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Latest Featured Reports | Saturday, December 7, 2024
Fox 'News' and GOP Get Their Hateful War on Trans Kids at SCOTUS: 'BradCast' 12/5/24
Guest: Law Dork's Chris Geidner; Also: 7.0 quake, tsunami warning in CA; Island nations fight for survival at U.N. High Court...
'Green News Report' 12/5/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
U.N. court to rule on landmark climate case; NC town sues Duke Energy for climate deception; S. Africa blocks new coal plants; PLUS: Global warming driving drought in U.S. West...
Previous GNRs: 12/3/24 - 11/21/24 - Archives...
'The Mind Boggles at Potential for Corruption' in Trump Tariff Scheme: 'BradCast' 12/4/24
Guest: Financial journalist David Dayen of The American Prospect; Also: Final U.S. House seat called in CA; '2000 Mules' filmmaker apologizes for film's fraudulent 'fraud' claims...
In Defense of Democracy from S. Korea to N. Carolina (and Beyond): 'BradCast' 12/3/24
Also: Control of MN House hangs on incredibly close race and tossed ballots; WI's 13-year old anti-union law found 'unconstitutional'...
'Green News Report' 12/3/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
U.N. plastics treaty negotiations collapse in S. Korea; U.N. COP29 climate talks end with weak agreement in Azerbaijan; PLUS: Extreme drought is an immigration issue, study warns...
Previous GNRs: 11/21/24 - 11/19/24 - Archives...
Hunter's Pardon:
'BradCast' 12/2/2024
Also: Biden-Harris 2020 cybersecurity chief questions 2024 results; Trump's latest corrupt appointments; Listeners ring in...
Sunday 'First Things First' Toons
THIS WEEK: Religious 'Freedom' ... The Felon-Elect ... Tariff-ied ... The Great Xcape ... and more! In our latest collection of the week's most prayful toons...
Sunday 'No Such Agreement' Toons
THIS WEEK: A Cabinet of Crooks, Kooks and Corrupted Curiosities...and more! In our latest collection of the week's most toxic toons...
How (and Why!) to 'Extend an Olive Branch' to MAGA Family Members Over the Holidays: 'BradCast' 11/21/24
Guest: Leaving MAGA's Rich Logis; Also: Bibi's 'war crimes'; Hegseth 'assault'; Gaetz out!...
'Green News Report' 11/21/24
  w/ Brad & Desi
Back-to-back killer storms in NW; Huge cache of 'rare earth' elements discovered in U.S.; Climate change worsened every hurricane; PLUS: NY revives congestion pricing...
Previous GNRs: 11/19/24 - 11/14/24 - Archives...
Former Federal Prosecutor: Trump Must Be Sentenced in NY Before Taking Office Again: 'BradCast' 11/20/24
Guest: Randall D. Eliason; Also: Repubs cover for Gaetz; FCC nom threatens censorship...
'Bullet Ballot' Claims, Other Arguments for Hand-Counting 2024 Battleground Votes: 'BradCast' 11/19/24
Also: PA Supremes order votes tossed before Senate recount; Gaetz files reportedly hacked...
'Green News Report' 11/19/24
Trump nominates fracking CEO, climate denier to head Dept. of Energy; Winters warming quickly in U.S.; PLUS: Biden heads to Amazon Rainforest to offer hope...
Trump Already Violating Law (He Signed!) During Transition: 'BradCast' 11/18/24
Guest: Former Dep. Asst. A.G. Lisa Graves; Also: Flood of unqualified, corrupt Trump noms for top cabinet posts...
Sunday 'Into the Gaetz of Hell' Toons
THIS WEEK: Pyrrhic Victories ... Cabinet Clowns ... Blame Games ... Sharpie Shooters ... And more! In our latest collection of the week's sleaziest toons...
'Green News Report' 11/14/24
NY, NJ drought, wildfires; GOP wins House, power to overturn Biden climate action; PLUS: Very high stakes as U.N. climate summit kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan...
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...


More bad news for Repubs in NC; Trump/Vance 'illegal immigrant' lies in OH; Desperate GOP Electoral Vote scheme in NE; Gaming result certification in GA; Vote suppression in TX; Vote expansion in CA...
By Brad Friedman on 9/19/2024 6:50pm PT  

I don't know if they're gonna lose or not. But, as we report on today's busy BradCast, the disgraced former President and his Republican party this week sure do have the stench of losers on them. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among our many stories covered today...

  • Breaking just before air time: Turns out North Carolina's Trump-endorsed freak show Republican Lt. Gov and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is even more of a freak show than previously known. And, by his own words on a porn site he frequented for many years, a "black NAZI!". Good luck this November in NC, Republicans!
  • Stock market hits record highs today after the Fed lowered interest rates Wednesday more than expected, signaling post-pandemic inflation is back under control. Donald Trump's failing media company, however, which trades as DJT, hits record lows today and still appears to be on track to become a penny stock by November 5.
  • The already terrible situation in the Middle East gets worse, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds news ways to keep the war(s) going to keep himself out of prison.
  • House Republicans and Donald Trump stay on track to cause another government shutdown at the end of this month, just before the election, after House Speaker Mike Johnson's dead-on-arrival scheme, on behalf of Trump, to demand a new law to prevent already-unlawful non-citizen voting fails to get the support needed for passage from Republicans.
  • J.D. Vance continues Trump's lies about "illegal" migrants taking over Springfield, Ohio. They're not "illegal". Trump, as President, gave them legal protected status. Vance says he gonna call them "illegal" anyway, as the Republican Mayor of the now-terrorized town begs them to knock it off, asking for "help not hate".
  • New polling continues to look good for Kamala Harris in swing states. But the Democrats "Blue Wall" strategy of winning the White House by winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania --- along with all of the other traditionally "blue" states --- could hit a snag if Team Trump's newly reignited scheme, reportedly now being led up by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Pathetic) is successful. This week Graham was in Nebraska meeting with the state's Republican Governor and members of the legislature, encouraging them to call a special legislative session to change the way the state divvies up Electoral College votes.

    Currently, NE is one of just two states, along with Maine, that apportions Electoral College votes by U.S. House District. That means Harris is likely to win one of the state's votes, in the Omaha district, in the otherwise very "red" state. But Team Trump wants the state to change the law to move to a winner-take-all system just weeks before the election (and just 10 days before vote-by-mail voting begins!) in hopes of a scenario where, even if the Democrats' three-state Blue Wall strategy is successful, the Electoral College end in a 269-269 tie with NE's 2nd Congressional District vote given to Trump instead of Harris. That would send the decision of who will become the next President to the U.S. House, where the vote would be by state delegation, where Republicans are likely to hold a controlling majority even if Democrats win the House back in November.

    If this insane-but-theoretically-plausible scenario proceeds as Team Trump desperately hopes, however, Democrats may still have an ace in the hole...in Maine.

  • A government watchdog group gets a hold of to emails among Georgia election denialists serving as county election officials, detailing their conversations about plans to block certification of 2024 election results in the Peach State if it looks like Donald Trump is going to lose it again.
  • Texas' wildly corrupt Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing county election officials in state court to prevent them from sending voter registration forms to eligible but unregistered voters in several different Democratic-leaning Counties. The Counties are now, in turn, suing Paxton in federal court, charging his efforts amount to voter suppression in violation of longstanding federal laws.
  • While the Lone Star State is busy suing its own election officials for daring to register voters, here in California, state lawmakers have passed a law, SB 299, to make the state's current automatic voter registration system even more automatic, potentially enabling the ability to vote for an additional 4.7 million eligible but currently unregistered voters. Politics Girl does the heavy lifting for us today. You can get more details from the grassroots coalition of more than 140 groups supporting the measure right here.
  • Finally, at the end of a busy show, Desi Doyen joins us form our latest busy Green News Report, as the climate crisis rapidly worsens around the globe, despite new U.N. warnings; North Carolina estimates damage from a brutal, sudden tropical storm this week will top $7 billion; and as a new study finds Joe Biden's air pollution policies will save some 200,000 lives in the U.S...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Right to register under assault following state's massive voter roll purge...
By Ernest A. Canning on 9/19/2024 1:05pm PT  

Republican Ken Paxton, the ethically challenged Texas Attorney General, who paid nearly $300,000 in restitution to plea bargain his way out of a securities fraud indictment that had been pending since 2015, is vehemently opposed to the effort by state county election officials to encourage voter registration via the unsolicited mailing of voter registration forms to likely eligible voters.

Paxton's effort at voter suppression in two of the Lone Star State's most populous --- and Democratic-leaning --- counties, has now resulted in several lawsuits. A suit in state court filed by Paxton against Bexar County (San Antonio), and two filed in federal court, one each by Bexar and Travis (Austin) Counties charging the Attorney General is attempting to suppress the vote in violation of long-standing federal law...

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

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Guest: Fayette County, PA Election Dir. Marybeth Kuznik; Also: It's National Voter Registration Day!; 'Scientific American' Endorses Harris...
By Brad Friedman on 9/17/2024 7:11pm PT  

On today's BradCast, a focus on the challenges ahead for election officials in what is likely to be the most closely watched state in the country, in the most closely watched Presidential election of all time. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... The endorsements for Kamala Harris keep rolling in. From the right (George Will for crying out loud?!) and from the non-right, as Scientific American revealed on Monday what is only their second Presidential endorsement in the well-respected magazine's 179-year history.

Also, today is National Voter Registration Day! We've got a few thoughts on a few tips, several of which come courtesy of our friends at the non-partisan group Vote Riders, who recommend not only registering to vote, with many states deadlines for that coming up very shortly, but also checking your voter registration status even if you believe you are already registered. Many states have purged a lot of voters since the last general election. The group also warns that Voter ID requirements have changed in many states since 2020. So today is also a great moment to make sure you have the sometimes very specific ID now required by your state to vote in this year's critical election. You can do that at their site as well.

THEN... The great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is likely to be the "tipping point" state for this year's election. If Dems win it, along with Michigan and Wisconsin (and the other traditionally "blue" states) Kamala Harris will almost certainly become the next President. But, while Harris currently leads in those so-called "Blue Wall" states, according to pre-election polling averages, her lead in PA remains the tightest of the three.

So, with all eyes likely to be on PA this year, we thought it would be a good moment to check in with our old friend MARYBETH KUZNIK, a longtime Election Integrity advocate and champion as founder and Executive Director of VotePA, and now as the Director of Elections and Voter Registration at the Fayette County, PA Election Bureau.

Fayette is in the southwestern part of the state, not too far geographically from Pittsburgh, though seemingly farther and farther away politically over the years, as the once reliable Democratic-leaning rural county has turned much more Republican in recent Presidential elections.

But, no matter their politics, all voters there need to be able to vote and have their votes counted as cast --- and in a way that they can know they have been counted as cast. Kuznik tells me that she sees her current job as an election official not terribly differently from her work as an Election Integrity advocate.

"I view this work that I'm doing now as an extension of everything else I've ever done," she tells me. "We, as election officials, as well as election activists, want --- or should want --- the same thing, which is to make sure every vote is counted accurately as cast. And that is without regard to party, or candidate, or whatever. You vote, and we count it the way you voted it."

Kuznik explains that her office is now in the final throes of finalizing ballot design and tabulator programming, following the last of the rulings from the state's Supreme Court as to which candidates will be allowed to appear on the ballot. Vote-by-Mail absentee ballots will very soon be going out to voters.

There is always an extraordinary amount of pressure on election officials to get everything exactly right. But there will be more than ever this year, given the many false claims that Republicans have brought in recent years after Donald Trump falsely claimed to have won the 2020 election. And nowhere is the pressure likely to be higher than in a state like PA, whose voters may decide the winner of the 2024 Presidential contest.

While Kuznik is confident in her and her staff's ability to get the job done well, there are still a number of concerns, some of which we've recently discussed on this program. For example, a bipartisan group of election officials across the country in recent days have expressed grave worries to Trump-appointed U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy regarding delays and other problems in the delivery of Vote-by-Mail ballots back to county officials. While Kuznik says she has a good relationship with the regional mail handler, she notes that a tiny handful of ballots from the state's primaries this year, "postmarked in April" were not finally delivered back to the County until August! "That's two or three" ballots, she says, "but that's two or three people's precious vote. Somebody died for the right of those people to vote. Hopefully we figure it out because I don't want it happening in this election."

PA also has some unhelpful rules for when officials can even begin tallying Absentee/Vote-by-Mail ballots. Unlike most states, PA officials are barred from beginning their VBM tallies until Election Day. That can lead to a number of problems. Among them, the "red mirage" issue that we saw in some states in 2020. Democrats tend to vote much more heavily by mail than Republicans. That means that, with the more laborious job of opening, verifying and tallying VBM ballots only beginning on Election Day, the results from more heavily Republican ballots cast at the polls that day may be reported first, giving the false impression that Republicans are ahead when some go to sleep on Election Night, only to see absentee tallies added in later, resulting in Democratic candidates overtaking the Republican.

We also discuss the fact that most voters in the Keystone State are now, thankfully, allowed to vote on verifiable hand-marked paper ballots at the polls; the concerns that many have reported about some conspiracy-minded GOP election officials in swing states scheming to hold up certification of results for dubious reasons --- in the event that Trump loses --- in hopes of wreaking chaos that can then be used to challenge the final Electoral College votes in the courts or in Congress on January 6th; and concerns about security threats against her office, staff and the many pollworkers required to pull of a successful election.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on a natural gas pipeline explosion on Monday in suburban Houston; record deadly storms and flooding in Central Europe, West Africa and North Carolina this week; and the disgraced former President and wannabe mobster's recent visit to California, when he threatened to allow the entire state to burn down if he is allowed to become President again...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Also: DHS preps for another Jan 6; Post-debate polling favors Harris; More global ravages of climate change from Vietnam to Louisiana...
By Brad Friedman on 9/12/2024 7:00pm PT  

We're catching up with a lot of news on today's BradCast, as climate change ravages the globe and the critical November general election nears. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our many stories on another busy program...

  • The death toll following Vietnam's climate change-fueled Typhoon Yagi climbs to 200, with more than a hundred still missing following flooding and landslides since the devastating storm blew ashore last weekend.
  • Climate change-fueled Hurricane Francine is dumping up to 9 inches of water over parts of Louisiana, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power as it moves northward through the state and into the Mississippi Valley.
  • In preparation for next year's Electoral College certification on January 6th, the Dept. of Homeland Security has, for the first time, declared that day's joint session of Congress to be a "National Security Special Event", on par with Presidential Inaugurations, U.N. General Assemblies and Super Bowls. The new designation is meant to help avoid another deadly security crisis akin to the Trump-incited insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on the same date in 2021.
  • The first new polling taken since Kamala Harris' crushing defeat of Donald Trump at Tuesday's Presidential Debate in Philadelphia finds the Vice President's lead over the disgraced former President growing to 5 points nationally, according to Reuters/Ipsos. The survey offers a number of other interesting findings.
  • Less than an hour after Tuesday's debate, superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, encouraging her tens of millions of fans to register to vote. More than 300,000 visited the Vote.gov site she recommended in her endorsement during the 24 hours that followed. And on Wednesday night, at MTV's Video Music Awards, she again encouraged followers that were 18 and over to do so. In advance of Donald Trump's rally in Tucson, Arizona tonight, legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt also encouraged her fans to vote for Harris, explaining that she felt a responsibility to do so publicly before the disgraced former President's Thursday evening appearance at a venue named after her, the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, in her hometown.
  • This week, Kansas' Republican Sec. of State Scott Schwab sent a blistering letter to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, sharply criticizing the Trump-appointee for the disenfranchisement of about 1,000 Kansans whose August primary ballots were mailed back before the Election Day deadline, but either failed to include a USPS postmark or arrived later than the state's three-day grace period following Election Day. Schwab suggested some ballots mailed back on time are still arriving at county offices weeks later. Schwab's concerns were echoed the following day in what NBC News described as "an unusually frank joint open letter" to DeJoy from the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), excoriating the Postmaster General for failures to address numerous, longterm shortcomings that have alarmed the election officials. The letter reads, in part: "We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service. Failure to do so will risk limiting voter participation and trust in the election process." As vote-by-mail ballots are beginning to go out to voters around the country, this is a good reminder to send them back early, to hand deliver them when possible, or to vote in person on or before Election Day (unless you are forced to vote on touchscreen systems at the polls. In which case, fight like hell to vote via hand-marked paper ballot via absentee or vote-by-mail.)
  • Good news for young voters in Tarrant County (Fort Worth), Texas today. After more than four hours of impassioned public comment at the Commissioners Court, a list of 51 early voting sites was approved by a 4 to 1 vote that would keep open a number of sites at colleges campuses, such as UT Arlington and four Tarrant Community Colleges, that Tarrant's Republican County Judge, Tim O’Hare, wanted to shut down in opposition to local election officials. More than 10,000 students voted at the UT Arlington campus --- which has a majority of Hispanic students --- during early voting in the 2020 election. Thanks in no small part to a public outcry by local citizens, O'Hare's effort failed today.
  • But potentially bad news for voters elsewhere in Texas this week, thanks to the state's criminally indicted and wildly corrupt Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Last week Paxton filed lawsuits against Travis County (Austin) and Bexar County (San Antonio) after County Commissioners in each of the two populous and Democratic-leaning counties hired a non-partisan firm to help reach and register non-registered voters. Paxton also threatened a similar suit against Harris County (Houston), the state's most populous (and Democratic-leaning) if they did the same. Critics are accusing Paxton of intimidation and attempting to suppress the Latino vote in the state ahead of the November election. So far, officials in both Bexar and Travis are sticking to their guns. Last month, TX state officials raided the homes of voting rights advocates, including an 87-year old woman, who volunteer with LULAC, the nation's largest and oldest Latino voting rights group. No charges have been filed in what many are decrying as a blatant attempt at voter suppression and intimidation by the state's hard-right Attorney General.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with coverage of the failure by ABC News to adequately cover climate change during this week's Presidential Debate in Philadelphia, even as heat and fires raged in the West and Hurricane Francine came ashore as a Category 2 in Louisiana...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Guest: Alex Burness of Bolts Mag on disenfranchisement of former felons; Also: MO Supremes approve abortion rights ballot measure; Listener mail and more...
By Brad Friedman on 9/10/2024 4:46pm PT  

I must try and keep today's BradCast summary short to finish up in time to watch tonight's Presidential Debate (which we will be covering in detail on tomorrow's program, natch.) [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

We start off with breaking news out of Missouri, where the state's Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling that had blocked an abortion rights measure from appearing on this November's ballot. Now the measure --- enshrining the right into the state Constitution, if approved by voters-- will be on the ballot this year in the Show-Me State, along with about eight others, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. That news is likely good for Democrats, who support the freedom for women and their doctors to determine their own medical procedures, and bad news for Big Government Republicans who don't. In the seven states where voters have been allowed to ring on reproductive rights since the corrupted SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, all of them have sided with freedom, even the normally "deep red" states.

NEXT... We cover another right being attacked by Republicans, of late: the right to vote. In this case, the right for former felons in Nebraska, who have fully completed their sentences, including parole, probation and restitution, to register and participate as voters.

Back in 2005, the state adopted a law allowing former felons the right to register and vote following a two-year waiting period after completion of their criminal sentences. Tens of thousands were immediately re-enfranchised. Earlier this year, in April, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of the state legislature, the two-year waiting period was removed. But in mid-July, just two days before the new law was to take effect, and advocates were gearing up to let folks know about it, the state's Republican Attorney General, Mike Hilgers, issued an advisory opinion that the new state law was unconstitutional and so was the twenty-year old measure adopted back in 2005! Furthermore, the state's Republican Sec. of State, Bob Evnen, used that opinion to notify election officials that registration for all former felons must immediately cease!

Voting rights advocates sued and the state Supreme Court is set to hear the case this week. In the meantime, however, chaos has ensued in the state, with former felons uncertain whether they can vote or even register to vote this year. Many, according to my guest today, journalist ALEX BURNESS of Bolts Mag, who recently penned an excellent deep dive article on this mess, are now afraid to register or vote at all, for fear of being sent back to jail for it. That, Burness explains, is largely the point of all of this.

Adding to all of it, as we discuss, is the fact that the Nebraska --- which is mostly a "red" state --- is one of just two that split up its Electoral Votes according to U.S. House Districts, rather than simply winner-take-all. This year, that means that, if Kamala Harris is able to win in all of the so-called Blue Wall States (MI, WI and PA) and all of the traditionally Democratic ones, she would wind up with exactly the 270 needed to win the White House...presuming she also wins the one electoral vote from Nebraska's 2nd District, which leans "blue". Tens of thousands of disenfranchised voters, however --- or, even just fearful ones --- in Omaha, could decide the Presidency this year.

"If you wanted to skew the electorate --- even by a few thousand votes in what could be a very close 2nd Congressional District, that could literally decide the presidency --- if you were looking for levers you could pull at this late hour, that's one of them," Burness tells me. "In fact, it's a very good one."

There is much more to discuss on all of these points with Burness today, including the outrage of using a Jim Crow-era law to suppress the vote in 2024, and the irony that 34-time convicted felon Donald Trump is allowed to run for President of the United States, even while former felons who have served all their time are being prevented from even voting for or against him. A similar outrage is underway in a number of other GOP-controlled states, including Mississippi as Burness recently reported, this year.

THEN... We answer some very smart --- and, even, moving --- listener mail, including a snail mail letter we recently received, if you can believe it!

And FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with coverage of the extreme heat and wildfires broiling California and elsewhere in the Western U.S., even as Hurricane Florence spins up seemingly overnight in the Gulf of Mexico, where it is now threatening Texas and Louisiana, including, potentially, New Orleans...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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How rightwing useful idiots were paid millions by Russia to help dupe the nation; Also: Cheney endorses Harris; 'Comrade Kamala' is worst Communist ever; GOP seeks to purge 225,000 in NC (but not really)...
By Brad Friedman on 9/5/2024 6:33pm PT  

We're all over the place on today's BradCast, as things seem to be speeding up exponentially as Election Day draws near. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our stories today...

  • On Wednesday, the Dept. of Justice filed an indictment against two members of the Russia's state media outlet known as RT for their part in a scheme that covertly paid some $10 million to rightwing media influencers to help spread Russian propaganda via an American-looking website media company based in Tennessee. Among the willing dupes or useful idiots, take your pick, who profited from the scheme to the tune of millions of dollars: popular rightwingers like Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin (who actually used to call himself a "progressive" when we worked with him years ago at The Young Turks!) Their Kremlin-approved-and-encouraged lies about Russia and Ukraine and much more were spread far and wide from them to Elon Musk, Donald Trump and many others (including far too many on the Left!), in a far-reaching plot meant to cause division in the U.S. and disrupt our electoral system to the benefit of Trump. It was all helped along by those who are apparently all too willing to sell out the U.S. in exchange for power and/or money and/or just to be one of the cool anti-establishment rebel kids out there. We break it all down for ya today.
  • Lifelong rock-ribbed Republican conservative, former top member of House GOP Leadership, and daughter of Dick, Liz Cheney announced her intention in North Carolina on Wednesday to do the right thing by voting for Kamala Harris this year. I say "right thing" because, for those Republicans who truly oppose Donald Trump, if they really want to help keep him out of power, the best way is to cast their vote for Harris, as opposed to feebly writing-in Ronald Reagan or some such cowardly measure that only ultimately serves to help Trump regain power.
  • Aside from standing up for democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution by voting for Harris, Cheney might also have noticed that Kamala Harris popular economic policies are more likely to grow the economy than Trump's various schemes. His poor economic showing during his term in office makes that clear enough. But, if you need further encouragement that Harris' policies will be better for the economy than Trump's moving forward, check out what the economists at that lefty, pinko outfit Goldman-Sachs had to say about it this week. Turns out, "Comrade Kamala" (as Trump absurdly likes to call her), is the worst communist ever!
  • The U.S. House returns from its August break on Monday for a short session before breaking again for the election. But they've got another "fiscal cliff" ahead of them, with a government funding deadline at the end of this month. Apparently, Donald Trump is encouraging House Speaker Mike Johnson to threaten another shutdown before the election, unless Dems agree to adopt the SAVE Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, despite the fact that it is already unlawful for non-citizens to vote in federal elections (and ID is already required for all voters who register in all 50 states under federal law). But, sure, go for it, Mike! I'm sure it'll work out just fine for you guys.
  • Pretending there is massive voter fraud being carried out by non-citizens appears to be the GOP's fake news claim of this election year (helped along by all of those folks getting sweet sweet Russian money to lie to that end, and those who choose to believe them). In North Carolina last week, the state and national Republican Party filed yet another lawsuit in hopes of popularizing that claim, despite the complete lack of evidence for it. In this suit, they are claiming that some 225,000 voters in the state's voter registration database did not supply a driver's license or social security number when they registered and, therefore, might be "illegal aliens" voting. They want them all to be removed from the rolls and forced to re-register, even though the election is now just weeks away and Mail-in voting begins this weekend in NC. But there are a few (a whole bunch, actually) problems with their claims and suggested remedy, as we explain on today's program. That said, Republicans know about those problems --- and don't care. They aren't filing these lawsuits to win them. They are filing them to help them try and steal the election, if necessary, next January 6th.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, amid a sweltering heat wave here in Southern California; a record heat wave in Phoenix; record humidity recorded over much of the rest of the country all summer long; and other both good and terrible climate and environmental news items, as usual...

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Guest: Jacqueline Simon of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE); Also: Tabulation prob in MA primary; GOP U.S. Senate nominee in MT caught using racial slurs against Native Americans...
By Brad Friedman on 9/4/2024 6:18pm PT  

Today on The BradCast: What you may not know about the horrifying Trump-Vance scheme to fire hundreds of thousands of non-partisan career civil servants and replace them with Trump loyalists --- if Trump is elected in November. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

  • But, first up, results from Congressional and state legislative primary elections in "deep blue" Massachusetts on Tuesday were completely unsurprising. Though one of our listeners discovered --- and learned more details about --- a tabulation problem that resulted in one of the Democratic races for the state House in the town of Essex needing to be counted by hand overnight after the optical-scan system was unable to tally it accurately.

    As discussed, the incident serves as yet another excellent reminder of the critical importance of hand-marked paper ballots to help ensure results that voters may have confidence in, even when there are problems with the optical-scan systems. Though the issue appears to have been caused by an error in the programming and printing of ballots by the Commonwealth itself, at least MA has enough respect for its voters to allow all of them to cast hand-marked paper ballots --- whether by mail or at the polls --- unlike some other states I could mention. (Hi, Georgia!)

  • Then, a quick review of the likelihood of the narrowly divided U.S. Senate flipping majority control this November from Democratic to Republican, with all eyes on the great state of Montana, where control of the upper chamber may come down to the tough reelection battle being faced by three term Democratic Senator and Montana native, Jon Tester.

    Recent polling averages show Tester trailing the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee Tim Sheehy, a wealthy rancher who moved to Montana about 10 years ago. But now, audio recordings have emerged of Sheehy slurring Native Americans at Republican fundraisers, where he repeatedly used a racist trope to disparage "drunken Indians" on the reservation. The audio recordings were surfaced last week by Char-Koosta News, "The Official News Publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation," in a state that is home to seven reservations and 12 Native American tribes, representing about 6% of the state population. It's also a state where Republicans have repeatedly attempted to suppress Native American votes.

    The outcome of the Tester/Sheehy contest is very likely to determine majority control of the U.S. Senate and whether Kamala Harris, if she wins this year, will be able to carry out her agenda or see it blocked from Day 1 by Republicans. As Jonathan Martin notes today at Politico, if she does win, but the Senate flips to GOP control (or Dems can't win back the House), Harris "would be the first Democrat to enter the presidency since 1884 without majorities in both chambers."

  • And, since we're recalling the 1800s, Donald Trump has a scheme to return to the 1800s "spoils system" of appointing federal government officials based not on their skills or talent, but on their loyalty to their party and President. That system was replaced following the 1881 assassination of President James A. Garfield after he was killed by a man who was furious that he was not appointed to a foreign service position that he believed he was owed based on his work for the Republican Party.

    As James Rainey reported at the L.A. Times last week, after the law was changed under President Chester A. Arthur in 1883 to mandate a merit-based civil service system instead, "The next 22 presidents would leave the basic principles of the civil service intact. That changed when Trump took office."

    In his final year in office, Trump used his executive powers to create something called "Schedule F" which would have converted hundreds of thousands of career civil servants into at-will employees who could be fired without cause. Before full implementation, Trump lost in 2020 to Joe Biden, who quickly reversed the Executive Order.

    But now, both the far-right Project 2025 and Trump himself have detailed plans to remove and/or replace at least half a million federal workers in dozens of federal agencies should the Trump/Vance ticket win in November. In addition to replacing those career officials with loyalists, the scheme would also serve to gut the federal government of an indescribable amount of expertise on science, agriculture, healthcare, national security, education, energy, the economy, the military and so much more.

    We're joined to discuss the ramifications of all of this today by JACQUELINE SIMON, Policy Director of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union representing some 750,000 federal and District of Columbia employees.

    As "horrible" as the Trump Schedule F/Agenda 47/Project 2025 scheme is, she explains, "it's the logical conclusion of something that has been going on in the federal government now for many years."

    "A good way to look at what the outline of what government would look like according to Project 2025," Simon says, "is politicizing the work of people who are right now performing all kinds of functions. Scientific research --- the research that underlays regulations that protect public health, clean air, clean water, safe food --- all of those kinds of things. They want to move everything to the states, or privatize, or defund. Those efforts can also be avenues to politicize the work of the federal government. When you privatize, you can specify exactly what the contractor will do and won't do."

    "They would take all testing and testing development away from the CDC. They would deregulate the inspection of meat and poultry that's performed right now in the Dept. of Agriculture. Completely privatize the work done by civilians at the Dept. of Defense, so that the government would be fully, fully at the mercy of its contractors. They make no bones that they would effectively shut down the VA healthcare system and privatize all of that. They would close hospitals and clinics all across the country. And basically turn the VA into a private health insurance program. There are so many ways that the operations of government, the functions of government would be corrupted, undermined, and politicized, by privatization, and by, of course, a personnel system that would allow them to hire people who aren't competent, who can't perform the duties of the position, and then hire them and fire them at will."

    "It's been the Republican playbook for decades," she tells me. "This isn't new. This is Ronald Reagan moving forward. Almost everything in this document [Project 2025] has either been tried before or is part of Republican dogma, the Republican agenda in Congress for decades." But it is, if Trump is able to return to the White House, Simon warns, likely "the final dagger in the heart of the civil service"...

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Guest: Election expert Marilyn Marks of Coalition for Good Governance; Also: A breakthrough in Israel/Gaza cease-fire negotiations?...
By Brad Friedman on 8/19/2024 6:22pm PT  

We've got a bit of a contrarian view on today's BradCast on a few recent, reportedly alarming election developments in the battleground state of Georgia. But that contrarian view happens to come from one of the nation's most knowledgeable experts when it comes to the way the Peach State runs their elections. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

First up, a few news headlines today, including a potential breakthrough in the Israel/Gaza war, with Israel reportedly agreeing to terms for a cease-fire and hostage release, according to U.S. Sec. of State Antony Blinken on Monday. There are few specifics available, and Hamas has yet to agree to the terms, so we will see if it actually comes to pass this time. I remain hopeful but dubious, for reasons discussed on today's show.

Then, you may have heard in recent days, about loud concerns from Democrats regarding new rules for this November's elections being promulgated by the Georgia State Board of Elections. The SEB is a five-person board with four appointed Republicans, three of whom are dyed-in-the-wool MAGA election deniers, and just one Democrat. The three MAGA members were recently called out by name by Donald Trump during one of his recent rallies in Atlanta, where he described the three as "on fire", "doing a great job", and "pit-bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory."

Of course, state elections boards are supposed to be largely neutral facilitators of state election law, as opposed to fighting for "victory" for any particular candidate or party. But, apparently, that's not the case in Georgia these days, where the SEB has adopted a number of new rules --- pushed by some notorious GOP "voter fraud" villains --- which critics on the left describe as a threat to the integrity of this year's elections in the state.

In short, the critique is that the new rules, allowing the state's 159 county boards of election to carry out a "reasonable inquiry" into allegations of fraud, error or miscount during the canvass before certifying results as "true and accurate" in their county this November, could end up delaying the ministerial and mandatory certification of results beyond the state and even federal deadlines. That would result in chaos that could take the decision of who won the election away from voters, and hand it to the far-right Republican-majority state legislature to determine, or to the Trump-packed courts, or even to a GOP-majority in the U.S. House to determine who will become the next President.

As Rolling Stone recently reported, there is reason to be concerned about MAGA election officials who may try to block certification --- in the event Trump loses again --- in a bunch of battleground states. Moreover, a bunch of otherwise respectable media outlets --- from The Guardian, to the New York Times to the Washington Post to even ProPublica and Rachel Maddow --- have all been misreporting in recent days that these new rules would allow election official to delay certification beyond Georgia's deadline for county certification of 5pm on the Monday following the election.

But my guest today says that is not only inaccurate, but that Democrats may ultimately be shooting themselves in the foot by putting up such a fight against the notion that a "reasonable inquiry" may be in order in a number of counties this year, given the opaque, unverifiable, insecure touchscreen voting systems forced on voters at the polling place by Republican Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger and the terrible way in which he runs elections in the state.

We're joined once again today by MARILYN MARKS, Executive Director of the non-profit Coalition for Good Governance (CGG). Her organization successfully sued the state of Georgia in federal court in 2019 to ban the state's 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting systems made by Diebold back, only to see Raffensperger replace them with newer 100% unverifiable and insecure touchscreen voting systems made by Dominion. (CGG's lawsuit continues, following a trial earlier this year to ban the new systems as well. They still await a verdict from the same federal judge who banned the older systems, and hope to seem them finally replaced with verifiable hand-marked paper ballots. Marks is also the one who first exposed Team Trump's unlawful breach, copy and distribution of Georgia's statewide voting system software in Coffee County, resulting in the indictments of five co-conspirators, including Sidney Powell, in Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis' sprawling conspiracy case against Donald Trump for his attempts to steal GA's 2020 election.)

Marks argues today that the SEB's new administrative rule language, allowing for "reasonable inquiry", cannot be used to block certification. She says the worries are unwarranted, as administrative rules cannot be used to overcome statutory deadlines for certification. (Law professor Derek Muller recently appeared to agree with her.) She concurs that Republicans are likely to try and bollocks up this year's election any way that they can --- in Georgia and elsewhere --- but that the SEB's new rules for "reasonable inquiry" about election results, and a similar one allowing county election officials to review "election-related documentation" before mandatory certification, are not quite as alarming as many Democrats are warning.

Marks tells me that many of the organizations and media outlets misreporting the rule and state law "are from out of state. They are assuming that Georgia is like a normal state, and that Georgia actually has good elections, that numbers reconcile, that ballots are counted well. The problem is that Georgia does not have a reasonable system for counting ballots." She argues that Dems may want to be careful about what they wish for when fighting against "reasonable inquiry" regarding results this year.

"What these rules actually do is help the Democrats," Marks argues. "Because they are going to need to do everything possible to protect --- if Harris wins, and you know it's going to be close --- if Harris wins, they'll have to do everything possible to protect that win. And without some of these transparency measures, they would have a hell of a fight."

If she's right, why then are so many respectable media outlets misreporting the actual rules changes? "I think it's a game of telephone, that somebody started this, saying, 'Oh, they adopted a rule to delay certification...' And then nobody is going back and looking at the actual words of the rules that were actually passed. The rules that were passed actually reinforce the deadlines." CGG makes that abundantly clear in a detailed fact-check newsletter sent to members on Sunday night.

And why, then, are so many of the GOP "voter fraud" fraudsters --- from Trump to Cleta Mitchell to Hans von Spakovsky --- pushing these measures so hard at the State Elections Board in Georgia?

"Yeah, it's worrisome who is promoting it," Marks concedes. "But the Democrats should be one-upping them, and promoting these very same concepts, but doing it with better legal language, with more precision. And doing do it to be certain that they, the Democrats, are not sitting outside with their noses pressed against the windowpane, not able to figure out what's going on with the vote-counting" in November. "Let's don't make it easier for the people who have already told us, 'We are going to try to upend the election if we don't like the results,'" she warns.

As CGG concluded their fact-check newsletter last night: "In Georgia, it should be clear that more election transparency, citizen oversight, accuracy, and accountability are essential—not less!" Tune in to today's show for much more on this topic, from someone who knows Georgia elections better than just about anyone at this point. You may feel somewhat better about what the SEB is doing...or you may not...even if there is still plenty of reason to be concerned about this year's elections --- in Georgia, and everywhere else...

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Guests: 'Driftglass' and Frances Langum of 'Pro Left Podcast' on the Presidential race; Also: Repubs eat own in AZ primary; Pressure builds on Maduro to release results in Venezuela...
By Brad Friedman on 7/31/2024 6:28pm PT  

Ain't democracy grand? Messy, unpredictable, maddening, sure. But also grand. And we've got a lot of it to talk about on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

ARIZONA PRIMARY RESULTS

Republicans were turning on fellow Republicans during Congressional and local primaries in the Grand Canyon State on Tuesday. We know, however, there was absolutely no fraud or tabulation error anywhere in the state, because perennial election denier and loser, Kari Lake, actually won her primary for U.S. Senate. She'll run against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in November for the seat vacated by rightwing former Dem Kyrsten Sinema.

In Maricopa County, where 60% of AZ votes are cast, far-right Republicans sadly took down a bunch of not-crazy Republican officials, including the County's very good elections chief, County Recorder Stephen Richer, along with several other not-insane Republicans on the Maricopa Board of Supervisors. Their crime: telling the truth about the fact that Trump lost the County in 2020. All of that, on the other hand, may give Democrats, many of whom ran uncontested on Tuesday, a chance to turn the County even bluer this November.

Also sadly, Republican former Sec. of State and (real) election reform champion Ken Bennett was unseated in the state Senate by Trump loyalist, election denier loon and 2022's failed GOP Sec. of State nominee Mark Finchem in a rather red district. (See my interview with Bennett on his very good, bipartisan, election transparency bill last year on this program right here.) Nonetheless, Dems now have a very real chance of flipping both chambers of the AZ State Legislature this fall.

VENEZUELA ELECTION STANDOFF

President Nicolas Maduro's National Election Council is still claiming that Maduro won Sunday's Presidential election. The broadly supported opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez is still claiming that Maduro lost --- in a landslide. But Maduro has so far refused to release actual election results from tens of thousands of polling places, so it's impossible to know who actually won.

We don't have a political dog in this hunt, other than in favor of democracy and the notion that the candidate who received the most votes should be declared the winner of the election. Now, the Carter Center, which was allowed to observe the election, the U.S. Government (longtime Maduro opponents) and Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Gustavo Petro of Colombia (both allies of the Venezuelan President) are all demanding that Maduro transparently release all polling place election results. They are all correct to do so.

KAMALA V. TRUMP

Finally, as Democratic Party delegates prepare to officially certify their new nominee without any challengers this weekend, and as more new polling finds Kamala Harris surging against Donald Trump both nationally and in swing states, we take some time once again today to try and make sense of the state of this extraordinary race.

We're joined today by two longtime old school bloggers and podcasters, our friends 'DRIFTGLASS' of his eponymously named blog, and his wife FRANCES LANGUM, also known as BlueGal, who serves as Associate Editor at the Crooks & Liars blog. They both produce and co-host The Professional Left Podcast each week from their home in "Flyover Country, Illinois."

And they've both got lots of smart insight today, as we discuss....

  • The remarkable emergence of Harris at the top of the Dem ticket just 10 days ago.
  • The surprising unity behind her by rarely united Democrats. (Fran: "I think there is a permanent state of PTSD among Democrats after 2016. It's why we've won every election since then.")
  • Where, if anywhere, Harris may diverge on policy from Biden.
  • Trump's crash and burn during his appearance today at the National Assoc. of Black Journalists conference. (Driftglass: "I really do appreciate Donald Trump giving [Harris] a boost today by going to Chicago and absolutely crapping the bed. It was delightful.")
  • What Trump really meant when he told Christians they wouldn't need to vote again in four years.
  • What Trump really meant when he said Russia and China will "walk all over" Harris, though he didn't want to say "as to why, but a lot of people understand it."
  • Why Trump appears to be trying to wriggle out of debating Harris.
  • Who might be Harris' Veep selection, and does it matter in the slightest?

All of that and much more --- including words from Drifty's "Crazy Uncle Liberty" and Fran's insistence that the Trump Campaign is now desperate because they are all but broke --- on today's BradCast!...

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But we will! --- GOP election theft schemes; Dems save 1 million union worker pensions; Kamala-mentum!; And much more!...
By Brad Friedman on 7/30/2024 6:52pm PT  

If you haven't begun already, as detailed on today's BradCast (along with much else), now is a good time to start keeping your eyes on the many ways that Republicans are planning to "legally" steal the November election in the event that, once again, they can't win it the old fashioned way by receiving more votes and an electoral Electoral College victory with them. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Recently, Kevin Roberts (pictured above), the President of the far-right Heritage Foundation, creators of "Project 2025" --- an extremist 900-page manifesto designed to repeal the 20th century the next time a Republican wins the White House --- told supporters: "We are winning. There are a lot of victories that have been secured. Some of them are partial. Some of them in ways that the other side doesn't yet know, are foundations for what's coming. And that's just the beginning. And we're not gonna tell ya everything that's coming."

Today, after weeks of focus on that Project 2025 by Democrats and media, it's nominal operational director, Paul Dans, stepped down to assuage Donald Trump, who both doesn't like the fact that Project 2025 makes him look like the puppet of more than a hundred far-right organizations and his own former Administration officials (which he is), and because the document is so extremist that he'd prefer to keep all of its atrocities under wraps until he's safely back in office. But those plans to gut the government as we know it and place a Republican President in direct autocratic control of every government agency, aren't going away, even if Heritage and friends have now been ordered to tone it down for a while until Trump can be installed back into the Oval Office.

As corporate media outlets are finally reporting on Project 2025, Roberts' plans for "victories...that the other side doesn't yet know...and [he's] not gonna tell" us about for now, are becoming clearer by the day, nonetheless. Largely, they are about stealing the election in advance by voter suppression assisted by corrupt friends now seated on the courts; stealing it during the tabulation by the many Trump-supporting election denialist who now serve as county election officials in battleground states, where they plan to prevent certification of a Trump loss; and, in doing so, create enough havoc after the election to toss the Electoral College certification on January 6 to the U.S. House, where Republicans hope to control a majority of state delegations in order to name Trump the "winner", even if he loses again, as he did in 2020.

We detail just some of those plots and plans, along with much more, on today's program. Among our many stories today...

  • After hundreds were killed amid downpour-triggered landslides last week in Ethiopia, at least 70 93 were killed by mudslides under similarly climate change-fueled conditions in southwestern India today.
  • More than 1 million union workers have now had their pensions saved by the Biden-Harris Administration and Congressional Democrats, thanks to their American Rescue Plan, which not one single Republican voted for in the House or Senate. That now includes some 600,000 Teamsters, many of them in the rust belt, the midwest and New England, as celebrated on Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire.
  • Kamala-mentum continues, as new polling shows her favorability rate skyrocketing and her unfavorability rate plummeting, following President Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 race and endorse his Vice President instead. Favorable/unfavorable numbers for Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have done the exact opposite according to polling numbers from the week after the assassination attempt on the former President and the Republican National Convention as compared to the week after, following Biden's endorsement of Harris for the top of the ticket.
  • Rolling Stone detailed on Monday how at least 70 pro-Trump conspiracists who now hold positions as election officials in a number of counties in six battleground state "are poised to make a giant mess" by refusing to certify election results in hopes of preventing state results from being certified if Trump doesn't win them. The magazine's Justine Glawe's deep-dive report warns that "Republicans have refused to certify election results at least 25 times since Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden"...because practice makes perfect. You have been warned. You may want to keep your Jan. 6 open next year. There may be something dramatic on television, depending on how things go.
  • Early legal efforts by Republicans to bollox things up for the Kamala Harris Campaign do not appear to be going well. An FEC complaint filed last week in hopes of preventing Harris from being able to use the money from the former Biden-Harris Campaign account isn't likely to get very far, UC Irvine Election Law professor Rick Hasen notes. Though he does recognize that the complaint will at least give Trump the opportunity to falsely claim on the stump that what Dems are doing is a muchworse campaign finance violation than his own in 2016 which resulted in his 34 felony convictions in New York. Good luck with that.
  • Also, recent claims by Republican House Speaker and Trump tool Mike Johnson (who is, theoretically, an actual attorney) that there are legal "impediments" preventing Democrats from putting Harris on state ballots instead of Biden, turn out to be 100% wrong. At least according to CNN, which surveyed all 50 states to find that there will be legal impediments for Harris in (...checks notes...) ZERO states!
  • In the meantime, expect a mountain of frivolous legal complaints by Republicans about election laws in hopes of suppressing the vote with favorable rulings from corrupt, Trump appointed federal judges. One such effort in Mississippi, filed earlier this year, seeking to block the counting of mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days afterward, as per state law, failed on summary judgement on Sunday. But you should expect both appeals and more such voter suppression cases to flood the courts between now and Election Day (and beyond).
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report as the climate change-fueled Park Fire in Northern California explodes to become the fifth largest in state history; the death toll from heat exhaustion amid power outages following Hurricane Beryl in Texas continues to climb; Extreme heat and water pollution complicate the Paris Olympics; and the U.N. warns that the nations of the world are not moving fast enough to avoid the far worse effects of climate change that are coming...

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Biden's historic Oval Office address; Trump's 'took a bullet for democracy' lie; DNC's upcoming virtual roll-call; Redistricting reform makes OH ballot as judge nixes state GOP's voter suppression scheme for the disabled...
By Brad Friedman on 7/25/2024 6:43pm PT  

On today's BradCast, we take up the President's charge to stand "in defense of democracy". [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

  • During President Biden's solemn, somber and historic prime time Oval Office address to the nation on Wednesday evening (transcript here), to explain his Sunday decision to drop out of the 2024 Presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the top of the ticket, he focused in no small part on the need to defend democracy against wannabe "kings and dictators," while he charged that "the cause of American democracy itself" is now at stake. "We must unite to protect it," he implored. We discuss and continue to join that fight.
  • Meanwhile, as the U.S. House on Wednesday voted 417 to 0 to create a special task force to probe what happened during the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified on Wednesday that, in fact, nearly two weeks since the shooting, we have no idea "whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel" that wounded Trump's ear. In fact, to date, no medical expert or law enforcement official has ever offered an official public accounting of what actually happened to the former President that day, even as mainstream corporate media have simply taken the social media claim by Trump, an inveterate liar, that a "bullet...pierced the upper part of my right ear" as fact. Ever since, Trump has exploited the event to claim at his convention, in rally speeches and on social media, that he "took a bullet for democracy."

    As we detail today, however, all available evidence suggests that is simply a lie. The man who, himself, has become the greatest threat to American democracy in modern history is now using the near miss for stolen valor to pretend to be a defender of democracy.

    As Ernie Canning explains at The BRAD BLOG this week, whether Trump "took a bullet" or not, it was not "for democracy," as investigators have reportedly found no evidence to suggest the shooting was politically motivated. And, as TPM's Josh Marshall has been reporting for some time, evidence suggests it was more likely some sort of flying shrapnel that grazed Trump's ear, along with causing similar minor injuries to several local cops who were near the stage that day. In any event, the media's failure to even ask the Trump Campaign about these details --- as one rally goer was actually killed and two others critically wounded that day --- for apparent fear of angering the former President, is "bizarre" and "a total journalistic failure" to the American people and to history. It also, as we note, underscores tyranny expert and author Timothy Snyder's repeated warnings about giving up power to would-be autocrats by "obeying in advance." Much more on all of this on today's show.

  • We've got more details today on the DNC's plan to begin a virtual roll-call vote on August 1st next week --- well in advance of their August 19 convention in Chicago --- in order to finalize the party's Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees no later than August 7th. Why are they doing this? No, it's not to ensure there are no challengers to presumptive nominee Kamala Harris. Rather, it is thanks to a story we've been covering since the beginning of the year about the failure by Republican state lawmakers to change the statutory deadline for submitting certified party nominees for the Buckeye State ballot by August 7th, as they've done for many years, as needed, when Republicans hold their national conventions late in the summer. Yes, state lawmakers, in a late special session, finally changed the statutory deadline. But the new law doesn't take effect until September 1, opening opening up Democrats to a potential legal challenge by Republicans as to whether their nominee can lawfully be on the state's ballot at all this November. Tune in for more details.
  • More news "in defense of democracy" out of Ohio this week. A ballot measure for a state constitutional amendment that would create an independent redistricting committee has qualified for the November ballot! If adopted by voters, it could end the state GOP's wildly gerrymandered Congressional and state legislative maps for 2026. Otherwise, Republican Buckeye State politicians will continue to be allowed to choose their own voters, rather than vice versa, until at least 2030.
  • And still more good news "in defense of democracy" from the Buckeye State today! A federal judge has struck down part of a sweeping election reform package adopted by Ohio Republicans last year that makes it a felony for disabled voters to allow caregivers, roommates, in-laws or even grandchildren to help them cast their absentee ballot by mail or drop box. The voter suppression law threatened to charge anyone but immediate family members (which apparently doesn't include grandchildren!) with felonies for helping those voters in need to cast their ballot. That, as the CDC finds that people with disabilities make up more than a quarter of the U.S. adult population.
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on explosive wildfires in the U.S. and Canadian west; the two hottest days ever recorded on Planet Earth (this past Sunday and Monday); and a focus on the Republicans' shocking Project 2025 plans to gut federal science agencies --- such as the EPA and National Weather Service --- along with climate science and many if not most environmental protections and climate change initiatives...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Also: More pressure from top Dems for Biden to reconsider candidacy; Judge nixes GOP vote suppression suit in NV; Biden calls for SCOTUS reform, national rent control...
By Brad Friedman on 7/18/2024 6:02pm PT  

I've got to post today's BradCast quickly a) before convicted felon Donald Trump speaks at tonight's RNC and b) before more political shoes (and/or earthquakes) drop. So, here's the quick skinny. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among our coverage today...

  • Donald Trump critic-turned-toady J.D. Vance of Ohio, officially accepted the GOP's nomination for Vice President during his remarks at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night. His speech was long on hillbilly biography but very short (virtually bereft) of the horrifying policies that Vance actually supports. Helpfully today, we correct his oversight with actual facts and policy proposals from the ambitious Yale-educated Senator, including his push for a nationwide abortion ban with no exceptions; ending no-fault divorce; slashing Social Security and Medicare; embracing Project 2025, turning over Ukraine to Russia and much more!
  • While leaving out his radical policy positions, Vance also dropped a few big lies about a number of things during Wednesday speech. When it comes to his lies about all-time record, world-leading energy production under Joe Biden, our own Desi Doyen has a few thoughts and a corrective that J.D. and his convicted conman running mate would prefer you didn't listen to.
  • Self-proclaimed "Liberal Redneck" comedian Trae Crowder, who hung out with the GOP's new Veep nominee back in the days when Vance regarded Trump as "America's Hitler", also has a few insights on him today.
  • What explains the complete lack of pressing by corporate media for any kind of official medical statement on the injury suffered by Donald Trump during last Saturday's assassination attempt?
  • The Chief U.S. District Court Judge in Nevada tossed out a suit on Wednesday brought by the Trump Campaign, the RNC and the Nevada GOP seeking to block the counting of potentially tens of thousands of perfectly legal mail ballots in the battleground state, cast and timely post-marked by Election Day, but arriving up to four days after, as allowed by NV state law.
  • With President Biden now battling COVID again, top Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have all reportedly been pressing the President, in various ways, to reconsider his insistence on staying in the race for reelection. If there is to be a change at the top of the ticket, it is believed likely to come (and would need to come) within days. Perhaps as soon as this weekend.
  • In the meantime, President Biden has been continuing to present new, popular policies --- as all Democrats should be joining him in doing at this point. This week, for example, Biden is reportedly planning to issue a long-overdue proposal for SCOTUS reform to include term limits and an enforceable code of ethics for Supreme Court Justices. He will also be proposing a Constitutional amendment to counter the Court's recent corrupt ruling granting criminal immunity to Presidents. Also this week, Biden has called for a national rent control statute that would cap rent increases at 5% annually unless landlords choose to forego federal tax write-offs. These are the sort of things that Dems should be doing right now, rather than squabbling amongst themselves. (Not that anyone asked me.)
  • Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as Toronto is crippled by extreme storms and flooding; the cost of extreme heat is quickly escalating in the U.S.; and as Marathon Oil agrees to pay a record fine for pollution under the Clean Air Act...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Tally errors found in Bay Area U.S. House race demonstrate, yet again, that CA desperately needs to update recount laws before it's too late…
By Dr. John Maa on 6/19/2024 10:05am PT  

California may be a progressive state. But when it comes to election recount laws, we remain in democracy's dark ages.

In 2012, I requested the first ever recount for a statewide ballot measure (Proposition 29) in California state history. I later advised statewide recounts for Proposition 37 in 2012 and the Controller's race in 2014. I helped Assemblyman Kevin Mullin craft 2014 legislation allowing a taxpayer-funded recount for any statewide contest with a margin "less than or equal to the lesser of 1,000 votes or 0.00015 percent."

That legislation was very narrow and did not mandate automatic recounts for Congressional races. This past May, the Santa Clara and San Mateo County Registrars certified March 5th's U.S. House primary race as a tie for second place between Evan Low and Joe Simitian which, in some states, triggers an automatic recount. In California, however, current law indicated that both Low and Simitian would advance, with first-place finisher, Sam Liccardo to the first Top-THREE general election in California's history. (Since 2010, the state has held Top-Two primaries, where candidates from all parties run against each other in the primary and the two top vote-getters advance to the general, regardless of party. In this case, all three candidates are Democrats running in a very liberal leaning part of the state.)

Instead of all three men advancing, however, a voter named Jonathan Padilla stepped forward to request a hand recount --- as any voter is allowed to under state law, assuming they are willing to pay for it. The law also requires that requestors name the candidate on whose behalf they are seeking the recount. Though neither Low nor his campaign was involved in the request, Padilla cited him as the candidate on whose behalf he was seeking the new count. He did so with the expectation, per California law, that the money would be refunded if the final outcome of the election changed to benefit Low.

After being presented with an initial estimate that a hand recount could cost as much as $500,000, Padilla sought a less-expensive machine count, which, in the past, have been proven to be less accurate...

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

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Guest: Univ. of KY election law professor Joshua A. Douglas; Also: Bannon (mostly) ordered to prison; U.N. chief calls for a ban on fossil fuel ads, as planet reaches disturbing new climate warming milestone...
By Brad Friedman on 6/6/2024 6:16pm PT  

"The Supreme Court of the United States is anti-democracy and antivoter --- and has been for far longer than you might think." That sounds like something we might charge at The BRAD BLOG or on The BradCast. But, today, that allegation comes from our guest, an esteemed law professor in his brand new book. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP, however... A couple of news items of note today. Convicted felon Donald Trump's 2016 campaign manager and Senior White House Advisor Steve Bannon (also a longtime "anti-democracy and antivoter" activist) may finally be heading to jail as of July 1. That according to a ruling today by the Trump-appointed federal judge overseeing Bannon's two 2022 convictions for Contempt of Congress following his refusal to answer subpoenas from the bipartisan House January 6 Committee. He still has a couple of potential options for delay --- including his hope for a lifeline from the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court. But, otherwise, he is likely to soon be locked up for the next four months in the run-up to this year's election. Sad!

Also today, the EU's climate monitor announced this week that, as of May, the past 12 months have each been the hottest ever recorded on Planet Earth. That announcement came on the same day this week that the U.N. Secretary-General, António Guterres, offered a blistering speech deriding the fossil fuel industry as "the Godfathers of climate chaos" who "rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies" after having set the planet on "the highway to climate hell". He is, of course, correct. But Guterres also called, for the first time, for a ban on all ads by fossil fuel companies, akin to the one against tobacco companies, given the billions that Big Oil has spent on decades of deadly lies "distorting the truth, deceiving the public and sowing doubt" about the harm they've caused. He also called for "news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising." Think they will? We discuss.

NEXT... We're joined by Constitutional election law professor JOSHUA A. DOUGLAS of the University of Kentucky's College of Law to discuss his brand new book, The Court v. The Voters: The Troubling Story of How the Supreme Court Has Undermined Voting Rights. That title almost speaks for itself. But, as you might imagine, it gives us a lot to discuss today.

In his book, Douglas highlights nine different landmark SCOTUS rulings --- some you almost certainly know of, but others that you may not --- going back about 50 years, which he says have "contributed to the rise of anti-democracy forces animating our elections" today, leading the nation on the path toward the attempted rightwing insurrection on January 6, 2021.

"Legitimacy requires buy-in from everyone," when it comes to election law, Douglas tells me today. "So the fact that I make this statement about the Supreme Court, as someone who has tried to be very non-partisan in my work, says a lot about how stark it has become with respect to the way in which the Court has crafted or thought about the Constitutional right to vote."

"It has been death by a thousand cuts," he explains. "A slow march. There's no one case or one concerted effort." But the result of the Court's persistent rulings has been to undermine voting rights and, ultimately, the Constitutional order by giving more and more power to the states, after years of previously requiring strict scrutiny when it comes to restrictive voting laws. Each new ruling, he says, has fed off previous ones, granting more and more power back to states to restrict voting rights, eroding federal protections in both law and the Constitution.

In some cases, Douglas argues, such as 2021's Brnovich v. DNC, the Court (in this case, Justice Samuel Alito writing the opinion for the majority) has taken to simply making up new tests for state election laws "literally from thin air" to support their antivoter rulings.

Ever since the decade following the Civil Rights era, "it's been a slow march towards dismantling some of the protections of the Voting Rights Act, as well as undermining the constitutional importance of the right to vote within the U.S. Constitution. When you look at any one case, you don't necessarily see it. It's when we look at these combined, to note the way in which the Court has placed a thumb on the scale of the [state] legislatures at the expense of voters."

The book is written not for legal scholars, Douglas promises, but for actual voters. Rather than offering simply legal analyses, it is chock full of stories about the individual people involved in each of the cases he highlights. Evidence to support his argument here may be found in the title of Chapter 8, "An 'Embarrassing Judicial Fart'", on 2000's Bush v. Gore ruling.

While The Courts v. The Voters argues "we can no longer count on the Supreme Court to protect an equal right to vote for all" and that "voters are left with nowhere to turn to vindicate their rights," Douglas also offers a prescription for overcoming what he regards as an assault on our Democratic Republic in both the book and on today's program.

FINALLY... Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with more on what the European Union's chief climate monitor describes as the "shocking but not surprising" record heat over each of the last 12 months; the U.N. Secretary-General's well-supported screed against the deadly "Godfathers of climate chaos" in the fossil fuel industry; a record number of heat deaths in the U.S. last year; and the world's largest solar farm --- the size of New York City --- now finally online...in China.

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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Guest: Andrea Grimes warns about the TX GOP's insane new party platform being underplayed by mainstream media; Also: Primary election results from MT, NJ, NM, SD, IA and DC...
By Brad Friedman on 6/5/2024 6:50pm PT  

Far-right Republicans in the Lone Star State are telling us about their extreme plans. Why are both state and national media downplaying them? We discuss on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

BUT FIRST UP... The Presidential Primary season comes to a close this week, with Tuesday's contests in New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa and D.C. (Though Democrats in Guam and the Virgin Islands still have a chance to ring in this weekend! And non-Presidential primaries will continue in many states in the week's ahead!) We've got some of your noteworthy results fron Tuesday today, such that there are any, including Presidential results reflecting small, if notable numbers of voters on each sides of the aisle who remain dissatisfied with both President Biden and convicted felon Donald Trump as their party's nominee.

THEN... This week, lawmakers in the very narrowly GOP-controlled chambers of Arizona's state legislature became the latest such body to try and pass new laws mimicking Texas' Senate Bill 4. That law, currently under federal challenge by the Biden Administration, grants unprecedented authority to state and local law enforcement officials to arrest people suspected of being in the country unlawfully and allows state judges to deport them. Those are roles traditionally played by federal, not state, officials. In Arizona, the Democratic Governor vetoed a similar effort earlier this year, so GOP lawmakers are now moving to place the measure on the state's already very long November ballot.

What happens in the increasingly radicalized state of Texas, unfortunately, does not stay in Texas, where Republicans hold solid majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, every single statewide office (since 1994), and every seat on the state Supreme Court. Those Republicans have only become more radical with each passing year, as evidenced by the state GOP's horrifying official party platform [PDF] adopted at their recent state party convention.

Just a few of the many planks, among others, call for doctors to be charged with homicide for carrying out an abortion; the Bible to be taught by chaplains in public schools; the deportation of noncitizens living lawfully in the country if they happen to participate in the wrong public protest; the withdraw of the U.S. from the United Nations and the organization's removal from U.S. soil.

Perhaps most disturbing (at least to me), the manifesto calls for a new law to mandate that statewide officials must win not only a majority in the state, but majorities in more than half of Texas' 254 counties in order to win office. That measure, if turned into law, would make it largely impossible for any Democrat to ever win statewide office again, given that the vast majority of the state's liberals are populated in a handful of large counties that are home to the state's major cities. Texas would become a one party state.

The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty this week described the TX GOP party platform as "hair-raising" and a sign that the state GOP has "gone off the deep end". But, at the same time, she marginalizes the document as "not a serious policy road map."

It is not only national media downplaying it. The Austin American Statesman describes the platform as little more "a wish list...than a road map that will be followed...by lawmakers in Austin or Washington". The otherwise excellent Texas Tribune similarly downplays the stated threats to democracy (and just about everything else) in their own coverage.

But our guest today, ANDREA GRIMES, an Austin-based journalist and activist who has been covering state GOP conventions since 2010, argued in an op-ed at MSNBC late last week that such views by major media outlets "aren’t merely outdated. They’re patently incorrect, contradicted by demonstrable evidence that the Texas GOP platform has been driving policy in Texas and beyond not just recently, but for several years."

She joins us to detail that case today, warning that while all of these planks may sound crazy, increasingly radicalized and extremist Republicans and their office holders in Texas "and beyond" are telling us exactly what they plan to do and have a record, going back years now, of enacting into law some of the state GOP party's most appalling measures. Once fringey ideas that began as little more than seemingly buffoonish platform planks dismissed by media outlets as sops to the party's most extremist elements have since become mainstream Republican party orthodoxy and enacted into law in Texas and many other states. The failure by mainstream media to notice and warn that "these people are not messing around" continues to ill-serve the nation.

Grimes details how the problem goes back to at least the "Tea Party" days and the "white racist reactionary political movement" that rose up in response to the nation's first Black President. But that has accelerated, she says, since 2016 "with the rise of Trump" and "a Republican Party that is living its best, most crazy life at this point, achieving win after win in terms of policy."

So why are these state GOP party platforms, much of which have become law in recent years, still being downplayed by editors at mainstream state and national media outlets, rather than being regarded as the warnings that they are?

"The phrase that continues to come into my head over and over is 'normalization bias'," Grimes tells me. "It's very difficult to come to grips with the true terrors of our political reality because they are outrageous. It is outrageous for Samuel Alito to be flying an upside-down American flag at his home. It is outrageous for Trump to foment an insurrection. It's outrageous for insurrectionists to storm the U.S. Capitol. These things are outrageous. And I think there's a sense among members of the mainstream media that, if they can strive to pursue the maintenance of objectivity and normalization, that things will somehow even out on their own, and they won't be asked to truly describe the world as it is. They won't be asked to go into this uncomfortable place of appearing biased, when in fact they would simply be describing reality."

"American journalism is so rooted in this conceit of objectivity. It is so beholden to this idea," she adds. We've got much more to discuss along these lines today, including whether there is any analogue to this phenomenon on the Democratic side (spoiler alert: nope, nothing even close) and what, if anything, can now be done by Americans to stem the tide of radicalism, particularly if media outlets continue to fail call it out for what it is. It's a great conversation, I think, that I hope you tune in for!

FINALLY... Just before the close of today's show, news breaks out of Georgia that the state Appeals Court has placed a pause on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' sprawling conspiracy indictment against Trump and 18 co-conspirators for their alleged criminal scheme to steal the 2020 election in Georgia, as an appeal by the defendants to remove Willis from the case moves forward. Upshot for now: The case was highly unlikely, at this point, to get to trial before November. Now it absolutely won't.

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

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