It’s one of those dark days on The BradCast. But we don’t make the news, we just cover it. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among the stories covered on today’s program…
- NY Attorney General Letitia James releases a report finding Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed as many as 11 staffers and retaliated against one of them, in violation of both federal and state law. The third-term Democratic Governor continues to deny the charges compiled over 5 months by the AG and refuses to step down. President Biden joins the chorus of calls for Cuomo’s resignation. The NY State legislature announces they will soon conclude their impeachment inquiry.
- New York City’s outgoing Mayor, Bill de Blasio, announces that patrons of indoor leisure venues such as restaurants, gyms and shows will soon be required to show proof of vaccination. It’s the first major U.S. city to require vaccination for use of businesses as the deadly and highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus wreaks havoc, even in places like NYC where a higher-than-average percentage of the population has been smart enough to become vaccinated.
- We continue to share heartbreaking stories of those who waited to too long — for any number of usually terrible reasons — to get vaccinated. Today’s story features a husband and wife in Texas who didn’t trust the vaccine, but now wish they had. They’ve both been “very, very, very, very sick” in the ICU and on ventilators for weeks. They are now begging relatives to make sure their four children get their shots, as it was too late for both parents to do so.
- Florida is leading the nation of late in infections, hospitalizations and deaths, breaking their own pandemic records on the first two data points over the past several days. President Biden today noted that the states of FL and TX now account for one-third of all cases in the U.S. and called on their GOP Governors to stop making things worse by blocking local health mandates. But, Louisiana is also breaking its own pandemic hospitalization record, leading Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) to reinstate indoor masking mandates and Dr. Catherine O’Neal, Chief Medical Officer of the state’s largest hospital, to issue a dire statement on Monday. She calls these the “darkest days” of the pandemic in her state, and is begging residents to mask up and get vaccinated. ERs in the state, she explains, are now unable to treat non-COVID patients, such as those having heart attacks or suffering from vehicle injuries.
- Whether the CDC will say it out loud or not, Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter Laurie Garrett argues that the “science says” a third mRNA shot is going to be needed for all Americans — and that those over 60 should already be getting them.
- And, yup, as TPM’s Josh Marshall recently argued, citing the damage that mixed-messages from public health officials is causing, including to their own authority, while trying to coddle the voluntarily unvaccinated, “we need more blame”: “We need to be placing the burdens on non-vaccination on the unvaccinated. And we need to be clear with the public that the problem is the non-vaccinated. They’re at fault. They’re to blame. And even more, the public influencers, celebrities and political actors who’ve driven resistance to vaccination are to blame.”
- In lighter news, the month-old pro-Trump “free speech” social media network (just the newest of many) called GETTR — created by Trump spokesperson Jason Miller and funded by one of Steve Bannon’s Chinese benefactors — is reportedly being flooded with pro-ISIS propaganda, including “reams of jihadi-related material…graphic videos of beheadings, viral memes that promote violence against the West and even memes of a militant executing Trump in an orange jumpsuit similar to those used in Guantanamo Bay.” MAGA!
- Finally, as climate change hastens world collapse faster each day, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report! Told you we had a dark show for you today!…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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