{"id":12638,"date":"2018-07-12T17:42:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T00:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12638"},"modified":"2018-07-12T17:44:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T00:44:24","slug":"trumps-fine-tuned-machine-wreaks-havoc-at-nato-in-congress-and-for-us-workers-bradcast-7122018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12638","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s &#8216;Fine-Tuned Machine&#8217; Wreaks Havoc at NATO, in Congress and for U.S. Workers: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 7\/12\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_PeterSrzok_TrumpNATO_071218.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>, let&#8217;s join the President and pretend that he&#8217;s been victorious once again! Or, let&#8217;s discuss the reality of the havoc being wrought by both him and the party that supports him as they go even farther off the deep-end and hope to take everybody else with them. [<i>Audio link to show is posted below.<\/i>]\n<p>Among the stories covered on today&#8217;s broadcast, as we continue to counter the madness with actual, independently verifiable facts&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump wreaks <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/trump-nato-summit-chaos\">absolute havoc<\/a> at the NATO summit in Brussels, makes ridiculous demands that lead to an emergency meeting of our allies, and then declares he&#8217;s fixed it all. He hasn&#8217;t. But, let&#8217;s pretend, as he claimed, that NATO is now a &#8220;fine-tuned machine&#8221;. (Does that claim <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/plum-line\/wp\/2017\/02\/17\/trump-says-he-runs-a-fine-tuned-machine-here-are-all-the-ways-thats-not-true\/?utm_term=.79e9f7966576\">ring a bell<\/a>?) We offer a fact-check on Trump&#8217;s actual <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politifact.com\/truth-o-meter\/statements\/2018\/jul\/11\/donald-trump\/trump-falsely-claims-nato-countries-owe-united-sta\/\">ridiculous claims<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/07\/11\/politics\/nato-funding-explainer\/index.html\"><i>realities<\/i><\/a> behind them;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Back at home, Trump-fueled chaos similarly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2018\/07\/12\/peter_strzok_hearing_descends_into_chaos_after_first_question.html\">breaks out<\/a> at a joint hearing of the U.S. House Oversight and Judiciary Committees during <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/top-house-gopers-threatens-strzok-with-contempt-minutes-into-questioning\">public testimony<\/a> by longtime top FBI counter-intelligence official Peter Strzok, whose private text messages to his girlfriend, another FBI agent, have been cause for Trump, the GOP and rightwing media to pretend that Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation was somehow part of a long &#8220;deep state&#8221; plot by the FBI to prevent Trump from being elected. Except he <i>was<\/i> elected. (Some plot!) And Mueller&#8217;s probe has since resulted in dozens of indictments and guilty pleas from many top Trump campaign and White House officials. But we can keep pretending; In some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/sarahmimms\/peter-strzok-hearing-sheer-chaos?utm_term=.bdjw8GMkd#.uxZ8JLGjn\">remarkable audio<\/a> from the insane hearing in the House today today, Strzok strikes back and helps reveal the Republican House witch-hunt against the Special Counsel for much of what it really is.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Speaking of <i>reality<\/i>, new data out from the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sethhanlon\/status\/1017405731220291587?s=21\">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/worker-wages-drop-while-companies-spend-billions-to-boost-stocks\/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&#038;linkId=54155762\">elsewhere<\/a> reveals that not only have the Trump\/GOP tax cuts from last December <i>not<\/i> resulted in increased pay for the &#8220;forgotten men and women&#8221; of the middle-class, as they&#8217;d promised, but workers are now actually making <i>less<\/i> than they did <i>before<\/i> the massive, deficit-blowing cuts which have resulted only in record profits for corporations and the already-wealthy;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Listeners offer response to our recent coverage of <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12635\">Trump&#8217;s SCOTUS nominee<\/a> Brett Kavanaugh and Democrats&#8217;, so far, <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12636\">tepid plan<\/a> to block his confirmation. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usconstitution.net\/xconst_A1Sec5.html\">Constitutional quorum<\/a> call, anyone?);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/GreenNews.BradBlog.com\"><i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a> with more on the existential threat Kavanaugh&#8217;s seating poses to the environment, how a major oil company CEO is calling for a speed-up of the transition to electric vehicles, and how a world full of poo just might save itself&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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_TrumpNATO_StrzokHearing_FallingWages_ListernersSCOTUS_071218_.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_TrumpNATO_StrzokHearing_FallingWages_ListernersSCOTUS_071218_.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, let&#8217;s join the President and pretend that he&#8217;s been victorious once again! Or, let&#8217;s discuss the reality of the havoc being wrought by both him and the party that supports him as they go even farther off the deep-end and hope to take everybody else with them. [Audio link to show is [&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,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,734,89,675,1194,299,479,390,594,753,227,226,261,477,107,137,498,1195,300,977,534,768,978,198,233,313],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-bob-goodlatte","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-brett-kavanaugh","category-democrats","category-donald-trump","category-economy","category-election-2016","category-electric-vehicles","category-fbi","category-hillary-clinton","category-immigration","category-kpfk","category-national-security","category-nato","category-natural-gas","category-peter-strzok","category-republicans","category-robert-mueller","category-russia","category-shell-oil","category-trey-gowdy","category-us-house","category-us-senate","category-us-supreme-court"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638","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=12638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12638"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}