Our ongoing parallel coverage on The BradCast of the insane former President and the not-insane current President continues today, as one faces a decision whether to compromise with Republicans on COVID relief, and the other continues to dig his own grave even deeper while facing still more accountability for his disastrous Presidency. [Audio link to full show is posted below summary.]

But first up, as COVID vaccinations get shut down in the Northeast due to a monster winter storm, anti-vaccination protesters and rightwing Trump-supporting extremist in sunny Los Angeles over the weekend temporarily shut down COVID vaccinations at Dodger Stadium. Because they are jackasses.

Speaking of jackasses, Donald Trump lost all five of his impeachment defense attorneys on Sunday, just days before his historic second impeachment trial is set to begin next week in the U.S. Senate --- this one, for "Incitement of Insurrection" at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. The five, actually respectable attorneys, quit Team Trump, reportedly, because the former failed President insisted his impeachment defense should include his false claims that the election was stolen from him. The lawyers wanted to stick with the false argument that an Impeachment Trial after a President is out of office is somehow unconstitutional. But, no worries! Trump has reportedly replaced two of those attorneys already, with one who represented now-deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and another who, as a state prosecutor in Pennsylvania, refused to file criminal charges against convicted sex predator Bill Cosby. Trump's new attorneys should be a match made in heaven for the disgraced former President and accused sex predator himself.

In the meantime, the accountability continues for Trump's business, as a New York Supreme Court Justice on Friday ordered the Trump Organization to turn over even more documents related to the ongoing civil bank and tax fraud investigation being carried out by the state's Attorney General. That probe is running parallel to a similar criminal investigation by the state prosecutor in Manhattan, into the 45th President's allegedly fraudulent activities. Trump continues to lose in court in virtually every single one of his challenges to both probes.

And, accountability continues at the same time for some of the thousands of those in the MAGA Mob who attended the U.S. Capitol insurrection, even if they didn't (apparently) join those breaking into the building to try and overturn the 2020 election. Just ask Mark Hastings, the CEO of an online bartending supply company who proudly posted his "Stop the Steal!" selfie from outside the Capitol on his Facebook page. Customers are now said to be leaving BarProducts.com in droves. He has since deleted the selfie, for some reason.

But while Trump is facing accountability, as are his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol, what of those officials in his Administration who quietly and dutifully served him for years as he separated immigrant children from their parents, helped killed hundreds of thousands by opportunistically treating COVID as a hoax, and incited an attempted insurrection?

Last week, non-partisan government watchdog groups Accountable.us and American Oversight launched a new campaign called CorporateComplicity.org to hold American corporate CEOs to account for hiring former senior Trump Administration officials. Accountable's LIZZY PRICE joins us today to explain the campaign, and the difference between the "cancel culture" Republicans are now whining about --- now that some are finally facing a few consequences for their actions --- and accountability. (Answer: None. Also, the irony of GOPers whining about "cancel culture" after years of boycotts against those with whom they disagreed politically, is laughable. Especially just days after the Arizona GOP voted to "cancel" (censure) their own Republican Governor Doug Ducey, their own former Republican Senator Jeff Flake, and even the late John McCain's wife Cindy for daring to oppose overturning the state's lawful election of Joe Biden last November.)

"There are three real fundamental foundations to this campaign. One, no one is guaranteed a cushy job just because they served in the Administration.  Two, actions have consequences.  And three, staff at any organization reflects their [organization's] values. We're trying to make it very clear to companies that your staff reflect your values. So to hire the architect of these harmful, anti-democratic policies and rhetoric is to be complicit in that, to take that on as your corporate identity," Price explains. "So we want to make that sure corporations really think hard about doing that."

"This isn't about 'cancel culture.'  It's about what kind of behavior and what kind of policies that you reward. Corporations have a part to play in making sure that Trump is not normalized. If these officials are welcomed back into high-profile jobs, it only encourages more bad behavior."

And what does the campaign plan to do, if companies ignore their friendly warning [PDF]? "We're saying, look, if you won't vet your candidates, we will.  And we'll use any tool in our toolbox to make sure the facts are out there," Price tells me.

Finally, we close with calls from listeners ringing in one whether they'd like to see President Biden compromise with Republicans on his proposed $1.9 trillion COVID relief package in order to see it passed with bipartisan support via regular order in the U.S. Senate, instead of by a simple majority vote under the Budget Reconciliation process. On Monday, the new President was meeting with 10 Republican Senators who proposed a $600 billion package on Sunday night --- about a third of the size of Biden's --- offering much less relief for the American people.

So, should Joe and the Dems move ahead with the much-needed package they ran and won on (including $1,400 relief checks for those making $75,000 or less) or a smaller package (with just $1,000 checks for those making $50,000 or less) to keep his promise of reaching out to try and find compromise with Republicans? Callers have a few thoughts on that, and we are with almost all of them...

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Some pretty huge news on today's BradCast, for the American economy and for the continuing prospects for human civilization. So, yeah, pretty huge news. [Audio link to show is posted below summary.]

Among the stories covered on today's program...

• General Motors announced on Thursday that it will end the production of all gasoline and diesel powered cars and SUVs by 2035. The announcement signals a potential sea change (both figuratively and literally) in American automobile production --- and not a moment too soon;

• That news comes on the heels of President Biden's ambitious climate action agenda announced on Wednesday, which includes plans to replace the entire federal fleet of about half a million cars with electric vehicles, fueling about a million new jobs in the industry, and a rapid move away from dangerous, dirty, expensive fossil fuels towards cheaper, cleaner renewable energy. He also called for a carbon emissions-free national power grid by 2035 and full carbon neutrality by 2050. Naturally, fossil fuel-captured Republican officials and Fox "News" dupes are freaking out about the bad news for their industry funders (even if it's great news for their constituents!);

• The potential boost to jobs and the economy comes not a moment too soon, as federal government numbers released on Thursday reveal that 2020 saw the biggest collapse of the American economy since World War II. The numbers also signal the end of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history (11 years! Thanks, Obama!) and that the average annual GDP growth under President Obama far outpaced that of supposed business genius Donald Trump. Just like the last Republican President before him, Trump inherited a booming economy from a Democratic President and subsequently tanked it for the next Democratic President to have to clean up after him;

• That next Democrat, President Biden, continued his Executive Order flurry on Thursday by rolling back Trump's efforts to prevent Americans from receiving healthcare coverage. Biden re-opened the Healthcare.gov exchange to allow millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic to obtain affordable health insurance, which Trump refused to do. (Did I mention we are still in the middle of the worst healthcare crisis in 100 years? Made even worse by the failures of the former President?);

• Despite all of that --- a new Democratic President working to create millions of new, good paying jobs and provide healthcare and vaccines to all --- there are still a whole bunch of brain-poisoned MAGA wingnuts so misinformed that they are plotting to kill Democratic officials and overthrow the American government. One such brain-poisoned MAGA wingnut, freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), was recently discovered to have supported calls for Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton to be killed, and to have stalked and harassed a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre just weeks after the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida. She described him as a coward. Now, a Democratic Congressmember is calling for Greene to be expelled from the U.S. House;

• Finally, Desi Doyen heroically --- in just six minutes! --- summarizes Biden's massive, landmark plan for climate action, as unveiled at the White House on Wednesday, in our latest Green News Report...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: GNR Special Coverage: President Biden launches historic, government-wide plan for climate action... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The Filibuster Was Grounded in Slavery and Now Threatens All Life on Earth; General Motors to eliminate gasoline and diesel cars and SUVs by 2035; Court rules against Dakota Access easement in win for tribe; ... PLUS: Transmission week: how to start building more big power lines... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: President Biden moves to undo even more of Trump's attacks on the environment; Biden will use the power of the government purse to boost electric vehicles made in the U.S.; PLUS: Court strikes fatal blow to Trump's polluting power plant rule... 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): Earth Is Now Losing 1.2 Trillion Tons Of Ice Each Year; Climate Scientist Michael Mann: Deniers Are Shifting Tactics; Jair Bolsonaro Could Face Charges In The Hague Over Amazon Rainforest; Officials Hail 'Encouraging' Number Of N Atlantic Right Whale Births; Eminent Domain Lets Pipeline Developers Take Land From Black Owners... PLUS: Planting Crops — And Carbon, Too... and much, MUCH more! ...

It's only Day 3 for the Biden Administration, but it feels like Donald Trump has been gone for months. And that feels fantastic. On today's BradCast, we catch up with the new President's flurry of Executive Actions since taking office and the GOP's attempt to continue Senate dysfunction, even with Democrats now (theoretically) in the majority. [Audio link to full show is posted below.]

Also today, some news on Donald Trump's upcoming second Senate Impeachment Trial, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces plans to transmit Trump's latest Article of Impeachment --- for "Incitement of Insurrection" --- to the upper chamber on Monday. And we've got more good news on Trump's crumbling empire, with more banks and law firms having dumped the toxic former President and his company following his incitement of the attempted U.S. Capitol insurrection by MAGA Mobsters on January 6.

We're joined today by progressive financial journalist and author DAVID DAYEN, Executive Editor of The American Prospect and author of its new, daily, FIRST 100 newsletter. Dayen, whose magazine has devoted no small amount of the past year toward detailing a progressive Day One Agenda for the new Democratic President, offers his take on President Biden's first (less-than-half) week in office, the corporate media's curious adjustments in covering a new Administration, and Mitch McConnell's attempt at delaying the full turn over of the Senate to Democrats.

While he remains cautious this early in the Administration, Dayen notes that he has been pleased, so far, with their "unwillingness to get caught up in a Fox News game of worrying about 'optics'" and indications that Biden, to date, is "not going to get sucked into a deficit hawk argument."

After a year covering the COVID crisis for his magazine, Dayen also offers a prescription for how to get both new relief checks and vaccine shots to the American people as quickly as possible while Republicans balk at Biden's critical $1.9 trillion COVID relief proposal and even attempt to stymie a power-sharing deal in the 50/50 Senate unless Dems agree to not do away with the democracy-stifling legislative filibuster.

So far, Dayen observes, Senate Democrats appear unwilling to give up the leverage of potentially doing away with the filibuster. "There's nothing in it" for them, he says, adding "Schumer has been insistent that he's not going to take that deal." There's a bit more good news to end your week for now.

Finally, we close a remarkable and historic week --- the last one to include Donald Trump as President of the United States (was that still this week?!) --- with some prescient thoughts from Jon Stewart, as shared with Steven Colbert just 11 days into the then-nascent but already-exhausting Trump Administration, from January 31, 2017...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: GNR Special Coverage: Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris take office and get right to work, renewing hope for meaningful U.S. climate action... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Greta Thunberg pokes Cruz in tweet welcoming US back to Paris accord; US Rejoins the Paris Agreement, but Rebuilding Credibility on Climate Action Will Take Time; Could Baltimore's Climate Change Suit Become a Supreme Court Test Case?; Bernhardt Rescinds Wilderness Protection Order Before Leaving Office; Electric Car Batteries With Five-Minute Charging Times Produced... PLUS: Northwest’s Salmon Population May Be Running Out of Time... and much, MUCH more! ...

Looks like we made it! Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 46th President on Wednesday. Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female, black and South Asian Vice President. And the nation's worst President and greatest sore-loser ever became a former President at the same time, fleeing D.C. like the coward he is just after dawn. All of which we cover in today's BradCast Inauguration Special. [Audio link to show is posted below summary.]

On his way out the door, Donald Trump unleashed a load of pardons and commutations for his corrupt allies and wealthy friends, abusing the Presidential pardon power in an unprecedented, but hardly surprising, way. We detail just some of the 144 grants of clemency he issued just after midnight, including for Steven Bannon, his former campaign manager and fired White House senior political strategist (who was indicted for defrauding millions of dollars from Trump supporters for a project to build a wall on the U.S. southern border); Elliot Broidy, former RNC fundraiser and Trump Inaugural Treasurer who pleaded guilty to selling his services to lobby Trump on behalf of a foreign billionaire; Paul Erickson, GOP operative and boyfriend of alleged Russian spy Maria Butina; a last second pardon for Albert Pirro, the real-estate developer, GOP fundraiser and convicted felon husband of Fox "News" host and Trump suck-up Jeanine Pirro; and more than 100 others like them. The raft of 11th hour pardons led one good government advocate to wryly charge that "Amazingly, in his final 24 hours in office, Donald Trump found one more way to fail to live up to the ethical standard of Richard Nixon."

Much to our surprise, however, Trump did not pardon his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, any of his children or himself! We would have bet good money he'd have pardoned some or all of them. (Especially himself!) But he apparently didn't.

As if his list of pardoned fraudsters, liars and other assorted and unrepentant criminals wasn't wasn't slimy and sleazy and swampy enough for ya, Trump also issued one last. middle of the night Executive Order to rescind his own 2017 EO that barred Executive Branch officials from lobbying their own agency for five years after leaving office, in addition to a lifetime ban on lobbying for any foreign government. In reversing his much vaunted ethics rule from his first year in office, he made clear yet again that he was only ever pretending for his base of dupes and suckers that he wanted to "drain the swamp" in D.C.

In much less sleazy news, on Day One of the Biden Administration, the new President signed an unprecedented raft of Executive Orders at the White House after his Inauguration, meant to begin to undo some of the most egregious excesses and corruption of the previous Administration. The orders focus generally on four concurrent crises Biden has vowed to immediately begin tackling, including COVID-19, the economy, racial injustice and climate change. Among the EOs planned to be signed on Wednesday, according to AXIOS:

But after Trump mercifully fled town early on Wednesday, a remarkably moving and socially distanced Inauguration Ceremony was held at the U.S. Capitol, under extraordinary security precautions following the massive MAGA Mob of violent, rioting insurrectionists who attempted, to little avail, to block Biden's decisive 2020 victory from being formally affirmed by Congress just two weeks ago today.

We share some key moments from today's ceremony, including Biden's full, crisp, and tremendously on-point Inaugural Address. The new President, among other things, declared that "Democracy has prevailed" and vowed to be a "President for all Americans" while calling for "unity". He pointedly noted: "We must end this uncivil war" and went on to observe that "Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies."

Finally, we close with a few thoughts on this wonderful, historic and long overdue day from both Desi and myself, at the end of four (actually five) hellishly long, painful, destructive, difficult and deadly years as the "American Carnage" of the Trump Era hopefully begins to fade as a new day begins...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Biden unveils economic recovery plan with focus on climate; Also plans blitz of actions to undo Trump's environmental rollbacks; Trump unleashes last last-minute spree of rollbacks and polluter giveaways; PLUS: It may finally be the end of the line for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Toyota to Pay a Record Fine for a Decade of Clean Air Act Violations; Climate scientists sound the alarm on a climate 'tipping point'; 'Cautious optimism' about fighting climate change: Dr. Michael Mann; Weakened 'forever chemical' assessment sets hurdle for Biden; 'Unrig the data.' How utilities embellish carbon cuts; PNW: A Thin Green Line with Global Impact; Los Angeles Lifts Air-Quality Limits For Cremations As Covid Deaths Double... PLUS: The Capitol Riot and Climate Disinformation... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder criminally charged in Flint Water Crisis; Trump EPA's parting gift to polluters --- severe restrictions on all future pollution regulations; U.S. annual emissions plummet, due to coronavirus; PLUS: World's biggest battery farm now online in California... 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): Record Ocean Heat In 2020 Supercharged Extreme Weather; Trump Admin Slashes Critical Habitat For Northern Spotted Owl; >How Trump Admin's Climate Denial Left Its Mark on The Arctic Council; A Late Burst of Climate Denial Extends the Era of Trump Disinformation; Wildfire Smoke Causes Up To Half Fine-Particle Pollution in Western U.S.... PLUS: House Poor, Pollution Rich: Thousands of public housing residents live near the most polluted places in the nation - and the government has done little to protect them... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast: Donald John Trump made history yet again on Wednesday by becoming the first President to be Impeached twice. Plus, a former Congressman and diplomat warns accountability is needed if the nation ever hopes to recover. [Audio link to full show is posted below summary.]

The U.S. House voted 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans joining all of the Democrats, to charge the soon-to-be-former President with "Incitement of Insurrection" [PDF] for inflaming his violent MAGA mob before they stormed the U.S. Capitol just one week earlier. Using false claims that he had actually won the election in a landslide, he told his infuriated supporters to "fight like hell" to prevent the 2020 election from being stolen for Joe Biden. At least five people, including a police officer, were killed during the insurrection, another officer later committed suicide. Scores of both law enforcement officials and rioters were hospitalized as the marauders attempted to find and kill Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers.

Soon-to-be-former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responded to the historic day by ruling out a trial on the charge in the U.S. Senate before next week's inauguration of Joe Biden. He did not, however, rule out his own vote to convict the twice-impeached President. Some close to McConnell have reportedly suggested that he may see the impeachment and a subsequent conviction of Trump as a way to distance the GOP from the nation's worst and most divisive President.

We share a number of the statements made during the House floor debate, both for and against Trump's impeachment, on Wednesday, including from one of the Republicans who broke with his party to vote to impeach the President.

Then, we're joined by former Democratic Congressman and diplomat TOM PERRIELLO, who now heads the Open Society Foundation for the U.S. Perriello, after serving as Representative for Virginia's 5th Congressional District, went on to serve as the U.S. Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes Region during the Obama Administration. Earlier in the 2000s he worked as a U.S. diplomat with the UN-mandated Special Court for Sierra Leone and as a consultant to the International Center for Transitional Justice in Kosovo (2003), Darfur (2005), and Afghanistan (2007).

Comments from Perriello caught our eye last week when he was quoted by the New York Times following the attempted coup at the Capitol. It was an article on the growing demands by Democrats for accountability for Trump, his family and his associates after he leaves office. In the piece, Perriello is cited --- based on his experience helping to resolve political crises in various developing nations, including one in which a President attempted to stay in office beyond his constitutional term --- noting: "Countries that skip the accountability phase end up repeating 100 percent of the time --- but the next time the crisis is worse."

“People who think that the way forward is to brush this under the rug," he told the paper, "seem to have missed the fact that there is a ticking time bomb under the rug."

On a day in which a majority of House Republicans argued and voted against accountability for last week's Trump-incited violent assault on the U.S. Capitol --- with many arguing, hypocritically, that impeachment would merely serve to anger Trump supporters and lead to more divisiveness and hostility at a time the nation needs healing --- Perriello's insight based on his years of experience abroad is enlightening. Citing, for example, the efforts to rebuild Liberia following the tumultuous, criminal reign of its former President Charles Taylor, was to bring charges. "The only real path to peace involved accountability for him and the other warlords who had driven so much of that conflict across the region."

"Accountability can take a lot of different forms, but there's a reason you don't have a lot of candidates out there and politicians saying they want to be the next Richard Nixon or the next Joe McCarthy. These are people who faced public accountability in the form of censure and resignation, with real consequences to them. And that tends to define the path forward," ," Perriello tells me. "There's a reason that in Germany, there are not statues set up to Hitler and other Third Reich figures. The way in which we choose to understand our history and hold people to account has real consequences for other leaders in the future, and the actions they choose to take."

Citing his concern about what could happen in the coming days, in the wake of last week's attempted coup, he notes: "The insurrectionists are already planning escalations. The failure to take seriously such similar provocations or promises, really, is part of what got us into this mess. ... To me, as someone who has worked in conflict zones and on transitional justice, the most scary image was them walking out not in handcuffs, because those images were ones that simply invited the idea of impunity. And impunity leads people to repeat those events, and repeat them with escalation. Allowing even a 24-hour news cycle in which these people could exit as heroes, was something that was almost certainly going to lead to more violence down the road. And that's why this issue of introducing accountability is important." 

So, is the best way for Joe Biden to help "heal" the country to look forward, not back, as the Obama Administration did when taking office after George W. Bush, when they failed to bring accountability for torture and domestic spying by the Administration or for those whose crimes resulted in the 2008 financial crisis? Or should the Biden Administration hold Trump and his enablers to account for their actions? Should some sort of Truth and Reconciliation Committee be formed to help the U.S. out of its current seemingly-intractable morass, as Perriello helped oversee in overseas, third-world nations?

He offers his thoughts on all of that, on Biden's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for Attorney General, as well as on today's history second impeachment of Donald Trump, and even explains why he believes "this may yet be our finest hour." All of that on today's jam-packed program!...

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Today's BradCast picks up where yesterday's left off, amid the Trump-instigated attempted insurrection by his MAGA Mob at the nation's Capitol amid the formal affirmation of Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. We continue then with all of the mind-boggling fallout thereafter. [Audio link to full show is posted below this summary.]

Among the stories covered today on today's show...

• Morning Joe speaks for us, in his response to Wednesday's shameful attempted coup and pathetic response to it by the Capitol Police;

• So does Joe Biden, who, like Joe Scarborough, notes how differently a white rightwing MAGA Mob was dealt with, versus how things would have played out had those violent rioters who invaded the Capitol building been BLM protesters;

• Trump won't be escaping to Scotland after all. Guess he'll have to find another country willing to harbor a likely fugitive from justice;

• Once the Capitol building was cleared of Trump's lawless marauders on Wednesday night --- and four insurrectionists had died in the bargain --- the Electoral College affirmation by Congress that they'd attempted to prevent, picked up once again, with a (very slightly) chastened GOP. We share several outstanding speeches from the Senate floor in the middle of the night/early morning, as delivered by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mitt Romney (R-UT). That, before seven Republican U.S. Senators and 138 GOP House Members (68% of the caucus!) voted, unsuccessfully, to nullify millions of votes cast by the voters of Arizona and Pennsylvania;

• For the record, the seven Republican Senators who voted to nullify the voters in those two states --- even after the attempted coup at their own place of work --- are: Cruz (TX), Hawley (MO), Lummis (WY), Marshall (KS), Scott (FL), Tuberville (AL) and Hyde-Smith (MS). May their names live in eternal infamy and shame;

• Trump and his Republican Party's shameful, evidence-free attempt to use the Electoral Count Act of 1887 or 12th Amendment to the Constitution in order to steal the 2020 Presidential election has officially failed, as Biden's Electoral College "landslide" was affirmed by Congress at 3:45am on Thursday morning, January 7th. The MAGA Mob riots served no purpose other than to kill several Trump supporters and injure more than a dozen Capitol police. The results of the election were exactly as they were certified by all 50 states weeks ago;

• Amid the insurrection and while being locked out of his account at both Twitter and Facebook overnight (he has since been allowed to return to Twitter, though Facebook says he will be banned until at least after Inauguration Day), Trump's mood was said to have grown increasingly erratic. His rage reportedly resulted in Mike Pence's Chief of Staff (and Trump's own former Legislative Director) being banned from the White House, and staffers were reportedly instructed by the White House Counsel to stay away from him, lest they find themselves as an accessory to treason under the Sedition Act;

• About eight staffers have resigned following Wednesday's events, including Trump's former Press Secretary (Stephanie Grisham), his former Acting Chief of Staff (Mick Mulvaney) and his Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the only cabinet member, so far, to jump off the sinking ship. Chao also happens to be married to the soon-to-be-former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will presumably be the Republican Minority Leader following the apparent victories by Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock on Tuesday in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoffs. None of those who waited until now to resign should be hailed as heroes;

• By Thursday morning, both incoming presumptive Senate Majority Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had issued statements calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked by Vice President Pence and Trump's remaining cabinet members to remove him from office immediately. Pelosi correctly describes Trump as having incited "an unpseakable assault on our nation and our people." Short of impeachment, both Democratic leaders say, another impeachment for "willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States"; "gravely endanger[ing] the security of the United States"; and "demonstrat[ing] that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office" remain a possibility, as detailed in Articles now being circulated for consideration by House Democrats;

• If you're not familiar with how the 25th Amendment would work, should it be invoked (there is also at least one Republican lawmaker calling for it today, describing Trump as "unfit" and "unwell"), here's a quick primer;

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for some much brighter news, believe it or not, in our latest Green News Report, where the overlooked news about Democrats clawing back a legislative majority in the Senate may be very very good news indeed...as long as WV's coal-loving Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin, decides to help save the planet by playing along...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Democrats win U.S. Senate majority, paving the way for crucial climate legislation; Trump Administration, amid attempted coup, auctions off drilling rights in pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Massachusetts to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035; PLUS: Britain achieves new record in offshore wind energy generation... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Disproportionate protest response: Capitol Hill vs. Standing Rock; Trump Admin Clears the Way for Bird Slaughter; For First Time In 5 Years, US Gas Mileage Down, Emissions Up; Exxon Discloses Full Scope of Fuel Emissions for First Time; New Study on Regenerative Grazing Complicates Climate Optimism; For First Time In 5 Years, US Gas Mileage Down, Emissions Up... PLUS: Things to watch in a 50-50 Senate... and much, MUCH more! ...

As "today" is still ongoing, we'll need to keep the summary of today's BradCast --- and the extraordinary events we find ourselves covering on the fly --- a bit more terse than usual. [Audio link to today's full show follows below.]

Our first draft of history today includes the news that both Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have reportedly won their U.S. Senate runoff contests in Georgia against incumbent Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively. With those two stunning, if narrow, victories, Democrats will soon enjoy partisan control of the U.S. Senate under the new Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, instead of soon-to-be-former Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Warnock will be the first African-American Senator and Ossoff the first Jewish Senator to represent the Peach State. Ossoff, at 33 years old, will also be the chamber's youngest member.

While that momentous news alone would normally be our top and perhaps only story for the day, it barely makes the top three. As you know by now, after weeks of false, evidence-free claims by the President of the United States that the election was stolen from him, and after an hour of his endlessly repeated, ginned-up rhetoric on same at a so-called "SAVE AMERICA" rally in D.C. this morning --- and after Donald Trump's buffoon, criminal attorney Rudy Giuliani called for "trial by combat" in his own remarks --- the MAGA Mob he summoned to D.C. stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

The rioting came during a joint session of Congress, amid GOP challenges to the formal, usually ceremonial Electoral College affirmation of Joe Biden's decisive November victory. Both chambers of Congress were evacuated as Trump-supporting rioters broke windows and doors to enter the building. Both the House and Senate chambers, as well as lawmaker offices, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were violently breached by the anti-American marauders. Vice President Pence, who had been presiding over the Joint Session, was ushered, with several other key lawmakers, to a secure location through underground tunnels beneath the Capitol building. One of the insurrectionists is said to have been shot and killed. Questions remain, lots of them, as to why there was not a larger police presence around the Capitol before this perfectly predictable attempted coup.

But, while we offer a first draft of history on all of the above today, the attempt to overthrow the American government, abetted by the President himself, was hardly the only sign of the long and steady degradation of our Constitutional representative republic by members of the Republican Party. On Tuesday, GOP members of the Pennsylvania Senate refused to seat a duly elected veteran Democratic state Senator on the first day of their new session and used their gerrymandered majority to muscle Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman out of his state Constitutional role as President of the state Senate. We share some of the remarkable audio from that Tuesday coup in the Keystone State, in what I'm calling "The Wisconsinization of Pennsylvania."

Joining us to explain what happened during those extraordinary events in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the even more extraordinary events that we saw in D.C. on Wednesday --- and both where it all comes from and what it all means going forward --- is the great WILL BUNCH, longtime national columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

Finally, as the President of the United States with no more than two weeks left in office only made matters worse with his Twitter statements throughout the riots that he fostered today, we turn for sanity to the President-elect instead. We close today's program with Biden's calming words to a nation in crisis, while the current disgraced President returns to his bunker amid the American Carnage he has wrought...

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Today on The BradCast: The last vote of the '2020' election has now been cast with Georgia's two U.S. Senate runoffs now over. The voting part anyway. Now the counting, fighting and complaining begin. [Audio link to full show follows below summary.]

We received mixed reports from on the ground in Georgia today. The state's voting systems manager, Gabriel Sterling, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Election Day in the contests that will determine partisan control of the U.S. Senate went very smoothly on the state's 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting systems made by Dominion and forced on in-person voters in the state for the first time in 2020 by their Republican Sec. of State, Brad Raffensperger. Lines to vote, according to Sterling were short in most places, though as long as 30 minutes at some Atlanta metro area voting stations. Other sources on the ground in the Peach State told us that lines in some places that were longer than for the Presidential general election back in November. Given there were just three races on the ballot (two for U.S. Senator, one for a Public Service Commissioner), there shouldn't have been any lines at all to speak of. Nonetheless, the 'Rube Goldberg' touchscreen computer ballot marking devices and the computerized pollbooks and computerized scanners that are used with them --- instead of a much simpler, verifiable, reliable hand-marked paper ballot system --- always take longer to cast a vote. They also, as usual, created problems for voters in several counties, with misprogrammed access cards and other reported failures. Emergency hand-marked paper ballots were said to have been deployed in some cases, as needed.

We try to read some of the tea leaves from today's reports, as to what it all may mean, while we wait for results that could come tonight....or over the next several days.

We're joined today from on the ground in Georgia by LAUREN WINDSOR, journalist, Executive Director of American Family Voices, producer of the grassroots political web-show, The Undercurrent, and, apparently, "operative", according to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Windsor has been in the state for the past month with her producer, bird-dogging incumbent Republican millionaires and Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, regarding their respective stock market windfalls amid the COVID epidemic. They are running against Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively.

She's been there as Trump has made a mess out of the runoffs, which he described over the weekend as "illegal", before showing up at a rally in the state, supposedly for Loeffler and Perdue on Monday night, not long after he confused matters further by calling for $2,000 COVID checks for Americans after Republicans (including the two GA incumbents) had insisted on $600 checks.

Windsor has broken a number of stories over that time, including last month when, as AJC documented, Perdue lied to her by claiming he planned to challenge Joe Biden's electoral vote count in the Senate tomorrow --- even though his term ended on January 3 and won't begin again until this year's election is decided and certified. Trump retweeted her tweet reporting Perdue's lie and his campaign then retweeted the President's tweet. There is apparently nobody left in the Republican Party who cares about telling the truth.

Both Perdue and Loeffer, she tells me, are "trying to have it both ways with regards to supporting the Electoral College challenge. Now they're trying to have it both ways with supporting the $2000 relief checks. They're saying, 'We'll tell you that's what we want, but we're actually going to work with McConnell to make sure it won't happen.'"

She shares of number of stories from her adventures over the past month covering both millionaires Perdue ("this guy owns a home within a gated community that's within a gated community.") and Loeffler ("It wasn't exactly a 'rag to riches story' for Kelly Loeffler. It was more of a 'riches to riches' story.) And Windsor also has some thoughts on the failure of Republican hoaxster James O'Keefe --- who she has also been bird-dogging for years now --- to deliver his promised "bombshells" on Democratic "voter fraud" in the 2020 cycle. Windsor also offers her careful prediction for how today's critical contests will ultimately shake out.

Also today, we enjoy a rare bit of speculation on Donald Trump's future, following a curious story out of Scotland Monday reporting that the tiny airport near Trump's failing Turnberry Golf Resort is set to "expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft" on January 19th, the day before Biden is to be inaugurated. Hmmm....

And, speaking of speculation, Politico has a few scoops on what House and Senate Republicans are planning for their challenges at Wednesday's joint session of Congress to the affirmation of Biden's Electoral College votes in at least three states (perhaps as many as six) during their desperate, last-ditch --- most likely futile, definitely sore-loser --- effort to overturn the 2020 Presidential election and/or make a name for themselves as 2024 Presidential contenders and/or ruin their chances all together in the bargain. We shall see. Suffice to say, Wednesday is likely to be a very long day, as we have long been warning.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our first Green News Report of 2021! With a whole bunch of stories we were unable to cover while off last week, including several new parting gifts from the Trump Administration, such as "bomb" trains and more asthma attacks for children, as well as some much better news for humanity and the planet out of Japan...

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After a not-nearly-long-enough break, The BradCast is back for the new year, when everything will be entirely better than the old year, right? Well, if the last several days of insanity that we now refer to as "news" is any indication, the answer is: "Not so much!"  It will be impossible to adequately cover all we discussed on today's program in today's summary. But, we'll give you the basics here and hope you tune in for the full story. [Audio link to full show is posted below summary.]

While we were off, both houses of Congress overrode Donald Trump's ridiculous veto of the "must-pass", $780 billion National Defense Authorization Act to fund the military for another year. But GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was nonetheless successful in preventing Americans from receiving $2,000 pandemic checks, despite best efforts of Democrats, a tiny, uninspiring handful of Republicans, and even Trump himself. That, as the nation clocked an unfathomable 350,000 COVID deaths, which is the equivalent of blowing up about 17 sold-out NBA arenas and killing every single person in every single one of them, or 115 9/11s over the past 10 months in the U.S.

With that, the new 117th Congress convened for the first time on Sunday, with a narrow majority for Republicans in the Senate (pending Tuesday's two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia) and with a narrow majority for Democrats in the House, where they elected Nancy Pelosi as Speaker for another two years.

Despite all of that pretty big news, it all seemed to pale in comparison to Donald Trump's ongoing electoral death rattle. With concerns about how our unstable President may react as his days in office dwindle, every living former Defense Secretary (10 of them, Republican and Democratic, including the two fired by Trump and even Dick Cheney, who was apparently concerned enough that he reportedly led this effort), published a short, sharp group op-ed, making it crystal clear that any "efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory," and that "civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic."

Even as that was being published on Saturday, Trump was on the phone for an unhinged hour with the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia, haranguing, threatening and cajoling him to change the state's Presidential election results to award the state's electoral college votes to Trump. We play part of that call, which may have been in violation of both state and federal laws, on today's show. We do not do it justice. The Washington Post has published the full bonkers audio and transcript, including Trump's long-ago debunked fraud claims and repeated false assertions that he won the state by about a half million votes (he lost it by about 12,000) and that he just wants "to find 11,780" votes to "win" the state.

The news of that madness came on Sunday, as Georgia will have it's last day of voting in two U.S. Senate runoffs to determine partisan control of the Senate for the next two years on Tuesday, and as the new Congress meets in a joint session on Wednesday, January 6th, to affirm (or not) the results of Biden's Electoral College victory over Trump by a seemingly comfortable 306 to 232 margin.

Over the weekend, however, more than a dozen Republican U.S. Senators led by 2024 hopefuls Josh Hawley of MO and Ted Cruz of TX, announced they intend to challenge the Electoral College results on Wednesday during what is normally a pro forma procedural affair presided over by the President of the Senate (Vice President Mike Pence, in this case).

And this bring us to crux of where we are and what could happen on Wednesday, as Republicans continue to claim --- through failed lawsuits and other protests --- that the Electoral College Act (ECA) of 1887, which has determined the procedure to be used on Wednesday for about 150 years and 33 Presidential elections without question, is somehow a violation of the Constitution's 12th Amendment.

If Republicans can figure out how to make this argument on Wednesday --- with Pence potentially holding the reins to help them --- we could find ourselves in a Constitutional quagmire leading to....lord knows what.

We're joined today to help explain all of this madness by longtime election integrity advocate, election law scholar and democracy activist, PAUL LEHTO. He argues that, despite so many claims to the contrary (by many of the same folks who said that Trump could never become President back in 2016, by the way) there is, in fact, still a "path" for Trump and his Republicans to steal the election from Biden on Wednesday.

Tune in for the details, but it has to do with how the 12th Amendment says that questions about the validity of Electoral Votes should be dealt with (via a one vote per state vote in the U.S. House), versus how the ECA handles such challenges (with a regular, up or down majority vote in both houses needed to support such a challenge.)

Why is this even a question at this point? Lehto explains in detail.

He also cites the lesson that we should learn from all of this madness: "What we should learn is that what you and election integrity activists have talked about now for decades is coming home to roost," Lehto explains. "And that is that a big, big part of this is the inherent uncertainty when votes are purely processed through computers. Nobody really knows --- until there's a hand recount --- what the result is, and partisan people can attach to that uncertainty and that doubt any theory that they wish to in order to keep hope alive."

"So we need a voting system that leaves no doubt as to that result . And in order to have that you have to have transparency," he says, adding: "Basically, this is all the chickens coming home to roost, in terms of our non-transparent voting system."

There's more. But, again, you'll need to tune in for it. Happy New Year?...

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