On today’s BradCast, we have not one, but two important and separate warnings for Donald Trump and the Republican Party, as pulled from the deep audio archives of 1988. Both of which — on two separate topics from two separate people — they seem to be completely ignoring, even as one of those warnings comes from their supposed idol Ronald Reagan. [Audio link to show posted below.]
First up today, the Trump-caused child immigration crisis continues to unfold with several disturbing new reports of unspeakable abuse at two separate federally-contracted facilities, based on filings in new federal court cases. One from Associated Press on beatings and more at a youth facility in Virginia and the other from the Center for Investigative Reporting on the forced injection of psychotropic drugs at a facility near Houston. That, as an Executive Order signed by the President on Wednesday, reversing part of his Administration’s policy, fails to speak to family reunification for more than 2,300 children separated from their parents in recent weeks under Trump’s “zero tolerance” border policy, and an Administration request to the Pentagon for space to house some 20,000 migrant children.
While all of those American nightmares have been unfolding over the past week, the effects of Trump’s growing trade war have been quietly playing out in the background, as the Dow has dropped some 600 points over the past four days, with China and friendly allies like Canada, Mexico and the EU vowing massive and swift retaliation for ill-considered tariff’s on foreign imports instituted by Trump. Among the hardest-hit victims of his new trade wars: farmers who were among some of biggest supporters of Trump’s candidacy in 2016.
Perhaps that explains why, as share in an audio clip from 1988 today, Ronald Reagan warned: “We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war…all while cynically waving the American flag.”
Next, we’re joined by MARK JOSEPH STERN, legal reporter at Slate, and our “Supreme Correspondent” this month, as the U.S. Supreme Court slowly releases a bevy of decisions in advance of their planned Summer recess, on a number of major cases heard at the high court over the past term. Among the cases we discuss today:
- On Thursday, SCOTUS released a 5 to 4 decision allowing states to impose sales taxes on all online purchases. The ruling found some very strange bedfellows in both its majority and minority opinions, but both Stern and I agree, the decision makes sense, and will be good for local retailers, jobs, the economy and state budgets where, particularly in “red” states, tax cuts in recent years have lead to the gutting of education, infrastructure and other important social services. The 1967 SCOTUS ruling struck down today, was “a totally capricious standard that the Court created itself,” Stern argues. “This was the Court fixing a problem that it made.”
- Stern also details an exceedingly troubling — if little reported — case out of South Dakota, where a man was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, according to jury members themselves, they feared, as a gay man, he might enjoy life in prison too much. Seriously. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this matter: the Court declined to hear the case at all. Even the liberal Justices failed to offer a written dissent to the Court’s decision.
- We also discuss the SCOTUS’ regrettable punts this week on two partisan gerrymandering cases in Wisconsin and Maryland. (More on those cases earlier this week, with author David Daley on Monday’s BradCast.)
- And the seemingly unprecedented federal court smack down of Kris Kobach, notorious GOP “voter fraud” fraudster and Kansas Secretary of State. His “Proof of Citizenship” voter registration law was struck down by a George W. Bush-appointed federal judge, and he was slapped for his contemptible performance in the courtroom — where he represented both himself and the state of KS — with more humiliating sanctions that include an order to attend six hours of legal classes. Moreover, as Stern reports, Kobach appears to be in still more violation of court orders, as he has yet to remove the requirement for citizenship documentation for voter registration from the KS Sec. of State website, as the judge ordered him to do “immediately” in her ruling on Monday.
“I think that there is a decent chance that we could see even more sanctions for Kobach after this,” Stern tells me. “Kobach is such a clown that this judge is going to finally have to bring down the hammer and I think it’s going to be a glorious sight.” (More on that case, with Sophia Lakin, one of the ACLU trial attorneys on the case, from Tuesday’s BradCast.)
- Previewing the cases still to come before the end of the month, Sterns warns: “I think the Supreme Court is going to hobble public sector unions by preventing them from collecting dues from no-union members. I worry the Supreme Court is going to uphold the [Muslim] travel ban. I do think the Court may put real limits on the government’s ability to collect information about where your cell phone has been from your provider. That’s going to be a bright spot, I hope. But I also think the court’s going to end up striking down California’s disclosure requirements for crisis pregnancy centers. So, this is s not going to be a good term for progressives. I think everyone needs to just buckle in and focus on November.”
Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report on a number of important issues that the Trump Administration did quietly this week as the rest of the nation and media were consumed with the child immigration story, and the 30th anniversary of Dr. James Hansen’s first dire warning to Congress — also in 1988 — about the then-looming menace of global warming due to the unprecedented release of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide from the manmade burning of fossil fuels, into the atmosphere…
Dear Brad and Desi,
The people who will be burdened by having to pay additional sales taxes will be those who might be most burdened by the extra expense , the working class. How about we tax ALL stock transactions a .25 percent tax per transaction. Most stock transactions are made by those who can most afford to pay a tiny bit more. ALSO, it Might cause a decline in the number of computer transactions..
Philip @1:
Point well taken, though it’s not an either or situation. I would very like to see the tax on stock transactions that you (and others, like Bernie Sanders, etc.) have called for.
In the meantime, I’m also happy to see a level(ish) playing field on Internet taxes that will help local jobs, economies and state revenue tax bases which have already been slashed to the bone and is harming key social programs in the bargain.
(I should add here that increasing taxes, these days, is very difficult. Having the Court order it, as they have in the instance you’re referring to, may be the only way any such needed increases happen for a while, until we can restore some version of sanity to our governments!)