We’ve got a lot of news to cover on today’s BradCast, breaking and otherwise. Not all of it is terrible. So there’s that! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among today’s stories…
- First up, a story that broke late last week which we need to note here for the record. The 17-year old son of Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s presumptive Governor-elect, tried to vote illegally last week. Twice. At a precinct where his family isn’t even registered to vote — even though he’s too young to vote at all, but “insisted” on being allowed to do so. His father pretended to run on an “election integrity” platform during the primary, but his campaign is now criticizing the media for reporting on the story at all. Meanwhile, Virginia election officials suggest Youngkin’s son broke no laws — which seems impossible to fathom once you hear the details. Of course, it’s made all the more maddening by knowing what generally happens to those who happen to be black or brown while unknowingly voting or registering unlawfully — versus what happens to the white son of an incoming Republican Governor. Just ask Crystal Mason in Texas for one.
- On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge overseeing Donald Trump’s federal lawsuit attempting to prevent the National Archives from releasing January 6th-related records from his White House, denied his latest motion. The records were been subpoenaed by the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Trump-incited attack on the U.S. Capitol and will be turned over to the Committee on Friday unless the judge, or a higher court, rules otherwise before then. We explain.
- The same Committee, led by its Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), have been very busy so far this week. On Monday, they subpoenaed six top Trump Campaign officials, including disgraced former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and far-right attorney John Eastman. And on Tuesday they issued 10 more subpoenas, this time to officials who worked for Trump or the Justice Department, including his senior adviser Stephen Miller and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. While its unclear if the Committee will end up subpoenaing Trump himself, they have expressly not ruled it out and sure do seem to be working their way quickly up the food. Of course, until we learn if Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DoJ intend to bring criminal Contempt of Congress charges against Steve Bannon — in response to the referral sent to them by the U.S. House — for refusing to testify and turn over subpoenaed documents in the same investigation, none of these subpoenas will have much teeth. If Bannon is indicted, on the other hand, it will be game on for everyone. We continue to wait and watch…
- In COVID news, a North Dakota lawmaker who organized a rally on Monday to oppose vaccine mandates wasn’t able to make it. He has COVID. But he’s also certain that Ivermectin, the horse deworming anti-parasitic he is taking, will cure him. Public health experts do not concur.
- That NC lawmaker is hardly alone in falling for the vast, criminal, disinformation industry surrounding the coronavirus. A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds nearly 80% of Americans either believe or are unsure whether to believe one or more complete falsehoods surround the pandemic, including evidence-free claims that the government is exaggerating the number of COVID deaths; that the government is hiding deaths caused by the vaccines; that the vaccines can give you COVID; that they contain microchips; or can change your DNA. The survey also found that those who trusted rightwing outlets like Fox “News”, OAN and Newsmax were FAR more likely to be suckered by those lies.
- All of which helps explain the news that the gap between COVID infections and deaths in “red” states versus “blue” states continues to widen with each passing month. Last month, 25 out of every 100,000 residents in heavy Trump counties died from COVID, versus just 7.8 residents in counties that voted heavily for Joe Biden. It was the fifth straight month that the gap in death rates between Trump and Biden counties has widened. That gap continues to grow this month as well, with new deaths now running 5.8 times higher per capita in the the heaviest “red” counties versus the heaviest “blue” counties.
- We’ve reported many tragic stories over the past year about those who’ve refused, for various reasons, to get vaccinated, only to come to regret their choice after becoming hospitalized with a severe case of COVID. Many went on to die. Today, we have a variation on that story…with a sobering, but happier ending.
- Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for another very busy Green News Report, following the passage last week of the $1.2 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill in Congress, including a number of key climate provisions, and as the critical U.N. climate summit known as COP 26 continues this week in Glasgow, Scotland…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Since James Carville is in the news for his “woke” Democrats statement, I though I’d put up this video, which I’ll bet you haven’t seen.
I hope this doesn’t cause the company that bought Diebold’s voting machines to sue Carville for a billion plus dollars although I’d LOVE to see that company lose the lawsuit and put an end to these dangerous machines for all time.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is, what is being done to propose Federal legislation to open the source code to allow people to take away the Black Box aspects so that you have no idea whether your vote is counted or not, and why is the party and people like yourself not taking a stronger stance on that because the Democrats will never, ever win a presidential election unless they get a handle on this; they won’t again because the technology is overtaking it.
JAMES CARVILLE: Well first, in the party’s defense, it hasn’t had any power to do anything about this and won’t until January the 3rd. Secondly, if I were an enterprising journalist or an enterprising researcher… What people say is these kinds of mistakes, look, they happen but they generally fall kind of 50/50… I’ve NEVER seen one go for a Democrat! What’s the statistical probability that you have ten events and they all go one way. So, do I think that there’s shenanigans, yeah… Look, this guy at Princeton goes, and he can basically make these electronic voting machines play Mozart. He can do anything he wants with them. You want a figure, we’ll give you a figure. He asked the company to show him, and they wouldn’t even give him the machines. So. I agree, if we get the gavel, I think these people ought to be standing tall and throw their right hand in the air and not have mathematicians and statistical people and… Explain what happened to Christine Jennings who, I know, it’s unbelievable. Nobody argues that Gore didn’t win Florida. Nobody argues that Christine Jennings didn’t get the votes on Election Day. And you’re right, the Republicans were very satisfied with this. I think the public would support a thorough, real, penetrating, fair investigation into this. There’s enough technology there… I don’t mind having a record of what happened. I don’t trust these companies; I’ll put it to you that way. I don’t trust Diebold anymore than I can throw ’em!
VIDEO
To remind you, the Democrats DID get the gavel Carville wanted in the election, but personally, I would have much preferred they went after the voting machines instead of Enron. 🙁
Above link didn’t work so put this in your browser.
https://youtu.be/NWHoL_kvmI4
That so-called Virginia avalanche currently has Youngkin up by 63,502 out of about 3.3 million.
Meanwhile, Phil Murphy’s kicking ass in New Jersey by 70,900 in a smaller electorate, 2.5 million.
Not a fucking peep from the media reflecting that reality.
… or 1 system of justice vs 1 system of just us