There's probably not enough popcorn in the world for the hilarious madness that's blown up over the several hours or so, since we wrapped today's BradCast. Oh, well. I guess that's what next week is for. In the meantime... [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Somewhat less amusing, if still very interesting and actually of much more importance (I think)...from today's program.....

• Lincoln Project unleashes a killer 60-second ad against Donald Trump and the Congressional Republicans' "MAGA Murder Budget".

• Democratic "landslide" in South Carolina in Tuesday's special election for the statehouse, and what the "eye-popping win" may foretell for the forces opposed to authoritarianism in the year ahead.

• SCOTUS begins its month of long-awaited decision releases before Summer recess. They start with an easy one: a unanimous decision regarding a Catholic charity in Wisconsin.

• But, as long as Republican officials are continuing to pretend they care about religion, particularly Catholicism, will the Congressional Republicans pay attention to what the editorial staff at the 60-year old, independent National Catholic Reporter outlet has to say about their so-called "One Big, Beautiful Bill"? In its unsparing and historical accurate piece, the authors describe the measure as "one big shameful bill" and "one of the most immoral pieces of legislation in recent memory," before going on to explain why. And it's brutal. That's before they close this way: "Jesus weeps over this cruelty. So do we. We must reject this heartless bargain and instead pursue policies that honor the dignity of every citizen and the collective well-being of our nation."

• Newark, New Jersey's Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka is pushing back this week against the Trump Administration with a lawsuit against Trump's former defense attorney turned Interim U.S. Attorney for NJ Alina Habba for “false arrest and malicious prosecution". That, after Baraka was handcuffed and detained last month outside of a private facility contracted by DHS to house migrants. The charges were dropped just days later due to a complete lack of merit. Or, as Habba ridiculously described it, "for the sake of moving forward."

• And, catching up with a story that broke late last week while we were off...138 bipartisan, retired, state and federal judges submitted an amicus brief last Friday calling for a federal court to drop charges against Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. She was arrested by federal officials in late April after, they claim, she helped a migrant avoid arrest in her courthouse. Her own subsequent arrest and the charges against her, according to the former judges, undermine "centuries of precedent on judicial immunity."

• Finally, Desi Doyen is here for our latest Green News Report, with disturbing news on understaffed National Weather Service offices along the Gulf Coast as hurricane season begins; officials sounding the alarm about Trump's gutting of FEMA; and dirty deeds, done dirt cheap for the fossil fuel industry recently by our corrupted SCOTUS...

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Well, it's our last BradCast for a week or so, as we prepare for a muuuch-needed stand-down next week after Memorial Day. But we make up for it by packing a lot into today's program, with two of our favorite (and your favorite) guests. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

We're joined today again for one of our semi-regular (irregular?) round tables with our old-school, right-about-everything-for-20-years blogger pals, HEATHER DIGBY PARTON, award-winning columnist at Salon and her own Digby's Hullabaloo blog; and the notorious 'DRIFTGLASS', blogger and co-host of the weekly Professional Left Podcast from Flyover Country, Illinois.

As noted, we cover a whole lot of ground today, including both important and incredibly dumb news alike! Among the important news...

• DoJ Team Trump attorneys are upbraided in court by a U.S. District judge in New Jersey for indicting Newark's Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka on ridiculous trespassing charges, vowing last week to bring him to trial, only to drop all charges this week. At the same time, they then went on to indict Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver on ridiculous charges stemming from the same incident two weeks ago at an ICE detention facility in Newark. Those charges will also likely be dropped eventually, and Trump's former loser defense attorney, now interim U.S. Attorney in NJ, Alina Habba, will likely find herself upbraided again.

• After Trump spent years campaigning on promises to not touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, House Republicans earlier today barely passed Trump's budget bill that --- you guessed --- will slash both Medicare and Medicaid by more than a trillion dollars, taking away health care from as many as 14 million Americans. That, in order to help pay for tax cuts to wealthy people while ballooning deficit spending by about 4 trillion dollars. (Digby: "It's a complete travesty, and I think everybody knows it.")

• The Trump Regime's ongoing horrors and errors and blatant, thuggish, authoritarian violations of court orders regarding his clownish yet cruel and unlawful mass deportation efforts. (Driftglass: "This is a mass weapon attack, like raining missiles down on an enemy target. Some of it is going to get through. And they'll get most of what they want.")

• Qatar's $400 million bribe to Trump in the shape of a Boeing 747 "flying palace" that may never be used as Air Force One, but that he hopes to keep for his own personal use after his Presidency. "Emoluments," like "groceries," is such an old-fashioned word. (Driftglass: "He's just a giant greed hole of need and narcissism." Digby: "It sure sounds like 'I'd like you to do us a favor though...'")

• And, oh, yeah, Republicans on Thursday also nuked the filibuster in the U.S. Senate by ignoring the Senate Parliamentarian to pass a law with a bare majority that, according to Senate rules, requires 60 votes for passage. And they did so in order to ban California's clean air laws. So much for states' rights. That, despite the fear by many Democrats of nuking the filibuster to protect Voting and Reproductive Rights for all Americans when they last controlled the Senate. (Digby: "Senate rules are dead. So get ready. We are in such untrod territory.")

As you might imagine, both Digby and Driftglass have quite a few thoughts on all of the above, as well as on the Dumb News we cover today as well (apologies in advance)...

• Trump's Director of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, doesn't know what "habeas corpus" means.

• Republicans are pretending to be horrified by former FBI Director James Comey posting a photo of someone spelling out "86 47" in seashells on a beach. (Ya know, just like those "86 46" t-shirts rightwingers used to pimp. Says Digby: "This is a Republican thing, and they've been doing it forever." See her "Art of the Hissy Fit" from 2007 for more.)

• Trump is attacking and threatening Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen!

• And the dumbest news of all this week: Jake Tapper has a book about Joe Biden and a super-duper, totally important right now, conspiracy cover-up of his physical --- and, allegedly, cognitive --- decline while in office.

Don't worry. I didn't give away the best lines or hottest takes on either the important or dumb news, so tune on in!

And finally, Desi Doyen is here with our latest Green News Report with nothing but really good --- okay, really bad --- news to kick off Summer!...

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I'm sorry to have to add to our "And Then They Came For..." series on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

First it was "And Then They Came For the Judges..." last month, as Trump's goons arrested, hand-cuffed and frog-marched Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan off to face criminal charges, alleging she helped a migrant evade arrest by ICE in her courthouse. She is now challenging that indictment with a motion last week arguing she enjoys absolute immunity for official acts, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's absurd --- but binding --- "Presidential Immunity" ruling in Trump v. United States last year.

Next it was "And Then They Came for the Mayors..." last week, after Trump's goons hand-cuffed and frog-marched Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka off to jail, ridiculously charging him with "criminal trespass" after he arrived at a private facility contracted by ICE as a detention center, which the Mayor says the company doesn't have proper city permits to operate. After his dubious arrest, Trump's former defense lawyer turned Acting U.S. Attorney for NJ, Alina Habba declared Baraka's guilt on social media, claiming: "NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW".

But, on Monday, she dropped all charges against Baraka and announced new charges instead against NJ's Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver. Habba had previously claimed the Representative had "body slammed" one of the masked federal agents who had shown up to arrest Baraka last week during a scrum when supporters had surrounded him. Apparently, McIver refused to plead to a lesser charge, so an 8-page indictment [PDF] was filed yesterday on two counts of felony assault, including "assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement" during the incident.

The first-term Congresswoman decries the charges as "purely political" and vows to fight them. I suspect she will win and that her charges will also soon be dropped, just as Baraka's were. But we'll see.

We're joined today by attorney (and former Republican) KEITH BARBER, who has been covering these matters over at DailyKos, where he writes under the name of "KeithDB". He has reviewed much of the publicly available video of the incident in Newark, reviewed the charging document against McIver, released this afternoon, and sees a lot of problems with the federal government's case --- and the prosecutor overseeing them. "Alina Habba couldn't find her way around a court room with the help of GPS," he tells me.

Barber says he has seen no evidence of a "body slam" by McIver, and is critical of the public statements made by Habba about both the Baraka and McIver arrests. He explains the remarks are in violation of DoJ rules and guidelines "designed to protect the due process rights of the defendant."

He also describes both of the incidents as nothing less than "fascism" meant to intimidate those who would stand up to Trump. "This is a tyranny of an autocratic President, something that the founders of the United States of America worked hard [to avoid] when they developed the Constitution, to make sure that this country did not have an autocratic President. We had a bad history with kings, and we didn't want another king in this country with a different name."

Barber charges that Trump is "using the powers of his office to suppress opposition" and, he argues, his thuggery IS WORKING. Tune in for much more on that and all of the above!...

NEXT... While Trump's team of incompetent law enforcement officials are rounding up those who would oppose his mass, unlawful detention and deportation regime, the head of his own Dept. of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, literally does not know the meaning of habeas corpus as guaranteed by the Constitution. A stunning exchange today in the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) reveals that Noem believes "Habeas corpus is a Constitutional right that the President has to be able to remove people from this country."

As it turns out, it means almost the precise opposite of that, as we discuss.

THEN... A few thoughts on Paramount Global owner Shari Redstone's pressure on CBS News and 60 Minutes to settle Trump's pathetic $20 billion lawsuit against the venerable investigate news program regarding an interview last year with Kamala Harris that Trump didn't like. But the pressure from Redstone to settle the suit --- so that the Trump Administration might approve a pending Paramount merger with Skydance Media --- comes after Redstone hypocritically declared two years ago, at an award ceremony celebrating Freedom of the Press, "that press freedom is never guaranteed, that it must constantly be defended, and that it often comes at a significant cost, both personal and professional."

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on internal agency warnings about FEMA's lack of preparedness ahead of hurricane season, which begins in less than two weeks; The good news of Trump's flip-flop on his previous blockade of a major offshore wind project in New York; and China rising as America falters under the incompetent leadership of our new, and already failed, Presidential regime...

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Given the topics on today's BradCast, it was a pretty lively show anyway. Thanks mostly to the callers, I suspect. Especially the one who loves Trump and doesn't believe in the evolution. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our stories today...

• The three-term Mayor of Newark, New Jersey was arrested by masked federal thugs on a public street on Friday. Mayor Ras Baraka was hand-cuffed and frog-marched (as seen above) outside a newly reopened federal detention center that, reportedly, doesn't have its state or city permits in order to operate. He was there to inspect it. The arrest happened as three Democratic members of Congress were eventually allowed to tour the privately run ICE facility that same afternoon. DHS and Donald Trump's former defense lawyer turned top federal prosecutor in NJ, subsequently took to the airwaves to apparently lie about the arrest. They have since doubled down by threatening to arrest the three members of Congress who were there as well, claiming they and Baraka "broke into" and "stormed" the federal facility. Video and eye-witness testimony of the incident, so far, suggests otherwise.

• After 45 days in detention, Tufts University grad student, Rümeysa Öztürk, was finally released from custody over the weekend, at the insistence of a federal judge. She was snatched off the street by masked federal goons in March, as seen on a chilling viral video, after her student visa was revoked (without her knowledge), apparently in response to her daring to exercise her First Amendment right to co-author an op-ed in the student paper calling for the University to divest from Israel.

• On Sunday, ABC broke the news that Trump intends to accept a tricked-out 747 Boeing jet from the Royal Family of Qatar to use as Air Force One, and then keep it as his own at the end of his term. The plane is reportedly worth about $400 million before it was decked out to serve as "a flying palace". All of which is wildly unconstitutional, if the literal words of Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 (the Emoluments Clause) actually still mean anything. For the record, it reads, "...no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." Seems pretty clear. Unless you are a lawless grifter or one of his duped supporters.

• Then, we open up the rest of the show to callers. Lots of them. Kicking off with a MAGA fan named "Denise", who believes Öztürk was in the country unlawfully, was a "terrorist" who wrote an op-ed in support of Hamas. None of those things, as reality would have it, are true by any measure. Then again, Denise also doesn't understand that First Amendment rights apply to all "persons" in the U.S., and says she knows that Darwin was a total con-artist is a total scam. So, ya know... Her call, and the many that followed, were all fun, however!

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