On today's BradCast, trouble continues to brew for Congress, the White House, the nation, the world and, yes, for Donald Trump. [Audio link to show is posted below.]

Among the stories covered on today's program:

• The Treasury Secretary warns that the U.S. will soon hit its statutory debt ceiling and will default on loan payments unless Congress takes action. Will Republicans be more likely to do so now than they were under Obama? Or is a government shutdown and/or defaulting on our loan payments for the first time in history in store?
• A new study finds that some 15 million Americans are likely to lose their health care coverage under the GOP plan to "repeal and replace" ObamaCare. And, while Medicaid recipients are sure to be hard hit under the Republican scheme, experts are warning that the tax cuts in the GOP's scheme will also serve to gut the Medicare Trust Fund;
• Over the past week alone, with little media attention, the Trump Administration has dropped more bombs on Yemen than the Obama Administration had in any single full year of his presidency;
• More new concerns arise about Trump's conflicts of interest and apparent violations of the foreign 'Emoluments Clause' of the U.S. Constitution (this time concerning China);
• But as the specter of impeachment continues to loom over this Presidency, attorney and BRAD BLOG legal analyst Ernest A. Canning, our guest today, explains how the provisions of the 25th Amendment could become a more viable path for the removal of this President from office, particularly if his disturbing and unpredictable rage and mood swings continue to spiral. We discuss the potential triggers, likelihood, downsides, history and more.
• As a very early and deadly wildfire seasons breaks out in a number of states, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report;
• She also has a few thoughts on the incredibly stupid (and (and absolutely incorrect) comments this week by the new EPA chief Scott Pruitt (and the stooge Joe Kernen interviewing him on CNBC) regarding the affects of CO2 on climate change;
• And, finally, we finish up with a bit of good news on voting, for a happy change...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: State of emergency declared for early season wildfires across four states; Trump Administration plans cuts to Coast Guard, FEMA, and Energy Star program; Gulf of Mexico dolphins still suffering effects of 2010 BP oil disaster; PLUS: Pollution is responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million children each year... 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): February’s Warmth, Brought to You by Climate Change; Warming may disrupt four-fifths of world's oceans by 2050; White House Pushes for Deep Cuts to Clean Energy Office; Top Environmental Justice Official at EPA Resigns, Pens Plea to Pruitt; Water Rights: Landmark Ruling Lets Tribe Tap Calif. Aquifer; Top Environmental Justice Official at EPA Resigns, Pens Plea to Pruitt; Dying robots, failing hope at Fukushima as clean-up falters; PLUS: Reassessment of Calif. Faults Hints At Possibility Of Major Quake... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump promises clean air and water, but his budget cuts promise the opposite; EPA rolls back methane reporting rules for the fossil fuel industry; Interior Dept. rolls back rules requiring fossil fuel industry to pay taxpayers more in royalties; Wind energy capacity now equal to hydro-electric capacity in the U.S.; PLUS: Lead is back on the menu for hunters and anglers... 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): Steve Bannon Used to Believe in Science. Now He's America's Top Climate Villain.; Climate Deniers, You're Climate Deniers--Deal with It; Massive Permafrost Thaw Documented in Canada, Portends Huge Carbon Release; UK Carbon Emissions Fall to 19th Century Levels as Government Phases Out Coal; Trump Wants You to Be Afraid of Everything Except Climate Change; Humans have caused an explosion of never-before-seen minerals all over the Earth; Infrastructure: Risks Soar, Bills Come Due As 20th-Century Dams Crumble... PLUS: Trump's green assault off to fast start... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Debunking Trump's environmental bunk from his first address to Congress; New emails indicate EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt lied to the U.S. Senate; PLUS: Record February heat wave brings early spring across U.S.... 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): Shell's 1991 warning: climate changing ‘at faster rate than at any time since end of ice age’; Homeowners being sued over plan to build 800-mile pipeline; The struggles of coal retirees come roaring back into the congressional spotlight; Hundreds of North American Bee Species Face Extinction; Trump Poised To Lift Federal Coal Ban, Other Green Rules; L.A. keeps building near freeways, even though living there makes people sick; Massive Permafrost Thaw Seen in Canada, Portends Huge Carbon Release... PLUS: How to Steal a River... and much, MUCH more! ...

While the corporate media have been somewhat beside themselves with effusive praise of Donald Trump's success at reading a speech from a teleprompter at his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, our guests on today's BradCast see it somewhat differently.

Suffice to say journalists Jacki Schechner and Gaius Publius were far less impressed. They both join us today to un-spin Trump's speech and some of the alternative facts he presented --- on healthcare, energy, the hate-crime epidemic, his exploitation of the widow of a Navy SEAL killed recently in Yemen and more --- as well as both the media's and Democrats', at times, beguiling response to it all.

Both also offer thoughts on the very happy "merger" of the Trump and Republican Party brands, as well as the DNC's election of a new party chair over the weekend --- and what all of it means going forward.

That's a very short description for today's very jam-packed BradCast!. Enjoy!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: What to expect from the EPA following the rushed confirmation of EPA-enemy Scott Pruitt; Three fossil fuel explosions in two weeks; Alaska officials say they can't shut off leaking natural gas pipeline; PLUS: The Midwest sets U.S. wind energy record... 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): Mattis: No plan to seize Iraqi oil; California Senate leader's new bill: 100% clean energy; Norway moves to reach 100% electric cars in just 8 years; Scientists Rally in Boston to Highlight Threats to Science; China steel mills caught on the hop by North Korea coal ban; Appeals court rules in favor of Virginia keeping moratorium on uranium mining; Coal magnate thrilled as Trump trashes Obama rules; Republicans Try a New Tack on Climate Change; As Standing Rock Construction Restarts, Pipeline Fights Flare Across US... PLUS: 'The wild west of wind': Republicans push Texas as unlikely green energy leader... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, it's a Trumponanza, guest hosted by yours truly, Angie Coiro.

First a roundup of the latest threats and inanities, including the Trump camp's denial of a darned convincing report from AP about setting the National Guard loose to sweep out undocumented immigrants. Scott Pruitt scores both a win and a loss within twenty-four hours; Arlene's Flowers' claim that it can discriminate against gay couples on the basis of art (!) falls down. And: why a Rasmussen poll and a Pew Research poll can be so far apart, and why that matters at all; and the Case of the Sudden Trademark Protection, a suspicious gift from China to our equally suspicious president. That emoluments case is practically building itself at this point.

And that's just in the first ten minutes! Then Lisa Graves from the Center for Media and Democracy goes into detail on Pruitt developments. She says the Center's victory over Pruitt in an Oklahoma court --- mandating that he turn over thousands of emails from during his tenure as the EPA suing Oklahoma Attorney General --- has a direct connection to his lightning-fast ascendancy to the EPA chair.

Sarah Jaffe, host of the Belabored podcast, explains why Trump's relationship with union workers is so complex.

Finally, a suggestion for organizers of the upcoming Day without Women protest: think ahead about the women who can't afford to take a day off.

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On today's BradCast: Donald Trump holds his first solo press conference as President...and it's a doozy. But just before that presser was going on at the White House, so was another at the National Press Club in D.C. to announce that nearly 1 million signatures calling for Trump's immediate impeachment were being delivered to Congress. [Audio link to complete show follows below.]

Journalist, author and activist Norman Solomon of Roots Action --- who, with Free Speech for People, have created the ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org campaign --- joins us to explain the grounds for the remarkable effort to begin Congressional proceedings to remove Trump from office, not even one month into his Presidency.

"This is a very long process, but not as long as many people think. This could be a lot quicker than we might have imagined just a few weeks ago," Solomon tells me, detailing what he sees as crystal clear violations of the U.S. Constitution's foreign and domestic "Emoluments" clauses, as well as a number of statutes as well.

Solomon charges that "It's such a dangerous precedent to have a President willfully, flagrantly, violating the Constitution," why he believes this can be done even with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, and why the question of whether Vice President Mike Pence would be even worse for progressives, if he were to ascend to the Presidency, does not matter.

"If we shrug and say 'Well, we don't think it's practical', or 'We don't like the result of the Vice President becoming President', then we've bought further into what, frankly, is moving towards dictatorship," he argues. "If we say this is okay, that the President is above the supreme law of the land, then that opens the floodgates to autocracy and the antithesis of democracy."

The author of War Made Easy: How President and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death also discusses what he sees as the "big danger" of "Democrats attacking Trump with over-the-top extreme rhetoric" concerning Russia.

Then, Desi Doyen joins us for our 8th Anniversary(!) episode of the Green News Report! And, finally, I respond to some listener mail which disagrees with my take on the Logan Act (as detailed during Tuesday's BradCast), and how some believe it should be used to prosecute former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in regard to his conversation about sanctions with Russia's ambassador prior to the Inauguration...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump repeals anti-corruption regulation for the fossil fuel industry; From the folks bringing you the Dakota Access Pipeline, another major pipeline spill; Good news for breathers, bad news for coal miners in Arizona; US emissions still declining; PLUS: Scientists discover man-made toxic chemicals in the deepest part of the ocean... 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): Climate Change Plus Aging Infrastructure = Multiplying Disasters; Oroville Is a Warning for California Dams, as Climate Change Adds Stress; Scientists have just detected a major change to the Earth's oceans linked to a warming climate; Indigenous People Should Have Rights Over Their Land, Pope Francis Says; Endangered Species Act heading for the threatened list; 'A large blowtorch': worker missing in Paradis pipeline explosion; Ohio GOP targets clean energy standards, efficiency rules... PLUS: India's polluted air now kills 1.1 million people per year... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast: If those friendly to America are rising up against Donald Trump's disastrous Presidency, imagine what our actual enemies think! Well, we don't have to imagine quite as much as of today, even as Republicans in Congress continue their work to undermine American democracy. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Donald Trump's Yemen raid last week --- the first special ops mission he approved after becoming President --- was an unmitigated disaster during which a U.S. Navy SEAL was killed along with a number civilians, including an 8-year old American girl. The target was reportedly meant to be the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who is still alive and well and mocking Trump this week, even as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer ridiculously declared the failed mission "a successful operation by all standards."

Also mocking Trump today is the Supreme Leader of Iran, who thanked the new President for "showing the real face of America" after Trump banned Iranian travelers and put the country "on notice" in a Tweet last week, threatening military action and emboldening Iran's hardliners in the process of an increasing alarming drumbeat toward war. (Corporate media chasing all of Trump's idiotic statements may want to start paying much closer attention to this. Please?)

Back at home, the President's wildly controversial and wholly unqualified nominee for Education Secretary, billionaire Betsy DeVos, became the first cabinet nominee in history to be approved by the U.S. Senate after a tie vote in which the Vice President had to cast the decisive vote. At least this time the Democrats finally stood unified in voting against DeVos, along with two Republican Senators who joined them.

In the meantime, while The Netherlands announces that, due to hacking fears, they will do away with computer tabulation machines in favor of hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots ("Democracy's Gold Standard") for their upcoming election, Republicans in the U.S. House moved to abolish the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the only federal agency tasked with setting standards for our nation's oft-failed, easily-hacked electronic voting and tabulation systems.

As explained in detail on today program, the EAC has been a disaster on several levels since its creation following the 2000 Presidential election debacle in Florida. Among countless BradBlog.com stories highlighting their failures over the years, was our 2006 exclusive on the un-aired network interview with the EAC's first Chair, the Bush-appointed Rev. DeForest Soaries. He described the agency in the interview as a "charade" and warned that our computerized voting and tabulation system is "ripe for stealing elections and for fraud." (Also, as mentioned today, see the chapter I contributed with Michael Richardson and John Gideon to Mark Crispin Miller's Loser Take All, revealing how, in 2004, Nevada's then Sec. of State, now U.S. Senator Dean Heller illegally certified and lied about his state's touch-screen voting systems, which are still in use today, with an assist from the corrupt EAC.)

Nonetheless, despite its many failures, the answer to the EAC's problems is not to abolish the agency, but to fund it properly and make it work. That the GOP is prepared to eliminate it entirely --- even amidst Trump's false claims of millions of fraudulent votes cast in the 2016 election --- is quite telling.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, along with today's late breaking news that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced in court papers that it plans to grant the final permit needed to complete the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, despite former President Obama's order to conduct a full environmental impact study before construction is completed on the $3.8 billion pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 400 former EPA officials tell U.S. Senate to vote 'No' on Scott Pruitt's nomination to head EPA; Another heat wave in the Arctic leaves scientists in 'stunned' disbelief; Electric vehicle sales jump nearly 40 per cent in one year; China to slash coal use in Beijing again; PLUS: The March for Science is on for Earth Day 2017... 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): 'Whistleblower' says protocol was breached but no data fraud; Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America; Reality finally sets in for the media: Trump’s presidency will be a disaster for the climate; There are now twice as many solar jobs as coal jobs in the US; No Data Was Manipulated in a Widely Cited 2015 Climate Study; Extreme Radiation Levels Detected At Fukushima Reactor; Car ban fails to curb air pollution in Mexico City; Once-cautious climate economist reverses course, issues warning against the cost of inaction... PLUS: #RIP: 3 minutes with Hans Rosling will change your mind about the world... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court not a big fan of federal agencies; Former ExxonMobil CEO now in charge of U.S. diplomacy; Trump's controversial EPA nominee muscled through GOP Senate Committee; PLUS: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe gears up for another court battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline... 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): Trump Supreme Court Nominee Could Hear Case Affecting Trump Golf Courses; Clean Water Protections Under Attack in Early Days of 115th Congress; As Drought Winds Down, CA Lawmakers Set Stage for Future Water Wars; 3 GOP governors invest in clean energy; Green movement 'greatest threat to freedom', says Trump adviser; Lawmaker Wants To Ease Rules On Drilling In Natl Parks... PLUS: Climate economist sounds the alarm... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: President Trump's new two-for-one deal to repeal regulations, while his Muslim immigration ban undermines US leadership in science; Congressional Republicans move quickly to gut pollution and corruption regulations; PLUS: California pushes back, moving full speed ahead on renewable energy transition... 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): A new battle over politics and science could be brewing. And scientists are ready for it; New York Approves a 90 MW Wind Farm Off The Coast Of Long Island; U.S. Auto Dealers Look To Trump To Ease Vehicle Emissions Rules; Keystone XL Opponents Promise Trump a Mass Mobilization 'On a Scale Never Seen'; Florida Fracking Ban Bill Draws Bipartisan Support; Trump's Promise to Pay for Infrastructure With Fossil Revenue Is Iffy... PLUS: Warming Ocean Waters Off Alaska Bring Widespread Ecological Changes... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: It begins: Trump re-launches controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines; Team Trump imposes gag orders and lock downs on science-based federal agencies; PLUS: New U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations won't commit to supporting United Nations Paris Agreement... 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): Trump's unsupported claim he has 'received awards on the environment'; Lead Levels Fall Below Federal Limits In Flint, Michigan: State; Iowa Oil Spill Marks Pipeline Risks After Trump Revives Major Projects; In Michigan, a Fight Over the Future of a Fabled Trout River; Senate Democrats Unveil A Trump-Size Infrastructure Plan; Fla. DEP Secretary Going To Work For Firm That Just Got New DEP Contract; This Week's Jersey Floods Are A Taste Of What's To Come... PLUS: Gag Order Or Not, Here's Why Trump Cracking Down On Government Science is So Scary... and much, MUCH more! ...

Never mind his inauguration crowd size or his claims to be "a very big person when it comes to the environment", or even his false claims about "voter fraud". On today's BradCast, while it may be hard to imagine, and the corporate media may have yet to fully notice, Donald Trump's actions speak much louder than his obnoxious words and virtually non-stop stream of public lies. [Audio link to show posted below.]

Don't be distracted by what Donald Trump says. Pay attention to what he does. To that end, while folks were debating his "alternative facts" on the crowd size at his inauguration, the new Administration was busy shutting down the Twitter accounts and ability for federal employees to communicate with the press and public at the Department of Interior, the National Park Service, the EPA and other federal agencies.

While claiming to be a champion for the environment this morning, he then signed an Executive Action to move forward with approval of the dirty and dangerous KeystoneXL and Dakota Access Pipelines by the afternoon.

While the new President continued to pretend that millions of illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election (even the New York Times called it a "Lie" in their headline!), he and his supporters fought successfully to stop the post-election "recounts" in all three states where evidence of such illegal votes --- if it actually existed (it doesn't) --- might have been revealed.

While the Administration claimed last week that their work wouldn't begin until Monday, their new Dept. of Justice leadership was taking action on Inauguration Day to undermine a long-standing lawsuit against Texas' unlawful Photo ID voting restrictions. Yes, Republican Trumpers understand the importance of voting laws and procedures --- even when it's not an election year. Do Democrats and progressives?

Julie Ebenstein, staff attorney at the ACLU Voting Rights Project, joins us to explain what exactly the Trump DoJ did on Friday in the Texas case and what it may signify for that case and others like it, what it all may mean for the future of the currently-gutted Voting Rights Act, and how the ACLU and other private plaintiffs plan to continue the fight for voting rights with or without the Trump Administration's DoJ on their side.

"There's certainly concern that DoJ will shift and no longer take the same positions that it's taken in the Texas and North Carolina cases --- and a lot of concern for future cases, for future protection of people's voting rights," Ebenstein tells me. "If the Department of Justice does not provide and enforce the same robust protections of the Voting Rights act, it's diluting the already scarce resources that are out there to challenge these laws." But, she vows, "we'll continue to do the work we've always done. There are certainly cases where private organizations like the ACLU will go forward without any Department of Justice involvement. We're going to keep doing what we do, no matter what we see coming."

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