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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Republicans in a bind after Pope's landmark encyclical on climate change; Massive toxic algae bloom shuts down West Coast fisheries; May 2015 the planet's hottest May on record; PLUS: The American Eastern Cougar is off the endangered species list - but there's a catch... 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): EPA: Global Climate Action is a win for the U.S.; E.P.A. Warns of High Cost of Climate Change; The World Is In The Midst Of A Mass Extinction, And Humans Are To Blame; It sure looks like the Pacific trade pact sucks. Why is Obama so hot for it?; Rand Paul’s ridiculous story of an elderly man imprisoned for ‘dirt on his land’; New study links global warming to Hurricane Sandy and other extreme weather events... PLUS: Tar Balls on Los Angeles-Area Beach Linked To Santa Barbara Oil Spill... and much, MUCH more! ...

Remember that 2009 Dept. of Homeland Security report about Rightwing Domestic Extremism that Republicans forced the Obama Administration to retract?

We do --- once again --- on today's BradCast, particularly in the bloody wake of this week's domestic terrorist attack at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church. For some reason, Rightwingers don't want to remember that report, much less describe this week's attack at "terrorism". Wonder why. And so does Jon Stewart.

Then, speaking of extremist Republicans, the state of Texas has overruled a voter-approved ban on fracking in the city of Denton and declared such local control illegal. TX Gov. Greg Abbott actually says, with a straight face, that, in fighting for fossil fuel industry profits over people, he's protecting private property rights from the "heavy hand of local regulation." (Yes, he actually said that.)

Adam Briggle of FrackFreeDenton.com joins us to discuss how Denton hopes to fight the GOP's Big Government attack on democracy, local control and private property rights across the state --- ya know, all that stuff Republicans like to pretend they believe in.

"The industry went to the legislators that they have bought and paid for, and they wrote a new law for them to change the rules," Briggle tells me. "They just bought a new law that changed the standards by which you evaluate the constitutionality of local ordinances."

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, on the Pope's climate encyclical and Donald Trump's global warming denialism...

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We start today's BradCast with the latest grim news out of Charleston, South Carolina after Wednesday night's horrific gun massacre at the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church --- and word that the suspected gunman has now been apprehended.

Then, things brighten up a bit with our coverage of the landmark encyclical on the environment, as issued today by Pope Francis, who calls for "a bold cultural revolution" in response to the moral imperative of fighting climate change "due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases released mainly as a result of human activity."

My guest to discuss it is Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox, President and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network.

Hescox, a Republican who has testified before Congress and spoken at the White House, offers his key takeaways from the Pope's historic 184-page teaching letter and explains his organization's fight for climate action, and how other evangelicals and fellow Republicans must once again join the fight. "We see ourselves as a bridge between many Republicans," he tells me, "to help them understand that climate change is not about polar bears. It's about our children. It's not about a future event. It's about what's happening now."

"We do have to have a price on carbon," Hescox explains. "There is no ifs, ands or buts in anybody's mind that the fossil fuel industry has put the cost of fossil fuel energy into the lives of each of our children and they've taken the profits. And, as a conservative, that's not fair. That's not even true market economics."

He believes "a Republican cannot win the White House unless he talks about climate change" and that it's "something which the Republican Party has to deal with." Hescox tells me he hopes ("prays", actually) that the Pope's encyclical "will be another step forward in empowering the world to act together to solve what we like to say is the greatest moral challenge of our generation."

Plus: After Rush Limbaugh pathetically attempts to smear Pope Francis as a "Marxist" for hoping to save humanity, we offer definitive, irrefutable, water-tight evidence that the extremist rightwing radio host is an unrepentant liar and hypocrite on the topics of both climate change and "Marxism"...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The Pope's unprecedented call for action on climate change; The Right predictably freaks out; India goes solar in a big way; PLUS: Trump is running for president. It's no hoax! But he thinks global warming is... 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): World’s Aquifers Being Badly Depleted, Satellite Data Show; Senate GOP Moves Against Obama Green Agenda Via Spending; Plan for Fracking's Waste Pits Could Save Millions of Birds; Alaska’s Glaciers Are Now Losing 75 Billion Tons of Ice Every Year; Alaska Wildfires Destroy Dozens of Homes, Menace Highway... PLUS: Inside the Power Plant Fueling America’s Drought... and much, MUCH more! ...

So, did Donald Trump just blow up the GOP primary? Is he more than just a joke? Is he the Frankenstein Monster created by 40 years of Reaganism, Fox 'News' and the Tea Party as we charged (along with Heather Digby Parton) on yesterday's BradCast? Could he actually win the Republican nomination and...gasp...the White House?

On today's BradCast, callers weigh in on 'Trump World' and other 2016 game changers like Bernie Sanders.

Plus: Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, on Jeb and Hillary's climate strategy (or lack thereof, in one of those cases) and the Pope's upcoming, highly anticipated (and satirized) environmental encyclical...

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With Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change due later this week --- and wingnuts freaking out about it (talking to you, Rick Santorum) --- this parody video is pretty Popin' brilliant...

By the way, fun fact to keep in your back pocket this week: Pope Francis, back when he was just Jorge Mario Bergoglio, likely received more training in science than any of the folks running for President this year. He graduated from technical school as a Chemical Technician.

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Oil spill clean up continues in Santa Barbara; Major media steps up, challenges Presidential candidate Rick Santorum on climate science denial; World's largest economies put an expiration date on fossil fuels; Wanna see how climate change will affect your grandkids? NASA has just the thing; PLUS: Secret donors gave $125 million to climate denial front groups in just 3 years... 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): EPA’S Proposed Carbon Regulations Will Create Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs; Offshore Oil Drilling Banned Along New Stretch of California Coast; Court Gives Obama a Climate Change Win; Studies link childhood lead exposure, violent crime; EPA: Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Airplanes Are Dangerous To Human Life; Republican Pours Money Into U.S. Climate, Clean Energy Foundation; Obama Administration Readies Big Push on Climate Change... PLUS: Ontario Restricts Pesticides Blamed for Decline of Bee Populations... and much, MUCH more! ...

Investigative journalist Tim Shorrock joins me on today's BradCast to discuss his disturbing new article at The Nation on "How Private Contractors Have Created a Shadow NSA: A new cybersecurity elite moves between government and private practice, taking state secrets with them."

It's an issue, as I note during the show, that is particularly troubling giving the history of my family and me being targeted by defense contractors in years past.

Shorrock, author of the book Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing, describes the unprecedented privatization of our national security apparatus and how "the public is badly misled by the media" during debates about intelligence policies when "former" intelligence officials are presented to the public as experts without disclosure of their continuing financial ties to the industry.

Plus: As the Republican Party continues to make itself irrelevant, progressive ideas are quickly becoming mainstream ideas and Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are eager to capitalize on it. And, speaking of irrelevance, GOP 2016 candidate Rick Santorum attacks the Pope(!) for daring to speak up about saving humanity by taking action on global warming...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The race for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination just doubled in size: Fox 'News' darling Ben Carson jumps in; former CEO Carly Fiorina jumps in; former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee jumps in --- climate change deniers all; PLUS: The Pope's moral message on climate change... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Elon Musk unveils fancy new Tesla battery — ’cause existing batteries “suck”; Scientists call for limits on non-stick and stain-resistant chemicals that can leach into foods; CA crops raised with oil-field water; Ominous signs for endangered Great Lakes blue butterfly; Heartland Institute's president denies they are deniers; GOP lawmakers slash NASA budget... PLUS: Climate change drives 'new era' in Arctic, say Norwegian scientists... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Senator Bernie Sanders, climate hawk, enters the 2016 Presidential race; Thanks to fossil fuels, California still has the nation's dirtiest air; Study finds most extremely hot days caused by global warming; PLUS: Pope Francis wants to protect God's Creation, and the rightwing, fossil fuel-funded Heartland Institute wants him to knock it off... 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): Break-up of the century: U.S. emissions and economic growth are really, finally separating; New Survey Shows TV Weathercasters Increasingly Accept Climate Change (but not Fox News); Duke Energy to hand out bottled water in North Carolina after wells polluted; Bees Love Nicotine, Even Though It's Killing Them; Forest fire threatens Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear zone... PLUS: Exposure to widespread diabetes drug feminizes male fish... and much, MUCH more! ...

You probably already heard about the Indiana pizza shop whose owners said, if asked, they would refuse to cater a same-sex wedding, and how the shop has since raised more than $840,000 in donations in the wake of the announcement.

Since then, a florist in Washington state who refused to sell wedding flowers to a same-sex couple has, so far, received "more than $85,000 in a crowdfunding campaign".

In a similar vein, I am herewith declaring that The BRAD BLOG will not sell our blogging services to any same-sex marriage ceremonies.

Our PayPal information follows below...

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As its reputation goes to pot, it looks like Indiana's new "religious freedom" law has sparked up more trouble than even Gov. Mike Pence (R) expected.

U.S. News reports "Indiana's Church of Cannabis Growing Like a Weed":

Or perhaps inspired by...

Idiot former "family values" Congressman and deadbeat dad Joe Walsh (R-IL) helps world understand why he was run out of Congress...

Let's hope that when the Islamists next strike they first behead the appeasing cowards at CNN, MSNBC, etal who refused to show the cartoons.

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) January 14, 2015

Because nothing says "courage" like calling for people to be beheaded! Am I right, Congressman?

Apparently, Freedom of the Press applies to the publication of offensive cartoons, but not to the decision to not publish them, according to the idiot Walsh. If you choose to not publish such things, you should be beheaded.

It's that sort of question I asked about in my "Why?" piece following the Charlie Hebdo massacre last week, and that Glenn Greenwald speaks to even more specifically in his own must read piece on the issue.

I'll also be talking a bit more about all of this (and taking calls on it) on The BradCast on KPFK/Pacifica Radio later today. (6-7p ET/3-4p PT, streaming live right here. If you'd like to call in, please do: 818-985-5735.)

This is heartbreaking. A 20-year old gay college student from Kennesaw, Georgia is confronted, assaulted and disowned by his own twisted, confused, cruel family, as captured on video...

The video went viral after it was published by Dan Savage on Wednesday.

Despite the incredibly disturbing video, in which Daniel Ashley Pierce's father, stepmother, mother and grandparents confront him --- at times violently --- to go get therapy so he'll stop being gay, or else move out of the house, there is a "happy" ending here, of a sort.

Pierce's boyfriend set up a Go Fund Me site for him yesterday to raise $2,000 for him to live on, after being kicked out of the house and trying to find a new place to live.

By this morning, the video has been viewed nearly 2.5 million times, and the Go Fund Me site, which Pierce said he didn't even know had been created, has raised some $66,500 for him. Thirty minutes ago he posted this updated note to supporters there:

WOW!! I am so blessed by all of this! I want to give everyone of y'all a hug! I am without words right now! THANK YOU THANK YOU! I will be using a portion of this money to help others in the same situation! I want to make a difference and if I can save one kid the hurt and abuse that I went through I will be happy!! Each and everyone of y'all have made a huge impact on my life and I am feeling the love!! The kind words are helping me move on

As clueless, sad, twisted folks like Pierce's family members wanted Daniel to seek (cruel and discredited) "Pray the Gay Away" therapy, perhaps it's time someone sets up a "Pray the Hate Away" movement. We could really use one right about now.

[Hat-tip RAW STORY...]