{"id":12219,"date":"2017-07-14T18:15:45","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T01:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12219"},"modified":"2017-07-14T18:17:32","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T01:17:32","slug":"are-they-liars-or-just-incompetent-or-both-bradcast-7142017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12219","title":{"rendered":"Are They Liars? Or Just Incompetent? Or Both?: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 7\/14\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_TrumpClose_071417.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>, take your pick. Either the Trump Administration (and its cronies in Congress) are liars or completely incompetent. There is plenty of evidence for both. [Audio link for show follows below.]\n<p>For a start today, the number of people now reported to have been at that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian attorney said to have dirt on Hillary Clinton has now risen to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/07\/14\/politics\/donald-trump-jr-meeting\/index.html\"><i>eight<\/i><\/a>. And, not single day has gone by since the revelation of that meeting one week ago, without the Team Trump explanations for it &#8212; including <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/trump-changes-tune-on-awareness-of-russia-meeting\">from the President<\/a> himself &#8212; changing. Why?<\/p>\n<p>But those aren&#8217;t the stories today to suggest they are either liars or buffoons (and can&#8217;t do math either.). Among the many additional stories placed into appropriate context today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump&#8217;s own Sec. of State takes a withering <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/washington\/la-na-essential-washington-updates-secretary-of-state-in-rare-candid-1499982239-htmlstory.html\">shot<\/a> at Trump&#8217;s government;<\/li>\n<li>A congressional GOPer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/powerpost\/wp\/2017\/06\/27\/its-almost-july-and-house-republicans-still-cant-pass-a-budget\/?utm_term=.66c4bb8be3bd\">laments<\/a> Republicans &#8220;simply don&#8217;t know how to govern&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>The non-partisan CBO finds Trump&#8217;s budget doesn&#8217;t actually balance (it&#8217;s only off <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/07\/14\/politics\/cbo-trump-budget-math\/index.html\">by $3.4 <i>trillion<\/i><\/a>);<\/li>\n<li>Senate Republicans newest health care repeal plan <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/dc\/senate-republicans-double-dip-obamacare-repeal\">doesn&#8217;t either<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>Some GOPers are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/e7b31223bf0d4050b937f6d80610f1cc\/House-panel-unveils-$1.6B-plan-for-building-US-Mexico-wall\">willing<\/a> to shut down the government if Trump&#8217;s wall isn&#8217;t funded (by tax-payers, not by Mexico, as promised);<\/li>\n<li>Trump&#8217;s border &#8220;wall&#8221; is beginning to sound <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/washington\/la-na-essential-washington-updates-no-need-for-full-border-wall-trump-1499975363-htmlstory.html\">exactly like<\/a> Dubya and Obama&#8217;s border fence (And his plans for immigration reform are beginning to sound a lot like Obama&#8217;s as well.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Given a new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.people-press.org\/2017\/07\/10\/sharp-partisan-divisions-in-views-of-national-institutions\/\">Pew survey<\/a> finding a huge majority of Republican voters now believe higher education at universities and colleges has a &#8220;negative effect&#8221; on the country, perhaps none of today&#8217;s stories should come as much of a surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, on the 100th Anniversary of the Espionage Act, the Committee to Protect Journalists offers <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pressfreedom\/status\/881544016084443136\">a report<\/a> on how, since Nixon first did so in the 70&#8217;s, the Act has been <i>misused<\/i> to prosecute whistleblowers rather than spies, particularly under Obama, and how Trump may well begin using it <a href=\"https:\/\/cpj.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/how-us-espionage-act-can-be-used-against-journalis.php\">against journalists<\/a> in the bargain&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_TrumpTeam_LiesIncompentence_WallBudgetHealthcare_EspionageAct100_071417.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_TrumpTeam_LiesIncompentence_WallBudgetHealthcare_EspionageAct100_071417.mp3]<\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/stitcher.com\/s\/player.php?fid=25838&#038;src=psl\">Stitcher<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast, take your pick. Either the Trump Administration (and its cronies in Congress) are liars or completely incompetent. There is plenty of evidence for both. [Audio link for show follows below.] For a start today, the number of people now reported to have been at that June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,239,89,675,479,1007,220,594,72,288,261,961,427,176,477,109,497,107,905,534,658,198,233,110],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-barack-obama","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-donald-trump","category-donald-trump-jr","category-education","category-election-2016","category-georgia","category-health-care","category-immigration","category-jared-kushner","category-jeff-sessions","category-journalist-intimidation","category-kpfk","category-mexico","category-mitch-mcconnell","category-national-security","category-rex-tillerson","category-russia","category-ted-cruz","category-us-house","category-us-senate","category-whistleblowers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12219"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}