Watch What He Does, Not What He Says: ‘BradCast’ 1/24/2017

Trump's lies distract from his Admin's dangerous actions on free speech, environment, voting rights and more. Guest: ACLU's Julie Ebenstein...

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Never mind his inauguration crowd size or his claims to be “a very big person when it comes to the environment”, or even his false claims about “voter fraud”. On today’s BradCast, while it may be hard to imagine, and the corporate media may have yet to fully notice, Donald Trump’s actions speak much louder than his obnoxious words and virtually non-stop stream of public lies. [Audio link to show posted below.]

Don’t be distracted by what Donald Trump says. Pay attention to what he does. To that end, while folks were debating his “alternative facts” on the crowd size at his inauguration, the new Administration was busy shutting down the Twitter accounts and ability for federal employees to communicate with the press and public at the Department of Interior, the National Park Service, the EPA and other federal agencies.

While claiming to be a champion for the environment this morning, he then signed an Executive Action to move forward with approval of the dirty and dangerous KeystoneXL and Dakota Access Pipelines by the afternoon.

While the new President continued to pretend that millions of illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election (even the New York Times called it a “Lie” in their headline!), he and his supporters fought successfully to stop the post-election “recounts” in all three states where evidence of such illegal votes — if it actually existed (it doesn’t) — might have been revealed.

While the Administration claimed last week that their work wouldn’t begin until Monday, their new Dept. of Justice leadership was taking action on Inauguration Day to undermine a long-standing lawsuit against Texas’ unlawful Photo ID voting restrictions. Yes, Republican Trumpers understand the importance of voting laws and procedures — even when it’s not an election year. Do Democrats and progressives?

Julie Ebenstein, staff attorney at the ACLU Voting Rights Project, joins us to explain what exactly the Trump DoJ did on Friday in the Texas case and what it may signify for that case and others like it, what it all may mean for the future of the currently-gutted Voting Rights Act, and how the ACLU and other private plaintiffs plan to continue the fight for voting rights with or without the Trump Administration’s DoJ on their side.

“There’s certainly concern that DoJ will shift and no longer take the same positions that it’s taken in the Texas and North Carolina cases — and a lot of concern for future cases, for future protection of people’s voting rights,” Ebenstein tells me. “If the Department of Justice does not provide and enforce the same robust protections of the Voting Rights act, it’s diluting the already scarce resources that are out there to challenge these laws.” But, she vows, “we’ll continue to do the work we’ve always done. There are certainly cases where private organizations like the ACLU will go forward without any Department of Justice involvement. We’re going to keep doing what we do, no matter what we see coming.”

The BradCast with Brad Friedman 1/24/2017
Watch What He Does, Not What He Says: ‘BradCast’ 1/24/2017  |  Trump's lies distract from his Admin's dangerous actions on free speech, environment, voting rights and more. Guest: ACLU's Julie Ebenstein...   Â· · · · ·   Watch What He Does, Not What He Says: ‘BradCast’ 1/24/2017  |  Trump's lies distract from his Admin's dangerous actions on free speech, environment, voting rights and more. Guest: ACLU's Julie Ebenstein...
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Watch What He Does, Not What He Says: ‘BradCast’ 1/24/2017

6 Comments

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6 Responses

  1. 2)
    WaterLilly said on 1/25/2017 @ 10:09am PT: [Permalink]

    going to be funny to watch Clinton and others go down.

    Forward snowflake nonsense, your time is done. soon fake journalists won’t have time to cover anything except the ongoing exposure of democrat treason.

    Fake vote claims
    Fake Electoral College attack
    Fake Lawsuits
    Fake Blame on Russia

    democrats are stinky, vile snakes

  2. 6)
    Jim Spriggs said on 1/28/2017 @ 1:50pm PT: [Permalink]

    #2 WaterLilly said:

    going to be funny to watch Clinton and others go down.

    And how is this the least bit relevant? Please explain.

    Forward snowflake nonsense, your time is done.

    “Snowflake?” (consults “alt-right” dictionary)

    The following is confusing as well. Let’s translate:

    Fake vote claims

    Trump insists 3 to 5 million illegal aliens spontaneously risked exposure and possible deportation to vote against him in elections nationwide. Is that what you mean?

    Fake Electoral College attack

    The Electoral College is an irrelevant vestige of a long-dead age when only white, landowner males could vote. Beyond that, I’m not sure what you mean.

    Fake Lawsuits

    These fake lawsuits?:
    85 Branding and Trademark cases
    17 Campaign cases
    1,863 Casino cases
    208 Contract Dispute cases
    130 Employment cases
    63 Golf Club cases
    190 Government & Taxes cases
    14 Media or Defamation cases
    206 Other cases
    697 Personal Injury cases
    622 Real Estate cases

    http://www.usatoday.com/pages/i...rump-lawsuits/

    Or how about these 75 fake lawsuits that are currently active (including the three Trump University fraud cases):
    The federal class action cases were filed in 2010 and 2013, before Trump made good on his decades of teasing a presidential run. They are both being heard in California, by Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was dragged into the campaign over the summer when Trump told an interviewer that the case was stacked against him because Curiel was “a Mexican,” and explained, “we’re building a wall between here and Mexico.” (Judge Curiel was born in Indiana.) The third lawsuit, the $40 million Trump U. swindle case, is being heard in New York.
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/ar...ect-trump.html

    Come on, WaterLilly, out with it. Which fake lawsuits are you talking about?

    Fake Blame on Russia
    Russia has done nothing the United States hasn’t done to other countries over the past several decades (and we’ve done FAR, FAR worse), but fake? Uh, no. It’s been established that the Russians were involved in hacking DNC and RNC emails, choosing to release only the DNC emails, but as far as hacking the election itself, I can’t say.

    WaterLilly, if you have something to show, SHOW it. Don’t be coy.

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