The fight for election integrity and for democracy over autocracy continues on today’s BradCast, from Venezuela to the United States. [Audio link to full show follows below.]
Among today’s topics…
- The quickly exploding Park Fire in Northern California continues to spread, as firefighters battle against time and exceedingly warm, dry and windy weather. The enormous fire, ignited by an arsonist but fueled by climate changed-conditions, has now chewed through more than 550 square miles and threatens the Lassen Volcanic National Park as it has become the 6th largest fire in state history. Desi Doyen has details today.
- The government of Venezuela‘s autocratic ruler, President Nicolas Maduro, declared he had defeated opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez by some 7 points in Sunday’s election. But Gonzalez supporters, election observers and a bunch of foreign nations are questioning the officially reported results, citing irregularities at polling places, contrary polling numbers, and a lack of transparency among other irregularities, as tabulation records from tens of thousands of touchscreen voting systems around the country have yet to be made public. Election Integrity advocates, including the Carter Center in Atlanta, are demanding Venezuelan authorities immediately publish tallies from some 30,000 individual voting machines which have been withheld from public oversight to date.
- Meanwhile, when it comes to democracy and elections back home, we’ve got a few problems of our own. On Monday, President Biden introduced his proposal for reforming our corrupted U.S. Supreme Court. He is calling for 18-year term limits that would allow a sitting President to appoint a new Justice every two years. He is calling on Congress to create an enforceable code of ethics for Justices following years of revelations of millions of dollars in undisclosed luxury gifts, travel and cash accepted by Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and others; and for a “No One Is Above the Law Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Court’s recent ridiculous discovery of a heretofore unnoticed Presidential Immunity Clause in our founding document, giving immunity from prosecution to former Presidents for virtually any crime they carry out while in office.
- At the same time, democracy advocates continue to be elated following the President’s decision to pass the 2024 torch to his Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee against Donald Trump just over one week ago. The choice being presented to American voters this November could not be more stark between a young, freedom-loving progressive and an old, criminally-convicted, autocracy-embracing former President. We discuss.
- Finally, we open up the phones to all of the above and much more with listeners — both wise and not-so-much — on the top issues of the day…
The BradCast
with Brad Friedman
7/29/2024
Chaos Follows Venezuela Election; Enthusiasm Builds for Harris in U.S.: ‘BradCast’ 7/29/2024 | Also: CA's Park Fire, its sixth largest ever, rages out of control; Biden details call for long-overdue SCOTUS reform; Listeners ring in... · · · · · Chaos Follows Venezuela Election; Enthusiasm Builds for Harris in U.S.: ‘BradCast’ 7/29/2024 | Also: CA's Park Fire, its sixth largest ever, rages out of control; Biden details call for long-overdue SCOTUS reform; Listeners ring in...
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I believe Venezuela was much more open to international observation in past elections (?).
Maduro is no prize, but Venezuela will not be one iota better off under someone like Juan Guaidà³ (except Venezuela’s wealthy class).
If Guaidà³, or someone like him, takes over the country, you can bet Wall St will be popping open the Champagne bottles.
It should be admitted, massive US sanctions have hurt the country’s economy, and helped keep things unstable, in addition to Maduro’s clumsy leadership.
DonL – My coverage here on the Venezuelan election is not political. I don’t have a dog in the hunt as to who should or shouldn’t be the President, how good they would or wouldn’t be etc. The plain fact is that the centralized Venezuelan National Election Council (stacked with Maduro supporters, FWIW), has not released the polling place results for tens of thousands of them, making it impossible for the public to oversee the election results.
That is unacceptable, whether it is here or in Venezuela, or anywhere else that claims to have a democratic system.
I don’t know who won or who lost, and neither does anybody else until that data is made available for public oversight. I have no idea who it will or won’t benefit, nor if the actual winner of the election is good for Venezuela (or the US or anybody else.) And I don’t actually care, in truth about that part of it.