re: Congress voting to legalize illegal NSA, et al spying:

"our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society"
-- Jim Garrison, District Attorney in New Orleans, 1967

Are there ANY examples of Congress, the President or the Courts exercising meaningful, verifiable control over the "intelligence" agencies?

NSA whistleblower Russ Tice said several years ago that these officials were among the top surveillance targets, so any politicians with mistresses, financial wrong doing or other scandals would be especially unable to vote against the spies.

The Republican version of Washington is making America ungreat again:

"One year into Donald Trump's presidency, the image of U.S. leadership is weaker worldwide than it was under his two predecessors. Median approval of U.S. leadership across 134 countries and areas stands at a new low of 30%, according to a new Gallup report."

(First Shots Fired In The Currency Wars - 3).

This is a longer version of the email I sent to you a few days back.

No problem as I understand the catching up stuff: I get your show online and at present I am couple of shows behind. Only your email alerted me to your having read my spewings on the air on your 1/9/2018 Bradcast. I hope you haven't cut your audience in half because of it! Thanks for the shout out and for using my words as part of your intro to the interview with the Iowa farmer John Gilbert. It is good to know --- and to be reminded --- the not everyone in so-called Trumpstan is a Trumpist.

I read Mr. Gilbert's essay at The Practical Blog. People like Beverly and John Gilbert who want to humanity to live and thrive in a healthy and sustainable world greatly outnumber those who would seek to bleed it dry for the almighty ducat. If only the corporate press --- because of its massive reach and its capacity to shape audiences' perspectives on the world --- saw fit to routinely seek out people like them in their Trump pastorals if for no other reason than to avoid the stereotyping of Rural America as backward, uninformed, and opposed to its own interests. My thanks to you and Desi for providing to your listeners a chance to hear his voice.

Hearing someone I agree with is not the point (it never is). The point is to have a perspective on the world that is based in reality.

But let's face it: reality has a liberal bias.

Check this out from Digby's blog site: https://digbysblog.blogs...re-they-thinking-by.html. It appears the New York Times has handed its online OP-Ed pages over to defenders of Trump: https://www.nytimes.com/...p-voters-supporters.html. I read somewhere (here: https://splinternews.com...-into-nonsens-1822178237) that on the next day the Times will turn its pages over to Trumpers who supposedly regret their decision to vote for him.

And then there is this from this morning's NPR Morning Edition, in a segment titled Trump Visits Pa. County That Has A Special Election In March: https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition. Check out the host interviewing Don Gonyea at 3:53 into the 4:48 minute segment, where the question is raised regarding NPR's seeming obsession with Trumpers. The question is framed as if liberals are obsessed with this question, betraying a certain tendentiousness in liberals rather than that of the mainstream corporate media (which includes NPR). Gonyea claims that they talk to voters of all kinds (untrue) and that it is good to talk Trumpers to see if they are still with him. Is there a reason why WE should know this? I don't recall NPR asking that of Obama voters, or of the voters of any losing candidate who made a good showing in the 2016 presidential election.

That Trump got into the White House is not (enough) of a reason for perpetuating the Trump Pastoral genre. What is the news value here? Something else is going on, and we should be concerned about it. I fear that we are(unwittingly, it so far seems...) being set up for something dark and dire, talk of a "Blue Wave" (of which I am not convinced) entirely notwithstanding. Why does not NPR visit people who are unhappy that Trump is President? Don't they got something to say? Grrrrr...

All this goes to show the proof that what you and Desi do at Bradblog is both rare and desperately needed indeed.

Keep up the excellent work.