We've got a number of encouraging news items on today's BradCast regarding both this year's elections in battleground Georgia and accountability for still more of those who lied about the 2020 contest there on behalf of the disgraced former President. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our stories today...

• The Biden-Harris economy continues to fire on all pistons, far outpacing that of Donald Trump when he was in the White House, no matter how little those facts seem able to break out above the noise of his increasingly authoritarian threats and related madness. Moreover, many major financial firms and experts have determined that Kamala Harris' economic plans will result in far more growth (higher GDP), lower inflation, more job creation and much lower government deficits and national debt than Trump's economic proposals. All of that is true no matter how little attention it receives from our corporate mainstream media. But we try to give that at least a bit of attention today, with some help from Rachel Maddow, as voting is now underway across the country and Election Day just three weeks away.

• Given all the attention Donald Trump is, paradoxically, enjoying for so many of his outrageous lies and threats of late --- not only against migrants in the country, but now to American citizens that the disgraced former President regards as "the enemy within" --- it's about time that the Harris Campaign (via ads) and Harris herself (during rallies) is calling him out for it. Especially now that he has begun vowing to unleash the National Guard and U.S. military against Americans if he is allowed back into the Oval Office.

• The parade of former top aides from the Trump White House speaking out against him and endorsing Kamala Harris this year continues to grow. On Monday, Trump's former Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews joined several of her former colleagues in endorsing the Democratic Vice President in order to help "ensure that Donald Trump never steps foot in the Oval Office again." She joins Trump's former Comms Director and Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, his former White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Cassidy Hutchinson, the top aide to Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, among others, in putting country over party to sound the alarm about the dangers of a second Trump term.

• Donald Trump's longtime buddy and former Fox 'News' reporter Geraldo Rivera has also now joined other previous pals and supporters of the former President, like billionaire Mark Cuban, to endorse Kamala Harris this year. Rivera charged, in a detailed Twitter post on Monday night, that Trump is a "sore loser" and that if you are a Republican who believes in his "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen from him, "Donald Trump has made a liar of you."

• As noted, we've got several seemingly good pieces of news out of Georgia, where today's first day of Early Voting is, according to the Sec. of State's office, breaking 2020's record. The same officials also stated that absentee ballots have gone out in good order and were not adversely impacted by the recent hurricanes. That is good news for voters smart enough to take advantage of the ability to cast a verifiable hand-marked absentee paper ballot in the battleground Peach State. Those who vote at the polls, unfortunately, will still be forced to vote on the state's insecure, 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting system. But please don't let that stop you from voting, no matter what, if it's your only option!

• A state judge in Fulton County, Georgia on Tuesday issued a no-uncertain-terms ruling [PDF] that county election officials must certify results before the deadline set by state law, which is at 5pm on the Monday following the Tuesday election. Certification, the judge made clear, is a ministerial duty, not a discretionary option. It is required even if a County election official may have concerns about fraud or error in the tally, or has not received certain public records which they may seek prior to certification. Questions about such results are to be adjudicated in open court after certification, not via private deliberations of county election officials. The unequivocal ruling comes in the wake of a number of new rules recently instituted by the newly-seated MAGA majority on the Georgia State Election Board that have alarmed a number of Democrats who worry the new rules may be used as a pretext by MAGA election officials at the county level to block the certification of results they don't like this year in the critical battleground state. Presuming the judge's very clear ruling today is not overturned by a higher court, it should put some of those concerns to rest, even as there is still much to be concerned about when it comes to GA's elections this year.

• The fallout from Georgia's 2020 election, when Donald Trump tried but failed to steal it from Joe Biden, continues. In good news out of a St. Louis, Missouri court last week, Fulton County, GA election workers Shaye Moss and her mom Ruby Freeman have struck a deal with the rightwing propaganda website called Gateway Pundit, its dopey, dishonest owner Jim Hoft and his dopey, dishonest brother Joe Hoft. The Hoft brothers had tried to avoid accountability for their defamatory lies about Freeman and Moss --- echoed by both Trump and his sleazy, disgraced attorney Rudy Giuliani --- that the women had committed fraud during the tabulation of ballots in 2020 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Despite all related claims about them being quickly debunked by state officials, Gateway Pundit identified the two women by name and continued to lie about them for months and years after, resulting in death threats and the need for them to relocate from their homes. In July, an attempt by Gateway Pundit and the Hofts to shield themselves from the defamation lawsuit filed by Freeman and Moss by declaring bankruptcy was rejected by the judge in the lawsuit. The terms of the deal announced last week by the attorneys for both parties have not yet been disclosed. Freeman and Moss previously won a $148 million lawsuit against Giuliani and struck an undisclosed settlement with rightwing media outlet One America News which they had similarly sued for defamation.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with the ongoing aftermaths of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and some much better news about the long-overdue death of Old King Coal in the U.K....

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Milton is gone, but Florida is still grappling with its toxic aftermath; Trump's lies about FEMA disrupt disaster aid to North Carolina; PLUS: The U.K. ditches coal for good... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): 'Crazy busy' Atlantic hurricane season is far from over; US meteorologists face death threats as hurricane conspiracies surge; Insurance 'nightmare' unfolds for Florida homeowners after two hurricanes; Hundreds dead, more than 1 million displaced due to Niger floods; The fate of thousands of U.S. rural dams hangs in the balance; Wisconsin estimates around 40 percent of private wells contain pesticides; Alabama slowly bringing sanitation equity back to rural black communities... PLUS: The U.S. gets a new national marine sanctuary, the first led by a Native American tribe... and much, MUCH more! ...

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!...

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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!...

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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.

• And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us for, you guessed it, our latest, very hurricaney, Green News Report...

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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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