It’s been a while, but they’re back for today’s BradCast to help send us off with a smile — and just a little bit smarter — for a brief, much-needed holiday break from the program next week. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]
First up today, however, a few late news headlines…
- Don’t be fooled by either bad corporate media headlines or Donald Trump‘s false claim of “TOTAL VICTORY”. In fact, a New York appeals court on Thursday affirmed last year’s civil fraud conviction against the nation’s criminal-in-chief, but finds [PDF] the nearly half billion dollar fine charged against him for his years of cooking his company’s books with faked, artificially inflated financial statements to be ‘excessive’. So, the bank and tax fraud verdict holds, the amount of the fine is to be redetermined, and all other penalties against Trump, his company and his two eldest sons remain in place.
- Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran Maryland man “mistakenly” sent to a gulag in El Salvador by the Trump Administration, will be released from a Tennessee prison on Friday. He has been held in the facility since returning to the U.S. to be be slapped with Trumped-up charges meant to save face for the Administration. The court has now issued several orders to prevent Abrego Garcia from being scooped up by ICE and deported again after he is freed…but we’ll see if the Trump Administration has any respect left whatsoever for the courts and the Rule of Law.
- The Gerrymandering Wars continue. Shortly after airtime on Wednesday, the Texas state House — delayed more than two weeks by state Democratic lawmakers leaving Texas to break quorum — adopted a newly gerrymandered U.S. House Map to steal five seats from Democrats in next year’s midterms. The Lone Star state Senate will soon pass same and the heist will be signed by the state’s corrupt Governor. In the meantime, here in California, our state Legislature, by a 2/3rds vote, adopted Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s “Rigged Election Response Act” today. The measure, quickly signed by the Governor, will ask state voters in November for permission to temporarily waive the Congressional map created by the state’s Citizen Redistricting Commission to replace it with a new one that is likely to flip five “red” U.S. House seats to “blue” next year, in response to Texas’ obnoxious mid-decade redistricting at the command of Donald Trump.
We pick up on those stories and many more today with our old OG blogger pals, the great HEATHER DIGBY PARTON of Salon and Digby’s Hullabaloo and the notorious ‘DRIFTGLASS’ of the Professional Left Podcast. Both join us today for a wide ranging conversation that takes a few surprising (and amusing) twists and turns along the way.
On today’s court ruling in NY on Trump’s fraud fine, Digby finds it “unfortunate that the headlines that are coming out are backing Trump’s contention that this is some kind of a vindication. It is not.” She observes “there is probably going to be a fine, and it will be a painful fine, it’s just not going to be half a billion dollars.”
Driftglass has an additional idea. While Trump is “still guilty,” he notes, “I will take a straight-up swap: zero fines in exchange for the Epstein Files. How’s that? There’s a deal!”
We spend quite a bit of time today on the next steps in the Gerrymandering War begun by TX. Both Digby and Driftglass support CA’s response to it. Says Driftglass, an Illinois resident: “I think what California has done, and I hope Illinois does, is show them that nuclear deterrence is the only way we can keep these people in a box. We’d rather not. But if you’re going to bring a knife, we are going to bring a gun.” As to what his already Democratic-gerrymandered state plans to do? Well, tune in for Drifty’s assessment.
Digby, a fellow L.A. resident, is “hopeful” that voters will approve the statewide ballot measure on November 4th, despite a big money campaign already underway to defeat it. “Trump has treated California like garbage,” says Parton. “We’ve been through a lot of trauma in this state. The way that he talks about the Governor, the way he talks about all the politicians here, I think Californians are sick of it.”
“Essentially,” she rages, “we’re here to provide federal money for Trump’s red states, including Texas. I think there’s this sense that alright, it’s time to fight back,” She and Driftglass are also both veryfond of Newsom’s new, wildly popular Trump trolling routine on social media. We compare our favorite Newsom trolling meme’s (one of them is pictured above) before today’s show is over.
Other items covered with D&D today include Trump’s pathetic, pretend show of force with the deployment of the National Guard in D.C. and elsewhere. (“He is performing acts of fascist theatre” for the benefit of his MAGA supporters, charges Driftglass.); whether any of the Trump/Republican wildly unpopular policies are working or liked by voters and, if not, why the hell do they continue to double down?; and much more.
Finally, we close with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, our last before the Labor Day holiday break, as climate change fueled catastrophes continue around the globe, and as Trump’s acting NASA Administrator announces his intention to defy federal law by ending the Agency’s statutory mission to “study Earth” and “address environmental issues”.
NOTE: We are ducking out from both The BradCast and Green News Report next week for a respite until after the Labor Day holiday! Hope you all will have a good one!
Some years back (May 2010) I began to see signs (Will The Military Become The Police?, 2010). That “conspiracy theory” went on for about a decade and a half (Will The Military Become The Police?, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, etc).
Dredd Blog posts got so bad they counted the number of military hardware that the military was installing at police stations around the “United” States (Will The Military Become The Police? – 10).
Yes, Dredd Blog was sooooo crazy it pointed out the reality that some US cities had more military equipment than some countries had.
Oh, well the jolly good fellows would say, “It can’t happen here ” in their ill-chosen trance (Choose Your Trances Carefully).
I pointed out that their “here” is not here (You Are Here).
Just saying I used to care but things have changed.
ALL of the red states are undemocratic and extremely partisan in their gerrymandering. Especially since 2010. Blue states tried to be more fair, but they can’t be anymore, since that now puts them at a disadvantage. It’s like fighting hand-to-hand against someone who has a gun. GOP loves it that way—-They’ve got the gun.
A big fear I have is that the Dems won’t be able to do it in enough states to match the GOP states, who have much looser laws in their own home “red” states.
Also, I’m surprised that Newsom’s measure is not ahead by a much bigger margin. Are folks unaware the GOP jumped way WAY ahead on super-partisan gerrymandering 15 years ago, with no equivalent response from the Dems?
What I would call, Pollyana-ism, seems to rule the thinking of way too many citizens. IMO, America’s Pollyanas, clinging to the idea that, “It can’t happen here”, will simply walk right into fascism and submit to it, before they fully realize what they have done.
Then it’s too late.