The Resist Report

Info Sec researcher Shawn Eib joins the panel to discuss Russian hacking efforts, the Bros run down the latest in politics, and nominate their #shitholeoftheweek.

House Majority Leader and Donald Trump’s most trusted ally in Congress Kevin McCarthy has a big problem. Her name is Tatiana Matta. She is the Democrat seeking to unseat McCarthy in California’s 23rd congressional district, and she sat down for an exclusive interview with the Bros for America panelists as a part of our Race for 2018 interview series, which has put the spotlight on women in congressional races.

Tatiana Matta (D-CA), first-time candidate for Congress in CA-23, says that deciding to run for office was a family decision. She is a proud military mom pictured here with her husband and son. Photograph courtesy of Hanna Grace Photography.

Matta emerged the victor among a crop of fine Democratic candidates who ran in the district in the June 2018 California statewide primaries a few weeks ago. In her district alone, voter turnout among Democrats increased by 11,000% from the 2014 Democratic primaries in California. That’s a massive haul.

Still, this is a District so firmly held by Republicans (perhaps the most conservative in the entire state) that a serious Democratic challenger in the area is rare. McCarthy is also a prolific fundraiser for the Republican Party, with a majority — yes over HALF — of his donations coming from unaccountable dark money (the “other” option), and from the verifiable sources, the majority of donations are coming from Securities and Investment firms, insurance companies, big oil and gas companies.

Matta is, by comparison, running a grassroots campaign and doesn’t have the kind of money McCarthy does. Will she benefit from the same grass-roots activism that elevated Conor Lamb to an unlikely victory in Pennsylvania, or Doug Jones to a win in Alabama? After all, 40 seats have flipped from Republicans to Democrats in just the INTERIM between the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 midterms this November.

Matta acknowledges McCarthy’s flaws are many.

“Where do I begin?” she answered when asked about the problems McCarthy poses to her district.

But Matta doesn’t care to push a negative campaign against McCarthy. Instead, she set out on a sort of listening tour around her district to find out what voters are feeling and to gauge their wants and needs.  The response?

“Do you have enough money to buy food for your kids? Do you have enough money to buy gasoline to go to work? Do you have recreation in your town? Do you have health care? It’s about daily lives.”

Matta espouses a rather noble and humble view on public service and helping her community. Yes, it is problematic that Kevin McCarthy “has the ear of the president,” as she puts it and yet has brought no calm or reason to Washington. But, she would like to run on issues and would rather we send someone to Congress in the district who is an actual voice for and of the people, not one that is bought and paid for or serves merely at the pleasure of the president.

Certainly, not a candidate that will take office and cement legal authority that makes the Executive Branch of government impenetrable by law enforcement.

“This election matters a lot more than people think,” warned Matta, who is endorsed by the Democratic Party, Indivisible, and many others. (By comparison, even Diane Feinstein can’t get endorsed by the CA Democratic Party.)

As Donald Trump’s onslaught of daily scandal and spectacle grows to a nearly-comedic fever pitch, the Republican Party, whether it be members of Congress or the apparently state-owned media network that continues to prop them up, continues to demonstrate a total unwillingness or desire to end this madness.

Indeed, the majority party is the Republican Party, and they control each and every facet of the government. Whether through gerrymandering or the disqualifying of millions of legal voters from the voter rolls, or the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of African American voters, or stealing a seat on the United States Supreme Court, the Republican Party has all the power.

Still, even if obtained through shenanigans, crime, and illegality, the idea that the Republican Party didn’t love America was once outlandish. Think what you may of George W. Bush (I was known to call him a war criminal while protesting his administration in the early 2000s), one never questioned his patriotism, at least not really.

That Republicans have been embedded by special interests is not news. That has been the reality for decades. But this is something new. Donald Trump is not a Republican. And he is slowly and surely tearing apart every Democratic institution and ally. And regardless of how they got there, a patriotic Republican Party who puts Country before party would end this sideshow spectacle and impeach this threat to our Democracy.

But they allow it. Day in. Day out. And with the recent Trump “Treason Summit” in Helsinki solidifying for the left what they feared all along– that the President of the United States is owned and working in concert with the worlds leading foreign hostile power– and Trump’s sexual abuse allegations piling on, and of course reports that his former private attorney Michael Cohen is in possession of damning audio tapes from 2016….only one question remains.

Will the Republican Party do what’s right?

The answer is simply, no.

The Bros for America podcast is executive produced by Alex Mohajer and co-hosted by Alex Mohajer, Daniel Fusselman, Thomas McAbee, and Rance Collins. It features the music “Operatic 3” by Vibe Mountain and “It’s Always Too Late To Start Over” by Chris Zabriskie. Insterstitial music is Howard Beal’s House of Cards theme. Bros for America is produced using Audacity and powered by Bluberry/Power Press.

Make no mistake: there’s a reason that Neera Tanden is one of the most influential women in American politics. It’s not just because 10,000 of her private e-mails were stolen and sent out to the world during the now-infamous 2016 WikiLeaks e-mail drops, forever tying her to one of the most harrowing political sagas of all time (“but her emails!”).

That’s just a small part of her legacy. Tanden, who is the president of the Center for American Progress and named one of the most powerful women in Washington D.C. boasts a career spanning multiple decades and several presidential campaigns beginning with Michael Dukakis in 1988 and most recently for the first female major-party nominee for president in 2016.

It’s fair to say that Tanden has seen some things. Unsurprisingly, Russian operatives or government officials near or in touch with a presidential nominee is not one of them. Neera sat down with me and co-panelists Thomas McAbee and Daniel Fusselman to discuss Trump’s legitimacy, Russian involvement in the election and what this means for the upcoming SCOTUS confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, and whether or not Democrats should impeach Trump.

“[The Trump campaign] had 72 contacts [with Russians],” Tanden said on the Bros4AMerica podcast. “I’ve worked on a few presidential campaigns. Neither I nor anyone I knew ever interacted with any Russians at any point on any campaign that I’ve ever been a part of. The fact that Donald Trump asked for help and on the same day Russians launched a major attack on [Hillary Clinton’s] email server…”

For those on the right cozying up to, and those on the left ignoring or minimizing the threat posed to our democracy by Vladimir Putin and his ongoing attacks on us…here's a little refresher about who we are dealing with. pic.twitter.com/qZoJuzIAO3

— Alex Mohajer (@AlexMohajer) July 20, 2018

Clinton’s much-ballyhooed server, Tanden notes, is the only one to remain unscathed and uncompromised during the course of the Russian active measures cyber efforts.

When recalling those pesky stolen e-mails nearly two years out, Tanden is feeling settled about what was at the time “horrific,” “painful,” and the “worst moment of [her] professional life.”

The major takeaway?

“The fact that Donald Trump has colluded with Russia is by and large already proven at this point,” Tanden said in the interview. “The question is whether that collusion was legal or not.”

Indeed, our democracy is at a dangerous in-roads that only a concerned citizenry can overcome, regardless of whether blame can be attributed only to Russian interventionism or whether it constitutes criminal wrongdoing should not matter. It is wrong.

“If you’re unhappy about what happened to Hillary,” Tanden said, “get out there and vote [this November]!”

Register to vote for free and in 90 quick seconds here.

Tanden also had measured but resolute words for Mr. Trump, stating affirmatively that should the Democrats have the political courage, and should they indeed pull off a blue wave this November,

Trump’s ever-revolving door of White House staffers and cabinet members spat out another sucker this week, while creating a splashy media circus around Trump’s pick for his second stolen SCOTUS seat since taking office. Scott Pruitt, the embattled Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (whose initial nomination and confirmation roiled this publication to begin with back in 2017) was voted off of Trump Island this week. His breadth of scandal, corruption, and unethical governance finally reached a fever pitch this week, causing Mr. Trump to give him his time-trusted and true go-to missive: “You’re fired!”

The topic was hot on the minds of Bros4America co-hosts Alex Mohajer, Thomas McAbee, and Rance Collins during this week’s Bros4America Podcast. Still reeling from the injustice of not giving Merrick Garland a confirmation vote despite 11 months of waiting, the Bros discuss the potential for the impeachment of Brett Kavanaugh (should he be confirmed) and/or Justice Gorsuch, who the Bros opine will have been nominated by an illegitimate president, making all of his subsequent appointments illegitimate fruit-of-the-tree.

This, of course, comes as news breaks that 12 Russian GRU military war-time officials for the Russian government have been indicted in Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.

#Save SCOTUS

This decision threatens to overturn Roe vs. Wade and shift the balance of power towards a permanent conservative bent for an entire generation. In order to stop it, citizens across the United States MUST take action. 51 total ‘no’ votes in the United States Senate are needed to stop this. 49 ‘no’ votes are needed by every single Democrat in the Senate including independents who caucus with Democrats. Then, two Republicans must break from party lines. We recommend putting the pressure on the following Senators:

The fate of the US Supreme Court now lies in the hands of 5 people: Senators @LisaMurkowski (AZ), @SenatorCollins (ME), @HeidiHeitkamp (ND), @Sen_JoeManchin (WV), and @SenDonnelly (IN). But you can call them from any state. 202-224-3121. God help us all.

— Alex Mohajer (@AlexMohajer) June 29, 2018

Call the United States Senate switchboard and urge members of the Senate to not hold a vote till AFTER the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump/Russia.

#ShitholeoftheWeek

or the phone number of the San Bernadino District Attorney’s Office: (909) 382-3800.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is the first-ever unanimous #ShitholeoftheWeek Award recipient on the special Fourth of July 2018 edition of the Bros 4 America podcast.

“Mitch McConnell, you are beneath the dignity of the United States Senate and of the American people,” said moderator and host Alex Mohajer during the podcast’s weekly #ShitholeoftheWeek segment.

Mohajer was joined by co-hosts and fellow panelists Daniel Fusselman and Rance Collins (fourth co-host Thomas McAbee was out this week) in the unanimous decision. #ShitholeoftheWeek is a weekly segment that ordinarily produces several nominees for listeners to choose between, and each nominee is selected  straight from that relative week’s current events and headlines.

McConnell was selected this week, despite the illegitimately-elected president continuing to steamroll past our constitutional rights and sensibilities, aided and abetted by a complicit Republican party, which stands to benefit from this offensive display of near-daily bombast and spectacle by stacking the federal judiciary and U.S. Supreme Court that could have an impact on the decisions that come out of it for decades. Maybe more.

Fitting in the day or two preceding the Fourth of July holiday that news should break roke just days ago of the surprise retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, leaving an upcoming vacancy on the court with an election only months away. Citing to then-looming 2016 presidential election, McConnell infamously delayed a vote on former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick Merrick Garland for 11 months. After successfully stealing that seat, McConnell is now threatening to push through Trump’s second pick for the highest court in the land. This time, according to McConnell, there will be no waiting till after the election, despite the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections being only months away.

Democrats have seized on the offensive display of hypocrisy, and rightfully so. The pick is sure to be Pro-Life candidate that threatens to overturn Roe vs Wade and all of the recent landmark progress made in terms of LGBT rights, while throwing the Supreme Court into chaos for a generation, ensuring no real progressive policies or laws are upheld potentially for decades.

Mitch McConnell should wait till after the 2018 midterm elections to push through a vote on Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court. Bros4America is partnering with MoveOn and Indivisible for a week of action beginning on July 9, 2018 to respond to the upcoming heist. 

“The Russian meddling in our elections continues today unabated,” said Dr. Dena Grayson in an exclusive interview for the Bros4America podcast. The alarming takeaway was just one of many in her near hour-long conversation with moderator Alex Mohajer and co-hosts Daniel Fusselman and Thomas McAbee.  The second biggest takeaway? Dr. Grayson is a firebrand.

Since November 2016, the medical doctor, researcher and former congressional candidate out of Florida’s 9th congressional district has emerged as one of the leading voices in the fight to expose Trump/Russia to the American electorate. Some may know her from her blossoming Twitter account, where she savagely trolls Donald Trump on a near daily basis, or her new YouTube show, though Grayson is already well-known in the political circles.

She spilled the details on her rise in politics, told stories about Nancy Pelosi, explained what its like being married to former Congressman Alan Grayson (who is running for re-election in FL-9), and gave her signature tell-all take on Trump/Russia, including whether or not there is any truth to rumors of the now-infamous pee-tape. (Spoiler Alert: “It’s much worse,” Grayson revealed.)

Despite her connectedness, Grayson floats far from the establishment line, and is marching to the beat of her own drum. Her fierce independence is immediately evident in her immense command over the facts and her unabashed advocacy of her progressive positions on issues. She even wears the term “flaming liberal” as a metaphoric badge of honor (we second that). She’s making her own mark on the political world, right here, right now.

It makes sense, then, that she credits her start in politics to her time as a fellow for the Aspen Institute, under the tutelage of Kathleen Kennedy (the daughter of the late-great Robert Kennedy) and not her marriage to Rep. Grayson, who is seeking to retake the seat he held from 2009-2011, and who infamously scolded Republicans from the House floor for their health care “plan.” (Editor’s Note: Dr. Grayson and I share in a hilarious impression of the moment at the outset of the episode, chuckling through the now-infamous charge of “don’t get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly! -AM)

But if Dr. Grayson could impart one prescription to listeners and Congress alike, it’s to start getting serious about Russian meddling in our elections yesterday, which she discussed extensively during the broadcast. The president, who she describes as being a participant to conspiracy, is not going to do it for us. So we must take it upon ourselves to ensure the opposition is given a fool-proof majority in this November’s mid-term elections.

Don’t have to tell us twice. Just following Doctor’s orders.

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MSNBC host Rachel Maddow broke into tears during Tuesday night’s broadcast of the popular evening cable news program, The Rachel Maddow Show.  The emotional moment, unusual for the

usually-gregarious Maddow, came during the final moments of the broadcast when she

 

attempted to read the lede of this breaking AP story report (entitled, “At least 3 ‘tender age’ shelters set up for migrant children”).  And for good reason. The sentiments were echoed by equally frustrated and disturbed media personalities across the country, including the panelists of the Bros4America podcast.  The June 19th episode  focused exclusively on the Department of Homeland Security and it’s participation in abusive and inhuman civil rights abuses against children at the U.S. border.

 

This is where we’re at.

Fitting then that June marks the 52nd anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s stirring ‘Ripple of Hope’ speech, in which he spoke of the ills of futility and challenged an entire generation to affect change in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

“Now, more than ever, what we need is that ripple of hope and belief in the promise of this great country that the late Bobby Kennedy spoke of 52-years-ago.

“Resistance fatigue,” as with any movement, is inevitable.  In an exclusive interview with Bros4America earlier this month, Rep. Maxine Waters warned of this, urging young activists to surround themselves with highly motivated and energetic people. As the hot summer days begin in earnest and the 2018 mid-term elections loom as one of the most important elections of our lifetime,  the

Trump Administration’s insidious agenda has reached a level of cruelty and inhumanity that come as a shock to even his sharpest critics.

The final five minutes of this week’s Bros4America podcast are dedicated to Thomas McAbee, who has sacrificed more for this country than most people know, and to anyone feeling frustrated and hopeless by this nightmare. You are the heart and soul of this fight.

Reports out of McAllen, Texas have begun to reveal the  United States is participating in human rights abuses against children immigrating from foreign countries by separating them from their parents and detaining them in what can only be described as mini-internment camps. The photos are enough to make any activist feel burned out and hopeless.

Especially troubling is the apologist and complacent behavior of the conservative news media, which has been continuously taking ordinarily non-partisan issue like the humane treatment of children, and making it a partisan one. Not to mention the constant repetition of propaganda and lies. For instance, FOX News personality Laura Ingraham took to her soap box on Monday night to seriously opine with no irony that the detainment camps for these young children, look like a boarding school.

I wonder if Laura @IngrahamAngle, who is an American citizen but adopted two children from a foreign country, would feel alright with her kids being detained in one of these detention "boarding schools" on her next international trip. It's just like summer camp, right, Laura? pic.twitter.com/FqQtS9mPay

Congressional candidate Cathy Myers knows that her home state of Wisconsin is responsible for a slew of voting rights abuses and that elections integrity has suffered under current Republican Governor Scott Walker and Representative Paul Ryan, whose seat Myers is aiming to flip.

The topic of Wisconsin’s systematic assault on voting rights came up during an interview for the latest episode of the Bros4America podcast, where Myers joined creator and host Alex Mohajer and co-host Dan Fusselman for a lively discussion. The suppression of 200,000 African American votes, for instance, may well have swayed the outcome of the 2016 American presidential election, an election that left millions of Americans with broken hearts and lots of questions.

Myers, like the entire team at Bros4America, was among the broken-hearted. She cites to the election as being the impetus for her decision to run for Congress, with Donald Trump’s appointment of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education as being the straw that broke the camel’s back. For a part-time teacher and school board member from the small town of Janesville, Wisconsin, seeing the Trump Administration engage in an “all-out” assault on some of our democracy’s most sacred institutions was enough. She needed to do something.

As many now know, House Speaker Paul Ryan has opted not to run for re-election in the upcoming midterms. While to some, his proffered explanation of wanting to spend more time with his family may hold muster, but it would be naive to suggest a young politician in the prime of his career, third in line for the presidency, and primed to become a real leader within his own party isn’t jumping ship to save his own hide. With the #meToo movements and the Women’s March  and now the #MarchforourLives kids entering into the discourse, it would appear that Republicans can ONLY maintain seats because of unfair legislative advantages through redistricting or suppressing the vote.

“The future is female,” Myers said regarding the insurgency of activism that began with the Women’s March directly coinciding with Donald Trump’s inauguration and has been gaining momentum towards a “blue wave” in this November’s midterm elections.  Myers, who lives Janesville (the same town as Speaker Ryan), is now seeking to be his successor. Having a progressive female who believes in medicare for all would be a massive statement, a cherry-on-top of a blue wave meant to set right the ship of state following the abomination of the 2016 presidential election.

At the conclusion of the interview, Myers became the first congressional candidate and indeed first-ever Bros4America interview subject to select a #ShitholeoftheWeek nominee.  (For the record, she picked Aaron Schlossberg, the New York-based lawyer whose racist rant in a Manhattan eatery spurred a viral video).

BROS4AMERICA (the podcast) is executive produced by Alex Mohajer and is co-hosted by panelists Thomas McAbee, Rance Collins, and Daniel Fusselman. It is produced using Audacity and powered by WordPress/Powerpress, with hosting and stats services provided by Blubrry. Special thanks to Nelson Melegrito, Matt Garrett,

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) had no idea last July when she used ordinary parliamentary procedure during her questioning of embattled Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, that she would go massively viral and introduce “reclaiming my time” into the public discourse as a sort of battle-cry for the resistance. Lovingly referred to by fans and supporters as “Auntie Maxine,” the Los Angeles-based Congresswoman has since become a household name and an icon of the resistance.

Waters, who is seeking re-election in California’s 43rd congressional district this November and faces a primary hurdle on Tuesday, June 5th, spoke with me and Thomas McAbee about her clash with Mnuchin, almost a year later.

“Tell you the truth, I was very surprised that it went viral,” Waters said during the interview. She has, after all, been in her fair share of dust-ups while a member of Congress (which we have fondly reported in the past).

“Because ‘reclaiming my time’ is a regular order of business in the Congress of the United States. It’s not original. It is said often by different people at different times when you’re trying to get back the time that you have been allotted to speak and someone else is kind of, uh, intruding or imposing on that time.”

“But then I began to understand,” Waters continued, “after talking with people, what it meant. It meant something different for everybody. I think that it struck a nerve because, here you had Mnuchin, our treasury secretary who had been the owner and CEO of a big bank. And here you had an African American woman sitting on this committee and not accepting his rudeness and not accepting business as usual and challenging him by using the rules.”

It’s no surprise. The Washington Post described the moment as “bigger than Maxine Waters” for capturing the frustrated sentiment of an entire nation.

The moment marks a long list of viral moments for the Congresswoman, who has been dubbed ‘Auntie Maxine’ by her adoring supporters, new and old alike, and praised as one of Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics and a hero of the resistance. She fearlessly calls for the president’s impeachment even as a timid Democratic Party leadership tiptoes around the issue, and has no qualms calling him a liar or dubbing his team “The Kremlin Klan” or a “bunch of scumbags.”

Her criticisms aren’t just rhetorical.

“It is an insult,” Waters said in our interview, speaking about the news that Donald Trump has publicly claimed that he holds the “absolute power” to pardon himself. It was one of the few moments that the Congresswoman referenced the president specifically in the interview, but with a clear distaste for the president and his circle establishing him as above reproach and above the law.

But at the campaign event that preceded our interview, a millennial meet-and-greet, Waters’ young

supporters burst into their own impromptu session of the Electric Slide just as enthusiastically as when asked to speak about the issues facing them and the direction they want for the Country.

Trump/Russia didn’t come up during the event.