{"id":15211,"date":"2024-10-28T18:27:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T01:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15211"},"modified":"2024-10-28T18:34:36","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T01:34:36","slug":"election-heats-up-in-final-week-ballots-burn-billionaires-obey-in-advance-callers-ring-in-bradcast-10282024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15211","title":{"rendered":"Election Heats Up in Final Week: Ballots Burn, Billionaires &#8216;Obey in Advance&#8217;, Callers Ring In: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 10\/28\/2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_DropBoxBurning-VancouverWA_102824.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>: <b>Bob Woodward<\/b> and <b>Carl Bernstein<\/b> would be weeping in their graves &#8212; but they&#8217;re still alive and joining many of us in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2024\/10\/26\/surprising-and-disappointing-woodward-and-bernstein-respond-to-bezos-blocking-wapo-endorsement\/\">calling out<\/a> <i>WaPo<\/i>&#8216;s cowardly billionaire owner today for kowtowing to a wannabe dictator who&#8217;s not even in office yet. Thus is the shameful price &#8212; and cost to American democracy and Freedom of the Press &#8212; of American Oligarchy, 2024-style. [<i>Audio link to full show follows below.<\/i>]\n<p>Among our stories today, before opening up our phone lines for listeners to &#8220;endorse&#8221; the Presidential candidate of their choosing, just one week before Election Day in arguably one of the most critical elections in U.S. history&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc15.com\/news\/region-phoenix-metro\/central-phoenix\/ballots-damaged-after-usps-mail-collection-box-fire-near-7th-avenue-and-indian-school-road\">Last week<\/a>, more than 20 absentee ballots were burned in an apparent case of arson inside of a U.S. Postal Service collection box in Phoenix, in the battleground state of <b>Arizona<\/b>. Today, <i>hundreds<\/i> of ballots were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kgw.com\/article\/news\/politics\/elections\/ballot-box-portland-fire\/283-715589de-58ea-480d-bd14-655df3da6d16\">burned in a ballot drop-box<\/a> in Democratic-leaning Vancouver, <b>Washington<\/b> as well as Democratic-leaning Portland, <b>Oregon<\/b>. The FBI is investigating and local law enforcement <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/vote-ballot-drop-box-democracy-fire-f66c52f774955106fb9e7c8172825cff\">report<\/a> they have identified a &#8220;suspect vehicle&#8221; thought to be connected to the incendiary devices used in both cases in the early A.M. hours on Monday. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/10\/20\/g-s1-29118\/trump-elon-musk-pennsylvania-voters\">Last week<\/a>, <b>Donald Trump<\/b>-supporting billionaire <b>Elon Musk<\/b>, the richest many on Earth, kicked off a &#8220;lottery&#8221; where registered voters in battleground states who sign his pledge would become eligible for a one million dollar give-away each day before next Tuesday&#8217;s Election Day. The DoJ subsequently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/tech-news\/doj-warns-musk-1m-petition-giveaway-illegal-rcna176911\">warned<\/a> Musk that the stunt was likely an <a href=\"https:\/\/electionlawblog.org\/?p=146397\">unlawful vote-buying scheme under federal law<\/a>. On Monday, the Philadelphia District Attorney <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/10\/28\/g-s1-30423\/philadelphia-da-sues-elon-musk-over-1-million-giveaway-to-registered-voters\">sued Musk<\/a> for running what he is describing as an unlawful lottery in violation of <b>Pennsylvania<\/b> law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>On Friday, the <i>Washington Post<\/i> &#8212; with the now-laughable tagline &#8220;Democracy Dies in Darkness&#8221; &#8212; announced it would <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/washington-post-newspaper-endorsement-election-51de8348502aa17f432504c4764c63f5\">not be making an endorsement in the Presidential race<\/a> for the first time in nearly 50 years. It&#8217;s billionaire owner, Amazon founder <b>Jeff Bezos<\/b> &#8212; whose space travel company has billions of dollars of contracts with the federal government &#8212; was reportedly behind the decision that undercut the legendary Watergate paper&#8217;s own Editorial Board that was set to endorse <b>Kamala Harris<\/b>. The decision came just after the billionaire owner of the <i>Los Angeles Times<\/i> &#8212; who happens to be a close friend of <b>Elon Musk<\/b> &#8212; forced <i>that<\/i> paper to do the same. It is what noted U.S. fascism expert <b>Timothy Snyder<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9tocssf3w80\">describes<\/a> in his landmark 2017 book, <a href=\"https:\/\/timothysnyder.org\/on-tyranny\"><i>On Tyranny<\/i><\/a>, as &#8220;obeying in advance,&#8221; which he strongly warns <i>against<\/i> as &#8220;Lesson One&#8221; when fascists threaten to take power. <b>Will Bunch<\/b> of the <i>Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i> also has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/opinion\/commentary\/washington-post-la-times-endorsements-trump-harris-20241027.html?utm_source=newsletter&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_campaign=will_bunch_alerts_10_27_2024&#038;int_promo=newsletter&#038;utm_term=Will%20Bunch\">a few thoughts in response<\/a> about the &#8220;billionaire cowards&#8221; at the two papers who are already &#8220;showing what life under a dictator is really like&#8221;, even <i>before<\/i> <b>Donald Trump<\/b>&#8216;s becomes President again (if he ever does.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>With all of that in mind &#8212; and a few more stories of note here or there &#8212; we open up our phones for <i>listeners<\/i> to make <i>their own<\/i> endorsements today on air in this year&#8217;s election. That, because <i>The BradCast<\/i> and our many affiliate stations &#8212; many associated with the <a href=\"https:\/\/pacificanetwork.org\/\">Pacifica Radio Network<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pacifica_Foundation\">founded in 1946<\/a> to, specifically, <i>stand up<\/i> against then-rising fascism &#8212; are <i>not<\/i> owned, run or controlled in any way by billionaires or their corporations. The result: a lot of calls today, with endorsements for Harris, Trump and &#8212; because our live-listener base largely draws from <a href=\"https:\/\/kpfk.org\">KPFK<\/a>, our very left-ish flagship station here in Los Angeles &#8212; for the Green Party&#8217;s <b>Jill Stein<\/b>, as a protest vote against the Biden-Harris Administration&#8217;s position on <b>Israel<\/b>. (Never mind how much worse a Trump Administration would be on the same issue&#8230;which leads to a few <i>very<\/i> lively conversations with listeners today!) Please tune in!&#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_BradFriedman-BallotsBurningWA-OR-WaPoLATimesObeyInAdvance-CallersEndorse_102824.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/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=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9icmFkYmxvZy5jb20vcG9kY2FzdGdlbi9icmFkY2FzdC9mZWVkLnhtbA\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/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: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein would be weeping in their graves &#8212; but they&#8217;re still alive and joining many of us in calling out WaPo&#8216;s cowardly billionaire owner today for kowtowing to a wannabe dictator who&#8217;s not even in office yet. Thus is the shameful price &#8212; and cost to American democracy [&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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1234,89,675,1708,299,479,1611,106,6,1736,428,1351,563,924,477,168,46,188,51,48,300,280,348,53,257],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-bob-woodward","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-carl-bernstein","category-democrats","category-donald-trump","category-election-2024","category-election-fraud","category-election-irregularities","category-elon-musk","category-israel","category-jeff-bezos","category-jill-stein","category-kamala-harris","category-kpfk","category-los-angeles-times","category-mainstream-corporate-media","category-mainstream-media-failure","category-oregon","category-pennsylvania","category-republicans","category-vote-caging","category-vote-by-mail","category-washington-post","category-washington-state"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15211","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=15211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15211"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=15211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}