02/23/16 02/23/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from ohio, this is democracy now! >> planned parenthood organization is that an organization i want to support with money, but we will support women's health because we have to. amy: as republican presidential hopeful, ohio governor john kasich signs a bill to strip funding from planned parenthood in ohio, we will speak to former ohio state senator nina turner . she once wore a t-shirt that redefined the gop acronym. it read, "gop: get out of my panties."

she made headlines recently for switching her support in the democratic race from hillary clinton to bernie sanders. we will also look at whether electronic voting machines could be used to steal an election. we will speak to independent journalist harvey wasserman. then to prisons for profit. a look at how ohio became the first state to sell off a public prison to a private corporation. >> it is the great myth that private prisons will provide any type of cost savings. here in ohio, we have by statute the required to say the least 5%, but there been multiple studies that have shown that they did not save 5%. and in some years we have had private prisons in our state, they actually cost more than public prisons. amy: all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from ohio. thousands of afghans fleeing violence in their home country have been left stranded in northern greece after macedonia barred afghans from crossing its border. macedonia authorities say they --k action after refugees the refused to except refugees, sending hundreds of them back. on monday, hundreds of stranded afghans staged a sit-in and occupied the railway line connecting macedonia and greece. they held signs reading "we cannot go back" and "white racism?" >> are choices to cross the border -- i'm a soft target for the taliban in afghanistan. amy: the stranding of afghan

refugees in northern greece comes as a new study finds the rate at which civilians are being killed by u.s. drone and jet strikes in afghanistan has reached its highest point since 2008, at the height of the afghan war. the bureau of investigative journalism says on average, one silly and was killed every fourth drone strike last year up , from one in 11 attacks the previous year. in other news on the greatest refugee crisis in world war ii, thousands of people in france's largest refugee camp are facing eviction and the bulldozing of their makeshift homes. a french court is expected to today -- to decide today if the evictions can move forward at the calais camp, known as the "jungle." the refugees have been encouraged to move into shipping containers which some have needpared to prison, but -- a groups say there is not enough room. to see a report from the refugee camp when democracy now! was there, go to democracynow.org.

in germany, the government has condemned the actions of a mob who ambushed a bus carrying asylum seekers in the state of saxony last week and attempted to block it. days later, a shelter for asylum seekers in saxony was set on fire while a group of onlookers cheered the blaze. in india, days of protests related to the caste system have left 19 people dead and temporarily cut off water to up to 10 million people in delhi. the protesters are members of the jat caste group, a relatively affluent community that want officials to classify them as a "backward" group. that classification would let them gain access to government jobs and other benefits typically afforded to marginalized communities as part of a system somewhat like affirmative action. now the government in haryana state has reportedly agreed to introduce a bill to grant the jat group backward status in order to appease the protesters, who have set fire to shops and railway stations, blocked roads and damaged a key canal.

, on the campaign trail, republican presidential candidate texas senator ted cruz has fired his top spokesperson for spreading an inaccurate video of rival candidate, florida senator marco rubio. the video falsely depicts rubio dismissing the importance of the bible. the shakeup in cruz's campaign came one day before today's republican caucuses in nevada. at his final rally ahead of the caucuses, republican frontrunner donald trump criticized one of the multiple protesters who interrupted his speech, saying he wanted to punch the protester in the face. another republican candidate, ohio governor john kasich, has raised eyebrows over his comments on how women helped him get elected to the ohio state senate in 1978. >> got an army of people who -- and many women who let their kitchens to go out and go door-to-door and to put yard

signs up for me all the way back when, you know, things were different. now you call homes and everybody is out working. it that time, early days, it was an army of the women that really helped me to get elected to the state senate. laterovernor kasich apologize. his remarks monday came a day after he signed legislation blocking funds to planned parenthood. we'll have more on kasich's anti-choice record with former ohio state senator nina turner after headlines. wikileaks has published documents showing the national security agency spied on a 2010 meeting between israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and italian prime minister silvio berlusconi, during which israel sought advice on how to strengthen its relationship with the united states. the documents released monday also reveal new details about u.s. spying on countries taking part in the 2009 u.n. climate summit in copenhagen. one document contains details of a confidential meeting between

german chancellor angela merkel and u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon in the lead-up to the climate summit. wikileaks says the release includes some of the most highly classified documents ever published by a media organization. a new study has found greenhouse gas emissions largely stemming from false of fuels are causing oceans to rise faster than at any in the past 28 centuries. point if the burning of fossil fuels continues unabated over the coming decades, ocean levels could rise by as much as three or four feet by the end of the century. flooding from sea level rise is already impacting cities in the united states. the white house is expected to submit its plan for closing guantanamo prison to congress today. despite obama's pledge to close the prison as one of his first acts after taking office in there are still 91 prisoners 2009, there, 35 of whom have

been cleared for release. in news from latin america, bolivian president morella's says he still is awaiting final results on a referendum allowing him a fourth term. his current term ends in 2020. the referendum would have allowed him to remain until 2025. speaking monday, morales said the results indicating he lost the bid are not yet final. >> i have asked all social groups, those that took part in both the yes and no campaigns, to show great responsibility and waiting for the final result from the supreme electoral tribunal. i have under his some people who zynga think my time has ended. but they are mistaken. life goes on. wins, the fight goes on. the project continues. i've some and responsibilities and there is no need to despair no matter what the result is.

amy: in mexico, relatives of 43 students who went missing in 2014 after an attack involving local police in the southern state of guerrero have launched a convoy from mexico city to the northern mexican city of matamoros. the relatives are calling for the continued detention of local police officers arrested in connection with the case, amid reports the officers may be released. in other news from mexico, a journalist has been stabbed to death in his home in the state of tabasco. moises dagdug lutzow owned a media company and presented a weekly tv program. he had received threats in the past after criticizing local politicians and reporting on vigilante killings. in syria, another journalist , majid dirani, has been killed by syrian military tank shells outside damascus. dirani was attempting to document devastation in his neighborhood, daraya. his colleague at anadolu news agency told the committee to protect journalists "we used to , call him our 'eyes in

daraya.'" the slain journalist was 21 years old. a new report shows the united states continues to be the world's leading supplier of weapons. the stockholm international peace research institute says the united states is responsible for 33% of total weapons exports. u.s. exports of major weapons over the past five years increased by 27% compared to the previous five-year. . and the city council in charlotte, north carolina, has voted 7-to-4 in favor of new protections to bar businesses from discriminating against lgbt people. included in the ordinance is a provision allowing transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity. north carolina republican governor has said he will support "immediate action" for the north caroline a legislature to nullify the new protection. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'm amy goodman. we're on the road in westerville, ohio, just outside the capital columbus. we're broadcasting from otv. republican presidential hopeful and ohio governor john kasich on sunday signed a bill that aims to strip funding from planned parenthood in the state. although the organization isn't explicitly named in the legislation, the law prohibits the state health department from contracting with organizations that provide any abortions, or work with those who do. the law will strip planned parenthood of $1.3 million in state and federal assistance. planned parenthood funds a number of services including breast cancer screenings, std testing, and programs working to prevent violence against women. state and federal laws already prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to fund abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

speaking at a campaign rally in virginia monday, kasich was asked about defunding planned parenthood. >> as a teacher and nurse, i recognize primary care and prevention is the most cost-effective health care for our nation. but that we are also facing an std epidemic. planned parenthood's largest percentage of services are toward std treatment and prevention. could you please tell me that economic and public health benefit of defining the legislation that has treated over 4 million people seeking std services just this past year? unfortunatelynk, for however those who support feel, i think it is discredited itself. i want to make one thing clear. are you kidding me? we have robust women's health funding in ohio. we consider women's help to be critical. you don't have to be captive of delivering it through an organization that frank is

largely discredited itself, ok? governor kasich speaking monday amy: at a campaign rally in virginia. planned parenthood president, cecile richards, denounced the bill saying -- "this legislation will have devastating consequences for women across ohio. john kasich is proudly eliminating care for expectant mothers and newborns. he is leaving thousands without -- he is leaving husbands without vital std and hiv testing, slashing a program to fight domestic violence, and cutting access to essential, basic health care." to talk more about this, we go to cleveland, ohio to talk to , nina turner, former ohio state senator. welcome to democracy now! can you talk about the governor's decision to sign this legislation and how it made it through, well, your former legislature, the ohio state legislature? you're in ohio. certainly, the governor and i

have done our share of battling. i do not agree with the defunding of planned parenthood. i'm a national board member on planned parenthood. and as the young person whose voice i heard laid out all of the wonderful things that planned parenthood does come a really doesn't make sense. the governor is pro-life and we know republicans across this country, not just in the great state of ohio, have been pushing to chip away at roe be weighed. it should come as no surprise the governor would sign that bill. what we need to do, however, because women's health and the family's health is in jeopardy and planned parenthood come only 3% of what they do, amy, we know is anything to do with abortion. as you laid out in your opening, that tax dollars, federal state funding cannot be used -- public funds cannot be used for that. this is really about voting and making sure that people get out to vote in nonpresidential election years so we have a legislature full of people who have our ideas and thoughts.

this is not the first time the ohio legislature has tried to strip away funding from planned parenthood. unfortunately, this time, they were able to do it and the governor did find it. i'm not surprised about that. you -- talk about the governor's timing. yet the south carolina republican primary on saturday. there was discussion about whether he would sign it right before. he did not, but he did find it right after. is it unusual to sign on a sunday? >> not necessarily. the governor can decide when to sign, so not surprised by that either. all of my time in the legislature, stranger things have happened. the governor is pro-life and for him this planned parenthood bill is very much in line with what he is talked about come although, i disagree with him on planned parenthood. i disagree with my republican colleagues in the legislature

and republicans all across this country. what is really putting a woman's right to have an abortion. some of us are afraid to save "a" word. it really is an attack, an affront against the great work of planned parenthood all across this country. and people's refusal to whatstand that over 97% of planned parenthood does is to provide preventative health care. so i am disappointed, but i'm not surprised. as you know, when he talked about that t-shirt that i were a few years ago certainly, the governor and i disagree on planned parenthood. amy: talk about the t-shirt that you wore. was this when you were a state legislature? >> yes, and it was really a push back against the heartbeat bill that was introduced in the legislature that would limit a woman's access to abortion. i am just sick and tired of republicans across this country talking about smaller

government, but they want government to be big enough to fit into a woman's womb. --that pushed back was a that t-shirt was a push back. it makes no sense with everything that people need in this country, we all must 100 million folks in this nation you are either in poverty or on the brink of eating and poverty. 70% of those 100 million are women and children and four people in the legislature to be focusing in on planned parenthood or to be focusing in on women's health care choices, really makes no sense when what we should be doing is putting people back to work, making sure we make the requisite investment to educate our children, rebuilding our infrastructure. yet we have members of the legislature all across this country who are not only cutting funds to planned parenthood, but really are trying to dismantle roe v. wade. also seeing a wave of interesting bills being introduced in several states. they are calling for waiting

periods for men to get viagra. you introduced legislation like this, right, when you are in ohio state senator, nina turner? can you talk about it? >> i did. i would like to think i got that started. just really concerned about what my male legislators were doing in ohio. and since they have decided that the best way to utilize the taxpayer time or the voters time was to try to regulate women's health care, i needed to do my job and regulate men's health care as well. and as we know, according to the fda, those pills do cause problems for men. we have to look out for men in this country, because they cannot make decisions about their own health care without government telling them what to do. and i did introduce an erectile dysfunction bill. in my bill, a man would have to get a signed affidavit by his significant other attesting to the fact he has problems, have a psychiatric test, do a cardiac stress test -- we have to look out for men. that was the purpose of that

bill, and it is rooted in scientific and medical evidence that those pills can cause problems with the heart and priapism and other types of problems for men. we have to look out for them because they can't make a decision without government. , under governor kasich, roughly half of the abortion clinics in ohio have closed. is that right? how are women getting access to reproductive health care that is legal in this country, nina turner? >> it is legal. it is getting harder and harder in our state for women to have that access. again, the governor and i disagree on this. i want to make that plain. i'm saying that because the governor and i do have a relationship. we are friends. we have done some great work together, most recently, the task force on community and police relations.

we can work together and do great things, and that is finally important. it has really given -- certainly giving all of the shootings that of happen, bridging the gap between the community and police. but on a woman's right to choose, the governor and i are straggly on opposite sides. any time you have government getting itself in the way of health care access, we have a problem. ad nauseam, i'm going to continue to say this is really about the ballot box and that we cannot nation build every four years. we nation build every single year there is an election. so the types of people that we elect to the legislature, to the governor's mansion, to the secretary of state's office, you name it, will have an impact on our lives. if we want to have legislatures that will not push as back in time, and we have to get out to vote for people who understand that roe v. wade, number one, is the law the land, and number two, a woman should have the right to decide her own

reproductive health needs. period. , we're going to ask you to stay with his after break as you recently switched your support from democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton to vermont senator bernie sanders. we want to find out why. nina turner is former ohio state senator. she is a national surrogate for senator bernie sanders. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. frome broadcasting westerville, ohio. very are on the area that governor kasich, the presidential candidate, represented in congress, where he is from. you turner, i want to ask about your work. before we talk about your support of democratic presidential candidates, your work with governor kasich. you tor kasich asked cochair the ohio task force on

community and police relations. he talked about the task force in republi i created a task forl over a year ago. and the purpose was to bring law enforcement, community people, clergy, and the person that i named as one of the coterminous lady by the name of nina turner, a liberal democrat, actually ran against one my friends, and our head of public safety. they sat down as a group trying to make sure that we can begin to heal some of these problems that we see between community and police. amy: so that is governor kasich talking about how he deals with issues of police in the community. as you said, you have handled issues with the governor of a fiercely disagree on planned parenthood. can you talk about the relationship you have with the government -- governor around the issue of pulleys and what you're doing and what he is doing here in the state of ohio? >> thank you for that, amy,

because we do talk a lot about disagreements across party lines, but i have to give it to the governor -- in 2014, with the shooting of tamir rice on the playground in my city of cleveland, ohio. he was shot less than two seconds from the police opening the car door. very tragic, very painful, especially for the family. then in beaver creek, the same year, we had john crawford iii shot inside a walmart store. he had picked up a gun that is sold in that store, and he was shot. again, given no notice whatsoever. he was not breaking any laws. so right before thanksgiving, the governor called me and wanted to know how people in cleveland were feeling, especially on the heels of young tamir rice being gunned down in that way. we talked about the heaviness that folks were feeling in cleveland and asked the governor if i could come meet with him, that a listening him a letter because i believed he had the power to be able to give the citizens of the state and outlet.

people are either going to be constructive and that outlet or destructive when things are built up so. the governor did meet with myself and senator sandra williams and also state representative alicia reece from the cincinnati area. we had a very good and robust meeting will stop we asked the governor to do something. and he did. he signed an executive order creating a task force and i am so proud of our work together on this. for the first time in a house history, law enforcement agencies will have standards relating to the use of force, the use of deadly force, and hiring in the state of ohio. the first time. we're working on whether or not what the state -- what kind of standards we put forward for the use of cameras, also looking at bias is in the police department. whether or not we need to collect data. there are empirical data that shows african-americans and hispanics, sisters and brothers in this country, are treated differently and that justice is

not that just. the governor did not hesitate, amy. he did not play politics with this. it was not about being a republican or democrat. he signed that executive order. we are getting things done in ohio, and that is without one incident of violence. the first governor in the united notes of america to act, react, but to act and to give citizens that outlet. i am most proud of that and really delighted to be a cochair of the task force and now the collaborative that the governor created. it is a great partnership. amy: while you support governor kasich in this issue of dealing relations, community you are throwing your support on the democratic side. you're originally said you're going to support hillary clinton, but now you have switched to bernie sanders. why? >> i know people want to focus on the so-called switch. for me in 2014, i was asked to help ready for hillary, and that is what i did, but when it came

time to endorse, have endorsed senator bernie sanders. he is the type of heart, soul agreement that i believe we need in this country. he has been a constant champion for civil rights, women's rights, voting rights. his plan to make sure we have universal health care in this nation as a right and not a privilege really speaks to me. we have 29 million of our sisters and brothers in this country who still do not have health care. and even more who are underinsured. when he talks about directing valor or directing our public will, should say, toward making sure we change the model in this country to a pre-k to college model, that speaks to me, amy, special because i am a first-generation college graduate. i understand from a personal perspective the power of higher education to help somebody change the trajectory of their life. i grew up in a single-parent household. my parents got married young and

it did not work out. my mother died at the young age of 42 years old with her dreams deferred. from the health care perspective, from the college perspective, was senator sanders unapologetically standing up for speaks to me. yes, i am wholeheartedly supporting him and his efforts for political revolution in this country. the system is rigged. money is now speech. the koch brothers, using them as one example, have committed to spending almost $1 billion in this election cycle, amy. it makes no sense that the voices of everyday people like you, me, your viewers, and listeners, are being drowned out by money. senator sanders is going head up on that. he talks about how the working poor and middle class in this country deserve a voice and also deserve to live a good life. consider sanders is speaking the heart, soul agreement language. amy: i was just reading an article for nbc news. democratic primary find black

feminist conflictive. talking about sanders and clinton, really going after the vote of african-american women in nevada. african-americans overwhelmingly .oted for secretary clinton the latino vote, it is believed in the nevada caucus, went to sanders and now, of course, moving on to south carolina. how does it feel to be so sought after? and did both sides court you, nina turner? amy, the vote of african-american women have always been important. 2008 and 2012w in in particular is that that vote, african-american women were the highest voting block in the country. 9 million strong. when black women vote, our families vote with us. usually. so we've always been important. the fact that the political types are just catching up with that causes me pause, but it is

vitally important. anything that senator sanders definitely understands coming from vermont, his state is not as demographically diverse, but he has been fighting the battles of civil rights for very long time. he did not just come to this. he talks about the five violence is against black and brown people being political, physical, legal, economic, and environmental, and the things he was to do to change this. when it comes to the african-american community, senator sanders understands yes to earn the vote, he does not own the vote. for a lot of folks in the african-american community, the clinton brand is a -- senator sanders is quite have to fight harder. but make no mistake about it, he is working throughout this country come all 50 states, to earn the vote. not only of african-americans and hispanic brothers and sisters, but all voters in this country. you asked me -- it feels good am a but it is a long time coming. the votes of african-americans have always been important.

and at times, my own party has forgotten that. amy, as you know about me, i'm a straight shooter no matter what. it doesn't matter whether i'm talking about my party or the republican party, it is vitally important that nobody's vote is taken for granted. for too long in this country, it has been taken for granted by democrats. amy: i want to bring another person into this conversation as we talked to former ohio state senator nina turner. independent journalist harvey wasserman, based year in collapse, ohio. a piece abouten bernie sanders, and overall, about military spending. harvey, can you talk about your concern? >> birdies wonderful programs have been attacked, of course, because they allegedly cost too much money. no one is really in this the facttalking about we're not talking about cutting the defense budget, cutting the military budget. there are $1 trillion earmarked right now to upgrade our nuclear

weapons program. why are we upgrading? why don't we just get rid of them? there is a call out there to build 12 new ohio class nuclear submarines at $8 billion apiece or more. why would they even think of doing that? bernie has wonderful social programs laid out there. the money to pay for them should not come from raising taxes, issue becoming from cutting the military budget. and we have laid that out in the peas. with the bernie needs to talk about that a little more strongly. amy: your thoughts on this, nina turner? >> unfortunately, might your piece was out of the time, but i think i caught the tail end of what he is talking about in terms of taxes. surly, senator sanders has a plan -- it is a fallacy that folks are putting out there that senator sanders is going to raise taxes on the middle class. every program the senator has put forward, people can go to berniesanders.com and see how he is going to pay for those.

i'll use the college plan for our one. he was to put a speculation or attacks on wall street speculation. again, asking wall street to help main street as we did when we bailed them out. folks don't have a problem investing our money to help the wealthiest people in this country, corporate welfare, if you will, but focusing to have a problem with that investing our money and the working poor and middle-class in this country. where there is a will, there is a way. and we can get this done. if we can go to the men, we can find a way to have universal health care as a right in this country. if women can get the right to vote, we can find a way this country to fund, to fully fund the similar k-12 model, to take that model that no longer works the 21st century, deprecated college model, where there is a will, there is a way. and making those kinds of investments in the american people is the right thing to do. we cannot go from president obama, "yes we can, "to "no we

can't." i reject it flat out. amy: nina turner, what harvey wasserman was saying, is the money should come from military budgets, and he is finding that bernie sanders in this primary is not talking very much about cutting military spending, as an of the other candidates are. >> oh, well, thank you. as i said, the first part i did not hear. all i heard about was the taxes and a lot of people have been promoting that. amy: yes, harvey? >> the problem is, the country -- we see governments terrorize people with the idea of a foreign threat. the money that is in spent on our nuclear weapons arsenal, submarines, 900 military bases around the world in 175

different countries, that makes things worse. what we need to do now is facing 800 pound gorilla in the room and get this money out of the military. i'm sure that is bernie's inclination. the question is, when will that become part of the dialogue in these primaries? in the general election? huckabee talked about raising taxes to pay for social programs when all of this money is being thrown down the military toilet? amy: nina turner, thank you for joining us from another part of ohio -- did you want to respond to what harvey wasserman said on the issue? amy, might your piece is back. i silly understand exactly what harvey is saying and that will be for the senator to decide. his point he made about this fear factor that people are republicanth on the and democratic side, if you will come about this foreign threat. any president of the united eighth of america is going to be fully capable of protecting this country from any threat, both domestic and foreign. but what i

find to be the biggest threat is the income inequality that is faced in this country that we need to do more about. and senator sanders is firmly talking about that. harvey, thank you for your point well taken, and i will definitely take that back to senator sanders. amy, think is a much, was a pleasure to join you this morning. amy: nina turner is a former ohio state senator. speaking to us from cleveland. we are in westerville, ohio, just outside columbus, where at otterbein university where i will be teaching some classes today -- let's say, talking with classes. we are at otv. harvey wasserman, i want to talk to about voting machines and your concerns over the years that electronic voting could be used to steal elections. are you still concerned about it was used is still the presidential election right here in ohio in 2004.

john kerry was the rightful winner over george w. bush. the secretary of state at the time jacob blackwell and the governor robert cap use the power of electronic vote count to flip the votes to george w. bush. amy: how do you know this yet though -- how do you know this? >> i grew up your and we watch this up close and personal. we do the accounting. i work with a political scientist. we're about to come out with , "the strip and flip selection." we are moving african-americans, hispanics, people who might inclined to vote progressive so that -- in 2004, they stripped 300,000 people from the voter rolls in the urban areas and bush only won by less than 120. this year, about 80% of the vote nationally will be cast on electronic voting machines. there is no verifiability.

in six key swing states, florida, north carolina, ohio, michigan, iowa, in arizona, republican governors and republican secretaries of state will stop and no method of verifying the electronic vote count. and midnight or whenever it is on election night, those two guys can go in with an i.t. person and flip the outcome of an electronically counted vote within about 60 seconds. so all of this millions and millions of dollars people campaigning and so on can be negated by an electronic vote flip late at night on election night, and there is no way to verify what has happened. amy: this did not do this with president obama in 2008. >> he had to many votes. it would have taken them to flip too many states. obama won by well over 10 million votes. amy: what gives you this idea? >> we've seen this happen. when you compare exit polls, which are generally accurate to

within 1%, with the electronic outcome, their huge very nations. we have documented dozens of different things they have done over the years to flip elections. amy: how did electronic voting work and who controls the controls on it? >> that is the key. the machines are owned by private corporations, which are republican in orientation, generally. the court several the source code on these electronic voting machines is proprietary. even the governments that by will release these machines have no access to a final verification process, even ronald reagan said, trust but verify. we know the vote count was flipped in 2004. as well as in florida when al gore basically was the rightful winner and george w. bush won the election. amy: they were electronic voting machines? county, yes.

gilly good thing we can say about george w. bush, the american people actually never elected him president. election --016, and amy: what do you think is the answer? universalve to have hand count paper ballots and bernie sanders has endorsed that. we have data automatically registrations were people can monitor the registration rolls because people are being stripped from the registration rolls, mostly african-americans and hispanics. this year we're not going to get that. this year is going to be very difficult. in a close election to monitor exactly what happens because these are black oxus. live a wonderful actress who's been working with others who has shown in black box voting the public has no real access, no verification process for the electronic votes. we're going through this huge national campaign, primaries, general election were hundreds

of millions of dollars will be spent and on election night in 60 seconds, the actual outcome can be flipped electronically in key swing states with no verification whatsoever. amy: if there are electronic voting machines everywhere, which there are now -- >> pretty much. amy: how do you think they can be protected, people can be sure that their vote is counted, that they cast, even using electronic voting machines? >> they can't be. you cannot verify tronic voting machine -- electronic voting machine. the software prevents the public from getting access to the actual vote count. going into a national election and not just the presidency, but senate seats, houses, we believe three senate seats into on a 14 were stolen and north carolina, colorado, and alaska. the republicans did not have a legitimate 54 seat or whatever it is majority in the senate. this will happen again.

it is not just the presidency. we have written seven books about this from our experience here in ohio in 2004, and again a republican governor, republican secretary of state. no verifiability on electronic vote count. it will be arbitrary. when push comes to shove, midnight, 1:00 -- amy: why do you think just republicans would do it? >> democrats would definitely do it. we have strong questions about rahm emanuel being reelected in chicago. we have no doubt that scott walker stole his reelection in wisconsin. amy: based on what? >> the miraculous discovery of several thousand votes in a so-called glitched voting machine as they gave him a victory where it was clearly a defeat. this is stuff going on a long time. these methods were perfected more or less overseas by the cia and other over operations -- covert operations.

it started in 1988 with george h.w. bush using electronic voting machines in new hampshire to be bob dole in the 1988 primary. we have seen since then the use of electronic voting machines all across the country to flip elections after they have stripped the voter rolls. amy: by stripping the voter rolls, you mean -- >> in florida 2000, 90,000 mostly black in his bonnet voters were -- hispanic voters were stripped of their votes. in ohio, 2004, 300,000 voters in primarily urban areas were stripped off the voter rolls. people showed up to vote in the same precinct as denied -- by the way, i was denied my absentee ballot in we had a federal lawsuit on his which we won and went nowhere. the reality is, we are voting and black boxes and the governor said secretaries of state of these key swing states, but wherever you have a governor and secretary of state from the same

party, be it democrat or republican, they have the power under the electronic voting system to flip the outcome of an election with no verifiability because the courts have ruled these privately owned voting machines have proprietary software. it is a nightmare. it is not democracy. bernie sanders has showed the election of the campaign finances is rate, the economy is red, white when it they take the very small next step to repair electronic voting machines? amy: we're going to leave it there for now, harvey wasserman, longtime anti-nuclear activists, independent journalist, his recent article for worldbeyondwar.org is, "why the deafening silence on cutting the military budget?" his upcoming book is, "the strip and flip selection of 2016: five jim crows & electronic election theft." we are broadcasting from ohio. when we come back, we're going to look at private prisons here. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. frome broadcasting westerville, ohio, from otv, otterbein university television. ohio holds the distinction of being the first state to sell off a public prison to a private corporation. this happened in 2011 when ohio governor john kasich oversaw the sale of lake erie correctional institution to the cca corrections corporation , of america. the sale was promoted as a way to save the state money but according to the aclu of ohio the plan largely backfired. the aclu recently produced a short documentary titled, "prisons for profit." this is conneaut city councilman neil larusch commenting on what happened after the lake erie correctional institution was sold. by 300 inison grew

the first couple of months. we took a tour of the prison shortly after the sale of and they were doubling bunks and getting ready for this huge influx of people. and right then, you can see there is obviously going to be a problem with a limited number of corrections officers that you have out there compared with this huge and growing number of inmates that you have. so did we think it was going to be a problem? absolutely. amy: "prisons for profit." joining us now from cleveland is mike brickner, senior policy director at aclu ohio. can you talk about the report you have released on private prisons and why ohio is so central in this country? >> good morning, amy, thank you for having me. first state in the country to sell a public prison to a private corporation

for corrections, under governor kasich's first budget in 2011. and to quote candidate trump, it is been nothing short of a disaster ever since then. and as councilman larusch explained in the clip, a big reason for that is because the very first thing that cca did was they added more and more beds into the prison, making a dangerously overcrowded. so in the first several months it was open, we saw assaults within the prison on both staff and prisoners, they more than doubled. we saw drugs proliferate brother prison, and we had reports of people outside the prison throwing duffel bags full of drugs over the fence so that prisoners could sell them inside search ory sort of trying to stop that process. and then we also saw where prisoners were living in

terrible, squalid conditions, were state investigators were going into the prisons and finding that many prisoners did not have access to running water and were doing things like using plastic bags to defecate in. unfortunately, that is the reality when prisoners become dollar signs. these private corporations, they don't have good conditions. they don't invest in rehabilitation. they don't invest in good staff. and we see it time and again where those prisons to generate and become the public safety concerns. why is ohio such a testing ground for private prisons? >> well, when governor kasich first came into office, he was for privatization of just about everything and prisons very crosshairse into the . i think a lot of that was pushed by the large over incarceration

problem that we have here in the state of ohio. we have the sixth largest prison population in the country. our prisons are at over 130% capacity. i think governor kasich thought, well, if i privatize a few prisons, maybe i can save some money in the state budget. but we know that is absolutely the wrong way to go. that private prison companies have lobbyist that they can go and lobby for stricter criminal and immigration laws that will fill prisons, and that is in their interest because again, prisoners legal dollar signs for these companies. it is in their interest to have more people in prison and they want people who are low-level and nonviolent because those are the people that are easier for them to take care of and they can make a greater profit on. so since we have introduced those prisons, the private prisons here in the state, we have actually seen where our prison population has continued

to grow and we're looking at new record populations here in the state of ohio. amy: you have expressed concern, mike brickner, about governor kasich relationship with lehman brothers, when he worked for them. talk about that. >> absolutely. governor kasich, as i think most of your viewers know, was an executive at lehman brothers. in the early 2000's, cca, the largest private prison operator, was going through some significant financial issues. lehman brothers was the company who came in and bailed cca out. the one governor kasich came into office -- then when governor kasich came into office, he hired lobbyists for cca was his former top congressional aide. we know they enjoyed a very close relationship with one another. despite it not being in the best

interest of our criminal justice system or the taxpayers here in ohio. amy: mike brickner, can you talk about late 2014 cover the federal bureau of prisons canceling their youngstown federal contract? >> absolutely. unfortunately, private prisons are not a new problem here in the state of ohio. prisona federal private that was actually opened in the late 1990's in youngstown, ohio. when it first opened, it was filled with problems. and the first year it was operating, they had over a dozen stabbings, several murders, and escapes. so bad it was that the city of youngstown had to file a lawsuit against cca just to get them to comply with basic safety standards. the prison had to shut down for a while. it reopened and seem to be doing

better, but then in the last two years, we got more and more reports of major problems out of that prison where prisoners were alleging severe racial discrimination, terrible conditions, no access to rehabilitative programs. it got so bad that the prisoners there actually staged a protest on the yard and refused to come into the prison, to protest those terrible conditions, sending that prison into chaos. and in the wake of that, the federal bureau of prisons canceled its contract with that prison so that they will no longer be housing the federal prisoners without that private prison company. overall, the whole issue of prison privatization, how do you think it is been addressed, if at all, in the presidential race in 2016? >> unfortunately, i think it has been missing too much from the

conversation. i think we have a lot of candidates who are talking about criminal justice reform, including governor kasich. and governor kasich has supported some modest criminal justice reforms here in the state, and was supported him in that as well, but you cannot be for reform of the criminal justice system while also being in support of private prisons. as we've seen in the state of ohio, even when we have enacted some modest criminal justice reform to trying get people who should not be in prison out of prison, if you are also at the same time privatizing our prisons, that totally undermines that work and will lead to more people being in prison. unfortunately, and the state of ohio, we have not learned our lesson. last year and a legislative maneuver, our state the just later passed a new provision that allows a second prison to be sold here in the state of

ohio. so even though we have not had success with our privatize prisons, we're seeing record numbers of prisoners in our state prison system. once again we heading down this bad path. i think that privatization has to be part of the national conversation, so long as we have profit interest in our criminal justice system, we will only see it grow. and that has led us in the wrong direction here as a country. every dollar we are spinning and prisons are dollars we're not spending on roads, on education, on social services that will actually raised people up. and so we have to take a stand against the private prison industry, get people out of our prisons, and start reinvesting in things that work. amy: i want to thank you for being with us, mike brickner, of the aclu ohio. we will link your report on private prisons. as we wrap up with elastic, we're broadcasting from

westerville, ohio. write your the headquarters of the fast food giant wendy's. student groups, faith committed his, and labor organizers are calling for wendy's to join the fair food program and respect the rights of farm workers. the fair food program was launched by the coalition of immokalee workers in 2011. this coming march 6, fair food advocates will convene at wendy's headquarters here in columbus, ohio for a major demonstration, calling on the fast-food giant to establish more humane farm labor standards and fairer wages for farm workers. for more we're joined by natali rodriguez. thank you for joining us. in these last few minutes we have, explain why you are focusing on roe v. wade-based right near here in ohio. -- focusing on wendy's based right here in ohio. i want to say -- join amy: we

have people who speak spanish on the show but in this tv studio, we were not able to bring into people. >> we're missing out on that opportunity, unfortunately. i want to say the reason we're focusing on wendy's of the five largest corporations in the country, they're the only one not participating in this country. they have chosen to move their purchases of tomatoes from florida to elsewhere. in that way, they're choosing to run away from the responsibility to the farm workers within this industry and are choosing to run away from the responsibility of condition a have helped create in the fields for decades. and they have even chosen to come out with a code of conduct which has no teeth in comparison to the fair food program. amy: how does wendy's compared other fast food giants that the ciw, committee of immokalee workers, has taken on like i don't know, talk about owned by

yum! brands? , al qaedall,o chiptle one extra penny more for every pound of tomatoes that they purchase within the fair food program. codealso agreed to worker of conduct. those essential things, wendy's is choosing not to do. they're not paying extra for the tomatoes to otherwise go directly to farm worker wages. they're also not agreeing to work with this program, which would protect the human rights of farm workers in the fields. program has radically changed the industry and is expanding. not just talking about florida and bell peppers and strawberries, but we're talking about six other states on the east coast and it has the potential to grow even more than that. not to be choosing part of the solution. amy: i want to thank you for being with us. we will continue to follow this struggle. natali rodriguez, member of the alliance for fair food. many thanks to the students here at otv >.

at otv >.

(music playing) ♪ these warm beignets are absolutely a success here at fleur. they're made of fried dough sprinkled with a little powdered sugar and they're served a la minute. they are warm with all those delicious sauces. i remember my father used to make that at the patisserie yearly during carnival time, and he used to use brioche dough. that's the difference between a fritter and a donut. i love brioche dough. it's versatile, it's delicious, and that's what today's show is all about. i will be making a basic brioche dough and then using it to make several sweet items. first it's a bretzel made with brioche dough with a wonderful pastry cream filling. then i will show you step by step how to make a perfect beignet. so come with me in the kitchen, and let's get cooking! ♪