On today's BradCast: We all saw it with our own eyes on video tape. But the Administration is doubling down anyway, vowing to send even more federal ICE officials to make things even worse. Even more violent. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Following last Wednesday's killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, Trump Administration officials (including Donald Trump himself, his Vice President J.D. Vance and Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem), blatantly lied about the victim. She was a "domestic terrorist" who "attacked" ICE officials, they falsely claimed. Her killer, Ross, was "fighting for his life," they suggested, when he fired three times into Good's car, point blank, as she tried to escape in a panic. She "viciously ran over the ICE officer," the President of the United States lied, adding falsely: "It is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital."

None of those claims are true. Good was murdered by Ross as she tried to drive around him, while another masked ICE thug was attempting to open her locked car door through the open driver side window. Ross was seen walking around the crime scene without incident afterward.

Hers was neither the first nor last ICE shooting into a vehicle. Wall Street Journal reports there have been at least 13 such shootings since July, including many in which the Dept. of Homeland Security made the same false claims --- "domestic terrorism", "attacked ICE officials", "pinned or rammed them with their weaponized vehicle" --- only to be undermined by video or other evidence that revealed their lies.

"No law enforcement professional wears a mask. None," Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal emphasized during a press conference on Friday. "Law enforcement professionals do not shoot at moving vehicles. I'm not saying fleeing, because she [Good] was not fleeing. She was getting out of the way. Law enforcement professionals do not stand in front of moving vehicles invoking an action that is illegal. No, we don't."

Bilal refused to describe the ICE agents in Minneapolis as professional cops. "I call them made-up, fake, wannabe law enforcement, because what they do is against not only the legal law, but the moral law." She vowed to work with the local D.A. to prevent similar actions in her own city. "You will not be able to hide," she said, adding "the criminal in the White House will not able to keep you from going to jail." Bilal concluded by noting "Renee Good should be here today."

She is not the only member of local law enforcement around the country attempting to separate what they do from the supposed policing being carried out by ICE officials, now across the country. We're joined today by former Redlands, California Police Chief JIM BUEERMANN, founder of Future Policing Institute, who went to lengths to separate his thoughts on what ICE officials are now doing from what he describes as actual "cops" on their local beat.

"I would like to make a very clear distinction between the ICE agents and municipal police officers that I would call cops," he told me. "They are enforcing the law, but they are not police officers. And there is a huge distinction," said Bueermann. "There is a huge difference between the expectations of police chiefs and sheriffs across this country about the behaviors of their officers, their 'cops', and what appears to be the policies, practices, organizational culture of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents."

He argues that the "behaviors, practices and policies" of ICE are very different from "what we refer to as 'community policing' practices, and operate under seemingly very different rules."

While clearly condemning the killing of Good, it was clear he wanted to disown the practices and behavior of his federal counterparts, who undergo "a different set of training protocols than what you see from local police officers." He carefully condemned the federal officials of employing "bad tactics", at least based on the video evidence we have all seen to date, such as Ross stepping in front of a running vehicle with a driver behind the wheel.

My conversation was frustrating, at times, with the cautious Bueermann. But his message was ultimately clear. "I have not seen anything, certainly, [to suggest] that this woman was a 'domestic terrorist,'" based on the evidence he'd seen. "It's very difficult to watch that and not think that a much better, safer, less deadly outcome was achievable without much effort."

"We certainly need to speak up loudly about the behavior that we are seeing," he concedes, while helping us to try and make sense of what is clearly a senseless, tragic situation. "Until something changes dramatically," he told the L.A. Times last week, "this probably, and I say this sadly, won’t be the last tragic incident involving ICE and protesters."

It wasn't. Following the murder of Good on Wednesday, Oregon officials were reportedly launching their own investigation of a Thursday incident in Portland after federal officers shot a couple during a vehicle stop. Unfortunately, there has been no video released from that incident, to date.

Bueermann also shares his concerns about federal officials attempting to lock MN state officials out of the investigation of Good's killing, and federal officials hiding their identify during their work, with masks and unmarked civilian vehicles. "You have to have your nameplate, and you have to have a badge number --- all of the identifiers in a democratic policing environment," argues Bueermann. "That's another distinguishing factor between cops and these federal ICE agents. Cops don't do that. ICE agents do."

Finally, we're joined by a few callers, including one from Minneapolis, where protests have been growing since last week and where the caller, Roger, is concerned about taking part in them, as federal officials clearly hope to, yes, terrorize the populace into tempering their First Amendment freedoms...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump's takeover of Venezuela is about much more than oil, experts say; Trump White House will store Venezuela's oil revenue outside the U.S. Treasury; Extreme snow in Alaska sinks boats, collapses roofs as FEMA plans to lay off disaster recovery staff; PLUS: One year after two catastrophic, deadly fires, Los Angeles builds a slow road to recovery... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Trump Pulls Out of Global Climate Agreement; What a Trump Invasion Could Mean for Greenland’s Minerals and Environment; Oil Industry Will Eye Venezuela Warily, Experts Say; Hundreds Of Groups Urge Congress Not To Weaken Chemical Safety Law; Congress’ Latest Spending Package Spares Environment, Energy Agencies ... PLUS: In Ecuador’s Battle of Toad vs. Road, Toad Wins ... and much, MUCH more! ...

It's difficult to fathom. But, we've got hard evidence on today's BradCast that Congress was actually in session today. Both chambers! Doing oversight. Holding votes and stuff! And, when it comes to the Republicans who control those chambers, natch, voting against the best interests of their own constituents. All of that, as Trump continued to lose one battle after another today --- in the courts and even in the state Senate of a very Republican state. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

There was also quite a bit of breaking news both right before and during today's hour. Among the stuff we covered...

• Just before airtime, news broke that yet another federal grand jury has, for a second time, rejected an attempt by the Trump Administration's corrupt Dept. of Justice to revenge indict New York Attorney General Letitia James. If you're keeping score at home, that's one indictment tossed out by a federal judge, followed by two attempted indictments rejected by two different grand juries, against the woman who successfully held Donald Trump to account actual fraud to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in both criminal and civil court last year.

• Also just before airtime, Republican lawmakers in the Indiana state Senate voted to reject a new U.S. House map that would have gerrymandered the Hoosier State's two remaining Democratic seats out of existence, defying Trump's orders, death threats from his supporters, threats to primary those Senators next year, and even his last minute message that he would cut off all federal funding to the state if they didn't obey! To their credit, the state Republicans did not!

• A federal judge on Thursday found that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was being held unlawfully held by ICE in immigration detention and ordered that he be freed immediately. Despite foot-stomping and promises by Trump's DoJ to appeal, Abrego Garcia was released before today's show ended. He is, of course, the Maryland resident, father and Salvadoran national who was wrongfully deported back to El Salvador earlier this year, before being ordered to be brought back to the U.S. by a federal judge. DoJ then indicted him on seemingly trumped-up charges, which he still faces, and ICE unlawfully tossed him into detention. Until today.

• Speaking of immigration, Dept. of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem embarrassed herself and the Administration under questioning from Democrats in the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday. We share some of the sharp questioning for DHS Barbie from Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman (NY) and Seth Magaziner (RI). Also testifying today was FBI Director of Operations Michael Glasheen who similarly embarrassed himself and the Administration when trying (and failing) to explain to the Committee's Democratic Ranking Member, Bennie Thompson (MS), why the non-existent "Antifa" organization is now absurdly regarded by the Bureau to be the nation's top domestic terror threat.

• Over in the U.S. Senate, Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to restore premium subsidies for more than 20 million Americans who receive access to health care via the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare). Monthly premiums are now almost certain to skyrocket for millions at years end, leaving many Americans without health care at all. Four Republicans joined the Democrats' attempt to restore the massive GOP cuts, but it wasn't enough to overcome a Republican filibuster. For their part, a ridiculous Republican bill to give Americans about $1,000 per year in a so-called Health Savings Account to somehow cover health care needs, went down in flames. Several pending discharge petitions in the House may force votes next week on the matter in the lower GOP-controlled chamber.

• "Catastrophic" flooding is forcing evacuations for as many as 100,000 residents in the Pacific Northwest over the next several days, following as much as 18 inches of rain over the past 72 hours in some areas. The Skagit River in Washington, which reaches major flood stage at 32 feet, is now expected to crest at a record 47 feet! All consequences of the climate change disaster which most Republicans pretend is not happening, and pretend to not be caused by the man-made burning of fossil fuels.

• With increasingly dangerous floods, droughts, storms, fires, etc., it is disappointing to learn that Zillow, the nation's largest real estate listing site, is removing a feature, added just last year, that allowed home buyers to learn about a property's exposure to the climate crisis. Making climate risk data more difficult to find and use, does not make its reality disappear, however. "The risk doesn’t go away,” says Matthew Eby, founder of the non-profit financial climate risk modeling site, First Street, which supplied the scientific data previously used for the Zillow feature. "It just moves from a pre-purchase decision into a post-purchase liability." Good luck, home buyers!

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, on the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela; the Trump EPA's deletion from their website of humanity's roll in climate change; Exxon Mobil pleads for help from the corrupted SCOTUS Six; And a U.S. court strikes down Trump's Executive Order blocking wind energy projects...

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Today on The BradCast: If Democrats don't put up a candidate for every goddamn contest on the ballot next year --- in every state, county, city, town, village and hamlet in the nation --- they are out of their flippin' minds. If things continue as are seeing week after week at year's end in 2025, they could well be in a position to win any race, almost anywhere in the country in 2026. (Though they may need to demand a few ballot hand-counts to ensure the correct winner, if a disturbing new report out today is any indication.) [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Following up on huge shifts toward Democrats by the electorate in Special Elections across the country all year; an outright Blue Wave in state after state during the November 4th off-year elections last month; and another Special Election in a deep-red GOP-gerrymandered U.S. House district last week; Democrats racked up more stunning victories on Tuesday night in several Presidential battleground states, as the American electorate continues a remarkable shift toward the Left, even in races that Dems don't win outright.

Among the unofficial election results from last night, what they all mean moving forward into the critical 2026 mid-terms, and one great big red flag that voters from all parties need to watch out for next year...

• A Democrat won the Miami, Florida Mayoral runoff for the first time in nearly 30 years, defeating a Republican candidate endorsed by both Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis. She won by nearly 20 points in a city that narrowly went to Trump in the Presidential contest just last year. Eileen Higgins will also make history by becoming the city's first-ever female Mayor in a city not much more than an hour's drive from Mar-a-Lago. She ran on affordability agenda, vowed to protect the immigrant community threatened by Trump, and to take on many of the city's worsening climate change-related challenges ignored by both Trump and DeSantis in South Florida. She also promised, to roars from supporters during her Tuesday night victory speech, to build a city where "immigrants feel welcome and respected".

• There were also two Special Elections to fill vacancies in the Florida state House on Tuesday. One seat was previously held by a Democrat and the other by a Republican. While neither seat was flipped, the Democratic candidate improved on last year's results by about 11 percentage points in one case, and 15 points in the other. It was an incredibly good night for Dems in the Sunshine State, which had been moving farther and farther to the right over the past decade or more.

• In Georgia, Democrat Eric Gisler flipped a GOP state House seat on Tuesday, in a Special Election in a district that went for Trump by more than 12 points last year. He defeated his Republican opponent by just under 2 points, according to the latest unofficial tally, notching a 14 or 15 point swing for Democrats in the previously "red" state House District. The victory comes after what the state's Democratic Party described as "22 years of failed Republican leadership."

• In Albuquerque, New Mexico, two-term Democratic incumbent Mayor Tim Keller became the first Mayor in city history to win a third consecutive term. As he vowed during his victory speech on Election Night: "We are not going to allow ICE in. We are not going to let Trump come into Albuquerque." Democratic wins also appear to have flipped the City Council.

• Even in Iowa, where a Democratic candidate lost her race last night in a landslide Special Election for a vacant state House seat by nearly 40 points, the electorate shifted about 11 points toward the Democrat in the otherwise extremely "red" state House District. It was the fifth Special Election for a state legislative seat in the Hawkeye State this year. In each of them, the electorate shifted to Dems by anywhere from 9 to 15 points.

• In all, as a Bolts Magazine analysis of all 2025 state legislative elections finds today, "Democrats gained 25 state Senate and House seats that were held by the GOP, out of the 118 that were resolved this year in regular or special elections." That number outpaces the party's wins in 2017, before 2018's mid-term Blue Wave during Trump's first Presidency. Republicans flipped exactly ZERO such races over the past year. Moreover, the outlet notes, "the GOP may have gotten lucky this year: Most of the legislative elections that occurred in 2025 were for seats that Democrats already held, which limited their opportunity for gains."

• With all of that in mind, Republicans should be terrified ahead of next year's mid-terms. Even --- and, perhaps, especially --- in GOP-controlled states that have recently gerrymandered their U.S. House map (at Trump's orders) in hopes of flipping "blue" seats to "red" ones. To do that, they must make safe "red" seats a bit less safe. In Missouri, where Republicans recently adopted a new map designed to remove one of two remaining Democratic U.S. House seats, opponents are trying to block the new map by putting it on next year's ballot as a citizen's veto referendum. Yesterday, organizers of the effort let me know that they have "delivered over 300,000 signatures --- three times what was required" to MO's Sec. of State in order to force a referendum on the gerrymandering measure next November. "Under the Missouri Constitution," they said, "once those signatures are submitted, the map cannot take effect unless voters approve it." But, they are also warning that Republican state officials are "signaling they may ignore that constitutional requirement and attempt to implement the map anyway." The group, People Not Politicians, tells me they are ready to go to court immediately, if necessary, to file a challenge if, in fact, the state is "considering the nullification of its own constitutional check on legislative power."

• But here's something that Democrats and Republicans alike need to be aware of next year. The computer-tallied results from several ballot propositions in upstate New York's Rensselaer County appear to have gone sideways during last month's November 4th elections. Thanks to the tenacity of supporters of the Stephentown Memorial Library in tiny, rural Stephentown, just three miles from the state's border with Massachusetts, a hand recount of the county's hand-marked paper ballots was carried out. After a hand-recount, it was discovered that a measure to fund the town's library, initially reported as having lost 528 to 60, was actually found to have been adopted by voters 540 to 279! Several countywide measures were also mistallied as well by the County's optical scanners made by Clear Ballot. One of them, a measure that would have ended funding for a local volunteer rescue squad, was not adopted as originally reported by results of 517 to 505. In fact, the local measure was found to have been defeated --- 2,381 to 2,250 --- following the hand count! So, how could the original results have been so wildly wrong? We explain today, based on the few details we've been able to gather from local media reporting and some input from several longtime voting system and election integrity experts we reached out to.

• Finally, at the end of another very busy show, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as climate impacts accelerate in the Middle East; Repubs give another big gift to Big Oil; a MAGA v. MAHA feud breaks out over Trump's EPA rollback of toxic chemical rules; and as deployment of utility-scale solar operations sets a new record in the U.S., despite Trump's efforts to kill development of cheap, clean, reliable, renewable energy...

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Not that I hope to tip off our degenerate authoritarian oligarchy on today's BradCast. But if the Republican Party still believes in math (and it's unclear if they do), there was more very bad news for them in Tuesday's elections this week. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Unapologetically progressive Democratic candidate Aftyn Behn appears to have lost the Special Election race for the U.S. House in Tennessee's very "red", GOP-gerrymandered 7th Congressional District to stalwart Trump Republican Matt Van Epps on Tuesday. Unofficial numbers suggest she lost by about 9 points.

Sounds like a rout. But, in fact, it really wasn't. Trump won the district last year by 22 points, meaning there was a 13 point shift toward Democrats on Tuesday, precisely the average shift that we have seen toward Dems in all of the Special Elections for U.S. House this year. There are 14 counties in TN's 7th CD. Everyone of them shifted towards the left on Tuesday. That, after Republicans were forced to dump a lot of money into what should have been an easy contest on Tuesday.

While House Speaker Mike Johnson pretended not to be concerned about any of this --- "They were really trying to set the scenario that there's some sort of wave going on. There's not. We just proved that there's not." --- actual math really does suggest trouble ahead for the GOP in next year's critical 2026 midterm cycle.

With that average 13 point shift toward Democrats in special elections this year, we do a little bit of mathing on today's show. For example, last year, in the 2024 U.S. House general elections...

• 28 Republicans won their races by 10 percent or less.
• 64 of them won by 12 points or less.
• And a whopping 92 Republicans won by just 15 percent or less last year.

With a razor-thin 3 vote advantage heading into the new year, no wonder several GOP-controlled states are attempting panicked mid-decade gerrymanders, and that the corrupt Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court are likely to help them. But new maps may ultimately make their problems worse, not better, if this year's elections are any indication. Safe Republican districts made less safe with new gerrymanders to steal districts from Democratic voters may end up backfiring. Of course, I won't dismiss Democrats' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory between now and next year. But when Johnson says, "This doesn't concern me at all," he is either lying, in denial or incredibly stupid. And he's not all that stupid.

"This is one of the biggest flashing red light warning signs we've seen yet for Republicans," a far more realistic GOP strategist observed last night. Much more on today's show.

As if that's not enough, in a stunning runoff election on Tuesday in Georgia, the Democratic candidate easily unseated the incumbent Republican Mayor in the suburban city of Roswell, outside of Atlanta. She will be the previously deep "red" city's first Democratic Mayor in nearly 30 years. But don't worry, Mike. All's well!

Also today, our disgusting racist President said a whole bunch of disgusting racist things at the White House on Tuesday about Somalia and the American Somali population in Minnesota and elsewhere, repeatedly describing them as "garbage", "people who don't work," and people who should "go back to where they came from." Where many of them came from is a war-torn nation in Africa, with thousands seeking refuge here in the 90s. Most of them are now American citizens, with many living in Minnesota, where Trump's degenerate federal jack-booted immigration thugs will reportedly be targeting them, specifically in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, with upcoming raids.

State Governor Tim Walz --- who Trump last week described as "retarded" --- as well as the Minneapolis Mayor, its Chief of Police and many other officials and immigration advocates are vowing not to roll over to Trump's racist immigration hooliganism. Similar raids are reportedly being launched this week in New Orleans, where residents are also hoping to push back against Trump's increasingly unpopular thuggery however they can.

Finally today, Desi Doyen has our latest Green News Report (after we had to preempt yesterday), with news on the end of disappointing U.N. climate talks in Brazil; the rising death toll following two simultaneous climate change-fueled typhoons in Southeast Asia; and the Trump Administration's latest plans to pollute your air and poison your drinking water...

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As we head toward the holidays, some helpful advice on today's BradCast for how to deal (and even help) some of your MAGA friends and family members who may drive you crazy, even if you still love them. That, even as the very cult-like movement begins to show some serious signs in recent weeks of, just maybe, beginning to falter. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

BUT FIRST... It was a remarkable day in a federal courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia on Wednesday, as both the U.S. District Court judge overseeing the case and others in the courtroom were reportedly "stunned into silence", after the interim U.S. Attorney who brought the case against James Comey, on behalf of Donald Trump, just before the statute of limitations was to time out, admitted that the grand jury never actually voted to approve the felony indictment filed in court against the former FBI Director!

There are a whole lot of reasons why the two felony charges against Comey, related to allegedly lying to Congress back in 2020, would likely be tossed out of court before ever reaching a jury. But today's courtroom revelation by Trump's insurance lawyer, Lindsey Halligan --- tapped as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (despite no prosecutorial experience), specifically to bring charges against Trump's perceived foes like Comey and New York A.G. Letitia James --- was one that few saw coming.

On Monday's show we were joined by Attorney Keith Barber to discuss that day's stunning ruling by a different judge working on a separate element of Comey's pre-trial motions. That judge's ruling was gobsmacking enough, finding a "disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps" in the prosecution's case that might "undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding". Responding to today's arguably even more gobsmacking revelations, Barber writes at Daily Kos: "Folks, on this alone the case must be dismissed. It’s over."

We should find out if he's right about that in fairly short order. U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff ordered the DOJ to respond with an explanation to this morning's admission by Halligan by end of business day today.

THEN... There are signs everywhere that things are quickly turning south for Donald Trump, from the drubbing his party took in elections earlier this month, to a faltering economy, to record-low approval ratings (even from Republicans), and this week's swift Congressional passage of a measure mandating the release of the Epstein Files within 30 days, effectively overcoming Trump's months-long attempted cover-up.

Just last week, top MAGA supporters were blowing their collective stacks after the President's insistence, during a Fox "News" interview regarding H1-B visa rules supported by Big Tech companies and now by Trump, that America doesn't have enough talented people.

All of which has resulted in recent headlines (from before yesterday's Epstein vote!), such as "MAGA's metastasizing mess" (Axios), "Trump faces a splintering GOP --- and rare dissent from his party" (WaPo), "7 signs Trump is losing his groove" (Politico), "Trump’s Grip on Republicans Shows First Signs of Slipping" (WSJ) and "The MAGA Crackup Might Finally Be Here" (NYT).

So is Trump really losing his MAGA base? Is a crackup finally here? Or, at least, getting closer?

We're joined today by former dyed-in-the-wool MAGA member and former GOP operative RICH LOGIS who, after supporting Trump in 2016 and 2020 --- with dozens of "Make America Great Hats" to prove it --- finally pulled himself out of what he now describes as Trump's MAGA cult. He went on to begin a long process of making amends to friends and family, and eventually formed the Leaving MAGA organization to help others do the same.

"One of the really difficult parts for me in my decision to leave MAGA was a recognition that Trump did not in fact care about me, when I thought he did," Logis tells me today, in response to my question about whether he believes we may finally be seeing the movement fade as it turns against itself. He cites the Epstein story as revealing so many flip-flops that his supporters may finally be closing in on an important truth. "With the Epstein story in particular," he says, "what it shows is that there is this burgeoning cognitive dissonance throughout the MAGA community. I think that people in MAGA are starting to ask themselves if Donald Trump has been lying to them for many, many years."

"Our epiphanies happen gradually, then suddenly all at once. I'm seeing that similarly with Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well," he asserts, even as he concedes there is still a long way for many to go. "I think there is still a lot of denial within the MAGA community. Trump's toxic superpower is lying. But I think with the Epstein story in particular, Trump has lied one too many times. I think that, for some in MAGA, they are starting to now stick."

We discuss much more with Logis, including why he believes Trump's Fox "News" interview on H1-B visas blew so many MAGA tops; whether the exodus from MAGA is yet being reflected in the number of folks turning to his Leaving MAGA organization; and how best to help your MAGA friends and loved ones out of the cult of misinformation, disinformation and outrage that has become "a kind of addiction" for so many of them. "The outrage creates dopamine hits. When someone has that kind of an addiction, facts and expertise don't tend to get people out of it."

So, how to deal with those folks over the holidays? He offers several tricks and tips today, along with pointers to Leaving MAGA's new, free, weekly online support group for friends and family members of those in MAGA (sign up here for more info here), and their free e-pamphlet titled Reaching Out as a "how-to guide" with "dos and don'ts" for "people who want to reach out to loved ones and friends in MAGA, but aren’t sure how."

"We don't want people to give up on their MAGA close ones," says Logis. "We are living proof that it is possible for people to change."

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We've done quite a bit on The BradCast over the years, from investigative reporting, to deep dive explainers and interviews with experts and news makers, to ranting monologues, to taking calls from listeners on all manner of things. But, unless I'm mistaken, I believe this is the first time we've turned the show into a game show! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... Before we get to our fun (if disturbing?) game today, a few news items of note...

• Category 5 Hurricane Melissa looks to be a monster deadly storm in the Caribbean on several different levels. It's slamming smack-dab into Jamaica overnight tonight. In addition to record wind speeds (satellite records showed the storm, in record warm waters, topping 190mph for a time last night according to satellite records, which would be a Cat 6 if there actually was such a thing on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale), it's also incredibly slow moving. That means it is likely to dump a lot of water --- as much as 40 inches of rain in some places --- as it slowly swamps the entire island. Desi Doyen also joins us for a few insights on how climate change has worsened just about every aspect of this deadly storm.

• Earlier this year the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), detailed how "multi-year contingency funds" would be used to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to "continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown." Last week, however, as the shutdown drags on, a USDA memo explained that, despite already appropriated Congressional funding to be used for such a contingency, federal SNAP money would no longer be made available to states after November 1 if the shutdown was still ongoing. That, after Republicans already slashed some $186 billion from the program in Trump's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" earlier this year. More than 40 million people rely on SNAP to put food on the table --- the vast majority of them employed, by the way --- but the Trump Administration is now planning to help starve people (including millions of their own voters) rather than even negotiate with Democrats who are refusing to help Republicans keep the government open until hundreds of millions (in fact trillions) of dollars in Trump/GOP health care cuts for Americans are restored.

• Next Tuesday is Election Day in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, California and elsewhere. On Friday, Trump's Dept. of Justice announced that federal monitors were being deployed to polling places in five counties in California and one in New Jersey (which both have Democratic governors), though none to Virginia, which has the most contests on the ballot next week...and a Republican Governor. DOJ has yet to explain why monitors are being deployed or under what law they are doing so. Election experts --- and CA's Governor --- warn this may be a trial run for what the Administration is planning for next year's critical midterms.

THEN... It's on to "Who Wants to be a U.S. Citizen?", the first BradCast call-in game show!

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it was making it more difficult to pass the test required for those applying to become U.S. Citizens. They are doubling both the number of questions asked PDF on the Naturalization Civics Test and the number of correct answers that need to be given to pass the test.

According to experts, the questions are also more difficult than they were previously. So, today, we open up our phone lines to listeners --- most of them, presumably U.S. citizens! --- to see if they could answer the questions now being asked of prospective citizens by this Administration.

Like the Trump Administration, we make up the rules of the game as we go. And our listeners did fairly well! But I'll bet they did a helluva lot better than our current President would have been able to had he been forced to pass this test!

Tune in for what turned out to be both an amusing and troubling hour of fun and games with our lucky listeners!...

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Well, buckle up for today's jam-packed BradCast. Though you might need a shower after a portion of today's show regarding new details on Trump and Epstein. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... We're joined by financial investigative journalist, author and Executive Editor of The American Prospect, DAVID DAYEN, to discuss two remarkable farm related, shutdown related stories he broke this week.

The first regards the need for Congress to approve billions of dollars in bailout money for U.S. farmers after Donald Trump's tariff-sparked trade war with China and other countries has decimated the U.S. farm industry. He had to do the same thing during his first term as well. "The reason he needs to bail them out again in the second term is for the same reason as the first term --- the consequences of Trump's own policies," Dayen explains. "The tariffs that have been imposed on China has created a very inevitable and obvious backlash."

Maddeningly, the Trump Administration just granted $20 billion dollars in foreign aid to Argentina, run by a fellow autocrat, which is now making huge bank by taking over exports to China of stuff like soy beans, a key U.S. farm commodity that China --- previously our largest customer --- will no longer buy from the U.S., thanks to Trump's tariffs.

"Think about this," says Dayen, "we've paid off Argentina. Argentine farmers are undercutting U.S. farmers in the global market. And now we're paying off U.S. farmers to compensate for that."

But in order to provide that bailout to U.S. farmers (and Big Ag), Trump and Republicans need buy-in from Democrats. Dayen posits that this might be a path toward ending the government shutdown as Dems are fighting to reverse huge Trump/Republican cuts to the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Medicare. Republicans could agree to restore health care funding while Dems could agree to bail out farmers.

The second story Dayen offers this week, is a stunner. Trump's own Department of Labor published a little noticed, but startling admission in the Federal Register last week, asserting that Trump's own immigration policies now threaten a farmworker crisis and significant "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages." As the Dept. explains in the Register: "The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers."

An astonished Dayen tells me: "How remarkable it is that you have Trump's Labor Department saying that Trump's immigration enforcement is causing such disruption that we may not have enough food in America. That is just remarkable to behold!"

The agency goes on to concede "this threat will grow", unless they are allowed to enact a rule that reforms our H-2A guest worker program to allow more foreign farmworkers to come into the U.S., but with lower wages than currently allowed. That, Dayen reports, will also depress wages for U.S. citizen farmworkers in the bargain.

But are any of the DOL's claims true? Tune in for Dayen's response, based on his reporting with experts, labor unions and farm workers.

ALSO TODAY... A whole bunch of news, some of it breaking as we went to air...

• Israel and Hamas have apparently agreed to a pause in their horrific two-year long war, to allow for a long-awaited release of remaining Israeli hostages; a pull-back of Israeli troops in Gaza; and the long-overdue restoration of humanitarian aid to the war-torn enclave. There remains as much unknown as known about the deal, as reportedly brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the U.S., among others. Naturally, Trump wants to take all the credit. The framework for stage one of the plan appears to be moving forward, which is very good news if so. But, as we discuss, all of this should still be regarded with extreme caution for the moment.

• Just before airtime, news broke that the same Trump personal defense attorney who was recently appointed as the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to indict former FBI Director James Comey just over a week ago, indicted another Trump foe today. New York Attorney General Letitia James was charged with two counts related to mortgage fraud. As in the Comey case, the grand jury charging document in the James case was signed only by Trump's personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan --- a former insurance lawyer who has never prosecuted a case --- after none of the long-time career prosecutors at the critical EDVA U.S. Attorney's office, apparently, would agree to bring these charges. The indictment also comes after Trump had ordered the Attorney General to indict her and Comey (and Sen. Adam Schiff) in a public message that he meant to post privately. Last year, James oversaw the massive fraud case against Trump, his companies and their executives (including his two eldest sons), that resulted in a half billion dollar verdict.

• Earlier this week, Trump's wildly corrupt Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared to take umbrage when she was asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) at a Senate oversight hearing, whether the FBI had found, during their investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, photos of Trump with young nude girls as the late child sex trafficker, according to public reporting, had kept in his safe and would show to certain people. Bondi refused, repeatedly, to answer the question. The next day, author Michael Wolff, who penned a tell-all book based on hours of observation and interviews inside the first Trump White House, and who reportedly spent hours interviewing Epstein, explained exactly what he saw in those photos that he claims were shared with him on two occasions by Epstein. This is the segment you may need to shower after.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen is here with our latest Green News Report, including the news that, despite hundreds of millions of dollars Trump is wasting to try and revive the deadly, dying U.S. coal industry, nobody wants to buy it! That, as solar and wind power are exploding in popularity around the world, as led by China, though not here in the U.S., thanks to our fossil fuel-funded loser Administration.

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Massive oil refinery fire in Southern California set to spike gasoline prices; FEMA halts $300 million in emergency preparedness grants to states; PLUS: Trump Administration blocks billions in transit and clean energy funding to blue states... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): How shutdown gridlock could impede disaster preparedness; How Big Agriculture got its way in the latest MAHA report; Fracking waste in a landfill again poses a pollution problem in PA; Rising sea levels threaten over 100m buildings. Where does Europe stand?; Climate change is disrupting global wind speeds, impacting planetary health... PLUS: MAGA or Markets? Who will win the war on solar?... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast: The partial federal government shutdown is soon heading into its second week. So far, Americans are blaming Trump and the Republicans for it. But that hasn't prevented our brain-addled President from deploying U.S. troops against U.S. citizens in U.S. cities that had the temerity to vote against him last year. Only the courts, so far, have been able to slow that down. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Before we get to our main topics today --- Trump's military invasion of the U.S. and the Democrats fight for affordable health care for tens of millions of Americans --- and listener calls to go with them, a public service announcement for listeners here in Southern California!

Vote-by-Mail ballots are now going out to all registered voters in the state for the November 4 Special Election for Prop 50. The ballot measure, if adopted, would allow the state to temporarily set aside the U.S. House Map for California created by the state's independent redistricting commission to allow new maps that could flip as many as five seats from "red" to "blue" in next year's midterms. That effort is in direct response to Texas redrawing its U.S. House Maps --- at the direction of Donald Trump --- to flip five mostly minority Democratic districts from "blue" to "red" next year.

But thousands of SoCal voters in temporary housing after their homes burned down during wildfires earlier this year are not getting their ballots automatically forwarded to them in the mail. Ballots aren't allowed to be forwarded. Those voters have to contact the Registrar's office to notify them of their temporary address in order to receive their ballot by mail. More details on that very important matter are currently right here. If you know anyone who has been dislocated by those fires, please refer them to that page, or let them know they must go to LAVote.gov (or call 800-815-2666) to add a temporary mailing address to their voter registration record to receive a VBM ballot in Los Angeles County.

Beyond that, we focus today in on the weekend's wild court actions up in Oregon, where a federal judge appointed by Trump during his first term has blocked his attempt to federalize the state's National Guard troops to invade Portland. Trump, consistently watching Fox "News" re-run five-year old footage from George Floyd protests in Portland, seems to believe the city is "war-ravaged" and "burning down". It is neither of those things, and U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut made that clear in her order [PDF] temporarily blocking Trump from federalizing the Oregon Guard and deploying them to Portland. In her ruling, she found the federal government argument was "untethered to facts" and that Portland was not "war-torn" or "under siege" by "Antifa, and other domestic terrorists." In fact, she warned, "This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law" and said that "Whether we choose to follow what the Constitution mandates …goes to the heart of what it means to live under the rule of law in the US." That all happened Saturday.

But then, in response on Sunday, Trump attempted to work around the judge's order by sending federalizes National Guard troops from California and Texas to Portland, forcing plaintiffs to go back to court in a late-night emergency hearing with Judge Immergut, who was forced to make clear, in a second ruling, that no troops from any state, were allowed for now to deploy to Portland.

In turn --- and even though he appointed her himself --- Trump is now attacking the judge, misgendering her by charging she "should be ashamed of himself." The attack comes as judges across the nation are facing hundreds of death threats --- particularly after blocking something Trump wants, even temporarily. Over the weekend, a judge's house in South Carolina was apparently blown up, with her husband and son hospitalized with serious injuries after the house was burned to the ground. She had reportedly been facing death threats for weeks after blocking the state from turning over its voter registration database to the Trump Administration.

By Monday, Trump was deploying hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas into Chicago, where both the state of Illinois and the city have now filed a similar suit to the one in Oregon. But, just an hour or so before airtime, the judge in that case declined, for now, to block the deployment. These stories, I'm sorry to say, are likely to continue, as Trump has threatened similar military attacks against "the enemy within" in states and cities that voted against him last year.

Moreover, the federal government shutdown continues today, as Democrats fight to prevent some 25 million Americans from seeing the costs of their health care more than doubled as of January 1. Despite what some have referred to as "conventional wisdom" that Dems would be blamed for the shutdown, so far early polling shows that Trump and Republicans are taking most of the blame and that, by huge majorities, Americans support the extension of Obamacare subsidies that will otherwise run out at the end of the year unless Republicans reverse their plan to defund the popular health care exchanges.

In the second half of today's show, we open the phones to a bunch of lively calls on all of the above!...

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On today's BradCast: Republican insistence on skyrocketing health care costs for tens of millions of Americans as of January 1 continues to keep much of the federal government closed for a second day. But it hasn't prevented Trump's ICE thugs from dragging American citizens, including women and children, out of their beds and into the streets naked in the middle of the night. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

It's Day 2 of the federal government shutdown, as Democrats vow to go the mat to prevent an explosion of health care costs for tens of millions of Americans beginning on the first day of the new year. The cost of monthly premiums for nearly 25 million Americans who purchase access to coverage via the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) exchanges is set to more than double, thanks to Donald Trump and Republicans cutting federal subsidies.

At the same time, Trump is vowing to exact maximum pain on his political foes by using cover of the shutdown for mass firings of federal workers and axing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of government services at what he describes as "Democrat agencies."

We're joined today by BOBBY KOGAN, formerly senior adviser in the Biden-Harris White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and, prior to that, chief analyst for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee under Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). He is now Senior Director of Federal Budget Policy at American Progress. Suffice to say, Kogan knows a lot about what happens during shutdowns, what goes on behind the scenes in these standoffs, how they (usually) work, and why they matter.

He's also very funny and good spirited, which is really appreciated on a day like today. So, mostly, I'm gonna recommend you tune in. You'll get a lot from our wide-ranging conversation on all of this, as I did.

But, there are two specific points that he made that I want to highlight here for the moment. In regard to Trump and his OMB Director, Russ Vought (architect of the hard-right Project 2025 manifesto that Trump pretended to know nothing about during the campaign), are promising "mass layoffs" of government workers during the shutdown. If they do so, Kogan tells me, it would be, "extremely illegal". As he details, a shutdown does not give the White House some sort of special shutdown powers to carry out mass Reductions in Force (RIFs) of federal workers.

"It's actually the opposite. You are allowed, within reason, to RIF people when the government is open. Doing it when the government is closed is actually extremely illegal. It's an Antideficiency Act violation," he explains. "They're doing it because they want to do it. There is no special power to do this. It's illegal to do it during a shutdown, because the work necessary to make it happen is not work that is allowed to happen under a shutdown. They're just doing it anyway."

"It's a criminal act that carries a jail term. But, of course, the Trump Administration won't prosecute itself, so it will be yet another lawless budget act that the White House does."

Kogan's other point that I want to underscore here is his response when I asked if this is the right fight --- to prevent health care costs from spiking for millions of Americans beginning on the first of the year, with $350 billion in Trump/Republican cuts next year alone, along with a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and another half-trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare over the next ten years --- for Democrats to plant their flag on.

His response is passionate in explaining why he believes that, yes, this is exactly the right fight for them to stand on...

Tune in for much more.

THEN... Last month, in a decision on the Supreme Court's emergency docket allowing previously unconstitutional "roving" ICE raids to continue in Los Angeles, based on nothing more than criteria such as race, skin color, how one is dressed, where they work or hang out, Justice Brett Kavanaugh dismissed concerns about U.S. citizens and others with the legal right to be in the country who might get swept up in these raids.

"As for stops of those individuals who are legally in the country," Kavanaugh wrote in his much-derided concurrence, "the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States."

I wonder if Kavanaugh is standing by that what happened in Chicago this week, in an apartment building in the middle of the night, where federal agents busted down doors on every floor of a five-story building, dragged residents out of beds --- including men, women, children and U.S. Citizens --- without warrants, zip-tied them, brought them out into the streets, some of them naked, where they were left without explanation or attorneys until 3am, as part of Trump's "Operation Midway Blitz".

It was not the only such brutal, middle-of-the-night operation. Another was carried out in the Chicago suburbs this week, also ensnaring U.S. citizens. The masked, jack-booted thugs aren't "coming". They are here and coming to your town soon enough. Someone alert Justice Kavanaugh.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen helps us close things out this week with our latest Green News Report, in what, ironically, may include some of the brightest news we are able to offer you today...

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We pick up on today's BradCast with several new developments in stories we covered on yesterday's show plus much more, thanks to another insane day in Trump World. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• On yesterday's show, we spoke with former DOJ Public Corruption chief Randall Eliason about reporting over the weekend, confirmed by multiple outlets, that Donald Trump's so-called "Border Czar", Tom Homan, accepted $50,000 in cash inside of a takeout food bag last year in exchange for a promise to "facilitate" future contracts if Trump won the election. According to internal DOJ documents and multiple sources at each outlet, Homan was caught on tape receiving the money from undercover law enforcement agents posing as businessmen. But after Trump took office, the bribery probe into Homan was summarily dropped by Trump associates leading the FBI and DOJ, on the supposed basis that no crimes were committed by Homan in the payoffs during the investigation begun during the Biden Administration.

  But, by last night, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took the DOJ denials a step further, claiming that Homan "never took the $50,000." That denial was not made by the DOJ when the story was first reported over the weekend. And even Homan himself, when asked about all of this on Fox "News" last night, didn't make that claim. Here merely said "I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal." Tune in for the full update on that wild story, before it disappears into the Trump news cycle ether. (Though Congressional Dems, to their credit, are trying to prevent that from happening.)

• In another follow-up to another story we covered, if only briefly, yesterday... The news broke just before airtime that Disney/ABC announced Jimmy Kimmel's late night show would be returning to air on Tuesday, after it had been "indefinitely" sidelined last week following threats by Trump's sleazy FCC Chair Brendan Carr to rescind broadcast licenses from local affiliates who carried the show. The wildly inappropriate, unprecedented (and perhaps unlawful?) threats from Carr (and Trump) came after they decided they didn't like a fairly benign (and accurate) remark that Kimmel made on his show last week regarding the assassination of far-right Republican activist Charlie Kirk. The decision by Disney to bring Kimmel back was clearly based on massive public opprobrium, including massive cancellations of Disney's streaming services, etc.

  That good news, however, was tempered last night by an announcement from local station conglomerate Sinclair, declaring they would be pre-empting Kimmel's how with news programming. Broadcast behemoth Nexstar joined Sinclair on Tuesday, meaning that tens of millions of Americans in dozens of major markets will still be unable to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live! Both of those corporate conglomerates --- which own dozens of local stations all over the country (even if most Americans don't even realize it) have major mergers pending before Trump's corrupted FCC. So this very public fight, with serious First Amendment implications, will apparently continue. That, explains Josh Marshall today, is not necessarily a bad thing.

• Our twisted President rambled for nearly an hour today to the U.N. General Assembly in New York. It was as insane as you might have imagined, only more so. From lies about his domestic accomplishments during his second term, to lies about his having "ended seven wars", to threats to the world's nations regarding migration, energy and climate change, about which he took particularly hilarious zeal in lying about in virtually every aspect, describing it as a "con", a "scam" and a "hoax". Desi Doyen helps us debunk just some of the most obnoxious lies from Trump at the U.N. on Tuesday. And, as also discussed: Please wary of the claims reported late today that Trump has somehow flipped his position on Russia's war on Ukraine.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with both good and bad news for the world's oceans; and a report on the disbanding of a climate change denier group recently convened by Trump's Dept. of Energy to help lie about climate science...

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So much Team Trump criming, so little time to cover it all on today's BradCast. But we try. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Over the weekend, MSNBC broke the news, followed by confirmation from New York Times, that Donald Trump's so-called 'Border Czar', Tom Homan, was caught on tape last September accepting $50,000 in cash --- in a takeout food bag --- from undercover law enforcement officials posing as businessmen. The sting came about after the target of a separate corruption probe tipped off officials that Homan was accepting bribes in exchange for lucrative border security contracts in a new Trump administration, presuming he won last year's election.

After Trump took office, he tapped Homan to oversee his mass deportation of migrants, a scheme that, they had promised, would focus on removing "the worst of the worst" criminals. Instead, the majority of deportees have no criminal record, but the guy running the program has apparently been caught on tape accepting a cash payoff before returning to office.

The investigation into Homan, which reportedly began in the summer of 2024 under the Biden Administration's DOJ, was summarily closed after Trump returned to power by Trump's former criminal defense attorney turned Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, and his FBI Director, Kash Patel. One of Trump's other personal attorneys, Emil Bove, who served as a top DOJ official until recently being confirmed by Republicans in the U.S. Senate as a federal judge, also reportedly had a hand in shutting down the probe of Homan.

A DOJ spokesperson described the investigation as "blatantly political" and an effort to target "President Trump’s allies rather than investigate real criminals and the millions of illegal aliens who flooded our country," claiming the investigation "found no evidence of illegal activity."

Over the same weekend that story broke, Trump sent what appears to have been meant as a private message to his Attorney General Pam Bondi, effectively ordering her to bring criminal charges against three of his top political foes, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey, and California U.S. Senator Adam Schiff. The message addressed to "Pam", seemingly meant to be private, was instead posted publicly by Trump on his own failing social media website.

We're joined today for insight on all of this by RANDALL D. ELIASON, former chief of the DOJ's Fraud and Public Corruption Section at the U.S. Attorney Office in the District of Columbia. He now teaches white collar crime at George Washington University Law School and pens the Sidebars Blog newsletter.

Is there any reason to believe the DOJ and FBI were right to drop the bribery probe against Homan, in which it seems he was caught dead to rights taking a cash bribe according to multiple reports?

"It's really impossible to know without knowing exactly what's on the tape. It would all come down to what he said and what he agreed to do in exchange for the cash," Eliason tells me today. "But I will say that accepting $50,000 in cash in a fast-food bag is kind of an indication of corrupt intent, that the recipient knows something shady is going on. So you've got to say at a bare minimum, there's a substantial basis to conduct additional investigation." Reportedly, that's exactly what DOJ was doing until Team Trump shut it all down.

"This line coming out from the White House and the DOJ that there was no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing, that doesn't hold water," he argues. "There's clearly something fishy going on here when you're taking fifty grand in cash in a Cava food bag. So there's certainly some smoke there." But, he further explains, "the Supreme Court has made the federal bribery statute so narrow" there are a number of ways Homan could get off the hook. Of course, the fastest way is to have friends at the DOJ willing to corruptly dismiss the entire matter.

We discuss that in detail, along with what Eliason describes as an extraordinary break from decades of norms and tradition with Trump's "private" message to his A.G. regarding bringing charges against his perceived political foes.

"Trump sees the Justice Department as a tool that he can use to punish his enemies and reward his friends," charges Eliason. "And this historical, very important norm that politics is kept separated, that the Justice Department is kept independent from the White House because we don't want politics to influence criminal investigations and criminal prosecutions, has just been flipped completely on its head and thrown out the window. It doesn't exist anymore under this administration."

"He is trying to use the Justice Department to go after his political opponents. And he also uses it to reward his friends. Whether it's Homan, or [Mayor] Eric Adams in New York City, or all the January 6 rioters, pardoning all of them. It's one of the most discouraging things that is happening in this administration --- the complete gutting of the law."

"This is really scary stuff," adds Eliason. "This idea that the President can order a prosecutor to bring criminal charges, and if he doesn't, he'll fire you and put someone in place who will. It's unthinkable to anyone who has worked as a federal prosecutor. It's directly contradictory to the mission and ethical obligations of a federal prosecutor. It would have been completely unheard of before now."

It is all of a piece, he explains, with "many things that are going on at the Justice Department that just breaks the hearts of those of us who worked there and love it."

Finally, breaking news just before airtime today on Trump's FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's outrageous threat last week against Disney/ABC and their affiliate stations to take away their broadcast licenses unless they cancel Jimmy Kimmel's late night show after comments Kimmel made that they didn't care for regarding the recent murder of Republican activist Charlie Kirk. After enormous public blowback against Disney following last week's "indefinite suspension" of Jimmy Kimmel LIve, news broke late today that Kimmel will now be returning to air as of Tuesday night. Looks like public pressure, a torrent of cancelled Disney+ subscriptions and the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment may have won this round, at least partly...at least for now. Since getting off air, Sinclair Broadcasting, a rightwing outlet that owns more than 35 ABC affiliate stations and is seeking favors from the FCC, has announced they plan to air news programming instead of Kimmel's show beginning on Tuesday night...

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On today's BradCast: With authoritarianism now having descended upon these United States, the full-throated pushback against it, at least by some, continues. In the courts. At the ballot box. And even as the corrupt man baby President ups his abuse of the federal government apparatus in his twisted quest for revenge against his perceived political enemies. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Before we get to our guest today, a few news headlines of note...

• Republicans in the U.S. House surreptitiously moved to create a new January 6 Subcommittee to "uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people...that House Democrats skipped over," according to GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. As discussed today, that effort to reopen the insurrection that Donald Trump incited in hopes of stealing the 2020 election may not go so well for Republicans.

• Meanwhile, Americans continue to reject Republicans at the ballot box by enormous numbers. Last week, it was a state Senate seat in a ruby-red District in Iowa where Kamala Harris had lost by 11 points last November, but where the Democratic candidate won a special election last week by 11 points. On Tuesday this week, it was two state legislative seats in heavily Democratic districts in Florida. There as well, we saw a huge swing towards the Dems, with a state House victory in which the Dem picked up 15 points over Harris' tally last year, and in a state Senate special election, where the Dem candidate won while gaining 22 points compared to the Presidential results in November.

• And it's not just voters turning against Trump. His losses in federal courts continue to mount this week. Among them, yesterday a U.S. District court judge ruled that Trump's use of National Guard troops for domestic law enforcement in Los Angeles was "willfully" in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (1878). And a federal appeals court affirmed that his use of the Alien Enemies Act (1798) earlier this year to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants was unlawful as well. Today, a federal district court judge sided with Harvard University, finding Trump's attempt to withhold $2 billion in federal research grants from the Ivy League school was unlawful.

• Kyle Clark, brilliant local anchor at NBC-affiliate station 9News in Denver, tells viewers: "If this was happening in another nation, we'd call it by name. It's authoritarianism."

Then it's on to Trump's War of Revenge against his perceived political enemies. He's mad at his Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates quickly enough. But, since he can't fire Powell, he tried to take aim last week at Fed Governor Lisa Cook, the first (and only) black woman ever named to the Federal Reserve Board since its creation in 1913.

Trump is attempting to fire Cook based on public allegations made by Trump's very MAGA head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) that she had committed mortgage fraud. Prior to his criminal referrals of Cook to the Dept. of Justice, Trump's FHFA chief Bill Pulte (pictured above) made similar public allegations against New York Attorney General Letitia James (who won a half billion dollar financial fraud suit against Trump, his company and his two eldest sons last year), and California's U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (who played key roles in both Trump's second impeachment for his January 6 insurrection and on the bipartisan U.S. House Select Committee which publicly investigated it.)

As absurd as the mortgage fraud allegations against all three Democrats appear to be, the way they came about is even more absurd, as detailed today by our guest, MICHAEL HILTZIK, LA Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning financial journalist and author. He wrote about all of this last week.

"This is the most transparent act of political retribution that I have ever seen, and I've been at this for a long time," Hiltzik tells me today, in reference to the allegations against Cook, who is challenging Trump's attempt to fire her in a lawsuit. "It's not only that, it's also the most absurd."

Tune in for the remarkable details, but in general, Hiltzik explains, Pulte --- who spends much of his time as a MAGA influencer on social media --- is Director of the FHFA, which oversees the quasi-federal Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac organizations. Those two outfits backstop the majority of the nation's home mortgages.

But, as it turns out, Trump has also named Pulte as Chair of both Fannie and Freddie! So, he is overseeing himself! And, in the case of the allegations against Schiff, as Hiltzik details, a memo reveals the Director of the FHFA (Pulte) ordered the Chairs of Fannie and Freddie (Pulte and Pulte) to, essentially, "go into your files, which are otherwise private, and pull out every document you can see related to Adam Schiff and send it over."

It seems Pulte did something similar for both Cook and James. In the meantime, despite Trump using Pulte's public allegations as a pretext for trying to fire Cook --- which he can only do, under law, "for cause" --- nobody has "produced documents that show any sort of fraud whatsoever in any of these three cases," asserts Hiltzik.

None of this, of course, is by accident. It is not a coincidence that Pulte has referred all three to the DoJ for a criminal probe. Their years-old mortgages --- which have been paid off in full, on time and without incident or complaint --- weren't pulled for some sort of random audit or something. "We know it isn't random because we have the memo that Pulte sent to Pulte," Hiltzik quips.

"You want to say it doesn't pass the smell test, but it's beyond that," he argues. "These cases are beyond absurdity."

So, if these charges are so obviously absurd and corrupt, why is the Administration even playing this game? Is it even lawful for the FHFA to target financial documents of American citizens for personal reasons? And what is Trump's actual hoping to accomplish in removing Cook from the Federal Reserve Board in the first? All of those questions, and many more, asked and answered in my conversation with Hiltzik on today's program. Enjoy!

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We're back on today's BradCast after a much-needed, "end of Summer" break. That's either good or bad news depending on how you (or I) might see it. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

The good news for me, I suppose, is that we missed one of the most insanely busy news weeks of Trump's second term. The bad news is that I need to get both you and me caught up on "our story so far", so everything makes sense (or, as much as is possible amidst this insanity) going forward into the Fall (and pending government shutdown at the end of this month.)

To that end, we've got a day-by-day, blow-by-blow, collected summary of much --- if not all --- of the key news from over the last week today. From many of the ongoing losses for Trump in the (lower) courts, to some very encouraging electoral news on several fronts for Democrats, to Americans pushing back (effectively) against the regime on several levels, to some of the not so good news, including natural and man-made disasters and tragedies, and the ever-ongoing, non-stop, self-destructive idiocy of the Trump Administration.

Also, Desi Doyen is here with our latest Green News Report, catching you up with some maddening and important stuff there as well!

It doesn't make too much sense for me to go into the details here. I'd be writing and linking all night. So tune in to get caught up on a lot of the unofficial "end of Summer" news to help get yourself buckled up for all the madness that most assuredly lies ahead...

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