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On this week’s show…
GOP efforts to discredit the No Kings protests across the nation flopped, with seven-million+ Americans registering their disgust with Trump in peaceful, often mocking demonstrations across America. Trump’s disdainful, self-revealing response: an AI-created video fantasy of Mad King Biff carpet-bombing crowds of American people with feces while flying an airborn firefighting super tanker.
Adding to his show of disdain: while hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without paychecks, and with inflation and the price of groceries skyrocketing, Trump had the entire East Wing of the White House demolished – in violation of federal law – to erect a palatial, gilded, $300 million (and growing) ballroom … the worst damage to the White House since the British torched it in the War of 1812. Let them eat cake, Donald? And now he’s telling his Justice Department to pay him $230-million for the trauma of being investigated for his long string of crimes. The decision is up to two of his former personal attorneys: AG Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, now his personal henchmen inside the DoJ.
Also in our gunsights this week:
- Trump’s puppets in the U.S. House continue to stonewall the release of the Epstein files, but Speaker Mike Johnson faces a lawsuit from the state of Arizona for his month-long failure to swear in newly elected Congresswoman Adelita Grivalva as the House completes a 4th week of no sessions.
- Thousands of federal workers are facing layoffs or payless paydays, SNAP benefits are running out of money and Republicans won’t budge on reversing healthcare cuts to millions … but Kristi Noem’s got $172-million for a pair of private jets.
- In Michigan, MIRS News reports a petition drive to eliminate property taxes statewide is falling short of collecting the signatures needed to get on the ballot.
- New polling shows Jocelyn Benson with an overwhelming lead for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor, leading Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist 56% to 17%. Another poll shows Mary Sheffield with a 50-point lead over Solomon Kinloch for Detroit mayor.
- And the Michigan Court of Appeals says chimpanzees are not persons protected under the Constitution, the worst news for chimps since they co-starred with Ronald Reagan in Bedtime for Bonzo.
The weaponizing of the Justice Department continues to expand the Trump-revenge web. We are joined by one of the potential targets: former DHS Chief of Staff Miles Taylor – also known as “Anonymous”, the first high-level Trump administration whistleblower.
Miles Taylor is a national security expert who served in the administrations of George W. Bush and Donald Trump, where he was chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security. In 2018, Taylor wrote an op-ed in The New York Times under the pen name “Anonymous” – “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” – which drew widespread attention for its criticism of Trump. Several months after quitting the administration, he published a book titled, A Warning (again under the pen name “Anonymous.) He later revealed that he was “Anonymous” and was the first former Trump administration official to endorse Joe Biden.
Miles is an Indiana native and earned his B.A. in international security studies from Indiana University, with a masters degree from Oxford University in England which he attended as a 2012 Marshall Scholar. He began his government service in 2007 as a college intern under Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Vice President Dick Cheney.
He’s no longer “anonymous” and speaks out forcefully about the Trump abuses in his online blog “Treason with Miles Taylor”.
This episode is sponsored in part by
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EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in
• Public Opinion Surveys
• Market Research Studies
• Live Telephone Surveys
• On-Line and Automated Surveys
• Focus Group Research
• Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns
• Political Campaigns & Consulting
• Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research
• Community – Media Relations
• Issue – Image Management
• Database Development & List Management
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We’re joined this week by veteran journalist and media monitor Jennifer Schulze for a deep dive into the right-wing takeover of where we get our news.
Jennifer Schulze is a longtime journalist, mostly broadcast news and mostly in Chicago. She headed the WGN TV newsroom and lead the team that created the WGN Morning News. She writes media cricitism and other articles for The Contrarian, Lincoln Square, Heartland Signal, etc. She does regular media roundups for Civic Media and Courier Newsroom with host Pat Krietlow and for WCPT Radio with host Joan Esposito. Her fellow Chicago journalist Mark Jacob joins her on both of those regular segments. Jennifer’s Substack is called Indistinct Chatter and you can find her on Blue Sky and threads @NewsJennifer.
This episode is sponsored in part by
===========================
EPIC ▪ MRA, A full service survey research firm with expertise in
• Public Opinion Surveys
• Market Research Studies
• Live Telephone Surveys
• On-Line and Automated Surveys
• Focus Group Research
• Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns
• Political Campaigns & Consulting
• Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research
• Community – Media Relations
• Issue – Image Management
• Database Development & List Management
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