It's been a rough 24 hours or so. But we are among the lucky ones, as detailed at the top of today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

The photo of a massive fire nearby first came in via cell phone from a neighbor before we had even been able to publish yesterday's show to the blog. The show was, of course, about the ongoing wind and firestorms here in Los Angeles., including an interview with a longtime colleague whose house burned down on Tuesday night in Pacific Palisades.

Now it seemed to be happening to us. The City began sending alerts to all of our phones, telling us to get ready for an evacuation. From my back patio, I could see the huge flames and orange plumes rising out of Runyon Canyon, a park just a few blocks from where we live. It would come to be known as the "Sunset Fire" for some reason, as reported by the national media. Which meant that most of you probably learned more about the fire and what was going on than we did being in the middle of it.

The photo used above for our graphic today was taken by another neighbor at the end of our block about 30 minutes before the "GET OUT NOW!" order came from the City. As you can tell, it was unsettling to say the least.

Long story short (we share the longer version on today's show, with a bunch of interesting Lessons Learned along the way), after the mandatory evacuation order came, we, and a whole bunch of others folks in the area, grabbed up whatever belongings we felt we needed and high-tailed it out of here. Or, at least tried to. The narrow streets here in the lower Hollywood Hills were packed, in what national media correctly described as a sudden, chaotic evacuation.

Anyway, with the winds having died down from hurricane force levels 24 hours earlier, firefighters were able to get airborne again and knock down "our" particular raging inferno in fairly short order. "Only" 60 acres said to have burned. The mandatory evacuation order was lifted by morning and all was well upon our return. Safe and sound. But, as noted, tune in for more of the harrowing details.

It was inconvenient, and not a lot of fun. But we were among the lucky ones. More than 2,000 10,000(!) structures have now reportedly been destroyed or damaged in at least 4 different raging fires around Los Angeles, in what is being described as the most costly fire disaster in U.S. history, if not the most deadly. Six people are now reported killed, though authorities say that number is expected to climb when, and if, they are finally able to get the largest fires under control. Winds are predicted to pick up again tonight and through next week, though not as high as they had been over the past 48 hours or so. Stay safe out there. But do tune in for a few tips we learned over the past 24 hours about sudden, unexpected evacuations.

Also today, President Jimmy Carter --- who, speaking of harrowing experiences, was once lowered into a melted down nuclear reactor core! --- was finally laid to rest today. We share details and a few audio excerpts from today's memorial service at the National Cathedral in D.C.

Finally, Desi Doyen has our latest Green News Report, with more details on the L.A. fires and their connection to climate change, as we miraculously were able to produce both that and a 'BradCast' today...which I didn't see as remotely possible at about 7 or 8pm last night. But we made it. We are among the lucky ones...

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PROGRAMMING NOTE: We will be off from Monday's BradCast due to a previously scheduled, unchangeable appointment. We'll be back Tuesday, as normal, but I didn't want you to worry, given everything otherwise underway in L.A. over this past week!

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extreme wildfire crisis now the most destructive in Los Angeles history, as Green News Report is forced to evacuate; Climate change is intensifying extreme fire conditions; PLUS: President Biden designates two new national monuments, protecting sacred tribal lands... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Jimmy Carter raised climate change concerns 35 years before Paris Accords; Trump promises to end new wind farms; What are the factors the caused the unseasonal CA fires?; California wildfires threaten insurers already teetering from climate shocks; To save the Great Salt Lake, farmers will have to grow less alfalfa; Coal was on its way out. But surging electricity demand is keeping it alive... PLUS: Biden FWS declines to remove grizzly bears from endangered list... and much, MUCH more! ...

From the heart of climate-changed wind and inferno country, apparently, it's today's special edition of The BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

As you might suspect, as we broadcast most days from Hollywood, pretty much in the center of Los Angeles, the bulk of today's show is dedicated to fire coverage. Yesterday we reported on the high winds, gusting at times to hurricane levels, nearly 100mph, and the National Weather Service Red Flag warnings of potentially out of control fires they were likely to bring. They did. The blaze in Pacific Palisades, on the coast, actually sparked up just as we began yesterday's program and had grown to about 300 acres by the time we signed off.

This morning, as we awoke to eerily blackened skies, which eventually gave way to a sickly orange pall by late afternoon, that fire had grown to several thousand acres. By showtime, once the winds had died down a bit and firefighters were actually able to take to the air to battle the blaze, it had grown to more than 24 square miles. More than 1,000 structures have now reportedly burned, and tens of thousands are under evacuation orders in that fire and three other major ones that have broken out across L.A. County --- near Pasadena to the east of us and Sylmar to the North --- in the bargain. The fire in Palisades, is now, officially, the most destructive fire in L.A. history.

We do our best to cover the latest on all of that today, as fire fighters are said to be overwhelmed and resources, such as water to battle the out-of-control infernos, has been in short supply, particularly while airborne units had been grounded.

One of those who lost their home last night in Palisades, tragically, was our friend JOHN AMATO, the longtime blogger and creator of the notorious Crooks and Liars blog. [See his last photos from his house here.] He is kind enough to join us on the show today from Santa Monica to detail his harrowing evacuation last night, along with details of all that he has lost today.

"It's just total destruction," says Amato. And though he hasn't yet been able to get back to his community, a neighbor who was among the last to leave told him that "everything is just melted to the ground."

"We've never seen the speed of this fire. It just spread so fast," he tells me. "The devastation is just incredible. The wind was blowing these flaming embers everywhere. It's like a tidal wave of fire."

Also today, the latest on Donald Trump's pathetic attempt at SCOTUS to avoid even a shred of accountability for his 34 felony fraud convictions in New York, and, by way of stark contrast, a reminder of a few more of the extraordinary accomplishments of President Jimmy Carter before he is finally laid to rest on Thursday. (Did you know that, in addition to creating the Dept. of Energy, he also created the Education Dept., which Trump vows to shut down, and FEMA, which is very very important out here in Los Angeles today, including to our guest who just lost his home?)

Thanks to all those who have touched based to see how Desi and I are. We're fine. For now. Please tune in for our special coverage. And please stay safe out there...

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I suspect it's gonna get much uglier before it's all said and done. And we're here for it! A "MAGA Civil War"? Count us in on The BradCast! [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

But, first up, some other news today...

• Repeated "wildfire weather" warnings from the National Weather Service for Los Angeles, predicting "a life-threatening, destructive windstorm," with wind gusts as high as 100mph(!) from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning, after months of dry weather appear to have been prescient. The day started here with a neighbors huge tree limb blowing over to crush our backyard canopy amid the gusty winds. By shows end today, tens of thousands being evacuated from a quickly growing wildfire in Pacifica Palisades, on the coast. It has gotten much worse since we got off air today, with hundreds reportedly abandoning their cars on the Pacific Coast highway to flee encroaching flames.

• In what counts for Trump criminal accountability court news these days, his favorite federal Judge/tool, Aileen Cannon in Florida, who was seated at the very end of his first term after he lost the 2020 election, , is working hard for her promotion to SCOTUS. On Tuesday, she exercised dubious authority to block the release, at least for now, of Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on Donald Trump's two different, now-abandoned federal felony indictments for stealing thousands of pages of highly classified national security documents upon leaving office, and for his failed attempts to steal the 2020 election. We'll see how long her ruling stands.

• Meanwhile, in New York, an appeals court on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump's attempt to stay his criminal sentencing, still scheduled for Friday, in the case in which he was found guilty of 34 felony fraud counts related to his hush money payments to a porn star to help him cheat to win the 2016 election. Barring any surprises, the sentencing is still on for this week, though the judge in the case has indicated he is unlikely to issue any jail time, given Trump's re-election. But, even with an "unconditional discharge", he will still become the nation's first convicted felon to be sworn in as President.

• On Monday in New York, in federal court, former NYC Mayor turned disgraced Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court for failing to lawfully respond to the $148 million defamation judgement against him won by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who Rudy and Trump both falsely claimed had committed fraud during the 2020 election. If only Rudy could have figured out how to become President and make all of his crimes go away like Donny did.

• Then, we're joined by RYAN COOPER, Managing Editor of The American Prospect, on the emerging (and hilarious) dust-up between the broligarchs who control Trump, like richest-man-in-the-world Elon Musk (and his sidekick Vivek Ramaswamy), and his hardcore MAGA cultists like Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon. Cooper's article on the matter is headlined "President Musk Declares War on American Workers".

  Just before the turn of the new year, sparks started flying when the duped MAGA cultists learned that Trump was going to continue the H-1B visa program that allows skilled tech workers to come to the U.S. and take less money to work longer hours than American citizens. After facing criticism for the Silicon Valley billionaires' favorite work visa scheme (the South African-born Musk came here himself on an H-1B), Musk took to the social media site he purchased and declared war on Loomer and any other MAGAs who dared oppose him, declaring: "The reason I'm in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B," before he added, "Take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend."

  The self-proclaimed "free-speech absolutist" then proceeded to downgrade and demonetize Loomer's account on Twitter/X, along with dozens of other MAGAs who dared call out Musk and the H-1B program.

  Today, Cooper explains tells me why the Silicon Valley broligarchs are so fond of the H-1B program, which, he says, they wield as a "weapon of class warfare" that "provides a pool of exploitable labor" that must do as you say or get sent back to their country. We also discuss Musk and the Right's actual position on "free speech" ("Tthey get to say whatever they want, and you get to shut up."); who appears to really be calling the shots now in Trumpland (Hint: its the guy who controls the "still depressingly influential social media platform that all the Republicans are on"); and how this nascent war between the two major factions of Trump's MAGA cult/coalition is likely to shake out in the days ahead.

  "We are in the realm of syphilitic emperor history books," Cooper tells me. "You've got Trump, who is 78 and clearly has lost MANY steps from when he was a young man. But Elon Musk is also incredibly erratic and impulsive. With these two megalomaniac narcissists with giant fevered egos, typically you'd see a massive falling out over something." And yet, so far, Trump is standing with the richest man on Earth and pretending he even knows what the H-1B program is. Meanwhile, says Cooper, about "Trump and his toadies, the minute they become inconvenient for him, he just throws them over the side. Which, for some reason, doesn't seem to affect the supply of people lining up to get thrown over the side the next day."

• Finally, Desi Doyen has our first Green News Report of the new year, with much to catch up on after our long holiday break, including the brutal, climate change-fueled weather across much of the country this week; President Joe Biden's last-minute ban on new offshore drilling across most U.S. coastal waters; the environmental legacy of the late President Jimmy Carter; and much more...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New year, new punishing extreme weather; 2024 was the hottest year in human history; President Biden bans new offshore drilling across most U.S. coastal waters; PLUS: The legacy of Jimmy Carter, one of the greatest conservation presidents in U.S. history... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Russia's failed energy war has lessons for fossil fools everywhere; Climate change added 41 days of dangerous heat around world in 2024; Climate-driven sea level rise will overwhelm major oil ports, study shows; Restoration efforts continue following complete blackout of Puerto Rico's power grid; How Elon Musk's DOGE could end fossil fuel subsidies; Biden Admin adds exemptions into new climate rules for hydrogen energy; FWS deal to expand Okefenokee Refuge, enabling buyout of mining project... PLUS: Ex-Trump official: We need to take Greenland, because climate change... and much, MUCH more! ...

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...

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[ED NOTE: See below this week's collection for a bit of troubling Tooning News that broke on Friday night... --BF]

As noted on Thursday's rollicking year-end BradCast and occasionally hopeful Green News Report, we will be standing down this week and next over the holidays, after a grueling year and before a likely more grueling one (or four) arrives.

Barring any surprises, or itchy trigger fingers, I suspect The BRAD BLOG will be mostly silent during that period, though I may not be able to avoid a bit of Sunday Tooning for the new year...we shall see. Also, the best social media (by far!) on which to find both Desi and me hanging out these days is Bluesky. I am @TheBradBlog, Desi is @GreenNewsReport!

To all of those who have supported us over the past year --- via reading, sharing, listening, writing, guesting on our show, calling in and, in particular, donating so that we may continue all of our independent work on both your public airwaves and Internets --- thank you! To all who have not...well, you likely won't see this message anyway. But, since its the holiday season, I'll be uncharacteristically nice.

Until we're back, please enjoy the AI graphic above, made for me when I requested an image of "peace on Earth at night", and ponder the many ways that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Not unlike our actual Earth, made with actual intelligence!

From all of us, to all of you: Happy Holidays! May they be safe, warm and peaceful. We'll be back soon! (If not before.) Like it or not. --- Brad

Today, on our last new BradCast of 2024: It's beginning to look a lot like failure, everywhere you look in D.C. It's already getting pathetic before either the new majorities are sworn in to Congress or the new Administration officially takes over the White House. But we're all here for the GOP fiascos today! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... A state appeals court panel in Georgia ruled 2 to 1 on Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must be disqualified from the racketeering indictment she filed against Donald Trump and 18-conspirators for their failed attempt to steal the state from Joe Biden in 2020. The case itself, however, may continue. The court cited an "appearance of impropriety" related to Willis' romantic relationship with a former Special Prosecutor assigned to the same case. She quickly filed an appeal to the ruling today, but it could be the end to this criminal case against the convicted felon who will be sworn in as President, even though today's ruling could still be overturned by the state Supreme Court or Georgia's Prosecuting Attorneys' Council could reassign the case to another prosecution team.

THEN... If you're looking for an idea of what next year may be like in Congress, when Republicans in the U.S. House will have an even slimmer majority than they do now, and when Donald Trump will be "running the ship" in the White House, look no farther than the clusterf__k that has unfolded over the past 24 hours in the House. A bipartisan, bicameral deal to avoid a Government shutdown on Friday, just before Christmas, was effectively nixed by... Elon Musk, the unelected South African who appears to have purchased not just the Presidency, but the entirety of the U.S. Government with his $277 million investment on Trump's behalf in the 2024 Presidential election.

After a few of Musk's tweets against it yesterday --- despite clearly never even having read a single page of the three-month Continuing Resolution meant largely to keep the government operating until a full budget deal could be reached in March --- the bill was pronounced dead. Then Trump jumped in, late in the game, to say that he too --- just like Elon! --- was against the bill! Even though he could have rung in to kill it or change it any time long before yesterday. Musk, the richest man in the world, and perhaps the most clueless (at least when it comes to how government and legislation works) now seems to be running the GOP ship in D.C., despite having no clue how to run a D.C. ship.

Trump then began demanding an end to the very idea of a Debt Ceiling despite the Debt Ceiling having nothing to do with this week's must-pass legislation. (His newfound objection to it is apparently because he doesn't want to have the raise the Debt Ceiling on his watch, so he'll be free when he does to blow up the national debt with new, enormous tax cuts for his wealthy pals...like Elon!) This afternoon a new bill was cobbled together that Trump claimed to support. But, minutes after we got off air, that measure failed, as Democrats were no longer interested in helping Speaker Mike Johnson --- or Trump or President Musk --- out of their own mess.

Of course, that's not all that's happening at years-end. And we've got two of our good friends and fan faves here to try and make sense (or not) of much of it. We're joined once again today by fellow old-school bloggers, HEATHER DIGBY PARTON of Salon and Digby's Hullabaloo blog, and DRIFTGLASS, author of his own eponymously-named blog and co-host of the weekly Professional Left Podcast, for an end-of-year roundtable, of sorts.

As usual, they've both got keen insight on the idiocy unfurling in D.C. today and much more, including such topics as...

• DRONES over New Jersey!!! (Also: Who cares?)
• Elon's buffoonery and Trump's diminishment.
• Mike Johnson's likely brief future as House Speaker.
• Consequences and dangers (for voters, for January 6th, for Inauguration Day) of a GOP holiday government shutdown and a GOP failure to elect a House Speaker.
• Corporate CEOs kissing Trump's ass, for some reason.
• Will we be targeted by the new Administration?
• Should Joe Biden offer preemptive pardons to people like Liz Cheney?
• Do Dems really need to reinvent themselves, as some claim, after narrowly losing the Presidency and picking up a seat in the House in November?
• Did the Dems blow an opportunity by not elevating superstar Rep. AOC to Ranking Member of the Oversight Committee?

...And what are Digby and Driftglass most worried about --- and most hopeful for --- in the new year, as a new Republican majority takes over Congress and either Trump or Musk take over the White House?

FINALLY... Desi Doyen is here for our last Green News Report of 2024, as the Biden EPA grants California's waiver to phase out sales of new, all-gasoline cars by 2035; A disturbing new study on microplastics and cancer; And Biden's Dept. of Energy finds that GOP plans to expand natural gas exports will hike up prices for Americans...

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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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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! ...

As usual, the incoming President has almost no clue what he's talking about. Not that he cares or that it matters. That's especially true, as discussed on today's BradCast, when it comes to elections and voting laws. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... It's another one of those fire-hose news days akin to what we experienced, day after day, during the first Trump term. We can only cover what we can cover. So, we start with the news, as reported by CNN today, that the House Ethics Committee voted in secret earlier this month to release the report from their years-long investigation of allegations against now-former Rep. and now-former Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz. The report, which Republicans on the bipartisan panel voted against releasing in November, is said to focus on allegations of Gaetz' salacious sexual misconduct with minors, illicit drug use, and other crimes, potentially included bribery and more. CNN says the Committee has decided to make the report public "after the House's final day of votes this year" unless they "change course now that it has voted."

NEXT... In an update to a story we've been following since last month's election, the North Carolina State Board of Elections has decided it will not order a full hand-recount in the election for State Supreme Court between the incumbent Democrat, Justice Allison Riggs, and her Republican opponent, Jefferson Griffin. The original computer-reported tally from the November 5 contest found Riggs defeated Griffin by 623 votes out of more than 5.5 million ballots cast. A Griffin-requested machine recount widened Riggs' lead to 724 votes over the Republican challenger, who then requested a hand-count. State law allows a small number of precincts in each county to be hand-counted before ordering a full hand-count in the event that the smaller audit is way out of line with the computer recount. In the hand-count samples in all 100 counties in NC, both candidates picked up votes (Riggs gained 70, Griffin picked up 56), but it was not enough to trigger a full, statewide hand-count. With Riggs declared the certified winner, Griffin is also seeking to toss some 60,000 ballots out entirely, claiming those voters, including military and overseas voters, were either not entitled to vote or to have their votes counted. The matter is expected to end up at the state Supreme Court. Presumably, Justice Riggs, one of just two remaining Democrats on the seven-person High Court, will recuse herself if that happens.

THEN... Donald Trump has been vowing and/or threatening to end Joe Biden's "EV mandate" on "Day One" when he takes office, even though there is no Biden "EV mandate." A week or so ago on Meet the Press, Trump reiterated his plans to sign Executive Orders to "end the electric mandate immediately for the cars" and for "ending a lot of the environmental things that were ridiculous that hurt our country very badly and didn't do anything for the environment...ya know, standard things." This week, Reuters has an exclusive report on the specific plans from the Trump Transition team for those "standard things", including what the news outlet describes as "sweeping changes to cut off support for electric vehicles and charging stations" and to redirect that funding to "national-defense priorities." The plans also involve reversing California's (and twelve other states') emission standards that save lives and reduce energy prices for residents, and doing away with the Biden administration's $7,500 consumer tax credit for EV purchases, a policy expected to harm U.S. automakers like General Motors (if less so for Tesla, whose CEO spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected). But all of those things may be easier said than done, certainly on "Day One", as Desi Doyen explains.

FINALLY... Speaking of easier said than done, Donald Trump has also been demanding changes to voting and election laws, most prominently after he began falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Earlier this month, he declared at a Fox "News" event, once again, that "we want to have paper ballots, one-day voting, voter ID, and proof of citizenship" among other changes to election law that he has repeatedly called for. He doesn't seem to understand most of the things he's demanding, nor care about the fact that some of the measures would disenfranchise millions of Americans.

We're joined today by JOSHUA A. DOUGLAS, election law professor at the Univ. of Kentucky College of Law; author of a number of recent books on American democracy, and now the host of the Democracy Optimist podcast and companion newsletter.

This week, at Washington Monthly, Douglas explained why Trump, in truth, will have "little official power to implement the new rules he supports," given that the U.S. Constitution gives most power regarding elections to the states. While Congress has certainly adopted a number of landmark federal voting laws over the years, Douglas tells me today, "it's really a process of local control. The President himself cannot issue an Executive Order or some sort of decree that elections should be changed one way or the other without states being the ones to pass those laws --- or Congress, but that's a difficult path, as well."

"The President doesn't have any power unilaterally to dictate election rules," says Douglas, while recognizing that Trump will have both the bully pulpit to muscle Congress and states into adopting new laws and rules, along with the power to appoint members of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) and Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and, particularly in Trump's case, to direct his Dept. of Justice to enforce certain laws and ignore others. "But the President, under the Constitution, doesn't have any formal powers to regulate elections, beyond signing or vetoing a Congressional law."

We step through some of the specific measures Trump has been demanding, such as "paper ballots" (which the vast majority of voters already use), "one-day voting" (ending absentee and early voting), Voter ID (already mandated by most states and, under federal law, already required when registering voters in all 50 states), and the point that most concerns Douglas, "proof of citizenship" when registering to vote. If actually adopted at the federal level, he argues, it would likely disenfranchise tens of millions of voters and become "a real logistical nightmare for election officials."

The efforts by Republicans to change election laws on the state level, are a different matter, as Douglas explains as well. But, bottom line, there is no "magic wand" for Trump to use to undermine elections by himself, much less on "Day One". And there are quite a few things that YOU can do, to stop him and anyone else who would try to restrict our right to vote.

Given recent events, is Douglas still the "democracy optimist" he was when he originally named his podcast and newsletter earlier this year? Tune on in to find out...

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On today's BradCast: The unspeakable corruption of the Trump 2.0 era is already under way, even before the 2024 election has even been finalized. So what are we all gonna do about it? I've got a few thoughts. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

• The Biden Administration's Federal Trade Commission finalized its new rule today banning bait-and-switch junk fees for concert tickets, hotels, vacation rentals and more. The only vote on the FTC against the new rule? The man just named as Trump's incoming Federal Trade Commission Chair, of course.

• The Presidential Electors selected by popular vote in each state met today to officially cast their votes in the 2024 Presidential election in each state capital. And, though I didn't have time to mention it on air, 13 of the Republican Electors who cast votes for Donald Trump today in the Electoral College, in three different states, are currently facing felony charges for fraudulently declaring themselves to be official Electors in the 2020 election. But carrying out official duties as either alleged or convicted felons now seems to be a feature of the Republican Party.

• Convicted felon Donald Trump saw his motion to toss out his 34 state felony convictions rejected by New York Superior Court Justice Juan Merchan late on Monday. The judge, who oversaw Trump's trial for the filing of false business records as part of his hush money payoff scheme to porn star Stormy Daniels to help him cheat to win the 2016 election, denied every argument Trump's attorneys presented in their motion citing the recent ridiculous ruling by corrupt Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court that Presidents enjoy immunity for all crimes committed while carrying out official acts as President. The hush money scheme, however, took place before Trump became President, and evidence submitted by NY prosecutors during the trial regarding any official acts during Trump's first term as President was not enough to overcome the "overwhelming evidence" of his guilt presented by prosecutors, according to Merchan, who "held the line" on the rule of law, at least for now. It is now all but certain, for the first time in U.S. history, that a convicted felon will be sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th.

• But the corruption and abuse of power on display last week at a major cryptocurrency conference in the United Arab Emirates, as headlined by keynote speaker Eric Trump, the incoming President's son, is almost unfathomable. He hobnobbed with convicted criminals and others currently under investigation for financial crimes, and made clear that his family's new cryptocurrency platform, World Liberty Financial, is now open for business...wink, wink. Wanna buy off the next President of the United States? Here's a perfectly "legal" way to do so, to the tune of however many tens of millions or billions of dollars you'd like to give to the incoming felonious President. The New York Times offered mostly good coverage last week, even as few other media outlets seemed to pick up on the gob-smacking report --- and even as the "paper of record" managed to normalize this unprecedented abuse of power by the Trump Family with one of the greatest understatements of all time: at one point in their story they describe Donald Trump's new crypto-pipeline for bribery, payoffs, money laundering and political favors as little more than "a more relaxed approach during this new administration to business ethics"(!!!)

• So, what to do about all of this? Is there any way to push back? Or is this just the end of the rule of law and American democracy as we know it, as some "militant pessimists" (to paraphrase Josh Marshall in a more family friendly way), have been arguing since Trump's recent election? On that, and on all of our roles as The Opposition, I've got quite a bit to say --- more than I can possibly summarize adequately here. So, please tune in at least for that. It's important.

• Finally, Desi Doyen, who knows quite a bit about overcoming militant pessimism in her 15-year beat on the climate front, joins us for our latest Green News Report, as an "apocalyptic" cyclone unfolds in the excessively warm Indian Ocean; Malaria is on the rise again thanks to climate change; an historic ski resort in Switzerland is forced to call it quits; and, as the Biden Administration, still pushing out historic renewable energy action to the very end, its EPA succeeds in the long-overdue banning of several cancer-causing chemicals...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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