On today’s BradCast: The pointless bleeding on Wall Street caused by Donald Trump‘s trade wars slowed a bit by end of day Monday after a roller coaster ride throughout the day. U.S. markets ended largely down, through not as sharply as the two days last week just after Trump announced enormous sanctions against pretty much every nation in the world (other than Russia), for no explainable reason. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]
Given the pointlessness of it — with even Republican billionaires and long-time supporters turning on him — and the lies told by Trump when announcing his tariffs, we turn to Trump-supporting callers for an explanation. Would they be willing to call in and defend this madness? Spoiler: We don’t get any persuasive explanations. Though we do get some interesting lies from one Trumper and some reasonable explanation from folks who don’t support him or what he’s doing to the world.
Also today, the tragic story of Maryland resident Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia continued to churn late last week, into the weekend, and right up until airtime. The 29-year old father from El Salvador with a wife and five-year old autistic son (both U.S. citizens), had been protected from deportation by an immigration judge back in 2019 after escaping gang persecution in his home country. Last month, however, after detaining him in an Ikea parking lot in front of his son, the Trump Administration “mistakenly” sent Abrego Garcia to a gulag in El Salvador. Now they claim it’s too late to get him back from the violent prison where, the judge noted, he faces threats from the same persecutors he’d escaped years ago. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the federal Government to bring him back. Today, just before air, Chief Justice John Roberts placed a (supposedly temporary) administrative stay on the U.S. District Court Judge’s order on behalf of SCOTUS, following an emergency appeal by the Trump DoJ. Where it all ends, nobody currently knows.
And finally, before we turn to the phones, the remarkable story out of North Carolina, where a majority Republican state appeals court panel on Friday ordered that more than 60,000 voters should be stripped of their vote in last November’s state Supreme Court election if they can’t cure supposed problems with their ballots or voter registrations within 15 days. They would be robbed of their vote, but only, apparently, in the Supreme Court election. Losing Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin claims that the 60,000+ voters voted unlawfully in his contest against incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs, even though they didn’t. They followed all rules and laws in place at the time. Nonetheless, the 2 to 1 GOP appellate panel ordered those voters, including overseas military voters, to be given 15 days to be contacted and somehow cure supposed defects with their mail-in votes or voter registrations. This is part of Griffin’s challenge to the election held almost six months ago, in which he lost to Riggs by 734 after two recounts and certification by the State Board of Elections. The matter now goes to the state Supreme Court, where Republicans have a 5 to 2 advantage over Democrats. One of those Dems is Riggs, however. She has recused herself. If the Court ties 3 to 3, the lower court ruling would stand…unless the federal court jumps in to put an end to this disturbing unconstitutional nonsense and blatant attempt by Republicans to steal another election before our very eyes…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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