'BradCast' 10/15/2025 (The 'Jeffrey Epstein Shutdown' and Other Autocratic Nightmares, with Heather Digby Parton of Salon, 'Driftglass' of 'Pro Left Podcast')

This No Kings rally this weekend, you know, that's the blue hair anthropomorgic, you know, experiment that's going to happen up here in Washington, D.C. Anthropomorgic? I encourage you to watch. We call it the Hate America Rally that will happen Saturday. Let's see who shows up for that. This crazy no kings rally this weekend, which is going to be the farthest left, the hardest core, the most unhinged in the Democratic Party, which is, you know, a big title. And, you know, no kings equal no paychecks. So wait, now we're in favor of kings? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Why do you hate America? I got the feeling. I'm just kidding, kids I fall off my

From Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast. As heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, also in California, in Red Bluff and Reading on KFOI and Round Mountains, KKRN, up in Oregon on the Central Coast, on K-YAQ, Cottage Groves, K-O, and Eugene's KEPW, Lanchester, Pennsylvania's W News, Maui, Hawaii's K-A-KU, and Columbus, Ohio on WGRN, Palinville, New York's WLP, Rochester, New York's, WRFZ, down in New Orleans, on WHIV, out in Gallup, New Mexico on KNIZ, Concord, New Hampshire's WNHN, Fayetteville, Arkansas, KPSQ, in Seattle on KODX, Richmond, Virginia's, WRWK, Fairmont, West Virginia's W-E-F-R, Janesville, Wisconsin's W-A-D-R, and Minneapolis, St. Paul's, AM-950, K-T-N-F. We also stream coast-to-coast and around the globe every day for your listening convenience on the Internet, on the Progressive Voices Channel, Netroots Radio, Radio for Humans, Nicole Sandler.com, Radio Free Brooklyn, No Lies, Radio, Detour Talk, Del Marva FM. And most of your favorite podcast sites, Blanketing Planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker, and all-around, swell fellow, says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us for another thrilling edition of the brand cast with a couple of our favorite guests joining us momentarily. But the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court. First held a nearly three-hour oral argument on Wednesday morning regarding the future of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, one of the last standing elements of the Landmarked Civil Rights Act as it pertains to racial gerrymandering and the use of majority minority voting opportunity districts, specifically the use of race in determining U.S. House and legislative voting districts. An adverse finding, particularly depending on when it is issued, could shake up the entirety of the U.S. House in next year's midterm elections or those that follow, ultimately resulting in the loss of at least a dozen minority members of Congress and potentially cementing. gerrymandering Republican control of the U.S. House and state legislatures for years to come. That said, we're going to discuss that oral argument in both legal and political details. And what it pretends for all of us on our next broadcast tomorrow with a couple of expert guests. Though it's possible our guests today may wish to ring in as well. We will see. We've got a lot of other stuff to catch up with them as well as the mad authoritarianism of the Trump administration seems to be quickening in both intensity and scope.

if not competency, with each passing day now. Then again, so does the pushback from the public and even occasionally from Democratic elected officials. It seems... Both forever ago and just yesterday that we spoke with our good friends, the very smart OG blogger pals of ours and semi-regular guests on this program, Digby and Drift Glass. A lot has happened since we last spoke with them. Then again, a lot has happened just since last weekend. So we'll see where we go today as the federal government shutdown continues into its third week with little sign of ending or even negotiations. as Republicans and Donald Trump continue to refuse to even discuss the concerns of Democrats, which include both the fact that health care costs for tens of millions of Americans on the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare exchanges, are about to see their monthly premiums skyrocket more than double in many cases. As of January 1, not to mention the trillion-dollar cuts that Trump and Republicans made to Medicaid in their so-called big, beautiful bill earlier this past summer, and the little discussed half a trillion dollars in cuts that will happen to Medicare unless lawmakers come to some sort of resolution. There's also the matter that Democrats are insisting on some sort of legislative mechanism to ensure. that Republicans and Donald Trump and his Office of Management and Budget Chief, Russ Vought, won't simply rescind any agreement struck between Democrats and Republicans to reopen the government once Democrats agree to help Republicans reopen the government, which, by the way, Republicans could do on their own right now immediately today if they actually wanted to, which obviously they do not. For some reason. Democrats continue to hang together in their demands on both health care funding and assurances that they won't be double-crossed, while Republicans seem to be feeling at least some pressure from the public over all of this, with polls consistently showing American voters blame Republicans more than Democrats for the ongoing shutdown. And as more and more Republican appropriators in Congress are conceding. that yes, Democrats actually have a good point, not just on what is about to happen to the health care costs for millions of Americans, including a disproportionate number of Republicans, by the way, but also on the need for guarantees that they won't be double-crossed. Yesterday alone, it was reported that three senior Republican appropriators in Congress agree that it does not make any sense for Democrats to agree to a government funding deal unless Trump actually adheres to that deal.

Quote, if you're a Democrat, even just like a mainstream Democrat, your predisposition might be to help negotiate with Republicans on a funding mechanism, said Congressman Steve Womack of Arkansas, a senior GOP appropriator, adding, quote, why would you do that if you know that whatever you negotiate is going to be subject to the knife pulled out by Russ Vought? Congressman Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, a senior appropriator in the House, told Bloomberg government, quote, I don't think the Democrats want to shut down either. They're concerned right now, and it's a legitimate concern, is that how can we agree to any deal when our OMB director will just impound the funds and say we're not going to spend them there? And over in the Senate, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski also blames OMB Director Russ Vought for making it harder to negotiate and end the shutdown, noting, quote, the appropriations process is being run over, and that, to me, is absolutely unacceptable, she said. She reportedly understands why Democrats do not trust Republicans in the White House given votes previous recisions and layoffs, adding, quote, why would you? But while a two-week government shutdown would normally be all that D.C. and the political media we're talking about, we are now in the Trump era, where every terrible thing happens everywhere all at once, often to keep you from noticing the previous terrible thing. So even while the government is shut down, the president is deploying or attempting to deploy U.S. military troops to U.S. cities to be used against U.S. citizens peacefully exercising their right to protest. He's ordering the extrajudicial killing of supposed narco-terrorists in boats near Venezuela and Colombia without any evidence to support the claim that they are actually narco-terrorists, much less endangering Americans in any way. And he is ordering the indictments of his perceived domestic political enemies for preposterously pretextual reasons. including the former Republican FBI director James Comey and the current Attorney General, a Democrat of New York, Letitia James, who had the temerity to take Trump and his companies to court to successfully hold them to account for years of massive bank and tax fraud. All of that. At the same time that his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is demanding the media pledge their loyalty to the Pentagon to only report with the administration wants them to report. And to the credit of the media, finally, they are all, with just one exception, refusing to take that pledge. And as the State Department is now revoking the visas of foreigners whose free speech regarding slain Republican activist Charlie Kirk, they do not like.

That is just the tip of the iceberg of stuff that, well, we may discuss this hour, even as millions of Americans plan to hit the streets in protest against all of the above this weekend in more than 2,500 so-called no king's protest rallies across the country. So with all of that, as your appetizer, Or perhaps your unappetizer. We'll see what you think. Let's get to our guest today and find out where all of this goes and what we have time for. Joining us once again today, as always, of course, is the delightful producer of this here broadcast. That would be Desi Doyen. Say hello to the people, Desi. Hello to the people. Well done. And beyond that, we are joined by the delightful Heather Digby Parton, award-winning opinion columnist at Salon. And at her own long-running blog Digby's hullabaloo, she joins us from not far away. here somewhere in Los Angeles. Hey, Heather, have you survived the downpours of the last day or so in good order? Barely, but I'm here. You're here. That's the best I can do. All right, we'll take it. And we're also joined once again by the... The mysterious man known usually as just Drift Glass, though sometimes as just Bill, he hosts the long-running pro-left podcast, broadcast each week rain or shine from what he describes as his beloved flyover country somewhere in war-ravaged Illinois. Oh, Drifty, hope you survived the U.S. military invasion of your state over the past week or so. So far so good. Okay, good. Welcome both of you back to the broadcast. Now, we have got a lot to discuss for change today, including government shutdown politics, the DOJ, Trump's War on America, several items of breaking news over the past hour or two and much more. But over the weekend, all of the living hostages being held by Hamas were returned to Israel in exchange for some 2000. Palestinian prisoners, a pullback from parts of Gaza, the allowance of humanitarian aid, at least some of it, back into the war-torn enclave and the secession of hostilities for now, or as Donald Trump calls it, everlasting peace in the Middle East. Drift Glass, would you like to apologize to President Trump today? I would like to apologize for President Trump. Okay. Good, good call. Heather, any thoughts that you would like to share on the Middle East peace agreement and where you see it going from here? Well, I'm just so relieved that Donald Trump is actually talking to Hamas or he says he is. And he told them that he wanted them to disarm and they said they would with tears in their eyes. He didn't say tears in their eyes. But you know how that goes. There's yes, sir.

Yes, sir, we will disarm. And then he said that if they don't, that he will violently disarm them. So that's good. You know, I feel good about everything. It's just, it's going perfectly. Yeah, I think things are going well. Actually, we covered yesterday that things are not going all that well for the ceasefire. We will see how it goes. It is shaky at best. But meanwhile. Back here at home, as noted, we're now in week three of the federal government shutdown or the partial government shutdown with Trump and his... OMB chief, Russ Vought, finally announcing the supposedly massive layoffs that they've been promising. They finally have done at least a few of them earlier this week, only to see a federal judge in San Francisco about an hour or two ago prior to airtime putting a temporary kibosh on those firings as federal employee unions charge that they are unlawful. Heather, Polls continue to show that Americans blame Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown. But how are Democrats doing in both their resolve and in making their case to the American people on health care funding and the idea that they need some sort of guarantee that Trump and Republicans will not simply rescind any spending that they agree to after Democrats agree to help them open the government back up? Well, I think what you said in your intro is what's really, you know, happening now. I mean, we went through this last spring. Remember? I mean, we came close and they ended up with a few Democratic senators agreeing to do the continuing resolution until now. And of course, everybody was very angry because we were all going, hey, you know, what are you Democrats doing? And they did not at the time, I don't think they had, they felt, or maybe they just didn't understand what Russ Vought was doing and what he was there to do. The Doge stuff was just happening. And I think maybe they thought that was something that was kind of, you know, happening of its own volition. The truth was is that this came out of Project 2025, this was Russ Vought doing, and this idea that there's no point in negotiating with these people, as long as you have Russ Vought there saying, I don't have to, I can spend the money any way I want to. So go ahead. You know, go ahead and talk and talk your game, do your thing. And, you know, we'll say, sure, whatever. And then, you know, we don't have to follow through. Right. So the Democrats learned that. And another thing happened in the interim. And that was the one big, beautiful bill.

And what happened in that, of course, was this issue of health care and the ACA subsidies and Medicaid, you know, the huge cuts to Medicaid. And also something else, which I think, you know, I just briefly, I wrote a little bit about this last week. There's something I'm calling the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. effect, which I think that Americans are starting to kind of understand that this isn't just an attack on health insurance anymore. This is a full-blown attack on the American health care system. This is going after cancer research. The president's out there screaming about, you know, telling people they can't take Tylenol. You've got, in fact, I read a thing about one of the doctors, a big influential friend of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is telling Trump to stop taking his statins and aspirin. I'm kind of going, yep, good idea. Go ahead. But, you know, do whatever you think is best, President Trump. But nonetheless, you've got this. this full-blown attack on the American, you know, research institutions, the universities, all of this. And hospitals closing, you know, the reversal of Roe versus Wade two years ago. And this whole thing is starting, I think, to feel to Americans. And Democrats in Washington seem to be getting this, that health care is rising up to become, you know, sort of a global. issue for Americans, that this is not just about your subsidies or about whether or not you can afford health care. It's whether you're going to have health care. And I think that's a big deal. Drift Glass, I want to get your thoughts on how Democrats are holding up this time around. But let me play this clip here because I want to get your thoughts on this as well. This is Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about her concerns that. They, yes, need to expand the subsidies, or at least not cut them off for the Affordable Care Act. Okay, let's take health insurance. For example, I'm a conservative, and I can say we're $37 trillion in debt. We cannot afford a socialized health care plan in America. We literally cannot. But at the same time, I can say we sent. Almost $300 billion to Ukraine. We spent $30 billion to Israel in 2024 alone. I can say we definitely should extend these ACA tax credits and we need to build an off ramp. Because it'll cost $30 billion a year to do it. We can build an off ramp and open up a new system that will serve every American. Yeah. Right. So Drift Glass, if Marjorie Taylor Greene. of all people is now calling for Republicans to continue the funding of Obamacare. What does that tell us? Is it even conceivable that others in her party don't want to, you know, see the exact same thing that Marjorie Taylor Greene is is calling for? What should we take from all of this?

Well, first of all, she's calling for it because her three adult children will be directly affected. So this is personal. And this is what we talked about on this podcast many times, it's broadcast many times, which is until the pain is personal, MAGA doesn't care. And health care is very personal. So all of a sudden, I'm sure she's seen the numbers. I'm sure she knows exactly what's going to happen once they pull the rug. And it's going to make people very, very unhappy. I never thought I'd say this. And I'm probably misintributing this, but Bill Crystal was right. You know, that if this passes, and I must remind you that until 2017, 1617, Bill Crystal was still screaming about the great conservative accomplishment of the next. 10 years would be the repeal of Obamacare. They hated this program. But it was if people get used to it, And they start using it, they're going to start to like it. And it will never be rid of it. It'll be here forever. And that's exactly what happened. So you have overwhelming numbers of Americans who support the Affordable Care Act. And you have overwhelming numbers of Americans right down the line across the spectrum who do not want those subsidies touched because that's how they can afford to go to see a doctor. That's what funds their local hospital. And they understand it. They might not understand anything else. They might not understand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. is the next, the Russian guy, Lysenko, who set their genetics program back 50 years because he had crackpot ideas that the dictator loved. But they do understand or will understand when November rolls around and their health care bill goes up skyrocketed and they can't afford it. And that's where Democrats got smart. and said, these people don't care about democracy, they don't care about the future, they don't care about the planet, but they do care about being able to go to a doctor. And so let's focus all of our attention on who's screwing you over and whose fault is it. And they got Marjorie Taylor Greene on board. And I'm thinking, okay, it's Democrats Green Cheney, 2028. Is that what we're going to do next time? The 2028 ticket is it going to be Marjorie Taylor Greene and Liz Cheney? Because, you know, is she an ally now? I'm not sure about how we play this thing. Well, I will say it's strange that Marjorie Taylor Greene, because she's also signed on to the Epstein discharge petition. I'm going to get to that in a second. But. She actually comes across right now as one of the most sensible House Republicans. Am I crazy about that? It's not really saying much, but. Well, I know it's not, but really. On these two issues, yeah. Well, and remember, these are, I think abuse is term before on this podcast or this cast. These are load-bearing lies.

Epstein files was a load-bearing thing for MAGA. And health care is personal to MAGA. These are things she cannot afford to mess up. So she has to be on the right side of this when whatever happens happens. But, you know, these people are not going to, the thing that always strikes me about these conversations is. Every Democrat is on the right side of this issue, and it gets almost no coverage. You know, it's a it's a left-right thing. It's a who said, he said, she said, whatever. One Republican, a lunatic at that comes out and says, maybe we shouldn't do this. And oh, my God, this might open people's eyes. Because you can't accept anything a Democrat says anymore just as a factual matter. You have to have some. Nutjob on the rights of Verifier or it's not news. Fair enough. Although it does suggest that there could be, you know, while you're seeing the Democrats, really, as far as I can tell, sort of standing together on this, whereas you're seeing, you know, with someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene or those other quotes that I shared during the introduction here where they're talking about, yeah, no wonder Democrats don't trust us anymore, you're seeing some cracks in that side of the coalition that you are not seeing on the Democrats. Democratic side. That said, you mentioned coming up, you know, I think, Heather, that Republicans are in very big trouble. As much as the American people are blaming them now, I think when November 1 rolls around and the open enrollment period opens up for the, for next year's Obamacare, Americans finally see. the numbers that they, the Democrats are currently warning about with their health care premiums more than doubling for millions of Americans. I am not sure if this has yet struck home for most Americans, even those who may support Democrats, how much they are about to see their health insurance costs go up, even above and beyond those on the Affordable Care Act. I think, you know, if this goes on for a couple of more weeks. I think the story is going to change quite drastically. Well, I hope you're right. I mean, I tend to agree with you. I think you're probably right, but I don't make predictions about the future anymore because, you know, I'm obviously terrible at it. So I'll just say that, you know, I'm with you in hoping that that is how it plays out. And I think that the signs are pretty good, that it will go that way. The Democrats are just, they're very surprisingly, I mean, they're surprisingly united and particularly since the party itself is still, you know, kind of. of doing a little bit of, you know, Sturm and Drong over the 2024 election and the gerontocracy and, you know, all the usual stuff that Democrats argue about. But nonetheless, on this day, they are together. They're united. Hakeem Jeffries has been going out and he's been saying good things. I mean, I've been surprised because I've never found him to be a particularly effective communicator.

But he's been good. And on the other side, you have Mike Johnson, who has, for some inexplicable reason, made himself the face of the shutdown. I do not think that was a smart tactic on the Republicans part to put him out there. He is not a good spokesperson for this issue. He's not doing it well. He doesn't have, you know, I mean, if you wanted to give some, you know, a guy like, John Thune over in the Senate, who's barely showing up. And of course, he has a lot more to say about how this comes out. Right. He comes out every, I don't know, once a week or so. And so something like, yeah, we just want the... the Democrats to just, you know, we've got a clean CR, we just want him to sign on so we can get to work. No, that's it. You know, he doesn't really say anything. He doesn't. Johnson's out there saying all this stuff and he's talking about the No King's protest and he's doing all this stuff. And, you know, it's ridiculous. The House is adjourned. But there he is. He's all over and it's not good for him. You saw the thing where he got the call from the person on C-SPAN. I mean, from the Republican on C-SPAN. I mean, it was brutal. Who's worried that. is going to, her children are going to die because she's not going to be able to afford the cost of health care going up. Yeah. But Mike Johnson, I'm glad you raised him because he's got a, he's got another dog in this hunt, it seems to me. And it seems to me that, you know, this is no longer a Republican shutdown, as Democrats like to call it, or a Democrat shutdown or a Chuck Schumer shutdown as Republicans like to call it. But with Mike Johnson. Keeping the House in recess. Nothing about a government shutdown says that the House needs to be in recess. The Senate is not recess this whole time. But he is using this as an excuse to not swear in the House shutdown, the House recess, as an excuse to not swear in Arizona's Adelaide Grealva after her special election of the U.S. House more than three weeks ago because she would be the decisive signature to force a House vote. on the release of the Epstein files. With all of that in mind, it seems to me that this should Democrats really ought to be calling this the Jeffrey Epstein shutdown. Does that seem about right to you, Drifty? I think this has gotten so ludicrous that, yeah. I mean, Jeffrey Epstein is long gone and much missed by some people, I'm sure. But, yeah, the priority of the White House is to keep that door shut. Yeah. And so Mike Johnson's job is to hodore that door, to back up against it and give his life and have that dead-looking, you know. Weirdo pastor, mild expression on his face. This is all just fine. Everything's fine here. And I've come to believe that this is all being written by Kurt Vonnegutt from heaven. Because the other thing that happened, which is not really news, news, but cracked me up, was the New York Times soliciting Newt Gingrich to write a guest essay about why the Democrats are doing the shutdown wrong.

He was right and he was eventually vindicated, but the Democrats don't know what they're doing. And I think these people just so far into their own cups. They have so deeply consumed their own propaganda. They don't see what they're doing. They have no concept of how this is playing in Peoria. And Mike Johnson can sit there and blandly deny everything. And every time he's asked a question about anything that Trump does, I'm not aware of that. I didn't see that. I don't know what's going on. I'm sure that works for the tiny circle of people who care about him and his life. And I'm sure it works for a couple of MAGA people in the world. But for anyone else peering into the zoo, it looks like madness. It's clear. That the government is being held hostage, being shut down so that Russ Vought can gut it with impunity and so that Mike Johnson can keep Trump's dirty secrets locked up. And eventually they're going to have to come in back into session. Yeah. And, you know, this can be postponed for... Another week, another two weeks, however long. But eventually the hammer is going to fall. And I don't think they have a strategy for what happens then. I don't. I don't either. I mean, they're shutting it down for now, but the house will have to reopen. At some point, and Krialva will have to be sworn in, and unless Republicans can talk one of the four House Republicans who have signed the Epstein discharge petition into removing their names, there will be a vote, it seems to me, on releasing the Epstein files once the Epstein shutdown is over, which raises the question, Heather. of the four Republicans who are signed on, you've got lead co-sponsor Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and our old friend Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Do you see any of them as being willing to pull their names off and become the one member of Congress, theoretically, who is preventing the release of all of those files? Well, sure. You do? It could happen. I mean, Nancy Mace, come on. I mean, this is not a person who I think, you know, thinks. Thinks very clearly. Let's just put it that way. She came out of that hearing with victims with tears in her eyes. She's a drama queen. Yeah. I'm not saying she's going to do it. I'm not. I mean, they seem to have made a, made a, you know, a commitment here for their own reasons. I don't, you know, I really doubt that any of them actually care. But, you know, I do think that they've made a commitment for their own reasons to do this and to, to be.

be the House Republican consciences on the Epstein matter. But here's the thing. Now, supposing they do vote and they vote to open the Epstein files, well, that's not going to happen unless the Senate votes for it. They're not going to, or that Trump signs it. So what is the deal here? Why are they so afraid to do the vote? What is the problem? The obvious one is... that they're afraid that their own constituents will be upset that, you know, and their mega people will be upset that they voted against opening the Epstein files. Right. But they've kind of done that before, right? So it's not like, you know, they're kind of all in on that. And everybody knows where they stand and there's only the four Republicans. I read an interesting little bit of tea on this, which is that this is really Trump. And that the reason Trump is pushing. Johnson to not let this vote go through is because he refuses to let Thomas Massie have the win. He is so angry at Thomas Massie for, you know, defying him and hates him so much. He, you know, just says, no, you're not going to let him win on this. That can't happen. So here we have the whole, you know, the House is completely, it's adjourned for weeks at a time. At a time, by the way, think about this. Supposing the Democrats folded tomorrow, just kidding and say, all right, we give up, you know, getting a resolution, then we'll do the budget and blah, blah, blah. All this time, the House isn't working on the new budget, which is what they're supposed to do, the Senate is. But the house is doing no work. Yep. So you're basically starting from scratch. So none of this makes any sense for them or for anyone else or certainly not for America. But I think I, you know, if that's true that it's all about the Thomas Massie Donald Trump feud, then this is even more petty and ridiculous than we thought. I've got to get to a quick break here. But very quickly, Drift Glass, my other related question here, if the House is finally allowed to vote to release the Epstein files and they in fact do so and Senate does as well, do you see. any chance in hell that this DOJ would actually release those Epstein files, or at least, you know, not without shredding or redacting a whole bunch of stuff first. I mean, I think there's this premise that there's going to be a vote to release the files and then, oh, DOJ is going to, poor Pam Bondi, she's going to have no choice but to release them. Do you see that ever happening no matter what, given what we know? about Trump's own presence in those files.

I think it would make Nixon versus the United States in the Supreme Court look like a Sunday picnic. Yep. Because now we have a real constitutional crisis. One that the President of the United States has inserted himself into, which directly involves him, which is a cover-up, which is scandal, which is crimes, which is defiance of the will of Congress. Yeah. And everyone is going to get their backup over this because... Now they're under siege. Now they have to deploy the DOJ, like they're deploying ice in Chicago, just as enforcement thugs to keep the bad thing away from the man in the White House. And I don't think anybody who's already voted on this thing in favor of releasing it on the GOP site wants to be the reverse Scott Brown. And, you know, run on, I will be the vote to keep the Epstein files secret. I don't think anybody wants that monocle. So I think if it does go through, it'll be a hell of a Donnybrook. I think Trump loses no matter what happens. Because no matter what happens, the only people he will have left. are the equivalent of Pap Buchanan and Nixon and Kissinger. I mean, because everyone else is looking past his presidency going, holy crap, this is getting mud all over me. And this is going to stick with me because MAGA does remember this stuff. And I look forward to the fight. I think it'll be a glorious fight. Well, yeah, I think so too. Although in Nixon versus New York Times or whatever that case was, the Supreme Court ultimately decided in favor of the good guys. Yeah. I'm not so sure they would do that this time around. Anyway, like I said, I look forward to the fight. Yeah. Because the fight makes clear. who the criminals are and what they're protecting. Good. What they're protecting is horrifying. Yep. Well said. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back with our friends Digby and Drift Glass and Desi Doin right here on the broadcast. I want to talk about speaking of the deployment of the military. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about some of the indictments of Trump's foes. And of course, whether Digby and or Drift Glass are planning to attend the hate America rallies over the weekend. All of that straight ahead on the broadcast. I'm Brad Friedman. Don't touch that dial.

What the public hears on the public airwaves matters. At the broadcast, we do our best to bring you accurate news and analysis on the issues that actually matter, and we do it all independently without corporate or political influence. But we can't do it without you, now more than ever. Please help us stay on your public airwaves by going to bradblog.com slash donate to help keep us going. That's bradblog.com slash donate. And thanks. Welcome back to the Bradcast from Los Angeles. I'm Brad Friedman of Bradblog.com. We're speaking with our old friends and special guests, Heather Digby Parton of Salon and Drift Glass of Pro Left podcast. All right, Donald Trump at one of his pretend cabinet meetings for the camera at the White House on Tuesday. had comments about California Governor Gavin Newsom, your governor and mine, Digby, that he needs to get his act together. Said Trump. First referring apparently to his deployment of the U.S. military out here to Los Angeles for no known reason earlier this year. And then turning to the devastating wildfires that hit out here in early January. Let me play a bit of his remarks on Tuesday. And then I'll get both of your thoughts thereafter. Gavin Newsom, he's got to get his act together because... Had we not gone in at the beginning of my term, had we not gone in with a very strong, powerful force, they would have lost L.A. Now, you already lost 25,000 houses to fires. You've got a big scar right in the middle of the city. And that should have never happened because they should have had the water flowing in from the Pacific Northwest. All they had to do is open up the valves. He didn't want to do it. And he didn't want to do it. He says for environmental reasons. I don't believe that. But, you know, for some reason, he didn't want to do it and lost $25,000. You had no water in the fire pumps. You had no water in the sprinkler systems and the ceilings. There were no houses. Normally the things would go on. You might not have lost two houses. So if he... If he doesn't play ball, we're going to have to be very tough with him. All right. Keeping in mind that this is FCC Radio, Heather. Take your pick on what you'd like to respond to there. You live very near, I will note, where some of the worst of those fires were earlier this year. Though I'm not sure when he says, without him, we would have lost L.A. I'm not sure if he was talking about that or actually I think he was talking about sending the U.S. military to stand around federal office buildings earlier this year when he says, if not for him, we would have lost L.A.

That's absolutely what he was saying, that he sent in the troops and saved L.A. We would have lost it. I mean, he said this a number of times, that the city would have been destroyed. I mean, those of us who live here, everybody in the world knows that it was basically a very small protest, similar to what's happening in Portland. Of some people in front of an ice building that were protesting. Like, you know, in America, we used to be able to do that. That was a normal thing. And he sent in the guard and then he sent in the Marines and they marched around and they put put on some pageants and then he withdrew them. Nothing happened. It's all, I won't use the word. I'll just say BS. Thank you. Thank you. That's fine. Because it is, you know, utter nonsense. As far as the water is concerned, oh, my God. Yeah, it's delusion. This is like something, really, it's like something from another planet. If they'd have only sent in the water from the Pacific Northwest, he thinks that water just flows downhill from the North Pole or something. I mean, he's so incredibly. ignorant. And he's made up this whole thing in his head about the big valve that he turned on. And I won't go into the details. I'm sure most people know. And that turned the fire off after he opened the valve. Yeah. And if only we hadn't had had the valve turned on, as he says here, now this is a new one. I hadn't heard before that if we'd have done that, we'd have only lost two houses. I mean, the nonsensical, you know, idiocy. of what he was saying is just it you know obviously i get a little inflamed hearing this since i do live here and you well, you guys lived through it too. We went through that whole thing. It was horrifying. It was terrifying. And it had everything to do with climate change. It had everything to do with the world that we are living in that Donald Trump is set upon making much, much worse. And that is, you know, we've got immediate things that we have to deal with, the death of our democracy. And we also have to deal with the death of our planet. And this guy is absolutely taking a wrecking ball. to both things. And as insane as what he said obviously was, frankly, as insane as what he says every day obviously is, it actually brings up a very serious issue, Drift Glass. Do you think that they are showing Trump sort of edited AI nonsense? at the White House, you know, regarding things like war-ravaged Portland and war-ravaged Chicago and water released from reservoirs, hundreds of miles north of here somehow saving L.A. from the wildfires? Are they manipulating him? Or is he just watching regular old Fox News propaganda? Or the third option, I think, is he just out of his frickin' mind at this point?

Well, I think you're talking about a feedback loop among all those features because you probably notice the ice goons raids are just an extension of Fox News policy, which is if we can find one guy living under one bridge who hasn't bathed in three days and says, I'm living off welfare and I'm loving every minute of it. And thank you, Barack Obama. That is all Democrats. All Democrats are that guy. Oh, the broad brush. Yeah. Yes. And they can find the country is full of cooks and there are even a few on our side. They can find one or two people who fit the stereotype. And then that stereotype becomes the entire Democratic Party who are all terrorists and criminals and monsters and baby killers. This is just an extension of that. That is the conservative mindset. That whatever outlier we can find that it is damning and reinforces MAGA's worst nightmares, that's the whole party. We have to fight the whole party. And this is just that. Find one street corner in Portland where there's something going on. And suddenly the entire state is on fire. And we need to send to the army. And I'm sure Trump's willing to believe that because that's what he wants it to be true. He desperately wants someone to throw a punch. or knock a guy down or drag some ice goon off of somebody and beat the crap out of him. And then he can say, see, see, that's the entire Democratic Party. That Chicago's inflamed. You know what? J.B. Pritzker did not send in aerial water tanks to stop the Chicago fire like he should have. And the whole city burned down. And because they're used to just making crap up. But are they... purposely, I know Fox News purposely manipulates everybody. That is their business model. But is, is there an effort in the White House to, they know they can play this guy? So they are, you know, Stephen Miller, JD Vance and so forth feeding him this stuff and nonsense to, to egg him on? Or is he doing this on his own? Add up their personalities. You know, it is. It is a game of, it's a game of improv. It's a game of yes and. You know, Chicago is a lawless place. Yes, and they're burning buildings down. And it is an attempt to just keep escalating the lunatic rhetoric that they all believe, because they all exist in the same little bubble. And so they all just reinforce each other to the, and I think a few of them, like Stephen Miller, knows it's all lies. But he needs the guy who can declare the Insurrection Act to be active to pull the trigger. And so he needs him to believe what he already wants to believe. There's a giant faucet in the Pacific Northwest that you just turn off and on that stops fires, that windmills cause cancer, that Tylenol causes autism, and a thousand other crazy things that Trump believes because somebody told him, because they fit into his worldview. And when you're dealing with that, he is simply a vessel for the delivery of fascism by Russ Vought, inside the government, and by Stephen Miller using... Armed forces. Yeah, and you suggested, you know, he wants to see a fight and they can expand that. I think he wants to see someone get killed. I think he wants to see he's sending these, these, you know, National Guard troops out into Chicago, Portland, wherever it is, and hoping, hoping they get massacred, hoping one of them gets shot. The inverse is never true. The ice goons who shot.

a pastor in Chicago at prayer in the head with a pepper ball. Yeah. That was immediately, well, that he was Antifa, you know, he wasn't even a pastor. He was Antifa. And that's, but that's the, that's their brain. Their brain cannot accept the fact that they're the bad guys. So there must be some broader conspiratorial explanation for why this was all a conspiracy, which is what the, which is the sewer that Trump lives in. Just before air, a federal judge has now extended the order barring Trump from deploying troops to Portland. I hope that we will see a similar order barring troops from being deployed in Chicago. Now, I mentioned our governor out here in California, Gavin Newsom, but your governor, you mentioned J.B. Pritzker out there in Illinois, seems to be doing a hell of a job in standing up to Trump's bullying, threatened deployment of the military, his general... want to be dictatorship. Let me play a comment from J.B. Pritzker, I think, last week regarding all of this. The Trump administration is following a playbook. Cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them. Why? to create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city. He wants to justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers. under his direct command. To me, it seems like it's really more a matter of when rather than if he finds some excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act. But Drifty, how is that going over in Illinois? Your J.B. Pritzker standing up to Trump the way he has been are the, I know that around the country out here, we're rooting for him. Are the people in Illinois standing with the governor? And have you seen any signs of Trump's thugs? anywhere near where you are down in Springfield yet. The surprising number of people, I did a little front yard project with some old wood putting up tombstones for the death of irony, the death of free speech. And neighbors who I did not know where they stood, but I kind of suspect that they were Trump folks, have asked me where they can buy them. So there are churches in our area. I know this is happening at the very highest level of several churches. across the country are trying to find a way to because you can't do sanctuary anymore churches are not sanctuaries that's right dead letter but if they could find a place inside the church where they could put up a sign that says private that might keep

ice goons at bay. It might not. But, you know, the instruction to us is if they come into the church, they can come into the church, they can go anywhere they want. Do not stop them. But if there's a room marked private, maybe they will obey the law. So at the grassroots level, all the usual idiots who hate J.B. Pritzker, no matter what, are still hating him. And there are people, and I'm one of them, who says, you know, they've already sent Kristi Noem to Springfield twice, I think. And to try to do a little show in front of the governor's mansion. And she was scared away by our protest. She went down an alley someplace and did the same thing. So if Chicago is too tough, coming and doing a little performance violence in front of the governor's house might be a target. But, you know, and J.B. Pritzker is mixing this sort of very clear, unambiguous. If you come for my people, you come for me, talk. with also standing on one of the bridges over the Chicago River going, this is J.B. Pritzker reporting from war-torn Chicago. And, you know, it's a lovely day. We just have the Chicago Marathon. Yeah. You know, it's insane. And the thing is, spend five minutes in Chicago, and you know it's nuts. The, yeah. Go ahead. No, that's... Well, I was, I'm thinking, you know, speaking of people that Trump hate, and then I'm realizing, well, we've kind of been talking about that this whole hour, you know, from Thomas Massie to J.B. Pritzker, over the past couple of weeks since we have last spoken to you guys. And we've just got a few minutes left here, so we'll have to do this quickly. But we have seen what I see as ridiculous. Just... ridiculous indictments against Trump foes James Comey, as former Republican FBI director, who he blames for the investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election. And yes, they did interfere in the 2016 election. I guess that's why he hates James Comey. He's also indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James, who won a half- billion-dollar fraud case against Trump. I know why he hates her against Trump, his companies, and their top executives, including Trump's two eldest sons. Heather, is there any chance in hell? Based on the indictments, I know you don't do predictions. I don't either, but I was willing to stick my neck out on this. Is there any chance in hell based on what we know of those indictments that either of those cases makes it to trial much less actually wins convictions? Well, you know, let me just put it this way. It would be very surprising if they were able to get a conviction out of this. The one on James Comey is insane. It may not even get to trial. Letitia James is also ridiculous, a tiny paperwork error. It's not even an error maybe. I mean, we don't, you know, it's ridiculous. And it's clear what the purpose of this is. This is retribution. He was out there saying it during the campaign. Remember he said, I am your retribution. Remember he said it? He's kind of repeated it.

He just read it for the first time, went, ooh, that's good. Yeah, I'm your retribution. I mean, that is his thing. And it's been his thing, his whole life. This goes all the way back to, you know. interviews he gave back in the late 80s and early 90s with people like Charlie Rose saying, you know, I believe in payback. I believe in revenge. You've got to get revenge or otherwise no one will respect you. This is what he is. This is what he does. And we know that all the machinations he had to go through to get these, to find this prosecutor, this insurance lawyer, beauty queen. Yes. that he put into the job, who's completely unqualified. Even Pam Bondi, apparently, was not informed that Lindsey Halligan, this, this, the insurance lawyer, you know, now U.S. attorney. Yeah. She was going to file the case against Letitia James. So, you know, this is pretty obvious. However, just to make one little mention, John Bolton. apparently is going to be indicted. That's the news anyway. And this one actually started way earlier, potentially during the Biden administration. So that one could be a different kind of thing. So we'll see. We will see. I've seen it argued that Trump does not actually care about convictions. He just wants an indictment for revenge, even if there is no case. To dirty people up. Right. But I do not buy that. I think that he does want convictions. I think he'll be furious and it will be glorious if and when these cases are tossed or he loses at trial very quickly. Your response to that, Drifty. I will be happy to see him furious to the point where his hand falls off. And ketchup bottles beware. We got to get out. Yeah, we got to get out here, guys, very quickly. As I noted, do either of you have plans for this weekends? Hate America rallies that Republicans tell us will be happening. I understand they're actually called No Kings Rally, that they're no kings rallies. You can get information at no kings.org that they're happening. There's like 2,500 of them. But I'm also told that George Soros will be paying us a lot of money if we show up for them. Drift Glass, yeah, you got anything going on in Springfield this weekend? Oh, Brad. The professional of a podcast, every day is 8 America Day. Oh, good, okay. Good. Good. And, Heather, you, uh... Absolutely. Yeah. I'll be there. If I were 20 years younger, I'd get myself a frog, inflatable frog suit, but I think I'll probably just carry aside. Well, you know what? All joking aside, I wanted to ask you about that. I think the inflatable frogs and the unicorns, etc., that people are, you know, wearing to these protests in Portland and now elsewhere. I love it. They're brilliant. Genius.

Genius. That's Antifa. Are you scared, MAGA? Why are they genius, Drift Glass? Because they're mocking him. They're calling the whole, they're making a party out of it. First of all, these guys don't want to be there. Most of them don't want to be there. And the ones that do are sedists. And so a bunch of people parading in inflatable animal suits and various other costumes, making noise and being goofy makes them look like the clowns they are. Well, thank you both for making a party out of today's broadcast and for showing all of us for the clowns that we are. It has been a delight as usual to speak with you. Heather Digby Parton's work can be found over at salon.com darn near every day. And certainly every single day at Digby's blog.net. You can also follow her on the blue skies at Digby 56. Drift Glass is... You're just Drift Glass now over at Blue Sky. You find me everywhere. I'm available everywhere. ProLeftPod.com. Driftglass.blogspot.com. Just throw a stick and you will probably hit Drift Glass. It has been a delight to speak with both of you guys. If you make it through the Hate America rally this weekend, I look forward to doing it again in the near future. Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right. Okay, that is it. Well, you know, one thing we did not get to talk about, which I'm sorry we ran out of time. I can think of ten things. I can think of a billion things. But was the fact that Trump is clearly losing it. You mentioned the nonsense, the delusional nonsense. He was spewing about California's water and all of the stuff where he's obviously does not have the facts. And it's not clear to me that his brain is not in some kind of cognitive decline. And when will the corporate media decide to start covering that? We'll find out, won't we? Yes, we will. We got a long way to go. We've got three years. They're going to have to come up with something because you're right. He does seem to be getting crazier by the moment. Yeah. And nobody calls him out on it. Well, some people do. Like you, Desi Doyen, well done. All right, we've got to get out. My thanks again to Digby and Drift Glass and to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. If you missed any portion of today's program, downloaded for free anytime at bradblog.com. That is made possible only. by those of you who hit a donate button when you stop by to help us stay on your public airwaves. You can also go straight to bradblog.com slash donate. But the reason we get to say what we do in the way we say it is only because of support from folks like you, not from big corporations. who do not sponsor us. You do. Drop me email if you like. I am Bradcast at Bradblog.com. And on the social medias, you'll find me at the Bradblog. We will see you there at all of the above. Until we see you here next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world.

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