This week in Dubai, the U.N.’s Climate Secretary declared “the beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era. Also this week, in a D.C. federal courtroom, Rudy Giuliani’s attorney warned a jury that awarding a penalty of tens of millions of dollars against his client “would be the end of Mr. Giuliani”. Both sound good to us on today’s BradCast.
Among our many stories covered today…
- The last minute, final agreement between 200 world nations at the COP28 U.N. climate conference hosted by the United Arab Emirates this week, calls for a “transition” away from fossil fuels. It wasn’t the call for either a “phase out” or even “phase down” that many had sought. But it was a first. Including the first time in 28 years of such annual conferences that the words “fossil fuels” even appeared in the final unanimous joint statement issued by the parties. What does it all mean? It’s both good and bad. We delve into some of the details with Desi Doyen today.
- As the world was working toward moving beyond deadly fossil fuels, the disgraced, twice-impeached Donald Trump was campaigning in Iowa by lying to his supporters that gas now costs as much as $8/gallon, only cost $1.87 when he was President (during the pandemic in which nobody traveled and he helped nearly a million Americans die — though he didn’t mention any of that) and vowing to renege on the U.S. pledge at COP28 to give $3 billion to the joint “Green Climate Fund” to help poorer countries leapfrog fossil fuels and transition straight to clean, renewable energy. He even vowed that he would claw it back if he was elected next year.
- As to Donald Trump‘s legal woes, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is now moving at “lightning speed” [PDF] to hear (and almost certainly reject) the twice-impeached former President’s appeal on “absolute immunity” from the rule of law, in which he claims that he had the right to break any law he wanted while serving as President of the United States. On Wednesday, in a separate case related to defamation claims by writer E. Jean Carrol (who a court previously found Trump liable for sexually abusing), the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected [PDF] a similar immunity claim. In yet another courtroom in Manhattan this week, testimony ended in Trump’s New York State fraud trial, in which he and his companies and his two eldest sons have already been found guilty. The only question is on the penalties they will face. They are likely to be substantial, to say the least. The judge’s ruling will likely come early in the new year.
- In a different D.C. courtroom, Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman testified on Wednesday in the defamation damages trial against one of Trump’s sleazebag attorneys, Rudy Giuliani who, along with Trump, repeatedly lied about her and her daughter Shay Moss committing fraud while serving as election workers in Fulton County, Georgia in 2000 in the middle of a pandemic. Both Freeman and Moss were viciously targeted by Trump’s supporters after the lies were told about them, and Freeman offered heartbreaking and harrowing testimony on Wednesday about the horrific threats she received from Trump’s supporters and how their lives were turned upside-down in the bargain. Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Sibley, didn’t even try to cross-examine Freeman. And, in his closing statement, reportedly agreed that the disgraced former NYC Mayor’s behavior was appalling. His appeal to the jury was that Rudy is old, and they should try to remember that, decades ago following the 9/11 attacks, Giuliani wasn’t as appalling. The jury may be more likely to remember last Monday, after the first day of trial this week, when Rudy repeated his pathetic false claims about the two women in front of cameras on the courthouse steps.
Just like Trump on Monday in his NY fraud trial, after vowing to take the stand, Rudy didn’t. Both cowards and liars.
The U.S. District Court Judge overseeing the federal case has already determined Giuliani defamed the two women. The only question is how much Freeman and Moss will be awarded by a jury for their pain and suffering (they are seeking as much as $43 million) and for additional punitive damages. If it will “be the end of Mr. Giuliani,” as his attorney warned, it won’t come soon enough. But it’s unlikely to be the end. He still faces criminal charges [PDF] in GA for attempting to steal the 2020 election there; billion dollar defamation lawsuits from Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems; and a grotesque sexual assault suit by his longtime personal assistant, among other legal woes.
- A listener in Amsterdam writes in this week to correct us on a small, but important, error we offered this week regarding last month’s shocking electoral victory in The Netherlands‘ parliament for the far-right political party of anti-immigrant extremist Geert Wilders.
- And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us again for our latest Green News Report with a wrap-up of COP28 in Dubai, and some very troubling news in the Arctic…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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