Today’s BradCast picks up, by and large, where yesterday’s show warning, left off. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among the stories covered today…
- First up, it looks like the U.S. House has passed a Continuing Resolution to temporarily fund the federal government through early next year in advance of this Friday’s otherwise scheduled shutdown date. With the farthest right of the GOP House conference balking, of course, Democrats were once again needed to save the day to pass the measure, which now heads to the Senate for likely adoption. New Speaker Mike Johnson‘s move is the exact same thing that got then Speaker Kevin McCarthy tossed from his Speakership by the extremists in his own caucus. Johnson, however, is apparently being given a pass, for now.
- Then, we return to my argument from yesterday regarding the failure by most of the corporate media to properly inform the electorate about the two currently most likely candidates to win next year’s 2024 Presidential nominations. In the case of President Biden, media are failing to accurately and proportionately report on his remarkable successes. In Donald Trump‘s case, they are still not fully covering the very real threat his own promised policies for a second term present to the nation.
But some are getting it, including former Republican Congressman turned morning show host Joe Scarborough and his guest yesterday, global politics Professor Brian Klass. After Scarborough cited Trump’s recent Nazi-like rhetoric for what it is, Klass made clear, in no uncertain terms: “I study the breakdown of democracy, and I don’t know how to say this more clearly: We are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism, and people are not waking up to this.”
- After receiving blow-back for Trump, at a Veterans Day rally over the weekend, describing his perceived domestic enemies as “vermin”, just as Hitler and Mussolini did before him, Trump Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung attempted to reject the criticism from some corners over the remarks…by doubling down in a statement promising that Trump opponents’ “entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.†— Not really helping, Steve.
- Moreover, after a number of chilling recent news reports cited Trump’s own vows, along with his campaign’s and affiliated outside rightwing groups to create extremist plans for a second term in office — including promises to prosecute, jail and even execute opponents and to construct major “camps” to hold millions of immigrants and homeless Americans — his Campaign’s co-managers, Susie Wilies and Chris LaCivita, issued a statement hoping to downplay detailed policy plans issued by anyone but the campaign as “purely speculative” and “merely suggestions”. Unfortunately, many of those plans have been discussed with media by former top White House officials and Trump loyalists like Stephen Miller at the suggestion of the Campaign itself. And, as the New York Times observes, “the most incendiary rhetoric and proposals have come from Mr. Trump’s own mouth.”
- A judge in Michigan, just before airtime today, rejected a challenge to Trump’s candidacy under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars those from public office who, after taking an oath to defend the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection†against it. Despite the repeated historical use of the Amendment over the last 150 years or so since it’s adoption, the judge claims that Congress must act before it can be used to block a Presidential candidate from the ballot. (After tonight’s show, with more details now out, it is clear that — as with last week’s ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court in a similar challenge — the judge’s ruling is only in response to Trump’s placement on the primary ballot. Both courts have left open further challenges to Trump’s viability in a general election. Also, as with last week’s Minnesota decision, the petitioners have vowed to immediately appeal the decision to a higher court.)
- Meanwhile, Trump’s criminal defense team in the Georgia conspiracy case against him and 18 others for attempting to steal the 2020 election in the Peach State, appears to be the source of leaked videos of three former Trump attorneys (Ken Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis) and Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall. Each have pleaded guilty in the case and have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against the other defendants. The selective videos, leaked to both ABC News and Washington Post, are of the four defendants being interviewed by Fulton County prosecutors just before they copped their pleas. They reveal a number of new details in the case, but appear designed to undermine their witness testimony, send a threatening message to other potential cooperators and witnesses, and otherwise highlight Trump’s expected defense in the case. Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis is now seeking an emergency order from the judge to prevent any further leaks of discovery evidence. The judges in Trump’s other criminal cases would be wise to take notice of what he appears to be doing in Georgia.
- The U.S. Government released a massive, 2,200-page report today, its Fifth National Climate Assessment, finding that climate warming in the U.S. is now outpacing the global average and warning that every part of the country is being adversely affected by worsening heat waves, drought, wildfires, heavy downpours, and more. Minority communities are being disproportionately harmed. The cost of climate crisis damage to Americans is now averaging more than $150 billion each year, with last year clocking in at $178 billion. Along with the release of today’s report, President Biden announced $6 billion in new investments — paid for by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act — to “make communities across the country more resilient to climate changes…focused on key climate goals, including modernizing our aging electric grid to withstand extreme weather…Reducing flood risks to communities. Improving drought resilience. Support conservation for our national parks…And advancing environmental justice for disadvantaged communities, because they’re the ones always left behind.”
- Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report — for which the new National Climate Assessment came in too late today — to report on last week’s GOP Presidential Primary debate in Miami(!) which failed to even mention climate change; Australia‘s new treaty with the nation of Tuvalu as it disappears for good beneath the rising seas; and much more…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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“Sleepwalking towards authoritarianism” is so epigenetic (On The Origin Of A Genetic Constant – 10).
Precise language is a precision-guided munition: Some are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism, and some people are not waking up to this.