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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.S. is warming faster than the rest of the globe and every region is affected, National Climate Assessment warns; U.S. and China agree to work together to displace fossil fuels and tackle the climate crisis; PLUS: Biden Administration releases new funding to strengthen climate resilience across the nation... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Brazil: Health warnings as country gripped by 'unbearable' heatwave; New York sues PepsiCo over plastic bottles and wrappers that pollute clean water; Two studies on Greenland reveal ominous signs for sea level rise; Canada says it can fight climate change and be major oil nation. Massive fires may force a reckoning; Somalia floods: Bodies unearthed and bridges swept away; COP28 Host UAE has world's biggest climate-busting oil plans, data show... PLUS: How to electrify your life when you rent... and much, MUCH more! ...

A whole lot of climate related political news converges on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

You'll not be shocked to learn that Donald Trump is still lying to his followers about climate change, clean renewable energy and electrification. No, as he lied during a recent rally in Texas, California didn't experience "blackouts all over the place this summer". We had zero, in fact, thanks to renewable energy and battery storage, and haven't had one since 2020.

Sadly, however, Trump is hardly the only Republican politician willing to hoax his own supporters on behalf of the deadly fossil fuel industry which funds so much of the party. At last week's GOP Presidential Primary Debate in Miami --- of all places --- none of the candidates even mentioned climate and, shamefully, neither did the NBC News moderators, who failed to ask a single question about the most existential crisis facing our planet. In Miami!

But the facts about the climate crisis, caused largely by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, continue to flood in, along with our rising and warming seas, whether any particularly party remains in denial or not. On Tuesday, the U.S. Government released its Fifth National Climate Assessment, a 37-chapter, 2,200-page report which includes an interactive atlas that allows users to zoom down to the county level across a nation where warming is far outpacing the global average.

Climate related disasters are touching every corner of the country, and --- in addition to lives lost --- it's costing an extraordinary amount of money. Last year alone cost U.S. tax payers $178 billion in damage from climate-fueled storms, wildfires and droughts, etc. The new report, as terrifying as it may be, is also hopeful, as it details how it is still not too late to implement already existing tools to mitigate at least the worst of the dangers still to come.

And, on Tuesday, the world may have received a big boost toward that goal, with an announcement by the U.S. and China, in advance of President Biden's meeting today with President Xi Jinping, that the two nations have agreed to jointly ramp up the use of wind, solar and other renewable energy in hopes of displacing fossil fuels in the near future. That's a big deal, as both countries agreed to "pursue efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030."

But how do we overcome GOP fossil-fuel funded intransigence (and lies) which have made China very wary that any agreement struck now with the U.S. may not be honored if Democrats are displaced from the White House in the future?

That remains a challenge. But there may be a glimmer of hope for the GOP, as a recent op-ed at The Hill details "The global climate solution Republicans have been looking for". What is that solution? A bill recently introduced by three Senate Republicans --- Bill Cassidy (LA), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Roger Wicker (MS) --- called the Foreign Pollution Fee Act of 2023.

What would it do? It would impose a fee on imports of certain carbon-intensive products manufactured in nations without the same kind of environmental regulations that make similar products more expensive to produce in the U.S. Several weeks ago, the European Union announced a similar tax that puts a fair price on carbon emitted during production of goods that are imported into the EU. They call theirs a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Its sounds kind of geeky, but only because it is. It would, however, according to my guests today, both help to lower emissions around the world and bring overseas jobs back to the U.S.

We're joined today by MATTHEW LEE, author of the aforementioned opinion piece at The Hill and a Federal Policy Specialist at the non-profit Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN). We're also happy to be joined by REV. DR. JESSICA MOERMAN, President and CEO of EEN, which has long carried out the mission of educating and mobilizing evangelical Christians to reclaim the Biblical mandate of caring for creation and working toward a healthy, stable climate.

Lee explains the Republicans' policy proposal, how it would work, and what it hopes to accomplish. Moerman, who, as it turns out, is also (helpfully) a Ph.D. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, also offers her insights into this week's alarming Climate Assessment Report. She was at the White House on Tuesday when the report was released, and when Biden announced $6 billion in new investments to help mitigate the worst of the climate challenges we are all facing.

"For many decades, our country has had higher environmental standards than other countries," Lee tells me today. "American products are among the cleanest in the world. The problem is that because our companies are held to higher standards, there's an incentive for companies to offshore their factories and take advantage of looser regulations abroad in order to increase profits. This is a problem that a carbon border adjustment or foreign pollution fee, or whatever you want to call it, addresses. If companies have an incentive to offshore their factories to take advantage of looser regulations abroad, let's just charge them a fee when they want to import their products back to the U.S."

"Fossil fuel pollution killed 8 million people around the world --- that accounts for 1 in 5 deaths --- in 2018," Lee says. "If there's any way that we can use our policies to incentivize foreign governments to do better in protecting the health and lives of their citizens and children everywhere, that's something that we should get behind. That's something that Republicans would totally get behind, evangelicals, and anyone who really cares for the health and lives of people around the world."

For her part, Moerman assures me this Republican proposal has no poison pills we might otherwise expect from a "Republican climate bill". "I understand your skepticism," she says. "As we are looking at policy options, we always look at, first, does it defend life? Does it make sure that it's defending the health and livelihoods of all people? Does it protect the environment or, as we see it, God's Creation? And, also, does it support those family-sustaining careers in the clean economy? This one checks all of those boxes."

In speaking about evangelical community's move to the political right in recent decades, Moerman contends "we are seeing a real shift in our community. As evangelicals, we are people who take the Bible seriously. That means we also have to take seriously our biblical mandate to care for God's Creation." She explains that progress is being made in her community "whenever we talk about it in this framing. Take climate out of the partisan political space, the culture war space, and really root it in scripture, in our faith of following through on our values of honoring God, by taking that stewardship mandate seriously. And also loving our neighbor by ensuring that they have that healthy environment and safe climate to thrive in."

Will it work? Will Republicans in Congress take hold of that mandate when, as Moerman notes, "20% of deaths [across the world] can be attributed to fossil fuel pollution"? She says the U.S. steel, aluminum and even oil and gas industry is supporting the bill, "so that should make Republicans pay attention."

We'll see. I remain skeptical, but hopeful. Lee says that Wicker has taken his name off the measure, so we'll see if that is a bad omen. But, we've got to do something, at this point, and we need to do it fast. At least if "God's Creation" might have a chance of surviving our ever-worsening climate nightmares...

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Today's BradCast picks up, by and large, where yesterday's show warning, left off. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among the stories covered today...

• First up, it looks like the U.S. House has passed a Continuing Resolution to temporarily fund the federal government through early next year in advance of this Friday's otherwise scheduled shutdown date. With the farthest right of the GOP House conference balking, of course, Democrats were once again needed to save the day to pass the measure, which now heads to the Senate for likely adoption. New Speaker Mike Johnson's move is the exact same thing that got then Speaker Kevin McCarthy tossed from his Speakership by the extremists in his own caucus. Johnson, however, is apparently being given a pass, for now.

• Then, we return to my argument from yesterday regarding the failure by most of the corporate media to properly inform the electorate about the two currently most likely candidates to win next year's 2024 Presidential nominations. In the case of President Biden, media are failing to accurately and proportionately report on his remarkable successes. In Donald Trump's case, they are still not fully covering the very real threat his own promised policies for a second term present to the nation.

  But some are getting it, including former Republican Congressman turned morning show host Joe Scarborough and his guest yesterday, global politics Professor Brian Klass. After Scarborough cited Trump's recent Nazi-like rhetoric for what it is, Klass made clear, in no uncertain terms: "I study the breakdown of democracy, and I don't know how to say this more clearly: We are sleepwalking towards authoritarianism, and people are not waking up to this."

• After receiving blow-back for Trump, at a Veterans Day rally over the weekend, describing his perceived domestic enemies as "vermin", just as Hitler and Mussolini did before him, Trump Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung attempted to reject the criticism from some corners over the remarks...by doubling down in a statement promising that Trump opponents' "entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.” --- Not really helping, Steve.

• Moreover, after a number of chilling recent news reports cited Trump's own vows, along with his campaign's and affiliated outside rightwing groups to create extremist plans for a second term in office --- including promises to prosecute, jail and even execute opponents and to construct major "camps" to hold millions of immigrants and homeless Americans --- his Campaign's co-managers, Susie Wilies and Chris LaCivita, issued a statement hoping to downplay detailed policy plans issued by anyone but the campaign as "purely speculative" and "merely suggestions". Unfortunately, many of those plans have been discussed with media by former top White House officials and Trump loyalists like Stephen Miller at the suggestion of the Campaign itself. And, as the New York Times observes, "the most incendiary rhetoric and proposals have come from Mr. Trump’s own mouth."

• A judge in Michigan, just before airtime today, rejected a challenge to Trump's candidacy under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars those from public office who, after taking an oath to defend the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection” against it. Despite the repeated historical use of the Amendment over the last 150 years or so since it's adoption, the judge claims that Congress must act before it can be used to block a Presidential candidate from the ballot. (After tonight's show, with more details now out, it is clear that --- as with last week's ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court in a similar challenge --- the judge's ruling is only in response to Trump's placement on the primary ballot. Both courts have left open further challenges to Trump's viability in a general election. Also, as with last week's Minnesota decision, the petitioners have vowed to immediately appeal the decision to a higher court.)

• Meanwhile, Trump's criminal defense team in the Georgia conspiracy case against him and 18 others for attempting to steal the 2020 election in the Peach State, appears to be the source of leaked videos of three former Trump attorneys (Ken Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis) and Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall. Each have pleaded guilty in the case and have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against the other defendants. The selective videos, leaked to both ABC News and Washington Post, are of the four defendants being interviewed by Fulton County prosecutors just before they copped their pleas. They reveal a number of new details in the case, but appear designed to undermine their witness testimony, send a threatening message to other potential cooperators and witnesses, and otherwise highlight Trump's expected defense in the case. Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis is now seeking an emergency order from the judge to prevent any further leaks of discovery evidence. The judges in Trump's other criminal cases would be wise to take notice of what he appears to be doing in Georgia.

• The U.S. Government released a massive, 2,200-page report today, its Fifth National Climate Assessment, finding that climate warming in the U.S. is now outpacing the global average and warning that every part of the country is being adversely affected by worsening heat waves, drought, wildfires, heavy downpours, and more. Minority communities are being disproportionately harmed. The cost of climate crisis damage to Americans is now averaging more than $150 billion each year, with last year clocking in at $178 billion. Along with the release of today's report, President Biden announced $6 billion in new investments --- paid for by the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act --- to "make communities across the country more resilient to climate changes...focused on key climate goals, including modernizing our aging electric grid to withstand extreme weather...Reducing flood risks to communities. Improving drought resilience. Support conservation for our national parks...And advancing environmental justice for disadvantaged communities, because they’re the ones always left behind."

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report --- for which the new National Climate Assessment came in too late today --- to report on last week's GOP Presidential Primary debate in Miami(!) which failed to even mention climate change; Australia's new treaty with the nation of Tuvalu as it disappears for good beneath the rising seas; and much more...

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Breaking just before air on today's BradCast: Yup. More GOP chaos in Congress. But I'm sure, by week's end, it'll all be the Democrats' fault somehow. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

In the wake of House Dems helping to keep the federal government from a shutdown over the weekend by voting in support of then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's last-minute, 45-day Continuing Resolution to keep the government open until the GOP's warring factions can pass a budget, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a Motion to Vacate against the Speaker of the House on Monday. By Tuesday afternoon, just before airtime, McCarthy was ousted in a dramatic 216 - 210 floor vote.

Gaetz and 7 other far-right Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to vacate the Office of Speaker of the House. It was a first in U.S. history.

Of course, we all saw it coming when McCarthy agreed to a deal with the farthest rightwing members of his own caucus in January to allow a single member to file a Motion to Vacate. It was one of many concessions by McCarthy in exchange for allowing him to become Speaker last on the 15th ballot. Moreover, he did himself few favors with the opposition party by breaking many promises with Biden and the Democrats regarding the shutdown, an absurd, evidence-free Impeachment Inquiry and more.

What happens next? That is completely unclear as of this hour, and as we scrambled to cover the historic news while still salvaging at least part of our previously planned program.

As the Republican Party falls apart in Congress, so does the life of the Republican front-runner for the 2024 Presidential nomination. Among our other stories, breaking or otherwise, today...

• The judge in New York overseeing the state's $250 million civil fraud trial against Donald Trump, his company and two of his sons issued a gag order against the former President on Tuesday, after he targeted the judge's law clerk this afternoon in a social media posting and in an email blast to supporters.

• Picking up on our continuing coverage of the racketeering case against Trump and 18 co-defendants in Georgia, related to their broad, failed conspiracy to steal the 2020 election in the Peach State, there was bad news in court on Friday for at least four of the co-defendants. We explain.

• Retired U.S. Marine Corps General, former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and Trump's second and longest-serving Chief of Staff, John Kelly, finally went on record today to confirm his direct knowledge of a number of Trump's long-reported attacks against military members and veterans, including by describing them as "suckers" and "losers".

• Kelly's devastating, if long-overdue, on-the-record remarks came in the wake of Trump's recent attack against General Mark Milley, Trump's Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who the former President recently charged with committing "treason", a crime punishable by execution. For his part, Milley, whose four-year term expired last week, offered thinly-veiled, if striking and piqued remarks during his Farewell Address late last week. Without mentioning Trump by name, while describing the uniqueness of the American military's mission to protect the nation and our democracy by taking an oath to protect the Constitution, Milley railed: "We don't take an oath to a country. We don't take an oath to a tribe. We don't take an oath to a religion. We don't take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator, and we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator!" While those comments have received a fair amount of attention by the media, Milley had much more to say along those lines. We share a bit more of his remarks that are worth hearing today.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, after New York saw its third 100-year flood in the past two years over the weekend; extreme heatwaves shattered September records; climate change is straining the home insurance bubble; and Norway's effort to move to 100% electric vehicles is all but complete...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New York City floods again after third 100-year storm in two years; From Minneapolis to Mexico, bizarre extreme heatwaves set new September records; Home insurance bubble could burst as climate disasters strain insurance markets; PLUS: Norway almost 100% EVs... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): In Michigan, not-so-sunny prospects for solar farms; More than 100 dolphins dead in Amazon as water hits 102 degrees Fahrenheit; There’s a lesson to take from China’s abandoned electric cars; Gas Furnaces Face 95% Efficiency Standard With Final DOE Rule; UAE's Jaber says oil, industrial firms to commit to decarbonization at COP28... PLUS: Truck stops upgrade to recharge electric vehicles and their drivers... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Monumental humanitarian crisis in Libya after catastrophic extreme flooding; U.S. hits new record for billion-dollar weather disasters in a single year; PLUS: Texas heat and drought is causing damage to local water systems... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Earth 'well outside safe operating space for humanity', scientists find; CA lawmakers pass groundbreaking greenhouse emissions disclosure bill; New York could require flood disclosures in home sales; Study: lead exposure killed more than 5 million people in just one year; World’s biggest carbon capture plant being built in Texas; For a pittance, miners can work public land. There’s a push to make them pay.... PLUS: Development in Washington State is crowding out cougars... and much, MUCH more! ...

The landmark federal climate bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, adopted last year without a single Republican vote when Democrats held majorities in both chambers of Congress, has a long way to go before we can determine its full success or failure.

On the other hand, as discussed on today's BradCast, if it is going well, but few Americans know it's going well --- as corporate broadcast media spend nearly 24 hours a day on various crises both manufactured and real (ironically, many caused by climate change!) --- can it or will it make a difference in next year's elections? [Audio link to full show is posted below this summary.]

But, FIRST UP today, one (or more) of those manufactured crises. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's desperate attempt on Tuesday to win over his own far-right caucus in the House by unilaterally declaring an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden doesn't seem to be going over very well. He had to break his own vow, made just 11 days ago, to do it only after a full vote of the House. It doesn't seem to be winning over enough colleagues to help him avoid a federal Government shutdown at the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1. And even fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate apparently see no evidence of High Crimes or Misdemeanors by the President to warrant impeachment.

On the other hand, he hasn't been pushed out of Speaker job by his own party this week...yet. So there's that!

NEXT: Biden and the Democrats' landmark Inflation Reduction Act --- featuring the largest single investment in history in climate change mitigation and clean energy manufacturing and jobs --- is now one year old. It has already begun to "turbocharging" a massive investment in new manufacturing plants and jobs in the U.S. to help reduce fossil fuel carbon emissions causing our climate crisis. It will soon be funding billions of dollars in home improvement projects to allow low and middle-income homeowners to electrify, solarize, upgrade and simply increase energy efficiency to save money. (NOTE: Not currently applicable in states like Florida, Kentucky, Iowa or South Dakota, apparently, which have failed to join the federal program to help their own residents save money and improve their home values while fighting climate change.)

Our guest today to discuss all of this is the great DAVID ROBERTS, longtime climate, energy and politics journalist and podcaster at Volts.WTF. We last spoke to him a year ago, just after passage of the critical legislation.

He explains today that it is still "too early to tell" whether the legislation is a success or not given all of its many practical objectives, which include vastly lowering emissions, creating millions of good paying jobs, sparking a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S. to bring supply chains home for renewable energy technology and overtaking China's dominance in the sector.

"Because the IRA's goals are so vast," Roberts explains, "it will only be over the course of five to ten years that we really have any understanding of whether it pulled it off. It's trying to do enormous things."

"What we definitely can say," however, is "that one of the goals --- which was to spur private investment into these products and supply chains in the U.S. --- is absolutely working. Last I looked, it's like $270 billion-worth of private investment flooding into the U.S."

But the yardstick for success here may be even longer than you think, according to Roberts. He tells me there is yet another goal for the legislation that is "not as public, but, if you talk to some Biden people behind the scenes, they will tell you that this apocalyptic terror you have about the future of democracy is not crazy."

"We are in a perilous, perilous moment. And part of the thinking behind IRA was that it is these parts of the country that were hollowed out by globalization, hollowed out by decades of reflexive 'free trade' dogma --- it's these parts of the county that have experienced this reactionary backlash that we've all been living through over the past little while. And if that goes on, U.S. democracy is in serious, existential trouble. People are freaked out about that all the way to the top. So, part of the goal of IRA was to channel investment into those areas. And that is happening."

Roberts says that much of the new investment "is coming into Southern and Midwestern states," including by companies like First Solar, which is "investing $1.2 billion into a facility in Louisiana. That is the single largest private investment in that state's history." Similar projects are happening in states like Georgia, West Virginia and elsewhere.

So, all we need to assess success of this enormous new law is whether it helps solves both of the nation's most existential crises: Democracy and Climate Change.

"Spurring investment, yes, it is succeeding. Is it succeeding in muting that reactionary backlash? Is it succeeding in muting these horrendous politics we've dealt with? Is it succeeding in turning a few swing voters in those swing states to help Joe Biden get back into office? That we don't know yet. And part of the problem is that our media ecosystem is broken and dysfunctional, and people just don't know about [the law]."

How to solve that? Well, as you can tell, we've got much to discuss today with Roberts along those lines as well, as he characterizes that part of issue as "the six million question" given "how broken the media is, and how difficult it is to get it to focus on these things."

He's got a few ideas, however, some involve "a huge role for NGOs, for the green movement" and even for you, as the climate, economic and political effects of the IRA one year on are still "TBD"...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extent of heartbreaking losses becoming clearer in Maui Fires; New evacuations as Canada's record wildfire season rages on; U.S. Northwest hits new record high temperatures; PLUS: One year later, Joe Biden and the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act is turbo-charging a U.S. clean energy manufacturing, construction and jobs boom... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Rising temperatures are wreaking havoc year-round; PA kids living near fracking wells face higher risk for childhood cancer and asthma; New study finds more hurricane deaths in US, especially among vulnerable; Farmworkers can't escape life-threatening heat at work and at home; Great Lakes gets its first wind farm, but some fear environmental fallout; Biden Interior Dept. launches program to provide electricity to more Native American homes; Climate denial 'university' now teaching kids 'slavery was no big deal'... PLUS: The first generation of solar panels will wear out. A recycling industry is taking shape... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Man-made climate change made record hot July three times more likely, new study finds; Extreme heat is extremely costly for small businesses; Record high temps ironically force oil refineries to curtail production; PLUS: America's first new nuclear reactor in years finally starts operations in Georgia...with higher cost for ratepayers... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Former DOJ Environment Chief Described As Co-Conspirator in Indictment; For Florida Keys coral, climate change is the difference between life and death; Underground Climate Change Poses A Risk To A City’s Infrastructure; Experts call for above-average hurricane season with peak weeks ahead; 6 Months After E. Palestine Derailment, Congress Is Deadlocked On Safety; California’s Joshua Trees Are Burning Up, May Be Impossible To Replace... PLUS: Why sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere can’t undo all the effects of climate change... and much, MUCH more! ...

Note: The barest of headlines about the huge news regarding new, additional charges filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in Donald Trump's stolen documents case began coming in just minutes before the end of today's BradCast. Up until then, however...we had plenty of other stuff to cover.

Among that stuff...

• We have another new winner in the corporate media's never-ending effort to find new euphemisms to avoid accurately informing the American people about what Donald Trump did after the 2020 Presidential election. (For those still unclear, he used every tool he could muster to try and STEAL a Presidential election from the American people). Today's winner in the Euphemism Olympics is the New York Times, which ended a short piece on Trump attorneys meeting with Jack Smith's prosecutors on Thursday, in anticipation of indictments in D.C., with this ridiculous turn of phrase: "Mr. Trump also faces scrutiny from the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., who is investigating his efforts to bend the results of the 2020 election in that state in his favor." --- To "bend the results"?! Really, New York Times?!

• Yes, I admit to being obsessed with the above point, but for good reason. A few words today on why the media (and Democrats!) failure to accurately inform the American people about the simple fact that Trump tried to STEAL the last Presidential Election is so critical right now, especially in advance of next year's Presidential election.

• While Jack Smith is clearly digging very deep in both of the federal Trump investigations he is overseeing --- the stolen documents case and the attempted theft of the 2020 election --- it's quite bizarre that, according to former, far-right Rep. Mo Brooks, the Special Counsel has, to date, failed to interview him! That, even though Brooks spoke before Trump at the January 6, 2021 pre-insurrection rally in D.C. where Brooks instructed the angry, duped crowd to "start taking down names and kicking ass". But it's all the more odd because of the four very specific things that Brooks claims Trump instructed him to do last year, seven months after Trump was out of office, including instructions to advocate "rescinding the election" and "physically removing Joe Biden from the White House". All of which, according to the now former Alabama Congressman and one-time Trump endorsee, "violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law."

• Meanwhile, accountability continues in Michigan where, last week, state Attorney General Dana Nessel charged the state's 16 fake Trump electors with 8 felony counts each related to their attempt to help the former President steal the state's 2020 election. On Wednesday night, Stefanie Lambert, a Michigan attorney who was part of a group being investigated by a MI Special Prosecutor, claimed that she has "been indicted" for her role in breaching voting systems in several townships across the state. Nessel appointed the Special Prosecutor late last Summer to investigate the activities by a bunch of MAGA folks believed to have unlawfully stolen and breached vote tabulation systems after 2020. The group includes a former State Rep, a sitting County Sheriff, a few of the clowns from that Cyber Ninjas outfit, and the failed former Republican A.G. candidate Matt DePerno. After the Trump-endorsed DePerno was nominated by the state GOP to run for A.G. last year, Nessel referred the probe to a Special Prosecutor, so as to not be seen as prosecuting her own election opponent. We'll soon find out if Lambert (who is a real piece of work, apparently) and the others, including DePerno, have indeed been indicted by the Special Prosecutor's grand jury.

• Even Fox "News" was agog today at the latest numbers on the U.S. economy under Joe Biden, as released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. The new numbers revealed, among other things, higher-than-expected growth in GDP in the second quarter and extraordinary resilience of Biden's economy which many had expected to be in recession by now. It isn't.

• Joe Biden and the Democrats' landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, turns one year old next month and, according to experts, it is already "turbocharging clean energy technology" in the U.S. and producing massive investment in U.S. manufacturing and jobs for the first time in decades. No wonder the fossil fuel industry and Republicans worked so hard for so many years to prevent such investments --- and why Congressional Republicans are working so hard to try and repeal it.

• With July now likely to have been the hottest single month that any human being has ever lived through on Planet Earth, the President, in remarks today at the White House, detailed efforts across his Administration to help folks survive the extreme heat now slamming about 170 million Americans across about 40% of the nation. His remarks offered yet another opportunity for Biden to sing the praises of the Inflation Reduction Act, which not one Republican in Congress supported when the landmark bill was adopted last year.

• Finally (as today's big news about new charges against Trump in the documents case just began to break at show's end), Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with several items related to the extreme heat in both the U.S. and Europe --- and, some very good news about EV charging!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Canadian wildfires shatter records, send smoky air back to U.S. and over to Europe; Intensifying rainstorms pose hidden flood risks across the U.S.; Biden restores endangered species protections; PLUS: 3M settles another lawsuit over 'forever chemicals' contamination of municipal water systems... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Brutal heat and poisoned air. Well, what did you think climate change would look like?; Billions are being spent to turn the tide on the US West’s wildfires. It won’t be enough; Climate change made the TX heat wave more intense. Renewables softened the blow; EPA closes civil rights probe into Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' pollution; Auto industry lobbying group assails Biden's plan to electrify America's cars; Most Americans underestimate the popularity of policies to protect the climate; The Death Cult of the American car; Solar sprawl is tearing up the Mojave Desert, but there is a better way... PLUS: Joshua trees win long term protection in environmental victory... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: World Meteorological Organization predicts Earth likely to blow past 1.5 degree Celsius climate target by 2027; Italy and Somalia stricken by torrential rains and deadly floods; PLUS: Buckle up --- the entire U.S. will see an unnaturally hot summer, NOAA warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Weather extremes --- What happens to people after a disaster?; E.P.A. announces crackdown on toxic coal ash from landfills; A billion new air conditioners will save lives but cook the planet; 'Halliburton Loophole' lets fracking firms pollute water without oversight; US power grids vulnerable to extreme heat conditions this summer; Methane mitigation in Texas could create thousands of jobs... PLUS: Can climate change be funny? Bill Nye gets laughs in a show about humankind's existential threat... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Treasury Department unveils new rules for Electric Vehicle tax credits; Extreme weather weekend wreaks havoc around the world; As the world gets warming, 'flash droughts' are coming on faster; PLUS: Germany shuts down the last of its nuclear power plants... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Climate change, disease imperil North American bats; GOP lawmakers kill funding for Wisconsin’s largest conservation project; As the climate suffers, enforcement needed for corporate green pledges; Water rule injunction adds confusion to Biden's protection plan; Insurance woes plague efforts to cut growing wildfire risks; Slow start on World Bank reform angers climate-hit countries; Court throws out Berkeley, California’s ban on natural gas... PLUS: Greenland's melting ice could be changing our oceans. Just ask the whales... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: EPA takes control of toxic Ohio train derailment disaster, three weeks later; Rightwing media tries to weaponize Ohio disaster into culture war fodder; PLUS: Surprise! The oil and gas industry has failed to cut climate-warming methane emissions as promised... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Homes in flood zones are overvalued by billions, study finds; Massive coal train derails in Nebraska; Marine commission: Whale deaths not linked to wind prep work; Feds slash Gulf's first wind farm areas to make room for drilling, shipping, fishing; Bird flu kills sea lions and thousands of pelican's in Peru's protected areas; 'Climate-friendly' biofuel is not actually a biofuel, and comes with an astronomical cancer risk; Climate change is making winter weather warmer and "weirder"; Attacks surge on U.S. power grid ... PLUS: The Right has it in for 'woke' investors. The only problem? They don't exist... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Back-to-back extreme weather disasters trigger national state of emergency in New Zealand; New studies find global warming is melting Antarctica's ice; PLUS: Growing concerns about safety for residents in aftermath of Ohio chemical train derailment...Even on Fox 'News'?!... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): World Bank president, dogged by climate questions, steps down early; truck carrying hazardous nitric acid overturned on an Arizona highway, prompting evacuations of the area; Twice as much land in developing nations will be swamped by rising seas than previously projected, new research shows; Major US railroad merger could bring more tar sands to south-east Texas; Greens and tribes say proposed venting and flaring rule falls short; Tesla opens its EV charging network to the masses ... PLUS: Mono Lake tribe asserts water rights, urges halt of water diversions to Los Angeles... and much, MUCH more! ...