The landmark federal climate bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, adopted last year without a single Republican vote when Democrats held majorities in both chambers of Congress, has a long way to go before we can determine its full success or failure.

On the other hand, as discussed on today's BradCast, if it is going well, but few Americans know it's going well --- as corporate broadcast media spend nearly 24 hours a day on various crises both manufactured and real (ironically, many caused by climate change!) --- can it or will it make a difference in next year's elections? [Audio link to full show is posted below this summary.]

But, FIRST UP today, one (or more) of those manufactured crises. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's desperate attempt on Tuesday to win over his own far-right caucus in the House by unilaterally declaring an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden doesn't seem to be going over very well. He had to break his own vow, made just 11 days ago, to do it only after a full vote of the House. It doesn't seem to be winning over enough colleagues to help him avoid a federal Government shutdown at the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1. And even fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate apparently see no evidence of High Crimes or Misdemeanors by the President to warrant impeachment.

On the other hand, he hasn't been pushed out of Speaker job by his own party this week...yet. So there's that!

NEXT: Biden and the Democrats' landmark Inflation Reduction Act --- featuring the largest single investment in history in climate change mitigation and clean energy manufacturing and jobs --- is now one year old. It has already begun to "turbocharging" a massive investment in new manufacturing plants and jobs in the U.S. to help reduce fossil fuel carbon emissions causing our climate crisis. It will soon be funding billions of dollars in home improvement projects to allow low and middle-income homeowners to electrify, solarize, upgrade and simply increase energy efficiency to save money. (NOTE: Not currently applicable in states like Florida, Kentucky, Iowa or South Dakota, apparently, which have failed to join the federal program to help their own residents save money and improve their home values while fighting climate change.)

Our guest today to discuss all of this is the great DAVID ROBERTS, longtime climate, energy and politics journalist and podcaster at Volts.WTF. We last spoke to him a year ago, just after passage of the critical legislation.

He explains today that it is still "too early to tell" whether the legislation is a success or not given all of its many practical objectives, which include vastly lowering emissions, creating millions of good paying jobs, sparking a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S. to bring supply chains home for renewable energy technology and overtaking China's dominance in the sector.

"Because the IRA's goals are so vast," Roberts explains, "it will only be over the course of five to ten years that we really have any understanding of whether it pulled it off. It's trying to do enormous things."

"What we definitely can say," however, is "that one of the goals --- which was to spur private investment into these products and supply chains in the U.S. --- is absolutely working. Last I looked, it's like $270 billion-worth of private investment flooding into the U.S."

But the yardstick for success here may be even longer than you think, according to Roberts. He tells me there is yet another goal for the legislation that is "not as public, but, if you talk to some Biden people behind the scenes, they will tell you that this apocalyptic terror you have about the future of democracy is not crazy."

"We are in a perilous, perilous moment. And part of the thinking behind IRA was that it is these parts of the country that were hollowed out by globalization, hollowed out by decades of reflexive 'free trade' dogma --- it's these parts of the county that have experienced this reactionary backlash that we've all been living through over the past little while. And if that goes on, U.S. democracy is in serious, existential trouble. People are freaked out about that all the way to the top. So, part of the goal of IRA was to channel investment into those areas. And that is happening."

Roberts says that much of the new investment "is coming into Southern and Midwestern states," including by companies like First Solar, which is "investing $1.2 billion into a facility in Louisiana. That is the single largest private investment in that state's history." Similar projects are happening in states like Georgia, West Virginia and elsewhere.

So, all we need to assess success of this enormous new law is whether it helps solves both of the nation's most existential crises: Democracy and Climate Change.

"Spurring investment, yes, it is succeeding. Is it succeeding in muting that reactionary backlash? Is it succeeding in muting these horrendous politics we've dealt with? Is it succeeding in turning a few swing voters in those swing states to help Joe Biden get back into office? That we don't know yet. And part of the problem is that our media ecosystem is broken and dysfunctional, and people just don't know about [the law]."

How to solve that? Well, as you can tell, we've got much to discuss today with Roberts along those lines as well, as he characterizes that part of issue as "the six million question" given "how broken the media is, and how difficult it is to get it to focus on these things."

He's got a few ideas, however, some involve "a huge role for NGOs, for the green movement" and even for you, as the climate, economic and political effects of the IRA one year on are still "TBD"...

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Note: The barest of headlines about the huge news regarding new, additional charges filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in Donald Trump's stolen documents case began coming in just minutes before the end of today's BradCast. Up until then, however...we had plenty of other stuff to cover.

Among that stuff...

• We have another new winner in the corporate media's never-ending effort to find new euphemisms to avoid accurately informing the American people about what Donald Trump did after the 2020 Presidential election. (For those still unclear, he used every tool he could muster to try and STEAL a Presidential election from the American people). Today's winner in the Euphemism Olympics is the New York Times, which ended a short piece on Trump attorneys meeting with Jack Smith's prosecutors on Thursday, in anticipation of indictments in D.C., with this ridiculous turn of phrase: "Mr. Trump also faces scrutiny from the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., who is investigating his efforts to bend the results of the 2020 election in that state in his favor." --- To "bend the results"?! Really, New York Times?!

• Yes, I admit to being obsessed with the above point, but for good reason. A few words today on why the media (and Democrats!) failure to accurately inform the American people about the simple fact that Trump tried to STEAL the last Presidential Election is so critical right now, especially in advance of next year's Presidential election.

• While Jack Smith is clearly digging very deep in both of the federal Trump investigations he is overseeing --- the stolen documents case and the attempted theft of the 2020 election --- it's quite bizarre that, according to former, far-right Rep. Mo Brooks, the Special Counsel has, to date, failed to interview him! That, even though Brooks spoke before Trump at the January 6, 2021 pre-insurrection rally in D.C. where Brooks instructed the angry, duped crowd to "start taking down names and kicking ass". But it's all the more odd because of the four very specific things that Brooks claims Trump instructed him to do last year, seven months after Trump was out of office, including instructions to advocate "rescinding the election" and "physically removing Joe Biden from the White House". All of which, according to the now former Alabama Congressman and one-time Trump endorsee, "violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law."

• Meanwhile, accountability continues in Michigan where, last week, state Attorney General Dana Nessel charged the state's 16 fake Trump electors with 8 felony counts each related to their attempt to help the former President steal the state's 2020 election. On Wednesday night, Stefanie Lambert, a Michigan attorney who was part of a group being investigated by a MI Special Prosecutor, claimed that she has "been indicted" for her role in breaching voting systems in several townships across the state. Nessel appointed the Special Prosecutor late last Summer to investigate the activities by a bunch of MAGA folks believed to have unlawfully stolen and breached vote tabulation systems after 2020. The group includes a former State Rep, a sitting County Sheriff, a few of the clowns from that Cyber Ninjas outfit, and the failed former Republican A.G. candidate Matt DePerno. After the Trump-endorsed DePerno was nominated by the state GOP to run for A.G. last year, Nessel referred the probe to a Special Prosecutor, so as to not be seen as prosecuting her own election opponent. We'll soon find out if Lambert (who is a real piece of work, apparently) and the others, including DePerno, have indeed been indicted by the Special Prosecutor's grand jury.

• Even Fox "News" was agog today at the latest numbers on the U.S. economy under Joe Biden, as released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. The new numbers revealed, among other things, higher-than-expected growth in GDP in the second quarter and extraordinary resilience of Biden's economy which many had expected to be in recession by now. It isn't.

• Joe Biden and the Democrats' landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, turns one year old next month and, according to experts, it is already "turbocharging clean energy technology" in the U.S. and producing massive investment in U.S. manufacturing and jobs for the first time in decades. No wonder the fossil fuel industry and Republicans worked so hard for so many years to prevent such investments --- and why Congressional Republicans are working so hard to try and repeal it.

• With July now likely to have been the hottest single month that any human being has ever lived through on Planet Earth, the President, in remarks today at the White House, detailed efforts across his Administration to help folks survive the extreme heat now slamming about 170 million Americans across about 40% of the nation. His remarks offered yet another opportunity for Biden to sing the praises of the Inflation Reduction Act, which not one Republican in Congress supported when the landmark bill was adopted last year.

• Finally (as today's big news about new charges against Trump in the documents case just began to break at show's end), Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with several items related to the extreme heat in both the U.S. and Europe --- and, some very good news about EV charging!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extreme heat waves in U.S. and Europe virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, new study finds; Extreme heat plus pollution doubles the risk of fatal heart attacks; Arizona's iconic cacti dying from heat; Florida waters may have set new all-time global heat record; PLUS: Major U.S. automakers unite to build expansive national EV fast-charging network... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): This could be the hottest July in the last 120,000 years; State of the climate: 2023 now likely hottest year on record after extreme summer; Biden announced new steps to provide relief from extreme heat across the US; Where the most US residents bake because of concrete and lack of trees; Ominous sign for COP28: G20 again shunned deal to phase down fossil fuels; Canada releases framework to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies; UPS drivers threaten to strike. Climate change is one reason; 6 days after fuel spill reported, most in Tennessee city still can’t drink the tap water... PLUS: 'Battle plan': How the far right would dismantle climate programs... and much, MUCH more! ...

As the nation awaits new, almost-certainly coming indictments of the former President at both the federal and state level within the next few days and/or weeks, we were able to catch up on several related and unrelated items on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Among today's stories...

• Congrats to AP for coming up with yet another novel way to not report directly on the fact that Donald Trump tried to STEAL the 2020 election! I'm fairly certain theirs is the first reference I've seen over the past two and half years of media trying to avoid the most accurate term for what he did by, in this case, reporting on his efforts to "unravel" his 2020 loss. Really, AP? Unravel?

• Meanwhile, we've been reporting for well over a year now, in detail, on the dangerous, unlawful, MAGA-led breach of wildly vulnerable statewide voting systems in Coffee County, Georgia beginning the day after the January 6 insurrection in D.C. We've come at it from all angles over that year, and are still digging in to critical, uninvestigated elements of the story --- including the attempts to cover it all up by the County itself and GA's Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger. But I've been asked by a number of readers and listeners of late if I know whether or not Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis is probing that breach --- which could help unravel the 2024 election --- as part of her broad conspiracy investigation into Trump's various attempts to steal the 2020 election in the Peach State. The short answer is "sorta". The Guardian's Hugo Lowell has been reporting of late that "computer trespass", in reference to what Team Trump did in Coffee, is likely to be included among the charges for some named in Willis' "imminent" indictments. (See here today and a few more details four days ago from Lowell here. For more details beyond that, tune in to today's show!)

• While the odds are getting longer by the day, there is still a chance that Trump will not ultimately be the GOP candidate for President in 2024. I explain why that could still be the case and, with that in mind, which of the many GOP also-rans appear likely to qualify for the first GOP Presidential debate next month in Milwaukee.

• As to the "imminent" indictments expected from Special Counsel Jack Smith in relation to Trump's attempts to steal the 2020 election before, during and after January 6, 2021, new polling suggests a majority of Americans (if not Republican voters) believe that a third indictment would be a good enough reason for the disgraced former President to drop out of next year's race. Not that he will.

• While our fossil-fueled climate continues to wreak havoc across the globe this Summer, it seems as if a switch has been flipped in recent days, with Fox "News" and the Republican Party suddenly launching a last-gasp, desperate attempt at preventing the quickly accelerating global transition to clean, Electric Vehicles. Now who could possibly be behind such an effort? We discuss and debunk the everything-old-is-new again attacks on EVs coming from the Fossil Fuel industry's tools on the right.

• Finally, speaking of climate havoc, Desi Doyen has our latest Green News Report as the Summer of 2023 continues to break records for record-breaking heat, fire and flooding. Oh, and Fox "News" has found their newest dumb thing to pretend to freak about in the bargain: saving money with more efficient water heaters! Sigh...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.N. warns nations must move faster to adapt to extreme heat; Heat waves in Europe and Middle East set astonishing new records; Outdated federal flood maps underestimate flood risk across U.S.; PLUS: Wind and solar on track to provide more than a third of the world's electricity by 2030... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The world is reeling from record heat and flooding. Scientists say it's the cost of climate inaction; It's stupid hot. Here are the freakish global heating facts; Summers are always hot. Here's how we know climate change is making summer 2023 hotter; Seniors are migrating to states that face America’s most extreme heat; Your air conditioner isn't built for this heat. 5 tips can boost performance; Monsoon floods touch the walls of the Taj Mahal; Study finds using waste plastic in roads isn't ready for prime time (yet); Canadian wildfires hit Indigenous communities hard, threatening their land and culture... PLUS: How to keep your dog safe in the heat, according to an emergency vet... and much, MUCH more! ...

We not only cover a whole bunch of news stories on today's BradCast, we also explain what they mean and why they matter. As always, we want you to not only know what happened, but understand why it did and what can be done about it, so you can pass that important information on to others. [Audio link to full program follows this summary.]

Among the many stories both reported and explained on today's program...

• Film and TV actors of SAG-AFTRA join the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in going on strike against producers in hopes of proper payment and residuals for streaming services and AI usage, among other appropriate demands.

• We take another quick spin through my new favorite website --- FoxWeather.com --- where they report on all of the catastrophic effects of climate change now devastating much of the planet, but because Fox hates its duped readers and viewers so much, they never even once explain why all of these disasters are now happening. (Hint for Fox "News" dupes, if I'm lucky enough that you stopped by: It's the climate change, stupid, as caused by the burning of fossil fuels.)

• The Biden FDA approves the first ever over-the-counter birth control pill. Happily, this should be bring the abortion rate way down. So, rightwingers will be delighted with this news, right?

• Dumb GOP megadonors in Illinois lose their ill-considered fight to prevent the use of clean, electric leaf blowers on their 22-acre estate. But it's a win for their neighbors and for the rest of us. (And even for them, whether they too dumb to know it or not!)

• A state court orders New York to redraw U.S. House maps before the 2024 elections. That alone could end up flipping the House back to Democratic control next year, after the GOP flipped four NY seats from "blue" to "red" last year, after the state court blocked an attempted Democratic gerrymander. It's complicated.

• Great news for North Carolina residents! After Republicans on the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked Affirmative Action for college admissions at the University of North Carolina (and everywhere else in the bargain), the school has announced it will be offering FREE tuition to many in-state students "as part of their continued effort to boost diversity".

• Late last month, the corrupt rightwing SCOTUS majority used their recently invented-from-whole-cloth "Major Questions Doctrine" to block the Biden Administration from using the specific text of the federal HEROES Act to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans to borrowers. The President has announced a new plan to use a different law to accomplish even broader forgiveness, though it will take a bit more time than his initial plan. In the meantime, beginning next month, a newly restructured repayment plan for loans will allow millions to pay just $0 a month (you read that right) without seeing any interest added. Their entire loan may then be considered as paid in full after 10 years. We break down the key details of the new plan and how Republicans are already attempting to undermine it, because they hate people who aren't millionaires or billionaires.

• Finally, it's our latest disturbing Green News Report with Desi Doyen here to drive you crazy as the summer of climate catastrophes continue. Among our coverage: another major insurer flees Florida; California works out a deal with manufacturers to phase out polluting big rigs; and the U.S. becomes the blackout capital of the world, thanks to the many failures of natural gas...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Another major insurer exits Florida, citing high costs of extreme weather; Heavy truck manufacturers reach deal with California to phase out polluting diesel big rigs; The U.S. is the blackout capital of the world, and natural gas is largely to blame; PLUS: Americans vastly underestimate the popularity of climate policies... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): ‘The Heat Will Kill You First’ is a chilling book — and a warning; Health warnings as "Cerberus" heat wave broils southern Europe; Vermont floods show limits of America’s efforts to adapt to climate change; As budget talks heat up, Republicans ramp up attacks on climate spending; Heat down below is making the ground shift under Chicago; New anti-ESG rule in Missouri offers US Republicans another path away from 'wokeness'; Town buys the surrounding forests to confront climate-driven wildfires... PLUS: It's toxic slime on Florida's Lake Okeechobee... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extreme heat and deadly storms spread across much of the U.S.; Train carrying hazardous chemicals derails into Montana's Yellowstone River; PLUS: More EV carmakers adopt Tesla's fast-charging standard... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Humans approaching limits of 'survivability' as sweltering heatwaves engulf parts of Asia; Vast fossil fuel and farming subsidies causing 'environmental havoc'; Vast fossil fuel and farming subsidies causing 'environmental havoc'; 'Its absolutely guaranteed': the best and worst case scenarios for sea level rise; Intensifying rains pose hidden flood risks across U.S.; Oil spill from Shell pipeline fouls farms and a river in a long-polluted part of Nigeria; Paris climate finance summit fails to deliver debt forgiveness plan; Samuel Alito's wife leased land to an oil and gas firm while the justice fought the EPA; Giant wind farm takes root off coast of Massachusetts... PLUS: Wolves that nearly died out have recovered, now helping island's ecosystem... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Western states reach landmark agreement to stave off multi-decade drought crisis on Colorado River; World's lakes are shrinking due to human overuse and climate change; PLUS: Minnesota Democrats poised to enact landmark environment and climate legislation... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): A CO2 pipeline rupture in Mississippi has lessons for future projects; Competition, abundant minerals, Biden tax breaks lead EV price drop; More than a third of the area charred by wildfires in Western North America can be traced back to fossil fuels; Supply crunch on electrical transformers needed to avoid blackouts and quit fossil fuels; Could Guyana’s Exxon ruling scare big oil off risky exploration?; US’s largest clean energy transmission project hits major milestone... ... PLUS: New York’s public housing is sinking — literally... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Spain broils in unprecedented heat, while Italy's rivers dry up; European Union adopts 'the biggest climate protection law of all time'; El Nino return likely to shatter recent heat records; PLUS: New York officially becomes first state to ban natural gas in newly-constructed buildings... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): El Niño is coming. Here's what that means for weather in the U.S.; In Texas, Lawmakers Throw Tax Funded Lifeline to Fossil Fuels; Toxic water floods an Okla. town. Will FERC hold a dam liable?; New IEA report highlights the need and means for the oil and gas industry to drastically cut emissions; IKEA boosts gigascale output at an Arizona solar panel factory; Is deadly Illinois dust storm a climate indicator?; FL and LA must borrow millions to pay insurance claims... PLUS: Is it a lake, or a battery? A new kind of hydropower is spreading fast... and much, MUCH more! ...

Time is running out on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among the many clock-ticking stories covered today...

• The contract for film and television writers ran out as of midnight last night. Today, 11,500 union members in the Writers Guild of America went on strike. The late-night comedy shows have already been shut down and, sadly, Americans are likely to be less well-informed because of it. We explain.

• The deadline for how long Republicans can hold the nation and world economy hostage to ill-considered, self-destructive extremist idiocy --- before blowing everything up and creating a first-ever default of the U.S. Government in the process --- got much closer as of Monday. The new earliest date for when the U.S. Government may run out of authority to borrow the funds needed to pay for stuff that Republicans and Democrats alike long ago committed to paying for is now June 1, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

  Yet, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his band of reckless Republicans in Congress continue to exploit our dumb debt limit law to try and extort huge cuts to food and health care to millions of Americans (including veterans) along with a rollback of critical climate crisis initiatives in exchange for not destroying the nation's economy.

  President Biden is right not to negotiate with terrorists on this matter. The way the media covers this mess, however, will make a big difference in whether or not Biden's able to continue to do the right thing. In the meantime, we sure do hope he has a plan to handle the worst-case scenario that today's gerrymandered, death-wish GOPers may actually be dumb enough to cause for the first time in U.S. history.

• Not all Republicans have a death wish, apparently. On the same day last week, in two different "red" states, South Carolina and Nebraska, a handful of Republican state lawmakers voted to protect abortion rights. For now. It took the only two female Republican state Senators in South Carolina and one 80-year old Republican in Nebraska to block complete bans on reproductive freedoms. We'll see how long that lasts and/or if any other GOPers can figure out why they keep losing elections that they should have won after the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

• Back in February we covered the news from Washington Post's Josh Dawsey that the Donald Trump's Campaign paid $600,000 to a research firm to investigate every single potential claim of fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. They found absolutely nothing and told Trump as much in December of that year. Nonetheless, on January 6, 2021, Trump went out and lied yet again to his supporters about fraud in the election, even though he was told all such claims were baseless. And now, Dawsey reports, a second firm was paid $750,000 by the Trump Campaign at the same time to also find no evidence of fraud. That firm told him as well, in advance of January 6. Special Counsel Jack Smith has now reportedly subpoenaed records and testimony from both firms, as he probes the Trump Campaign fraudulently raising more than $250 million from their own supporters based on fraudulent claims we now know Trump absolutely knew to be fraudulent at the time he made the fraudulent claims.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with non-fraudulent news on the impact of climate change on East Africa's deadly drought; the corrupted SCOTUS plans to undermine climate regulations next term; SpaceX grounded in Texas; and some better news for the climate out of the great state of California...

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On today's BradCast: Our former President is slimier and even more racist than you knew. And Fox "News" is at least as slimy and racist as you thought. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP, just before airtime, and just as attorneys in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation suit were literally moments away from beginning opening arguments in a Delaware courtroom, the judge announced the case was over. Fox had agreed to settle with the private voting system vendor, essentially conceding that every claim made on their Republican propaganda outlet, claiming the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from Trump, was actually a lie.

We wade through today's news, even as it breaks this afternoon, in which Fox has apparently agreed to pay $787.5 million to make their problems --- at least in this case --- go away. Star witnesses previously expected to take the stand in the case starting this week had included Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch, and hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo. For now anyway, they're off the hook and won't have to testify about the lies they repeatedly told their listeners.

It was unclear as of airtime whether there was more to the settlement agreement. In other words, whether Fox would be forced to inform their brain-poisoned listeners about the lies they were told. But, Fox issued a statement conceding, "We acknowledge the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false," and adding: "We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues."

Dominion's separate defamation suits against Trump's lawyers and liars Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell and others continue, as does the $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox, as filed by Smartmatic, another voting system company about which Fox "News" repeatedly and knowingly lied.

Additional problems are expected for Fox in the days ahead, including a bevy of shareholder lawsuits and a campaign by the nation's largest progressive veterans group, Vote Vets, to demand U.S. military installations stop airing the Republican fake news network in common areas. "Nearly one-in-seven of those arrested in relation to the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol had military backgrounds," the group notes in their ad campaign, "showing the ill-effect of disinformation among military and veteran communities."

NEXT UP (after a quick note on the scheduled start next week of columnist E. Jean Carroll's rape and defamation suit against Trump in New York), have you noticed those weird comments that Donald Trump keeps making in regard to Special Counsel Jack Smith's name? He's been doing it since just after the prosecutor was tapped to oversee the criminal probes of Trump's January 6 insurrection and the documents he stole upon leaving the White House.

"Jack Smith (nice, soft name, isn’t it?)," Trump wrote on his social media site last November. "Speaking of LEAKS, Special 'Prosecutor' Jack Smith (What did his name used to be?) leaked massive amounts of information to The Washington ComPost," the disgraced former President lied at the same outlet the day before he was indicted on 34 criminal felony charges in New York earlier this month. That night, as he spoke to his supporters back at Mar-a-Lago, he did it again, referencing "this lunatic special prosecutor named Jack Smith," before adding: "I wonder what it was prior to a change?" He then paused for effect, as some of those present shared a knowing, sinister chuckle.

I read and saw all of that as it happened, but had no idea what the hell Trump was insinuating. Neither, apparently, did many in the mainstream media, according to our guest today, author DAVID MARGOLICK, who wrote about it last week at The Nation. He explains that it was part of a long-faded anti-Semitic trope. Notorious racist and Jew-hater Henry Ford deployed it about 100 years ago in his newspapers, and members of Sen. Joe McCarthy's infamous UnAmerican Activities Committee used it as well to tar Jewish entertainers as Communists.

"I thought that it needed to be explained," Margolick tells me today, as he explains it, "because if even someone like you didn't pick up on it, it just shows how ancient this trope is, how largely forgotten it is, and how deeply embedded it is in the psyche of Donald Trump. I think that subsequent generations need to know what was going on with him, and how hard-wired this is with him, that he can't help doing it, even if no one is going to pick up on it."

We discuss the long, grotesque history of the slur in the U.S., and how dangerous it remains, even as many Americans have no clue what it's all about. Some of his supporters certainly do. "The history of this thing should be called out. People should really know what's really going on with him," says Margolick, noting a line from his piece at The Nation, in which describes Trump as "a perfect time capsule of prejudice."

"It's really odious," argues Margolick, discussing what moved him to take a break from working on books about Sid Caesar and Jonas Salk. "It's disturbing that it's going on uncontradicted, and nobody is objecting to it."

FINALLY, Desi Doyen joins us today for our latest Green News Report, with news on the Administration's newly released list of Electric Vehicles that are now eligible for $7,500 rebates, thanks to Joe Biden and the Democrats' landmark Inflation Reduction Act. Also of note in today's report, Germany has finally shut down the last of its nuclear power plants. So, that's a good thing...right?

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Treasury Department unveils new rules for Electric Vehicle tax credits; Extreme weather weekend wreaks havoc around the world; As the world gets warming, 'flash droughts' are coming on faster; PLUS: Germany shuts down the last of its nuclear power plants... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Climate change, disease imperil North American bats; GOP lawmakers kill funding for Wisconsin’s largest conservation project; As the climate suffers, enforcement needed for corporate green pledges; Water rule injunction adds confusion to Biden's protection plan; Insurance woes plague efforts to cut growing wildfire risks; Slow start on World Bank reform angers climate-hit countries; Court throws out Berkeley, California’s ban on natural gas... PLUS: Greenland's melting ice could be changing our oceans. Just ask the whales... and much, MUCH more! ...

If you thought you might have heard the end of Clarence Thomas' year's long crime spree as a lifelong Justice on the highest court in the land, think again. More stunning breaking news of his endless corruption on today's BradCast, along with a whole bunch of other newsworthy stuff.

Among that stuff...

• An incredible 25 inches of rain --- most of it within a period of 6 hours --- fell in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and surrounding areas over the past 24 hours. Desi Doyen joins us to explain WTF is going on. (Got any guesses?)

• Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson was reseated at the Tennessee State House on Thursday, after the Shelby County Commission in Memphis unanimously elected him to be a temporary replacement for himself after he was expelled last week by the out-of-control, racist, gerrymandered GOP majority. Both he and Rep. Justin Jones (who was reseated on Monday after also being elected unanimously to do so by Nashville's Metropolitan Council) were expelled last week after joining a protest at the state Capitol demanding gun safety measures after 3 children and 3 adults were murdered in a mass shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville. The white female Democratic legislator who joined the two Justins in the protest was allowed to remain in her seat. We share some of Pearson's remarks after being selected in Memphis to fill his own seat, and after his return to the House today, where Republicans were debating a bill to censor free speech for college students in the state before they tossed out the rules to end all debate and voted for passage of the pro-Big Government, anti-free speech, racist measure.

• Hey! Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has a great idea about how to prevent school shootings! Just arm them up with militarized security personnel! "You know, when you go to the bank, and you deposit money in the bank, there are armed police officers at the bank," he declared late last month when announcing his new federal bills to fund armed security guards at the nation's public and private schools. "Why on earth do we protect a stupid deposit more than our children?," he asked on Twitter. And, just days later, you'll never guess what happened at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky.

• On the upside, all of this pro-murder, pro-Big Government, anti-free speech, anti-democracy GOP idiocy is being noticed by Americans, it seems. Our guest on yesterday's BradCast, Simon Rosenberg, one of the few who turned out to be right that last year's midterms would not result in a "red wave," draws our attention today to some noteworthy new polling. After their first 100 days, the new U.S. House GOP majority has an abysmal approval rating of negative 24 points overall, and are a jaw-dropping 48 points underwater among independent voters. Rosenberg observed that while he "could write a much longer analysis" of the new survey, "it isn't necessary. These numbers are truly terrible [for Republicans], and they are in serious trouble." We'll see if he turns out to be as right about 2024 as he was about 2022.

• Speaking of jaw-dropping. Today's exclusive from ProPublica about even more previously unknown corruption of Clarence Thomas may be even more mind-blowing than their exclusive last week revealing that the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court Justice, "accepted luxury travel from [GOP megadonor Harlan] Crow virtually every year for decades, including private jet flights, international cruises on the businessman’s superyacht and regular stays at his private resort in the Adirondacks" while failing to report any of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in gift travel on his financial disclosure forms, as required by law, for all of those years.

  And now today, we learn that Crow directly paid Thomas actual cash money to purchase the Justice's mother's home and several other lots on the same street that were owned by Clarence. His 94-year old mother is still alive, and still appears to live in the house (rent-free?)that Crow purchased before investing some $36,000 in renovations! Because that's just what billionaire real estate tycoons and GOP megadonors do for their closest personal friends who happen to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

  All of that, of course, meshes precisely with Clarence's corruption that we reported on way back in 2011, detailing his unlawful failure to list his wife's $120,000 annual salary from the rightwing Heritage Foundation on his annual financial disclosure forms for some 20 years, and the sweet $500,000 in dark money that his wife Ginni's then-new, non-profit political advocacy group received from Crow back in 2009, just after the infamous Citizens United case was heard by her husband at SCOTUS, and just before Clarence and the other Republican Justices released their opinion in 2010, allowing unlimited dark money to political advocacy groups, like Ginni's, to remain undisclosed.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with news on a massive toxic plastics fire still burning out of control in Indiana; Western water war crunch time on the Colorado River; and the Biden EPA's new plans for turbocharging the EV revolution...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Biden EPA kicks off next phase of electric vehicle revolution, with strongest-ever emissions rules for cars and trucks; Crunch time in contentious negotiations over water cuts from the declining Colorado River; Plastics are responsible for a wide range of negative health impacts; PLUS: Massive plastics fire in Indiana forces evacuations, expected to burn for several days... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Wheat disease’s global spread concerns researchers; Judge temporarily blocks clean water rule in 24 states; Massive New Jersey Pine Barrens fire now fully contained; Record clean-power growth in 2023 to spark ‘new era’ of fossil fuel decline; US becomes first major fishing nation to ratify subsidies deal; Interior OKs massive power line key to distributing West’s renewables; Proposed plastic recycling plant could send toxic PFAS Into Susquehanna River; Rich people’s swimming pools are fueling water crises in cities, study finds... PLUS: Buy an electric vehicle now or wait? Here’s how to decide... and much, MUCH more! ...