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Latest Featured Reports | Thursday, October 10, 2024
Milton's Mess, FL's U.S. House Liars, Trump's Made-in-China Bibles: 'BradCast' 10/10/24
Also: OK's sleazy, shameful, MAGA Superintendent of Public Schools...
'Green News Report' 10/10/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
Hurricane Milton slices through Florida; FEMA grapples with Republican disinfo, funding shortages; PLUS: Biden EPA issues landmark rule to replace every lead pipe in America...
Previous GNRs: 10/8/24 - 10/3/24 - Archives...
Whistleblower Org Readies to Support Election Officials, Poll Workers: 'BradCast' 10/9/24
Guest: Dana Gold of GAP's 'Democracy Protection Initiative'; Also: States work to support voters after Helene; GOPers file suits before election to challenge it after...
'Becoming the Norm': Florida Braces for 'Devastating to Catastrophic' Milton: 'BradCast' 10/8/24
Guest: Meteorologist Guy Walton; Also: NC GOP lawmakers made Helene far worse...
'Green News Report' 10/8/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
Just after Hurricane Helene, Florida braces for powerful Hurricane Milton; Trump lies about federal response to Helene; PLUS: New study finds hurricanes have hidden death tolls...
Previous GNRs: 10/3/24 - 10/1/24 - Archives...
Sunday 'Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up' Toons
THIS WEEK: Shady J.D. ... Easy Decisions ... The X Factor ... Storm Warning ... And more! In our latest collection of the week's best toons!...
Time Running Out For
All the Trump Rackets: 'BradCast' 10/3/24
'Pro-choice' Melania wants $250k from CNN; $100k 'Trump Watch' invites influence peddlers; Damning new 1/6 details; MAGA county clerk gets 9 years for CO vote system tampering...
'Green News Report' 10/3/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
After another climate disaster, climate change finally front and center at VP Debate; PLUS: Ongoing climate disaster Helene, now second deadliest hurricane in modern U.S. history...
Previous GNRs: 10/1/24 - 9/26/24 - Archives...
Vance Sane-Washes Trump, Self in Polite, Lie-Filled VP Debate: 'BradCast' 10/2/24
Special coverage with Heather Digby Parton of Salon, 'Driftglass' of 'Pro Left Podcast'...
How You Can Help Protect Democracy This Year: 'BradCast' 10/1/24
Guest: Emily Levy of Scrutineers.org; Also: Iran/Israel escalation; Dockworkers strike shuts down ports; Search, recovery, climate denier lies, continue after Helene...
'Green News Report' 10/1/24
'GNR' Special Coverage: Climate change-fueled Hurricane Helene unleashes widespread death and destruction, as storm victims face daunting challenge of recovery...
The Predictable Horrors of Helene: 'BradCast' 9/30/24
Climate change strikes again, killing more than a hundred in 5 states, millions without power, concerns about their ability to vote; Also: Callers ring in before VP Debate...
Springfield Haitians Sue Trump, Vance, Musk, et al over Defamation, Death Threats
Add'l defendants include Trump, Jr., OH A.G. Yost, OH U.S. Sen. candidate Moreno, LA Rep. Higgins...
Sunday 'Protection Racket' Toons
THIS WEEK: Creepers, Cowards and Conmen! (And they're all the same guy!)... In our latest collection of the week's creepiest toons...
'Green News Report' 9/26/24
Helene guns for Florida; Global warming doubled odds of EU's catastrophic floods; PLUS: Biden promotes climate action, issues warning, at final U.N. address...
BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags'
Brad interviews American patriots...
'Democracy's Gold Standard'
Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
Brad's Upcoming Appearances
(All times listed as PACIFIC TIME unless noted)
Media Appearance Archives...
'Special Coverage' Archives
GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

DOJ PROBE SOUGHT AFTER VA ARREST
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...

Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
His Super-PAC, his voter registration (fraud) firm & their 'Americans for Prosperity' are all based out of same top RNC legal office in Virginia...

LATimes: RNC's 'Fired' Sproul Working for Repubs in 'as Many as 30 States'
So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...

'Fired' Sproul Group 'Cloned', Still Working for Republicans in At Least 10 States
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...

FINALLY: FOX ON GOP REG FRAUD SCANDAL
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...

COLORADO FOLLOWS FLORIDA WITH GOP CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Repub Sec. of State Gessler ignores expanding GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, rants about evidence-free 'Dem Voter Fraud' at Tea Party event...

CRIMINAL PROBE LAUNCHED INTO GOP VOTER REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL IN FL
FL Dept. of Law Enforcement confirms 'enough evidence to warrant full-blown investigation'; Election officials told fraudulent forms 'may become evidence in court'...

Brad Breaks PA Photo ID & GOP Registration Fraud Scandal News on Hartmann TV
Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

CAUGHT ON TAPE: COORDINATED NATIONWIDE GOP VOTER REG SCAM
The GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal reveals insidious nationwide registration scheme to keep Obama supporters from even registering to vote...

CRIMINAL ELECTION FRAUD COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST GOP 'FRAUD' FIRM
Scandal spreads to 11 FL counties, other states; RNC, Romney try to contain damage, split from GOP operative...

RICK SCOTT GETS ROLLED IN GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...

VIDEO: Brad Breaks GOP Reg Fraud Scandal on Hartmann TV
Breaking coverage as the RNC fires their Romney-tied voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting...

RNC FIRES NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM FOR FRAUD
After FL & NC GOP fire Romney-tied group, RNC does same; Dead people found reg'd as new voters; RNC paid firm over $3m over 2 months in 5 battleground states...

EXCLUSIVE: Intvw w/ FL Official Who First Discovered GOP Reg Fraud
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...

GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD FOUND IN FL
State GOP fires Romney-tied registration firm after fraudulent forms found in Palm Beach; Firm hired 'at request of RNC' in FL, NC, VA, NV & CO...
The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...


Also: OK's sleazy, shameful, MAGA Superintendent of Public Schools...
By Brad Friedman on 10/10/2024 6:36pm PT  

When it rains, it pours on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among the muck we wade through today...

  • Hurricane Milton walloped much of central Florida after coming ashore as a Cat 3 om Wednesday night, just south of a worst-case-scenario direct hit on Tampa Bay. But, as we've learned since covering Hurricane Katrina way back in 2005, it's best never to say "they dodged a bullet" too early.
  • Just in case your favorite media outlets featuring wall-to-wall wind-whipped reporters foolishly risking their lives by standing outside in multi-colored rain slickers to fulfill your disaster porn needs forgot to tell you that man-made climate change exacerbated Milton's awesome destructive power and signals an even grimmer future for us all, Desi Doyen has you covered today.
  • While Donald Trump has been lying to you about FEMA and the Biden-Harris Administration's response to both Hurricane Milton this week and Hurricane Helene last --- and putting his own brain-poisoned supporters at grave risk in the bargain --- three points worth noting today: 1) Everything out of Trump's mouth on these subjects is a lie. (But you knew that, right?) 2) All of the Republican Governors in all of the effected states have lauded the response from FEMA and Joe Biden. 3) Since they're all on the ballot this year, it's worth noting that a whole bunch of Republican Congressmembers from Florida voted against funding FEMA at all this year just DAYS before Helene made landfall, even as many of them are now demanding more money for FEMA. As you or someone you know may be voting in the Sunshine State soon, you should know the names of those hypocrites. They are: Reps. Aaron Bean, Gus Bilirakis, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, Matt Gaetz, Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, Bill Posey, Mike Waltz, and Daniel Webster.
  • As Donald Trump continues to line his pockets (his own, not his campaign's!) in a seemingly desperate, hopefully Going Out of Business sale --- Shitty golden sneakers! Cheap silver coins! Worthless NFTs! $100,000 diamond-encrusted watches! (They make a perfect off-the-books Christmas bribe from your favorite foreign autocrat!) --- his $59.99 Trump-endorsed, Lee Greenwood-branded "God Bless the USA" faux-leather bound bibles may be his sleaziest scheme yet. But that hasn't prevented Ryan Walters, the MAGA Superintendent of Public Schools in Oklahoma, from trying to force state tax-payers into buying 50,000 of them to place in every classroom, even while all but ignoring a year-old, already-funded state mandate to purchase emergency asthma inhalers for schools. (He'll get to it, okay? He's busy with the Trump Bible thing right now! Never mind that child who died at school for lack of one!) Oh, and as long as we're on the topic, AP did some digging this week to find that Trump's "God Bless the USA" bibles are actually "printed in a country that the former president has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices --- China." In reality, AP discovered, they actually cost less than $3 a piece to print. But, don't worry, while Bible experts say it's crap, you can still buy a version hand-signed (or so the website says?) by Trump himself for the low-low price of just $1,000 if you act now!
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us to help mop things up with our latest Green News Report on Milton's landfall, Republican disinfo on FEMA and its funding shortages, and President Biden's landmark rule that will now, officially, finally replace every toxic lead water in America! (Sure, but does he have overpriced, crappy, Chinese-made bibles to sell?)

All that before I close the show with an offer you can't refuse! God bless the USA!...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 10/10/2024 10:41am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Milton pummels Florida; FEMA grapples with Republican disinformation and funding shortages from back-to-back climate change-fueled disasters; PLUS: Biden EPA issues landmark rule to replace every lead water pipe in America... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

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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): Helene recovery: How to navigate FEMA, flood cleanup, disaster fraud, and more; Here’s what a shocking new number on wildlife declines really means; NC water repairs could take weeks; Helene spotlights differences between Harris and Trump on disaster relief; Earth's 'vital signs' show humanity's future in the balance, climate experts say; Fossil fuel interests take over hometown newspaper to kill solar in Ohio county... PLUS: Carbon removal is no solution if world overshoots warming target, scientists say... and much, MUCH more! ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Guest: Dana Gold, Dir. of the Govt Accountability Project's 'Democracy Protection Initiative'; Also: As Milton blows in, states work to support voters after Helene; GOPers file suits before election to challenge it after...
By Brad Friedman on 10/9/2024 5:58pm PT  

As we go to air on today's BradCast, we're girding for the monster Hurricane Milton's direct impact on Florida's central Gulf Coast over the next several hours, even as millions in that state and five others struggle to recover from devastation following Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago --- and as all of us prepare for November 5th and whatever may come thereafter. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

This week, amid Helene recovery in North Carolina, the state Board of Elections, in a unanimous, bipartisan vote, approved a list of emergency measures for voters in the state's hardest hit counties. Naturally, Trump Republicans on social media are already lying and spreading disinformation about those measures and, of course, Fox "News" is playing along. That said, with the Trump Campaign itself calling for measures to expand access for voters in Republican areas of the state following Helene, it seems like Team Trump is also preparing to have legal (and political) complaints ready to go after the election --- if they lose.

That strategy, however, is not new for them. Even before Helene, the RNC says they are involved in scores of lawsuits across dozens of states. Many of them have been filed by groups like the American First Legal Foundation, founded by far-right Trump adviser Stephen Miller. One such novel suit filed by the group seeks a ruling in Arizona that judges may toss out election results over "failures or irregularities" by local officials. America First Legal is currently seeking such a ruling, however, only in counties where Kamala Harris is believed to be narrowly ahead of Trump.

Similar efforts are also underway by Republicans in other battleground states such as Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, even if they don't think they will actually win the suits. The strategy, according to election law experts, appears to be to have these complaints in place before the election so they can be cited afterward, and used by election officials at the state and federal level to try and overturn results --- only in the event that Trump loses, of course.

At the same time, the Government Accountability Project, a longtime whistleblower support organization, founded in 1977 in the wake of Daniel Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers, has published a new guide meant to support election officials and poll workers who may have legitimate reason to blow the whistle this year, particularly in battle grounds states. The 37-page booklet [PDF], entitled "On the Front Lines of Democracy: A Guide to Speaking Up for Election Officials & Workers," offers specific legal advice for those may have seen something and want to say something about it, but don't know exactly how to do so while protecting themselves in the bargain.

We're joined today by DANA GOLD, GAP's Senior Director of Advocacy & Strategy and the Director of the group's Democracy Protection Initiative, which was formed in advance of the 2020 election, "in anticipation of a highly partisan environment" when they were "very concerned about foreign and insider threat of illegal election interference," she explains today.

"We didn't have a lot of whistleblowers, though," says Gold. "We had a fire extinguisher ready. But, as we know, the 2020 election ended up being actually quite secure, fair and free, and administered safely." That said, as we discuss today, "the threat landscape has changed in 2024."

Gold outlines a number of "primary threats to elections" as identified by research in "this very hyper-partisan environment." She says foreign interference remains a concern, but also "the risk of disinformation being spread widely, which can have the result of suppression, delay, eroding confidence in the election results. And potential insider threats. People who are essentially election deniers who believe that the 2020 election was stolen despite every piece of evidence showing that the election was free and fair."

"This is a really volatile environment and election officials and workers are on the front lines, and may be in the best position to see efforts to suppress the vote. They may see insider threats. There are opportunities for election officials and workers who may see problems, and feel very scared and not clear about how to raise that concern, especially if the threat is their supervisor, someone in a position of power."

Given my own long history of reporting on election whistleblowers over the past two decades --- usually related to voting systems and their vendors --- the question of how to determine who are legitimate whistleblowers in this atmosphere, and who are not (but may even think they are) is a rich topic of discussion. Also, given that heroic whistleblowers like Reality Winner --- a national security official who exposed the fact that Russian intelligence operatives had actually infiltrated voter registration systems in several states before the 2016 election --- ultimately received a five-year prison sentence for having done so, Gold grapples with how to best encourage whistleblowers to come forward, while still protecting their legal and civil rights.

"That's why this is really important for us, in terms of a strategy of trying to disseminate this guide, to make election officials and workers, and any employee, aware of their rights, and their risks and options."

"Document everything," she advises those who may believe they have witnessed an election-related violation of law. "Write it down contemporaneously. Make sure that's secure. Check for allies in their co-workers. Note witnesses. Date things. There are ways to shore up the verification piece, which will be critical to both insulate them and make a difference." She adds, of course (citing Mesa County, Colorado's former MAGA County Clerk, Tina Peters, who just received a nine year prison sentence for tampering with voting systems, even as she uncovered nothing!), "they should not break the law to do so."

"Whistleblowers are such an important piece of democracy itself," Gold asserts. "The information provided by a whistleblower fuels those mechanisms of accountability that are our representative democracy. Very important tools in our collective efforts to ensure free and fair elections." To that end, she tells me, the group provides "legal and strategic support and advocacy, so we can protect them, in this environment particularly."

There is much more of note in our fascinating and lively conversation today. Please tune in!...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Guest: Meteorologist Guy Walton; Also: Project 2025 to privatize FEMA; How NC GOP lawmakers made Helene much worse and more expensive...
By Brad Friedman on 10/8/2024 6:29pm PT  

Apparently, it's Disaster Month on The BradCast. And while they are, so far, nominally, "natural disasters", they are all made worse, more ferocious, more expensive and more deadly thanks to the global warming caused by the man-made burning of fossil fuels and the lawmakers who have, for decades, ignored and/or lied about both the science and the warnings. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Millions are (hopefully) fleeing Florida today as Category 5 Hurricane Milton bears down on its central Gulf Coast, with an "eye" toward landfall on Wednesday night in or near Tampa. A direct hit there could result in unspeakable damage. And it all comes just over a week since Hurricane Helene slammed the state before moving on to five others in the U.S. Southeast, leaving a trail of destruction and at least 230 dead in its wake.

The National Weather Service's warning about Milton today is terrifying, describing "potential impacts" of the storm surge, wind, and rainfall flooding as anywhere from "Devastating to Catastrophic" in several cities along the state's central West Coast. Yesterday, Tampa's Mayor Jane Castor was blunt when she warned residents: "If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die."

Like last week's Hurricane Helene, Milton experienced rapid intensification, spinning up from a Cat 1 to a Cat 5 in less than a day as it traversed record hot waters in the Gulf of Mexico, thanks to anthropogenic climate change. The monster system's sudden drop in pressure over the Gulf yesterday momentarily choked up NBC Miami's Chief Meteorologist, Jim Morales, as he described the " incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane," seemingly taking in what he was seeing, what it meant for millions in peril in the Sunshine State, and for everyone around the world who will now being seeing similar and worse in the years ahead. "I apologize. This is just horrific," he added as he composed himself.

We're joined today by "Climate Guy" GUY WALTON, a 30-year Weather Channel veteran who now tracks daily weather and climate extremes at his Guy on Climate website. He is also the author of "World of Thermo" children's book series on climate change.

"I think on top of this hurricane, [Morales] was thinking about hurricanes of the future, and how warm the water temperatures are getting around the planet. It's going to become the norm," Walton tells me. He predicts that the cost of a direct hit on the densely populated Tampa region --- which has not seen a direct landfall in more than 100 years --- could top historic storms such as 2005's Katrina. "It's going to be taking a path that could lead to being the most destructive hurricane, dollar-wise, in the US."

"Milton is going to bisect Florida in one of the most heavily populated areas, from Tampa to Orlando. We haven't seen a storm like this go right through Tampa since 1921. The destruction of this thing is going to be awful," warns Walton.

We discuss why rapid intensification of so many of these storms is now happening all over the world, and why it can be so dangerous. We discuss who's to blame for it. ("It's all our fault.") We discuss what Project 2025's threat to privatize the National Weather Service would mean to meteorologists like him, and how the one-two punch of Helene and Milton might affect this year's Presidential election.

"After Milton and Helene, which are both going to be attributed to being so bad because of global warming or climate change, I'm hoping that Democrats really pounce on the destruction and really point a finger at just about every Republican."

IN RELATED NEWS TODAY...

  • Why Project 2025's scheme to privatize FEMA and it's federal flood insurance program --- along with other agencies at DHS --- to "shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government" (page 135), is both insane and anti-American.
  • How years of Republican lawmakers in North Carolina over-riding vetoes of the state's Democratic Governor to massively weaken building codes on behalf of the construction industry --- amid increasing threats of a changing climate --- made Hurricane Helene far worse, far more expensive and more deadly for their own constituents than it needed to be.

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 10/8/2024 10:31am PT  


Follow @GreenNewsReport...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Just over a week since the last deadly storm, Florida braces for powerful Hurricane Milton; Donald Trump is lying about the federal response to Hurricane Helene for political gain; PLUS: New study finds hurricanes have hidden death tolls, many years later... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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

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GNR's now celebrating 15 YEARS of independent green news, politics, analysis, snarky comment and connecting climate change dots over your public airwaves!
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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): Hurricane Helene isn't an outlier. It's a harbinger of the future; Alaska utilities turn to renewables as costs escalate for fossil fuel electricity generation; Back-to-back hurricanes strain FEMA as its funds run low; In competitive purple districts, GOP House members paint themselves green; Greening of Antarctica is another sign of significant climate shift on the frozen continent... PLUS: The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth.... and much, MUCH more! ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Guest: Asheville, NC's Tom Sullivan rebuts rightwing lies about FEMA response; Also: Muslim leaders endorse Harris...
By Brad Friedman on 10/7/2024 6:46pm PT  

On today's BradCast: Too many hurricanes. It's almost as if there is some reason this is suddenly happening...even if Florida's U.S. Senator Rick Scott (up for re-election in four weeks, btw!) pretends as if doesn't have a clue. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our stories today...

  • With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, folks in more than half of the states are now voting, registration deadlines are closing, and a group of Muslim imams and faith leaders have written a letter of endorsement [PDF] for Kamala Harris, noting "she is a committed ceasefire candidate...and the best option for ending the bloodshed in Gaza and now Lebanon." They also argue: "Knowingly enabling someone like Donald Trump to return to office, whether by voting directly for him or for a third-party candidate, is both a moral and a strategic failure. Particularly in swing states, a vote for a third party could enable Trump to win that state and therefore the elections,” the clerics argue. They advise that "given [Trump’s] well-documented history of harming our communities and country, as well as what he has promised he will do to Muslims and Palestinians should he return, it is incumbent upon us not to allow our high emotions to dictate our actions to our detriment.”
  • Hurricane Milton spun up overnight from Category 1 to dangerous Category 5 in less than 24 hours, as it rapidly intensified over record warm Gulf of Mexico waters on a path toward the West Coast of central Florida. Milton formed just over a week after Hurricane Helene experienced similar rapid intensification in the Gulf before making landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida's panhandle --- the third storm to do so in less than 13 months. Helene then went on to devastate five more states in the U.S. Southeast, with the death toll now from that storm at 230. But, as Desi Doyen explains today, if Milton makes a direct hit on highly populated Tampa Bay, as currently feared, we could see an unspeakable disaster unlike anything we've seen in this country since at least Katrina back in 2005, if not longer. Landfall for Milton in Florida is currently expected on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
  • But, it barely took a full day before Donald Trump and his social media minions began unleashing lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene last week. In a social media post last Monday, for example, the disgraced former President accused the Biden Administration of "going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas." (Attempting to withhold disaster relief to Democratic areas is something that Trump actually did as President.) Trump further lied that President Biden "left Americans to drown" in North Carolina, and falsely said in an interview that the government is "going out of their way to hurt" Trump voters in the western part of the state. "They’re not getting water, they’re not getting anything," Trump said.

    NC Gov. Roy Cooper described it as a "relentless vortex of disinformation, dialed up by bad actors and platforms like X [Twitter]." The shameful lies (many of them dangerous ones) have required FEMA to set up a "Rumor Response" page in order to debunk them and help keep their employees safe.

    We're joined today by TOM SULLIVAN from on the ground in western North Carolina, specifically from Asheville where he lives, in Buncombe County, one of the hardest hit regions following Helene. Sullivan is a political activist and organizer, and the longtime morning blogger at our friend Digby's Hullaballoo blog. After a week without power or water --- it just came back to his residence on Sunday. And, boy, was he bothered to learn of the lies that had been going on over the past week about what is happening in NC, particularly in hard hit Asheville. He tells us the claims by the rightwingers are simply untrue and that FEMA, in fact, is everywhere there.

    "There are aid stations, trailers, and relief groups on every corner in downtown. It's the most accessible city in the region," he tells me. "The helicopters are going out to remote coves. A lot of people are cut off. So it's mostly helicopter, military, people with high-water vehicles who can get through to these remote areas. And there are hundreds of them." They have been dropping food and other aid since the moment the storm passed, according to Sullivan, who lives in a largely undamaged part of the town. He says the water system will still be down for weeks, and he details some of the devastation he has seen in the area.

    "Everything is working great. The coordination is superb," he asserts, even as he and others who are just now coming back online, have been appalled and enraged by the lies that have been told about what's actually going on on the ground. "More than just being a threat to FEMA employees who try to help people, this disinformation --- they are scaring people. Especially the rumor about '[FEMA's] going to take your property.' If people are afraid to sign up for the aid, they are not going to get aid, and that's hurting them."

    "Some of our Republican officials are telling people to just cut it out," explains Sullivan, while suggesting "there may be a backlash to this" on November 5, even as he concedes he is not yet seeing enough of it to know exactly how it may all shake out at the ballot box in the closely divided battleground state.

    Sullivan also tells me that he spoke to the local elections director today, and shares an update on what election officials will be doing in order to accommodate voters this year, just weeks away from Election Day, with absentee balloting already underway. He worries, as does Brian Beutler at "Off Message" today, that the campaign of lies following Helene is a "trial run" for what is likely to come after Election Day if Trump loses once again...

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'Pro-choice' Melania wants $250k to talk to CNN; $100k 'Trump Watch' invitation to influence peddlers; Damning new 1/6 details from Jack Smith; MAGA county clerk Peters gets 9 years for CO vote system tampering...
By Brad Friedman on 10/3/2024 6:23pm PT  

Tick-tock. Time is running out for all of the Trump scams, as detailed on today's BradCast. Unless, of course, he wins on November 5th --- or has more success stealing the Presidential election this year than he did in 2020. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among the Trump scams, rackets and accountability for having fallen for them on today's program...

  • You know about many of Donald Trump's legendarily failed rackets from the old days: Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Water, Trump Vodka, Trump Casinos, just to name a few. More recently, during the time he's been running for President again, there's been Trump Sneakers, Trump Bibles, Trump Digital Trading Cards, Trump Coins, Trump Cryptocurrency and, introduced just last Friday, "Swiss-made" Trump Watches. He's selling them for $100,000 a pop! Even though, according to experts, they appear to be Chinese-made crap, if they even exist, and appear just as likely to be an open invitation to foreign influence peddling and money laundering. We explain.
  • All of the above enumerated rackets, by the way, are private rackets. Any profits from them do not go to his Presidential Campaign, but straight into Donald Trump's pocket. And so --- according to the new 165-page filing [PDF] by Special Counsel Jack Smith, unsealed by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan on Wednesday afternoon --- was Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election. New evidence in the filing from prosecutors in his 4-count federal indictment in D.C., further details how the disgraced former President and convicted felon was fully aware that he'd lost the election in 2020, but didn't care. He was going to fight to steal it anyway. He also knew he had put Vice President Mike Pence's life in grave danger on January 6th, 2021. His response: "So, what?" And all of that, as prosecutors argue in their brief, was done in Trump's capacity as a private candidate for office. It was not done as part of his official duties as President. Smith's motion is meant to make that case in hopes of preventing the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court from dismissing the case on the basis of their absurd, anti-American, anti-Constitutional, made-up-from-whole-cloth ruling in Trump v. U.S. declaring criminal immunity to sitting Presidents for crimes committed as part of their "official" duties.
  • In Colorado today, a state judge unleashed a brutal, if accurate, take-down of disgraced former Mesa County Clerk, Tina Peters during her sentencing hearing. Once a MAGA superstar, she is now a convicted felon on charges related to a criminal scheme to breach voting system software in her own County, based on false claims that fraud software was implanted in them to flip votes from Trump to Biden in 2020. The judge told Peters today: "I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen. You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan." He called out her continuing claims of evidence-free fraud as "just more lies. No objective person believes them. No, at the end of the day, you cared about the jets, the podcasts and people fawning over you." He then sentenced her to nine years in prison before she was ">handcuffed and hauled out of the courtroom to immediately begin serving her time. See ya, Tina! May she be the first of many.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as the deadly disaster in six states continues to unfold in the U.S. Southeast following Hurricane Helene, which at least succeeded in finally helping to bring the issue of climate change to the top of Tuesday's Vice Presidential debate between Democrat Tim Walz and Republican J.D. Vance...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 10/3/2024 10:42am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: After another climate disaster, climate change was finally front and center at the Vice Presidential Debate; PLUS: Ongoing climate disaster Hurricane Helene, now the second deadliest hurricane in modern U.S. history... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Two separate climate studies find that fossil fuel pollution intensified Hurricane Helene rainfall; Helene isn’t the first time Trump inserted politics into a natural disaster; At what price will oil shale drillers stop drilling?; Hurricane gives Democrats a climate opening in Florida; 'Everything is dead': Ukraine rushes to stem ecocide after Russia poisons river; American dams weren't built for today's climate-charged rains and floods... PLUS: Who will care for Americans left behind by climate migration?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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Guest: Emily Levy of Scrutineers.org; Also: Iran/Israel confrontation escalates; Dockworkers strike shuts down East, Gulf Coast ports; Search, recovery --- and climate denier lies --- continue after Helene...
By Brad Friedman on 10/1/2024 5:11pm PT  

As discussed on today's BradCast along with some breaking news today, there is much more than simply voting and hoping for the best for your favorite candidates that you can do --- that we need you to do --- to help protect democracy this year. [Audio link to full program follows below this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

  • Iran launched nearly 200 missiles into Israel on Tuesday in response to Israel's recent attacks on the leadership of the Iran-sponsored Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Those attacks were in response to a year of Hezbollah rocket attacks over the border into northern Israel beginning the day after Hamas' deadly raid in southern Israel one year ago next week. Israel has now vowed retaliation for Iran's attack today, and Hezbollah vows to continue their own attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, in what U.S. officials and others see as a potential escalation into full-scale regional war, or at least a rekindling of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.
  • After midnight last night, some 45,000 dockworkers from walked off the job, shutting down ports on the East and Gulf Coasts in the first strike by the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) in nearly 50 years. The workers are demanding what they describe as long-overdue wage increases and contract guarantees against job-killing automation at the nation's ports. The White House is said to be encouraging a quick resolution between the ILA and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents port and shipping companies who've seen record profits in recent years. If the stoppage continues for several weeks, it is likely to result in higher retail prices and supply chain shortages again, just weeks before the Presidential election.
  • Amid ongoing devastation in six southeastern U.S. States following the monstrous Hurricane Helene --- now the second deadliest U.S. storm in the past 50 years --- officials at the North Carolina State Board of Elections have begun issuing guidance to voters and local election officials in the most devastated counties in the western part of the state. That support now includes emergency kits described as "election offices in a box" to help local officials register voters and process absentee ballots until Internet and cell service is restored in those communities. More details, for NC voters and election officials alike, is now available via ncsbe.org.
  • But it's not only in storm damaged communities where the public is going to have step up this year help carry off successful elections. In fact, public oversight of our elections is the best and only way to ensure they are free, fair and accurately tabulated in a way that Americans can have confidence in the reported results.

    Republicans appear to have finally figured that out this year, as the RNC claims to be recruiting and training tens of thousands of poll workers and watchers. I explain, on today's program, why I think that's actually a good thing...presuming they don't intimidate voters or election officials...and presuming that Democrats, independents and third-party supporters all do the same thing.

    We're joined today by longtime election integrity and protection expert EMILY LEVY, founder and director of Scrutineers.org, to explain how her non-partisan, non-profit organization is helping to train folks like you to be both poll watchers and poll observers, particularly after the close of polls, when tabulation at precincts is formalized and when members of the public can play a key role to help ensure tallies are accurate. These efforts can also prove helpful in disproving false claims of fraud after the election!

    "We encourage people to observe the processing and counting of votes," Levy tells me, in describing some of the group's training sessions for volunteer observers. While acknowledging that it's impossible to see inside of tabulation computers, she notes "the processes around it and the output, and what's done with the output, can be observed. In most places, you don't need any special authorization."

    "In our training, we talk about what you'll be able to see when you observe, how to check out what you need to do, what kinds of things to look for and then, also, what to do if you see something that doesn't seem quite right to you."

    In addition to discussing how Scrutineers works and what they do, we also discuss the unique challenges for many of us longtime election integrity champions in the wake of the past four years or so of Trump's blatant lies about election fraud and our electoral system.

    Please stop by Scrutineers.org for dates on upcoming training sessions that you can participate in from home, anywhere in the country. And thank you in advance for your helping to protect our democracy! We really need you this year!

  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for a special coverage edition of our Green News Report in the wake of the devastation and tragedy of Hurricane Helene, which --- no matter how obscenely longtime climate change deniers like Donald Trump and Florida's Sen. Rick Scott are now attempting to lie about it --- has been perfectly predictable and warned about by scientists for years. That, as Republicans pretend they have no idea how such a monster storm and horrific disaster could have come about...

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Climate change strikes again, killing more than a hundred in 5 states, millions without power, concerns about their ability to vote...
By Brad Friedman on 9/30/2024 6:28pm PT  

Another BradCast necessarily, but not wholly, derailed today by our climate crisis. We were able to open the phone lines to hear from a number of callers with their thoughts in advance of Tuesday's Vice-Presidential Debate. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

We sidelined our planned coverage of Kamala Harris' address late last week on border security and immigration reform in Douglas, Arizona --- and Donald Trump's appalling response, calling her "mentally impaired" and "mentally disabled", before going on to lie (again) about crime statistics, and the fact that violent crime has plummeted under the Biden-Harris Administration --- in order to focus on the unspeakable disaster that continues to unfold in much of the U.S. Southeast.

The devastation and tragedy continues today, following Thursday's monster, Category 4 Hurricane Helene. It came ashore in the Big Bend region of Florida's panhandle, the third major tropical storm to do so in 13 months, and the second over the past two months alone. But Florida was hardly the only state affected, as death and destruction overtook parts of Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina as well. The latter, perhaps, having weathered the most damage, to date.

With over one hundred killed and more still missing, millions of survivors in the Southeast remain without power today. Some, particularly in Asheville, NC, remain physically cut off from the rest of the world, as the County's water treatment facility has failed and may be down for weeks.

Desi Doyen joins us for insight on the impacts and government response, and how denial of climate change by many elected officials from these states has exacerbated the destruction they are now hoping to claw their way out of today.

Then, there is the question of how this will affect the ability of voters in the most damaged areas --- particularly in NC, but in a number of other states as well --- to be able to cast their vote in this year's upcoming Presidential elections. In battleground NC, the U.S. Postal Service announced the suspension of service in a bunch of areas, making delivery of vote-by-mail ballots to voters and back again to the county, a question mark right now. That's particularly disturbing since state Republicans killed the the three-day grace period for ballots that were postmarked by Election Day to arrive at County to be counted after Election Day.

All of this also comes after NC Republicans spent years fighting to implement draconian Photo ID restrictions, despite a federal court describing the effort as targeting Black voters in the state with "almost surgical precision". So, what happens to those voters whose IDs blew away or were washed away in the wind and flooding? We've got a few details on all of the above today, and will continue to monitor the situation voters in the days and weeks ahead.

Then, we open up the phone lines to listeners in advance of Tuesday night's upcoming Vice Presidential debate between Democratic candidate Tim Walz and Republican J.D. Vance, asking what listeners expect and/or hope for from what appears to the last face-to-face debate between the Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance tickets. (Harris has agreed to another debate in October but, so far, Trump has declined. Probably smart considering the drubbing he took at their first and, so far, only debate in early September.) The debate host, CBS News, has announced good news for the Trump-Vance ticket, their moderators will not be fact-checking the candidates, both of whom, unlike Trump, are actually pretty good debaters...

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Also: DoJ indicts NYC Mayor Adams; D.C. permanently disbars Giuliani; Newsmax settles Smartmatic's defamation suit; Hurricane Helene intensifies from Category 1 to 4 in single day before FL landfall...
By Brad Friedman on 9/26/2024 6:31pm PT  

Yikes. Busy day on The BradCast. Including some remarkable breaking news, both good and bad, throughout the hour. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among the many stories, breaking and otherwise, on today's program...

  • When the show began, the monster Hurricane Helene, barrelling toward a direct landfall near Tallahassee and the Big Bend region of Florida's panhandle, was already a dangerous Category 3. By show's end, it had become a terrifying Cat 4. As disturbingly, the storm began the day as a Cat 1! Thanks to record warm Gulf waters caused by man-made global warming, we have yet another case of deadly, rapid intensification for this storm. Experts also warn of an "unsurvivable" 20-foot storm surge on the Gulf Coast. The dangers beyond Florida, in already soaked southeastern states, are also quite serious and severe in the days ahead.
  • After what Trump Republicans describe as Joe Biden's supposedly "weaponized" Department of Justice indicted and/or convicted Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (NJ), Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX), and the President's own son Hunter Biden (twice) over the past year, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment on Thursday against NYC's Democratic Mayor Eric Adams. The Mayor, who says he will not resign, was charged on five counts related to corruption on behalf of Turkey. If the Biden's federal government has been "weaponized" against Republicans, they sure have poor aim!
  • But, you know who was actually very good at weaponizing the federal government against his political enemies? Yup, Donald Trump, as a deep dive from the NYTimes' Michael Schmidt (free link) detailed over the past weekend. Time and again, during his years in office, then President Trump demanded --- and often got --- criminal and civil investigations by DoJ and highly unusual and invasive audits by the IRS against his perceived political enemies, many of whom, if they worked in the government, were also improperly fired. Schmidt also summarizes (free link) how Trump unleashed his government against such perceived enemies as F.B.I Director James Comey and other senior FBI officials; Hilary Clinton and her 2016 campaign; Obama's Sec. of State John Kerry; his own attorney Michael Cohen; News organizations and reporters at CNN, WaPo and NYT; his own National Security Adviser John Bolton; and many others. And, as Schmidt reminds us, Trump has already stated this month that he plans to do it again if elected to another term.
  • Looks like its a big day for corrupt NYC Mayors! Today the D.C. Court of Appeals permanently disbarred former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, after New York state also permanently revoked his license to practice law earlier this Summer. The disbarments are related to the disgraced former Mayor and federal proseuctor's false legal filings claiming election fraud, without actual evidence, following the 2020 election on behalf of the loser Donald Trump.
  • In related news, even as jury selection was underway in a major defamation trial in Delaware pitting voting machine vendor Smartmatic against the rightwing propaganda outlet known as Newsmax, a last minute, still-confidential settlement was struck between the parties. As CNN reports today, "The settlement is the latest in a string of 2020 election defamation cases to reach an out-of-court agreement before trial. Fox News famously settled with Dominion Voting Systems last year for a record $787 million, and the far-right channel One America News settled with Smartmatic earlier this year." They also note that "Newsmax still faces a separate defamation lawsuit over similar claims that was filed by Dominion." As referenced during the show, here is one of BRAD BLOG's exclusive investigative reports from 2010 that disgraced former Trump attorney Sidney Powell cited (and bastardized) as part of her defamatory allegations against both Smartmatic and Dominion, as subsequently echoed by all the rightwing fake news outlets and discredited and now disbarred yutzes like Giuliani.
  • Finally, as the deadly Hurricane Helene speeds toward Florida, Desi Doyen has our latest Green News Report, with news on both that storm and Hurricane John (which continues to pound Mexico); how global warming has made all of these storms much worse; and Joe Biden's promotion of climate action at both Climate Week in NYC and his final address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 9/26/2024 10:31am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Massive Hurricane Helene menaces Florida; Global warming doubled the odds of Central Europe's catastrophic flooding; PLUS: Biden promotes climate action at his final U.N. address and at Climate Week, but warns success is fragile... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): America's climate and economy are on the ballot; Hurricanes have changed. The way we prepare for them should, too; As Galveston faces rapid sea level rise, developers are building new condos; Extreme weather has a surprising impact on voters' attitudes about climate change; Another train car leaked dangerous chemicals in Ohio. Here's what to know; Cattle burn as 'monster' wildfires rage in Argentina ranchlands... PLUS: Global solar growth is on track for another record-breaking year... and much, MUCH more! ...

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Also: Hurricanes John and Helene; Biden's final address at U.N. General Assembly...
By Brad Friedman on 9/24/2024 6:28pm PT  

We continue our laser focus on the track conditions for the 2024 horse race on today's BradCast, with somewhat better than usual news in a couple of different states. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our many stories covered on today's program...

  • Hurricane John made landfall on the west coast of Mexico overnight, after spinning up from a tropical storm to a full-on Cat 3 in a single day, before blowing ashore. That, thanks to the storm's rapid intensification over record warm waters due to climate change. With that ominous note, Tropical Storm Helene, currently in the Caribbean, is also spinning up quickly over record warm waters and could soon become a very large and very dangerous hurricane as it guns for landfall along Florida's Gulf Coast by Thursday night.
  • It looks like the threat is over in Nebraska for now. As we reported last week, Republican lawmakers in the state --- one of just two which divvy up Electoral College votes by Congressional district, rather than winner-take-all --- were being hard-pressed by Team Trump to change the way the state apportions electoral votes before November's election, just six weeks away. Kamala Harris' "Blue Wall" strategy of reaching the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House by carrying battlegrounds Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania along with the other traditionally "blue" states, requires that she also win the one single Congressional district around Omaha, as Joe Biden did in 2020. It is, as a grassroots campaign in the district characterizes it, a "blue dot" in an otherwise very "red" state. Nebraska's Republican Governor said last week that he would be willing to call a special session of the state legislature to change the 30-year old law for apportioning electoral votes to advantage Trump, if Republican lawmakers had the votes to do it. On Monday, however, a former Democratic state Senator turned Republican announced he would vote against the scheme, all but killing the possibility for now, according to the Governor today. As we discuss, however, that Omaha Senator may have had ulterior motives above and beyond his seemingly altruistic decision to simply do the right thing for democracy.
  • Good news late last week out of Arizona as well! Some 98,000 registered voters will not be blocked from voting in state and local elections and ballot measures this year. That, after a unanimous ruling from the state's Supreme Court on Friday. Republicans in the state have been working for years --- decades, in fact --- to purge voters from the rolls who failed to present proof of citizenship when registering to vote. There are a bunch of good reasons that registrants wouldn't have done so. (For example, if they registered prior to the state's 2004 requirement, or registered via the National Voter Registration Form which does not inform Arizona voters that proof of citizenship documents are required to vote.) But, last week, when the state announced that, thanks to a newly discovered glitch in the state registration database, nearly 100,000 voters were on the rolls without having submitted proof of citizenship --- due to some confusion with how the state motor vehicle office renews driver's licenses --- the matter ended up at the state Supreme Court. And, shockingly, the AZ Republican Party in this case, in a remarkable flip-flop from years of advocacy to the contrary, argued to keep those voters on the rolls! Why? Well, as it turns out, the voters in question, according to the state's Democratic Sec. of State (who also argued to allow the voters to remain fully registered), there were about 10,000 more Republicans on the list of voters than Democrats. Apparently, the GOP isn't that concerned about non-citizens voting after all --- as long as they're registered as Republicans. (Please note: Despite years of attempts by Republicans to mandate citizenship documentation or demand the purging of potential non-citizen voters, they have failed to offer evidence that more than a miniscule handful of non-citizens are actually registered to vote, much less actually voting in U.S. elections.)
  • The only way to vote that is more dangerous and less publicly overseeable than touchscreen voting is Internet Voting. And, yet, as much as cybersecurity and voting system experts advocate strongly against it, more and more states are allowing online voting for overseas citizens and military voters. One such state, apparently, is Montana, whose online voting system was opened for the 2024 election on Friday. It took only a few hours, it seems, before one voter noticed that Kamala Harris' name wasn't on the ballot in the Presidential race.
  • Joe Biden gave his final address as President of the United States to the U.N. General Assembly today. We're happy to share a few excerpts from his remarks on the need for the world to come together to end wars, take on the climate crisis, safeguard against the dangers of artificial intelligence and protect democracy...among other things.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as Climate Week kicks off in New York along with the U.N. General Assembly; Microsoft announces plans to reopen Three Mile Island, the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident, to power its Artificial Intelligence program; and California's Attorney General files a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against ExxonMobil for their decades of lies about the viability of plastic recycling...

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Guest: Voting system expert Marilyn Marks on the wildly misreported Georgia news and what voters really SHOULD be worried about instead...
By Brad Friedman on 9/23/2024 6:45pm PT  

Today on The BradCast: Rachel Maddow is an excellent broadcaster. But, boy, did she fall --- along with a bunch of other mainstream corporate media outlets on Friday --- for a wildly misleading spin on a new rule adopted last week by the Georgia State Board of Elections in advance of this November's elections. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Before we get to an expert to help set the record straight on this matter today, to explain how virtually everyone from WaPo to New York Times to Atlanta Journal Constitution to, yes, Maddow got it wrong...a few quick news items of note...

  • It's possible, with Hurricane John about to slam into the West Coast of Mexico in the Pacific, and a different storm to be named Helene quickly spinning up in the Atlantic, that by week's end --- if John crosses the Mexican peninsula and enters the Gulf --- we could have two major hurricanes, both threatening landfall in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time. Climate change is wacky fun, in't?
  • Nearly 500 are confirmed killed and more than 1,000 injured near Lebanon's border with Israel on Monday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the deadliest barrage on Hezbollah since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. All of which is meant to extend the Israeli PM's time in office and out of jail on corruption charges filed well before his war on Gaza --- and even war crimes charges that are likely to come his way if and when he is ever finally removed from office. Hezbollah reportedly fired thousands of rockets in return at Israel.
  • Congressional leaders have reportedly reached a deal to keep the Government open after the end of this month, as the new fiscal year begins on October 1. The deal would continuing funding the Government until at least December 20. The agreement to prevent a government shutdown just weeks before the Presidential election --- when every member of the U.S. House and one-third of the U.S. Senate will be on the ballot --- comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson gave up on a measure Donald Trump was insisting on to make it a crime for non-citizens to vote (which is already unlawful under federal law). We'll see if the agreement is finalized by both chambers, and whether Republicans will then send us over yet another fiscal cliff this Christmas.
  • Newly released FBI data find violent crime in America, including murder, dropped precipitously from 2022 to 2023.
  • The U.S. economy continues to outpace the rest of the developed world and the stock market remains at all-time record levels under the Biden-Harris Administration, even as Donald Trump's failing media company, which trades on the NASDAQ as DJT, plummeted another 10% on Monday to a new all-time low since going public, as the race is on to meet my prediction that his loser of a company could become a penny stock by Election Day!
  • And, speaking of Trump grifts, it looks like Melania Trump, who has barely appeared on the campaign trail this season, was paid nearly $240,000 to speak at a political fundraiser at her own home in Mar-a-Lago last April. Who wrote the check to her remains unknown at this time.

And then, it's on to the story which has apparently freaked out Democrats and voting rights advocates since it was first misreported by pretty much everybody on Friday. That was the day that three Trump-supporting MAGA election denialists on the Georgia State Elections Board adopted a new rule requiring hand-counting at each precinct at the end of election night.

But the new rule requires only the hand-counting of the number of ballots cast at the precinct --- not the actual results on those ballots, as many have misreported --- before they are sealed up and sent to county headquarters.

Similar reconciliation of the number of ballots cast against the number of voters who signed in to the poll books or to the number of pages reported as scanned by the precinct tabulators, are carried out in many of other states without problem at the end of election night.

According to our guest today, an expert in Georgia's terrible touchscreen voting and scanning system, the process is likely to take anywhere from 15 minutes to a half an hour after the close of polls. But you wouldn't know that from the mainstream media coverage, with Democrats and Republican election officials alike in Georgia, screaming bloody murder that this new rule would lead to inaccurate tallies, delays in the count, and potentially add "months" to the time it will take to tally up results in the Peach State this year!

We're joined again today by the great MARILYN MARKS, longtime voting system expert and Executive Director of the Coalition for Good Governance. Her non-partisan organization is responsible for the federal lawsuit that ultimately banned Georgia's unverifiable, insecure touchscreen voting systems made by Diebold, only to see them replaced by Republican Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger with similarly unverifiable and insecure touchscreen systems made by Dominion. She is also the woman who discovered and exposed the MAGA breach, copy and distribution of statewide voting system software in Coffee County, GA that resulted in criminal charges against five people, including Sidney Powell, in the state's racketeering felony indictment against Donald Trump and many others.

As Marks explains today, the mainstream media outlets were misreporting on Friday's new hand-count of the number of ballots cast rule "out of hysteria for no good reason." She confirms that "it's simply a ballot counting rule that most states have," allowing them to "know how many ballots you have collected" and to confirm that number before ballots are moved anywhere. "That is a common-sense rule. It will take about 20 minutes at most to implement at most of the polling places in Georgia --- that's a rough estimate --- and it is a safeguard on a lot of different things."

"If there are major discrepancies," between the number of ballots and the number signed into the poll books, she says, "that's the time to figure it out, not after all the equipment and people get moved."

Many Democrats --- justifiably --- fear that, if Trump loses in the state again, some Republican officials on the election boards at both the state and county level are hoping to find ways to create havoc and chaos that could delay certification and ultimately place the actual election results in doubt, leading to challenges in Court or Congress on January 6th next year.

"We seem to be in such a hyper-partisan environment right now," says Marks, "that if we can throw some mud, true or not, on the other side, it's a way to build enthusiasm for our team." But that, she suggests, is short-sighted and unhelpful given the very REAL concerns about the election in Georgia (and elsewhere.)

We also discuss, some of the very good reasons that Democrats should be concerned about the reported results in Georgia this year, particularly given the software breach of statewide voting systems in Coffee County that Sec. Raffensperger has refused to mitigate in any way before the 2024 election, including with software patches distributed by Dominion.

Marks is concerned by the "chaos" that could be caused by someone exploiting the Coffee County caper. "It would be so easy for someone to shut down the system by just writing code that would shut down all the machines at 10am on Election Day," she offers by way of just one example. "There's nothing Georgia could do about it. They are not prepared." In response, I offer an even simpler and arguably more chilling scenario at how a tiny group of people can create utter havoc in the state by simply claiming that the state's touchscreen systems have misprinted their ballots --- whether that's true or not. There is no way, with the systems, to determine if they are telling the truth.

Tune in for more on those actually real concerns about GA elections, as well as Marks' tips for voters in both Georgia and other states, including North Carolina, California, and anywhere else that voters may be forced to vote on a 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting systems at the polling place this year...

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