Progressive Voices

'BradCast' 10/8/2026: The Greatest Threat to Our Midterms is Trump and his Election Conspiracy Clown Car by Progressive Voices

Green News Report 10/8/2026 by Progressive Voices

This Gay Week: LGBTQ Rights Under Pressure Worldwide

It’s This Gay Week, and Karel and Scott Jacobsen are taking a trip around the world to see where LGBTQ+ rights are advancing, where they’re retreating—and why the same political patterns keep appearing in very different countries.

This week, there’s some genuinely welcome news: specialized 988 crisis services for LGBTQ+ young people have returned in the United States, while educators in Ireland are working to make schools safer and more welcoming for LGBTQ+ students and teachers.

But elsewhere, the picture is far more troubling.

Australia is being criticized for rejecting UN recommendations on LGBTQI+ human rights. Turkey has shut down an independent news outlet after prosecutors accused it of publishing “LGBT propaganda.” In Ghana, a Catholic bishop is pushing back against acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. And the International Criminal Court is pursuing senior Taliban leaders over alleged gender persecution involving women, girls and LGBTQI+ people in Afghanistan.

Scott also brings us an important historical question: How much of the world's criminalization of homosexuality is actually a legacy of colonialism? Many countries that still criminalize same-sex relationships inherited those laws from colonial powers.

And that leads to perhaps the biggest question of the week: Why have LGBTQ+ people—particularly transgender people—become such frequent political targets? A UN LGBTQ+ rights expert points to the rise of authoritarian populism and the political usefulness of turning vulnerable minorities into convenient targets.

Plus, we remember Dr. Robert Coles and the profound difference a great teacher and mentor can make in someone's life.

There’s a lot happening—but there’s also a lot worth fighting for, celebrating and talking about.

Join Karel and Scott for This Gay Week. Tell us what you think in the comments, LIKE the video, SUBSCRIBE to The Karel Cast, and SHARE the show.

Support independent media on Patreon: patreon.com/reallykarel

Watch and subscribe: youtube.com/reallykarel

The Karel Cast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Spreaker and other major platforms, plus TikTok and Instagram.

#ThisGayWeek, #LGBTQ, #LGBTQNews, #GayNews, #LGBTQRights, #HumanRights, #TransRights, #GayRights, #Pride, #988Lifeline, #WorldNews, #Equality, #TheKarelCast, #KarelCast, #ScottJacobsen

https://youtube.com/live/BFN1oK3RI2E

'BradCast' 10/7/2026: Saudi Arabia's Trump Family Bribes Not Paying Off as War Expands in Middle East by Progressive Voices

THE NEXT PANDEMIC IS COMING: Are We Ready—or Making the Same Mistakes Again?

Yesterday

THE NEXT PANDEMIC IS COMING: Are We Ready—or Making the Same Mistakes Again?

Plague. Measles. Ebola. COVID taught us what a global outbreak can do—but did we actually learn anything from it?

In this episode of The Karel Cast, Karel looks at alarming infectious-disease headlines around the world, including reports involving plague, the resurgence of measles in the United States, and Ebola outbreaks in Africa. The bigger question isn't whether humanity will face another dangerous outbreak. It's whether our governments, public-health systems and communities will be prepared when it happens.

And in the United States, politics has become inseparable from public health. Karel examines the Trump administration's approach to health policy and asks whether America is strengthening its ability to confront the next crisis—or weakening it.

Then, there's another kind of contagion: cruelty.

A new television adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie puts bullying back in the spotlight at a moment when cruelty—particularly online—can seem increasingly normalized. From social media pile-ons to public humiliation and political rhetoric, have we created a culture that rewards people for being cruel?

Are we becoming a nation of bullies? And if so, can we reverse it?

Join the conversation in the comments. LIKE the video, SUBSCRIBE to The Karel Cast, and SHARE this episode with someone who has an opinion.

Support independent media on Patreon: patreon.com/reallykarel

Watch and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/reallykarel

The Karel Cast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Spreaker and other major podcast platforms, plus TikTok and Instagram. LIVE Monday–Thursday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific.

Karel is a history-making broadcaster, entertainer and commentator based in Las Vegas, joined by his little service dog, Ember.

#Pandemic, #Measles, #Ebola, #Plague, #PublicHealth, #HealthNews, #Trump, #Politics, #BreakingNews, #StephenKing, #Carrie, #Bullying, #SocialMedia, #TheKarelCast, #KarelCast

https://youtube.com/live/T5vcKuqx81I

http://www.NRDC.orgThe guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET. 

Brad is first joined by Bob Deans, Director of Strategic Engagement at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), to examine the mounting environmental and economic costs of President Trump’s policies.

Bob explains how the administration’s attacks on clean energy and environmental protections are affecting Americans’ wallets, pointing to rising electricity and gasoline costs, billions of dollars in lost clean-energy investment and canceled projects that could have powered millions of homes and businesses. Meanwhile, major oil companies continue to reap enormous profits.

Brad and Bob also discuss the growing financial toll of climate-driven droughts, heat waves, wildfires, storms and floods; a major Supreme Court case involving efforts to hold fossil-fuel companies accountable for climate damages; and threats to America’s national parks and protected lands.

Finally, they look ahead to what Congress can do to restore environmental safeguards, protect clean air and water, accelerate clean-energy development and provide greater accountability for an administration that Deans says has taken or proposed more than 560 actions undermining the environment and public health.

Then, Brad is joined by Tara Devlin, host of the TARABUSTER podcast, for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of the U.S. economy, affordability and growing economic inequality.

Brad and Tara examine the contrast between the Trump administration’s claims of a booming economy and economic indicators showing weak hiring, persistent inflation, high mortgage rates and financial pressure on working- and middle-class Americans. Tara explains how Trump’s self-described “golden age” looks very different for ordinary families than it does for billionaires and the wealthiest Americans.

The conversation also turns to the rollback of clean-energy projects, the economic impact of those decisions, and the approaching midterm elections. Later, Brad and Tara discuss proposals to raise taxes on billionaires, the concentration of wealth and political influence, and whether asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute more could help address challenges facing programs such as Social Security.

They close with a broader conversation about money and politics, accountability and the controversies surrounding Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

The website for NRDC is www.NRDC.org and their handle on BlueSky is @NRDC.org.

Tara Devlin is host of the progressive podcast 'TARABUSTER,' which can be found at www.tarabuster.com. Her handle on BlueSky is @tarabuster.bsky.social.

Brad is on the National Journal's panel of political insiders, is an American political analyst for The Times of India TV, and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. Brad also writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.'

You can read his new Substack called, 'The Bannon Ballot Blast,' at www.bradbannon.substack.com.

His handle on BlueSky is @bradbannon.bsky.social.

(Image Credit: The Economist/Getty Images)

This time on Code WACK!

An estimated 5.7 million Americans are living with dementia in 2026, with that number expected to rise sharply as the population ages. And care isn't cheap. According to US News and World Report, it averages about $7,600 a month, more than $91,000 a year. For many, special care, especially ‘memory care,’ will be required at some point in their disease progression.

When an assisted living facility promises a patient specialized memory care, what exactly does that mean? What are patients and families actually being promised? And what happens when facilities can't deliver?

To learn more, we're speaking with Tony Chicotel, senior staff attorney with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, or CANHR. For decades, Tony has fought to protect the rights of long-term care residents.

Check out the Transcript and Show Notes for more!

And please keep Code WACK! on the air with a tax-deductible donation.

'BradCast' 10/6/2026: Good, Bad and Ugly News, One Month from Midterm Election Day by Progressive Voices

Green News Report 10/6/2026 by Progressive Voices

Occam's razor Is A Truth We Don't Want

The Supreme Court is weighing lawsuits from states that claim oil companies are responsible for climate change, and as such, must pay other help mitigate it. But it doesn't take any great thought...of course they caused it, of course they knew it was going to happen, and of course they profited for years off of it. That's a no-brainer. So why is it even a question?

Because that's too easy. Who is more to blame? The Drug pusher, for supplying the drugs, or the addicts who consume them, knowing they are bad?

In fact most of the world's problems today are easy to solve, the answers are usually quite simple, as Occam's razor suggests. All things being equal, the simplest solution is often the right one. The problem? Solving them means admitting we caused them, allowed the happen, did nothing to stop them.

Solving them means each of us taking the blame...and no one wants to do that.

Poverty? Easy. Homelessness? Easy. Income inequality? Easy. None of these issues are hard to solve at all. But they'd require something we're not willing to do: accept the responsibility and make sacrifices for the solutions.

#TheKarelCast, #TheKarelShow, #LGBTQ, #Vegan, #OccamsRazor, #ClimateChange, #SupremeCourt, #BigOil, #ClimateCrisis, #CorporateAccountability, #IncomeInequality, #Homelessness, #Poverty, #PoliticalCommentary, #IndependentMedia

https://youtube.com/live/xYMZUvGj04A