Among the evidence in support of that thesis on today's program...

• Donald Trump's war in Iran is a disaster. He is losing and clearly has no clue how to either win or simply get out of it. He is hoping to merely will it all away. It didn't work with COVID, it isn't working with his war. He may think that declaring an "indefinite" ceasefire ends his ill-considered war. But it doesn't. A fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies are still not coming out of the Gulf with Iran's blockade, as the global economy falters, fuel is being rationed, gasoline prices remain high, inflation and unemployment is on the rise, and the global supply chain, once again (just like during his mismanagement of COVID), is beginning to buckle under the strain.

• And, because he doesn't know what to do about any of it, this week he fired his Navy Secretary in the middle of the largest naval standoff the U.S. has been involved in since WWII. Naturally, the guy he tapped to replace him is a loon.

• In the bargain, Trump's polls are collapsing, to levels as low or lower than the lowest, final days of his post-insurrection first term --- into George W. Bush territory.

• Trump and his sycophantic worshipers, like FBI Director Kash Patel and wingnut activist Laura Loomer, are failing along with him. In this example, they are seeing defamation lawsuits they'd filed against media outlets, pundits and even satirists, laughed out of court. In recent days: Patel's lawsuit against a former FBI official, dismissed. Loomer's lawsuit against Bill Maher and HBO, dismissed.

• Trump isn't doing much better himself on that front. Ridiculous defamation lawsuits seeking billions of dollars for some absurdly perceived slight don't really work unless you have sued someone who needs something from you --- while you corruptly run the federal government --- who is willing to settle for millions in order to profit in the billions. Trump's lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal, dismissed. Trump's failing social media company's lawsuit filed against The Guardian, dismissed, refiled, and finally withdrawn just days before a first court hearing.

• And, because it's never Trump's fault, after his money losing Trump Media & Technology, Inc. --- whose only product of note is his failing Truth Social outlet --- saw another horrendous year, taking in just $3.7 million in revenue while losing $712 million, Trump finally, quietly booted its CEO, former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes this week. That'll fix things. The public company, which trades as "DJT" and once sold shares to MAGA chumps for nearly $100/share. It has more than $6 billion in investor wealth since then, closing down again on Thursday by more than 3%, with shares tumbling to a pathetic $9.17. So much losing.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for another winning edition of Green News Report, with bad news on the global economy amid Trump's war; bad news on climate change and drought for the majority of the U.S.; but good news indeed for renewable energy which has now overtaken coal as the main generator of electricity globally...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: European leaders warn of rising shortages and destabilizing economic impacts amid Trump's war on Iran; Two-thirds of the U.S. is officially in drought --- bad news for crops and wildfires; March 2026 tied for second hottest March on record globally; PLUS: Renewable energy has overtaken coal as the main source of electricity globally... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Iran War: The Third Trajectory and hopes for rebuilding; Wall Street is lying to itself; Chemical leak at a W.Va. plant kills 2 people, sends 30 more to hospitals; The future of electricity is wind and solar, new report says; Congressional GOP launches Big Oil immunity challenge; Corpus Christi projects emergency water restrictions in September for large industrial users; Condom maker warns prices may rise due to Iran war supply disruptions ... PLUS: Flashback to the first-ever Earth Day ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Snarky: Someone Check Chris Wright's Pulse (This Is Not Cool)
• Europe warns of rising shortages amid Trump's War on Iran:
• The coming global food crisis (Financial Times, no paywall):
  
  Hunger and even famine are foreseeable consequences of the war on Iran. Now the world must act to shield the poorest from effects that will continue long after the fighting stops.
• As Iran crisis drags on, fears of global food catastrophe grow (Al Jazeera):
  
  While global food prices have risen modestly so far, the full impact of the conflict has yet to be felt, analysts say.
• The world's next food crisis may have already begun (The Irish Times)
• VIDEO: ECB chief Christine Lagarde warns of possible food rationing due to fertilizer disruptions (Business Today/Youtube)
• Trump's Five Big Unspoken Iran War Problems (David Rothkopf/Need To Know)
• Major airlines cancel summer flights due to looming jet fuel shortages:
• Full list of airlines canceling flights amid jet fuel shortages (Newsweek)
• Air Canada will suspend flights to JFK for nearly 5 months as jet fuel costs soar (AP)
• VIDEO: Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan: We expect higher jet fuel prices for the remainder of the year (CNBC)
• VIDEO: Airlines cut routes in response to rising jet fuel costs amid Iran war (CBS News)
• Lufthansa cuts 20,000 summer flights as fuel prices surge (BBC)
• March 2026 tied for 2nd-hottest March globally:
• The world just had its second-warmest March on record (Yale Climate Communications):
  
  March 2026 was tied with 2024 as the world’s second-warmest March in analyses of global weather data going back to 1850, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, reported April 9. Only March 2025 was warmer. NASA and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service rated March 2026 as the fourth-warmest March. The global-average temperature for January-March 2026 was the fourth-highest on record, NOAA said.
• AUDIO: 2026 saw the hottest March ever recorded in the continental U.S. (NPR)
• Record drought spreads across the the U.S.:
• Record US drought sparks worries about fires, water supply and food prices (AP):
  
  Drought in the contiguous United States has reached record levels for this time of year, weather data shows...The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s comprehensive Palmer Drought Severity Index not only hit its highest level for March since records started in 1895, but last month was the third-driest month recorded regardless of time of year. It trailed only the famed Dust Bowl months of July and August 1934.
• The record-setting U.S. drought is so bad that 97% of the Southeast and two-thirds of the West are parched (Fortune)
• Record U.S. drought sparks fears about wildfires, water supply and food prices (CBS News)
• Facing Drought and Low Snowpack, Rio Grande States Expect a ‘Challenging’ Year (Inside Climate News)
• The wild wild Western water wars (American Prospect)
• Wildfires rage in Florida:
• Wildfires across Georgia and Florida destroy more than 50 homes and force evacuations (AP)
• More than 130 wildfires burn across Florida as drought fuels one of the worst fire seasons in decades (AP):
  
  Firefighters across Florida are battling more than 130 wildfires that have scorched about 39 square miles, as officials warn the state is experiencing one of its worst fire seasons in decades driven by prolonged drought and dangerous weather conditions...[D]ry vegetation and gusty winds have allowed flames to spread quickly. The National Weather Service said a combination of low humidity and breezy conditions is keeping the fire danger elevated, with risks expected to continue through the end of the week.
• Florida fires double in size in two days with no rain in forecast (USA Today)
• Large brush fire burns in the Everglades in western Broward County (NBC Miami)
• Wildfires rage in Georgia::
• Wildfires across Georgia and Florida destroy more than 50 homes and force evacuations (AP)
• VIDEO: Dozens of homes destroyed as Georgia wildfires force evacuations, send smoke into metro Atlanta (CBS News)
• Smoke from South Georgia wildfires spreads across 30,000 acres. See where they're all burning on our interactive map (CBS Atlanta/MSN)
• Georgia officials weigh triggering drought response plan to help save water (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• Half of America breathes unhealthy air:
• New report ranks the cleanest and most polluted US cities (MSN)
• VIDEO: More Americans breathing unhealthy air, new American Lung Association report finds (CBS News)
• Millions of kids in America breathing dirty, dangerous air, Lung Association report finds
• (KOMO-Seattle):
  
  The Lung Association said nearly half of people under 18 live in an area that got a failing grade for at least one measure of air pollution in the latest report. “That's about 33-and-a-half million kids in the United States living in a community where their air is putting their health at risk,” said Will Barrett, assistant vice president of nationwide clean air advocacy at the Lung Association.
• New Report: Half of U.S. Kids Are Breathing Dangerous Air Pollution (American Lung Association)
• Exposure to wildfire smoke linked to heightened risk of cancer:
• As wildfires worsen, exposure to smoke may increase risk of several cancers (Washington Post):
  
  Extended exposure to wildfire smoke may increase the risk of several types of cancer, according to a study presented Tuesday at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting. The research, not yet peer-reviewed, found that people who were exposed to higher levels of wildfire smoke over the previous three years were at increased risk of lung, colorectal, breast, bladder and blood cancers. The study was based on a long-term database following more than 91,000 people.
• Wildfire Smoke Exposure Associated with Increased Cancer Risk Free (Cancer Discovery):
  
  According to a new study, exposure to smoke from wildfires is associated with lung, colorectal, breast, bladder, and blood cancers, highlighting the long-term health risks it poses.
• Massachusetts judge blocks Trump Interior's arbitrary new rules targeting renewables:
• Judge Halts Trump Actions Aimed at Throttling Renewable Energy (NY Times):
  
  The Interior Department had imposed restrictions on wind and solar projects across the country, prompting developers to sue.
• Federal judge strikes down some Trump administration actions that have slowed clean energy projects (AP
• Federal judge blocks Trump administration restrictions on wind and solar projects (Guardian):
  
  The injunction pauses policy giving senior Trump official direct sign-off on federal clean energy projects.
• Renewables edges out coal in global energy mix:
• Clean energy pushes fossil-fuel power into reverse for ‘first time ever’ (Carbon Breif):
  
  Renewable energy has overtaken coal to become the world’s largest source of electricity in 2025, according to thinktank Ember. The growth of solar and wind meant that, for the first time since 1919, the share of coal power was lower than that of renewables.
• Renewable energy overtakes coal as main source of the world's electricity (Tech Radar):
  
  In the past, we have seen the share of fossil fuel generation drop year-on-year, but that was driven by economic crises or the pandemic, whereas this is the first time a move to clean power has caused coal usage to drop.
• Global Electricity Review 2026: Solar surge halts fossil generation rise as renewables overtake coal (Ember)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists' Daily Headlines page

• Iran War: The Third Trajectory and Hopes for Rebuilding (Emptywheel)
• The Aftermath: Wall Street is lying to itself (The American Prospect)
• Chemical leak at a W.Va. plant kills 2 people, sends 30 more to hospitals, officials say (AP)
• The future of electricity is wind and solar, new report says. Canada is lagging behind (CBC)
• Congressional GOP launches Big Oil immunity challenge (Hill Heat)
• Corpus Christi projects emergency water restrictions in September for large industrial users and 500,000 customers (Inside Climate News)
• Price of diesel surges 50% in Massachusetts since start of war with Iran (CBS News)
• Condom maker warns prices may rise due to Iran war supply disruptions (CBS News)
• Hammer Fire in rural area southeast of Colorado Springs forces evacuations, school closures (AP)
• First Earth Day flashback (This Is Not Cool)
• VIDEO: BBC ties Trump moves to oil trades (This Is Not cool)
• What a 5,000-mile-long marine heat wave means for summer in the US (Washington Post)
• Trump invokes war powers to juice fossil energy, grid (E&E News)
• Yes, Climate Still Matters. Here's How It Connects to Every Other Crisis in the World Today. (Drilled)
• What Are The Biggest Climate Polluters Near You? (Yale Climate Connections)
• Climate change is accelerating, scientists find in 'grim' report (Yale Climate Connections)
• How Trump's War on Climate Science impacts all Americans (Bloomberg)
• Solar Is Liberation (Rolling Stone)
• Governments legally required to address climate change, global court says (Inside Climate News)
• David Attenborough's 'Ocean' is a brutal, beautiful wake-up call from the sea (AP)
• Wall Street Journal: Clean energy transition is unstoppable (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech? (David Roberts, Volts)
• Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check (Dr. Andrew Dessler, Climate Brink)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry's Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here's How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)

FIRST UP... Be invigorated. After a complicated, three-step, months-long process, a refusal to back down, a determination to stand up against legal challenges, and a willingness to embrace and exploit political loopholes --- in a way that we've become accustomed to seeing Republicans, not Democrats, do --- voters in Virginia on Tuesday narrowly approved a Constitutional Amendment placed on the ballot by Democratic lawmakers to redraw VA's U.S. House map for this November's critical midterm elections.

The Special Election for the referendum was held as a direct response to Trump's orders last summer to Republican-controlled state legislature's to gerrymander their U.S. House maps in the middle of the decade in a pathetic and desperate attempt to hold on to a razor thin GOP majority after this year's midterms.

If (and its still a big if!), the VA Supreme Court doesn't put the kibosh on the entire thing, Democrats hope this move will result in the flipping of four currently Republican-held seats to Democratic ones, increasing their current 6 to 5 majority delegation to a whopping 10 to 1 in the otherwise very "purple" commonwealth.

It was an expensive and grueling election, with a whole lot of confusion purposely seeded into the matter by Republicans hoping to hoax voters into voting against the measure. They didn't succeed, though it was a pretty narrow 3-point victory for the "YES" coalition.

No matter what ends up happening in the courts in regard this matter --- and in a special session of the Florida legislature next week, where state Republicans hope to redraw their own already-gerrymandered U.S. House map to further advantage the GOP --- the complex story of how the measure in VA even made it to Tuesday's Special Election ballot in the first place is a harrowing lesson in how voters will have Democrats' backs if they are willing to stand up and fight for the people.

Tune in for the entire sordid and/or inspirational tale.

NEXT UP... Be enraged. After taking office again last year, Donald Trump placed a non-partisan, career professional with a 30-year history at the Social Security Administration in "acting" charge of the agency.

The good news didn't last long. Soon, Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE Bros came along and demanded access to the agency's master database containing the most sensitive data on 500 million Americans, both living and dead. That includes Social Security numbers, birth dates, medical and income history and much much more. It is data that had been jealously guarded, without a breech, for the nearly 90-year history of the beloved federal program --- until Trump and DOGE came along.

Soon, career professionals, including the top staffer in charge of data security at the agency, were resigning in protest. Lawsuits from unions and whistleblowers started flying, and the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court majority ultimately refused to stop the unprecedented DOGE access to American's most sensitive records. We have since learned, largely via whistleblower lawsuits, that the DOGE Bros entered an agreement to share the data with a disgraced, rightwing "voter fraud" outfit. One of the Bros reportedly even copied the entire database to a portable thumb drive and offered access to it to his next employer.

Our guest today is longtime advocate NANCY ALTMAN, co-founder and President of the non-profit watchdog group, Social Security Works and co-author of Social Security Works For Everyone! Protecting and Expanding the Insurance Americans Love and Count On.

"It is outrageous! They have the most sensitive of all our information," she tells me, detailing so much of what has now been stolen from the elderly, the disabled, and children who receive Social Security to help them stay alive. "All kinds of information. It is a scammer's treasure trove."

"They're talking about suppressing voting and using our information to do that. And Elon Musk, I'm sure, is trying to monetize all of our information," charges Altman. "It has been very securely held, and now it's in some cloud. Who knows who has access to it, who can hack into it? We are all in danger of being scammed." Some, she explains, already have been.

You may recall, in the early days of the second Trump nightmare, when he and Musk were falsely claiming to have found hundreds or thousands of people who were receiving Social Security payments, despite being 122 years old or older. That, she explains, was all a lie. "Whether it was incompetence or intentional, the answer is there is no truth to it."

"Even MAGA voters value Social Security and don't want to see it cut," Altman says. "So what do you do when the whole country feels that way and you want to get rid of it? You undermine confidence. You tell people there are all these people who aren't really disabled who are claiming benefits. They'll tell children they're never going to see their benefits. And they tell the American people there are all these dead people getting benefits. That is such a lie."

In the meantime, Altman asserts, all of this is just "the tip of the iceberg," noting, "I'm concerned that a lot more groups have this information now."

"If the Democrats are able to take the House, they 100% will have hearings on it to get to the bottom of what's going on," she insists, to find out "who has this data, what they've done with it, where it is now, and what --- if anything --- the Social Security Administration is doing to protect the data from further disclosure."

Until then, Trump has fired the Inspector General who might have looked into and exposed all of this, his Dept. of Justice is, naturally, doing nothing to hold anyone to account, and Democrats in Congress have been stymied from carrying out probes or hearings by Republicans who want to pretend none of this is going on.

But it is going on. It is still underway. It's "horrendous" and "malicious" and we are now, according to Altman "in uncharted territory."

"It's important to find out what has happened, what the dangers are, what the risks are, and what can be done to at least ameliorate it," she says, urging action by voters in the months ahead.

"The Democrats have a plan to expand benefits and require the wealthiest pay their fair share. They also have been pushing, repeatedly and endlessly, to get their colleagues to look into what's happening with DOGE, what's happening with offices, what's happening with pushing out the most experienced people --- so much that's going on that's harmful to our ability to access benefits. So it's very important, if you care about Social Security, to vote."

There's an idea. I hope you'll follow her advice and tune in for today's program...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

BUT FIRST... It's Special Election Day in Virginia, where voters are deciding on a ballot amendment to allow state lawmakers to redraw their U.S. House map to help Democrats respond to Trump-ordered Republican mid-decade gerrymandering in other states. (Spoiler! The "YES" vote has reportedly won in what appears, at least at this hour, to have been a very close contest!) Full results and insight on tomorrow's program.

Beyond that, the lower courts continue to serve as a bulwark against many of Donald Trump's most corrupt, far-right excesses. Today a federal judge put the brakes on an absurd Administration requirement for new wind and solar energy projects to receive permitting approval from three senior political appointees at the Interior Department, including Sec. Doug Burgam. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper put the kibosh, for now, on a series of apparently unlawful policies, clearly meant to favor the fossil fuel industry. The results has been the cancellation or delay of numerous clean, renewable energy projects at a time when energy prices are skyrocketing thanks, in no small part, to Trump's policies and wars.

Speaking of which, after repeated vows by Trump that he would not renew his tenuous ceasefire with Iran without a new agreement when it expires on Wednesday, and threats in recent days to drop "lots of bombs" on civilian power plants and bridges with a military that was "raring to go", our empty suit of a sundowning President TACOd yet again. Without a deal --- without even the peace talks he announced would occur on Tuesday --- Trump extended the ceasefire "indefinitely". For now.

THEN... Anonymous insiders are apparently winning millions on unusual, last minute bets on various aspects of Trump's wars --- often placed by brand new accounts on so-called prediction market apps like Kalshi and Polymarket just minutes before Trump's announcements. Now, some lawmakers and good government advocates are calling for reforms, including new laws and, at least, enforcement of existing regulations banning such bets.

For example, on the night of February 27, as talks were still underway between the U.S. and Iran to avoid war, 150 accounts placed bets that the U.S. would launch an attack against Iran the following day. The attack then happened. A New York Times analysis found that 16 of the accounts won more than $100,000 each from the wager. Around the same time, an account named "MagaMyMan" made an $87,000 bet on Iran's Supreme Leader being toppled, just 71 minutes before news of his assassination became public. He earned more than half a million dollars with that incredibly well-timed "prediction".

Similar bets have been placed, and fortunes made, just moments prior to various comments by Trump that have rocked the oil futures market in one direction or another. And while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has regulations already on the books against bets on war and foreign assassinations, Trump has appointed just one person, with industry ties, to the statutory bipartisan 5-member Commission. Moreover, Trump's son, Don Jr., serves as a paid advisor to both Kalshi and Polymarket. To date, existing regulations have not been enforced.

We're joined today by longtime government ethics and reform lobbyist CRAIG HOLMAN of Public Citizen, which has been calling on CFTC Chair Michael Selig to investigate these highly suspicious incidents, improve rule-making on these quickly growing "prediction" outfits, and otherwise enforce existing regulations.

"This is the first time we're seeing very, very large bets being placed and timed perfectly with political events," Holman tells me, describing how these new mobile app marketplaces are different from anything we've seen in the past. "We're talking not only about the size of the bets, we're talking about the timing, which immediately raises the appearance and suspicion of insider trading."

He cites that anonymous bet by "MagaMyMan" for $87,000 on the toppling of Iran's Ayatollah --- and his more than $500,000 payday --- as evidence of that insider trading. "To me, it sounds a lot like someone within the Trump Administration who knows exactly what is about to happen, and places a large bet that's a sure thing," he argues.

Among the related points discussed with Holman, a longtime good-government public policy lobbyist and champion on Capitol Hill, (who is really good at explaining this stuff!)...

• How Trump's own family business expansion into cryptocurrency and prediction markets means he has every incentive to prevent new regulations or the enforcement of existing ones.
• Whether Selig will actually call for probes into so many of the now known cases of what clearly appear to be insider trading.
• How "the CFTC has been basically rigged by Trump" to prevent the statutory seating of the four other members of the Commission.
• How very similar "bets", to the tune of billions of dollars, are also being placed on futures markets that are supposed to be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
• The chances of several bills now proposed in Congress have of actually being adopted and ultimately signed by the President.

"It is not only the Wild West," Holman asserts, "some scholars like Paul Krugman call it treason. Because this is actually revealing foreign policy secrets, non-public information affecting foreign policy, to whoever is watching the markets. Not only other investors, but I imagine the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, they're all watching the market now" for a heads up on what the Trump Administration is about to do next.

It's both a maddening and enlightening discussion. I hope you'll tune in!

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our Earth Day edition of Green News Report. But, spoiler alert: It sounds much like many of other reports in that every day is Earth Day on GNR! So prepared to be both enraged and exhilarated...as usual!

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Economists warn high fuel prices could trip the world into global recession; Senate Republicans vote to strip protections from Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area; 16 years after catastrophic BP Oil Spill, Trump administration approves BP's new ultra deepwater drilling project; PLUS: Earth Day 2026 celebrates the only planet in the known universe capable of supporting life... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The ocean off California keeps breaking heat records; Supreme Court hands win to Chevron, Big Oil in environmental damage case; Federal bill would put Big Oil above the law; Record U.S. drought sparks fears about wildfires, water supply and food prices; Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought; Oil company founded by DOE chief Wright paid no US taxes last year ... PLUS: The wild wild Western water wars ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• No end in sight to Trump's War on Iran:
• Trump says US likely to resume bombing Iran as ceasefire nears end (Guardian)
• 'Going to go on for years': Grim Iran war outlook as conflict appears to have ‘no end in sight’ (Sky News)
• ‘No end in sight’ if Trump acts on threat to destroy Iran infrastructure (Al Jazeera):
  
  Escalation by Donald Trump is likely to be met with more Iranian attacks, further destabilising region and markets, experts say.
• Trump's Five Big Unspoken Iran War Problems (David Rothkopf/Need To Know)
• IMF warns Iran War could trigger a global recession:
• The Forces of Scarcity Hitting Asia May Soon Spread Across the World (NY Times):
  
  The Asia-Pacific was hit hard and quick by the war in Iran and its energy bottlenecks. Scenes of crisis there indicate that problems are multiplying and spreading.
• Global plastics industry rattled by Iran war as shortages mount, US exporters benefit (Plastics News)
• Here's what the stock market might have gotten wrong about the Iran war (Washington Post):
  
  The surge in optimism contrasts starkly with continued energy supply challenges that threaten long-lasting economic harm - and a market reckoning.
• IMF sees global oil shortfall this year and warns Iran war could tip world into recession (CNN)
• The world energy shock is coming: The US and Israel's illegal attack on Iran will provoke a global economic catastrophe (New Statesman)
• DOE Sec. Wright: gas prices to remain high in US:
• Wright says gas prices may not fall to $3 a gallon until 2027 (Washington Examiner)
• VIDEO: Energy secretary: Gas might not drop below $3 until 2027 (CNN)
• GOP Senate overturns mining ban in Boundary Waters watershed:
• Boundary Waters mining bill approved by Senate after Sen. Smith protest (MSN)
• Senate Votes to Allow Mining Near Minnesota Wilderness (NY Times):
  
  The Senate voted on Thursday to allow mining upstream from Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, one of the largest and most visited expanses of federally protected lakes and forests in the United States...The vote was a victory for Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta. The company wants to build a copper and nickel mine about five miles southwest of the wilderness area, and the Biden administration complicated its plans by banning mining there until 2043.
• Senate Votes 50 to 49 to Strip Boundary Waters Protections in Defiance of Public Opinion, Science (Outdoor Life):
  
  This vote also sets a dangerous precedent for the use of the Congressional Review Act, according to policy experts, to overturn the mineral withdrawal enacted in 2023. The CRA was intended to allow Congress to review agency rules in a 60-day legislative window; on Thursday it was used to throw out a public-land order from years before.
• VIDEO: Senate overturns mining ban near BWCA despite Tina Smith's protest (KARE-11 Minneapolist)
• VIDEO: Sen. Tina Smith speaks for 5 hours on Senate floor ahead of vote on Boundary Waters mining (CBS News-Minneapolis)
• Senate uses CRA to overturn protections for Boundary Waters (Western Priorities)
• Trump Admin. resumes ultra-deepwater drilling amid BP Oil spill anniversary:
• Deepwater Horizon oil spill environmental disaster, Gulf of Mexico, 2010 (Britannica)
• Trump administration to rejoin offshore drilling agencies separated after 2010 Gulf oil spill (AP)
• 16 years after the BP oil spill, policy shifts raise new questions about offshore drilling (WWL-TV, New Orleans)
• Climate groups sue US government over approval of new BP project in Gulf of Mexico (Guardian):
  
  Environmental groups have sued the Trump administration over its approval of BP's huge new ultra-deep oil drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico, 16 years to the day since the company's Deepwater Horizon disaster caused the worst oil spill in US history. In March, the administration approved a plan by BP to drill for oil at even greater depths than the Deepwater Horizon project, which resulted in an explosion that killed 11 people and gushed more than 3m barrels of oil into the ocean, a leak that took 87 days to stem...
  Drills will then extend much further down into the seabed itself, in all reaching down about 6 miles - deeper than the height of Mount Everest. BP forecasts this drilling will extract around 80,000 barrels of oil a day from six wells once production starts in 2029, drawing upon a deposit that holds 10bn barrels of oil in total.
• Scandal, incompetence at Minerals Management Service (Center for Public Integrity, 12/10/2008)
• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (Marine Mammal Commission)
• Earth Day 2026 is on Wednesday, April 22:
• Earth Day 2026: Our Planet, Our Power (Earth Day 2026):
  
  Progress does not happen in silence. It happens when people show up.
• VIDEO: Jane Fonda Talks Earth Day Musical 'Dear Everything,' (Today Show, CBS)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists' Daily Headlines page

• The ocean off California keeps breaking heat records (DNYUZ)
• Supreme Court hands win to Chevron, Big Oil in environmental damage case (Washington Post)
• Oil company founded by DOE chief Wright paid no US taxes last year (E&E News)
• Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought (Guardian)
• Federal bill would put Big Oil above the law (Center for Climate Integrity)
• Record U.S. drought sparks fears about wildfires, water supply and food prices (CBS News)
• Freeze warnings join flood warnings for areas of Michigan (Detroit News)
• Americans’ View Of Environment Hits New Low Ahead Of Earth Day: Gallup (The Hill)
• The wild wild Western water wars (American Prospect)
• Wildfires used to 'sleep' at night. Climate now makes them burn overtime (AP)
• As a plastic waste plant violates pollution rules, its owner makes the case for a second location (Inside Climate News)
• Rivian and Redwood Materials announce energy storage partnership for manufacturing (Redwood)
• Yes, Climate Still Matters. Here's How It Connects to Every Other Crisis in the World Today. (Drilled)
• What Are The Biggest Climate Polluters Near You? (Yale Climate Connections)
• Climate change is accelerating, scientists find in 'grim' report (Yale Climate Connections)
• How Trump's War on Climate Science impacts all Americans (Bloomberg)
• Solar Is Liberation (Rolling Stone)
• Governments legally required to address climate change, global court says (Inside Climate News)
• David Attenborough's 'Ocean' is a brutal, beautiful wake-up call from the sea (AP)
• Wall Street Journal: Clean energy transition is unstoppable (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech? (David Roberts, Volts)
• Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check (Dr. Andrew Dessler, Climate Brink)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry's Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here's How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)

Today's show is perhaps better listened to than explained. So I hope you'll tune in! Among the stories we cover before moving to Callers for the back half of the show...

Donald Trump claimed J.D. Vance, Trump's real estate pal Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner (who works for Iran's enemy, Saudi Arabia) were "heading over now" to Pakistan this morning for talks with Iran tomorrow as a fragile two-week "ceasefire" wraps up.

But Vance, at least, was still in the U.S. when Trump said otherwise, and Iran reports they have no plans to speak with the U.S. after a weekend of what they describe as piracy on the high seas. In fact, the U.S. reportedly attacked and took over an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel amid Trump's blockade of Iranian ports and Iran's blockade of the entire Strait of Hormuz.

If "Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again," as Trump claimed over the weekend before Iran announced they were closing the Strait, either they lied or he did. After it was opened for about a day over the weekend, it was closed again after Iran charged the U.S. with violating the ceasefire by blockading their ports and then attacking and stealing a cargo ship.

The supposed ceasefire ends as of Wednesday. Iran says they are ready and restocked for a long war. Is Trump? Is the U.S.? (Reminder: He first said his "little excursion" into war with Iran would take about 2 to 3 days. Then 4 to 5 weeks. We are now in week 8. On the other hand, that's 8 weeks in which few have been talking about the woman who says she was sexually assaulted by Trump when she was 13. So the war isn't all a loss for Trump.)

All of that, and much more news from his ill-considered war with Iran his failed negotiations; his latest promise that "the whole country is going to get blown up" if Iran refuses to make a deal; Iran's accurate response that Trump is too "erratic" to make a deal with, and cannot be trusted to keep it; as his job approval ratings and support on both the economy and war continue over a cliff in advance of November Midterms in which Republicans believe they are "gonna get killed".

In the meantime, more good news for Democrats at the polls in New Jersey late last week. It's Election Day tomorrow in Virginia on redrawing U.S. House maps that could help flip as many as four seats from "red" to "blue" this November. And there is chaos and confusion in California's Governor's race, which quite a few callers choose to chime in on today...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

FIRST UP... It has arguably taken far too long, but this week it became final. John Eastman, the sleazy attorney who helped conjure up much of Donald Trump's bonkers "legal" argument for stealing the 2020 electoral college vote in Congress on January 6, 2021, no longer has a license to practice law in his home state of California. He is officially disbarred after the state Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal this week. The disgraced former lawyer, a speaker at Trump's insurrectionist rally in front of the White House on January 6, now vows to challenge the California State Bar's final ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Good luck with that, John.

Also today, hints of somewhat more timely accountability in Minnesota, as an ICE agent is charged with assault under state law for pointing a gun at motorists from his unmarked car during Trump's so-called Operation Metro Surge immigration offensive in Minneapolis. The case will be a test of whether state charges may be brought against federal agents by state officials. Prosecutors say they are still investigating at least 18 more related cases in the Twin Cities region following the ICE shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti earlier this year.

NEXT... We're joined today by former U.S. Army Captain, former lifelong Republican and attorney KEITH BARBER, who now writes frequently at the progressive Daily Kos website as "KeithDB".

More than 30 years ago, Barber penned a 39-page article for the Fall, 1994 volume of the Military Law Review (pp. 235-274), examining evidence behind allegations of war crimes then made by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark against the U.S. during the first Gulf War under President George HW Bush.

Barber, at the time, found that Clark's evidence of widespread war crimes failed to hold up to legal scrutiny. Last week, with few changes to International Law over the past three decades in regard to such crimes, he compared similar allegations regarding the lawfulness of Donald Trump's war in Iran.

His original article for the Military Law Review was titled "No Fire This Time: False Accusations of American War Crimes In The Persian Gulf." His follow-up last week: "The Real Fire This Time: American War Crimes In the Iran War".

The two headlines tell the tale, but we walk through --- as Barber does in his recent piece --- the central allegations of whether the two different offensives were considered lawful under International Law, and whether the conduct of each meets established legal principles of discrimination and proportionality. (Don't worry, we explain what all of that means.)

Also of note during our conversation, Barber's thoughts on whether the change in his personal political leanings may have colored his findings, either then or now, and about whether the Military Law Review would have published his findings had they come to a different conclusion 30 years ago. Tune in for some revealing answers in a sobering discussion today on those points and more.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen is in da house for our latest Green News Report as Big Oil continues to reap billions from Trump's war in Iran; Extreme weather slams U.S. slands in the western Pacific; and fossil-fuel loving candidates are ousted by voters from the nation's largest public utility board in Arizona, in favor of pro-renewable energy candidates, thanks, ironically enough, to the rightwing Turning Point outfit!...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Big Oil is reaping $30 million an hour from consumers thanks only to the Iran War; Hawaii grapples with more storms and destructive flooding; Super Typhoon Sinlaku slams into U.S. Pacific island territories; PLUS: Arizona voters oust pro-fossil fuel candidates from public utility board...with the help of Turning Point USA... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought; Global warming is making the strongest hurricanes stronger; All of Michigan under Flood Watch as roads washed out, dams fail, people evacuated; The Forest Service reorganization is illegal. USDA's top lawyer told them to do it anyway; Boundary Waters mining bill approved by Senate after Sen. Smith protest; IMF sees global oil shortfall this year and warns Iran war could tip world into recession ... PLUS: Bessent questions the cause of climate change and its economic toll ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Big Oil is reaping $30 million an hour from consumers thanks to Iran War:
• $30m an hour: big oil reaping huge war windfall from consumers, analysis finds (Guardian):
  
  The world's top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to exclusive analysis for the Guardian. Saudi Aramco, Gazprom and ExxonMobil are among the biggest beneficiaries of the bonanza, meaning key opponents of climate action continue to prosper.
• VIDEO: Damian Carrington: How big oil is cashing in on Iran war (Guardian/The Latest)
• Big Oil to reap billions from Iran war windfall after a month of soaring energy prices (Reuters):
  
  The situation could resemble 2022, when Big Oil broke records for profit after Russia's February invasion of Ukraine rocked energy markets. That year, oil companies rewarded shareholders with record dividends and share repurchases. Public outrage sparked calls for windfall-profit taxes. "The first quarter is going to be phenomenal for these companies. I don't think there's any way around that," said Leo Mariani, a senior research analyst at Roth Capital Partners.
• 'Opportunistic' Fossil Fuel Execs Cashed In on Trump's Iran War With Record Stock Sales (Common Dreams)
• Trump pressed oil executives to give $1 billion for his campaign, people in industry say (Politico)
• Super Typhoon Sinlaku slams into US Pacific island territories:
• Category 4 Typhoon Sinlaku powers through the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands (Dr. Jeff Masters, Yale Climate Connections)
• Cat 5 Super Typhoon Sinlaku the 2nd-strongest typhoon so early in the year (Yale Climate Connections)
• How Super Typhoon Sinlaku Became a Warning Sign for a Potentially Historic El Niño (Extreme Temperature Diary)
• Hawaii slammed by more extreme rains, flooding:
• Trouble in paradise as atmospheric rivers drown Hawaii (This Is Not Cool)
• Maili farms and residents work to dry out after weekend rain, recent storms (Hawaii News Now)
• Over a month's worth of rain has fallen on parts of Hawaii as a storm threatens flooding (CNN)
• Hawaii hit by flash flooding as third Kona low in a month drenches islands (MSN)
• FEMA affirms Major Disaster Declaration for Hawaii (Hawaii News Now)
• Hawaii issues brown water advisories across islands (Fox News)
• Hawaii braces for another deluge on the heels of record-breaking rain (Washington Post)
• Central US battered by volatile Spring storms:
• More dangerous storms loom for the central US as parts of the region also grapple with historic flooding (CNN):
  
  A final round of widespread dangerous severe storms headed for the central US Friday could cause more destruction and bring more rain to parts of the Great Lakes already dealing with historic flooding. The regions are getting a brief pause in active storms on Thursday after more than three dozen reports of tornadoes and over 300 reports of large hail up to the size of softballs.
• Michigan, Wisconsin in Flooding Crisis (This Is Not Cool)
• FEMA funding has slowed to a trickle:
• Communities are waiting on billions in disaster funding from the Trump administration (NPR):
  
  For three years, the county staff has been preparing to enroll more than 500 homes. But under the Trump administration, the project has been stalled for more than a year. The county needs FEMA to approve the project plan, but the agency hasn't responded...In all, FEMA owes communities almost $10 billion, according to internal agency documents obtained by NPR. Much of that funding would reimburse local governments for what they've already spent repairing infrastructure after major disasters.
• Arizona voters oust pro-fossil fuel candidates from public power utility board:
• Turning Point gets its ass handed to it in the SRP elections (Phoenix New Times):
  
  This might not be the kind of turning point they had in mind. Leadership elections for the Salt River Project are usually sleepy affairs, but this year’s races were unusually high-profile. That’s because Turning Point Action, the political arm of the Charlie Kirk-founded Turning Point USA, decided to flex its financial and organizational might in the battle to control the massive public utility, which serves 2 million customers throughout much of the East Valley...For all that effort, Turning Point’s toxic brand may have worked against it.
• Renewable energy advocates make gains in fight over future of big Arizona power utility (AP)
• SRP councilman had donated $200K to Turning Point before elections (AZ Republic)
• VIDEO: 'Clean Energy Team' in control at SRP (12 News-Phoenix)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists' Daily Headlines page

• Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought (Guardian)
• Global warming is making the strongest hurricanes stronger (Yale Climate Communications)
• Bessent questions the cause of climate change and its economic toll (NY Times)
• 'Unprecedented' fire at Australian oil refinery to affect nation's petrol supplies (BBC)
• All of Michigan under Flood Watch as roads washed out, dams fail, people evacuated (MLive)
• The Forest Service reorganization is illegal. USDA's top lawyer told them to do it anyway (More Than Just Parks)
• Russian oil revenues nearly doubled in March (NY Times)
• Boundary Waters mining bill approved by Senate after Sen. Smith protest (MSN)
• IMF sees global oil shortfall this year and warns Iran war could tip world into recession (CNN)
• Yes, Climate Still Matters. Here's How It Connects to Every Other Crisis in the World Today. (Drilled)
• What Are The Biggest Climate Polluters Near You? (Yale Climate Connections)
• Climate change is accelerating, scientists find in 'grim' report (Yale Climate Connections)
• How Trump's War on Climate Science impacts all Americans (Bloomberg)
• Solar Is Liberation (Rolling Stone)
• Governments legally required to address climate change, global court says (Inside Climate News)
• David Attenborough's 'Ocean' is a brutal, beautiful wake-up call from the sea (AP)
• Wall Street Journal: Clean energy transition is unstoppable (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Can we avoid the enshittification of clean-energy tech? (David Roberts, Volts)
• Stop emissions, stop warming: A climate reality check (Dr. Andrew Dessler, Climate Brink)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry's Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here's How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)

FIRST UP... The good news: a federal judge in Indiana has blocked, for now, a law adopted by state Republicans that would have prevented Student IDs from being used as identification for voting purposes. The case to determine the Constitutionality of Indiana's SB10 will continue. But for now, for this year's critical midterm elections, some 40,000 Hoosier students will be able to vote with their IDs, just as they have, without incident, for the past 20 years.

Moreover, what happens in IN regarding Photo ID restrictions on voting doesn't stay in IN. It was a 2008 case out of Marion County, IN which originally opened the door nationally to the use of stricter and stricter, purposely disenfranchising, polling place voter ID laws. Liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the controlling decision, later came to admit that the Court got it wrong. So did the lower District Court Judge who penned the original ruling. So, we'll keep our eyes on this matter. But it is good news for democracy fans for the moment, barring any new surprises from higher courts this year.

In less good news today, Republicans in the U.S. Senate have, for the fourth time, blocked a Democratic resolution to assert Congress's Constitutional power to declare (or prevent) war as Donald Trump's unimaginably ill-considered war in Iran continues. Worse: WaPo reports today that thousands of more ground troops are on now on their way to the region at Trump's command.

THEN... We get to today's really enervating news, though we get there in a way that just might energize you to do something about it!

No matter how the Trump Administration and his U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are trying to gaslight the public about it, they are, in fact, dismantling the beloved U.S. Forest Service. The plan, officially announced last month, will benefit no one but those who wish to plunder the 193 million acres of our public lands overseen, maintained and protected by the agency for more than 120 years. Despite her rhetoric and lies, Rollins is not clear-cutting the U.S. Forest Service for the good of the American people. The effort is for commercial purposes. To rob Americans of our sacred public lands to the benefit of the extraction industry, from miners to drillers to loggers. And, because it's the Trump Administration naturally, they are doing so unlawfully, the way they do pretty much everything.

We're joined today for a deep dive on all of this by award-winning filmmaker and conservationist JIM PATTIZ of MoreThanJustParks.com. He helped touch off a proverbial five-alarm fire about all of this with his blazing-hot, razor-sharp descriptive demolition of what the Administration is actually hiding under their March 31 announcement that the USDA is moving the Forest Service Headquarters from D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah, while shuttering dozens of critical research centers around the country in the bargain.

Don't be fooled, Pattiz explains. This is not meant as "a sweeping restructuring of the agency to move leadership closer to the forests and communities it serves," as the USDA claimed in its press release. It is not "a structural reset and a common-sense approach to improve mission delivery." It is, as Pattiz detailed at Hatch Magazine last week, a scheme to relocate the beloved agency to a state which is currently suing the federal government to take over some 18.5 million acres of public lands, "that wants to own them, stripped of its science, stripped of its regional expertise, stripped of its institutional independence, and reorganized into a structure purpose-built for political compliance."

"This is a coordinated demolition of federal land stewardship in America," he warns. "The Forest Service was the last major federal land agency that still had the institutional muscle to resist. It had the scientists. It had the regional foresters. It had the culture, imperfect as it was, that still believed forests belonged to the public. After today, that agency no longer exists."

The USDA and White House itself have come out with both barrels against Pattiz and his fellow public lands supporters, particularly after he demonstrated this week in his newsletter how relocating the Forest Service headquarters from D.C. is in strict violation of federal laws adopted by both parties in Congress regarding fiscal year 2026!

"The White House called it 'lies from these losers," Pattiz tells me. But it is anything but. Pattiz has the receipts. In fact, he also has the goods regarding how it was Trump officials themselves who lied about their intentions to do exactly what they are now doing during their confirmation hearings in the Senate.

"This will affect somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 employees," says Pattiz, "of a work force that's already lost a fourth of the Forest Service workforce since Trump started his second term --- a critical agency that does most of the wildland firefighting in the United States --- a fourth of that agency gone. And now you're talking about an additional potentially 5,000 employees."

It's hardly just fire fighters. Scientists will be lost as well, along with decades of institutional knowledge with the move to Utah and the shuddering of regional research offices around the country, to be consolidated into one office in Colorado. Knowledge, research and decades-old, ongoing experiments will be lost that can't necessarily simply be restarted the next time a Democrat returns to power. "When you shutter 57 research stations, that is absolutely a 'kill shot' to our research program, which is the envy of the world," says Pattiz. "It's a kill shot."

And it's all being spearheaded by longtime enemies of public lands, such as Utah's Republican Sen. Mike Lee and a new Forest Service Director who was previously a logging executive --- the first time in the agency's 122-year history that its Director was not selected from among those already serving within it. In response to the new chief, Tom Schultz, citing Teddy Roosevelt, renowned defender of public lands, and Gifford Pinchot, who created what would become the Service, in the USDA's announcement about the move to Utah and the gutting of the Service, Pattiz was incensed.

"It makes my blood boil," he tells me today. "It is the antithesis of what the Forest Service is all about. Theodore Roosevelt made a career out of opposing people like Tom Schultz. It's just absurd to hear this logging executive who has inexplicably been installed as the Forest Service chief using the names of Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt, because what they are doing is the anathema of Roosevelt and his legacy."

But it's not over yet. Lawsuits, Pattiz says, are soon to be filed. In the meantime, "the biggest thing people can do is write and call your representatives and senators, and tell them to stick up for the laws that they wrote." The very laws that were adopted on a bipartisan basis, signed by this President, requiring approval from Congress before a massive restructuring (and destruction) of this sort can begin at all. "Contact your representatives. Tell them to hold this Dept. of Agriculture accountable."

There is a lot more from Pattiz, who is really good at explaining all of this, on today's show. You'll be glad you tuned in for it!...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...