IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Unresolved questions and conflicts of interest for Trump's nominee for Secretary of State; Outgoing Sec. of State John Kerry warns MIT students time is running out to act on climate change; China to invest nearly half a trillion dollars in renewable energy; PLUS: President Obama says global transition away from fossil fuels in now irreversible... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Exxon Continued Paying Millions To Climate Deniers Under Tillerson; Without Action On Climate Change, Say Goodbye To Polar Bears; America's First 'Clean Coal' Plant Is Now Operational; GOP To Revive 'Secret Science' Bill — And Now It Could Pass; Nuke Site Reopens But Work Remains; Wisconsin Tribe Votes Against Renewing Enbridge Pipeline Agreements... PLUS: Coal Country Bought Trump's Promise, but the 19th Century is Not Coming Back... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, Green Party candidate Jill Stein speaks to lessons learned during her wildly obstructed attempt at citizen oversight of election results in three states, and a former U.S. Dept. of Energy official joins us with warnings about Donald Trump's disturbing choices to head the State Department, the EPA and the DoE, where a chilling Transition Team memo was recently sent in apparent hopes of ferreting out climate scientists in a witch-hunt reminiscent of the McCarthy era. [Audio link to show posted at bottom of article.]

First up, Stein held a press conference call today to wrap up her attempted "recount" of Presidential election results in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Despite her willingness to pay millions of dollars, only one of those states, WI, allowed a statewide count at all. And, even there, it was done mostly by computer, so the results remain unverified by actual human beings. Still, she and her attorney on the call vowed to press on with a lawsuit in Pennsylvania and other actions meant to try and amend the horrific election practices, processes and laws exposed, once again, during the wildly obstructed and unprecedented attempt at counts and forensic analyses in all three states.

Then, my guest today is Dr. Joe Romm, physicist and former Deputy Asst. Secretary of Energy at the U.S. Dept. of Energy. He is now a Climate Progress blogger and author and he joins me to discuss, among other things, Donald Trump's nominations of former TX Gov. Rick Perry to head up the DoE (which, when he could remember its name while a Presidential candidate, he vowed to shut down entirely); Climate science denier and Oklahoma A.G. Scott Pruitt as DPA chief; and ExxonMobil's enormously interest-conflicted CEO Rex Tillerson as Sec. of State.

As Romm notes, "the Department of Energy is a very poorly understood agency" which most Americans, including Trump and Perry, likely know little about. It's a sprawling federal agency that carries out nuclear energy research as well as oversight and disaster clean-up. "So you have the weapons labs, you have all the national labs, which do energy and all sorts of work, including the nation's physics labs," he explains. "The Department of Energy has the highest ratio of PhDs per employee of any of the agencies, because it's doing all of this physics and energy research, and weapons research. So it's a good thing that Rick Perry got those glasses that make him smart."

On Trump's nomination of Tillerson to head up the State Department, Romm describes the conflicts of interest with the ExxonMobile CEO's pending $500 billion deal with Russia, observing: "If we didn't live in this topsy-turvy world where Donald Trump is President and naming people to run agencies who are anti-everything the agencies stand for, it would be ridiculous. Secretary of State is one of the most important, maybe the most important cabinet positions there is. Historically, it goes to someone who really understands diplomacy and many aspects of international policy." But Tillerson, he argues, has "literally no qualifications other than the fact that he has negotiated oil deals around the world."

As disturbing as Trump's nominations may be, however, even more chilling may be the story told by the McCarthy-esque survey recently sent by someone at the Trump Transition team to the Dept. of Energy, asking them to identify scientists and other career civil service employees who have worked on climate change and renewable energy issues at the federal agency, or even those who may have simply attended a U.N. climate conference. Romm speaks to all of the above, which he describes as "unprecedented" and details why there are newly disturbing reasons to be concerned about, "literally, the fate of the next thousand years."

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, with more on the above and, believe it or not, some arguably good news she was able to find from the U.S. Congress, of all places!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues eviction notice to Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp; U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigating third oil refinery fire in two days; Extreme water shortages caused by drought trigger state of emergency in Bolivia; Major coral die-off along northern Great Barrier Reef; Developing nations pledge to switch to 100% renewable energy by 2050; PLUS: Federal judge rules a stable climate is a constitutional right... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): I Told The New York Times: "It's time for a whole new approach to climate journalism!"; Tennessee: Drought and high winds fuel 'apocalyptic' wildfire; Bloomberg: Cities will fight climate change, with or without Trump; Chilling climate revelations from the last ice age; White House Releases Wishful Climate Change Plan Before Trump Takes Office; Antarctica: Rift in Pine Island Glacier points to a coming, broader collapse... PLUS: A Portrait of a Man Who Knows Nothing About Climate Change... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: North Dakota police escalate tactics against Dakota Access Pipeline protesters; Canada moves to phase out coal electricity by 2030; Record low sea ice in a 'freakishly warm' Arctic; PLUS: Obama Administration cancels oil leases on Blackfeet Nation Lands... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Thanksgiving advice: How to deal with climate change denying Uncle Pete; NASA Team Claims 'Impossible' Space Engine Works-Get the Facts; World's poorest countries to aim for 100% green energy; Exxon Mobil Accuses the Rockefellers of a Climate Conspiracy; 71 Percent of Americans Support Paris Climate Deal Trump Wants To Dump; EPA Chief: Trump Can’t Halt U.S. Shift To Clean Energy; Trump’s big infrastructure plan? It’s a trap; Bleak Outlook for Trump’s Promises to Coal Miners... PLUS: It’s a pretty good time to catch up on your environmental justice reading. Here's a helpful list... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Bernie Sanders finds a potential new way to block the Dakota Access Pipeline; Republican Senate Majority Leader admits U.S. coal jobs may not be coming back; Mercury contamination in fish is declining --- thanks to pollution regulations; October 2016 was not the hottest October on record; PLUS: U.S. climate negotiators say climate action is unstoppable, even in the Age of Trump... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): China clarifies for Trump: uh, no, global warming is not a Chinese hoax; Interior Department Issues New Rule To Limit Methane From Oil and Gas; World CO2 emissions stay flat for 3rd year, helped by China falls; Plastic Polluting the Oceans Smells Like Lunch to Marine Life; Tests Show Monsanto Weed Killer in Cheerios, Other Popular Foods; Clean Water Rule: WOTUS 'Ultimately Doomed.' What Happens Next?... PLUS: Trump's Top Environmental Adviser Says Pesticides Aren't Bad for You... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Green News Report Special Coverage: President Obama speaks to the election of Donald Trump to the office of President, and what it means for the environment, his legacy, and the world... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Corps Says Pipeline Construction Can't Continue Without Tribe Input; Global Climate Change Action 'Unstoppable' Despite Trump: U.N.'s Ban; Sweltering 2016 To Set Heat Record, Stoked By Man-Made Warming: WMO; In Trump's World, Environmental Movement Wrestles With Its Future; Good News For Planet: Carbon Emissions Were Flat For 3rd Straight Year; Mirroring A Drop In Emissions, Mercury In Tuna Also Declines... PLUS: Judge: Youth Climate Change Lawsuit Against Feds Can Proceed... and much, MUCH more! ...

Today on The BradCast, the transition officially begins and the prospect of years of progressive policies begin to roll back. [Audio link to show posted below.]

Donald Trump met with President Obama at the White House today for a chilly, if cordial transition meeting, as the world continues to try and make sense of it all. Joining us to help in that task today is award-winning opinion journalist and our old friend Heather Digby Parton of Salon and the Hullabaloo blog, back by popular demand. She was with us to warn, on the day Trump entered the race in June of 2015, that he would be a force to be reckoned with, while so many others scoffed.

Today we examine, among many other things, the media's role in helping to normalize Trump while demonizing Hillary Clinton, and we begin to process just some of the dangers that the 'President-elect' now presents to not only Obama's eight years of progress, but to the world and the planet. For example, see Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) minimizing waterboarding again, and suggesting that torture will once again be back on the table --- just as Trump had promised during the campaign.

"What I saw [on Election Night] was the [media's] shift to suddenly seeing Donald Trump as a normal politician," Parton explains. "The campaign has been disappeared. That odious campaign that we just watched him run. The one where he promised to lock up his rival, torture terror suspects, put guns in schools, the most horrifying agenda we've ever seen from a major party candidate, and delivered in the most cretinous fashion that it's ever been delivered --- that is gone. There is no remnant of it in the media. What we're seeing now is a nice, mainstream Republican candidate who appealed to 'Real Americans' and spoke to their needs, and we need to welcome him. A lot of the commentary is that Democrats really need to reach out to him and to his followers and make up for the fact that they were so rude to him."

We try to un-disappear some of Trump's "disappeared" campaign promises a bit today, while noting that there is now little, if anything, to stop the very worst of those them --- from torture to massive tax cuts to gutting any and all financial and environmental regulations --- from being adopted by the new Administration and a compliant Congress and Supreme Court. We also discuss the role that Obama and the Democrats have in Republicans' ability to revive the very worst of the George W. Bush Administration war crimes and more, since they refused to bring accountability previously. And, speaking of accountability, Parton offers her thoughts on progressives who voted for third parties this year.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for a our first Green News Report since the election, for a look at what President Trump will mean for the environment, energy and the UN climate agreement....

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Making history and rewriting the future: Donald Trump declared winner of the U.S. Presidential election. What that means for the environment, energy and the UN climate agreement; PLUS: Environmental measures win and lose on statewide ballots...and 2018 is just two years away... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Santa Monica is creating a low-carbon city only rich people can enjoy; Enviros Sue BNSF To Cover Coal Trains, Prevent Water Pollution; Exxon Widens Climate Battle, May Depose 17 State AGs; Greens Prepare For Battle With Trump; Charges Dropped Against Pair Who Filmed Pipeline Protest... PLUS: Welcome to the Fight... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: President Obama suggests re-routing the controversial Dakota Access pipeline; Some major --- and some tricky --- environment-related ballot measures; China's top climate official warns Trump about climate science denial; PLUS: Corporate media covered Clinton emails 25 times more than climate change... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): World On Track For 3C Of Warming Under Current Pledges, Warns UNEP; Oil prices slide 3 percent on record U.S. crude stock build; Global carbon intensity falls, on declining coal use; Oil patch states may have seen the last boom; Is Coal’s Political Heft Plunging? One State May Be Canary in Mine; Hurricane Matthew Took A Big Bite Out Of Southeastern States' Beaches... PLUS: Bad News for Honey as U.S. Seeks Handle on Glyphosate Residues in Food... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Massive Colonial Pipeline explosion in Alabama injures at least seven workers; Unarmed Dakota Access Pipeline protesters maced and arrested, while armed occupiers in Oregon go free; 300 million kids breathe dangerously polluted air, according to UNICEF; PLUS: It's official: largest earthquake on record in Kansas was caused by fracking industry injection well... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Exxon Concedes It May Need to Declare Lower Value for Oil in Ground; In rare move, China criticizes Trump plan to exit climate change pact; Coal doesn't help the poor; it makes them poorer; Climate Change Is Already Forcing Americans to Move; Rio's famous beaches take battering as scientists issue climate change warning... PLUS: Elon Musk Unveiled a Solar Roof and Didn’t Address Any Pressing Questions... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Major new international agreement to phase out refrigerants (HFCs); First-ever international agreement to cut emissions from airplane travel; US emissions hit lowest level since 1991; September 2016 was the hottest September ever recorded; PLUS: Harsh words for climate activists in latest Clinton-Wikileaks revelations... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Judge Tosses Riot Charge Against Journalist Amy Goodman Covering Dakota Protest; Celebrities Rally Behind Filmmaker Arrested In Pipeline Protests; North Carolina: Damage from Hurricane Matthew estimated; Duke confirms coal ash spill at North Carolina plant due to Hurricane Matthew flooding; Greenland Is Melting; Exxon Now Seeks to Block New York Attorney General's Climate Probe; GAO: Other Cities Face Problems That Led To Flint Crisis; Little-Noticed Court Settlement Will Probably Save Millions Of Animals; Feds Plan To Seal Part Of Nuke Waste Repository... PLUS: Today's Climate Progress and Tomorrow's Climate Challenges... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Matthew churns towards U.S.; Climate change shut out - again! - at the Vice Presidential debate; Canada to establish a national carbon tax; New study warns the world is rapidly using up its 'carbon budget'; PLUS: Global Paris Agreement surges over the finish line before the U.S. Presidential election... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): No country on Earth is taking the 2 degree climate target seriously; How the Earth will pay us back for our carbon emissions with … more carbon emissions; Hurricane Matthew is super strong — because of climate change; Activists Warn That Toxic PCBs Contaminate Thousands Of U.S. Schools; Dakota Access: Judges Appear Skeptical Of Freezing Pipeline; Invasive Insects Cause Tens Of Billions In Damage: Study... PLUS: China's $450 billion farm plan could determine our fate... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, the savior of the working class and "Great Negotiator" refuses to even sit down with union workers at his own property in Las Vegas, even as his party comes apart at the seams and the South-Eastern U.S. buckles up for another deadly storm. [Audio link posted at bottom of article.]

In advance of tonight's Vice Presidential debate, we speak with Bethany Khan of the UNITE HERE Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Nevada, where workers at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas voted to unionize last December. Nonetheless, the Trump Organizations has refused, to date, to even begin negotiations with some 500 now-unionized workers at his 1,200-room, 64-story five-star luxury tower in Sin City. The union is therefore calling for a North American boycott of all Trump properties (hotels, casinos, golf courses, etc.), using the hashtag #BoycottTrump.

Khan explains the action and how the GOP nominee for President has been using every available tool to challenge the lawful union vote, despite claims to represent the working class in the course of his campaign.

"Mr. Trump and his company is legally required to bargain with the Culinary Union and with the workers. The workers are fighting for fair wages, job security, good health benefits," she tells me. "They filed a series of objections --- the way the vote was counted, or who voted --- a host of things to try and tie this up in court. This practice of expansive litigation is one the union workers have beat --- soundly --- and we won. So there are no more objections they can file on the election. The hotel is certified as a union hotel. It's a union property. The only thing that's missing is a union contract."

While the Culinary Workers have endorsed Hillary Clinton, Khan says their organizing campaign started "before Donald Trump announced he was running for President," but adds that "The path to the White House goes through the Las Vegas Strip."

"There are 550 workers in his hotel here in Nevada. They're working people, living paycheck to paycheck. Culinary Union members comprise a majority of the middle class in Nevada. Mr. Trump, who says he wants to make America great again, has a great opportunity to start here in Las Vegas with his workers and give them a contract."

Also today: Tonight's Veep Debate offers an excuse to reminisce about the first BRAD BLOG story to make into the national press and get under the White House's skin back in 2004; The 2016 election is driving the country mad, but particularly the Republican Party (we've got some of the latest insane examples); And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report' with two massive and unusual hurricanes making landfall today and the Paris Agreement on climate change meeting key thresholds at the U.N. in record time, in hopes of "Trump Proofing" the landmark pact before the U.S. Presidential election...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Two new hurricanes breaking records in the Atlantic and Pacific; U.S. House Science Committee chair now investigating the SEC for investigating Exxon; India signs on to the Paris Agreement; PLUS: City of Angels gets on path to 100 per cent renewable electricity... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The Paris climate agreement is entering into force. Now comes the hard part; Trudeau Unveils Carbon Price as Canada Acts on Paris Pledge; Only 1 in 5 people hear people talk about climate change at least once a month; Exxon faces a first-of-its-kind lawsuit over climate deception; Peak salt: is the desalination dream over for the Gulf states?; The planet hasn't been this hot for thousands of years; A Curious Plan to Fight Climate Change: Buy Mines, Sell Coal; Timber Company Tells California Town, Go Find Your Own Water... PLUS: Yes - Donald Trump Is a Threat to the Planet... and much, MUCH more! ...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hillary Clinton promotes climate and clean energy, while Donald Trump denies his denial, in the first Presidential debate; PLUS: Coal industry tries to kill Obama's landmark power plant emissions standards in federal court... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): ExxonMobil sued over polluted river, ignored climate change; No quick fix for Canada’s energy industry from OPEC deal; MSNBC's Morning Joe Features Experts To Explain "Warning Signs" Of Climate Change; U.S. intelligence community warns climate change is already destabilizing communities worldwide; U.S. looks to restrict China coal imports from North Korea; Coal electricity generation falls to record U.K. low this spring; New Wind Turbines Could Power Japan for 50 Years After a Single Typhoon... PLUS: As Norway's Arctic draws visitors, more polar bears get shot... and much, MUCH more! ...