{"id":12876,"date":"2019-01-31T18:10:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T02:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12876"},"modified":"2019-01-31T18:33:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T02:33:54","slug":"intervention-please-bradcast-1312019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12876","title":{"rendered":"Abrams Super Bowl Ad Calls for &#8216;HAND-MARKED Paper Ballots&#8217;!: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 1\/31\/2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_AbramsCrawford_FairFightGA_HandMarkedPaperBallots_SuperBowAd_013119.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>: Some encouraging news for democracy (at least in Georgia), some predictable lies from the Senate Majority leader, a gentle rebuke for Trump from both parties, and a call for intervention from the Senate Minority Leader, among other things.<\/p>\n<p>Just some of the many stories covered on today&#8217;s program&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Georgia Democrat and potential U.S. Senate candidate Stacey Abrams, who will be giving the Democratic response to the State of the Union Address on Tuesday, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/blog\/politics\/stacey-abrams-set-make-super-bowl-debut\/jqKMteRwmj0Fs3IqwcNOXI\/\">set to run<\/a> a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=izY0g331NXo&#038;feature=youtu.be\">television ad<\/a> during Sunday&#8217;s Super Bowl in Atlanta with a north Georgia Republican County Commissioner calling for <i>HAND-MARKED<\/i> paper ballots in the state!<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe ad is sponsored by Abrams&#8217; non-partisan voting rights organization <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fairfightgeorgia.com\/\">Fair Fight<\/a>, formed after Abrams is said to have very narrowly lost her contest to become the nation&#8217;s first African-American female governor last November to Republican Secretary of State and champion vote suppressor Brian Kemp. Both he and his GOP successor are now calling for the state&#8217;s 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting systems to be replaced with new, very expensive and also 100% unverifiable touchscreen systems that produce computer-marked, human-unreadable barcoded ballot summary cards, rather than hand-marked paper ballots which computer science and voting systems <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Docs\/ExpertsLettertoSAFECommission_GA_BMDs_010719.pdf\">experts all agree [PDF]<\/a> to be the most secure, auditable and overseeable way to carry out elections;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In the U.S. Senate, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/mcconnell-ridicules-election-day-holiday\">offered a huge lie<\/a> about the Democrats&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/116th-congress\/house-bill\/1\/text#toc-HFCF939CAA6204AF6B40DEAFAC99FBBFA\">&#8220;For the People Act&#8221; (HR-1)<\/a>, recently introduced in the U.S. House to call for a series of major election reforms. Among the many provisions in the measure &#8212; such as universal automatic voter registration, expanded early voting, ending partisan gerrymandering and yes, ensuring a HAND-MARKED paper ballot for every voter &#8212; it also seeks to declare Election Day as a federal holiday. Naturally, McConnell lied about what the bill calls for on that point, and absurdly describes the measure as a &#8220;Democrat power-grab&#8221;. We respond;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Also in the U.S. Senate, Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/floor-action\/senate\/427781-schumer-past-time-for-intel-leaders-to-stage-an-intervention-with\">sent a letter<\/a> to Trump&#8217;s Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats calling for him and the other Administration Intelligence Chiefs to &#8220;stage an intervention&#8221; with the Commander-in-Chief, after Donald Trump described his own top intel officials on Wednesday as &#8220;wrong&#8221;, &#8220;naive&#8221; and needing to &#8220;go back to school!&#8221; on a host of foreign policy issues. Trump&#8217;s remarks came in response to the Intelligence Community&#8217;s new annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dni.gov\/files\/ODNI\/documents\/2019-ATA-SFR---SSCI.pdf\">&#8220;Worldwide Threat Assessment&#8221; PDF<\/a>. The report, and Senate testimony from the chiefs about it on Tuesday, argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/5bb33704147f4951a040dcb53d709586\">Trump is essentially wrong on everything<\/a> from North Korea, to Iran, to ISIS to Syria and Afghanistan, <i>and<\/i> on his claims about an imagined &#8220;national emergency&#8221; at the U.S. -Mexico board.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>But if Schumer really wants to &#8220;stage an intervention&#8221; with this President, his Democrats in the Senate and House could be calling for an immediate Impeachment inquiry.  As <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12869\">detailed by Ernest Canning at BradBlog.com<\/a> this week, the Nixon impeachment process reveals that it is both unnecessary and, arguably, unwise for Dems to wait for a report from the Special Counsel investigation before exercising their Constitutional duty;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Also today, Republicans and about half of Senate Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/3a20527423ff47e782b636010c1efdd8\">passed an amendment<\/a> that (gently) rebukes the President by calling for U.S. troops to remain in both Syria and Afghanistan, in contrast to Trump&#8217;s recent military directives;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>An upside to the recent federal government shutdown? A beach in Northern California that had been closed will remain closed, because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/Point-Reyes-Drakes-Beach-elephant-seals-13570578.php\">elephant seals have taken it over<\/a>;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>And, finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12875\">latest <i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a>, with updates on the record bone-chilling &#8212; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/31\/us\/iowa-student-death.html\">deadly<\/a> &#8212; Polar Vortex cold snap in the Midwest and Northeast, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2019\/1\/30\/a_war_for_oil_bolton_pushes\">evidence<\/a> that Trump&#8217;s intervention in Venezuela is, of course, all about oil, and some good news out of Germany which is now on its way to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-01-26\/merkel-s-coal-commission-wants-germany-to-quit-fuel-by-2038\">quitting<\/a> coal entirely&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_Brad Friedman_AbramsHandMarkedBallots_McConnellHR1Lies_SchumerTrumpIntervention_013119.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/BradCast_Brad Friedman_AbramsHandMarkedBallots_McConnellHR1Lies_SchumerTrumpIntervention_013119.mp3]<\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/stitcher.com\/s\/player.php?fid=25838&#038;src=psl\">Stitcher<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast: Some encouraging news for democracy (at least in Georgia), some predictable lies from the Senate Majority leader, a gentle rebuke for Trump from both parties, and a call for intervention from the Senate Minority Leader, among other things. Just some of the many stories covered on today&#8217;s program&#8230; Georgia Democrat and potential [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,1190,89,675,1006,21,333,499,982,588,930,969,28,200,5,548,72,695,178,185,477,497,340,540,147,611,198,233,610],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-brian-kemp","category-california","category-chuck-schumer","category-coal","category-dan-coats","category-ed-markey","category-election-2018","category-election-2020","category-election-reform","category-environment","category-ess","category-extreme-weather","category-georgia","category-germany","category-impeachment","category-john-bolton","category-kpfk","category-mitch-mcconnell","category-nancy-pelosi","category-oil","category-lava","category-syria","category-us-house","category-us-senate","category-venezuela","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12876"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}