We were forced to take a last-minute swerve once again for today's BradCast. Happily, for a change, it was for good cause this time. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

ICE Barbie, sometimes known as Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, was fired by Donald Trump today. The precise reasons are unknown. There are many potential culprits, from giving a huge, no-bid, $143 million DHS contract to her friends (to create DHS publicity videos starring herself); to her alleged long-term sexual tryst with her top "Special Government Employee", former Trump Campaign chair and alleged sexual harasser Corey Lewandowski; to her lack of oversight of out-of-control federal agencies such as ICE and CBP; to the Minneapolis murders by federal immigration thugs of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on her watch in January, after which she falsely described the two American citizens as "domestic terrorists" and has refused to apologize ever since.

Of course, pretty much all of those things would seem to win her favor with Trump. So, what exactly happened here? Still unclear. Of course, rather than fire her from the federal government outright, our FIFA Peace Prize winning President just made up a new, ridiculous sounding, pretend position for her to have (and you to pay for), called "Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas".

All of this comes after two days of Noem's testimony in brutal hearings in both the U.S. House and Senate, including angry questioning even from a few Republicans on the Committees, if you can believe it. We cover all of that, and some of the sharpest Committee exchanges today, along with a preview of what we might expect from Trump's appointment of Oklahoma's yahoo, former MMA fighter Senator Markwayne Mullin to fill the role of DHS chief, heading up the government's third largest Cabinet department with a budget well in excess of $100 billion. It should all go very well!

With another trenchant reminder of just how horrible Noem's reign of terror and error has been at DHS, we share a story today from former Republican attorney Keith Barber at Daily Kos. He breaks down a stunning ruling this week from a Trump-appointed federal judge who cites the "abhorrent and illegal practices" --- not to mention "laws of human decency [that] condemn such villainy" --- of the Trump Regime, in the case of a legal resident who came here from Honduras 15 years ago when he was just 9 years old. He was granted protected status and has been a model resident ever since. We share the harrowing story of his unlawful arrest by ICE, as told by Barber and the judge, and the judge's blistering ruling [PDF] in Hesler Asaf Garcia Lanza v. Kristi Noem in which the judge highlights the Administration's "trampling our system of laws...which has safeguarded this nation for close to 250 years."

THEN... In some of today's 2026 Midterm Election news that we didn't sideline for the breaking Noem news, Montana's sleazy, two-term, Republican Sen. Steve Daines --- at precisely 3 minutes before the legal deadline --- filed papers to withdraw from his reelection bid this year. He had only just filed for reelection at the end of February.

Making it all the more sleazy, Montana's Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme filed his papers to run for the seat just five minutes before Daines filed his own to drop out. Both Daines and Trump almost immediately endorsed Alme thereafter. Go figure.

We discuss what all of that means, and who, other than Alme and the Republican Party, may benefit from Daine's chicanery on today's program.

FINALLY... We're joined by Desi Doyen for our latest Green News Report, as Trump's expanding War on Iran continues to roil world markets and disrupt global energy supply chains, even as renewable energy may ultimately --- and ironically --- turn out to be the winner in all of this idiocy...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Global economic fallout and supply chain disruption spread from Trump's war on Iran; A win for New York City is another loss for Donald Trump; PLUS: U.S. saw a massive battery boom last year... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): How would the Iran crisis play out in a world powered by renewables not fossil fuels?; Can’t find Strait of Hormuz on a map? Here’s Mideast Oil 101; We’ve drastically underestimated sea levels, putting millions at risk, study warns; Trump's high-profile oil and gas lease sale in Alaska has no takers; bill Gars-backed nuclear power plant just got cleared to start building ... PLUS: The most imperilied terrestrial ecosystem on the planet ... and much, MUCH more! ...

To be clear, as we discuss briefly at both the top and bottom of today's BradCast, there have been virtually NO election years in all of American history in which the nation wasn't engaged in some sort of war or foreign conflict. So, for those who see Donald Trump's latest attack on Iran as some sort of scheme to try and undercut midterm elections this year, well, it ain't gonna work, it never has, and though he may try anything, don't be scared by his nonsense. That's what he wants you to be. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

To that end today, we cover both Tuesday's first primary elections of the critical 2026 Midterms and the growing debacle of Trump's deadly, ongoing misadventure in Iran, which has quickly devolved into a broad regional conflict.

FIRST UP... We covered many of the top-line (and some of the not so top-line) unofficial results out of Tuesday's primaries in three states today. Tune in for all of it. But, among the most noteworthy results detailed on today's program...

No real surprises in Arkansas' primaries Tuesday, though there was yet another Special Election triumph for Democrats there yesterday, with another "blue" to "red" flip in the state House, as the Democratic candidate won by some 60 points!

In North Carolina, Dems got the U.S. Senate candidate they were looking for in popular former Governor Roy Cooper, who is now set to square off against Trump-endorsed, election denying former RNC Chair Michael Whatley. Neither primary was particularly competitive on Tuesday, though some 200,000 more voters turned out for the D contest than for the R race. Make of that what you will. The November election will be to fill the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, in what is perhaps this year's best opportunity for Dems to flip a Republican Senate seat.

After some late Primary Night chicanery by Texas' sleazeball Attorney General (and Republican U.S. Senate candidate) Ken Paxton in Dallas County, it appears the Democratic Party got much of what they wanted out of yesterday's contests for the U.S. Senate. Popular Democratic state Rep. James Talarico defeated progressive firebrand Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett by just a few points. But it was enough to win the Dem Senate nomination outright without heading to a runoff. Crockett gracefully conceded and called for party unity on Wednesday.

On the other side, four-term senior Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn has been forced into a weeks long, very expensive, and likely brutally ugly runoff with Trump's wildly corrupt pal Paxton for this year's Republican nomination. Dems couldn't ask for anything more out of the Lone Star race at the moment. Runoff day is May 26. You'll need plenty of popcorn between now and then.

There is quite a bit more that we cover on this beat on today's program, from a number of interesting U.S. House primaries and the ousting of three GOP-friendly state House members by three progressive candidates in NC, to a fascinating contest between two very MAGA candidates in the same state, including a very powerful one endorsed by Trump, in a race where the current margin stands at just two votes!

Please tune on in!...

THEN... Back to the War in Iran, which continues to spread throughout the Gulf region and beyond, as it becomes clearer by the day that the Trump Administration had no clear objectives when launching the war, and even less of a clue how to get out of it, at this point.

We're joined to discuss a whole bunch of related matters by Professor JUAN COLE, longtime historian, author and Middle East expert at the University of Michigan. He is also founder and chief editor of the indispensable, long-running Informed Comment blog.

I've got a ton of questions for Professor Cole today. Among them, we discuss...

• How what Trump likes to describe as our 47-year history with Iran (going only back to the Islamic Revolution of 1979), actually goes back much further than that and yes, as Cole explains, "It's all about oil, my friend."

• Who is left to succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following his assassination on day one of the latest assault by the U.S. and Israel? And is restoring the deposed Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, any kind of real possibility (much less a good idea)?

• Isn't the targeting of civilian leaders both wildly illegal under international law and a horrible idea for a whole bunch of other reasons? ("You never want to take out the leadership that you're going to be negotiating with," notes Cole, observing that even Vladimir Putin seems to understand that much.)

• Cole has argued at Informed Comment that this war "is likely to be short", since neither the U.S. nor Israel have enough weaponry to carry out this type of combat for very long. In another piece today, he notes that Iran claims to have some 80,000 inexpensive weaponized drones that they are using in a "Techno-Guerilla War". They are to produce new ones at the rate of about 400 per day. They cost about $30,000 a piece, whereas the missiles needed to intercept them cost about $1.5 million per. The math is both unsustainable and the strategy unlikely to succeed, he tells me.

• And then there is "the reason that the U.S. has never waged an all-out war on Iran" before this week. It's because "the Persian Gulf region is the cockpit of the world economy" with 20% of the globe's oil and liquefied natural gas resources. Production has now all but halted in the region and, Cole warns, "if this thing actually managed to go on for any length of time, you're talking about a world recession."

Hopefully, that's enough to whet your appetite. But, if not, tune in for the good Professor's thoughts on what he sees as the real potential irony of this fine mess, and how it could end up boosting not just the fortunes of China, but electric vehicles and renewable energy, which Trump "hates like the Devil hates holy water"...

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Amid life in war time, we are forced to jam several hours worth of news into today's tightly-packed, 57-minute BradCast. Join us, won't you? [Audio link to full show follows this link.]

FIRST UP... Donald Trump's ridiculously ill-considered War on Iran is already a disaster in myriad ways. It has already directly impacted at least 11 additional nations beyond Iran in the Gulf and even into Europe. It is already spiking the global price of oil and natural gas and roiling markets. Trump has no idea who will replace 86-year old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the first day of the new war apparently along with a whole bunch of potential successors. Trump concedes the next leader may be "as bad" as the last one. While the State Dept. warned Americans on Monday (three days after bombing began!) in more than 15 countries to evacuate immediately, airspace is closed, the U.S. is providing Americans no way to get out, embassy staffs have been cut to the bone, many have no Senate-confirmed Ambassador, leaving thousands of Americans stranded. Trump's war is already wildly unpopular among Americans, but even MAGA leaders appear to be turning against it (and maybe him). And the entire campaign now seems almost certain to end in disaster for Iranians and potentially Americans in various ways.

NEXT... The best way to move beyond the nightmare that the U.S. and world have been thrust into under Trump still remains at the ballot box, where it was Election Day today in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas, and where voters are participating in the first statewide primaries of the critical 2026 midterm elections. (Noteworthy results on tomorrow's program.) Beyond that, the Gerrymandering Wars sparked by Trump and Republicans in Texas last year are continuing in the courts this week. Good news out of Virginia, where a state court ruled Monday that the Democratic state Legislature's Special Election set for April 21 for voters to decide if they want to draw a new U.S. House map will go forward, even as GOP challenges to the process continue. The new maps, if adopted, may flip four seats from "red" to "blue" this November. (Early voting in that VA Special Election starts Friday.) But very bad and foreboding news from the wildly corrupt U.S. Supreme Court majority on Monday. They reached into an ongoing court process in the state of New York to block a trial court order that would redraw a U.S. House District in NYC due to the dilution of Black and Hispanic voters on Staten Island and a part of Brooklyn. The case hasn't even reached the state Supreme Court in NY and yet SCOTUS has already stepped in to block it, in violation of their own precedents. This is bad news for several reasons beyond NY, as discussed on today's show.

FINALLY.... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, kicking off our 17th Anniversary celebration of the world's longest-running (and best!) radio report connecting the climate change dots over your public airwaves! Even with Donald Trump doing his best to undermine humanity and the world, we've still got some very hopeful news to hang our green hats on today! Please tune in! (And please feel free to help us as we head into our 18th year with a much-needed donation! We remain 100% listener supported, thanks only to YOU!)

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Global oil and natural gas prices surge after Donald Trump launches new war in the Middle East; War may boost renewables as an energy security solution; PLUS: Despite the Trump Administration's best efforts, the U.S. generated a record amount of renewable electricity last year... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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Okay. It's not called "Operation Epstein Fury". It's called "Operation Epic Fury". But who's kidding who here? Here we ago again. Today on The BradCast, another unlawful foreign regime change war by the U.S. is now underway in the Middle East. In this case, launched by a President who ran for office, lying over and over again that he was against such wars. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

As usual, tune in for much much more. But, among the many points made and news shared today before we get to callers ringing in on Donald Trump's new war on Iran in the second half the show...

• Yes, J.D. Vance really wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in 2023 headlined: "Trump's Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars" with the sub-hed: "He has my support in 2024 because I know he won't recklessly send Americans to fight overseas."

• Yes, Stephen Miller actually tweeted just 4 days before the November 2024 President election: "To anyone still gullible enough to fall for scummy media hoaxes: Trump said warmongering neocons love sending your kids to die for wars they would never fight themselves. Liz Cheney is Kamala’s top advisor. Liz wants to invade the whole Middle East. Kamala = WWIII. Trump = Peace."

• Yes, Donald Trump really did spend years decrying "stupid" U.S. Presidents who spent "$8 trillion" on wars in the Middle East instead of building roads and bridges and schools and hospitals in the U.S. He really did say, over and over, in 2011 that "in order to get elected @BarackObama will start a war with Iran". He really did say in 2012 that Obama would "attack Iran in order to get re-elected," and "Now that Obama's Poll numbers are in a tailspin, watch him start a war with Iran. He's desperate." That Obama would have to do so to "save face", and Trump really did declare in 2013: "Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly --- not skilled!" [Emphasis added.]

• For the record, Barack Obama never did attack Iran. But he did negotiate a deal with Iran and other major countries to successfully prevent Iran from being able to obtain a nuclear weapon, an agreement that Trump unlawfully violated and ripped up after taking office. He's been begging Iran to strike a new deal ever since. But now his polls are in a tailspin. He is trying to save face, and, because of his inability to negotiate properly, he is (unlawfully and without Constitutional or Congressional authorization) choosing to spend billions on another foreign interventionist war instead of fixing roads and bridges and hospitals and schools in the U.S.

• In fact, Trump is apparently now bombing schools and hospitals in Iran, killing nearly two hundred school girls on the first weekend of his latest misadventure, as six U.S. service members have so far been announced killed and three of our F-15s have been shot out of the sky over Kuwait, with the crews, thankfully, ejecting safely.

• So far, 555 Iranians have reportedly been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. At least 11 people have been killed in Israel.

• The Supreme Leader of Iran, 86-year old Ayatollah Ali Khamanei has been killed. But the attack on Khamanei was "so successful," according to Trump, that, apparently, so were the preferred choices of the U.S. to replace him. So, now what?

• Why does Trump say he bombed Iran? Well, he seems to be making up new reasons every few hours since ordering the first bombs on Saturday morning along with Israel. To prevent an imminent attack on the U.S. by Iran? Well, that can't be. Nobody believes they have the intercontinental missiles to do that. So, he's already in violation of both U.S. and international law. To prevent them from restarting the nuclear program he claimed to have "completely obliterated" when he previously attacked Iran just eight months ago? To stop terror attacks by Iran-funded militias in the Middle East? We discuss all of the above. But he certainly didn't bomb Iran to distract media attention from his dreadful and getting-dreadful-er approval ratings as the midterm primaries are now under way, right? Certainly not as a distraction from the fact that his DOJ has been caught red-handed unlawfully covering up the release of very serious allegations by a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein that she was also raped by Trump when she was just 13-years old, right?

• As you can tell, we've got a lot to discuss today. And a lot of callers in the second half of the show who want to join in on the conversation. I hope you'll tune in...

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We're getting caught up on today's BradCast with a whole bunch of stuff, from the dark Trump secrets still buried in unreleased Epstein Files, to his lies, illegal actions and terrible advice about the economy, to another loss for Republicans in the Gerrymandering Wars and some actual election fraud finally discovered in Georgia! (And you'll never guess whodunnit!) [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Happily, the corporate mainstream media finally seems to be fully on board the disturbing, still-unexplained, and unlawful absence of critical documents from the Epstein Files released to date by the Dept. of Justice as per the Epstein Files Transparency Act. In addition to the absence of multiple 2019 FBI interviews with a woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was just 13-years old, additional revelations are coming to light. CNN, for instance, confirmed those three missing interviews and contemporaneous FBI interview notes this week, and found that at least another 90 interviews with other survivors are also apparently missing, for unexplained reasons, from the DOJ's website.

But, with the major outlets seemingly digging in, we've got a bit more time today to get caught up on some other stuff, regarding some economic matters, some SCOTUS issues, and some election news. Among those stories...

• Fallout from last week's 6 to 3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling determining that Trump's chaotic, worldwide taxes on imports to the U.S., as issued under the supposed authority of the U.S. International Emergency Economic Powers Act (or, IEEPA), are both unlawful and unconstitutional. As it turns out, those illegal tariffs have also been very expensive for American consumers who paid for about 90% of them according to studies issued this month from both the Federal Reserve and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That, despite Trump's repeatedly lie (as echoed again during his State of the Union Address this week), that "the tariffs [are] paid for by foreign countries." Both the Fed and Congress disagree.

• But, don't be fooled by SCOTUS' ruling last Friday, even if it came in opposition to the President for a happy change. In fact, the challenge to Trump's tariffs was a case brought by the far-right architect of today's corrupted Supreme Court, and it took almost half a year longer to be handed down by the corrupted Court than necessary. No, SCOTUS has not "joined the No Kings Movement", as MS NOW's Stephanie Ruhle ridiculously declared after the ruling was handed down.

• For the record, the "economic emergency" that Trump disingenuously declared as his pretext to enact the levies was supposedly based on a global trade deficit that the U.S. has with many countries of the world. As it turns out, that deficit grew larger under Trump's tariffs last year, according to Trump's own Commerce Dept. data.

• Not to worry, however, everyone is going to be rich once the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act kicks in for this year's tax season, right? Um, so far...based on IRS data to date, not so much, as average refunds in the first part of the filing season have been some 42% lower than the Administration has long been promising they would be.

• But, hey, there are a lot of MAGA suckers out there, I guess. And we should have expected no less from the guy whose failing media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (which trades as DJT on the stock exchange) has seen its value plummet faster than his approval ratings. This week, shares in his loser company, which once sold for $100 --- and cost a bunch of MAGA folks their life savings --- closed for the first time on Monday in the single digits! The company, which has lost hundreds of millions of dollars every year since it went public in 2022, clawed its way back above $10/share in recent days. It seems unlikely to stay there.

• In election and voting news, Team Red continue to struggle in their Gerrymandering Wars in advance of the critical midterm elections, as both the Utah state Supreme Court (on Friday) and a three-judge federal panel (on Monday), rejected state Republicans' attempts to override a 2018 ballot initiative in which voters chose to require U.S. House district maps in the otherwise very Republican state to be drawn fairly, with neutral rules, by an independent redistricting commission. The GOP state Legislature has been trying to lock in their unlawful map, drawn to create four safe Republican Congressional Districts. But, after the recent rulings, we appear now to be at the end of their four-year battle to block a new map that will offer three Republican leaning Districts and one safely Democratic seat in Salt Lake County.

• Down in Georgia, where Trump has been falsely claiming massive voter fraud since he lost the 2020 election there, the MAGA majority on the State Election Board has, in fact, finally discovered some election fraud! And it was apparently committed by one of Elon Musk's super PACs in both 2020 and 2024.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report today, with a bunch of energy related lies from Trump's SOTU this week; Big Oil's appeal to SCOTUS to help them quash climate liability lawsuits; Trump's Interior Dept. quashing bedrock conservation rules for public lands; and a new suit filed by young Americans to challenge the Trump EPA's recent gutting of 20 years of climate change-related regulations...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump lies his way through another State of the Union address; U.S. Supreme Court to hear Big Oil's bid to squash climate liability lawsuits; Young Americans sue over Trump EPA repeal of the Endangerment Finding; PLUS: Trump Interior Department guts bedrock conservation law, affecting public lands everywhere... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Data Center Developers Asked Trump For An Exemption From Pollution Rules; What’s So Bad About Stevan Pearce, Trump’s Pick to Run the BLM? For Starters, His Public-Land Track Record; A tough Supreme Court hearing brings little clarity on Line 5 pipeline’s fate; Deadly Bird Flu Found In California Elephant Seals For The First Time; Feds Give $26.5 Billion Loan For Electric Expansion In Georgia And Alabama ... PLUS: Electric buses are passing a brutal cold-weather test in Wisconsin ... and much, MUCH more! ...

As insane as it was, as you may have guessed, we're talking about Tuesday's night State of the Union Address on today's BradCast. But I can say with confidence that today's show is nowhere near as long or insane or angry or boring as that crazy speech last night! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

As you also may have guessed, we are joined today by our go-to roundtable of progressive old-school bloggers, award-winning Salon columnist and Hullabaloo blogger HEATHER DIGBY PARTON, and co-host of The Professional Left Podcast, the one and only 'DRIFTGLASS'. They are with us for the full hour.

I'm not sure how much I need to tee things up for today's program, especially if you saw what happened last night. If you didn't, we'll give you a good summary at the top of the show, and you won't have to listen to more than a minute or two of Donald Trump's voice thereafter. (You're welcome).

It was, as explained, an angry, racist, ugly, hate-filled State of the Union Address that, at a record length, included astonishingly little of substance and even less that resembled truth or reality. By now, we've come to except no less from a 34-time convicted felon, adjudicate sex abuser and accused rapist of at least one 13-year old girl.

He called Somali Americans living in Minneapolis "pirates"; he called the Mayor of the nation's largest city a "Communist"; he repeatedly called Democrats "crazy" and "sick" and charged they, not he, were "destroying our country". But the most offensive point, at least to me, was likely when he described voting in America as a "privilege", as opposed to what it is: a right for every citizen and one that must be protected. From him.

As also noted, the most important news of Tuesday night may have been the fact that three more Democrats swept Special Elections for state Legislatures in Pennsylvania and Maine yesterday. In PA, in particularly, it was a route, with one candidate winning by 63 points, the other by 35 points. That amounted to two more huge over-performances by Dems, as compared to Kamala Harris' numbers in the same district in 2024. On Tuesday, the swing toward Democrats was by 34 and 17 points respectively, as this year's critical midterm elections are now just 250 days away, with primary voting already underway in several states.

So ddid Trump say anything of importance on Tuesday night? Does any of it really matter? Does the SOTU itself even matter at this point?

Digby doesn't seem to think so. It was "a reality show, a wrestling match, a game show," she argues. "Virtually everything he said was a lie. It was insane. The fact checkers looked like they'd been hit over the head by a 2-by-4."

"This was a spectacle," charges Driftglass. "But it was something out of Imperial Rome. Trump slowed down and reveled in all these gory images of blood and violence. This was ancient, ugly, awful, fascist stuff. This was blood and country and revenge."

Beyond that, we actually had quite a few laughs on today's program, even though we also had to wade through some pretty dark topics, including the news of Trump's DOJ attempting (though now failing?) to hide very serious allegations in the Epstein Files of Trump having raped and assaulted a 13-year old girl.

We also discuss the Democrats response to the speech in the chamber (which seemed to infuriate Trump as his marathon remarks went on...and on) and in Virginia, where, both Digby and Driftglass seem to agree, freshly minted Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivered a very well-considered response on behalf of the party.

"He's bad at fascism, bad at governing, but he's really good at chaos," quips Digby today, as we try to make sense of at least some of that chaos. Wish us luck, and tune in for much, much more...

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The SOTU begins shortly (we'll be covering tomorrow with Digby and Driftglass) so please forgive if my summary of today's BradCast is a bit shorter than usual. (Or, you're welcome!) [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... We've been spending much of the last week or so (see here and here) reporting on documents found missing from those released by the Dept. of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Specifically, we've focused on a series of documents detailing allegations by a woman who says that she was raped, physically assaulted and threatened by Donald Trump at Jeffrey Epstein's home in New York City when she was just 13-years old.

Independent investigative journalist Robert Sollenberger was the first to report on the missing documents regarding the disturbing and salacious charges, and that other documents that were included in the DOJ's latest tranche revealed that the woman's allegations were credible enough that she was interviewed by the FBI four different times in 2019.

Today, NPR confirms and furthers Sollenberger's reporting to detail that at least 53 pages of those interviews and FBI notes created along with them, are indeed missing from the DOJ's Epstein Files database online.

In turn, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a statement on the missing documents on Tuesday, noting that they have been "investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor."

Ranking Committee Member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) notes in the statement that, after having "reviewed unredacted evidence logs" at DOJ, he is able to "confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes."

The Congressman vows that "Oversight Democrats will open a parallel investigation" into what he went on to describe during a presser on Tuesday as "the single largest cover-up in modern American history."

THEN... As we noted briefly on yesterday's program, late last week, Trump's FCC Chair Brendan Carr issued what some are describing as a new veiled threat to the nation's broadcasters. In a statement published on Friday, citing Trump's year-long plans to celebrate America's 250th birthday in July, Carr announced the FCC's "Pledge America Campaign," instructing broadcasters to air patriotic, pro-America programming, and suggesting that they "voluntarily choose to indicate their commitment to the Pledge America Campaign."

Some longtime media and communications experts have expressed concern about the announcement. One of them is HAROLD FELD, attorney and Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge, a non-profit good government group. He joins us on today's show to share concerns on not only that, but a number of Carr's other recent threats, including those that resulted in CBS attorneys instructing Stephen Colbert not to air a Late Show interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. Colbert subsequently posted it only online instead.

"If somebody says, 'Nice business ya got here, be a shame if anything happens to it,' that lands differently if it's an insurance broker or a mobster," Feld tells me today, describing his reaction to Carr's "Pledge America Campaign" announcement. "Unfortunately, what we've been seeing is that this Administration falls into the mobster category, not the insurance broker category."

He suggests that Carr's request for "voluntary" pledges from broadcasters is "a potential trap". "If you don't sign, then it's 'Why do you hate America?' If you do sign [but] don't show the kind of 'celebration' that they are talking about, then it's going to be, 'Look at these guys, they said they were going to celebrate America but they hate America because they didn't show the right things, the things we want to see.'"

All of that comes, as Feld sees it, as a "real 'pay to play'" atmosphere from Trump's FCC, where they dangle approval or rejection of mergers and other things sought by broadcasters as bait or threats from what was statutorily designed decades ago to be an independent executive agency, separate from the White House itself and Presidential influence.

"Between these threats on the one hand, and these promises and gifts on the other hand to suspend federal law, to ignore anti-trust rules, this is a critically dangerous moment for our mass media and our First Amendment freedoms," Felt warns.

Tune in for much more insight on all of this from the very colorful Feld, who says he has known Carr --- and previously liked him --- for the past ten years or so. For an even deeper --- and really instructive --- dive, I would also recommend his latest piece at Public Knowledge headlined: "Equal Time, Unequal Enforcement: The Latest Move to Weaponize the FCC Against Trump Critics".

FINALLY... We're joined by Desi Doyen for our latest Green News Report, as an extreme climate-fueled winter storm batters the East Coast; extreme, climate-fueled dry weather threatens winter wildfires in Oklahoma; and as the Winter Olympics wrap up with athletes worried about the worsening effects of global warming on their sports...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extreme winter storm batters the U.S. Northeast; Extreme dryness fuels winter fire weather in Oklahoma; PLUS: Winter Olympic athletes call for climate action to save winter sports... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): America is becoming a petrostate; Supreme Court agrees to hear from oil and gas companies trying to block climate change lawsuits; Winter is Not What it Used to Be in the Upper Midwest; Environmental Protest Group Extinction Rebellion Says FBI Is Investigating It For Terrorism... PLUS: Climate Coalition Sue to Stop Trump EPA 'From Torching Our Kids' Future... and much, MUCH more! ...

Today on The BradCast: The cover-ups (plural) continue! It's good to be king. Amirite, Donald? [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our lively coverage today...

• After a week of climate change-fueled downpours in Southern California, it looks like it's the East Coast's turn, as a record climate-fueled blizzard all but shuts down the Northeast with as much as three feet of snow in some places. All of that, just over a week after Donald Trump gutted some 20 years of EPA rules meant to slow or mitigate our worsening climate crisis by regulating the release of man-made greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. But Trump says, "don't worry about it!", the public will now have more money to spend on health care in the bargain!

• Trump's FCC Chair Brendan Carr offers some tips on how broadcasters may avoid scrutiny by issuing a "pledge" to support this Administration's celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this Summer. We take his suggestion to play more Schoolhouse Rock! In today's case, the classic 1973 episode about the nation's founding, called "No More Kings!"

• In the federal courts, corrupt Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled on Monday in Florida that the tax-payer funded report by Special Counsel Jack Smith --- detailing the tax-payer funded probe of Donald Trump's theft of thousands of national security documents upon leaving office after his first term, resulting in his federal criminal indictment on the matter --- is barred from ever being released to the public. Not even by future Administrations, if her absurd, ahistorical ruling were to be upheld. Smith himself remains barred from ever discussing it in the bargain. Stick a pin in all of that for a moment, because...

• Across the pond, just days after the arrest of the former Prince Andrew, related to revelations about his relationship with pedophile and Trump's longtime best friend Jeffrey Epstein, yet another high-ranking official was arrested on Monday. Former UK Ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson is facing potential indictment on similar charges to the former Prince. All of it revealed by emails and other documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice under the mandates of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

• Meanwhile, back here, as we discussed on last Thursday's BradCast in somewhat salacious detail, investigative journalist Roger Sollenberger has uncovered evidence revealing that the DOJ has unlawfully failed to release records regarding as many as four FBI interviews with a woman who alleges that she was raped, physically abused, and threatened by Donald Trump when she was just 13-years old. Sollenberger has also noticed some curious oddities regarding the timing of the discovery of certain Epstein-related documents by the DOJ and the return to Trump of the documents he stole at the end of his first term. (Yes, after Jack Smith was forced to drop his indictments against Trump when he was elected again, the DOJ returned those stolen documents to him shortly after he was sworn in a second time!)

  Is it possible that documents related to these allegations of Trump having raped and assaulted a minor were among those stolen by Trump? Might that explain why Trump was seemingly willing to face jail time to protect those documents, rather than simply return them to the Government after being politely asked repeatedly and warned many times of the consequences of not doing so? And if, in fact, he was hoarding some Epstein-related documents in his Mar-a-Lago mansion to keep them from seeing the light of day, is it possible that Jack Smith, after obtaining those documents via search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, knows all about it, but is now permanently barred by the Trump-appointed lackey Judge Cannon from ever talking about it? And is all of that revealed in the final report of his investigation that Cannon has absurdly blocked from ever being released to the public?

• Tune in for much more, plus callers ringing in today on all of the above!...

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