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! ...

Today on The BradCast: He hasn't even been sworn in and he's already violating federal law. Surprised? In this case, the law that he's violating is one that he himself signed into law in 2019. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

The flood of wholly-unqualified appointments to cabinet level posts and other top appointments, since Donald Trump barely won a plurality (not a majority) of the national popular vote two weeks ago, continues. You're probably well familiar by now with the nominations of alleged child sex trafficker Rep. Matt Gaetz for U.S. Attorney General, the nation's top law enforcement official, and of Fox "News" weekend host Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary.

Neither have any experience leading huge organizations (or even medium-sized ones) with millions of employees --- or even any experience at all at the organizations they have been tapped by Trump to lead. And Hegseth, who was disqualified from serving in the National Guard during Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration as a potential "insider threat" due to his White Supremacist tattoos, was also revealed over the weekend by Washington Post to have paid off a woman to settle her accusations of sexual assault. He reportedly denies the rape allegation, if not the settlement.

The Trump Transition team claims they knew nothing about any of it when they selected Hegseth to head DoD. That should give you chills. Perhaps that's because the Transition team hired a private firm to vet Trump's nominees, rather than rely on the FBI, as they would be doing, had Trump complied with the bipartisan amendment to the Presidential Transition Act that he himself signed into law during his first term.

The measure also requires Presidential candidates to sign agreements with the White House and General Services Administration by October 1 before an election to begin the transition process with a publicly disclosed ethics policy and a public statement of how the future President plans to avoid conflicts of interest while serving, if elected. It allows for FBI vetting of incoming officials to grant access to classified documents and other material from the previous Administration at the nation's 438 Executive Branch agencies that they will control. Signing the agreement, as required by law, also includes a vow that Transition teams may take no more than $5,000 from any one person for certain transition costs, and that they will publicly disclose the names of those donors, among other things.

Donald Trump has, so far, refused to sign any of those agreements, alarming ethics, national security and legal experts as he begins defying federal law (again) even before taking office for a second term as President.

Joining us to explain the national security and other serious consequences and ramifications of all of this is LISA GRAVES. She is uniquely qualified to discuss these issues, given her service in all three branches of the federal government, as a Former Deputy Asst. Attorney General at the U.S. Justice Dept.; former Chief Counsel for nominations in the U.S. Senate; and former Deputy Chief for the Article III Judges Div. of the U.S. Court system. She now heads up the government watchdog and political research organization, True North Research.

We've got a lot to discuss with Graves today, beginning with what alarms her most about Trump's refusal to sign the Presidential Transition Act agreements. She identifies the avoidance of the FBI background investigation process as a "huge red warning flag."

"He does not want his cabinet appointees to go through the regular clearance process. The FBI background process is a long-standing part of the process," she tells me. It's "designed to help look at whether you have any issues that could made you blackmailable. That's part of it. For people who are seeking access to our most sensitive information, there are additional national security assessments. The investigators are looking at: do you have stability, trustworthiness, reliability, discretion. Do you have good character and judgment, honesty, and unquestionable loyalty to the United States to ensure that people who get positions of trust, with access to our most sensitive information, have unquestioned loyalty to the United States and not a foreign power."

Graves argues that "many" of Trump's nominees "have serious deficits in more than one of those categories." She also tells me that Trump's own "track record would raise serious concerns about his trustworthiness, his reliability, about his fitness for having access to information."

As to Trump's plans to force the U.S. Senate into recess, so that he may avoid the Constitution's mandate for "advice and consent" on top-level appoints, she describes the scheme as "un-American, unconstitutional, and unprecedented."

Tune in for much more insight from Graves on all of this on today's program.

FINALLY TODAY... A few more items related to the U.S. House Ethics Committee's ongoing deliberations into whether to release their report on the alleged paid sex trafficking by Gaetz of at least two different 17-year old girls. And then Desi Doyen joins us for details on Trump's newly announced nomination of fracking company CEO and climate change denier Chris Wright as the next chief of the Dept. of Energy. She also has some thoughts on Trump's Interior Dept. nominee, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and on former Rep. Lee Zeldin who has been nominated to head the EPA, and how ALL of those men spell very bad news for our world's quickly-worsening climate crisis...

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What should be done --- what can be done --- to shore up advances made in recent years in the fight against climate change before "a climate denier Fascist-in-Chief" takes office? And what can be done to slow down his promised destruction thereafter? Those are just some of the questions discussed on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST... A few updates on some key races still being tabulated and/or called, unofficially, by media...

• Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego has been called as the winner over Republican election denier Kari Lake for the U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.
• Republican hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick's lead over incumbent three-term Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey has narrowed to about 30,000 votes out of seven million cast in Pennsylvania. Crucially, that gap is currently less than one half of one percent, meaning it would trigger an automatic recount in the Keystone State if it holds.
• As of now, if the current numbers become official in all "called" races, Republicans will hold at least 52 seats in the U.S. Senate majority next year, and Democrats will hold at least 47.
• Majority control of the U.S. House is still up for grabs, with 16 uncalled races (depending on who you're asking) , though Republicans need just four more seats to win what, as of now, appears likely to be a very narrow majority in the lower chamber of Congress next year. A smaller one than even the thin majority they've been embarrassingly wrestling with over the past two years.

THEN... Donald Trump's nominations to key Executive Branch posts are coming very quickly now. Among them, as of airtime today...

• Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret and China hawk for National Security Adviser.
• Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, "Li'l Marco" as Trump derisively used to call him, as Sec. of State. He has already reportedly said he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
• Puppy killer and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as Chief of the Dept. of Homeland Security.
• John Ratcliffe, Trump's former Dir. of National Intelligence is tapped to head the CIA.
• Trump's first-term acting Director of ICE and family separation supporter, Tom Homan tapped for "Border Czar", after telling 60 Minutes last month that he intends to lead the mass deportation of millions of immigrants and that it can be done without separate families: "Families can be deported together," he said.
• Former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who voted against a raft of environmental protection laws in Congress, is named to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

NEXT... All of that as Trump's transition team at EPA, led by a former oil lobbyist and a former coal lobbyist, prep to reverse every single piece of Joe Biden's climate agenda as possible, including, as the New York Times reports (gift link), "withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, eliminating every office in every agency working to end the pollution that disproportionately affects poor communities and shrinking the size of national monuments in the West to allow more drilling and mining on public lands."

This comes on the same week that climate advocates from around the globe are gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th annual U.N. Climate Summit (COP29) and vowing to continue the global trajectory toward clean, inexpensive, renewable energy to replace the fossil fuels that are heating the globe toward ever-quickening disaster. They claim "they're ready for Trump 2.0" after facing a similar challenge in 2016. But that may be easier said than done.

We're joined today by JEAN SU, Senior Attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity and Director of their Energy Justice Program to discuss the Biden Administration's legacy, including success and failures; what his Administration can now do before leaving office to shore up its successes; and what groups like hers can do to stop, or at least slow down, the destructive attacks on the environment promised by a second Trump Administration.

"What we'll be seeing happening with the Trump Administration is that it is a total, unfettered giveaway to oil and gas. He does not care about clean energy. He does not care about the communities, at all, in any of the places that fossil fuels are being produced or shipped," says Su, whose organization vows "unprecedented resistance".

"I'll be really honest. It is just, truthfully, a dark moment at this time, in terms of our federal work. We are basically facing a trifecta of monopolization of all three branches of government under a climate-denying fascist," she tells me. "We have our Executive Branch taken over by a climate denier Fascist-in-Chief, Donald Trump. He has vowed to 'drill baby drill' with no relief for any clean energy or any care for climate. And he will strip the Environmental Protection Agency [and] the Civil Rights Division of the Dept. of Justice, an entire administrative apparatus entirely smothered, stripped bare, and not functional in any way in terms of actually protecting our environment and our health and safety."

But, she also explains, there are a number of actions that the Biden Administration can still take before leaving office; actions that legal organizations like hers can take after Trump comes in; and actions that the states must take as soon as possible to, at least, mitigate the worst of the damage as long as possible.

"The bright spot in all of this, the place where we are going to see any movement on climate is at the state level," Su argues. "What we've been hearing from different people on the ground is that the initiatives that are happening at the state level are things that people can feel. They are able to see how some climate initiatives will generate the jobs that they need in their own backyards. That gives us a bright spot of actual work to be done." She also cites local efforts to reform electricity regulators, elected Public Utility Commissions and monopoly utility companies. "Those monopoly utilities are stifling rooftop and community solar, and digging in on more fossil fuels. That's an area that is ripe for intervention and organizing. Those are the bright spots that we're going to see the most movement in climate."

Much more in lively my conversation with Su today!

FINALLY... As the U.N. announces 2024 will be the hottest year on record on Planet Earth (surpassing 2023's previous record), Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, focusing on some of those "bright spots" on the ballot last week, where progressive climate-related ballot initiatives --- in "blue" and "red" states alike --- were received very well by voters, even as many of those same voters voted for candidates who oppose them...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump selects anti-environment former congressman to lead E.P.A.; 2024 will be the hottest year on record, U.N. weather agency confirms; PLUS: State ballot measures were a bright spot for the climate in last week's otherwise grim elections... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The world isn't spending nearly enough to adapt to climate shocks; Climate change has dangerously supercharged extreme weather imapcts - why didn't it come up more in the presidential campaign?; With ready orders and an energy czar, Trump pivots to fossil fuels; Mass deportations would disrupt the food chain': CA warns of threat; Republicans sweep key utility regulator races in AZ and LA; Climate change identified as main driver of worsening drought in U.S. West... PLUS: Is a 'green revolution' --- burning trash for electricity --- poisoning India’s capital?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump's re-election has worldwide implications for climate action; Environment and climate groups vow to press forward; PLUS: Hurricane Rafael knocks out Cuba's national electric grid, again... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Dousing the Dumpster Fire: The real mobilization must begin; Global temperatures likely to exceed key limit for first time; Biden moves to limit oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; WA state voters uphold landmark climate law against conservative challenge; Dems, greens bet on holding House to fight climate rollbacks; Trump’s election win spells bad news for the auto industry... PLUS: Everything you need to know about Project 2025's plan for the EPA... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Climate and the U.S. economy are on the ballot; World on pace for significant and dangerous warming without faster action, U.N. report warns; PLUS: Biden cracks down on lead paint, a serious threat to America's children... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): What could stop the global green energy race? A Trump victory; Planet-heating pollutants in atmosphere hit record levels in 2023; Rundown: 2024 Election climate ballot measures in states; How the ‘climate voter’ might matter in a down-to-the-wire US election; How are the world's trees doing? Not good... PLUS: New reports ahead of COP29 show world spinning its wheels on climate action... and much, MUCH more! ...

Step with us through the bizarre Fox 'News' looking glass on today's BradCast, where we try to make sense of all the stuff that the disgraced former President, his beclowned running-mate, and their television and social media propaganda partners really hope you don't make sense of at all. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our stories today...

• The string of good news rulings continue from state judges in Georgia. Last night, just after airtime, yet another judge issued a ruling striking down new rules recently instituted by the MAGA-majority on GA's State Elections Board. Democrats, Republicans and voting rights advocates alike charge that the SEB's new rules are unlawful, might result in chaos, and could be used to try and delay or even block the certification of votes at the County level in the critical battleground state. The judge in this challenge, filed by a Republican, found seven of the Boards new rules to be "illegal, unconstitutional and void." As we've reported in recent weeks, some of the new rules actually make sense. But instituting them this late, while voting is already underway, is likely a very bad idea. Apparently, according to the judge in last night's state court ruling, they are also unlawful.

• Unlike Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President does not appear to be afraid of adversarial interviews by real journalists --- or even by Bret Baier of Fox 'News'. The full, 26-minute interview from Wednesday is here. We share a clip or two including the moment when Harris clapped back hard against Baier's attempt to whitewash Trump's recent threats to use the U.S. military against his perceived domestic political opponents, who he has been repeatedly describing of late as "the enemy within".

• Meanwhile, as Donald Trump continues to completely avoid or otherwise wilt during any real interviews outside of his rightwing fantasy world --- due to his cowardly inability to handle real questions from real journalists who don't play along with the imaginary dystopian Biden-Harris hellscape he and Fox have created for their brain-poisoned followers --- his Vice-Presidential running mate continues to stick his neck out for Trump in the real world. And, somewhat understandably, he's making an utter hash of it, because it's all built on Big Lies and nonsense. J.D. Vance, after weeks of trying to change the subject while being pressed to answer if he believes Trump lost the 2020 election, finally answered the question yesterday. His answer is "no". So, apparently Trump won the 2020 election?! Well, yes, Vance explains, because of "Big Tech companies" who, in 2020, "engaged in industrial scale censorship backed up by the federal government" to block the "real scandal" of Hunter Biden's laptop costing the Trump-Pence ticket "millions of votes". You remember that, right? Back when Trump, not Biden-Harris, was actually in charge of the federal government? It's complicated. We explain. We also explain how Trump and his $75 million benefactor and Twitter/X owner, Elon Musk, really are --- literally --- working together to engage in industrial scale censorship to block distribution of Trump Campaign documents hacked by Iran and to ban journalists who link to it. (Contrast that with Trump singing the praises of hacks and other election interference by Russia back in 2016 and 2020. As noted, it's complicated.)

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, amid the costly cleanup of recent climate change-fueled hurricanes which are now raising everyone's insurance rates, not just for those who live in hurricane zones; as the U.S. Small Business Administration's disaster loan fund has now out of money, thanks to said hurricanes, with Congressional Republicans refusing to refill the coffers; and as our corrupted SCOTUS, curiously, chooses NOT to block the Biden EPA's new emissions limits for power plant...for now...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Destructive hurricanes could increase property insurance premiums across the nation; Small Business Administration's disaster loan fund runs dry; PLUS: U.S. Supreme Court allows EPA to enforce new limits on power plant emissions --- for now... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Global water crisis leaves half of world food production at risk in next 25 years; After hurricane, with no running water, residents organize to meet a basic need; Microplastic pollution is everywhere, even in the exhaled breath of dolphins, new research finds; Tech giants bring big bucks for small nukes; What's causing the recent spike in global temperatures? ... PLUS: La Nina could soon arrive. Here’s what that means for winter weather... and much, MUCH more! ...

When it rains, it pours on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among the muck we wade through today...

• Hurricane Milton walloped much of central Florida after coming ashore as a Cat 3 om Wednesday night, just south of a worst-case-scenario direct hit on Tampa Bay. But, as we've learned since covering Hurricane Katrina way back in 2005, it's best never to say "they dodged a bullet" too early.

• Just in case your favorite media outlets featuring wall-to-wall wind-whipped reporters foolishly risking their lives by standing outside in multi-colored rain slickers to fulfill your disaster porn needs forgot to tell you that man-made climate change exacerbated Milton's awesome destructive power and signals an even grimmer future for us all, Desi Doyen has you covered today.

• While Donald Trump has been lying to you about FEMA and the Biden-Harris Administration's response to both Hurricane Milton this week and Hurricane Helene last --- and putting his own brain-poisoned supporters at grave risk in the bargain --- three points worth noting today: 1) Everything out of Trump's mouth on these subjects is a lie. (But you knew that, right?) 2) All of the Republican Governors in all of the effected states have lauded the response from FEMA and Joe Biden. 3) Since they're all on the ballot this year, it's worth noting that a whole bunch of Republican Congressmembers from Florida voted against funding FEMA at all this year just DAYS before Helene made landfall, even as many of them are now demanding more money for FEMA. As you or someone you know may be voting in the Sunshine State soon, you should know the names of those hypocrites. They are: Reps. Aaron Bean, Gus Bilirakis, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, Matt Gaetz, Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, Bill Posey, Mike Waltz, and Daniel Webster.

• As Donald Trump continues to line his pockets (his own, not his campaign's!) in a seemingly desperate, hopefully Going Out of Business sale --- Shitty golden sneakers! Cheap silver coins! Worthless NFTs! $100,000 diamond-encrusted watches! (They make a perfect off-the-books Christmas bribe from your favorite foreign autocrat!) --- his $59.99 Trump-endorsed, Lee Greenwood-branded "God Bless the USA" faux-leather bound bibles may be his sleaziest scheme yet. But that hasn't prevented Ryan Walters, the MAGA Superintendent of Public Schools in Oklahoma, from trying to force state tax-payers into buying 50,000 of them to place in every classroom, even while all but ignoring a year-old, already-funded state mandate to purchase emergency asthma inhalers for schools. (He'll get to it, okay? He's busy with the Trump Bible thing right now! Never mind that child who died at school for lack of one!) Oh, and as long as we're on the topic, AP did some digging this week to find that Trump's "God Bless the USA" bibles are actually "printed in a country that the former president has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices --- China." In reality, AP discovered, they actually cost less than $3 a piece to print. But, don't worry, while Bible experts say it's crap, you can still buy a version hand-signed (or so the website says?) by Trump himself for the low-low price of just $1,000 if you act now!

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us to help mop things up with our latest Green News Report on Milton's landfall, Republican disinfo on FEMA and its funding shortages, and President Biden's landmark rule that will now, officially, finally replace every toxic lead water in America! (Sure, but does he have overpriced, crappy, Chinese-made bibles to sell?)

All that before I close the show with an offer you can't refuse! God bless the USA!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Milton pummels Florida; FEMA grapples with Republican disinformation and funding shortages from back-to-back climate change-fueled disasters; PLUS: Biden EPA issues landmark rule to replace every lead water pipe in America... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Helene recovery: How to navigate FEMA, flood cleanup, disaster fraud, and more; Here’s what a shocking new number on wildlife declines really means; NC water repairs could take weeks; Helene spotlights differences between Harris and Trump on disaster relief; Earth's 'vital signs' show humanity's future in the balance, climate experts say; Fossil fuel interests take over hometown newspaper to kill solar in Ohio county... PLUS: Carbon removal is no solution if world overshoots warming target, scientists say... and much, MUCH more! ...

I don't know if they're gonna lose or not. But, as we report on today's busy BradCast, the disgraced former President and his Republican party this week sure do have the stench of losers on them. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among our many stories covered today...

• Breaking just before air time: Turns out North Carolina's Trump-endorsed freak show Republican Lt. Gov and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is even more of a freak show than previously known. And, by his own words on a porn site he frequented for many years, a "black NAZI!". Good luck this November in NC, Republicans!

• Stock market hits record highs today after the Fed lowered interest rates Wednesday more than expected, signaling post-pandemic inflation is back under control. Donald Trump's failing media company, however, which trades as DJT, hits record lows today and still appears to be on track to become a penny stock by November 5.

• The already terrible situation in the Middle East gets worse, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds news ways to keep the war(s) going to keep himself out of prison.

• House Republicans and Donald Trump stay on track to cause another government shutdown at the end of this month, just before the election, after House Speaker Mike Johnson's dead-on-arrival scheme, on behalf of Trump, to demand a new law to prevent already-unlawful non-citizen voting fails to get the support needed for passage from Republicans.

• J.D. Vance continues Trump's lies about "illegal" migrants taking over Springfield, Ohio. They're not "illegal". Trump, as President, gave them legal protected status. Vance says he gonna call them "illegal" anyway, as the Republican Mayor of the now-terrorized town begs them to knock it off, asking for "help not hate".

• New polling continues to look good for Kamala Harris in swing states. But the Democrats "Blue Wall" strategy of winning the White House by winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania --- along with all of the other traditionally "blue" states --- could hit a snag if Team Trump's newly reignited scheme, reportedly now being led up by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Pathetic) is successful. This week Graham was in Nebraska meeting with the state's Republican Governor and members of the legislature, encouraging them to call a special legislative session to change the way the state divvies up Electoral College votes.

  Currently, NE is one of just two states, along with Maine, that apportions Electoral College votes by U.S. House District. That means Harris is likely to win one of the state's votes, in the Omaha district, in the otherwise very "red" state. But Team Trump wants the state to change the law to move to a winner-take-all system just weeks before the election (and just 10 days before vote-by-mail voting begins!) in hopes of a scenario where, even if the Democrats' three-state Blue Wall strategy is successful, the Electoral College end in a 269-269 tie with NE's 2nd Congressional District vote given to Trump instead of Harris. That would send the decision of who will become the next President to the U.S. House, where the vote would be by state delegation, where Republicans are likely to hold a controlling majority even if Democrats win the House back in November.

  If this insane-but-theoretically-plausible scenario proceeds as Team Trump desperately hopes, however, Democrats may still have an ace in the hole...in Maine.

• A government watchdog group gets a hold of to emails among Georgia election denialists serving as county election officials, detailing their conversations about plans to block certification of 2024 election results in the Peach State if it looks like Donald Trump is going to lose it again.

• Texas' wildly corrupt Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing county election officials in state court to prevent them from sending voter registration forms to eligible but unregistered voters in several different Democratic-leaning Counties. The Counties are now, in turn, suing Paxton in federal court, charging his efforts amount to voter suppression in violation of longstanding federal laws.

• While the Lone Star State is busy suing its own election officials for daring to register voters, here in California, state lawmakers have passed a law, SB 299, to make the state's current automatic voter registration system even more automatic, potentially enabling the ability to vote for an additional 4.7 million eligible but currently unregistered voters. Politics Girl does the heavy lifting for us today. You can get more details from the grassroots coalition of more than 140 groups supporting the measure right here.

• Finally, at the end of a busy show, Desi Doyen joins us form our latest busy Green News Report, as the climate crisis rapidly worsens around the globe, despite new U.N. warnings; North Carolina estimates damage from a brutal, sudden tropical storm this week will top $7 billion; and as a new study finds Joe Biden's air pollution policies will save some 200,000 lives in the U.S...

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