The BradCast w/ Brad Friedman
BradCast' 9/19/2024 (Republicans Gaming the Map to 270, and much more)
On today's 'BradCast': US stock markets hit record highs after the Fed lowered interest rates. Bizarre new revelations reveal extracurricular activities of North Carolina's Republican gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu escalating attacks on his neighbors to keep himself out of prison. House Republicans and Donald Trump are trying cause another government shutdown. J.D. Vance continues knowingly lying about immigrants in Springfield, OH. Team Trump is working hard to game the Electoral College vote via Nebraska. Georgia county election officials caught planning ways to block certification of the 2024 election if Trump loses. Texas' corrupt AG Paxton is suing blue counties to block them from registering new voters. California poised to enact law expanding voter registration. Plus Desi Doyen has our new 'Green News Report.'
- Broadcast on:
- 19 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
an illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal that is not how this works actually it is how it works it wasn't illegal and it wasn't done by Kamala Harris it was actually done by Donald Trump other than that you nailed it from Pacifica radio Los Angeles this is the broadcast as heard on kpfk 90.7 fm in la also in california and red bluffing redding on kfoi and round mountains kkrn up in Oregon on the central coast on kyaq cottage groves kso and ugeans kepw landchester pennsylvania's wnews mowie hawaii's kaku in columbus ohio on wgrn palenville new york's wlpp Rochester New York's wrfz down in new orleans on whiv out in gallop namexco and kniz conquered new hampshire's wn hn fayetteville arkansas kpsq in seattle on kodx richman virginia's wr wk fairmont west virginia's w efr janesville wisconsin's wad rm in aampola st paul's a m nine fifty ktnf we also stream coast to coast and around the globe every day on the internet so the progressive voices channel net roots radio radio for humans to call samler.com radio free brooklin no lies radio detour talk and most of your favorite podcast sites blanketing planet earth i'm brad freeman your friendly investigative blogger journalist troublemaker mochreker and all around swellfellow says me from bradblog.com thank you very much for joining us today as news continues to break uh he called he called them what does he doin he called himself black nazi is that right yes black nazi yes that's not jatie vans you're talking about that is lieutenant governor mark robinson of north carolina who is the gop nominee for governor yes to uh called for bringing back black slavery uh more than ten years ago and a whole bunch of other lewd things on a uh on a porn site some years ago that because it's a family show i can't even report but classy stuff that's going on today as we go to air there is a lot going on and of course it's going on all at once from the stock market blowing up in a good way i should say following the the uh the fed's larger than expected lowering of interest rates on wednesday signaling that out of control post pandemic inflation is finally under control and back to normal levels uh pre pandemic levels under the management of the biden harris administration and back down to levels that are lower than any other industrialized nation in the world on thursday the s&p and dow both set record highs and by the way donald trump's failing media company on the very same day which trades as djt on the nazdak fell to a record low tumbling nearly six percent in one day far below what the stock have actually been worth before it went public earlier this year as i had long warned maga folks who were invested in that turkey to get out before it was too late i also suggested by the way that it might be a penny stock a penny stock before we even get to election day and from a high of almost eighty dollars a share earlier this year to an almost eighty percent plummet since then to close at just fourteen dollars and seventy cents on thursday well my warning of it becoming a penny stock and becoming delisted actually may may still come to pass before election day if not far sooner for those maga folks who listen to me to get out you're welcome for those who didn't a sad trump bone from that to israel's war against its neighbors now threatening to spread into a full blown regional conflict following weeks of rockets flying back and forth between israel and lebanon and the horrific terror attack by israel against iranian backed hezbala there this week with the deadly remote controlled explosions of pagers and walkie talkies in lebanon to threats of escalation by both parties now as israeli prime minister benjamin netnyahu seeks ways to continue israel's unpopular wars plural at this point so that he can stay in power and stay out of prison from that to republican house speaker mike johnson's thread on behalf of donald trump to shut down the us government by the end of this month if democrats do not agree to a new law that would ban non-citizens from voting in us elections which sounds like a good idea except that it is already unlawful for non-citizens to vote in us elections and even though johnson this week was uh not even able to get his own party to go along with that scheme as congress barrels towards a shutdown that probably will not reflect well on republicans should it happen just before a presidential election when the entire house of representatives by the way will be up for reelection keep that in mind from that to donald trump and jd vance continuing to terrorize the small city of springfield ohio with blatant racist lies about the legal legal Haitian immigrant population there despite the town's republican mayor begging trump and vance to knock it off as the city has come under siege from bomb threats to parades of nazis and racist proud boys and flyers from the kkk distributed during a rally on wednesday republican vice presidential candidate and ohio senator jd vance when he was asked about his and trump's continuous lies that quote illegal migrants had descended on the town of springfield where by the way local republican officials had sought this influx of immigrants to revitalize the town which was actually a success for the town at least until vance decided to attack his own ohio constituents and trump decided to play along to distract from his disastrous debate appearance against kamala Harris last week when vance was finally called out for lying about the immigrants in springfield being illegal by someone in the media now we told you long ago that they were not illegal at all as they were there under temporary protected status or tps granted by yes the president of the united states which now is joe biden but initially included donald trump five years ago who granted this status vance admitted uh in this in this uh confrontation i guess with the with the journalist that uh he did not really care about telling the truth that he was gonna lie about the residents of his own state anyway because apparently that is how desperate these guys must feel that they are in in the race hi senator me and mccarthy with politico um question for you about the Haitian migrants in springfield um so i know you've talked a lot about how we need to deport illegal aliens but i wanted to ask you the majority of the Haitians in springfield came under tps um so they are here legally and i know you've expressed a lot of your issues with the tps program and wanting to change that um under a trump vance administration but i guess my question for you is if you become the vice president under a trump administration what will you guys do about the migrants that are already there since they did arrive legally and follow up to that if you plan to deport them how would you do that legally well look that this is this is a media and kamala harris fact check that i want to i want to clarify and clear up right now and here's now the media loves to say that the Haitian migrants hundreds of thousands of them by the way 20,000 in springfield but hundreds of thousands of them all across our country they are here legally and what they mean is that kamala harris used two separate programs mass parole and temporary protective status she used two programs to waive a wand and to say we're not going to deport those people here well if kamala harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally i'm still going to call them a legal alien and a legal action from kamala harris does not make an alien legal that is not how this works actually yes that is exactly how it works as i said at the top of the show it wasn't illegal in the least and by the way it was not done by kamala harris who is the vice president it was done by the president who is now joe biden but who used to be yes donald trump who uh initially granted the uh tps temporary protected status uh five years ago anyway great job on the fact check uh correction there jd vance as i said the mayor of springfield who is a republican is now begging for them to knock it off if you have the national stage and you're a national politician please understand the words that you're saying have great weight and how they can negatively affect a community like springfoot ohio you just ask that it would it would quiet down we need we need help not hate we need peace help not hate we need peace says the republican mayor of springfield yeah and what jd vance and donald trump are doing is straight out of the authoritarian playbook you demonize one small group and get folks to say yeah yeah i guess they're bad and then you go to the next group and the next group and the next group well you notice how he said it's not just here in springfield it's all across the country that this is happening yes anyway uh good note does he do it how are you i'm good okay everything's going all at once but you know that's what it is but that's how pathetic and desperate apparently these despicable people now now are and of course those are the same folks that are pretending that non-citizens are voting by the millions in this year's elections and therefore we must purge hundreds of thousands from the voting rolls just as voting has already begun in some states despite any evidence of any evidence of non-citizens voting in any states but now i'm getting ahead of myself so of course that's all just some of what is going on today and it's all happening at once and i suspect we're going to see a lot more of everything all happening at once between now and election day which which i call phase one of this year's election and phase two then which is likely to kick into high gear after the close of polls on election night particularly if Donald Trump appears to be the loser but uh since so much of all of that and more is being affected or will be affected by what happens in this year's elections uh i'll continue to focus on that today by and large including both the horse race and as importantly if not far more so the track conditions on which the horses are running including the future of democracy itself in these united states which yes also hinges on the november elections oh and not to mention the future of humanity itself as our climate crisis continues to wreak utter havoc all over the world as does he will remind us later in this hour in her latest green news report you're welcome so allowing to start here with the uh with the horse race for a moment and and those who are now attempting to game the track conditions on which those horses are running since it seems to me that they may not care for the way the race appears to be going for them right now a bunch of new polling came in over the past 24 hours just in pennsylvania alone at least six new polls from uh just overnight along with several national polls from legit decent quality outlets like fox and new york time sienna though the latter new york time sienna has been very right leaning this cycle for some reason tpm's josh marshall observes that from a uh 30 000 foot takeaway these polls are telling a pretty good story for harris he sees more evidence that harris is consolidating real leads across the blue wall states of wisconsin michigan and yes pennsylvania of those six pennsylvania polls he notes three show a tie there still the other three showed leads of three four and five points respectively for harris over trump across these results you also see more signs of harris consolidating or in some cases expanding on the 2020 biden coalition he says especially with traditional democratic constituencies the gist he says is that harris seems to be consolidating a small but significant lead based on the blue wall states while remaining close or tied in the southern tier states where she may be better positioned believe it or not in north carolina and she may be positioned even better in north carolina after the story about the uh lieutenant governor mark robinson who's running for governor there that i mentioned at the top of the show but north carolina has gone to the republicans over the last three elections and the idea that it is even close at this point should tell you well should tell all of us a lot about the direction this campaign is moving but she may be better positioned in north carolina than even in georgia and possibly arizona both of which went to biden in 2020 after decades ending up in the republican column in presidential races now i've discussed the blue wall strategy that democrats are most focused on that if they win was constant michigan in pennsylvania where polls show the harris wall's ticket just slightly ahead of the trump vance in all three of them with the closest for now seemingly pennsylvania according to pre-election uh average polling averages but that if they hold those three if they win those three and hold all of the other traditional blue states as expected and by the way if they can hold on to those states through the challenges and contests and gaming that republicans will be attempting this year in the event that trump loses well if they do that then harris and walls will win the presidency though just barely well such a scenario would likely see harris beating trump by millions of votes in the popular uh popular vote we do not choose our president sadly by popular vote we choose them via a state-by-state electoral college vote where the popular vote winner in each state wins all of the electoral votes from each of those states and the ticket that wins 270 electoral college votes or more wins the white house so that blue wall strategy winning in wisconsin michigan and pennsylvania and all of the other traditional democratic states even if they win none of the other battleground states well that would net the harris wall's ticket exactly 270 votes but only only and this is an important only only if they win the one electoral college vote in omaha nebraska the uh second district of nebraska one of nebraska is just one of two states in the union along with main that actually divvies up some of their electoral college votes by house district instead of winner take all if the blue wall strategy works out as democrats hope then they must win nebraska's second congressional district in order to win the electoral college with exactly 270 votes again that assumes they don't win any of the other battleground states so naturally republicans are hoping to try and yes steal in advance that one electoral vote in omaha nebraska how well it's an effort being somewhat headed up by south carolina republican senator lindsey graham so in one sense if that quad has been uh dispatched to oversee this scheme well perhaps we shouldn't be too concerned about it but oh i don't know but here here's what uh here's that nbc is reporting today senator lindsey graham met with nebraska's republican governor jim pilin and about two dozen republican state legislators to discuss how the state allocates its electoral votes according to a source with direct knowledge of the trip gram acting on behalf of the trump campaign was working to encourage pilin to call a special legislative session in abraska at which lawmakers could consider changing the state's apportionment of electoral votes the source set so yes they want to change the way electoral votes will be divvied up between candidates in a presidential election less than 50 days before that presidential election as some states have already begun voting in that election at just about 10 days before nebraska itself begins mail voting uh so can they do that is that legal with uh with the courts allow such a change even after voting has already begun well of course any such decision like that would almost certainly go up all the way to the corrupted pact and stolen right wing extremist u.s. supreme court so yeah i think we have to assume that the roberts court would in fact find a way to allow such a change if nebraska republicans could pull it off in a special legislative session as nbc explains uh the state allocates its electoral votes by congressional district the swing district around omaha often goes to the uh to the democrats in an otherwise ruby red state now in such a scenario the one that has been in place for years nebraska which has five electoral college votes if the state votes as expected trump would win likely win four of those votes harris would win just that one in the congressional district that includes omaha and which has voted democratic in presidential election in elections in recent years so rather than try and you know win that district with popular policies that voters there may actually like republicans instead are now hoping to simply disenfranchise omaha voters just days before the election actually begins there wednesday's meeting originally was reported by the uh local news outlet k-o-l-n-t-v it took place in lincoln nebraska gram's office confirmed the local report but did not uh decline to comment further nbc notes that if nebraska were to switch to a winner take all system it would almost certainly give former president donald trump one extra electoral vote in one is expected to be a tight presidential race that one electoral vote says nbc could prove decisive as the as they uh explain then the democrats blue wall strategy if vice president harris wins michigan pennsylvania and wisconsin but loses every other state she and trump would be tied tied at two hundred and sixty nine electoral college votes a piece under a winner take all set up in nebraska with trump winning the state so that's what's lent that's what lindsay gram is doing out there in in nebraska hoping that we end up with a tied electoral college two hundred and sixty nine votes a piece in that scenario the race would be thrown to the us house where each state delegation gets one vote for president and republicans hold a majority of state delegations and yes they are favored to retain that majority even if democrats take back the overall house majority in november as they hope nebraska's governor uh jim pillan was reportedly quote receptive to gram's overtures on wednesday and indicated that he would in fact call a special session if he thought he had the votes to win in this uh in this issue pillan has previously expressed that sentiment in fact he public he uh pushed hard earlier this year during the regular session for lawmakers to change to a winner take all system that was unsuccessful at the time but last week in a statement he said quote as i have consistently made clear i strongly support statewide unity and joining 48 other states by awarding all five of our electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of nebraska's votes he added as i have also made clear i'm willing to convene the legislature for a special session to fix this 30 year old problem before the 2024 election he added that he has not yet quote received the concrete and public indication that 33 state senators would in fact vote for that winner state uh take all system supporters of the legislation have long said they do not yet have enough backing to overcome uh a procedural hurdle that has previously prevented that bill from passing trump of course has publicly pushed for the state to do so to switch to a winner take all system saying this year it would be quote right for nebraska yes it would be right for nebraska that's fun that's what he really truly cares about uh yeah the effort to move the uh state to winner take all uh as nbc notes failed this year now all of that said if this were to happen if this actually were to happen uh does uh you seemed a little worried you got a little flush there as i was going through that step well yes i am concerned because republicans are trying to do the coup all over again well if they do it via nebraska don't get too freaked out over it just yet why well because democrats actually might have an ace in the hole to counter it if if republicans do that as noted main state of main is the only other state that does not have a winner take all system for electoral votes they too split up their votes based on congressional district but main is generally controlled by democrats and though there is one main district that republicans hope to win in that otherwise blue state while taking that one electoral vote from among the otherwise democratic leaning state uh the democratic state house majority leader there has said that the state if this happens in nebraska that the state of main should then consider switching their system to a winner take all electoral vote system if needed in order to counter nebraska if they change their system so even if the republicans are able to claw back one electoral vote in nebraska well lawmakers in main may have a plan uh plan there to claw back a republican vote in the great state of main and again all of this if it were to happen would require a whole bunch of things to all fall in line first for republicans and then of course for democrats in main to counter it given that the corrupted courts cannot be counted on here to do anything but help out donald trump and the republicans if they are asked to do so and with lindsay graham heading up the effort for team trump well it's almost guaranteed to fail it seems to me what rudy juliani was not available for this but uh i thought you should know about it as it's one of those stories that yes could become really important in in the days ahead you know like when we were trying to uh explain to you the importance of uh the joint session of congress that happens on january sixth way back in 2020 when few others were even discussing it in the media well now you know about this one i will say that in one sense all of this seems to me to be a bit of a tell a tell that republicans do not feel particularly comfortable about success in their hopes of winning back the white house it all kind of has the stench of of of loser all over it it feels like to me despite donald trump's consistent lies that he is certain they're going to win by a landslide etc so that kind of feels like desperation to me so does this other scheme to game the electoral college reportedly underway down in georgia right now according to the guardian today neither of these you know speak to too highly for the geopies belief that they're actually going think that they're going to win this year's election at least legitimately without finding some other way to steal it emails obtained by the guardian reveal a behind the scenes network of county election officials throughout georgia coordinating on policy and messaging to both call the results of november's election into question before a single vote is cast and push rules and procedures favored by the election denial movement according to the independent nonprofit outlet the guardian today the emails were obtained by the watchdog group citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington or crew as a result of a public records request sent to david handcock he's an election denier and member of the guinea county georgia board of elections spanning a period beginning in january of this year the communications according to the guardian exposed the inner workings of a group that includes some of the most ardent supporters of the former presidents election of his election lies as well as ongoing efforts to portray the coming election as beset with fraud no votes have even occurred yet in georgia i should note but the team who is convinced that they are i guess convinced that they are about to lose they've already decided well it's beset with fraud the communications include correspondence from a who's who of georgia election denialists including officials with ties to prominent national groups such as the tea party patriots had no idea they still existed did you the tea party patriot and so and the so called election integrity network which is a group run by clita mitchell a former trump attorney who acted as an advisor to the trump white house during its failed attempt to steal the 2020 election clita you may remember she was on that infamous phone call when trump tried to muscle georgia's secretary of state to find him 11,870 votes just one more than was needed to win the state that he had lost to joe biden that year the group which includes election officials from at least five counties calls itself the georgia election integrity coalition and this is about their conversations back and forth one of the oldest emails from january where they cite a story published by the united tea party of georgia claiming that georgia democrats threatened georgia election officials the article was posted by an unnamed administrator of the website but it turns out that he's part of this group uh quote in what can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate election officials the article begins the georgia democratic party sent a letter to individual county boards of election board of election members threatening legal action unless they vote to certify upcoming elections even if the board member has legitimate concerns about the results uh the letter had been sent by a lawyer representing the democratic party of georgia to county board uh members in spalding cob and decab counties election board members in each of those counties had refused to certify the results of local elections the previous november in their letter the democrats sought to warn those officials that their duty to certify results was not discretionary in an attempt to prevent further certification refusals including in the upcoming presidential election in response the united tea party of georgia took issue with that letter they called it troubling saying that it was Orwellian to demand that election officials certify an election even if they have unanswered questions about the vote well there are always unanswered questions about the vote but as far as the requirement to uh to certify an election that is not optional democrats and election experts have cited georgia court cases dating back to 1899 dictating that certification is a ministerial job not a discretionary one that it is the duty of these county officials at a gathering this week of state level election officials from several swing states uh the uh right hand man of uh republican georgia secretary of state bran raffensberger warned county election officials that they could be taken to court if they refuse to certify results in november this group has uh been uh hearing from uh speakers of you know election deniers of all types from across georgia over the past several months their letters go back and forth about that the notes also discuss ongoing voter purges that democrats have said are violation of the national voter registration act those emails also show how hand cocks initial response to the letter from georgia democrats warning county election officials that they have a legal duty to certify results he said quote when you have a moment this is a letter that he wrote to uh oh to former former election integrity advocate who's been on this show many times over the year garland favorito he's now turned into a perhaps the state's most famous election denier handcock writes him a letter to say when you have a moment i'd really appreciate your opinion on this incredible letter from an attorney for the democratic party regarding voting to certify an election he says uh he asked well what do we do if the board of elections has no choice but to certify an election then why require them to vote to certify the election in the first place good question but i might be able to answer that by saying that you know someone has to attest to the fact that yes these are the results of the election as tallied by the county in question whether they are right or wrong or perfect or have some sort of problem well that's for the courts to determine if someone wishes to file a case and challenge them it is not some for some you know political activist schmuck with no experience or expertise in elections who happen to wriggle his way on to a county board to uh you know and hopes to use it to steal an election to try and decide it's just a matter of saying yes to the best of our knowledge these are the results these are the numbers we came up with as far as we can tell they are free from fraud here they are and now we move it up the chain to the state board of elections and to the secretary of state and so forth and if you want to challenge it take it to court but you have to certify it first then you can go to court that's just the steps that you take well that seems to be the law in any event in georgia even now as as noted uh at least to me all of this trying to game the electoral count in fact all of this to me has the stench of loser written all over it it is not about how to win an election it is not about how to build a coalition it's about how to avoid losing it and that to me anyway does not seem like a party with much confidence about its prospects but you know the loser donald trump has figured out how to turn many of his many losses in life into wins before so anyway no sleeping on on all of this between now and the end of phase one of the election between now and the close of polls on election night and then likely until the end of phase two of the election on either January 6th again or perhaps maybe even as likely at this point on inauguration day on January 20th next year all right let's take a quick break we'll come back with uh a bit more stench of losing and how democracy might work in an alternate world you know where everybody is allowed to freely participate like the alternate world that we call out here California that's all straight ahead on today's broadcast i'm brad friedman don't touch that dial the brad cast and the green news report are one hundred percent independent one hundred percent listener supported but we can't do it alone we need you please help us bring real facts to listeners at independent stations around the nation please drop by brad blog dot com slash donate that's brad blog dot com slash donate and thanks okay let's mess with texas welcome back to the brad cast brad friedman from brad blog dot com you know i realize that the people who who live in in both of these states uh would probably slap me for saying as much but california and texas desi dorian you're from texas yes i am you live in california uh they're really not all that different and they're both huge states you know lots of people big economies and well maybe that's where it all uh where the comparisons end right there but i i do know that when it comes to the way democracy works in each one yeah on that score they could not be more different with democrats largely in control of most of the state of california republicans largely in control of most of the state of texas but in california that one party control doesn't show much sign of changing anytime in the near future while in texas republicans really do seem to be worried that well you know if all of the their voters actually get to vote in the state that they may not be able to hold on to the power that they have managed to amass for themselves in the modern era again kind of the stench of the loser it seems to me so anyway we talked about this story uh as it was developing a week or so ago uh in texas but brad blog legal contributor ernie canning picked up on a few new developments today in his report over at bradblog dot com he notes that republican ken paksten the ethically challenged texas attorney general and that's putting it really mildly very nicely yeah uh who recently paid nearly three hundred thousand dollars in restitution to plea bargain his way out of a securities fraud indictment that had been pending since 2015 he's been impeached he's being investigated by federal authorities anyway he is vehemently opposed to the effort by state county election officials to encourage voter registration via the unsolicited mailing of voter registration forms to likely eligible voters paksten's effort at voter suppression rights ernie and two of the lone star state's most populous and democratic leaning counties has now resulted this week in several lawsuits all at once a suit in state court filed by paksten against bear county that's san antonio and two filed in federal court one each by bear county and travis county travis is austin charging that the attorney general is attempting to suppress the vote in violation of long standing federal law now as we discussed a week or so ago both bear and travis counties in texas hired a non-partisan firm to identify and reach out to eligible but unregistered voters by sending them voter registration forms for this year's election including republicans yeah just anyone who was eligible in those counties they didn't distinguish between republicans a democrat exactly and this is in texas uh where you know this year democratic congressman colin all red is challenging far right republican senator and trump lackey uh senator uh ted cruz in a state which has long been trending toward democrats demographically and where state republicans have long been doing their level best to prevent certain people in the state from being able to vote at all on september three after bear county election officials refused to comply with paksten's cease and desist demand that they stop reaching out to these potential new voters the attorney general filed a complaint in state court seeking an injunction to prevent county officials from mailing out these voter registration forms paksten's request for preliminary injunction was denied this week as moot after uh the county attorneys there advised the court that the target of the mailings qualified individuals who recently moved to or within bear county have received those forms already and perhaps have already returned them so the court decided it was moot paksten has appealed so the attorney general of the state is actually suing county election officials to prevent them from signing up new legal eligible voters in the state in advance of a presidential election in turn now on september 17 bear county filed its own complaint against paksten this time in federal court alleging that the attorney general is engaging in illegal voter suppression in violation of the national voter registration act and that he has abused his power as attorney general by uh filing the state court lawsuit against them for simply mailing voter registrations to likely eligible voters now these are just voter registration applications they're not ballots yeah just they sign up to vote yeah and you would still have to you know present legal id and all of that stuff yes on the very same day travis county which is home to the state's capital they filed a similar suit in federal court against paksten charging that uh what he's doing is in violation of the voting rights act by pro trying to prevent them from carrying out their duties to promote the right to vote according to bear county bear county's complaint election officials quote have a duty under federal law to encourage voter registration in this manner the dueling lawsuits rights ernie come shortly after the lone star states republican governor greg abbot proudly announced that nearly one million voters people in texas had been recently purged from the voter rolls based upon among other tenuous claims a dubious allegation of why of widespread non-citizen voting in texas for which the governor provided zero evidence in support according to brennan center for justice actual cases of non-citizen voting which is already a felony punishable by jail time and deportation such instances are vanishingly rare as ernie helpfully notes here the deadline to register to vote in texas for the upcoming election is october seven he notes that if you think you're registered given this massive purge in texas and elsewhere it would be a very good idea for you to check your registration status so that's what's happening in texas right now with republican state officials suing county election officials in the same state for doing their jobs and their duty as election officials trying to prevent them from registering new legal voters in the state by way of contrast there's the great state of california apparently on an entirely different planet at this point at least when it comes to democracy here the issue is not about preventing eligible voters from voting but a question about how to expand what is already our version of automatic voter registration as youtuber in california resident politics girl explained in a video this week supporting sp 299 a measure passed by democrats waiting for a signature by the democratic governor that would expand automatic voter registration in the state on the margins in a bill supported by a broad coalition of more than 140 grassroots democracy groups here's politics girl so i talk about national politics all the time obviously the presidential election keeping the senate flipping the house are essential right now but i'm also a california resident and what happens in california is important not only to me but in many ways to the rest of the country because california is such a big state that it often leads the way in terms of legislation we have such a huge population that if things are successful here they can often find their way to the rest of the country which is why i think it's important to talk about the opportunity governor newson has right now to sign into law something called senate bill 299 right now california has 4.7 million eligible but unregistered voters that is the largest population of eligible but unregistered voters in the nation to keep it in perspective if these people were their own state they would be the 25th largest state in the u.s and i'm sure it won't surprise you to know that this group is disproportionately made up of historically marginalized groups the thing is voter registration was designed in the 1800s and sadly in a lot of cases it was designed with the express purpose of making it hard for certain people to cast a ballot the idea with sp 299 is that by improving california's voter registration system we can show the nation that voting is not just a privilege but a right for any citizen and as voting rights are being attacked across the country i think it's important that a state like california lead by example that instead of putting up barriers we take steps to make the ballot box accessible to all eligible voters now to be clear this isn't just about democrats winning elections if it was about solidifying the blue vote the answer would be do nothing california is already blue this is about undoing the racist legacy of voter registration and honestly something we should all want sp 299 would give the california secretary of state the authority to upgrade the current partial automatic voter registration system the california secretary of state would have the power to make it so that when any eligible dmv customer declines to be registered to vote they are still automatically added to a pre-approved voter list streamlining the process and in many cases allowing pre-approved voters to activate their registration when they decide to in many cases by simply appearing at the polls or by mailing in a ballot with a pre-approved list registration would be removed as a barrier for millions of eligible people all they would need to do is choose whether or not they wanted to vote and to clarify eligibility to vote is verified through documents presented as part of the dmv procedures like showing your u.s passport or birth certificate with all this talk of non-citizens voting i want people to understand that this secure system would filter out customers if they provided the dmv with a green card or other documents that clearly establish them as non-citizens this would secure our voting but also protect any non-citizens from potentially serious immigration consequences if they made a mistake and tried to vote ultimately SB 299 would bring millions more people onto the voter rolls when a similar system was adopted in colorado it doubled the amount of people added at the dmv with a huge impact on the 16 and 17 year olds who were eligible for pre-registration and because california's eligible but unregistered population is disproportionately made up of people of color helping these people get registered means the voting population of the state would start to look more like california and less like say my family reunion as a side note SB 299 would also improve the existing registration process by automatically checking customers registration status when they went to the dmv other states who have done this have shown that this more tailored experience results in not only more people registering to vote and more people updating their registration but also an overall improvement in the accuracy of the voter files which means our voter registration stays up to date an election mail is more likely to reach its destination finally SB 299 will go a long way to helping previously incarcerated citizens regain their constitutional right to vote many people who have spent time in jail often decline registration because they're not sure if they're eligible and this kind of program like the one SB 299 is offering would automatically verify their eligibility so no one would have to worry about making a mistake if you want more information on this bill which if we do it correctly here could be effectively rolled out to lots of other states go to ca democracy dot org slash SB 299 and check it out this is the kind of thinking we need for our government america is supposed to be a democratic nation and a democratic nation should want to hear from its citizens all of its citizens and as citizens and voters ourselves i think this is the kind of legislation that we really should be encouraging okay so that's the kind of thing we're doing out here in california yeah but texas you go ahead and try and keep your voters from voting we'll we'll keep trying to help everyone vote here in california other than that california in texas totally the same more information at ca democracy dot org slash SB 299 green news report is next on your brad cast i'm brad freedman hey this is brad here at the brad cast and bradblog.com we fight for election integrity all year around like no other media outlet in the nation but of course we need your help to help us remain on your public airwaves and completely independent please help us continue that fight over your public airwaves by stopping by bradblog.com/donate and thanks okay does he don't end too much show so let's get right to it our latest green news report it's quite worrying to to see so many extreme events all over the world un whether agency warned the world is not moving fast enough to avert climate chaos north carolina storm damage tops seven billion dollars plus new study finds biden's climate policies will save two hundred thousand lives from air pollution all of that life-saving news and more straight ahead from bradblog.com i'm brad freedman and i'm desi doyan stand by for six minutes of independent green news politics analysis and snarky comment kamala harris you know has always been for eliminating the combustion engine and mandating evs that's what she's been for her whole life and it's crushed thousands of jobs in states like michigan wow it's crushed thousands of jobs and there isn't even a mandate yet she must be very powerful are you frightened of her steve scolese gop majority house leader because it kind of sounds like it this is your green news report okay does he join kamala harris is so strong she is crushing jobs with just the power of her mind yes she is impressive what he got for us today well first good news for phoenix the city this week finally ended its historic streak of 113 consecutive days at or above 100 degrees the streak began on memorial day and didn't end until two weeks after labor day and astonishing 37 days longer than its previous record i'm sure everything's fine globally summer 2024 was the world's hottest summer on record and a new data analysis from non-profit climate central found that human-caused climate change made the extreme heat around the world at least three times more likely to occur one quarter of the world's population suffered through 30 days or more of intense heat in the u.s americans this summer lived through an average of 20 more days of dangerous heat than in the past due to climate change extreme heat took the lives of more than 2 000 people in the u.s over just the last year in north carolina cleanup is underway from the unnamed tropical storm that spun up suddenly unleashing deadly flooding preliminary estimates indicate it caused seven billion dollars in damage the u.s has now seen 21 extreme weather disasters so far this year that have racked up at least one billion dollars in damage wow we ought to think about mandating EVs while central europe is still grappling with historic floods from an unprecedented storm Portugal this week declared a state of emergency as more than 100 deadly wildfires rage out of control amid hot and dry conditions over in brazil the worst drought on record has lowered the amazon river to all-time lows and some tributaries have dried up completely in Ecuador the government will impose nighttime blackouts nationwide as the worst drought in decades curtails the country's hydroelectric plants the european union's head office on wednesday warned that devastating floods in southeast asia west africa and europe wildfires in portugal peru and the western u.s and drought in a number of countries are combined proof of quote climate breakdown that it says will become the norm unless swift action is taken to shift away from fossil fuels that cause climate change but by all means let's not take swift action am i right steve scallese a new report from the u.s weather agency this week warns that governments must move faster and do more to avoid even worse impacts in coming decades their new projections indicate the world is likely to blow past paris climate treaty targets and hit global warming of three degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century yikes to limit temperature rise to two degrees celsius the report says greenhouse gas emissions must fall by 30 percent by 2030 here's wmo science coordinator loren stewart the message is really clear um the science tells us that we need to take urgent and ambitious mitigation and adaptation action and we need to do this across scales you know from governments to the private sector to individuals as well uh we all have an important role to play and in reducing our emissions and also increasing resilience in local communities well for god sakes please nobody tell the republicans in the u.s house okay finally some better news president biden's suite of new rules limiting toxic pollution from cars power plants and industry will save 200 000 american lives from dangerous air pollution overcoming decades that's according to a new analysis by a group founded by retired epa staff co-author jeremy simons former epa climate policy advisor said quote these are real people who would not be alive if not for the nonpartisan work of the epa doing its job again after the last administration however they warned those clean air standards are likely to be overturned if donald trump wins the new ember election for much more on all of these stories and the ones we couldn't get to today check out our website at greennews.bradblog.com i'm bran freedman and i'm desi doing and this has been your green news report not going back thank you very much des thanks to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us if you missed any portion of today's show or any other we have ever done download download them anytime for free at bradblog.com that service is made possible by you yes you those of you listeners who hit one of those donate buttons at bradblog.com or go straight to bradblog.com/donate drop me email if you like i'm bradcast at bradblog.com and on the facebook's mastadons and sites still known as twitter i am the bradblog see you there until we see you here next time i'm brad freedman good luck world i'm not going back [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]