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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Fact-checking Donald Trump's litany of lies in his address to a joint session of Congress; Premier of Ontario, Canada threatens to cut electricity to US over Trump tariffs; PLUS: U.S. Supreme Court further weakens Clean Water Act standards governing raw sewage discharge... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 'Structural change' identified in Antarctica's sea ice system; L.A. County sues SoCal Edison, alleging equipment sparked wildfire; Americans are increasingly aware that climate change is harming their health; China laughing as US charger network dismantled, burned; A 'Trojan Horse' for toxic chemicals; Women in wildland firefighting bootcamps canceled after DEI cuts... PLUS: NOAA firings hit the birthplace of weather and climate forecasting... and much, MUCH more! ...

I've gotta be quick with today's BradCast summary, as Trump's first address during his second term to a joint session of Congress is coming up shortly. And I don't want to miss a single lie! (Full coverage tomorrow, natch). [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

But the central theme of today's show: Donald Trump is bad for business. He has no clue how to run a business, much less a country, which should decidedly not be run as a business. They are two very different things. But even on his own terms, Trump is lousy at running the country as a business.

Among our many stories today underscoring those points in various ways....

• Today, Trump's 25% tariffs against our two largest trading partners and friends, Canada and Mexico, kicked in, earning blowback from the otherwise even-tempered and very polite Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And, again, the U.S. stock market took another dive in response to Trump's "dumb" trade war, wiping out all gains since the election on the major indexes, thanks to Trump being lousy at his job.

• Among Trump's biggest supporters last November were farmers. Now, they too, are beginning to notice what a clown he is, after the Trump Administration began wiping all climate related data from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture website (cuz climate change doesn't exist if you delete website references to it), along with information on programs regarding grants and subsidies for farmers. All of which they rely on, especially as the Summer growing season is set to begin. A group of farmer's and environmental groups have now filed suit against Trump's USDA, demanding the returns of the databases and tools (that we paid for, before Trump thought it made good "business sense" to waste all of those tax-payer dollars.)

• Cuts and mass layoffs at our beloved National Parks, in advance of the busy Summer tourist season, aren't going over much better with the public --- or the crucial staffers who keep the parks open and clean and some 375 million visitors a year safe. About 4,000 workers at both National Parks and U.S. Forests have now been laid off for specious, and potentially unlawful, reason. People will die because of these pointless cuts. Park experts believe it may take centuries to rebound from the damage to the parks these cuts will cost.

• But what about all of that "waste, fraud and abuse" that Elon Musk and his DOGE Bros are telling us they are axing within federal government agencies? More than$100 billion, Musk is now claiming! Last week, we detailed how the DOGErs quietly deleted billions of dollars in claimed "savings" from their so-called "Wall of Receipts" website, documenting government contracts they'd cancelled at agency after agency. It turned out their "receipts", numbers and claims to go with them were riddled with errors. Last week, they had claimed to have "saved" American tax-payers some $65 billion. But thanks to excellent reporting by a number of outlets, it appeared the number was closer to just over $2 billion at best. The buffoonery continued over the weekend, however, as the Bros once again quietly removed still more false items --- about 1,000 of them! --- and replaced them with others again. You'll be stunned to learn the largest of those new "receipts", as well, are also riddled with errors and false claims.

• This week we are "celebrating" --- if that's the right word for it --- our 16th Anniversary of connecting the climate change dots over your public airwaves in our world famous Green News Report. We have been producing it, week in and week out, over all these years, of course, thanks only to support from readers and listeners like you! Today, in our latest GNR, Desi Doyen has news on Trump's funding freezes crippling the nation's farmers; climate-fueled wildfires exploding in the Carolinas; and mass layoffs now underway at NOAA and the National Weather Service...

• Finally, since Trump is so bad at both business and diplomacy, even a major oil company, Norway's Haltbakk Bunkers, is now refusing to fuel up U.S. Naval vessels in protest of Trump's disgraceful treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last Friday. "We have today been witnesses to the biggest shitshow ever presented 'live on tv' by the current American president and his vice president," the company posted to social media shortly after. "Huge credit to the president of Ukraine restraining himself and for keeping calm even though USA put on a backstabbing tv show. It made us sick. Short and sweet. As a result, we have decided to immediate STOP as fuel provider to American forces in Norway and their ships calling Norwegian ports. ... 'No Fuel to Americans!' ... We encourage all Norwegians and Europeans to follow our example. SLAVA UKRAINA".

Running the government "like a business" is working out great! Welcome to "America's Golden Age"!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump Administration's federal funding freeze hits America's farmers hard; Extreme drought, high winds spark more than a hundred wildfires in the Carolinas; PLUS: Trump and Musk fire experienced meteorologists from the National Weather Service... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 50 percent GDP collapse ahead from climate impacts? Actuaries sound the alarm --- who is listening?; Ontario will cut off U.S. electricity exports 'with a smile on my face,' Ford says; In many of Appalachia’s flood-ravaged areas, residents have little choice but rebuild in risky locations; Trump DOJ to drop lawsuit against polluting LA petrochemical plant; How to eat and drink fewer microplastics... PLUS: Wall Street Journal: Clean energy transition is unstoppable... and much, MUCH more! ...

Yes, we're often critical of the corporate mainstream media on The BradCast. But they also need to be defended in part during times like these, when Constitutional freedom of the press is literally under attack by the Trump White House and the billionaires who support them. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... Before we get to our guest, a few reminders of the critical role the corporate mainstream media play, even amid all of their failures. CNN's instant fact-checker Dan Dale, for example, offers an invaluable service in citing reality, point-by-point, fact-by-fact in quick response to things like Donald Trump's head-spinning hour+ of non-step lies at his "cabinet meeting" on Wednesday.

Also, Washington Post on Tuesday, deserves credit for their news coverage of massive cuts to critical services at Trump's Department of Veteran Affairs, with its new Secretary, Doug Collins, posting embarrassingly giddy videos, praising $2 billion in cancelled contracts at the agency by Elon Musk and his DOGE Bros. In fact, as WaPo reported, the cuts amounted to about 875 contracts for critical services for vets, including medical and burial services, cancer treatment and prevention programs, and the recruitment of doctors for the serially understaffed VA, among other things. The bulk of those cancelled contracts also happened to be with Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). The Post's coverage on Tuesday ("DOGE to Cancel government contracts that help veterans, records show") was followed up on Wednesday with the much brighter headline: "Under pressure, VA halts contract cancellations in major reversal".

Yes, the mainstream corporate media is critically important, even with all of their failures.

All of which is why the ongoing attacks on the free press by the White House --and by billionaire media owners, like Washington Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos --- right now are so troubling.

NEXT... We're joined today by longtime journalist, media critic and WaPo veteran DAN FROOMKIN, now publisher and editor of the non-profit Press Watch (and, more recently, Heads Up News) to discuss all of that and more.

Among the topics discussed today with Froomkin, who is able to offer unique insight into all of these matters...

• AP reporters are now barred from White House and Air Force One press avails, because the AP Style Guide dares to refer to the international body of water known for 400-years as the Gulf of Mexico by its internationally known name, rather than the "Gulf of America" as Trump insists. AP is now suing the White House in response, in what Froomkin suggests is a text book case of unconstitutional punishment for free speech, adding "we're not even getting into the free press element!"

  "The whole point [of the First Amendment] is the government cannot punish you because of something you say that is political. This is exactly what is happening now. They've admitted it. They said, 'We're banning the AP because it refuses to say the words 'Gulf of America'" Froomkin believes that "even our corrupted Supreme Court can't possibly redefine the First Amendment to make this permissible." We'll see about that.

  He explains why he opposes a boycott by the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) of White House events that AP is barred from, as some have called for, and suggests the better response is for reporters who are still allowed access to use it far more aggressively in confronting Trump and other WH officials on their "nonstop" string of lies.

• On Tuesday, WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the WHCA would no longer decide who is welcome in the White House pool coverage, meaning that ideological partisan propaganda sites, like Breitbart, The Blaze, Newsmax and One America News will now be taking the place of well-established, legitimate media outlets.

  "It's important that we actually have reporters who are interested in determining facts rather than just asking him questions that he can hit out of the park because they are actually on his side," Froomkin argues, defending the pool reporters that he is also frequently critical of. "The reporters in this pool are not just representative of the media, they are representatives of the public. This is the only opportunity for anybody to actually confront Trump with facts and assertions and to confront him with his lies. It is so important that the reporters who are chosen to do this are not then at risk of being punished by the White House and being pulled off the beat if they ask tough questions."

  But, of course, if it's the White House, not the WHCA that determines who is allowed in the room, reporters are far more likely to pull punches if only to ensure they do not displease the ones allowing them access in the first place.

• We also discuss WaPo owner Jeff Bezos' gob-smacking announcement on Wednesday that the Opinion Page of the venerable paper --- that previously declared "Democracy Dies in Darkness" --- would now only include opinions "in support and defense of … personal liberties and free markets." That, after the billionaire owner, in 2013, vowed when he purchased paper that he would not interfere in its editorial content.

  It turns out that you just cannot trust a billionaire!," Froomkin, who worked at the Post for 12 years, quips. "It's a gut punch for everybody who works there, anybody who EVER worked there, and anybody who loves the Post. Its just devastating. [Bezos is] basically saying, 'I want my views expressed and opposing views will not be expressed.' It just turns on its head anything that is valuable about an Opinion Page, where you go for a diversity of views."

There is much more worth diving into in my conversation today with the great Froomkin today.

FINALLY... Speaking of gut punches, we close out the week with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, with some alarming news, to say the least, about plans by Trump's EPA to undermine almost 20 years of climate regulation in one fell "legal" swoop...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump White House announces arms-for-rare-earths deal with Ukraine; Spring is getting warmer across the U.S. due to man-made climate change; PLUS: Trump E.P.A. moves to ditch scientific finding that climate change endangers public health... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Trump’s seven most anti-environmental moves --- and how to push back; Scientists issue warning to public about 'high-risk' events that could demolish local economies: 'Remember the effect on people'; Trump’s reversal of EV program could carry a hefty $1B price tag; Despite historic rains in 2023, aquifers deep beneath L.A. area remain depleted; Trump warned of a "bloodbath" in the auto industry if he wasn't elected --- now he's engineering one... PLUS: Extreme heat linked to accelerated aging in older adults, study finds... and much, MUCH more! ...

"This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run," said the President of the United States today before his first Cabinet meeting. At least he's right on that last part, as detailed on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Donald Trump and Elon Musk's corrupt gaslighting of the nation continues, as their DOGE Bros continue to violate the law by cancelling contracts they have no legal right to, in the supposed name of "government efficiency" and cutting "waste, fraud and abuse" from the federal government. And yet, they've been unable to find any evidence of any fraud or abuse to date. Other than their own.

The only transparency DOGE has offered to document their "cost-cutting" claims at federal agency after agency is a so-called "Wall of Receipts" claiming to have "saved" $65 billion for the American people. But multiple analyses of those "receipts" by news outlets and people who understand how government contracting ... and math ... and reality ... actually work, have found error after error. The actual savings from canceled contracts and public services to taxpayers is closer to $2.5 billion, rather than $65 billion (which is chump change in the U.S. budget either way). The DOGE Bros seem to have acknowledged as much when they quietly removed their top five largest so-called spending cuts from their website in the middle of the night on Tuesday without notice or explanation.

As these clowns and liars continue their attempted national gaslighting, pretending to cut "waste, fraud and abuse" in government grants and contracts, Musk awarded his own company, SpaceX, a huge new federal government contract to deploy some 4,000 Starlink Internet terminals for the FAA. Given that Trump has fired all of the Inspectors General who would certainly have flagged the obviously grotesque conflicts of interest involved in such an arrangement, Musk --- whose companies and tens of billions in government contracts had previously been regulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which are all now being gutted, killed and/or neutered by Musk himself) --- he's probably got nothing to worry about.

Nonetheless, as federal judges continue to order pauses on much of Trump's most unlawful activities for the moment --- (or try to, the Administration apparently doesn't find it necessary to follow court orders) --- Musk is further gaslighting and poisoning MAGA brains on his social media cite, calling for the impeachment of "unelected" judges who, he charges, are threatening democracy...by standing up for the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution.

Also today, Desi Doyen explains the breaking news on Trump's EPA Administrator attempting to roll back agency scientists' 20-year old finding that greenhouse gasses cause global warming and, therefore, pose a threat to the health of Americans. That "endangerment finding", according to SCOTUS almost 20 years ago, means that the EPA must regulate greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act. So now, the Administration is trying to fraudulently UN-find the EPA's landmark finding under Trump's corrupt, new leadership.

Finally, in related matters, Desi has our latest Green News Report, detailing new studies on the quickening melting of the world's glaciers; sea ice plummeting to record lows among ridiculously high temps in the Arctic; and Trump's order to shut down all, already-operating EV charging stations at federal facilities. Because, ya know, Trump is just cut government waste, fraud and abuse, right?...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: World's glaciers are melting faster than ever; World's sea ice also plummeting to record lows; PLUS: Trump Administration is dismantling critical climate and disaster aid programs, and shutting off federal EV charging stations... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 'Viciousness' of Trump’s climate attacks stuns even his critics; Who benefits? While US automakers play catch up, Trump handicaps US EVs; 'Unleash American blackouts': Experts warn Bonneville job cuts bring immediate and long-term risks to Pacific Northwest; House to launch the process of killing Biden rules; US global disaster response teams unable to deploy following USAID shutdown, sources say... PLUS: 'Never let anyone break your spirit': How an environmental justice forefather is thinking about our current moment... and much, MUCH more! ...

We can't fight every stupid, idiotic, dangerous or perilous thing during the Trump Era, can we? I know I can't, personally. But I don't speak for everyone else. And one person's stupid or idiotic may be another's dangerous or perilous. An interesting debate over picking battles and who gets to decide which ones should be waged is at the heart of today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... however, speaking of dangerous, Donald Trump lackey and MAGA merchandiser (or "sycophantic suck-up" as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse accurately described him today), Kash Patel was confirmed for a ten-year term as FBI Director by cowardly, sycophantic suck-up Republicans in the U.S. Senate today. All Democrats voted against him. Just two Republicans (Collins and Murkowski) joined them.

Aside from being wildly unqualified and publishing an "enemies list" of so-called "members of the Executive Branch deep state” that he vows to target, Patel also pleaded the Fifth to avoid implicating himself in crimes during grand jury testimony regarding his role in Trump's theft of thousands of pages of highly classified national security documents; was paid $25,000 by Russian propagandists to appear in an anti-FBI documentary series; appears to have millions of dollars linked to Chinese interests through shell corporations in the Cayman Islands; and, according to whistleblower allegations cited by the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, appears to have committed perjury during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Other than that, he sounds like the perfect choice for FBI Director! Donald Trump has done it again! Did I mention Patel also publicly vowed, as recently as last December, to "come after" journalists "who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig Presidential elections"? (So much for the First Amendment, even if Patel remains a fan of the Fifth.)

THEN... Speaking of the First Amendment and protection of the free press, we recently reported on the Trump White House's attempt to violate the First Amendment by barring the Associated Press from White House events unless and until the 178-year old international media organization agreed to change its Style Guide to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America".

On the surface, it seems like a pretty minor fight, given everything else the Constitutional order is up against. But, upon closer examination, it really is fight over basic Constitutional rights. As NYTimes' opinion writer Jamelle Bouie accurately characterized it at Bluesky, "your willingness to accept this gulf of america nonsense is an indication of your willingness to accept much worse things coming from this administration."

Meanwhile, over The Atlantic, Senior Editor Gilad Edelman doesn't have any such concerns, and even appears to be victim-blaming by suggesting the fight is one that "the AP probably should never have picked in the first place."

That brief article by Edelman recently touched off our guest today, longtime media critic, political strategist and writer, JAMISON FOSER, who wonders, in a recent article, who Edelman thinks he is to decide which fights are worth waging in the Trump Era and which are not.

"I think the nature of the situation that we're in," Foser tells me today, "and the breadth and depth of the ways that we are in trouble, and things are stacked against us --- an autocratic movement has control of our entire government, much of the news media, much of the ways that people get information online --- things are really stacked against us."

"We are not in a situation in which there are obvious, clear, easily discernible, winnable fights we can choose. So this idea that people should only choose fights that they can win --- I think people should choose the fights that feel right to them. We should all be doing a little less trying to police what fights other people are choosing to engage in, and more finding a place where we can stand up and pick a fight where we can," he argues.

"We will probably lose it," he concedes, "because we will probably lose most of them. But sometimes in the loss there is some value. In this one [AP's defense of First Amendment freedoms] there is some value. There's value in saying, 'We can't stop Donald Trump from ordering his government to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. But we can say we are not going along with that. It is racist, and dumb, and he can't make us say it. There's value in saying that to ourselves, in not giving in to his attempt to control the English language. And there's value in showing our fellow Americans that we are not going along with that."

In AP's case, all they were doing was following the Style Guide they have used for decades. And Edelman still characterized it as a "fight" they "should never have picked."

We've got much more to discuss along those lines today with Foser --- including how elected Democrats might wage more productive fights --- in what I think is a really interesting conversation. Please give it a listen.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, covering the heroic senior DoJ official who quit this week rather than violate the law by following Trump Admin orders to claw back money lawfully granted to clean energy initiatives under Biden; climate change now tripling the price of coffee and cocoa; and Trump declaring himself 'King' to cancel New York City's very successful, first-in-the-nation congestion pricing...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Top federal prosecutor resigns over improper Trump order to claw back EPA grants for clean energy; Fossil-fueled extreme weather has tripled the price of cocoa and coffee; PLUS: 'King' Trump cancels New York City's successful, first-in-the-nation congestion pricing... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Trump moves to claw back almost 50 years of NEPA regulations; Electricity demand surges for the world’s two biggest polluters; New EV batteries are making electric cars cheaper and safer; We may be able to trap climate pollution in ordinary rocks; Trump clamps down on independent agencies' power... PLUS: Hurricane Helene’s profound impact on N.C. farms is only now coming into clearer focus... and much, MUCH more! ...

Incredibly, many Trump-supporting MAGA dupes still believe any of this is being done in the name cutting government "waste, fraud and abuse" --- much less "efficiency" in the federal government. As discussed on today's BradCast, I guess there are still millions who won't give a damn about any of it unless --- more likely, until --- it effects them directly. And it will. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

As David Dayen helpfully reported last month at The American Prospect, if you fired every single federal worker in existence --- all 2.3 million of them --- you'd save about $271 billion per year. While that may sound like a lot, it's just 4% of the annual budget. Of course, we'd lose much more in uncollected tax revenue, unprosecuted fraud in the private sector, lives lost, just to name a few big points. And, of course, Americans, such as Social Security recipients would lose a lot on a personal level when there was nobody left in government to send out their monthly checks.

But, as Republicans have been telling us (lying to us about) for decades now, the federal government has just become too bloated. It must be cut down to size, even if it's randomly done through mass firings at every federal agency, of anybody viewed as legally fireable (whether they are or aren't doesn't matter.) But here's another fun fact from Dayen: in 1960, amid the Golden Age of America's middle class, the federal government comprised 4.3% of all workers. Today, that number is just 1.4%.

Other than that, our government is huge, bloated and out of control! Who needs all that air traffic safety, security of nuclear weapons, food inspections, safe drinking water, disease tracking, cancer cures, law and order, disaster response, medical care, education, Social Security checks or life-saving weather reports and climate data? The federal government is just too "big". Let's gut it all! Legally or otherwise!

Much more on all of this --- and some of the heroes (even Trump-appointed ones!) trying to block and/or call attention to the worst of it --- on today's program, as culled from, among others, some of the following source material...

• AP: Delta jet flips upside down on a snowy Toronto runway and all 80 aboard survive
• Rolling Stone: FAA Employees Say Trump and Musk's Firings Are Dangerous
• AP: Trump fires FAA air traffic control staff, just weeks after DC crash
• NYT: Adams's Lead Prosecutor Quits Defiantly: 'It Was Never Going to Be Me'
• WaPo: Mass resignation marks a new kind of defiance in the second Trump era
• WaPo: High-ranking D.C. federal prosecutor resigns in protest
• WaPo: Musk's DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS
• WaPo: Top Social Security official exits after clash with Musk's DOGE over data
• NBC: Department of Homeland Security preparing to fire hundreds of senior leaders this week
• Bloomberg: US Health Department Layoffs Expand to Medicare, FDA
• NBC: CDC 'disease detectors' among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts
• Politico: Mass firings continue across nation's health agencies
• Guardian: NOAA imposes limits on scientists, sparking concerns over global forecasts
• The Hill: EPA fires nearly 400 workers after OPM order
• The Hill: EPA puts employees who tackle pollution in overburdened communities on leave
• The Hill: National Science Foundation cuts 10 percent of staff
• Wired: National Science Foundation Fires 168 Workers as Federal Purge Continues
• AP: Trump's firing of 1,000 national park workers raises concerns about maintenance and operating hours
• SF Chronicle: Yosemite halts camping reservations, with no timetable for their return
• Fox 13 Utah: 'Crisis' at Zion as mandated job cuts hit popular national park
• Reuters: USDA probationary staff fired at three agencies, sources say
• NBC: USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them
• The Oregonian: At least 600 workers to leave Bonneville Power Administration, spurring concerns about transmission grid
• CNN: Hundreds of FAA probationary workers fired by Trump administration, union says
• AP: Trump wants states to 'clean up forests' to stop wildfires but he cuts funds

Other than that, slow news day.

Also, on similar notes, we close today with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, as the costs of our climate crisis continue to mount in from coast to coast in recent days; Trump's FEMA is already denying critical disaster aid; and the Administration is desperately trying to find fired Dept. of Energy workers after figuring out that they were the ones who safeguarded the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The costs of climate change continue to mount, as extreme weather strikes across the U.S.; Trump Administration's FEMA already denying disaster aid, even to 'red' states; PLUS: Trump officials fired nuclear staff that oversee the country's nuclear weapons stockpile... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Senior DOJ prosecutor quit after being told to investigate Biden climate spending; Trump wants states to 'clean up forests' to stop wildfires but he cuts funds; EPA fires nearly 400 workers after OPM order; EPA chief seeks to claw back $20 billion in climate funding; CO and CT lowered utility bills by reining in lobbying; World’s largely unprotected peatlands are ticking 'carbon bomb', warns study... PLUS: After landing his dream job as a park ranger, he’s ‘heartbroken’ to be let go in federal cuts... and much, MUCH more! ...

As usual these days on The BradCast, thanks largely to the planned chaos of our Felon-in-Chief, there's more going on than we can cover. We try to stay focused on the most important and/or least covered stories. But late this afternoon, thanks to some remarkable politically thuggery at Trump's fully weaponized DoJ, and some remarkable courage in response to it, we've got a humdinger of a story to cover as well, as it broke just before airtime today. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Here are some of today's stories. (Though tune in for much more!)...

• A U.S. District judge in D.C. late last night, blocked the Trump Administration's termination of Hampton Dellinger, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which helps federal employees avoid violations of the Hatch Act, and helps ensure whistleblower protections for them. Judge Amy Berman Jackson described Hampton's removal as "plainly" in violation of the law.

• Following up on a story that broke at the end of yesterday's program, more details today on a rare victory for Donald Trump in court these days, after a federal judge dismissed a challenge by several federal labor unions to Trump/Musk's so-called "buyout" offer that was sent to some 2 million federal employees. The Judge ruled the unions didn't have the standing to sue. With that obstacle out of the way, for now, and some 75,000 workers reportedly accepting the offer (we'll see if they ever get paid or if the scheme is found to be unlawful through a separate suit), the Administration has reportedly begun mass firings of hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

• Republicans in the U.S. Senate confirmed health menace Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, giving the longtime anti-vax conspiracist, oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) among many others. All Dems voting against him. The only Republican to do so was Sen. Mitch McConnell, a polio victim as a child. That, as another "completely preventable" measles outbreak is now underway in west Texas, where all of the victims are said to be unvaccinated children. Kennedy's elevation as the nation's top health official also follows the head of Samoa's medical system charging that Kennedy lied during his Senate confirmation hearings regarding his involvement in a massive measles epidemic that killed 83 people on the island nation in 2019. Most of those killed were children under 5 years of age. All were unvaccinated for the most contagious infectious disease known to humans, one that is otherwise fully avoidable with the MMR vaccine, developed in 1971, which our new HHS Sec. has spent years advocating against.

• Then, the remarkable BREAKING NEWS out of New York and D.C. late this afternoon...

  Earlier this week, as we reported, Donald Trump ordered the DoJ to drop its felony indictment against NYC's Democrat-ish Mayor Eric Adams. He was charged last year with five criminal counts including bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations from Turkish interests. Most believe that prosecutors have him dead to rights, though he's pleaded not guilty, has refused to resign and is even running for reelection in November.

  He's also been buddying up to Trump since last year's election, and the 34-time convicted felon turned President has taken the unprecedented step of ordering his personal defense lawyer turned Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove (pictured above right), to make the corruption charges against Adams go away, as the wildly unpopular Mayor has vowed to help Trump with his immigrant deportation efforts in NYC.

  But the Acting U.S. Attorney in charge of the very independent Southern District of New York (SDNY), Danielle Sassoon --- a Republican former clerk to the late, far-right Justice Antonin Scalia and a member of the far-right Federalist Society --- refused to drop the charges against Adams. In a remarkable 8-page letter [PDF] to Trump's new Attorney General, Pam Bondi, requesting a meeting with her, Sassoon accused Bove of acceding to a "quid pro quo," said she was "confident" that Adams was guilty as charged, and that prosecutors were also preparing to charge him with destroying evidence. She said would resign, rather than drop the charges against Adams if that's what DoJ was insisting upon.

  In accepting her resignation, Bove wrote in his own extraordinary, Orwellian, 8-page letter to Sassoon, charging that she was somehow violating her oath of office by "disobeying direct orders implementing the policy of a duly elected President." In fact, her oath is to defend the Constitution and rule of law, not one of fealty to a President. Bove further alleged that the courageous Sassoon was insisting on "pursuing a politically motivated prosecution" (the charges against the Democrat Adams were brought last year by a Democratic U.S. Attorney appointed by Joe Biden) and that her refusal to dismiss the criminal charges --- for Bove's clearly stated political purpose! --- was "a disservice to the nature of this work and the public's perception of our efforts." He also promised that the DoJ would now investigate her.

  But, that's not all. After that, the case moved to the DoJ's public corruption unit in D.C., where two five more top officials, "The acting chief, three deputy chiefs and a deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division who oversaw the section" also refused to drop the charges against Adams, choosing to resign instead. Good for them as well!

  As of airtime, Adams remained indicted, six senior DoJ officials promoted by Trump have resigned in protest, and who knows where this all goes from here?!...

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as the impact of climate change is reshaping U.S. real estate markets (bigly!); the Trump Admin is failing to hire thousands of seasonal firefighters before fire season; and Trump is rolling back money-, water- and energy-saving appliance standards again. And receiving a ridiculous "tongue bath" in the bargain from one of his top, most sycophantic cheerleaders at Fox "News"...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Impacts of climate change are reshaping U.S. real estate markets; Trump Administration hiring freeze halts hiring of seasonal firefighters; Climate change made L.A. Fires significantly more likely; PLUS: Here we go again --- Trump rolls back water and energy efficiency appliance standards that save you money... 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): DOGE lands at EPA; How Trump’s EPA threatens efforts to clean up areas affected most by dangerous air pollution; Will Trump cut the oil industry's favorite climate subsidies?; Chevron set to lay off 20% of its global workforce; Why clearing the brush around Los Angeles won't reduce the wildfire danger; Transformer supply bottleneck threatens power system stability... PLUS: The US smashed clean energy records last year. Can it keep up the pace?... and much, MUCH more! ...

Today on The BradCast: Congrats, America! Bribery, influence peddling, petty corruption, money laundering, fraud, conflicts of interest, even attempted cop-killing and much more is all, effectively, now legalized in these United States! At least if you're on the right team. [Audio link to today's show follows this summary.]

In his Inauguration speech, just three (looong) weeks ago, Donald Trump declared: "The golden age of America begins right now." Apparently he meant the Golden Age of Corruption. For him. And his chosen pals.

But, first up today, a correction to one point from yesterday's show (see the quick version of that correction at the bottom of yesterday's show posting).

Then, we step quickly through a few crime-related turns for Trump and his cronies today alone. Steve Bannon pleaded guilty to one New York state felony charge related to a fraudulent scheme in which he helped steal millions from hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters to supposedly build a wall on the U.S. southern border during Trump's first term. The plea agreement, if he behaves, will result in no jail time for Bannon who was previously charged [PDF] with related felony crimes at the federal level until preemptively pardoned for them by Trump on the last day of his first term. Repeat offender Bannon served four months in federal prison last year after being convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to answer subpoenas from the House January 6 Committee. After his sentencing today, he called on Trump's Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to weaponize the DoJ against New York prosecutors Alvin Bragg and Letitia James.

Today, Trump also gave a full pardon today to Illinois' corrupt former Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on felony charges related to trying to sell Barack Obama's U.S. Senate after he won the Presidency in 2008. Trump previously sprung Blago from his 14-year prison sentence with a commutation, six years early, during his first term.

Also today, Trump's personal defense attorney turned Acting Deputy A.G. corruptly ordered the DoJ to drop all charges against NYC's Democrat-ish Mayor Eric Adams on charges related to doing favors for Turkey in return for free airplane trips and hotel stays around the world.

Both Blago and Adams have each cozied up to Trump in recent months and today, they received their prize. The rest of us received the message that criming --- particularly public corruption --- is just fine as long as you say nice things about Donald Trump after getting caught.

But, if you didn't get the message, our quick summary of just some of Trump's most corrupt, pro-crime, anti-rule of law activities from just his first three weeks in office, from Day 1 right up until today, should help. Including...

• Pardoning all of the violent January 6 offenders on his first day in office;
• Firing Inspectors General from more than a dozen government agencies;
• Dropping DoJ prosecutions in progress for Republican elected officials (and even some Democratic ones that have cozied up to him);
• Firing scores of senior DoJ and FBI officials so far (he will be removing many more in the days ahead);
• Ordering all work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) --- the folks who police Big Bank, Credit Card and Payday Lender fraud on behalf of American consumers --- immediately stopped over the weekend;
• Signing a new Executive Order on Monday halting all enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA), the law meant to prevent bribery by Americans and American Companies of foreign officials. (Trump's order describes the federal law as an "excessive barrier" to U.S. commerce!);
• Quietly removing the head of the Office of Special Counsel at the Justice Department last Friday, (That's the office in charge of overseeing whistleblower complaints against the government and enforcing laws meant to tamp down on undue political influence);
• And, the removal of the Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) just last night. (That's the office that polices integrity and conflicts of interest of Executive Branch officials.)

There is much more, of course, including, I'm sure, much we don't even know about yet. But there's a starter. And, of course, many of the acts summarized above --- in addition to making Trump's personal criming much easier --- are also, themselves, unlawful, even if that may take some time for the courts to sort out. Whether Trump obeys court orders that he doesn't like, or chooses to trigger a full blown Constitutional Crisis instead, remains to be seen.

To discuss America's new Golden Age of Corruption, we're joined today by longtime public corruption and ethics expert CRAIG HOLMAN, Ph.D., Capitol Hill lobbyist on Government Affairs for the nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen. He steps us through some of Trump's most recent corrupt acts, such as the Friday firing of OGE Chief David Huitema who was finally confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a 5-year term in December, after Republicans blocked a vote for more than a year following his nomination by President Biden. Holman, last year, was instrumental in finally helping to push Huitema's confirmation through GOP obstruction in the Senate.

"The Office of Government Ethics serves a very fundamental purpose," Holman explains, "to try to educate and make everyone in the administration --- over 140 different federal agencies --- understand what the ethics rules are, understand what the conflict of interest code is all about, and then help public officials comply with those types of rules." Well, no wonder Trump hopes to neuter that office!

"What we're seeing here --- besides utter chaos on Capitol Hill --- is a full-scale assault on accountability, oversight, and the checks and balances. It goes way beyond the Office of Government Ethics. It's already affected the Office of Special Counsel, 17 independent IGs have been fired," Holman tells me, before adding: "And, by the way, almost all of these firings have a direct financial impact on Elon Musk. So we're seeing the conflict of interest code being torn apart. Every agency he's gone into, all those agencies were overlooking Elon Musk's business practices. The people who were in charge of that have since been fired from these agencies."

We cover much more today in my conversation with Holman, including what interest Congress (specifically, the Republicans who currently control both chambers) may have in all of this, as their own Constitutional powers are being stripped away from them; whether Trump will actual obey court orders as they come down against him; and whether the Humpty Dumpty of our Constitutional order will ever be able to be put back together again, after all of this is finally, mercifully over.

The situation is "dire," warns Holman today. "We are on the very precipice of losing American democracy here. In the first Trump Administration, he sounded like he wanted to end democracy, and by the end of it he actually tried throwing a coup d'etat on Jan. 6th. This time around, he knows what he's doing. That's why we've seen this flurry. He's just marching unrestrained over our democratic norms and our democratic institutions. This is a very dire situation we are seeing here."

As if all of that news isn't swell enough, we close today with Desi Doyen's latest Green News Report on the heels of the hottest January in global recorded history. Enjoy!...

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Until they wised-up and changed the lyrics of the Gilligan's Island theme song at the beginning of Season 2, to also mention "the Professor and Mary Ann", the song originally referred to only those two (of just seven!) castaways as simply "and the rest". While the nation has understandably been focused on Trump and Musk's almost complete shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Elon's DOGE Bros' takeover of the computer payment system at U.S. Treasury that cuts checks for about 95% of payments made by the nation each year (about $6 trillion worth), the shutdowns, pauses and freezes at other critical, if smaller or lesser well-known agencies, has felt a bit like "and the rest." On today's BradCast, we focus on...well, the Professor and Maryanne for a bit...along with the other Castaways as well. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Tortured TV metaphor aside, we're joined today by award-winning, best-selling investigative journalist and author DAVID DAYEN, Executive Editor of The American Prospect, to discuss a few government agencies that Donald Trump has pretty much completely put out of business for the moment, maybe permanently, and completely unlawfully.

This week, Dayen reported at TAP about Trump's takeover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created in 2011 in response to the Great Recession. It is the only federal agency specifically focused on protecting consumers. It was the brain-child of Elizabeth Warren during the Obama Administration, before she became a U.S. Senator, and it actually holds major banks and other huge corporations financially responsible to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for ripping off Americans. No wonder the Republicans have been trying to shut it down since its inception. Now, as we discuss today, it appears they have done so. Unlawfully.

In late November, Elon Musk posted on Twitter/X: "Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies." In fact, the CFPB doesn't duplicate the work of any other federal agency. But the small, independent Bureau very well might have made it more difficult for Musk to take advantage of suckers on X with a new payment app he is rolling out.

Trump's newly-minuted U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent --- who allowed the DOGE Bros into the agency's computer payment system --- is also serving as Acting head of the CFPB. "The first thing Bessent did is he said, 'Put a pause on all litigation, all enforcement, all rule-making, and all communications,'" at CFPB, Dayen explains today. "They've basically turned the agency into a ghost town." Employees there tell him they are still able to do things like examine data and work on reports. But they just can't publish them or act on anything "that can protect consumers in real time."

We also discuss how Trump has effectively shut down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with his unlawful removal of one of its Commissioners (who is now suing). Without her there, the Board which adjudicates union elections, worker rights and investigates labor law violations, no longer has a quorum to do any of that. "So it's a free pass for companies who don't want any consequences for union busting behavior to just continue to do it, appeal everything into a netherworld that half-exists and half-doesn't now," Dayen says.

All of this is illegal, of course. But Trump's captured DoJ certainly isn't going to do anything about it. Will the courts? As you know, SCOTUS has been captured and corrupted as well.

Dayen tells me he is also very concerned about whatever the DOGE Bros are doing inside of the nation's payment system at Treasury. Shortly after my conversation today with him, however, the news broke that Musk's lead Bros inside of Treasury's computer system, 25-year old Marko Elez, had resigned after a series of racist posts were discovered from a Twitter/X account that he deleted in December. If you're wondering if those posts are somehow out-of-context or written years ago, just last July he Tweeted: "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool." So, yeah.

Also today, we discuss some of the very serious and under-reported concerns regarding the H5N1 bird flu above and beyond what it is doing to spike the price of eggs on grocery store shelves. The virus appears to be both quickly spreading AND mutating. Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) are also effectively handcuffed by the Trump Administration in what they are allowed to study any communicate to the public about it. Not that Trump that we have reason to worry about Trump's leadership during a deadly pandemic or anything.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with more news on the DOGE Bros' ongoing infiltration and attack on the U.S. Government and our Constitutional order, such as over at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where they have reportedly now descended, after the disgraced "scientist" who helped facilitate Trump's fake hurricane in Alabama years ago (remember "SharpieGate"?) has now been tapped to run the entire agency. In addition to producing critical climate and data on our oceans, the agency also houses the National Weather Service, which Project 2025 calls for privatizing. Sadly, she has even more today. Though we do close on an amusing note!...

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