I was exhausted after about four. It hasn’t gotten any easier since. Nonetheless, incredibly enough, The BRAD BLOG has now officially turned 20 years old. And I’m still not sure who actually won the 2004 election…
On our 19th Anniversary last year, as we rolled into our 20th year of trouble-making and muckraking, I took some time to reminisce. I don’t have the time (or strength) to do much of same this year in the wake of a recent illness or two (and all the other madness ongoing). So I’ll refer old-timers back to last year’s posting if you’re in the mood for nostalgia.
But I do want to thank yet again all of those who have supported our work. I am very proud to say that we are still 100% funded by readers and listeners year after year, now comprising the past two decades! I also must thank the hundreds who have supported what we do here by contributing as guest-bloggers at various times and in various ways over the the past 20 years — including those who have moved on or have passed away — and especially those still slogging regularly here, like our friends Ernie Canning and Desi Doyen.
I have told the story many times when asked, how when, back in early 2004 — after coming off of a completely unrelated long-term project which required pretty much daily writing (and which I thought had been exhausting after “only” five years) — that I began to miss that daily grind.
“Why don’t you start a blog?,” Desi helpfully suggested.
It being 2004, I naturally responded: “What the hell is a blog?!”
She explained. And, welp, two decades later, here we are.
I never intended this to be a place for journalism. It was simply called “BRADBLOG” because the original blog software could only be installed into a directory that had 8 characters or less. My plan to come up with a better name for the site itself never seems to have panned out.
The blog was initially meant as a distraction. For me. Here is the first blog item. (Ironically, as noted at the time, Desi had also, presciently, suggested I do a radio show at the time.) Then, the 2004 election happened and few others — virtually nobody in the mainstream corporate media — were willing to investigate and cover the multitude of questions, concerns and just a mountain of corruption that took place around that year’s election. Specifically in Ohio, where thousands of votes were never counted or publicly verified as tabulated accurately by human beings.
So I did investigate and report on such things. And, yes, two decades later, here we are. Ironically (and hilariously) it is now Republicans — such as the disgraced felon Sidney Powell — who have combed through our years of back catalog to falsely cite my exclusive reporting on voting systems from years ago as “evidence,” somehow, of “fraud” in the 2020 election.
But, has the mainstream corporate media improved their coverage of elections and so much else since we first began? Yes. Marginally. Not so much when it really really counts, however. And, right now, it really counts.
So here we still are. The media a mess, still failing to adequately cover elections and inform the electorate about our worsening climate crisis and so much more, as we head into yet another Presidential election. This time though, it is one that could, as they warn, end all Presidential elections — in a nation that has been broken by decades of corruption and lies and failure, which has paved the way to allow a GOP candidate to become President, dictator, autocrat for life.
As much as I worried when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney led the Republican Party off the rails and over the very cliff they are now eagerly diving over (aided, abetted and facilitated all the while by the corporate media), our Constitutional republican democracy may this time be slipping away for good. It may now be more critical than ever that we remain vigilante and push back hard and loud against the rising tyranny of straight up fascism in the U.S., as fully embraced by the virtual entirety of the once Grand Old Party.
To be frank, I am actually embarrassed that I haven’t been better able to better help prevent us from arriving where we now are. But, here we are. Still trying to rally “6 or 7” of us to do everything that can be done to save the world…one blog item at a time.
Thank you for being there with us for part or all of the past two decades. Here we are. Still. After 20 years…
And we still count on you.
– Brad (et al)
Congrats! Keep up the good work.
This is where I know Brad and company always have the real scoop. They taught me about most everything in the election reform world.
Way to go y’all.
I was reading the Bradblog from early 2005 on.
Though few seem to remember, that 2004 election was a real shocker, IMO.
It jolted the election integrity issue to the forefront of my attention in politics, where it has since remained.
I learned about, and FROM, ALL the experts from the Bradblog—-Bev Harris, Jonathan Simon, Bob Fitrakis, Harvey Wasserman, Beth Clarkson, Marilyn Marks and others.
Bradblog and Bradcast are a national treasure!
Apparently, Investigative journalist Michael Isikoff has been given the task of reporting on Marylyn Marks’ discovery that Scott Hall participated in breaching Georgia voting software. Maybe it’s buried in his book. Who knows?
Also, PBS makes Gabriel Sterling look like somebody who should be treated with utmost respect. No mention of his ridiculous lie that no software had been imaged, when he had to have known that, unless he blacked out when they played Marks’ recording which got Hall to plead guilty. We could use a little more serious reporting then this to save us from a potential Trump Kingdom in what used to be America.
I tried to include a couple of links above, but they didn’t show up. Let’s try this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98C3q1Tx8aY
https://www.pbs.org/video/democracy-on-trial-sshgzy/?fbclid=IwAR1dWyaMCQjoNCfxWydbivKs8j71SHQSmwMSjLr3ptoNIgyyQxRPiNjDK30
Now they’re both working. Sorry. 🙂
Thank you so much for your long term commitment to democracy that trusts regular people over hierarchical authoritarians whose current leader is Putin, not Trump.
Section 3 of the 14th amendment should have paralleled Germany’s constitution in that anti-democracy candidates/parties should be prohibited from running for office when their aim is to destroy democracy. In other words, Germany’s democracy is self-protecting.
Given the treason of Trump who gives aid and support to Putin, the Mafia connections & criminality (fraud, sexual predatory) of Trump about which the press did not adequately inform the public, and Trump’s overt statements to be an anti-democracy dictator, we need a self-protecting democracy, or we all are obligated to protect our democracy.
Could the public or Biden create something like the following?
Quoting:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/08/german-court-rules-far-right-afd-party-a-suspected-threat-to-democracy
A German court has ruled that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) can be classified as a suspected threat to democracy, paving the way for the domestic intelligence agency to spy on the opposition party.
The court dismissed a legal challenge brought by the AfD last March that delayed plans by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) to put the party under surveillance.
The administrative court in Cologne however found that there were “sufficient indications of anti-constitutional goals within the AfDâ€, it said in a statement.
As a result, the BfV is allowed to officially classify the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant party as a “suspected case of right-wing extremismâ€.
The classification authorises intelligence agents to tap the party’s communications and use undercover informants.
Thanks Brad.
I think Brad’s work among others helped override all of Trump’s illegal efforts to steal the 2020 election. Biden is the first democrat in many decades to successfully hold his win. That is a big deal.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/four-presidents
Why Has America Tolerated Six Illegitimate GOP Presidents?
“Power at any cost†has been the Republican slogan ever since Nixon’s attempts to assassinate Castro in 1960 to beat JFK in that year’s election…
Thom Hartmann
11/20/2023
Oh my, pardon me.
About the above statement, I was not thinking through everything. I was thinking that Biden was the first Democrat to hold his win in those years that Republicans cheated by suppressing voters, and often by committing treason to win unfairly.
I was not thinking about the first term of Carter, nor the terms of Clinton and Obama.
I don’t know if Republicans were more honest or trickery was less effective those years that Democrats won and held office or what exactly.
Sorry.
Hey Brad,
I am so angry and depressed because the Democrats most often are not being critical of, or even mentioning, the horrid fact that Biden, while reporting that he is quite critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, he and his Administration continue to unconditionally finance and supply massive quantities of weaponry. I get why Dems don’t want to criticize the Democratic President as he runs for reelection but had they been criticizing him all along Netanayhu’s very self centered and callous take over of Gaza and West Bank perhaps Biden might have felt pressure enough to stop fueling this Israel’s horrid war crimes slaughter.
The Democrats are too often afraid of speaking all of the truth. And now we have a President whose age dogs him with natural questions about another Biden Administration wherein at it’s end will find him at the age if 86, an age that invites illness and weakness. It reminds me of fabulous Justice RBG whose only misstep was not retiring while the Democrats were still in power so that a reasonable replacement could be appointed. It was a case of personal pride out trumped reason. Are we seeing this happen again?
Bev,
I think the main reason we tolerate illegitimate presidents is because the media is not on our side on this and hasn’t been in decades or maybe never. They seem to be worse then ever going into the worst election in American history.
Why in the world can’t we do something about DeJoy! How do they expect us to be excited about donating with Republicans openly, and proudly sabotaging the whole process. How can we compete against Leonard Leo’s 1.6 billion when people can’t even pay their rent every month?