We catch up on a whole bunch of stuff on today’s BradCast, from Trump’s ransacking of military hurricane recovery funds in order to pay for his border wall — as Hurricane Dorian slams a military base in North Carolina that is still crippled from last year’s Hurricane Florence — to both the Horse Races and the Track Conditions for a bunch of upcoming elections between next week and next year. [Audio link to full show is posted at end of summary.]

Among the stories covered on today’s show…

• Dorian ravages parts of the East Coast as the death toll rises in The Bahamas, and the President of the United States continues to spend time on his twisted, bizarre lies about his erroneous claims that it was going to hit Alabama;

• At the same time, while an actual national emergency plays out, Trump’s Administration is stealing $3.6 billion under the phony pretense of a “national emergency” in order to build his wall on the southern border. Hundreds of millions are being stolen from construction projects meant to help rebuild military bases in Florida, North Carolina and Puerto Rico after devastation from previous hurricanes over the past two years. That, as Camp Lejeune in NC hunkers down as Dorian hits, with blue tarps still serving as roofs on hundreds of structures there after Hurricane Florence last year. Lejeune is just one of scores of bases that Trump is robbing to pay for his wall, and there are bases in many other states losing millions as well, including in six states with Republican Senators facing reelection next year after voting for Trump’s fake “national emergency”. They will have to explain to voters why millions of dollars will not be coming into their local economies as previously allocated by Congress;

• But, while those Senators may have trouble in their reelection bids, Team Trump is working to smooth his path to the GOP nomination. Politico reports the likely cancellation of GOP Presidential primaries and caucuses in at least four states next year where Trump might have faced embarrassing loses to several Republican challengers;

• One of Trump’s primary challengers, former Illinois Tea Party Rep. Joe Walsh is none too happy about the GOP’s attempt to rig the nominating contest next year for Trump by scrapping primaries and caucuses. Nonetheless, we congratulate the newly-reformed former Rep. both for his righteous efforts to call Trump out for the danger he poses to the nation, and for his somewhat chilling recent appearance on Fox Business Channel earlier this week with “Stepford” Stuart Varney, whose astonishing insistence that Trump has never lied to the American People is something that needs to be seen (or heard) to be believed;

• Also, as Dorian strikes, voters in NC’s 3rd and 9th Congressional districts are Early Voting in advance of next Tuesday’s two U.S. House Special Elections there. Or, they are trying to, at least. We’ve got an update on poll closures due to the storm, extended hours set for this weekend, and some questions about whether either or both election may need to be postponed yet again because of the hurricane;

• In California, a Democratic Congressman is facing an interesting challenge from a man with the exact same name…which leads us down a fascinating rabbit hole into instances when this has happened before (last year in another U.S. House race in Kansas, and way back in 2001, in fascinating local election in California);

• Speaking of the U.S. House, GOP incumbents are racing for the exits, with yet another Texas Congressman announcing this week he will not seek re-election (the fifth to do so, so far, in the Lone Star State) and longtime Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner announcing his retirement as well. We’ve got memories, fond and otherwise, to share on the retiring Wisconsin Congressman (the state’s second to call it quits this cycle.) So far, 13 House GOPers have announced they are getting out while the getting’s good;

• And, speaking of quitting, former Starbucks CEO and billionaire Howard Schultz officially declares that he is nixing his plans to run for President as a “centrist” independent, which many Democrats feared might help pave the way for a Trump re-election in 2020;

• Finally, we’re delighted to end the week with another musical finish. This one may, in fact, be Internet satirist Randy Rainbow’s masterwork…

The BradCast with Brad Friedman 9/6/2019

‘Cheeto Christ Stupid Czar’ and Other Relevant Facts of the Political Moment: ‘BradCast’ 9/6/2019  |  Trump steals millions from hurricane ravaged bases; Creepy Fox 'News' zombie host; GOP scraps primaries for Trump; NC Special Elections threatened by Dorian; More House Repubs quit; And a musical happy ending...   Â· · · · ·   ‘Cheeto Christ Stupid Czar’ and Other Relevant Facts of the Political Moment: ‘BradCast’ 9/6/2019  |  Trump steals millions from hurricane ravaged bases; Creepy Fox 'News' zombie host; GOP scraps primaries for Trump; NC Special Elections threatened by Dorian; More House Repubs quit; And a musical happy ending...

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