On today's BradCast: Day One of Donald Trump's Republican National Convention in Cleveland was insane. But it was all going well enough until it became apparent late on Monday night that portions of Melania Trump's headliner speech was plagiarized directly from Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech.

Incredibly, the man who made 'You're fired!' a catch phrase can't seem to muster up the ability to hold anyone in his own campaign accountable for it. As such, the oratorical fraud and, more importantly, how its being handled (and denied) by Team Trump, offers a stark warning to voters as to how a Trump Presidency might handle the actual serious issues and difficult decisions that need to be made.

Or, at least, it should.

Speaking of warnings, new national polling remains tight between Trump and Hillary Clinton, who continues losing ground in several of them. That, as several new cases and disturbing allegations of voter registration fraud by Republican election insiders in a number of states, along with some very troubling news from the U.S. Dept. of Justice concerning their plans to no longer send observers to polling places in certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination, should serve as yet another stark warning for American voters...

But will it?

All of that and Desi Doyen with today's Green News Report on the latest BradCast...

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On today's BradCast, the GOP Convention finally gets underway in Cleveland as we try to make sense of the attempted military coup in Turkey over the weekend and the release of 28 previously classified pages of the 9/11 Commission's report.

First, as the RNC kicks off amidst a cycle of gun violence in this country and on the heels of another mass shooting of police officers over the weekend, this time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Cleveland Police union begged Ohio Gov. John Kasich to restrict guns outside the gathering during the convention, despite the state's open carry provisions. Kasich refused, citing Ohio's Constitution which, he says, does not permit the Governor to restrict real guns from the perimeter of the Quicken Loans Arena, even as toy guns and tennis balls are disallowed.

As the official proceedings finally began today inside the convention center, Republican opponents of Trump clashed with GOP officials after a thwarted attempt to force a roll call vote on the approval of the rules. Not a good start.

Then, we're joined by my guest today, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern. The longtime agency veteran, who used to deliver Presidential Daily Briefings to Reagan and Bush Sr. among others, joins us to discuss the apparently-failed military coup attempt that took place over the weekend in Turkey. We discuss what appears to have happened in the NATO nation, what it may mean for their hopes of joining the European Union, as well as what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mass arrests of police, military and judges in its wake may mean for Turkey, NATO, the EU, the U.S. and other nations.

The veteran analyst turned anti-war advocate and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), also details his opinion on whether the attempted coup by a faction of the Turkish military was at least partly a "false flag" event orchestrated by Erdogan, how much the U.S., an allly, may or may not have known about the uprising in advance, and why the U.S. will continue to be friendly with the Islamic nation, come what may.

"The bottom line on the Turkish coup," McGovern says, "is Erdogan has been given a terrific present here. He'll be able to change the constitution further, and he'll be able to exert dictatorial powers without much dissent. And that is very dangerous for NATO and the whole Near East area because he is the very definition of a loose cannon."

On the related topic of increasingly authoritarian friends of the U.S., we discuss the newly declassified 28-pages [PDF] of the 9/11 Commission's Final Report regarding a much closer relationship between the 9/11 hijackers and the Saudi government than either the Obama Administration or a number of major media outlets have so far reported. "These are damning, damning pieces of evidence of extensive Saudi government support for some of the 9/11 hijackers," he explains, before also explaining how the information revealed by these pages could have even come about in the first place --- and his quick thoughts on the rise of Donald Trump.

Finally today: It looks like Roger Ailes, longtime mastermind of the Fox "News" Channel scam, is about to be pushed out of his job in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him by a former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson; Donald Trump's Art of the Deal ghostwriter says he has a "deep sense of remorse" for "put[ting] lipstick on a pig"; and a bit of somewhat encouraging polling news for Hillary Clinton over the weekend...

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We will not be hijacked by fear and terror, as many hope, on today's or any other BradCast, even after the horrific attack in Nice, France. A few words on that, before the rest of today's show [audio link below] including...

• 'Tea Party' wingnut Indiana Gov. Mike Pence gets the nod to become the GOP's Veep nominee, despite differing with Donald Trump on a number of issues central to the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee's campaign, and (perhaps because of?) Pence's denial of crazy "liberal" ideas like global warming and that cigarettes are deadly.
• Failed Presidential nominee and rejected VP candidate Newt Gingrich calls for the violation of both religious freedom and the U.S. Constitution;
• GOP blocks last(?) "Never Trump" effort to derail Trump's nomination and begs billionaire Sheldon Adelson for millions to help pay for their convention next week in Cleveland after some corporate sponsors bail out;
• A major new poll now finds Trump leading Hillary Clinton nationally (though within the margin of error) as Senate Democrats reportedly "freak out" about the presumptive Democratic nominee's plunging numbers --- even after outspending Trump 40 to 1 in swing states;
• California set to finally certify results from its June 7 Presidential primary;
• And remarks from the UK's new Prime Minister serve as a reminder of what 'center-right' actually means.

All of that and much more on today's BradCast, at the end of yet another disturbing week.

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Nobody really knows what the GOP convention in Cleveland next week will look like, or even if the delegates there will vote for Donald Trump as expected. Joining us today on The BradCast to offer perspective on all of it is Doug Wead, Presidential historian, author, advisor to two Republican Presidents and a number of campaigns, and an expert on GOP political conventions and rules. [Audio link to show is posted below.]

But first, briefly, corporate media are reporting today that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will be Trump's Veep nominee and that the list of star-studded speakers Trump had promised for the convention may not be studded with quite so many stars after all. But, BENGHAZI! Also, following on the heels of yesterday's disturbing polls for Hillary Clinton, both nationally and in several key swing-states, another new poll out today, this one showing her tied with Trump nationally, confirms her falling support in the wake of the recent closure of the FBI investigation (and often-misleading reporting on it) into her use of a private email server as Secretary of State.

Next, Wead joins us to answer a lot of my questions of what can and can't happen under Republican rules in Cleveland next week, and to offer his thoughts on whether the "Never Trump" movement still has a chance in hell --- legally or otherwise --- at blocking Trump's nomination.

"They say, 'release these delegates to vote their conscience!' It's not like these are people who have a conscience!," he tells me with a hearty laugh. "It's insider-establishment people who want to be free to use the power they have as a vote, to get money and to get things in exchange." Wead also confirms that, yes, it is perfectly legal for the various campaigns to offer gifts, even cash if done carefully, to delegates in exchange for their vote at the convention.

He goes on to lament what he believes has come of his party: "I was astonished when I went into the White House to have some of these conservatives come into my office and say, 'Now you gotta get us federal dollars for this and for that, and all these companies', and I said, 'Hey, wait a minute, I thought we're the conservatives, I thought the liberal Democrats did that?' They said, 'Well, we gotta to do it when we're in power, just like they do it when they're in power. That's the way it works.' So you've got all of these people feeding at the pig trough, that are part of the Republican establishment."

Wead offers an historical perspective on all of this (the 1880 election may have been as insane); reports what both the Bush and Paul families (he has worked for both) currently think of Trump's rise to become the standard bearer of the Republican Party; what effect, if any, Vice Presidential nominees have on Presidential races; and how, he believes, establishment power brokers (in control of both the Republican and Democratic parties, he says) will come out of the election as the winner, one way or another.

As to Trump's chances of becoming the next President of the United States, the historian offers a chilling warning for Democrats: "Yeah, he could win. It could happen, very much so. Don't underestimate this guy. Ronald Reagan was seen as a warmonger and a racist and no way he could get elected. But he defied the prognosticators and won."

Finally today: Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, including coverage of the one ridiculous word added to the Republican Party platform this week to undermine the environment and for what may be the funniest 'snarky comment' ever on a GNR (this one, courtesy of Sen. Al Franken)...

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Erik Kirschbaum of the Los Angeles Times appears to be deeply troubled. According to last May's official count, Austria Green Party presidential candidate Alexander van der Bellen defeated Norbert Hofer of Austria's far-right "Freedom Party" by 30,863 votes. Now, as the result of what Kirschbaum describes as "irregularities in the counting of absentee ballots," Austria's Constitutional Court has ordered a second, nationwide election for the largely ceremonial post.

From a political perspective, Kirshbaum's concerns are understandable. After all, we are talking about providing a second opportunity for a presidential candidate whose "Freedom Party" was founded by former Nazis. But, as Brad Friedman has so frequently urged, election integrity is not about Left or Right. It's about right and wrong.

In that light, the July 1, 2016 decision issued by Austria's Constitutional Court represents a major victory for election integrity --- one that elevates what it describes as the fundamental prerequisite of ensuring "transparency in the establishment of the electoral result."

The court ruled that two individuals in each election district --- a chief and an assistant election officer --- must be personally present during the opening and counting of all mail-in ballots. Anything less opens up the prospect of a manipulated count.

Significantly, the party challenging the electoral result does not have to prove a manipulation of the result. If it was possible to manipulate enough ballots to alter the outcome, the official results must be set aside and a new election scheduled.

If applied by the U.S., the reasoning adopted by Austria's Constitutional Court would produce a fundamental and beneficial change in how our own elections are conducted...

On today's BradCast, once-friendly GOPers turn on the FBI Director, and internal DuPont documents reveal more of what the chemical company knew (and when they knew it) concerning a toxic chemical used in cookware and leaked for years into West Virginia's water supply. [Audio link posted below.]

First up: Longtime Republican James Comey, the FBI Director previously beloved by Republicans and Democrats alike, finds himself under fire by GOPers after declaring that his agency's year-long investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server would not result in criminal prosecution. We cover details from today's four-hour long "emergency" hearing convened by the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, following Comey's announcement on Tuesday that while the former Sec. of State's treatment of classified information in her email was "extremely careless", the FBI probe did not find the knowing intent that might have triggered a criminal indictment.

We try to separate real concerns about the scandal (some of which remain unanswered), as based on Comey's testimony at today's Congressional inquiry, from the fictional ones that Republicans are already spinning in hopes of tarring the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Then we're joined by Farron Cousins of DeSmogBlog and Ring of Fire Radio to discuss new disclosures revealed by a recent corporate document dump by the DuPont chemical company, detailing a decades long cover up of the deadly toxic dangers of C8, a chemical used in Teflon.

"C8 exposure through drinking water develops into cancer in the body," Cousins explains. "It has what they call 'bio-persistence' --- it builds up over time and does not get flushed out of the body. We have 99% of Americans with this C8 chemical [now] detectable in their bodies."

The documents, unearthed in a current civil lawsuit (one of hundreds now pending) against the chemical giant, reveal that the company was aware of C8's toxicity for decades, failed to inform their own employees for years, and continued poisoning untold millions for years, particularly those who relied on drinking water from the Ohio River near the company's Parkersburg, West Virginia plant.

"One of the sickest parts of this story, to me," Cousins says, "is the fact that DuPont was fined by the EPA in 2005" related to all of this, "and then they allowed them to continue dumping for another nine years after they were fined by Bush's EPA."

Cousins co-hosts Ring of Fire with our friend Mike Papantonio, whose law firm is currently representing one of the plaintiffs in their suit against DuPont. "This is the only justice that the victims will ever get, and this is the only time that DuPont is actually going to have to pay for their crimes," he tells me. "I defy people to look at these documents and accuse any of [the lawyers] of being ambulance chasers. People have died. People are dying. People will die. All because DuPont didn't want to face the music back in the 1960s. So they kept putting it off. And all throughout this 53 years that they were dumping this chemical into the river --- that's now detectable in the drinking water in 27 states --- they were making money. They're going to be just fine. Those people in West Virginia and Ohio and all over this country that have been poisoned? They are not."

Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us with the latest Green News Report, including very bad news for FL and VT, and very good news for Oakland and NASA...

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On today's BradCast, the UK releasing a damning report on former Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003, underscoring facts revealed by the Downing Street Memo in 2005, and former Fox 'News' anchor files suit against Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.

Today's release of the 2.6 million word Chilcot Report in the UK --- the result of an exhaustive seven year investigation into then British Prime Minister Tony Blair's 2003 decision to go to war in Iraq --- opens up many old wounds, not the least of which is a painful reminder that those of us shouting about the 'Downing Street Memo' back in 2005 --- the leaked memo citing the head of British intelligence charging the George W. Bush administration was "fixing" the "intelligence and facts...around the policy" of invading Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein no matter what --- were right then and still right today.

"I have a real love-hate relationship with talking about Tony Blair, and what he did to make this war happen," The Intercept's Jon Schwarz, who writes about exactly that today, tells me on today's program. "On the one hand, it's fascinating. It's such a story of self-deceit, of deception of others, of unbearable sanctimonious, all in the service of a gigantic catastrophe and crime. So on the one hand, it's fascinating. On the other hand, it's horrifying. I feel great joy and agony discussing it again 13 years after it happened."

We discuss the details of the Chilcot Report today, how the mainstream corporate media ignored the Downing Street Memo back in 2005 ("It was front-page news in many places on Earth. It was not front-page news in the United States."), and whether or not there has been any real accountability or lessons learned ever since, by either politicians or corporate media alike.

Also on today's program (speaking of lessons unlearned): Obama announces he will leave 8.400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan upon leaving office, and Gretchen Carlson, recently terminated by Fox "News", sues Roger Ailes, the Rightwing propaganda channel's boss, over disturbing claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.

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On today's BradCast, everything you may have missed from over the Independence Day holiday weekend, a bunch of stories breaking today, and a disturbing reminder that Election Day, most likely between two extraordinarily disliked Presidential candidates, is much sooner than you (or we!) might have thought. [Audio link to show posted below.]

Among the many stories covered on today's show...

• FBI Director James Comey says the Bureau will not recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton concerning her use of a private email server while Secretary of State;
• More negative fallout for the successful supporters of Brexit in the UK;
• More deadly terror attacks in the Middle East, in both Iraq and Saudi Arabia;
• President Obama and Hillary Clinton finally campaign together, as polls continue to suggest a tightening race with Donald Trump;
• Progressive champion and CNN commentator Van Jones argues, during a DFA conference call, that a Trump Presidency is the "likely" outcome of the election, due to the current "complacency and smugness of the Left". (If nothing else, PLEASE listen to this part of today's program!)
• A federal judge nixes Mississippi's anti-LGBT bill at the last possible moment before it was to go into effect;
• As Democrats in the U.S. House fight to get any vote on federal gun legislation, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) signs a number of gun safety bills (and vetoes others) that would, among many other things, ban the ownership of high-capacity magazines larger than 10 rounds in the Golden State.

Everything you may have missed but need to know, in 58 minutes or less! You're welcome! (And thanks to Angie Coiro of In Deep Radio for filling in for us on Friday!)

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On today's BradCast, the Presidential Primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders becomes a fight over the official party platform and whether progressive reform can actually happen from within; Donald Trump wants the U.S. to torture again; and California goes to pot. [Audio link to show posted below.]

In the wake of this week's horrific terror attack at Turkey's Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump wants to "Make America Commit War Crimes Again" as he calls for the U.S. to once again implement torture policies such as waterboarding. In the meantime, new Pew polling shows Trump's support from nation's outside of the U.S. is dismal, often in single digits. While back here at home, according to new Quinnipiac poll out today, he remains "neck-and-neck" nationally with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton whose favorability ratings are also dismal, though not as bad as Trump's.

But as Bernie Sanders supporters quickly move toward Clinton, representatives for the two popular Democratic rivals hash out the party's official platform document to be adopted by delegates at the Democratic National Convention in July.

Salon political reporter Ben Norton joins us to discuss progress of the talks, specifically the Clinton camp's refusal to allow a demand for a $15/hour federal minimum wage mandate in the non-binding party manifesto, as well as the failure by Clinton surrogates to agree to more progressive language on a number of issues, from Israel to fracking to trade policies.

Norton goes on to report that the fight between surrogates for the two candidates at the DNC Drafting Committee's platform talks echoes the long Democratic primary race, suggesting, as he sees it, that the party, ultimately, may not be able to reform from within. "You have the Sanders' appointees pushing for more progressive measures, and the Clinton appointees opposing those measures. I think in some ways, we did see some progress, but overall I think there's reason to be pessimistic for a potential Clinton presidency, given the way that this has represented itself at the DNC committee drafting," Norton explains. "It really reflects the war going on within the Progressive community."

Real progressive policy change, he argues, will require new candidates to step up at the local and state level --- even as independents or under the banner of a third party, if necessary --- to take up the fight and seek office, he notes, just as Sanders did when he initially ran for office in Vermont decades ago.

Finally today, more calls for 'Texit'! California announces that an initiative to allow the recreational use of marijuana will be on the statewide ballot this November, and Colorado finds that teen use of pot has actually fallen below the national average since the state adopted a similar policy in 2014.

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More than half a million ballots remain to be processed and tallied from California's June 7th Presidential Primary, and thousands of those votes have just been saved. On today's BradCast we speak to a citizen vote count observer in Los Angeles County who, through her diligence, just days ago, helped change L.A.'s process for determining which provisional ballots will be tallied, potentially saving tens of thousands of Democratic votes from being tossed in the bargain. [Audio link to complete show posted at bottom of this article.]

First today, the latest on the breaking news out of Turkey where an apparent terror attack had killed at least 28 people by air time today. Then, U.S. House Republicans release their final Benghazi report, for what it's worth, and Donald Trump continues to plummet in national polls, even as he remains quite competitive with Hillary Clinton in swing states.

Then, I'm joined by Julie Tyler, Los Angeles filmmaker and citizen vote count observer with Ballots for Bernie, to discuss how her oversight of on-going Provisional Ballot processing in L.A. has resulted in thousands of Democratic Primary votes cast by "No Party Preference" (NPP) voters being included in the tally, instead of being tossed out, as originally planned by election officials.

Indeed, The BRAD BLOG confirmed late last week with L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan that the County changed its process for determining voter intent after Tyler noticed that some provisional votes cast on Democratic ballot cards (instead of NPP-Democratic "cross over" cards) were being discarded under Logan's original process.

"I have further reviewed that category of provisional ballots," Logan said in a statement he sent via email, "and I am in agreement that the ballot card itself is sufficient to indicate voter intent to participate in the Democratic primary under the liberal construction clause of Elections Code 14312; therefore canvass staff has been instructed to process all such ballots as NPP-DEM cross over ballots and to prepare them for tabulation in subsequent updates as scheduled."

He went on to explain that, "while there is no process for a challenge to the determination of voter intent on provisional ballots, the election official does have to authority to identify the need for and to take corrective action during the canvass period. I am exercising that authority with regard to any provisional ballots processed and counted prior to the clarification listed above. Those ballots are being identified and will be re-processed as NPP-DEM cross over ballots and will reflect a vote cast in the Presidential contest, if any." Logan told me that some 2,801 ballots processed under the original interpretation of the rules were reprocessed under the new ones, and the more than 100,000 still-unprocessed provisionals in L.A. County will be verified and tallied under the new interpretation of the rules as well.

Tyler and others observers estimate some 60,000 votes may have been otherwise tossed, and tells me (though I haven't confirmed this part) that the CA Secretary of State is instructing other counties to similarly review their procedures for the inclusion of provisional Presidential votes from the June Democratic Primary, which Clinton still leads over Sanders, with the statewide margin very slowly narrowing and more than half a million ballots still untallied statewide as of today, in advance of the July 8 state certification deadline.

"It's our democracy, and it doesn't happen in a vacuum," Tyler tells me on today's show, while explaining how she noticed the problem initially and brought it to the attention of election officials, emphasizing "how important it is for observers to be on hand when these tallies are being done, for this very reason."

"It's not something that those people do over there. We have to take part. Frankly, I found the whole thing fascinating," she says, urging others to participate in this crucial aspect of our elections and noting "how empowering [it is] to know that, simply being there and observing, you can find errors and weigh in...Everybody has that power." Thank you, Julie! Couldn't agree more!

Finally today, we finish with our latest Green News Report on Volkswagen's $15 billion settlement with U.S. customers, as part of their emissions cheating scandal, Transcanada's $15 billion NAFTA complaint over U.S. rejection of the KeystoneXL pipeline, and much more...

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On today's BradCast: Climate change continues to ravage Americans and take lives in the east and west, surprisingly good news from the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.K. remains gripped with panic, confusion and uncertainty in the wake of last week's vote 'Brexit' vote to leave the European Union.

We start today with more on the historic deadly flooding and "mass destruction" in West Virginia 'coal country' and the out-of-control wildfires across bone-dry Southern California. Yes, it's everything we've been warning you about for so long on both The BRAD BLOG and The BradCast, even if just the latest example of the enormous (and growing) cost of climate change, as still both under-reported by the corporate media and over-shadowed by other new events across both the U.S. and world.

Then, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down several major decisions on its final day of the session. Surprisingly, a number of those decisions were very good news for progressives, even on an otherwise divided Court with its still-vacant 9th seat. The biggest decision concerned abortion rights in Texas, where the Court dealt a devastating blow to Republican laws meant to shut down women's health clinics under the guise of 'safety'. The Court saw through the Rightwing con, and the 5-3 decision could result in the overturning of similar "TRAP laws" enacted by Republicans in other states. In any event, the decision is a huge setback for rightwing anti-abortion activists and a big victory for those who believe in Constitutionally protected reproductive rights and freedoms. Can we take anything from this decision as to how SCOTUS might eventually rule in the Texas Photo ID voting restrictions case --- another GOP law meant to rob (certain) citizens of their rights for entirely specious reasons?

Also, the right of states to restrict the possession of guns by domestic abusers was upheld in a surprising bi-partisan 7 to 2 opinion, as was a new rule by the U.S. Dept. of Labor concerning overtime pay for home healthcare workers.

In an unusual unanimous decision by the Supremes, Virginia's former Republican Governor Bob McDonnell saw his bribery conviction vacated, despite having accepted some $165,000 in personal gifts and cash loans from a wealthy businessman hoping the Governor would help promote his products. Will that decision have any effect on Alabama's former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, who is now serving his 6th year in federal prison for having done far less than McDonnell was found guilty of? That, even as the Republican federal judge who sentenced Siegelman has resigned from the bench after having been arrested for beating his wife and the Republican heads of all three branches of government in Alabama face removal of office via impeachment (Governor), ethics charges (Chief Justice of the AL Supreme Court) and multiple felony conviction (AL Speaker of the House) for various crimes, alleged and proven, in their home state.

Finally today, last week's 'Brexit' vote continues to wreak havoc as world financial markets continue to plunge (though not nearly as low as I incorrectly reported it on today's show, as based on an inaccurate number reported by my iPhone's stock app!); the British government is in complete disarray about how (or, perhaps, even, if) they will officially begin the formal procedure required to leave the EU; voters express 'bregret' over having voted to exit; questions arise about overseas voters failing to correctly receive ballot papers at all; and some call for a second ("do-over") referendum.

All of that and much more on yet another insanely busy BradCast today!

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U.S. House Democrats roared back to life just before noon today in Washington D.C., as 76-year old civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) called for a 'sit-in' to protest Republican Leadership's refusal to allow a debate and vote on gun safety legislation.

Congressmembers answered the call and one of them, Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida, joins us on today's BradCast to explain what the Democrats are hoping to accomplish with this very rare protest and how long they intend to continue their occupation of the House Floor to do it. [Audio link to complete show is posted below.]

"We don't have a filibuster option in the House," Deutch says, stepping off the floor for a few moments to talk to us. "When the leadership of the House will not allow us to have a vote, and will twist the rules in whatever way they deem necessary to prevent us from voting on the most basic gun safety legislation, then we're forced to find other ways to bring that vote forward. That's what we're doing today."

Members were forced to break House rules by using cell phones to stream video of their 'occupation' on Facebook and Periscope, which C-SPAN has been subsequently rebroadcasting, after Republicans gaveled the chamber into recess and ordered C-SPAN cameras and microphones shut off.

"What's astonishing to me is that the Speaker apparently is so distraught at the idea of members of the House speaking out --- and speaking out on behalf of the people who sent them there --- that he has told C-SPAN to turn off their cameras," the Congressman tells me. "It's disgusting that we've not had a single vote on gun safety legislation. It is embarrassing, however, for House leadership --- that they are so embarrassed by their own records --- that they've told C-SPAN to cease broadcasting because they don't want any more attention brought to their shameful inaction."

"There's been no vote because they don't want to have to go on record and vote against the interests of their constituents, and vote in support of the gun lobby," he says. "It's so hard for people to understand how it is that Congress cannot even engage in a debate on the House floor, that we're forced to have a 'sit-in' just to talk about the most common sense gun safety measures."

Deutch says the House Democrats came up with the idea for their occupation last night, and that they plan to continue the protest until they either get a vote or are, essentially, arrested and physically removed.

"The only way to have order is for the Sergeant-at-Arms to haul people off. That's one option. I can't imagine that is an option they want to pursue. I can't imagine for a minute that the House leadership is prepared to tell the Sergeant-at-Arms to take John Lewis and the rest of us, and drag us off the House floor. And if that doesn't happen, the only way that this stops is to for us have a vote, and I think we're all prepared to stay at this as long as we need to until we have a vote."

"Overnight?," I ask him. "Absolutely," says the Congressman. "I am certainly prepared to do that."

The House Dems, like their counterparts in the Senate (a number of whom have stopped by the sit-in, in support) have been insisting, since the Orlando Massacre just over a week ago, on votes to close the online and gun show background check loopholes and for legislation to help prevent people on the FBI's suspected terrorist and 'No Fly' lists from purchasing weapons. They are supported on those measures by nearly 90% of Americans across all political parties, according to recent polling.

And what if Dems get their vote and the measures fail, as expected, in the Republican-controlled House? "The voters will know which members of Congress stand with them and who stands with the gun lobby. And that's when accountability will start," says Deutch.

At the end of our conversation, the Congressman also offers his thoughts on his Florida colleague, Sen. Marco Rubio, announcing his intention today to run for re-election, despite his abysmal attendance record and previous vows, during his failed run for the GOP Presidential nomination, to leave the U.S. Senate at the end of this term.

Also on today's busy show: Momentum for a bi-partisan 'compromise' bill in the U.S. Senate regarding gun purchases by those on the 'No Fly List'; And vote counting continues in California following the June 7th primary, while citizen observers fight for the inclusions of Provisional Ballots in the final tally and as the statewide vote margin between Sanders and Clinton narrows to single digits...

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On today's BradCast, have Bernie Sanders supporters been responsible in their attempts to oversee voting and vote tabulation during this year's Democratic Primary? How about long time Election Integrity advocates and journalists? Are cries of "FRAUD!!!" in the race between Sanders and Hillary Clinton misguided and misleading? Or are they on-point? [Audio link to show is posted below.]

From a sweltering Los Angeles, on the first official day of Summer, I speak to some of the many claims and allegations that this year's Democratic primary was "stolen" --- either by Hillary Clinton, the DNC, or anybody else. Just a few thoughts on all of this from someone who has investigated and covered issues of Election Integrity and fraud and voter suppression and non-overseeable computer voting systems and tabulators, often in excruciating detail, for more than a decade at The BRAD BLOG, on The BradCast, and anywhere else that would have me. As part of today's epic rant on all of this, I also offer some advice to those who believe California was "stolen", and how state law allows them to actually try and find out...if they really want to.

Also today, the Sanders campaign says supporters are answering his call from last week for fresh candidates to step up and run for office with progressive platforms at the local, state and federal level.

Meanwhile, the NRA-funded Republicans continue to obstruct any meaningful legislative action to try and help prevent gun violence following last week's massacre in Orlando, as the U.S. Senate blocks attempts to bar suspected terrorists from buying weapons of mass destruction at local gun shops, gun shows and online. All of that is playing out, as Donald Trump, the GOP's presumptive nominee for President, offers a particularly egregious lie in hopes of backpedaling from his repeated statements last week that he would have liked to have seen club patrons with many more guns in that dark, crowded LGBT nightclub in Orlando. It's a position that even the terrorist-enabling NRA no longer seems to fully agree with.

Finally, with firearm violence plummeting in California --- while it remains steady nationally --- the state legislature takes some action on scientific gun research in the wake of the federal government's effective twenty-year ban on same. And, before we close, with triple-digit temps shattering records out here today, a few climate scientists remind us that their own research concerning global warming, finds it to be anything but a bleeping "hoax"...

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It's been a rough week, so today on The BradCast, we try and catch up on a whole bunch of stuff we haven't been able to get to over the past several days in the wake of Orlando. [Audio link to complete show follow below.]

It's now been one full year since Donald Trump entered the race --- and since we accurately predicted the precise effect he would have on the GOP's 2016 Presidential Primary. Sure enough, the wheel's are now falling completely off for Republicans. Among the fresh evidence: John McCain declares (repeatedly) that Obama is "directly responsible" for the Orlando Massacre, while lying about how and why we 'left' Iraq. It's now so bad for Republicans that George W. Bush, of all people, is coming to the party's 'rescue'. Good luck with that. But, no worries, the GOP has declared the Republican National Convention a gun-free (and fruit-free) zone, so all is well.

On the Democratic side of the aisle, Bernie Sanders offers an online message to supporters, calling on them to work together to defeat Trump and to run for office at the state and local level to the continue the "political revolution". Meanwhile, polls begin to look very good for Hillary Clinton nationally and even in a number of traditionally very "red" states (could a Dem actually win in Utah and in Kansas this year?) All of that would seem to be good news for Democrats, but only if they are allowed to vote this November, which may just have gotten slightly easier for some in Kansas, where GOP "voter fraud" fraudster, Sec. of State Kris Kobach, continues to shame the state.

Finally today, we finish up with the latest Green News Report following the hottest May ever recorded on Planet Earth, and the emergence of new proof that Trump was for action on climate change before he decided to pretend it was all "a hoax".

All of that and much more on today's BradCast!...

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It's another very busy BradCast today, with breaking news on the murder of a British Member of Parliament, the Democratic 'filibuster' on guns in the U.S. Senate, Obama's visit to Orlando, and my interview with the man who led the CDC's fight against the NRA and Republicans in Congress twenty years ago, when federal funding for research into gun violence and prevention was effectively ended. [Audio link to full show is posted below.]

First up, the shooting and stabbing death of British Labour Party MP Jo Cox, has stunned the UK, just days before the controversial "Brexit" referendum vote on whether to leave the European Union. The alleged killer is in custody, and reportedly shouted "Britain First", the name of one of the Rightwing groups opposed to staying in the Union, during the attack.

Next, the Democrats' 15-hour 'filibuster' in the U.S. Senate, lead by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), comes to end with an apparent victory, of sorts. The Senator --- who served as Newtown, CT's member of Congress when the Sandyhook Massacre resulted in the deaths of 20 school children and 6 adults back in 2012 --- sought to force Republicans to allow votes on closing the gun show/online background check loophole, as well as legislation to disallow suspected terrorists from easily and legally purchasing guns. In related news, President Obama's spoke on Thursday after meeting with family members of the victims of last weekend's Orlando Massacre, and called once again for action to help prevent such tragedies.

Then, as the American Medical Association (AMA), one of the nation's most powerful lobbying organizations, has finally come out in favor of federal funding for gun research, I speak with Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who headed the Center for Disease Control (CDC)'s National Center for Injury Prevention twenty years ago when, in 1996, he squared off with Republicans in Congress who ultimately forced the federal agency to end all research into gun violence, the causes behind it, and how to help prevent it from happening in the first place.

Rosenberg, who recently retired as head of the Task Force on Global Health, explains the history of what is now known as the 'Dickey Amendment', which effectively served to end all federal research on guns. He describes his initial confrontations with then U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey (R-AR), who has since, ironically enough, become a friend and ally, and why still-absent federal research funding is so important to helping curb the nation's extraordinary gun violence epidemic.

"The NRA had been attacking us [the CDC] for years, because they thought that to allow research to be done might not be good for gun sales. And so they developed a zero tolerance policy," Rosenberg tells me. "They told their members that it's either-or, black and white, take your choice. Either you can do the research or you can keep your guns. But they said you can't do both. And if you allow the research, we will all lose all of our guns."

The showdown with GOPers doing the bidding of the NRA at the time, he says, came not long after CDC-funded research found that "having a gun in the home --- not only did it not protect you, but it increased the risk that someone in your family would be shot and killed with a gun, not by 5 or 6 or 20 percent, not by 80 or 90 percent, but more than 200 percent."

Rosenberg explains his fascinating history with former Congressman Dickey, how federal research is not actually "banned" to this day (despite reporting to the contrary), why it is still not carried out nonetheless, and what he describes as the four "basic scientific questions" that federal research could help answer. Namely: "Who gets shot, how many people?"; "What are the causes" of gun death and injury and "what increases and decreases the risk"?; What could "work to prevent it"?; and, "once you find things that work, how do you put them into legislation and craft a policy that will both keep us safe and protect the rights of law-abiding gun owners"?

It's an eye-opening and important discussion that I hope you'll take some time to listen to and share. And, finally, at the end of the show, as your gift, you'll be rewarded with a much-overdue laugh, courtesy of Al Franken. Enjoy!

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