'BradCast' 10/24/2017: (Guest: Stephen Schwartz, nuclear weapons policy analyst)
Yet another Republican U.S. Senator has decided they've had enough: Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake stunned D.C. today by joining Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker in announcing he will not run for re-election after all in 2018, offering a blistering rebuke of Donald Trump and the Republican Party itself on the Senate floor on Tuesday. That development came after a remarkably rancorous series of media/twitter exchanges between Corker and Trump on Tuesday morning. We cover all of the above today, with a focus on Corker's charge that the President of the United State is, himself, not only failing the country, but a real and present threat to national security in regard to North Korea and other foreign policy concerns. With that in mind, along with the disturbing report over the weekend that the U.S. Air Force is preparing for the possibility of placing nuclear-armed bombers on 24/7 ready alert for the first time since the end of the Cold War, we are joined by longtime nuclear weapons policy analyst Stephen Schwartz of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Schwartz, formerly the longtime Executive Editor and Publisher of the 'Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' (keepers of the infamous 'Doomsday Clock'), explains the reasons -- sensible or otherwise -- the White House and US military might make this extraordinary move, which, he charges, is fraught with a number of perils. It's particularly puzzling, he explains, given that the U.S. already has hundreds, if not thousands, of nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles at the ready on both land and sea. It is at various times both a chilling and (somewhat) comforting conversation and incredibly enlightening from top to bottom. Schwartz speaks to, among many other things: why the Air Force might be doing this; whether or not Congress should finally step in to ensure the U.S. never launches a nuclear first strike, no matter who occupies the Oval Office; whether or not he agrees with Corker's assessment that Trump is a threat to national security and world peace; and what, if anything, might prevent Trump from "pushing the button" in a moment of pique, if he suddenly feels like it. Finally, speaking of existential threats (and making them worse), we're joined by Desi Doyen with the latest 'Green News Report' as the hottest World Series in baseball history gets under way out here in Los Angeles, where the mercury hit a record 104 degrees today...in late October...