On today's BradCast, our week of exploding ridiculous GOP myths continues. On Tuesday, we debunked the absurd notion that they oppose "big government" in favor of state and local control. Yesterday, the decades-long scam that they oppose debt and deficit spending. Today, their opposition to "socialism" is exposed for the lie that it remains. [Audio link to show follows below.]

But, first up today, Tuesday's primary runoff in Georgia offered yet another stark reminder of what could go terribly wrong in the Peach State --- and all of the others --- this November, as voters were, again, prevented from casting ballots due to a failure in the state's voter registration database and its computerized electronic pollbook system. That, of course, is on top of the 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting systems that voters are still forced to use in Georgia on Election Day --- at least when they are allowed to vote.

But, don't worry. Brian Kemp, the Republican Sec. of State who "oversees" both systems --- including during the several years when the entire registration database and administrative passwords for the tabulation systems were left unprotected online for downloading --- is now the GOP's nominee for Governor in the state. He'll make certain the public has confidence in the results of his race this November between him and Stacey Abrams, who could become the nation's first African-American female Governor.

Then, it's onto Donald Trump's socialist --- yes, socialist --- scheme to bailout farmers in the Midwest who are being devastated by Trump's trade war with China. But, again, don't worry. He's found an old FDR-era New Deal program that the White House plans to use to give farmers $12 billion in tax-payer money to make some of the losses he has caused them a bit less stinging. In response, Republicans in Congress this week pretended to be outraged about the bailout, while taking no actual action to reverse either it or Trump's trade wars with the world.

Of course, the GOP only pretends to oppose socialist programs, which are otherwise wildly popular with the American public. When needed, they are more than happy to privatize profits and socialize losses when they control the reins of government. By way of yet another example today, we share a remarkable story along those lines, about a very powerful Republican family from Indiana who has been enjoying local, state and federal government bailouts for years --- to the tune of some $20 million --- following the failure of their once-formidable gas station empire and the toxic trail it has left behind.

Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, as heat records continue to be shattered this month, global warming-fueled fires and flooding wreak deadly havoc across the globe and in the U.S., and as Trump and the Republicans expand their ongoing war on the environment, public lands and endangered species...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extreme weather brings a hot and deadly July to most of the planet; Wildfires force evacuations in the U.S. West, while extreme storms and floods pummel the East Coast; PLUS: Trump and the GOP expand their war on the environment, public lands, and endangered species... 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 Overshoot Day is arriving faster every year; The corporate media's failure to connect the dots on climate change; Media reaction: The 2018 summer heatwaves and climate change; US unprepared for the health challenges of climate change; Trump's farmer bailout exposes broken US food system; NYC climate liability lawsuit dismissed by judge; Russian hackers infiltrated utility control rooms, DHS says; Why would Trump and Putin collude? Keywords: oil, gas, Arctic, climate ... PLUS: Waves of garbage hit Dominican Republic ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Toxic algae bloom chokes Lake Okeechobee, threatening drinking water and more in Florida; Ohio takes belated steps to curb toxic algae on Lake Erie; Summer night temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures; Record number of Americans now accept that climate change is real, and caused by humans; PLUS: Ireland set to become the first nation in the world to divest from fossil fuels... 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): Clean energy is catching up to natural gas; Watch 10 billion tons of ice fall into the ocean; Nobel-winning economist to testify in children’s climate lawsuit; Trump and Putin are clearly in cahoots — over propping up fossil fuels; How Trump’s wildlife board is rebranding trophy hunting as good for animals; Plutonium is missing, but the government says nothing; Airlines prepare for flying in hotter temps as climate change brings more extreme heat; Rising seas could cause problems for internet infrastructure... PLUS:UN security council considers ‘cycle of conflict and climate disaster’
... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, let's join the President and pretend that he's been victorious once again! Or, let's discuss the reality of the havoc being wrought by both him and the party that supports him as they go even farther off the deep-end and hope to take everybody else with them. [Audio link to show is posted below.]

Among the stories covered on today's broadcast, as we continue to counter the madness with actual, independently verifiable facts...

• Trump wreaks absolute havoc at the NATO summit in Brussels, makes ridiculous demands that lead to an emergency meeting of our allies, and then declares he's fixed it all. He hasn't. But, let's pretend, as he claimed, that NATO is now a "fine-tuned machine". (Does that claim ring a bell?) We offer a fact-check on Trump's actual ridiculous claims and the realities behind them;

• Back at home, Trump-fueled chaos similarly breaks out at a joint hearing of the U.S. House Oversight and Judiciary Committees during public testimony by longtime top FBI counter-intelligence official Peter Strzok, whose private text messages to his girlfriend, another FBI agent, have been cause for Trump, the GOP and rightwing media to pretend that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation was somehow part of a long "deep state" plot by the FBI to prevent Trump from being elected. Except he was elected. (Some plot!) And Mueller's probe has since resulted in dozens of indictments and guilty pleas from many top Trump campaign and White House officials. But we can keep pretending; In some remarkable audio from the insane hearing in the House today today, Strzok strikes back and helps reveal the Republican House witch-hunt against the Special Counsel for much of what it really is.

• Speaking of reality, new data out from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and elsewhere reveals that not only have the Trump/GOP tax cuts from last December not resulted in increased pay for the "forgotten men and women" of the middle-class, as they'd promised, but workers are now actually making less than they did before the massive, deficit-blowing cuts which have resulted only in record profits for corporations and the already-wealthy;

• Listeners offer response to our recent coverage of Trump's SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Democrats', so far, tepid plan to block his confirmation. (Constitutional quorum call, anyone?);

• And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report with more on the existential threat Kavanaugh's seating poses to the environment, how a major oil company CEO is calling for a speed-up of the transition to electric vehicles, and how a world full of poo just might save itself...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Environmental groups mobilize against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's anti-regulation nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court; New report finds Trump Administration's proposed coal bailout means more pollution, and more death; Companies begin harnessing poo power to generate electricity in North Carolina and New York; PLUS: Shell Oil CEO calls on UK to speed up transition to electric vehicles... 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): Wheeler tells EPA employees, ‘You can’t lead unless you listen'; House Republicans vote to gut lauded law that saved America’s fisheries; US judge allows lawsuits over Monsanto's Roundup to proceed to trial; In about-face, utilities urge EPA to keep mercury rule; Climate science denier sued by his allies at denial think tank; The Russian pipeline to Germany that Trump is so mad about, explained; Heatwave seems to make manmade climate change real for Americans; Bhopal: World’s worst industrial disaster is still unfolding; Scientists assessed the 'grim' options for using nuclear power for decarbonization ... PLUS: Russian mining firm puts Trump's face on its asbestos products... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement is bad news for the climate; New wildfires hit California and five other states; Federal judge dismisses San Francisco's climate liability lawsuit; Natural gas industry leaking far more methane than previously estimated; PLUS: Bright spots in the primaries as progressive climate hawks win upset victories... 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): 2 city lawsuits against Big Oil dismissed, but that's not the end of it; Tropical forests suffered near-record tree losses in 2017; Huge stretch of Arctic Ocean is rapidly turning into the Atlantic Ocean; Federal court becoming impatient with EPA over Clean Power Plan; Coral reefs prevent $4.3 billion in flood damage annually; TX Supreme Court strikes down plastic bag bans; 11 states sue Trump Administration over climate super-pollutants used in cooling; Pruitt acts to surrender some EPA veto power over mining, development; Young will pick up climate change bill, advisers warn; Justices give Florida another chance to prevail in water war... PLUS: Kennedy is gone. Now vote... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Blocked water study finally released by Trump Administration, reveals widespread chemical contamination; Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reduces the nutritional value of food crops; Trump rescinds Obama's protections for oceans and Great Lakes; PLUS: It's been thirty years since Dr. James Hansen first warned Congress about climate change... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Looking for signs of global warming? They’re all around you; Climate scientists have been remarkably accurate on global warming; GOP senators challenge funding for global warming education program for local TV meteorologists; "Obama sided with Canada": A 'new' image for owners of Detroit toll bridge; HFCs: A climate policy even Trump can support?; New York sues 3M, five others over toxic chemical contamination; Battery Boom: World to get half of electricity from wind, solar by 2050; Colorado to adopt California’s stricter car pollution rules; Microsoft has big power needs and wants to harness the ocean to satisfy them... PLUS: A giant wave of plastic garbage could flood the U.S., a study says... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hurricanes are moving slower thanks to global warming; EPA's weakening of clean air rules could kill 80,000 Americans over the next decade; China's retaliatory tariffs hit US energy companies and Alaska's seafood industry; McDonald's to phase out plastic straws --- in the U.K.; PLUS: Climate change is already eroding home values across the country... 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): Dr. James Hansen: Global warming cooks up “a different world” since 1988 Congressional testimony; Guyana faces 'resource curse' after discovery it owns enough oil to "solve all its problems"; EPA Pruitt's data restrictions may block use of major Harvard public health study; How Georgia became a Top 10 solar state in spite of state lawmakers; Enbridge offers new Line 3 concessions to MN regulators; Records show Trump Tower Chicago fails to protect downstream fish, fisherman; UN aims to eradicate inefficient incandescent light bulbs; EPA gives coal industry a victory in oklahoma... PLUS: How the billionaire Koch Brothers are killing public transit projects across the country... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast: Both Trump in the U.S. and Trudeau in Canada have revealed schemes to prop up dying elements of the fossil fuel industry by having their respective governments spend billions "picking winners and losers," which Republicans, at least, used to pretend to abhor. [Audio link to show follows below.]

First up today, however, just before Tuesday's primaries in eight states, one of them, California, announces record voter registration numbers including the fact that, for the first time, registrations for "No Party Preference" voters now outnumber registration for the Republican Party in the state.

As California has made registration far easier for voters in a number of ways, Texas continues to do the opposite. A federal court last week found the state in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA or "Motor Voter Act") as well as the Constitution's Equal Protection clause, and ordered them to implement online voter registration for those who renew drivers licenses online within 45 days. Of course, TX appealed the ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has now temporarily blocked the lower court ruling. That is likely to block online registration for Texans until at least after the crucial 2018 midterms, as the case filed by voting rights advocates in 2016 continues to languish.

Also today, Donald Trump has managed to infuriate allies, adversaries, and even his own party, as longtime U.S. trading partners Canada, Mexico and the EU began to push back against steep tariffs imposed, as of today, by the Trump Administration on imported steel and aluminum. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, has announced a dollar for dollar retaliation in what is quickly turning into a full blown global trade war, likely to increase prices for Americans on many consumer goods.

At the same time, a new scheme by the Trump administration to pick winners and losers in the energy industry, by forcing electric operators to use coal and nuclear power under the pretext of a 70-year old, Cold War-era "national security" provision, was revealed today by Bloomberg News.

And, up in Canada, PM Trudeau is facing criticism after announcing his government's plan to purchase the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline from Kinder Morgan. A massive extension of the pipeline, to send dirty tar sands oils from Alberta to British Columbia for export overseas, has been long opposed by environmentalists and indigenous groups. But Trudeau's nationalization of the pipeline is meant to overcome both the protests and legal barriers.

Our guest today, ALEX DOUKAS of Oil Change International (a Canadian himself) explains what "these egregious and terrible decisions that Trump and Trudeau have taken over the last few days" mean for the U.S., Canada, and our dangerous fossil fuel future. Doukas heads up the group's Stop Funding Fossil Fuels program and observes that Trump is "setting up consumers to pay vastly more for more polluting forms of electricity, just to give handouts to his corporate cronies and his buddies in the coal industry."

That, as Trudeau, who claims to favor the reduction of fossil fuel emissions to curb global warming, has, with his plan to purchase what Doukas describes as the "doomed" Kinder Morgan pipeline, "gives the lie to the idea that the Trudeau Government is really serious about tackling climate change."

Trump and Trudeau, Doukas argues, are "actually a lot more alike than I would have hoped, because they're both willing to step in and nationalize parts of the fossil fuel industry to keep the dollars flowing to the petro-state." He adds: "Pretending that the tar sands is a long term industry, is the same thing that's happening in the U.S. --- lying to coal miners that coal is going to make a comeback, that we're going to make coal great again. It's not going to happen."

But, while he argues that Kinder Morgan, the Houston-based "successor of Enron," has "basically pulled one over on the Canadian government for a failing project they they knew wasn't going to get built," establishing the precedent of government intervention in the dying industries may come back to haunt the supporters of the petro-chemical industries in both countries.

Finally, we've received a lot of feedback following Thursday's program, in which we shared some of the insane emails [PDF] sent over the past week to me by Alabama's seemingly unbalanced Sec. of State John Merrill (R) in advance of his state's (and his own) primary elections next week. We share a bit of the response from listeners, computer experts and election integrity advocates who were, by and large, flabbergasted by Merrill's behavior, as revealed in those emails...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: EPA chief Scott Pruitt --- who still has a job --- gets grilled by Democratic Senators; Extreme storms kill 5 in Northeastern U.S.; King County, Washington files climate liability lawsuit against major oil companies; PLUS: New study finds air pollution dangers extend even into the womb... 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): NASA scientists map human changes in world’s water; Someone, somewhere, is making a banned chemical that destroys the ozone layer, scientists suspect; GOP lawmaker says tumbling rocks are causing seas to rise; ‘Impossible to Ignore’: Why Alaska is crafting a plan to fight climate change; Sulfur dioxide damages lungs, and Scott Pruitt is letting more of it in our air; Trump mulls new global institution to promote fossil fuels; Ancient Rome’s collapse is written into Arctic ice; Why there’s no future for the coal industry; Judge blocks Oakland port's ban on coal shipments; Great Climate Hoax is putting fish in the wrong places... PLUS: We made plastic. We depend on it. Now we’re drowning in it.... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: EPA chief Pruitt launches sweeping overhaul restricting EPA's use of science; French President Macron criticizes Trump's inaction on climate change; Vast majority of Americans prefer renewable energy to fossil fuels; PLUS: Global warming is transforming the Great Barrier Reef, potentially forever... 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): How Scott Pruitt plans to defend himself on Capitol Hill --- spread the blame; 'Don't gut coal ash rules', communities beg EPA at hearing; Trump plan to tackle lead in drinking water slammed as 'empty exercise'; Climate change will leave many Pacific islands uninhabitable by 2065; U.S. will eventually return to Paris Accord, Macron predicts; Energy Sec. Perry’s son owns an energy investment company; How California water suppliers are getting earthquake-ready; Windmills as wide as jumbo jets are making clean energy mainstream; Winter Olympians give Congress an economics lesson on climate change; EPA website removed references to climate change from its international... PLUS: Pruitt's friends became lobbyists, handed clients biomass policy win... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Contrary to denials, lobbyist tied to EPA chief Scott Pruitt condo deal did lobby the agency; Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg donates $4.5 million to help U.S. keep Paris Climate Agreement promise; Court reinstates fines for automakers that violate fuel economy standards; PLUS: The twentieth anniversary of Dr. Michael E. Mann's famous Hockey Stick Graph... 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): Trespassing on their own land: 61-year-old tree-sitter fights a gas pipeline on her own land; Scott Pruitt in Oklahoma enjoyed fancy homes through a shell company with wealthy friends; Trillion-dollar coastal property bubble is ready to burst; Electric buses are hurting the oil industry; Pruitt to unveil controversial ‘transparency’ rule limiting what research EPA can use; Internal emails show EPA working to limit agency's use of science; Giant chicken houses overrun Delmarva, neighbors fear it's making them sick; Pruitt declares biomass burning ‘carbon neutral’; Minnesota appeals court allows necessity defense in pipeline protest... PLUS: She tried to report on climate change. Sinclair told her to be more "balanced"... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Plastic within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is 'increasing exponentially'; Cutting greenhouse gas emissions could save 150 million lives around the world; Americans have grown increasingly polarized in their views on global warming; PLUS: Pipeline protesters found not guilty in landmark new ruling... 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): 'Boot Pruitt': There’s Now a National Campaign to Oust EPA Head Scott Pruitt; High-tide flooding could happen 'every other day' by late this century; Ice cores show Greenland’s melting is unprecedented in at least 400 years; ‘Extreme’ Fossil-Fuel Lending Fell in 2017 --- Except in Canada; EPA plan to bar studies without public data could disrupt clean air regulations; Efficiency, DERs saving California $2.6B in avoided transmission costs; After 3 Decades, Washington State Bans Atlantic Salmon Farms; Half of All U.S. Coal Plants Would Lose Money Without Regulation... PLUS: Empty half the Earth of its humans. It's the only way to save the planet... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, so many great cons to debunk, so little time. But we've actually got some good news for voters today as well. [Audio link to full show is posted below.]

First up today, Trump unleashes his massive and wildly unpopular --- and, yes, job-killing --- new taxes on imported steel and aluminum.

Then, some voting news, most of it good. The state of Washington is the ninth state in the union to adopt automatic voter registration, and a federal court has ruled that California must inform Vote-by-Mail voters before their ballots are tossed out when election officials decide that the signature on the ballot doesn't match the one on the voter's registration form. According to the ACLU's lawsuit, as many as 45,000 voters in the state were disenfranchised, without their knowledge, thanks to California's horrible practice, carried out by the whim of officials who are anything but handwriting experts.

Meanwhile, two Democratic U.S. senators have sent a letter to the nation's top three election vendors, ES&S, Dominion, and Hart Intercivic, asking if they have shared the source code from their computerized voting and tabulation systems with Russia. We discuss what this actually means and doesn't. (For example: No, it's not necessary for Russia or anybody else, including elections officials, to have access or familiarity with proprietary source code from voting and tabulating systems in order to manipulate computer-tallied elections!) We also call out Reuters for continuing to spread the evidence-free claim in their report on this that "voting machines were not directly affected" by meddling during the 2016 election.

Next, we're joined by Vox.com's environment and politics writer DAVID ROBERTS to discuss a new report [PDF] released by the Trump Administration's own Office of Management and Budget(!) which, as he writes, "demolishes the GOP’s deregulatory claims." In short, it finds that benefits to the public of federal regulations far outstrip their costs in pretty much every imaginable way.

The aggregate costs of major federal regulations (those with an impact of $100 million or more) between 2006 and 2016, according to the annually mandated report released late on a Friday night for some reason, "were somewhere between $59 and $88 billion. And the aggregate benefits were somewhere between $219 and $695 billion," says Roberts. "So, even if you take the highest possible estimate of costs, and the lowest possible estimate of benefits, the benefits are still well over double what the costs were, in the most conservative analysis."

While Donald Trump has attempted to cut hundreds of rules and regulations across federal agencies --- repeatedly boasting about doing away with a record number of "job-killing regulations" and bureaucratic red-tape --- the fact is, as his own OMB (headed up by the far-right, Tea Party, regulation-hating Mick Mulvaney!) detailed in their report, those regulations do not "kill jobs" or cost the government money. In fact, killing those rules costs the government far more, particularly the environmental rules being radically gutted by this Administration.

But, as Roberts argues, the "job-killing" mantra has been so often repeated by Republicans since the days of Ronald Reagan --- and gone largely unchallenged by corporate media --- much of the public now simply accepts those false assertions as reality.

"Just to be clear, we've known this about federal regulations for a long time," Roberts notes. "These things have been subjected to cost-benefit analysis out the wazoo for years and years. Not only by the federal government, but by outside analysts. They all more or less converge on this same answer, which is that the public health and social and employment benefits of these things wildly outweigh the costs, and have for years."

"The reason Republicans hate this is because, when you see it in aggregate like this, it's almost enough to convince you that government can be an agent of good, that it can improve public health and welfare while still maintaining economic growth."

"It's revealing, I think, that this is treated as a revelation," he tells me. "It ought to be commonplace by now. It's the consensus of the experts. We just don't accept it, because Republicans, just through the sheer weight of repetition, have been saying 'job-killing regulations', 'burdensome regulations', etc., etc., for so long, that that's just sort of baked into the cake as one side of the debate, even though there's no support for it. There's no analysis that supports that."

We discuss why that is and who actually benefits from the GOP's great con. (Hint: It isn't the bulk of the folks who voted for Donald Trump!) Robert's also goes on to argue why he believes that Democrats are at least partly to blame for this con having taken such a death grip on the American conscience as self-defeating "conventional wisdom" over the past several decades.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report for yet another demonstration of how the decades-long scam to gut regulations continues to threaten the nation and the world...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Stark contrast on climate between U.S. and Europe at energy industry conference; Bad news for elephants; Good news for a U.S. electric grid powered by clean solar and wind; Appeals court rules youth climate lawsuit can move forward; PLUS: The Arctic just had its warmest winter on record, and polar scientists are kind of freaking out... 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): Democrats release infrastructure plan with $80 billion in electric grid upgrades; Spring is running 20 days early, but it’s not good; EPA is letting key staffers keep their political consulting side gigs; Climate change tightens grip on US west coast despite progressive aspirations; Forests that protect against climate impacts are increasingly threatened; Zinke backs off some oil drilling expansion due to GOP resistance; Subsidence will worsen sea level rise in coming decades; Trump official slams USGS for documenting glacier shrinkage; Tepco's 'ice wall' failing to contain radioactive water runoff... PLUS: As Arctic ice melts, territorial disputes are heating up, too... and much, MUCH more! ...