On today’s BradCast, we open the phone lines to callers, mainly on the Donald Trump v. Kim Jong Un madness that may get us all killed. [Audio link to full show follows below.]
As you’ll recall, in an unprecedented speech by a U.S. President, Trump called Kim “Rocket Man” and threatened to “totally destroy North Korea” at the United Nations General Assembly.
That, as reported today, was apparently a surprise even to Trump’s top officials, who are said to have “warned him not to deliver a personal attack on North Korea’s leader at the United Nations.” In turn, North Korea said they are considering a test of a hydrogen bomb above and the Pacific, and Kim issued an unprecedented first-person response, describing Trump as a “mentally deranged dotard“. Trump answered back via Twitter (naturally), calling Kim a “madman”. But the school yard bully act by both is far more complicated, nuanced and, yes, dangerous, as revealed in part by the full statement from Kim, which we share today.
Then, Sen. John McCain now says he’s a “no” on the last-gasp desperate efforts by Senate Republicans to gut the Affordable Care Act with the wildly unpopular Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson amendment, that would take hundreds of billions away from federal health care, and result in loss of coverage for at least 21 million Americans. Does McCain’s announcement finally signal the end for the GOP’s zombie-like attempt to ‘”repeal and replace” ObamaCare? Don’t count your chickens just yet.
Also today: breaking news on the Guajataca Dam in Puerto Rico that is now reportedly failing following Hurricane Maria, and threatening tens of thousands already struggling without power in the wake of the record storm; and a 30-year old reminder from then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, of all people, that, yes, the nations of the world can come together to save the planet in the fight against deadly emissions.
Callers ring in today on all of that and more (and even on NASA’s totally “fake” moon landing!) in a very lively, and occasionally chilling, BradCast…
The problem is not Trump, the problem is that the Military-Industrial Complex has co-opted the whole show. I don’t know if it was Smedley Butler that said that the US was an oil company with a military. I used to work with the energy complex in Wyoming and saw first-hand the destructive effects of coal and petroleum. I had several friends that lived near St. George Utah and described the mushroom clouds coming over their town. They probably aren’t alive anymore since most of them had malignancies. My Dad worked as a civilian in the MIC and he dragged me around when he was trying to promote a book that he wrote. The people that worked in those places looked like they had no soul, only a mad drive for profit by building a better way to kill someone. I was in Exxon Headquarters in 1977 and might have met Rex. They had just buried the climate study and decided to make money. They are still trying to squeeze the last cent out of people and the best way is to pump whatever form of hydrocarbon around the world, and kill anybody that gets in their way. News out of Europe shows that they are complicit in the game.
I would love to see a Green News Report that a military exercise had to be cancelled since the EPA enforced new rules that the next war has to be carbon-neutral. Maybe they can call Bertrand Piccard to make a solar-powered F-35.
Another comment, if you are serious about climate change you have to start building solar panel and battery factories locally. You need about 15 in America, we need 15 in Europe. 15 container ships emit as much CO2 as all of the automobiles combined. Oil ships also use ships and should have this included in the calculations. I have bought EV and am promoting them, and I am a lonely voice in the climate movement. I listen to many *activists* and hear little about EV. End of Rant.