'BradCast' 12/31/2025 (Encore: Trump Is Losing One Battle After Another)

Today's broadcast was originally recorded on December 11, 2025. The expiring subsidies are causing, though, all sorts of uncertainty and concern for people across the country. $1,55 a month for health care premium has got my attention. Yeah, as well it should. From Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast as heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA. Also in California, in Red Bluff and Reading on KFOI and Round Mountains, KKRN. Up in Oregon on the Central Coast on KYAQ, Cottage Groves, Koso, and Eugene's KEPW. Lanchester, Pennsylvania's W News, Maui, Hawaii's K-A-K-U, in Columbus, Ohio on WGRN, Palinville, New York's WLPP, Rochester, New York, WRFZ, down in New Orleans on WHIV, out in Gallup, New Mexico, on K-N-I-Z, Concord, New Hampshire's WNHN, Fayetteville, Arkansas's K-PSQ. In Seattle, rainy Seattle, on KODX, Richmond, Virginia's WR, WK, Fairmont, West Virginia's W-E-FR, Janesville, Wisconsin's W-A-D-R, and Minneapolis, St. Paul's, AM-950K, TNF. We also stream coast to coast and around the globe. Every day on the Internet, on the Progressive Voices Channel, Netroots Radio, Radio for Humans, to colesandler.com, Radio Free Brooklyn, No Lies Radio. Detour Talk Del Marva FM, and most of your favorite podcast sites, 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 today for another thrilling edition of the brandcast. I mentioned rainy Seattle. We will get to that story a little bit later. A lot to cover today. Be careful up there in the meantime in the Pacific Northwest. It is another busy day in these theoretically once United States. We've got a lot to get to, including several... life and death issues today. But some breaking news over just the past hour as we go to air offers some, well, both good and some amusing news, Desi Doya. Oh, good and amusing. I will definitely take it. Let's start with the good news for the moment as we go to air. The GOP-controlled Indiana Senate. has rejected a new GOP-drawn U.S. House map lobbied strongly for by Donald Trump personally and already adopted by the GOP State House there in the Hoosier State in what is being now seen as a major rebuke to Donald Trump, who threatened to primary.

Any Republican in the state Senate in Indiana who voted against this measure, and as the vote was about to be held on Thursday, apparently Donald Trump threatened to cut off all federal funding to Indiana if they did not obey his command. Extortion, like a mob boss. Nice place you got there. I would hate to withdraw all federal funding from it. Exactly. But we'll see. Maybe that's what's going to happen now because Republican lawmakers in the Senate who have been the subject of personally of death threats swatting incidents by Trump supporters in recent days. Well, they did not obey his command. They stood up for the state voters. Instead, good on them. Thank you, Indiana Republicans. And for a bit of a laugh today and another Donald Trump failure, some amusing news out of the Eastern District of Virginia today just before airtime as well, where you will recall Trump's revenge indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James. who successfully prosecuted Donald Trump for fraud last year. You will recall that the charges against her, Trump's revenge charges, were tossed out a few weeks ago after a judge found that Trump's personal tax lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, had been improperly appointed as U.S. attorney specifically to prosecute James on trumped-up mortgage fraud charges, only to see... So those were... She was improperly seated, and when the judge discovered that, along with it, the charges against Letitia James and James Comey were both thrown out. Well, last week, the administration attempted to re-indict Letitia James. They brought in a new prosecutor from Missouri to do it. Well, that... attempted indictment was subsequently rejected by a grand jury, which almost never rejects an indictment sought by federal prosecutors, thus the well-worn phrase that prosecutors can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. But as I noted when reporting on that previously, I mentioned that the Trump administration could, if they wanted to, try to indict James yet again with either different charges or a different grand jury. And guess what? Yep. They tried again on Thursday. And also guess what? The grand jury once again rejected. The federal indictment. Good job, guys. So I guess this is just going to be sort of a weekly thing now at this point where they try to indict Letitia James. But that's okay because we could use the weekly laugh, I guess. Indeed. And it's more than just a laugh. It is actually heartening to me with so many of the nation's institutions that are just buckling under the pressure from the right-wing extremists, the fascist, the

of the grand juries are stepping up and saying no. Right you are, Desi Doyen, and that the Indiana Republicans, at least in the state Senate, are also saying no to this thuggery. Other than that, good and or amusing breaking news, let's start here today. Kilmar Abrago Garcia, remember him? He must be freed from immigration detention while he fights his deportation. A judge ruled on Thursday handing a major victory to the immigrant whose wrongful deportation to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador earlier this year made him a flashpoint of the Trump administration's appalling. buffoonish and outright cruel immigration crackdown. U.S. District Judge Paula Zinnis in Maryland, who has overseen this case for months in an attempt to serve justice. Trying to get straight answers from the federal government about all of this ordered that immigration and customs enforcement, ICE, must let Abrago Garcia go immediately, writing that federal authorities had detained him yet again after his return to the U.S. without any legal basis. Quote, for this reason, the court will grant Abrago Garcia's petition for immediate release from ICE custody, the judge wrote. Friendly reminder here, since I'm pretty sure much of America has lost sight of this, and I know the Trump administration certainly has, violations of immigration law, those are civil violations in nature. They are not criminal. immigrants believed to have violated our laws they're supposed to be held in detention temporarily in detention centers not prisons they're not supposed to be jails they're not supposed to be punished by this they're just supposed to be detained Well, the Department of Homeland Security sharply criticized the judge's decision to allow Abrago Garcia to return to his family while the various claims against him are processed and fought out in court and the government vowed to appeal ridiculously describing the ruling by Judge Zinnis, an Obama appointee, as, quote, naked judicial activism. Abrago Garcia, a Salvador national with an American wife and child, has lived in Maryland for years but entered the U.S. illegally originally as a teenager. An immigration judge ruled back in 2019 that he could not be deported to El Salvador, his original home country, because he faced danger from a gang that had targeted his family.

When he was mistakenly sent there nonetheless by the Trump administration this past March and the Trump administration at first refused to admit their error, his case, well, it quickly became a rallying point against Trump's cruel, ham-handed immigration enforcement actions. A court later ordered his return to the United States from El Salvador, which... The administration eventually complied with, but only to charge him with apparently trumped up human smuggling charges. Since he cannot be removed to El Salvador, ICE has been looking to deport him to a series of African countries for some weird reason. His federal suit claims the Trump administration is illegally using the removal process to punish him for the public embarrassment caused to them due to their own ineptitude by his, by Abrago Garcia's original deportation. His lawyers have been fighting for his release as the government has threatened to deport him to numerous African countries, including Eswatani, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, nations in Africa where Abraga Garcia has no connection whatsoever. In her 31-page memorandum opinion filed on Thursday, the judge said that Abraga Garcia was detained without legal authority because the government didn't issue an official order of removal. An order of removal is a legal document that would trigger the deportation process, but that is not even underway, apparently. In a November hearing, Zinnis repeatedly pushed the government's lawyers to produce and file a removal order, which no one could provide at the time. Since then, Judge Zinnis said in the opinion the government still had not provided a removal order, which meant Obrego Garcia was being held unlawfully. Who's actually violating the laws here? In her order, releasing Abrago Garcia, the judge wrote that federal authorities, quote, did not just stonewall the court. They affirmatively misled the tribunal. The judge was referencing the successive list of those four African countries that officials had sought to remove Garcia seemingly without commitments from those countries. They said, oh, yeah, these countries will welcome him. Well, the officials in those countries say otherwise. Also, officials' affirmations that Costa Rica, where Obrigo Garcia had agreed to be removed to, the government claimed that Costa Rica had withdrawn an offer to accept him. Apparently, however, that claim also by the government was untrue. Costa Rica is still happy to accept him. So they lied to the judge there as well.

As she wrote in her order on Thursday, quote, Costa Rica had never wavered in its commitment to receive Abraga Garcia, just as Abraga Garcia never wavered in his commitment to resettle there. Apparently, the government just never wanted to send him there for whatever reason, maybe because it wasn't cruel enough or something, I don't know. He's also criminally charged now down in Tennessee, where he has pleaded not guilty to those human smuggling charges. He has asked the federal court to dismiss the case entirely, arguing that that prosecution is vindictive because, well, it obviously is. The judge in the case has ordered a hearing. An evidentiary hearing after previously finding, in fact, that some evidence showed that the charges, quote, may be vindictive, indeed. The judge also noted several statements by Trump administration officials that, quote, raise cause for concern in that Tennessee case, including a statement by the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's own personal, one of many personal criminal defense attorneys, now appointed to top jobs at the DOJ. that Todd Blanche seemed to suggest that the Justice Department charged Abrago Garcia because he won his wrongful deportation case, which would in fact make that a vindictive prosecution, which is unlawful as well. Abrago Garcia's case is just one among thousands, of course. There are others who have been... Wrongly deported as well, despite court orders, though this one certainly captured the nation's attention early due to the administration's sheer bumbling and cruelty and repeated insistence of violating the law and court orders. So his nightmarish case will likely continue through no fault of his own. In the meantime, in related news, Congress. Turns out we have one. Who knew? Now, I know that it may have been difficult to notice that, given how little time that they've actually been in session doing anything at all over the past year. And how much the Republicans who currently run both chambers have simply rolled over, turned over their power to the Trump administration. But, yes, it turns out, we still have a Congress. That was particularly notable on Thursday when both chambers were in session at the same time. What? I know.

And there were actually debates and votes held on the Senate floor regarding the massive cuts to health care for tens of millions of Americans that Republicans and the Trump administration made earlier this year. We'll get to some of that in a moment. And there were also oversight hearings held in the U.S. House, if you can imagine such a thing. On Thursday, Donald Trump's secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, sometimes referred to as DHS Barbie. She testified before the House Homeland Security Committee. It did not go great for her. I think that's fair to say. Is that fair to say, Des, from what you have seen? Yes. And since Congress... While being in session at all, much less holding hearings, is such a rarity these days. I thought it would take the opportunity to share a bit of their attempted oversight with you today. It has been seemingly forever since we've been able to do so in truth. So here's Democratic New York Congressman Dan Goldman asking Kristi Noem about whether or not migrants in this country. who turned themselves in to authorities after coming here in order to seek asylum if those folks are here lawfully or not. It's something else that I mentioned many times over the years in response to those who claim that such individuals that they're here illegally. No, in fact, they are not, as Kristi Noem worked hard to try and avoid admitting in full during the hearing in the house on Thursday. Do you agree that asylum is a lawful pathway to immigrate to this country? Yes or no? There's an asylum program, yes, in place. All right. So immigrants then with ongoing asylum applications are legally in this country, correct? Excuse me, I'm sorry. Your question was? Immigrants with ongoing... Asylum applications are legally in this country. There are individuals in this country that have applications. And they are legally here because it's a lawful pathway, right? It's a lawful pathway. Okay. So if your department then deports anyone with an ongoing asylum application, you are violating the law, correct? Joe Biden left us. I'm not asking about Joe Biden. I'm asking you a specific question. If your department departs anyone with an ongoing asylum application. You are violating the law. Is that correct? It was greatly violated when they allowed. I'm asking you. I'm asking you. Why are you filibustering? Why can't you answer the question? It's a simple question. If your department reports anyone with an ongoing asylum application.

You are violating the law. Isn't that correct? The asylum program was broken under the last- Mr. Chairman, I will reclaim my time. She's not answering the question. But the obvious answer is that, yes, if you follow a lawful pathway, asylum is a lawful pathway, if you have an open asylum case, you are here lawfully. But the problem that we are seeing around the country, is that you are not following the law. Don't tell us to change the law. If you don't like the asylum system, you change the asylum law. Bring it to us. We'll work with you. I think it needs to be changed. But you can't just decide that you're not going to follow the law, and asylum is a law, and deport people who have ongoing applications. Unfortunately, that is exactly what's happening. It's happening across the street from my office. right in New York City. That was Congressman Dan Goldman with Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday in the U.S. House. Yeah, that is how to combat the filibustering of these Trump liars when they go in. You've got to talk over them and you've got to talk loudly over them because they will continue. filibustering. By the way, as you were talking there, Des just got an alert from AP that, in fact, Kilmar Abrigo Garcia has now been released from immigration detention after the federal judge order earlier on Thursday that he must be. released immediately. Good news there. Yes. Meantime at that same hearing, Congressman Seth Magaziner, the Democrat from Rhode Island, well, he had so many good points during his five minutes of questioning of Kristi Noem, that it kind of seemed like it made more sense to simply play the entire exchange here rather than trying to pull out the highlights. As you know, the administration has been claiming that they're focused on deporting only the so-called worst of the worst. criminal migrants. But in fact, the vast majority of those being detained and deported have no criminal record whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I think less than 3% have actually been convicted of any sort of crime, violent crime or whatever. In fact, as Magsiener highlighted, many of them have served... Our country in the armed forces and in other ways, and he wondered whether Kristi Noem should be thanking them for their service rather than imprisoning and or deporting them. Madam Secretary, how many United States military veterans have you deported? Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans. I don't believe you served in the military. I haven't either, but I think you and I can agree that as Americans, we owe everything to those who have served our country in uniform, particularly those who have served in combat. Do you agree with that? Sir, I believe that people that are in this United States, that are citizens, have legal status here. Madam Secretary, we are joined on Zoom by a gentleman named Sejeune Park. He is a United States Army combat veteran who was shot twice while serving our country in Panama in 1989.

Like many veterans, he struggled with PTSD and substance abuse after his service. He was arrested in the 1990s for some minor drug offenses, nothing serious. He never hurt anyone besides himself, and he's been clean and sober for 14 years. He is a combat veteran, a Purple Heart recipient. He has sacrificed more for this country than most people ever have. Earlier this year, you deported him to Korea, a country he hasn't lived in since he was seven years old. Will you join me in thanking Mr. Park for his service to our country? Sir, I'm grateful for every single person that has served our country and follows our laws. And can you please tell Mr. Park why you deported him? Every one of them needs to be enforced. But you understand that many veterans struggle with PTSD, many veterans struggle with substance abuse challenges. This man took two bullets for our country. Will you, you have broad authority, by the way, as Secretary, to issue humanitarian parole, to do deferred action. Will you commit to at least looking at Mr. Park's case to see if you can help him find a pathway back to this country that he sacrificed so much for? I will absolutely look at his case, but I want you to remember that our programs need to have a jury as well. His name is Jim Brown from Troy, Missouri. He is a Navy combat veteran who served our country in the Gulf War. He's married to a woman named Donna, who came to our country legally from Ireland when she was 11 years old. She has lived here for 48 years. Because of you, Jim's wife, Donna, has been in prison for the last four months. She did not come here illegally. And she has never committed any crime other than writing two bad checks totaling $80 10 years ago. She is currently in prison and facing deportation. Ms. Noam, will you thank Mr. Brown for his service to our country? Thank you, Mr. Brown, for your service to our country. Now, what possible explanation can there be for locking up his wife for four months when she has committed no crime other than writing a couple of bad checks for $80? Sir, it is not my prerogative, my latitude, or my job to pick and choose which laws in this country. You have broad discretion as the Secretary. You need to follow the law. You can do all kinds of things, but you're choosing not to. Will you commit, again, to just reviewing Donna's case and reuniting this combat veteran with his beloved wife who also loves this country? I will review the case. Now, Madam Secretary. You've already heard the story of Lance Corporal Alejandro Barranco. The United States Marine veteran who is behind you, who also has two brothers who are United States Marines. Will you thank Lance Corporal Barranco for his service? Thank you for your service. His father, Narcisco Barranco, is a landscaper in California who has lived peacefully in our country for 30 years and has no criminal record. Last spring, while he was mowing the lawn at an eye-hop, ICE agents tackled him in the street and imprisoned him for weeks. A peaceful, hard-working man who raised three sons to be United States Marines. We need men of that character in this country. Again, as Secretary, you have broad discretion.

Will you consider Lance Corporal Bronco's father for parole in place to stay in our country owing to the fact that he has contributed to our country by raising three United States Marines? This is an opportunity to remind everybody that every person that's in this country illegally has an opportunity to voluntarily go home and come back the right way. Follow our laws. He raised three United States Marines. He has been living here peacefully doing his job for 30 years. You have discretion. You are choosing not to use it. Madam Secretary, you promised America that you would go after the worst of the worst. But these people are not the worst of the worst. A Purple Heart recipient. a military spouse, the father of three Marines. And it's not just veterans and military families. You are locking up and deporting children with cancer, mothers, with babies in the NICU, United States citizens. There are many problems with your leadership, but the biggest problem is this. You don't seem to know how to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Go after the bad guys. Go after the terrorists. Do not go after veterans, Marines, children. Gentlemen's times expired. I yield back. And thank you for your service, Congressman Seth Magiziner of Rhode Island. Yeah. Unfortunately on the radio, you cannot see the disgust on his face when she said, well, he can always self-deport. No wonder Republicans have been keeping Congress out of session. And finally, for the moment, from this hearing and amusing and or pathetic exchange, as FBI Director of Operations, Michael Glashine, who also testified alongside Kristi Noem in the House Homeland Security Committee today. This was questioning by the ranking Democratic Committee member, Benny Thompson. about who the FBI now believes to be the greatest domestic threat to our nation. And it apparently turns out to be a group that doesn't actually exist. Will you tell me any domestic terrorist organization that poses a threat to the homeland as we speak? I'd say the first one, you know, President Trump had just... announced executive water domestic terrorist organization, Antifa. That's our primary concern right now. All right. That's what President Trump did. What did the FBI say? We share the same view. When you look at the data right now, you look at the domestic terrorist threat that we're facing, right now what I see from my position is that's the most immediate violent threat that we're facing on the domestic side. So where is the Antifa headquarters?

What we're doing right now with the organization? Where in the United States does Antifa exist? If it's a terrorist organization and you've identified it as number one. We are building out of the infrastructure right now. So what does that mean? You say we're trying to get the information. You say Antifa is a terrorist organization. Tell us as a committee, how did you come to that? Where do they exist? How many members do they have in the United States as of right now? Well, that's very fluid. It's ongoing for us to understand that. The same, no different than al-Qaeda and ISIS. No, no, I don't want you. I ask one question, sir. I just want you to tell us. If you said Antifa is the number one domestic terrorist organization operating in the United States, I just need to know where they are, how many people. How many people have you identified with the FBI that Antifa is made of? Well, the investigations are active. Sir, you wouldn't come to this committee and say something you can't prove. I know. I know you wouldn't do that. But you did. Yeah, he did. Yes. Unbelievable. Meanwhile, over in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, that was Benny Thompson, by the way, in the Homeland Security Committee with the FBI Director of Operations, saying the greatest threat America faces is Antifa. Many people online were like, is Antifa in the room with you now, sir? Anyway, over in the Senate on Thursday, the Republican-controlled Senate voted to reject health care bills offered by each party on Thursday as the U.S. barrels towards a health care fiscal cliff with steep premium hikes coming for millions of Americans set to hit as of January 1 next month. The failed votes raise the likelihood, as NBC News reports, that enhanced Obamacare subsidies passed in 2021 will expire as designed by Republicans earlier this year. at the end of the year and will cause premiums to double on average and triple and even quadruple for many of the 24 million Americans who receive access to health care via the landmark Affordable Care Act. Prior to the votes on the to the vote, I should say, on the Democratic proposal to extend subsidies for the next three years. Georgia's Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff cited several of his constituents in dire circumstances now, including a woman in her early 60s who's been a waitress all over life, who now has breast cancer and will not be able to afford the increased cost of her care without the subsidies that she's been receiving under Obamacare. She would, Assoff explained, have to give up the insurance altogether.

while in the middle of chemotherapy. The whole conversation about these Affordable Care Act tax credits in this town and this building has been focused on the politics of this issue. This is life or death. People will die. This is one of the most consequential votes this Senate will take all year. By saying yea or nay to the clerk of the Senate later today, senators will decide whether people live or people die. Senators will decide whether Georgians and folks across the country are financially ruined or have a shot. Half a million Georgians. It's projected. We'll lose their coverage altogether. More of a million more will see their premiums double or worse. This is a choice. What's the point of having all this power if you won't use it to help people? I remember just a few weeks ago, members of this body wrote into a funding bill half million dollar payments to themselves. Do you remember that? But our own constituents who stand to lose their health insurance in the middle of a cancer fight?

What are they supposed to do? My constituents cannot afford this, and some of my constituents cannot survive it. I urge my Republican colleagues to put the politics aside and vote to extend these tax credits for the health of our constituents. Well, unfortunately, the bill offered by Democrats on Thursday, which would have extended the Enhanced Affordable Care Act funds for another three years, failed. It failed by a vote of 51 to 48 with Republicans, Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Sullivan, both of Alaska, joining Democrats in support of it, but that was not enough. to overcome the 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate. A competing bill offered by Republicans sought to let the ACA money expire and instead give a little bit of cash. In fact, about $1,000 per year, pathetically. That's all? Or, well, 1,500 if you're between ages 50 and 64. Give that money directly to Americans in so-called health savings accounts while... Working out changes somehow to the insurance marketplaces. The money in those accounts, however, could not be used for monthly premium payments under the GOP plan. So you're on your own there, apparently. Quote, it delivers the benefit directly to the patient, not to the insurance company, said Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune, saying it, quote, saves money for taxpayers, calling it a win-win proposal. Unless, of course, you are someone who is actually sick and needs treatments. like that waitress in Georgia. And I got to tell you personally, as someone who's wrestled with a few health issues over the past couple of years, a $1,000 cash payment, or in my case, $1,500 cash payment a year to treat that, well, it's frankly laughable if it weren't so serious. That Republican bill was written by Senators Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. He's a doctor. He should know better. It also failed by a similar vote of 5148. Along with all Democrats, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky voted no there. President Trump, who has for years promised a much better health care plan that is cheaper and gives better care to everybody. but has never actually offered up such plan despite those promises, which at some point he changed to a claim that he had, quote, concepts of a plan. Remember that? Well, apparently he likes the, quote, concept of the Crapo Bill Cassidy bill, but he stopped short of actually endorsing it. In the meantime, again, he has not offered a plan of his own, even as his so-called one big, beautiful bill passed without a single Democratic vote earlier this year, slashed about a trillion dollars from Medicaid.

About a half a trillion from the Affordable Care Act, another half a trillion for Medicare just for good measure, as it gave a trillion dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, quote, under the Republican plan, the idea is essentially to hand people about $80 a month and wish them good luck. Noting that the only viable plans to access that money have deductibles of $7,000 or more. So to get that $80 a month, you're going to have to pay $7,000 off the top before you even get any health insurance. How ridiculous he said, how mean and cruel to the American people. Well, if there's anything that Republicans have gotten very good at in recent years, it is cruelty. Even some Republicans said that their plan was not enough, as it wouldn't address the rising cost of insurance premiums. Thursday's votes, well, that vote on Thursday was the one that the, remember those seven Democratic senators and the one independent who caucus with them? This is what they received in exchange for agreeing to open the government back up. after the 43-day closure in October and November, as the rest of the Democratic caucus in both the House and the Senate stayed united in favor of restoring the health care funding to the millions of Americans who are about to lose it. And with it, their health care plans, and for tens of thousands, in fact, their lives in the bargain. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat from New Hampshire, one of the Democrats who capitulated last month, despite Americans' support for the Democratic fight to restore health care subsidies. Nice job, Gene. She said on Thursday that she was not giving up on the ACA funding extension. How nice of you, dear. And she suggested that there may be another opening in January to pass it. Cool. I wonder how many will have lost their health care already by that time because they couldn't afford to pay their January premium, which is due by the end of December. Meanwhile, over in the GOP-controlled House, where a few of the smarter Republicans are beginning to panic following week after week after week of thumpings that their party has taken from Democrats in off-year and special elections around the country of late. House Republican leaders said that they hope to hold a vote on a health care bill next week before leaving for the holiday recess, but the party has not yet found a plan that the members can rally around. There are now apparently two discharge petitions that have the support of some swing state, some swing district Republicans. that might force a vote on extending ACA money. But the various pieces of legislation would extend the subsidies for one, two, three years and would restrict new restrictions to weaken Obamacare in the bargain.

But those who believe that previously that Congress would surely come up with something to prevent this health insurance apocalypse from happening, actually, as of January 1. Well, so far, it doesn't look like a fix is coming anytime soon, thanks solely to Republicans in Congress and the White House who are blocking such a fix. The clock is now quickly running out. But hey, if they don't kill you with their health care policies or lack thereof, maybe their policies on climate change. or lack thereof, we'll do you in. We've got some stories along those lines and Desi Doyen's latest green news report. Straight ahead on today's Bradcast, I'm Brad Friedman. Hey, this is Brad. Please consider supporting whichever progressive media outlet is supporting you and the things that you care about. Most, just like us, do not receive corporate or political support. We all need your support to counter the powerful corporate media echo chamber. Right now, as much as ever. If you choose to support us, you can do it really easily, safely, and quickly via brandblog.com slash donate. From Desi Doyen and myself, thank you. You're listening to an encore presentation of the broadcast. It's a hard. It's a hard. It's a hard. It's a hard. It's a hard. It's a hard rain. You're going to fall. Already has fallen. Welcome back to the Bradcast, Bradfriedman from bradblog.com. We reference this very quickly in our latest Green News report coming up momentarily, but some details that we didn't have time for. In those six minutes, I think, are in order here today with a lot of listeners up there in this particular area. A state of emergency has now been declared tens of thousands of people, many of them, I suspect, as I said, in our listening areas. We've got a bunch of affiliates up in the Pacific Northwest. Have been ordered to leave their homes in western Washington after historic rain left rivers at... record levels across the state this week. Skagit County in the northwestern part of the state has ordered everyone in the Skagit River 100-year floodplain to evacuate now to higher ground as authorities have forecast 18 major floods and 15 moderate floods. More than 5 million people were under flood alerts on Thursday morning, including portions of Montana and a small part of Idaho, between 10 and 18 inches of rain have fallen over the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges in just the past 72 hours. Governor Bob Ferguson in Washington said late Wednesday, quote, catastrophic flooding is likely.

And in a statement on social media, he said 100,000 people could face evacuation orders. The Skagit River in the state is expected to crest at around at a record 47 feet. The threshold for major flooding along the Skagit is actually 32 feet. That's already major flooding. This could go to 47 feet. Almost 20,000 energy customers were already without power. Early Thursday morning, according to power outage.us, at least 300 National Guard troops have been mobilized to the state. Local emergency response crews with boats were activated. Stranded people and vehicles have already been rescued overnight. Darren Morrison, public commissioner in Skagit County, said during a public meeting on Wednesday night, quote, we feel very confident that we can handle a normal flood. But no one really knows what a 41 or 42 foot river looks like. Well, in fact, it could go to 47 feet. Yes, that's insane. There has been more than 10 inches of rain in parts of Washington and northwest Oregon in recent days. Seattle was hit with 12 to 16 inches of rain in the past 72 hours. Quote, while the rain will diminish overnight and into early Friday, the National Weather Service warned early on Thursday, ongoing major. River flooding and the threat of landslides will continue across portions of western Washington State and northwest Oregon for several days. Residents are already seeing homes and businesses flooded across the region, and it could be getting worse in the days ahead. So to our listeners up there, please be careful. Flooding, for example, has already begun in Everson, Washington, which was hit by catastrophic flooding just a few years ago in 2022. The American Red Cross has now opened several volunteer shelters across the state. You can call 1-800 Red Cross. to get information on a nearby shelter if you need help up there today or over the next few. But as we covered last week, when four nearly simultaneous typhoons struck Southeast Asia, this kind of extreme weather is now becoming all too normal in our climate-changed world. Yep. So it was troubling to read in a story from The Guardian that I've been trying to get to over the past week or so, Zillow, the U.S.'s largest real estate listing site, has removed a feature that allowed people to view a property's exposure to the climate crisis following complaints from the real estate industry and some homeowners that it was hurting their sales. In September last year, the online real estate marketplace introduced a very helpful tool showing the individual risk of wildfire, flood, extreme heat, wind, and poor air quality for one million properties that the company lists explaining correctly, quote, climate risks are now a critical factor in home buying decisions for many Americans. But Zillow.

has now deleted this climate index in the wake of complaints from real estate agents and some homeowners that the rankings appeared arbitrary, that they could not be challenged. And in particular, I would say it was because they harmed house sales by, I guess, letting buyers know the truth about the property that they might be considering buying. Yes. Zillow said, however, that it remained committed to helping Americans make informed decisions about properties. Its listings now contain outbound links, at least, to the website of First Street, the nonprofit climate risk quantifier that had provided the on-site tool to Zillow. So at least there's that. Matthew Eby, the founder and chief executive of First Street, said that removing the climate risk information means that many buyers will be, quote, flying blind in an era when worsening impacts of climate, of extreme weather are warping the real estate market in the U.S. The risk, he said, does not go away. It just moves from a pre-purchase decision into a post-purchase liability. Yep, just ask some of those folks up there in Washington State today. He said families discover after a flood that they should have purchased flood insurance or they discover after the sale that wildfire insurance is unaffordable or even unavailable in their area. Access to accurate risk information before a purchase isn't just helpful, he stressed. It's essential to protecting consumers and preventing lifelong financial. consequences. E.B claimed that the push to delist the first street ratings from Zillow is linked to, among other things, repeated climate-driven disasters that are causing insurers to raise premiums or even flee states entirely like California and Florida. Quote, all of that adds pressure to close sales however possible, he said. Climate risk data didn't suddenly become inconvenient. it became harder to ignore in a stressed market, he said. As the U.S., along with the rest of the world, has heated up due to the burning of fossil fuels, notes the Guardian, worsening extreme weather events have taken their toll directly upon people's homes as well as other infrastructure. Last year, they note disasters likely amplified by the climate crisis caused $182 billion in damages, one of the highest on record, according to a government database. that they note, has since been taken offline by the Trump administration for some odd reason. Thankfully, former NOAA scientists like Tom DiLiberto, who we spoke to on this program a few weeks ago about that, are continuing to collect and post that data at non-governmental websites like climate central.org. So you can, you know, try to make climate data disappear.

And Desi's got another story on that in today's Green News report, but you can't make climate change, and it's increasingly worsening effects on everything from lives to home ownership disappear, even if the bad guys sure are trying. Yeah, and unfortunately, it is going to get worse, and we desperately need... politicians in power in Congress and state, local, but especially the federal government who are willing to work on a comprehensive plan to deal with the coming disasters that will have a huge impact on a major sector of the economy. And we need to plan ahead because our infrastructure is not ready for what's coming. Let's just not tell people about it. That'll make it go away. By the way, E.B. of First Street defended their methods and accuracy. in the wake of the claims that it's too difficult to assess the risks of specific houses, etc. He pointed out that the models that the organization uses are built on peer-reviewed science. and validated against real world outcomes. He said, quote, so when claims are made that our models are inaccurate, well, we ask for evidence. He said to date, all the empirical validation shows that our science is working as designed and providing better risk insight than the tools that the industry has relied on historically. Yep. But, of course, that is not a surprise by now either to those of us paying attention. More related news on all of that in our latest Green News Report. As you probably know, we've just seized a tanker. U.S. military seized sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. EPA deletes mentions of humanity's role in causing climate change. Plus, advocates say the court ruling is a huge win for clean energy. U.S. court strikes down Trump executive order blocking wind energy. 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. through hurricane season without a hurricane. And so FEMA, FEMA, even you kept the hurricanes away. Yep, even hurricanes don't like him. This is your Green News report. Okay, Desi Doyen, well, we have been waiting for Donald Trump's new war down in Venezuela for quite some time. Now it looks like maybe we're one step closer? Perhaps the Trump administration said on Wednesday that the U.S. military seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, alleging that the ship was involved in an illicit oil trading network with Iran. Reuters reports that the move immediately sent oil prices higher. The action escalates tensions in the administration's pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. Oil is...

is Venezuela's primary source of revenue, and it possesses the world's largest proven reserves. Some analysts and even congressional Republicans have suggested that Trump is seeking regime change in order to gain control of Venezuela's oil. Right. All of which sounds a hell of a lot like that were we spent about 10 years failing at in Iraq. Yep. Here in the U.S., the Trump Environmental Protection Agency has been removing climate data that the public paid for from its website. This week, EPA deleted scientific facts that climate change is primarily caused by human activity and removed references to fossil fuels from its page about climate change causes. Do they still have a page about climate change causes? Yes, but maybe not for long. Also this week, over at FEMA, Donald Trump has appointed a 2020 election denier with zero experience in disaster management to head up the Office of Response and Recovery. Perfect. In the courts, a federal appeals court in California recently granted oil giant Exxon's request to halt a new state law that requires companies. to disclose the financial risks that climate change poses to their business, like the impact of rising sea levels, for example. However, the appeals court declined to halt a second law, requiring the state's biggest companies to report their total climate warming carbon emissions. Exxon argued that both laws violate its free speech rights to basically hide from the public what it is doing to the climate. Well, the Supreme Court will take it. care of that. Don't you worry your pretty little head? In Connecticut, a state appeals court denied Exxon's attempt to dismiss a climate liability lawsuit brought by the state attorney general accusing Exxon of violating consumer protection laws by knowingly deceiving residents about its sustainability efforts and the harmful climate effects of its fossil fuels by engaging in a decades-long systematic campaign of deception to deny the connection between fossil fuels and climate change. week, Exxon asked the U.S. Supreme Court again to intervene to stop state-level climate liability lawsuits that seek to hold the company liable for billions of dollars in climate damages. I'm sure they'll be all too happy to serve. Relatedly, as Western Washington State faces potentially catastrophic flooding this week, a group of homeowners have brought a new lawsuit against major oil and gas companies, the first of its kind. aiming to hold big oil accountable for climate-related spikes in insurance costs. Finally, a bit of good news. A federal judge in Massachusetts this week struck down Trump's executive order blocking wind energy projects. The judge ruled in favor of a coalition of state attorneys general, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of wind farms on federal lands and waters was, quote, arbitrary and capricious and violates U.S. law.

Judge ordered wind permitting to restart, but the administration can appeal. In a recent interview with PBS, prior to the ruling, Rhode Island's Democratic Governor Dan McKee underscored the impacts of the Trump administration's cancellation of wind energy permits for projects both proposed and already under construction. I don't think the Trump administration really understands the consequences. of this action, right? And the job loss, the energy loss, the loss in terms of our ability to compete. Oh, I think they understand it just fine. They just don't care. 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. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyen. And this has been your Green News Report. No, they really don't care, do they? No, they do not. They just do not care. By the way, Desi, that story on the Trump EPA website removing the human... Causes of climate change? Yes, the causes of climate change, which are primarily humans, they took that out. Yeah, but they somehow left the page up, which was somewhat baffling, begging the question of what the Trump EPA is actually blaming climate change on, if not humans burning of fossil fuels. So I checked, apparently, despite, you know, decades of science finding. Otherwise, they say it is caused by things like, quote, changes in the Earth's orbit and rotation. And quote, variations in solar activity. Oh, that's it. Changes in the Earth's reflectivity. The albedo. Yeah. Is that what that is? Yes, that's what that's called. Volcanic activity, they blame. And, quote, changes in naturally occurring carbon dioxide. concentrations, which is weird since they say that, you know, carbon dioxide has nothing to do with it, that we need it to live. And yet they still have that on their site as one of their reasons why climate change exists that have nothing to do with burning fossil fuels, which is a great thing to do. Everybody should do it as much as possible. It's totally safe. Everything's fine. Why worry? Hey, you Trump are deniers. The 90s called they want their climate science denial talking point. It's back. All of those things have been disproven over the years by actual science. I mean, orbital mechanics is extremely well understood. All of this stuff, the way that the sun goes in phases, how much volcanoes contribute to the atmospheric concentration of CO2. All of that is very well understood. All of the stuff that the EPA is saying is sadly nonsense. Yep. Well, that's enough nonsense for the day. Thank you very much. Desi Doyen, our producer, thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with our nonsense. If you missed any portion of today's show or you want to share it with someone you know, love or hate, you can do so at bradblog.com for free. You don't even have to hit one of those donate buttons while you're there, but we would love it if you did or if you went straight to Bradblog.com slash donate to help us stay on your podcast.

airwaves. You can drop me email. I am Bradcast at Bradblog.com. And on the social media, as you will find me at the Bradblog. You will find Desi Doyen at Green News Report. We will see you there. Until we see you here next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world. You're listening to the Bradcast. We are 100% listeners supported thanks to listeners like you who drop by bradblog.com slash donate.