'BradCast' 1/8/2018: (Never mind 'Fire and Fury', What About Record Fires and Hurricanes?)
Today, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that 2017 was the costliest year for weather and climate disasters in U.S. history -- a record-shattering $306 billion from devastating hurricanes, droughts, fires, floods, freezes and more last year, as our climate crisis continues to worsen. But the corporate media remains distracted by the salacious fall-out from Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury' book and whether Oprah Winfrey will run for President in 2020 following her rousing speech at the Golden Globes last night. We focus on stuff that matters to voters in 2018, in addition to our climate-related nightmares:\xa0\xa0 the Trump Administration gutted regulations protecting the elderly in nursing homes and under-staffed federal agencies that enforce safety regulations for American workers and chemical safety. Callers weigh in on all of the above, plus their own under-reported stories, including a shortage of drugs in the U.S. mainland (due to the closure of drug manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico, still reeling from the disaster of Hurricane Maria more than 100 days ago), and some humdinger calls from rightwing conspiracy theorists.