While the "news" networks covered Donald Trump and his comments about John McCain all weekend, we cover a bit of what they did not on today's BradCast.
First, the climate crisis comes home, as two different climate change-related disasters on California and Arizona freeways over the weekend (one drought related, one flood related) were averted — just barely.
Then, we're joined by Dr. Yosef Brody, president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility to discuss the disturbing new independent 542-page report commissioned by the American Psychological Association (APA), confirming that top officials at the APA colluded with the Bush Administration to approve CIA and Dept. of Defense torture techniques after 9/11. The APA then spent the next decade covering it up and smearing the whistleblowers at Brody's organization.
The findings of the new report, and the scandal in its wake, has touched off a shakeup at the top echelons of the organization. The report by a former federal prosecutor reveals "a complete and utter failure of psychological ethics," Brody tells me. "What it's saying is that what we critics have suspected for about a decade now — that senior [APA] staff have been currying favor with the Pentagon and the CIA, effectively facilitating torture. And to top it off, they've engaged in this very sophisticated, decade-long coverup."
It was all done, he explains, to protect the Bush Administration from legal liability for war crimes, allowing them to describe their "enhanced interrogation techniques," with the blessing of the APA, as "safe, legal, ethical and effective", when they were anything but.
"This is really about a culture of corruption at the top of the largest organization of psychologists in the world," says Brody, about the APA's complicity. "We're talking about war crimes here, ultimately. And we're talking about a health professional association!"
Then, some politics: First, #BlackLivesMatter protesters disrupt Democratic Presidential candidates Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders at the progressive Netroots Nation conference over the weekend. And then, can Al Franken be blamed for Donald Trump's controversial comments about the war record of John McCain? Maybe. I explain all of that on today's BradCast!..
