{"id":15239,"date":"2024-11-21T18:43:18","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T02:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15239"},"modified":"2024-11-21T18:54:38","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T02:54:38","slug":"how-and-why-to-extend-an-olive-branch-to-maga-family-members-over-the-holidays-bradcast-11212024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15239","title":{"rendered":"How (and Why!) to &#8216;Extend an Olive Branch&#8217; to MAGA Family Members Over the Holidays: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 11\/21\/2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_RichLogis-LeavingMAGA_112124.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">It&#8217;s a jam-packed show today, as we try to fit as much in as we can for our last <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a> until after the Thanksgiving holiday. Yes, we&#8217;re taking a <i>much<\/i>-needed week off next week. But we&#8217;ve got some advice for <i>all<\/i> of us on today&#8217;s program on how to (try and) survive the holidays with MAGA friends and family members and, perhaps, pave the way for a better tomorrow. [<i>Audio link to full show follows this summary.<\/i>]\n<p>Among our coverage today&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Minutes after the Gaza Health Ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-lebanon-hezbollah-iran-news-11-20-2024-5da3ce43df8662fe9eeab4ad804bdc0f\">announced<\/a> that 44,000, mostly women and children, have been killed during Israel&#8217;s 13-month long war following the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 in Israel, news broke from the <b>International Criminal Court<\/b>. Warrants have been <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/icc-israel-hamas-warrants-netanyahu-palestinian-arrest-73c854d072e0a1a41b19b2cb2cdd07fa\">issued<\/a> by the ICC for the arrest of Israel&#8217;s far-right Prime Minister <b>Benjamin Netanyau<\/b>, his former Defense Minister <i>and<\/i> Hamas&#8217; military chief on charges of crimes against humanity and other war crimes. We explain what that means and doesn&#8217;t. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Police in Monterey, <b>California<\/b> on Wednesday night <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hegseth-assault-allegations-police-report-trump-e6ebec0a1a5c7fb51cb5e2198f5e12a5\">released<\/a> a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/25364429-hegseth_2017_police_report\">22-page report [PDF]<\/a> on the 2017 sexual assault allegations filed by the organizer of a Republican women&#8217;s event against <b>Pete Hegseth<\/b>, a featured speaker at the forum, Fox &#8220;News&#8221; weekend host and <b>Donald Trump<\/b>&#8216;s nominee to be the next U.S. Defense Secretary. The police report includes disturbing and seemingly damning details, as well as corroborative statements and texts from a number of witnesses and medical personnel. Police had recommended the case to the Monterey County District Attorney&#8217;s Office for review at the time. Hegseth, who says the tryst was &#8220;consensual&#8221; and denies allegations of drugging the victim and preventing her from leaving a hotel room, paid a cash settlement to her last year to avoid a lawsuit. Somehow, the Trump Transition team claims to have known nothing about these charges and, in the meantime, Hegseth <i>remains<\/i> Trump&#8217;s pick to head the U.S. Dept. of Defense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Fellow accused sexual miscreant, <b>Matt Gaetz<\/b>, however, is no longer Trump&#8217;s nominee to be the nation&#8217;s top law enforcement official. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/matt-gaetzs-withdrawal-trumps-retribution-campaign-rcna181233\">withdrew from consideration<\/a> to be the next U.S. Attorney General on Thursday morning, following daily revelations of new evidence supporting claims that the former <b>Florida<\/b> Congressman paid thousands of dollars for sex with 17-year old girls, trafficked the underage minors across state lines, used illicit drugs and other activities which would be disqualifying for the job of the nation&#8217;s top cop in every Administration but Trump&#8217;s. Gaetz resigned from Congress last week, on the same day he was tapped by Trump, just one day before the <b>House Ethics Committee<\/b> was to consider releasing their report on all of these allegations. His resignation letter reportedly stated that he did &#8220;not intend to&#8221; take the oath of office in the new Congress following his re-election on November 5. Don&#8217;t be surprised, however, if he shows up anyway to take the oath of office on January 3rd, when the new Congress is sworn in. Telling the truth about <i>anything<\/i> has never been Gaetz&#8217; strong suit.  (<i>Moments <i>after<\/i> we got off air, former Florida A.G. <b>Pam Bondi<\/b> &#8212; who declined to investigate allegations against Trump after he made a donation to her campaign &#8212; was tapped as Trump&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/politics\/live-news\/trump-transition-news-11-21-24\/index.html\">new nominee<\/a> to lead the U.S. Justice Dept.<\/i>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We&#8217;ve got still more evidence today about the polluted <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/drvolts\/status\/1858987157857394959\">&#8220;information environment&#8221;<\/a> that many, including myself, have blamed for the re-election of Trump over Kamala Harris on November 5. In this case, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/yahoo-newsyougov-poll-74-of-voters-heard-about-harriss-plan-to-protect-transgender-people-more-than-almost-any-other-campaign-issue-130058273.html\">new survey<\/a> finding that some 74% of voters had heard about Harris&#8217; non-existent &#8220;plan&#8221; to &#8220;protect the rights of transgender people,&#8221; thanks to $37 million in ads citing the false claims about the Democratic nominee, and a failed media environment &#8212; corporate, social and independent &#8212; simply unable (or uninterested) in accurately informing the electorate to the contrary. (<i>In related news, both Desi and myself are now on Bluesky! Please follow us there! She is <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/greennewsreport.bsky.social\">@GreenNewsReport.bsky.social<\/a>. I am <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/thebradblog.bsky.social\">@TheBradBlog.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/i>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Then, we&#8217;re happy to once again be joined today by <b>RICH LOGIS<\/b>, Founder and Executive Director of <a href=\"https:\/\/LeavingMAGA.org\">Leaving MAGA<\/a>, a non-profit formed to help others, like himself, escape what he describes as the &#8220;Cult of MAGA&#8221;. Logis spent years as a Republican pundit turned dyed-in-the-wool Trumper, having voted for the disgraced former and future President in both 2016 and 2020, before finally coming to the difficult realization that he&#8217;d been taken in by a dangerous cult leader.\n<p>Logis contributed to the <b>Democratic National Convention<\/b> this year with video testimonials from fellow former MAGA members and worked on behalf of the <b>Republicans for Harris<\/b> campaign. <\/p>\n<p>Today he joins us to discuss, among other things, what he&#8217;s learned over the past year from his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LeavingMAGA\">series of podcast interviews<\/a> with fellow former MAGA cultists; what he attributes Trump&#8217;s victory to (hint: he agrees me with about the polluted &#8220;information environment&#8221; in which Trump supporters are no longer able to distinguish truth from lies); and how he recommends non-MAGA Americans deal with their MAGA family members and friends over the upcoming holidays. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Donald Trump&#8217;s toxic superpower is lying,&#8221; Logis tells me today. &#8220;The rightwing in the Republican Party lie about everything. So I succumbed to mis- and disinformation. When I realized that I had, by diversifying my news and information sources, it set me on the pathway to leaving MAGA.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Logis believes, as I do, that there will be more &#8212; not fewer &#8212; people looking to leave MAGA in the months and years ahead, as the reality of Trump&#8217;s next clown show takes shape. The time to start helping them to do so is now, he argues.<\/p>\n<p>While conceding that it might sound &#8220;very naive&#8221;, he advises progressives and other non-MAGA folks to try and &#8220;make some dinners politics-free this year.&#8221; But, if that can&#8217;t be done, he recommends attempting to &#8220;extend the olive branch and say, &#8216;I would like to have more of the kind of relationship that we may have had before 2015 and 2016.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Logis makes the case that, even while recognizing that many MAGA opponents will not feel like it&#8217;s <i>their<\/i> duty to take that step. &#8220;It&#8217;s a way to reopen opportunity, reopen that door,&#8221; he asserts, so when those folks are finally ready to leave MAGA, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, they will know there is space and an exit ramp for them to do so. <\/p>\n<p>Anyway, as usual <i>lots<\/i> more in my conversation with Logis today. And he does have some cred here, as he once again felt it necessary to apologize for his part in &#8220;helping Donald Trump divide our country, pitting complete strangers against each other, tearing asunder friendships, families, communities and places of worship.&#8221; He explains that his work in creating Leaving MAGA &#8220;is a way for me to make amends.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us for <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15238\">our latest <i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a> and last before our Thanksgiving break, with news on the back-to-back, climate change-fueled monster storms that slammed the <b>Pacific Northwest<\/b> over the past several days; a new report on how the climate crisis intensified every U.S. hurricane in 2024; the discovery of a huge cache of <b>&#8220;rare earth&#8221; elements<\/b> in a surprising location in the U.S.; and <b>New York<\/b>&#8216;s Governor changing her mind, yet again, about congestion pricing in NYC to help reign in both traffic and air pollution while bringing in a ton of much-needed dollars to the city&#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-NetanyahuWarCrimes-HegsethPoliceReport-GaetzDropsOut_RichLogis-LeavingMAGA2024_112124.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/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=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9icmFkYmxvZy5jb20vcG9kY2FzdGdlbi9icmFkY2FzdC9mZWVkLnhtbA\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/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>It&#8217;s a jam-packed show today, as we try to fit as much in as we can for our last BradCast until after the Thanksgiving holiday. Yes, we&#8217;re taking a much-needed week off next week. But we&#8217;ve got some advice for all of us on today&#8217;s program on how to (try and) survive the holidays with [&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":[192,1307,89,675,543,499,272,223,479,1611,428,477,188,1305,111,872,2039,1365,300],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-benjamin-netanyahu","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-climate-change","category-coal","category-dept-of-defense","category-dept-of-justice","category-donald-trump","category-election-2024","category-israel","category-kpfk","category-mainstream-media-failure","category-matt-gaetz","category-new-york","category-pam-bondi","category-pete-hegseth","category-pollution","category-republicans"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15239","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=15239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=15239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}