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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Today on The BradCast: While Trump's mass deportation boondoggle gets worse, more cruel, more corrupt, more unlawful and more unconstitutional by the day, the increasing threat to U.S. national security, thanks to his Administration's unprecedented censorship of climate science, may soon collide with a "physical reality" that may make ALL of our problems far worse --- including immigration. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... The Administration continues to characterize those being deported as criminal felons and sexual assaulters who entered the U.S. unlawfully, even if available evidence often suggests otherwise. Moreover, the convicted criminal felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter in the White House continues violate the law and Constitution himself with each passing day. He should be deported --- though allowed the due process of law he has always received, even as he denies it for everyone else.

Unlike the Administration, we offer evidence in support of our serious allegations: As the New York Times reported last night, emails from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's Chief of Staff reveal that her office attempted to manipulate a national intelligence analysis they didn't like --- which revealed Trump to be a liar --- regarding migrants from Venezuela and Trump's unlawful invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove them without due process.

That news comes on the heels of a stunning new analysis from the right-leaning Cato Institute finding that at least 50 of the Venezuelans Trump deported to a maximum-security torture prison in El Salvador were in the U.S. lawfully. They included construction workers, cooks, delivery drivers, a soccer coach, a veterinarian and a makeup artist, most of whom used the U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, called CBP One, to schedule an asylum appointment from outside of the country to seek lawful entrance into the U.S. That's 50 out of just 85 migrants whose entrance circumstances Cato was able to figure out. More than 200 migrants have been sent to El Salvador without Constitutional due process and in violation of court orders.

And all of that preceded still-breaking news over the past 24 hours or so that the Administration has violated yet another judge's orders by sending migrants from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico to South Sudan, a nation in the middle of a bloody civil war, where the U.S. State Department warns Americans "Do Not Travel", and where those migrants are not from. They were reportedly given less than 24 before being sent to a third country in violation of orders from the U.S. District judge overseeing their cases.

THEN... While the Administration is pretending to combat national security issues by deporting make-up artists and soccer coaches, actual national security issues are being exacerbated by their censorship and attempts at unpublishing climate science that you and I have paid for.

As my guest today recently explained, writing on the "silencing and censoring of environmental threats to U.S. national security" for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (the keepers of the infamous Doomsday Clock), for well over half a century, U.S. intelligence and military agencies, under Presidencies of all political stripes, have been documenting and warning about changes to the climate that threaten national security. Now, Donald Trump is attempting to "cancel" climate science --- actually censoring the words "climate change" from all government documents --- and ignoring and/or shutting down internal warning mechanisms regarding increased environmental threats to national security.

Our guest today is renowned climate scientist DR. PETER GLEICK, who is attempting to sound the alarm about the Administration's "silencing and censoring of environmental threats to US national security." He is an author and co-founder of the non-profit Pacific Institute research center, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a McArthur Fellow, and much more that I don't have space to list. (But see his website!) He has written dozens of scientific articles over the decades and has testified about the related matters before Congress.

"From a political point of view, between Democrats and Republicans, there's a very strong difference and emphasis on energy policy, on environmental policy," Gleick tells me when I ask about the timeline of the rise of climate denialism. But, he adds, it was "nothing like we're seeing today. What we're seeing today is fundamentally different than anything we've seen before."

"Even throughout both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past, the military and intelligence community have been very good about this. They see their job fundamentally as understanding and preparing for threats to the United States. All of those defense and intelligence assessments, throughout those administrations (since President Johnson), have repeatedly highlighted a clear understanding of two factors: One is how environmental issues may cause U.S. forces to get involved in conflict --- with failed states, with population displacements and migration, with impacts that lead to threats to our own security."

"The other category is how environmental threats may affect US military forces and bases and operations. Sea level rise we know is already flooding the naval bases in Norfolk. They are raising docks because they know sea level rise is a reality. They've seen extreme events damaging air force bases and destroying airplanes. They are aware of those threats, and they have been very good, throughout almost all administrations, about highlighting those threats in the national security assessments to the public," says Gleick.

But now, under Trump, things have very much gone sideways. We've got a Sec. of Defense who doesn't seem to understand that national defense is about more than simply cultivating manly warriors to fight on battlefields. And, for the first time, climate threats are no longer even being mentioned in National Security Strategy reports. The Congressionally-mandated National Climate Assessment may not even been published by the Administration at all when it is legally next due, in 2027. Gleick has worked on previous Assessments and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences which advises on the project. But says, this time, the scientists who volunteer to work on the report are being dismissed and that there may or may not even be a new report. "The Trump Administration doesn't seem to pay much attention to the law at the moment."

"If there isn't one, we know what the science of climate change says. What we'll be missing are just the latest updates, the most recent climate science that tells us even more about what the consequences of climate change will be," he explains.

We discuss a number of concrete ways in which the climate crisis is already a threat to national security, from conflicts over water and water systems; the disappearance of Artic ice leading to expanded military basis by Russia; decreased agriculture productivity resulting in famine and, yes, mass migration that the U.S. has already begun to deal with.

"Climate is no longer a hypothetical threat to the world, national security, and international security," he argues. "It's increasingly an important component of that threat, whether you believe in it or not."

But, Gleick offers some hope. Scientists, including himself, have been diligently working to prevent the "wholesale deletion" of government climate data; he believes that "the remarkable revolution we are seeing in the renewable energy industry is unstoppable" and while Trump may want to "revive the coal industry, that's just not going to happen"; and whether Trump hopes to "cancel" climate science or not on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, he will be unable prevent the world from seeing the unavoidable physical reality of what lies ahead.

"Physical reality will happen," he laments. "Bad things that otherwise would not have happened are going to happen. People are going to get sick and die. There will be conflicts we are not prepared for that we could have been prepared for. Whether those realities swing the pendulum far enough back so that some sort of rationality can be re-established --- I hope that's the case. But I think it's dangerous times."

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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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Today on BradCast: Some really troubling news about voting rights and the Voting Rights Act that hasn't received nearly enough attention since a terrible court ruling last week. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... A few other items of note...

• If you haven't heard, Donald Trump seems to be freaking out about something Bruce Springsteen said on stage last week when he opened his "Land of Hope and Dreams" tour in the U.K. We share a bit of what Bruce had to say, about democracy and more. "The America I love, the America I've written about --- that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years --- is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration," Springsteen correctly sounded the alarm as he opened his show. "Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring." And that's not all he had to say. We share more.

• Speaking of democracy, after recent come-from-way-behind victories by center-left and liberal parties running against authoritarian rightwing opponents in Canada and Australia in recent weeks, it happened again on Sunday. This time in Romania, where a Trump-supporting far-right nationalist candidate who looked set to win the nation's Presidential election just weeks ago, learned differently once voters actually showed up to cast their vote. Being a wannabe Trumper, he is, of course, claiming "fraud", though he has failed to present any evidence so far (as I said, just like Trump.) The apparent win for the pro-European, pro-democracy candidate is also very good news indeed for neighboring Ukraine.

• On Friday, a handful of Republicans in the U.S. House who want even more cuts to health care and nutrition assistance for the nation's neediest --- including millions of children and disabled Americans --- in order to help pay for huge tax cuts to the wealthy, blocked progress of Trump's so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" in Committee. By the time Sunday rolled around, those so-called "deficit hawks" had been brought to heel. Another Committee meeting was called to begin at 10pm on Sunday night and the measure was successfully voted out of committee, even though it would still add trillions to the nation's debt. The measure now advances to the House floor where Speaker Mike Johnson hopes for passage before the Memorial Day recess. Thereafter, Trump's legislative agenda heads to the U.S. Senate.

• Also last Friday, there was some good-ish news from the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court via another emergency ruling at the behest of an appeal by the Trump Administration. All Justices, other than Thomas and Alito, rejected the appeal, issuing a ruling that found the Trump Administration had failed to give appropriate Constitutional Due Process to Venezuelan migrants they are hoping to deport from Texas to El Salvador under Trump's (mis)use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

NEXT... While alleged Venezuelan gang members may have access to at least some Due Process to avoid unlawful removal from the country and a life sentence in an El Salvadoran gulag, American voters in at least seven states may now have no way to challenge unlawful, racially discriminatory violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A ruling last week by a three-judge panel on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the last route for private individuals and organizations in states covered by the Circuit (Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota) to hold jurisdictions accountable for violations of the Voting Right Act. The decision echoes a similar ruling by the 8th Circuit back in 2023. But last week's ruling would seem to block the one other remaining path that voters still had to bring private complaints following that other terrible ruling two years ago.

If the 8th Circuit's decision is allowed to stand, it would mean that only the U.S. Dept. of Justice could bring suit against violations of the last central tenet still standing from the VRA. The ruling, which my guest today describes as "dead wrong", applies, for now, only in the seven states covered by the 8th Circuit. But if plaintiffs decide to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lose there, it would effectively kill the entire VRA in all 50 states --- at least during Republican Administrations.

JUSTIN LEVITT previously served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama and then as White House Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights under President Biden. He is now a Professor of Constitutional Law at Loyola University Law School here in Los Angeles and joins us today to explain what he describes as last week's "truly unprecedented" decision. (That's the nicest thing he had to say about it!)

"They have effectively eliminated the ability to enforce the Voting Rights Act" in those seven states, Levitt tells me. "The 8th Circuit was way out of line, but it's not a sure bet that the Supreme Court won't follow them out of that line."

The 8th Circuit panel determined that because the Voting Rights Act doesn't specifically mention a private right to sue, that such suits are barred. Only DoJ can sue. But, in fact, since 1982, there have been more than 450 such suits and only 18 of them were brought by DoJ. Some made it all the way to SCOTUS and yet none of the judges in any of those cases --- until now --- found the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue under the law. Go figure.

"This is about people in robes forgetting why they're there. People in love with a particular statutory interpretation methodology and forgetting that what they are supposed to be doing is effectuating the intent of Congress," argues Levitt. The VRA has been amended several times since 1965 --- under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush --- and adopted by huge majorities in both chambers of Congress. The members of Congress who amended it, and Presidents who signed the re-authorizations, "absolutely thought that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund would be bringing cases right alongside the Department of Justice and others. It's ludicrous to think that Congress wanted anything different than that." If they had wanted anything different, he notes, they could have changed the law to say as much at that time, since so many suits had already been brought under the law by individual voters and private voting rights organizations even before the law's several re-authorizations.

So, what happens next? What can be done about any of this? If the case does make it to SCOTUS and they too undermine the VRA are there ANY routes left for voters to challenge racially discriminatory election laws in the U.S.? Levitt answers all of those questions and many others on today's BradCast...

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Today on The BradCast: A whole lotta madness. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our many, mad stories today...

• The Trump Administration challenged the constitutionality of lower court judges issuing nationwide injunctions at the U.S. Supreme Court today, as part of Donald Trump's wildly unconstitutional Executive Order declaring an end to Constitutional Birthright Citizenship. He's lost in every lower court, so far, even if the merits of that Order, largely, were not heard by the High Court today. The Administration did, however, appear to be on track to lose their maximalist argument against nationwide injunctions as well.

• The House GOP's effort to ram Trump's "big, beautiful" agenda through the House before the Memorial Day recess continues apace, after several all-nighter mark-up sessions in major House committees. The bill is meant to encompass the entire Trump/GOP agenda to give enormous tax cuts to rich people and corporations, while taking health care (and much more ) from millions of the neediest Americans, in one single bill. But many Republicans can't agree on how many Americans should have their health care taken away from them to pay for a bill that will add nearly $4 trillion to the national debt. And some Republicans appear to have no idea about major provisions in the legislation.

• As Congress is gutting health care and nutrition assistance for the nation's neediest, the Trump Administration continues to work toward --- "eliminating" --- the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) just weeks before hurricane and wildfire season kick into gear. Trump fired FEMA's acting Director last week after he dared testify, in contradiction to Trump, that he didn't think it a good idea to eliminate the agency. His replacement is promising to "run right over" anyone who gets in his way, even as an internal review obtained by CNN warns that FEMA "is not ready" for hurricane season.

• And hurricanes this year could be more deadly than ever. That, thanks to both climate change and, more immediately, drastic Trump cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which houses it. Last week, five former NWS directors penned an open letter, warning of great danger to the public in the wake of recent draconian cuts at the Service. Scientific American details their chilling concerns.

• It has now been two months since Maryland father and Venezuelan migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia was "accidentally" disappeared to a gulag in El Salvador by the Trump Administration in violation of a court order. But Trump's ridiculous contention about Abrego Garcia having "MS-13" tattooed onto his knuckles continues. That, as the Administration continues to defy a Supreme Court order to facilitate the man's return. But because Trump was obviously and transparently wrong about "MS-13" on the man's knuckles (it clearly Photoshopped onto a photo shown to him), everybody else in his Administration must pretend he wasn't wrong about it. That led to an absurd and surreal colloquy between DHS Sec. Kristi Noem and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) in a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday.

• Yes, it's a mad world right now in these United States, though one that we should have seen coming. (Some of us did.) Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter --- who died last week in New Hampshire at the age of 85 --- tried to warn us about pretty much everything we're seeing now...back in 2012, before the Trump-era.

• Finally, we close with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, as Republicans in Congress work to end Joe Biden's landmark clean, renewable energy initiatives; the Trump EPA rolls back limits on toxic chemicals in drinking water; and some recent good news for the climate out of Australia...

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It's a bit of a roller-coaster ride on today's BradCast. We begin with some good election and Trump Administration accountability news. But while Trump's latest clownishly absurd attempted corruption may not ultimately work out for him, it serves as a reminder of the rough road ahead for justice and the Justice Department itself in these United States. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... Some good news...

• On Tuesday, Omaha, Nebraska's Republican Mayor Jean Stothert was defeated in her run for a fourth term by Democratic challenger John Ewing Jr. He will become the first Black mayor of the otherwise "red" state's largest city. Stothert's attempt to leverage anti-trans hate against her opponent appears to have failed to win over voters.

• That news comes on the heels of last week's School Board elections in Texas (which we are finally catching up with today!), where book-banning, trans-hating right-wingers were voted off of School Board majorities in at least four of the largest districts in the state.

• In one of two good news updates to stories we recently covered on the show, a federal judge on Tuesday ordered some 200 federal workers fired by the Trump Administration from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) back to work. The workers ran the Coal Worker's Heath Surveillance Program which offers health screenings to miners who may have developed incurable Black Lung disease, and helps them find safer jobs and covers health costs if they have. The judge in the case, filed by two West Virginia miners afflicted with the disease, found the Trump Administration (remember when he used to pretend to love coal miners?) had no authority to unilaterally shut down the screening program mandated by the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. NIOSH workers were reportedly back on the job today after the U.S. District Judge issued her order yesterday.

• And, in another happy follow-up story, facing a lawsuit from farmers and First Amendment advocates, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) agreed to restore years of critical climate change date --- relied on by farmers and many others --- to its website, after disappearing it shortly after Trump took office.

THEN... I don't know if we should consider it "good news" or not, but it certainly looks like Trump's plan to accept a tricked-out $400 million "flying palace" jumbo jet as a "gift" from the Royal Family of Qatar, for use as Air Force One while in office and for his own personal use thereafter, ain't gonna work out for him.

Despite his loyalist Attorney General Pam Bondi --- formerly, a $115,000/month lobbyist for Qatar --- pronouncing that the "gift" would be neither a bribe nor a violation of the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, banning gifts "of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" to public officials, it appears she's only half right about that.

We're joined today by our old friend RANDALL D. ELIASON, former chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption section at the DoJ's U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. He is now a professor of white-collar criminal law at George Washington University and writes at his own SidebarsBlog, where he wrote about much of this today.

He explains that, thanks to recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, public officials may, in fact, now accept "gifts" of any size or amount from anybody, without violating current bribery statutes, so long as the official does not offer anything in return. Yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds. Eliason describes it as "absurd...but that's the Supreme Court's concept of corruption" now.

"The Supreme Court, over the last couple of decades, has narrowed public corruption laws so much that there's a strict requirement now of a link to a particular official act that you can identify and say this gift was because Trump agreed to do this in exchange," he tells me. "They could give him $400 million cash in his own bank account, and that's not a bribe anymore, unless they can link it to something he agreed to do in exchange."

"The fact is, the way the Supreme Court has interpreted bribery, it should be a bribe, but it's not, unless there was some agreement we don't know about by Trump to do something in particular in exchange. If it's just to cozy up to him, curry favor with him in general, because they are hoping for future things to happen, that's not a bribe."

"There's no question this is corrupt," he makes clear, "as most of us understand the term," but not a bribe. "Congress could have stepped in to amend those laws, but they haven't done that, for some surprising reason."

Trump's violation of the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, on the other hand, with acceptance of a "flying palace", would be a different matter, Eliason agrees. Though the question becomes: who exactly has the legal standing to challenge that violation in a court of law?

"I think the bigger picture is that we can't rely on lawsuits to solve this problem," he argues. "It's going to take too long and get bogged down again. If there's going to be a response, it needs to be a political one. It needs to be enough people standing up and objecting and putting pressure on him that he cancels the deal. And ultimately the voters have to respond."

Much more on all of that today along with Eliason's reflections on what has happened to his beloved DoJ and the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. where used to work, soon to be led, most likely, by Fox News' whacked out "Judge" Jeanine Pirro --- and whether all of it can be put back together again when this madness ends...presuming it does.

"What's happening at Justice is terrible, and it's heartbreaking," he laments. "It violates everything that DOJ has stood for, for decades. They are pushing people out for doing nothing more than doing their jobs. Or those people are leaving, because they can't honorably stay there and do what they are being asked to do."

What would he have done had he still been at the DOJ under Trump? And will the institution be salvageable after this? Tune for his thoughts and insight on all that and much more...

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On today's BradCast: While we're all distracted on a daily basis by Donald Trump's endless, lawless, childish idiocy, Republicans have been quietly preparing to adopt some "deeply evil stuff" in Congress in order to help pay for trillions of dollars in huge tax cuts to wealthy Americans. [Audio link to full story follows this summary.]

On Monday, House Republicans finally unveiled the final piece of their proposed, so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" that would "dramatically reshape America for the worse," according to my guest today, who broke down the cruel proposal at the heart of Trump's main budget and tax agenda for his second term at the Center for American Progress last night.

The plan includes, among other things, what my guest describes as "the largest Medicaid cuts in history," cutting access to health care to more than 8 million people at or near poverty-level income; "the largest SNAP cuts in history", threatening daily nutrition assistance to the 1 in 8 Americans who receive, on average, about $2 per meal, per day from the program, many of them children; it would increase the cost of energy and electricity for all Americans by cutting the Biden Administration's landmark investments in clean, renewable energy while keeping billions of dollars in permanent federal subsidies for fossil fuel companies; and the GOP measure would also increase costs for undergraduate student loans for the roughly 1 out of 8 Americans who have them and/or are in the process of trying to pay them off.

All of that to help pay for a massive $68,000 tax cut for millionaires and a $300,000 cut for the luckiest American households in the top 0.1 percent. The House GOP proposal, if adopted as written, would do nothing --- or even raise taxes --- for some 33 million households. But it would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars, despite a Republican Party which has long pretended to oppose deficit spending. (At least when they're out of power.)

How's that for making American Millionaires and Billionaires Great Again?

We're joined today to break down all the ugly details on both the bill and its chance for passage by BOBBY KOGAN, Senior Director for Federal Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress. He previously served as an adviser to the Office of Management and Budget in the Biden-Harris White House and as Head of Budget Analysis for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee under Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT.)

"It absolutely would really, really hurt the people who they claim to represent and serve," Kogan tells me, referring to the proposed cuts of at least $600 billion to Medicaid and the loss of health care coverage for tens of thousands of Americans in each of the House districts represented by GOP lawmakers supporting these cuts. A number of House Republicans --- especially those representing "blue" or "purple" districts --- previously claimed to oppose Medicaid cuts. If House Speaker Mike Johnson loses just 3 votes he will not be able to pass the bill. So, what does it say that their long-awaited proposal includes massive cuts anyway? "What I would say is they maybe talk a good game," argues Kogan. "They might pretend that they don't want to cut Medicaid. But their actions show that they are actually laser-focused on cutting Medicaid."

Among the many proposed changes to the program would be increased work requirements for recipients, which Republicans claim is necessary to save money by trimming waste, fraud and abuse. "It will save money by kicking people off their Medicaid," Kogan explains bluntly. "It's not about stopping fraud. The hyper-majority of what they are proposing in Medicaid cannot be credibly construed as going after fraud. Instead, what they are doing is transforming Medicaid from a lifeline for folks into something you only get if you meet certain conditions. It'll save money because if you lose your job, now you no longer get your Medicaid."

"States that have implemented these work requirements have led to disaster," he tells me. "It's not actually something that leads to more work. Instead, it puts up so much red tape that folks fail to make it through. They end up disenrolling tons of people who are working. It saves tons of money because people have lost their Medicaid."

The proposed cuts to food for needy adults and children via the SNAP program are no less evil or immoral, he says, along with the increased education and energy costs that tens of millions of Americans will face if this bill becomes law. All to pay for huge tax cuts to already wealthy people.

Is there anything in what Kogan describes as a "profoundly evil bill" that might actually help non-wealthy Americans? Can Republicans even get it over the finish line in the House with their incredibly narrow margin, much less through the Senate, much less agree on a version that can ultimately be passed by both chambers? And what can you do to help prevent all of this from happening? (Hint from Kogan: Call your members of Congress! Especially if they're Republican!) We discuss all of that and much more today with Kogan, who knows a whole lot about all of this stuff and is great at explaining it.

ALSO TODAY: The Washington Post filed a chilling story over the weekend about pizzas being delivered to the homes of federal judges in at least seven states over the last several months. The message being sent --- as Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their supporters have been attacking judges for rulings they oppose over social media and elsewhere --- is all too obvious and disturbing, especially since whoever is behind the threats have recently begun referencing the murdered son of one of the judges.

AND FINALLY: Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report in which, among other things, the Trump Administration is working toward shutting down FEMA entirely --- and just fired its Director --- weeks before hurricane season begins; and Republicans in Texas are moving to require that all solar plants must produce energy...at night...

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

Among our coverage...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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We've got a bit more religion-related news than usual on today's BradCast. But it's not to celebrate the new Papal Conclave underway as of today at the Vatican. It's because rightwingers in the U.S. are using phony claims of "religious bias" to rewrite Constitutional rights, freedoms, and the specific intentions of the Framers who wrote it. [Audio link to full story follows this summary.]

First up, before we get to our guest, some quick news, including some election news...

• After six months of trying to undermine democracy and invalidate tens of thousands of lawfully cast votes in North Carolina from last November's election, Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin has finally conceded, giving up his post-election challenge against Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs who defeated him in last year's election for state Supreme Court by 734 votes. Just two days after a Trump-appointed federal judge declared Griffin's challenge --- attempting to change the rules of an election after the election --- to be unconstitutional, while giving him seven days to decide if he wanted to appeal, Griffin gave up the ghost. We've been covering the contest over the past six months and revisited its ugly details on yesterday's BradCast on the heels of Monday's federal court ruling. It took a while --- and revealed a lot of villains in the Republican Party and on the NC Supreme Court --- but Democracy has won this round, at least, in the last unsettled race of 2024.

• Speaking of Republican losers, despite an endorsement from the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance's half-brother, Republican Cory Bowman, was trounced on Tuesday by Aftab Pureval, the incumbent Democratic Mayor of Cincinnati in the city's mayoral primary. Pureval defeated Bowman by nearly 70 points (82.5% to 12.9%) in the three way race. As the top two vote-getters, however, both will go on to compete head-to-head in November's general election. Cincinnati hasn't elected a Republican Mayor since 1967 and they don't seem ready to do so again any time soon.

• On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court let its cruelty and corruption shine once again, by barring trans service members from serving in the military even while challenges are still underway in lower courts, despite many of those members serving openly and with distinction for years. That the Trump-packed SCOTUS would go along with his cruel mandate is not all that surprising. But the fact that they did so on an "emergency" basis, on the so-called "shadow docket", without explanation or briefing or oral argument, even as trans service members had been suing --- and winning --- at the lower court level, is particularly galling and cowardly. All three of the Court's liberal Justices dissented.

But, speaking of galling news from the High Court, last week, SCOTUS heard oral argument last week in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, a case engineered by rightwingers to challenge --- really, to tear down --- the Constitution's First Amendment establishment clause meant to protect the separation of church and state.

The case involves a wannabe remote charter public school called St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. It would be run by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City in "deep red" Oklahoma. The state's Charter School Board narrowly approved its application for public funding, despite its plans for "the evangelizing mission of the Church," including "that God created persons male and female" and that those who reject the Holy Trinity will "end up in hell". That approval would mean that, as a certified public school, it would receive taxpayer dollars in support of that "mission" whether taxpayers agreed with it or not.

While the state's Republican Governor and Superintendent of Public Schools support the idea of publicly funding religious charter schools, both the state's Republican Attorney General and its Republican-majority Supreme Court decidedly do not. The state Supremes blocked St. Isidore's charter, citing both the First Amendment of the Constitution and state law which prohibits the expenditure of public money on any "sectarian institution" and requires that public schools be "free from sectarian control."

That, in a state which has, in recent years, reduced some K-12 schools to just four days a week for lack of public money in the wake of GOP tax cuts. If SCOTUS reverses the state Supreme Court, as appeared likely during last week's oral argument, money from secular public schools will be diverted to religious education. In fact, as my guest explains today, states across the nation are likely to be mandated to approve and pay for such religious institutions --- even schools indoctrinating children into religions that today's proponents of St. Isidore may not wish to see funded by taxpayer dollars.

We're joined today by DANIEL MACH, Director of the ACLU's Program for Freedom of Religion and Belief, which is supporting opponents of this radical assault on 250 years of American separation of church and state. The ACLU's coalition includes Oklahoma faith leaders, parents, and public-education advocates, including national charter school advocate associations which object to turning public schools into Sunday schools.

"Oklahoma officials are not just blurring these lines separating church and state," Mach wrote when sending up alarm bells about this case back in 2023, "they’re attempting to completely eviscerate them." Our friend, legal journalist Mark Joseph Stern of Slate argues that this case is likely to "bury what remains of church–state separation, forcing every American to subsidize the indoctrination of children into faiths they may not share. And it would further enfeeble secular public education, diverting billions of dollars away from inclusive public schools toward religious academies that openly discriminate against those outside their faith."

But there is hope. A little. Justice Amy Coney Barret has recused from the case, meaning that if Chief Justice John Roberts --- the only Justice who appeared to be at least moderately uncertain of his final verdict last week --- decides in favor of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, then SCOTUS would be tied 4 to 4 and the Oklahoma high court's ruling would stand.

"This was a strong decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court," Mach tells me today, explaining that their opinion "wasn't even close", pronouncing the Charter Board's decision as "so far beyond the pale...so far beyond what we have decided as a country that our government should and should not be doing" that even a Republican high court in a very Republican state had to say no to it.

"It's an interesting moment," says Mach, "because we have a conservative movement and an extremely conservative U.S. Supreme Court that supposedly cares about states' rights. But a ruling for the Catholic school here would be giving no weight to Oklahoma state statutes, the Oklahoma constitution, the Oklahoma Republican Attorney General, and the state Supreme Court, which interpreted its own state law. All of which made absolutely clear that charter schools in Oklahoma are public schools."

There is much more in my conversation with Mach today that you'll want to tune in for, much of which defies conventional wisdom about all of this...even if it may not be enough to prevent the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court from further undermining the Constitution and the original intention of its Framers. That, he says, would be not just a "seismic shift in the law", but "a ground-breaking disaster"...

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Constitutional Due Process plays a starring role in today's BradCast --- as it damned well should --- in several different stories of note. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

• Today, we revisit the ridiculous story about the one election from 2024 that is still unsettled. At least it was before Monday, when a federal district judge may have finally put an end to it. We'll see. This is the contest for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat, where incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs' re-election was challenged by her opponent, Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin. At least two recounts found that he lost by 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast. Nonetheless, Griffin has been deploying a playbook clearly created for Donald Trump prior to last year's election, in demanding some 65,000 lawfully cast ballots be tossed out entirely --- though only in a few Dem-leaning counties, and only for his race. We unpack all the details again on today's show. But, long story short: The state Supreme Court (dominated 6 to 2 by Republicans, or 6 to 1 in this case, since Riggs recused herself) recently okayed the potentially disenfranchisement of thousands of NC voters to help out Griffin. But Riggs then took the matter to federal court, where U.S. District Court Judge Richard Myers --- a Trump-appointee --- on Monday said absolutely not. You may not change the rules of an election after an election and violate the Constitutional Due Process of voters in the bargain, according to his order [PDF]. This is, of course, very good news for Riggs, but also for democracy itself. Hopefully, it's finally over. We'll see if Griffin chooses to keep his six-months of idiocy and attempted vote suppression going on appeal. Myers has given him one week to decide.

• Trump said over the weekend that he just doesn't really know if the Due Process mandates of the Constitution are actually, ya know, mandatory. He was answering questions about his use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to detain and deport alleged gang members from Venezuela to a gulag in El Salvador for a life sentence, without ever allowing them a day in court to make their case, or even contact with lawyers or family. But the AEA law may only be invoked in the first place against migrants from nations that have declared war on the U.S., or in the event of "invasion" or "incursion" directed by a foreign government. That is certainly not the case with Venezuela, though Trump argued otherwise in his invocation of the wartime law. Earlier this year, reporting from the New York Times and Washington Post revealed that the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) found back in February that there was no evidence of Venezuela's President directing an invasion of the U.S. Trump made his proclamation to begin deportations in March anyway. At the time, the Admin claimed the reporting was wrong and the DoJ vowed extraordinary measures to track down the leakers. But, according to a redacted memo released on Monday under the Freedom of Information Act by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, summarizing the IC's findings, the newspapers had it right and --- I hope you're sitting down --- it appears the Trump Administration was lying about all of this from the jump.

• In related news, yet another federal judge --- this time in the Southern District of New York --- has enjoined the Trump Administration from moving migrants detained under the Alien Enemies Act until they are given full Due Process. The ruling was not unlike one from a Trump-appointed federal judge in South Texas last week. In this case, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a Clinton appointee, found [PDF] that since the Administration has "not demonstrated the existence of a ‘war,’ ‘invasion’ or ‘predatory incursion,’ the AEA was not validly invoked by the Presidential Proclamation."

• Meanwhile, the fortunes of Trump buddy and richest man on earth, Elon Musk --- also, potentially, the world's most hated --- are really beginning to nose dive. Aside from users fleeing Twitter/X in droves this year in the wake of both his partnering with Trump and the Nazification of the social media site, the future of his Electric Vehicle company appears even bleaker. The stock price of Tesla is down some 40% since he DOGEd himself to Trump last December and subsequently outed himself as a far-right extremist. But sales of the company's cars in Europe have fallen even farther. According to new numbers out this week from both Germany and the UK, where, even as overall sales of cars is dropping, EV sales are booming --- at least for companies not owned by Musk --- Tesla sales continue to drive over a cliff. They are down 46% in Germany compared to last April, and a whopping 62% in Britain. Sad!

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as drastic cuts to the National Weather Service are now beginning to endanger public safety, according to its former leaders; Trump's DoJ is suing states to block climate laws and lawsuits; and the Administration plans to shrink National Parks in the U.S. to make room for more mining and drilling, and violate international law by mining the sea floor...

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Today on The BradCast: The President of the Unites States' war on the U.S. Constitution and Rule of Law continues, even as he keeps losing battle after battle in courts of law, at ballot boxes and in the court of public opinion. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today....

• At the beginning of last week, we reported the news of the Canada's Liberal Party overcoming an enormous deficit against the Conservative Party last December to triumph in national elections on Monday, when the Conservative Party's Trumpy Leader even lost his own seat in Parliament. By week's end, we saw damned near the exact same story in Australia, where the Labor Party Prime Minister on Friday retained his post (the first time that a ruling PM was elected twice in a row over the past 20+ years) and the conservative opposition lost in a landslide that saw its Trumpy party leader also lose his seat in Parliament as well, for the first time in Australian history. If nothing else, Trump's obnoxious behavior toward our longtime allies seems to be working wonders for center-left political parties in those countries.

• Trump announced over the weekend that he will place a 100% tariff on movies "produced in foreign lands". Apparently, that would include American-made films shot in other countries, though he didn't explain --- and nobody in the Administration seems to yet know --- how such a "tariff" would actually be levied. Many fear it could also devastate the U.S. film industry. The new tariffs are necessary, Trump lied, because foreign film production is somehow a "National Security threat", according to his social media announcement. (It isn't a national security threat, of course. But I explain on today's show why Trump needs to pretend as much.)

• As Trump revealed on NBC's Meet the Press over the weekend, he's not entirely sure if Constitutional Due Process, as cited by the 5th and 14th Amendments, is actually mandatory. That despite the Supreme Court making clear that it very much is, and despite his sworn oath earlier this year upon taking office for a second time to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

• Clearly, the Rule of Law and Constitution don't mean all that much to Donald Trump, as again illustrated by his four Executive Orders, so far, targeting four different law firms that dare to represent people he regards as political enemies. His clearly unconstitutional orders bar attorneys at those firms from entering federal buildings, interacting with federal officials or taking federal jobs, etc. The largest and first of those targeted firms to challenge an Order is Perkins Coie. They won a resounding victory on Friday when a U.S. District Court Judge in D.C. found [PDF] the entire Order targeting them to be a clear cut case of "unconstitutional retaliation and viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple." She nullified the entire Order in the bargain.

Meanwhile, out here in Los Angeles, three prosecutors in the U.S. Attorneys office for the Central District of California tendered their resignations over the weekend, after Trump-appointed acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli appears to have struck a deal with former L.A. County sheriff's deputy Trevor Kirk, after his felony conviction by a jury in February.

Kirk was found by a jury to have injured a 58-year old black woman during what police body cam footage revealed as to be an "unjustifiably violent" arrest. The woman apparently had nothing to do with the robbery that the cops were called to respond to at a grocery store in Lancaster, an hour or so north of L.A., in 2023. But she claimed to be live-streaming the arrest of her male companion, who apparently wasn't involved in the reported robbery either. Kirk threw the woman to the ground, threatened to "punch" her "in the face", hand-cuffed and pepper-sprayed her twice.

The unusual deal between Essayli and Kirk was struck after the jury verdict, but prior to sentencing, which could have resulted in as many as nine years in prison for the now-former cop. The new agreement would change his felony conviction to a misdemeanor with prosecutors seeking probation for Kirk instead of jail time, and no bar on him serving as a cop in the future. None of the attorneys who obtained Kirk's conviction signed on to the new agreement struck on behalf of Trump's acting U.S. Attorney. It must still be approved by a judge.

We're joined today by independent L.A. based legal affairs reporter MEGHANN CUNIFF who was the first to break the story of the agreement before the ensuing resignations of the career prosecutors in the L.A. U.S. Attorney's office in what appears to be a response to the deal their new boss struck, undermining their case. Cuniff, who acknowledges how unusual it is for a deal to be struck after conviction and before sentencing, argues that it's possible the prosecutors might be resigning for other reasons in addition to the unusual post-verdict deal.

After making clear that she is not reporting a direct line between D.C. and the Trump-appointed loyalist Essayli and his deal to drastically reduce Kirk's sentencing, she concedes: "I've never seen it before. It's totally unheard of. You might see it if there's an issue of misconduct during the trial or somebody is cooperating afterward. But the prosecutors are definitely outraged after this."

Cuniff is also not at all certain that the U.S. District Court Judge who oversaw the case will agree to the terms of the deal struck by Trump's prosecutors. At the same time, L.A. County has struck a settlement in a $3 million civil lawsuit filed by the two victims in response to their wrongful arrests.

In addition to the Kirk case, the same U.S. Attorney's office is now reviewing the conviction of Alexander Smirnov, who pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials in 2020 about Hunter Biden having corrupt business dealings with a Ukrainian oil company, "in what prosecutors described as a Russian-influenced operation," says Cuniff.

"As soon as Trump took over, all of a sudden, they are trying to get this guy --- who took a plea deal and was sentenced in January --- out of prison, pending appeal, saying they are going to support his appeal," she explains. "The trial judge wouldn't do it, but they're going to the 9th Circuit [Court of Appeals]. The assistant U.S. Attorney who argued for this is the same one who went to court to argue for Trevor Kirk for a sentencing delay" to allow Trump's attorneys to strike a deal with the dirty cop...

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On today's BradCast: If the 101st Day is any indication, it doesn't look like the second hundred are gonna go any better for him than the first. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• On our roundtable program yesterday with Digby and Driftglass, we discussed who was likely the first top Trump Administration official to be tossed under the bus in the wake of Donald Trump's dismal and worsening approval ratings. Today we know: Trump National Security Adviser and Signal group chat enthusiast, Mike Waltz. At least he outlasted Trump's first (of four) NSAs in the first term. The disgraced and loony Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn survived just 24 days before being tossed and eventually pleading guilty to criminal charges of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. At least Waltz gets a consolation prize. Trump tapped him to be U.N. Ambassador.

• Last week, Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth --- a Reagan-appointee --- ordered the rehiring of staffers and contractors at the Congressionally-mandated and funded Voice of America and its similarly critical global sister networks Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting after the Trump-order shutdown in March of its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media. This week, Judge Lamberth ordered the Administration to restore $12 million in funding to another VOA sister network, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty --- broadcasting to dozens of countries in dozens of languages since the Cold War --- while issuing both a history lesson and an important Constitutional lesson for the Trump Administration (and, arguably, for Congress) about the important roles of the three co-equal branches of Government in his order [PDF].

• In still more Trump-is-a-Loser news today, a Trump-appointed federal judge in South Texas, issued a first-of-its-kind permanent injunction on Trump's "unlawful" use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 --- in peacetime --- to deport alleged gang members from Venezuela to a gulag in El Salvador. "The President's invocation of the AEA...exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute's terms," U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. wrote in the order [PDF], concluding that Trump's attempt to falsely proclaim the U.S. was being "invaded" by Tren de Aragua gang members at the direction of the Venezuelan government was patently false, "exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful."

• Also of note today, the Board and shareholders of one of the companies most closely associated with America, Coca-Cola, flatly rejected two proposals to abolish the company's anti-discrimination programs, often smeared by Trump and fellow wingnuts as "DEI". Shareholders and the Board of Directors at yet another iconic American company, Levi Strauss, reportedly did the same last week.

• It's not just courts and a few iconic U.S. companies that are pushing back at Trump's nonsense of late. Even Democrats, if you can believe it --- at least a couple who are clearly eye-balling Presidential runs in 2028 --- are now more aggressively doing the same, especially now that the public has turned so clearly against out tinpot dictator-wannabe. Last night, at an event in San Francisco, former Vice President and Presidential nominee Kamala Harris offered her first substantive public remarks since losing to Trump last year, deriding his "wholesale abandonment" of American values. That came on the heels of a stem-winder by Illinois' Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, taking on Trumpers and go-along, get-along, "do nothing" Dems alike, at a fundraiser on Sunday in New Hampshire. We share extended excerpts from both speeches today.

• And finally, Desi Doyen is here with our latest Green News Report to help us close things out near the end of a week that began with a huge loss for our failing President, as his attempts at hectoring our neighbor to the north and meddling in Canada's elections completely backfired, producing not just another Liberal Party Prime Minister, whose election might have been unthinkable last December, but a climate and energy action champion at that...

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I've got no clue why so many in the media decided yesterday (Tuesday) was the 100th Day of Donald Trump's second term in office, when it is actually today (Wednesday). Am I missing something? No matter how many times I checked, counted, re-checked, recounted, asked AI, the 100th day --- not that any of it actually matters, unless you find accuracy from your media to be helpful --- is today. So, today is when we officially "celebrate" it on The BradCast. [Audio link to full, rollicking show follows below this summary.]

As we are wont at landmark moments in the second Trump Presidency, we are joined again today by two of our old school blogger friends who have been right about almost everything over the past 20+ years, whether the rest of the world wanted to notice or not. HEATHER DIGBY PARTON is the award-winning columnist at Salon and proprietor of Digby's Hullabaloo blog, and 'DRIFTGLASS' is the notorious eponymous blogger and co-host of the weekly Professional Left Podcast. They've both got plenty of thoughts to share at this particular "landmark moment".

Trump's approval ratings are plummeting on virtually every single issue via every single legitmate poll released over the past few days. Perhaps most notably, for the moment --- and for his own softening supporters --- his self-induced tanking economy is top of mind today. But, he's a loser on his immigration and mass deportation policies as well. Now, why would that be, given that he was supposedly elected for his great economic prowess ("Tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary of words!," he declared repeatedly in last year's campaign and right on up through his fateful "Liberation Day" on-again, off-again worldwide tariff proclamation earlier this month) and to "solve" the immigration issues that he and Republicans and Fox 'News' have been stoking and worsening for political purposes over so many years?

But none of it is working, as it turns out China is refusing to cower in the face of Trump's 145% tariffs because, as their Foreign Minister explained this week, "it will only make the bully want to push his luck more." There are quite a few elite American law firms, universities and media outlets that may wish to take notice of that response from the largest exporter of goods purchased by Americans, as ships will soon no longer be arriving and shelves at stores may be bare by the time we get to Christmas. That, as new economic numbers out today find that American GDP in the first quarter has fallen by 0.3% after increasing by 2.4% in the final quarter of last year under the economic guidance of President Biden, and more than two-thirds of Americans now predict a Trump Recession on the near horizon.

As to the violence, recklessness and fecklessness of his mass deportation policy, both of our guests concur that is backfiring as well. His supporters also seem to have begun to take notice. As Driftglass argues, they are seeing that "if anyone without a visa can be locked up and deported overnight, you can be, because now we have no Due Process." As Digby observes, "this is happening to people just like you who voted for Trump. And it could be you. They are not discriminating."

But there is much more on our plate to discuss today --- from why all of this is happening and whether it meets or exceeds our guests expectations; to what each of them expect to be Trump's response to his plummeting polls; to who they expect to be the first Trump cabinet member to fall; to what sort of Democrat is needed out there to guide the party back to relevance and put Humpty-Dumpty back together again --- if it can be.

Digby says she's "aged 10 years in the last 100 days" --- me too! --- as Driftglass breaks down what he describes as Trump's "fascist death spiral". Let it be true.

Join us, won't you?...

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On today's BradCast: We're barely 100 days into Trump's second term as President and the odds seem to be improving quickly, believe it or not, for an historic third Impeachment for the worst, most failed, most unpopular (at this point in his term) President in U.S. history. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

BUT FIRST... Before we get to news on the possibility of yet another impeachment for Donald J. Trump, some wildly amusing election news out of Canada, where Trump's idiotic hectoring of our long-time friends to the North succeeded in improbably reversing the fortunes of the Liberal Party in Monday's election. Prime Minister Mark Carney was victorious yesterday, as the Liberals soundly defeated Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre in a simply remarkable turn of events. The Liberals were all but doomed as of last December, when then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was facing a 25% deficit against the Conservative's Trumpy-wannabe Poilievre. Then Trudeau resigned and Carney took his place as PM, as Trump began threatening Canada with an offensive campaign to make it our 51st state. He then further won the hearts and minds of our largest trading partner and longtime ally by slapping huge trade tariffs on them and placing himself at the center of their Prime Minister's election. Long story short, Trump's idiocy translated into a once seemingly impossible victory for Carney and the Libs --- and Poilievre even lost his own seat that he's held in Parliament for 20 years to a Liberal opponent. Congrats, Mr. President! Please keep up the bad work!

NEXT... Back here in the U.S., Trump appears to be no more popular than he is in Canada. In fact, as pretty much every recent poll has shown, his approval ratings are in the toilet both overall and for almost every single issue pollsters are asking about.

That now includes Impeachment, where a poll released late last week found that a majority of American voters (52%), now "strongly support" or "somewhat support" the idea, including a 55% majority of voters who identify as independent and even 20% of self-identified Republicans!

That polling coincides with the introduction of seven articles of Impeachment on Monday in the U.S. House by Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar of Detroit, who argues that Trump has "repeatedly demonstrated that he is unfit to serve" and "represents a clear and present danger to our nation's Constitution and our democracy."

All of that comes on top of the ImpeachTrumpAgain.org campaign, launched on Inauguration Day earlier this year by the nonpartisan nonprofit, Free Speech for People (FSFP). While their campaign initially called for Trump's Impeachment on Day 1 for violations of the Constitution's Emoluments Clauses and Trump's "unlawful, corrupt campaign practices," it has since expanded to include some 17 High Crimes and Misdemeanors that, "since taking office, Trump has committed."

According to my guest today, FSFP's co-founder and President, JOHN BONIFAZ, the campaign's petition in support of Impeachment has now garnered more than 400,000 signatures from the public. Bonifaz is a Constitutional Law expert and author of several books on Impeachment, including 2018's The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump. He has also given testimony in Congress in years past for U.S. House Impeachment inquiries.

Among my questions for Bonifaz today...

• Why was Trump Constitutionally eligible as of Day 1 in his second term for Impeachment, as argued by FSFP's campaign?
• If Trump's historic TWO impeachments during his first term failed to remove him from office, is it really worth doing yet again, especially with Republican majorities currently in both the House and Senate?
• Impeachment or not, can Trump still be held accountable via the legal system for violations of the Constitution, including the Emoluments Clauses (as per a case found Moot by SCOTUS after Trump left office the first time) and for his withholding of nearly half a trillion dollars in spending approved by Congress?
• Of the ImpeachTrumpAgain.org's current seventeen suggested Articles of Impeachment detailed on their website, what are the top three or four most critical, as he sees it?
• How does the U.S. Supreme Court's absurd finding last year of so-called "Presidential Immunity" for "Official Acts" affect any hope of a U.S. Senate finding a President guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors under the Constitution's Impeachment Clause?
• What is his response to Democrats --- for example, Rep. Dan Goldman of NY, who worked on one of Trump's previous Impeachments during his first term --- arguing, as the Congressman did in mid-February, that "regardless of whether or not there are impeachment offenses, it's not happening and we need to focus on other ways of providing accountability on Donald Trump"?

As usual, Bonifaz' responses are clear, insightful, and very educational, as he argues that "we are dealing here with somebody who is lawless in the Oval Office. He is a reckless, lawless person who claims to be President of the United States when really he's trying to act like a monarch and a tyrant."

"The Framers [of the Constitution] were very clear," he tells me. "We were not to be a nation governed by a monarch or a tyrant. This was going to be a different nation, governed by a President checked by a Congress and by a Judiciary. But importantly, they put an extra guardrail into the Constitution, in addition to those co-equal branches of government, and that was the Impeachment Clause. They were also aware that there might come a day when a President would so engage in trampling on the Constitution, would so engage in violating the rule of law, that there would need to be a measure to allow for the Impeachment and removal of that President. And that is the place that we are now in. This is the very remedy the framers put in the Constitution to deal with this lawlessness coming from the Oval Office."

"We either have a Constitution or we don't," Bonifaz asserts, when I ask about why any of this is worth trying, given previous failures to use Impeachment to remove Trump from office during his first term. "We either have an Impeachment Clause or we don't. If we do not invoke it at this very moment in the face of this lawlessness coming from this President, then what's the point of having the Constitution at all? And what's the point of having the Impeachment Clause? We are not going to give up on this idea of a Constitution in which a President must be accountable to the people and to the other branches of government."

"Second, we normalize these High Crimes when we don't name them for what they are. These are not policy disputes. These are abuses of power. And this President must be held accountable under the Impeachment Clause for these High Crimes."

"And third," he continues, "members of Congress take the same oath that Donald Trump took to protect and defend the Constitution. They have a duty to stand up at this critical moment in our history and defend the Constitution in the face of this attack by this President on the rule of law and on our democracy."

There is much more in our conversation on all of the above that I suspect you'll find very very interesting and even encouraging.

FINALLY... we are joined by Desi Doyen with our latest Green News Report on Trump's denial of disaster relief funds for Arkansas, Kentucky and other states; his EPA's firing of ALL of the (volunteer!) scientists working on the Congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment; and a new study finding that the world's biggest oil companies have caused some $28 TRILLION in climate damages to the world...

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