'BradCast' 1/29/2026 (It's About Elections: MN, ICE, GA and more)

Two things are happening. They're related. He's getting weaker, and he's getting more dangerous. He's getting more dangerous because he's getting weaker. What used to be a Trump brand has become a Trump stink. Trump stink, eh? Sounds by right. Well, I don't know why I came here tonight. One reason. I got the feeling there's something right. Trump stink. Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles. This is the Brandcast. As heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, and on dozens of other fine affiliate stations on both the public airwaves and the internets around the country and the world. Blanketing Planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker, and all around, swell fellow says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us, of course, bradblog.com, now in our 23rd year of troublemaking and muckraking as we are celebrating this week, our 22nd anniversary. of a listener, public-supported reader, listener-supported public media thanks to you and folks who hit a donate button over there. All right, we got a lot, and I mean a lot to get to today. And I want to be sure Desi doing to finish up on time so that we can get to the earliest possible showing of Melania this weekend. I thought you were going to say so we could get to the Green News Report. Oh, yeah, that's coming up too later today. Maybe, maybe. We'll see what we have time for because we've got some breaking news happening literally seconds before going to air concerning the potential shutdown of the federal government over the weekend. But we'll get to that breaking news shortly as soon as I can make some sense of it. To kick things off, I want to start with a great idea, helpfully brought to my attention last night by a good friend who lives up in Minnesota. It may be the best idea of the week, perhaps even of the year. So far, it's been a short year, but still, not only is this a great idea because it would be incredibly well deserved, but it also has the added benefit of likely driving our already cuckoo president over a complete cliff into total insanity, which he's pretty close to at this point. Here's how it starts to the distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. As longtime observers of struggles to establish peace and justice in the United States and around the world and as the editors of a magazine that is proud to have included several Nobel laureates on our editorial board and Mastead, including the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We are honored.

to nominate the city of Minneapolis and its people for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. That's right. The editors of the Nation magazine, including our good friend, now executive editor there, John Nichols, explains that they are in the process of submitting their formal nomination to the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee and have published their full nomination letter. A few paragraphs of note from that letter today. They write, quote, while individuals and organizations have been granted this prize since its inception in 19... no municipality has ever been recognized. But in these unprecedented times, we strongly believe that the case can be made that Minneapolis, the largest city in Minnesota, has met and exceeded the committee's standard of promoting, quote, democracy and human rights and work aimed at creating a better, organized, and more peaceful world. The people of Minnesota, they write, have suffered countless abuses, including harassment, detention, deportation, and injury. And in incidents that shocked the world, federal agents have killed multiple residents, including Poet and Mother of Three, Renee Nicole Good, and intensive care nurse, Alex Jeffrey Pretty. In response to these horrific developments, elected officials, clergy and labor leaders in Minneapolis and Minnesota have called for nonviolent protest in accordance with the U.S. Constitution's promise that Americans have a right to assemble and petition for the redress of grievances. The people of Minneapolis and neighboring communities have answered that call with peaceful demonstrations that have drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the streets. In frigid weather, they have coupled their cry for federal agents to withdraw from Minneapolis with chance that declare, quote, no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here. The people of Minneapolis, write the editors at the nation, have also engaged in mutual support and care for neighbors who have been targeted because of the color of their skin or the language they speak. They have delivered groceries to residents who are afraid to leave their homes and provided financial support to neighbors who haven't been able to go to their places of work because of the federal assault on their rights and humanity. Through countless acts of courage and solidarity, the people of Minneapolis have challenged the culture of fear, hate, and brutality that has gripped the United States and too many other countries.

Their nonviolent resistance has captured the imagination of the nation and the world. The people of Minneapolis and their elected leaders have demonstrated an extraordinary and sustained commitment to human dignity and to the protection of vulnerable communities. They have exemplified the desire for democracy and equality and the celebration of difference, the moral leadership of the people and city of Minneapolis. has set an example for those struggling against fascism everywhere on the face of a troubled planet and this we believe merits recognition through the award of the Nobel Peace Prize very nice they also go on to quote How the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who served as the nation's civil rights correspondent from 1961 to 1966. Oh, I didn't know that. Yes, he did. And what he said when he received the Peace Prize and how the people of Minneapolis are living up to King's words that he said when he accepted the prize in Jon Ossoff in 1964. So very nice. Well deserved. A good idea. Well, the nomination is well deserved. Yes. Well, I think they would deserve to win it as well. Of course, the broadcast is happy and proud to second that nomination. At least if once again we are to be brazenly overlooked for that honor at bradblog.com celebrating our 22nd anniversary of love this week as well as troublemaking and muckreaking journalism. But I can think if not us, I can think of no one more worthy of that honor than the heroic and inspiring people of Minneapolis after what they have endured in recent weeks and are still enduring today. No matter the shuffling of the corrupt chief clowns that Donald Trump is declaring to be the figurehead of his obscene, un-American, unlawful, unconstitutional, attempted, though failing, brutalization of the good and great people of Minneapolis and the broader Twin Cities region. For the record, the... The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded every year in December. So it may be a while before we find out who wins the 2026 award, but I have a feeling I know who it won't be this year. The Trump administration could reduce the number of immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota, but only if state and local officials cooperate, said the president's so-called border czar Tom Homan on Thursday. Well, that's very nice. The beatings shall continue until morale improves. We are happy to, you know, somewhat limit our reign of terror as long as you do exactly what we want you to do. Despite the fact that you are breaking no laws and that, you know, Republicans have spent years declaring states' rights. Well, states actually do have the right to not serve...

as law enforcement arms of the federal government. They can't impede federal law enforcement efforts, but they have no legal duty to serve as an arm of the federal government, which is what Holman is actually talking about when he makes his threats that the federal government's untethered violent crackdown will continue against the people of Minneapolis unless state and local officials. deigned to cooperate with them in their disgusting immoral reign of terror. Tom Homan, according to AP, addressed reporters for the first time since the president sent him to Minneapolis following last weekend's fatal shooting of protester Alex Pretty. The second such killing this month by federal officers carrying out the operation. Tom Homan, of course, for those in the media, gullible enough to see his replacement of the Himmler wannabe Border Patrol commandant, Gregory Bovino, as the head of this so-called Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. For those gullible enough to see that as some sort of a stand-down, Tom Homan is the guy who was caught. on tape just before Trump took office again, receiving $50,000 in cash in a fast food bag in exchange for promises of security contracts to FBI officials posing. as people seeking such contracts, promising those contracts once Tom Homan was back in Trump's second federal government. He's also the architect of Trump's disgusting child separation policy during his first term in office. Golly, I wonder why the Nobel Committee did not give him the Peace Prize. But I digress. Tom Homan's comments came after Donald Trump. As AP reports, it seemed to signal a willingness to ease tension in the Minneapolis in St. Paul area. And as the administration ended, its so-called enhanced operations. Up in the state of Maine, more on that in a moment. Tom Homan emphasized that the administration is not relenting on its immigration crackdown and warn that protesters could face consequences if they interfere with federal officers like, are you going to shoot more of them in the face, Tom? Tom Homan hinted at the prospect of pulling out many of the roughly 3,000 federal officers taking part in this siege, but he seemed to tie that to cooperation from state and local leaders and a reduction in protesters. Only if they stop protesting, will we leave. He also said he would oversee internal changes in federal immigration law enforcement, but he gave a few specifics on that.

What are those changes, Tom? Are you going to start ripping children from their parents again and throwing them into cages? Despite Trump's... softening his rhetoric about Minnesota officials, as AP reports. In fact, they note there has been no visible sign of any big changes to the operation. Here's Minnesota's Democratic U.S. Senator Tina Smith on Thursday, noting that exact point on CNN. There is real harm that is unfolding in Minnesota as we speak. Nothing has changed on the ground, even though President Trump has sent Holman to Minnesota. So, yeah, nothing has actually changed. Samira Hafiz, the policy director with the Immigrant Legal Resources Center, said that Tom Homan's comments on Thursday seemed to reflect a recognition that public opinion has turned against ICE, but she questioned his argument that carrying out more targeted operations would somehow make the country safer. Quote, his comments still seem to be based on the false premise that deporting people or deportations will somehow make our community safer, she said. All the evidence and data has shown that deportations do not make our community safer. They destabilize families. They tear communities apart. They hurt our economy. Tom Homan did not give any specific timeline for how long he would stay in Minnesota. Saying, quote, I'm staying until the problem's gone, he said, apparently still not noticing that he and his federal goons are actually the problem at this point. In the meantime, as we noted on yesterday's program, much of this pretend drawdown lowering temperatures and so forth is because Trump and the Republicans need very much to get that 2026 spending bill through Congress right now before the January 30. deadline when the government would otherwise shut down again just a couple of months after Trump's, Trump oversaw the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. Well, as we go to air, it appears that Democrats are standing their ground on refusing to approve new funding. for DHS and ICE and the Customs and Border Patrol without serious guardrails being put in place on the behavior of federal immigration agents, even with the federal shutdown deadline looming on Friday at midnight as we go to air.

On Thursday, Democrats in the Senate had blocked legislation that would fund almost the entirety of the government beyond the Friday deadline as they negotiated with the White House to try and rein in the aggressive deadly tactics of the federal government in Minneapolis and beyond. Now, we spoke in detail about both the politics. And the congressional procedural matters that are in play right now. We discussed that on yesterday's program with former White House Budget Advisor under Joe Biden and former Senate Budget Committee advisor. Before that, Bobby Cogan, he confirmed late last night and again this morning that his contacts in the Senate are suggesting a deal of some sort was in the works to at least minimize. What seems to be an almost certain shutdown of some measure for some length of time, if only because the House currently in recess would have to come back next week and approve any changes that are made in the Senate to this six-bill package that was narrowly approved by the House and sent to the Senate for final passage. before Speaker Johnson recessed the lower chamber for a week once again to, as Kogan explained yesterday, sort of jam the Senate to try and force them to pass the House bill as is with that deadline approaching on Friday. Now, this is quickly changing. As I said, we've got some breaking news here. So I'm not going to go into too many details. But basically, what Democrats have been hoping to do was break that bill that funds DHS and ICE off. on its own and pass the other five funding bills while they continued to negotiate on adding some guardrails to the DHS bill, that they would pass a short-term continuing resolution to keep spending on DHS for the time being at the current levels to allow more time for that negotiation. That would keep DHS up and running. Now, even without a CR, DHS would continue running because last summer, in that Republicans' big, beautiful bill, well, they gave them just tens of billions of dollars in a slush fund to do exactly that. So DHS would continue operating one way or another. They would not lose funding, whether this bill passes or not, whether there's a continuing resolution to keep them funded and so forth. Well, now it looks like they have struck a deal to do exactly that. For a short-term continuing resolution,

on just the DHS bill. This according to the New York Times, actually seconds ago before we went on air, Senate Democrats have struck a deal with Republicans in the White House to pass five spending bills to fund a large portion of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, as well as a stopgap measure. That would be the CR, the continuing resolution, to fund the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks. Just two weeks while they continue negotiating guardrails to reign in immigration agents. Republicans had pushed to fund the department for more weeks than that, but Democrats insisted it'll only be done for two weeks, so it couldn't be stretched out. The Times reports it's unclear how quickly the House can then come back and process those funding bills after the Senate passes them. The shutdown deadline is midnight on Friday. So unless the house gets back really quick somehow and passes those bills, there could be at least a short-term shutdown of some sort as of... Friday. And then we go through this whole process all over again in two weeks if this deal gets passed by the house. But concerning only the DHS bill. Everything else, the majority of the government will be funded. Now, that DHS bill also funds other agencies like the Coast Guard and the TSA and FEMA, etc. So they are going to want to deal with this, you know, before long. They're not going to want to shut down those agencies as well, as will happen in a couple weeks if they don't, you know, do something about this. Got it. So they are looking for... You know, it changes guardrails, for example, mandating that they, that all of these folks use body cameras, that they no longer can be masked, that there be investigations of the killings of Alex Pready and Renee Good and so forth. So. That's what this seems to be about. Here's Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is before this deal was struck explaining these points slowly to Fox News viewers on Thursday. Taxpayer dollars should not be used. to brutalize or kill American citizens or to violently target law-abiding immigrant families. So there are a variety of reforms that need to be put into place that the American people are demanding. Your own poll has shown that everyday Americans have concluded that ICE has gone too far.

And that behavior needs to be reined in. So that was Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday afternoon. Since then, it looks like they have struck a deal to keep the government mostly funded except for that DHS bill that they will continue. negotiating on over the next two weeks. And just want to mention that it's likely for Fox News viewers that that was the first time that they heard that there was a poll. Most Americans believe that ICE needs to be rained in. True. And in the bargain, whether Fox News hears about it or not. Donald Trump is really concerned, both about another government shutdown and what all of this is going to mean for House and Senate Republicans come this November in the midterms because, yes, everything comes down to elections. And how do we know that? Well, you know, that he's really worried about this year's elections. Well, here's some evidence. He apparently has now ended the ICE operation in the great state of Maine that began just a few days ago. In the very blue state where Republican senator Susan Collins, who Trump recently told Republicans to vote against in one of his constant intemperate moments, well, she is up for a re-election in Maine this year. As Axios reports today, ICE has ended its enforcement surge in Maine. Senator Susan Collins said on Thursday, citing a conversation with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The Trump administration is retreating from an enforcement operation amid growing bipartisan backlash over tactics, including two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minnesota and the arrest of documented legal migrants in Maine. Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, yes, the committee trying to get all of these funding bills passed as the Friday deadline looms. She asked Kristi Noem on Monday, reportedly, to pause the enforcement surge in both Maine and Minnesota following more than 200 arrests in Maine in one single week. Susan Collins called recent immigration operations, quote, two sweeping and indiscriminate. She told Maine Public Radio, she received calls from constituents who were afraid and angry because the operation was sweeping up people who were in the U.S. legally, which, by the way, is most of them.

Not just the migrants who have, you know, green cards or who have become naturalized citizens, but, you know, all those people that, you know, brain poison, right-wing Fox News viewers and dupes refer to as illegal aliens, most of them are actually here legally. Yes, even if they crossed over the border. and in Texas or wherever from Mexico and they turn themselves into officials at the border and they've been here for years awaiting the full asylum process. Those folks have every right to be here. They are here legally. And yet. ISIS door-to-door unconstitutional crackdown is scooping those folks up, sending them to detention centers, which are much more like prisons, even though all they have violated is civil law, and then they're deporting them even before their lawful asylum processes were otherwise underway. It's folks like that who are being arrested in Maine, and Susan Collins says, pretty please knock it off. She rejected Kristi Noem's characterization of U.S. citizen and VA hospital intensive care unit nurse Alex Pready, who was shot by Border Patrol agents just this past Saturday in Minneapolis as having engaged in, quote, domestic terrorism. As DHS Barbie Kristi Noem falsely declared, along with White House top official Stephen Miller and others hoping to gaslight a nation. She said on social media, quote, I can report that Secretary Kristi Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the state of Maine. Enhanced activities, whatever that may mean. Susan Collins has stopped short of joining fellow Republican senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in calling for Kristi Noem's ouster telling reporters on Wednesday that she's, quote, still talking with her. But here's the bottom line. Susan Collins is up for re-election this year and she heads the Senate Appropriations Committee. So whether it took Trump a while to realize it or not, she's really important to him in a whole bunch of ways right now. She is facing a very difficult re-election race in a blue state against opponents who have hammered the administration over these immigration operations. Her seat is the only Republican-held Senate seat that is up for re-election in 2026. in a state that Kamala Harris won back in 2024, making it Democrats top target right now for the midterm. So yeah, Donald Trump is saying maybe I ought not to be attacking Susan Collins and her state. Because yes, it all comes down to elections.

and Trump's desperate need to at least hold on to a Senate majority after this year's midterms in November, or he'll be dead in the water on everything, including judicial nominations and other nominations. He's gone ahead and pulled the shock troops out of Maine because of it. It looks like after they just arrived there a few days ago, whatever the reasons, and we'll see if it's true, remember Susan Collins is not a super genius, but I will take it. For whatever the reason they are ending at least some of the pain against the good people of Maine, I will take it. More on election-related matters shortly after our break. And also, Desi Doyen and the Green News Report so far, we'll see. And all of the good news and dopamine hits will get from that, Des, I'm sure. But two quick notes on a couple of other things falling apart for this failing loser of a presidency right now at this hour. The top official overseeing artistic programming at the John F. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center for... the performing arts, as the New York Times correctly describes the name of the living memorial to the former president as designated under law by Congress. The top official there overseeing artistic programming has stepped down less than two weeks after he was hired. He just is the latest senior official to resign. Kevin Couch. Who was senior. Tell him to stay away from JD Vance, by the way. He was senior. Senior Vice President of Artistic Programming, he said he left the role on Wednesday just two weeks after taking the job. He declined to provide reasons for why he was getting the hell out of there after Trump replaced the entire board of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center and forced them to rename it unlawfully after him. Couch formerly was the director of programming for a British theater company. His is the latest in a string of resignations and show cancellations since Trump purged the center's board, made himself chairman last year, and then had the place renamed for him late last year. Kevin brings a clear-eyed approach to curating a roster of compelling shows that invite and inspire all audiences. said Trump loyalist and the center's president, Richard Grinnell, when announcing Couch's appointment less than two weeks ago, with Couch himself quoted in the news release, saying that he was honored to join the center at, quote, such a pivotal moment for the performing arts. Well, that was January 16, and before the month would end, he would quit.

With the resignation of Couch, it's the second time in four months that the center will be without its top official overseeing programming of over 2,000 performances across nine stages every year. Couch's predecessors stepped down back in September after nearly a decade with the center. This latest resignation comes amid deepening turmoil at the center, notes the New York Times several weeks after the Washington National Opera said that it would move its performances out of the venue. And one day, just one day after the renowned great composer Philip Glass said that he did not want his symphony honoring Abraham Lincoln. to be performed by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Center as scheduled this June.

Yeah, I know. It is sad. That may be the only trumpet playing for a while at the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, by the way. Ooh, ouch. And as if that's all not sad enough, the Times also reports today that the U.S. trade deficit rose sharply not in a good way late last year, as Trump's tariffs apparently had the opposite effect of what he claimed that they would have. Foreign nations are now buying even less from the United States, according to the latest numbers from November. So another great job, Mr. President. You are really killing it. Let the Golden Age of America continue. While that continues, the broadcast, however, must take a break. We're back with an update on the Trump FBI's invasion of the Fulton County, Georgia election warehouse in Atlanta on Wednesday and some related news, taking us back to Minnesota. I'm Brad Friedman. This is the broadcast. 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.

Yes, I am, always back to the epicenter of American democracy, apparently. Welcome back to the brandcast, Brand Friedman from brandblog.com. All right, as you know, because we covered it, as the story was still breaking on Wednesday, Donald Trump's corrupted FBI raided the Fulton County Georgia Elections Division Warehouse in Atlanta on Wednesday, as it was thought at the time to collect ballots and other related materials from the 2020 election that Trump likes to pretend that he won in Georgia. even though he was certified to have lost by about 12,000 votes in the battleground state. As we also know, Trump tried to steal the state's election that year, strong arming its Republican Secretary of State to, quote, find enough votes to flip the state to him in a broad conspiracy that Trump and 18 co-conspirators were eventually charged with felonies for. While Trump's corrupted DOJ has now sued a few weeks ago, sued Fulton County. demanding some of that same material that they rated the warehouse to obtain on Wednesday out there. We didn't know for certain at the point that we went to air on Wednesday about what the executed search warrant was all about. Well, we've got a few more details on that today. The search warrant authorized FBI agents to search for all, quote, physical ballots. From the 2020 election in the county, according to a copy of the warrant that was viewed by the New York Times, as well as all ballot images produced by scanning ballots. I'll get back to those in a moment. All voter rolls from that year and all tabulator tapes as printed out by the optical scanners after ballots are tabulated, which serve as kind of receipt. for election results, at least as scanned by those scanners. The warrant, according to the Times, said the records were sought as part of an investigation into possible violations of federal law against destruction of election-related records and another statute that makes it a crime to knowingly procure fraudulent voter registration or fraudulent votes. In what the Times describes as an unusual twist, the prosecutor listed on the warrant is not actually from Georgia, but the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Missouri. I'm from Missouri, and I called it Missouri. Actually, out in the rural areas, it called Missouri. Yeah. In the cities, it's Missouri. Anyway, this guy's name is Thomas Albis.

In fact, while the Times and others are referring to Albus as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. That's St. Louis, essentially. In fact, he's not interim. He was actually confirmed by the Senate to the permanent position back in December. I'm not sure why they keep calling him interim. In any case, it's unclear they report what would connect prosecutors in Missouri to Trump's longstanding complaint about how the 2020 election in Georgia was conducted. But in fact, it's not all that surprising or confusing. This has happened before. Prosecutors are brought in. from other states under Donald Trump to try and bring cases against Trump's political enemies. including we had another senior Missouri prosecutor guy by the name of Will Sharf, who was brought into the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia to try and get an indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey after a judge had tossed out the original indictments filed by Trump's tax lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, because she was unlawfully appointed to the job. Or in cases where, as in that... matter, the U.S. attorney refused to bring the prosecution that Donald Trump and his thugs wanted to be brought. And in fact, you may remember the name Ed Martin, that guy who was so toxic, he could not be passed, confirmed in the U.S. Senate for a U.S. attorney job. So he was made like some sort of special counsel or something. He's actually from Missouri. So bringing in his pal, Thomas Albis, to bring this charge down in Atlanta or to try and bring this charge actually makes perfect sense. It suggests to me that whoever the U.S. attorney currently is in the Georgia district where Fulton County is wanted nothing to do with this case. I'm just guessing about that part based on the evidence. But as we also noted yesterday, the head of the FBI's Atlanta office was pushed out of the job just last week by Trump's corrupt FBI director Kash Patel. So all of this sort of fits a pretty easy to see pattern, even if we don't know for certain that that firing was related to this, but I bet it was. And I bet the folks in the Atlanta U.S. Attorney's Office didn't want to have much to do with this, so they had to bring in someone from the outside. And the federal government clown show.

continued on Wednesday, apparently in all of this. Mo Ivory, a Democratic commissioner for Fulton County, said in an Instagram post that the FBI's first warrant was flawed and that agents had to go away, get another one, and return with a second warrant later in the day in order to collect hundreds of boxes of old six-year-old ballots. Good Lord. Talk about a clown show. The intensifying investigation by the administration and litigation targeting elections, which are historically the purview of individual states, notes the New York Times, have raised concerns among Democrats, voting experts, and even some Republicans. Wednesday's search only heightened those concerns. Mo Ivory said that she and her colleagues were determining a legal plan, quote, to stop this. She called the search and effort by Trump, quote, to create chaos before the 26th congressional elections, saying, quote, this is an attempt to take your vote away. This is all about November 26, she said. Adding to the federal presence on the ground in Fulton County was bizarrely Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. What the hell was she doing there? What was the DNI doing at this raid in Fulton County? A spokesperson for Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State, could not be reached for comment by the Times, but the office said, according to two people familiar, that they were not given advance notice that the FBI would be conducting this search in Fulton County. Fulton County has remained an obsession among right-wing MAGA election activists who still believe that the county counted fraudulent ballots to swing the election to Joe Biden. In fact, as we have discussed, a number of times on this show over the years since that election, with election and voting system expert Marilyn Marks, for example, she has spent years. suing the state of Georgia to block use of their unverifiable touchscreen voting systems forced on voters statewide. She has gone through, combed through the election records herself. There was, as we've discussed with her, there were, in fact, a number of mistallies of various sorts in the several different counts of Fulton County ballots. The original count, a 100% hand audit that was conducted afterwards, though it was not overseen by the public. So it had all sorts of problems that could have been caught if the public was able to oversee it. And then, of course, a statewide recount using the same machines, the scanners that scanned the ballots initially.

This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020. We have to be prepared for all kinds of schemes and shenanigans. We have to be prepared for him to try to deprive people of their voting rights. Yes, we do. More on all of that, I suspect, in the days ahead and whatever is going on in Georgia. But as noted, over and again, it's all about elections. And all of that brings us full circle back to Minnesota today. where journalist SV Date reports today, President Donald Trump's invasion of Minnesota by his de facto secret police force is tied to his conspiracy theory that he won that state in all three of his elections. And that obsession notes date explains his attorney general's demand that the state turn over its voter data as well before they will pull out their federal immigration forces. Like the fictional Captain Quig tearing the USS cane apart in search of the missing strawberries report's date. Trump appears now to be ripping apart Minnesota, at least in part, to find proof that that victory had been stolen from him there in 2016, in 2020, in 2024. When asked if the crackdown in Minneapolis was the, quote, retribution that Trump had vowed against the state, his White House did not deny that assertion. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson told date, quote, President Trump is committed. to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters. Now, of course, we have covered in detail. Over the past few weeks, a number of states that the federal government has so far been unable to find any evidence of masses of unlawfully registered voters out of more than 50 million registrations that they have refued to date. But as date notes, Trump's own words through the years suggest a link between... His decision to send thousands of immigration customs agents into a state with a relatively small population of undocumented immigrants like Minnesota and his desire to punish the state for their votes. Quote, I thought we won in 2016, he told state party members in St. Paul back in May of 2024 as he ran to regain the presidency, adding quote, I know we won it in 2020.

In fact, there is no evidence, none to suggest that he won the North Star State in any year, though he did come closest in 2016, when he lost to Hillary Clinton by about one and a half points or just over 44,000 votes. He lost by much more, more than seven points. or 233,000 votes to Joe Biden in 2020, and then he lost by just four points or 138,000 votes to Kamala Harris in 2024. And he cannot stand that he lost all three times. So the people of Minneapolis must now suffer. Earlier this month, date reports Trump told oil industry executives gathered at the White House that he would not permit the FBI to share evidence with local police following the January 7 killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer because state officials had stolen his election wins there. Well, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it? He said, quote, I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times. But I won Minnesota three times. And I didn't get credit for it. Every time. The people were, they were crying every time after. That's a crooked state. Apparently they were crying because he, you know, lost. And he was telling oil executives this in response to whether he was going to allow local officials to examine the evidence of the shooting of Renee Good. Good Lord. Quote, Minnesota voters rejected Donald Trump three times. The fact that he either willingly ignores or his addled aging brain can't remember said. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who is a Minneapolis native, and he's the former State Party chair there. He said Trump's obsession with claiming that he won Minnesota cannot be separated from his administration's aggressive and unlawful ICE tactics against Minnesotans, nor his Department of Justice's efforts to extort the state into handing over its voter rolls. So you see how all of this goes together? There's more evidence to that end, but I'm running short on time. I'll just note that Mark Short, the top aide to then Republican Vice President Mike Pence, said that lying about stolen elections has worked for Trump over the years. So, of course, he's going to continue doing that. He said he doubts that Trump truly believes that he won Minnesota in any of the three elections, but he predicted that Trump will continue claiming that he did because it seems to work. And in its speech to an international audience in Davos, Switzerland last week, Trump repeated those lies about 2020, appearing to have foreshadowed the FBI search on Wednesday in Atlanta, saying, quote, it was a rigged election. Everybody knows that. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. It was a rigged election. And so the madness continues. But by the way,

Anything we can do to make the counting of ballots as transparent as possible to we the people will help to prevent cretons and liars like Donald Trump from being able to make false claims about the vote count as we have been yelling and screaming for the past 22 years. Green News report is next. I'm Brad Friedman. This is the broadcast. 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. Running late and Melania is waiting for me. So let's get to it. Our latest Green News report. Humanity has not made sufficient progress on the existential risks that endanger us all. The doomsday clock ticks closer to midnight. Yet another court blocks Trump administration's cancellation of offshore wind projects. Plus, fully electric car sales in December overtook petrol for the first time in the European Union. Europe accelerates its shift to electric vehicles. Nice. All of those stories and more straight ahead from bradblog.com. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. Stand by for six minutes of independent green news, politics, analysis, and... Snarky comment. We can't even get through a snowstorm without being reminded of how badly this is going. You need to just still be careful because ice can still be out there. Just don't mention the storm might be the result of El Niño or it might get dragged out of the car in front of the kids. This is your Green News Report. Too soon? All right, fair enough.

Okay, Desi Noyan, we start with something light. Humanity may be coming to an end. Yes, humanity is closer than it's ever been to destruction. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists this week, the group moved up its metaphorical doomsday clock to 85 seconds to midnight, four seconds closer than last year, citing human-caused climate change as a major factor. Here's Alexandra Bell, president of the bulletin. The doomsday clock is a tool for communicating how close we are to destroying the world with technologies of our own making. The risks we face from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies are all growing. Every second counts. And we are running out of time. The statement highlighted accelerating droughts, heat waves, and floods linked to man-made global warming, as well as the failure of nations to move faster to address it. And they singled out President Donald Trump and his efforts to boost fossil fuel production and hinder renewable energy. He stopped listening after you said they singled out Donald Trump. True. The announcement also noted that, quote, hard-won global understanding. are collapsing, undermining the international cooperation needed to reduce existential risks. Relatedly, on the same day as that announcement, the United States officially exited the landmark Paris Climate Agreement for the second time under Donald Trump. The U.S. is the only nation to leave the accord. Experts say the U.S. withdrawal will slow but not halt the global energy transition, and it is likely to complicate. International Climate Cooperation. They warn the Trump administration is undermining America's long-term economic competitiveness by curtailing its booming clean tech industries. He certainly is. Meanwhile, Australia is sweltering in a record heat wave, with temperatures pushing 122 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas. The extreme heat forced the Australian Open Tennis Championship in Melbourne to reschedule matches. Encouraging news, in Europe, electric vehicles just outsold conventional fossil fuel cars for the first time ever. Really? EVs made up a quarter of all new vehicle registrations as of December 2025, according to new auto industry data. Nice. Sales of conventional fossil-fueled cars fell 20% year over year, while hybrid vehicles remain the top sellers in the EU car market. Nice. Tesla registrations were down. by more than a fifth competitor BYD of China saw a 230% rise. Oh, man. The new sales milestone comes despite policymakers proposing to delay the EU's deadline to phase out conventional fossil fuel car sales by 2035. It is a remarkably fast shift when you consider that EV technology hit mass production less than a decade ago. Also, EVs are better. Here in the U.S., a new study provides real-world evidence that adoption of EVs immediately improves air quality. Using satellite data, researchers at the University of Southern California found that as more, zero-emission vehicles hit California roads, air pollution dropped in nearby neighborhoods. Like I said.

EVs are better. And finally, a federal judge this week allowed a nearly complete offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts to resume construction after it was halted by the Trump administration. The judge in the Vineyard Wind case said he was not persuaded by the government's new found claims of national security concerns after he reviewed a new classified Defense Department report. It's the latest legal setback in the administration's efforts to halt. five East Coast Wind Projects. Four of those projects have been restarted by courts so far. Great job, Trump. For much more on all of these stories and the ones who couldn't get to today, check out our website at greennews.bradblog.com. Find, follow and share us planetwide on the social media, especially at Blue Sky at Green News Report. Stop on by Bradblog.com. We are celebrating our 22nd anniversary of public-supported journalism. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. And this has been. Your Green News Report. Like the circles that you find. And the windmills of your mind. The windmills of his mind, indeed. Thank you very much, Desire. Thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. If you missed any portion of today's show, download it at any time for free at bradblog.com. Remember to hit one of those donate buttons while you're there to help us celebrate 22 years of blogging, muckraking, and broadcasting, and all of the above. Drop me email on Bradcast at Bradblog.com. And I am on the social medias at the Brad blog, especially blue skies. See you there at all the above. Until we see you here next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck world. The circles that you find and the windmills of your mind. Gies that jingle in your pocket. Where's the jangle in your head? Why does summer go so quick? Was it something that you said?