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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump threatens war crimes against civilian power infrastructure in Iran; Iran War is boosting global demand for solar panels, heat pumps, and electric cars; PLUS: U.S. West's mountain snowpack has melted early, raising fears of a record fire season to come... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Strongest El Niño in a century? What this rare phenomenon could bring; Drive slower, work from home and ditch the tie: the world responds to Iran war energy crisis; NOAA halts crucial dataset that helps measure Arctic sea ice; Trump's 'God Squad' blocks endangered species protections in the Gulf of Mexico; These maps show exactly where the West might burn this summer ... PLUS: Solar power in Africa is heating up — thanks in part to chili peppers ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Global fallout expands from US-Israel War on Iran; Trump Administration relaxes smog pollution rules to moderate rising gas prices; Three US offshore wind farms survived Trump assault, now delivering clean electricity; PLUS: Earth's climate is out of balance, new report warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): America's bookend wars for oil; "If the Strait remains closed, we're not talking about a global recession "“ we're talking about a depression"; Maryland Supreme Court rejects climate lawsuits; The point of no return: new evidence shows Antarctic melting is already locked in; Epic river migrations of fish rapidly collapsing, UN report finds; USDA says it needs roads to fight remote wildfires, but a new study says roads bring more fire to forests ... PLUS: Suddenly, the US manufactures a ton of grid batteries ... and much, MUCH more! ...

Today on The BradCast: If only we were a real country. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

On Thursday, South Korea's former President, Yoon Suk Yeol, was found guilty of an attempted coup in December of 2024, when he declared martial law and directed troops to shut down the National Assembly in hopes of preventing it from being able to meet and vote to block the President's edict. The Judge ruled that the country's now former conservative leader (he was quickly impeached and removed from office) had, among other things, unlawfully sent militiamen to surround and "block the Assembly building and arrest key figures...in order to prevent lawmakers from gathering to deliberate or vote...to obstruct or paralyze the Assembly's activities so that it would be unable to properly perform its functions." Sound familiar?

After today's verdict, Yoon was quickly sentenced to life in prison, with labor. The Democratic opposition charged the sentenced "lacked a sense of justice" because the judge didn't choose the other possible sentence for this crime: the death penalty.

It took just 14 months for accountability in South Korea, the second democratic nation in the past six months to sentence a former leader for an attempted coup. Brazil's former President and Donald Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro enjoyed 33 months of freedom before he was handed a 27-year sentence for directing his supporters to attack the nation's parliament building in January of 2023 after Bolsonaro had lost his reelection bid. Sound familiar?

Meanwhile, across the pond today, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, was arrested by British police after a probe related to allegations that he had shared sensitive trade information with the late pedophile and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK's special envoy for international trade. The former Prince was previously stripped of his title and more following allegations of sex with minors trafficked to him by Epstein.

Today was the first time in nearly 400 years that a British royal had been arrested. The last time, during King Charles I's reign, it was amid a power struggle between the King and Parliament in 1642, after which Charles was eventually beheaded.

There has been much more fallout for top government officials in Great Britain, Norway, France and elsewhere in recent days, related to information revealed by the release of the Epstein Files. Basically, everywhere but in the U.S.

The new allegations against the Prince formerly known as Andrew were revealed in documents published last month by the U.S. Dept. of Justice under the Epstein Transparency Act, a law fought for and won last year mainly by Congressional Democrats. That law, begrudgingly signed by Trump, Epstein's years-long best bud, mandates the release of all DOJ and FBI documents related to the multi-year criminal probes of Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. No documents may be withheld, and only the names and identifying information of victims may be redacted.

Trump's Dept. of Justice, however, is blatantly in violation of that law, continuing their long cover-up for him.

On Sunday, investigative journalist Roger Sollenberger discovered evidence in DOJ's publicly searchable Epstein database that the FBI interviewed "a victim of Jeffrey Epstein who also accused Donald Trump of sexually and violently assaulting her" when she was 13 years old, back in the mid-80s. The documents suggest the government found her to be a credible accuser in 2019 and, in 2021, a victim matching her biological details won a settlement from the late pedophile's estate.

On Wednesday, Sollenberger discovered even more details on the matter, including that the FBI found the woman to be credible enough that she was subsequently interviewed three more times thereafter by the FBI. But the records referencing those interviews, compiled by the DOJ for use in Maxwell's trial have since been removed from the Internet. Fortunately, that record was copied by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine before it was removed by DOJ. As Sollenberger discovered, the records of the actual interviews, and the FBI's interview notes from three of four of those meetings, do not appear to have been published yet at all, in apparent defiance of the Epstein Transparency Act, an in contradiction to claims by Trump's U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi that all such documents have now been released.

So...there is a whole lot to dig into on today's program, as you might imagine, including some very strange questions about timing of the victim's FBI interviews and Epstein's 2019 death in prison while awaiting trial. Also, Sollenberger raises even more curious points about the interview documents in question and how they may relate to the thousands of supposed "national security" documents stolen by Trump from the White House when he left office after his first term, before repeatedly refusing, despite threat of criminal indictment, to return them to the Government.

Cherry on top today? Desi Doyen joins us to close out the show with our latest Green News Report...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump's Border Patrol agents arrest fire fighting crewmembers battling Washington wildfire; Judge orders closure of federal detention camp in protected Florida Everglades for violating environmental laws; Extreme heat ages the body faster, new study finds; Europe's 2025 wildfire season officially the most destructive ever recorded; PLUS: Trump escalates his War on Wind, even as extreme heat pushes U.S. electricity demand to record highs... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): National Weather Service applicants must explain how they agree with Trump; Labor Day swimmers face fecal contamination along US coastline; Shrinking post-Katrina levees need $1B In upgrades; Climate change is severely impacting corn crops; Trump plans to cancel another offshore wind project... PLUS: Africa diverting from the fossil fuel addiction... and much, MUCH more! ...

As discussed on today's BradCast, there are a few things you should know about all of these supposed Donald Trump "trade deals" you have been hearing about in recent days, in advance of his iron-clad August 1 deadline (until he changes it again --- oops, too late, and too late again) for implementing new tariffs on imports into the U.S. from the rest of the world. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among those things...

• Any Trump "trade deal" that includes tariffs on another country is actually a sales TAX on your purchase of the tariffed goods from that country. The foreign nation does not pay the tariffs on those goods. You do.
• These "deals" aren't actually trade agreements. They are frameworks, of a sort, for potential trade agreements, at best. Trade agreements take years to sort out. At least if they are real ones, which the ones being announced by Trump may not even be. (That is true even when a foreign head of state is by his side when the "deal" is announced.)
• The frameworks announced as "deals" by Trump and the White House to date, may or may not include things that the foreign nation has actually agreed to during negotiations. Trump just makes shit up. (Last weekend's supposed "trade deal" with the European Union --- including laughable claims of promises for $750 billion in energy purchases and $600 billion in unspecified "investments" --- provides just one great example.)
• All of these corrupt "deals", or lack thereof, that include new sales taxes on goods from other nations, may ultimately be found unlawful if only because Trump may not have the statutory authority as President to unilaterally issue tariffs of this sort. (Though you'll be paying them anyway, as the courts work that out.)

There is more. Lots more. Tune in for it.

Also today...as discussed last week with gerrymandering expert and author Dave Daley, Texas Republicans are now officially moving ahead with their sleazy undemocratic scheme to create a new U.S. House map for the state in the middle of the decade. The newly proposed map in the GOP-controlled state legislature would wipe out Democratic districts on their already-gerrymandered map in hopes of stealing as many as five new seats for Republicans in next year's midterm elections. Dems plan legal challenges in Texas, and continue to ponder whether or not they should do the same sleazy, anti-democratic thing to Republican-held districts in states that Dems control. (I argue, regrettably, that they should. Immediately.)

Finally...Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report as the corrupted Trump EPA makes a landmark move to kill its own legal authority to regulate planet heating greenhouse gasses while the unspeakable financial cost of ongoing climate change destruction continues to soar...

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Storm clouds continue to gather, even as there are fewer and fewer government scientists to warn us about what is actually coming. On today's BradCast we offer more than a few warnings of our own. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• Don't buy Elon Musk's pretend attack today on Donald Trump and the Republicans' so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" as "a disgusting abomination". Musk doesn't really mean it. (He's just trying to save his drug-addled hide after the waste, fraud and abuse of his deadly, unlawful and wildly destructive DOGE scam.) But don't let that keep you from enjoying the fireworks anyway!

• Big kudos to Miami's NBC6 for featuring veteran South Florida meteorologists John Morales' chilling warning about the "cuts, gutting and sledge hammer attack on science" by the Trump Administration and, specifically, to NOAA and the National Weather Service that, he explains, are already "degrading" the quality of forecasts as hurricane season is now under way.

• Speaking of hurricane season, Trump's newly tapped, entirely inexperienced head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency --- a military guy by the name of David Richardson and the fifth person to hold the position since Trump's re- election --- reportedly told FEMA staffers on Monday that he had no idea there was such a thing as a hurricane season in the U.S. Following Reuters exclusive on that yesterday, a spokesperson from FEMA's parent agency, DHS, claimed Richardson was just joking. But...was he really? If Trump's newly sworn-in Social Security Administrator, Frank Bisignano, offers any hints, the lack of knowledge of the people tapped to run these critical agencies may be far worse than you may think.

• Some elections and democracy news today from overseas that is likely to have ramifications for the U.S. in various ways. In a closely divided election for President in Poland over the weekend, voters narrowly chose Karol Nawrocki, a rightwing historian and staunch nationalist. He will have veto power over Parliament, headed up, since 2023, by liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

• In The Netherlands, ultra-right party leader, Geert Wilders, quit the governing coalition in the Dutch Parliament today over his complaints that migration policies weren't cruel enough. The stunning move has touched off a governing crisis until new elections can be held later this year. The nation's liberal opposition party, however, seems to enjoying the fresh chaos.

• One year to the day after South Korea's conservative President stunned the nation by declaring martial law --- before the move was undone just hours later --- voters elected liberal party leader Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday to be the nation's new President. The disgraced former President, after facing impeachment charges, is currently standing trial on charges of insurrection, which is punishable by death or life in prison. Must be nice.

• Finally, Desi Doyen is here for our latest Green News Report, with predictions of a long, hot summer; Canada's wildfire season off to an early and terrible start (and already affecting northern U.S. states); a village in Switzerland wiped off the map last week due to a glacier collapse, thanks to global warming; and the Republican plan to raise your dirty energy prices via their "Big, Beautiful Bill"...

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On today's BradCast: The Trump Administration may have chosen the wrong group of Americans to launch a "war" against, including taking jobs, benefits and health care from them. But that's just one of the reasons Republicans now seem to be running scared of their own voters in upcoming special elections. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

On Thursday, the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees. Along with cuts at departments within HHS, such as the FDA, CDC, NIH and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, some 20,000 federal jobs are earmarked for slashing. The Dept. of Defense has already fired thousands of probationary workers (though a federal judge found the firings unlawful), and the IRS has been ordered to cut 6,700 workers. That alone will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions in lost revenue.

But, so far, no other federal agency has set their sites on firing as many workers as the Dept. of Veterans Affairs which, according to an internal memo at the beginning of the month, is planning to slash an astounding 80,000+ jobs, many of them held by veterans themselves. And they are pushing back.

We're joined today by former Congressman MAX ROSE (D-NY), a decorated former U.S. Army platoon leader and combat veteran who now serves as senior advisor to VoteVets.org, the nation's largest progressive nonprofit veterans organization. Last week, the group launched a six-figure, multimedia ad campaign in the districts of five different Republican veteran members of Congress, calling them out "for being complicit and dodging their constituents as Elon Musk's DOGE aimlessly fires Veterans across the country."

Given Rose's background, before discussing the VoteVets campaign, thousands of vets already fired from federal jobs, and GOP cuts to a series of hard-won services and benefits, I had to ask for his thoughts on the ongoing Signal scandal and what might have happened to him, as a platoon leader in Afghanistan (or to any other rank-and-file member of the military), had they used a commercially available texting app to discuss specific times, locations and methods of upcoming planned attacks as it was revealed this week the Administration's top NatSec and Defense cabinet officials did.

"Any level of the military would have been fired for that," Rose tells me. "But I think there's a deeper point here. Which is everyone likes the notion of disruption and innovation, and that is how this administration sold themselves. But the truth of the matter is that what we're seeing is recklessness, destruction, and a disregard for everything that was actually effective."

He offers thoughts on whether Trump's high level cabinet officials, such as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Sec. of Defense Pete Hegseth should be fired, and whether the specific details shared in the group text --- with a journalist present --- was classified or not. "They are just openly talking about extraordinary events that are set to occur later on that day, that have geopolitical, strategic national security ramifications," he says. "It is beyond stunning. And it's exactly the opposite of what they sold themselves as. It's amateur hour."

As to the benefit cuts and firings that many veterans are already facing, thanks to the "recklessness" of the Trump Administration --- some of which are discussed by veterans themselves in VoteVets' new video ad --- the Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient is even more disappointed.

"Let's talk about the great tragedy of firing these veterans, who have served in uniform. Many of them served in harm's way, and they made an extraordinarily heroic and consequential decision to continue their service --- not just to our great country, but in service to their fellow veterans --- by dedicating this next portion of their career to the VA. Donald Trump ran on how much he loved veterans, how much he was grateful for their service, and now he's turned around in the early days of his Presidency and has decided to fire tens of thousands of them."

"The truth of the matter," Rose continues, "is that what they want to do --- the VA being the second-largest federal government department --- is they want to destroy it. They want to privatize it. They claim it's because the VA is an underperformer. But the stats tell exactly the opposite story. The statistics say that the VA consistently records higher quality metrics compared to peer institutions and higher ratings of patient satisfaction. That's why the veteran community is almost universally aligned in support, in not just preserving the VA but building upon it."

"This Administration's war on veterans," doesn't end there, he argues. "They decided to cut the PACT Act in the last Continuing Resolution, the budget deal, which was a monumental bipartisan piece of legislation to make sure that services are provided to veterans suffering the consequences of manning burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. They decided to cut the Small Business Administration, negatively impacting veterans ability to access small business loans. They decided to cut HUD and grants related to services for homeless veterans. So the list goes on and on."

As to how all of this may affect the political and electoral landscape moving forward, including among veterans, 6 out of 10 of whom voted for Trump in 2024? Tune in for the former Congressman's thoughts on that. But, as Rose asserts: "People should be digging deep. They should know there is hope for Democrats to bounce back. They should know there are extraordinary candidates raising their hands across the country, reaffirming their commitment to service, many of them being veterans."

AND, SPEAKING OF UPCOMING ELECTIONS... Republicans seem to be getting really nervous about next week's Special Elections in Florida to fill the vacated seats of former Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, even though both are in deep red districts where Trump and both former Congressmembers easily won their elections just five months ago. Latest evidence of their concern? Today, Trump withdrew his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik for U.N. Ambassador, to make sure her seat in a Trump +15 district in upstate in New York doesn't get flipped in an upcoming Special Election, given the razor-thin majority Republicans currently hold in the U.S. House. She is really bummed. Sad!

AND, FINALLY... Record, unprecedented, climate change-fueled wildfires are raging in South Korea. The blazes have already killed 27 and destroyed more than 300 structures, some of them historic, including a 7th century temple complex. As if that's not bad enough, Desi Doyen is also here with our latest Green News Report, as the Trump Administration has simply omitted climate change from their newly released U.S. National Threat Assessment Report; the EPA's rollbacks to air and water pollution rules are set to cost hundreds of thousands of American lives; and as the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court gives yet another offering to the fossil fuel industry responsible for so much of this deadly mess...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Flood-ravaged Carolinas struck by another round of wildfires, as Trump pushes to dismantle FEMA; Melting glaciers around the world threaten water supplies for billions of people; PLUS: Fossil fuel industry pushing Congress to give it 'immunity' from liability for climate damages... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The doublespeak of Energy Secretary Chris Wright; Congress seeks trillions in cuts. Will oil industry's tax breaks skate by?; NIH ends future funding to study the health effects of climate change; The vicious cycle of extreme heat leading to more fossil fuel use; Juliana v. US: Supreme Court decision brings 10-year climate case to an end; Fossil-funded research used to avoid paying workers hurt by 2010 Gulf spill... PLUS: Climate deniers shift focus to renewable energy skepticism... and much, MUCH more! ...

It has been a very busy several days since we spoke with you last on BradCast! So it's another very busy show today. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• BREAKING before air: Law enforcement officials have arrested a "strong person of interest" in last week's Manhattan murder of UnitedHealthcare's CEO. A 26-year old man in Altoona, Pennsylvania --- said to have a gun like the killer's, a silencer for it, a fake ID and other related stuff --- has reportedly led police to believe they may have their man, though no official announcement has been made to that end as of airtime.

• Over the weekend, Romania's constitutional court nullified the results of the first round of voting in the NATO member nation's Presidential elections due to evidence of massive interference by Russia via tens of thousands of cyberattacks and a scheme to pay a coterie of TikTok users to post pro-Russia propaganda in favor of a longshot Presidential candidate. (Sound familiar?) The election will now be re-run. Imagine that. In the meantime, despite all manner of concern about Russian (and domestic) interference in the U.S. Presidential election this year, official certification of Electors in each state moves forward this week, without nary a hint of the hand-count or post-election audit that so many world-class cybersecurity and voting system experts have called for --- for very well-supported reasons --- following Donald Trump's reported victory on November 5th.

• Also, over the weekend, the Assad Family's barbaric, decades-long autocratic rule of Syria finally came to an ignominious end, following a lightning offensive by rebel groups at the end of a deadly, 12-year civil war on the long road to Damascus. Bashar Ashad and his family fled to Russia, Syria's top ally, seeking asylum and exile. Russia --- for its part, as President Biden noted during his remarks on the stunning fall of Assad's Syria on Sunday --- had been unable to come to the aid of its longtime ally, as they are stuck in their own quagmire following their invasion of U.S. and NATO-supported Ukraine. While Biden lauded the good news of the fall of Assad as "a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country," he was more cautious about what comes next and whether those now claiming power --- tied in years past to al-Qaeda --- can moderate their politics to govern Syria responsibly. Time will tell.

• And, with still more bad news for authoritarianism, South Korea's opposition Democratic Party continues to have the support of the people as it pushes back against the rightwing ruling party and its President following last week's auto-coup via martial law declared by President Yoon Suk Yeol. The declaration was called off just hours later amid a popular uprising and members of both parties fighting their way past military troops to open the National Assembly to a hold a vote to end the martial law declaration. In the days since, Yoon now clings tenuously to power. His party, the People Power Party (or PPP), blocked an impeachment attempt by the Democrats over the weekend and demonstrators remain on the streets as South Korean officials announced a travel ban for the President, and the PPP declared the party and the nation's Prime Minister will take over all foreign and domestic business from Yoon until he leaves office earlier than planned. So, with no power, why is he still hanging around? And with no constitutional basis for this shift of President powers to a political party and a Prime Minister, the opposition Democrats are describing it as a second coup and vow to continue their impeachment attempts on a weekly basis through the end of the year or until Yoon is deposed.

• Finally today, the Biden Administration has reportedly been considering issuing broad, unprecedented, preemptive pardons to a number of Donald Trump's self-declared domestic enemies. That effort kicked into even higher gear with the incoming President's announcement that he planned to nominate Kash Patel to head up the FBI. Patel has been outspoken about investigations and prosecutions against a long list of Trump's perceived enemies, listing some 60 of them by name in his recent book, including Joe Biden himself, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Sec. of State Hilary Clinton, former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, Trump's own Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and dozens more. Over the weekend, during an interview with NBC News, Trump appeared to up the ante yet again by calling for the jailing of former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and other members of the bipartisan January 6 House Select Committee.

  So, should Biden use his Constitutional Presidential pardon power before leaving office to grant clemency to many of those who will likely be targeted by a weaponized Trump Administration? Or is it more important to maintain the polite "norms and traditions" that only Dems seem to follow as Trump and Republicans run rough-shod over them? My view is pretty clear: Offer them all pardons. If they want one, grant it. If they don't, they're on their own.

  We open up the phones to get the opinions from listeners on this matter and whether or not they would like to see Biden issue such pardons. Suffice to say, we remain a divided nation...

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Democracy is under attack again today. And not just in D.C. We're here to do our part in defending it wherever possible on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our many stories today...

• The rightwing, inexperienced, recently elected but now very unpopular President of South Korea attempted a power grab today by declaring martial law and the shutdown of the National Assembly for largely trumped up reasons. (Pun intended.) It didn't work. His own political party joined the opposition Democratic Party majority in the nation's parliament for a swift, unanimous vote to shut down the attempted self-coup just hours after it began. The country's military wasn't much help to the President either. (Which may be just one reason Donald Trump has tapped loyalist stooge, accused rapist and years-long womanizing drunkard, Pete Hegseth of Fox "News", to be his own Sec. of Defense.) But there are a whole bunch of other lessons that we need to learn in THIS country from what happened today in South Korea which may be very helpful in the months and years ahead.

• Meanwhile, power grabs by Republicans are underway at the state level in this country as well following the November 5th election. In the closely divided battleground state of North Carolina, where Donald Trump won at the Presidential level, Democrats were victorious up and down the ballot in a bunch of statewide offices including Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Sec. of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction. The GOP also lost its gerrymandered supermajority in the state House by one seat. So Republicans, in the weeks they have left with supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, are now attempting, under the guise of a "sham" Hurricane Helene disaster relief bill, to strip extraordinarily broad swaths of power from those offices and hand it to the GOP-controlled state legislature. Outgoing Democratic Governor Roy Cooper has already vetoed the bill, but Republicans in the Senate have voted to override it and protesters in the state are attempting to prevent House Republicans from doing the same. The measure, among other things, strips the incoming Democratic Governor's ability to appoint members of the State Board of Elections, to fill vacancies at both the state Appeals and Supreme Court levels with judges of his choosing, and, in a sop to the fossil fuel industry, prevents the state Attorney General from, as Cooper said in his veto, the "ability to advocate for lower electric bills for consumers." The 131-page bill, originally introduced in November and passed by both chambers within 24 hours, would also place new restrictions on elections in the state, which election officials charge would result in votes going uncounted.

• If that North Carolina measure is adopted before the new state legislature is sworn in next month, it will almost certainly be challenged by Democrats at the state Supreme Court, where last month one of its two liberal Justices, Allison Riggs, very narrowly defeated her Republican challenger, Jefferson Griffin, by fewer than 1,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast. A machine recount confirmed the initially reported machine-tallied results. Now Griffin is seeking both a hand-count and the disqualification of more than 60,000 ballots.

• There is somewhat brighter news this week in another battleground state, where a Wisconsin judge has finally struck down former far-right Republican Gov. Scott Walker's wildly controversial 2011 law that stripped the power of certain public unions to collectively bargain for wages and other benefits. The law, according to the judge, is unconstitutional since it takes those powers from "general" unions, such as the state teachers union, while allowing it for "public safety" officials, such as police and firefighters unions who were supporters of Walker's at the time. Back in 2011, you may recall the weeks-long fight over the measure, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters to the state capital as Republicans in the legislature muscled the bill to passage. Of course, the judge's ruling will now be appealed up to the state Supreme Court which, as of last year, finally has a narrow, 4 to 3 liberal majority that will once again be tested during yet another WI Supreme Court election this April.

• And, speaking of every vote mattering, a legal and political battle is underway right now in Minnesota over a state House race where Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke was declared the winner by just 14 votes over his Republican challenger Aaron Paul after a recount and official canvass. That said, an investigation by the local County Attorney found that 21 absentee ballots in the race may have been accidentally discarded prior to being tallied. Republicans have filed suit to declare the seat vacant and are seeking a special election. This one seat matters. As of now, with the Democratic Tabke as the winner, Democrats and Republicans will each hold 67 seats in the state House, where lawmakers are preparing a power sharing agreement. If the Republican Paul ultimately ends up winning the seat, the balance of power would be shifted with a two-vote, 68-66 GOP majority. Yup, every vote matters. Even the ones that were tossed due to "human error", according to the County Attorney.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, our first since returning from the holiday. And she's got a lot to catch us up on, from the collapse of a U.N. plastics treaty summit in South Korea (prior to today's attempted coup!), to a lackluster (at best) agreement at the U.N.'s COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, to new worries about how extreme drought is set to exacerbate immigration issues at our southern border...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.N. plastics treaty negotiations collapse in South Korea; U.N. COP29 climate talks end with weak agreement in Azerbaijan; PLUS: Extreme drought is an immigration issue, study warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Landmark climate change case opens at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas; Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems; Here's what happened when experts at COP29 played a climate change board game; How MAGA wants jurists to reshape climate policy; A warning from California's record marine heat wave; UN calls for $2.6 trillion investment to reverse land degradation; News Corp's 'Special Report' on natural gas was paid for by industry... PLUS: Inside the plastic industry's battle to win over hearts and minds... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The deadly toll of extreme heat rises in Arizona; Glacial outburst flooding a growing danger in Alaska and around the globe; Biden to protect lands around the Grand Canyon; PLUS: Extreme rains and deadly floods strike Central Europe, pummeling Slovenia... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 2023 is on track to be the hottest year on record; A crisis of isolation is making heat waves more deadly; One year after historic floods, Pakistan is a nuclear state in crisis; In DeSantis' Florida, schools get OK for climate-denial videos; In Youngstown, a downtown tire pyrolysis plant is a 'recipe for disaster; 6 months after the East Palestine train derailment, Congress is deadlocked on new rules for safety; Marine heatwave off Oregon coast considered 'extreme' By NOAA... PLUS: The first generation of solar panels will wear out. A recycling industry is taking shape in the US... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Summer of Extremes --- Heat and floods strike simultaneously across the Northern Hemisphere; Corporate media mostly ignores climate change in extreme weather disaster coverage; PLUS: Another major insurer ditches Florida in the middle of hurricane season... 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): For those who live and work outside, there is little escape from deadly heat; Wildfires tear through towns in Greece as thousands flee seaside resorts; In Phoenix, heat becomes a brutal test of endurance; How big is the solar PV waste stream, really?; John Kerry hails China's 'incredible' job on renewables, warns on coal; Scientists concerned over impact of rising Florida water temps on corals; Fossil fuel workers are dying inhaling gases, despite U.S. warnings to Big Oil; 9th Circuit denies bid by greens and tribes to block Nevada lithium mine
... PLUS: A shipping rule backfires, diverting sulfur emissions from the air to the ocean... and much, MUCH more! ...

Today on The BradCast: We are now learning even more about what Trump didn't bother to tell his followers when he played the victim card on Monday following the FBI's search at his Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida. It's becoming difficult to avoid the pretty clear conclusion that he is now simply hoping to foster political violence as the walls, the truth, and accountability close in on him. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

First up today, here's the original video version of the Lincoln Project's amusing new ad, hoping to get inside Trump's head and make him wonder who must be the reported "insider" that tipped off investigators about stolen national security documents Trump was believed to have been keeping at Mar-a-Lago.

Before diving fully back into the latest news following Monday's Mar-a-Lago search and the reasons for it, we've got just a bit of encouraging news for Democrats and democracy lovers amid these decidedly UNconventional times. Today, a brief look at polling numbers trending toward Dems in this November's mid-terms, particularly for the U.S. Senate, and how best to make sense of that data.

Then, after days of media speculation and parroting of misleading claims sourced largely Trump and his attorneys, some clearer, more plausible and better sourced details are finally beginning to emerge from several outlets regarding what actually happened at Mar-a-Lago, and why the FBI decided they needed to obtain a warrant from a federal court to execute their search of Trump's property.

CNN sums much of it up well. But, long story short, after days of Trump and his gullible minions (including, shamefully enough, a bunch of top elected Republican officials) whining that the DoJ should have first taken less aggressive and invasive steps to get at whatever they were looking for, it turns out, DoJ very much already did!

Following a criminal referral from the National Archives in January, charging that incredibly sensitive national security documents had been stolen by Trump when he left office, a grand jury subpoenaed him for those documents in June. Top DoJ officials also visited Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and his attorneys around the same time to get the documents back. But while some were reportedly returned, others were not, according to both an insider and security surveillance video from inside Mar-a-Lago, reportedly turned over by the Trump Organization.

Documents that were withheld from the National Archives, and said to be of a highly classified nature, were also reportedly stored in the unsecured basement at Trump's South Florida resort.

All of that, as Trump has been out-and-out hoping to scam the public and his supporters (I know, shocking!) by falsely portraying himself as the victim of outrageous "prosecutorial misconduct," "the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats." All part of little more than a "political witch hunt" which has resulted in the U.S. having become a "broken, Third-World Country."

Except, if he wanted to prove any of that to be true, as we discussed yesterday with former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, he could have simply released the warrant he was given by the FBI on Monday, detailing what they were looking for and what crimes they believe may have occurred, along with a full inventory that he was given, listing the documents and other materials that the FBI retrieved from his residence.

Trump could have done all of that. He did none of it.

On Thursday, however, Attorney General Merrick Garland offered brief remarks to announce that DoJ has now asked a federal judge to unseal the warrant, while declaring his support the men and women of the DoJ and FBI who have now been mercilessly targeted by Team Trump over the past week.

The selective release of at least part of the warrant by Trump's attorneys, including the name of the federal magistrate judge who signed it, has resulted in anti-Semitic slurs and calls for extreme violence against the judge and his family. Some have even been posted to Trump's own social media outlet.

It's difficult to believe that political violence isn't the whole point of what the disgraced former President is now doing, as the walls continued to close in on him. An attempted attack at an FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio today, by a man with body armor, a nail-gun and an AR-15, would seem to underscore that. (Shortly after airtime, it was reported that the man, injured in a gunfight as he fled but still on the run as of airtime, had been killed by authorities. Also, that the man had attended Trump's January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.)

Finally today, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as the deadly effects of our climate emergency quickly worsen around the world; elected Republican officials in the U.S. are found to have been conspiring to punish private companies working to curb carbon emissions; and at least one country with a long history of denialism among its rightwing elected class (other than the U.S.), is finally getting on board to cut greenhouse gas emissions after voters recently elected non-deniers to take control of its government...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: South Korea the latest victim of climate-intensified deadly flash floods; July was one of the hottest ever recorded; Republican state treasurers coordinating to block climate action by private companies; PLUS: Mexico declares state of emergency over intensifying persistent drought... 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): The biggest climate ghouls of the 2022 midterms; House starts process for climate bill passage; Rainwater everywhere on Earth unsafe to drink due to 'forever chemicals', study finds; In Amazon, a UN development agency partners with oil industry to quash opposition; Europe's energy crisis may get a lot worse; Flash floods overwhelm Denver, D.C. Metro; EPA launches civil rights probes of Texas air quality regulator; Conceding to Manchin, U.S. climate bill exempts most oil industry from methane fees... PLUS: Deepwater Horizon spill oil residue still present, 10 years later... and much, MUCH more! ...