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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump threatens war crimes against civilian power infrastructure in Iran; Iran War is boosting global demand for solar panels, heat pumps, and electric cars; PLUS: U.S. West's mountain snowpack has melted early, raising fears of a record fire season to come... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Strongest El Niño in a century? What this rare phenomenon could bring; Drive slower, work from home and ditch the tie: the world responds to Iran war energy crisis; NOAA halts crucial dataset that helps measure Arctic sea ice; Trump's 'God Squad' blocks endangered species protections in the Gulf of Mexico; These maps show exactly where the West might burn this summer ... PLUS: Solar power in Africa is heating up — thanks in part to chili peppers ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Global fallout expands from US-Israel War on Iran; Trump Administration relaxes smog pollution rules to moderate rising gas prices; Three US offshore wind farms survived Trump assault, now delivering clean electricity; PLUS: Earth's climate is out of balance, new report warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): America's bookend wars for oil; "If the Strait remains closed, we're not talking about a global recession "“ we're talking about a depression"; Maryland Supreme Court rejects climate lawsuits; The point of no return: new evidence shows Antarctic melting is already locked in; Epic river migrations of fish rapidly collapsing, UN report finds; USDA says it needs roads to fight remote wildfires, but a new study says roads bring more fire to forests ... PLUS: Suddenly, the US manufactures a ton of grid batteries ... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, we turn briefly away from the folly and fallout of Trump's war on Iran to focus again on the folly and fallout of Trump's war on democracy here at home, with the critical 2026 Midterm Elections looming and threatened anew by Trump's corrupted High Court. To that end, one of our favorite guests returns today to offer a bit of what we'll describe as "hope". [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... A few related election matters...

• In a somewhat bizarre --- and seemingly unprecedented case --- a Republican sheriff running for Governor in California recently seized more than 650,000 ballots from last year's Special Election on Proposition 50. That was the ballot measure, overwhelmingly approved by almost 3.5 million votes, allowing the state Legislature to redraw California's U.S. House maps to make them more friendly to Democrats in response to Republican gerrymanders in Texas, North Carolina and elsewhere. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced on Friday that he'd obtained a warrant to take the ballots from the Riverside Registrar's office on the basis of a claim made by a local "election protection" group that last year's tally in the County included some 45,000 ballots that were not lawfully cast. Or something. State officials, including CA's Democratic Attorney General and Secretary of State, are objecting to the seizure and tally which was initially to be carried out by the Sheriff's staffers. The count was paused by a court earlier this month, before being restarted with a Special Master overseeing it late last week. We'll try to keep our eyes on this bizarre story.

• In North Carolina today, the state's most powerful Republican, state Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, conceded his 23-vote loss in the state's March 3rd Republican primary to Rockland County Sheriff Sam Page. Berger, who shepherded Trump's demand for a mid-decade gerrymander through the state Legislature last year, was endorsed by Trump. He lost his primary nonetheless in the Republican-leaning district.

• On Monday at the White House, Donald Trump told media: "Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating," adding, "I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it all." It was also revealed on Monday, according to Palm Beach County, Florida records, that Trump cast a mail ballot for today's Special Election, in the County where he is registered to vote. (Late word after today's show: The Democratic candidate has won today's Special Election in Florida for the state House in the District that includes Mar-a-Lago, flipping the seat from "red" to "blue".)

THEN... On the very same day that it was revealed Trump voted yet again by absentee ballot --- as he frequently does, even while claiming mail-in voting is fraudulent --- in that Special Election, his Solicitor General was at the U.S. Supreme Court arguing against a law in deep "red" Mississippi that allows a five-day grace period for absentee ballots cast and postmarked prior to Election Day to arrive at the elections office to be counted.

Such laws are wildly popular around the country. Some 30 states allow similar. Mississippi's Sec. of State defended it at the corrupted High Court against Trump and the Republican National Committee's challenge. The Court's farthest right members --- Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Alito and Kavanaugh --- offered a series of bizarre hypotheticals about weird ways in which someone might try to exploit such laws to steal an election. (One of Gorsuch's took the prize. It had something to do with mail voters attempting to "recall" their late arriving ballots after Election Day. Tune in for the details on that absurdity which apparently went on to take up about 40 minutes of the two-hour oral argument!)

Then there was Alito's argument that because Congress declared Labor Day, Memorial Day and Washington's Birthday to be held on a specific day, that means they never meant people should be able to count votes after Election Day, even if they were clearly cast before hand. But, what about Early Voting? What about those whose mail ballot arrives before Election Day? As our guest explains, the rightwing Justices did their best to avoid those questions.

We're joined today by the great MARK JOSEPH STERN, longtime legal journalist at Slate, who was, let's say, chagrined by the radical and ridiculously Trumpy arguments offered by at least four of the Trump-friendly Republican Justices.

"Of course the reality is that we do not all vote on Election Day, and our ballots are not all counted on Election Day. So if the plaintiff's theory is correct, and if Alito is correct that the day is the day --- that there is this 24-hour period where everything has to happen --- then early voting is illegal, mail voting is illegal, and no ballots can be counted after midnight on Election Day," asserts Stern. "If it's not your birthday after midnight, then it can't be Election Day after midnight. There has to be a timer that goes off and every ballot that hasn't been counted just needs to be set on fire because the day is over. That's the implication of his theory."

The theory falls far short of facts and reality, including the notion that Congress, when establishing Election Day in federal law, really meant that ballots could only be cast and counted on that day. But that defies the way the nation has voted going back at least to the Civil War, when soldiers deployed in the field cast their ballots early by mail.

"If you take these theories seriously, it means that the way that we have conducted elections in this country, going back to the Civil War, has been unlawful and nobody knew it until now," Stern tells me. "Congress secretly smuggled in this ban on early voting, and nobody figured it out until the geniuses on the 5th Circuit did in 2024."

He calls it "a completely absurd and fantastical legal theory, just flying in the face of 'Support Our Troops.' Because what this theory would do in practice is ensure that a whole lot of service members who are serving in uniform abroad would not be able to have their votes counted in elections."

"Just to be clear," Stern emphasized, "at no point has Congress ever passed a law that says that states cannot count late-arriving ballots." In fact, as he also notes, "there are a lot of states that actually enacted these laws specifically to help military and overseas voters. And when Congress came in, a few decades ago, and issued these new rules about military and overseas voters, it specifically deferred to the states' ballot deadlines. So Congress knew at the time that some states were allowing these ballots to come in late, as long as they were sent by Election Day."

And that is key. Because, the Constitution grants the States the power to determine the "manner" of their own elections, unless Congress adopts a law that counters a state regulation. Congress has done no such thing in this case. Even if the Court's radical members don't like a state law, they have no Constitutional power --- at least for those who bother to read the Constitution conservatively --- to block such laws.

Despite the chaos and disenfranchisement it would cause --- about 750,000 ballots were tallied that way in the 2024 election alone --- and as absurd as all of this seems, you may have seen headlines from a bunch of media outlets' coverage of Monday's oral argument, suggesting that the Court's "conservatives" seem prepared to strike down the counting of late arriving ballots this November. (NYT: "Supreme Court Appears Poised to Reject Late-Arriving Mail-In Ballots Law"; AP: "Supreme Court sounds skeptical of late-arriving ballots, a Trump target"; Guardian: "US supreme court appears poised to limit mail-in ballots ahead of midterms", etc.)

While all three liberal Justices will vote in favor of the plaintiff and the counting of late-arriving ballots, and four of the Court's radical rightwingers seem prepared to vote against, the matter will likely come down to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

"Not very encouraging whenever we're having to rely on John and Amy to come to their senses," quips Stern, before noting hopefully: "There's an old saying that 'sometimes an opinion won't write.' I really think if there were ever an instance where that could happen, it would be here."

As I express gratefulness for his optimism he counters: "I'm not sure optimism is the right word. But I will say that despair is never a helpful emotion when we're talking about the Supreme Court. And despair is what the bad guys want us to feel. So I'm choosing to hold out some hope."

Nonetheless, he cautions against betting "on the outcome that I foresee is possible. Because, again, if you bet on this Court doing the worst thing imaginable, that bet quite often pays off."

FINALLY... We close with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, with a look at the climate and environmental damage from Trump's war on Iran, and much more...

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Today on The BradCast: You're not the only one worried about the U.S. devolving quickly into an autocracy under Trump's attempted dictatorial rule. So are many of the world's top academic democracy experts and researchers! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

We've got quite a bit to get to on today's show. Here is a very quick round-up...

• Our quickly deteriorating man-baby President hates offshore wind power so much (because, years ago, he felt it would sully the view from one of his golf courses), that now we all have to pretend it causes cancer, or drives whales crazy, or is a national security risk. Whatever nonsense claim Donald Trump dreams up. His attempts to stop five nearly completed projects off the U.S. east coast were all blocked by the courts. Now, he has a new strategy: Paying a French company that won leases for two new projects (off of New York and North Carolina) during the Biden Administration, nearly a billion dollars to not move ahead with those projects. That's right, 928 million in your taxpayer dollars is being offered to the company in a settlement if they agree to not do any work to provide clean, safe, renewable energy to millions of Americans during an energy crisis sparked, in no small part, by Trump's ridiculously ill-considered war on Iran. One other thing the company must do as part of the deal, according to the settlement documents reviewed by New York Times: invest money in dirty, deadly, natural gas infrastructure in Texas.

• According to the tenth annual democracy report issued this week by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, authoritarianism is on the rise across the globe with the U.S. and 43 other nations "autocratizing", while just 12 are becoming more democratic, out of more than 200 countries and territories examined by democracy researchers.

  "The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history," the group's Democratic Report 2026 warns. It finds that "By magnitude of decline on the [report's Liberal Democracy Index], the 2025 plunge is the largest one year drop in American history going back to 1789 "“ that is, in the entire period covered by V-Dem data."

  Among the bullet points atop the 7-page special section on "Autrocratization in the USA," included in the 52-page report [PDF] (the special section starts on page 33 and is worth a read!)...

  • Under Trump's presidency, the level of democracy in the USA has fallen back to the same level as in 1965.
  • Yet the situation is fundamentally different than during the Civil Rights era. In 2025, the derailment of democracy is marked by executive overreach undermining the rule of law, along with far-reaching suppression and intimidation of media and dissenting voices.
  • The speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history.
  • Legislative Constraints --- the worst affected aspect of [U.S.] democracy [cited by the scholars] --- is losing one-third of its value in 2025 and reaching its lowest point in over 100 years.
  • Civil Rights and Equality before the Law are also rapidly declining, falling to late 1960s levels.
  • Freedom of Expression is now at its lowest level since the end of WWII.
  • Electoral components of [U.S.] democracy remain stable [in this year's "Liberal Democracy Index". But] election-specific indicators are re-assessed only in electoral years, and the 2025 scores are based on the quality of the 2024 elections.

  "What would it take to stop autocratization in the USA, and turn it around?," the report asks rhetorically. "Roughly 70% of all 'third wave' episodes of autocratization have been reversed, making U-turns. Elections were often pivotal windows of opportunity, and the first electoral cycle was often decisive."

  See you in November!!!

• That stunning V-Dem report also cites the federal judiciary as one of the few remaining bulwarks against U.S. autocratization and the loss of freedom of expression, as the Executive branch has all but usurped the powers of the Legislative branch under a compliant GOP majority in Congress. To that end, judges in the lower courts, if not at the Supreme Court, continue, by and large, to adhere to the Constitution and Rule of Law, providing a check on the criminal excesses of the Trump Regime. Another ruling this week from a Reagan-appointed federal judge underscores that point. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered that more than 1,000 federal workers at Voice of America --- the 84-year old beacon of democracy and for a free press around the globe --- be reinstated and VOA restored to the global airwaves by next week! That, following the unlawful dismantling last year of VOA, its parent agency (the U.S. Agency for Global Media) and its sister networks around the globe by twice-failed GOP candidate and Trump loyalist Kari Lake. Last week, the same judge determined Lake was never lawfully serving in her job and her mass firings --- leaving nothing more than a skeleton crew to unlawfully run rightwing propaganda --- were therefore null and void. This week, Lamberth gave the Administration one week to bring employees back to work and for the national treasure of a radio network, established during WWII, broadcasting in 49 different languages to some 352 million people, to finally be restored as per federal statutes.

• MAGA loyalist, white nationalist, and Trump National Counterterroism Center Director Joe Kent very publicly resigned this week, citing opposition to Trump's war on Iran. One of his objections from his announcement was that Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation". As it turns out, there is much more to that story. And yes, it ties in to testimony given, or in this case not given, by Kent's friend and fellow veteran Tulsi Gabbard to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee this week. Gabbard, Trump's Director of National Intelligence and former opponent of dumb foreign wars (you can still buy one of Tulsi's "No War With Iran" t-shirts from her failed 2020 Democratic Presidential run, if you like) refused to say outloud during her testimony to the Committee whether the U.S. Intelligence Community assessed that Iran actually posed an imminent threat to the U.S., as Trump falsely insist. That, in contrast to her written testimony which concedes as much. All of this attracted the ire of Dems on the Committee, including Georgia's Sen. Jon Osoff, whose sharp questioning of Gabbard we share on today's program.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as oil and gas prices continue to skyrocket and a hunger crisis looms thanks to Trump's war; and as the autocratic Administration bigfoots California state law to order the restart of a disastrously failed crude pipeline near Santa Barbara...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Oil and gas prices continue to spike as Iran War continues to escalate; Trump Administration orders restart of oil pipeline off California coast in violation of state law; U.N. warns prolonged conflict in Middle East could trigger record global hunger; PLUS: Trump Administration weighs incredible new strategy to use taxpayer money to block new offshore wind farms... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): For 100 years, Big Oil knew it was turning Louisiana's coast into 'Swiss cheese,' records show; Revealed: the world's worst mega-leaks of methane driving global heating; How blue California and red Texas became green powerhouses; Fossil fuels 'ripping away national security' but renewables 'turn the tables', says UN climate chief; Democrats introduce windfall profit tax as big oil set to make billions from Iran war ... PLUS: A solid-state EV battery that can achieve 800 miles of driving range - It's becoming a reality ... and much, MUCH more! ...

As discussed with our guest on today's BradCast, there may be one "silver lining" to Donald Trump's unspeakably ill-considered war on Iran. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Before we get there today, some quick results from Tuesday's Midterm Primary elections in the great state of Illinois, where popular "kingmaker" Democratic Gov. (and almost certain Presidential hopeful) J.B. Pritzker is running for a third term, and where there was vigorous competition for four open U.S. House seats and an open U.S. Senate seat in this November's critical midterms.

Much of the action on Tuesday was on the Democratic side, given the deep "blue" nature of much of the state, and the location of many of the seats up for grabs, in and around Chicago. A win in yesterday's Democratic primary was about 99% of what is needed to ensure most of those candidates will head to Congress next year. So, many of the contests yesterday were for most, if not all, of the marbles. That's just one of the reasons why about $125 million was spent on races yesterday, much of it from special interest and dark money PACs representing interests and industries from AI to Crypto to Gaming to Israel.

Oddly, if predictably, many of the corporate media outlets downplayed the money (and, in some cases, the PACs that spent millions to come up nearly empty handed), while overplaying a dumb "Dems in disarray" narrative to suggest a divisive fissure between progressives and establishment Democrats with, as the narratives seems to have been drawn, progressives having taken a beating in Illinois last night. Some did. Some didn't. We offer some clarity on that point today. The real story was less the politics, and more about the money.

THEN... The world (and certainly Donald Trump!) may wish to take a lesson from China. The country has been assiduously going about insulating themselves from their lack of control over global oil and natural gas production volatility, thanks to the unpredictability of Middle Eastern wars and indescribably stupid world leaders like our own. China, in recent years, has been electrifying its economy, dominating clean technology supply chains, and installing more wind and solar than the rest of world combined.

All while Trump, back here at home, has been gutting our nascent renewable energy production and manufacturing industries by cancelling landmark federal government incentives enacted by Democrats during the Biden presidency.

Now, with fossil fuel prices spiking again, thanks to Trump's ridiculous war, and demand for energy rapidly growing (and consumer prices along with it), our guest today, RYAN COOPER, Managing Editor of The American Prospect, argues that solar and wind power are now very real, viable, inexpensive alternatives to Trump's outdated quest for a return to the days of deadly, expensive, coal and oil. Moreover, if previous wars have not, this one, he believes, should certainly highlight the fact that renewable energy, locally sourced, is an incredibly important national security imperative for nations around the globe...including ours. That, despite Trump and the MAGA Right's ridiculously self-destructive "drill, baby, drill" machismo.

"Over the last three or four years now, Europe really has drastically cut back on its consumption of gas, and has drastically sped up its deployment of solar and heat pumps, especially. And the reason is that those technologies are now competitive. Especially solar plus batteries," explains Cooper, who wrote about "The National Security Case for Renewable Energy" at TAP last week. "It's workable. It's ready to be deployed at scale. It is being deployed at scale in Europe, in China, all across Asia."

"The relative price advantage of solar and wind was already strong before this war happened, and now it's much stronger," he argues. "As soon as it's possible, as soon as we can get the Strait reopened, anybody with a lick of sense is going to be saying, 'Yeah, we've got to get rid of this oil stuff. It doesn't even make business sense. What are we doing here? This is stupid.'"

But, while the rest of the world is beginning to get that picture, will we ever get it back here in the U.S.? Will MAGA, who claims to hate forever wars over oil in the Middle East finally catch on? Will the U.S. auto industry come to rue their recent backing away from EVs under Trump, after redesigning plants and assembly lines for an electric future under Biden?

All of that and more today, including Cooper's explanation of his DIY solar panel and battery system set-up in his Pennsylvania backyard ("Feels like I'm giving a middle finger to the petrostate dictators and the oil barons."); why he believes Trump's decision to go to war in Iran is "the most purely deranged action by an American president in history"; and why he argues that: "When the dust clears, all nations with the slightest scrap of sense will be spending every available penny on energy security, meaning renewables," and that "you'd have to be a complete clod, a world-historical imbecile, a man evincing such staggering stupidity that it calls his very sentience into question, to not get it."

Know anybody like that?...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Cuba's electric grid collapses, the first nationwide blackout since Trump effectively shut off the flow of oil to the island nation; Big Oil worried Trump's war on Iran will cause long term destruction of demand; PLUS: The number of extreme heat days has doubled around the world, new study finds... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Energy Secretary directs oil company to restore operations off California coast; DOE: Fuel prices will stay high long term; Illinois to data centers: Bring your own renewables and skip the line; 'The Plastic Detox' review - a film so terrifying you will want to change your life immediately; Climate denier warhawk Newt Gingrich has a modest proposal; Warming waters threaten seafood supply ... PLUS: Ruling the night: Bat species at risk ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: International Energy Agency pledges to release strategic oil reserves in attempt to calm soaring global prices; Now you see it, now you don't --- California's snowpack rapidly melting; PLUS: Study finds simultaneous heat waves and droughts have increased significantly, thanks to man-made global warming... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): How would the Iran crisis play out in a world powered by renewables not fossil fuels?; What does the Iran war mean for the energy transition and climate action?; Mapped: How extreme weather is destroying crops around the world; Air pollution spikes as Trump doubles down on coal power; Trump's BLM is going all-in on resource extraction ... PLUS: FCC deciding whether to allow startup to launch huge mirror satellite to blast sunlight on cities at nighttime ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Global economic fallout and supply chain disruption spread from Trump's war on Iran; A win for New York City is another loss for Donald Trump; PLUS: U.S. saw a massive battery boom last year... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): How would the Iran crisis play out in a world powered by renewables not fossil fuels?; Can't find Strait of Hormuz on a map? Here's Mideast Oil 101; We've drastically underestimated sea levels, putting millions at risk, study warns; Trump's high-profile oil and gas lease sale in Alaska has no takers; bill Gars-backed nuclear power plant just got cleared to start building ... PLUS: The most imperilied terrestrial ecosystem on the planet ... and much, MUCH more! ...

Amid life in war time, we are forced to jam several hours worth of news into today's tightly-packed, 57-minute BradCast. Join us, won't you? [Audio link to full show follows this link.]

FIRST UP... Donald Trump's ridiculously ill-considered War on Iran is already a disaster in myriad ways. It has already directly impacted at least 11 additional nations beyond Iran in the Gulf and even into Europe. It is already spiking the global price of oil and natural gas and roiling markets. Trump has no idea who will replace 86-year old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the first day of the new war apparently along with a whole bunch of potential successors. Trump concedes the next leader may be "as bad" as the last one. While the State Dept. warned Americans on Monday (three days after bombing began!) in more than 15 countries to evacuate immediately, airspace is closed, the U.S. is providing Americans no way to get out, embassy staffs have been cut to the bone, many have no Senate-confirmed Ambassador, leaving thousands of Americans stranded. Trump's war is already wildly unpopular among Americans, but even MAGA leaders appear to be turning against it (and maybe him). And the entire campaign now seems almost certain to end in disaster for Iranians and potentially Americans in various ways.

NEXT... The best way to move beyond the nightmare that the U.S. and world have been thrust into under Trump still remains at the ballot box, where it was Election Day today in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas, and where voters are participating in the first statewide primaries of the critical 2026 midterm elections. (Noteworthy results on tomorrow's program.) Beyond that, the Gerrymandering Wars sparked by Trump and Republicans in Texas last year are continuing in the courts this week. Good news out of Virginia, where a state court ruled Monday that the Democratic state Legislature's Special Election set for April 21 for voters to decide if they want to draw a new U.S. House map will go forward, even as GOP challenges to the process continue. The new maps, if adopted, may flip four seats from "red" to "blue" this November. (Early voting in that VA Special Election starts Friday.) But very bad and foreboding news from the wildly corrupt U.S. Supreme Court majority on Monday. They reached into an ongoing court process in the state of New York to block a trial court order that would redraw a U.S. House District in NYC due to the dilution of Black and Hispanic voters on Staten Island and a part of Brooklyn. The case hasn't even reached the state Supreme Court in NY and yet SCOTUS has already stepped in to block it, in violation of their own precedents. This is bad news for several reasons beyond NY, as discussed on today's show.

FINALLY.... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, kicking off our 17th Anniversary celebration of the world's longest-running (and best!) radio report connecting the climate change dots over your public airwaves! Even with Donald Trump doing his best to undermine humanity and the world, we've still got some very hopeful news to hang our green hats on today! Please tune in! (And please feel free to help us as we head into our 18th year with a much-needed donation! We remain 100% listener supported, thanks only to YOU!)

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Global oil and natural gas prices surge after Donald Trump launches new war in the Middle East; War may boost renewables as an energy security solution; PLUS: Despite the Trump Administration's best efforts, the U.S. generated a record amount of renewable electricity last year... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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... PLUS:

... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Fallout grows after Trump EPA revokes the Endangerment Finding, a key goal of Project 2025; Trump's dismantling of America's climate supercomputer threatens U.S. insurance markets; China's emissions have been flat or falling for nearly 2 years; PLUS: Massive sewage spill in nation's capital is likely the largest in U.S. history... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Some like it hothouse: Unleashing subsurface strategic energy assets to achieve unmanageable climate outcomes; Dem Senators Launch Inquiry Into EPA's Repeal Of Endangerment Finding; A new Ohio bill could be a de facto statewide ban on solar and wind; The voracious vine that 'ate the South' can also fuel wildfires; Hazardous South L.A. oil wells plugged after decades of community pressure... PLUS: Trash piles up in Havana as US oil chokehold halts garbage trucks ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Future Winter Olympic Games may start earlier due to warming winters; Low-income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP) survives the Congressional budget process and Trump's attempt to kill it; PLUS: Trump Energy Department secretly gutted nuclear plant safety rules... 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): The toxic legacy of Georgia's carpet empire: PFAS contamination; A Trump 'blockade' is stalling hundreds of wind and solar projects nationwide; Trump's EPA issues record low legal actions against polluters; Study ties pollution from wildfire smoke to 24,100 US deaths per year; Why China is building so many coal pants despite its solar and wind boom ... PLUS: US-driven gas turbine crunch may speed up global clean power uptake... and much, MUCH more! ...

You're going to get the most, by far, from today's BradCast, by listening to it. This briefest of summaries will not do it justice. Hopefully it suffices if only for a few links to a few of the stories and rulings cited throughout today's program. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

In short (very short), the Trump Administration is losing and losing and losing in court, in case after case after case. And they are not only losing, but being upbraided by judge after judge --- those appointed by both Democrats and Republicans alike --- in one ruling after another now. At least at the lower federal court level. It's just one reason why the Administration is so desperate to get up to the final appeal phase at Donald Trump's corrupted, hand-picked Supreme Court.

The rulings from many of the U.S. District Court judges have been brutal for the Administration, as now coming in day after day. Just one example from yesterday is U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes' blistering ruling [PDF] in which she took DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to the metaphorical gravel pit over Noem's barely disguised racist rhetoric as part of the Administration's attempt to order the end of legal protected status for more than 350,000 Haitian refugees in this country. (Ya know, like the ones in Springfield, OH who don't eat dogs or cats.)

The good guys aren't winning every motion in every case. And, as noted, the corrupted SCOTUS may have the last word in some of them. But the increasingly dreadful record for the Government in these cases, for the moment, has essentially become the equivalent of legal trench warfare, forcing the Administration to step back or stand down, with the people largely holding off the attempted fascist federal takeover of the United States of America. Or, at least, preventing it from getting appreciably worse.

Russia was supposed to have taken over Ukraine in a week's time after they initially invaded their smaller, weaker sovereign neighbor four years ago this month. Similarly, Trump was supposed to have brought the U.S. to fascist MAGA heel by now. He decidedly has not.

With each loss, of course, in both courts of law and public opinion, he and his Administration grow angrier, more out of control and more dangerous --- but easier still to defeat in the bargain.

As his and his party's approval ratings --- and ability to win elections in even some of the "reddest" parts of the country --- continue to erode, he is now desperately turning to an attempted takeover of American elections themselves.

"The Republicans should say, 'We want to take over,'" Trump blathered to Dan Bongino, former conspiracy podcaster turned Deputy FBI Director turned conspiracy podcaster again, on Monday. "We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many --- 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting."

Trump then went on to completely mischaracterize why former MAGA Mesa County, Colorado Clerk Tina Peters is currently serving nine years in state prison for her criminal efforts related to attempting to defraud the 2020 election while illicitly conspiring to make unlawful copies of sensitive, proprietary voting system software. Despite having issued a pointless pardon for Peters (federal crimes have no effect on convictions under state laws), it's clear Trump knows absolutely nothing about her actual crimes.

But, as to the "nationalize the voting" thing, please know (as I explain in more detail on the show): Presidents have absolutely ZERO power to do any such thing. Elections are run by states and, to some extent, Congress may make laws that states must follow. He has no Constitutional or legislative or super-secret power to nationalize them, much less ordering "Republicans" to do so. It is, at best, a very empty threat. Whether he knows that or not is unclear. And, yes, as discussed, there are things that he can try to do, with the unlawful deployment of ICE forces, for example, to make things more difficult for voters to vote this year. But I suspect any such efforts will end up hurting his party's chances more than they will help.

Tune in for the full argument, of course.

At the same time --- as Saturday Night Live hilariously satirized over the weekend --- more and more Trump supporters are (slowly, but surely!) finding their way back toward sanity, or at least away from Trump. I suggest we find ways to help them safely get there.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with, yes, still more humiliating legal losses for Trump and more deadly climate change-fueled weather across the nation....

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(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Brutal Arctic cold likely to persist through February, and yes, it is linked to climate change, not groundhogs; Western states facing a record-setting snow drought; PLUS: Courts have now restarted 5 out of 5 offshore wind farms that Trump tried to block... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

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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): Trump's EPA rollbacks could harm air and water, and worsen global heating; Trump's biggest climate rollback stalls over fears it will lose in court; Drastic water shortages and air pollution are fueling Iran's protests; The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse; Russia delivers worst attack this year to Ukraine's power sector ... PLUS: EIA: 99 percent of new US capacity in 2026 will be solar, wind + storage ... and much, MUCH more! ...