On today’s BradCast, it’s the 15th Anniversary of The BRAD BLOG! So — in addition to the news of the day — we take a precious few minutes on today’s program to reminisce a bit with longtime BradBlog.com legal contributor ERNEST A. CANNING and Green News Report co-host and BradCast producer DESI DOYEN! [Audio link to full show is posted below.]
After a few words on Canning’s latest article at the blog on the “Political Revolution” embodied by the new freshman class of progressive U.S. House members and the many challenges they are now facing down in D.C., we discuss some of the lessons learned and important stories covered at our little, independent, reader- and listener-supported website over the past decade and a half.
Many of the stories we broke years ago — too numerous to link here, on everything from electronic voting concerns and voting rights to climate change and much more — have since become part of the national consensus as well as many popular calls for reform. That, even as much (but not all) of our independently verifiable, evidence-based news coverage was marginalized or dismissed by many in the corporate media years earlier. We discuss just a few of those stories today — too numerous to detail here — as we look both back and forward on this latest milestone. We also offer thanks to the many who have made all of it possible over the years, from our blogging contributors, to radio affiliate partners, to various whistleblowers (publicly known and unknown) over the years.
Of course, none of it could be done without those of you support our work via BradBlog.com/Donate. So, if you haven’t hit that page in a while, please consider doing so, as we operate solely on the support of folks like you. Seriously. Please consider a one-time donation or, even better, an automated monthly donation of any amount you can afford. I hate haranguing folks for this, but it really is necessary in order for us to continue our work, which we now share on a daily basis with dozens of radio affiliates around the country and world for free! Your support alone allows that and so much more that we do at The BRAD BLOG, The BradCast and the Green News Report to continue. And if I can’t ask on our 15th birthday, when can I? So click here please! And thank you!
And, yes, there was also a bit of news today for a change in Washington D.C., so we also cover that on today’s program. Among those stories…
- Donald Trump’s federal government shutdown nears the end of it’s fifth record week, as he folded like one of his own cheap and poorly tailored suits on Wednesday night in his standoff with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on delivering his State of the Union next week.
- At the same time, federal aviation unions issued a dire warning about the ongoing effects and potential critical dangers of the shutdown.
- We share a heartbreaking story about a 10-year old girl who suffered a broken wrist in stoic silence for a week, because she was frightened to tell her father, a Dept. of Homeland Security employee forced to work without pay.
- Billionaire crypt-keeper and Commerce Dept. Secretary Wilbur Ross took to the airwaves to, essentially, call 800,000 federal workers whiners for needing to use food banks to feed their families, when they could just go out and get a bank loan instead to cover costs until the federal government reopens.
- In the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell finally allowed votes on measures to reopen the government, one from Rs and one from Ds. Both failed to get the 60 votes needed to overcome filibuster, though the D version — which did not include funding for Trump’s border wall — received more votes than the R version in the GOP-majority Senate.
- And Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen learned that he may have to appear before both House and Senate Committees next month, despite threats to his family by the President of the United States.
- Finally. Desi brings us the latest Green News Report, with more bad news about the shutdown and Greenland’s melting ice shelf, but some encouraging news on a huge majority of Americans who now appreciate the threat of climate change and on the amazing teen climate activist taking on the corporate powers and millionaire/billionaires at Davos this week…
15 years! Congratulations! I never miss your podcasts. Thanks to Brad and Desi for all you do!
Tell me if I’m remembering this right Brad.
Didn’t Diebold manage to shut down your site once, before Dennis Kucinich stepped in?
Feliz Quinceaà±era
Now the Bradblog is able to date other blogs.
Susan Shaffer @1:
Thank you muchly!!
Larry Bergan @2:
Not to my recollection! By, a lotta shit has happened in these 15 years that I’ve probably forgotten entirely….and your story does sound like a good one! 🙂
Alex @3:
Ha! Finally! 🙂
Brad and Desi:
Thank you for helping us deal with the “Doppler Effect”
Dopelar Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter whenӬ they come at you rapidly.
We would be ignorant like the “voter fraud” Republican committee that sought to stamp out “voter fraud” if it were not for Brad Blog.
Many thanks Brad and Desi.