BradCast' 10/6/2017 ('The Calm Before the Storm'?)
b"In somewhat chilling and wholly cryptic remarks during a short press avail Thursday night, Donald Trump suggested this might be "the calm before the storm," before refusing to clarify beyond gesturing to military leaders at his side for a White House dinner, and adding "you'll find out." The storm he certainly was not referring to was Hurricane Nate, which has killed more than 20 in Central America and is now expected to slam the U.S. Gulf Coast (possibly New Orleans) over the weekend. Disaster relief continues in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and more than 90% of the island remains without power, despite the Administration attempts to obscure the ongoing catastrophe. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has now publicly offered to rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid with solar panels and batteries. And, in not-at-all unrelated news, Trump has nominated a top coal industry lobbyist to be second in command at the Environmental Protection Agency, and to head up EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, he has nominated a chemical industry scientist, whose work has for years downplayed peer-reviewed scientific studies critical of his clients' products. Then, in the aftermath of last Sunday's Las Vegas Massacre, some progressives and, yes, even conservatives are calling for an idea that is rarely mentioned, much less debated:\\xa0 amending the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment or abolishing it entirely.\\xa0 As U.S. democracy has been stifled so much on issues related to guns and gun safety and the Constitution itself after years of distorting propaganda by the NRA (the gun lobby) and its tools in both government and media, we discuss the issue today in hopes of welcoming actual debate on it and related topics. Finally, several recent polls -- on issues from health care to the NFL, the media to immigration to climate change -- all find opposition steadily growing AGAINST pretty much every position that Trump and Republicans hold on them. Trump, it seems, has 'the reverse Midas touch', as one writer observes, in what suffices for a bit of encouraging news at the end of another horrible week in the U.S..."