'BradCast' 9/21/2017 (Guest: Journalist David Dayen of The Nation and The Intercept)
b"The 'fun' out of this week's United Nations General Assembly continues today, with the leaders of both Iran and North Korea pushing back against incendiary comments by the U.S. President. In response to Donald Trump's threat to 'completely destroy' his country, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called Trump 'deranged' and said he would 'pay dearly', for those threats and for new sanctions Trump announced today via executive order. (We also discuss questions about Trump's claims regarding those new sanctions.) For his part, the Iranian Prime Minister lashed back at Trump's characterization of Iran's 'murderous regime' as 'ignorant, absurd and hateful'. And, at the same time, Trump surprised his own top cabinet officials by claiming he'd made a 'decision' regarding the anti-nuclear agreement struck with Iran (and China, Russia, France, UK and Germany), even as the US, the other nations in the deal, and the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) all agreed that Iran has fully upheld its side of the bargain to date. If Trump is seen as willing to break that multilateral international deal -- on the heels of withdrawing from the landmark global Paris Climate Agreement -- should any nation in the world, much less North Korea, even consider making a deal with the U.S. and Donald Trump? Then, Republicans in the U.S. Senate are frantically hoping to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act before the end of next week, when Senate rules will make it much harder, if not impossible, to do so. The latest attempt, the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill, would take billions of dollars from so-called 'blue states' and given them to 'red states' instead, before tossing Medicaid recipients in all states over a cliff in 2027. Financial journalist David Dayen of The Nation and The Intercept joins us today to detail what he describes as the particularly hypocritical sales pitch that Republican senators are deploying in hopes of boondoggling lawmakers and the public in a desperate attempt to justify the unpopular scheme that will result in the loss of health care for millions. We also discuss/debate why the Senate GOP is so eager to do so and whether Republicans in the House will be willing to go along with it.\\xa0 Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest 'Green News Report' following the record Hurricane Maria's devastating landfall on Puerto Rico, the latest catastrophic earthquake in Mexico, and more fallout from world leaders following Trump's address at the U.N..."