Greg Palast's Blog, page 68
January 28, 2018
Truthout’s Progressive Pick of The Week: Greg Palast’s Best Democracy Money Can Buy
By Mark Karlin for Truthout
As part of their commitment to providing independent information and resources to their readers, Truthout chooses a "Progressive Pick" every week: an independent book or DVD that they find thought-provoking and insightful. This week, Truthout have selected The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case Of The Stolen Election — which has been updated and has just been released on Amazon (and is FREE to Prime members) — as their "Progressive Pick”. To mark the occasion, Mark Karlin, the editor of BuzzFlash at Truthout, poses six questions to Palast.
Mark Karlin: Why do you think that the White House closed down the infamous Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity?
Greg Palast: Like any bloodsucking bat, Kris Kobach, who ran the commission for Trump, likes to work in the dark. (Kobach is Target Numero Uno in my film.) Because the Trump /Kobach commission has been bombarded by Freedom of Info requests, Kobach’s gambit is to move his vote-swiping activities into Homeland Security. He thinks, wrongly I hope, that he can hide records on the grounds that removing Black Democrats from the voter rolls is part of the War on Terror.
Karlin: Can you share your speculation on what is the material that the commission is destroying?
Palast: Kobach and Trump are destroying the voter files they received from a couple of states. SFW. The real information is, what is the commission’s agenda? Did they find fraudulent voters? I’m certain they are covering up the fact that they DIDN’T find fraudulent voters. Kobach also bought lists of Hispanic voters. The purpose is clear: match any José Garcia on voter rolls with José Garcia on deportation orders — and purge an American for the crime of having a common Hispanic name.
Karlin: What do you think the future holds for the notorious Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, co-chair of the commission and creator of all sorts of regulations to stop illegal voting that never occurs in the first place?
Palast: Here’s my prediction:
2018: Governor of Kansas
2019: Vice-President to President Pence
2024: President
2032: Grand Inquisitor
I’m not kidding. I picked Trump as President before the primary’s end, right?
[image error] Just released: the new #TrumpStoleIt edition of the The Best Democracy Money Can Buy with Palast’s on-the-ground investigation of how Trump’s cronies shoplifted Michigan and other swing states. Plus updates on the billionaires behind the theft.
The new #TrumpStoleIt edition of our film also has extra investigative reports, including the theft of Georgia’s 6th CD special election.
The new film is available to buy or stream on Amazon — and is FREE on Prime!
Or get a copy signed to you by Greg Palast, plus a free download link, with a tax deductible donation of $50 to our foundation to keep our team on the trail of Agent Orange and his enablers.
Karlin: How does Operation Crosscheck represent the Republican effort to massively suppress the vote under the false premise of preventing voter fraud?
Palast: Interstate Crosscheck is the GOP’s latest Jim Crow tactic to remove voters of color from the rolls. It’s absurdly simple. Kobach convinced 27 Republican voting chiefs (and two dumber-than-dirt Democrats) to share their voter rolls to hunt for suspected “potential duplicate” voters or duplicate registered voters. The voters get a postcard that looks like junk mail. If they don’t return it, they are either immediately scrubbed from voter rolls or put on the “inactive” voter list (where they are scrubbed if they miss a federal election).
Here’s why it’s evil: GOP officials only match first and last name. As one shocked expert says in my film: “If you’re name is José Garcia, you’re suspected of voting in 29 states!” (ie. All the states where Crosscheck operates.) The list is overwhelmingly biased against voters of color (because 85 of the 100 most common names in America are minority names like Rodriguez and Washington).
Here’s an example of their list (it’s confidential, but I got it) matching voters named Jackson. It’s a frame from the film. Note that NOT one of the middle names matches:
As I explained in Rolling Stone and in my movie — this cost 1.l million voters their registration in 2016 — and cost Hillary the election in swing states.
I confirmed this in Michigan with the bone-head Secretary of State’s PR man. You’ll love the scene in the updated film — everyone laughs — while you feel sick to your stomach.
Karlin: You explain your first exposure to purge caging lists was with the 2000 Florida vote. Explain what happened and how the 2000 race set the tone for what became Operation Crosscheck.
Palast: GOP dogs don’t need new tricks. Katherine Harris removed 94,000 voters, mostly Black men, from the rolls for the Bush-Gore election. She said they were felons, but I investigated for The Guardian. NOT ONE was an illegal voter.
It was just like Crosscheck. They “matched” the name of a felon with a voter. For example, Willie Steen of Florida, a Gulf War veteran, lost his vote because a guy named Willie O’Steen was convicted in Ohio.
It’s explained in the film with a 3-minute cartoon by Keith Tucker (who drew Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Here’s Harris kicking the 94,000 voters off the rolls:
Karlin: Why do you think the mass corporate media makes a bigger deal out of whether the Russians hacked our vote than the many ways in which the Republicans are suppressing the vote in the United States?
Palast: Because the LA/NYC media is filled with white Democrats who can’t accept that the election was determined by racial vote suppression. Hillary said that America has the greatest electoral system in the world — which means she’s only been to Kazakhstan. So, the Dems and their media make up the fairy tale about Russians — using the language that would make Joe McCarthy proud. If Edward R. Murrow was alive today, he’d barf on them.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie.
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Truthout’s Progressive Pick of The Week: Greg Palast’s Best Democracy Money Can Buy appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 20, 2018
David Cay Johnston head-to-head with Greg PalastFacebook Live! Wednesday 8:15pm PT
Just hop onto the @GregPalastInvestigates Facebook page, and share!
Johnston is author of the new smash bestseller, It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America, popping to #2 on the NY Times bestseller list.
And Palast will release the new post-election TRUMP-STOLE-IT edition of the film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now on Amazon & Prime.
Live from LA - from the sold-out event. We’ll be ripping the bark off the pestilential President and the too-dumb-to-get-it media.
Watch, listen join in, ask questions, until 10pm PT.
Want David Cay’s new book? Click here and the Palast team gets a kickback.
* * * * *About David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump. He has lectured on economics, journalism and tax policy on every continent except Antarctica and is a former president of Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE). Johnston teaches at Syracuse University College of Law. He has been a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, Democracy Now and NPR's Morning Edition, among other shows, and was a consultant for the Netflix series House of Cards. For more on David visit: DavidCayJohnston.com
About Greg Palast
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie now available on Amazon & Prime.
* * * * *
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post David Cay Johnston head-to-head
with Greg Palast
Facebook Live! Wednesday 8:15pm PT appeared first on Greg Palast.
Great Mind Series: David Cay Johnston in conversation with Greg PalastWednesday, January 31, 2018 in Santa Monica, CA
Join us in Santa Monica, CA at 7 PM on Wednesday, January 31 for an evening which features not one, but two New York Times bestselling authors. Greg Palast (Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy) will be moderating a conversation with David Cay Johnston (The Making of Donald Trump), whose latest book, It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America (Simon & Schuster), has just been released to coincide with the one year anniversary of Trump's presidency. The event will take place in a beautiful private residence, the location of which will be given upon reserving tickets.
WHERE: Private Residence, Santa Monica, CA
(Location given upon RSVP)
WHEN: Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 7PM
TICKETS: $25 — includes dessert and coffee
RSVP: ilenepr@sbcglobal.net
INFO / EVENT PAGE: facebook.com/events/208634823044695/
The event will also be broadcast on Facebook LIVE via our page, so if you can't make it or live too far away, you can still join us by tuning in around 7PM PST. The stream, when live, will appear at the top of the @GregPalastInvestigates Facebook page. And please, when you're watching, don't forget to hit the share button to help spread the gift of truth from two top authors and investigative journalists far and wide!
* * * * *
About David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump. He has lectured on economics, journalism and tax policy on every continent except Antarctica and is a former president of Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE). Johnston teaches at Syracuse University College of Law. He has been a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, Democracy Now and NPR's Morning Edition, among other shows, and was a consultant for the Netflix series House of Cards. For more on David visit: DavidCayJohnston.com
About Greg Palast
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie.
* * * * *
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Great Mind Series: David Cay Johnston in conversation with Greg Palast
Wednesday, January 31, 2018 in Santa Monica, CA appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 19, 2018
This Is Happening: Jerry Quickley And Greg Palast Discuss The War On Voting Rights
By Greg Palast
You're more likely to be hit by lightning than commit voter fraud, but they're using the myth of double voters to eliminate real voters — who are almost always voters of color. However, they can't steal all the votes all the time. It's really important to understand that.
When my co-writer for Rolling Stone, Bobby Kennedy, called Barack Obama about this, his response was: If they're going to steal 6 millions votes, we're going to get 7 million more votes. And that's what he had to do. He had to have such crushing victories in 2008 and 2012 that he overwhelmed the steal. It can be done.
From Alabama to Virginia, and everywhere in between, Jerry Quickley and Greg Palast discuss the War on Voting Rights and take calls from KPFK listeners in this episode of This Is Happening. Also available via SoundCloud.
* * * * *
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie.
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post This Is Happening: Jerry Quickley And Greg Palast Discuss The War On Voting Rights appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 18, 2018
Trump May Have Ended Kobach’s Voter Fraud Commission, But He Hasn’t Stopped Its Work
by Greg Palast with Dennis J Bernstein
Donald Trump may have halted Kris Kobach’s so-called Presidential Advisory Commission on “Election Integrity” — but he hasn’t stopped its work. Far from it, he’s put its nefarious vote-stealing activities on steroids.
On January 3, shortly after Trump issued his Executive Order dissolving the Commission in the same way it was created, by the stroke of a pen, Kobach told Briebart that the Commission’s mission wasn’t over, rather it was being “handed off” to the Department of Homeland Security.
Far from being a victory for progressives, as most of the liberal lamestream media portrayed the Commission's demise, this was a brilliant chess move by Kobach. Now Kobach hopes to operate his racist voter purging program away from the glaring spotlight of the Commission, under the special veil of secrecy afforded to the DHS. Worse still, the program is now backed by Homeland Security’s police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) powers.
In this episode of Flashpoints, Greg Palast and Dennis J. Bernstein discuss these developments.
TRANSCRIPT (First broadcast on January 9, 2018)
Dennis J. Bernstein: In Berkeley I’m Dennis Bernstein. You're listening to Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio. We're delighted to welcome back Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a film, updated and released on Amazon. So congratulations Greg, welcome back to Flashpoints.
Greg Palast: Yes, in fact it's free if you've got that Amazon Prime. It's out this week. We updated it because unfortunately America has been updated with Trump. The film originally warned you that a guy named Kris Kobach of Kansas — if you can't remember that name just think KKK — Trump's Vote-Thief-in-Chief, I said he was going to be the mastermind behind Trump stealing the election, and he did it. So we updated the film to show you how he did it. And now he's back in the news, and that's why I'm happy to speak with you.
This week, or last week I should say, Trump disbanded his so-called Vote Fraud Commission, which was headed by Kris Kobach of Kansas, and officially known as the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity. It was disbanded because Kris Kobach of Kansas was being bombarded with lawsuits by the Brennan Center, by every civil rights organization you could think of with a lawyer, and even the single Democrat who was foolish enough to join his commission and found out he was being denied access to even such things as the meeting dates of the commission. So, they were operating in secret. Kris Kobach, forgetting that the Soviet Union no longer exists and has not moved to America, thought he could operate in secret. But now he has disbanded it because there’s so much public criticism. The President has issued an Executive Order, Trump just said the commission is disbanded…
Bernstein: But Trump said that, despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the President's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information. That's why they had to give it to Homeland Security, to bring the investigators in.
Palast: Yes, well, two things… Number one: the Commission was formed and Trump was just tweeting and bleating that there is massive vote fraud. As you know… they’ve claimed that three million people voted twice. That's Kris Kobach who created something called Interstate Crosscheck, a system to reveal these three million double voters, people voting illegally twice in the same election in two different states. He couldn't produce any actual double voters, but he did have a list of three million, which I obtained, of these illegal voters. And it was just people with names like José Rodríguez and James Brown. Believe it or not, they found two people named James Brown voting in two different states. They had different middle names, but, hey, it doesn't matter. As far as Republicans are concerned, that was a double voter. That's the type of fraud and fraudulent voter that they were looking for.
And so yes, a lot of states refused — or appeared to refuse. By the way, most of those states were lying. Almost every Republican state turned over their voter rolls to Donald Trump and Kris Kobach. They lied and said that they didn't, but enough states — including the state of California — simply refused to turn over their voter rolls for those guys to go tromping through to find more people named José Rodríguez that they could claim voted in another state. So you had resistance, you had lawsuits.
So what are they doing now? They're putting it in Homeland Security. So they've closed it down. That you could look at as a victory. Because they recognized they can't operate in public and get away with their shenanigans. So they put it in Homeland Security for two purposes. Number one is secrecy. They believe that by saying this is an anti-terrorism effort, that they somehow have the cloak of secrecy afforded them by working with Homeland Security. Well, you can't just call a hunt for black Democrats a hunt for “terrorists” and make it secret. I've just been on the phone with Jesse Jackson and several lawyers who said you can call it whatever you want, but if it's a racial purge of voters they still better make those records public. So, there's still going to be a fight, that's number one.
Number two — and it is dangerous — they’re going to try to use the power of Homeland Security. And I'm not guessing. Kris Kobach did say this on Fox, that they will use the police powers of Homeland Security to seize the voter rolls of California and New York and other States that are refusing to turn over their voter rolls so they can tromp through and find “double voters”. And Homeland Security is going to be saying that it's looking for illegal alien voters — that's the other big claim that they've made, that there are literally one to three million aliens, who swam the Rio Grande just so they could vote in our school board elections. It may be laughable, except it's no joke when they start purging people whose crime is having a Hispanic last name.
Bernstein: You know Greg, we spent most of the show today talking about the Administration's decision to abruptly end temporary protected status for some 200,000 Salvadorans [listen to the complete show here]. He did this for Haitians just a little bit ago. It seems it's sort of part of a piece, in a way. It’s an attack on black and brown people, and it's an attempt to cleanse black and brown people from the voter rolls — and some from the country.
Palast: Well, in fact, don't discount this. Kris Kobach of Kansas — Mr. KKK as I mention in my film and my work for Rolling Stone — he not only is Secretary of the State of Kansas (and he's running for governor of Kansas, by the way), he not only is heading Trump's Commission, or I don't know what his position now will be in Homeland Security, but he remains the lawyer for a group called FAIR. And FAIR's founder says its entire purpose is to maintain a European America. And I have a suspicion he doesn't mean a European-Haitian America, okay? This guy is a white supremacist… and I don't throw that term around easily.
He is a declared white supremacist, Kris Kobach. And he is in charge of the politics behind these Trumpian racist deportation moves. And it's of a piece with cleansing the voter rolls. Because, understand, when they talk about deporting people, if they find someone again named José Rodríguez, which there are hundreds of people named José Rodríguez on those voter rolls that they were attempting to purge — and did purge, by the way, in the last election. When they create these lists of illegal aliens and they start deporting aliens, they're also going to be attacking the voting rights of anyone with a similar name.
So you can't disconnect the attack on voter rolls from the attack on legitimate alien Americans who want to become citizens. They're going after the ones who've become citizens already, or who've been citizens for generations. Let's not forget that in New Mexico and California for a lot of Hispanics the border crossed them, it's not that they crossed the border.
Bernstein: Talk a little bit about what you're preparing for. We're seeing this unfold now, we're seeing this Commission being moved into Homeland Security. We've got the 2018 elections coming up. These are going to be highly contested. How are you making preparations? What are you going to do, Greg, to stop them from stealing these elections?
Palast: Well, number one, I'd better keep reporting the story because we're not getting it on the mainstream media. They laugh at Kris Kobach and the claims of voter fraud. But what they're not doing is investigating… It’s not a joke. They're using this absurdity that millions of illegal alien voters, double voters, and others [as an excuse to purge legal voters.] And the double voters almost in all cases that they've identified are voters of color. So the first thing is exposure, which is very difficult to do in an America which believes that, as Hilary Clinton put it, we have the most wonderful electoral system in the world, which means she's only been to Kazakhstan.
By the way, I just came back from Switzerland… where they do read my reports and my work is popular there. And they're stunned. It's so hard for them to get [their heads] around the idea that we don’t count all the votes or let everyone vote. This is in a nation, Switzerland, where everyone is required by law to vote. Like, they don't even understand this idea that someone wouldn't vote or wouldn't get their vote counted. Or that you can get away with taking away someone's vote by saying they don't have the right ID or something like that. They're absolutely stunned that this is still happening. And that's true in other nations in Europe who are just stunned at the US system. So number one: it's exposure.
Number two: political action. And we've seen Jesse Jackson and Rainbow PUSH are doing a national campaign which is starting with Interstate Crosscheck, Kris Kobach's game saying that millions of people voted twice, just as a way to remove every guy named James Brown from the list; and every guy named Jesse Jackson, by the way, from the voter rolls as well.
And then there's legal action. The great class action lawyer Jeanne Mirer in fact was just calling a moment to go to my office because she's about to file open records requests on the states that are working with Kobach on his scheme to remove so-called double voters, demanding that they release their hit lists, release their racist purge lists. Because if they release the lists, and we go through them, our experts already know what are on those lists because we have about a third of the names. And, like I say, this is an attack on voters of color.
So there's a political attack, a legal attack, a journalistic attack, meaning journalism's job is exposure. Hard to do. It’s hard to get editors and producers in America to do any story about anything but America being a wonderful democracy. You're the guy who is passing gas at the debutante ball of American democracy. It’s not done. So it's a very difficult thing to accomplish.
So those are the three things; exposure, political action, and legal action. And obviously it would be nice to see legislative action as well, but that would require the Democrats.
Bernstein: Well the Democrats, yeah, I was going to say the Democrats. But they've been deadbeats on all this stuff, haven't they? I mean, they have not been willing from Gore in 2000… They’re just cowards to take this on.
Palast: Well some of it is cowardice. In my investigations of what is politely called vote suppression, unfortunately, Democrats have taken part in this too. Not on the kind of industrial, computerized scale that Republicans have done. But you'd have a very different Democratic Party if every voter of color was allowed to vote and have their votes counted. A very different Democratic Party.
And I saw this particularly in New Mexico, where I saw brutal vote suppression where machines simply did not work in the pueblos. Machines simply did not work, and therefore recorded no votes — zero votes for President in certain precincts that were heavily Hispanic Democrat. And who is in charge or running the vote? Hispanic Democrats under the direction of Bill Richardson. You had kind of elite Hispanic Democrats fearful of the votes in primaries of poor Mexicanos.
Remember, vote theft is kind of class war by other means. So, therefore, you would expect it from Republicans, but you still have the problem of Democrats being involved and they don't want to give up those tools either.
Bernstein: Well that's a problem for all of us. You can learn a lot more if you have an opportunity to connect with some of the work of Greg Palast. You can go to gregpalast.com, find out all about his film, about the latest release. Find out all about a lot more in terms of how to defend your vote.
But this, it really isn't taken seriously. And I'm not sure how to read the killing of the Kobach Commission. [It] may be a good thing, may be a bad thing, or it may be irrelevant because these folks are going to do this at the grassroots [level]. They're going to steal the vote and it's going to be continuing to target people of color because they don't have the resources to fight back.
Palast: Well I think it does matter. Number one: it is a political victory. That is the Kobach Commission was roundly dismissed as a joke. It shouldn't be a joke because these guys ain't foolin' around. You know, it's not a circus act, these guys are serious. It is dangerous because there's been so much crowing by the liberals and the MSDNC reporting, you would think that they've just saved the nation by driving Kris Kobach underground. But driving Kris Kobach into Homeland Security and his operation… into basically the Secret Service of the United States, now to use police powers and conducting operations in the dark, that's extremely dangerous.
But, again, most of this activity happens at the state level. And, you know, most of the Flashpoints listeners are in California. There's a lot of cleanup there and that's in a one party, Democratic state. If you remember Alex Padilla oversaw a primary in June of 2016 in which nearly one million ballots were never counted, disqualified through cockamamie manipulation of the vote, forcing people to use provisional ballots or having their ballots disqualified because they used the wrong ballot.
It's games that I saw in Alabama, games that I saw in Mississippi, and here we're having this kind of José Crow operation in California. So it's up to activists, it's up to an informed public; Don't depend on the parties to save your vote.
Bernstein: All right… I'm looking forward, Greg, as it comes a little bit closer to the elections that we strike up our Election Crimes Bulletin, because we know we're going to need it. We're going to need the great work that you've been doing for so many years, Greg. And we appreciate this ongoing collaboration. Again, people can check you out at gregpalast.com, the film is available, a great deal of information is available. And we thank you, Greg, for always making yourself available to our listeners and to the Flashpoints show.
Palast: Terrific. Thank you, Dennis.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush. Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie.
Stay informed, get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook and Twitter.
The post Trump May Have Ended Kobach’s Voter Fraud Commission, But He Hasn’t Stopped Its Work appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 15, 2018
How JFK Saved MLK’s Life And So Won The Presidency
By Greg Palast
[image error]
Palast at King's Atlanta Church on assignment for Al Jazeera
It was a Republican, Martin Luther King Sr., who made John Kennedy president of the United States — for JFK’s saving Daddy King’s son, Martin Jr., from lynching.
This harrowing and little known drama of terror and courage, confirmed for me by Martin Luther King III, changed American politics — and America — forever.
On October 19, 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Georgia for driving with an Alabama driver's license and sentenced to six months hard labor. No one expected King to survive the sentence — he’d be lynched at the outset.
His father, Martin King Sr., had one desperate chance to save his son. Daddy King had endorsed Richard Nixon, a family friend, for the presidency. Nixon could count on King, a Republican like many African-Americans, who chose the party of Lincoln over the racist Democratic party of Jim Crow segregation.
A desperate King called Vice-President Nixon — who refused to answer. But MLK’s wife, Coretta, had a single hope. She called a friend, pacifist activist Harris (later Senator) Wofford who called Bobby Kennedy.
RFK didn’t hesitate, calling from a pay phone on Long Island to his brother, demanding John save MLK Jr.
It was just three weeks before the presidential election, a race too close to call. This was a crisis. Three Southern governors warned the Kennedys that any help for Dr. King and JFK would lose three Deep South states.
John Kennedy, who’d just won the Pulitzer Prize for Profiles in Courage, knew this was his test. He gave Bobby the go-ahead to save King.
Bobby called Atlanta and told the judge he’d post King’s bond — though the judge had never offered bond. But this Democratic judge knew that with his party, the Kennedys could employ and destroy.
Meanwhile, according to Martin King III, his father was pulled from his Atlanta jail at 2am and told he would be transferred to Reidsville Prison hours from the city. King was certain he would not live to see the dawn.
But the judge had let it be known that King now was now under the protective gaze of the Kennedys. And MLK, said his son, was “the first prisoner ever to be thrilled and thankful to enter the gates of Reidsville Prison.”
But the warning came true. Word of Kennedy saving King cost JFK the electoral votes of Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia. But then there was the miracle. Daddy King had written a pamphlet beginning, in block letters:
“No Comment” Nixon
versus
A Candidate with a Heart,
Senator Kennedy
*
THE CASE OF
MARTIN LUTHER KING
[image error]The pamphlet, on blue paper, was carried to the churches of half a million African-Americans.
Daddy King said, “I have a suitcase full of votes for the Senator that I’m carrying to Chicago.”
The mass outpouring of sermon-inspired African-Americans won Kennedy razor-close victories in Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey.
Even historian Ted White cites the King family’s powerful campaign of gratitude, and the pamphlet now known as “The Blue Bomb,” as the deciding factor in John F. Kennedy’s victory over Nixon.
The Democrats' once-solid hold on the South was no longer solid — but a new voting block, would hold hard as a hammer for the Democratic Party for the next half century to today.
It was this profile in courage — the Kings and the Kennedys — that truly made America great and morally mighty.
Those mighty Kings and Kennedys are gone.
So it's left to us to stand up to the gelatinous orange pustule of bloviating bigotry that has, against the democratic will, seized this White House and Congress.
Today, we honor a man whose courage must now be ours; and then we can make America truly great again.
* * * *
The update of Greg Palast’s film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election was released this week on Amazon and Amazon Prime.
Darrow Palast contributed research for this article. Photo of Palast at King's church by Zach D Roberts for Aljazeera.
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The post How JFK Saved MLK’s Life
And So Won The Presidency appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 7, 2018
Kris Kobach’s Brilliant Chess Move
By Greg Palast
Progressives are always looking for a "victory," a pony hiding in the horseshit. We saw this when most states claimed to reject Kris Kobach’s request to turn their voter rolls. In fact, governors were lying (Mississippi and Louisiana) or too ignorant (Virginia) to know their states had already given Kobach their voter rolls.
The New York Times and other Democratic Party megaphones declared victory when Trump shut down the Presidential Committee on Election Integrity and moved it into Homeland Security.
But this was Kobach’s original plan. In January of last year, Kobach gave Trump a scheme to use the cloak of darkness provided by Homeland Security to do its dark magic on US voter rolls.
Specifically, Homeland Security could hunt for "aliens" on the voter rolls by matching the names of the deported, such as José Hernandez, with any José Hernandez on voter rolls in Arizona or any other swing state.
Kobach's plan was not some panel with cameras and open record requests and meetings announced in the federal register.
So, once again, Kobach is ahead of the Democrats. His "Crosscheck" purge system elected Donald Trump; now, adding in a bogus hunt for "alien" voters, he’ll guarantee the GOP’s lock on Congress in 2018.
The NY Times ridicules the Kobach/Trump illegal voter hunt, dismissing it as laughable. Except that voter rolls have already been purged by more than two million. So, who’s laughing?
For more on Kobach and Crosscheck get the updated, post-election edition of our hit film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case Of The Stolen Election.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush. Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie.
Stay informed, get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
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January 6, 2018
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Updated Post-Election Edition Now Available on Amazon and Amazon Prime!
Shh! The NEW post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case Of The Stolen Election is out TODAY on Amazon and Amazon Prime.
Get the DVD from just $11.99
Rent/download from $2.99 — or watch it for FREE with Prime!!!
Official launch later this month!
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush. Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie.
Stay informed, get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook and Twitter.
The post The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Updated Post-Election Edition Now Available on Amazon and Amazon Prime! appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 4, 2018
Trump Is Not Ending Kobach’s Racist Voter Purge Scheme, He’s Putting It On Steroids By Moving It To Homeland Security
By Greg Palast
Don’t be fooled by news of Trump's Executive Order dissolving the so-called Commission on Election Integrity. Trump is not ending the Kris Kobach scheme to attack, he’s moving it into Homeland Security as per Kobach’s original plan.
Kobach gloats that Homeland Security is exempt from Freedom of Information Act demands and public hearings — that was part of his original plan given to Trump.
Kobach claims Homeland Security can REQUIRE states to turn over voter records and can secretly gather lists of "double" or "alien" voters — this is Kobach’s "Crosscheck" on steroids.
The one Democrat on Kobach’s committee, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, warns: "Homeland Security operates very much in the dark…and I think people should be, frankly, frightened by that."
Kobach will be advising Homeland Security and that’s MORE dangerous than operating through an open committee.
This is not a win for progressives — it's a brilliant chess move by KKK (Kris Kobach of Kansas).
For more on Kobach and Crosscheck get the updated, post-election edition of our hit film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case Of The Stolen Election.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush. Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie.
Stay informed, get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook and Twitter.
The post Trump Is Not Ending Kobach’s Racist Voter Purge Scheme, He’s Putting It On Steroids By Moving It To Homeland Security appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 3, 2018
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year from Greg Palast and the investigations team.
It's still not too late to make an end of year tax-deductible donation to support our work — and pick up some great premiums too!
Get a signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of our film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive. Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook and Twitter.
The post Happy New Year! appeared first on Greg Palast.
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