{"id":15009,"date":"2024-04-18T18:49:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T01:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15009"},"modified":"2024-04-18T18:57:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T01:57:21","slug":"bad-climate-news-for-home-and-car-owners-good-labor-news-for-workers-in-the-south-bradcast-4182024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15009","title":{"rendered":"Bad Climate News for Home and Car Owners; Good Labor News for Workers in the South: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 4\/18\/2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_Fire-UAWUnionYes_041824.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">You may be happy to know we don&#8217;t begin today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a> with news about the disgraced former President. But you may be less happy about what we do lead with, especially if you own a home or a car or live on Planet Earth. [<i>Audio link to full show follows this summary.<\/i>]\n<p>Among our many stories today&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, <b>Federal Reserve<\/b> Chair <b>Jerome Powell<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2024\/4\/17\/2229138\/-Fed-Chair-Jerome-Powell-reveals-the-cause-of-persistent-inflation-economy-is-becoming-uninsurable?pm_campaign=trending&#038;pm_source=sidebar&#038;pm_medium=web\">confirmed<\/a> that, thanks in no small part to our quickly worsening climate, insurance rates for cars and homes continue to skyrocket. Yes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20240311-why-climate-change-is-making-the-us-uninsurable\">manmade climate change is a key factor<\/a> in slowing the decrease of inflation (which, of course, is just one reason Republicans would rather do nothing about it). As the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters quickens (just ask the folks in <b>New Orleans<\/b> who were swamped with some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/new-orleans\/2024\/04\/11\/street-flooding-tornado-slidell-extreme-weather-thunderstorm\">8 inches of rain<\/a> in a matter of hours last week), the cost of insurance is spiking, <a href=\"https:\/\/report.firststreet.org\/9th-National-Risk-Assessment-The-Insurance-Issue.pdf\">becoming unaffordable for many<\/a> and even unattainable in a number of coastal states. You may soon discover that your home is <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.firststreet.org\/uploads\/2023\/09\/PR_Insurance-2.pdf\">worth a lot <i>less<\/i><\/a> than you think, thanks to the climate crisis. We step through some of those grim details today, the trillions of dollars it is ALREADY costing Americans, and the even grimmer news about what is still to come unless and until we can end the burning of fossil fuels that is only beginning to wreak so much havoc across the entire globe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We started reporting on this story last week, when it didn&#8217;t seem like it could <i>really<\/i> be a story. Well, it&#8217;s beginning, at least, to look more like it really could be a real story. <b>Ohio<\/b>&#8216;s Republican Attorney General has now joined the state&#8217;s Republican Sec. of State to say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2024\/04\/16\/ohio-rejects-joe-biden-ballot\/73351358007\/\">they will not allow<\/a> <b>Joe Biden<\/b> on the state&#8217;s ballot this November unless the Democratic Party certifies his candidacy before the state&#8217;s statutory deadline of August 7. The Democratic National Convention, which is set to <i>officially<\/i> nominate the President, doesn&#8217;t happen until August 19. When a similar situation occurred in 2020 &#8212; which might have kept <b>Donald Trump<\/b> off the ballot &#8212; the GOP state legislature simply changed the statutory deadline for that year. But now, because it&#8217;s only Democrats whose convention isn&#8217;t scheduled to take place until <i>after<\/i> OH&#8217;s 90-day deadline before the November 5th election, Buckeye State Republicans seem to be suggesting they may actually not put Biden on the ballot&#8230;as impossible as that seems to believe. Let the lawsuits begin&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The <b>Nevada<\/b> Supreme Court on Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/thenevadaindependent.com\/article\/nv-supreme-court-says-broader-abortion-ballot-question-is-constitutional\">overturned a lower court ruling<\/a> that had blocked a broad, Constitutional &#8220;Reproductive Freedom&#8221; measure to protect prenatal care, abortion, vasectomies and infertility care from appearing on this November&#8217;s ballot in the critical battle ground state. Supporters of the measure are <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/marceelias\/status\/1781072692671553790\">celebrating today<\/a>, but are also said to be gathering signatures for a second measure that will focus only on abortion rights for this year&#8217;s ballot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>After two of seven previously-seated jurors were dismissed on Thursday morning in <b>Donald Trump<\/b>&#8216;s criminal trial in <b>New York<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-manhattan-stormy-daniels-michael-cohen-b514cb52bb31a82579cb827c40166173\">seven more were seated<\/a> before the day was done. Barring any other dismissals, that fills out the 12 jurors that will be needed to begin the case proper, once six alternate jurors are chosen. The judge admonished the press for reporting enough details about jurors that one who asked to be removed this morning said that friends had been able to identify her from media reports. Also, after prosecutors earlier this week sought sanctions against Trump for three violations of his gag order, they cited another seven incidents since then. That issue will be heard next week. Opening Statements in the trial could begin as early as Monday if the case continues to move briskly forward.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Very exciting news is underway in the South this week, specifically in <b>Tennessee<\/b>, where workers at a <b>Volkswagen<\/b> plant in Chattanooga are now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/apr\/17\/uaw-union-drive-south-volkswagen-tennessee?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other\">voting to unionize<\/a> and join the <b>United Auto Workers<\/b>. Workers at the plant seem confident that the election will be successful. But that&#8217;s just the first of 13 non-union automakers who are being targeted for unionization by the UAW since labor unions huge victories last year in strikes against GM, Ford and Stellantis (which now owns Jeep and Chrysler). Another election is likely to happen soon at a <b>Mercedes-Benz<\/b> plant in <b>Alabama<\/b>, with 36 non-union plants targeted in all. If workers are successful in unionizing at both VW and Mercedes in the two southern states, according to one labor historian, it &#8220;would be nothing less than an earthquake&#8221; for the labor movement and its &#8220;biggest breakthrough in private-sector organizing in decades.&#8221; It apparently has anti-labor Republicans worried. In a joint statement <a href=\"https:\/\/wapo.st\/3W8ZbbR\">described by one expert<\/a> as &#8220;unprecedented and shocking&#8221;, six southern state governors, all Republican &#8212; from Tennessee, Alabama, <b>Georgia<\/b>, <b>Mississippi<\/b>, <b>South Carolina<\/b> and <b>Texas<\/b> &#8212; issued a joint statement on the day before voting began at VW, charging that &#8220;unionization would put our states&#8217; jobs in jeopardy.&#8221; <b>Kentucky<\/b>&#8216;s Democratic Governor, <b>Andy Beshear<\/b>, by contrast, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GovAndyBeshear\/status\/1778529129841013028\">announced<\/a> last week that he was &#8220;proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder&#8221; with the UAW.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Finally, in case we didn&#8217;t frighten you enough with our opening coverage of the catastrophic, <strong>climate change-fueled weather<\/strong> driving insurance rates through the roof, Desi Doyen joins us for <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15008\">our latest <i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a> with much more to frighten you about. But she also has <b>good news for workers<\/b> as well, and bad news for the fossil fuel industry tools at Fox &#8220;News&#8221;&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman-ClimateInsurance-BidenBallotOH-TrumpTrialNY-UAWElectionTN_041824.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> 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&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9icmFkYmxvZy5jb20vcG9kY2FzdGdlbi9icmFkY2FzdC9mZWVkLnhtbA\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may be happy to know we don&#8217;t begin today&#8217;s BradCast with news about the disgraced former President. But you may be less happy about what we do lead with, especially if you own a home or a car or live on Planet Earth. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.] Among our many [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,113,1415,89,675,21,543,299,479,390,594,1611,1691,548,16,1112,1707,320,247,477,1628,356,1052,111,15,300,126,71,1932,1920,795],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-alabama","category-andy-beshear","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-california","category-climate-change","category-democrats","category-donald-trump","category-economy","category-election-2016","category-election-2024","category-electricity","category-extreme-weather","category-florida","category-infrastructure","category-jerome-powell","category-joe-biden","category-kentucky","category-kpfk","category-labor-unions","category-nevada","category-new-orleans","category-new-york","category-ohio","category-republicans","category-rights-and-freedoms","category-tennessee","category-uae","category-uaw","category-volkswagen","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15009"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=15009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}