Although I didn’t reference Adam Schiff’s remarks from just two weeks ago during the impeachment trial on the “the normalization of lawlessness,” about which he presciently warned “that way madness lies”. But, upon reflecting on today’s BradCast, it seemed an appropriate headline. It was only one week ago that corrupt and cowardly Senate Republicans had the chance to remove Trump from office, but acquitted him instead with the message to continue breaking the law and shredding the Constitution.It was just one week before that when Schiff warned: “What we have seen over the last couple days is a descent into Constitutional madness.” This week has made that madness seem like child’s play. [Audio link to show follows below.]
These are dark times. Growing darker by the day. But we can’t turn away, as much as we might like to right now. Now is the time to step forward and help ourselves — help each other — back into the light. It won’t be easy. But we must. And we do what we can, once again, towards that end on today’s program. Among the stories covered today…
- An vengeful, bitter, out-of-control Trump turns his ongoing Twitter attacks from federal Justice Department prosecutors working on the case against his friend and convicted felon Roger Stone onto the foreperson of the jury that convicted him;
- A witness in the trial who was threatened by Stone (who was convicted of witness tampering and lying to Congress, among his seven counts), has pleaded for no jail time for the longtime GOP dirty-trickster, but has also now stepped forward to call out Trump’s attacks on the four prosecutors who quit the case in protest as a “vile smear job” by the President;
- Trump’s former Chief-of-Staff, Marine Corps General John Kelly, calls out Trump for his wrathful firing of decorated Iraq War vet Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from his post on the National Security Counsel because Vindman dared answer a lawful subpoena to testify truthfully to Congress about Trump’s unlawful bribery campaign against Ukraine. Kelly argues Vindman should be respected, not attacked, for refusing to follow “an illegal order” from the President. “We teach them,” Kelly said, “‘Don’t follow an illegal order. And if you’re ever given one, you’ll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss.'” The legal defense by Nazi soldiers that they were just following orders, whether unlawful or not, failed at the Nuremburg Trials. But perhaps Trump disagrees with that verdict too. In response, Trump attacked Kelly, tweeting that he was “over his head” as CoS, couldn’t be fired “fast enough”, and that Kelly has a “military and legal obligation” to “keep his mouth shut.” The Nazi’s defense attorneys would be very proud of this President;
- But how do we get out of this dark mess and reverse the madness? There is only one way left that I’m aware of, which is why I have spent so many years fighting for the right to vote and for publicly overseeable voting systems. After about 10 lonely years warning specifically about the development of the new, 100% unverifiable “VSAP” touchscreen voting system set for first-time use in Los Angeles County in the March 3rd Super Tuesday primary, I’ve finally received a bit of help in those warnings of late from the corporate media. Last week, it came from an investigative report by CBS-2 Los Angeles (in which I appear). This morning, it came from a new investigative report on L.A.’s dangerous new systems from Cynthia McFadden, as previewed on NBC’s Today show. We share that report today, along with advice on how to overcome the dangers presented by the new, $300,000,000 boondoggle of a voting system coming to the nation’s most populous jurisdiction, as well as how to do the same in other states and counties (including battlegrounds like Georgia, Philadelphia, parts of Texas and elsewhere) where voters will be forced to vote on similarly unverifiable touchscreen systems at the polls in this year’s never-more-critical Presidential election;
- Oh, and we have a few more observations on the New Hampshire primary turnout which we couldn’t get to yesterday, but which are still worth taking note of today, as we all move forward to the next primaries and caucuses;
- Finally, Desi Doyen joins us with the latest Green News Report, with some seemingly genuinely good — and very surprising — news from a major fossil fuel company, that almost, if not entirely, helps us forget about the much-less-good news in the rest of today’s GNR and, for that matter, today’s BradCast!…
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[audio:http://BradBlog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman-TrumpStoneJuror-VindmanKelly-NHTurnout-NBCTodayVSAP_021320.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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The Rule of
LawMurphy’s Law“These are dark times. Growing darker by the day. But we can’t turn away” – Brad
Right on Brad, let’s all stay strong to promote our general welfare.