'BradCast' 5/6/2020 (Bad news gets worse for USPS w/ American Prospect's David Dayen)

On today's 'BradCast':  The rate of coronavirus deaths and infections in Texas has predictably spiked after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott lifted shutdown restrictions – and now new leaked audio shows Abbott admitting that the death toll would rise with the reopening of businesses, directly contradicting his public statements minimizing the impacts. Our guest today, The American Prospect's Executive Editor and investigative financial journalist David Dayen, warns that any federal official working on pandemic response right now while the nation is prematurely reopened for business "who doesn't want to be known historically as a mass murderer should probably resign." Dayen also explains his major scoop today regarding the resignation of a top official at the U.S. Post Service, David Williams. USPS is an independent agency that takes no taxpayer funding, and is now in trouble due to the coronavirus shutdowns, but Congressional Republicans and Donald Trump have blocked any bailout. The Trump Treasury Department is now holding up a Congressionally-approved extension to USPS's line of credit in order to force a number of major concessions, from union-busting, to wage and pension cuts, and more.  Williams' departure, Dayen reports, suggests that the Administration's strong-arming appears to be working. We will all pay the price, as the USPS will be crucial to our ability to hold something that resembles a legitimate Presidential election this November. Also today: a federal judge has ordered the New York State Board of Elections to reinstate all candidates to the state's June 23 Democratic Presidential primary ballot. New poll indicates that Montana's very popular Democratic Governor Steve Bullock has a good chance of unseating Republican Sen. Steve Daines, which in turn could help flip control of the U.S. Senate from red to blue in November.