Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

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

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

Link:
Embed:

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

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

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

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

Link:
Embed:

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

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump EPA repeals landmark Endangerment Finding, the foundation for all U.S. climate regulations; Trump orders Defense Department to use more dirty, deadly, expensive coal, subsidized by taxpayers; PLUS: Trump threatens to block new bridge between Michigan and Canada... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

Link:
Embed:

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): Yes, Climate Still Matters. Here's How It Connects to Every Other Crisis in the World Today; Trump kills EV charging programs in blue states;Solar Powered Super Bowl a First; "Devastating": Trump EPA to Scrap Landmark Climate Finding in Pro-Fossil Fuel Deregulatory Push; Trump Wants 100% American-Made EV Chargers. Some See Sabotage; The US Is Exporting Huge Amounts Of Natural Gas. Will It Cost Americans? [yes] ... PLUS: What Are The Biggest Climate Polluters Near You? ... and much, MUCH more! ...

There is, as usual, too much going on at once. That is, of course, by design of the sick, criminal gangster in the Oval Office. But it means that some of the most important stuff you need to know is getting lost amid all the noise. We do our best, on today's BradCast, to once again try to shine a spotlight on the most important thing you are least likely to hear the least about elsewhere. [Audio link to full story follows this summary.]

First off, a few stories you may hear something about today.

• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suddenly, without notice or explanation, shut down the air space above the El Paso, Texas airport on the border with Mexico early on Wednesday for ten days. A few hours after the surprise announcement, the FAA said "never mind" and reopened it with little explanation. Early reporting suggests some sort of rift between the Pentagon and the FAA regarding drones flown by Mexican drug cartels into the U.S., and the testing of some sort of new anti-drone laser weapon in response. But, as Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), whose district includes El Paso, said, "the information coming from the federal government does not add up." It doesn't. But we've got an alternative explanation that makes at least as much sense as the government's, and it has something to do with Donald Trump's longtime threats of war against our (former?) ally across the Southern Border.

• Also today, Trump's demented U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi embarrassed the nation (and herself) again during U.S. House testimony regarding the DOJ's unlawful cover-up of the Epstein Files. We share some of the low-lights from Bondi's remarkably snide behavior before the House Judiciary Committee this afternoon, when she pretended to be angry that Democratic members wanted to talk more with her about Epstein and law enforcement, than about the stock market (bizarrely enough).

NEXT... The news you are almost certainly not hearing enough about this week, especially as it is news likely to adversely affect every single American --- and everyone else on our quickly warming planet --- for generations to come.

The corrupt Trump Administration's EPA is set to announce on Thursday that it is overturning the so-called "endangerment finding", initially issued by the EPA under George W. Bush, even though his Administration refused to open the email containing it at the time.

The endangerment finding was first drafted in response to a landmark 2007 Supreme Court case named Massachusetts v. EPA. The SCOTUS majority held at the time that under the mandates of the Clean Air Act, if greenhouses gasses that warm the planet, such as Carbon Dioxide and Methane, were found by the EPA to be "air pollutants" that can "reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare," the government was required to regulate them.

The EPA's eventually finding was officially adopted by Barack Obama's Administration, and is now the basis for the bulk of federal regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in the transportation sector, but many others as well. The fossil fuel industry has sought for years to overturn the scientific finding. Doing so would lead to the end of a majority of the federal government's climate related regulations.

Thanks to the corrupted Trump Administration, and a ridiculous Dept. of Energy "report" created by five climate science-denying stooges (unlawfully empaneled, according to a recent federal court ruling), the finding will be overturned on Thursday, in what Trump allies are describing as "total victory," following more than 15 years of work to restore the halcyon days of unregulated destruction of the atmosphere by the unmitigated burning of fossil fuels. The "total victory" comes as the last 11 years have been confirmed as the hottest ever recorded on planet Earth.

So, what does all of this mean? Can it be stopped in the courts? Can states now institute their own climate regulations to replace those likely to be ended by the federal government?

We're joined today by DAN BECKER, Director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Climate Law Institute of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. Becker has long been a key player in the fight against climate change. He developed the strategy and led the fight for the Obama Administration's landmark program to cut emissions from cars, SUVs and pickups, the largest step any nation had taken at the time to slash climate warming emissions.

"It's huge," Becker tells me about the revocation of the finding. "Unfortunately, what the Trump Administration folks are going to do is not only revoke the Endangerment Finding, but they are going to repeal the biggest single step that any nation has ever taken, that used the Clean Air Act as a mechanism to cut pollution from cars," which are "the biggest problem, the biggest source of emissions in the United States."

"This is going to make kids sicker because there will be more air pollution. Kids with asthma will have more frequent asthma attacks. They'll miss more school. Their parents, who will have to stay home to take care of them, will miss more work. People with lung disease will suffer and some will die. People with heart disease will also have increased early deaths," he laments, describing some of the most immediate fallout from all of this.

But, while "this is bad for people," Becker says, "it's good for China because the Chinese auto industry wants to make a market in clean vehicles. And if they have no competition from United States automakers because the US automakers are going to make gas guzzlers as a result of not being required to make clean vehicles, then the Chinese manufacturers will win."

"That isn't really good for American workers. It's not good for American profits," he asserts, before adding: "They're laughing all the way to bank, as Trump does what General Motors told him to do."

All of this was "pre-cooked," explains Becker, when the oil and auto industries came aboard the Trump campaign. "The oil industry alone contributed $450 million dollars, and Trump said, 'If you give me a billion, I'll do anything you want.' This is the 'anything they want,' and they're getting it wholesale." It was, of course, "all pre-cooked, written out, and the menu laid by the Heritage Foundation" in Project 2025. Heritage, he notes, "is also funded by the oil industry."

So, a whole lot more on all of this today, including what you can do about it. Tune in and please share this one, as I expect most folks will hear little or nothing about it, with all of the other madness playing out, preventing most from ever even hearing about the thing that may cost them their jobs, their money, their health, and potentially even their own lives and those of their children and grandchildren...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Bad Bunny's Super Bowl power play; Court rules Trump Energy Department's secretive climate science denier panel violated federal law; PLUS: Judge blocks Trump's blockade of funding for the Hudson River Gateway tunnel project in New York... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

Link:
Embed:

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): National Lab of the Rockies, formerly NREL, lays off more than 130 employees; A Trump 'blockade' is stalling hundreds of wind and solar projects nationwide; Trump's EPA issues record low legal actions against polluters; Study ties pollution from wildfire smoke to 24,100 US deaths per year; Why China is building so many coal pants despite its solar and wind boom ... PLUS: US-driven gas turbine crunch may speed up global clean power uptake... and much, MUCH more! ...

It's always about elections, as detailed yet again on today's BradCast, with a boatload of breaking news, and a concurrent trip through the twisted windmills of the mind of the President of the United States. Or whatever's left of it. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among today's many stories...

• Best idea of the week, perhaps of the year, to date: The editors of The Nation magazine nominate the City of Minneapolis for the Nobel Peace Prize. (Seconded!)

• Don't be fooled by Donald Trump swapping out Himmler-wannabe, Border Patrol commandant Gregory Bovino for $50,000 bribe recipient and architect of first term child separation policy Tom Homan as Chief Goon in charge of the federal government's assault on Minneapolis. As many are confirming, little has changed, to date, on the ground, after the rotation of lead stooges, even as Trump has become desperate to prevent another embarrassing government shutdown this weekend.

• Speaking of, we detailed the many moving parts of the threat of a new government shutdown on yesterday's program, as Democrats insist on new guardrails on ICE and CBP in exchange for fiscal 2026 DHS funding. While a brief shutdown is still likely to happen over the weekend, a deal brokered between Dems and the White House just before airtime today would split off the bill that funds DHS from five other spending bills which would be adopted in full. A Continuing Resolution, to keep funding DHS at current levels, would then be approved to allow two more weeks to negotiate reforms, such as an end to unconstitutional door-to-door patrols, a no-masking policy, mandatory body cams, etc., following the ICE/CBP murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, etc.

• As just one sign of Trump's desperation to prevent another government shutdown, with midterm elections looming --- and likely to be very bad for his party --- ICE has reportedly ended its surge into the state of Maine, where hundreds of arrests over the past week, including of legal immigrants has infuriated residents. News of ICE leaving just one week after its new campaign comes via the otherwise "blue" state's Republican Sen. Susan Collins, so take it for what it's worth. Collins --- Chair of Senate Appropriations --- has a very difficult election this year as the only Republican Senator facing reelection in a state won in 2024 by the Democrats. There is a lot to unpack regarding all of that today. But, with Trump desperate to hang on to control of the U.S. Senate this November, its not surprising that he is hoping to make life easier for Collins, despite previously calling on his supporters to vote her out.

• The guy hired to be the new chief artistic director of the Kennedy Center after its takeover by Trump thugs, has quit --- just two weeks after his hiring was announced.

• The U.S. trade deficit --- the amount of goods and services we export versus what we import --- grew sharply in November, with imports surging and exports plummeting, despite Trump's tariff scheme which was supposed to accomplish the very opposite.

• Picking up where we left off yesterday, as news was just breaking that Trump's FBI had raided the Fulton County elections warehouse in Atlanta, reportedly grabbing secured ballots from the 2020 election --- which Trump is still pretending to have won, more than five years later --- we've got several additional details today on what was taken; what the FBI was looking for; the clown show that the execution of the search warrant became; the federal prosecutor from an entirely different state brought in to obtain the warrant; the long-known failures of the three post-election tallies by Fulton County as overseen by the state's Republican Sec. of State; and how all of this has election experts very concerned about bad faith efforts by Trump and his supporters in advance of the 2026 midterms.

• In other bad faith news regarding Trump's false claims to have won states that he didn't, the ties between his reasons for surging immigration enforcers into Minneapolis and Trump's years-long false claims to have won the state of Minnesota three times (he won it zero times), has now become clearer than ever.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as humanity slips still closer to 'Doomsday'; as the U.S. is formally withdrawn, for the second time, from the Paris Climate Agreement; as Trump is blocked by a fourth court in a fourth state on his effort to halt nearly completed offshore wind projects; and as sales of EVs now now outpace gasoline cars in Europe...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The 'Doomsday Clock' ticks ever closer to midnight; Trump formally takes U.S. out of Paris Climate Agreement for a second time; Yet another court blocks Trump's cancellation of offshore wind projects; EVs really do make the air cleaner; PLUS: Electric vehicles outsell conventional gasoline cars in Europe for the first time ever... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

Link:
Embed:

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

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules; Through the heatwave haze, the hypocrisy of Australia’s fossil-fuel policy shines bright; Court orders the Netherlands to protect a Caribbean island from climate change; Legal setbacks against a dam in the Amazon raise questions about Brazil’s reliance on hydropower; Carbon trade measure slipped into spending package... PLUS: EPA to roll back ‘Good Neighbor’ Rule on downwind smokestack pollution... and much, MUCH more! ...

We've got a lot to get to on today's BradCast. While much of our coverage may seem like a grab bag from the headlines above, you'll find there is a central theme at its heart. I think. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• We begin with the darkest news, so things can only get brighter from there, right? The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, keepers of the notorious "Doomsday Clock" reveal their latest adjustment, ticking the metaphorical timepiece from last year's 89 seconds to midnight, to just 85 seconds to humanity's end this year. The group of science advocates cited increasing risk of nuclear warfare, worsening human-caused climate change (Donald Trump was singled out there) and other threats to civilization itself, such as the misuse of biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

• Buffoonish, Nazi-ish U.S. Customs and Border Patrol chief enforcement clown, Gregory Bovino, is pushed out following the latest killing of another U.S. citizen over the weekend in his violent, chaotic Minneapolis operation. New villains are rotated in by the White House, even as Trump appears to try and play nice with his mortal enemies, Minnesota's Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

• But there are even more signs that the courageous people of Minneapolis are winning this one, even if the battle is far from over. The chief federal judge in Minnesota (a George W. Bush appointee) has ordered in-person testimony from the Acting Director of ICE, after the Administration has repeatedly failed to comply with court orders regarding immigrant rights. The judge has ordered him to explain why he should not be held in contempt by the court.

• Trump's corrupt U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's thuggish letter to Minnesota's Gov. Walz --- sent to the state just after the border patrol agent execution of 37-year old VA ICU nurse and U.S. citizen Alex Pretti over the weekend --- landed with a thud, after she essentially suggested the federal immigration crackdown would end only if the state turned over its voter roll data to the federal government. Voting rights and election law experts described the move as "reprehensible". Bondi has sued some 23 states who refused to comply with the demand. Two weeks ago, a federal judge in California dismissed the DOJ's lawsuit against the state, finding it "unprecedented and illegal". Last week, a judge in Georgia dismissed the lawsuit in the Peach State. And yesterday, a federal judge in Oregon dismissed the DOJ's suit there. In the meantime, MN Sec. of State Steve Simon has explained that he has no intention of violating state or federal law to answer Bondi's "ransom note".

• As we covered last week, a recent federal review of nearly 50 million voter registrations found zero evidence of widespread fraud by noncitizens on the voter rolls in state after state, county after county. In a new report late last week, out of more than two million active voter registrations in Utah, the state was able to find just one single noncitizen on its rolls. The state found that the person never voted and has since been removed from the rolls. Utah is another state that has correctly refused to turn over its unredacted voter data to Bondi and the DOJ.

• In news from the front lines of the Trump/GOP Gerrymandering Wars, Democrats in Maryland are now moving ahead with a plan to draw a new map designed to flip the state's last remaining Republican U.S. House district from "red" to "blue". And a state judge in Virginia, just before airtime today, declared the effort by state Democrats to adopt a constitutional amendment to redraw its U.S. House map to flip as many as 4 or 5 seats from "red" to "blue" this year to be unlawful. Proponents of the measure accuse Republican opponents as forum shopping for a friendly judge and vow to appeal his ruling.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report following the weekend's deadly winter storm across much of the U.S.; as House Republicans vote to overturn a decades-long ban on toxic mining in MN; as Michigan's Attorney General sues the Big Oil "cartel"; and as a judge blocks Trump's attempt to withhold funding for a national EV charging network adopted by Democrats under President Biden...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Danger is not over yet after deadly, extreme winter storm pummels U.S.; House Republicans overturn ban on mining near Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters; Judge blocks Trump administration from halting EV charging funds appropriated by Biden; PLUS: Michigan Attorney General's lawsuit accuses Big Oil of operating a 'fossil fuel cartel'... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

Link:
Embed:

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

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Trump’s Grant Terminations Upheld by Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals; Natural Gas Price Surges Almost 30% as Arctic Blast Grips Much of US; Enviros Charge Administration Violated Laws In Approving Alaska Road; Oregon Court Tosses Old Rule that Allowed Logging on Vast Swaths of US Land; New ExxonMobil Climate Accounting Again Blames Consumers, Not Corporation... PLUS: How Cuts To Federal Climate Funds Could Threaten Polar Vortex Research... and much, MUCH more! ...

If the first week of the new year is any indication of what's to come, Year Two of the second Trump Presidency is going to be even more nightmarish than many of us have been warning. Several fresh nightmares along those lines are unfolding on today's BradCast, as the President of the United States' obliteration of the Constitutional Order and Rule of Law grows more violent and grotesque by the day. It may only be outpaced by his determination to destroy what is left of our livable planet [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

With Donald Trump's federal immigration thugs now shooting and murdering Americans at point blank range in American cities with impunity (by the dozens), it's clear that the Rule of Law at the federal level no longer exists. We're all gonna have to get used to that idea for a while I'm afraid. We've got several examples of that today.

FIRST... we're joined by JEAN SU, Senior Attorney and Director of the Energy Justice Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. She joins us today on the heels of last night's White House announcement Trump is withdrawing the United States from the nearly 30-year old bedrock international climate agreement that forms the basis for virtually every climate pact since then meant to stave off or mitigate the effects of our quickly accelerating climate crisis.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a treaty to which every single nation in the world is a member. It was originally signed by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate. On Wednesday night, however, Trump unilaterally declared he is withdrawing the U.S. from that pact and 65 other international organizations and treaties which, the White House said, "no longer serve American interests."

Su and the Center for Biological Diversity describe Trump's unilateral withdraw from the UNFCCC as unlawful and unconstitutional. "It is an illegal exit from the treaty," Su argues today. "The Constitution is crystal clear about how we can, as a country, enter treaties" with a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate for ratification. "But the Constitution is silent on the withdrawal of treaties. It's our legal view, along with other international law organizations, that no, it is not legal for a President to unilaterally undo what a unanimous Senate passed."

She characterizes the UNFCCC as "the 'mother ship' of all collective climate bargaining and negotiations around the world." The Paris Climate Agreement, for example, which is not a treaty, but a voluntary pact, was created in 2016 under that "mother ship" treaty in hopes of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Trump already pulled the U.S. from the Paris Agreement last year. Withdraw from the UNFCCC however, as Su tells me, would be even far more devastating to both the climate AND U.S. economic interests.

"The global climate treaty ends up being a place where different governments can negotiate economic deals and band together and say, 'We want the world to move off fossil fuels and towards a renewable energy future.' When you have the entire world and the global economy making those moves, the U.S. suffers by being a pariah on that. And in that way, U.S. consumers, citizens, we all suffer economically by being the odd-man out."

But other nations are quickly filling that vacuum. Trump's failure to lead on renewable energy and electric vehicles has allowed China to become the world's top manufacturer of both, as Trump tries instead to revive the dirty, deadly, dying coal and oil industries. "He has these partnerships with deeply entrenched corporate monopolists in this country, and he is literally going around the world pillaging it for those interests," says Su. "And it is an international security threat."

When she last joined us on the show just after Trump's second election victory in November of 2024, Su described him as a "climate-denying fascist" who would "strip the Environmental Protection Agency [and] the Civil Rights Division of the Dept. of Justice" until the "administrative apparatus" at both were "entirely smothered, stripped bare, and not functional in any way, in terms of actually protecting our environment and our health and safety." She couldn't have been more right about that, as evidenced over the past year. She also described, at the time, several "bright spots" she saw nonetheless. Today, we discuss some of those bright spots again to see if they remain as bright as she'd hoped they would back in late 2024.

Please tune in for a really informative conversation on all of the above and more.

THEN... Speaking of disrespect for our Constitutional Order and Rule of Law, a fifth U.S. District Court Judge today has now ruled that a fifth U.S. Attorney appointed by the Trump Administration is serving in the role unlawfully and in violation of the Constitution. John Sarcone III, the nation's top prosecutor in the Northern District of New York is "not lawfully appointed" as U.S. Attorney, according to the federal judge, who issued her opinion in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, attempting to quash grand jury subpoenas obtained by Sarcone seeking information on the two massive civil fraud cases James successfully brought against Trump and the National Rifle Association.

Meanwhile, over in the Eastern District of Virginia this week, a federal judge --- one appointed by Trump himself! --- took it upon himself to issue an order to Lindsey Halligan, giving her seven days to explain why she is still serving in the role of U.S. Attorney after a different federal judge, last November, found that she was unlawfully serving in the post. The judge's ruling last year resulted in the dismissal of revenge indictments obtained by Halligan at Trump's orders against both James and former FBI Director James Comey. Nonetheless, Halligan is still serving in the position, with one judge in the District even including an asterisk by her name whenever she is mentioned in court documents, denoting last year's ruling of her unlawful appointment.

With five top federal prosecutors illegally heading up the DOJ facilities in major jurisdictions (the others are New Jersey, Nevada and Los Angeles), it is clear that the Trump Administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi believe they have no legal requirement to follow any of the nation's laws.

FINALLY... With more lawlessness and ill-considered climate-related actions by the Administration, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as Trump's unlawful Venezuela attack becomes even more unlawful; as the Administration announces thousands of layoffs at FEMA amid ever-worsening climate disasters; and as Los Angeles struggles to rebuild following two deadly, devastating climate change-fueled wild fires that destroyed thousands of homes one year ago this week...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

It's five years to the day since January 6, 2021, when the then President of the United States got away with one of the most audacious crimes ever attempted in the U.S.: a failed attempt to have his own supporters violently overthrow the U.S. Government in order to help steal a Presidential election. Today on The BradCast, we hear from the federal prosecutor who tried --- and almost succeeded --- in holding him to account for those crimes and others. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Donald Trump really didn't want you to hear about those crimes. Especially from the guy who meticulously investigated them before obtaining two federal grand jury criminal indictments against the disgraced, then-former President for both the attempted election theft and his theft of thousands of pages of highly classified national security documents upon leaving office, and for his obstruction of the investigations into both matters.

It was likely no coincidence that Trump invaded Venezuela just hours after his lackeys and co-conspirators in the U.S. House, on New Years Eve, released video of more-than-eight-hours of closed-door testimony, in hopes it would stay buried there. We attempt to unbury it a bit today.

BUT FIRST UP... a few choice, incisive and amusing takes on Trump's wildly unlawful invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its leader, from comedian Jamie Kaler and the hilariously satirical Rep. Jack Kimble (R-CA) social media account.

Also today, news on Tuesday's sudden passing of 65-year old Rep. Doug LaMalfa, an actual Republican Congressman, for seven terms, from California and a major Trump supporter. His surprise death, along with yesterday's resignation of Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and the hospitalization of another Republican Congressman, Indiana's Jim Baird, following a recent traffic accident, renders Speaker Mike Johnson's caucus perilously close to losing their House majority as another deadline for a government shutdown looms on January 30.

THEN... It's on to the December 17, 2025 closed-door testimony of Special Counsel Jack Smith before the GOP-controlled U.S. House Judiciary Committee which, no doubt, regrets the fact they had to take his testimony in order to convince Trump they were actually investigating the now-second term President's absurd claims that Joe Biden's Dept. of Justice was weaponized to prevent Trump from running for President again.

Though Smith requested public testimony in the House, as per tradition for special prosecutors following a Presidential probe --- and, in this case, two historic criminal indictments --- Republicans balked. They forced the closed-door testimony before attempting to hide the 255-page transcript and more than eight hours of video-taped testimony from Smith over a holiday.

With the aid of coverage and insight from former senior federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, independent journalists Marcy Wheeler and Parker Malloy, and a bit from the New York Times, we share audio from some of the notable testimony and revelations from the three-decade veteran DOJ prosecutor who Republican interrogators on the Committee failed to lay a glove on. But, how could they? You'll have trouble finding a more by-the-book prosecutor than Smith.

In audio clips from the hearing that we share today, Smith speaks to...

• The lack of "weaponization" of the DOJ under Joe Biden, and the actual weaponization and death blows that the new Trump Administration is now reigning down on it over the past year since returning to office.
• His "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that Trump committed --- and would have been convicted of --- both the crimes related to January 6 and the classified documents case, had Smith not been forced to dismiss both cases after Trump's reelection.
• How the witnesses he would have presented at trial on the attempted theft of the 2020 election were all Republican allies of Trump.
• How Trump "exploited" violence on January 6th.
• How it was Trump himself who "chose" which Senators' phone call toll records would be probed in the investigation, and how none of those members were "spied" on, as now falsely claimed by Trump and Congressional Republicans. (Toll records detail only what number was called, when, and how long the call lasted. As Eliason explains, it would have been prosecutorial malpractice to not subpoena those records. Smith's investigation never "wire-tapped" any member of Congress, as recently and falsely claimed by Trump and his fellow GOP scam artists.)
• How Trump was entitled, under the First Amendment, to lie about a "stolen" election. But that he was not legally allowed to use those lies in furtherance of inducing his followers to commit crimes, such as storming the Capitol to obstruct the certification of Biden's victory or attempting to kill the Vice President.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our first Green News Report of the new year, with a collection of "while we were out" headlines to get us caught up for the new year following the warmest Christmas in recorded U.S. history...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: While we were out: Donald Trump deposed Venezuela's president to gain control of the country's oil reserves; Trump Administration halted five offshore wind projects already under construction; PLUS: The U.S. saw its warmest Christmas on record, thanks to fossil fuels... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

Link:
Embed:

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

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 'Trump's EPA' in 2025: A fossil fuel-friendly approach to deregulation; Pollution from coal plants was dropping. Then came Trump and AI; EPA says it will propose drinking water limit for perchlorate, but only because court ordered it; Trump Has Left The US Less Prepared For Natural Disasters, Experts Say... PLUS: Trump says cost was behind his water pipeline veto, but some say it's retribution... and much, MUCH more! ...

My ears are still ringing after the President of the United States spent about 20 minutes barking at me last night. But the show --- in this case, the final BradCast of 2025 --- must go on. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

VERY QUICKLY... Some final election results for the year, as a Democratic union leader and U.S. Army veteran won a special election on Tuesday for a state Senate seat in Kentucky in a more than 47-point landslide over his Republican opponent! Gary Clemons won almost 73% of the vote, according to today's unofficial results. Granted, it was in a Democratic leaning area of Louisville, but one where Kamala Harris won by just 6 points last year. So, it amounted to an approximately 42-point shift in favor of Team Blue. In Kentucky. That should help propel the Resistance into the critical mid-term election year of 2026.

THEN... Two of our favorite guests are here today for an end-of-year roundtable, of sorts, as we wrap up a...well...tumultuous year, to put it far too nicely, as we try to make sense of whatever happened last night during Donald Trump's weird, lie-filled, prime-time tirade and a whole bunch of other stuff at year's end.

We're joined once again today by fellow old-school bloggers HEATHER DIGBY PARTON of Salon and Digby's Hullabaloo, and 'DRIFTGLASS' of the Professional Left Podcast.

AP noted last night that Trump has frequently said he believes more Americans would back him if they simply heard him describe his track record. Well, I think everybody heard him last night. Even if they had their TVs off, since the guy was shouting so loud. What he was shouting, however, was mostly a string of ridiculous claims and a whole bunch of numbers, many of which were made up out of whole cloth.

In his mercifully brief, but endlessly angry remarks, he said "at levels never seen before" or "at record levels" at least 7 times; referred to at least 11 different "records" that he claims to have broken over the past year; cited "history" --- as in, "never before in American history" --- at least 12 times; and blamed Joe Biden for most of his own failures at least 7 times.

Whether anybody is more inclined to back him after hearing that "record" --- (new polling out yesterday from PBS/NPR/Marist found his overall support at just 38%, AP/NORC clocked him in at just 36% approval) --- than they were before last night remains to be seen.

"I couldn't guess about his supporters, because I've lost all sense of anything making sense amongst the American electorate," quips an enjoyably cynical Digby today. "These people are crazy. And so is he. I am just looking at this and thought what kind of person watched that gibbering clown last night and thought, 'Wow, that is a great president'?"

"It is clear that Donald Trump has made a career out of lying to people. Now he's just a living sales pitch. But you can't out-shout kitchen table math," argues Driftglass in regard to last night's speech, before somewhat countering himself. "On the other hand, if you've ever read 1984, it's just a matter of telling the rubes what you want them to think. They are so sunk-cost bought-in to Donald Trump, they know if they don't believe it, the whole thing crashes down."

"There's a thing in aeronautics called the Jesus Nut," he continues. "It's this bolt-nut combination that holds the entire helicopter assembly together. Without it, you'd better pray to Jesus because you're going down. Donald Trump is that to them. He is the thing holding it all together. So whatever crazy crap he says, they have to believe it, they have to go along with it, because the alternative is the abyss."

When we move to the topic of whether Republicans are going to accept the Democrats latest attempt to help save them from themselves by extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies that Trump and the GOP cut --- with monthly premiums now set to skyrocket for tens of millions of Americans in the new year --- Digby believes that "Republicans are not coming to their senses."

"I think that the vast majority of the Republican caucus, in both the House and Senate, are happy to let the subsidies expire because they know they are going to lose next fall. They see the writing on the wall. And they figure, 'The one thing we did was we destroyed Obamacare.' That's been on their agenda from the very beginning. If they get nothing else out of this whole mess, they get that. They destroyed Obamacare. They don't care about how many people suffer, because this is their Great White Whale. Or Great Black Whale, I guess, in the case of Obamacare."

Driftglass, who explains that his ACA monthly premiums are set to quadruple next year for him and his wife thanks to the GOP's cuts (from about $700/month this year to more than $2500/month next year!), believes that Trump's own supporters "are going to take a huge hit, but they are going to go look for scapegoats, not solutions. And that is tragic. And it's dangerous."

He is also wistful about what has happened over the past year. "This country is now a different country than it was in 2024," he observes. "We have become a different place. We've lost our innocence. This happened after the Viet Nam War, the Civil Rights Movement. Fundamentally, this country has changed in ways we do not understand yet. And whatever happens after Trump, it is going to be a different place than you and I grew up in. And part of that is that there is now a solid block of 36% of the American public who are just insane."

We have much more insanity to try and make sense of on today's program. From the house of cards that Speaker Mike Johnson is barely hanging on to; to the release of the Epstein Files that, by law, is supposed to happen tomorrow (both Digby and Drifty are dubious, to say the least); to why it is that Indiana Republicans actually stood up to Trump's threats and refused to gerrymander their U.S. House map; to what could possibly reverse Trump's seemingly quickly sinking fortunes (and health) next year.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen helps us close out the show with our final 'Green News Report' for 2025, at the end of a program that hopefully gives you lots to chew on, worry about, think about, plan for, fight for or laugh about until we return in 2026...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




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

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Congressional Democrats and scientists vow to fight Trump White House plan to dismantle the nation's 'crown jewel' of climate science; EU and Ford Motor back off transition to EVs (China doesn't); Trump admits tanker blockade is about seizing Venezuela's oil; PLUS: Global warming is transforming the Arctic faster than scientists expected... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

Link:
Embed:

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): 7 quiet wins for climate and nature in 2025; AP photographers capture destruction, heartache and resilience as climate change advanced in 2025; Peak glacier extinction in the mid-twenty-first century; Trump administration admits to targeting blue states for energy grant cuts; Meet the biggest heat pumps in the world; China’s fossil fuel power output set for first drop in a decade ... PLUS: New data raises questions about how much the Earth has warmed... and much, MUCH more! ...

Today on The BradCast: Don't let our ridiculous, sociopathic President's absurd antics and unspeakable corruption prevent you from losing sight of the relentless, damaging effects of his simple, terrible, policy-making decisions, and the increasingly high costs Americans are paying for them. Even regarding policy-making decisions that Trump previously vowed he would not make. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

As you know, Donald Trump ran in 2024 on a promise to decrease costs for consumers on "day one", vowing to "make American affordable again." Now he claims the word "affordability" has been made up as part of another "Democrat hoax", and that his policies --- including massive tariffs which serve as a tax on every American --- are actually lowering prices. They aren't.

Similarly, he repeatedly vowed to never touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. He is now gutting all three of them in various ways, as even Fox "News" pointed out today, believe it or not, noting that "Trump broke his promise to protect a lifeline for 71 million Americans." Not to mention his massive cuts to the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare) that go into effect on January 1, increasing the cost of health care for everyone, even those with employee health care plans.

Back in October, after Trump's tariffs pushed away the world's largest soybean customer, China, Trump claimed to have made a "deal" with them their purchase of 12 million metric by the world's largest customer by year's end. Instead, China has purchased a quarter of the amount that the Administration claimed the Great Deal Maker had secured. American farmers are now facing bankruptcy while consumers are paying more everything, including for beef, the price of which has spiked thanks, in no small part, to climate change-fueled drought. (Climate change, as Trump will tell you, is just another "Democrat hoax," of course.)

In hopes of mitigating the damage his policies have caused for farmers, on Monday, Trump announced another new bailout for the ag industry. (The Administration is, euphemistically, calling it a "bridge payment".) The latest aid package is for some $12 billion to farmers as overseas customers, especially China, have fled, while prices for fertilizer and seed are up (also thanks to Trump's tariff tantrum) and the labor market is scarce, thanks to Trump's immigration policy thuggery. The new aid package follows on two similar farmer bailouts during Trump's first term --- when he originally began his trade war against China --- for $22 billion in 2019 and a whopping $46 billion in 2020.

As if all of that isn't bad enough, last week Trump announced a new rule to reverse money- and life-saving fuel efficiency standards enacted by Joe Biden for cars and trucks. He claimed that encouraging the manufacture of more polluting cars and cutting $7,500 incentives for clean electronic vehicles would somehow make the purchase of new cars $1,000 cheaper in the U.S. than they would have been under the Biden rules.

All of that is nonsense. It is as absurd as Trump's years-long bluster about ending a "Biden EV mandate" that never actually existed, as explained by our guest today, DAN BECKER, Director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Climate Law Institute of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. Becker has worked for years at the Campaign, developing the strategy and fight for the biggest single step any nation has taken to fight global warming: The Barack Obama Administration’s ground-breaking program to cut deadly greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution in half from cars, SUVs and pickup trucks. Biden furthered that program with additional efficiency standards. And, last week, Trump announced he was doing away with them.

"In one stroke," Becker told AP, "Trump is worsening three of our nation’s most vexing problems: the thirst for oil, high gas pump costs and global warming." Today, Becker joins us to dive into the details.

The previous CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standard enacted by Obama and then Biden "saves gas. And by saving gas, you save money at the pump because you don't have to fill your tank with as much gas, or go as often. And when you burn less gas, you pollute less," Becker tells me today. "In fact, every gallon of gas burned pumps 25 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution into the atmosphere. And we burn a lot of gallons. So this is a major source of global warming pollution. And the US, because we drive a lot more than other folks, we drive more gas guzzlers than other folks, and we drive them further. We are the biggest auto polluter on the planet. And Trump is only going to make that much worse."

The Obama/Biden rules "represent the biggest single step that any nation has ever taken to cut use of oil --- saving you money at the pump --- cut pollution that is a result of burning that gas in your car," Becker explains. "And it's really unjustifiable to watch the President of the United States tear up this very valuable protection for consumers, for the environment, cutting our dependence on foreign oil, and at the same time lie, and say 'Oh, it's actually a good thing for you because you will save money.' Because, in fact, it will cost you much more at the gas pump than you would save upfront with a dirtier car."

All the while, China is expanding their sale of Electric Vehicles around the world at a massive pace --- even while they, essentially, aren't allowed to be sold in the U.S. (unless you are willing to pay a 100% tariff). "They're selling like hotcakes in Asia, Europe, South America, and Africa. But we don't buy them here," says Becker. In the bargain, however, U.S. automakers --- including those who joined Trump at the White House last week for his announcement --- are, shooting themselves in the foot. "The reality is that the auto companies are working with Trump to create their own grave," warns Becker.

Why are they doing this? Tune in today for an explanation of that and much more, as Trump's policies --- never mind his bluster and daily sociopathy --- are costing Americans a fortune...and even their lives...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)