#1124 Searching for a problem to implement a terrible solution (Voting Rights)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2017
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date: 08/4/2017
Today we revisit the old idea that if voting mattered they wouldn’t let you do it and the fact that that is exactly what they’re trying to do. Between allowing the chaos and uncertainty caused by hackable and unverifiable voting machines and systematic voter suppression efforts it seems clear just how much they don’t want people to trust or participate in the system
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Show Notes
Ch. 1: Opening Theme: A Fond Farewell - From a Basement On the Hill
Ch. 3: Song 1: Democracy - Leonard Cohen
Ch. 4: Act 2: The legal troubles of Trumps voter integrity task force - Bradcast from @TheBradBlog - Air Date 7-11-17
Ch. 5: Song 2: You know my name - The Beatles
Ch. 6: Act 3: The Backlash to the "Voter Fraud Panel" Isn't What You Think It Is - On the Media - Air Date 7-14-17
Ch. 7: Song 3: You Don't Scare Me - Josh Pyke
Ch. 8: Act 4: Illegal purging of voters in Ohio - @offkiltershow - Air Date 6-2-17
Ch. 9: Song 4: A Tranquilized Polar Bear Rising Through an Autumn Sky - Black Prairie
Ch. 10: Act 5: @AriBerman: How the Russians Hacked Our Voting Systems Last November - Start Making Sense from @TheNation - Air Date 7-12-17
Ch. 11: Song 5: The Game Is Rigged - The Great Malarkey
Ch. 12: Act 6: Democrats Are Introducing a Bill to Make Sure Your Vote is Counted (w:guest Mark Pocan) - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date 06-28-17
Ch. 13: Song 6: Cheat - The Clash
Ch. 14: Act 7: Four Actions to Fight Trump’s Sham Voter Fraud Commission in Your State - Best of the Left Activism
Ch. 15: Song 7: This Fickle World - Theo Bard
Ch. 16: Act 8: The nexus between voting rights and economics - The Other Washington from @civicskunkworks - Air Date 5-18-17
Voicemails
Ch. 17: Donating plasma during late capitalism - David from Detroit, MI
Ch. 18: What the dollar stores say about Late Capitalism - David From Albuquerque, NM
Ch. 19: A game-changing way of thinking about inequality - Justin from Indiana
Ch. 20: Amazon on mobile - Alan from Connecticut
Ch. 21: Looking for help investigating the case of a friend killed by police - Jeremy from Spokane, WA
Voicemail Music: Loud Pipes - Classics
Ch. 22: Final comments on dealing with death at the hands of police
Closing Music: Here We Are - Everyone's in Everyone
Activism:
TAKE ACTION
1. Find out if your state is complying with Trump’s Voter Commission and to what extent (The Brennan Center for Justice has compiled state responses here)
2. Get involved/volunteer with local chapters of voting rights orgs like Let America Vote, League of Women Voters, Voto Latino, Democracy Awakening/Democracy Spring
3. Contact your state’s Board of Elections office. Quickly find it with this database. Here's a call script that you can adapt for your state.
4. Contact your state’s governor. Quickly find them with this database.
EDUCATE YOURSELF
Trump's "Voter Fraud" Commission (Brennan Center for Justice)
The Bogus Voter-Fraud Commission (New York Times)
More than 3,000 Colorado voters have canceled their registrations since Trump election integrity commission request (Denver Post)
Trump’s voter commission is now facing at least 7 federal lawsuits (Washington Post)
The Gravest Dangers of Trump's Voter Fraud Commission (Time)
This anti-voter-fraud program gets it wrong over 99 percent of the time. The GOP wants to take it nationwide. (Washington Post)
White House Apparently No Longer Posting Public Comments On Trump’s Voter Fraud Probe (Huffington Post)
How Donald Trump has focused his energy to target non-white Americans (Mic.com)
Written by BOTL Communications Director, Amanda Hoffman
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My assessment of the commission is that it's totally pointless. There's absolutely no evidence to suggest that millions of people voted illegally |
| 0:07.2 | And it's focused on the absolutely wrong problem |
| 0:10.0 | We should be looking at election hacking and the vulnerability of our voting system and also at voter suppression laws all across the country that made it harder to vote in |
| 0:18.8 | 2016 and their impact on voter participation |
| 0:23.6 | This program is made possible by the members and donors to the show to support the work we do for as little as a buck a month |
| 0:29.5 | Or to sign up as a member and get commercial free versions of every episode plus members only bonus content find us on patreon or visit the |
| 0:37.2 | Contribute tab at best of left calm now welcome to the award winning best of the left podcast with clips today from democracy now |
| 0:43.8 | The broadcast on the media off-kilter start making sense the Tom Hartman program and the other Washington |
| 1:00.5 | Kansas Secretary of State Chris Kovac has defended President Trump's unfounded claim that millions of people illegally voted |
| 1:08.6 | Supposedly costing Trump the popular vote he lost by what about three million votes to Hillary Clinton |
| 1:14.4 | But won the electoral college this is Kansas Secretary of State Kovac being questioned by reporters |
| 1:21.7 | I think the president elect is absolutely correct when he says the number of illegal votes cast |
| 1:27.2 | exceeds the popular vote margin between him and Hillary Clinton at this point what tangible evidence is there that that |
| 1:34.1 | Actually happened. Well, this is the problem with aliens voting and aliens registering |
| 1:39.4 | There's no way you can look on the voter rolls and say this one's an alien this one's a citizen |
| 1:43.6 | This one's an alien you once a person gets on the voter rolls |
| 1:46.4 | You don't have any way of easily identifying them as aliens and so you have to rely on post-election |
| 1:51.9 | Studies like the cooperative congressional election survey where you get data from aliens themselves saying oh, yeah |
| 1:58.1 | I voted it does appear that aliens do vote in very large numbers |
| 2:02.4 | So that was Kansas Secretary of State Chris Kovac in November right after the election in February |
| 2:08.6 | He again claimed there was widespread voter fraud in the presidential election |
| 2:12.9 | Here he is sparring with CNN anchor Kate Baldwin |
... |
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