On today's BradCast, the savior of the working class and "Great Negotiator" refuses to even sit down with union workers at his own property in Las Vegas, even as his party comes apart at the seams and the South-Eastern U.S. buckles up for another deadly storm. [Audio link posted at bottom of article.]

In advance of tonight's Vice Presidential debate, we speak with Bethany Khan of the UNITE HERE Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Nevada, where workers at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas voted to unionize last December. Nonetheless, the Trump Organizations has refused, to date, to even begin negotiations with some 500 now-unionized workers at his 1,200-room, 64-story five-star luxury tower in Sin City. The union is therefore calling for a North American boycott of all Trump properties (hotels, casinos, golf courses, etc.), using the hashtag #BoycottTrump.

Khan explains the action and how the GOP nominee for President has been using every available tool to challenge the lawful union vote, despite claims to represent the working class in the course of his campaign.

"Mr. Trump and his company is legally required to bargain with the Culinary Union and with the workers. The workers are fighting for fair wages, job security, good health benefits," she tells me. "They filed a series of objections --- the way the vote was counted, or who voted --- a host of things to try and tie this up in court. This practice of expansive litigation is one the union workers have beat --- soundly --- and we won. So there are no more objections they can file on the election. The hotel is certified as a union hotel. It's a union property. The only thing that's missing is a union contract."

While the Culinary Workers have endorsed Hillary Clinton, Khan says their organizing campaign started "before Donald Trump announced he was running for President," but adds that "The path to the White House goes through the Las Vegas Strip."

"There are 550 workers in his hotel here in Nevada. They're working people, living paycheck to paycheck. Culinary Union members comprise a majority of the middle class in Nevada. Mr. Trump, who says he wants to make America great again, has a great opportunity to start here in Las Vegas with his workers and give them a contract."

Also today: Tonight's Veep Debate offers an excuse to reminisce about the first BRAD BLOG story to make into the national press and get under the White House's skin back in 2004; The 2016 election is driving the country mad, but particularly the Republican Party (we've got some of the latest insane examples); And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report' with two massive and unusual hurricanes making landfall today and the Paris Agreement on climate change meeting key thresholds at the U.N. in record time, in hopes of "Trump Proofing" the landmark pact before the U.S. Presidential election...

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On today's BradCast, yes, Donald Trump even lied about 9/11. And, speaking of lies, Big Oil has been using a loophole in U.S. federal law to to skirt environmental concerns and receive quick approval for dirty, dangerous new pipelines.

First, as the media continue to ignore one of the worst and most expensive environmental disasters in U.S. history last month, Trump was busy lying about 9/11, even on the 15th anniversary of the attacks. He lied about why he received taxpayer money after the tragedy and suggested he personally removed rubble. Imagine, just imagine, what the media would have done to Hillary Clinton (appropriately) had she falsely suggested anything even close.

The corporate media's false equivalency between the two candidates continues, as facts concerning stuff like Colin Powell's very specific directions to Clinton on how to use a private email address as Secretary of State are overlooked, and as both national and state polling continues to tighten in the bargain.

Then, speaking of issues ignored by the corporate media, investigative environmental journalist Steve Horn of DeSmogBlog joins us to discuss the little-known federal permitting policy called "Nationwide Permit 12" --- a loophole in federal law increasingly used by the oil industry to fast-track federal approval for major pipeline infrastructure projects like the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota, and as a way to skirt more stringent federal environmental review in the process.

"Nationwide Permit 12, before the past three or four years, was generally and exclusively used for small projects, usually 1/2 an acre in size and smaller," Horn tells me. "It wasn't really until the Keystone XL debate, and in particular the southern leg of it, where the industry saw Nationwide Permit 12 as a convenient way to split up its pipelines into many, many, many pieces. Sometimes, in the case of Keystone XL, it was some 2000 segments that they called 'single and complete projects'."

"You can call it a loophole, you can call it a fast-track trick, a maneuver. For all intents and purposes, it's like the pipeline industry's equivalent of a tax loophole. And, looking at what billionaires do, it serves the equivalent for the pipeline industry," he explains. Given those in the fossil industry who are now publicly supporting the scam --- including the industry billionaire who Trump has said he may tap as his Secretary of the Dept. of Energy --- Horn's analogy is disturbingly on point. The good news, however (and we could use some today!): the scam is now under federal review after its use to approve construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. That controversial project, which, as of Friday, was at least temporarily halted by the Obama Administration, may finally "have been a tipping point for use of Nationwide Permit 12," Horn notes.

Finally, some listener mail on a recent program seems to blame voters for the failure of politicians. We discuss.

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On today's BradCast, I'm back after the holiday weekend, but you should tune in anyway! We're live today from the KPFK/Pacifica Radio studios in Los Angeles, as I try to catch up on stuff we missed over the long weekend, and breaking news today.

Among the stories we cover on today's program...

* Tightening Presidential polls [PDF] as pollsters change their methodology to move from "registered" to "likely" voters, as Donald Trump has taken a lead or is tied with Hillary Clinton in a couple of national polls and gaining in some swing states. Nonetheless, Clinton maintains her lead in the Electoral College and even remains competitive in a number of "red" states where she is receiving support from some surprising corners.

* North Carolina's vote suppressing Republican Governor Pat McCrory believes states should have "voting rights", as opposed to people/voters.

* We're reminded today, once again, that every vote counts (or, at least, should), as Helen Purcell, the controversial election chief in Maricopa County (Phoenix), appears to have won her Republican Primary by just over a hundred votes out of more than 300,000 cast, after trailing by just a few hundred votes following last week's state primary in Arizona. The exact percentage flip (she was reportedly losing the day after the election 49.93% to 50.07% against her challenger Aaron Flannery, before defeating him 50.07% to 49.93% as of today, according to Purcell's optical-scan computers reported on Purcell's website) reminds us once again of the need to publicly hand-count paper ballots on Election Night. Purcell, Maricopa's Republican County Recorder since 1988, was roundly criticized for reducing polling locations from more than 200 in 2012 down to 60 during the Presidential Primary in March. Flannery, her challenger last week, has said he cannot afford to mount a challenge to ask for a hand count, but will consider running again in 2020. If the current results hold, Purcell will face Democrat Adrian Fontes in November.

* Then, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest on the growing protests and emergency legal battles by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota against the desecration of sacred sites with the construction of the massive, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-approved (and EPA-opposed) Dakota Access Pipeline and the bad faith actions of its supporters.

Finally, we take listener calls on all of the above! Enjoy!...

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On today's BradCast, the great Heather Digby Parton of Hullabalo and Salon.com joins me to try and help us all make sense --- if that's even possible --- of Donald Trump's whirlwind visit to Mexico on Wednesday and his chilling speech on immigration policy in Phoenix on Wednesday night. [Audio link for show posted below.]

That's no easy feat, but we give it our best try, including a discussion about the success of Trump's calculated strategy to scam the corporate media with his daytime meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieta in advance of his evening speech in Arizona.

"All this discussion that's been going on about 'softening' and 'hardening' [his deportation policy] and whatever else --- in the end it was Trump himself who really wanted to give that speech that he ended up giving," Parton explains. "We ended up with this very strange, two parallel story lines that were being fed to the press. 'Look at the pivot! It's just so wonderful!' --- Then he goes to Arizona last night and basically leads a Nuremberg Rally."

It was, as we both concur, his creepiest, most truly frightening speech to date. As she notes, Trump was targeting immigrants, "illegal" and "legal" both, as "un-American parasites on the American system" and "the reason for whatever distress, both cultural and economic, that 'real' Americans are feeling."

Parton goes on to argue that his supporters ultimately "don't care what he says, it's the attitude with which he says it", and I unveil my new theory explaining why the GOP nominee keeps holding rallies in states where he is almost certain to lose and/or certain to win, as opposed to the swing-states he'll need to actually win the Presidency. (In short: Win the popular vote, lose the electoral college, claim to be the most beloved candidate with the added bonus of not actually having to serve as President. Win, win, win. Cherry on top: The scenario can also serve as even more evidence that the entire system is "rigged"!)

Then, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report as two hurricanes and a U.S. President head toward Hawaii, even as another hurricane bears down on Florida and the East Coast...in an increasingly warming --- and frightening --- world...

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On today's BradCast, the Primary season is still going (believe it or not), and we've got several important results from Arizona and Florida's contests on Tuesday. Also, important breaking news for the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Obama Administration gets sued to stop new leases to oil and gas companies on federal lands. [Audio link to show is posted below.]

First today, Donald Trump goes to Mexico for a brief visit with the Mexican President. Our coverage is mercifully even briefer.

Then, the Scalia-free U.S. Supreme Court splits 4 to 4 in response to North Carolina's emergency attempt to stay a blistering ruling from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal in late July, where the state Republicans' massive voter suppression law was struck down after being found to have been enacted with "racially discriminatory intent" that "target[ed] African-American with almost surgical precision". The tie at SCOTUS means the lower court's ruling, nixing the law, will stand, even though four Justices (guess which ones) on the highest court in the land would have preferred to keep a law broadly seen as the nation's worst voter suppression law since the Jim Crow era in place for this November's Presidential election!

Speaking of elections, we review the results of several key races from Tuesday's state primaries in Arizona and Florida, where the reelection battles of Sens. John McCain and Marco Rubio may determine the balance of the U.S. Senate this November. Also, the controversial Democratic FL Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz survives, as does controversial Republican Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ. But the news for Helen Purcell, Maricopa's Republican County Recorder in Phoenix, who many blame for the disastrous Presidential Primary in the state earlier this year, may have reached the end of her 30-year career, with just a few hundred votes (out of more than 25,000 cast) now hanging in the balance.

Then, why is the Obama Administration, which has placed a moratorium on new federal land leases to coal companies, still selling millions of acres of leases to oil and gas companies? Jeremy Nichols, Director of the Climate and Energy Program at WildEarth Guardians, who, with Physicians for Social Responsibility, filed a suit last week seeking a moratorium from the Administration's Bureau of Land Management on such auctions, joins me to discuss the landmark federal lawsuit.

"What we're seeing here is a pattern and practice of the Administration continuing to hand over rights to our public lands to the oil and gas industry," Nichols explains. "By leasing these lands, they basically convert them to the ownership of the industry, and industry can hang on to these lands for as long as they want. It really is what we call an irreversible commitment of public resources here."

He goes on to tell me that while, in many respects, the Obama Administration has been a champion for the climate and the environment, on this issue, it seems, they appear to have "a very serious blind spot."

"We feel that it's high time for this administration to apply the same scrutiny to the oil and gas program that is has applied to coal-fired power plants, its coal mining program, and other aspects of our fossil fuel consumption," says Nichols. "We are in essence condoning the release of a lot more carbon into our atmosphere and, at this moment in time, pumping more carbon into the atmosphere is the last thing that this administration --- and we as the American public --- should be condoning."

At the same time, he says, the fossil fuel industry is actually suing the Obama Administration for not making more land available to them. "It's really a shocking filing on their end," Nichols argues. "They're basically saying that even though they've gotten everything they want on our public lands --- 10 million acres of our public lands since President Obama has taken office --- that it's not enough for them."

Finally today, a few follow-ups on a number of stories we've been covering over the past week, from Maine Gov. Paul LePage's mental and political breakdown to the reports of an official law enforcement investigation into more high-level GOP voter registration fraud in Florida, this time by Trump's top campaign chief. Oh, and Vladimir Putin has been arrested at a supermarket in Florida! No, really!

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On today's BradCast: As several polls tighten in advance of the Presidential election, the FBI issues a new warning to states about voting system intrusion and last minute battles continue in federal courts over voting rights access to the polls.

First up, a new report today from investigative journalist Michael Isikoff warns of recent intrusions, believe to be by foreign entities, into voter registration systems in both Illinois and Arizona. The report cites an "FBI Flash" warning [PDF] from its Cyber Division, recently issued to state election officials in hopes of warding off similar intrusions to electronic registration and voting systems in advance of the November election.

The latest news on the completely foreseeable vulnerabilities in our voting and registration systems underscores (yet again) what we've been warning about for so many years at both The BRAD BLOG and The BradCast. Unfortunately, as usual, reporting on this issue from mainstream corporate media comes too late to make much of a difference before the next election, after which the warnings are likely to be all but forgotten...until just before the next election.

Then, BradBlog.com's long-time legal analyst, attorney Ernest A. Canning joins us for an update on the roller coaster-like voting rights battles still waging in federal courts across the country, including the latest disturbing news on Photo ID voting restrictions in Wisconsin and why something known as "The Purcell Principle" will, once again, play a key role in all of those legal fights this year.

Canning, who also wrote about the just the latest example of GOP "voter fraud" hypocrisy over the weekend, summarizes the latest dispositions in a number of key court fights against racially discriminatory Photo ID voting restrictions in Wisconsin, Texas and North Carolina, and related legal battles over access to the polls in states such as Kansas, Arizona and the swing-state of Ohio. All of those cases are likely to have an impact on results up and down the ballot this year.

Finally, we say goodbye to the hilarious Gene Wilder today, a regular presence --- in both voice and spirit --- on The BradCast...

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It's a very 'green' show on The BradCast today, on a number of levels, from marijuana policy to the Green Party Presidential candidate's position on environmental issues, to another rather disturbing Green News Report.

But first up today, some news about 'third-party' Presidential candidate troubles getting on the ballot and being kept out of Presidential debates, and a Republican governor who has now vetoed a law that would have added millions of voters to the rolls in his state.

Then, Michael Collins, Deputy Director for the Drug Policy Alliance's Office of National Affairs in Washington D.C., joins us to discuss the recent announcement by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that it will not reclassify marijuana from its current 'Schedule I' narcotic status --- which, like heroin means that it's classified as having "no accepted medical use" --- despite some 25 states which currently allow its sale and use for either medicinal or recreational purposes.

Collins explains what that classification actually means and how rescheduling it as a Schedule II drug wouldn't have been much more than a "symbolic victory" for proponents, particularly "in terms of prosecutions --- people getting arrested, the racial disparities we see because of the war on marijuana --- that would not have disappeared had the DEA rescheduled marijuana."

He goes on to describe the DEA as a "rogue agency", "rotten to the core", and long working against President Obama's "steps to unwind the war on drugs". "They're still fighting the drug war of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon," he tells me, in opposition to the advocacy of a number of elected Democratic (and even Republican) officials in Congress who were furious at the federal agency's decision.

"I think the DEA gets its science from the same people as climate change denialists," Collins quips. "To say that marijuana has no recognized medicinal value contradicts decades of scientific research and is a huge slap in the face to the thousands of people who use medical marijuana every day to alleviate their illnesses."

It's not all bad news, however. Collins notes that the DEA has announced they will allow an expansion of federal marijuana research facilities, ending what had been a monopoly, with just one facility in Mississippi, and that states are moving forward nonetheless, with expansive pot initiatives on the ballot in at least six states (California, Arizona, Maine, Nevada and Massachusetts) this November. "The question isn't 'Should we legalize marijuana?', but more 'When should we legalize marijuana?' The end is nigh," he tells me.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report with breaking (and disturbing) news on more historic, deadly flooding in Louisiana and fires in California, July 2016 as the hottest month ever recorded on Planet Earth, and the official position on climate change action from Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party's freshly minted 2016 Presidential nominee...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: OUR 700TH EPISODE!!! Heat wave shatters records across the Southwest, as California's snowpack melts away; Bernie Sanders wants YOU to fight climate change; PLUS: President Obama warns climate change is coming for your national parks... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The Enormous Threat To America’s Last Grasslands; Document Dump: Lawsuit Reveals Extent Of DuPont’s C8 Cover Up; Solar Impulse Leaves New York On Trans-Atlantic Flight Without Fuel; Permafrost Soil Under North Slope Lakes Is About To Thaw; Hot Mess: States Struggle To Deal With Radioactive Fracking Waste; As Wind Power Lifts Wyoming’s Fortunes, Coal Miners Left in the Dust... PLUS: Texas Tribe Wins 10-Year Fight Over Its Use Of Eagle Feathers... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, have Bernie Sanders supporters been responsible in their attempts to oversee voting and vote tabulation during this year's Democratic Primary? How about long time Election Integrity advocates and journalists? Are cries of "FRAUD!!!" in the race between Sanders and Hillary Clinton misguided and misleading? Or are they on-point? [Audio link to show is posted below.]

From a sweltering Los Angeles, on the first official day of Summer, I speak to some of the many claims and allegations that this year's Democratic primary was "stolen" --- either by Hillary Clinton, the DNC, or anybody else. Just a few thoughts on all of this from someone who has investigated and covered issues of Election Integrity and fraud and voter suppression and non-overseeable computer voting systems and tabulators, often in excruciating detail, for more than a decade at The BRAD BLOG, on The BradCast, and anywhere else that would have me. As part of today's epic rant on all of this, I also offer some advice to those who believe California was "stolen", and how state law allows them to actually try and find out...if they really want to.

Also today, the Sanders campaign says supporters are answering his call from last week for fresh candidates to step up and run for office with progressive platforms at the local, state and federal level.

Meanwhile, the NRA-funded Republicans continue to obstruct any meaningful legislative action to try and help prevent gun violence following last week's massacre in Orlando, as the U.S. Senate blocks attempts to bar suspected terrorists from buying weapons of mass destruction at local gun shops, gun shows and online. All of that is playing out, as Donald Trump, the GOP's presumptive nominee for President, offers a particularly egregious lie in hopes of backpedaling from his repeated statements last week that he would have liked to have seen club patrons with many more guns in that dark, crowded LGBT nightclub in Orlando. It's a position that even the terrorist-enabling NRA no longer seems to fully agree with.

Finally, with firearm violence plummeting in California --- while it remains steady nationally --- the state legislature takes some action on scientific gun research in the wake of the federal government's effective twenty-year ban on same. And, before we close, with triple-digit temps shattering records out here today, a few climate scientists remind us that their own research concerning global warming, finds it to be anything but a bleeping "hoax"...

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It's been a rough week, so today on The BradCast, we try and catch up on a whole bunch of stuff we haven't been able to get to over the past several days in the wake of Orlando. [Audio link to complete show follow below.]

It's now been one full year since Donald Trump entered the race --- and since we accurately predicted the precise effect he would have on the GOP's 2016 Presidential Primary. Sure enough, the wheel's are now falling completely off for Republicans. Among the fresh evidence: John McCain declares (repeatedly) that Obama is "directly responsible" for the Orlando Massacre, while lying about how and why we 'left' Iraq. It's now so bad for Republicans that George W. Bush, of all people, is coming to the party's 'rescue'. Good luck with that. But, no worries, the GOP has declared the Republican National Convention a gun-free (and fruit-free) zone, so all is well.

On the Democratic side of the aisle, Bernie Sanders offers an online message to supporters, calling on them to work together to defeat Trump and to run for office at the state and local level to the continue the "political revolution". Meanwhile, polls begin to look very good for Hillary Clinton nationally and even in a number of traditionally very "red" states (could a Dem actually win in Utah and in Kansas this year?) All of that would seem to be good news for Democrats, but only if they are allowed to vote this November, which may just have gotten slightly easier for some in Kansas, where GOP "voter fraud" fraudster, Sec. of State Kris Kobach, continues to shame the state.

Finally today, we finish up with the latest Green News Report following the hottest May ever recorded on Planet Earth, and the emergence of new proof that Trump was for action on climate change before he decided to pretend it was all "a hoax".

All of that and much more on today's BradCast!...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: It's Donald Trump vs. reality in energy and water speeches in California; Activist shareholders fail to get oil companies to address climate change; Record rains and flash floods in Houston; Good news for fish in the Arctic; PLUS: New record low for Las Vegas' water supply... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Scientists Find Still More Antarctic Ice That May Be In Trouble; Enviros Reject Rep. Smith’s Request For Info On Exxon Climate Case; Nuclear Plants, Despite Safety Concerns, Gain Support as Clean Energy; Canada, U.S. Warn of Eight Chemicals in Great Lakes; Can US Protect The Salamander And Its Essential Role In The Food Chain?; U.S. Top Court Backs Property Owners Over Wetlands Permits; African Women Are Breaking Their Backs To Get Water For Their Families...PLUS: Sanders Challenges White House and DNC Over Fracking...and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, the "election nightmares" continue. We get an explanation, of sorts, about the mysterious "disappearing" Sanders votes in Sussex County, DE on Tuesday night, and one of the two lawsuits filed after Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ's disastrous March 22nd Primary is dismissed by a local judge.

First up, after a bit of happy news for voters in Vermont and some more Luciferian news for the GOP, we continue to mop up from the ongoing 2016 Primary Election messes, as questions about the reported results in Arizona and Delaware (among many other states) remain.

Thousands of Bernie Sanders votes appeared to "disappear" in Sussex County, DE during tabulation of Tuesday's Primary (as described on yesterday's show). We finally receive an answer or two from the Delaware State Elections Commissioner Elaine Manlove about what might have happened. In short, without saying so directly, she chalks up the apparent disappearance of some 4,000 reported votes --- as captured via results screenshots from Washington Post, The Guardian and elsewhere --- to a clerical human error by the Associated Press, from whom many media outlets take their numbers on Election Night.

While her explanation --- which I share in full on the show --- has the ring of truth to it, the fact is that DE uses 100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) systems across the entire state. And, as her answers make clear, while certain FOIAs can be filed, there is really no way for voters to ever know that any of the reported results from Tuesday actually reflect the will of the voters. Tune in for the complete details and explanation and, yet again, why DRE voting machines can never satisfy a justifiably skeptical public hoping to be able to oversee their own public elections.

Then, I'm joined by longtime election integrity champion Emily Levy, who worked with the transpartisan EI group AUDIT-AZ on the lawsuit filed just after Arizona's disastrous March 22nd Primary, when voters across Maricopa County (Phoenix) faced hours long lines to vote. The problems occurred after County Recorder Helen Purcell radically decreased the number of polling places from 211 in 2012, to just 60 this year. The suit also sought to obtain answers to reports by some voters that registrations had mysteriously switched from Democratic to independent (thus, preventing those voters from casting a normal ballot in the state's closed Primary).

After two days of disturbing testimony "in a courtroom packed with voters and elections officials," including Purcell, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Gass dismissed the case on the basis that plaintiffs didn't offer proof that the election results would be overturned if they were allowed to proceed with discovery and a full trial.

Levy tells me the judge failed to rule on the Constitutional issues raised in the suit, and focused only on the state's Election Code "which apparently requires that we be able to --- in the 5 days we have between certification of the election and the deadline to file a case --- prove exactly what the problems were, and that they would have affected the outcome of the election."

"The election code really needs to be changed, because we need to have the ability to contest elections in meaningful ways," she says, adding: "I've seen the same thing in other states." As have I. Both the AZ and DE stories discussed on today's show underscore why it's so important to get election procedures and processes right before an election, rather than waiting until afterword, when it's generally too late to do anything about it. It's also another reminder why the Voting Rights Act --- which used to allow for that in some locations, like Maricopa --- needs to be restored after being gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.

In the meantime, the legal complaint filed by the DNC, as joined by both the Clinton and Sanders campaign, along with a separate investigation by the DoJ, both continue to move forward. AUDIT-AZ's official response to the dismissal is posted, along with declarations and other documents from the case, on their website, ElectionNightmares.com.

Finally, we close today with Donald Trump going "nuclear" over climate and much more in our latest Green News Report' with Desi Doyen...

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On today's BradCast, we catch up on a number of items in the news, almost all of which underscore a rigged system in the U.S. and the need to unrig it.

From the new effort by more than 100 bipartisan state Attorneys General to see former AL Gov. Don Siegelman (D) turned political prisoner receive a pardon from President Obama; to the obscene amount of corporate and billionaire cash now pouring into U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan's Republican campaign machine; to new lawsuits filed in Arizona by the DNC (with both the Clinton and Sanders camps joining), as well as by transpartisans charging voter suppression in the state's disastrous March 22nd primary; to remaining concerns about the results of recent Presidential nominating contests around the country.

All of those stories, including the increasingly loud insistence (whether supported by the evidence or not) from Sanders and Trump supporters who believe that both major political parties have "rigged" the Presidential nomination selection process against their favored candidates, underscore how the broken U.S. system desperately needs fixing.

So what to do about it? Some of our listeners have ideas, even ones I may or may not agree with. All of that and much more, including our latest Green News Report, on today's program...

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On today's BradCast, more surprisingly good news from the U.S. Supreme Court for voters, and more concerns for the ability of those voters to cast a vote at all in the state of Wisconsin in tomorrow's crucial Primary Election in the Badger State. [Audio link to complete show follows below.]

First today, two encouraging breaking stories as we go to air: California Governor Jerry Brown signs a new law, just hashed out last week, raising the state's minimum wage from $10 to $15 by 2022, and SCOTUS unanimously(!) affirms the long-held principle of 'One Person, One Vote' that had been challenged by Rightwingers in the Evenwell v. Abbott case which we covered in detail last December following oral arguments.

The Court's 8 to 0 opinion on Monday finds that Congressional districts may be drawn, as they are currently, with (roughly) the same population in each, rather than, as petitioners had sought, the same number of eligible voters in each. Had that argument been successful, not only would every district in the country need to be redrawn, but, more problematically (and, of course, the reason the challenge was brought in the first place), in such a way that a lot of voting power would have shifted from urban centers, which tend to vote Democratic, to rural districts, which tend to vote more Republican. We explain what that all means and how a ruling in favor of petitioners would have left non-voters, such as children, immigrants and felons, among others, with even less legislative power than they have now.

Also today, we review the messy small "d" democracy at work over the weekend, as Ted Cruz seems to have outsmarted Donald Trump at the GOP's North Dakota state delegate convention, and as Bernie Sanders picked up two delegates previously won by Hillary Clinton at the Nevada Caucuses on February 20th. (Her total now there, for those keeping score at home, goes from a 20 to 15 delegate victory, to a virtual tie at 18 to 17 over Sanders --- at least if the latest totals from the state's Democratic Party County delegate conventions hold.)

Then, the much less good news, as we speak to Emily Lonergan, with the Legal Coordinating Committee of Wisconsin Election Protection about the concerns that some 300,000 already lawfully registered voters --- much less those that are eligible to vote and may still register on Election Day --- will be blocked from casting a vote at all with the implementation of state Republicans' draconian, unnecessary and wildly (purposefully?) confusing Photo ID voting restrictions during tomorrow's primary

Lonergan, who clearly shares my very serious concerns about this issue, and the problems it may cause for all voters on Tuesday, explains the GOP's absurdly confusing new restrictions on voting in WI, noting in no uncertain terms that (as found during the trial which struck down this law as illegal and unconstitutional, only to be overturned by a flawed ruling by a federal appellate court) there is no known problems with "voter fraud" that this new voting restriction could have possibly deterred.

"The majority of voter fraud cases in Wisconsin relate to individuals who are...disqualified due to felony status," she tells me. "Frankly, I don't believe there has been one case --- and I certainly haven't heard anybody pointing out a single case to me --- of voter fraud that could have been avoided with [the state's new Photo ID voting restriction] in place."

So buckle up for what could be a very bumpy primary day in Wisconsin --- for both Democrats, in particular, but also for many Republicans! You may also want to keep the number 866-OUR-VOTE handy to pass on when you encounter or hear about trouble at the polls on Tuesday! Please report it there! (And to county and state officials, as well as media, etc.)

Finally today, back to the encouraging (if too little, too late) news: It is confirmed that the U.S. Dept. of Justice will be launching a civil rights investigation of the disastrous March 22nd primary in Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ, after thousands were turned away without being able to cast their vote due to closed polling places and mysteriously changed voter registrations...

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On today's BradCast, in the wake of the disgraceful voter suppression that took place last week in AZ (and, before that, in IL, MO, NC, FL, etc. so far this cycle), we detail, among other things, the disasters that await voters next week during the crucial Dem and GOP primaries in Scott Walker's WI.

Despite being found illegal and/or unconstitutional by three different courts, the Badger State's new Photo ID voting restriction, instituted by state Republicans, will be in place next week for the first time during a major election. The law, determined by a federal court to imperil the otherwise legal votes of some 300,000 already-registered voters, will be implemented nonetheless, thanks to a factually-inaccurate ruling by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014.

That, despite the federal judge who found it "absolutely clear," based on evidence and expert testimony during the lengthy trial he oversaw, that Wisconsin's Photo ID voting restriction will "prevent more legitimate votes from being cast than fraudulent votes." And, also, despite the lack of required notice the state has given to voters concerning the disenfranchising new restriction on voting rights.

So, buckle up for that fun and for remaining primary disasters in other states where too many registered voters are waiting until Election Day to be surprised by changed voting rules, long lines and mysteriously changed party registrations. (Yes, talking to you, NY and CA voters, among many others!)

We also get some more information on the mystery concerning all of those delegates Bernie Sanders was supposed to have won last week in WA and hear about the harrowing tale of the 82-year old African-American plaintiff challenging NC's Photo ID voting restriction.

Finally, we take a ton of listener calls today, for a happy change, on all of the above and much more in another very lively BradCast!...

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Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)