On today’s BradCast: If those friendly to America are rising up against Donald Trump’s disastrous Presidency, imagine what our actual enemies think! Well, we don’t have to imagine quite as much as of today, even as Republicans in Congress continue their work to undermine American democracy. [Audio link to full show follows below.]
Donald Trump’s Yemen raid last week — the first special ops mission he approved after becoming President — was an unmitigated disaster during which a U.S. Navy SEAL was killed along with a number civilians, including an 8-year old American girl. The target was reportedly meant to be the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who is still alive and well and mocking Trump this week, even as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer ridiculously declared the failed mission “a successful operation by all standards.”
Also mocking Trump today is the Supreme Leader of Iran, who thanked the new President for “showing the real face of America” after Trump banned Iranian travelers and put the country “on notice” in a Tweet last week, threatening military action and emboldening Iran’s hardliners in the process of an increasing alarming drumbeat toward war. (Corporate media chasing all of Trump’s idiotic statements may want to start paying much closer attention to this. Please?)
Back at home, the President’s wildly controversial and wholly unqualified nominee for Education Secretary, billionaire Betsy DeVos, became the first cabinet nominee in history to be approved by the U.S. Senate after a tie vote in which the Vice President had to cast the decisive vote. At least this time the Democrats finally stood unified in voting against DeVos, along with two Republican Senators who joined them.
In the meantime, while The Netherlands announces that, due to hacking fears, they will do away with computer tabulation machines in favor of hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots (“Democracy’s Gold Standard”) for their upcoming election, Republicans in the U.S. House moved to abolish the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the only federal agency tasked with setting standards for our nation’s oft-failed, easily-hacked electronic voting and tabulation systems.
As explained in detail on today program, the EAC has been a disaster on several levels since its creation following the 2000 Presidential election debacle in Florida. Among countless BradBlog.com stories highlighting their failures over the years, was our 2006 exclusive on the un-aired network interview with the EAC’s first Chair, the Bush-appointed Rev. DeForest Soaries. He described the agency in the interview as a “charade” and warned that our computerized voting and tabulation system is “ripe for stealing elections and for fraud.” (Also, as mentioned today, see the chapter I contributed with Michael Richardson and John Gideon to Mark Crispin Miller’s Loser Take All, revealing how, in 2004, Nevada’s then Sec. of State, now U.S. Senator Dean Heller illegally certified and lied about his state’s touch-screen voting systems, which are still in use today, with an assist from the corrupt EAC.)
Nonetheless, despite its many failures, the answer to the EAC’s problems is not to abolish the agency, but to fund it properly and make it work. That the GOP is prepared to eliminate it entirely — even amidst Trump’s false claims of millions of fraudulent votes cast in the 2016 election — is quite telling.
Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, along with today’s late breaking news that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced in court papers that it plans to grant the final permit needed to complete the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, despite former President Obama’s order to conduct a full environmental impact study before construction is completed on the $3.8 billion pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota…
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And then there is Mitch McConnell who told my Senator that she has to be quiet…
Is this a violation of Senate Rule XIX? And, if so, who is being impugned? As Attorney General, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III will have an office in the Robert F. Kennedy Building.
Hi Brad, Love your show, and I agree with almost everything you have to say about election issues. But I do think you need to acknowledge (occasionally) that there are some states that are better than others – Oregon for example. I know Oregon isn’t perfect, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at and complaining about the flaws in their system, but compared to Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Oregon is very very good. All paper ballots and recounts are by hand and comparatively inexpensive (and done on a regular basis). I’m sure there must be a few other states that aren’t absolutely terrible, right?
Jan White @ 2:
Thanks very much for the kind words.
While your former SoS-turned-Governor deserves MUCH credit for a lot of stuff related to voting and much more, of late, I’m not sure you want me to talk about Oregon elections all that much, since I’m not a fan of Vote-by-Mail elections. (Here’s a quick list of just some of the reasons for that.) Still, you guys have great “turnout” and tend to vote very progressive, so I like Oregon and its voters much! Just not crazy about the voting system (even though I know most of you guys like it a lot.)
Better than Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania? Absolutely! (Though that’s not all that difficult, unfortunately.)