We are back at work on today’s BradCast helping you separate signal from noise. There’s been a mountain of encouraging news since we last spoke late last week, about we, the people winning one court — and moral — battle after another against a failing, unAmerican President of the United States. Of course, he continues to grift from it all, if mostly at the cost of his own chump supporters. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
As discussed at the top of today’s program, it was never going to be as easy to install an autocratic strongman in the U.S. as it was in places like Russia or Turkey or Hungary or Brazil, or any of the other nations that Project 2025 was hoping to model Donald Trump’s Presidency after. Unlike those nations, the U.S. has deep roots — a rich, 250-year history of civic democracy, court rulings, and cherished, hard-won Constitutional rights under our belt. Those other, recently autocracized nations had just a few years, at best, of democracy before it too-easily slipped away.
Yes, we have lost a lot under this Presidency — hopefully temporarily, even if it will take years to rebuild. I’m not pollyannish about this. And we’ll likely lose much more before it’s all mercifully over. But, by and large, Donald Trump‘s authoritarian project has been a bust. We were reminded of that again in case after case, story after story, late last week and into the weekend. You may have noticed as well, if you were able to ignore all the noise, bluster, bloody cage fights for a wannabe-King on the White House lawn and his pretend “peace agreements” designed to help you not notice all of our octogenarian President’s unending and humiliating failures.
Among the stories covered on today’s program, in very brief…
- Another federal judge blocked Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund for insurrectionists (including himself) on Friday. This latest ruling came in no uncertain terms.
- Donald Trump’s name, after five months of desecrating the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in D.C., has finally been removed by court order, though the place where his name was is now hidden behind a curtain. A literal cover-up to protect manbaby Trump’s fragile little loser’s ego. Don’t be surprised if the drape stays in place until the end of his term, or his death — whichever comes first.
- Also late last week, a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to restore thousands of informational signs and exhibits at our National Parks, regarding topics such as slavery, civil rights and climate change, in the wake of Trump’s Executive Order last year mandating the removal of what he described as “partisan ideology” that “disparages” Americans. She described it as government “censorship”. The court has given the Interior Department 21 days to restore the signage. Just in time for July 4th and the nation’s 250th birthday.
- In yet another federal court loss on Friday, the Administration was forced to comply with an order to restart the processing of asylum, green card and citizenship applications from more than a million legal immigrants, largely (I hope you’re sitting down) from Africa and the Middle East.
- With all of the mounting losses (and we haven’t gotten to his war in Iran yet!), is it any wonder that Trump’s approval rating is now deep underwater in most states of the union, including all of the swing states and many in the South that he won in 2024, including some of the largest states that previously supported him, like Texas, Florida and Ohio?
- Then, it’s on to Trump’s latest pretend “peace deal” in the Middle East. On Sunday, as he turned 80, Trump claimed that an agreement had been struck with Iran, to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz “immediately”. Iran may not see it that way. And, in any event, with terms of the reportedly two-page “Memorandum of Understanding” still largely unknown, there will be no action on any of this until Friday earliest, says Iran. If the details that have been reported from various sources about this supposed “deal” are close to accurate, it seems safe to say that Iran comes out of this as the bigger winner. Trump, again, the biggest loser. But we’ll await final judgement on what appears to be little more than a Memorandum of Understanding to agree to continue more talks about a final agreement for at least 60 days. Trump will almost assuredly end up with a lesser deal than the one struck with Iran in 2015 under Barack Obama, before being subsequently — and unlawfully — broken by Trump just a few years later.
- FINALLY TODAY… the phones are opened to callers on all of the above. We’ve got some fun ones today! Tune in. Enjoy the show. And keep up all the good work! You are winning…
When prompted, Copilot AI asserts that “A preservationist should be consulted when removing signage residue from the white marble facade of a government building or memorial, because federal preservation standards explicitly require professional oversight for cleaning or altering historic stone surfaces.” Apparently, each project must ultimately adhere to the standards of the Secretary of the Interior (currently Doug Burgum, sworn in on February 1, 2025). I doubt that the court order included a deadline for the repair of attachment hardware markings, but our Dear Leader knows everything about white marble, and if signage bolt holes are too deep for simple resurfacing, he knows this guy who fixes up pools and does caulking…
😂
The Kennedy Center facade is made of five foot square Bianco Carrara panels which Copilot estimates cost between $3,000 to $6,000 each, installed. I suspect that nine or so damaged tiles must be removed and replaced before the maintenance tarp and scaffolding will come down — i.e., approximately $50,000, which is apparently cheaper than refreshing pond algae, nowadays.