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Latest Featured Reports | Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Sunday 'Domestic Terrorist' Toons
THIS WEEK: ICE Storm ... Iranian Paradox ... NATO NOGO ... Appeasement Prize ... and more! In our latest, much-needed collection of the week's best toons...
'A Cornered Rat is a Dangerous Rat': Trump Terrorizes Minn., Menaces NATO, World: 'BradCast' 1/15/26
Guests: Heather Digby Parton of Salon, 'Driftglass' of 'Pro Left Podcast'...
'Green News Report' 1/15/26
  w/ Brad & Desi
2025 global heat record; Oceans getting hotter, too; CA drought-free for first time in 25 years; PLUS: Court rules Trump illegally blocked clean, renewable energy grants to 'blue' states...
Previous GNRs: 1/13/26 - 1/8/26 - Archives...
'This Isn't Close to Over': Mad King Trump in Venezuela (and Beyond): 'BradCast' 1/14
Guest: Int'l relations expert Nicholas Grossman of Univ. of IL; Also: FBI raids journalist home; U.S. evacuations in Qatar amid Trump's Iran threats...
Things Getting Weirder as Trump Keeps Losing: 'BradCast' 1/13/26
Groceries up; Renewable energy back; Senate restores science; Rs join Ds on war, ACA; Powell probe; 12 DOJ lawyers quit over ICE coverup...
'Green News Report' 1/13/26
Australia's record heat, efires; Trump quits bedrock U.N. climate treaty; EPA to no longer consider benefits of life, health; PLUS: Trump loses again on offshore wind...
After ICE Murder in MN, Local Cops Disown Fed Policing Practices: 'BradCast' 1/12/26
Guest: Former Redlands, CA Police Chief Jim Bueermann; Also: Callers ring on Minneapolis killing of Renee Good...
Sunday 'Ice Age' Toons
THIS WEEK: Good v. Evil ... Trumpezuela ... (Maybe 2025 wasn't so bad after all?) ... It's our latest collection of the week's most cold blooded best toons...
'Green News Report' 1/8/26
Trump's Venezuela oil revenue to be held offshore; Extreme snow in Alaska as FEMA plans disaster recovery staff layoffs; PLUS: L.A. fire recovery, one year later...
BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
Brad's Upcoming Appearances
(All times listed as PACIFIC TIME unless noted)
Media Appearance Archives...
'Special Coverage' Archives
GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

DOJ PROBE SOUGHT AFTER VA ARREST
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...

Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
His Super-PAC, his voter registration (fraud) firm & their 'Americans for Prosperity' are all based out of same top RNC legal office in Virginia...

LATimes: RNC's 'Fired' Sproul Working for Repubs in 'as Many as 30 States'
So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...

'Fired' Sproul Group 'Cloned', Still Working for Republicans in At Least 10 States
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...

FINALLY: FOX ON GOP REG FRAUD SCANDAL
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...

COLORADO FOLLOWS FLORIDA WITH GOP CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Repub Sec. of State Gessler ignores expanding GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, rants about evidence-free 'Dem Voter Fraud' at Tea Party event...

CRIMINAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO GOP VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL IN FL
FL Dept. of Law Enforcement confirms 'enough evidence to warrant full-blown investigation'; Election officials told fraudulent forms 'may become evidence in court'...

Brad Breaks PA Photo ID & GOP Registration Fraud Scandal News on Hartmann TV
Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

CAUGHT ON TAPE: COORDINATED NATIONWIDE GOP VOTER REG SCAM
The GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal reveals insidious nationwide registration scheme to keep Obama supporters from even registering to vote...

CRIMINAL ELECTION FRAUD COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST GOP 'FRAUD' FIRM
Scandal spreads to 11 FL counties, other states; RNC, Romney try to contain damage, split from GOP operative...

RICK SCOTT GETS ROLLED IN GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...

VIDEO: Brad Breaks GOP Reg Fraud Scandal on Hartmann TV
Breaking coverage as the RNC fires their Romney-tied voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting...

RNC FIRES NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM FOR FRAUD
After FL & NC GOP fire Romney-tied group, RNC does same; Dead people found reg'd as new voters; RNC paid firm over $3m over 2 months in 5 battleground states...

EXCLUSIVE: Intvw w/ FL Official Who First Discovered GOP Reg Fraud
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...

GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD FOUND IN FL
State GOP fires Romney-tied registration firm after fraudulent forms found in Palm Beach; Firm hired 'at request of RNC' in FL, NC, VA, NV & CO...
The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...


With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 3/13/2025 10:56am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump EPA announces plans to Make America Polluted Again; Trump Energy Secretary vows to reverse U.S. climate progress; PLUS: Climate whiplash is hammering major cities around the world, study finds... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The Arctic is in trouble. The consequences will be felt around the world; Microplastics are messing with photosynthesis in plants; EPA eliminating environmental justice jobs; Birds face weakened protections under Trump move; Trump cuts target world-leading greenhouse gas observatory in Hawaii... PLUS: Water officials knew that opening dams to meet Trump’s wishes was ill-advised. Here’s why it happened anyway... and much, MUCH more! ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Indiscriminate mass firings, critical services endangered, laws violated, as even senior Trump-appointed 'acting' officials resign in protest...
By Brad Friedman on 2/18/2025 6:37pm PT  

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other than that, slow news day.

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

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 2/13/2025 10:43am PT  


Follow @GreenNewsReport...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Impacts of climate change are reshaping U.S. real estate markets; Trump Administration hiring freeze halts hiring of seasonal firefighters; Climate change made L.A. Fires significantly more likely; PLUS: Here we go again --- Trump rolls back water and energy efficiency appliance standards that save you money... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

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

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): DOGE lands at EPA; How Trump’s EPA threatens efforts to clean up areas affected most by dangerous air pollution; Will Trump cut the oil industry's favorite climate subsidies?; Chevron set to lay off 20% of its global workforce; Why clearing the brush around Los Angeles won't reduce the wildfire danger; Transformer supply bottleneck threatens power system stability... PLUS: The US smashed clean energy records last year. Can it keep up the pace?... and much, MUCH more! ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 2/6/2025 10:18am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Elon Musk's DOGE Bros descend on NOAA, Trump taps disgraced 'SharpieGate' guy to run it; Iconic monarch butterfly hits new low in Western U.S.; PLUS: Study finds rat populations are increasing due to global warming... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

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GNR's now celebrating 16 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): January surprises with a global temperature record; "We feel terrorized": What EPA employees sasy about the decision to stay or go under Trump'; E.P.A. demotes career employees overseeing science, enforcement, and more; Colombia’s president orders national oil company to cancel US venture over environmental concerns... PLUS: Trump’s reversal of climate policies risks undermining U.S. manufacturing, costing jobs... and much, MUCH more! ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 2/4/2025 10:18am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump's on-again, off-again tariff threats spike global energy prices; Administration deletes climate change and environmental justice across the government; Study finds microplastics in human brains; PLUS: Trump dumped billions of gallons of much-needed reservoir water in California... 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): How climate change could upend the American Dream; Tribes push to control reservation water as Wyoming seeks to send it outside; In wind for Trump, Shell walks away from major New Jersey offshore wind farm; State Farm seeks an emergency insurance rate increase after LA wildfires; PLUS: Rats! More rodents are infesting cities as scientists blame warmer temperatures... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 1/28/2025 10:28am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump weaponizes disaster, calls for dismantling FEMA; First rain in months helps douse Los Angeles Fires; PLUS: New York City's congestion pricing is working, with fewer crashes and pedestrian injuries... 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): Trump’s scorched earth executive orders for the environment; Ocean warming accelerating rapidly, new study warns; Stanford sea turtle study uncovers new effects of global warming in the Pacific Ocean; Trump looks to seize control of California water; Notorious WV chemical plant polluting water with toxic PFAS, lawsuit claims; Storm Eowyn brings hurricane-level destruction to Ireland... PLUS: How Big Insurance’s investment in fossil fuels came back to bite it... and much, MUCH more! ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Reprehensible Repubs imperil L.A. Fire victim aid; Trump EPA pick backs off climate crisis; Garland nixes federal execution drug; Biden warns of 'oligarchy', 'tech-industrial complex', 'abuse of power' in farewell address...
By Brad Friedman on 1/16/2025 6:50pm PT  

This is our final BradCast of the Biden Era. We've got a lot of mixed emotions on today's program, as you'll discover when you tune in. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage...

  • Vile Congressional Republicans, such as Alabama's Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Kansas' Roger Marshall and many of their far-right media pals are targeting the victims of the Los Angeles Fires as part of their latest reprehensible political strategy. They're calling for "conditions" and "strings attached" before agreeing to aid Americans who have lost everything out here in these horrific, ongoing fires. They are whipping up disinformation echo chambers to convince themselves that it was something other than climate change-fueled dry weather and hurricane force winds to blame for the past week's unspeakable disaster and death. I've got a word or two in response on today's program, including some thoughts about the fact that California gives five times more to the federal government in tax dollars than we receive back in return. You're welcome, Senators --- and all of your loser MAGA buddies banging that same pathetic, loathsome drum.
  • Speaking of fossil fueled climate change deniers, Donald Trump's nominee to head up the Dept. of Energy, fracking company CEO Chris Wright, doesn't believe wildfires have anything to do with climate change. And Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, used to call for reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. Now tapped for Trump's EPA, he's singing a different tune, as Desi Doyen reports today in her coverage of Zeldin's U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.
  • In what suffices for good news today, you may recall that, just before Christmas, President Biden, who vowed during his 2020 campaign to end the federal death penalty (he didn't), mercifully and morally commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal Death Row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. (He should have done the same for the other three, as reprehensible as they may be. The Government shouldn't be in the business of killing its own citizens.) But on Wednesday, according to a scoop from LAW DORK's Chris Geidner, Attorney General Merrick Garland officially withdrew federal approval for the use of single-drug lethal injections of pentobarbital in federal executions. That may slow down, at least, another killing spree by Donald Trump, who ordered the executions of 13 federal Death Row inmates during the final six months of his first term in office. That, after a total of just three people had been executed under all previous Presidents from the years 1975 through 2020.
  • And, speaking of warnings of what is coming --- or already here --- in a 17-minute prepared speech (transcript) from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, President Joe Biden issued his Farewell Address to the American people on Wednesday night. He briefly touted his Administration's substantive (and, so far, wildly under-appreciated) record, noting that "It’ll take time to feel the full impact of what we’ve done together, but the seeds are planted and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come." He then went on to issue a series of dire warnings that echoed President Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address, in which he famously warned of the menace of the then-burgeoning Cold War Military-Industrial Complex. In this case, Biden warned of the dangers of a Tech-Industrial Complex and explained that "an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead." He hearkened back to the push-back against the Gilded Age of the robber barons over a century ago, while charging that Americans are now "being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power." We share an extended excerpt of those warnings and others --- "the existential threat of climate change", unchecked A.I. development, our corrupted U.S. Supreme Court, a "crumbling" free press --- from Biden's final Oval Office address before Monday's Inauguration of the first convicted felon, adjudicated rapist and adjudicated insurrectionist to ever be sworn in as President of the United States.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with more on the L.A. Fires and the long recovery ahead; more on Trump's Energy Secretary nominee; more on Joe Biden's encouragement to Americans in his Farewell Address to hold the line on climate action in the years ahead...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Congress certifies felon Trump's election without incident, future Prez to be sentenced Friday; Also: Vegas attacker a Trump fan; Climate champ Carter's much-deserved long farewell; Callers ring in...
By Brad Friedman on 1/6/2025 6:17pm PT  

We're back on today's BradCast after our holiday break! And just in time for today's completely peaceful January 6th certification of the 2024 Electoral College results during a joint session of Congress. It sure is fun how peaceful things are when Republicans aren't pretending the election was stolen from them, eh? [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

But that doesn't mean 2025 hasn't started off with a bang, unfortunately, as discussed along with a whole bunch of stuff today as we begin to get caught up on some news we missed over our break and the news that continues to break now that we're back.

Before opening up the phones to listeners in the second half of today's show, here are links to just some of the stories cited in our coverage today...

  • Blogger and activist Jeff Tiedrich offers perhaps the best ever journalistic description of the "cognitively-impaired rage-baby" who, over the weekend, "melt[ed] down into saddest sad ever" over flags to be flown at half-staff in memory of President Jimmy Carter during the rage-baby's second inauguration two weeks from today.
  • Our factoids of the day on Jimmy Carter's environmental legacy, as the long goodbye to the 37th President of the United States continues before he is finally laid to rest in Plains, Georgia later this week at age 100.
  • In her capacity as President of the U.S. Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 Presidential election to Donald Trump, oversaw the certification of the Electoral College results today during a peaceful joint session of Congress. It was carried out without challenge, incident, death, insurrection or terror attack on the U.S. Capitol, as previously incited by the former President (now official President-elect) four years ago today.
  • Criminal felon and rage-baby Donald Trump continues to rage this week following the ruling [PDF] last Friday by the judge in his New York hush money trial, where he was found guilty of 34 counts of felony fraud related to paying off a porn star to help him cheat to win the 2016 election. Justice Juan Merchan ordered that Trump would be sentenced this coming Friday, ten days before his second inauguration. But the judge also signaled Trump was unlikely to face any jail time and will instead receive an unusual, "unconditional discharge" for his many crimes. Nonetheless, Trump continues to rage and appeal and, so far, lose all of those appeals. Despite that likely lack of any actual punishment at all, the news now means Trump will almost certainly be sworn in to office as the first convicted felon to enjoy that great honor.
  • Also today, a few words about the terror attacks by two U.S. citizens last week on New Year's Day, one in New Orleans on Bourbon Street, one in Las Vegas outside of a Trump hotel in a Tesla Cybertruck, The latter was carried out by a hardcore Donald Trump (and Elon Musk and Bobby Kennedy Jr.) supporter, even though that aspect of the attack has been virtually ignored by the corporate media.

Then we open the phones to listeners for the first time in the new year, To discuss the news of the day along with hopes and fears for what lies ahead this year. In addition to one of our favorite Trump trolls, we also hear from a caller who says that he went to school with Elon Musk in South Africa. What he tells us happened at that school, if true, may explain a whole lot about Elon Musk...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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While we post The BradCast here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they're available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at iTunes, Pandora, TuneIn, Google, Amazon or our native RSS feed!

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 12/19/2024 10:43am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Biden E.P.A. grants California waiver to phase out sales of new gasoline cars by 2035; New study links microplastics to lung and colon cancers; PLUS: Energy Department finds Republicans' plan to expand natural gas exports will drive up prices for Americans... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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GNR's now celebrating 16 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): Biden just unveiled America’s ambitious new climate goal. Trump will assuredly undo it; The war against murder hornets is over, officials say. The U.S. won; Global warming can’t be ignored, Montana’s top court says, upholding landmark climate case; 'Explosive' demand growth puts more than half of North America at risk of blackouts; Trump transition team plans sweeping rollback of Biden EV, emissions policies; Insurance cracking under climate stress... PLUS: Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 12/10/2024 10:31am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.K. and Ireland hit with deadly back-to-back storms; China's electric vehicle boom is eroding global demand for oil; PLUS: Time is running out to cash in on Biden's climate law incentives before Trump kills them... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 75% of Earth's land got drier in recent decades, U.N. says; TCE: All uses of 'Camp Lejeune Solvent' to be phased out by EPA rule; Their fertilizer poisons farmland. Now, they want protection from lawsuits; The climate risk to the mortgage system; Biden moves ahead with drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but minimizes acreage; Europe's battery dreams die, but China cashes in... PLUS: Supreme Court case on Utah railway could impact U.S. environmental laws... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 11/19/2024 10:31am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump nominates climate science deniers and fossil fuel profiteers to head key federal agencies; Winters are warming up quickly across the U.S.; PLUS: President Biden offers hope for climate action, the first U.S. President ever to visit the Amazon Rainforest... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The climate fight will continue; Trump might nix America as a climate tech leader. 5 charts show China winning that race; Weather extremes influence illegal migration and return between the U.S. and Mexico, study finds; Why hydropower is failing in Zambia --- and could fail others; To protect the ozone layer and slow global warming, fertilizers must be deployed more efficently, UN says... PLUS: EPA in Elon Musk's crosshairs... and much, MUCH more! ...

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Guest: Former Dep. Asst. A.G. Lisa Graves; Also: Flood of unqualified, corrupt Trump nominees for top cabinet posts continues...
By Brad Friedman on 11/18/2024 6:25pm PT  

Today on The BradCast: He hasn't even been sworn in and he's already violating federal law. Surprised? In this case, the law that he's violating is one that he himself signed into law in 2019. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

The flood of wholly-unqualified appointments to cabinet level posts and other top appointments, since Donald Trump barely won a plurality (not a majority) of the national popular vote two weeks ago, continues. You're probably well familiar by now with the nominations of alleged child sex trafficker Rep. Matt Gaetz for U.S. Attorney General, the nation's top law enforcement official, and of Fox "News" weekend host Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary.

Neither have any experience leading huge organizations (or even medium-sized ones) with millions of employees --- or even any experience at all at the organizations they have been tapped by Trump to lead. And Hegseth, who was disqualified from serving in the National Guard during Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration as a potential "insider threat" due to his White Supremacist tattoos, was also revealed over the weekend by Washington Post to have paid off a woman to settle her accusations of sexual assault. He reportedly denies the rape allegation, if not the settlement.

The Trump Transition team claims they knew nothing about any of it when they selected Hegseth to head DoD. That should give you chills. Perhaps that's because the Transition team hired a private firm to vet Trump's nominees, rather than rely on the FBI, as they would be doing, had Trump complied with the bipartisan amendment to the Presidential Transition Act that he himself signed into law during his first term.

The measure also requires Presidential candidates to sign agreements with the White House and General Services Administration by October 1 before an election to begin the transition process with a publicly disclosed ethics policy and a public statement of how the future President plans to avoid conflicts of interest while serving, if elected. It allows for FBI vetting of incoming officials to grant access to classified documents and other material from the previous Administration at the nation's 438 Executive Branch agencies that they will control. Signing the agreement, as required by law, also includes a vow that Transition teams may take no more than $5,000 from any one person for certain transition costs, and that they will publicly disclose the names of those donors, among other things.

Donald Trump has, so far, refused to sign any of those agreements, alarming ethics, national security and legal experts as he begins defying federal law (again) even before taking office for a second term as President.

Joining us to explain the national security and other serious consequences and ramifications of all of this is LISA GRAVES. She is uniquely qualified to discuss these issues, given her service in all three branches of the federal government, as a Former Deputy Asst. Attorney General at the U.S. Justice Dept.; former Chief Counsel for nominations in the U.S. Senate; and former Deputy Chief for the Article III Judges Div. of the U.S. Court system. She now heads up the government watchdog and political research organization, True North Research.

We've got a lot to discuss with Graves today, beginning with what alarms her most about Trump's refusal to sign the Presidential Transition Act agreements. She identifies the avoidance of the FBI background investigation process as a "huge red warning flag."

"He does not want his cabinet appointees to go through the regular clearance process. The FBI background process is a long-standing part of the process," she tells me. It's "designed to help look at whether you have any issues that could made you blackmailable. That's part of it. For people who are seeking access to our most sensitive information, there are additional national security assessments. The investigators are looking at: do you have stability, trustworthiness, reliability, discretion. Do you have good character and judgment, honesty, and unquestionable loyalty to the United States to ensure that people who get positions of trust, with access to our most sensitive information, have unquestioned loyalty to the United States and not a foreign power."

Graves argues that "many" of Trump's nominees "have serious deficits in more than one of those categories." She also tells me that Trump's own "track record would raise serious concerns about his trustworthiness, his reliability, about his fitness for having access to information."

As to Trump's plans to force the U.S. Senate into recess, so that he may avoid the Constitution's mandate for "advice and consent" on top-level appoints, she describes the scheme as "un-American, unconstitutional, and unprecedented."

Tune in for much more insight from Graves on all of this on today's program.

FINALLY TODAY... A few more items related to the U.S. House Ethics Committee's ongoing deliberations into whether to release their report on the alleged paid sex trafficking by Gaetz of at least two different 17-year old girls. And then Desi Doyen joins us for details on Trump's newly announced nomination of fracking company CEO and climate change denier Chris Wright as the next chief of the Dept. of Energy. She also has some thoughts on Trump's Interior Dept. nominee, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and on former Rep. Lee Zeldin who has been nominated to head the EPA, and how ALL of those men spell very bad news for our world's quickly-worsening climate crisis...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 10/24/2024 10:46am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Record heat and drought fuel wildfires in the Northeast; U.S. Senate majority and future of climate action hang in the balance of this year's election; PLUS: Biden Administration investing in innovation, and racing the clock to allocate climate and infrastructure funding... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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GNR's now celebrating 16 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): The climate stakes of the Harris-Trump election; Trump withheld wildfire disaster aid from WA State; EPA imposes stricter standards to protect children from exposure to lead paint; Florida's taxpayer-backed insurance fund denied 77% of hurricane damage claims; Russia amplified hurricane disinformation to drive Americans apart, researchers find; Feds OK rules for U.S. to begin electric air taxi service... PLUS: Biden Admin puts $428M into new manufacturing projects in coal communities... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 10/22/2024 10:41am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Cuba hit with double whammy --- first a national power outage, then Hurricane Oscar; Historic rains, flooding strike New Mexico, France, and Bangladesh; World sees largest, longest coral bleaching event on record; PLUS: Oil lobby prepares to overturn Biden climate rules under Trump... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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GNR's now celebrating 16 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): The Coming Financial Hurricane: How Hurricane Milton and other climate chaos could trigger the next economic crisis; Can the tire industry be sustainable? Guayule farmers say yes; AR may have vast lithium reserves; U.S. approves mega geothermal energy project in Utah; Flesh-eating bacteria cases rise in Florida after hurricanes Helene and Milton; Extreme storms have obvious and not-so-obvious economic impacts; IEA expects global clean energy investment to hit $2 trillion in 2024... PLUS: One of the largest solar projects in US opens in Texas, backed by Google... and much, MUCH more! ...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 8/8/2024 10:40am PT  


Follow @GreenNewsReport...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Tropical Storm Debby isn't done with the East Coast yet; Hottest oceans in 400 years endanger Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists warn; PLUS: Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, Gov. Tim Walz, is a proven climate champion... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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GNR's now celebrating 16 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): Harris faces racial attacks for promoting climate policies; July ends 13-month streak of global heat records as El Nino ebbs, but experts warn against relief; Fossil fuel industry's 'massive disinformation campaign' is slowing global transition to green energy; Tropical weather brings record rainfall. Experts share how to stay safe in floods... PLUS: Death toll for birds may be more than 1 billion a year in U.S.... and much, MUCH more! ...

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