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Latest Featured Reports | Monday, November 25, 2024
Sunday 'No Such Agreement' Toons
THIS WEEK: A Cabinet of Crooks, Kooks and Corrupted Curiosities...and more! In our latest collection of the week's most toxic toons...
How (and Why!) to 'Extend an Olive Branch' to MAGA Family Members Over the Holidays: 'BradCast' 11/21/24
Guest: Leaving MAGA's Rich Logis; Also: Bibi's 'war crimes'; Hegseth 'assault'; Gaetz out!...
'Green News Report' 11/21/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
Back-to-back killer storms in NW; Huge cache of 'rare earth' elements discovered in U.S.; Climate change worsened every hurricane; PLUS: NY revives congestion pricing...
Previous GNRs: 11/19/24 - 11/14/24 - Archives...
\
Former Federal Prosecutor: Trump Must Be Sentenced in NY Before Taking Office Again: 'BradCast' 11/20/24
Guest: Randall D. Eliason; Also: Repubs cover for Gaetz; FCC nom threatens censorship...
'Bullet Ballot' Claims, Other Arguments for Hand-Counting 2024 Battleground Votes: 'BradCast' 11/19/24
Also: PA Supremes order votes tossed before Senate recount; Gaetz files reportedly hacked...
'Green News Report' 11/19/24
Trump nominates fracking CEO, climate denier to head Dept. of Energy; Winters warming quickly in U.S.; PLUS: Biden heads to Amazon Rainforest to offer hope...
Trump Already Violating Law (He Signed!) During Transition: 'BradCast' 11/18/24
Guest: Former Dep. Asst. A.G. Lisa Graves; Also: Flood of unqualified, corrupt Trump noms for top cabinet posts...
Sunday 'Into the Gaetz of Hell' Toons
THIS WEEK: Pyrrhic Victories ... Cabinet Clowns ... Blame Games ... Sharpie Shooters ... And more! In our latest collection of the week's sleaziest toons...
'Green News Report' 11/14/24
NY, NJ drought, wildfires; GOP wins House, power to overturn Biden climate action; PLUS: Very high stakes as U.N. climate summit kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan...
BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
Brad's Upcoming Appearances
(All times listed as PACIFIC TIME unless noted)
Media Appearance Archives...
'Special Coverage' Archives
GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

DOJ PROBE SOUGHT AFTER VA ARREST
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...

Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
His Super-PAC, his voter registration (fraud) firm & their 'Americans for Prosperity' are all based out of same top RNC legal office in Virginia...

LATimes: RNC's 'Fired' Sproul Working for Repubs in 'as Many as 30 States'
So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...

'Fired' Sproul Group 'Cloned', Still Working for Republicans in At Least 10 States
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...

FINALLY: FOX ON GOP REG FRAUD SCANDAL
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...

COLORADO FOLLOWS FLORIDA WITH GOP CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Repub Sec. of State Gessler ignores expanding GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, rants about evidence-free 'Dem Voter Fraud' at Tea Party event...

CRIMINAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO GOP VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL IN FL
FL Dept. of Law Enforcement confirms 'enough evidence to warrant full-blown investigation'; Election officials told fraudulent forms 'may become evidence in court'...

Brad Breaks PA Photo ID & GOP Registration Fraud Scandal News on Hartmann TV
Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

CAUGHT ON TAPE: COORDINATED NATIONWIDE GOP VOTER REG SCAM
The GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal reveals insidious nationwide registration scheme to keep Obama supporters from even registering to vote...

CRIMINAL ELECTION FRAUD COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST GOP 'FRAUD' FIRM
Scandal spreads to 11 FL counties, other states; RNC, Romney try to contain damage, split from GOP operative...

RICK SCOTT GETS ROLLED IN GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...

VIDEO: Brad Breaks GOP Reg Fraud Scandal on Hartmann TV
Breaking coverage as the RNC fires their Romney-tied voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting...

RNC FIRES NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM FOR FRAUD
After FL & NC GOP fire Romney-tied group, RNC does same; Dead people found reg'd as new voters; RNC paid firm over $3m over 2 months in 5 battleground states...

EXCLUSIVE: Intvw w/ FL Official Who First Discovered GOP Reg Fraud
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...

GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD FOUND IN FL
State GOP fires Romney-tied registration firm after fraudulent forms found in Palm Beach; Firm hired 'at request of RNC' in FL, NC, VA, NV & CO...
The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...


With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 6/8/2023 1:33pm PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Canada wildfires a smoky wake-up call for our climate crisis; Saudi Arabia to cut production again to boost oil prices; Biden EPA funds $115 million in repairs to Jackson, MS water system; House Republican sabotage their own natural gas stove bill; PLUS: Ukraine dam's destruction unleashes massive flooding and ecological disaster... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Dirty air can be deadly. Here’s how to protect yourself; Chemical industry used Big Tobacco's tactics to conceal evidence of PFAS risks; Abandoned oil and gas wells emit carcinogens, harmful pollutants; Tensions, gas prices rise as Washington state auctions carbon; Virginia panel votes to exit carbon trading market; The US clean energy manufacturing boom has begun. Now what?; Puerto Rico's record heat wave astonishes meteorologists; Why glass, paper and other options aren’t the simple alternative to plastic that they seem to be... PLUS: The Grand Canyon is losing its river... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 5/25/2023 10:54am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Super Typhoon Mawar slams into Guam; Global heating could expose billions to unlivable temperatures by 2100; Fossil fuel industry owes the world $23 trillion in climate reparations, new study concludes; PLUS: Climate activists disrupt oil industry shareholder meetings... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Supreme Court weakens EPA power to enforce Clean Water Act; Chevron’s carbon offsets are mostly junk and some may harm, research says; France bans short-haul flights as it looks to cut transport emissions; Lawmakers near deal on energy permitting in debt ceiling talks; Energy Department cancels $200M Microvast battery grant in Texas due to GOP opposition; In Panama, legal rights given to sea turtles, boosting 'rights of nature'; Interior's oil plan is coming. Here's what to watch; U.N. slams carbon removal as unproven and risky...PLUS: The global treaty to save the ozone layer has also slowed Arctic ice melt... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 5/23/2023 10:25am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Western states reach landmark agreement to stave off multi-decade drought crisis on Colorado River; World's lakes are shrinking due to human overuse and climate change; PLUS: Minnesota Democrats poised to enact landmark environment and climate legislation... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): A CO2 pipeline rupture in Mississippi has lessons for future projects; Competition, abundant minerals, Biden tax breaks lead EV price drop; More than a third of the area charred by wildfires in Western North America can be traced back to fossil fuels; Supply crunch on electrical transformers needed to avoid blackouts and quit fossil fuels; Could Guyana’s Exxon ruling scare big oil off risky exploration?; US’s largest clean energy transmission project hits major milestone... ... PLUS: New York’s public housing is sinking — literally... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 5/18/2023 10:49am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: World Meteorological Organization predicts Earth likely to blow past 1.5 degree Celsius climate target by 2027; Italy and Somalia stricken by torrential rains and deadly floods; PLUS: Buckle up --- the entire U.S. will see an unnaturally hot summer, NOAA warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Weather extremes --- What happens to people after a disaster?; E.P.A. announces crackdown on toxic coal ash from landfills; A billion new air conditioners will save lives but cook the planet; 'Halliburton Loophole' lets fracking firms pollute water without oversight; US power grids vulnerable to extreme heat conditions this summer; Methane mitigation in Texas could create thousands of jobs... PLUS: Can climate change be funny? Bill Nye gets laughs in a show about humankind's existential threat... and much, MUCH more! ...

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Also: Election Day in KY, PA, FL; 'No Labels' scamming voters in ME?; DeSantis banning Holocaust history textbooks in FL...
By Brad Friedman on 5/16/2023 6:45pm PT  

Apologies in advance if you need to rinse off today's BradCast with a hot shower. We did our best to keep it family friendly. It wasn't always easy. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

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

  • It's Election Day in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and parts of Florida for some key state, municipal and special elections. We run down several of the key races and will have noteworthy results, as available, on tomorrow's program.
  • The political group calling itself "No Labels" is reportedly working to become an official political party in all 50 states in hopes of placing a Presidential candidate on the ballot in 2024. The group, founded in 2010, claims to be a non-partisan "centrist" coalition of both Democrats and Republicans, though their efforts to date seemed designed mostly to harm Democrats. See, for example, their lobbying of Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in opposition of reforming the Senate filibuster in 2021. Also, internal documents have revealed their funders include far-right dark money billionaires such as David Kochand Peter Theil, according to Daily Beast, and Clarence Thomas benefactor Harlan Crow, according to New Republic. Now, the Secretary of State in Maine is charging the group has been scamming voters into signing a "petition" that is actually a change of party form. Just 5,000 voters need to become members in the state for the party to be allowed on the ballot. Apparently 6,000 have now signed up and the state has some questions about it.
  • Really, we did our best to keep this report no more graphic than PG-13, but it has to be told because there are some very serious crimes sort of hidden in the new 70-page lawsuit [PDF] filed against Rudy Giuliani by a former employee who accuses him of some pretty horrific "sexual assault, battery, gender discrimination and harassment, fostering a hostile work environment, retaliation, breach of contract, and violations of state labor laws."

    The hostile work environment allegedly included "misogynistic, racist, and antisemitic communications, constant sexual attacks, threats when she brought up the salary she was owed, and threats when she finally found the courage to confront him with her fears and the possibility of legal action."

    But of potential criminal note in the suit filed by Noelle Dunphy against Giuliani in New York on Monday, is not only the off-the-books payments (she says he gave her just $12,000 of the $1 million he'd promised), but that the former NYC mayor, federal prosecutor and Trump attorney was, according to the lawsuit, allegedly "selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split." (!!!)

    Moreover, Dunphy claims to have audio recordings of Giuliani, including "some in which she says he can be heard making sexual comments, demanding sex and making sexist, racist, and antisemitic remarks." Does she have any in which Rudy is discussing selling Presidential pardons and splitting the proceeds with Trump? I suspect prosecutors may want to find that out in the not-too-distant future.

  • Speaking of antisemitism, on Monday, Florida Governor and desperate Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis signed yet another bill forcing his far-right ideology onto others with yet another ban on freedoms. This one bars public colleges and universities from investing in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. DeSantis has previously enacted state-imposed bans on various forms of free speech and books that his far-right Big Government state lackeys find objectionable. That has already resulted in bans on books said to cite issues of race, gender and sexuality, including math books (somehow) and social study texts. But now the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is reporting that the State is also banning educational textbooks on the Holocaust and/or forcing publishers to modify them in order to receive official State approval for use in Florida K-12 schools and public universities. “This is what modern day fascism looks like," charges human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid. "Remember, the main reason extremists would want to ban teaching about a past atrocity is to make it easier to enable that atrocity in the future."
  • We do have at least one story today that isn't creepy and horrible today, ironically enough. The still-Rightwing-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court actually issued a ruling that isn't insane, overturning a lower state court's insane, seemingly Fox "News"-inspired order that hospitals must use Ivermectin horse-medicine to treat COVID-19 when a patient insists. The ruling overturns that madness comes in advance of liberals taking over the state high court majority beginning in August, following the election of a new liberal justice in the Badger State earlier this year.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on a devastating cyclone in Myanmar; the enormous cost of plugging abandoned oil and gas well in the Gulf of Mexico; and the Biden EPA's proposal of landmark new to curb climate warming emissions from the nation's power plants...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 5/16/2023 10:09am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Powerful Cyclone Mocha causes widespread destruction in Myanmar, Bangladesh; It'll cost $30 billion to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico alone; PLUS: Biden EPA unveils new rules to clean up carbon pollution from the nation's power plants... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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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): Climate/crop impacts could come sooner than previously thought; Unusually early heat wave in Pacific Northwest tests records; Youth lawsuit challenging Montana’s pro-fossil fuel policies is heading to trial; Is carbon capture viable? In a new rule, the EPA is asking power plants to prove it; What’s behind the severe decline in Florida’s citrus harvest?; Your homeowners' insurance bill is the canary in the climate coal mine; EPA looks to toss 'deceptive' plastics recycling symbol... PLUS: Nature lawyers up: growing number of countries and courts say the environment should be endowed with legal rights... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 5/11/2023 10:35am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Shell refinery fire in Houston finally out, but pollution concerns remain; Biden Admin proposes money-saving efficiency standards for dishwashers; Greenland ice sheet melting faster than thought; Oil and gas production's billions in public health impacts in U.S.; PLUS: Minnesota to enact nation's strongest restrictions on PFAS 'forever' chemicals... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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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): EPA proposes new rules that would dramatically slash planet-warming pollution from power plants; EPA tightens pollution standards for power plants, with a big loophole for coal and gas; Norway's EV transition well underway - with few hitches; Supreme Court upholds California animal-cruelty law that bans narrow cages for pigs; New pipeline agency rule aimed at cutting methane leaks; 'Mind-boggling' methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed; New Florida law allows radioactive waste to be built into Florida roads... PLUS: Can we engineer our way out of drought? ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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Also: 'Blue Wave' in NE; OH, MO Repubs gaming ballot initiatives; DeSantis suppressing more FL voters; Proud Boys guilty; Trump's NYT suit tossed; More gob-smacking Clarence Thomas corruption...
By Brad Friedman on 5/4/2023 6:53pm PT  

There was far too much news to fit into one BradCast today. We tried to do it anyway. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among our many stories...

  • It was difficult to notice this week, but there was yet another very good election day on Tuesday for non-Rightwingers, including more bad news for MAGA World in several local contests around the country. In Lincoln, Nebraska, incumbent Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, supported by Democrats, defeated a well-funded opponent supported by the state's billionaire Republican U.S. Senator (and former Governor) Pete Ricketts and fellow billionaire publisher Thomas Peed. Gaylor Baird won by nearly 10 points. Apparently, ads describing Lincoln, the state capital, as a dystopian hellhole did not go over well with voters...in Lincoln.
  • A MAGA election conspiracist and local elections clerk named Stephanie Scott (pictured above), was tossed out of her job in a rare recall election on Tuesday in Adams Township, Michigan in Hillsdale County, one of the state's most Republican-leaning areas. Scott is under state criminal investigation after refusing to turn over her town's computer vote tabulator in 2021, which she believed held evidence of fraud revealing Democrats had stolen the state's Presidential election in 2020. That, in a town that Trump/Pence won with 75% of the vote that year. (If the story sounds familiar, see Tina Peters, former Mesa County, Colorado Clerk, who has since been tossed out of her job and indicted on 10 counts.) This appears to be part of the multi-state MAGA conspiracy to breach voting systems, hatched at the Trump White House in December 2020, as we detailed again last week. Scott was defeated by a 2 to 1 margin on Tuesday by an independent challenger running on the slogan "Make Adams Township Boring Again".
  • But, if ya can't beat 'em, suppress their vote! That seems to be the Republican plan for "winning" elections from here on out, apparently. After losing statewide ballot initiatives that would have restricted abortion rights last year, including in so-called "red" states like Kansas and Kentucky, the GOP is now hoping to game the ballot initiative process itself in several states. The most immediate and noteworthy is Ohio, where supporters of reproductive freedom hope to place an initiative on the ballot in November to establish a state Constitutional right to abortion. But Republicans, who just four months ago adopted a statute ending costly August elections, are now moving to place an amendment on the ballot in a $20 million Special Election in August that would raise the requirement for adoption of Constitutional Amendments from a simple majority vote to a required 60% for passage. (Ironically, the GOP lawmakers own Amendment, if voted on in August, would only require 50% to be adopted.) Other gerrymandered GOP states are now attempted to do the same thing, including Missouri, where Republican lawmakers there are doing something arguably even more insidious in their own attempt to fool voters into supporting their anti-democracy measure.
  • And then there's Florida, where democracy goes to die. The state legislature has just passed a one of their final gifts to beleaguered Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis: a 96-page law that will, among other things, severely restrict voter registration by nonpartisan third-party organizations. As recent research finds, Black and Latino voters are more than five times more likely to be registered by third-party groups than White voters. DeSantis is expected to sign the legislation soon as one of his last official acts before declaring his 2024 candidacy. It will be the third year in a row that Sunshine State Republicans have adopted new voting restrictions.
  • A D.C. jury on Thursday convicted four members of the far-right, racist militia group, Proud Boys, of seditious conspiracy, obstructing an official proceeding, conspiring to impede Congress from performing its duties, obstructing law enforcement and other federal crimes related to their participation in Donald Trump's Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The charges for conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding both carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison. Their former leader, like Donald Trump, was not even at the Capitol during the riot, but was among those found guilty. All of that good news is likely very bad news for the former President and the specific federal charges likely to soon be brought against him.
  • In still more bad news for Trump today, his lawsuit against the New York Times and several of their reporters, charging an "insidious plot" to obtain his tax records resulting in Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting by the paper, was tossed out by a New York judge on Wednesday. Moreover, the judge --- finding Trump's claims "fail as a matter of constitutional law" and that the paper's newsgathering efforts were "the very core of protected First Amendment activity" --- ordered Trump to pay all of the attorneys fees, legal expenses and other associated costs for the Times and their reporters.
  • ProPublica strikes again. First they revealed that GOP megadonor Harlan Crow showered U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for decades with hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury vacations which he unlawfully failed to disclose. Then they reported that Crow had actually purchased Thomas' mother's house from him, made nearly $40,000 worth of improvements to it, and has allowed the corrupt Justices mom in it, rent-free, ever since. None of that was ever disclosed by Thomas either, in violation of the law. And now, on Wednesday, they did it again. Their latest bombshell scoop documents how Crow's company paid for years of tuition to private schools for Thomas' grandnephew who the nation's longest serving Justice says he raised "as a son" since taking legal custody at the age of 6. The tuition for the boy, now in his 30s, amounted to approximately $100,000. Congressional Republicans continue to applaud the unspeakably corrupt Thomas.
  • Finally, as you haven't had enough already today, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report to detail the unprecedented heat wave in Spain, as Italy's rivers dry up; the EU's passage of "the biggest climate protection law of all time"; and New York's adoption of a landmark law banning natural gas hookups in new building construction...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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While we post The BradCast here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they're available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at iTunes, Pandora, TuneIn, Google, Amazon or our native RSS feed!

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 5/4/2023 10:23am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Spain broils in unprecedented heat, while Italy's rivers dry up; European Union adopts 'the biggest climate protection law of all time'; El Nino return likely to shatter recent heat records; PLUS: New York officially becomes first state to ban natural gas in newly-constructed buildings... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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GNR's now celebrating 14 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): El Niño is coming. Here's what that means for weather in the U.S.; In Texas, Lawmakers Throw Tax Funded Lifeline to Fossil Fuels; Toxic water floods an Okla. town. Will FERC hold a dam liable?; New IEA report highlights the need and means for the oil and gas industry to drastically cut emissions; IKEA boosts gigascale output at an Arizona solar panel factory; Is deadly Illinois dust storm a climate indicator?; FL and LA must borrow millions to pay insurance claims... PLUS: Is it a lake, or a battery? A new kind of hydropower is spreading fast... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 4/25/2023 10:41am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Biden EPA to launch new landmark effort to limit carbon pollution from power plants; Earth hits grim new records for global ice loss and rising seas, new report finds; 1 in 3 Americans breathe polluted air; PLUS: President Biden boosts environmental justice... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Half the global population saw all-time record temperatures over past decade; Water permits for Saudi Arabia-owned farm in Arizona revoked; Renewable Energy Is Charging Ahead; In Florida, Harris announces $562M for climate resilience; As epic snow melts, a California community braces for floods; Chile's lithium nationalization shines light on emerging tech; Massive Caribbean sea urchin die-off caused by parasite...PLUS: David Attenborough, the voice of Our Planet: "Things are going to get worse"... and much, MUCH more! ...

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McCarthy's DOA plan to gut spending on the poor and make his own constituents sick in exchange for not crashing the U.S. economy; Also: Lindell loses a $5 million election fraud bet; Peters still facing jail time...
By Brad Friedman on 4/20/2023 6:40pm PT  

We've got lots of dupes and lots of dopes on today's BradCast. You'll have to figure out which is which. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our stories today...

  • House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has introduced a 320-page proposal [PDF] of cuts to the federal budget that he suggests Republicans must have in exchange for not blowing up the nation's economy for less than a year. The cuts being demanded in order for a vote to raise the nation's borrowing limit to pay for what we've already committed to spending and avoid a first-ever U.S. government default, include taking away food stamps from more than 4 million hungry Americans, and federal health insurance from more than 2 million poor and disabled people. He's also demanding another $130 billion dollars of cuts in social programs for Americans next year alone, though he doesn't say which programs. The White House believes it would most likely include deep cuts to "education, veterans medical care, cancer research, meals on wheels, food safety and law enforcement.” McCarthy's dead-on-arrival debt limit proposal --- if he's even able to get his own party to pass it in the House --- would also increase the deficit (which Republicans pretend to care about) by nearly $200 billion in cuts to IRS enforcement. But that will keep more money in the pockets of corporations and the wealthy, so there's that.
  • Perhaps most disturbingly of all, McCarthy is calling for cuts to much of the $400 billion in climate initiatives to clean the air and fight global warming over the next decade, as adopted by Democrats in last year's Inflation Reduction Act. If I was one of McCarthy's constituents in Bakersfield, California, I'd be particularly pissed off about that, given this year's "State of the Air" report from the American Lung Association, released on the same day as McCarthy's debt ceiling bill. If I lived in Bakersfield, I might wonder why my own Congressman wants to kill me? The new report finds McCarthy's home town at the very top of two of the Lung Association's lists...but not the good ones. Bakersfield is the #1 most polluted city in the nation, as ranked by both short-term and year-round particle pollution. On the other hand, it's only the third worst in the nation when it comes to ozone pollution. Why does Kevin McCarthy want to slash climate programs and further harm his own constituents?!
  • Some of these folks may be both dupes and dopes. Back in 2021, bedding impresario and 2020 election liar Mike Lindell promised to reveal iron-clad evidence that China helped steal the Presidential election from the former guy. Lindell declared he had data, from a whistleblower or something, proving that they had done so, somehow, via the Internet. He offered a $5 million challenge at a three-day "cyber symposium" in South Dakota that year to anyone who could "Prove Mike Wrong" by showing that the data packets he claimed revealed evidence of Chinese interference of the election didn't actually prove as much. Well, some guy, a Trump voter named Robert Zeidman, did exactly that, according to an arbitration panel who was called in after Lindell refused to pay up. The panel found that Zeidman proved the so-called "packet captures" included little more than jibberish and had nothing to do with the 2020 election. Now Lindell has 30 days to pay up, though he says he's going to court instead. It's all quite hilarious, in truth. But it may just be an appetizer for the $1.3 billion defamation suit [PDF] still pending against him by the Dominion Voting Systems company.
  • Of course, Lindell wasn't the only one to screw himself over at that "cyber symposium" in SD. That's where Colorado's former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was speaking on stage when sensitive Dominion Voting System software from her own county was leaked to the public over the Internet. Peters was later charged by CO with 7 felonies and 3 misdemeanors related to her alleged scheme to sneak into the secure voting system room in her county with accomplices late at night, as they turned off the security cameras to make unlawful copies of the election tabulation software. Her trial on those state charges comes later this year, but last month Peters was found guilty of obstructing a law enforcement investigation related to one of her accomplices. Last week she was sentenced to 4 months of home detention and 120 hours of community service. The penalties she is likely to face for breaching the County's voting system software is likely to be much much worse if she's found guilty.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with more on Speaker McCarthy's attempt to gut landmark climate initiatives at the expense of humanity; record deadly heat in Asia; Trump-appointed judges gutting Berkley, CA's attempt to fight climate change; and a landmark approval for clean electricity transmission across several western states...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 3/30/2023 9:46am PT  


Follow @GreenNewsReport...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: House Republicans race to pass fossil-fueled energy bill; New studies warn extreme floods and droughts getting worse due to global warming; U.S. to see more frequent, intense 'supercell' storms with global warming; E.U. finalizes ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2035; PLUS: Renewables surpass coal for electricity in the U.S. for the first time in history... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Melting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050; UN sends question of countries' climate responsibilities to The Hague; Swiss seniors take government to European court over climate; Insider Q&A: From oil to offshore wind, how Danish oil company transformed itself; Senate votes to overturn Biden water rule; Texas drove out Chinese firm, not the wind farm it planned... PLUS: Plastics cause wide-ranging health issues from cancer to birth defects, landmark study finds... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 3/21/2023 9:03am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.N. Scientists warn the window to avoid dangerous, irreversible warming is rapidly closing; California hit with 12th major winter storm in a row; PLUS: Argentina broils under record-shattering, 'unprecedented' heat... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Levels of carcinogenic dioxin near Ohio derailment site far above safe limit; Judge Halts Biden Administration Waters Rule in Texas, Idaho; Fossil Fuel Execs See ‘Golden Age’ for Gas, If They Can Brand It as 'Clean'; A Black Community In Arizona Battles Power Expansion Plans Again; China's Mekong Dams Turn Thai Fishing Villages Into 'Ghost Towns'; MD, VA Race to Save Dwindling Commercial Fisheries in Chesapeake Bay; Babesiosis, A Tickborne Disease, Is On The Rise In Northeast... PLUS: Big Oil Firms Touted Algae As Climate Fix. Now All Have Pulled Funding... and much, MUCH more! ...

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Guest: Climate journalist, videographer Peter Sinclair; Also: Farmers rally for climate in D.C.; MI Democrats repeal GOP anti-union laws...
By Brad Friedman on 3/15/2023 4:23pm PT  

All of that clean, green, renewable energy needs to come from somewhere if we're gonna save humanity. Shamefully, many of those working to help produce it in rural America, including farmers and small town elected officials, have been paying an awful price for their heroic efforts, as detailed on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

First up today, a few quick news items. Speaking of farmers and the climate, last week saw hundreds of climate activists and farmers rally in D.C. in hopes of increased support for climate provisions in this year's federal farm bill. Congress is working toward passage of their latest, half-a-billion dollar, five-year spending bill for farmers and nutrition support. The Biden Administration, the USDA and Congressional Democrats have made climate and net-zero farming a top priority, as agriculture currently contributes almost 10% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers are on the front lines of our quickly changing climate and hope to get more help. Republicans, on the other hand, want to cut funding from the bill despite the farmer's asking for more help thanks to our worsening climate crisis.

Also, some good news out of Michigan today, where the state Senate has followed the state House in passing a bill to repeal the state's so-called "Right-to-Work" (for less!) law, adopted when the GOP controlled the state legislature in 2012. Pending final approval in the House, the measure, seen as a major victory for organized labor, will then be signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. All of that made possible by passage of a statewide ballot initiative that ended gerrymandering in Michigan, resulting in a legislative trifecta for Democrats as of last November, giving them control of both chambers of the state legislature and the Governor's mansion. And all of that is resulting in good news for the working class!

Then, speaking of farmers, the climate and Michigan, we're joined by PETER SINCLAIR, a longtime climate videographer, journalist, climate-denial debunker and Michigan native who has been documenting a disturbing --- and disturbingly under-reported --- attack on farmers and elected officials in rural communities in the American heartland.

Through a series of short videos based on interviews with folks in a number of small townships in rural Montcalm County, MI, (see here, here, and here, for example), Sinclair has been telling the story of a broad and well-coordinated misinformation and disinformation campaign, resulting in attacks, threats and boycotts against those who are daring to consider support for wind and solar projects on their own farmlands and in their small towns.

Sinclair, an award-winning climate communicator and producer of Yale Climate Connections' This is Not Cool series, and creator of his long-running Climate Denial Crock of the Week, details the chilling threats and harassment being faced by folks in these communities from clearly coordinated anti-renewable energy campaigns which have polluted local residents with a bombardment of lies about climate change and clean energy.

Today, we share a number of clips from his video series, as farmers and current and former public officials explain the harassment they have been facing; the tools used by the harassers (such as Facebook); how these campaigns mirror other, better-reported ones coming from the right in recent years, such as those town-hall meetings with angry opponents of "ObamaCare" more than a decade ago and similar scenes at school board hearings over COVID requirements, etc.

"This campaign is so well-oiled that it is kind of self-replicating," Sinclair explains. "People hear there's going to be a solar or wind project nearby, they've been primed by twenty, thirty years of Fox News, talk radio to be suspicious. They go on to social media [and] they find literally thousands of references to misinformation and disinformation that's being constantly circulated and recirculated out there. Then they replicate this template. It typically starts by forming a Facebook group, making it private, not allowing any dissension, and herding a whole lot of people into it and continually bombarding them with a stream of negative misinformation. Pretty soon you've got people that are terrified, angry, and aggrieved, and then it's just a matter of pointing them in the direction of the nearest local planning commission or township board."

He tells me: "We have evolved a generation of people who are attuned to this culture war mindset. Some of the earliest anti-wind energy memes that really stood out had a picture of wind turbines and it said, 'The production tax credit, Obamacare's worst tax.' This was ten, twelve years ago, but you're supposed to make a connection between Obamacare, which you're supposed to hate, and wind turbines, which then, I guess you're supposed to make a connection that it has something to do with Obama. Of course there's no connection whatsoever!," laughs Sinclair, "but that connection is continually made."

We also discuss the dirty fingerprints of the fossil fuel industry on these sleazy campaigns (though they are often obscured by "a lot of dark, untraceable money floating around for this kind of activity"); one of the men who seems to be "the big cheese" organizer behind many of them (a guy by the name of Kevon Martis from a climate denier outfit known as the Energy and Environment Legal Institute is cited over and over as a cult-like figure by many of the harassed locals in different townships); and what the public can do to help push back against this corrupt and dangerous madness.

"Mr. Martis follows me closely on social media," Sinclair quipped. "One of my favorite tweets is, 'Peter Sinclair doesn't just want to take your energy, he wants to take your guns!'"

Ridiculous attacks aside, all of this is going on in hundreds of counties in dozens of states across America's farm belt and, frankly, deserves much more light and attention than it has been receiving from both state and national media, as well as state and national politicians. We try to offer some of that long-overdue public attention today in our conversation with Sinclair...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 3/14/2023 9:26am PT  


Follow @GreenNewsReport...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Biden Administration approves controversial ConocoPhillips Willow drilling project in Alaska...But also prohibits future drilling in Alaska and U.S. Arctic waters; Mack Truck goes electric; PLUS: In the Indian Ocean, Tropical Storm Freddy setting stunning new records... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

GNR's now celebrating 14 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): Biden Administration moves to restrict cancer-causing 'forever chemicals'; Insurers slashed Hurricane Ian payouts far below damage estimates, documents and insiders reveal; Why EPA’s huge social cost of carbon might fail to halt CO2; Saudi oil giant posts record profits; As coal disappears, mining states launch rescue efforts; Before disastrous flood, officials knew Pajaro River levee could fail but took no action; Confirmed: global floods, droughts worsening with global warming...PLUS: Concern grows over rich nations controlling sunlight... and much, MUCH more! ...

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