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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: People's Climate March draws hundreds of thousands in the sweltering heat; Trump's EPA deletes climate change from its website; Last-minute government funding deal ignores Trump's proposed environmental cuts; Largest electric utility in Iowa to go 100% renewable; PLUS: Trump rolls back oil spill safety regulations implemented after the BP Gulf Oil Disaster... 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 New York Times should not have hired climate change bullshitter Bret Stephens; Scientists have shown they can march. Can they help win elections?; Sea-Level Rise: Gentrification As High Ground Becomes Hot Property; New York Plan to Dump Chlorine Into Sewers Worries Environmentalists; Justices Deny Review Of Case Challenging Polar Bear Habitat; Nitrite Pollution Puts Warming Waters At Risk; USDA Secretary Rolls Back Obama Nutrition Standards For School Lunches... PLUS: Melting Arctic Threatens Age-Old Hunt In Northernmost Greenland Village... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Elections have consequences: Trump executive order to begin ripping up Obama's climate legacy; Not so fast - Trump approves Keystone XL Pipeline, but Nebraska gets final say; North Dakota pipeline spill three times larger than original estimate; PLUS: Maryland state legislature and Republican Governor approve permanent ban on fracking... 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): Climate Deniers Are Winning—and Getting Greedy; Climate Change-Fueled Jet Stream Linked to Floods and Heatwave; A Merciless Bat-Killing Fungus Is Now In Texas; Michigan, Flint To Replace 18,000 Lead-Tainted Water Lines; EPA Didn't Tighten Standards For Lead, Leaving Communities Adrift; California vs. Trump: California regulators move forward on climate change rules; California passes nation’s toughest methane emission regulations; Perry Pushes Nevada Nuclear Waste Site In First Official Visit... PLUS: USDA Drops Plan To Test For Monsanto Weed Killer In Food... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, a former evangelical Christian who, after decades of participating in the political rightwing anti-abortion con has since seen the light, joins us to explain what Democrats need to do in order to encourage his "brainwashed" former followers to realize they've been scammed by Donald Trump. [Audio link to show at end of article.]

But first up today, U.S. officials admit some 200 Iraqi civilians in Mosul may have been killed during a U.S. bombing campaign last week, in what has become a startling and savage escalation in the so-called "War on Terror" since Trump has taken office. While the Obama Administration had carried out similar campaigns, the increase in indiscriminate lethality by the new President's campaigns in Iraq, Syria and Yemen is both alarming and vastly underreported or downplayed by U.S. media --- not to mention, counter-productive in the so-called "War on Terror".

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, the GOP's anti-LGBT "bathroom bill" is costing the state economy thousands of jobs and billions of dollars, according to a new analysis by the Associated Press. That, even as Republicans in other states, like Texas, are quickly moving to enact similarly "conservative" anti-LGBT laws in their own state.

Then, as Trump's approval rating continues to plummet to record lows, even his numbers among his own base of supporters --- white, male Republicans --- are beginning to erode. Still, overall support for the President remains high among Republicans as a whole, for now.

Author Frank Schaeffer, who formerly spent decades along with his father, theologian Dr. Francis Schaeffer, creating (and profiting from) the far right anti-abortion political movement, joins us to discuss how he believes Democrats can win back both the White House and Congress, from the perspective of someone who, for many years, had preyed on the fears and false facts favored by rightwing, so-called "values voters". You can't convince them of facts, a fired-up Schaeffer tells me today, but you can drop a lit metaphorical match into their gas tanks by helping them understand how Trump himself has "betrayed them."

"The over-arching bloc of people without whom [Trump] could not have been elected are white evangelicals, and that's my stomping ground." Schaeffer explains. "This was all before I left the evangelical world and changed sides both, you might say, theologically and politically. When it comes to understanding the brain of the evangelical movement, I know what I'm talking about. From birth, people raised in the fundamentalist subculture are taught to mistrust, distrust, renounce so-called 'world facts'. So, when science says that evolution proves something, or that the Earth is very old, or there wasn't a Noah's ark, you are taught from birth they are lying. We have our own facts. We have our own truth. That truth is in the Bible and our denomination's interpretation of it."

You can't convince these folks with facts alone that they are wrong, he argues, but you can help them see how they have been scammed. "If you come up with a fact-based argument, people's eyes in the evangelical world just glaze over, and instead of talking to you about the issue or the facts, all you get back is this stream-of-consciousness which is really more of a Pavlovian reaction and brain-washing," he says. "So, [Trump] had a built-in audience that liked what he was saying just because he's giving the finger to the established order of science, university teaching, learning --- and all those other things that so-called 'secular' people live by."

"That group of people is going to be looking at what he's doing to them when they lose healthcare," Shaeffer, whose latest book is Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God, observes. "They're going to be looking at the fact that in that new budget of his, Meals on Wheels doesn't show up for their grandma anymore on that farm in Omaha. They're going to see one tweak too many ... That drip-drip-drip-drip of actual evidence in their own lives --- not reason, not argument --- but things going wrong because he is a fool, he is a charlatan, he is a faker, he is a fraud. In other words, when they wake up in the position your average Trump University student woke up in, finding their degree was worthless, they are going to simply start losing faith."

But will they? Haven't these same folks fallen for the same con many times in the past? Schaeffer, who worked with past Republican Presidents, responds to that question, and many others today in a lively (and angry) dressing down of both Trump and his supporters, who, Schaeffer insists, he still knows all too well.

Finally today, a pro-Trump demonstration in California over the weekend ends with a counter-demonstrator being repeatedly beaten with a "Make American Great Again" sign, and the pipeline oil spill reported last December in North Dakota, not far from the site of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, turns out to have been at least three time larger than originally reported...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump repeals anti-corruption regulation for the fossil fuel industry; From the folks bringing you the Dakota Access Pipeline, another major pipeline spill; Good news for breathers, bad news for coal miners in Arizona; US emissions still declining; PLUS: Scientists discover man-made toxic chemicals in the deepest part of the ocean... 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): Climate Change Plus Aging Infrastructure = Multiplying Disasters; Oroville Is a Warning for California Dams, as Climate Change Adds Stress; Scientists have just detected a major change to the Earth's oceans linked to a warming climate; Indigenous People Should Have Rights Over Their Land, Pope Francis Says; Endangered Species Act heading for the threatened list; 'A large blowtorch': worker missing in Paradis pipeline explosion; Ohio GOP targets clean energy standards, efficiency rules... PLUS: India's polluted air now kills 1.1 million people per year... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: California dodges a bullet --- for the moment --- at Oroville Dam; U.S. not prepared for climate impacts on infrastructure; Judge rejects tribe's request to halt Dakota Access Pipeline construction; PLUS: Extreme heat waves brings extreme fire danger to Australia... 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): Oroville Dam is a window into a warmer future; New England CO2 emissions spike after Vermont Yankee nuclear closure; Locals say protesters willing to give their lives to stop Dakota Access Pipeline; Humans causing climate to change 170 times faster than natural forces; Ohio Critics Hope Bats Might Slow Down Pipeline Project; Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and ministers were told wind not to blame for South Australia blackout; DuPont settles lawsuits over leak of chemical used to make Teflon... PLUS: Trump Would Face Legal Battle For Dumping Treaty... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Standing Rock Sioux tribe vows to keep fighting against Dakota Access Pipeline; New study finds owners of the pipeline reported 69 spills in the last 2 years; Air pollution linked to increased risk of dementia; More Americans now work in solar jobs than in coal jobs; PLUS: Sweden votes to go zero emissions by 2050... 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): House Science Committee Hearing Renews Battle of Science Vs. Denial; Reality finally sets in for the media: Trump's presidency will be a disaster for the climate; At least 7 tornadoes touch down in Louisiana, state of emergency declared; Conservation success: Canary rockfish no longer considered overfished; Scientists are figuring out how to lower L.A.'s temperture; The state of residential solar power; 'Whistleblower' says protocol was breached but no data fraud... PLUS: U.S. utilities seek solar power as Trump sides with coal, fossil fuels... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast: If those friendly to America are rising up against Donald Trump's disastrous Presidency, imagine what our actual enemies think! Well, we don't have to imagine quite as much as of today, even as Republicans in Congress continue their work to undermine American democracy. [Audio link to full show follows below.]

Donald Trump's Yemen raid last week --- the first special ops mission he approved after becoming President --- was an unmitigated disaster during which a U.S. Navy SEAL was killed along with a number civilians, including an 8-year old American girl. The target was reportedly meant to be the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who is still alive and well and mocking Trump this week, even as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer ridiculously declared the failed mission "a successful operation by all standards."

Also mocking Trump today is the Supreme Leader of Iran, who thanked the new President for "showing the real face of America" after Trump banned Iranian travelers and put the country "on notice" in a Tweet last week, threatening military action and emboldening Iran's hardliners in the process of an increasing alarming drumbeat toward war. (Corporate media chasing all of Trump's idiotic statements may want to start paying much closer attention to this. Please?)

Back at home, the President's wildly controversial and wholly unqualified nominee for Education Secretary, billionaire Betsy DeVos, became the first cabinet nominee in history to be approved by the U.S. Senate after a tie vote in which the Vice President had to cast the decisive vote. At least this time the Democrats finally stood unified in voting against DeVos, along with two Republican Senators who joined them.

In the meantime, while The Netherlands announces that, due to hacking fears, they will do away with computer tabulation machines in favor of hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots ("Democracy's Gold Standard") for their upcoming election, Republicans in the U.S. House moved to abolish the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the only federal agency tasked with setting standards for our nation's oft-failed, easily-hacked electronic voting and tabulation systems.

As explained in detail on today program, the EAC has been a disaster on several levels since its creation following the 2000 Presidential election debacle in Florida. Among countless BradBlog.com stories highlighting their failures over the years, was our 2006 exclusive on the un-aired network interview with the EAC's first Chair, the Bush-appointed Rev. DeForest Soaries. He described the agency in the interview as a "charade" and warned that our computerized voting and tabulation system is "ripe for stealing elections and for fraud." (Also, as mentioned today, see the chapter I contributed with Michael Richardson and John Gideon to Mark Crispin Miller's Loser Take All, revealing how, in 2004, Nevada's then Sec. of State, now U.S. Senator Dean Heller illegally certified and lied about his state's touch-screen voting systems, which are still in use today, with an assist from the corrupt EAC.)

Nonetheless, despite its many failures, the answer to the EAC's problems is not to abolish the agency, but to fund it properly and make it work. That the GOP is prepared to eliminate it entirely --- even amidst Trump's false claims of millions of fraudulent votes cast in the 2016 election --- is quite telling.

Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, along with today's late breaking news that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced in court papers that it plans to grant the final permit needed to complete the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, despite former President Obama's order to conduct a full environmental impact study before construction is completed on the $3.8 billion pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 400 former EPA officials tell U.S. Senate to vote 'No' on Scott Pruitt's nomination to head EPA; Another heat wave in the Arctic leaves scientists in 'stunned' disbelief; Electric vehicle sales jump nearly 40 per cent in one year; China to slash coal use in Beijing again; PLUS: The March for Science is on for Earth Day 2017... 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): 'Whistleblower' says protocol was breached but no data fraud; Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have turned the White House against America; Reality finally sets in for the media: Trump’s presidency will be a disaster for the climate; There are now twice as many solar jobs as coal jobs in the US; No Data Was Manipulated in a Widely Cited 2015 Climate Study; Extreme Radiation Levels Detected At Fukushima Reactor; Car ban fails to curb air pollution in Mexico City; Once-cautious climate economist reverses course, issues warning against the cost of inaction... PLUS: #RIP: 3 minutes with Hans Rosling will change your mind about the world... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court not a big fan of federal agencies; Former ExxonMobil CEO now in charge of U.S. diplomacy; Trump's controversial EPA nominee muscled through GOP Senate Committee; PLUS: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe gears up for another court battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline... 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): Trump Supreme Court Nominee Could Hear Case Affecting Trump Golf Courses; Clean Water Protections Under Attack in Early Days of 115th Congress; As Drought Winds Down, CA Lawmakers Set Stage for Future Water Wars; 3 GOP governors invest in clean energy; Green movement 'greatest threat to freedom', says Trump adviser; Lawmaker Wants To Ease Rules On Drilling In Natl Parks... PLUS: Climate economist sounds the alarm... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: It begins: Trump re-launches controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines; Team Trump imposes gag orders and lock downs on science-based federal agencies; PLUS: New U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations won't commit to supporting United Nations Paris Agreement... 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): Trump's unsupported claim he has 'received awards on the environment'; Lead Levels Fall Below Federal Limits In Flint, Michigan: State; Iowa Oil Spill Marks Pipeline Risks After Trump Revives Major Projects; In Michigan, a Fight Over the Future of a Fabled Trout River; Senate Democrats Unveil A Trump-Size Infrastructure Plan; Fla. DEP Secretary Going To Work For Firm That Just Got New DEP Contract; This Week's Jersey Floods Are A Taste Of What's To Come... PLUS: Gag Order Or Not, Here's Why Trump Cracking Down On Government Science is So Scary... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: While we were out: President Obama created two new national monuments; Wisconsin solved climate change...by deleting it; Ohio's governor reinstated renewable energy standards; Michigan banned plastic bag bans; PLUS: Activists got high to protest Dakota Access Pipeline... 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): How to Save $23 Trillion Per Year: 100% Renewable Energy for the World; Warming Crushes Global Records Again In 2016; House Passes Bill To Overturn 'Midnight' Regulations En Masse; Oil Industry Fears Trump May Hit Them Up on Tax Reform; China To Plow $361 Billion Into Renewable Fuel By 2020; Court Delays Appeal Over Obama’s Fracking Rule; US Workers Making BPA Have Enormous Loads Of It In Them... PLUS: Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest Faces Fracking Threat... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump picks climate science denier and fossil fuel industry tool to head EPA; Weather Channel smacks back at climate denial propaganda; It's official: sea ice at both poles falls to stunning record lows; PLUS: Another oil pipeline spill - this time in North Dakota - not far from the Dakota Access Pipeline... 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): Memo Outlines Planet-Killing GOP Energy Policy; More on Trump's Catastrophic Plan to Gut NASA's Earth Science; While Eyes Were On Standing Rock, The Dakota Pipeline Was Being Drilled Under Another Water Source; The Perfect Tide - Sea Level and the Future of South Florida; This fall was the warmest on record, 2016 will be at least second-warmest year; Trump AG Pick Introduced First Bill Exempting Fracking from Water Regulations; Soon-To-Expire Health Benefits For Coal Miners Are At The Center Of The Government Funding Fight; Nuclear plant 'overwhelmed' say inspectors... PLUS: Rapid Arctic ice melt sets the stage for economic disaster under Trump... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, the latest breaking news on how broken optical-scan tabulation computers may have undermined the ability to count tens of thousands of ballots in Michigan --- specifically in or near Detroit --- and much more "recount" 2016 related news, even from Vermont! [Audio link to show is posted below.]

With a reported margin of just over 10,000 votes for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in MI --- out of some 5 million votes tallied in the state --- the ability to hand-count tens of thousands of votes in Green Party candidate Jill Stein's federal court-ordered [PDF] "recount" may be at risk of "chaos" under state law, thanks to the failure of computerized paper-ballot optical-scanners which may have mistallied ballots in some fashion on Election Day.

Hopefully, hand-counts can reconcile mismatches between poll book signatures and computer printouts from "610 of 1,680" precincts in Wayne County, which includes heavily Democratic-leaning Detroit, where "392 of 662" or 59% of precincts may now be uncountable. That's a major concern, obviously, not just due to the state's razor thin margin, but also, as Stein points out today, since some 75,000 ballots --- until now, completely unexamined by human beings --- were reported by the computers to have no vote at all for President. That's a 70% increase from 2012 in the number of ballots reported to have Presidential undervotes, a number that is more than seven-fold the margin of votes that could flip the state from Trump to Clinton.

All of that as Team Trump ups their efforts in both state and federal court to stop the counting in MI entirely and as Stein pushes back in both court cases, including a move to force the recusal of two state Supreme Court judges named by Trump as potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

Also, while a recent change to state law by Republicans in WI has resulted in many of the largest counties simply running paper ballots through the same computer scanners that tallied them (either correctly or incorrectly, who knows?) the first time in that state's "recount", it's not just Republicans who prefer unverified computer tallies over hand-counts. In Vermont, the will of the voters may never been known in two exceedingly close state legislative races, thanks to a 2014 state law supported Democrats, requiring that computers, not people, tally ballots during ongoing "recounts" there. Two incumbent Democratic lawmakers who supported the new law may now be undone by it, as one is set to lose a "recounted" race by just six votes, and the other is facing a tie, depending on whether two questionably marked paper ballots were tallied by the scanner or not. (I wonder how they could figure out if they were?)

All of that may be good news to the Washington Post, however, which published an op-ed yesterday explaining why the authors believe, in contravention of computer scientists and voting systems experts, that "computers are better than humans at counting ballots." Of course, to know that for certain, the authors suggest...um...counting ballots by hand.

Also on today's BradCast: Al Gore meets with Donald Trump to discuss Climate Change and Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report on the weekend's victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, on Trump reportedly eying Native American lands for energy development and Exxon Mobile's CEO for Sec. of State, and a bit of good renewable energy news out of Texas (of all places)...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Victory and temporary reprieve for the Standing Rock Sioux in long fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline; Trump advisors suggest privatizing oil-rich Native American lands; Exxon Mobil CEO could be next U.S. Secretary of State; Extreme rainfall events projected to increase five-fold across the U.S.; PLUS: Enormous cost of cleaning up Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster has doubled... 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): Al Gore: climate change threat leaves 'no time to despair' over Trump victory; Canada's ruling Liberals count on math, time to survive pipeline uproar; Why Trump will struggle to save the coal industry; For Flint Residents, A Fog of Unanswerable Questions; Trump Can't Kill Solyndra Loan Office That Outperforms Banks; Texan who could lead Trump's EPA wants to end renewable energy subsidies... PLUS: Pope urges world leaders not to hobble climate change pact... and much, MUCH more! ...

On today's BradCast, we cover an enormous amount of news, breaking and otherwise, on both the Presidential "recount" story in three different states, as well as the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. And we speak to Green Party candidate Jill Stein's campaign manager, David Cobb, about the ongoing and "escalating" legal battles and fights for citizen oversight of election results in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. [Audio link to show posted at bottom of article.]

First today, the latest on the breaking news over the weekend in the story of the denial of a permit for the controversial pipeline in ND, where thousands of native Americans have been protesting for months against its construction near tribal lands. On Sunday, in a huge victory, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement to Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners that would have allowed them to complete the pipeline by building on disputed land near and beneath Lake Oahe, the Standing Rock Sioux's source of drinking water. The victory, while monumental --- even as the protests and violent attempts by law enforcement to stop them have been almost entirely ignored by mainstream corporate media --- may be short-lived, depending on legal actions and decisions made by the next President. Desi Doyen joins us for the latest.

At the same time, over the weekend, the corporate media was busy misreporting and misleading the legal maneuvers of Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein, who has dropped just one of the statewide voter-initiated suits demanding a PA "recount", in favor of a federal filing [PDF] today, on Constitutional grounds, seeking federal intervention for a statewide count and forensic analysis of 100% unverifiable voting systems used there. Stein and her attorneys held a press conference and rally today outside of Trump Tower in Manhattan, to explain the efforts.

Also, a federal judge this morning ordered [PDF] the state of Michigan to being counting ballots today, after successful maneuvers by Team Trump delayed the start of that effort late last week and had hoped to further delay or deny citizen oversight of results entirely. MI's Attorney General (a Trump supporter) falsely argued in his filing and during an unusual emergency hearing in federal court on Sunday, that the count might endanger the state's Electoral College votes. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered the counting to begin at noon today, however, finding that any further delay "would likely violate [plaintiffs'] right to vote under the First and Fourteenth Amendments" and that "there is a credible threat to the voters' right to have a determination made that Michigan's vote for president was properly tabulated." The MI GOP has vowed to appeal both the federal and state cases against counting ballots.

My guest today, Stein's campaign manager David Cobb, the Party's 2004 Presidential nominee --- who, himself, called for the partial statewide count that happened after that year's Presidential contest in Ohio --- joins us to discuss the latest developments in the ongoing counts and court cases in all three states, and to explain why Stein and the Green Party "are demanding integrity in the election system."

In PA, he explains (as we long have as well), that "there is no way to properly verify the DRE --- direct recording electronic --- equipment, otherwise correctly known as 'black box voting'. It's terrible to begin with and they should never be used. ... The real gain here is forensic experts getting an opportunity to get their hands on these machines --- and that is exactly what we are seeking in all three states --- but, in Pennsylvania, in federal court specifically, because of the completely outrageous system of recount provisions in the state." (To get an idea how horrific they are, check out my interview with VotePA's Marybeth Kuznik from last week, or read today's filing [PDF] in federal court.)

"I really want to underscore," he tells me, "we are escalating the fight into federal court in Pennsylvania precisely because the Pennsylvania laws are so horrible."

"These black box voting machines are hackable," he continues. "If any nefarious individual can get their hands on them, there are ways to manipulate them. That's the reason it's so important to have these forensic studies done. So that we can literally verify the vote. What is Donald Trump afraid of?"

We also discuss the efforts of the Green Party going back to Cobb's own attempted "recount" in Ohio, when two top election officials in the state's largest county, Cuyahoga (Cleveland), were found guilty and sentenced to the maximum sentence in prison for having rigged the 2004 Presidential "recount".

"We are demanding that every vote counts, so count every vote! It's just that simple. At the end of the day, if we do not have confidence in the election system, we cannot have confidence in our government itself," he argues.

Finally, speaking of counting votes (or not), North Carolina's abhorrent Republican Gov. Pat McCory has announced he is giving up his own battle for a statewide recount (which we supported) and has conceded the race to the state's Democratic candidate Attorney General Roy Cooper, becoming the first Governor to lose a re-election bid in state history...

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