'BradCast' 6/12/2026 (Encore: Trump's Favorite Election Fraud Criminal Now Runs Free)

Today's broadcast was originally recorded on June 2nd, 26. And she saw boxes of votes come in. So she went over to check it, and they put her in jail for voter manipulation. Which is about the most inaccurate description of Tina Peter's crime as you could possibly come up. That guy's crazy. I got the feeling that something right. But you knew that. Joke From Pacifica Radio. In Los Angeles, this is the Bradcast, as heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, and on dozens of other fine affiliate stations over both the public airwaves and the internet surround the country and the world, blanketing planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker. All around, swell fellow says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us once again today. Glad to be with you. It was midterm primary election day on Tuesday in six, count them six states, including Iowa, where, by the way, Democrats, in what has become in recent years a very red state, Democrats are hoping for a shot this year at flipping... Both the governor's mansion And a U.S. Senate seat from red to blue this year. Long shots, perhaps, in both cases, but much less so, less, not quite as long of a shot in a blue tsunami year, should one develop the way it's certainly looking quite possible that it might this year, Desi Doyen. Even in Iowa. Even in Iowa. Wow. We will see. It was also Election Day in Montana, New Jersey. New Mexico, South Dakota, and yes, right here in the great state of California, where the state really is looking at one of the strangest and most unpredictable... governor's races in decades with more than 60. I think I said more than 50 incorrectly on yesterday's show. More than 60 candidates. 61, to be precise, running to fill the office being vacated by the term limited two-term Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, who was expected to run for president in 2028. But on...

Tuesday's ballot in California, there were 24 Democrats, 12 Republicans, one libertarian, one peace and freedom candidate, and 23 no party or decline to state candidates all on the same ballot, running for the same job, at least for the top two slots to run for that job this November. We could see some surprises in the results of the gubernatorial primary, which is being run, as I note, as an all- party top two primary in the otherwise very blue state where all of those folks are running in the same contest and where it is not particularly clear even on election day. Who the Democratic frontrunner actually is. Former Democratic Congressman and State Attorney General Xavier Becerra is believed to be in front with Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Democratic activist billionaire Tom Steyer vying for the second slot this November. But who really knows? Well, maybe you do if you're listening to this show the following day, but we don't. What we do know is that Donald Trump wants Republicans to vote for Steve Hilton. As former Republican prosecutor turned Democratic editor-in-chief of Midas News, Ron Filipkowski notes today, reposting one of dozens of social media posts from Donald Trump today. Philip Kosky says Trump makes the same corrupt authoritarian pitch to California voters that he made to Hungarians. I will send lots of U.S. taxpayer dollars to you if you vote for my guy. It didn't work so well in Hungary. We'll see how it works here. But his comments, Philip Kowski's comments were added to a screenshot of one of Trump's post this morning on his failing social media site, reading, quote, California, vote today for Steve Hilton, for governor. He will work with me and the federal government. The money will flow. Because I have confidence in him, but not any of the others. And we will make California great again. Steve Hilton will never let you down. Vote now, says... Donald Trump. So he's implying that if you don't vote for him, he threatens that he won't send any taxpayer dollars, which that has been a problem with getting delayed FEMA disaster requests for California approved by Trump. Elect the Fox News guy, and I will make sure that California gets money. Gets taken care of. Right.

Specifically, by the way, that would be money that California taxpayers are gracious enough to give to the federal government in order to allow Trump to corruptly misuse it by, for example, promising to send money to California, only if voters here vote the way that he wants us to. Of course, California is the fourth largest economy in the world and pays far more in taxes to the federal government than we receive back in return, unlike almost all of the so-called red states in the country who take more than they give. So you're welcome. much of the rest of the country. And we will see if Trump's act of strongmanism on Tuesday morning actually, I'm sorry, Wednesday morning, if it actually turns out to have helped or hurt his favored Fox News host in the state's gubernatorial race. There could be other surprises as well in the mayoral contest here in Los Angeles. And of course, for those listening to today's show tomorrow, well, you may be ahead of us on that one as well. Either way. We will have a full roundup of notable and otherwise available election results in all six states on our next thrilling broadcast. Next up, by the way, next week on June 9, so you can start voting now. It's Election Day in four states next Tuesday, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Maine, where there is a very interesting contest among Democrats to try and finally unseat Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins considered to be one of the... Best flip opportunities for Democrats in the Senate this year. I will not put my thumb on the Democratic primary out there where a controversial, to say the least, Democratic first-time political candidate, an oyster farmer, Graham Platner is currently expected to win the nomination, the Democratic nomination to take on Susan Collins this November. But we will see... how that goes next week. Yeah, we'll see how the main voters decide how they want to go. But it is election season around here, which is fine by me as voting and elections for now. As flawed as they may be in these United States remain the only way for now to change the course toward authoritarianism that we are being led down by... Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which is still coutowing to him, even as they are finally beginning to see the flaw in that strategy with Trump's approval ratings plummet.

plummeting amid, as we discussed in detail on yesterday's program, one failure after another by the president, by the White House, and amid a rapidly deteriorating presidency overall, whether the mainstream corporate media is being as clear with you as they should about that right now. So prepare your voting strategy for this year as early as you can. So you can also be free to help others to get to the polls this year. Come hell or high water. And frankly, we are likely waiting into both over the next several months. Speaking of hell and high water, Desi Doyen will be joining us later this hour for our Green News Report after a week off last week again. Another slow news week last week. So we will be lucky if we can even fill in all six minutes in that report later this hour. But speaking of elections and hell and high water and even California, Tina Peters. Yes, the former Mesa County, Colorado County clerk who broke into her own. secure voting system room in the middle of the night after the 2020 election, along with an accomplice for whom she had created a fake ID. disabled the security cameras in the room, which, you know, is the sort of thing you're doing if you're not doing anything wrong, right? You disable the security cameras. And then allowed that accomplice, a computer guy, a hacker guy, to disassemble voting machines, essentially, and tabulators made by the Dominion Voting System Company and copy all of the systems proprietary and very sensitive software. And then she released that software over the Internet to her other MAGA friends who were busy either pretending or being fooled that the 2020 election was somehow stolen that year from Donald Trump by Joe Biden or by the Dominion Voting System Company or by China or by Italy or by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who had actually died years earlier or something. So remember Tina Peters? Nice lady. Here she was when law enforcement officials tried to arrest her as part of a case against a fellow employee who also participated in this scam. And during a court hearing for that employee, Tina Peters, in direct violation of the judge's orders.

actually videotaped the hearing with her iPad that the law enforcement officials were trying to get as part of evidence in that case. Here's the lovely Tina Peters during that episode. Let's go of me. Let's go of me. Let's go of me. Oh, no. Let's go of me. It hurts. Let's go with me. Give me my key. Stop it. Sorry. No, let's go on me. Yes, you are. Give me my key to my car. Give me my key to my car. Give me my key to my car. Give me my key to my car. Give me my key to my car. Give it to me. Give me my key. Take my first. Well, all I can tell you is it must be nice to be a 70-year-old white woman when the police show up. No kidding. And you can treat them like that. How many other people would have gotten treated like that that weren't white? Anyway, lovely woman, more importantly, she was the chief election official in Mesa County, Colorado, doing all of this stuff. She was eventually barred from touching voting systems or having anything to do with Mesa County elections by Colorado's Democratic Secretary of State, Jena Griswold. Peters then... confusing her celebrity among the MAGA election denier crowd with actual popularity among voters decided to run for the Secretary of State's office in 2022, and she lost so bigly she did not even make it out of the Colorado Republican Party primary in her effort to challenge Griswold, who would go on that year in 22 to win a second term. to office. But eventually, the law caught up to Tina Peters. She was tried and convicted for multiple state crimes related to breaching Mesa County's election equipment in early 2021 and then lying to law enforcement officials about it all. She was found guilty in August of 2024 of seven charges of four felony charges and three misdemeanors. Specifically, three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of first degree official misconduct, one count of violation of duty, and one count of failure to comply with Secretary of State regulations. All pretty serious stuff, all related to unauthorized access to election machines and deception of county and state. officials, which if you're a long-time listener to the Brad blog, you may recall this whole event caused quite a bit of panic before the Republican Party's failed attempted recall election of Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Back in 2021, as voting system experts were incredibly alarmed about the fact that Peters had broken into that software, made copies of it, and released that software into the wild just before the election out here in California, where we use the exact same voting systems in several counties that Peters had breached and then distributed the software for. Now Gavin Newsom would go on nonetheless to easily win that recall nonetheless, and Peters, who never uncovered any sort of fraud whatsoever in those machines that she breached. As she and Donald Trump have since pretended, well, she ended up being sentenced to nine years in prison for her crimes after the judge determined that at her sentencing that she had shown no remorse whatsoever for any of these seven serious crimes for felonies and three misdemeanors on which she was found guilty by a jury. In the ensuing years, while the disgraced 70-year-old Peters eventually went to prison beginning in August of 2024, Donald Trump has pretended that, you know, she has exposed some sort of fraud by Democrats. And that's why they had to lock her up. That's why they had to throw her in jail. I guess she discovered this fraud by Democrats. on her own machines that she oversaw herself in Mesa County, and that because of that, she should be freed from jail. But unlike all of the other criminals and liars that Donald Trump was able to free from jail with a pardon, Tina Peters was charged under state law in Colorado, where his pardons have no effect. Though that didn't keep him from trying, he actually issued a pardon for Tina Peters anyway ridiculously. But Trump would go on to threaten the state of Colorado itself if its Democratic governor, Jared Polis, did not release her from prison, going so far as to block federal money from going to the state, as he corruptly does, and even threatening to shut down the national jewel known as the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or N-Car, which is based in Colorado. And he is still working toward that goal of shutting down Encar because it would both punish Colorado and help him on his, you know, his pretending that climate change is not real. But apparently he's doing all of that stuff, having no clue what Tina Peters actually did. Here was Trump. on Peters back in February of this year explaining her crimes. She was in charge of a voting era, and she saw boxes of votes come in. So she went over to check it, and they put her in jail for voter manipulation, and she's still in jail. And they better let her out fast, and they're suffering a big price, Colorado. They have this woman in jail who's 71 years old and probably has cancer. She's sick.

They put her in because she challenged somebody who was dumping ballots into a box, okay? And they didn't put them in jail. So that's just completely untrue. That's completely fantastical. It has no relation to reality in any way, shape, or form. And that's Donald Trump talking about someone who he issued a pardon for, and he has no clue what she actually did. Totally false in every imaginable sense. As the great Kyle Clark of News 9 in Denver explained in response to Trump's comments at the time. What President Trump said there is almost entirely like word for word false. Have no idea where he is getting this story about Tina Peters challenging someone dumping ballots into a box. We have covered Peters for five years. and have never heard anyone claim that. What Peters did is well established. Even her own legal team admits it, they just say that it was justified. Peter snuck a hacker around security protocols using another person's ID so that hacker could make a copy of election systems. She's not in jail for voter manipulation, like President Trump said, whatever that means. She's in jail on four felonies and three misdemeanors for her role in that election system's breach. Did not impact any actual votes. Trump also claims that Peters probably has cancer. She had cancer years ago. Recently, she had a cough, which her lawyer says has improved. All of this to say, it is not clear if President Trump knows what Tina Peters did to land in prison, leading to his campaign of retaliation against Colorado. where he's withheld disaster funding, tried to freeze federal spending here, vetoed a clean drinking water project, relocated a military command, and is closing a major science lab. And in the meantime, and by the way, there was a woman in Arizona around the same age as Tina Peters, also a white woman, who made some similarish claims to the ones that Donald Trump is making. That woman never went to jail. Maybe that's how he confused, I guess, all white. Women look the same to him. Look, it's a wasted journey trying to understand what Trump is talking about. In the meantime, as Tina Peters has been serving her nine years in jail, a state appeals court ruled.

That, in fact, Peters should be resentenced for a number of her crimes because the court believed that the lower court judge impermissibly gave her a longer sentence than warranted because she continued to express her evidence-free claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump, which is not a crime to believe that and to say that. Yeah, but showing no remorse that was why the judge did. That's what the judge says, but the appellate court looked at it and they said, well, looks to me like the judge held it against her that she had these beliefs. So she needs to be resentenced. The convictions were not thrown out, just she had to remain in jail and the judge needed to review the sentencing. The charges would stand, but sentencing would be reconsidered. But before that could even happen. And with all of the pressure that Governor Jared Polis was facing from Donald Trump, who knew nothing about this case, just a few weeks ago, the otherwise termed out Democratic Colorado governor, Jared Polis, stunned fellow Democrats, including Secretary of State Jena Griswold, by issuing an order of clemency. To Tina Peters, after she had served only about a year and a half of her nine-year sentence, during which, by the way, she got into a number of physical fights with other inmates. As I said, lovely woman. And while her convictions would stand, her sentence would be reduced after the clemency by Paulus by half to four years and four months, and she would be freed from prison on parole on June 1. Jared Polis could not even wait for the courts to do the resentencing for some reason. In his clemency order, he acknowledged the seriousness of Peter's crimes. Jared Polis wrote that Peters was, quote, convicted of serious crimes and deserved to spend time in prison. But he also argued that she was sentenced for an unusually long time for a first time nonviolent offender. He claimed her application for clemency showed responsibility and commitment to obey the law from here on out, saying that it, quote, demonstrates taking responsibility for your crimes and a commitment to follow the law going forward. Her own statement, quoted by Jared Polis, said, quote, I made mistakes four years ago. I misled the Secretary of State when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong. Going forward, I will make sure that my actions always follow the law and I will avoid the mistakes of the past. Now, Democratic state officials were infuriated about all of this, infuriated by what the Democratic governor actually did.

And that would include Colorado's Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennett, who is now currently the Democratic frontrunner to replace the termed-out pollus in this November's gubernatorial election in the state. So infuriated was Bennett by all of this that when asked if he would consider naming Jared Polis to fill the U.S. Senate seat. that he will be vacating if he goes on to win the governor's race this year. Bennett, a fellow Democrat, said absolutely not. He would not even consider Jared Polis at this time for the job because freeing Tina Peters, he said, was disqualifying, which is pretty remarkable considering he's talking about the sitting Democratic governor. The state Democratic Party would go on to hold a vote to censure Jared Polis for giving clemency to Tina Peters, barring the sitting Democratic governor from speaking at Democratic Party meetings or Democratic events. In advance of Peter's release this week on Monday, Senator Bennett issued a statement reading as follows, quote, Tina Peters remains a convicted felon who knowingly violated Colorado law and compromised election security. A Colorado jury found her guilty of four felonies. For breaching secure election systems, Tina Peters' release does not change the facts of her case, nor does it change our obligation to defend our democracy at a time when President Trump continues to attack vote by mail. Colorado votes almost entirely by mail. To undermine confidence in our elections and pressure public officials to bend to his political agenda, we must be even more vigilant in protecting the rule of law and the integrity of our electoral system. About two weeks ago, Vice President JD Vance was... Being asked about Donald Trump's pretend settlement agreement, but the very, it was a pretend a settlement, but it was a very real $1.8 billion slush fund. that he was attempting to create at the time to pay off criminals who he claimed to be, you know, purported victims of Joe Biden's so-called weaponization of the Justice Department, you know, like the actual weaponization of the Justice Department that we're seeing by Donald Trump's department.

Well, JD Vance, like a good little corrupt puppy, defended that slush fund. That slush fund that will now apparently go away, at least according to Donald Trump's defense attorney and now acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, that slush fund is no more. So they say. So they say. But like a good little puppy, as I said, JD Vance went on to cite. Yes, Tina Peters as being one of those poor victims who needed to be made whole, who needed to be compensated for all of the terrible punishment that she had received under the hands of Joe Biden. Even though, by the way, Tina Peters was convicted under Colorado state law, and neither Biden nor his Department of Justice had anything at all to do with it. In any event, here was JD Vance responding as far as why this slush fund is really important. Tina Peters is this woman who is about to get out of prison, thanks in large part to the president's good work in Colorado. This is a woman who, at worst, If you believe everything that the prosecutor said about her committed misdemeanor trespassing and somebody threw the book at her, this innocent grandmother was going to spend 10 years in prison completely disproportionate to any misdemeanor trespassing that I've ever seen. Was that fair? No. Is it reasonable for her to get some compensation for the fact that she was treated unfairly? I think the answer is yes. Of course you do. Because you have no clue what she actually did. If you believe everything that the prosecutor said, all she did, according to the vice president of the United States, was commit three misdemeanor trespassing charges and got nine years of prison for it. No, that is not what she did. Actually, she was charged on three misdemeanors and four felony charges, which I guess JD Vance. just decided did not exist? The way his administration has decided that climate change does not exist if you just wish things away hard enough? Man, the felonies related to giving administrative level access. to voting equipment, to an outsider, to a hacker, lying to state officials and law enforcement about it, running from arrest for weeks and costing the state at least a million dollars just to replace those voting systems that were under her care that she was elected and sworn to protect. So no, if you believe everything the prosecutor said, it was much more than three trespassing misdemeanors.

She revealed nothing other than, you know, how the code in these machines actually works to make it easier for Democrats or Republicans if they want to to flip results on these machines. She revealed no fraud. She revealed no evidence of same. At best, she helped underscore what some of us actual election integrity folks have been exposing for years, that these voting systems, yes, can be manipulated as we have actually revealed at bradblog.com and on the show for about two decades now. Tina Peters added absolutely nothing to that decades-long investigation into these voting systems. But simply because voting systems can be manipulated does not mean that they were manipulated, and that is a very, very big difference that Tina Peters does not seem to understand. She found zero evidence, zero, that any votes were manipulated. And zero evidence of election fraud of any kind other than her own in breaching voting systems and putting elections further at risk of, yes, fraud specifically by people with direct access to those machines. People like, yes, Tina Peters. No, she did not see somebody come in with a box of ballots and go over and check it out and get arrested for voter manipulation. No, she was not in jail because of three misdemeanor trespassing charges. These were very serious crimes, and the people calling for her to be released despite them have no clue what she actually did. And frankly, if they did have a clue, they wouldn't care. As to Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado and what he was possibly thinking, nobody I have spoken to actually seems to know. A journalist friend of mine in Colorado who works with one of the major news outlets there suggests that everyone in Colorado is kind of clueless about this as to what Jared Polis was actually could possibly have been thinking in freeing Tina Peters. In the meantime, Donald Trump still seems to be gunning to destroy the National Center for Atmospheric Research or N-Car, although folks are challenging that in court. But Paulus has seemingly destroyed any further possibility of running for office, it seems to me, at least as a Democrat, where some had thought he was likely to make a run even for president in 2028. or certainly to get that Senate seat that Michael Bennett will be vacating in hopes of winning the governorship in Colorado. So what Jared Polis thinks he's doing from here? Why he thinks he was doing this? At best, it seems to me, Jared Polis is likely to get a nice gig as the resident Democratic dupe on Fox News at this point.

And Tina Peters, after she burns out her 15 minutes of criminal infamy, will soon fade into Sarah Palin-like obscurity. At least I hope. And those of us who actually give a damn about election integrity and democracy, well, for us, that good fight will continue. Much more ahead on today's Bradcast. I'm Brad Friedman. Hey, this is Bradd, here at the Bradcast and Bradblog.com, we fight for election integrity all year around, like no other media outlet in the nation. But, of course, we need your help to help us remain on your public airwaves and completely independent. Please help us continue that fight over your public airwaves by stopping by Bradblog.com slash donate. And thanks. You're listening to an encore presentation of the Bradcast. Welcome back to the broadcast, Bradcast, Bradfrey from Bradblog.com Well, not everything is hot right now. Coming up momentarily, Desi Doyen and our latest Green News report. Until then, you've got me. According to CNN today, John Stewart, no, not that John Stewart. This is a guy named John Stewart from Golden Lake, Ontario, up in Canada. He was supposed to be at the Indy 500 this past Memorial Day weekend, but nope, not this year. Every spring for about 35 years, Stewart has traveled to Indianapolis to meet up with his American relatives, enjoy the lead-up of race morning, soak in the pomp and circumstance, and talk to people with a beer in his hand. He's been known to easily spend $10,000 on these annual week-long trips here in the U.S. But Stewart said that he has reached a, quote, ideological breakpoint. Unlike some Canadians who have already been boycotting all things USA, Stewart has not wanted to hurt regular American jobs when it's the man in charge that he takes issue with. But recent conversations with Trump supporting American colleagues are ultimately, according to CNN, what made him think twice about spending vacation time arguing with people in the U.S. Quote, I just don't want to put myself in that position on a holiday where I know I'm going to be normally just having beers and watching racing. I just think I wouldn't enjoy some of the conversations, he said.

While Trump's chaotic salvo of tariffs levied on Canada and his rhetoric of calling for Canada to become the 51st state were bothersome, it has been the launch of the war in Iran that put Stewart over the edge. Quote, it's not really Canadian versus American, it's just right versus wrong. He said, for now, he's pausing all personal trips to the U.S. Well, John Stewart, the one from Canada, he's not the only one, despite the ridiculous line that you have now heard our delusional president repeat like a thousand times. But we've never been hotter than we are right now. This is the hottest country anywhere in the world. Our country was dead. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Under the radical left Democrats, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. So hot nobody wants to come here. Yeah. So hot, not. Not so hot after all. I mean, if you can imagine that Trump might be lying to us or something, it turns out we are really quite unhot right now here in the U.S. As CNN reports in its analysis this week, the complete 2025 data. is in. And the message is clear. International visitors stayed away from the U.S. in the first real year-over-year decline since the COVID-19 pandemic. The drop in visitors was larger even than during the global recession of 2008. How's that for hot? This time it wasn't a pandemic or a collapse of the market. It was human error, right, CNN. Travelers cite presidential rhetoric and policies manifesting in highly public wars, both figurative and literal, as some of the reasons for staying away. Four million fewer foreign visitors came to the U.S. in 2025 as compared to 2024 under, yes, Joe Biden. Wow, four million. You know, under Joe Biden when our country was absolutely dead. Before Trump came back to office, he tells us. But with the collapse in foreign travel to the U.S. in 2025 under Donald Trump, there has also been a decrease in total spending by foreign travels by more than $8 billion. And that's a conservative estimate. I'll get to that in a second. But how is that for the hottest country in the world? Losing $8 billion at least. That's not just bad for those working in the service and tourism industries. The impact of a self-inflicted decrease in international visitors of this magnitude has implications on America's standing in the world, its soft power diplomacy, and the economy as a whole.

The 5.5% drop in international tourism in 2025 is the worst single year decline in two decades, with the exception of the 2020 pandemic. Quote, we used to be a country that others wanted to emulate. That narrative no longer exists, says Juliet Kayem, the faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at the Harvard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. School. If you're a foreigner now, she said, what you're absorbing about the United States is a dysfunctional government, ice raids, Americans being killed, crime everywhere, she said. With significantly fewer people actually coming here, she explained, the long-term harm is that the world will not know America. The narrative of the United States is now a country that is at best not to be respected and at worst a democracy that is floundering. Sounds about right. Perceptions aside, there are recent practical barriers of visiting the U.S. as well, hesitation around a proposed $250 visa integrity fee. Whatever that means. War-induced spikes in jet fuel prices and the defunding of something called Brand USA, which is apparently the only American organization that markets U.S. tourism to international audiences. But it has been defunded by the Trump administration. Bills were introduced in the House and Senate to restore funding. But neither of those bills has moved forward at this time. So we defunded the thing that encouraged people to come here and spend money here.

This action from Washington has caused enough confusion or even ill will that Brand USA recently launched a campaign to, quote, build traveler confidence and clear up misinformation, including clarifying that the visa integrity fee, that $250 fee, that's not yet being collected. So don't worry about that. Come on in. You won't have to pay that $250. And that a Trump administration proposal to collect five years of social media history from certain visitors, that is not current policy. Don't worry about that. Come on in. Good luck with that, Brand USA. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has also publicly floated an idea to restrict customs processing operations at airports in so-called sanctuary cities. That sounds like another great idea as well, doesn't it? That should help for tourism. The administration has so far not moved forward with that, but how does that sound to people who might want to come and visit and, you know, fly into, say, New York or Los Angeles? or any number of so-called sanctuary cities to come and visit. Where do they have to fly to Poughkeepsie to take a bus 18 hours thereafter to get to where they really want to go to go see a Broadway show? Hey, you wanted to go to Los Angeles, but instead you're going to Idaho. Idaho is very nice, by the way. It is. I hope that's not an Idaho slam that you're making there. If you're trying to get to someplace in California flying to Idaho as is not going to get you there very fast. Okay, but it's really nice when you are in Idaho. You'll enjoy it very much. See, I'm working for Brand USA now, so I have to say these sorts of things. Anyway, so no, no worries. I'm sure that the news that we are not yet barring people traveling into so-called sanctuary cities, and that we are not yet going to take five years of your social media history, and that we're not going to charge you an extra $250 just because, just because you want to come visit the hottest country in the world, and boy, are we hot. Those who did visit, by the way, the U.S. in 2025, according to CNN's analysis, spent more per person. Of course, that could be thanks to inflation. But because of the significant decline in visitor numbers, the total spending was about $8.5 billion less compared to the year before, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Another group, however, tourism... economics estimates that the loss is worse than $8.5 billion. It's actually up to about $25 billion, $25 billion less being brought in when compared with what was forecasted to have been spent in the U.S. had tourism stayed on its expected growth track from where it was during the Biden administration.

So had it kept growing at the rate that it was growing under Joe Biden, We would have had $25 billion more after 2025. But for thanks to Donald Trump. And the U.S. downturn, apparently, is an outlier. In other words, it's not the whole world. It's not, oh, everybody is traveling less now because of this or that. Maybe they are now because of the war. But last year, 2025, the U.S. was the outlier here. 80 million more people traveled internationally in 2025 compared with the year before. Yet, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council and its April press release, they chose other destinations. More people traveling, less people coming to the United States. That's hot, baby. While there were noticeable drops in visitors from Germany, India, France, Chile, Australia, and China, the vast majority of the drop in visitors was due to Canadians. Like that John Stewart guy, not crossing the border after deciding, you know what, A? I think I'll stay home. Or travel to a country that doesn't hate us. and keeps threatening to invade us and slapping tariffs on us and make us the 51st state. Who can blame these people for not wanting to come here? I live here and I don't even really want to be here. So anyway, keep that, all of that in mind the next time you hear Trump lying to you about America being the hottest country in the world right now. The only thing hot around here these days is the global temperatures, thanks in no small part, also to Donald Trump. Maybe that's what he means by the U.S. is now the hottest country in the world. Speaking of, a quick break, and we're back with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News report right here on the broadcast. I'm Brad Friedman. Don't touch that dial.

The Bradcast and the Green News Report are 100% independent, 100% listener supported. But we can't do it alone. We need you. Please help us bring real facts to listeners at independent stations around the nation. Please drop by Bradblog.com slash donate. That's Bradblog.com slash donate. And thanks. Hey, this is Brad. You're listening to an encore presentation of the Bradcast. Well, we are back from week off. As usual, nothing at all happened, nothing to report in the Green News Report. Unless I'm wrong about that, Dizzy Doin. Am I wrong about that? You might be a little wrong. It might have been difficult to shove in all the thousands of things that happened. So we did our best. Into just six minutes. Well, we'll see how good we did in our latest Green News Report. We're looking at upwards of a billion and a half barrels of oil that were supposed to be produced this year across the Middle East that now will not be. And that's increasingly a best case scenario. Oil industry warns inventory is running dangerously low as Donald Trump's little excursion in Iran continues into its fourth month. In some places, the mercury is a whopping 16 degrees Celsius or 29 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the average for this time of year. Historic heat wave in Europe shatters temperature records. Plus, a whole bunch of stuff that happened while we were out. All of that stuff and more straight. head from brand blog.com. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. Stand by for six minutes of independent green news, politics, analysis, and snarky comment. People are spending more on gas, but they're also spending more on everything else. And I think that that's a sign that you would see when people are optimistic about the future. Yes, it's also a sign you would see when gas prices have gone through the roof along with inflation. Kevin Hassett. Director of Donald Trump's National Economic Council? This is your Green News Report. I'm going to soak up the sun. Okay, Jesse Doyen? I know you got a lot to get to. We've been gone for a week, so have had it. All right. First up, while we were out, the U.S. Israeli war on Iran remained in stalemate, despite Donald Trump's repetitive claims that a deal is, quote, very close. On Monday, global oil prices spiked once again after Iran halted the negotiations in the wake of ongoing U.S. and Israeli missile strikes. Because of the closure of the Strait of Formuz, roughly 1.5 billion barrels. of oil has been permanently removed from the market this year, according to oil commodities expert Rory Mike Johnston. And many nations are not going back. Countries that have been hit hardest by this, countries across Asia are also the ones that were electrifying their fleet's fastest prior to the war. And I think that if anything, this is going to boost those efforts and kind of redouble efforts to electrify and diversify away from this risk. Well, that's good.

ExxonMobil warns that oil inventories will hit dangerously low levels in just weeks. Goldman Sachs on Monday projected that rising energy prices will persist through at least the end of this year continuing to erode household spending power. So most importantly, no matter how little oil is on the market, ExxonMobil will continue to make record profits. Yes, they will. Oh, good. While we were out in Europe and the UK, an exceptionally early... deadly heat wave shattered temperature records for the month of May. In some places, by as much as 29 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than average for this time of year, straining electric grids. London hit a record 95 degrees. Spain and France topped 100 degrees. It's very dangerous because most buildings in Europe don't have air conditioning and are not designed for 21st century heat extremes. Scientists say that heat waves are becoming hotter. longer and more frequent due to human-caused climate change, which the U.N. climate chief called, quote, a brutal reminder of the costs of global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. And they're happening in the month of May? Yes. While we were out in Washington State, 11 workers were killed in a chemical tank explosion at a paper manufacturer. Meanwhile, in Southern California, just a few miles away from Disneyland. A different massive chemical tank nearly... exploded, forcing the evacuations of some 40,000 residents, both incidents came in the wake of the Federal Chemical Safety Board issuing a warning over the Trump administration's disaster policy, saying the administration is taking, quote, a significant step backwards in preventing chemical disasters. Yep, that sounds like them. In other news, Donald Trump rescinded several 50-year-old executive orders that had restricted off-road vehicle use. on fragile public lands. The new orders are intended to boost drilling and logging. Of course. The Trump Securities and Exchange Commission moved to repeal a Biden-era rule requiring large public companies to inform their investors of climate-related risks to their businesses. The Trump EPA doubled down on its efforts to make America polluted again by moving to postpone enforcement of Biden-era vehicle pollution limits. And the Trump... Labor Department weakened Biden-era heat rules intended to protect workers from excessive heat exposure. Finally, a bit of good news. While we were out, a new study concluded that thanks to the explosive growth in clean energy technologies like wind, solar, and batteries, what used to be considered the worst-case climate change scenario now appears to have been averted. Climate science deniers like Donald Trump lied about the study pretending to not understand the concept of the word scenario. However, researchers warn that humanity is still on a dangerous trajectory and must move faster away from burning climate warming fossil fuels. Well, that's good news, I think. I'll take it for much more on all of these stories and the ones we couldn't get to today. Check out our website at greennews. Bradblog.com. Find, follow, and share us planetwide on the social medias at Green News Report. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. And this has been your Green News Report. It could be work. It could be work. It could be right in the back of the black.

Yeah, it could be worse. Yeah. And actually, I mean, it is very good news that the scenario, the projected scenario of if humanity did absolutely nothing and, in fact, burned even more all of the coal that was buried in the ground, all of the oil. So we're not going to do that. And that's really good. So that's what they had discovered that we're not going to go to the worst case scenario. Right. That's the only thing we can rule out right now. do. They figured out, hey, what's the worst that can happen? This is the worst that can happen. And yeah, Donald Trump and the administration are all claiming that, oh, they've just admitted there is no climate change. Yeah, it was pretty stupid and crazy. But, hey, that is today's Trump administration, today's Republican Party, and today's climate science denial industry. Stupid and crazy. Yeah. Something like that. Excellent. Thank you, Desi Doyen. Never stupid nor crazy. Appreciate everything you do here. And thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. It's always greatly appreciated. If you missed any portion of today's program, check out the brand new, Bradblog.com, where you can download our shows, listen to them online, share them with someone you know, love, or hate easier than ever before, I promise. Stop by Bradblog.com. And while you're there, please consider. filling out one of those donate forms everything is free but we could use your support to help continue continuing to do what we try to do every day over your public airwaves you can also go straight to bradblog.com slash Donate. Drop me email if you like. Love to hear from you, please. I am Bradcast at Bradblog.com and you will find me on the social media, especially Blue Sky, at the Brad Blog. And you'll find Desi Doyen there as well. At Green News Report. Say hello to her. Yes, please. Until then, we will see at all of the above. Until we see here next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world. It could be worse. It could be work. It could be. You could be riding in the back.

be worried good