'BradCast' 8/11/2026 (War, Climate Chaos Now Threatening U.S. Crude, Diesel, Water, Power Supplies)

The more light that we shine on the darkness here, I think the better our opportunity come November. Okay. Let's shine a few lights, shall we? Well, I don't know why I came here tonight. Why? I got the feeling that something right. I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair. And I'm wondering how I'll get down with stairs. Because to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you. Yep. From Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast, as heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, and on dozens of other... Excellent affiliate stations over both the public airwaves and the internet surround the country and the world. Blanketing planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker. And all around, swell fellow says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us today for another thrilling edition of the Bradcast. And it will be a thrilling one, Desi Doyen. Oh, my, yes, it will be. Will it? We'll see. We'll see. Hey, voters took to the polls on Tuesday in six states. I had previously been reporting it only as five. Namely, Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, Wisconsin, and South Carolina, where Republicans are holding that quickie replacement primary for the, I guess, what do we call it, vacated nomination? I don't know what we call it for Lindsey Graham's seat after his recent death. But also Alabama is holding primaries on Tuesday, actually redo primaries. Republicans didn't like the way they came out the first time, I guess, so they get to redo them. Essentially, they're holding primaries on Tuesday in U.S. House districts 1, 2, 6, and 7, which in reality were already held back in May. But thanks to the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court ruling, allowing states to erase majority minority U.S. House districts. created via the now almost entirely gutted Voting Rights Act and the court's thumbs up allowing previously unprecedented mid-decade redistricting and their willingness to ignore their own so-called Purcell principle, which they had cited for years when blocking last-minute changes to election rules for purported fears that it would cause chaos or confusion for voters and elections. officials, even when it might have meant enfranchising thousands of voters or preventing the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters, with the corrupt Republican Supreme Court majority completely tossing aside the use of the Purcell principle to stop last minute changes in this case when the election in Alabama was literally underway.

And tens of thousands of voters had already cast their votes in it. Well, the court allowed the redrawing of U.S. House districts in Alabama anyway to remove a black majority voting district in the state and allowing the state to simply hold a do-over primary election in the four affected gerrymandered. U.S. House districts. So the Purcell principle, the new Supreme Court principle is, oh, my God, black people are voting and that must be stopped. Yeah, well, I'm not sure how new that principle is, but I take your point, and that's what they allowed them to do. So those are the elections that were held this week in the corrupted racist state of Alabama under its corrupted Republican majority legislature and corrupted Republican governor under the... auspices of the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court. Noteworthy results and or problem reports from those six states on tomorrow's broadcast. But for the moment, allow me to note that while we often discuss the importance of voting this year, of course, in the upcoming most important midterm elections of our lifetimes. And arguably in our nation's history and the importance of encouraging and helping others to vote this year, there are other ways to support our faltering democracy this year. National Poll worker recruitment day. was Tuesday, as observed annually on August 11. You may be hearing this a bit late, but don't worry, it's not too late to become a poll worker to sign up to be one in whatever city or town or county you live in. And you really should do it if you can. We need you to do it. We need everyone we can find this year to be on the front lines of democracy, literally. protecting the right to vote wherever you live. This initiative was established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the commissioners of which Donald Trump recently fired all of them. But the important initiative lives on with the EAC's stated aims of inspiring civic engagement and encouraging individuals to volunteer as poll workers, highlighting the essential role poll workers play in ensuring secure and fair elections. If you don't sign up to be a poll worker, I do promise you that bad guys are working to get their people into those very same polls. It would be nice if you were there, not only to help voters out, but to keep any bad guys from, I don't know, maybe doing the opposite.

The League of Women Voters and the National Education Association announced earlier this year, a new partnership aimed at strengthening American democracy by recruiting a diverse new generation of poll workers for the upcoming federal, state, and local elections. The two groups collaborate through a joint initiative called power the polls.org where they've got a really easy form set up. You fill it out, let them know if you are available to work as a poll worker, whether it's your first time doing so, or you have experience doing so already, and whether you are fluent in a second language, et cetera, and they will supposedly take care of things from there. As they, according to their press release, their partnership seeks to ensure that every community has the staffing necessary to keep polling places open, lines short, and the voting process accessible for all. Because when the lines, by the way, are not short, people don't vote. They decide to go home instead. They can't wait in that line. So the more the merrier, the more people who are working, the faster those lines will be able to move. Quote, a healthy democracy relies on neighbors helping neighbors at the ballot box, yet poll worker shortages. Remain a silent threat that leads to long lines and silenced voters, said Jeanette Seneca, the chief of civic learning and impact for the League of Women Voters. Becky Pringle at the National Education Association said, quote, educators teach students that democracy is something we practice, protect, and pass on. Voting is both a right and a responsibility, and every eligible voter should have equal access to the ballot. Power the Polls is a first of its kind, non-partisan initiative launched in 2020 to recruit the next generation of poll workers to ensure safe and fair elections for all voters. It has so far recruited more than one million potential poll workers. People can learn how to do that at power the polls.org. A lot of states also allow high school students to sign up because they're about to become voters and that lets them get involved sometimes for extra credit. State rules vary, so look yours up. Yeah, go do it. You've thought about it in the past. But now actually go do it. Powerthepoles.org. And also that way, you can keep me apprised of what's going on via Bradcast at Bradblog.com. What's going on during your training on Election Day itself, if there are any probs, you know, that we need to get the word out about, etc. I've noted many times this is all hands on deck this November. And along with casting your vote, this...

This is probably one of the most valuable things that you could try to do to try to help save our democracy this year. Powerthepoles.org. Speaking of which, we told you about the primary elections scheduled last Thursday in Tennessee. Not Tuesday, like most states, but Thursday because they really hope to confuse voters and help them to not turn out in Tennessee, apparently. But it seems voters turned out anyway. At least black voters did and in huge numbers after the corrupt Republicans who have gerrymandered themselves into power at the state legislature there used all of those. corrupt Supreme Court rulings I mentioned a minute or two ago regarding Alabama to, yes, redraw Tennessee's last remaining Democratic U.S. House District, the majority minority district in Memphis, where the population is almost two-thirds black, but where Republicans have now cracked the city into three separate U.S. House districts to prevent voters in the city from electing a representative of their choosing. Well, you will be shocked to know that black voters were not happy about that. And they made that fury known during last Thursday's primary elections in the volunteer state. As the Washington Post reported Democratic turnout for House primaries in a majority black Tennessee county last Thursday, surged. To the highest level in a decade, the latest sign that redistricting may be energizing black voters across the south. A fifth of active registered voters cast a ballot in the Democratic U.S. House primaries in Shelby County, which includes Memphis. That is more than double the turnout percentage for similar contests in 2024, which was a presidential election year. So double, double the turnout of a presidential election year by black voters who have been told they no longer get to elect a candidate of their choosing. Thanks to Republicans unprecedented mid-decade gerrymandering upon the urging of Donald Trump and the permission from the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court to do so, which gutted the longstanding Voting Rights Act protections against that sort of thing. earlier in the year, all in the hopes of rigging elections for Republicans. Organizers said the outpouring that was seen last Thursday was motivated by anger over the Republican-led legislature's actions to break up the state's only majority black congressional district after the Supreme Court eliminated minority voter protections in the Voting Rights Act this year. GOP lawmakers dispersed the black voters of Shelby County into three separate districts that stretch into rural white communities, thus diluting the voting power, of course, of those black voters to try and make sure that no Democrat might be elected.

to represent the black majority in the Memphis area, much less in the state of Tennessee overall, which is now completely represented by Republicans in the U.S. House as of now other than that one district they're breaking up in Memphis. Quote, people are pissed off. Said Crystal Knight, chairwoman of the Voting Rights Group organized Tennessee. Memphis is, quote, the densest part of the African-American vote in the state and people really took it personally. She said, you are trying to come into our county, break up our county and split our vote. And what better way to push back than to say we are going to turn out? And they did. So yeah, let's do it, Tennessee and Louisiana and Alabama and Florida and Texas. Turn those gerrymanders into dummymanders if you can. And if you can't, well, you can toss out a whole bunch of racist right-wing pro-autocratic bums out anyway along the way, hopefully simply by turning out and letting your pro-democracy vote be heard. The actions, the post reports have galvanized black voters who have mobilized protests in many states and turnout in historic numbers in primaries in South Carolina, for example. Earlier this year, that turnout helped prompt the gerrymandered GOP South Carolina legislature to abandon their plans. to dissolve a majority black district in that state. Also, the Georgia legislature opted not to act after an outpouring of opposition, though I will note they appear likely to do the same anyway after this year's elections in advance of the 2008 presidential election, especially if the GOP legislature there takes the beating that many suspect they will this year. Or if the Democratic candidate for governor wins the state, which is, yes, entirely possible this year in Georgia. Quote, people need to show the rest of America that says not the way you treat voters, said night of organized Tennessee. Memphis resident Harmony Lucas 26 was one of the young voters who helped boost the turnout last week, urging friends, family, even coworkers to join her at the polls. She's voted in the past, but the GOP effort to break up the state's only majority black district, quote, made me realize I had to get more serious that my voice is heard. It matters. Congressman Steve Cohn, Tennessee's lone Democratic congressman. who is white, by the way. He decided not to seek re-election after the 9th district that he represents was overhauled by being cracked into three districts. Justin Pearson, however, the charismatic black preacher who received national attention, you may remember him, back in 2023 for his expulsion from the state legislature after protesting at the capital in Nashville for gun safety laws. He won the Democratic nomination last week.

in the 9th District, though he'll be waging an uphill battle to replace Cohn in his victory speech on Thursday, Pearson depicted his candidacy as an act of defiance against redistricting and the undermining of the Voting Rights Act calling those steps, quote, a blatant attempt to keep people like us out of power and an attempt to make us quit. Well, Pearson is not quitting. He's running. And he won last Thursday. Beyond redistricting, voters in the majority Black Shelby County have been energized by other issues as well, including an attempted state takeover of Memphis Shelby County schools and the presence of federal immigration agents and the National Guard in the city. And as I've been telling you, Americans really do not like when you mess with their democracy. They will push back. And they really don't like it when you send armed federal thugs into their streets either. But as the Post correctly points out, Democrats, task gets harder. heading into the general election this fall. Tennessee's ninth, which had been the state's only blue seat, is now rated solid Republican by the Cook political report. The area that now compromises the new ninth district, that went for Trump by 21 points in 2024. As Crystal Knight of Organized Tennessee told the paper quote, everyone that came out last night, that needs to double for November. Reverend Earl Fisher, pastor at Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, who was among an outspoken, ardent group of faith leaders in the city who ramped up turnout efforts before the primary after redistricting said, quote, at least some of what we did worked. And it's one of those instances where you can log it as a win and build on it, but not like a victory lap. No, it is not, but it is a start. Fisher and his group have been specifically focusing on get out the vote efforts in the region and finding areas of it with historically low turnout to try to get them to turn out. It is apparently working, at least based on what happened last week on Thursday, at least for the primaries, but they will have to double down to have any chance of electing, you know, someone like Justin Pearson. in a solid R plus 21 district, like the one that Pearson is now running in. Here was Fisher on Rachel Maddo's MS Now program last night. Well, the last thing people should do is just surrender. And I think that's what you saw us do after the verdict it was in, whether it was the Calais vertical, whether it was what they did at the State House when they cracked the district.

So instead of just throwing up your hands and surrendering, the first thing I started to do was just looking at what some opportunities were. And one of the things I found out, Richard, is that even in the state of Tennessee, 48% of voters would vote in patterns that are consistent with independent voters. Only 33% of voters would identify properly as Republicans. So that means that there was some opportunity there. then you look at some of these counties where a lot of people just hadn't been out and done a lot of organizing. So that was another opportunity there. So. I don't think that they calculated the moral force of black leadership and our capacity to motivate our people and to allow them to see a vision of what's possible, even when the odds are stacked against them. I know a little something about history. And then there have been situations that have been similar to this where we came out on top. And I think this could very well be one of them. I'm not. lost on the magnitude or the enormity of the task right here, it is a big thing. And, you know, if we do lose, it won't be because I or my colleagues pulled any punches. We'll do all we can all across the state. And I believe people all across the country can support. And sometimes that means sending your people this way. Sometimes it means sending money. Sometimes it means raising your voice. Everybody can make a phone call. Everybody can send a text message or share social media posts or something like that. So the more like... light that we shine on the darkness here, I think the better our opportunity coming November. Yes, sir. Yes, it is. More light shining on the darkness. Yes, we can do this. One more related point before we get to a break, related to the idea of reaching people perhaps who haven't been, who haven't voted before or don't vote in primaries, et cetera. If the pro-democracy forces can get out in droves this year, there is literally, literally no limit on what could be done. Yes, even in places like this new 9th district in Tennessee.

568 days into Donald Trump's second term, according to new polling out today from the economist UGov. The president's net approval rating is now negative 27, which is down almost one full point since just last week. 34% approve of Trump's job overall with the job he's doing. 61% however disapprove. That puts him 27 points underwater with the American people. A new record low for net approval or in this case disapproval in the economist UGov tracker poll. The administration's resumption of strikes on Iran in mid-July. are believed to be blamed here for the recent fall. Still, by this point, most Americans will not be surprised to hear of Trump's failure to reach a face-saving settlement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The economist UGov polling suggests 61% are uneasy about the president's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis. Trump also remains underwater on every single issue in the new poll. Inflation and prices, foreign policy, jobs in the economy, immigration, crime. The American people disapprove of the job that he is doing on every single one of those and by huge margins. On his handling of inflation and prices, for example, he is negative 44. 44 points underwater. In August, the lowest that has been this term for Donald Trump. He's also underwater among every single demographic group, including white people, people with a high school degree or less, older voters, younger voters, male voters. Donald Trump is a uniter in that everyone hates him. The outlet offers a map of every state in the union and whether they approve or disapprove of the job that Donald Trump is doing and by how much. At this point, on the map of all 50 states, only three, three of them, only three states have Trump in the approval column. Idaho, Wyoming, and West Virginia. Yes, he is otherwise underwater on approval overall in all of the other 47 states, including everywhere from North Dakota to Utah to South Carolina to Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Florida. I looked at that map this morning and I thought, man, Republicans are going to get wiped out everywhere this November. But then I noticed that this was a map of All adult citizens. And there's another tab showing the very same map of approval disapproval among those who voted, only those who voted in 2024. On that map, there are not only just three states who still approve of Trump, but there are 11 states that still approved by at least some overall margin.

But even on that map, you know, you still see Trump underwater among 2024 voters in states like Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas. But my point here, my takeaway, if all adult citizens actually get out and vote this year, it will be a bloodbath for Republicans. A blue tsunami like this nation has never seen. But if a similar electorate to the one that got out that came out in 2024, well, it will still likely be a good year in general for Democrats, but folks like Justin Pearson in Tennessee will probably lose. But yeah, finding those people who did not turn out in 2024 for whatever reason and helping them to vote this year. If the electorate looks more like all American citizens versus only 24 voters, well, the nation will send an unmistakable message to Republicans and even this White House that their time is up. And there's a new sheriff in town and it is the American people. Yes, the impossible could be possible this year in a whole bunch of states and a whole bunch of jurisdictions. So let's get to work. A quick break, and we were back with some, oh, some dire news as both Trump's mishandling of both war and climate change are now running us perilously close to running out. Running out of what? Well, where do I begin? I know where I begin. Right after a short break. And speaking of dire news, Desi Doyen, with our latest Green News report, we'll be here also. Woohoo. Now that you're hopeful after that segment, let's try to worry you back into despair. That's straight ahead on the broadcast. I'm Brad Friedman. Don't touch that dial.

Five major corporations now control more than 80% of the media in the United States, but they don't control us. The Bradcast and the Green News report are 100% independent, 100% listeners support it. But we can't do it alone. We need you. Please help us bring real facts to listeners at independent stations around the nation. You can make a difference. Support independent media. Drop by bradblog.com slash donate. That's bradblog.com slash donate. Thanks. Welcome back. Crude oil stockpiles in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, have now fallen below 300 million barrels, the lowest level in more than four decades as global inventories stay under pressure due to Donald Trump's Iran War, as CNBC reports it today. The SPR Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to just... 298.7 million barrels last week. That's according to data released by the Department of Energy on Monday. The reserve created in 1975 is at its lowest level since 1983. Donald Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels last March after Iran choked off oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering the largest disruption of crude oil supplies in history. The release of those stockpiles from our reserves has helped at least somewhat in keeping the cost of the global cost of oil down by a few pennies on the global market. Though the price for Brent Crude, the international benchmark, was back up over $90 a barrel again on Tuesday. It had been down in the 70s before Trump's war. The authorized storage in the Strategic Petroleum Reserves is 714 million barrels. So at just below 300 now, our reserves are below half of what they should be. The drawdown in the SPR has raised questions about whether U.S. government stockpiles are on the verge of depletion. Especially if Iran continues to keep the strait of Hormuz shut down, the minimum amount of oil needed to safely operate the SPR is about 70 million barrels that need to stay in there, according to an energy department spokesperson in July. Yeah, that's to keep the equipment from seizing up and breaking down. The SPR stood it around.

415 million barrels before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 this year. The U.S. government could have, of course, refilled it at a much lower price beforehand, before launching that war in anticipation of a potential supply shock from an attack on Iran. But, of course, Trump did not do that. U.S. government stocks will fall to around 243 million barrels when the release that Trump ordered is finally completed. The SPR's operational capacity is also at risk due to aging infrastructure. According to a report earlier this year from the Government Accountability Office, more than a quarter of its inventory was, quote, not available for drawdown due to a combination of construction outages and cavern outages as of last December the GAO found. That implied that a minimum of 103 million barrels in the SPR today are not available for use, according to a July analysis. Aside from what happens to the infrastructure when the reserves are drained, there's also a big portion of that that apparently cannot actually be used at the bottom because it has become a sort of a slurry, a milkshake as sediment has settled down into it. So even though we're well below half of what the maximum capacity is, we don't actually have a full half left in the strategic petroleum reserves. And I bet Iran knows that. Don't you think? The GAO warned in the report last December, quote, the SPR's drawdown distribution and fill capacities are currently limited and are at risk going forward due to longstanding issues with aging infrastructure. Huh. Now, maybe it makes you think if Trump had maybe put more effort into that infrastructure. Rather than, I don't know, the DC reflecting pool or his golden statues or his ballroom. Well, maybe we would have been better able to survive an oil shock that very well could be coming. President Joe Biden himself deployed 180 million barrels to address energy market volatility after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. That was the largest release in the history of the SPR. And again, Rather than refilling it when Trump was bragging about how low gas prices were under him, remember that? He just left it depleted, only knew further depleted than in the wake of his own war in Iran. So we could be running out of oil because the president of the United States whose job it is to keep an eye on that sort of thing, well, he didn't. But that's not all. Not by a long shot.

Reuters reported last night U.S. and European diesel prices rose sharply on Monday after attacks on refineries in Russia and Saudi Arabia added to existing supply disruptions, raising concerns for farmers in need of the fuel, which is needed for the planting season in the northern hemisphere and the harvesting season in the southern hemisphere. The U.S. ultra-low sulfur diesel futures rose 7.5% on Monday, the biggest jump since mid-July. European diesel rose nearly 10%. The surge followed confirmation of an attack by Ukraine on a refinery in Russia and another attack by Yemen's Houthis in Saudi Arabia. The refinery attacks have taken substantial amounts of diesel off the market, said one analyst in one of those notes. Crude oil is the biggest driver for fuel prices, but the gains in diesel futures outpaced both the U.S. and worldwide oil benchmarks this week, as hopes of opening the Strait of Hormuz appeared to fade with the U.S. and Iran trading demands for compensation. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in the ongoing Iran War has sharply cut. global diesel supply by choking the flow of both diesel fuel and crude oil from the Middle East. U.S. inventories of distillate fuels, which include diesel and heating oil, are now at their lowest for this time of year in three decades. So we're running out of crude, diesel and heating oil. That seems somewhat important. While the White House is distracting the easily distracted corporate media with all sorts of nonsense, including their repeated parroting of reports from Donald Trump and his White House that a deal with Iran is imminent when it absolutely is not. I remember hearing on NPR at the very beginning of last week, they reported a deal could be announced as early as today to end the war for good. And that was, yet again, of course, BS. As Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal reported this week on Monday, for weeks, President Trump has been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war. Should Tehran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he's willing to walk away without a nuclear deal? according to U.S. officials. But even that scaled-back objective became more difficult when Iran insisted on Saturday on its highest price yet for permitting the free flow of traffic in the waterway. The rapid chain of events suggest Trump's options for walking away from the conflict have again been narrowed. Great.

The prospect of a deal appeared to darken over the weekend when the United Arab Emirates said that Iran launched a missile attack on one of its ships and a top Iranian official laid out a series of demands for allowing traffic through. The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said the U.S. would need to permanently end the war, lift its naval blockade, withdraw its forces and all sanctions, free Iran's frozen assets, pay war reparations, and threats and insults, probably the hardest part for Donald Trump, and stop military action against Iran's militia allies around the region before Iran would open the strait. That according to a report on state news agency IRNA. You think any of that stuff is going to happen at any time soon? So, yeah, I suspect the dwindling supplies of crude, diesel and heating oil. Well, I think that's going to continue for a while. But unfortunately, that is still not all that we seem to be running out of thanks to the mismanagement of everything by the idiot in the White House and his various sycophants and lackeys. From the appropriately named dark reading news site, cyber attacks against water and wastewater systems reportedly have now reached at least a dozen states with threat actors exploiting low complexity attacks against industrial controllers. The intrusions possibly linked to the Iranian government prove the U.S. water's infrastructure remains dangerously exposed. Huh. More infrastructure that Donald Trump is not doing anything about. In recent weeks, water and wastewater organizations associated with several U.S. states have disclosed cyber attacks against their systems. Minnesota was the first to confirm such attacks late last month, saying that cyber attackers targeting operational technology systems were found in more than 30 water systems. Around the same time, On July 30, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or SISA, updated an earlier advisory, warning of, quote, a significant increase in cyber threat actors targeting program. programmable logic controllers or PLCs in the water and wastewater systems sector, unquote. The U.S. Cyber Agency said threat actors were modifying passwords to lock out operators and disconnecting the systems by changing their IP addresses. They urged critical infrastructure owners, operators, and integrators to remove publicly exposed systems from the internet as soon as possible. This SISA advisory followed the FBI, updating an April warning on July 22nd that Iranian threat actors are targeting these systems in critical infrastructure manufactured by a whole bunch of major vendors. But the very next day...

July 31, Donald Trump, who knows, by the way, much more about cybersecurity and infrastructure security than the U.S. cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency or the FBI. Donald Trump explained what was really going on during an Oval Office media avail after. More than 30 water systems in a major American state reported that they had been attacked, likely by Iran. Today, I just want to mention that we heard in Minnesota there was a cyber attack, and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. There was a cyber attack of 30 water plants, and I would blame it on Minnesota. and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota. They like to say, oh, it was Iran. Iran should be so lucky. The ranch got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota. So he doesn't think so. He doesn't, Donald Trump, I don't think it was around. I blame it on the governor. The president of the United States would prefer to blame the governor of the state who had the temerity to run against him on the vice presidential ticket. two years ago, he would rather blame him than the nation that he is at war against who everyone who actually knows anything suspects of doing these attacks. But as it turns out, it is not just Minnesota. Relevant municipal and local water officials from Georgia, Michigan, and South Dakota also suffered attacks that appear to be connected with this same wider campaign. And in recent days, Alabama and New Jersey have similarly confirmed attacks. Weird, but Donald Trump doesn't seem to blame the governors of Georgia or South Dakota or Alabama for those attacks for some reason. Nor did, as far as I know, anyone in the media actually ask him about it to hold Donald Trump accountable for his earlier gift to Iran by blaming Tim Walz for Iran's attacks on public U.S. water system infrastructure. The most severe activity known to date involved Georgia, where cyber activity against Jay Clayton County reportedly caused a water pressure drop and forced the local agency to issue a boil water advisory there. But Jay Clayton County, as it turns out, voted for Kamala Harris by a lot. So who cares how Iran might be punishing them for Trump's war, right? Marcus Mueller at Nozami Networks says these are targets because of the reality behind how the water and wastewater industry operates. He says, quote, there are roughly 170,000 drinking water and wastewater systems.

And most are small, decentralized, and installed by a third party. Cyber awareness and capabilities are limited at these utilities. There's an operational need for these devices to be connected. to the internet, but there's also a lack of funding or mandate or awareness to keep them secure. It is unfortunate, as there are plenty of good people, he notes, in the water industry who work hard to deliver clear, reliable water, but they are not cyber people. And even if they are aware of the issue, they often can't get the budget or the resources to set up those systems properly. which, of course, is why we now have a federal cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency to help them out. And as I was researching this, it sounds like a lot of the, a lot like the decentralized, computerized voting and tabulation systems that we have in some 10,000 jurisdictions across the country. Where they use these complex systems that can be reached from the internet, and yet you don't have, you know, cyber experts actually running them on a local basis at all 10,000 jurisdictions, which is why Barack Obama added to the mission of SISA before leaving office, he added oversight of election systems, only to have Donald Trump come in in his second term and get rid of that department entirely after. He took office in his second term. So running out of crude, diesel, heating oil, and the water systems are at threat of attack under a president who does not seem to care. But that is not all either, unfortunately. From popular mechanics today, they write from the rim of Lake Jerome Powell. You can't see the danger line. There isn't a flashing gauge or a chart on the canyon wall that warns visitors when one of the most important machines in America begins to fail. There's only an invisible number, 3,490 feet above sea level. Engineers call that number minimum power pool. Above that elevation, Lake Jerome Powell can still push water. Through Glen Canyon dams, massive penstocks spin its turbines and send electricity across the southwest of the U.S. with no trouble. Below that number, the dam loses the function that helped justify its existence in the first place. Glen Canyon Dam. and Lake Jerome Powell sit near the center of the Colorado River system upstream from Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. Together, those reservoirs store the water that cities, farms, and power plants across the southwest depend on along with the power that they depend on. And now the entire system is being pushed past its limits due to lack of water.

Since 2000, the Southwest has been caught in a mega drought that has steadily pulled down water levels in both Lake Jerome Powell and Lake Meade. Climate change has made that trend hotter, drier, and yes, harder to reverse. The Bureau of Reclamation began taking steps to keep Lake Jerome Powell's water levels high enough for electricity generation. Hoover Dam's hydropower output is expected. to drop by 40% of its maximum capacity this year. Quote, it's a crisis moment for the Colorado River, says John Bergren, Regional Policy Manager for Western Resources Advocates, as the Colorado River is now at its lowest level. In, I don't know, how long does he doyen? A hundred years since we've been tracking records of the Colorado River. Oh, more than that, but yeah. And both Lake Spowell and Mead are now at their lowest levels ever since the construction of the Hoover Dam system, which means we could now be on the verge not only of running out of water, running out of water in the West, but of power as well if those lakes reach, if they move from minimum power pool, which is just about where we are now to what is called. Deadpool level. Yes, that's what it's actually called. Yes, yes, it is. It's not the comic book character, unfortunately. When the turbines in the dams can no longer operate because the water level is so low. It's known as Deadpool. And there's a lot of fears that we are heading towards Deadpool. Deadpool. Quote, it's not that the system is going to collapse this year, says Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University and former chief of the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, but it's very low and it's in a perilous state. If next winter is also dry, then we're in a five-alarm fire drill. Well, I guess I should feel better. Because we're not at the five alarm fire drill yet. So you're saying there's a chance. Exactly. We're only at the four alarm fire drill at this point. But it is bad and it is alarming and it is concerning as we are running out of crude and diesel and heating fuel and water. Water and maybe power as well.

This seems kind of important to me. It might be even more important than the reflecting pool in D.C. turning green. I don't know, but it seems sort of important to me. But if the golden age of America, if this is it, if the golden age of America means we're now running out of crude and diesel and heating fuel and water and power, well, give me whatever age we had before this one. I liked it much better. Which, by the way, brings us relatedly. To our latest green news report, that's next on the broadcast. 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.

I told you we had dire news today. Yes, it's true. Remember way, way back in the A block when everything seemed hopeful and everything looked good as elections were... Well, everything is still hopeful. Those lessons still count. We'll see. As the climate chaos continues in our latest Green News Report. If we're exceeding records from the Dust Bowl, that says that we're in deep trouble. Lower 48 states saw the hottest July on record, and so did the world's oceans. People were saying they've never seen a fire this fast before. All of British Columbia in state of emergency amid new outbreak of destructive fires. Plus, wildfire smoke is eroding hard-won progress towards cleaner air. All of those stories and more straight ahead from Brad Blog. I'm Brad Friedman. And I'm Desi Doyan. Stand by for six minutes of independent green news, politics, analysis, and snarky comment. There's no question the conflict in Iran costs people a little bit at the filling station. Cost people a little bit at the filling station? Congressman Randy Fine of Florida? Are you running for re-election? Oh, look, you are Florida 6. Good luck. This is your Green News Report.

So go back. Okay, Tessie Doyen, our summer of climate chaos continues, but hey, now we're breaking records, at least. Yes, unfortunately, we are. July 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded in the contiguous United States since record keeping began in the mid-1800s, surpassing records set in the Dust Bowl in 1936. That's according to Noah, Americans in the lower 48 have suffered through multiple record-shattering heat domes that have fueled the surplains. surge of wildfires in the U.S. West, intensified by global warming caused by humanity's burning of fossil fuels. The heat, drought, and record low winter snowpack has pushed the nation's largest reservoir, Lake Mead, a key water source for seven western states, to a new all-time low. All time, meaning literally all time, because that lake was created as a reservoir just decades ago. Now the damn thing is about empty. Yes, not since it was filled 90 years ago. In Puerto Rico, officials have begun rationing water in the San Juan region as prolonged severe drought conditions intensify exacerbating ongoing issues with power outages and low water pressure that have escalated across the island over the past year. Europe is bracing for another heat dome. It's fifth since May. The extreme heat has killed tens of thousands of Europeans, threatens crops and energy supplies, is feeding intense drought and deadly wildfires across the continent. According to the EU's climate service, Copernicus, Western Europe just lived through its hottest June and July on record. Copernicus also found that global ocean temperatures also hit a record for their hottest ever July. Oh, we're just killing it on the records, aren't we? As we go to air, deadly super typhoon dolphin is pummeling China, triggering massive flooding and landslides. Officials had evacuated more than 1 million people in advance of the storm. The record warm waters in the Pacific fueled typhoon dolphins' unusually long path of destruction across the Pacific since its formation nearly two weeks. ago. It's one of three simultaneous typhoons churning in the Pacific. And this summer of fires is not letting up. Canada's entire...

province of British Columbia is now under a state of emergency as fire crews battle more than a hundred out of control, heat and wind-driven wildfires that have forced at least 30,000 people to evacuate. A fire outside of Summerland, British Columbia, exploded in size over the weekend, burning 19 square miles in just three hours. According to CBC News, giving residents and farmers shockingly little time to evacuate. In the U.S., the National Interagency Fire Center reported on Sunday that 183 new fires have erupted across the U.S. in just the last week, including eight large ones, as extremely hot and dry conditions fuel the spread of wildfires across the West. Well, it's just too bad that Donald Trump didn't sweep his forest floors, I guess. Mounting scientific evidence shows that pollution from wildfire smoke is eroding. decades of hard-won progress in improving air quality across the country from regulations that had rained in pollution from vehicles and industry. Well, we don't need those regulations anymore, I guess. And finally, a brewing powerful El Nino in the Pacific is forecast to goose global temperatures and extreme weather consequences even further in coming months, further straining infrastructure and resources. In an interview with Pacifica evening news, Dr. Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Communications was blunt. We have two things we need to do to get Earth's fever under control. Number one is to stop burning so many fossil fuels. And we also need to be spending money to adapt to the new climate that we've put in place. We just need to be smarter in general about adapting to climate change. We need to be smarter in general about a whole bunch of things. 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. It's a cruel.

The cruel summer continues on tomorrow's broadcast with election results where notable in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Alabama. Thanks to our producer, Desi Doin, and thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your cruel summer with us. It is greatly appreciated if you missed any portion of today's show or want to share it with someone you know, love, or hate, or just want to give it another listen to make sure you got it all. Stop by our website. That is bradblog.com, where you can download it for free, although we greatly appreciate and, in fact, count on those of you who fill out the quick donate form. To help us stay on your public airwaves, one-time donation or regular monthly subscription of any amount you can afford is tremendously appreciated, especially now. You can also go straight to brandblog.com slash donate. Drop me email. I am Bradcast at Bradblog.com. You can find me on the social medias at The Bradblog. You can find Desi Doin there as well. She is. At Green News Report. Please come by and say hi. See you there. Until we see you here next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world. It's a cruel.