It's no easy feat getting caught up on The BradCast after just one week off during the madness of the Trump Era. But, hey, nobody said fighting to save democracy amid an attempted authoritarian takeover by a crazy, brain-poisoned, power-mad, criminal cretin was going to be easy. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

With far more to cover than we had time to catch up with, we did our level best today and took a bunch of great callers to boot! But that requires focusing on the stuff that really matters and, well, putting off the rest for another day, if ever. And the stuff that really really counts right now, in my opinion, remains the fight for democracy and voting itself.

To that end --- and many others --- we covered quite a bit of ground in very short order today. Among the many stories we touched on before opening the phones to our first post-Thanksgiving callers...

• Today, a federal appeals court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling finding that Alina Habba, Donald Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer turned U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, was unlawfully appointed.

• That ruling follows on last week's court ruling that Lindsey Halligan, Trump's even more unqualified personal insurance lawyer turned U.S. Attorney in Virginia, was also illegally appointed. That ruling subsequently resulted in the dismissal of Halligan's absurdly corrupt criminal indictments against Trump's foes, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

• Trump's belligerent, unqualified Defense Secretary and former weekend Fox "News" host, Pete Hegseth, may be in very big trouble for reportedly issuing unlawful orders to "kill everyone" in the Administration's first unlawful attack on supposed drug runners in boats in international waters off of Venezuela in the Caribbean. (More on that, I suspect, in the days ahead.)

• A quick catch-up on the various battles in the Gerrymandering Wars since we left --- in Texas, Indiana and North Carolina.

• Following the shock resignation of former(?) MAGA stalwart Marjorie Taylor Greene a week or so ago, Punchbowl News reported that a senior Congressional Republican is warning that the House GOP is "a tinder box." That "morale has never been lower" and that Republican House Speaker "Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out." We'll see about that. But it's anything but inconceivable, at this point.

• Speaking of, in tomorrow's Special Election for the U.S. House in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District, progressive Democrat Aftyn Behn was said to be within two points of Republican Matt Van Epps, according to new polling last week, in a District won last year by Trump by a whopping 22 points! I wonder why morale is so low among Republicans in the House these days.

• Never mind polling. Let's look at some actual numbers following Democrats' rout of Republicans in the November off-year elections last month. A deep dive by Politico into 268 county, town and village executive seat races last month in New York --- including in deep red counties, towns and villages --- found that Dems out-performed 2017's "blue wave" election in the state, flipping, for example, more than 50 executive seats from "red" to "blue" last month. That, compared to the GOP flipping just one (1!) seat from "blue" to "red" on the same day.

• Another appeals court panel ruling while we were off --- this one from judges nominated by both George W. Bush and Donald Trump --- upheld a lower court ruling finding that a ridiculously frivolous lawsuit filed by Trump and Habba against Hillary Clinton and James Comey, claiming they tried to steal the 2016 election (or something), will, in fact, result in a one million dollar fine against the pair.

And finally, we open up the phone lines to listeners, who are, apparently, in a very lively mood after a bit of rest over the holiday weekend. Enjoy!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Developing nations demand rich countries live up to promises at U.N. COP30 climate talks in Brazil; Trump plans to drill off the coast of California; PLUS: Thanks to NOAA, the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the last commercial freighter to sink in the Great Lakes, 50 years ago this week... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Where the sky keeps bursting: the eastern US is increasingly vulnerable to extreme rain, floods; Former Interior official: Trump is ‘rushing’ deep-sea mining; States blow past Colorado River deadline, Arizona wants feds to order water cuts; Built to Fail: Rules at UN climate talks favor status quo, not progress; How government shutdowns give polluters a free pass... PLUS: Five ways Joe Rogan misleads his viewers about climate change... and much, MUCH more! ...

We've got a lot of news from all over the world, and no small amount of explainers to go with it on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• Deadly, record-shattering Hurricane Melissa finally makes landfall in Jamaica as a catastrophic, slow moving, 185 mph Category 5 storm. As discussed, this is likely to be very very bad. The island nation has set up a support and donations site here.

• So much for Donald Trump's recent declaration of "everlasting peace" in the Middle East, as Israel reignites its brutal attack on Gaza following its claim that Hamas has violated the recent peace agreement.

• "Peace President" Donald Trump continues his unlawful killing spree in international waters with the announcement that he ordered the U.S. military murder of another 14 alleged "narco-terrorists" on four small boats off of Mexico's Pacific coast. That, as the Administration redeploys its largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, not to help storm victims in Jamaica, but almost certainly to wage --- or, at least, threaten --- war on Venezuela (and, perhaps, Colombia).

• Weird and related?: U.S. Defense Dept. officials are being required to sign NDAs. WTF?

• Twenty-three Democratic state Attorneys General announced they are suing the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to continue food assistance to some 42 million low-income Americans via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or SNAP, previously known as food stamps). The suit follows the agency's flip-flop on using already-appropriated emergency contingency funds to feed hungry American families amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. If funding ends on November 1, as planned by the USDA, it would be the first time in the 60-year history of the program.

• Following Friday's announcement by Trump's corrupted Dept. of Justice that it plans to send federal monitors to polling places in five counties in California and one in New Jersey during next Tuesday's November 4th elections, for unexplained reasons, the Golden State has announced it plans to dispatch state monitors to oversee the federal ones.

• The Gerrymandering Wars continue and expand. Following Trump's arm-twisting of state GOP lawmakers in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina to rewrite U.S. House district maps to steal seats from Democrats next year --- and Democrats' attempted responses in California and Virginia --- Indiana's Republican Governor has called a special session of the legislature to try and steal another GOP House seat from Democratic voters. But Dems aren't done responding yet, as House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries is said to be in talks with Illinois lawmakers about redrawing that state's map to further favor Dems next year. We do all of the math for ya today, breaking down which party's voters would come out ahead if all of these plans are successful. The answer may surprise you. But the corrupted, rightwing, activist U.S. Supreme Court could still blow up everything (in favor of Republicans) before all is said and done in the critical 2026 midterms.

• Finally, Desi Doyen is back with our latest Green News Report with more on the monstrous Hurricane Melissa; the Trump Administration's withholding of disaster funding to states that didn't vote for him; and the deadly, expensive climate change threats that continue to worsen, whether the Administration removes climate science data from its websites or not...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump cuts to National Weather Service resulted in faulty forecast of deadly Alaska storm; Trump EPA canceled flood control grants for Alaskan tribal villages hit hard by that storm; PLUS: Trump trying to pressure other nations to ditch clean energy but many aren't listening... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The Carbon Rains of October: From Alaska typhoons to coal-juiced Nor'easters; Rare earths: Why China can collapse the U.S. with one decree; Panama’s coastal waters missed their annual cooldown this year; 'When I pass piles of fishing nets, I see piles of money': a one man recycling revolution on the Cornish coast; Natural gas prices are low, but your monthly gas bill up. Here's why... PLUS: What are climate tipping points?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: While we were out...The Trump Administration halted construction of major offshore wind farm; Trump EPA exempted U.S. coal plants from new mercury pollution rules; PLUS: Pope Francis, champion of climate action and environmental justice, has left the building... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Exxon presses Supreme Court to rescind your rights; Restarting coal plants after Trump's executive orders makes no economic sense, report says; Trump opens a huge marine protected zone to industrial fishing; Trump touts 'clean coal' but cuts programs that protect miners; Appeals court halts federal judge's order mandating EPA disburse billions to climate groups... PLUS: Texas oilfield company and executive plead guilty in hydrogen sulfide deaths... and much, MUCH more! ...

The amount of news we need to catch up with today before getting to some callers at the back end of the show is ridiculous, even by BradCast standards! [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Natural disasters, lots of court rulings and some important election news out of several states on today's program. Here are summaries and links to just some of those stories...

• More than 2,000 are dead in Myanmar following a 7.7 Magnitude earthquake over the weekend. The death toll is expected to rise sharply, thousands of building have reportedly collapsed, health officials are said to be "overwhelmed" and, though Trump vowed to send help, apparently U.S. aid workers are nowhere to be found as they have been in the past. Aid workers from China, Russia and India are on the scene, however. Also, victims received little help or critical information from Radio Free Asia either, in the wake of Trump having shut down the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the parent agency for RFA, Voice of America and its international sister networks.

• But there was a lot of good news out of federal district courts since we last spoke, including for Voice of America and, presumably, Radio Free Asia. A judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent Trump from violating federal law by shuttering the USAGM and the networks it oversees. The U.S. District Court judge ordered about 1,200 journalists, engineers and other staffers back to work, for now, after they were placed on leave or fired after Trump's seemingly unlawful order to shut it all down two weeks ago.

• More good news late last week from the U.S. District court for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). A judge on Friday ordered that it too be reopened and its workers rehired, after Trump/Musk attempted to gut the only federal agency that fights for consumer rights against fraud and deceptive practices by big banks, insurance companies and sleazy payday lenders.

• Another U.S. District Court on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump Administration from deporting migrants to countries from which they did not originally come without allowing a court challenge first.

• Over the weekend, two different federal judges --- both appointed by Republican President George W. Bush --- blocked the key parts of Trump's outrageous Executive Orders unconstitutionally targeting two major law firms he doesn't like (because they represented former Republican FBI Director Robert Mueller, who was tapped to investigate interference by Russia in our 2016 election during Trump's first term.)

• In Election News, Republicans took a pounding over the weekend in Louisiana's Saturday elections. All four constitutional Amendments placed on the ballot by the state's Trump-lovin' GOP Governor, Jeff Landry, went down in flames. Each lost resoundingly, with nearly two-thirds of voters rejecting each ballot issue, as turnout nearly doubled what state election officials had been expecting. For some reason, voters --- even in Republican-leaning states --- seem to be very angry of late. At Republicans. Landry tried to blame a billionaire who had nothing to do with Saturday's referendum for his embarrassing shutout, while ignoring the Republican billionaires who fruitlessly dumped billions in support of Landry's four losing amendments.

• Speaking of...it's Election Day on Tuesday in Florida and Wisconsin (and a number of other states), with two vacant U.S. House seats up for grabs in traditionally very red districts in the Sunshine State and ideological control of the state Supreme Court on the line in the Badger State. Republicans seem very concerned about all of those contests, with the President's billionaire top-funder, Elon Musk, generously spreading his "free speech" around in the form of $100 checks to Wisconsinites who signed his petition against "activist judges" and two $1 million checks given away to two lucky voters/signers-of-his-petition who showed up to his rally in Green Bay on Sunday. The richest-man-in-the-world stumped for the very Trumpy Republican state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, who is running against Judge Susan Crawford. She is supported by the state's Democrats. For reasons discussed on today's show, that election could hardly be more important --- to the nation, in fact. The House contests down in Florida, meanwhile, may also prove to be bellwethers for GOP electoral chances in upcoming off-year and mid-year elections under a very unpopular President.

• That's just some of what we covered today before opening up the phone lines to listeners to discuss all of that and whatever else happened to be on their minds today...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: While we were out --- Catching up on climate and energy in the 2024 presidential race; Canada's wildfires last year emitted more carbon than India, new study finds; Extreme heat killed a record number of Americans in 2023; China hit its renewable electricity target six years early; PLUS: The mighty Klamath River is flowing freely for the first time in more than a century... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): You just lived through the most humid summer on record; Why is climate change causing ‘record-shattering’ extreme heat?; PFAS chemicals from sewage sludge fertilizer may be poisoning America's land; Carbon credits: how one company went off the rails; PA will monitor East Palestine water wells after train derailment; COP29: countries still far apart on financing... PLUS: Pope Francis says Earth is 'sick' in new climate change warning... and much, MUCH more! ...

Lots of good news and/or bad news on today's BradCast depending on how you may choose to see any of it. [Audio link to full program follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... The mid-level appeals court in New York (just below its highest court) rejected Donald Trump's attempt to lift whatever remains of the gag order against him in his hush-money case on Thursday. That's the case where he's been convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to hide a sexual tryst with a porn star in order to help him win the 2016 Presidential election. The gag order --- preventing him from attacking family members of the judge, etc. --- is likely to be lifted once Trump is sentenced on September 18, if in fact he sentenced at that time. The judge on the case, Justice Juan Merchan will decide on September 6th whether the case must be tossed entirely, given the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court's ridiculous, but still binding, recent ruling that Presidents are immune from prosecution for almost any and all crimes committed while serving in office.

THEN... Big news today from the White House as President Biden announced a multinational prisoner swap with Russia, that includes prisoners released from six different countries. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Marine vet Paul Whelan are among those Americans released by Russia today, along with a number of other journalists and political dissidents wrongly held by Russia, according to the U.S. Some of the prisoners, in fact, have been held for years, including Whelan who had been imprisoned since being arrested while attending a wedding in Russia in 2018.

Some critics, however, have charged that such deals --- often including the release of serious criminals --- merely incentive the taking of "hostages". The lead U.S. hostage negotiator, however, responds that, despite 70 Americans whose releases were won by the Biden Administration, the number of those taken captive has fallen. When asked by a reporter at the White House today about Trump's repeated comments that he could have brought these people whom without "paying" anything, Biden responded: "Why didn't he do it when he was President?"

NEXT... Earlier this week, President Biden detailed his three-part proposal for long-overdue reform of our corrupted, packed, stolen and activist U.S. Supreme Court. His proposed reforms include 18-year term limits for Justices, allowing every President to name a new Justice every two years; an enforceable, binding code of conduct, to prevent Justices from accepting undisclosed gifts and requiring them to recuse themselves from cases in which they have conflicts of interest; and a call for a Constitutional Amendment to roll back the Court's recent, absurd ruling that Presidents --- like kings --- enjoy near absolute immunity for all crimes committed while in office.

Biden has referred to his proposed Constitutional amendment as the "No One is Above the Law" Amendment. And on Thursday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and 34 other Democratic Senators, released their own proposal for legislation they are calling the "No Kings Act". It is similar to the Constitutional Amendment sought by Biden, but, according to Schumer today, "would be the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent the Trump [immunity] ruling presented." Schumer describes that ruling as a "dangerous and devastating" one, adopted by "the MAGA Supreme Court".

We're joined today by attorney JAY WILLIS, editor-in-chief of the Balls and Strikes website, which focuses on the Courts and court reform. Willis recently described Biden's proposal as "a nice first step", while explaining why doesn't go far enough. "The only way to solve the problem of a Court controlled by a conservative supermajority is to add justices to it," he wrote, charging that the benefits of Biden (and Schumer's) current proposals are swell, and broadly popular, but won't be truly felt for generations. "Backing term limits without also backing Court expansion is like explaining the concept of a life preserver to a person who is actively drowning," he quipped.

Today, Willis tells me: "My attitude towards Court reform is basically that it's difficult to go far enough to repair an institution this broken." He cites the broad bipartisan support for both term-limits and a binding ethics code, calling them "not particularly controversial policy ideas." But without expansion of the Court, he argues --- which is also popular, if not quite as much so for the time being --- the Constitutional damage that these current rightwing activist Justices will be able sow is virtually limitless.

We also discuss the difference between Biden's call for a Constitutional Amendment to overturn SCOTUS' immunity ruling and Schumer's push for legislation instead, and why some believe that any attempt by Congress to impose term-limits on Justices would be found to be unconstitutional. Ironically, it would be the Justices themselves, in theory, who would be the ones to make that ultimate finding. (Though shouldn't they all recuse themselves from such a case? If so, then what?)

"As long as John Roberts is in charge of this Court," Willis says that he expects any ruling on these matters would contain "a lot of, 'Thanks for playing Congress. Thanks for your opinion on what the Constitution means. But this is really our job, not yours.'"

In a follow-up piece, Willis detailed where Vice President --- and the Democrats' presumptive 2024 Presidential nominee --- Kamala Harris stands on the various elements of Court reform as sought by Biden, as well as for expansion of the Court to help UNpack it after the damage done during the Trump years.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for today's particular grim Green News Report today, though one that ends on a high note, at least!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Vermont slammed by second catastrophic flood in three weeks; As wildfires rage in the West, new study finds wildfire smoke is more dangerous than we knew; PLUS: Wind and solar energy overtake fossil fuels for electricity generation in Europe... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): One in 11 people went hungry last year. Climate change is a big reason why; Global methane emissions rising at fastest rate in decades, scientists warn; Texas utility would raise rates to pay for Beryl 'restoration'; Harris grabs Green New Deal network endorsement that eluded Biden; Manchin-Barrasso energy permitting bill advances to full Senate; Central US is paying higher cost of burning coal, report says; Last 25 years in US West were driest in 1,200 years... PLUS: The very hungry urchins gobbling up the algae smothering coral reefs... and much, MUCH more! ...

If you haven't begun already, as detailed on today's BradCast (along with much else), now is a good time to start keeping your eyes on the many ways that Republicans are planning to "legally" steal the November election in the event that, once again, they can't win it the old fashioned way by receiving more votes and an electoral Electoral College victory with them. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Recently, Kevin Roberts (pictured above), the President of the far-right Heritage Foundation, creators of "Project 2025" --- an extremist 900-page manifesto designed to repeal the 20th century the next time a Republican wins the White House --- told supporters: "We are winning. There are a lot of victories that have been secured. Some of them are partial. Some of them in ways that the other side doesn't yet know, are foundations for what's coming. And that's just the beginning. And we're not gonna tell ya everything that's coming."

Today, after weeks of focus on that Project 2025 by Democrats and media, it's nominal operational director, Paul Dans, stepped down to assuage Donald Trump, who both doesn't like the fact that Project 2025 makes him look like the puppet of more than a hundred far-right organizations and his own former Administration officials (which he is), and because the document is so extremist that he'd prefer to keep all of its atrocities under wraps until he's safely back in office. But those plans to gut the government as we know it and place a Republican President in direct autocratic control of every government agency, aren't going away, even if Heritage and friends have now been ordered to tone it down for a while until Trump can be installed back into the Oval Office.

As corporate media outlets are finally reporting on Project 2025, Roberts' plans for "victories...that the other side doesn't yet know...and [he's] not gonna tell" us about for now, are becoming clearer by the day, nonetheless. Largely, they are about stealing the election in advance by voter suppression assisted by corrupt friends now seated on the courts; stealing it during the tabulation by the many Trump-supporting election denialist who now serve as county election officials in battleground states, where they plan to prevent certification of a Trump loss; and, in doing so, create enough havoc after the election to toss the Electoral College certification on January 6 to the U.S. House, where Republicans hope to control a majority of state delegations in order to name Trump the "winner", even if he loses again, as he did in 2020.

We detail just some of those plots and plans, along with much more, on today's program. Among our many stories today...

• After hundreds were killed amid downpour-triggered landslides last week in Ethiopia, at least 70 93 were killed by mudslides under similarly climate change-fueled conditions in southwestern India today.

• More than 1 million union workers have now had their pensions saved by the Biden-Harris Administration and Congressional Democrats, thanks to their American Rescue Plan, which not one single Republican voted for in the House or Senate. That now includes some 600,000 Teamsters, many of them in the rust belt, the midwest and New England, as celebrated on Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire.

• Kamala-mentum continues, as new polling shows her favorability rate skyrocketing and her unfavorability rate plummeting, following President Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 race and endorse his Vice President instead. Favorable/unfavorable numbers for Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have done the exact opposite according to polling numbers from the week after the assassination attempt on the former President and the Republican National Convention as compared to the week after, following Biden's endorsement of Harris for the top of the ticket.

• Rolling Stone detailed on Monday how at least 70 pro-Trump conspiracists who now hold positions as election officials in a number of counties in six battleground state "are poised to make a giant mess" by refusing to certify election results in hopes of preventing state results from being certified if Trump doesn't win them. The magazine's Justine Glawe's deep-dive report warns that "Republicans have refused to certify election results at least 25 times since Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden"...because practice makes perfect. You have been warned. You may want to keep your Jan. 6 open next year. There may be something dramatic on television, depending on how things go.

• Early legal efforts by Republicans to bollox things up for the Kamala Harris Campaign do not appear to be going well. An FEC complaint filed last week in hopes of preventing Harris from being able to use the money from the former Biden-Harris Campaign account isn't likely to get very far, UC Irvine Election Law professor Rick Hasen notes. Though he does recognize that the complaint will at least give Trump the opportunity to falsely claim on the stump that what Dems are doing is a muchworse campaign finance violation than his own in 2016 which resulted in his 34 felony convictions in New York. Good luck with that.

• Also, recent claims by Republican House Speaker and Trump tool Mike Johnson (who is, theoretically, an actual attorney) that there are legal "impediments" preventing Democrats from putting Harris on state ballots instead of Biden, turn out to be 100% wrong. At least according to CNN, which surveyed all 50 states to find that there will be legal impediments for Harris in (...checks notes...) ZERO states!

• In the meantime, expect a mountain of frivolous legal complaints by Republicans about election laws in hopes of suppressing the vote with favorable rulings from corrupt, Trump appointed federal judges. One such effort in Mississippi, filed earlier this year, seeking to block the counting of mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days afterward, as per state law, failed on summary judgement on Sunday. But you should expect both appeals and more such voter suppression cases to flood the courts between now and Election Day (and beyond).

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report as the climate change-fueled Park Fire in Northern California explodes to become the fifth largest in state history; the death toll from heat exhaustion amid power outages following Hurricane Beryl in Texas continues to climb; Extreme heat and water pollution complicate the Paris Olympics; and the U.N. warns that the nations of the world are not moving fast enough to avoid the far worse effects of climate change that are coming...

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In a recent item, "Overdue Debunking of MAGA Cult Xenophobia", I noted how "throughout history, decent, hard-working immigrants (like me) have contributed to the economy and our national security".

Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman who could very well become the 47th President of these United States, is amongst the best contributions a pair of immigrants, Donald J. Harris and Shyamala Gopalan, have given to our nation.

Their daughters Kamala and Maya are by no means their only contributions...

It's our last BradCast before time off for travel over the holiday next week. Unlike years past, it looks like SCOTUS will be late in releasing all of their opinions for this term before its normal end this week, so we won't be here to comment immediately on some of the biggest decisions (or on tonight's Presidential Debate) until after our return. But we've got plenty to cover from the corrupted rightwing Court already this week, including with a guest today who suggests the analysis by many legal experts on yesterday's ruling striking down yet another part of federal public corruption law has been somewhat misleading. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among the big SCOTUS decisions still to come, is a case regarding the "Chevron Doctrine" which, for decades, has given legal deference to federal agency experts over judges or corporate challengers, when it comes to the interpretation of federal laws through rules and regulations promulgated by those federal agencies. That could all be about to change, with enormous consequences first for the EPA, but also across the entirety of the federal government --- or, the so-called "Administrative State" as rightwingers have taken to deriding it. We explain the doctrine and some remarkable ironies behind the Court's upcoming ruling, whatever it may be, today.

But the corrupted, stolen and packed rightwing Supreme Court did manage to issue several rulings today. Among them....

• The Court rejected a multi-billion dollar nationwide opioid settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family.
• In a clear win for corporate interests, they gutted the SEC's ability to carry out in-house proceedings on civil fraud complaints, requiring federal jury trials instead in an opinion likely to have far-reaching effects on other regulatory agencies as well.
• SCOTUS also kicked a Presidential election year hot potato down the road for another day by allowing Idaho hospitals, for now, to perform emergency abortions under federal law, even though the procedure is barred under state law.
• And, as we also discuss with Desi, the High Court blocked, for now, to the EPA's "Good Neighbor" rule which limited air pollution from power plants and other facilities that pollute downwind states. While the regulation has already substantially lowered pollution --- and saved lives --- in the states where it is in place, the Court prevented the EPA from enforcing it until after lower court challenges by largely Republican-controlled states and several industries are completed.

NEXT... On yesterday's show we critically covered the Wednesday SCOTUS ruling in Snyder v. U.S. [PDF], an opinion which overturned the conviction and 21-month prison sentence of an Indiana Mayor who received a $13,000 check from a company just two weeks after his city had granted them a contract worth more than a million dollars. The Court's rightwingers determined that the federal statute in question only applies to out-and-out bribery cases, where a quid pro quo was agreed upon before a public action. After-the-fact "gratuities", the Court's six Republican-appointees ruled, are apparently just fine. Or, at least, not unlawful under their reading of the federal statute in question.

While many legal analysts and experts have derided the ruling since it was issued on Wednesday, our guest today, RANDALL D. ELIASON, former chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section at the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C., now a white-collar criminal law professor at George Washington University Law School, had a different take that he posted to Twitter yesterday: "I have no problem with the Snyder decision, that 18 USC §666 covers only bribes and not gratuities. I think that makes sense."

Really? Why? Today Eliason joins us to explain why the law --- which, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson notes in her dissent with the Court's other liberals, "imposes federal criminal penalties on agents of those entities who 'corruptly' solicit, accept, or agree to accept payments 'intending to be influenced or rewarded'" --- can arguably be interpreted as applying onlyto before-the-fact bribes, as opposed to after-the-fact "gratuities", as they are described by the Court's majority.

"I'm not happy about the outcome," Eliason concedes today. "You're right that there's been a pattern of decisions over the last more than a decade narrowing public corruption laws, and I've been critical of a lot of them. And I've been on your program being critical of a number of them in the past."

"So I'm not happy about the outcome. But I don't think the majority is being unreasonable in this particular decision. Because what this decision is about is not whether the conduct of the Mayor is a good thing, or whether it should be prohibited. It's just about the language in this particular criminal statute that Congress drafted. And it's really a badly drafted statute. It's poorly written. It's confusing. And even though the lower court in this case had upheld his conviction, several other federal courts of appeals had said the same thing, that this law does not apply to gratuities, and agreed with Snyder."

He explains that there is "a real legal distinction between a bribery and a gratuity", and that other federal statutes prohibit them both. But in this case, §666 is less than perfectly clear. And, when there is a "tie" in legal interpretation, the tie is supposed to go to the defendant who, the Court noted, can still be held accountable for accepting a gratuity under state and local laws.

"You see a lot of headlines in the wake of this decision: 'Supreme Court says bribery is okay.' No, the whole point was it wasn't bribery. It was a gratuity, which is something far less serious. And the issue was does this particular statute cover this kind of gratuity? The answer is no. I think, based on the way that statute is written, it's a reasonable outcome."

While I'm not sure I fully agree --- and even he notes that Justice Jackson makes several good arguments in her dissent --- Eliason's expertise and insight into the laws in question shed welcome light on this otherwise seemingly corrupt ruling.

On a related note, we also discuss how all of this might apply to the arguable millions of dollars in "gratuities" that members of SCOTUS, like Clarence Thomas, have accepted over the years and whether that might play into the Court majority's opinion. And how Congress, had they not become completely dysfunctional in recent years, could easily clarify this issue through simple legislation.

On one other matter before we finish our conversation with Eliason today, he offers his thoughts on SCOTUS' upcoming Fischer decision regarding whether the statute used to charge hundreds of January 6 defendants --- including Donald Trump --- with "obstruction of an official proceeding" may be struck down by the Court. Eliason is "pessimistic" about what is likely to happen, though believes that even if the Court strikes it down for use against many of those charged for the J6 insurrection, that "there's a good chance that the charges against Trump would still survive."

FINALLY... Before we disappear for the next week, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest 'Green News Report', with more thoughts on the imperiled Chevron Deference Doctrine; Climate disaster upon climate disaster this week for a New Mexico town; and some very good news indeed for President Biden's job-creating climate law...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New Mexico town grapples with cascading consequences of simultaneous weather disasters; Environmentalists on edge awaiting critical US Supreme Court ruling; PLUS: Good news! Biden's climate law has created more than 300,000 clean energy jobs... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Environmental rulings to watch at the Supreme Court; Summer heat brings new misery to Palestinians in Israel's war on Gaza; We've been accidentally cooling the planet - and it's about to stop; Rising sea levels will disrupt millions of Americans' lives by 2050, study finds; Second wave of devastating floods hits Bangladesh in less than a month; Next-generation geothermal will soon power Southern California's grid; Trump says clean energy is a scam, and that could benefit China... PLUS: Scientists found another way we're exposed to 'forever chemicals': Through our skin... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extreme heat intensifies across Eastern U.S. as Tropical Storm Alberto kicks off hurricane season; Deadly wildfires force evacuations in New Mexico; Delhi, India and Saudi Arabia hit astonishing record temperatures; PLUS: U.S. schools grapple with the impacts of extreme heat... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Summer of extreme heat could worsen FEMA disaster funding shortfall; UN food chief: Poorest areas have zero harvests left; Billion-dollar weather disasters are soaring again this year. Here’s why; Miami is entering a state of unreality; Dr. Michael Mann on heatwaves: 'No economy on a dead planet'; The delusion of advanced plastic recycling using pyrolysis... PLUS: US acknowledges Northwest dams have devastated the region’s Native tribes... and much, MUCH more! ...

No matter how much Republicans repeatedly lie about "a justice system 'weaponized' by Joe Biden and the Democrats to go after Republicans", you should know by now how much of a lie that is. If you don't, I suspect Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez (NJ), Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX), both under federal indictment on corruption charges --- not to mention the President's son, Hunter Biden, on gun and tax charges --- should quickly rebut that nonsense to all but the brain-poisoned. Either way, today's BradCast has you covered. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

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

• Primary elections were held on Tuesday in Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and the District of Columbia. We'll have any noteworthy results or problem reports on tomorrow's show. But you can read more about the programming failure I referred to regarding ES&S touchscreen systems in Wildwood Crest, NJ (a state with a history of similar and much worse failures on their touchscreen systems) right here.

• Speaking of New Jersey, on Monday, the state's longtime Democratic --- and now very strongly indicted (again) --- U.S. Senator, Bob Menendez, filed to run for re-election as an independent while federal criminal trial on bribery and corruption charges continues. If he remains on the ballot this Fall (which allows him to use campaign cash to pay legal bills for him and his wife, who is also charged) it could complicate things somewhat for Democrats hoping to see his seat filled by Congressman Andy Kim.

• The House GOP loons held one of their ridiculous "Weaponization of Justice" hearings today, featuring testimony by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland who pushed back at their nonsense, even as they threaten him with a Contempt of Congress citation.

• Meanwhile, in Wisconsin today, three of Donald Trump's 2020 lieutenants who architected the failed Fake Electors plot in hopes of stealing the election from Joe Biden in swingstates, were indicted on forgery charges. The freshly indicted trio includes former Trump attorney Ken Chesebro, former WI state judge James Troupis, and GOP operative Michael Roman who served as Trump's Director of Election Day Operations. Both Chesebro and Roman have been charged in several other battleground states previously. This is Troupis' first walk of shame. Overall, some 52 people (so far), including Trump, are now facing criminal charges in five battleground states (Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and now Wisconsin) for their parts in the attempted scheme to steal the 2020 election. More charges may still be on the way in several of those states.

• Ohio's Republican lawmakers have finally passed --- and its Governor has signed --- a legislative fix to the deadline issue that would have prevented President Biden from appearing on this November's Presidential ballot in the Buckeye State. It took months, and a special session called by the Governor, to get done what they easily had done in years past for Republican Presidential candidates. But, in doing so, they also included a provision to change the definition of the phrase "foreign national" to include permanent U.S. residents --- green card holders --- born in a different country. All of which, as explained on today's show, is an effort by the state GOP to undermine popular ballot initiatives, like the wildly popular one adopted by voters last year to protect reproductive rights. In any event, and since the measure signed by Gov. Mike DeWine over the weekend could be found unconstitutional, the Democratic National Committee has decided to hold a virtual, online roll call vote to officially nominate Biden in advance of the OH state deadline.

• PLOT TWIST! A Washington state law, on the books since it was a Territory in 1865 (and updated several times since), bars convicted felons from running for office. That could now be very bad news for 34-time convicted felony Donald Trump.

• Finally, Desi Doyen --- still recovering from her second bout of COVID over the past two weeks alone --- joins us for our latest Green News Report, as India swelters under deadly record temperatures; power outages, mostly related to extreme weather, have doubled in the U.S. over the past two decades; Mexico elects a climate scientists as President amid a record heat wave; and Vermont enacts a first-in-the-nation law to make Big Oil pay up for climate damages...

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