We've got just a ton of news for ya on today's BradCast. Here's the short version: Trump is a loser. On just about everything right now. And he knows it. So he's acting out. So far, it's not working. On anything. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Donald Trump is losing in the polls. An even larger majority of Americans oppose him than they did on Election Day, when a majority of Americans voted against him. He's also still losing on every single actual issue.

He's losing in the courts. At least the lower courts, which mostly still follow the Constitution and rule of law, unlike the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court.

He's losing in his various attempts to start a war against the American people in cities and states that voted against him. So now he's trying to lash out at elected officials getting in his way, like Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker who are suing to prevent him from deploying federalized National Guard troops against Americans in the Windy City. This morning, Trump called for both men to be arrested. For what? Nobody knows, of course. It's just Trump acting out.

He's also leading elected officials from his own party, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to lose their years-long claims to be "conservatives" who have pretended to support small government and states rights while opposing Big Government federal overreach. In truth, all of those things were lies. Abbott's flip-flop, allowing the federalization of his state's National Guard troops (which he condemned as a "power grab" just last year) to be deployed by Trump against fellow Americans in Oregon and Illinois is just one example. (Remember: Almost every Republican calling themself a "conservative" is not actually conservative and never was.)

Trump will soon lose his laughably weak, weaponized indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, who was arraigned today. The trial, on two ridiculous counts related to allegedly lying to Congress about something or other in 2020, has now been set for January 5 by the Biden-appointed federal judge randomly assigned to the case. For a long list of reasons, including Lindsey Halligan, the former beauty pageant contestant that Trump unlawfully assigned to indict Comey, will likely be tossed before the trial even begins. But, if it does begin, it will likely crash and burn, according to prosecutors who had refused to bring a case against Comey themselves previously. They think the case is a loser.

He's losing in Congress, where Dems are united for tens of millions of Americans who are about to see their health care costs doubled, thanks to Trump and Republicans. Americans support the Dems in this fight, so far, and are strongly in favor of restoration of health care funding that Republicans are allowing to expire at the end of the year. Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene(!) is furious about the GOP doubling health care costs for those --- like her own adult children --- who purchased health insurance via the Obamacare exchanges. Trump is also screwing up the strategy of Republican leaders in Congress, by threatening mass firings and to withhold back-pay to furloughed federal workers once the shutdown ends (despite a federal law --- which he, himself, signed in 2019 --- that mandates the back-pay). So far, his threats have proven to be hollow, revealing him to be even weaker and more of a loser than he already was.

Oh, and as we discuss after Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report today, the billions of dollars in energy-related grants that Trump has (illegally) cancelled in 16 states that voted against him last year, as punishment against Democrats for the government shutdown, will also slash hundreds of millions of dollars from Congressional Districts represented by at least 20 Republican House members. That should help him be even more of a loser in next year's midterm elections.

Enjoy!

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I can't believe we're covering any of this. But, on today's BradCast, we're sounding twin alarms about the President of the United State's explicit threats of wars against both Venezuela and...yes...Chicago. There must really be some bad shit on him in those Epstein Files! [Audio link to full shows follows this summary.]

You would think that when Donald Trump posts on social media on Saturday morning that "Chicago [is] about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR" with a photo of him in battle fatigues in front of attack helicopters, a burning Chicago skyline and the phrase "Chipocalypse Now" in the style of 1979's Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now, that the nation's major newspapers might report on it in their print editions on Sunday. But, nope. Apparently a threat by the U.S. President to invade another major U.S. city no longer even merits a notice in either the New York Times or Washington Post the next day.

Moreover, you'd think ten U.S. warships ordered down to Central America within missile range of Venezuela --- just days after Trump violated all international (and U.S.) law by bombing a speed boat he claims to have been filled with "narco-terrorists" carrying "massive amounts of drugs" (there is no public evidence of either) that we'd see screaming ALL CAPS front page headlines about a pending U.S. war in Central America across all of the nation's papers. I guess blatant war crimes admitted to by a President of the United States and the threat of an impending U.S. attack on yet another sovereign nation just doesn't spark the outrage from the "liberal media" that it used.

So, here we are. The guy who those same papers described as an "anti-war" Presidential candidate is still playing them all like chumps as he threatens to unleash new wars both foreign and domestic.

Whatever is actually in those Epstein Files that he is refusing to release --- after promising to do so while running for President --- must be really really bad for him. And while everyone is looking for just two more Republicans with the courage to sign on to a Discharge Petition to force a vote in the U.S. House on the release of the criminal files on sex traffickers and Trump pedophile pals Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, perhaps they should look at the Democrats who are likely to win two upcoming Special Elections this month instead. Signatures from those two Democrats, once seated in the House (unless somehow blocked by Republicans from doing so), would be enough to trigger that vote. Could be a very interesting month.

We cover all of that and more on today's show, and open the phones to a bunch of listeners with their own thoughts on all of this madness.

Please tune in and let me know if you can make any more sense of this moment than I can. I welcome all the help and good sense you can offer. God knows ain't any Trump supporters calling in to defend him anymore. So make of that what you will...

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On today's BradCast: The good news just seems to keep on coming. We'll take it while it lasts! Tuesday brought huge election victories for democracy and progressives in Chicago and Wisconsin! [Audio liNk to full show follows this summary.]

In Chicago, Democratic progressive teacher and union member Brandon Johnson defeated conservative, self-proclaimed "tough on crime" Democrat Paul Vallas to become the new Windy City Mayor in a stunning victory.

But the biggest election of the night, and perhaps of 2023, was the Wisconsin state Supreme Court victory of liberal Milwaukee Judge Janet Protasiewicz over far-right former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, a Republican activist supported by anti-choice groups who advised his party in their failed attempt to overturn the state's 2020 election. Her victory creates a progressive majority on the high court for the first time in 15 years.

In a closely divided state where elections are traditionally very close, often within 1 or 2 points, Protasiewicz reportedly blew Kelly away by a whopping 11 points as of this afternoon's tally. It was Kelly's second defeat in running for the Supreme Court in as many years.

And it comes not a moment too soon. The Badger State's new, 4 to 3 progressive high court majority will likely face a host of critical issues for both the state and nation in the years ahead, including an 1849 abortion ban which Republicans are hoping to enforce; wildly gerrymandered state and Congressional district maps in one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation; voting rights issues; and hopes by Republicans of trying to steal the 2024 Presidential election.

We're delighted to be joined once again today to discuss all of this good news by Wisconsin's favorite son and progressive journalist, JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation, and co-author, with Bernie Sanders, of the new book, It's Okay to be Angry About Capitalism.

Nichols says Tuesday's mayoral race in Chicago was "one of the most significant election results in the country for urban politics in quite awhile." He describes the previously little-known Johnson as having built a "multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational rainbow coalition" that propelled him to victory. "He beat the guy that everybody bet was going to be the next mayor of Chicago. Brandon Johnson will take office as a progressive who ran on taxing the rich, reforming the police, and investing money in public education, public health, and public services. A pretty remarkable win."

But the bulk of our time is spent discussing the extraordinary, long-awaited Supreme Court victory in Wisconsin, which, with some $45 million spent on both candidates, clocks in as the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.

"It was a bitter race. It was an intense race," Nichols tells me in trying to explain Kelly's incredible election night remarks in which he attempted to eviscerate his opponent in one of the most incredible sore-loser "concession" speeches in modern memory. Kelly described the contest as "the most deeply deceitful, dishonorable, despicable campaigns I have ever seen run for the courts," going on to attack Protasiewicz as "a serial liar" who has "demeaned the judiciary."

"It's going to go down in history," Nichols says referring to Kelly's election night outburst. "I've seen bitter concessions. I've seen angry concessions. I have seen refusals to concede. I have never, up until now, seen a concession that literally made people cringe."

We've got a lot to discuss about the new majority on the state's high court; what it means for Wisconsin moving forward; whether Republicans, with a narrow state Senate Special Election victory last night will attempt to impeach Protasiewicz with their newly won, gerrymandered super-majority in the upper chamber; and why Nichols, as he reports at The Nation today, believes this was "the most important election of 2023...for any American who cares about democracy, fair elections, voting rights, and much more."

Despite the good news, however, Nichols reminds us that WI is still a closely divided state, capable of wild swings. "The bottom line is this: Don't take your eyes away from Wisconsin," he advises. "It is a battleground state. This is the state of Robert M. LaFollette, the greatest progressive ever to serve in the U.S. Senate, and of Joe McCarthy, the most reactionary person, I would argue, to serve in the U.S. Senate. Those realities still exist. And this Supreme Court race is a very encouraging result as part of a very encouraging pattern in Wisconsin. But when you take your eyes off the prize, when you aren't paying attention, patterns can shift back."

Finally today, with all of the encouraging news of late, a few reminders that all of this good news at the national level, where Republican policies are wildly unpopular, also means that Rightwingers are embracing violent responses and GOP-controlled states are upping their desperation in hopes of holding on to control by hook and by crook. In many such states, it's not creeping authoritarianism in play, it's actual authoritarianism.

In Tennessee, for example, state Republicans are hoping to expel three Democratic state House members who dared support peaceful protesters calling for gun safety measures following last week's school shooting in Nashville. In Texas, GOP state lawmakers have quietly introduced a bill to allow the Sec. of State to overturn election results in the state's most populous and Democratic-leaning County; and in Florida, authoritarian Gov. Ron DeSantis is deploying Big Government weaponization against those, like the Walt Disney Company, who disagree with his anti-freedom, anti-LGBTQ policies...

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