you know what they're working. well i'm tom hartman and washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture weak president or not donald trump is waging a war on voting the likes of which we haven't seen from the oval office in years

more on that with greg palast in just a moment and as hurricane erma the most powerful atlantic storm ever rumbles its way toward the u.s. are republicans finally ready to admit that climate change is real real find out tonight's long liberal rumble with charles and ted good. although donald trump has been mostly unsuccessful in getting his reactionary agenda through the congress is administration is still doing serious damage to the fabric of our democracy at the executive level it is running roughshod over environmental protections gutting regulations that keep the banks hers in check and if any voter suppression id laws in court and now thanks in part to the tribe justice department one of the most racist and discriminatory of those voters suppression was texas's is about to go into effect joining me now is greg often foundation fellow and best to get a reporting filmmaker and creator of the new brilliant documentary of the best

democracy money can buy tale of billionaires and ballot bandits greg welcome back. glad to be with you tom it's great to see you so first of gregg what can you tell us about what happened in texas one of means both for texas' self and for voting rights in the united states as a whole. well of the voters of color got gunned down at the not ok corral we had a federal judge who said that the texas i.d. law was discriminatory on its face look and made latino's and african-americans who don't drive don't have licenses those very difficult for them to get id to vote and you know no one's actually said that they ever found any case of someone a lying about their identity in texas so this is to prevent all this law was to prevent a crime that doesn't exist but there's lots of real victims of the crime those who

are hit by the hundreds of thousands with this obligation to come up with an i.d. so a texas did after the first version of the id law was thrown out for example you could use your gun license but you couldn't use your student i.d. they allowed a few more i id elements you know utility bills etc the problem was is that it remained absolutely measurably discriminatory against latinos and african-americans if you let them vote of course texas is no longer than a red state it goes democratic blue they panicked here's the big change so now a court of appeals has now said that they may allow the texas voter i.d. law to go through they're going to hear the law but they're staying the stay of the prior judge if you can understand that double negative it means that texas can can ruhr ahead with this new voter id law for now. the real change came because the justice department has now which attacked the original idea law switched

sides and so now it's the kind of in justice department and it is come out on the side of the state of texas and the republican. they're saying well no problem with a discriminatory id law so the big change once again is that our own justice department which is supposed to stop this type of nonsense this type of discrimination in fact became suddenly became the lawyers for the discriminators it's it's a horrific change coming out of jeff beauregard sessions justice department and we're going to see it beyond texas i'm afraid this is a real real dangerous trend though it absolutely is under jeff sessions the d.o.j. has actually begun defending these voter suppression id laws in court as you just pointed out how concerned should we be about lasting damage to voter rights because of the efforts of this ministration. oh well it's lasting damage because it's simple if you play games with the voter rolls and you play games with the right to

vote you get to elect the congress that wasn't really elected by the people and therefore you know the games will continue on again you know texas why in the world is texas a red state there is there you know if you if you allowed everyone to vote it would be hard to imagine every american citizen to vote be hard to imagine that it could be a red state so they have to use all this gimmickry all this vicious jim crow era tactics no question about it to stop black and especially the latino population of texas to vote but beyond that this will happen all over the nation they're going to be we're going to know right now we have a non elected president the you know we at least we agree that he didn't win the popular vote well congress is supposed to be the representation of that popular vote and once they fix that. we're in trouble yeah yeah absolutely so the south dakota secretary of state shantelle krebs recently orchestrated a voter purge in her state that resulted in about

a three percent cut in voters mostly democrats from having a voter registration in invalidated she's also running for congress. to quote eyes as number one is this as unprecedented as it sounds the secretary of state you know knocks a whole bunch of democratic voters out and then runs for office in that in that district and rob actually start with that one. i wish it were unprecedented this is become kind of a republican you know a hit song that they play over and over again in the six district of georgia where i was investigating the special election in back in june karen handel who had been secretary of state wiped out voters in the six congressional district voters she didn't like voters of color especially korean american voters and then ran in that district and won by just a smidgen accounted for completely by her purge operation and as you know if you

don't like voters you want to run a congressional district will just x. out the voters you don't like but this goes way back to katherine harris of the secretary of state of florida under jeb bush if you if you remember she wiped out tens of thousands of black folk off the voter rolls that helped george bush in fact it made george bush president the united states but it also made katherine harris a congresswoman in sarasota it was a massive wipe out of black voters in the tampa sarasota areas and then she ran for congress and took the seat so this is an old game that the republicans are playing you do a jim crow job on the voter rolls and then you run in that district that you've just bleached whiter than white it's dangerous stuff and once again we go by. first story if we don't have a justice department which is acting as the cop on the beat for voting rights that's their job they have a civil rights and voting rights division they're not act is the cop on the beat

we're going to see an acceleration of this game. basically designed the voter rolls to win your election and that's done on the g.o.p. side and it's racist and you know it's undemocratic greg in the most deepest sense the two thousand to help america vote act specified for the first time everybody was entitle to a ballot even if it didn't get counted and of the people where the you know when they presented themselves to vote if their name wasn't on the roll or if they were contesting that their name should have been on the roll but wasn't that they would be given a provisional ballot what you call placebo ballots that almost never get counted it seems given that i mean that's two thousand and two that was fifteen years ago it seems that one way to look for the signature of a voter purge would be to look to see if there's been a substantial increase the number of provisional ballots there is the number of people who show up to vote and are told you know you're on the list and that but

they say but i should be so give me a damn ballot i'll vote provisionally so you know any are there any states that publish those you know year to year those provisional ballot numbers and did we see for example in the last election in the twenty sixteen election did we see an explosion in provisional ballots in wisconsin michigan ohio pennsylvania indiana the states where they've been really really aggressive about whacking people off the lists or are those numbers top secret. well being go tom by the way you should be investigative reporter i'm going to hire you that's exactly right we look for that explosion that number in two thousand and sixteen the official count of provisional ballots was two point seven million that means two point seven million americans showed up at the polls and they said oh your name's not here you can't you don't have the right idea whatever here fill out this ballot buddy and don't complain we'll count it later no they don't officially more than a million of those ballots were never counted now the two point seven number is way

low because a lot of jurisdictions as you say have gone top secret and don't report and guess what the new administration and the current republican congress has cut out the funding to even collect those numbers so you don't even know how many ballots get thrown in the dumpster this is a big big problem and sixteen it did explode almost three million ballots officially placebo. was a number like i'm thirty thousand and four do you know. in two thousand and four i think we're looking about one point six million so it's grown substantially and remember that fewer and fewer districts are actually reporting because they found out there's no you know if you're if you got a lot of provisional ballots they just don't mention it to anyone and no one will investigate and now we again once again if we don't have a justice department which is investigating that business all we can you know there's little we can do except kind of overwhelm them at the polls and when you get that provisional ballot please please raise hell and say no i want to ballot

ballot and ask for a a election judge on site to make an adjudication to allow to vote that's a little bit of a vote hygiene to keep the elections clean there you go greg palast you're the best thanks so much for being with us tonight. you're very welcome coming up ignore all the talk about law and order when it comes to immigration republicans just really care about one thing making america white again why explain why in tonight's along the rumble which also aren't goodman right after the break. all the fear we took. every. to do during the

day you'll get it on the old the old. the old according to jess. come along for the. all the world just dates and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties aren t. american players are to america offers more artsy american offers. many ways. just like the real news

a good actor bad actor and in the end you could never you're on. some other part all the world all the world all the world's a stage and we are definitely a player. guys i made a professional is powerpoint to show you how archie america fits into the greater media landscape our tears are not all right but we are a solid alternative to the we don't you liberal or conservative and as you can leave this bar graph we don't skew the facts either talking at lefties talking at righties oh there you go above it all to look at world are the americans in the spotlight now every really have no idea how to classify and actually took me way more time than i care to admit. to for publicans were honest which they're generally not they come right out and

admit it when it comes right down to it their immigration plan is really just let's make america white again what's wrong. with me for that as a liberal our charles our economy and president of the market is too and ted goodman a reporter at the daily caller news foundation thank you both for being with us and thank you so even as donald trump says he will revisit his docket decision if congress can't come up with an alternative the white house itself is saying that dreamers should prepare for deportation according to the administration's official talking points quote but a part of homeland security urges dr recipients to use the time remaining on their work authorizations to prepare for and arrange their departure from the united states and of quote many dreamers will now have to live in the shadows something i

would king congressman steve king is totally fine with we should all these kids go sir they came here to live in the shadows and if we're not denying them of that opportunity to live in the shadows. if these eight hundred thousand young dreamers were predominately white. instead of people of color in my opinion there's no way they'd be treated as callously why don't republicans just come right out and admit that their immigration policy is to take us back to pre nine hundred sixty six back to the to the johnson policy of nine hundred twenty four the first immigration law that said that when immigration happens it has to it cannot mess with the racial balance of the united states i mean this was our law from one hundred twenty four until nineteen sixty six this is the thing that pat buchanan wrote a book about as a whole is republicans have been calling for a return to this problem is here to rise ation of the what the president did yesterday in my opinion. in my opinion it's a fact and the president said yesterday this needs a constitutional fix his lawyers this is something the republicans been arguing for

years right that the way the prep previous president had told this this situation was unconstitutional to say the ronald reagan exact and that search and joined herbert walker bush both did executive actions around immigration both of them doesn't make it right right it does it doesn't make it clear it doesn't make it legislating by is a great iraq yes it does it's something that i stood up against when when those presidents did it by pen i stood up against those presidents when they were taking action i believe you probably did as well the fact is we don't want a president we don't want a regime legislates by pin this is something that realistically i'm not a supporter of rolling back doc i'm a supporter of the dreamers i think that your mischaracterization of the right is why the left is going to lose the next election again but this is where trump maybe only trump could do it maybe only nixon you go to china maybe only because

a liberal is not going to roll back legislation by pin on dhaka but i hope we do come out with a better stronger doc at the end of dreamers can stay here and make america great and this is why people supported president trump and twenty sixteen they saw a person a lot of the people in. voting for him so person that would transcend partisan politics this is someone's going to get republicans and democrats into a room and say hey let's get something hashed out here put politics aside let's do the right thing yeah he said he was going to protect social security medicare and medicaid then he proposed to cut social security and medicaid he said he was going to he was going to do a blow up the trade deals now he's rewriting nafta oh no he. added nafta you know the book was i was going to do that he said. that the president tried to go right through every the list of all of his campaign promises and he has broken virtually in all of resident obama ran one hundred million dollars in ads against senator mccain saying that senator mccain proposes to raise taxes on health insurance and

then what did he do when he passed the health insurance bill raise taxes on health insurance then i mean you would already know it the two thousand and eight election well you know i mean you're just saying that a campaign a campaign promise it is what you can say is how much is the trust made a year and a half ago that he's not only not keeping he's actually do in the let's talk about good policies and bad policies litigating what was said on the campaign trail version of good policy and bad policy is again why the left is going to lose the next election. while the left may or may not lose the next election but it's got nothing to do with whether or not donald trump is lying to his base what we need to talk about would call it what you did bad call it what the international won't be true i mean you have a democratic party today that is just so off the wall with their talking points the democratic party talking about you know we it's crazy that we have one point two trillion dollars in student loan debt when in the history of the united states student loan debt up until about twenty years ago wasn't even a thing it's you know the democrats are you talking about people should have access

to health part of the paint anyone who simply is calling for a stronger border you know they want to protect our borders and have a sovereign country all of a sudden those folks are racists and bigots right in quality wise so you can't i don't feel like a strong border being i why do you want to. to keep to keep people out that shouldn't be here so why do people who shouldn't be here come here because this is america this is the land of opportunity why did they not come here before one thousand nine hundred six who we had no immigration problem before one thousand nine hundred sixty every haven't had every year racial to have before ninety six ever and we sure this country we know we basically did not i mean in the fifty's and sixty's you had the brasero program that eisenhower tried to you know where people would come in during the summer they do the picking in the fall and they go back to mexico these and this is i mean a lot of i don't know if it was about the prado you're missing the point entirely is rather this is our problem you know there was this sort of the point entirely come here because they are they have been for

a job look at the reason that they come here to get a job is because somebody is only offer a two a sure thing and it was ronald reagan stopped prosecuting employers this is when it all began we didn't have eleven million people in this country illegally in one thousand nine hundred six we had maybe a million maybe and most of them went home during you know after the picking season when reagan stopped prosecuting white wealthy employers for hiring people who are not here illegally those employers i mean to this day you're going to vote yes in the end mexico you guys isn't it was meant from congress on immigration your mirror you're making a good point there but the pain so it's there for it it was that president reagan did the right thing or you do get the government radio out of your weight you think the government should go after employers in sindh people react and yet this is the last they're going to do a reagan did the wrong thing and the dentist go after him you got to go let me finish the friggin thought here the whole so as to the reason why i asked why the

reason why i said you know the border wall is a frontier of border wall is not the way to stop illegal immigration the way that because people are going to come as long as there's a job offer to them the way to stop illegal immigration is to go back to enforcing the laws that we were. and before one thousand nine hundred six where employers go to jail not the immigrants and when there is no law and this is this is run these are the lower classes not letting them are a sense so your whole set up was that the right wants to make america white again but your solution is that the left wants to make america white again look the right i'm saying there is no the right is let me finish we let you finish the rights and the right system here the right policy is to let the economy work again and it doesn't matter whether you're white whether you're brown whether you're black i'm saying is that the economy is what trump and the republicans are doing as their racial lies in this whole thing racialized trumps racial as in this other than x.

seconds or they are good owners and rapists and murderers it's a variation all of them killers and republican uses it was the same kind of so there's a language that i used to hear in the media this is the same stuff you used to have wallace of on your lack of the same group of people that you just said is the problem and needs to be sent back by letting the government sue employers and go after employers that's what you say no i said that they would they would leave. ok big big lever there sitting backward there is no difference in that. there is actually no difference you're still wanted to say this issue to be green is theirs and i don't care whether medical bills are all ok so your you made a policy what i was saying why your wall is a stupid idea ok that's fine because as long as people get a job you know come in here on a tour of what is it of those that are in support i would hear what i would say i support the wall to anybody who supported the wall i say number one you're messing with an ecologically sensitive area and number two you're going to stop people from coming in over vast majority of the people in this country illegally did not come over the wall because of all the right through the forest and you're

a came in on the tourist visas that came in on student visas i understand i could. think is just stupid i completely completely agree with you that the wall is stupid but the fact is you started off the segment by calling the trump policies and republicans racist yet one and america has made america why it again because it has all the text of the vast majority of the wall does it do that the wall doesn't stop that no it doesn't but the reason they're calling for it is because the lawless say you know here's a here's an obstacle for those growing we're going to stop you know you become idea add color brown on it and i'm saying to the republicans what. you're saying trying to come up with a dumb idea but then you're also jumping to that like oh they're racist and yeah and off for a while when he's selling how do you make that jump from the right you're saying is a dumb idea what this what i have said and he's done it he's selling it with racial language with we've been here in this kind of racialized language since the since the beginning god probably forever but you know going back to refer madness in the twenty's you know those black people are going to rape your women if they smoke

some pot i mean it's just step step by step and trump coming down and saying you know they're rapists they're murderers and so i guess are good people it's the exact same stuff but anyway i've said my piece you've said your piece let's move along to the next topic hurricane erma which is now ripping through the caribbean islands and on track to slam into south florida is the single most powerful an external ever on record experts say it will take years maybe even. decades to clean up the destruction from this monster hurricane all of this of course comes a little after a week after hurricane harvey drenched houston and coastal texas with a record breaking rainfall if we don't do something about climate change within the next couple of decades there are going to be many many many more hurricane harveys and hurricane irma's so what's going to be here we're going to do cap and cap and trade or a carbon tax cap and trade is working well in europe it's working well and california is working well with reason is reason number two the reason number two the left is going to lose the next election this is bad math bad science again every time

science comes out and says something the left doesn't like they reject it so we have made your pardon we have no coming out with a paper just before these hurricanes hit saying that we're in a record wall that we had something hasn't hit at this level since what two thousand and five and that noah coming out with their research and same we're actually has nothing to do with climate change but then we hit we had to well you just said two major hurricanes and now it's climate change so i mean this is look we're as or there is a risk in slightly of never seeing these are we in these instances today and said every time it's come along i would say this is a strong hurricane the people in florida need to get out of its way but every time and this is again why why people tend to stay in the zones because we tend to say all so far but why should you have nine states with a cap and trade system in the united states plus california's ten states it's working here in the united states cap and trade successfully eliminated sulfur dioxide we ended our problem with as

a grain should we do cap and trade or should we do a carbon tax make it we shouldn't shouldn't two should they have all the exxon and all of these other and i'm not here to deny climate change or any of that but we can not. put ourselves at such a disadvantage trying to meet these lofty such a disadvantage china has a carbon tax my point being when we come to a solution here we have to make sure that the entire world is working to. other on this issue i'm i'm not here to most of the nice most of the most i mean is all the countries in the world either have a either have a carbon tax have a cap and trade system or have some sort of a valid tax that they're applying to carbon products to diminish their use i mean we're that we're the village idiots in this regard i don't think so this is something where it's you can allow the fifty states to make up their own decisions you can allow the governors to decide how they want to run the economies in their states you know i mean this is worked out real well for sam brownback didn't well no i mean that this is that's the way that it's supposed to work is oh i already

a go i really did choice it didn't work this is something that you're going to be able to if you look at our long term debt our great california is doing well. california california that the best economy in the country it's interesting they have extended themselves on a lot a lot of government programs they are they are using the mortgage interest rate at the. detriment of the people in illinois so i mean california is doing a lot of what they're doing based on big government programs they've done a very good job of getting what you've got to have big government programs in order to deal with big corporations i mean you've got these fossil fuel companies these are multi-billion dollar corporations they have the ability to wipe out local governments to to roll over all this and yet how many states if you just say have implemented cap and trade and you also had a pail and up in alaska that went after big oil and now they're in the left attacked or as soon as she was put on the ticket charles you were trying to thank you both for being with us tonight and that's the way it is tonight and don't

forget democracy is not a spectator sport get out there get active you're. in case you're new to the game this is how it works now. kaname is built around corporation corporations run washington or washington controls the media the media control over the voters elected a businessman to run this country business equals public must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before.

what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president i'm sure more some want to be rich. but you'd like to be prosperous like them before three in the morning can't be good . i'm interested always in the waters of our. question. are you going to go for the oldest tree looks like a real bitch or just one. analyze the game from the bottom of it. like would it be like you not i got. all. the free to be total business.