under the landmark global pact…
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[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_MexicoQuake_MariaPuertoRico_KimmelCassidy_RachelLevenCorporateClimateHypocrisy_092017.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Well Brad, It looks like Imran Awan was in fact a ” Dreamer! ”
https://trello.com/b/RMx1r5dG/hillarys-hamlettruth-leaks-hcs-leakershackers-henchmenseries-54-350-awan-spy-ring
yes 800k DREAMERS are important.
A pakistani isi spy-ring in the house, senate, centcom, and state department which effects 320 million ACTUAL CITIZENS is more important.
Trump has sent help to Mexico.
why is it such harsh punishment being deported back to their home country, the same one they are holding up a foreign FLAG of, when they get arrested?
You should start reading now since you are about a YEAR behind in research and FACTS.
Soon nobody is going to care about Green Fraud News. Except for where to SUE.
Kansas’s Lt. governor was on PBS this morning telling lie after lie about healthcare. These republicans aren’t even trying not to lie. It’s even more disgusting then usual.
The liar in chief lies his ass off and becomes president. Republicans follow his example knowing that the American people don’t have any idea of what goes on. They just follow their leader. The Christians overlooks everything to get their agenda passed. Talk about making a pact with the devil. Is it any wonder that people are leaving the churches.
I was surprised with Solar City also with their contribution ot the RAGA. However, I wish you would change your view that Democrat=Good and Republican=Bad. I have noticed that both parties are Goldman-Sacks, even though D is the 4th floor and R is the 5th floor. I am disgusted with how the military-industrial complex has hijacked the American system, but it hasn’t been in the last 5 or 10 years, this goes back a long ways. And they use the D and R difference as an excuse for their behavior. Bush was very Not Nice, Not Nice in Afghanistan and Iraq. But when Obama came in, all of a sudden the apologists point to the…New administration and how it is different. There was no difference in their policies, and there was no prosecution of war crimes. In fact, there have never been any prosecutions of war crimes if the perpetrator is wearing the Stars and Stripes. I have suggested that Chelsea Mannings’ helicopter video should be played instead of the National Anthem.
GNR: Desi, you have earned the right to scream “I told you so!” You should cover the San Francisco/Oakland lawsuit against Exxon. I want to start a similar one about the fight against electric vehicles. Please do a story about EV and the lies that the petroleum lobby is using. I have noticed most auto ads are using sounds as a key part, and I talk with many Gasholes and they talk about the sound. Do you and Brad drive EV? Just asking.
Larry Taylor said @ 4:
That’s not my view. Not even close.
Yes, they are. That said, I don’t think Goldman-Sachs, in and of itself, equals “Bad” either. They are just another part of the financial-industrial corporate complex that must be reigned in. Both parties have failed to do so (and haven’t even tried.)
Shamefully, there was no prosecution for war crimes. We spent about 8 years pointing that out here (and on air) very loudly. And while Obama’s foreign policies were also objectionable in numerous ways (which we also pointed out), it’s very lazy to say “there was no difference” between his and GWB’s. That is untrue and does a disservice to the policies of both men.
We did, briefly, on the latest Green News Report (if not yet on The BradCast).
Prius.
Larry Taylor:
May I be so bold as to ask you which presidential candidate you voted for in 2016?
It’s OK… I was sort of expecting silence, if that’s the way this is going.
Face it. The solution to these and most other major issues we face ultimately depends on a critical mass of ‘we the people’ working together with some form of genuinely healthy democracy that can effectively connect with our current electoral system.
How can that even be possible? Well, for some examples, here’s an interesting two-part article with basic background information on how we’ve come into this pseudo-democracy we know and hate, plus real-world, grassroots-democracy-oriented options actually worth exploring. (The appendix alone—on our shady election-industry corporations—is a definite must read!)
Check them out:
Our choice: Election-theft tyranny or healthy democracy? (part 1)
and
Our choice: Election-theft tyranny or healthy democracy? (part 2)