Sadly, it’s another in our Trump 2.0 Era “Then They Came For…” series on The BradCast, which previously included “the Judges”, “the Mayors” and “Members of Congress”. In today’s case, at least, the victim, a U.S. Senator, was roughed-up and handcuffed but not arrested and was fairly quickly released. But those elected officials are hardly the only folks they are now coming for in Donald Trump’s “New Police State”. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among our stories today highlighting that New Police State, Trump’s continuing failures as President on several fronts, and his ongoing war with the Golden State…
- Breaking shortly before airtime… Just two days after the Trump Administration’s corrupted and actually weaponized Dept. of Justice indicted a sitting Democratic U.S. Congresswoman from New Jersey on absurd assault charges related to allegedly impeding the arrest of Newark’s Democratic Mayor (for whom all charges were soon dropped), California‘s Democratic U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, the state’s first Hispanic Senator, was roughed up on Thursday, forcibly pushed out of a room where Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem was holding a press conference in L.A., was thrown onto the floor by FBI agents and handcuffed after he’d peacefully dared attempt to ask a question of Noem.
- A new Quinnipiac poll finds that Donald Trump is being rejected by voters on virtually every front. His approval rating in the survey of more than a thousand registered voters has now fallen to 38%; his budget bill is opposed by almost twice as many as those who support it (while a huge majority of Americans want to see Medicaid expanded or left as is, as opposed to cut, as the Trump/GOP “Big Beautiful Bill Act” would do); and he is deeply underwater on every single issue they polled on, including immigration, deportation and the economy. New polling out today from AP/NORC finds similarly poor numbers for the President, which is largely unprecedented in modern times this early in a new term.
- Those 4,000 California National Guard soldiers federalized by Trump and deployed against Americans on U.S. soil over the weekend against the wishes and needs of the state’s Governor and the Los Angeles Mayor? They aren’t getting paid yet, according to Military.com, which cites military sources describing a chaotic, still-incomplete activation, leaving soldiers without pay, a place to sleep, food, amid a local community uncharacteristically unsupportive of the deployed troops.
- But Trump’s New Police State is not only rolling out in large cities. WaPo‘s Catherine Rampell has a chilling story of heavily armed masked men, claiming to be federal agents (while refusing to show ID), showing up with out-of-state plates to sweep up migrant gardeners in a tiny New England town. Yes, Trump’s New Police State is coming to a town near you as well, no matter where you live.
- On Thursday at the White House, Donald Trump signed three bills that were recently — and perhaps unlawfully — rammed through the Senate by Republicans in violation of its rules, nuking the filibuster in the bargain to do so. They are meant to strip California of its legal right to establish its own clean air and car pollution standards. Specifically, the new laws, if they are allowed to stand — CA has already said they are filing suit — would, among other things, ban the state’s 2036 deadline for phasing out the sale of new, gasoline-only cars and trucks. A dozen or so other states have previously adopted CA’s now “banned” standards. Despite the fact that used all-gasoline cars and trucks could still be sold and that those who really wanted a new one could still buy them from another state in 2036, this is apparently what Trump has been falsely describing as “Joe Biden’s EV mandate” for years now. Today, once again, he did another solid for his owners in the fossil fuel industry. Desi Doyen has the full scoop and context.
- Then, Desi is here with our 1,500th Green News Report! Sadly, with the above news and much more, it’s a rather grim milestone today, largely from top to bottom.
- BUT, we close with something a bit brighter that we hope might cheer you up after all of that, and help you leave the theater whistling. It’s the latest Randy Rainbow tune on Trump Derangement!…
The BradCast
with Brad Friedman
6/12/2025
And Then They Came for the U.S. Senators: ‘BradCast’ 6/12/2025 | Trump's 'new police state' expands with masked men in small towns; Also: Voters rejecting Trump and his policies; Nat'l Guard unpaid in L.A.; Trump signs bills after GOP Senate nukes filibuster to end CA clean car laws... · · · · · And Then They Came for the U.S. Senators: ‘BradCast’ 6/12/2025 | Trump's 'new police state' expands with masked men in small towns; Also: Voters rejecting Trump and his policies; Nat'l Guard unpaid in L.A.; Trump signs bills after GOP Senate nukes filibuster to end CA clean car laws...
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Is the Ninth Circuit losing it?:
(AP News). Let’s hope they get it together because District Court Judge Breyer was spot on.
District court decision (Newsom v Trump, PDF).
Hey Brad, A friend sent me this election integrity piece with a lot of info of which I was unaware. All the new info IS in line with what I DO know from my 24yrs of election integrity obsession. As per usual, I like to run new stuff by my original mentor on the subject. That would be you.
love, Dave
https://substack.com/inbox/post...&sfnsn=mo
David @ 3: Trying to get to a reply to you. Hope to do so shortly. (If I’m lucky, this evening, perhaps!) Just didn’t want you to think I didn’t catch this…
David @3 –
Again, sorry again for the delayed reply!
The theory offered in that post is a rather complicated one, even if plausible, generally speaking. But, boy, it sure sounds like a MAGA 2020 theory, don’t it?
That said, you may be unsatisfied with my answer, even if it may sound familiar.
There is no way to actually know if that theory is correct, OTHER THAN to count ballots by hand, to check them against reported results. It’s a very simple solution to answer the concerns.
There were, however, many jurisdictions that did various (if usually far less than perfect) forms of post-election audits following the election. If the theory forwarded at that post were true, I would expect that problems would have been discovered long ago. To my knowledge, NONE have.
Given the number of jurisdictions where such a scheme would have had to have been in place to use it to steal a Presidential election, it *begins* to turn theory from plausible to implausible.
But, since I’m an evidence guy, I’ll just say: Count the ballots somewhere and find out. Until then, it’s a crazy-if-theoretically-plausible theory at best.