The BradCast w/ Brad Friedman
'BradCast' 8/28/2024 (Encore: SCOTUS reform with guest Jay Willis of 'Balls and Strikes'; Biden's prisoner swap with Russia)
Encore: original airdate 8-1-2024. On today's 'BradCast': President Biden announced a landmark multinational prisoner swap with Russia that secured the safe release of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and many others. A New York state appeals court rejected Donald Trump's motion to dismiss the gag order against him in his hush money case. Earlier this week, Biden proposed three critical reforms for the corrupted, stolen and packed US Supreme Court, including term limits and a binding ethics code. Senate Democrats introduced the 'No Kings Act' supporting Biden's call for a constitutional amendment to roll back the rightwing court majority's ruling granting near-absolute immunity to presidents. Attorney JAY WILLIS, editor-in-chief of the Balls and Strikes website, explains Biden's court reform proposals, why it's not enough, the potential pitfalls ahead, Kamala Harris' position on court reform, and much more. Plus Desi Doyen has our latest 'Green News Report.'
- Broadcast on:
- 28 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
This is broadcast producer Desi Doyan. We're off this week. Today's broadcast was originally recorded on August 22nd, 2024. So I don't know about you. I'm ready to turn the page on these guys. So go ahead, say it with me. We're not going back. I guess they think they're not going back. Is that what I'm trying to understand? From Pacifica radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast as heard on KPFK 90.7 FM in LA. Also in California in red, left and ready, a KFOI in Round Mountains KKRN, up in Oregon on the Central Coast on KYAQ, Cottage Grove's KSO, and Eugene's KEPW. Landchester, Pennsylvania's W News, Maui Hawaii's K-A-K-U in Columbus, Ohio on WGR and Palenville, New York's WLPP and Rochester, New York's WRFZ. Down in New Orleans on WHIV out in Gallup, New Mexico on KNIZ, Concord, New Hampshire's WN-H-N. Fayetteville, Arkansas's KPSQ in Seattle on KODX, Richmond, Virginia's WRWK, Fairmont-West, Virginia's WEFR, Janesville, Wisconsin's WADR, and Minneapolis, St. Paul's, AM950, K-T-N-F. They must be partying up in Minnesota right around now. We also stream coast to coast and around the globe every day on the internet, so on the Progressive Voices channel, NetRoots Radio, Radio for Humans, to coldsandler.com, Radio Free Brooklyn, No Lies Radio, Detour Talk, and most of your favorite podcast sites, Blanketing, Planet Earth, I'm Brad Friedman. Your friendly, investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker, an all-around swell fellow says me from brandblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. We've got a lot to get to. Oh, as usual today. Hi, Desi Doyan. Hi. Including late word from the corrupted, packed, and yes, activist right-wing US Supreme Court majority on an emergency ruling sought by Republicans hoping to purge more than 40,000 lawfully registered voters in Arizona, the battleground state of Arizona, in advance of the 2024 election. And as time allows a few highlights from the rip roaring, raucous, star-studded night three of the Democratic National Convention that you heard a little bit of at the top of the show there in Chicago. And I mean, really star-studded, not Hulk Hogan, where Minnesota Governor Tim Walz brought down a packed house with his barn burner of a formal acceptance speech to officially become the Democrats 2024 vice presidential nominee. And also our last green news report in advance of our break next week before the Labor Day holiday and the final sprint to election day on November five. Desi Doyan, are you ready? Ready for that sprint? It is what it is. Yes, of course. I'm exhausted, just thinking about it now, but I'm exhausted after the all-week watching the DNC until all hours of the morning. But let's begin here as stupid as this may sound at first. We noted briefly, I think yesterday, the DNC night one television ratings on Monday beat the Republicans National Convention first night ratings by 21%. And then came day two, where Democrats outpaced the GOP's day two broadcast by a stunning 55% across seven television networks. Variety reports that, according to Nielsen's primetime tracking, across 12 news channels, day one of the DNC brought in an average of 20 million viewers and day two soared higher to an average 20.8 million. During Barack Obama's speech, that number surged even higher to about 21.6 million. Now, for context, Variety points out that the first three nights of July's Republican National Convention peaked, it peaked at 81, I'm sorry, at 18.1 million. And that was on day three after premiering to 18 million on day one and cratering to 14.8 million on day two. As to the Democrats on day three, well, we now know according to analyst Michael Mulvahill, the overnight ratings show that the DNC had a reported 29% increase in viewership over the RNC's third night. Now, I'm just mentioning these things. Well, actually for two reasons. One, since it's likely to drive Donald Trump, who is obsessed with crowd sizes and ratings, likely to drive him crazy, though that is not a very far drive at this point at all these days, but also because as we saw in 2020, Donald Trump is going to lie about his crowd sizes, his ratings, and his poll numbers. And it's not just in order to stoke his ego, it is in order to make the case that if he loses, well, it's impossible that he lost. Given what he will be describing as his much bigger crowd sizes and larger television ratings and his much better poll numbers. And so Democrats must have cheated. That will be his evidence that the election was rigged when he makes that case. If he makes that case, if he loses again. So as boring and stupid and often misleading as as reporting on these things like crowd sizes and TV ratings and poll numbers are, we will likely need to keep reminding you of what they actually are. So when and if he loses and starts making those claims, you will know that he is lying. At least as long as the Harris walls campaign seems to be outpacing Trump in all of those metrics as they are for the moment. And I should add also that her campaign is far outpacing Trump in fundraising as well. Even though I find that metric kind of really gross, but the Harris walls team raised an unprecedented $500 million, half a billion dollars in donations in the month since President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed his vice president for the top of the 2024 ticket. Most of that money, most of that 500 million is in small dollar donations contrasted with Trump who raised less than 50 million in that same month of over in July. 500 million versus 50 million. So we'll see how night four goes regarding ratings the final night when and whether Kamala Harris's official acceptance speech will top Donald Trump's lies on his night for of his own convention about the scratch that he received on his ear during a thankfully failed assassination attempt against him just days before the Republican National Convention. But relatedly and more importantly for the moment in any event, Joan McCarter of Daily Coast reports all of that energy going on right now at the DNC is translating into actual work on the ground. The Harris walls campaign just announced that this is their team's largest mobilization week this past weekend of action as they called it included over 10,000 volunteers across battleground states 10,000. Those volunteers made around 900,000 calls and knocked on more than 100,000 doors in August. That's about one million voter contacts in a matter of days. They also recruited recruited more than 24,000 new volunteers during their weekend blitz. And she notes this week, 4,000 people are phone banking on, uh, were phone banking on Wednesday night. And on Thursday night, the campaign is holding 500 convention watch parties at least one in every state. McCarter writes, Trump's campaign has apparently decided to pull all of its volunteers energy into so-called election integrity efforts on election day instead. They are not doing what the Harris walls campaign is doing, reaching people knocking on doors, making calls. They're going to wait for election integrity efforts on election day. Nevermind get out the vote efforts. They don't need to do that. The Trump campaign seems to have something else in mind and they are saying as much. David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo appears to echo the observation from Joan McCarter, uh, citing these remarks on Wednesday from Donald Trump at a rally in North Carolina. And our primary focus is not to get out the vote. It's to make sure they don't cheat because we have all the votes you need. You can see it. Every house along the way has signs, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump fans, Trump fans. And by the way, Vance is doing a great job. So we have all this. We have all the votes we need. We don't need any more votes. We don't need to knock on any more doors. Everything's fine. We got all the votes. We're going to win by a landslide because yard signs on the way to his rally in North Carolina tell him everything that he needs to know about that apparently. No need to get out the vote. Just make sure those dirty Democrats don't steal it from him again like they did the last time. So this is all about creating a false record that he is winning, that he cannot be beat and that if he is declared the loser, well, it is only because it was stolen from him again. That's what all of this is about setting all of that up as Kurtz writes at TPM this morning, echoing what we have been trying to warn you about now for a couple of months. So it's good to hear it also from someone else on the same day that the Democratic convention was highlighting Trump's January 6 2021 transgressions. Trump himself was still fomenting election denialism at a rally in North Carolina telling the crowd, quote, our primary focus is not to get out the vote, but to make sure they don't cheat. Stop and consider that particular comment for a moment writes Kurtz. It's a more extreme version of his go to falsehood that the only way he can lose is if Democrats cheat. In this version, the votes are all there for him. No need to even count them because no matter the outcome, Democrats will have cheated cheated him out of the votes that he knows to be there already for him. He also declares Democrats cheating to be guaranteed and without a doubt. So a one, two punch. I already have the votes and Democrats were already cheating me out of them. Why does this matter asks Kurtz before answering at this point? I know that you know that his rampant election de-legitimization is an authoritarian move corrosive of democracy and self-serving to detriment of civic life. But what may not be widely understood yet is how Trump is not pinning his hopes this time on winning more ballots or prevailing in court or muscling his way into office via a mob. Trump's bid this time is dependent on MAGA-friendly elections officials and boards simply refusing to certify the results and maybe in a few extreme instances certifying them in his favor despite him losing the ballot count. The intent writes Kurtz is for delayed or rejected certifications to create enough chaos and uncertainty to deny Harris 270 electoral votes which sends the matter to the House of Representatives to resolve. And this is a difficult concept to explain though I keep trying to do so on this show because you will need to know this. So pay attention closely please. If Trump's scheming here goes as planned you will need to understand this as David writes even if Democrats take the House majority in November Trump could still prevail in a decision in the in the House because the House vote for president if nobody is certified as receiving 270 electoral votes is decided by a vote of each state's House delegation and that depends on which party holds a majority of House members in each state with each state then getting one vote in this matter and the GOP's advantage in small rural states means that they could still have the upper hand even if they lack a majority of members over all. They may be in the minority in the House but they control a majority of state delegations. There's one vote per state by that measure the GOP has the majority. Kurtz writes it's such a far-fetched scheme that I feel some hesitation in warning about it it feels like tin foil hat territory he says but Trump's rhetoric lines up with it and makes a lot more sense in this context what presidential candidate says publicly that they're not worried about getting out the vote and he's right when was the last time if ever you heard a a presidential candidate yeah we're not worried about getting out the vote you can stay home we got this all taken care of we got plenty of votes no so is this the plan is this the hope of course we do not know but everything that he is doing all of his rhetoric and a lot of reporting on the ground and a lot of comments from his own right-wing allies and even his campaign chairman Chris Lasavita just last month during the Republican convention in an interview with Politico suggests the same remember this it's not over until he puts his hand on the on the on the you know on the bible and takes the oath it's not over till then it's not over on election day it's over on an inauguration day because I wouldn't put anything past to anybody what do you mean let's don't and remember the comments a few months earlier I believe from Kevin Roberts the president of Heritage Foundation the architects of the project 2025 playbook remember what he had to say we are winning there are a lot of victories that have been secured some of them are partial some of them in ways that the other side doesn't yet know or foundations for what's coming and that's just the beginning and we're not going to tell you everything that's coming so this sure sounds like where they're going or this sure sounds like what they're planning on if they need to if in fact uh the Harris Walled's ticket defeats the Trump Vance ticket it sure sounds like their plan so it's good that you know about it this time tin foil hat territory as as uh David Kurtz suggests well maybe but I sort of heard you know the same comments from some people when we were on this show warning and explaining the Republican plan on this program between election day 2020 and January 6 2021 when we were explaining what Republicans were planning to do well most of the media was sort of blithely ignoring it all they were speculating about who was going to be you know who Joe Biden was going to name for his various cabinet positions and so forth and we were saying no this is not over please pay attention so for warned is for armed as they say we will continue to forewarn as appropriate over the next several months on this issue because I think it's as important to keep your eyes on and to understand before election day as everything else but before we even get to that part of the plan as we have also been reporting on the broadcast Republicans are very hard at work as usual trying to keep as many people well as many of certain people as they can from voting from voting at all rather than you know presenting popular policies that Americans may actually support which is the democratic party's apparently crazy strategy for winning the election Desi calls all of this there suppress the vote contest the vote plan yes suppress the vote contest the vote and then throw it to the house on that suppress portion of the plan just before airtime on Thursday the supreme court rejected or at least mostly rejected a republican effort to purge nearly 42,000 lawfully registered Arizona voters from the role from the roles in advance of the 2024 presidential election in the battleground state that democratic president Joe Biden won by just over 10,000 votes four years ago so they rejected that GOP scheme to purge more than 40,000 voters in Arizona so that's good news but I say that they mostly rejected the plan because there are a few sort of caveats somewhat confusing in a five to four order the corrupt six to three republican majority on the high court allowed some enforcement of republican regulations barring people from voting if they do not provide proof of citizenship when they registered a vote now I covered this matter and the decades long effort frankly by Arizona Republicans to try over and over again to get away with this scheme over the past two decades I covered that on a recent show so I'm going to try to avoid going into too many details on this now that the court has come out with its with its ruling for the moment which effectively sends the case back down to the lower courts to to be heard to continue to be heard you can look up that show with all the details and get the full ugly skinny on this at the top of our August 20th broadcast just a couple of days ago download it for free at brand blog.com that's thanks to those of you who are kind enough to donate to our efforts via brand blog.com/donate thank you but since I can already see that the court's ruling here is going to cause some confusion just based on the two different headlines from the two different major news outlets that were first reporting on this ruling I'm going to try to at least quickly clarify what it is that the court decided and what they did not. Reuters first reported for example in their headline quote US Supreme Court partly revives Arizona's proof of citizenship voter law AP's headline on the other hand describes the ruling as quote Supreme Court rejects GOP push to block 41,000 Arizona voters but partly okay's proof of citizenship law so they're both accurate even if one makes the ruling sound more disturbing and the other a little bit less so so here here's what we've actually got I'll I'll work from first from Reuters coverage here the US Supreme Court on Thursday revived part of an Arizona voter law requiring documented proof of US citizenship to register to vote in response to a request an emergency request from the Republican National Committee and Arizona Republicans the justices in a five to four ruling agreed to reinstate a provision of the law after a federal US district judge in Arizona and a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel blocked it in response to legal challenges by Democratic President Joe Biden's administration and by voting rights groups Arizona's Republican controlled legislature adopted these new restrictions on voter registration in 2022 when they still had a Republican governor in office to sign it the the law requires applicants who submit a federal voter registration form to provide evidence of US citizenship in order to vote in presidential elections or to vote by mail in any federal election now Arizona Republicans have been trying to do that for years now going all the way back to 2004 but no less than the US Supreme Court in a 72 decision back in 2013 written by no less than arch right winger Justice Antonin Scalia found that the 2004 effort to force proof of citizenship on everyone registering to vote violated the 1993 National Voter Registration Act the NVRA in in response to states like Arizona with a history of voter suppression the NVRA makes it easier to register to vote in those states they the law creates a national voter registration form that allows registrants in all 50 states to easily register to vote using that form but back in 2004 Arizona decided that newly registered voters also had to provide documentary proof of citizenship even if they well actually all of them whether they use the national form or the Arizona's own state registration form they all had to provide documentary proof of US citizenship when they did and that's because Republicans knew that a lot of people don't have access to those documents to prove their citizenship for many different reasons not of their fault in fact 13 million Americans do not have many of them by the way Native Americans and there are a lot of Native Americans in Arizona but more than 13 million Americans do not have the proof that they are citizens that would be needed in the state of Arizona to register to vote so if you sign up on state form it says uh you know you must include documentary proof of US citizenship but the national form that is used in all 50 states doesn't say anything about that so this law was challenged and the Supreme Court decided no Arizona could not block people from registering via the federal form because they didn't supply documentary proof of citizenship because the national form doesn't say anything about that in response Arizona Republican said okay fine then people who use that federal form to register they can only vote in federal elections such as for president but not in state and local elections creating a two-tiered voter registration system in Arizona now in 2018 Arizona eventually agreed to a consent decree with the justice department who had sued them allowing those so-called federal only voters to be able to vote in all races and then in 2022 Arizona Republicans again tried the same damn thing they changed the law again this time hoping to bar all of these federal only voters from being able to vote in either presidential races or by mail at all and the lower courts blocked that 2022 law at least for now and the Republicans brought an appeal to that to the US Supreme Court which is even more right right wing than it was the last time they rejected this scheme back in what was it 2013 they brought it to the high court on an emergency basis and said we need a decision by this Thursday because this Thursday is the deadline for finalizing the printing of ballots for the 2024 election and if they're going to have their two-tier system they need to know about it because they need to print separate ballots for all of this the GOP apparently figured they had a friendlier you know meaning a more corrupt and willing to suppress the vote court and they were mostly right the upshot upshot of Thursday's ruling then is that those who use the federal form to register there are nearly 42,000 Arizonans registered via that form well good news they may continue to vote as they have as the case is sent back down for consideration by the lower courts but those 42,000 will in fact be able to vote for president in Arizona this year but those who register on the Arizona form well they must in fact provide proof of citizenship even though Republicans were unable to show even one example of a non-citizen registering or voting in an election in the state both Arizona's attorney general and its secretary of state who are both now democrats since 2022 they both opposed the republicans request to to the justices to effectively purge some 40,000 voters from the role just weeks before early voting starts in the most critical election certainly of our time in a state which decided its presidential race four years ago by just over 10,000 votes so the ruling revives the restriction related to the state voter registration form but it kept intact the ruling that blocks the provision that sought to tighten the limits on the federal form got it it's just so so corrupt to do this so close to the election and that's why republicans in Arizona did it because they know that a lot of folks that are going to be barred by this are not going to have the time to get together the documents that they will need to be allowed to vote what they could have before but the upside here at least is that the 40,000 who are already registered under the national form will get to stay registered and will get to vote and it was a strange breakdown of the justices here Chief Justice John Roberts joined with fellow corrupt right-wing justices Brett Kavanaugh Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito and Gorsuch to grant the republicans request in part though by the way Thomas Alito and Gorsuch indicated they would have granted the entire request in full if it had been up to them but I apparently they couldn't get the votes an interesting interestingly all of the ladies yes even the republican one that would be republican justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with all three liberal justices Sonya Sotomayor and lana kegan and ketaji brown jackson they all would have denied the republican request in full yeah interesting kony Amy kony Barrett's been doing that a little bit more often these days anyway there you go mostly good news today from the high court in that 42,000 voters will not be purged in Arizona even if new voters who registered in Arizona using the state form will still have to provide documents under this right-wing papers please voter registration law in the state got it hope so let's take a quick break here we'll come back with some highlights from day three of the DNC in Chicago where crazy democrats you know they're trying to win the election by offering stuff that Americans like rather than keeping Americans from voting as coach walls of minnesota accepted the nomination to be Kamala Harris's vice presidential uh candidate running mate in a night of surprises celebrations and joy for the party some of those surprises and some of that joy is straight ahead on today's broadcast i'm brad fritman the brad cast and the green news report are 100 independent 100 listeners 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 bradblog.com/donate that's bradblog.com/donate and thanks hey this is brad you're listening to an on-core presentation of the brad cast oh i'm coming in cold i'm ready to play today welcome back to the brad cast brad fritman from bradblog.com all right as i mentioned day three of the dnc in chicago where democrats are hoping to win this year's elections the old-fashioned way by offering popular policies that you know win them the most votes well it was a what a concept i know it was a it was a star studded affair granted there was no kid rock or hulk hogan but there was well stevie wonder john legend someone named oprah winfrey in a surprise parents along with president uh president clinton bill clinton former house speaker nancy polosi current house majority leader hot kem jeffries rising democratic stars like governor westmore of maryland josh piro of pennsylvania treasury secretary pete budd judge among many others on the third day of the proceedings officially themed a fight for our freedoms in the democrats attempt to reach voters of all stripes in that fight on the night that minnesota governor tim walls blow the blew the roof off the joint frankly in his rousing acceptance beach to officially become kamal harris's vice presidential running mate there were continuing continuing efforts to appeal to independent voters and undecided voters and yes even republican voters which something you did not see at all at the republican convention reaching out to democrats but there was a quite a bit of that trying to reach out to those independence and undecideds and republicans at the democrats uh uh uh at the democrats convention for example this appeal from george's republican former lieutenant governor jeff duncan who left office just last year after serving as lieutenant governor during donald trump's efforts to uh steal the 2020 election in the state from joe biden who narrowly won it that year good evening i bring greetings from the great state of georgia so let's get the hard part out of the way i am a republican but tonight i stand here as an american an american that cares more about the future of this country than the future of donald trump my journey started to this podium years ago when i realized donald trump was willing to lie cheat and steal to try to overturn the 2020 election i realized trump was a direct threat to democracy and his actions disqualified him from ever ever ever stepping foot into the oval office again i could spend my time revving up this crowd but i'm certain i don't have to talk anybody out of voting for donald trump here so i'm going to focus my attention on the millions of republicans and independence that are at home that are sick and tired of making excuses for donald trump if republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves our party is not civil or conservative it's chaotic and crazy and the only thing left to do is dump trump these days our party acts more like a cult a cult worshiping a felonist thug look you don't have to agree with every policy position of kamala harris i don't but you do have to recognize her prosecutor mindset that understands right from wrong good from evil she's a steady hand and will bring leadership to the white house that donald trump could never do let me be clear to my republican friends at home watching if you vote for kamala's hair kamala harris in 2024 you're not a democrat you're a patriot (cheering) in our family in our family my wife brook and i are raising three boys and we have a family motto and it says doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing during 2020 during the just the lowest of lows when we had armed officers outside our house protecting us from other republicans donald trump had targeted us my son came downstairs and he handed me this coaster that i'd given him years before at a father's son retreat for our church and he said hey dad doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing stay strong to my fellow republicans at home that want to pivot back towards policy empathy and tone you know the right thing to do now let's have the courage to do it in november thank you and god bless you that was georgia's republican former lieutenant governor jeff duncan who just left office last year in 2023 courageously speaking on wednesday at the democratic national convention in chicago but throughout a star-studded night as i said it was of course the surprise appearance by superstar oprah winfrey in her old hometown of chicago that frankly shook the rafters of the united center even as she too made an appeal to independent and undecided voters in her stem winder remarks let me tell you this this election isn't about us and them it's about you and me and what we want our futures to look like there are choices to be made when we cast our ballot now there's a certain candidate says if we just go to the polls this one time then we'll never have to do it again well you know what you're looking at a registered independent who's proud to vote again and again and again because i'm an american and that's what americans do voting is the best of america and i have always since i was eligible to vote i've always voted my values and that is what is needed in this election now more than ever so i'm calling on all you independence and all you undecideds you know this is true you know i'm telling you the truth that values and character matter most of all in leadership and in life and more than anything you know this is true that decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024 and and just plain common sense common sense tells you that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can give us decency and respect they're the ones to give it to us so we are americans we are americans let us choose loyalty to the constitution over loyalty to any individual because because that's the best of america and let us choose optimism over cynicism because that's the best of america and let us choose inclusion over retribution let us choose common sense over nonsense because that's the best of america and let us choose the sweet promise of tomorrow over the bitter return to yesterday we won't go back we won't be set back pushed back bullied back kicked back we're not going back [cheering] not going back we're not going back so let us choose let us choose truth let us choose honor and let us choose joy because that's the best of america but more than anything else let us choose freedom why because that's the best of america we're all americans and together let's all choose Kamala Harris [cheering] well if uh if Oprah shook the rafters on uh on wednesday night at the united center the closing act of the night Kamala Harris's vice presidential nominee minnesota's two term governor tim waltz and now i think officially both america's dad and america's coach officially brought down the house on thursday night in chicago but since and msnbc's lauren so donnel i think is right about this it was political malpractice for the democrats to not bring on waltz until 11 22 p.m. eastern time after many had gone to bed long after prime time since many therefore likely missed the full just remarkable pitch perfect speech from walls we'll play a slightly longer piece from his remarks as he wrapped up his acceptance speech to become the democrats 2024 nominee for vice president that's what this is all about the responsibility we have to our kids to each other and to the future that we're building together in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want but not everyone has that same sense of responsibility some folks just don't understand what it takes to be a good neighbor take donnel trump and jadey vance their project 2025 will make things much much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives they spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this but look i coach height school football long enough to know and trust me on this when somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook they're going to use it and and we know if these guys get back in the white house they'll start jacking up the costs on the middle class they'll repeal the affordable care act they'll gut social security and medicare and they will ban abortion across this country with or without congress here's the thing it's an agenda nobody asked for it's a agenda that serves nobody except the richest and the most extreme amongst us and it's an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need is it weird absolutely absolutely but it's all so wrong and it's dangerous it's not just me saying so it's trump's own people they were with him for four years they're warning us that the next four years will be much much worse you know when i was teaching every year we'd elect a student body president and you know what those teenagers could teach johnald trump a hell of a lot about what a leader is leaders don't spend all day insulting people and blaming others leaders do the work so i don't know about you i'm ready to turn the page on these guys so go ahead say it with me we're not going back we've got something better to offer the american people it starts with our candidate kamala Harris from her first day as a prosecutor as a district attorney as an attorney general as a united state senator and then our vice president she's fought on the side of the american people she's taken on the predators and fraudsters she's taken down the transnational gangs and she stood up to powerful corporate interest she has never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives and she's always done it with energy with passion and with joy folks we've got a chance to make kamala Harris the next president of the united states but i think we owe it to the american people to tell them exactly what she do as president before we ask them for their votes so here this is the part clip and save it and send it to your undecided relatives so they know if you're a middle-class family or a family trying to get into the middle class kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes if you're getting squeezed by prescription drug prices kamala Harris is going to take on big pharma if you're hoping to buy a home kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable and no matter who you are kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead because that's what we want for ourselves and it's what we want for our neighbors you know you might not know it but i haven't given a lot of big speeches like this but i have given a lot of pep talks so let me let me finish with this team it's the fourth quarter we're down a field goal but we're on offense and we've got the ball we're driving down the field and boy do we have the right team kamala Harris is top kamala Harris is experienced and kamala Harris is ready our job our job our job our job for everyone watching is to get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling one inch at a time one yard at a time one phone call at a time one door knock at a time one five dollar donation at a time look we got 76 days that's nothing there'll be time to sleep when you're dead we're gonna leave it on the field that's how we'll keep moving forward that's how we'll turn the page on Donald Trump that's how we'll build a country where workers come first health care and housing are human rights and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom that's how we make America a place where no child is left hungry where no community is left behind where nobody gets told they don't belong that's how we're gonna fight and as the next president of the United States always says when we fight when we fight when we fight thank you god bless minnesota governor tim waltz on the third night of the democratic national convention in chicago accepting formally accepting the nomination for vice president man is he good he is good at that whether you agree with his policies or not he is just good at it you know there's a lot of very good politicians who you know try to say the right thing i actually believe this guy doesn't have to think about what he's saying because i think he actually believes it and that helps a lot and it's also really important i think for the young men of america to see this example of healthy masculinity not toxic masculinity good luck to kamal harris following that on the closing night of the uh democratic national convention all right let's take quick break and to uh to calm us down on the way out the door today uh a quick break before desi join joins us with our latest green news report i'm brad fredman and you are listening to the brad cast hey this is brad please consider supporting whichever progressive media outlet is supporting you and the things that you care about most just like us do not receive corporate or political support we all need your support to counter the powerful corporate media echo chamber right now as much as ever if you choose to support us you can do it really easily safely and quickly via bradblog.com/donate from desi doing it myself thank you you're listening to an uncork presentation of the brad cast you know i think the fourth night of the dnc is the climate night if i'm not mistaken but before we get there our latest green news report we deserve leaders who acknowledge the threats heck the existence of climate change climate change and climate action woven into the democratic national convention 99 percent of americans have been affected by extreme weather just since may plus from heat waves and hurricanes to fires and floods this year the us has already seen 19 billion dollar disasters buckle up 2024 is second only to 2023 for billion dollar weather disasters so far this year i'm buckled up all of those stories and more straight ahead from bradblog.com i'm brad fredman and i'm desi doin stand by for six minutes of independent green news politics analysis and snarky comment and thank you for the beautiful weather chicago it's uh it's been a little rough on capital hill where it's not just the heat it's the stupidity well done mr askin this is your green news report okay desi doin after years and years of screaming at your television whenever the national conventions we're on asking them to talk about climate change looks like you finally got your wish yes at the lively and rollicking democratic national convention in chicago this week climate change and the environment have been woven into the fabric of the event as we go to air vice president kamala harris is still slated to speak on thursday night but overall the conventions of the two major political parties have highlighted the chasm of difference between them on climate change and environmental issues polls for years show the vast majority of voters want the federal government to act on climate change increase the use of renewable energy and decrease the burning of fossil fuels that cause climate change but at the republican national convention last month climate change was invisible as republicans pledged to increase the burning of fossil fuels and repeal pollution regulations and the gop's project 2025 explicitly calls to quote eradicate all mentions of climate change throughout the federal government the next time republicans gain power well that'll solve it on the other hand at the democratic national convention president biden focused on the historic climate successes of his administration and congressional democrats achieved despite entrenched opposition from republicans and the powerful fossil fuel industry he made the economic case for climate action and how democrats policies have generated a renewable energy jobs boom hey now we're giving america an infrastructure decade not weak we're modernizing our roads our bridges our ports our airports our trains our buses removing every lead pipe from schools and homes so every child can do clean water we pass the most significant climate law in the history of mankind cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030 launching a climate core creating tens of thousands of jobs for young people in the future who are going to make sure this continues and at the dnc climate and environmental action have been part of nearly every speech protecting the planet from climate change letting polluters destroy our planet is radical she will expand investments in clean energy so that my generation will have clean air and good jobs the earth is not red or blue the earth is sick and we must protect it we deserve leaders who acknowledge the threats heck the existence of climate change we can kill a planet in peril we can kill the land of course the stakes and the costs have never been higher as manmade climate change fuels a stark increase in extreme weather no one announced that as of the end of july the u.s has already endured 19 separate billion dollar weather and climate disasters from heat waves and hurricanes to fires and floods between 2019 and 2023 extreme weather disasters cost the u.s more than 600 billion dollars the union of concerned scientists has found that just since may 99 percent of the country's population has been affected by extreme weather alerts many of those alerts have overlapped meaning millions of people have faced multiple hazards at once and finally a new analysis from Yale climate connections this week projects that intensifying extreme weather events coupled with the growing insurance crisis are likely to cause significant economic and political disruption in the u.s over the next 15 years you just had a throw that in didn't you yep for much more on all of these stories and the ones we couldn't get to today check out our website at green news dot brand blog dot com fine follow and share us planet-wide on the facebook's mastadons and sites still known as twitter at green news report the GNR will be off next week until after the labor day holiday we hope you have a safe a peaceful and a cool one until then i'm Brad Friedman and i'm Desi Doyan and this has been your green news report and listen deed thank you very much Desi Doyan as you heard the man say not only the GNR but the broadcast will be off next week until after the labor day holiday my thanks to our producer Desi Doyan and to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us if you missed any portion of today's show downloaded for free anytime at bradblog.com that made possible by those of you who stopped by bradblog.com/donate to help us stay on your public airwaves and even put a little bit of gas into our Prius tank you can drop me email i'm bradcast@bradblog.com on the facebook's mastadons and sites still known as twitter i am the bradblog we will see you there until we see you here next time i'm brad freedman good luck world see you in September see you when the summer's new ♪ Oh, here we are ♪