Today, on our last new BradCast of 2024: It's beginning to look a lot like failure, everywhere you look in D.C. It's already getting pathetic before either the new majorities are sworn in to Congress or the new Administration officially takes over the White House. But we're all here for the GOP fiascos today! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... A state appeals court panel in Georgia ruled 2 to 1 on Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must be disqualified from the racketeering indictment she filed against Donald Trump and 18-conspirators for their failed attempt to steal the state from Joe Biden in 2020. The case itself, however, may continue. The court cited an "appearance of impropriety" related to Willis' romantic relationship with a former Special Prosecutor assigned to the same case. She quickly filed an appeal to the ruling today, but it could be the end to this criminal case against the convicted felon who will be sworn in as President, even though today's ruling could still be overturned by the state Supreme Court or Georgia's Prosecuting Attorneys' Council could reassign the case to another prosecution team.

THEN... If you're looking for an idea of what next year may be like in Congress, when Republicans in the U.S. House will have an even slimmer majority than they do now, and when Donald Trump will be "running the ship" in the White House, look no farther than the clusterf__k that has unfolded over the past 24 hours in the House. A bipartisan, bicameral deal to avoid a Government shutdown on Friday, just before Christmas, was effectively nixed by... Elon Musk, the unelected South African who appears to have purchased not just the Presidency, but the entirety of the U.S. Government with his $277 million investment on Trump's behalf in the 2024 Presidential election.

After a few of Musk's tweets against it yesterday --- despite clearly never even having read a single page of the three-month Continuing Resolution meant largely to keep the government operating until a full budget deal could be reached in March --- the bill was pronounced dead. Then Trump jumped in, late in the game, to say that he too --- just like Elon! --- was against the bill! Even though he could have rung in to kill it or change it any time long before yesterday. Musk, the richest man in the world, and perhaps the most clueless (at least when it comes to how government and legislation works) now seems to be running the GOP ship in D.C., despite having no clue how to run a D.C. ship.

Trump then began demanding an end to the very idea of a Debt Ceiling despite the Debt Ceiling having nothing to do with this week's must-pass legislation. (His newfound objection to it is apparently because he doesn't want to have the raise the Debt Ceiling on his watch, so he'll be free when he does to blow up the national debt with new, enormous tax cuts for his wealthy pals...like Elon!) This afternoon a new bill was cobbled together that Trump claimed to support. But, minutes after we got off air, that measure failed, as Democrats were no longer interested in helping Speaker Mike Johnson --- or Trump or President Musk --- out of their own mess.

Of course, that's not all that's happening at years-end. And we've got two of our good friends and fan faves here to try and make sense (or not) of much of it. We're joined once again today by fellow old-school bloggers, HEATHER DIGBY PARTON of Salon and Digby's Hullabaloo blog, and DRIFTGLASS, author of his own eponymously-named blog and co-host of the weekly Professional Left Podcast, for an end-of-year roundtable, of sorts.

As usual, they've both got keen insight on the idiocy unfurling in D.C. today and much more, including such topics as...

• DRONES over New Jersey!!! (Also: Who cares?)
• Elon's buffoonery and Trump's diminishment.
• Mike Johnson's likely brief future as House Speaker.
• Consequences and dangers (for voters, for January 6th, for Inauguration Day) of a GOP holiday government shutdown and a GOP failure to elect a House Speaker.
• Corporate CEOs kissing Trump's ass, for some reason.
• Will we be targeted by the new Administration?
• Should Joe Biden offer preemptive pardons to people like Liz Cheney?
• Do Dems really need to reinvent themselves, as some claim, after narrowly losing the Presidency and picking up a seat in the House in November?
• Did the Dems blow an opportunity by not elevating superstar Rep. AOC to Ranking Member of the Oversight Committee?

...And what are Digby and Driftglass most worried about --- and most hopeful for --- in the new year, as a new Republican majority takes over Congress and either Trump or Musk take over the White House?

FINALLY... Desi Doyen is here for our last Green News Report of 2024, as the Biden EPA grants California's waiver to phase out sales of new, all-gasoline cars by 2035; A disturbing new study on microplastics and cancer; And Biden's Dept. of Energy finds that GOP plans to expand natural gas exports will hike up prices for Americans...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Biden E.P.A. grants California waiver to phase out sales of new gasoline cars by 2035; New study links microplastics to lung and colon cancers; PLUS: Energy Department finds Republicans' plan to expand natural gas exports will drive up prices for Americans... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Biden just unveiled America’s ambitious new climate goal. Trump will assuredly undo it; The war against murder hornets is over, officials say. The U.S. won; Global warming can’t be ignored, Montana’s top court says, upholding landmark climate case; 'Explosive' demand growth puts more than half of North America at risk of blackouts; Trump transition team plans sweeping rollback of Biden EV, emissions policies; Insurance cracking under climate stress... PLUS: Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech?... and much, MUCH more! ...

As usual, the incoming President has almost no clue what he's talking about. Not that he cares or that it matters. That's especially true, as discussed on today's BradCast, when it comes to elections and voting laws. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... It's another one of those fire-hose news days akin to what we experienced, day after day, during the first Trump term. We can only cover what we can cover. So, we start with the news, as reported by CNN today, that the House Ethics Committee voted in secret earlier this month to release the report from their years-long investigation of allegations against now-former Rep. and now-former Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz. The report, which Republicans on the bipartisan panel voted against releasing in November, is said to focus on allegations of Gaetz' salacious sexual misconduct with minors, illicit drug use, and other crimes, potentially included bribery and more. CNN says the Committee has decided to make the report public "after the House's final day of votes this year" unless they "change course now that it has voted."

NEXT... In an update to a story we've been following since last month's election, the North Carolina State Board of Elections has decided it will not order a full hand-recount in the election for State Supreme Court between the incumbent Democrat, Justice Allison Riggs, and her Republican opponent, Jefferson Griffin. The original computer-reported tally from the November 5 contest found Riggs defeated Griffin by 623 votes out of more than 5.5 million ballots cast. A Griffin-requested machine recount widened Riggs' lead to 724 votes over the Republican challenger, who then requested a hand-count. State law allows a small number of precincts in each county to be hand-counted before ordering a full hand-count in the event that the smaller audit is way out of line with the computer recount. In the hand-count samples in all 100 counties in NC, both candidates picked up votes (Riggs gained 70, Griffin picked up 56), but it was not enough to trigger a full, statewide hand-count. With Riggs declared the certified winner, Griffin is also seeking to toss some 60,000 ballots out entirely, claiming those voters, including military and overseas voters, were either not entitled to vote or to have their votes counted. The matter is expected to end up at the state Supreme Court. Presumably, Justice Riggs, one of just two remaining Democrats on the seven-person High Court, will recuse herself if that happens.

THEN... Donald Trump has been vowing and/or threatening to end Joe Biden's "EV mandate" on "Day One" when he takes office, even though there is no Biden "EV mandate." A week or so ago on Meet the Press, Trump reiterated his plans to sign Executive Orders to "end the electric mandate immediately for the cars" and for "ending a lot of the environmental things that were ridiculous that hurt our country very badly and didn't do anything for the environment...ya know, standard things." This week, Reuters has an exclusive report on the specific plans from the Trump Transition team for those "standard things", including what the news outlet describes as "sweeping changes to cut off support for electric vehicles and charging stations" and to redirect that funding to "national-defense priorities." The plans also involve reversing California's (and twelve other states') emission standards that save lives and reduce energy prices for residents, and doing away with the Biden administration's $7,500 consumer tax credit for EV purchases, a policy expected to harm U.S. automakers like General Motors (if less so for Tesla, whose CEO spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected). But all of those things may be easier said than done, certainly on "Day One", as Desi Doyen explains.

FINALLY... Speaking of easier said than done, Donald Trump has also been demanding changes to voting and election laws, most prominently after he began falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Earlier this month, he declared at a Fox "News" event, once again, that "we want to have paper ballots, one-day voting, voter ID, and proof of citizenship" among other changes to election law that he has repeatedly called for. He doesn't seem to understand most of the things he's demanding, nor care about the fact that some of the measures would disenfranchise millions of Americans.

We're joined today by JOSHUA A. DOUGLAS, election law professor at the Univ. of Kentucky College of Law; author of a number of recent books on American democracy, and now the host of the Democracy Optimist podcast and companion newsletter.

This week, at Washington Monthly, Douglas explained why Trump, in truth, will have "little official power to implement the new rules he supports," given that the U.S. Constitution gives most power regarding elections to the states. While Congress has certainly adopted a number of landmark federal voting laws over the years, Douglas tells me today, "it's really a process of local control. The President himself cannot issue an Executive Order or some sort of decree that elections should be changed one way or the other without states being the ones to pass those laws --- or Congress, but that's a difficult path, as well."

"The President doesn't have any power unilaterally to dictate election rules," says Douglas, while recognizing that Trump will have both the bully pulpit to muscle Congress and states into adopting new laws and rules, along with the power to appoint members of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and, particularly in Trump's case, to direct his Dept. of Justice to enforce certain laws and ignore others. "But the President, under the Constitution, doesn't have any formal powers to regulate elections, beyond signing or vetoing a Congressional law."

We step through some of the specific measures Trump has been demanding, such as "paper ballots" (which the vast majority of voters already use), "one-day voting" (ending absentee and early voting), Voter ID (already mandated by most states and, under federal law, already required when registering voters in all 50 states), and the point that most concerns Douglas, "proof of citizenship" when registering to vote. If actually adopted at the federal level, he argues, it would likely disenfranchise tens of millions of voters and become "a real logistical nightmare for election officials."

The efforts by Republicans to change election laws on the state level, are a different matter, as Douglas explains as well. But, bottom line, there is no "magic wand" for Trump to use to undermine elections by himself, much less on "Day One". And there are quite a few things that YOU can do, to stop him and anyone else who would try to restrict our right to vote.

Given recent events, is Douglas still the "democracy optimist" he was when he originally named his podcast and newsletter earlier this year? Tune on in to find out...

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On today's BradCast: The unspeakable corruption of the Trump 2.0 era is already under way, even before the 2024 election has even been finalized. So what are we all gonna do about it? I've got a few thoughts. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• The Biden Administration's Federal Trade Commission finalized its new rule today banning bait-and-switch junk fees for concert tickets, hotels, vacation rentals and more. The only vote on the FTC against the new rule? The man just named as Trump's incoming Federal Trade Commission Chair, of course.

• The Presidential Electors selected by popular vote in each state met today to officially cast their votes in the 2024 Presidential election in each state capital. And, though I didn't have time to mention it on air, 13 of the Republican Electors who cast votes for Donald Trump today in the Electoral College, in three different states, are currently facing felony charges for fraudulently declaring themselves to be official Electors in the 2020 election. But carrying out official duties as either alleged or convicted felons now seems to be a feature of the Republican Party.

• Convicted felon Donald Trump saw his motion to toss out his 34 state felony convictions rejected by New York Superior Court Justice Juan Merchan late on Monday. The judge, who oversaw Trump's trial for the filing of false business records as part of his hush money payoff scheme to porn star Stormy Daniels to help him cheat to win the 2016 election, denied every argument Trump's attorneys presented in their motion citing the recent ridiculous ruling by corrupt Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court that Presidents enjoy immunity for all crimes committed while carrying out official acts as President. The hush money scheme, however, took place before Trump became President, and evidence submitted by NY prosecutors during the trial regarding any official acts during Trump's first term as President was not enough to overcome the "overwhelming evidence" of his guilt presented by prosecutors, according to Merchan, who "held the line" on the rule of law, at least for now. It is now all but certain, for the first time in U.S. history, that a convicted felon will be sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th.

• But the corruption and abuse of power on display last week at a major cryptocurrency conference in the United Arab Emirates, as headlined by keynote speaker Eric Trump, the incoming President's son, is almost unfathomable. He hobnobbed with convicted criminals and others currently under investigation for financial crimes, and made clear that his family's new cryptocurrency platform, World Liberty Financial, is now open for business...wink, wink. Wanna buy off the next President of the United States? Here's a perfectly "legal" way to do so, to the tune of however many tens of millions or billions of dollars you'd like to give to the incoming felonious President. The New York Times offered mostly good coverage last week, even as few other media outlets seemed to pick up on the gob-smacking report --- and even as the "paper of record" managed to normalize this unprecedented abuse of power by the Trump Family with one of the greatest understatements of all time: at one point in their story they describe Donald Trump's new crypto-pipeline for bribery, payoffs, money laundering and political favors as little more than "a more relaxed approach during this new administration to business ethics"(!!!)

• So, what to do about all of this? Is there any way to push back? Or is this just the end of the rule of law and American democracy as we know it, as some "militant pessimists" (to paraphrase Josh Marshall in a more family friendly way), have been arguing since Trump's recent election? On that, and on all of our roles as The Opposition, I've got quite a bit to say --- more than I can possibly summarize adequately here. So, please tune in at least for that. It's important.

• Finally, Desi Doyen, who knows quite a bit about overcoming militant pessimism in her 15-year beat on the climate front, joins us for our latest Green News Report, as an "apocalyptic" cyclone unfolds in the excessively warm Indian Ocean; Malaria is on the rise again thanks to climate change; an historic ski resort in Switzerland is forced to call it quits; and, as the Biden Administration, still pushing out historic renewable energy action to the very end, its EPA succeeds in the long-overdue banning of several cancer-causing chemicals...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Cyclone Chido unleashes "apocalyptic" devastation on Indian Ocean archipelago; Malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases on the rise around the world, thanks to worsening extreme floods; Warming winters force closure of historic Swiss ski resort; PLUS: Biden's EPA finally succeeds in banning cancer-causing chemicals TCE, PCE... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 'Unfettered' gas exports would harm US economy, Energy Secretary warns; Why Biden might defy Trump with stronger climate goals; Mountains of unused coal causing financial headaches for US power sector; Stricken oil tankers show risks of Russia's ageing 'shadow fleet'; Supreme Court NEPA ruling could target landmark climate case; DOE nixes 7 national transmission corridors, refines 3... PLUS: Three years after huge sewage spill, El Segundo still stinks. Why can't L.A. fix it?... and much, MUCH more! ...

Lots of news today on BradCast, though not all of it terrible. It also features not one, but two song and dance men, though only one of them is not a horrible person. Either way, we promise to leave you singing on your way out of the theater. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among today's stories of note...

• In the largest single-day act of clemency in modern U.S. history, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of some 1,500 people today who were released from prison to home confinement during the COVID pandemic. As discussed, he also promised "more steps in the weeks ahead."

• The Dept. of Justice's Inspector General released a long-awaited report [PDF] today on the FBI's preparation for what became Donald Trump's January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Despite years of false claims by MAGA Republicans, including members of Congress, that undercover FBI employees somehow instigated the attack, the I.G. report finds, among other things, that none were present at the Capitol that day.

• Inflation and, specifically, high prices at the grocery store have been cited by many as the reason for Donald Trump's apparent election victory last month. In fact, he ran on promises of lowering prices at the grocery store "very quickly" throughout the campaign. In September, for example, he declared: "Vote Trump and grocery prices will come tumbling down". In October, he promised to "bring your grocery bill way down." And, in an interview that aired on NBC this past Sunday, he attributed his victory, in part, "on groceries" and said again that "we're going to bring those prices way down." Rarely did anyone in the media throughout the campaign press him on how he would lower the cost of groceries. So it seems voters were misinformed enough to believe him and vote for him. And yet, in an interview with Time before Thanksgiving just published today, Trump admits he has no actual plan to lower prices at the grocery store. "It's hard to bring things down once they're up," he told the magazine. "You know, it's very hard." We'll see how long it takes, if it ever does, for MAGA buyers remorse to set in.

• But you know who did help keep your grocery prices low? The Biden Administration's Federal Trade Commission. Biden's progressive Chair of the FTC, Lina Kahn, led a lawsuit against the proposed 2022 merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, arguing the $20 billion deal would raise prices for consumers and lower pay for the company's 700,000 union workers. This week, a federal judge agreed with the FTC and blocked the merger, at least for now. In the meantime, Trump's nominee to Chair the FTC, Andrew Ferguson (a former clerk for corrupt Justice Clarence Thomas), vows to abandon Khan's tough standards for mergers between powerful American companies.

• North Carolina Republicans took a beating in statewide races in November, losing the contests for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Sec. of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction. They also lost their gerrymandered supermajority in the state legislature. So, while they still have the power to do so in their lame-duck session, Republican lawmakers, passed a massive bill under the guise of disaster relief for Hurricane Helene (which simply shifted already existing funding from one account to another) and used the next several hundred pages of the bill to strip many of the key powers from all of the incoming Democratic statewide officials. The outgoing Democratic Governor vetoed the obvious power grab. But, last week, the GOP-controlled Senate used their supermajority to override the veto and, despite an outpouring of protest from voters at the state capital, the GOP-controlled House did the same last night. Nonetheless, I suspect this fight ain't over.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report on, among other things, the wildfire in Malibu, California that led to the emergency evacuation of thousands of residents, including film and TV legend Dick Van Dyke, who turns 99 on Friday. Also, on the effort by environmentalists to add Endangered Species Act protections to the quickly disappearing Monarch Butterfly. As Des mentions at the end of today's show, you can leave a public comment here in favor of the Fish and Wildlife Department's effort to protect the butterflies.

  And, as she also discussed, that fantastic and charming and so, so sweet music video and interview with Van Dyke by Coldplay's Chris Martin, released just last week before the fire --- filmed at Van Dyke's Malibu home which, thankfully (as you'll be especially happy to hear after watching the video!), didn't burn down this week, can be seen right here. Never mind today's BradCast for the moment. Go watch that video. We'll be here when you get back. You'll thank us!

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Firefighters struggle to contain ferocious Malibu wildfire; The planet is getting drier, new study finds; Monarch butterfly proposed for endangered species protection; PLUS: Arctic tundra has shifted to a source of climate pollution, NOAA reports... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Trump names price for avoiding all environment regulations: $1 billion; Arizona AG sues Saudi firm over 'excessive' groundwater pumping; Environmental journalist in Cambodia killed by suspected logger; SCOTUS allows Biden plan to address toxic coal ash; Social media is a growing vehicle for climate misinformation; 'Climate bomb' warning over $200 billion wave of new gas projects... PLUS: This national park is a lab for climate change mitigation efforts... and much, MUCH more! ...

Hey! Happy "Certificate of Ascertainment of Appointment of Electors" Day! I know, it seems like it comes earlier and earlier every election year doesn't it? We take the festive opportunity on today's BradCast to discuss a few related points, including a bunch of new state criminal filed charges in the GOP's 2020 fake Electors plot and whether the convicted felon who is now our incoming President actually won a governing "mandate" (or not) in 2024. [Audio link to full show follows this link.]

FIRST UP... The wildfire we discussed briefly yesterday out here in Malibu, California, amid exceptionally dry and windy conditions, expanded by nearly 40% overnight and was reportedly just 7% contained as of airtime. At least 7,500 structures are threatened and more than 12,000 people are under evacuation orders, including wealthy homeowners and celebrities such as Cher and Dick Van Dkye, students at Pepperdine University, and thousands of middle class and working residents in the community. The area is a geographic haven for such fires for a number of reasons discussed today, all of which has been exacerbated in recent years by our worsening climate crisis.

THEN... FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Donald Trump after he fired James Comey for investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, has decided to "obey in advance" by announcing he will resign in January when Trump takes office again, three years before the official end of his term. The incoming President has threatened to fire Wray and replace him with loyalist stooge and avowed government weaponizer Kash Patel. Still, there are reasons to be critical of Wray's limp decision to "bow out in advance."

NEXT... Not all law enforcement officials are willing to roll over. In Wisconsin, state prosecutors added 10 felony charges each to three different Donald Trump accomplices who attempted to help him steal the 2020 election. The new criminal charges [PDF] were filed on Tuesday against 2020 Trump attorneys Jim Troupis and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as Trump's 2020 Election Day operations director Mike Roman as part of the failed fake Electors scheme in the state that year. Troupis and Chesebro are said to be the original architects of the plot. Each of the Trump dupes had previously faced just one felony count apiece, with their first court appearance set for Thursday. Now they will each face 11 counts and a potential 6-year prison sentence and/or $10,000 fine for each count if found guilty.

FINALLY... In the early morning hours following the November 5th Election, Donald Trump declared he had won an "unprecedented and powerful mandate." Members of his transition team subsequently claimed a "MAGA Mandate" and "historic mandate for his agenda." But, Trumpian hyperbole aside, did he actually win any such thing?

Now that all states have certified their results and officially declared which slate of Electors will vote in the Electoral College in each state capital on December 17 --- (remember, I told you today was the "Certificate of Ascertainment of Appointment of Electors" Day!) --- the final results, with all votes said to be tallied, reveal that Trump defeated Kamala Harris by less than 1.5 percentage points and that a majority of Americans voted for someone other than him.

That doesn't seem particularly "unprecedented" or "powerful", much less a "mandate".

But what is a mandate anyway? Today, we're joined by JULIA R. AZARI, Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, who happens to have written a book on that very topic, called Delivering the People’s Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate.

As Azari warned in a short article posted the day after this year's election, when Trump's margin over Harris appeared to be far larger than it actually turned out to be, "Be wary of anyone claiming an election mandate," given that "talking about mandates flattens public opinion, rather than lifting it up" and "elevates the president above the Constitution and gives him a popular power he was never meant to have." As she explains today, that goes for Republicans and Democrats alike.

"I've been pretty critical of the way that Presidents of both major parties have used that concept," she tells me. "Although I would also note that, in contemporary times, Republicans have been a lot more focused and ideological in their mandate claiming."

Azari argues, essentially, that voters vote for and against many different things in an election, and there is no clear way to establish that they have voted for any one particular policy, much less in an election with one of the narrowest margins in modern history and where the winner of the Electoral College actually received a minority of the popular vote.

When any President-elect declares themselves to be the winner of a mandate --- or when the media echo that claim --- "this gives the President a little bit of extra power, at least in their own minds, that they feel justified in taking," Azari says, "and it enhances that power over that of Congress, rather than thinking of Congress as a co-equal branch."

She also notes: "When that power is in the hands of somebody who isn't really keen on Constitutional constraints, we may see some serious consequences."

We've got much to discuss with Azari on all of those points today. But what about Presidents who actually do win a majority of the popular vote? Do they have justification to claim a governing mandate? How should media report on such claims no matter who makes them? And how have claims of mandates been expanding and changing over the years going all the way back to the first such President to do so, Andrew Jackson in 1832? Please tune in for all of that history, both past and present, and much more on today's BradCast!...

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Today on The BradCast: How "news deserts" are quickly expanding across the U.S. and how they played a disturbing role in this year's Presidential election. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

While finger-pointing continues in the wake of the stunning, if very narrow (less than 1.5%) popular vote victory of Donald Trump over Kamala Harris last month, we continue to focus on the many failures of the media that led to it, including corporate media, social media and independent media. And, in some cases, as discussed on today's show, a lack of local media in news deserts around the country.

According to the 2024 State of Local News report from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, "Since 2005, more than 3,200 print newspapers have vanished." They are now said to be disappearing at "a rate of more than two per week", with some daily papers becoming weeklies, and many ending their print editions entirely. "As news organizations continue to contract, news deserts --- areas that lack consistent local reporting that fills critical information needs --- continue to expand."

Our guest today, 36-year former Washington Post media reporter PAUL FARHI, in an analysis of the Medill study with John Volk, finds that while Trump won the 2024 election "with one of the smallest popular vote margins in U.S. history", in 91% of news deserts he won by "an avalanche," by an average of 54 points in the 193 counties identified as news deserts where county-level results were available as of last week.

But, as Farhi and Volk note in their coverage, quoting Steven Waldman of the Rebuild Local News organization, "The wrong way to interpret this is ‘Oh, the rubes voted for Trump because they’re uninformed.’”

What is the right way? Well, that's what Farhi is here to discuss today.

He explains that those voters who live in news deserts --- usually rural, though not always Republican-leaning counties --- do have access to national media outlets such as CNN, Fox "News", the New York Times, etc. But, without local news outlets to add context to national issues, they may end up voting against their own best interests. Those voters, for example, may not realize that the Trump/Republican call for tariffs might end up raising local prices or result in the loss of local employment. They may not understand that access to healthcare and the right to abortion may be lost in their own community.

"These issues have local resonance," Farhi tells me, "but they don't if you have no access to understanding how they affect your local community. So what happens? The research that's emerging is that people frame their choice around their partisanship. 'I'm a Republican, I'm going to vote Republican. I don't need any local news to modify that behavior because I don't have any news to modify that behavior.' It increases the polarization and the partisanship of the electorate, because they have no information to weigh it against what's happening in their local community."

Beyond politics, Farhi notes: "In news deserts, because you don't have a watchdog, you have more political corruption on average. You have higher taxes on average. You have lower bond ratings. You have a certain kind of social alienation and loss of community, because no one is covering the high school sports, or obits, or the community events, or the things that are not major stories, but they kind of give a community some cohesion and coherence, and common knowledge. Those things, when they disappear, which they do in news deserts, are disproportionately affecting Trump voters."

The disturbingly fast expansion of news deserts may also be leading to a growth in ticket-splitting --- votes cast for a Republican at the top of the ticket, for instance, but no votes at all cast for Senator, Congress or in local races. That's because voters may simply not have enough local information to know how to vote. Ironically, that may have helped Democrats win some of those Senate and House races this year in states where Harris lost the popular vote to Trump.

It's a fascinating conversation. And a disturbing one. Also, given Farhi's 36 years as a media reporter at Washington Post until leaving last year, I asked him for his thoughts on the decision by the paper's billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to nix the planned Editorial Page endorsement of Harris just days before the November election; how Bezos' ownership has affected the venerable news outlet; and whether he thinks it is a good or bad idea, for news in general, for people to cancel subscriptions to such outlets in protest. (More than 250,000 subscribers reportedly did exactly that just after Bezos spiked the paper's endorsement of Harris.) Please tune in for all of that and much more in our discussion today!

ALSO TODAY...

• The Dept. of Justice Inspector General released a report on the abuse by the Trump Administration's leak investigations that included spying on two members of Congress (Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell), along with 43 staff members of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. One of the staffers secretly caught up in the 2017 probe, was Kash Patel, Trump's proposed nominee to head the FBI. He served as a staffer, at the time, to a Republican Congressman and only recently learned that the Administration abused DoJ policies to obtain his email and phone records. Suffice to say the report may add reasons for Patel to be angry and seek retribution, but not of the media or Obama or Biden Administrations, despite his vow to investigate and jail both members of the media and officials of both Administrations. His problems, it seems, may be much closer to home.

• Finally, as yet another apocalyptic climate change-fueled wildfire threatens celebrity homes and Pepperdine University in Malibu today, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on deadly back-to-back storms in the U.K. and Ireland; China's EV boom eroding the global demand for oil; and Donald Trump's plans to end Joe Biden's landmark loan programs to renewable energy companies and tax credits to consumers like you, for home improvements such as solar panels, weatherized windows and electric vehicles...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.K. and Ireland hit with deadly back-to-back storms; China's electric vehicle boom is eroding global demand for oil; PLUS: Time is running out to cash in on Biden's climate law incentives before Trump kills them... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 75% of Earth's land got drier in recent decades, U.N. says; TCE: All uses of 'Camp Lejeune Solvent' to be phased out by EPA rule; Their fertilizer poisons farmland. Now, they want protection from lawsuits; The climate risk to the mortgage system; Biden moves ahead with drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but minimizes acreage; Europe's battery dreams die, but China cashes in... PLUS: Supreme Court case on Utah railway could impact U.S. environmental laws... and much, MUCH more! ...

The cruelty really does appear to be the point, as discussed on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

On Wednesday, the hateful creeps who have been fired up for years by Fox "News" and the Republican Party against trans kids, had their day at the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard some two and half hours of oral argument for and against the state of Tennessee's Big Government ban on safe, medically prescribed gender-affirming care for minors.

U.S. v. Skrmetti, as CHRIS GEIDNER of Law Dork, our guest today, pointed out in his coverage last night after sitting through the full hearing at the Court, should have been an "an easy case, in some ways." The actual legal question for the moment is whether the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld TN's cruel ban, applied the proper standards when hearing the case. If the law banning medical care for youths, as recommended by their doctors and approved by their parents, is based on sex, it should be subject to at least "intermediate scrutiny" by the court, meaning the government needs to prove "there is an important government interest and the law is substantially related to it," Geidner explains. "You need to have a reason" to adopt such a law that may discriminate on the basis of sex.

No such scrutiny was applied to TN's Senate Bill 1 when its challenge was heard and the law upheld by the lower court. The Biden Administration and the ACLU attorney representing the private challengers in the case made clear that the law is, in fact, based on sex and therefore should be remanded to the lower court to be heard under heightened scrutiny to ensure there us a legitimate governmental interest in enforcing the law which, plaintiffs argue, violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection clause.

That said, Wednesday's hearing became, at times, more of a culture war over trans rights in general, as 25 other largely GOP-controlled states have adopted similar bans in recent years. Their laws will be affected by whatever happens in this case currently at SCOTUS. That, as Donald Trump and his allies have vowed to roll back protections for transgender people at the national level after he takes office again next year.

The matter, in short, is very high stakes. But the stakes are the highest at the moment for the kids who will be --- and already are being --- unconscionably harmed by these insidious laws meant to help Republicans gain or hold power under the guise of keeping children safe. These laws do no such thing. They are actively harming children rather than help them.

Geidner breaks down what happened at the High Court on Wednesday; how a 2020 case (before the all-out GOP war on transgender people kicked into high gear) in which Republican Justices Neil Gorsuch and John Roberts actually joined the Court's liberals to protect trans rights may affect this case; and whether TN will be able to get five Justices to uphold their ban --- or if the challengers will find five that are willing to at least send the matter back down to the lower court for a proper hearing.

"All that DoJ and the ACLU, representing the private plaintiffs, were saying is that, 'The 6th Circuit got the wrong standard, and all that you need to do is say that this is a sex-based classification, and send it back for them to do the rest of this work'," says Geidner. The case, the challengers argued, is a Constitutional Equal Protection matter. But, as Geidner observes, "What we saw from Chief Justice Roberts and Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh was an attempt to come up with a way of resolving the case that would allow these laws to exist that isn't anti-trans. Which can essentially only happen by turning the Equal Protection clause on its head or rendering it virtually irrelevant." That would have a sweeping effect on all matter of legislation encroaching on Constitutional rights.

The matter, Geidner assess, now most likely rests upon decisions by Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Gorsuch who, Geidner notes --- after having written the majority opinion in 2020's landmark Bostock case that prevented discrimination against transgender people by their employers --- fell curiously silent throughout the entire hearing on Wednesday.

Most media coverage after the hearing on Wednesday suggested things don't look good for the challengers --- and for the children they are hoping to protect. Geidner concedes that may be the case, but he holds out hope and explains why today.

Also on today's program...

• A few words about the 7.0 magnitude quake in Northern California this afternoon, and the tsunami warning that briefly followed it, affecting some 5.3 million people on the West Coast. (For those who asked after the news broke today: We're fine! And nowhere near the quake down here in Southern California! But thanks for asking!)
• And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report on a North Carolina town suing Duke Energy for years of deception about climate change; how climate change has become the dominant cause of drought in the U.S. West; South Africa's High Court bans new coal plants; and small, imperiled island nations like Vanuatu and Kiribati, whose entire existence is now threatened by rising seas, are leading a courageous landmark fight for global climate action at the U.N.'s International Court of Justice...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Top U.N. court to rule on landmark climate case; North Carolina town sues Duke Energy over climate deception; South Africa's High Court blocks new coal plants; PLUS: Global warming now the dominant driver of drought in the U.S. West... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Scientists sound alarm about terrifying ocean event that could bring global devastation; Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check; China’s share of global electric car market rises to 76 percent; National TV news barely covered COP29; These high-tech windows fight climate change – and will save you money; Exxon goes forward with $200-mln expansion of Texas plastic plants... PLUS: Climate change and insurance: a growing fustercluck... and much, MUCH more! ...

Democracy is under attack again today. And not just in D.C. We're here to do our part in defending it wherever possible on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our many stories today...

• The rightwing, inexperienced, recently elected but now very unpopular President of South Korea attempted a power grab today by declaring martial law and the shutdown of the National Assembly for largely trumped up reasons. (Pun intended.) It didn't work. His own political party joined the opposition Democratic Party majority in the nation's parliament for a swift, unanimous vote to shut down the attempted self-coup just hours after it began. The country's military wasn't much help to the President either. (Which may be just one reason Donald Trump has tapped loyalist stooge, accused rapist and years-long womanizing drunkard, Pete Hegseth of Fox "News", to be his own Sec. of Defense.) But there are a whole bunch of other lessons that we need to learn in THIS country from what happened today in South Korea which may be very helpful in the months and years ahead.

• Meanwhile, power grabs by Republicans are underway at the state level in this country as well following the November 5th election. In the closely divided battleground state of North Carolina, where Donald Trump won at the Presidential level, Democrats were victorious up and down the ballot in a bunch of statewide offices including Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Sec. of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction. The GOP also lost its gerrymandered supermajority in the state House by one seat. So Republicans, in the weeks they have left with supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, are now attempting, under the guise of a "sham" Hurricane Helene disaster relief bill, to strip extraordinarily broad swaths of power from those offices and hand it to the GOP-controlled state legislature. Outgoing Democratic Governor Roy Cooper has already vetoed the bill, but Republicans in the Senate have voted to override it and protesters in the state are attempting to prevent House Republicans from doing the same. The measure, among other things, strips the incoming Democratic Governor's ability to appoint members of the State Board of Elections, to fill vacancies at both the state Appeals and Supreme Court levels with judges of his choosing, and, in a sop to the fossil fuel industry, prevents the state Attorney General from, as Cooper said in his veto, the "ability to advocate for lower electric bills for consumers." The 131-page bill, originally introduced in November and passed by both chambers within 24 hours, would also place new restrictions on elections in the state, which election officials charge would result in votes going uncounted.

• If that North Carolina measure is adopted before the new state legislature is sworn in next month, it will almost certainly be challenged by Democrats at the state Supreme Court, where last month one of its two liberal Justices, Allison Riggs, very narrowly defeated her Republican challenger, Jefferson Griffin, by fewer than 1,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast. A machine recount confirmed the initially reported machine-tallied results. Now Griffin is seeking both a hand-count and the disqualification of more than 60,000 ballots.

• There is somewhat brighter news this week in another battleground state, where a Wisconsin judge has finally struck down former far-right Republican Gov. Scott Walker's wildly controversial 2011 law that stripped the power of certain public unions to collectively bargain for wages and other benefits. The law, according to the judge, is unconstitutional since it takes those powers from "general" unions, such as the state teachers union, while allowing it for "public safety" officials, such as police and firefighters unions who were supporters of Walker's at the time. Back in 2011, you may recall the weeks-long fight over the measure, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters to the state capital as Republicans in the legislature muscled the bill to passage. Of course, the judge's ruling will now be appealed up to the state Supreme Court which, as of last year, finally has a narrow, 4 to 3 liberal majority that will once again be tested during yet another WI Supreme Court election this April.

• And, speaking of every vote mattering, a legal and political battle is underway right now in Minnesota over a state House race where Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke was declared the winner by just 14 votes over his Republican challenger Aaron Paul after a recount and official canvass. That said, an investigation by the local County Attorney found that 21 absentee ballots in the race may have been accidentally discarded prior to being tallied. Republicans have filed suit to declare the seat vacant and are seeking a special election. This one seat matters. As of now, with the Democratic Tabke as the winner, Democrats and Republicans will each hold 67 seats in the state House, where lawmakers are preparing a power sharing agreement. If the Republican Paul ultimately ends up winning the seat, the balance of power would be shifted with a two-vote, 68-66 GOP majority. Yup, every vote matters. Even the ones that were tossed due to "human error", according to the County Attorney.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, our first since returning from the holiday. And she's got a lot to catch us up on, from the collapse of a U.N. plastics treaty summit in South Korea (prior to today's attempted coup!), to a lackluster (at best) agreement at the U.N.'s COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, to new worries about how extreme drought is set to exacerbate immigration issues at our southern border...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.N. plastics treaty negotiations collapse in South Korea; U.N. COP29 climate talks end with weak agreement in Azerbaijan; PLUS: Extreme drought is an immigration issue, study warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Landmark climate change case opens at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas; Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems; Here’s what happened when experts at COP29 played a climate change board game; How MAGA wants jurists to reshape climate policy; A warning from California's record marine heat wave; UN calls for $2.6 trillion investment to reverse land degradation; News Corp's ‘Special Report’ on natural gas was paid for by industry... PLUS: Inside the plastic industry's battle to win over hearts and minds... and much, MUCH more! ...

It's a jam-packed show today, as we try to fit as much in as we can for our last BradCast until after the Thanksgiving holiday. Yes, we're taking a much-needed week off next week. But we've got some advice for all of us on today's program on how to (try and) survive the holidays with MAGA friends and family members and, perhaps, pave the way for a better tomorrow. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• Minutes after the Gaza Health Ministry announced that 44,000, mostly women and children, have been killed during Israel's 13-month long war following the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 in Israel, news broke from the International Criminal Court. Warrants have been issued by the ICC for the arrest of Israel's far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau, his former Defense Minister and Hamas' military chief on charges of crimes against humanity and other war crimes. We explain what that means and doesn't.

• Police in Monterey, California on Wednesday night released a 22-page report [PDF] on the 2017 sexual assault allegations filed by the organizer of a Republican women's event against Pete Hegseth, a featured speaker at the forum, Fox "News" weekend host and Donald Trump's nominee to be the next U.S. Defense Secretary. The police report includes disturbing and seemingly damning details, as well as corroborative statements and texts from a number of witnesses and medical personnel. Police had recommended the case to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office for review at the time. Hegseth, who says the tryst was "consensual" and denies allegations of drugging the victim and preventing her from leaving a hotel room, paid a cash settlement to her last year to avoid a lawsuit. Somehow, the Trump Transition team claims to have known nothing about these charges and, in the meantime, Hegseth remains Trump's pick to head the U.S. Dept. of Defense.

• Fellow accused sexual miscreant, Matt Gaetz, however, is no longer Trump's nominee to be the nation's top law enforcement official. He withdrew from consideration to be the next U.S. Attorney General on Thursday morning, following daily revelations of new evidence supporting claims that the former Florida Congressman paid thousands of dollars for sex with 17-year old girls, trafficked the underage minors across state lines, used illicit drugs and other activities which would be disqualifying for the job of the nation's top cop in every Administration but Trump's. Gaetz resigned from Congress last week, on the same day he was tapped by Trump, just one day before the House Ethics Committee was to consider releasing their report on all of these allegations. His resignation letter reportedly stated that he did "not intend to" take the oath of office in the new Congress following his re-election on November 5. Don't be surprised, however, if he shows up anyway to take the oath of office on January 3rd, when the new Congress is sworn in. Telling the truth about anything has never been Gaetz' strong suit. (Moments after we got off air, former Florida A.G. Pam Bondi --- who declined to investigate allegations against Trump after he made a donation to her campaign --- was tapped as Trump's new nominee to lead the U.S. Justice Dept.)

• We've got still more evidence today about the polluted "information environment" that many, including myself, have blamed for the re-election of Trump over Kamala Harris on November 5. In this case, a new survey finding that some 74% of voters had heard about Harris' non-existent "plan" to "protect the rights of transgender people," thanks to $37 million in ads citing the false claims about the Democratic nominee, and a failed media environment --- corporate, social and independent --- simply unable (or uninterested) in accurately informing the electorate to the contrary. (In related news, both Desi and myself are now on Bluesky! Please follow us there! She is @GreenNewsReport.bsky.social. I am @TheBradBlog.bsky.social.)

• Then, we're happy to once again be joined today by RICH LOGIS, Founder and Executive Director of Leaving MAGA, a non-profit formed to help others, like himself, escape what he describes as the "Cult of MAGA". Logis spent years as a Republican pundit turned dyed-in-the-wool Trumper, having voted for the disgraced former and future President in both 2016 and 2020, before finally coming to the difficult realization that he'd been taken in by a dangerous cult leader.

  Logis contributed to the Democratic National Convention this year with video testimonials from fellow former MAGA members and worked on behalf of the Republicans for Harris campaign.

  Today he joins us to discuss, among other things, what he's learned over the past year from his series of podcast interviews with fellow former MAGA cultists; what he attributes Trump's victory to (hint: he agrees me with about the polluted "information environment" in which Trump supporters are no longer able to distinguish truth from lies); and how he recommends non-MAGA Americans deal with their MAGA family members and friends over the upcoming holidays.

  "Donald Trump's toxic superpower is lying," Logis tells me today. "The rightwing in the Republican Party lie about everything. So I succumbed to mis- and disinformation. When I realized that I had, by diversifying my news and information sources, it set me on the pathway to leaving MAGA."

  Logis believes, as I do, that there will be more --- not fewer --- people looking to leave MAGA in the months and years ahead, as the reality of Trump's next clown show takes shape. The time to start helping them to do so is now, he argues.

  While conceding that it might sound "very naive", he advises progressives and other non-MAGA folks to try and "make some dinners politics-free this year." But, if that can't be done, he recommends attempting to "extend the olive branch and say, 'I would like to have more of the kind of relationship that we may have had before 2015 and 2016.'"

  Logis makes the case that, even while recognizing that many MAGA opponents will not feel like it's their duty to take that step. "It's a way to reopen opportunity, reopen that door," he asserts, so when those folks are finally ready to leave MAGA, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, they will know there is space and an exit ramp for them to do so.

  Anyway, as usual lots more in my conversation with Logis today. And he does have some cred here, as he once again felt it necessary to apologize for his part in "helping Donald Trump divide our country, pitting complete strangers against each other, tearing asunder friendships, families, communities and places of worship." He explains that his work in creating Leaving MAGA "is a way for me to make amends."

• Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report and last before our Thanksgiving break, with news on the back-to-back, climate change-fueled monster storms that slammed the Pacific Northwest over the past several days; a new report on how the climate crisis intensified every U.S. hurricane in 2024; the discovery of a huge cache of "rare earth" elements in a surprising location in the U.S.; and New York's Governor changing her mind, yet again, about congestion pricing in NYC to help reign in both traffic and air pollution while bringing in a ton of much-needed dollars to the city...

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