We are all over the map on today’s BradCast, . Literally. [Audio for today’s show follows this summary.]
FIRST UP… The terms of what appears to be little short of a complete loss for Donald Trump and a multi-level win for Iran in a “Memorandum of Understanding”, is read to reporters during a conference call. If it’s really the final text, it’s hard to find anything the U.S. gets out of this deal that it didn’t already have before Trump’s colossal miscalculation in starting the war in the first place. But it’s easy to find a lot of stuff that Iran didn’t have before the war, such as the easing of punishing sanctions, the ability to sell oil on the world market, the unfreezing of billions in global assets, and much more.
It will supposedly be finalized by both parties, in person, on Friday. Though moments after air today, new outlets began reporting that Trump signed the agreement “digitally” from France, where he’s attending the G7 Summit.
One point I do want to note here for now: The MOU is said to include the words, in paragraph 8: “The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.” That’s nearly as swell as the text at the very beginning of the JCPOA, Barack Obama‘s 2015 nuclear treaty with Iran — which Trump tore up, despite all parties agreeing that it was working — reading: “Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons.”
THEN… Before we get to election results from several states on Tuesday, a bit of good news out of the Peach State (for now). The Georgia legislature convened for a Special Session called by outgoing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp today to gerrymander state legislative and U.S. House seats for 2028 (not for 2026). As protesters gathered at the state capital chanting “Black voters matter!,” Republican legislative leaders announced that they were rejecting the Governor’s call to redraw maps. For now. We explain why, what it means, and if they will change their minds before a new sessions begins next year under a new Governor.
With that, its on to what is known today from yesterday’s unofficial results of various Primary, Primary Runoff and Special Elections in Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Washington D.C., and California.
Tune in for full details. But, in very short…
- Trump’s very rightwing, racist choice, Rep. Mike Collins, won his runoff for Georgia‘s GOP U.S. Senate nomination to run against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who appears thrilled about the outcome of the Republican runoff.
- Trump and Kemp’s endorsed (election denying) candidate for the GOP Gubernatorial nomination lost to self-funded billionaire Rick Jackson.
- The 2020 election denying, self-described “Black Donald Trump”, Vernon Jones lost his runoff for the GOP Sec. of State nomination in GA to Tim Fleming who will run against Dem nominee Penny Brown Reynolds in November.
- Trump had better luck in the Alabama runoff for the GOP bid to fill the seat of Republican Gubernatorial nominee and arguably dumbest guy in the U.S. Senate, Tommy Tuberville. Republican Rep. Barry Moore will now run for that seat against Democrat Everett Wess this fall.
- In Oklahoma, Rep. Kevin Hern, Trump’s endorsement to fill the Senate seat left vacant by his new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, will run against either N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas or Jim Priest. The two Dems will proceed to an August runoff.
- Trump’s late pick for the Gubernatorial nod in Oklahoma, Mike Mazzei, came in a very close second, but will proceed to an August runoff against state A.G. Gentner Drummond.
- Democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George appears on track to win Washington D.C.‘s Democratic Mayoral nomination outright (and, with it, the November election), without needing to proceed to a Ranked Choice Voting “instant runoff” against seven other candidates.
- Democrat attorney Robert White will almost certainly become the District’s next non-voting delegate to the U.S. House, replacing Eleanor Holmes Norton served in the role for 35 years.
- Democratic state lawmaker Aisha Wahab will proceed to an August Special Election General in California against either Melissa Hernandez or Rakhi Israni Singh, both Democrats, to fill the U.S. House seat recently vacated by disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell. The August race will be to fill the last few months of this year. Wahab and Hernandez were already set to run against each other in the November general election to determine who will win a full term in the state’s 14th U.S. House District seat beginning in January.
FINALLY… Last week, the richest man in the world — and abhorrently racist white supremacist — Elon Musk became the planet’s first trillionaire, at least on paper. Should that have ever been allowed to happen? If not, who or what could have or should have prevented it?
For that matter, how much is too much for the nation’s growing number of increasingly rich billionaires as wealth disparity balloons to record proportions, outpacing even the Gilded Age, handing unprecedented political power to those billionaires.
We’re joined today by MICHAEL MECHANIC, Senior Editor at Mother Jones and author of Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live — and How Their Wealth Harms Us All to discuss all of the above.
We begin by simply trying to wrap our brains around how much a trillion dollars actually is, as Mechanic did last week in a piece for MoJo. He concluded that if you tried to count to one trillion out loud (assuming you count each hundred numbers as fast he was able to simply count from 1 to 100 as fast as possible — 38 seconds), it would take you 12,050 years to finish counting!
But in a week’s time that has seen Musk become the world’s first trillionaire; Trump pal David Ellison almost certainly win control of CNN after his CBS acquisition (and destruction); and the Rupert Murdoch family scooping up the world’s largest TV streaming platform, Roku, what, if anything, can or should be done about any of it?
“Elon Musk invested more money in the last election than any other human being in history has done, and it made a difference,” Mechanic explains. But even that nearly 300 million dollars, he notes, “was just 22/1000ths of 1 percent of his wealth. It’s like you giving a penny.”
“And you know what happened?,” he continues. “A bunch of his companies were under investigation by various federal agencies. Those investigations went away. All of a sudden, he gets billions and billions of dollars more in government contracts. And you’ve got to remember that Elon Musk’s wealth was built on taxpayer money, built on federal subsidies. The profitability of any of his companies relied entirely on subsidies for his electric cars” and other businesses. “And he turns around and acts like he’s done it all himself.”
People like Musk become “unaccountable,” Mechanic argues. “These guys evade taxes with impunity. They control the levers of power.”
Nonetheless, he appears to hold out hope. A little. “There really is a lot of momentum to tax great wealth,” he tells me. “People see this. It’s bipartisan, too.” Mechanic observes new efforts to adopt various forms of wealth or billionaire taxes are growing in popularity. “Those get two-thirds support in public polls. Even a majority of Republicans approve of that.”
Tune in for much more along these lines, in an eye-opening, if maddening, conversation!…
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