Month: July 2025

50% Tariffs Slapped on Brazil To Force Lula To Drop Charges Against Trump’s Fellow Fascist Bolsonaro

We begin with Trump’s tariff war against Brazil with a deadline of August 1 for President Lula to surrender or face the bullying of a 50% tariff unless he drops charges against Trump’s fellow fascist Bolsonaro who, like Trump, lost an election and instigated a coup attempt to stay in power. Joining us to assess whether Trump is motivated by a fear that the US might eventually follow Brazil’s example of putting a presidential insurrectionist on trial is Melinda St. Louis, the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. Since working alongside labor unions and farmer organizations in Nicaragua fighting for fair trade policies more than two decades ago, she has developed deep expertise in trade and globalization issues and provides expert analysis of technical trade agreement provisions and implications for domestic policymaking to Congress and high-level government officials, the press, and civil society partners in the U.S. and around the globe. She has an article at Common Dreams, “Trump’s Bizarre, Authoritarian, Big, Tech-Friendly Tariffs on Brazil.”

Time To Rename the Environmental Protection Agency the Environmental Destruction Agency

Then we look into the need to rename the Environmental Protection Agency as Trump’s Environmental Destruction Agency following Tuesday’s announcement by the EPA administrator that they plan to kill efforts to deal with climate change by eliminating the scientific consensus that underpins the government’s legal authority to address global warming. Joining us is Michael Gerrard, a Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School where he teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation, and is director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He has written or edited thirteen books, including Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, the leading work in its field, and the 12-volume Environmental Law Practice Guide. His latest book is Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States.

In Spite of Trump’s Bullying, the Fed Chair Holds Steady on Interest Rates

Then finally, with the Fed holding firm on interest rates in spite of Trump’s bullying of Chairman Powell to lower interest rates we speak with Dean Baker, senior economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive economic think-tank based in Washington DC. He is the author of Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer, and writes the popular economics blog, “Beat the Press” where his latest article is “When It Comes to Tariffs and Trade, Trump Is Not Playing with a Full Deck” and “Trump’s Craziness on the Fed.”