Today on The BradCast: You're not the only one worried about the U.S. devolving quickly into an autocracy under Trump's attempted dictatorial rule. So are many of the world's top academic democracy experts and researchers! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

We've got quite a bit to get to on today's show. Here is a very quick round-up...

• Our quickly deteriorating man-baby President hates offshore wind power so much (because, years ago, he felt it would sully the view from one of his golf courses), that now we all have to pretend it causes cancer, or drives whales crazy, or is a national security risk. Whatever nonsense claim Donald Trump dreams up. His attempts to stop five nearly completed projects off the U.S. east coast were all blocked by the courts. Now, he has a new strategy: Paying a French company that won leases for two new projects (off of New York and North Carolina) during the Biden Administration, nearly a billion dollars to not move ahead with those projects. That's right, 928 million in your taxpayer dollars is being offered to the company in a settlement if they agree to not do any work to provide clean, safe, renewable energy to millions of Americans during an energy crisis sparked, in no small part, by Trump's ridiculously ill-considered war on Iran. One other thing the company must do as part of the deal, according to the settlement documents reviewed by New York Times: invest money in dirty, deadly, natural gas infrastructure in Texas.

• According to the tenth annual democracy report issued this week by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, authoritarianism is on the rise across the globe with the U.S. and 43 other nations "autocratizing", while just 12 are becoming more democratic, out of more than 200 countries and territories examined by democracy researchers.

  "The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history," the group's Democratic Report 2026 warns. It finds that "By magnitude of decline on the [report's Liberal Democracy Index], the 2025 plunge is the largest one year drop in American history going back to 1789 "“ that is, in the entire period covered by V-Dem data."

  Among the bullet points atop the 7-page special section on "Autrocratization in the USA," included in the 52-page report [PDF] (the special section starts on page 33 and is worth a read!)...

  • Under Trump's presidency, the level of democracy in the USA has fallen back to the same level as in 1965.
  • Yet the situation is fundamentally different than during the Civil Rights era. In 2025, the derailment of democracy is marked by executive overreach undermining the rule of law, along with far-reaching suppression and intimidation of media and dissenting voices.
  • The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history.
  • Legislative Constraints --- the worst affected aspect of [U.S.] democracy [cited by the scholars] --- is losing one-third of its value in 2025 and reaching its lowest point in over 100 years.
  • Civil Rights and Equality before the Law are also rapidly declining, falling to late 1960s levels.
  • Freedom of Expression is now at its lowest level since the end of WWII.
  • Electoral components of [U.S.] democracy remain stable [in this year's "Liberal Democracy Index". But] election-specific indicators are re-assessed only in electoral years, and the 2025 scores are based on the quality of the 2024 elections.

  "What would it take to stop autocratization in the USA, and turn it around?," the report asks rhetorically. "Roughly 70% of all 'third wave' episodes of autocratization have been reversed, making U-turns. Elections were often pivotal windows of opportunity, and the first electoral cycle was often decisive."

  See you in November!!!

• That stunning V-Dem report also cites the federal judiciary as one of the few remaining bulwarks against U.S. autocratization and the loss of freedom of expression, as the Executive branch has all but usurped the powers of the Legislative branch under a compliant GOP majority in Congress. To that end, judges in the lower courts, if not at the Supreme Court, continue, by and large, to adhere to the Constitution and Rule of Law, providing a check on the criminal excesses of the Trump Regime. Another ruling this week from a Reagan-appointed federal judge underscores that point. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered that more than 1,000 federal workers at Voice of America --- the 84-year old beacon of democracy and for a free press around the globe --- be reinstated and VOA restored to the global airwaves by next week! That, following the unlawful dismantling last year of VOA, its parent agency (the U.S. Agency for Global Media) and its sister networks around the globe by twice-failed GOP candidate and Trump loyalist Kari Lake. Last week, the same judge determined Lake was never lawfully serving in her job and her mass firings --- leaving nothing more than a skeleton crew to unlawfully run rightwing propaganda --- were therefore null and void. This week, Lamberth gave the Administration one week to bring employees back to work and for the national treasure of a radio network, established during WWII, broadcasting in 49 different languages to some 352 million people, to finally be restored as per federal statutes.

• MAGA loyalist, white nationalist, and Trump National Counterterroism Center Director Joe Kent very publicly resigned this week, citing opposition to Trump's war on Iran. One of his objections from his announcement was that Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation". As it turns out, there is much more to that story. And yes, it ties in to testimony given, or in this case not given, by Kent's friend and fellow veteran Tulsi Gabbard to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee this week. Gabbard, Trump's Director of National Intelligence and former opponent of dumb foreign wars (you can still buy one of Tulsi's "No War With Iran" t-shirts from her failed 2020 Democratic Presidential run, if you like) refused to say outloud during her testimony to the Committee whether the U.S. Intelligence Community assessed that Iran actually posed an imminent threat to the U.S., as Trump falsely insist. That, in contrast to her written testimony which concedes as much. All of this attracted the ire of Dems on the Committee, including Georgia's Sen. Jon Osoff, whose sharp questioning of Gabbard we share on today's program.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as oil and gas prices continue to skyrocket and a hunger crisis looms thanks to Trump's war; and as the autocratic Administration bigfoots California state law to order the restart of a disastrously failed crude pipeline near Santa Barbara...

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It's Happy Beginning of Daylight Saving Time Day on today's BradCast! (The actual unofficial start of Summer!) That said, thanks in (very small part) to last night's Spring Forward clock change, I'm too tired to write much today. So... [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our many stories covered today...

• Our brightest news of the day: A Reagan-appointed federal judge over the weekend ruled that former Phoenix local news anchor, twice-failed statewide candidate and election denier Kari Lake's destruction of the beloved Voice of America was all entirely illegal. Turns out she was never legally serving in her role as Trump's Acting Director of the independent executive agency that oversees it. Presumably --- barring any successful changes at the appellate level --- thousands of people unlawfully fired by Lake at the 84-year old worldwide global media outlet must be rehired.

• An update on Donald Trump's horrible, still-expanding War on Iran, including a seventh U.S. service member has been killed; new evidence that the U.S. was responsible for bombing a girls' school in the southern part of the country on Day 1 of the war, killing about 175 people, many of them children; an even harder-line cleric is chosen to be Iran's Supreme Leader, with 56-year old Mojtaba Khamenei now set to replace his assassinated 96-year father Ali Khamenei; and oil and natural gas prices are spiking as production in the region grinds to a standstill.

• And a few thoughts today --- from Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 to Hawaii's Democratic U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz in 2025, and me --- on the fact that there is always plenty of money for the U.S. military industrial complex to wage wars anywhere in the world. There's just never enough to make sure that you have food, housing, education, healthcare, good roads and a happy life.

Finally, we open the phones to listeners on all of the above, and the conversations quickly --- and, happily! --- turn to "what the hell can and should we do about it?!"

Tune in for another lively BradCast!...

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Gotta keep it short today. (You're welcome.) But there's plenty to make up for it on today's very lively BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage...

• Habemus Papam! And all signs are that Pope Leo XIV may be a good one...even if he's from Chicago.

• Happily, the new Pope tossed Donald Trump's dumb, first and only, but not-actually-done trade deal with U.K. right off today's front pages. But, suffice to say, it ain't much of a deal anyway, done or otherwise. At least not for the U.S.

• Speaking of deals from the world's greatest (read: worst) negotiator, the one that Trump struck last week with Ukraine, to share some profits from exploitation of rare earth minerals in the war-torn nation in exchange for our continuing support, actually is a good deal! Especially for Ukraine, which seems to have outfoxed Trump. (Which apparently isn't all that difficult.)

• In other dumb Trump trade news, California Governor Gavin Newsom and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff --- not to mention film and TV producers and unions, etc. --- are calling Trump's weekend bluff, when he claimed to want to save the U.S. film industry. He declared an unworkable, potentially industry-crushing 100% tariff on all films "produced in Foreign Lands". The serious people, however, want to see federal tax credits to encourage more production in the U.S. So, does Donny really want to keep the industry from "DYING a very fast death", as he claimed? If so, his Democratic friends in California have an actual solution. (Don't hold your breath he'll take it.)

• Arizona's two-time statewide loser and election fraud fraudster Kari Lake has a new job with the Trump Administration. She's helping him shut down the world-revered Voice of America news and culture outlet and its global sister networks, despite the Congressionally-mandated and funded outlets' charter to produce accurate and unbiased news and cultural programming --- particularly in regions where a free press is restricted. VOA has done exactly that for the past 83-years since WWII, until being silenced by the Trump Administration. As lawsuits filed by VOA journalists, unions and contractors move forward to reopen the networks, Lake announced this week that she plans to replace the programming with far-right wingnut propaganda produced by the loons at the One America News Network (OAN). Which would, of course, be against the law.

• Finally, Desi Doyen is here with some alarming news that came in after we'd already laid down today's Green News Report. We close today's program with both...

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Saturday was a very dark day for the cause of democracy and the free press around the world, as detailed on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Since its very first broadcast on February 1, 1942, the Voice of America has been, as my guest today described it in his "Requiem for the voice that carried a nation's conscience" over the weekend, "a beacon that burned bright during some of the darkest hours."

"To eliminate" VOA and its sister networks around the globe, which broadcast to more than 400 million each week in more than 100 countries in more than 60 different languages, is to "turn our backs on those around the world who have counted on us. It is to surrender a unique platform that no other country can replicate."

"It was never just about America's voice," wrote STEVE HERMAN, my guest on today's show, "it was about America's integrity. There will be celebrations in the autocratic halls of power this weekend in Moscow, Minsk, Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran."

Herman has been reporting for Voice of America overseas for decades --- from war zones, civil uprisings and natural disasters --- as a journalist and as VOA's Bureau Chief in India, Korea and Thailand at various times. He was serving as the federal government-funded outlet's Bureau Chief in Northeast Asia when we first got to know him during his remarkable coverage following 2011's tragic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown near Fukushima, Japan, when he was one of the first journalists allowed inside of the crippled reactor building just days after the disaster.

Over the past decade, the seemingly fearless Herman returned stateside to serve as VOA's State Department Bureau Chief, then its White House Bureau Chief and, finally, its Chief National Correspondent. At least until he was summarily placed on forced "excused absence" at the end of February by Trump officials who had wrested control of the otherwise non-partisan U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, as well as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and others.

Over the weekend, following a late-night decree by Donald Trump on Friday and an order signed by USAGM's White House advisor --- and Trump's nominee to run VOA --- failed Arizona Gubernatorial candidate and election denier Kari Lake, some 1,300 journalists were placed on leave at VOA, where the air has now fallen silent, or filled by music instead of the critical news and cultural content that has been a hallmark for so many decades around the world.

"I've been in other countries when all of a sudden the broadcasting goes off the air, the programming, and it's replaced by music. That always meant there was a coup that was occurring," Herman says darkly.

"What message are we sending out to the world when the regular programming of Voice of America --- whether it's in English, or Burmese, or Swahili, or Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Urdu, Pashtu, Dari, French Africa, all these services --- when it's Monday, we're supposed to be in regular programming," Herman explains. "There is no regular programming. Transmitters are now going off the air or they are silent. There's loop video running on some of the services streaming. The Voice Of America is effectively silenced as of this moment," he says.

As Herman investigates the possibility of challenging his own removal --- he was told, when placed on leave, that his social media posts are now being "investigated" --- he describes the news of the mass suspension of his colleagues over the weekend as "ten times the gut punch". He reports today that some 550 of them who were contractors have now been informed "that they are terminated effective March 31st."

After 83 years of continuously broadcasting, originally as a counterbalance to Nazi propaganda across Europe during WWII and, as mandated by federal law since then, to "serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of"¦accurate, objective, and comprehensive" news --- not as political propaganda for any party or President in power --- Herman calls the decision "a national tragedy."

It will be most felt by those in closed, autocratic societies, where VOA and its sister networks long-served as a beacon of light, hope, democracy, American values and a template for what a free, non-biased media outlet sounds like.

"Everybody is astonished and shocked," Herman tells me, describing a meeting earlier today which a bunch of his colleagues. "But every person is more concerned about the institution than they are with their individual job. That that was the utmost concern. What's being lost is not just the livelihoods of thousands of people. When you also put into that what's happening at Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, it's these institutions being silenced."

"To extinguish the entire operation over a weekend," he laments, "what is being lost is not replaceable. And it is a national tragedy. I don't opine much, as you know, but I think that's a fair way to look at what's happening," he says.

Why is all of this happening? What (and whose) purpose does it ultimately serve? What does it all mean and where will it go from here? Those are just some of the points of discussion in today's must-listen conversation with Herman, who has been a helpful source and friend of this program --- and as a champion of a free press --- for years now.

Kari Lake has recently referred to the USAGM networks as "radical Leftist advocacy organizations." Elon Musk, whose DOGE Bros have reportedly been camping out at the agency for weeks, recently tweeted, "It's just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money."

Herman responds to say that the networks "talk to the hundreds of millions of people who listen to VOA, who listen to Radio Free Europe or Radio Free Asia, or watch the TV programs, or go online to check the news. Obviously we are not just talking to ourselves. We have a huge audience."

"Dollar for dollar," he continues, "US international broadcasting funded by the government --- whether it's totally 100% funded under the government but with a [political and editorial] firewall, or their grantees like Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia --- people who study public diplomacy will tell you that VOA and these other broadcasters are probably the best bang for the buck out there, in terms of soft power of the United States."

As to whether his reporting and that of his colleagues --- whose work had to pass muster of an editorial firewall and be checked for "balance" before publication or air --- was that of "radical left crazy people" or "radical Leftist advocacy organizations", Herman tells me today, as he has in the past, that he believes the work speaks for itself.

You can check out his work for yourself, at least until it is disappeared from the Internet, at the VOANews.com website. I also recommend you sign up for his personal newsletter and check out his book (which we discussed in studio on air when he was in town last Summer), Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist's Story of Covering the President --- and Why It Matters.

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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...

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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...

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Ain't democracy grand? Messy, unpredictable, maddening, sure. But also grand. And we've got a lot of it to talk about on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

ARIZONA PRIMARY RESULTS

Republicans were turning on fellow Republicans during Congressional and local primaries in the Grand Canyon State on Tuesday. We know, however, there was absolutely no fraud or tabulation error anywhere in the state, because perennial election denier and loser, Kari Lake, actually won her primary for U.S. Senate. She'll run against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in November for the seat vacated by rightwing former Dem Kyrsten Sinema.

In Maricopa County, where 60% of AZ votes are cast, far-right Republicans sadly took down a bunch of not-crazy Republican officials, including the County's very good elections chief, County Recorder Stephen Richer, along with several other not-insane Republicans on the Maricopa Board of Supervisors. Their crime: telling the truth about the fact that Trump lost the County in 2020. All of that, on the other hand, may give Democrats, many of whom ran uncontested on Tuesday, a chance to turn the County even bluer this November.

Also sadly, Republican former Sec. of State and (real) election reform champion Ken Bennett was unseated in the state Senate by Trump loyalist, election denier loon and 2022's failed GOP Sec. of State nominee Mark Finchem in a rather red district. (See my interview with Bennett on his very good, bipartisan, election transparency bill last year on this program right here.) Nonetheless, Dems now have a very real chance of flipping both chambers of the AZ State Legislature this fall.

VENEZUELA ELECTION STANDOFF

President Nicolas Maduro's National Election Council is still claiming that Maduro won Sunday's Presidential election. The broadly supported opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez is still claiming that Maduro lost --- in a landslide. But Maduro has so far refused to release actual election results from tens of thousands of polling places, so it's impossible to know who actually won.

We don't have a political dog in this hunt, other than in favor of democracy and the notion that the candidate who received the most votes should be declared the winner of the election. Now, the Carter Center, which was allowed to observe the election, the U.S. Government (longtime Maduro opponents) and Presidents Luiz Inà¡cio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Gustavo Petro of Colombia (both allies of the Venezuelan President) are all demanding that Maduro transparently release all polling place election results. They are all correct to do so.

KAMALA V. TRUMP

Finally, as Democratic Party delegates prepare to officially certify their new nominee without any challengers this weekend, and as more new polling finds Kamala Harris surging against Donald Trump both nationally and in swing states, we take some time once again today to try and make sense of the state of this extraordinary race.

We're joined today by two longtime old school bloggers and podcasters, our friends 'DRIFTGLASS' of his eponymously named blog, and his wife FRANCES LANGUM, also known as BlueGal, who serves as Associate Editor at the Crooks & Liars blog. They both produce and co-host The Professional Left Podcast each week from their home in "Flyover Country, Illinois."

And they've both got lots of smart insight today, as we discuss....

• The remarkable emergence of Harris at the top of the Dem ticket just 10 days ago.
• The surprising unity behind her by rarely united Democrats. (Fran: "I think there is a permanent state of PTSD among Democrats after 2016. It's why we've won every election since then.")
• Where, if anywhere, Harris may diverge on policy from Biden.
• Trump's crash and burn during his appearance today at the National Assoc. of Black Journalists conference. (Driftglass: "I really do appreciate Donald Trump giving [Harris] a boost today by going to Chicago and absolutely crapping the bed. It was delightful.")
• What Trump really meant when he told Christians they wouldn't need to vote again in four years.
• What Trump really meant when he said Russia and China will "walk all over" Harris, though he didn't want to say "as to why, but a lot of people understand it."
• Why Trump appears to be trying to wriggle out of debating Harris.
• Who might be Harris' Veep selection, and does it matter in the slightest?

All of that and much more --- including words from Drifty's "Crazy Uncle Liberty" and Fran's insistence that the Trump Campaign is now desperate because they are all but broke --- on today's BradCast!...

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There are just 140 days until the November 5 General Elections. Threats against them by adversaries both foreign and domestic are simmering and/or growing. We discuss some of them --- and much more --- on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our stories today...

• Kari Lake loses yet again. This time, it's the Arizona state Court of Appeals which has, again, rejected her claims that the 2022 gubernatorial election was stolen from her when she lost it by some 17,000 votes to Democrat Katie Hobbs.

• Unexplained mass texts, warning of voter intimidation, falsely suggesting they were sent by the Spartanburg County Elections Office during South Carolina's down-ballot primaries last week, should serve as a warning for this November's elections.

• U.S. officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are reportedly sending their own warnings, privately, to candidates in the U.S. who, they say, are being targeted with disinformation campaigns by foreign adversaries, including Russia, China and Iran.

• And, in what should serve as yet another warning before November, a pro-Kremlin hacker group, said to be closely allied with Russia's intelligence services, reportedly took down the websites of a number of political parties and other institutions on the first day of voting in Europe's recent parliamentary elections.

• New York's highest court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Donald Trump to lift the gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and the family members of prosecutors or the judge in the hush money/election interference case in which the disgraced former President was recently found guilty of 34 criminal felonies.

• And, speaking of, the Biden-Harris Campaign is finally using Trump's shameful court losses --- for both felony crimes and civil liabilities --- against him, in an aggressive television ad and mass emails to supporters taking him to task as a "convicted felon" as well as "a liar and a fraud". Of course, even now, Team Biden will have to overcome ridiculous reporting on the effort by the New York Times, whose headline yesterday (until it was changed) read "Biden Campaign Ad Paints Trump as a Felon". Um...."paints" him as a felon?! He is a felon!

• After telling us for months that President Biden is so mentally debilitated that "he can't string two sentences together," Donald Trump supporters like Sean Hannity at Fox "News" are now working overtime to try and lower expectations for him in advance of next week's first Presidential debate.

• Maryland's Democratic Governor Wes Moore on Monday pardoned about 175,000 convictions related to marijuana and paraphernalia possession over the years. The long-overdue pardons, following the state's full legalization of marijuana last year, will help tens of thousands of Black and Brown people who were disproportionately charged and convicted over the many decades of our failed, frequently racist "war on drugs". Moore's action follows President Biden's 2022 mass pardon of thousands charged under federal marijuana law and his request to state Governors to take similar action given that most cannabis related crimes were brought under state law.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with news on hundreds of millions in the U.S. now (or soon) facing record heat from the Midwest to the East Coast and an early wildfire season out West; Similarly oppressive heat has been bearing down from Greece to the Middle East; Calgary is facing a serious water crisis in Canada; France's nukes are being shut down by cheaper renewable energy sources like wind and solar; And a major rail company must cough up some $400 million for unlawful trespass against a native American tribe...

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During opening statements in the disgraced former President's ongoing criminal trial, prosecutors argued the scheme surrounding his hush-money payments to a porn star just before the 2016 election amounted to "election fraud, pure and simple." Similar fraud since then, by Trump and now much of his Republican party, pervades many of our stories on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among our stories today...

• It's Primary Day in Pennsylvania. We'll have noteworthy results and/or problem reports on tomorrow's program. (Recent elections in PA have revealed serious problems with the touchscreen voting systems still shamefully used in a number of jurisdictions.) But the election in the Keystone State today --- as some voters are reportedly struggling with newly implemented Photo ID requirements --- also provides a reminder as to why it's a good idea to vote in primaries, even when races at the top of the ticket may already be foregone conclusions.

• Donald Trump's election-fraud-via-hush-money criminal trial in New York continued on Tuesday. We offer a a few quick updates. One point we missed Monday's opening statements, included the fact that prosecutors say they have hand-written documentation from longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg as to why Michael Cohen was paid $420k as reimbursement for his $130k payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Today, the day began with a contempt hearing over at least ten instances in which prosecutors allege that Trump has violated the court's gag order on attacking jurors and witnesses. The judge has yet to issue his ruling, but the hearing culminated with Trump's attorney Todd Blanche being upbraided by a frustrated Justice Juan Merchan, who told him, "You are losing all credibility with the court." For that, it appears, Trump's campaign and associated groups have been paying about $145,000 in donor money for legal fees each day since early 2023, according to newly released numbers. After the jury arrived, the trial's first witness continued his testimony. That would be former National Enquirer publisher, longtime Trump pal, and alleged "catch and kill"/hush-money co-conspirator David Pecker.

• Arizona's 2022 Republican election losers, Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, both falsely claim their elections, for Governor and Sec. of State respectively, were stolen from them somehow, by the Republican officials who run elections in the state's largest County. They sued in 2022 and have lost in court after court ever since. On Monday, the corrupted rightwing U.S. Supreme Court also rejected their case. They are both running again in 2024, for U.S. Senate and state Senate respectively. What could possibly go wrong?

• Speaking of 2024 Republican U.S. Senate candidates in battleground states, Wisconsin's Eric Hovde really, really wants you to know that he totally thinks "elderly should absolutely vote". Even after his previous comments about elderly voters in nursing homes that really kinda makes it seem otherwise.

• The Trump Campaign and the RNC (now effectively one and the same) have announced their plans for an "Historic, 100,000 person strong Election Integrity operation"! We've got a few thoughts about what that really means. Though it probably doesn't help that a statement from Trump himself included in the announcement echoes almost precisely a statement long attributed to Josef Stalin that "it's not who votes that matters, but who counts the votes".

• As to actual election fraud, as usual, the call is coming from inside the Republican house. This time, it's a guy named Austin Smith, an Arizona's Republican state Rep. and top leader of Turning Point Action --- a group which has long echoed Trump's false 2020 election fraud claims. Smith has apparently been caught submitting dozens of signatures, in his own hand-writing, for his own reelection campaign. While denying the charges, now being investigated by the AZ Attorney General, Rep. Smith has since resigned from Turning Point and called off his reelection campaign. But really, he insists, he didn't do it!

• Finally, Desi Doyen is here for our latest Green News Report, including today: news on Europe's stunning rate of warming; new details on the plastic manufacturing industries contribution to man-made climate change; and another series of sweeping actions from the Biden Administration on Solar for All, the American Climate Corps and a whole bunch of brand new conservation initiatives that I can almost bet you haven't heard about until now...

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On today's BradCast: If only the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court cared as much about the exact words in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (the "Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause") as they pretend to care about the word "otherwise" in a criminal statute used to hold hundreds of January 6 insurrectionists --- including the former President --- accountable for obstructing an official government proceeding. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

But, first up today, a few news items of note...

• Yesterday, House Republicans formerly delivered two articles of revenge impeachment against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the U.S. Senate for a trial. Today the trial began and ended, as Democrats determined the articles contained no High Crimes and Misdemeanors as required by the Constitution.

• Despite pleas from Donald Trump and GOP U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake for Arizona state lawmakers to repeal their draconian 1864 total abortion ban (which Lake long supported...until the all-GOP state Supreme Court revived the law last week), Republicans lawmakers in the state legislature blocked another attempt by Democrats to repeal the 160-year old territorial law.

• In Tuesday's Democratic Primary runoff for Alabama's newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District, the popular progressive, Shomari Figures, easily won. The more important news, however, may be that Democratic voter turnout during the first round of voting last month on Super Tuesday doubled from two years earlier. That, after the state was finally ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to redraw their unconstitutionally, racially gerrymandered Congressional Map to include a second district where Black voters may have a chance of selecting a candidate of their choosing.

Next, we're joined by longtime legal journalist CHRIS GEIDNER of Law Dork News to discuss Tuesday's Oral Argument in Fischer v. U.S. at the U.S. Supreme Court. The case questions whether a January 6th insurrectionist was properly charged with a 2002 law that criminalizes obstruction of an official government proceeding.

Some 300 of about 1,400 of those charged for their participation in the Trump-incited attack on the U.S. Capitol --- including Trump himself --- have been charged and/or convicted by more than a dozen D.C. federal judges under this same statute. But one of those judges, a Trump appointee, rejected the use of the law. He was overturned by the D.C. Court of Appeals, but the plaintiff --- a police officer at the time --- took his case to SCOTUS, which heard it on Tuesday.

Geidner was at the Court this week during Oral Argument and joins us today to explain how the hearing went; why this challenge over the the meaning of the word "otherwise" in the statute even exists; the rightwing Justices' newly-discovered concerns about overcriminalization; whether he believes the Court will kill, narrow or allow the statute to stand as is; and how their ruling might affect both the cases for hundreds of insurrectionists and two of the four criminal charges that rely on the statute in Special Counsel Jack Smith's federal indictment of the former President for his multiple failed attempts to steal the 2020 election.

Geidner also offers a preview of next Thursday's looong-awaited hearing on Trump's ridiculous, rejected-by-every-lower-court, "Presidential Immunity" case, in which he asserts that all Presidents must have absolute immunity to commit any and all crimes they like while in office.

"The arguments advanced by Trump have no foundation in history, in practice, or in experience. And there is a very strong case for imagining that we will get a 9-0 decision in that case, even with this Court," Geidner argues, before noting: "The bottom line here is Trump will still have delayed [his federal 2020 election interference] case. It will be at least May before we get a ruling on this. So, in some ways, win lose or draw, he has won, if the goal here is to avoid the possibility of a conviction on these charges before the election is held in November."

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And we thought the real news sites were bad enough. Now, as discussed on today's BradCast, fake ones, aided by Artificial Intelligence and funded by shadowy rightwingers to surreptitiously promote candidates and rightwing propaganda, are springing to life across the country in advance of this year's critical election. Ain't that all that we need? [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

But first up, a few news headlines of note today...

The Trump Organization's long-time Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg returned to Rikers Island today after serving a 100 day sentence just last year on tax fraud charges related to unreported perks he received over many years from the company. Today, the 76-year old Weisselberg was sentenced to five more months in the pen after pleading guilty to perjury for lying to state prosecutors in testimony and on the witness stand in Donald Trump's recent $454 million civil fraud trial about the size of the disgraced former President's New York apartment. The lie inflated the value of the Trump Tower penthouse on financial statements by some $200 million.

And, in Arizona, the state's all-Republican Supreme Court unleashed havoc on Tuesday --- for both abortion supporters and opponents alike --- when it reinstated a 160-year old near-total abortion ban originally adopted in 1864, before Arizona was a state or women had the right to vote. Many state Republicans, like U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, are now in full panic mode on the heels of the Court approving the law she previously claimed to support. Now, for some reason, she doesn't, as revealed in an incoherent (and hilarious) statement demanding that AZ's Democratic Governor somehow roll it all back, even while Lake also still claims to oppose abortion.

For his part on Wednesday, Donald Trump, who on Monday bragged yet again about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, both claimed that the abortion issue was now settled to everyone's satisfaction as a states' rights matter, while calling out the AZ Supreme Court for "going too far" in reinstating the 1864 ban on all abortions in the state, with an exception only for saving the life of mother. He insists that the GOP-controlled (for now) state legislature will repeal the ban. But Republicans leaders in both the state House and Senate on Wednesday insisted otherwise, thwarting attempts by Democrats to repeal the antiquated law.

It is all as mad as it sounds. But, despite the havoc this is causing for women and doctors in the state, all of it may turn out to be very good news for Democrats in the battleground state this November. Arizona, and other states, will see ballot initiatives to protect reproductive rights. That is likely to have a remarkable effect on turnout by angry voters.

Of course, that also depends on an educated --- not disinformed --- electorate. And, right now, as the Financial Times recently reported, there is a well-funded scheme underway by rightwing billionaire activists, the Republican Party and fossil fuel interests, among others, to confuse as many people as possible about real news by using real looking "pink slime" websites that push political propaganda while masquerading as legitimate local news sites.

According to media watchdog NewsGuard, as of April 1, there were as many fake "pink slime" websites operating in the U.S., pretending to be real local news outlets, as there were actual, real, local news sites!

We're joined today by ALEX MAHADEVAN, Director at the non-profit Poynter Institute's MediaWise project, which seeks to "empower diverse communities with the skills to identify misinformation."

"The word 'pink slime' encompasses a lot of different types of these algorithmically-generated or poorly reported news websites," Mahadevan tells me. "To me, the 'pink slime' news websites that worry me the most are the ones that aren't necessarily fake news, but have a lot of real news in it. Most of it has been scraped by algorithms from press releases, but then within some of those articles are very biased, misleading articles that favor one candidate or another candidate."

The websites have names like "Chicago City Wire", a cite which doesn't disclose its funding or political purpose other than to say, "Funding for this news site is provided, in part, by advocacy groups who share our beliefs in limited government." At least if you bother to dig deep enough on the site to find that statement.

One of the largest networks of "pink slime" sites is run by an outfit named Metric Media, which claims to feature about 1,000 "local" sites, most of which, according to FT, "do not disclose any political funding or partisan stance, saying that they provide 'data-driven information without political bias.'" Metric Media is reportedly run by a web of shell companies, non-profits and corporate entities linked to three men, "conservative businessman and publisher Brian Timpone, Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn, and Republican Party adviser Bradley Cameron."

Creation of these sites, according to researchers, is now easier than ever thanks to Artificial Intelligence apps, and comes at a time when social media outlets have cut back on their moderation teams that might otherwise prevent links to such propaganda outlets from proliferating. Instead, the "pink slime" sites are spending millions to advertise on those same social media sites like Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.

Mahadevan explains how he was able, in February of last year, to use the free version of the AI app, Chat-GPT, to create such a fake cite. "In about a half hour I was able to generate fake news articles, along with fake news reporters, fake editors, and fake publishers --- along with their headshots --- and create the code and launch a fake news website completely out of thin air. To me, that was really frightening."

All of it, in fact, is frightening --- not only the fake news that is taking the place of real local news reporting, but the loss of those critical local outlets in the first place and what happens to "the soul of these communities when we lose local news outlets," laments Mahadevan, who goes on to warn that all of this is "terrible for democracy."

So what, if anything can be done about it? We discuss that as well on today's somewhat disturbing, if hopefully eye-opening, BradCast...

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It may be April Fools Day, but its no joke that we are back on today's BradCast after a half-planned, half-doctor-advised Spring Break week off! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Before we left, it seemed like last week might prove to be a slow news week, with Congress on vacation, no primary elections last Tuesday and Trump's New York felony hush-money trial postponed a few weeks until this month.

Boy were we wrong about that. Last week was anything but a slow news week, and we've got the headlines today to prove it! To add some actual context, depth and insight to those headlines --- and to hold my hand after I'd been trying to look away for the past week --- we're joined by two old friends, though only one who you may have heard on this program before.

Our friend known mostly as 'DRIFTGLASS' is back with us again today. He is co-host, along with his wife, of The Professional Left podcast recorded each week from "Flyover Country, Illinois." He is also, today, celebrating his 19th blogiversary at the Driftglass blog, so we're honored he agreed to spend it with us!

And, as if that's not swell enough, his Pro Left Pod co-hosting wife, FRANCES LANGUM, who is also a longtime Associate Editor over at the Crooks & Liars blog, joins us as well today for a romping, rollicking, breathless review of much that we missed last week and why most of it still matters this week!

Among the huge number of topics from last week covered on today's program...

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)'s vow to call for removing House Speaker Mike Johnson for his daring to work with Democrats to keep the government from shutting down by passing a long-delayed 2024 spending bill just over a week ago.

• The failed attempted conspiracy theories forwarded by Russia and its supporters following the horrific massacre by ISIS-K at a concert venue in Moscow a week ago Sunday.

• Donald Trump's failure to cough up a $454 million bond during the appeal of his New York civil fraud case and the various lifelines thrown to him (for now) by the Appeals Court in NY.

• Trump's scammy, just-in-time merger of his failing social media site with a public company that could result in billions of dollars --- including "straight-up bribery" as Driftglass describes it --- for the disgraced former President.

• Trump's New York criminal trial on 34 felony charges related to hush-money payments to porn-star Stormy Daniels to help him win the 2016 Presidential election is now set to begin on April 15. And, as Fran believes, Trump "will do anything to make the evidence that's going to appear in this case not come to trial." Including, she argues, even if he must "spend two or three nights in jail, violating the gag orders, in order to make this case not happen."

• What the Biden Administration's decision last week to abstain from a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza may mean for Israel and for some on the Left in the U.S. And why, if you don't like what Israel is doing, Fran advises: "Don't elect Bibi Netanyahu President of the United States --- which is what Trump is."

• Why NBC News' ill-considered hiring and then firing of former RNC Chair and attempted election thief Ronna Romney McDaniel matters.

• What Arizona's failed 2022 Republican Gubernatorial candidate and election liar turned 2024 Senate candidate Kari Lake's decision not to contest the claims in an election fraud defamation lawsuit filed against her by Maricopa County's Republican County Recorder (and chief election official) Stephen Richer means and how Lake is hoping to be saved --- somehow --- by a victorious Trump this year. (We wish her the best of luck with that.)

• The remarkable, 25-point Special Election victory last week by Democrat Marilyn Lands in Alabama who focused her campaign on reproductive rights and subsequently flipped a state legislative seat from "red" to "blue" after losing her race for that same seat by 7 points in the 2022 general election. What will a post-Dobbs, post-IVF general election look like in supposedly "deep red" AL and elsewhere this November?

• The desperate-for-quick-cash former President and huckster-in-chief is now selling bibles for $59.99 a piece. Though, to be fair, this version also includes the U.S. Constitution. Has Donald Trump ever read either of them? Says Driftglass today: "Good thing he did this to raise money to pay for the court costs of paying off a [porn star] that he was sleeping with while his wife was nursing their child. So the circle of absolute blasphemy is now complete."

• Joe Lieberman died last week.

• Independent 2024 Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., currently on the ballot in 8 states, thrilled dozens with his announcement of his running mate last week, the former wife of one of Google's founders, Nicole Shanahan. Or, as Driftglass describes her, "a big bag of money who is as crazy as he is".

That's just some of the firehose of news from both last week and this that we cover in today's very lively BradCast...

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Today on The BradCast: Some very good news about Democrats. Specifically, for the President and the post-pandemic economic recovery. And a bunch of good news about Republicans. At least for those who enjoy watching the fish rot from the head down.

As detailed on today's program...

• Yet more excellent economic numbers were released on Thursday by the Commerce Department, easily beating professional expectations on GDP growth, leading one of those experts to describe the newly released 2023 fourth-quarter numbers as "stunning and spectacular." They are, in fact, just one of the economic indicators that are now better even than the pre-pandemic years, as GDP continues to rise, unemployment remains very low, wages are growing faster than inflation, which is now down below targets set by the Federal Reserve, and the recession that experts predicted for last year is still nowhere in sight. They are the kind of numbers that the former President would have declared as "the greatest economy in U.S. history" and about which TIME Magazine would have put his face on the cover with the headline: "The Man Who Saved the American Economy!" Will any of that happen now that Joe Biden --- who received a rousing endorsement for his 2024 campaign from the half-a-million-strong United Autoworkers Union yesterday --- is the President, rather than Trump? Will anybody in America even hear about these "stunning" numbers and "spectacular" economic growth?

• As to the good news about Republicans, we start with Trump's former Trade Advisor, Peter Navarro. Today he was sentenced by a federal judge in D.C. to four months in prison for two counts of Contempt of Congress after refusing to respond to two 2022 subpoenas from the bipartisan U.S. House Select Committee that had been investigating the Trump-incited January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Poor Peter. Perhaps he'll be cell mates with Steve Bannon who received a similar sentence in 2022 for the same crimes.

• A wildly obnoxious member of the far-right extremist Proud Boys group attacked the D.C. Circuit Court's Chief Judge during sentencing on Wednesday as a "clown" and a "fraud". He received 6 years in prison in return for his part in the deadly January 6 insurrection and for attempting to organize a subsequent attack on the government in Portland, Oregon described as "January 6 2.0".

• But, as the fish rots from the head down, it's rotting GOP state parties outside of Washington as well. There is an ongoing, vicious --- and, at times, even violent --- legal dispute --- between the now-ousted Michigan GOP Chair, election denier and failed 2022 Sec. of State nominee Kristina Karamo, and the bulk of the state party that ousted her --- over who now actually controls the state party apparatus in the critical battleground state. In Florida, the recently ousted state party Chair Christian Ziegler -- hand-picked by Ron DeSantis --- is being investigated by state law enforcement on charges of "video voyeurism", after being accused of rape by a woman with whom he and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, the hypocritical anti-LGBTQ co-founder of "Moms for Liberty", had thrupled with --- and secretly videotaped during sex.

  And this week, on Wednesday, Jeff DeWit, Chair of Arizona's Republican Party, abruptly resigned after audio tapes were released by election denier and failed Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in which he appears to be begging her to accept a bribe for not running for the U.S. Senate in the state this year.

  So, that's three GOP state Chairs (the "Party of Law and Order") in three critical swing-states, all being hilariously ousted after allegations of incompetency, sexual battery or bribery within a matter of weeks, in the middle of, arguably, the most important Presidential election year in American history. Keep up the great work, state Republicans!

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as astonishing climate change-fueled extreme weather continues to batter the infrastructure across U.S. cities; ExxonMobil sues its own shareholders so they can try to keep polluting as long as possible; and the U.S. Postal Service finally begins rolling out its new fleet of clean electric delivery vehicles, thanks to demands from climate advocates and funding from Joe Biden and the Democrats...

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The question posed by today's BradCast: Donald Trump is arguably ineligible to serve as President of the United States, according to the "insurrection disqualification clause" of the U.S. Constitution (Section 3 of the 14th Amendment). And yet, he is also arguably the easiest GOP candidate for Joe Biden to defeat next year in a race that will, once again, be a proxy battle between democracy and autocracy. With that in mind, should the former President be barred from running nonetheless? [Audio link to full program follows this summary.]

As the New York Times detailed today, the stakes couldn't be higher. A team of former Trump White House officials has been constructing an agenda for whoever becomes the next Republican President that will involve a radical takeover of independent Executive Branch agencies and a consolidation of all "Unitary Executive" power in the Oval Office. (Here's a free gift link to read the NYT piece. You should be terrified by it.)

As the paper makes clear, no matter who the GOP nominee is next year, if they win, American democracy as we know it is in very very big trouble. With that in mind --- and the argument that Trump is likely to be the easiest for Biden to defeat --- are pro-democracy and good government advocates certain they want to disqualify Trump from the ballot next year?

We're joined today by ALEXANDRA FLORES-QUILTY, Campaign Director at the non-profit, non-partisan, pro-democracy good government group, Free Speech for People. Her organization, along with Mia Familia Vota, recently launched a campaign to argue that "Trump is Disqualified from the Ballot". They sent letters [PDF] to the top election officials in ten states, informing them of the need to bar him from the 2024 ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment which disqualifying those who, "having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States" from holding office if they subsequently "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same." Of course, that's exactly what a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate found that Trump did on January 6, 2021, as well as the bipartisan U.S. House Committee which also investigated the matter.

Recently, a spokesperson for Colorado's Democratic Sec. of State Jena Griswold declined to comment "at this time" on whether Trump will be allowed on next year's ballot. She has until January 5 to decide in the state. FSFP and MFV have also sent similar letters to chief election officials in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon and Pennsylvania. They argue that those officials have the ability --- and responsibility --- to disqualify Trump, just as they do for any candidate who does not meet requirements (age, residency, etc.) for office.

"Secretaries of State have a duty to ensure that candidates who seek to appear on their state ballots meet the Constitutional qualifications for serving in public office. In fact," notes Flores-Quilty, "Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has actually confirmed that Secretaries of State may refuse ballot placement to candidates for President who do not meet the Constitutional requirements of the office. [See 2012's Hassan v. Colorado in which Gorsuch, while still a 10th Circuit Appeals Court judge, found that states may "exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office."]

Moreover, Flores-Quilty argues it "is not a requirement" for Trump to have been criminally charged and found guilty of "insurrection" to be disqualified under the clause, which dates back to the post-Civil War era, when the 14th Amendment was adopted. "There is clear precedent from when it was originally enacted that that was not a requirement. No criminal conviction is necessary in order to enforce this critical provision of the Constitution."

"It's really important that we're doing public education and creating a public mandate that Secretaries of State --- it's not only within their power but it's their responsibility --- ensure that somebody who has so clearly violated this provision of the Constitution is not allowed to appear on the ballot. Trump has been able to get away with breaking the law, time and time again. Impunity is emboldening. So the rules need to be enforced."

Okay, but is it politically smart for either Democrats or pro-democracy advocates at this precarious moment to press this point to disqualify Trump from the ballot and potentially pave the way for a Republican candidate who may be equally authoritarian, but more able to defeat Biden next year?

Flores-Quilty --- and a bunch of our callers today --- ring in with their answers to that critical question!

Also today: Ron DeSantis' floundering campaign fires at least 10 workers. Failed AZ Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's attorneys (including Alan Dershowitz) sanctioned for $122,000 for bogus election fraud claims.

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Thanks, kudos and apologies to our friend Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo for the headline of today's BradCast (even if he smartly picked it up from someone else). [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

We've had a weekend of experts and pundits on the TV opining on Donald J. Trump's Friday federal indictment [PDF] on 37 criminal felony counts related to Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation of Trump's theft of documents from the White House and multiple attempts to conceal his crimes. So it was very good to hear from a lot of listeners on the matter on today's program!

That, as experts warn that comments from Republican elected officials and wannabe elected officials could result in acts of lone wolf violence, if not an organized January 6th-style attack. Just some of those folks would include GOP Trump supporters like Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who described the attempt at accountability for Trump's criminal violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice a "war phase" requiring an "eye for an eye". And wannabe elected officials, like Arizona's losing Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake warning "Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden" that she and 75 million Americans who support Trump "are card-carrying members of the N.R.A." at the Georgia state GOP convention over the weekend.

Even Trump's own, wildly corrupt Attorney General Bill Barr scraped up the decency to tell Fox "News" on Sunday that the evidence in the indictment by 23 random citizens in South Florida last week demonstrates Trump is likely "toast" for having stolen highly classified state secrets belonging to the American people, not to the former President. One would think the photos in the charging documents alone, of dozens of document boxes fill with sensitive materials, stored haphazardly at Mar-a-Lago in a public ballroom, a bathroom, a storage space, his office and bedroom, would turn even the most braindead 2016 MAGA "Lock Her Up!" supporter against their cult leader.

But, alas, there remain plenty of disinformed folks out there who still actually believe Trump's preposterous claims belied by his own well-documented actions recorded on tape and by his own attorneys who documented his attempts to use them to commit crimes such as hiding the documents on his behalf and lying to federal officials about them.

And, yes, some of those still-duped folks (who admit they didn't bother to read the indictment) called us on today's show to try and make the case for Trump. A lively call-in segment ensued. Hope you'll enjoy it!

The disgraced former President will be arraigned on Tuesday in Miami at 3p ET, after which he will officially be facing a gob-smacking total of 71 criminal felony counts at both the federal level and in New York state. But there are still more felony charges to come before America's Summer of Accountability concludes...

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