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BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
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VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
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'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
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GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...
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![]() | MORE BRAD BLOG 'SPECIAL COVERAGE' PAGES... |
Well, it's our last BradCast for a week or so, as we prepare for a muuuch-needed stand-down next week after Memorial Day. But we make up for it by packing a lot into today's program, with two of our favorite (and your favorite) guests. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
We're joined today again for one of our semi-regular (irregular?) round tables with our old-school, right-about-everything-for-20-years blogger pals, HEATHER DIGBY PARTON, award-winning columnist at Salon and her own Digby's Hullabaloo blog; and the notorious 'DRIFTGLASS', blogger and co-host of the weekly Professional Left Podcast from Flyover Country, Illinois.
As noted, we cover a whole lot of ground today, including both important and incredibly dumb news alike! Among the important news...
As you might imagine, both Digby and Driftglass have quite a few thoughts on all of the above, as well as on the Dumb News we cover today as well (apologies in advance)...
Don't worry. I didn't give away the best lines or hottest takes on either the important or dumb news, so tune on in!
And finally, Desi Doyen is here with our latest Green News Report with nothing but really good --- okay, really bad --- news to kick off Summer!...
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Disaster victims in several states still waiting for FEMA, federal aid; Extreme weather disasters a 'hidden risk' that will upend mortgages, new analysis finds; Rising sea levels will trigger 'catastrophic inland migration,' scientists warn; PLUS: Wildfires drove record losses in the world's forests in 2024... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Senate clears way to block clean air standards in California, including vehicle emission rules; The forecast is in: Hurricane season is going to be active again. America’s weather and disaster agencies are in turmoil; Why killing home-energy tax credits would be bad for the economy; Interior mulls first offshore mineral lease in 30 years... PLUS: How climate change is increasing complication risks for pregnant women... and much, MUCH more! ...
Today on The BradCast: While Trump's mass deportation boondoggle gets worse, more cruel, more corrupt, more unlawful and more unconstitutional by the day, the increasing threat to U.S. national security, thanks to his Administration's unprecedented censorship of climate science, may soon collide with a "physical reality" that may make ALL of our problems far worse --- including immigration. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
FIRST UP... The Administration continues to characterize those being deported as criminal felons and sexual assaulters who entered the U.S. unlawfully, even if available evidence often suggests otherwise. Moreover, the convicted criminal felon and adjudicated sexual assaulter in the White House continues violate the law and Constitution himself with each passing day. He should be deported --- though allowed the due process of law he has always received, even as he denies it for everyone else.
Unlike the Administration, we offer evidence in support of our serious allegations: As the New York Times reported last night, emails from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's Chief of Staff reveal that her office attempted to manipulate a national intelligence analysis they didn't like --- which revealed Trump to be a liar --- regarding migrants from Venezuela and Trump's unlawful invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove them without due process.
That news comes on the heels of a stunning new analysis from the right-leaning Cato Institute finding that at least 50 of the Venezuelans Trump deported to a maximum-security torture prison in El Salvador were in the U.S. lawfully. They included construction workers, cooks, delivery drivers, a soccer coach, a veterinarian and a makeup artist, most of whom used the U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, called CBP One, to schedule an asylum appointment from outside of the country to seek lawful entrance into the U.S. That's 50 out of just 85 migrants whose entrance circumstances Cato was able to figure out. More than 200 migrants have been sent to El Salvador without Constitutional due process and in violation of court orders.
And all of that preceded still-breaking news over the past 24 hours or so that the Administration has violated yet another judge's orders by sending migrants from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico to South Sudan, a nation in the middle of a bloody civil war, where the U.S. State Department warns Americans "Do Not Travel", and where those migrants are not from. They were reportedly given less than 24 before being sent to a third country in violation of orders from the U.S. District judge overseeing their cases.
THEN... While the Administration is pretending to combat national security issues by deporting make-up artists and soccer coaches, actual national security issues are being exacerbated by their censorship and attempts at unpublishing climate science that you and I have paid for.
As my guest today recently explained, writing on the "silencing and censoring of environmental threats to U.S. national security" for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (the keepers of the infamous Doomsday Clock), for well over half a century, U.S. intelligence and military agencies, under Presidencies of all political stripes, have been documenting and warning about changes to the climate that threaten national security. Now, Donald Trump is attempting to "cancel" climate science --- actually censoring the words "climate change" from all government documents --- and ignoring and/or shutting down internal warning mechanisms regarding increased environmental threats to national security.
Our guest today is renowned climate scientist DR. PETER GLEICK, who is attempting to sound the alarm about the Administration's "silencing and censoring of environmental threats to US national security." He is an author and co-founder of the non-profit Pacific Institute research center, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a McArthur Fellow, and much more that I don't have space to list. (But see his website!) He has written dozens of scientific articles over the decades and has testified about the related matters before Congress.
"From a political point of view, between Democrats and Republicans, there's a very strong difference and emphasis on energy policy, on environmental policy," Gleick tells me when I ask about the timeline of the rise of climate denialism. But, he adds, it was "nothing like we're seeing today. What we're seeing today is fundamentally different than anything we've seen before."
"Even throughout both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past, the military and intelligence community have been very good about this. They see their job fundamentally as understanding and preparing for threats to the United States. All of those defense and intelligence assessments, throughout those administrations (since President Johnson), have repeatedly highlighted a clear understanding of two factors: One is how environmental issues may cause U.S. forces to get involved in conflict --- with failed states, with population displacements and migration, with impacts that lead to threats to our own security."
"The other category is how environmental threats may affect US military forces and bases and operations. Sea level rise we know is already flooding the naval bases in Norfolk. They are raising docks because they know sea level rise is a reality. They've seen extreme events damaging air force bases and destroying airplanes. They are aware of those threats, and they have been very good, throughout almost all administrations, about highlighting those threats in the national security assessments to the public," says Gleick.
But now, under Trump, things have very much gone sideways. We've got a Sec. of Defense who doesn't seem to understand that national defense is about more than simply cultivating manly warriors to fight on battlefields. And, for the first time, climate threats are no longer even being mentioned in National Security Strategy reports. The Congressionally-mandated National Climate Assessment may not even been published by the Administration at all when it is legally next due, in 2027. Gleick has worked on previous Assessments and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences which advises on the project. But says, this time, the scientists who volunteer to work on the report are being dismissed and that there may or may not even be a new report. "The Trump Administration doesn't seem to pay much attention to the law at the moment."
"If there isn't one, we know what the science of climate change says. What we'll be missing are just the latest updates, the most recent climate science that tells us even more about what the consequences of climate change will be," he explains.
We discuss a number of concrete ways in which the climate crisis is already a threat to national security, from conflicts over water and water systems; the disappearance of Artic ice leading to expanded military basis by Russia; decreased agriculture productivity resulting in famine and, yes, mass migration that the U.S. has already begun to deal with.
"Climate is no longer a hypothetical threat to the world, national security, and international security," he argues. "It's increasingly an important component of that threat, whether you believe in it or not."
But, Gleick offers some hope. Scientists, including himself, have been diligently working to prevent the "wholesale deletion" of government climate data; he believes that "the remarkable revolution we are seeing in the renewable energy industry is unstoppable" and while Trump may want to "revive the coal industry, that's just not going to happen"; and whether Trump hopes to "cancel" climate science or not on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, he will be unable prevent the world from seeing the unavoidable physical reality of what lies ahead.
"Physical reality will happen," he laments. "Bad things that otherwise would not have happened are going to happen. People are going to get sick and die. There will be conflicts we are not prepared for that we could have been prepared for. Whether those realities swing the pendulum far enough back so that some sort of rationality can be re-established --- I hope that's the case. But I think it's dangerous times."
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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I'm sorry to have to add to our "And Then They Came For..." series on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below.]
First it was "And Then They Came For the Judges..." last month, as Trump's goons arrested, hand-cuffed and frog-marched Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan off to face criminal charges, alleging she helped a migrant evade arrest by ICE in her courthouse. She is now challenging that indictment with a motion last week arguing she enjoys absolute immunity for official acts, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's absurd --- but binding --- "Presidential Immunity" ruling in Trump v. United States last year.
Next it was "And Then They Came for the Mayors..." last week, after Trump's goons hand-cuffed and frog-marched Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka off to jail, ridiculously charging him with "criminal trespass" after he arrived at a private facility contracted by ICE as a detention center, which the Mayor says the company doesn't have proper city permits to operate. After his dubious arrest, Trump's former defense lawyer turned Acting U.S. Attorney for NJ, Alina Habba declared Baraka's guilt on social media, claiming: "NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW".
But, on Monday, she dropped all charges against Baraka and announced new charges instead against NJ's Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver. Habba had previously claimed the Representative had "body slammed" one of the masked federal agents who had shown up to arrest Baraka last week during a scrum when supporters had surrounded him. Apparently, McIver refused to plead to a lesser charge, so an 8-page indictment [PDF] was filed yesterday on two counts of felony assault, including "assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement" during the incident.
The first-term Congresswoman decries the charges as "purely political" and vows to fight them. I suspect she will win and that her charges will also soon be dropped, just as Baraka's were. But we'll see.
We're joined today by attorney (and former Republican) KEITH BARBER, who has been covering these matters over at DailyKos, where he writes under the name of "KeithDB". He has reviewed much of the publicly available video of the incident in Newark, reviewed the charging document against McIver, released this afternoon, and sees a lot of problems with the federal government's case --- and the prosecutor overseeing them. "Alina Habba couldn't find her way around a court room with the help of GPS," he tells me.
Barber says he has seen no evidence of a "body slam" by McIver, and is critical of the public statements made by Habba about both the Baraka and McIver arrests. He explains the remarks are in violation of DoJ rules and guidelines "designed to protect the due process rights of the defendant."
He also describes both of the incidents as nothing less than "fascism" meant to intimidate those who would stand up to Trump. "This is a tyranny of an autocratic President, something that the founders of the United States of America worked hard [to avoid] when they developed the Constitution, to make sure that this country did not have an autocratic President. We had a bad history with kings, and we didn't want another king in this country with a different name."
Barber charges that Trump is "using the powers of his office to suppress opposition" and, he argues, his thuggery IS WORKING. Tune in for much more on that and all of the above!...
NEXT... While Trump's team of incompetent law enforcement officials are rounding up those who would oppose his mass, unlawful detention and deportation regime, the head of his own Dept. of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, literally does not know the meaning of habeas corpus as guaranteed by the Constitution. A stunning exchange today in the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) reveals that Noem believes "Habeas corpus is a Constitutional right that the President has to be able to remove people from this country."
As it turns out, it means almost the precise opposite of that, as we discuss.
THEN... A few thoughts on Paramount Global owner Shari Redstone's pressure on CBS News and 60 Minutes to settle Trump's pathetic $20 billion lawsuit against the venerable investigate news program regarding an interview last year with Kamala Harris that Trump didn't like. But the pressure from Redstone to settle the suit --- so that the Trump Administration might approve a pending Paramount merger with Skydance Media --- comes after Redstone hypocritically declared two years ago, at an award ceremony celebrating Freedom of the Press, "that press freedom is never guaranteed, that it must constantly be defended, and that it often comes at a significant cost, both personal and professional."
FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on internal agency warnings about FEMA's lack of preparedness ahead of hurricane season, which begins in less than two weeks; The good news of Trump's flip-flop on his previous blockade of a major offshore wind project in New York; and China rising as America falters under the incompetent leadership of our new, and already failed, Presidential regime...
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Internal FEMA report warns agency is not ready for hurricane season; Trump administration flip-flops, reverses shutdown of massive offshore wind project; PLUS: China's emissions are falling, thanks to massive deployment of clean energy... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): GOP budget plan contains a massive poison pill for clean energy; Toxic wildfire pollution infiltrates homes of 1 billion people a year, study finds; Electricity costs keep climbing, despite Trump's promises; 'Rogue' communication devices found on Chinese-made solar power inverters; Poll: majority want federal agencies to increase efforts to protect people from the health harms of global warming; DOGE cuts could wreck the cleanup of wartime nuclear waste at Hanford, WA... PLUS: 15 years after Deepwater spill, researchers reveal most-polluting rigs... and much, MUCH more! ...
Today on BradCast: Some really troubling news about voting rights and the Voting Rights Act that hasn't received nearly enough attention since a terrible court ruling last week. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
FIRST UP... A few other items of note...
NEXT... While alleged Venezuelan gang members may have access to at least some Due Process to avoid unlawful removal from the country and a life sentence in an El Salvadoran gulag, American voters in at least seven states may now have no way to challenge unlawful, racially discriminatory violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
A ruling last week by a three-judge panel on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the last route for private individuals and organizations in states covered by the Circuit (Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota) to hold jurisdictions accountable for violations of the Voting Right Act. The decision echoes a similar ruling by the 8th Circuit back in 2023. But last week's ruling would seem to block the one other remaining path that voters still had to bring private complaints following that other terrible ruling two years ago.
If the 8th Circuit's decision is allowed to stand, it would mean that only the U.S. Dept. of Justice could bring suit against violations of the last central tenet still standing from the VRA. The ruling, which my guest today describes as "dead wrong", applies, for now, only in the seven states covered by the 8th Circuit. But if plaintiffs decide to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lose there, it would effectively kill the entire VRA in all 50 states --- at least during Republican Administrations.
JUSTIN LEVITT previously served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama and then as White House Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights under President Biden. He is now a Professor of Constitutional Law at Loyola University Law School here in Los Angeles and joins us today to explain what he describes as last week's "truly unprecedented" decision. (That's the nicest thing he had to say about it!)
"They have effectively eliminated the ability to enforce the Voting Rights Act" in those seven states, Levitt tells me. "The 8th Circuit was way out of line, but it's not a sure bet that the Supreme Court won't follow them out of that line."
The 8th Circuit panel determined that because the Voting Rights Act doesn't specifically mention a private right to sue, that such suits are barred. Only DoJ can sue. But, in fact, since 1982, there have been more than 450 such suits and only 18 of them were brought by DoJ. Some made it all the way to SCOTUS and yet none of the judges in any of those cases --- until now --- found the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue under the law. Go figure.
"This is about people in robes forgetting why they're there. People in love with a particular statutory interpretation methodology and forgetting that what they are supposed to be doing is effectuating the intent of Congress," argues Levitt. The VRA has been amended several times since 1965 --- under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush --- and adopted by huge majorities in both chambers of Congress. The members of Congress who amended it, and Presidents who signed the re-authorizations, "absolutely thought that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund would be bringing cases right alongside the Department of Justice and others. It's ludicrous to think that Congress wanted anything different than that." If they had wanted anything different, he notes, they could have changed the law to say as much at that time, since so many suits had already been brought under the law by individual voters and private voting rights organizations even before the law's several re-authorizations.
So, what happens next? What can be done about any of this? If the case does make it to SCOTUS and they too undermine the VRA are there ANY routes left for voters to challenge racially discriminatory election laws in the U.S.? Levitt answers all of those questions and many others on today's BradCast...
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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Today on The BradCast: A whole lotta madness. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among our many, mad stories today...
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: House Republicans' budget proposal effectively kills Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy incentives; Trump EPA to roll back first-ever limits on 'forever chemicals' in your drinking water; Global sea level rise is accelerating; PLUS: Australia's Labor Party wins big, doubling down on renewable energy and climate commitments... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Toxic wildfire pollution infiltrates homes of 1 billion people a year: study; Republicans' 'clearly unprecedented' gambit to kill climate programs; Trump's 'fear factor': Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate; FEMA cuts emergency training as hurricane season looms; Georgia shields maker of Roundup weed killer from some cancer claims; Balcony solar took off in Germany. Why not the US?... PLUS: Trump promised U.S. dominance. Instead, energy companies are faltering... and much, MUCH more! ...
It's a bit of a roller-coaster ride on today's BradCast. We begin with some good election and Trump Administration accountability news. But while Trump's latest clownishly absurd attempted corruption may not ultimately work out for him, it serves as a reminder of the rough road ahead for justice and the Justice Department itself in these United States. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
FIRST UP... Some good news...
THEN... I don't know if we should consider it "good news" or not, but it certainly looks like Trump's plan to accept a tricked-out $400 million "flying palace" jumbo jet as a "gift" from the Royal Family of Qatar, for use as Air Force One while in office and for his own personal use thereafter, ain't gonna work out for him.
Despite his loyalist Attorney General Pam Bondi --- formerly, a $115,000/month lobbyist for Qatar --- pronouncing that the "gift" would be neither a bribe nor a violation of the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, banning gifts "of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" to public officials, it appears she's only half right about that.
We're joined today by our old friend RANDALL D. ELIASON, former chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption section at the DoJ's U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. He is now a professor of white-collar criminal law at George Washington University and writes at his own SidebarsBlog, where he wrote about much of this today.
He explains that, thanks to recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, public officials may, in fact, now accept "gifts" of any size or amount from anybody, without violating current bribery statutes, so long as the official does not offer anything in return. Yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds. Eliason describes it as "absurd...but that's the Supreme Court's concept of corruption" now.
"The Supreme Court, over the last couple of decades, has narrowed public corruption laws so much that there's a strict requirement now of a link to a particular official act that you can identify and say this gift was because Trump agreed to do this in exchange," he tells me. "They could give him $400 million cash in his own bank account, and that's not a bribe anymore, unless they can link it to something he agreed to do in exchange."
"The fact is, the way the Supreme Court has interpreted bribery, it should be a bribe, but it's not, unless there was some agreement we don't know about by Trump to do something in particular in exchange. If it's just to cozy up to him, curry favor with him in general, because they are hoping for future things to happen, that's not a bribe."
"There's no question this is corrupt," he makes clear, "as most of us understand the term," but not a bribe. "Congress could have stepped in to amend those laws, but they haven't done that, for some surprising reason."
Trump's violation of the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, on the other hand, with acceptance of a "flying palace", would be a different matter, Eliason agrees. Though the question becomes: who exactly has the legal standing to challenge that violation in a court of law?
"I think the bigger picture is that we can't rely on lawsuits to solve this problem," he argues. "It's going to take too long and get bogged down again. If there's going to be a response, it needs to be a political one. It needs to be enough people standing up and objecting and putting pressure on him that he cancels the deal. And ultimately the voters have to respond."
Much more on all of that today along with Eliason's reflections on what has happened to his beloved DoJ and the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. where used to work, soon to be led, most likely, by Fox News' whacked out "Judge" Jeanine Pirro --- and whether all of it can be put back together again when this madness ends...presuming it does.
"What's happening at Justice is terrible, and it's heartbreaking," he laments. "It violates everything that DOJ has stood for, for decades. They are pushing people out for doing nothing more than doing their jobs. Or those people are leaving, because they can't honorably stay there and do what they are being asked to do."
What would he have done had he still been at the DOJ under Trump? And will the institution be salvageable after this? Tune for his thoughts and insight on all that and much more...
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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On today's BradCast: While we're all distracted on a daily basis by Donald Trump's endless, lawless, childish idiocy, Republicans have been quietly preparing to adopt some "deeply evil stuff" in Congress in order to help pay for trillions of dollars in huge tax cuts to wealthy Americans. [Audio link to full story follows this summary.]
On Monday, House Republicans finally unveiled the final piece of their proposed, so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" that would "dramatically reshape America for the worse," according to my guest today, who broke down the cruel proposal at the heart of Trump's main budget and tax agenda for his second term at the Center for American Progress last night.
The plan includes, among other things, what my guest describes as "the largest Medicaid cuts in history," cutting access to health care to more than 8 million people at or near poverty-level income; "the largest SNAP cuts in history", threatening daily nutrition assistance to the 1 in 8 Americans who receive, on average, about $2 per meal, per day from the program, many of them children; it would increase the cost of energy and electricity for all Americans by cutting the Biden Administration's landmark investments in clean, renewable energy while keeping billions of dollars in permanent federal subsidies for fossil fuel companies; and the GOP measure would also increase costs for undergraduate student loans for the roughly 1 out of 8 Americans who have them and/or are in the process of trying to pay them off.
All of that to help pay for a massive $68,000 tax cut for millionaires and a $300,000 cut for the luckiest American households in the top 0.1 percent. The House GOP proposal, if adopted as written, would do nothing --- or even raise taxes --- for some 33 million households. But it would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars, despite a Republican Party which has long pretended to oppose deficit spending. (At least when they're out of power.)
How's that for making American Millionaires and Billionaires Great Again?
We're joined today to break down all the ugly details on both the bill and its chance for passage by BOBBY KOGAN, Senior Director for Federal Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress. He previously served as an adviser to the Office of Management and Budget in the Biden-Harris White House and as Head of Budget Analysis for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee under Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT.)
"It absolutely would really, really hurt the people who they claim to represent and serve," Kogan tells me, referring to the proposed cuts of at least $600 billion to Medicaid and the loss of health care coverage for tens of thousands of Americans in each of the House districts represented by GOP lawmakers supporting these cuts. A number of House Republicans --- especially those representing "blue" or "purple" districts --- previously claimed to oppose Medicaid cuts. If House Speaker Mike Johnson loses just 3 votes he will not be able to pass the bill. So, what does it say that their long-awaited proposal includes massive cuts anyway? "What I would say is they maybe talk a good game," argues Kogan. "They might pretend that they don't want to cut Medicaid. But their actions show that they are actually laser-focused on cutting Medicaid."
Among the many proposed changes to the program would be increased work requirements for recipients, which Republicans claim is necessary to save money by trimming waste, fraud and abuse. "It will save money by kicking people off their Medicaid," Kogan explains bluntly. "It's not about stopping fraud. The hyper-majority of what they are proposing in Medicaid cannot be credibly construed as going after fraud. Instead, what they are doing is transforming Medicaid from a lifeline for folks into something you only get if you meet certain conditions. It'll save money because if you lose your job, now you no longer get your Medicaid."
"States that have implemented these work requirements have led to disaster," he tells me. "It's not actually something that leads to more work. Instead, it puts up so much red tape that folks fail to make it through. They end up disenrolling tons of people who are working. It saves tons of money because people have lost their Medicaid."
The proposed cuts to food for needy adults and children via the SNAP program are no less evil or immoral, he says, along with the increased education and energy costs that tens of millions of Americans will face if this bill becomes law. All to pay for huge tax cuts to already wealthy people.
Is there anything in what Kogan describes as a "profoundly evil bill" that might actually help non-wealthy Americans? Can Republicans even get it over the finish line in the House with their incredibly narrow margin, much less through the Senate, much less agree on a version that can ultimately be passed by both chambers? And what can you do to help prevent all of this from happening? (Hint from Kogan: Call your members of Congress! Especially if they're Republican!) We discuss all of that and much more today with Kogan, who knows a whole lot about all of this stuff and is great at explaining it.
ALSO TODAY: The Washington Post filed a chilling story over the weekend about pizzas being delivered to the homes of federal judges in at least seven states over the last several months. The message being sent --- as Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their supporters have been attacking judges for rulings they oppose over social media and elsewhere --- is all too obvious and disturbing, especially since whoever is behind the threats have recently begun referencing the murdered son of one of the judges.
AND FINALLY: Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report in which, among other things, the Trump Administration is working toward shutting down FEMA entirely --- and just fired its Director --- weeks before hurricane season begins; and Republicans in Texas are moving to require that all solar plants must produce energy...at night...
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump Admin fires Acting FEMA Director just before hurricane season begins; NOAA will stop tracking billion-dollar weather disasters; Forest officials warn wildfire crews are short-staffed due to Trump cuts; PLUS: Texas legislature moves to require solar plants to provide power at night... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Farmer on clean energy foes: "These people are being manipulated"; Running blind: The silencing and censoring of environmental threats to US national security; What's the cost to society of pollution? Trump says zero; House GOP targets clean energy tax credits and pollution rules in budget bill; Global sea levels are rising faster and faster. It spells catastrophe for coastal towns and cities; PLUS: Enviros release climate emissions data after EPA refused... and much, MUCH more! ...
Given the topics on today's BradCast, it was a pretty lively show anyway. Thanks mostly to the callers, I suspect. Especially the one who loves Trump and doesn't believe in the evolution. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among our stories today...
(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)
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