Okay. The best way to take in today's BradCast is simply to listen to it. That is almost always the case, but especially today. The stuff you are tuning in for is likely right up front today. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

I have been hearing from a lot of listeners of the show and readers at The BRAD BLOG since the election, especially on the heels of our coverage last week of a letter sent to Vice President Kamala Harris by a group of top-flight computer scientists and cybersecurity and voting system experts, explaining to her why they are strongly urging her to seek hand-recounts of ballots in several battleground states. I covered their 5-page letter [PDF] in detail on our show last Thursday, along with my interview with longtime University of South Carolina computer science professor and voting system expert, Duncan Buell, one of the signatories.

Around the same time, a longtime financial services security expert, Stephen Spoonamore, who I've known for many years, also begin describing his own concerns about the reported results of the November 5th Presidential election, and has now sent two "Duty to Warn" letters to the Vice President (here is his latest) also recommending she ask for hand-recounts in several battleground states.

While the group of experts cite well-documented evidence of Trump supporters unlawfully breaching proprietary voting systems, copying its software and distributing it across the Internet following the 2020 election, in states including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Colorado (for which several have been charged and/or convicted with felony crimes), Spoonamore's worries are a bit more speculative. He is concerned by his analysis of a reportedly high number of what are known as "Bullet Ballots", which include one single vote (in this case, for Trump for President) and for no one else on the ballot. He augments that concern with what he fears could be a related bevy of hoax bomb threats in largely Dem-leaning jurisdictions on Election Day, said to have come from Russian email domains, as well as the use of Trump supporter Elon Musk's Starlink Internet system in a number of places.

My opening monologue today speaks to all of those concerns, as shared by many Harris supporters who --- not unlike Trump supporters in 2020 and Clinton, Sanders and Kerry supporters in years past --- are suspicious of the reported results of the election. I try to offer some much-needed clarity about what Spoonamore, somewhat misleadingly, described originally as Bullet Ballots, cast at a suspiciously high rate in some battleground states, but not in immediately neighboring states, as well as his other allegations.

Many more details in the show, right up at the top, if you want to give it a listen. But, the long and short is this: It doesn't matter what one's reasons may be for a lack of confidence in the reported results, as currently tallied almost entirely by computer tabulators, either correctly or incorrectly. The only way to answer those concerns, and to determine if the results were tabulated accurately, is with a public hand-count of ballots, either in whole or even in a smaller audit of a random sampling of precincts to ensure computer-reported results accurately reflect the intent of voters.

That has been true for the two decades that I have been reporting on these issues and similar concerns --- sometimes justified, sometimes not (again, it doesn't matter) --- whether they come from Republicans or Democrats or third-party voters. Publicly hand-counting paper ballots (hopefully hand-marked paper ballots!) is the only way to possibly gain confidence among those in the electorate who are suspicious, rightfully or not, about reported results. Public hand-counts remain the Gold Standard for democratically conducted elections --- no matter how many in the media, or even in the "elections industry", misleadingly suggest otherwise.

When you really REALLY need to know who won the closest of elections, you publicly hand-count the ballots. Doing so, by the way, is not always dispositive. There are still sophisticated ways to defraud even a publicly hand-counted election. But it's the best and easiest place to begin.

As noted, there is much more specific detail in my coverage of all of this today, including, for example, news on a hand-counted audit of several precincts this week in Centre County, PA, following a still-unexplained problem uploading absentee ballots into the County's tabulator system on Election Day. So, for those who have touched base with me about any or all of these related concerns, please tune in today!

ALSO TODAY...

• Speaking of counting votes in Pennsylvania, hedge-fund CEO and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick currently leads three-term Democratic Senator Bob Casey by about 17,000 votes, or about one-quarter of one percent, out of nearly seven million votes tallied in the contest. A recount is set to begin shortly, and Counties may choose to count ballots either by hand (please do!) or by a different computer-tabulator than those used to tally them originally. But all of that is taking place amid a legal battle that has stretched on for years, concerning whether absentee ballots, which are known to have arrived on time, but with missing or incorrect dates on their outer envelope, should be counted. A number of counties led by Democrats say yes, they should be counted and that the dates are meaningless. That is true and almost everybody --- even many Republicans, including McCormick who sued to include such ballots in the count when he narrowly lost a 2022 GOP primary --- agree! But, in response to lawsuits filed by 2024 Dave McCormick joined by the Republican National Committee, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Monday that, no, those votes may not be counted this year, since (terrible) state law mandates they may not be. More details, as usual, on today's program.

• Yesterday on The BradCast, we discussed the importance of full and proper FBI vetting of nominees to top Presidential Administration posts with former Deputy Asst. Attorney General and former Chief Counsel for Nominations in the US Senate, Lisa Graves. Instead, Donald Trump's team has hired a private firm to vet potential nominees. Graves explained how such background checks are critical for ensuring that top government officials do not have leverage that may expose them to blackmail, etc. Well, new details now coming out about the allegations of sex trafficking of 17-year old girls by Trump's nominee for U.S. Attorney General, Matt Gaetz serve as a reminder of how important that is. The fact that files said to detail evidence and testimony on some of the most illicit and disturbing charges against him were reportedly hacked from a law firm on Monday puts a huge, blinking, screaming red flag next to that point!

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report as Trump nominates climate science deniers and fossil fuel profiteers to top environment-related cabinet posts, and as President Biden visits the Amazon Rainforest to tout some of his landmark achievements taking on climate change...before Donald Trump returns to office and works to reverse much of that critical progress...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

What should be done --- what can be done --- to shore up advances made in recent years in the fight against climate change before "a climate denier Fascist-in-Chief" takes office? And what can be done to slow down his promised destruction thereafter? Those are just some of the questions discussed on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST... A few updates on some key races still being tabulated and/or called, unofficially, by media...

• Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego has been called as the winner over Republican election denier Kari Lake for the U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.
• Republican hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick's lead over incumbent three-term Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey has narrowed to about 30,000 votes out of seven million cast in Pennsylvania. Crucially, that gap is currently less than one half of one percent, meaning it would trigger an automatic recount in the Keystone State if it holds.
• As of now, if the current numbers become official in all "called" races, Republicans will hold at least 52 seats in the U.S. Senate majority next year, and Democrats will hold at least 47.
• Majority control of the U.S. House is still up for grabs, with 16 uncalled races (depending on who you're asking) , though Republicans need just four more seats to win what, as of now, appears likely to be a very narrow majority in the lower chamber of Congress next year. A smaller one than even the thin majority they've been embarrassingly wrestling with over the past two years.

THEN... Donald Trump's nominations to key Executive Branch posts are coming very quickly now. Among them, as of airtime today...

• Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret and China hawk for National Security Adviser.
• Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, "Li'l Marco" as Trump derisively used to call him, as Sec. of State. He has already reportedly said he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
• Puppy killer and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as Chief of the Dept. of Homeland Security.
• John Ratcliffe, Trump's former Dir. of National Intelligence is tapped to head the CIA.
• Trump's first-term acting Director of ICE and family separation supporter, Tom Homan tapped for "Border Czar", after telling 60 Minutes last month that he intends to lead the mass deportation of millions of immigrants and that it can be done without separate families: "Families can be deported together," he said.
• Former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who voted against a raft of environmental protection laws in Congress, is named to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

NEXT... All of that as Trump's transition team at EPA, led by a former oil lobbyist and a former coal lobbyist, prep to reverse every single piece of Joe Biden's climate agenda as possible, including, as the New York Times reports (gift link), "withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, eliminating every office in every agency working to end the pollution that disproportionately affects poor communities and shrinking the size of national monuments in the West to allow more drilling and mining on public lands."

This comes on the same week that climate advocates from around the globe are gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th annual U.N. Climate Summit (COP29) and vowing to continue the global trajectory toward clean, inexpensive, renewable energy to replace the fossil fuels that are heating the globe toward ever-quickening disaster. They claim "they're ready for Trump 2.0" after facing a similar challenge in 2016. But that may be easier said than done.

We're joined today by JEAN SU, Senior Attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity and Director of their Energy Justice Program to discuss the Biden Administration's legacy, including success and failures; what his Administration can now do before leaving office to shore up its successes; and what groups like hers can do to stop, or at least slow down, the destructive attacks on the environment promised by a second Trump Administration.

"What we'll be seeing happening with the Trump Administration is that it is a total, unfettered giveaway to oil and gas. He does not care about clean energy. He does not care about the communities, at all, in any of the places that fossil fuels are being produced or shipped," says Su, whose organization vows "unprecedented resistance".

"I'll be really honest. It is just, truthfully, a dark moment at this time, in terms of our federal work. We are basically facing a trifecta of monopolization of all three branches of government under a climate-denying fascist," she tells me. "We have our Executive Branch taken over by a climate denier Fascist-in-Chief, Donald Trump. He has vowed to 'drill baby drill' with no relief for any clean energy or any care for climate. And he will strip the Environmental Protection Agency [and] the Civil Rights Division of the Dept. of Justice, an entire administrative apparatus entirely smothered, stripped bare, and not functional in any way in terms of actually protecting our environment and our health and safety."

But, she also explains, there are a number of actions that the Biden Administration can still take before leaving office; actions that legal organizations like hers can take after Trump comes in; and actions that the states must take as soon as possible to, at least, mitigate the worst of the damage as long as possible.

"The bright spot in all of this, the place where we are going to see any movement on climate is at the state level," Su argues. "What we've been hearing from different people on the ground is that the initiatives that are happening at the state level are things that people can feel. They are able to see how some climate initiatives will generate the jobs that they need in their own backyards. That gives us a bright spot of actual work to be done." She also cites local efforts to reform electricity regulators, elected Public Utility Commissions and monopoly utility companies. "Those monopoly utilities are stifling rooftop and community solar, and digging in on more fossil fuels. That's an area that is ripe for intervention and organizing. Those are the bright spots that we're going to see the most movement in climate."

Much more in lively my conversation with Su today!

FINALLY... As the U.N. announces 2024 will be the hottest year on record on Planet Earth (surpassing 2023's previous record), Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, focusing on some of those "bright spots" on the ballot last week, where progressive climate-related ballot initiatives --- in "blue" and "red" states alike --- were received very well by voters, even as many of those same voters voted for candidates who oppose them...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Today was our first chance to open the phone lines to listeners on The BradCast, in the grim wake of last week's disastrous elections for the nation, the planet and democracy itself. It was, to say the least, a very lively show today, FWIW. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Before getting to callers today, a few items of note...

• First, an update on outstanding Senate races still to be determined. Though AP called Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race for Republican hedge-fund CEO David McCormick last week against three-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Casey, other outlets have not yet called it. McCormick is currently said to be leading Casey by about 40,000 votes out of nearly seven million cast, or just over one half of one percentage point. If the gap falls to less than half a point, with provisional and overseas ballots still being tallied, a recount will likely happen under state law. For the record, about 175,000 votes were reportedly cast in that race for third-party Senate candidates, including about 65,000 for the Green Party candidate.

• Over the weekend, media outlets called the U.S. Senate race in Nevada for the incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen, who appears to have defeated Republican challenger Sam Brown by about a point and a half.

• The last uncalled U.S. Senate race is in Arizona, where Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego leads Trump-endorsed election denier Kari Lake by a little more than two points. Republicans have flipped at least three Dem seats overall this year in the Senate, so far, and will have a majority of at least two seats in the upper chamber over the next two years to allow all of Donald Trump's appointments --- to his cabinet, other executive agencies and, of course, lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary --- to sail through for his second term in office. Many more details (and concerns) about the tabulation of those races on today's show

• As many have been writing in to ask about voting system concerns and various reported anomalies since last Tuesday, I take a few minutes today to discuss just some of the incidents currently of most note that I have been looking into and speaking with computer scientists, election integrity advocates, and folks on the ground about over the past week.

  For the moment, I don't see many signs of anything that could possibly change the results of the race, at least for President. Though I am looking at several incidents in several different swing states that deserve both explanation and a broader look to see if similar anomalies, still unreported, may have occurred elsewhere. For example, I have been eyeing whatever happened in both Centre County, Pennsylvania and Battle Creek (Calhoun County), Michigan, where some absentee ballots inexplicably, for now, failed to upload properly to the central Election Management System (EMS) server after being scanned by tabulators without incident.

  Yes, I am also looking at a host of other reported incidents and concerns, including the use of Elon Musk's Starlink system for Internet connectivity in some jurisdictions. Though, in theory, that would only effect Electronic Pollbooks at voting precincts, rather than ballots themselves. As noted on today's program, rest assured that I and others are still watching and digging where we can. And, my usual reminder here that sometimes it takes a while for tabulation errors to come to light after an election. Your problem reports that you believe I may not have seen are welcome in comments below, as always.

• Lastly, before we get to a lot of listener phone calls today, from all sorts of political perspectives, a few thoughts of my own about the unspeakable failure by our nation's media --- mainstream corporate media, social media, independent media --- to adequately inform voters about actual facts regarding this election. Facts including why it is that Donald Trump now poses an exponentially more acute threat to the nation and the world than he did during his first term. (I discuss several such reasons, including that his corrupted U.S. Supreme Court majority has, since his previous term, issued a ruling that Presidents may commit any crime they like while in office, and can never be held to account for it.) And how, if voters claimed they were voting for Trump in response to the economy and inflation under the Biden-Harris Administration, they were obviously wildly uninformed, misinformed and, too often, purposely disinformed about the facts on which they claimed to have voted, given the success of the Admin's record on the economy, versus the inflation and debt that is promised by very few economic policies that Trump promised during the campaign. Yeah, I've got a word or two to get out on all of that today. (And will, almost certainly, have many more in the future.)

• Finally, a bunch of callers ring in to let it all out on whoever and whatever they'd like to blame for what happened, or to discuss why they still seem pleased with their votes for third-parties (one caller supported RFK, Jr., who wasn't evening running!), or to simply call in, in the case of at least one Trump supporter, to gloat. Today was the day to let it all out with, likely, many such days to come --- along with the suffering and misery that awaits all of us now. Yes, even the Trump and RFK supporters, sadly, who seem to have no clue how bad this is all going to get...thanks to our failed media...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

We do our best to avoid being Pollyanna-ish on The BradCast. But not everything that happened on Tuesday (or since) has been terrible. Just a lot of it. But, in fact, some of it was quite good and worth taking notice! [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among our many stories today...both good, bad and otherwise...

• A quickly moving wildfire exploded northwest of Los Angeles on Wednesday, fueled by dry brush and wind gusts up to 80mph. As of Thursday afternoon it had scorched some 14,000 acres, burned through several homes, mansions, ranches and agricultural areas and threatens another 3,500 other structures in the suburban community. 10,000 residents have been evacuated. The so-called "Mountain Fire" was 0% contained at air time. "It's like trying to put out a blowtorch with a squirt gun," said a Ventura County Fire Dept. official in a climate changed wildfire season that has, so far, burned three times as much land as last year at this time.

• Speaking of California and climate, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called an emergency special state legislative session beginning next month "to protect our state against any unlawful actions by the incoming Trump Administration." He declared on Twitter that "California is ready to fight. Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action --- we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked."

• AP announced late this afternoon that carpet-bagging hedge-fund billionaire and Pennsylvania's Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick had defeated three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey on Tuesday, adding yet another pick up for Republicans in next year's U.S. Senate, where they are already set to take back majority control. (After we got off air, however, Democratic election attorney Marc Elias countered, "The Pennsylvania Senate race is not over," citing a statement from PA's Republican Sec. of the Commonwealth estimating another 100,000 ballots remain to be adjudicated in the race where McCormick currently leads by a reported 32,000 votes over Casey.)

• This morning, President Joe Biden took to the Rose Garden to offer his first public remarks since Election Day, following Kamala Harris' apparent loss to the lawless former President, noting, "You can't love your country only when you win,". By way of contrast to Trump, Biden vowed a peaceful transfer of power, lauded Harris' run, discussed the importance of democracy (even when ya lose) and offered encouragement to staffers and supporters by telling them that "setbacks are unavoidable, giving up is unforgivable." We share his brief remarks today in full.

• Protecting and/or expanding reproductive freedoms was on the ballot in 10 different states on Tuesday. Abortion rights won in seven of them, including Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York. In fact, otherwise "deep red" MO became the first state in the union, since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, to reverse a near-total abortion ban and enshrine reproductive rights into the state's constitution!

  Similar initiatives failed, however, in three states: Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota and for various reasons in each, which we discuss today. Most notably, in FL, the measure to restore freedoms and repeal the state's Big Government six-week ban was supported by a healthy 57% to 43% majority of voters. But the state mandates a 60% supermajority for adoption of Constitutional ballot amendments and, at the same time, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis applied state muscle and seemingly unlawful measures to prevent passage.

  Politico's longtime Capitol Hill heath care reporter ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN joins us today to break down what happened in each state, and where the never-ending battle for and against reproductive freedoms goes from here.

• In other good ballot measure news, voters in Washington state overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to repeal the state's landmark climate law, adopted two years ago under outgoing Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. The new law slashes dangerous carbon emissions by charging fossil fuel polluters for their pollution. The law has already brought in some $4 billion for habitat restoration and hardening the state against the worsening ravages of climate change. Voters reportedly voted by a 24-point margin to keep the law in place!

• Finally, Desi Doyen is here with our first post-election Green News Report, with details on the troubling worldwide implications for climate under the incoming Trump Administration, as environmental groups vow to press forward. Also, details on both the wildfires in Los Angeles and the rare, late-season Hurricane Rafael which has knocked out power to Cuba (again) and is making its way into record warm Gulf of Mexico waters...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

The court takes Wednesdays off in Donald Trump's New York criminal trial on 34 felony counts related to his use of hush-money paid to a porn star to help him cheat his way to winning the 2016 Presidential election. So, today is a good opportunity for us here on The BradCast to get caught up on our trial story so far with two guests who are following it closely. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

But, FIRST UP, it was Primary day in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and though the nominations for both major party's Presidential candidates are long ago all but official, the turnout and results from the Keystone State's closed primaries on both sides are somewhat revealing. Tune in for details, but suffice to say, Joe Biden appears to have outperformed Trump in the narrowly divided battleground state yesterday, where Dem turnout outpaced Republicans and Nikki Haley, who quit the race weeks ago, racked up nearly 17% of the GOP Presidential vote. There were several U.S. House races of note and uncontested primaries for this year's critical U.S. Senate race in PA, where incumbent Democrat Bob Casey is taking on billionaire hedge-fund manager Dave McCormick (who has been less than forthright about his upbringing.)

President Biden signed a long-overdue $61 billion aid package for our democratic allies in Ukraine after overwhelming Senate passage on Tuesday night. That followed on the heels of Saturday's passage in the House by Democrats following an about-face by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. The package adopted by Congress and signed by the President today is for $95 billion in all, including funding to replenish Israel's missile defense systems following Iran's attack last week, billions of dollars in humanitarian aid in Gaza, and military aid to Taiwan. The bill also includes a ridiculous measure that may result in the popular social media app TikTok being banned in the U.S.

In reproductive rights (or lack thereof) news, the corrupted far-right majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical during heated Oral Argument on Wednesday over a Biden Administration mandate under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The 1986 statute requires hospitals that accept federal medicare funding to offer emergency, life-stabilizing care to all patients who arrive in the emergency room. After SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, the Administration reminded facilities that such care includes abortions when a patient is "in serious jeopardy" or any condition that might impair bodily functions or organs, no matter the state's own restrictions on reproductive care. Idaho disagreed and sued. The packed rightwing supermajority on the High Court was working hard today to side with Idaho.

There was somewhat brighter related news in Arizona on Wednesday when, after three weeks of trying, Democrats in the state's House were finally able to vote to repeal the state's 1864 territorial ban on nearly all abortions. Three Republicans joined all 29 Democrats to repeal the law. The measure still needs passage in the GOP-controlled state Senate, after which AZ's 15-week abortion ban would take the place of the 160-year old near-total ban.

And THEN, we're joined again today our friends award-winning columnist and blogger HEATHER DIGBY PARTON of Salon and Hullaballoo and former attorney (and former Republican) KEITH BARBER of Daily Kos to get up to speed on this week's fits and starts in Donald J. Trump's New York criminal trial.

After last week's faster-than-expected jury selection, the trial began with Opening Statements on Monday in which prosecutors described Trump's criminal scheme to hide several sexual affairs just before the 2016 election as "election fraud, pure and simple". On Tuesday morning, during a contempt hearing on at least 10 instances in which Defendant Trump violated the court's gag order against attacking jurors and witness, the judge instructed Trump's attorney Todd Blanche that he was "losing all credibility with the court." Says Barber today: "In a list of phrases that could be the worst to come out of a judge's mouth in the first two days of a trial, that would be right at the top of the list."

On both days, shortened for the Passover holidays, David Pecker, former National Enquirer publisher and longtime friend of Trump, took the stand on behalf of the prosecution to discuss hush-money payoffs he'd arranged as part of an alleged conspiracy with Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen to publish damaging stories about Trump's political opponents and quash stories that might be damaging to him. As Pecker detailed, that included paying off a Trump Tower doorman to shut up about his claim that Trump fathered an out-of-wedlock child with a maid who also worked there, and to "catch and kill" the story of Playboy model Karen McDougal who says she carried on a nearly year-long affair with Trump while his wife Melania was pregnant.

Parton describes the first witness in this case as offering several ironies since Pecker "said that their little scheme back in 2015 and 2016 was all fake news. Literally fake news. They made up stories. They killed negative stories about Trump and pushed negative stories that were literally fake news about his rivals. It's like gaslighting to the thousandth power."

Pecker's is expected to continue his testimony on Thursday regarding the $130,000 hush-money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, which was repaid to Cohen by Trump via monthly installments during his first year in the White House. Those payments became the falsified business records at the center of this trial, as the Trump Organization logged them as legal retainer fees, rather than unreported reimbursements that ran afoul of campaign finance laws, according to prosecutors.

Both Parton and Barber find it curious that, while Trump has been relentless in his attacks on witnesses like his longtime attorney and fixer Cohen, he has not said a negative word about his friend Pecker since the former Enquirer chief signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors in 2018. She believes there is much more that Pecker knows about Trump above and beyond the scandals he's already detailed in this case. Barber concurs: "There's reason to believe that David Pecker has more of Trump's bodies buried in various places."

Each offer many more thoughts and insights on all of the above, including much more that we've learned over just the first two days of this historic trial, the legal hurdles faced by prosecutors, and what we should expect in the days ahead...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

I guess I'll have to keep saying it damn near every day on The BradCast between now and November (and probably for the next two years thereafter, at this rate), but anyone who tells you they know what's gonna happen in his year's elections, is just making it up outta whole cloth. Everything is changing every single day and all of it is going to effect what happens next. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

For example, before we get to our guest today, some quick news on the fallout from the stolen and packed U.S. Supreme Court's likely plan to overturn 50 years of freedom for American women's healthcare by overturning the Constitutional right to an abortion established in 1973's Roe v. Wade.

The news has been so alarming to so many that even Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), a long time "pro-lifer", now says he plans to vote for the Women's Health Protection Act in the Senate this week to codify abortion rights into federal law. At the same time, new polling taken last week, after the leak of Alito's draft majority opinion that would overturn 'Roe', finds both good and suggestively helpful news for Democratic candidates paying attention.

The poll from Yahoo News/YouGov finds, once again, that a large majority of Americans do not want Roe overturned. More importantly, for democracy itself, voters in the survey support a generic Democratic over a generic Republican on their Congressional ballots by a 5-point margin (44% to 39%). But here's where the polling is really enlightening: "[W]hen voters were asked to choose instead between a 'pro-choice Democrat' and a 'pro-life Republican,' GOP support fell to 31% while Democratic support held steady --- more than doubling the gap between the two candidates, to 13 percentage points."

Got that, Dems?

That's just one of too many wildcards between now and November that make any sort of punditry largely useless. Another one? Well, Donald Trump's former Sec. of Defense Mark Esper was on Fox "News" this week confirming to Brett Baier that, yes, given the events of January 6th, 2021 and some other stuff, he believes "Donald Trump was a threat to democracy." Ouch.

Speaking of the January 6 insurrection and threats to American democracy, we're joined once again today by Constitutional law expert JOHN BONIFAZ, President and co-founder of Free Speech for People (FSFP), the non-profit, non-partisan good governance group helping voters to challenge the eligibility for reelection of elected officials who have "engaged insurrection" in violation of the Constitution's "Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause" (14th Amendment, Section 3).

Bonifaz was with us several weeks ago following the sworn testimony of challenged Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who hedged and/or lied and/or "can't recalled" her way through questioning before an Administrative Law Judge in Atlanta. Greene claimed she couldn't remember whether she suggested that Trump invoke Martial Law (she did), whether she said Nancy Pelosi was "a traitor to the country" (she did, and admitted as much after it was clear that FSFP's attorneys questioning her had the video evidence), or that she even opposed the peaceful transfer of power on January 6th (yup, she did that on video too.)

On Friday, the state Administration Law Judge who oversaw the hearing, Charles Beaudrot, released his decision in the case, recommending that GA's Republican Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger not disqualify Greene from the ballot for lack of evidence from the challengers. But Beaudrot's 19-page decision [PDF] --- and Raffensperger's subsequent rubber stamp [PDF] --- "betrays the fundamental purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause and gives a pass to political violence as a tool for disrupting and overturning free and fair elections," said FSFP in response. Bonifaz, today, describes major legal errors that he says must be reversed.

For example, Beaudrot completely ignored the evidence of text messages Greene sent to Trump's then Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on invoking Martial Law and Greene's own video on social media declaring, "you can't allow it to just transfer power peacefully, the way Joe Biden wants, and allow him to become our President."

Beaudrot "treats her as a credible witness," in his decision, charges Bonifaz, with "nothing about her as a witness who is not credible on the stand under oath, saying she couldn't remember, couldn't recall more than 80 times. Then you add that to the fact that days after her testimony, the revelation of the text she sent to Mark Meadows, where she did in fact advocate that Trump impose martial law to stay in power."

On top of that, he explains, the Judge also offers yet another reason to appeal. "The Georgia Supreme Court stated that, under Georgia law, 'The entire burden is placed upon the candidate to affirmatively establish their eligibility for office.' That's what the law is. [But] days before this hearing began, [Beaudrot] shifted the standard --- he reversed the burden of proof, and said it was not going to be on the candidate, it was going to be on challengers, contrary to that Supreme Court ruling."

FSFP is appealing the decision on behalf of the voter challengers they represent in GA's 14th Congressional District to Fulton County (Atlanta) Superior Court. "That's going to be before one judge. If we prevail, I'm sure Greene's attorneys will appeal to the state supreme court." Bonifaz says they plan to make every challenge possible through both the primary and general election, if necessary.

"We are not, on our end, giving up in any way," he vows. "The evidence is overwhelming that Marjorie Taylor-Greene engaged in insurrection, that she's disqualified, and our clients want us to proceed --- the voters in her district who are courageous to stand up on this --- they have been done an injustice by Judge Beaudrot."

The Greene case in GA is not the only challenge to alleged insurrectionist candidates for office. FSFP also challenged the eligibility of Rep. Madison Cawthorn in North Carolina, where a federal Appeals Court judge was seemingly stunned last week by his defense attorney's claim at their hearing that, yes, a 12-year old could run for Congress and nobody in the state could challenge that Constitutional deficiency, that it would be solely up to Congress to determine who is eligible to be seated as a member. A ruling from that 3-judge appellate panel is due soon.

And in Arizona, where the indefatigable FSFP is representing voters challenging the candidacies of Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, along with AZ State Rep. Mark Finchem, the Trump-endorsed Republican running for Sec. of State this year, the state Supreme Court on Monday denied the right for voters to challenge candidates at all based on the Insurrection Disqualification Clause. They determined [PDF] that "no private right of action exists under the United States Constitution or Arizona law" to challenge candidates under the 14th Amendment and that "the Constitution reserves the determination of the qualifications of members of Congress exclusively to the U.S. House of Representatives."

Bonifaz disagrees, but concedes the group is out of court options in the state. However, he explains, the Secretary of State has the final word on ballot eligibility. In this case, that would be Democrat Katie Hobbs, who they've asked to disqualify the candidates. While that might otherwise be encouraging news, it should be noted that Hobbs is also on the ballot this year running for Governor. That could restrict her political options in a matter like this...but we'll see. But credit to FSFP for fighting as hard and as long as possible!

And, yes, Bonifaz tells me, the group intends to bring challenges, on the same Constitutional basis, against Donald Trump if he runs again in 2024. "Absolutely," he vows.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as "unprecedented" wind and heat in New Mexico are fanning out-of-control wildfires across the state, endangering thousands of homes and other structures. Also, wildfires in Russian Siberia are out of control as the military, which usually tensd to them, are otherwise occupied of late fighting Putin's war on Ukraine. But she's got some good news too, about cow burps! That alone may be worth tuning in for!...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)