Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20161213

Palast goes to michigan after a judge shuts down a recount of the president ial vote in the state. And thiss trumpville is their hero, the man who shut down the recount. Your Republican Attorney general of michigan. He issued an order saying no one would be allowed to look at the ballots and over half the precincts, 59 , and the detroit area. The very place that most of the vote had gone missing. Amy and we will look at john kelly who has been tapped by trump to have the department of Homeland Security as commander of southern command, he oversaw u. S. Military prison at guantanamo. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. It is official. Donald trump has chosen the ceo of the Worlds Largest oil company and a man with no political experience for the top cabinet position. This morning, trump tweeted i have chosen one of the truly great Business Leaders of the world, Rex Tillerson, chairman and ceo of exxonmobil, to be secretary of state. Environmental groups have widely condemned the nomination. Exxon is facing multiple lawsuits over its role in covering up the Science Behind climate change. Tillerson is also known to have close ties to russian president Vladimir Putin who awarded , tillerson the countrys order of friendship decoration in 2013. Both Senate Democrats and republicans have expressed concern and opposition to tillersons nomination, which comes only days after president obama ordered a review of russias role influencing the president ial election. The cia has reportedly already concluded russia intervened in the election to help trump win. One of the focuses of the Senate Confirmation hearings will be exxons 500 billion Oil Exploration partnership with the russian Governments Oil company, rosneft. Considered the largest oil deal in history, the partnership can only go through if the u. S. Lifts sanctions against russia, which the Obama Administration imposed over russias intervention in ukraine. To hear our full interview about Rex Tillerson with 350. Org cofounder bill mckibben, friends of the earth president erich pica, and president of the center for International Environmental law carroll muffett, go to democracynow. Org. In more news on cabinet picks, donald trump has officially asked Goldman Sachs president gary cohn to be director of the National Economic council. Cohn will become the third Goldman Sachslinked member of trumps cabinet. Steven mnuchin, trumps pick for treasury secretary, was a secondgeneration Goldman Sachs executive. Stephen bannon, trumps chief strategist, is also a former Goldman Sachs executive. The Trump Transition Team also officially announced monday that retired fourstar marine general john kelly is trumps pick for secretary of Homeland Security. And the New York Times has reported trump is considering former hewlettpackard ceo Carly Fiorina for director of national telligence. Senate majority leader republican Mitch Mcconnell of kentucky and House Speaker republican paul ryan of wisconsin have both announced their support for an investigation into whether russia intervened in u. S. President ial election to help trump win. Chairman of the Intelligence Committee republican richard burr of North Carolina and the chair of the Armed Services Committee Republican senator john mccain of arizona are leading the inquiry. On monday, white house spokesman josh earnest said the Obama Administration also supports the congressional investigation. 10 Electoral College electors nine democrats and one republican have sent a letter to cia director James Clapper demanding an intelligence briefing on russian efforts to elect donald trump before the Electoral College meets on december 19. Hillary Clintons Campaign has backed their request. Donald trump has called the cias conclusions of russian interference ridiculous. We will have more on the possibility of russian interference in the election with democratic california elector christine pelosi, the lead author of the letter to intelligence director James Clapper. In syria, aleppo is on the brink of full into the Syrian Government. On monday, Syrian Government forces backed by russian airstrikes and fighters from other regional allies, including lebanons hezbollah militia, continue to advance on the remaining rebel held neighborhoods. In government held sections of aleppo, some people poured into the streets to celebrate what is expected to be the most decisive battle in the fiveyear civil war. Antigovernment rebels report Syrian Government troops carrying out summary killings during the ongoing offensive. The United Nations says at least 82 civilians, including women and children, have been shot on site by Syrian Government troops in recent days. In more news on syria, u. S. Defense secretary ash carter has announced the pentagon will be sending 200 additional u. S. Soldiers to fight isis militants in syria. The new troops will join at least 300 u. S. Soldiers already fighting in syria. On monday, defense secretary ash carter also visited israel for a ceremony marking the United States delivery to israel of two u. S. Built Lockheed Martin f35 fighter jets, regarded as the most advanced military aircraft in the world. Israel now becomes the only country outside the United States to have operational f35 fighter jets. This is secretary carter speaking monday at the Nevatim Air Base in the southern negev desert. Israels desert. The stealth fighters are the first 50 aircraft that will help build the future of the israeli air force. And that is thanks to and stored memorandum of understanding we signed this year in which the u. S. Pledged an unprecedented 38 million in Security Assistance over the next decade. And as of today, israel is our first and only friend in the region that is flying f35. It is my honor to be here marking the delivery of these planes to americas closest friend and ally in the region. Amy each Lockheed Martin f35 jet costs more than 100 million, a price tag donald trump recently criticized, tweeting the f35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military purchases after january 20th. More than 5 trillion worth of investments are now pledged to be divested from fossil fuels. The analysis, issued monday, details how nearly 700 institutions and nearly 60,000 individuals from across 76 nations have committed to divest their assets from the fossil fuel industry. This is mark ruffalo speaking at a News Conference in new york city. If you keep your money in the fossil fuel industry, youre hurting your children, youre hurting the future generations, and you are hurting your selves. You cant say that you care about your children or your grandchildren and keep pouring money into this system. Amy that is actor markgraf alone. Mark ruffalo. At Standing Rock in north dakota, native american elders fighting the Dakota Access pipeline have extinguished the seven council fires, which has been burning for months at the main resistance camp, and young native water protectors have relit a new fire, the all nations fire, as part of the continued resistance to the 3. 8 billion pipeline. This is Standing Rock sioux tribe member chase iron eyes. It was probably 1000 people still here who are committed to staying until the pipeline is dead. They are committed to staying to protect our treaty rights and to create a new existence for our people. Theyre committed to even protecting american constitutional, civil and human rights. We approach the elders. They told us how to conduct ourselves and to build a new fire. It is all young people who came up. Amy the water protectors are fighting the pipeline over concerns a leak could contaminate the missouri river, which serves as a drinking source for millions. On monday, north dakota officials confirmed that another Pipeline Leak earlier this month has spilled more than 176,000 gallons of crude oil into the ash coulee creek about 150 miles west of Standing Rock. Meanwhile, in more news from Standing Rock, the water protector legal collective reports a north dakota court has convened a federal grand jury and issued at least one subpoena against a water protector at sacred stone camp. Angela bibbens of the collective says it appears the grand jury is focused on the injuries of sophia wilansky, whose left arm was brutally hurt. An account which the police deny. This is angela bibbens. To the convening of the federal grand jury, the water protector legal collective has put together a committee of experienced attorneys who can represent water protectors who have been served with a subpoena. If you are a water protector out there who has been served, please contact our hotline at 6055198180. Amy the Seattle City Council has vote unanimously to advance to discussion a piece of legislation that would see the city break ties with wells fargo over its financing of the Dakota Access pipeline. Wells fargo currently manages 3 billion worth of depository services for seattle. The legislation was proposed by socialist city councilwoman kshama sawant, who spoke about the water protectors at Standing Rock during a City Council Meeting monday. Repression and attacks on private militarized security forces. They have been bitten by attack dogs, pepper spray, subjected to mass arrest including for praying. But they have courageously stood strong and shown will we both organize movements willing to fight, we can win. Elected officials nationwide a way to the activists to stand with them. One clear way the city council can do that is by divesting the city of seattle from wells fargo , which also happens to be one of the Principal Financial backers of the Dakota Access pipeline. Amy that was Seattle City Councilwoman kshama sawant. The Minneapolis City Council is also currently studying ways break financial ties with wells fargo and other banks financing the Dakota Access pipeline and other energy projects. Minneapolis activists locked shut the doors of a new wells fargo branch, which was slated to open monday, demanding the bank divest from the Dakota Access pipeline. Pipeline protesters spreading across United States over the weekend. A military veteran was arrested in live oak, florida, missed a series of protests against the 3. 2 billion natural gas pipeline that is slated to run from alabama through georgia into florida. Meanwhile on monday, two people were arrested after chaining themselves to Construction Equipment in arkansas in efforts to stop the construction of the proposed 440 mile Diamond Pipeline slated to carry oil from oklahoma to arkansas. Land conflicts are growing increasingly deadly worldwide, with triple the number of land rights defenders murdered this year compared to 2015. This according to a new report by pan asia pacific, which details how an average of almost 16 indigenous land defenders, farmers and activists were , killed each month from january until november of this year. In bahrain, an Appeals Court has upheld a nineyear prison sentence against bahraini opposition leader, sheikh ali salman. He is the secretary general of a main bahraini opposition party. His arrest in december 2015 sparked protests and international condemnation. Bahrain is a close u. S. Ally in the gulf, home to the navys fifth fleet. In brazil, president michel temer is facing accusations of soliciting nearly 3 million in Illegal Campaign contributions in 2014. The revelations come only one day after a poll showed the majority of brazilians, 63 , want temer to resign. Michel temer rose to power earlier this year after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in a process she and others have called a coup. Back in the United States, the Supreme Court has denied request National Football league settlement with former players who say the leak intentionally concealed the dangers of concussions. Say they will begin receiving settlements of up to 5 million. A New York Times investigation earlier this year revealed the nfl it more than 100 diagnosed concussions that published studies based on flawed data. The investigation also exposes how the nfl shared lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants with the tobacco industry. The Free Alabama Movement reports incarcerated organizer kinetic justice was physically attacked and maced while handcuffed by two Prison Guards at Limestone Correctional Facility in alabama on december 2. Justice was a key organizer in the nationwide prison strike this fall. Since then, he says hes faced multiple transfers between different prisons, as well as retaliation from Prison Guards, including being denied water by prison officials at the kilby correctional facility. To see our full interview with kinetic justice on the nationwide prison strikes, to go democracynow. Org. A new report by the committee to protect journalists reveals at least 257 journalists have been jailed worldwide this year the most since the committee began recordkeeping in 1990. Nearly onethird of the journalists are imprisoned by turkey alone. Since the failed military coup this summer, turkish authorities have executed a widespread crackdown against the press, particularly against kurdish newspapers and journalists. On monday, turkish authorities also rounded up and arrested as many as 200 members of the prokurdish Peoples Democratic party, known as the hdp, after raiding the parties offices in ankara and istanbul. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In less than one week, on december 19, members of the Electoral College will meet in their respective state capitols to cast ballots to determine who will be the next president. In recent history, the vote of the Electoral College has largely been a formality. But this year, electors in states won by donald trump are facing mounting pressure to reject his presidency. Last week Christopher Suprun of texas became the first republican member of the Electoral College to come out saying he will not vote for trump. He appeared on democracy now this is what the Electoral College is for, so we do not elect a demagogue, somebody who cannot practice the foreignpolicy and National Defense of the country appropriately, and one who has played fast and loose with the rules of conflicts of interest. Amy will on monday, christopher supran made headlines again when he joined with nine democratic members of the Electoral College to ask James Clapper, the u. S. Director of national intelligence, to brief electors before the 19th on how russia may have interfered with the election. The cia has concluded russia intervened in the election to help trump win but the agency , has not released its findings. Reuters is reporting there is yet to be an endorsement because of lack of conclusive evidence that moscow intended to boost trump over hillary clinton. Trump rejected the conclusion saying it is ridiculous that president obama ordered a review of russias role in influencing the president ial election. On monday, Top Republicans in Congress Senate majority leader , Mitch Mcconnell and House Speaker paul ryan, also backed an investigation. Hillary Clintons Campaign manager john podesta has backed the request by the electors for an intelligence briefing. He said the bipartisan electors letter raises very grave issues involving our National Security. Electors have a solemn responsibility under the constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed. Well, joining us now from San Francisco is christine pelosi, a democratic california elector. She is the lead author of a letter to intelligence director James Clapper. Her mothers House Minority leader nancy pelosi. Welcome to democracy now explain what you are asking for now. Good morning, amy. And joining with members of the Electoral College to ask director clapper to give us a briefing on the newly discovered evidence that the American People first learned about last week when we read in the paper that the russians had hacked both democrats and republicans, but only chose to do a daily drip, drip, drip of information against democrats in order to try to swing the election to trump. Our concern is that finding out this information after the election, that it is a very alarming charge so we would like to see the evidence. We would also like to enter clapper to declassify as much of the information as possible so that all of the American People can take a look and decide for ourselves and to the extent that we have to protect our intelligence agents come assets, sources, and methods, we would like him to lower the pacification to where we the electors to get what they call a day pass, go to one of this secure classified information. Acilities they have the met military bases and fbi offices where members of the military and members of congress can go to receive classified briefings without having to go to washington. We would like to go to the local secure areas in our community and receive this information before we performed our constitutional duty on december 19. Amy has James Clapper responded . He has not responded. Were hoping to reinforce our request today. Since we released the letter yesterday morning with 10 people, we have heard from thousands of people across the country, including dozens more electors who are interested in what were doing and who would like to find out more about how they could get some of the information that somebody in the cia saw fit to share with the media. We would like them to share it with as directly so that as Alexander Hamilton said and as the founders have predicted, we can assure that the president was not elected with undue foreign influence. Amy of course, donald trump is denying any russian involvement in his victory. He tweeted your response . Well, this was discussed at one of the president ial debates. The role of russia was long alleged so this is not necessarily news to donald trump and the fact that he doesnt believe it does not make it less true. Unlike him, we would like an intelligence briefing and we would like to know what the details are. Amy, if you were involved in an election and 70 said, oh, the russians are the ones that helped amy when, wouldnt you want the truth to come out to show you won fair and square . It is our constitutional duty as members of the Electoral College to make an assessment that we had a free and Fair Election without undue foreign influence. We would like to see the data that the cia has. Amy in july, then republican president ial nominee donald trump called on russia to hack Hillary Clintons email. Mr. Trump russia, if youre listening, i hope you are able to find the emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Amy at the time, retired Navy Rear Admiral john hutson said trumps call to hack clintons email was criminal intent. Christine pelosi, what do you say . I think it was outrageous comment for any Public Servant to make to invite a foreign power to commit espionage. It wasnt the press who was going to reward russia mightily, it actually has been donald trump rewarding russia mightily for the work they did do in skewing the election to him. When you look at his appointments, when you look at the closeness to russia of some of these appointees come a most notably his potential secretary of state former head of exxon mobil, these are deeply concerning allegations. Again, the role of the Intelligence Community is to collect the information and give it to government officials to make important decisions. Well, members of the Electoral College are about to make the most important decision for our country, the election, the formal election of our president , and we need to get that information. Publicot just the statement of donald trump, it is whatever private actions may have occurred that the cia may have under. Amy last week, democracy now interviewed chris suprun who explained why he wont be casting his vote for donald trump. I intended to support the nominee, but importantly, mr. Trump has proven again and again he is not qualified for the office. He is a complete demagogue, as weve seen for the past 18 months. Up until last night where he picked on a steelworker who at is Say Something about his jobs plan for carrier. That is a scary thought when youre a simple steelworker, union boss, therein indiana, yoe president and he comes after you 30 minutes later. Im not sure what the president is going to do when north korea says something even worse about him in international relations, which rings of the second reason he is not qualified. 50 of time republican colleagues for National Security and foreignpolicy experts said mr. Trump would be a danger if he were president. We have already seen that where he is exacerbated situations in taiwan and china with his change in the one china policy, or what appears to be a change, and beyond that, part of the issue with taiwan was it appeared to be a sales call. Esther trump cannot profit off the office of the president. It is expressly for bitten. It appears every time he calls another country, it is to sell a trump property. Amy that is Christopher Suprun, republican elector from texas who says he will not be voting for donald trump. He joined your letter, christine pelosi, as the one republican with nine democrats calling for this briefing. Are there other republicans who have gotten in touch with you, either to join you on the letter or to say they are not voting for donald trump other electors . I have heard from democratic and republican electors since we put the letter out. Some of them are interested in joining the letter. Others having seen the politics of personal destruction directed at me, directed at mr. Suprun and others, have said, look, i support what youre doing. I dont want to expose myself to that kind of social media attack, but know that you have my support and i absolutely want to find out if there is a possibility of getting that information at a local briefing, added fbi were military base. I am very cognizant as a pelosi what it is like when you put yourself out in the public sphere in the personal attacks that come with it. A lot of my fellow at sister electors are living lives of quiet Public Service and im not asking for a look them to sign on to the kind of treatment that i am getting, that i take as part of the price of leadership, but im heartened by their support in by their communications that indicate, yes director clapper to receive our request and respond to our request by declassifying the information for the public and for lowering the classification to give us a day pass. There will be electors, but democratic and republican, who will be ready to receive that information. Amy how many republicans have gotten in touch with you . Republican electors . Three directly and others saying they have talked to more of them. So im not quite sure what those numbers actually look like in terms of how many people, the other people say they have spoken to and reflect, but the basic message was, you have got bipartisan support for this and others may be making their own statements soon. They have also seen, again, what is happening to mr. Superintendent a said, look, if clapper is not going to do this, if we are one to be tonights information, i do not want to step out there are be completely attacked by my own party by asking for something i did not ultimately get. I do not mind taking the lead and doing that. I think it is interesting there are republicans who want to make theyre to are support their partys nominee, they want to make sure their partys nominee is a the won karens one square. That is there oath they take as an elector. We take this very seriously. Our goal right now is to get as much of that information out to the public as possible. Amy how did you become an elector in the Electoral College, christine . As you know, there are different rules in different states. In california, we get appointed by our local members of congress and by our senators. I chair the caliphate Democratic Party womens caucus and i was thoroughly convinced this would be my opportunity to cast a vote for the first woman president of the United States. I petition my congresswoman and said, you know, i have never asked to be an elector. This is a wonderful honor, but i would like to have this opportunity, so i asked and i was appointed. Amy you are representing california, which voted for hillary clinton. So why would this make a difference to you, this briefing . I would like to know the truth before i cast my vote. Im a former prosecutor, amy. There used to be a Closing Argument in San Francisco that when Something Like you could go race onto the field at the giants ballpark and knock over the picture in front of 50,000 fans and millions of people watching on tv. You know what . You still get to go to court and say, prosecutor, prove it. Is theot a formality, it american way that you get a jury of your peers in a chance to make the prosecutor prove what everybody saw you did. When it comes to being a member of the Electoral College, similarly, we have agency. The founders wanted to make sure that we did. That is why they did not just have an election, but also the Electoral College to meet to make sure we did not have a demagogue, make sure there was a free and Fair Election, and to make sure there was an undue foreign influence. So we have newly discovered evidence that we would like to see. Frankly, i am disappointed we did not know this before the general election, amy, but we are reading about it now. Rather than just read about it in the paper and have it shape our view of mr. Trump, we feel it is incumbent upon us to look at that newly discovered evidence in whatever classified setting that director feels is appropriate to defend and protect the intelligence sources. Trumpn 2012, donald incorrectly thought mitt romney had won the popular vote over president obama. He tweeted the Electoral College is a disaster for democracy. You are also opposed to the Electoral College . That is right. It is been a strange Political Year for me and that i am a Democratic National committee woman, superdelegate working to im a member of the Electoral College who would like to see the end of the Electoral College. I guess im organizing myself out of two jobs. My idea is more democracy, the better, and i think as a longtime supporter of the National Popular vote, which actually governor schwarzenegger signed into law in california, many of us have been moving to try to eliminate Electoral College for years. At a donald trump was correct in 2012. I would hope that we would move to eliminate the Electoral College or reduce the power that small states have over large states like mine in california. But now, this is a system we have. These are the rules of engagement that the founders have set forward. And absent a change to them, we have to take our role seriously and do our job. If we are just window dressing, then join me and get rid of us. As long as you charge me to do a job as an elector, im going to with with agency and attention. And right now, i would like to Pay Attention to the evidence. Amy on another issue, your thoughts on keep the load to desk eat allison . Goodve had some conversations with congressman ellison about the kinds of reforms i would like tos the at the dnc. I am running for executive committee on a platform of, among other things, fulfilling the Unity Commission goal of not allowing superdelegates to trump the will of the voters and eliminating corporate money into the dnc and eliminating the use of at large appoints to put corporate lobbyists on to the dnc. You just and report on the water protectors. There are only three members of the native American Community are on the Democratic National committee, but theres a lot of corporate representation. If you had, say, 10 members of the native American Community of the Democratic National committee and seven or fewer corporate lobbyists, who knows what the policy might have been and what the engagement might have been at the National Party level when it came to protecting the water and ending Eminent Domain for private gain . Personnel is policy. I know that Keith Ellison has a lot of great ideas. I love tom perez was looking at the race. He was a big support to me when i passed the fight for 15 revolution at the dnc in the summer of 2015. I worked closely with ray ,uckley and Jamie Harrison stagers from New Hampshire and South Carolina respectively. I think were going to have a really good debate. I think Keith Ellison is a very good communicator and a very good galvanize her. I respect he wants to do the job fulltime like we asked. And that he came to that decision. I look forward to a very spirited debate about this in january, but it is exciting that grassroots democrats and progressives want to get involved and want to help refurbish our party and bring back our 50 state strategy. Amy christine pelosi, thank you for being with us, democratic california elector, the lead author on a letter to intelligence director James Clapper urging him to release the facts on outside interference in u. S. President ial election. So far, the letter has been signed by 10 members of the Electoral College nine democrats and one republican. Thank you, christine. When we come back, greg palast investigates the recount in michigan. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We continue our update on the president ial election with the results of the recount effort in wisconsin and pennsylvania. Wisconsins Election Commission announced on monday that after its recount, republican Donald Trumps margin of victory widened by about 162 votes. In pennsylvania, a federal judge on monday rejected a request to recount paper ballots and scan some counties election systems for signs of hacking. Hours later, state officials certified the results of the election, with trump winning by less than 1 of the vote. Former green Party President ial candidate jill stein had requested recounts in wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania. Three states where donald trump narrowly beat the clinton. A federal judge had already ordered michigans board of elections to stop the states electoral recount. Trump one michigan won michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes out of nearly 4. 8 million votes cast. We turn to Rolling Stone Investigative Reporter greg ellis. Quick he won by 10,700 votes, but the record 75,000 335 votes were never counted. Most of these votes that went missing were in detroit and flint, michigan, majority black citys. How could this happen . To the russians do it . Nyet. You dont need russians to help the michigan gop. How do you disappear 75,000 votes . They called them spoil votes. How do you spoil them . Not by leaving them out of the fridge. Most are lost by the bubbles. Thousands cannot be read by the optical scanning machines. I saw a lot of checkmarks. Quick sioux is a systems analyst who took part in the recount. We saw a lot of ballots that were not originally counted because they do not skin into the machine. Machines in michigan and wisconsin cannot read these bubbles but a much better machine, the human eyeball, can easily read what the voter intended. Both michigan and wisconsin, you have to pay the state millions of dollars to have humans read the ballots. This woman, jill stein, raise the money for the human count of these uncounted ballot. According to jill stein, the human review was finding a whole lot of votes which were blank, many in committees of color, that were democratic. Obviously, this is a concern. Enough that mr. Trump would lose. In a gop politician came to mr. Trumps rescue. , and this isville their hero, the man who shut down the recount. The Republican Attorney general of michigan. He issued an order saying no one would be allowed to look at the ballot and over half the precincts 59 in the detroit area will step the very place that most of the votes had gone missing. It is shocking to think the miss counting of bit votes may be making the critical difference in the outcome of the election. We went to speak with the secretary of state whose spokesman said the missing votes detroit were simply people who waited in line but did not want to vote for president. The andnk we look at Favorability Ratings that were reported for both major party candidates, probably not that surprising. In detroit, another explanation. Machinesing, 87 responsible for counting thousands of ballots, broke down. Carlos garcia is a media specialist at michigans the university. He witnessed the breakdown. A. M. Rted pulling at 7 00 the machine did not work. At nine 15 a. M. , they brought in replacement and it was replaced by 9 30. The people who do not wait, theyre ballots were in the bottom of the ballot. They were not scanned. At the time they started having anyone who was waiting scan their ballots, those ballots were not taken out of the machine. So any new scanned ballots were falling in on top of the old ones. They were not counted. Activist anita bell. Only 50 ballots in the ballot box. How did detroit end up in a hot mess with these ballot destroying machines . Public and officials took direct control of the Government Spending in flint. Flyswatter was detroit and the Voting System of detroit was poisoned as well. Whether your voting in a wealthy white suburban precinct, no sweat, your vote will be validated and you can have assurance and confidence in your vote. If youre africanamerican, these questions cannot be asked. And there are voters who never got to vote in the first place. Whether it is because of the chaos in some Polling Centers are closed and then some are moved and there are all kinds of mixups will step so a lot of people are filling out provisional ballots in the first place or they were being topped off the voter rolls by interstate crosscheck. Crosscheck is a list created by Donald Trumps operative to hunt down and imprisoned voters who illegally voted or registered in two states in one election. Michigan dissipates, like a number of other states, so we do match voters who may be registered in another state. Quite you know how many names . There are lot. Here is michigan. Michiganders on the suspect list. Is it to illuminate fraud or voters . It is to clean our voter list. Make sure theres no vulnerability for fraud. We been very aggressive in closing vulnerabilities and loopholes. But i see the aggression here. Michael bernard brown. Supposed to be the same as Michael Anthony brown. Michael Timothy Brown is listed in the same as Michael Johnny brown. Youre correct, im sure there are some. But we go through it thoroughly and were not just canceling people. Statistical experts say it is heavily overweight against minorities because it is using it basically a list of common names. Michael brown. Jose garcia. Can you imagine that would be a problem . I did not know brown that brown is a common name in america . Is very, black name. Ive known a lot of white brown. Donald trump supports the crosscheck crusade. Stein doesnt buy it. If he thinks Michael Lewis brown is the same person as Michael James brown, he is confused. The American People should not be duped into believing him for a minute will stop it is the opposite of what he is saying. Not people were voting fraudulently and illegally, but were actually legitimate voters who had their right to vote taken away from them by kris kobach and donald trump and there is no legitimacy to his claim that there are fraudulent voters that have distorted the outcome of this election. And it jim crow system all needs to be fixed. It is not rocket science. This is plane basic democracy. I think the people of detroit are so inspired and principal and passionate, they are a model for this struggle around the nation. The recount slogs through, uncovering missing votes and missing voters that could change through the presidency. Republicans rushed in to shut down the recount completely. Wisconsin, pennsylvania, here in michigan. We may be way north of the north and its in line, but the elections are still run by jim crow. For democracy now , this is greg palast. Amy joining us from washington, d. C. , Rolling Stone reporter greg palast. What most surprised you in this latest research in michigan . People looking for russians, but what we had was real jim crow election. Less and michigan won by than 11,000 votes. It looked like we had 55,000 voters, mostly minorities, removed by this racist system called crosscheck. In addition, you had even before the courts order to complete stop of the vote in michigan, you had the republican state officials completely sabotage the recount. They said, in detroit where there were 75,335 supposedly ,lank ballots for president they said, you cannot count 59 of the precincts were most of the votes were missing. There were 87 machines in detroit that did not function. They were supposed to count about 1000 ballots each. Youre talking about a massive blockade of the black vote in detroit and flint, enough votes and deadly to overturn that election. And new saw a mirror of this in wisconsin, where, for example, there were many, many votes, thousands of votes lost in the milwaukee area and other africanamerican heavy areas. And instead of allowing the eyeball count of the votes that are supposed to be supposedly blank, just run them back to the machines. It is like betting on an instant replay of the same game. Just put them through the same bad machines again. This is not just a bad way to count the ballots, it is a way to not count africanamerican ballots. I want to emphasize that, amy, which is that when we use the term recount, were talking about ballots that were never counted in the first place. We over 75,000 in michigan. There are enough ballots uncounted that if you look at them with the human eye, because these are terrible machines i cannot read your bible marks next to the candidates name on a piece of paper, if the human eye looks at these does it is easy to tell someone voted for president ial candidate. A lot of the machine said they voted for two candidates. Not many people do that. The human eye can do that. The question is, where these ballots not counted . Theyre not counted in African American areas, in dearborn, heavy arabic community, and latino committees. While were discussing hacking the machines, a lot of this was oldfashioned jim crow tactics from way back. Either way, a lot of this is the result of the destruction and the gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights act, which is the first election post the Voting Rights act. We saw a jill stein said it correct, she suspected there to be a lot of hacking. What she found, as she said, was a jim crow election. Amy finally, we just have a minute, but what do you think needs to happen now . We need to have kind of a Standing Rock for voting. We need to restart the Voting Rights movement because with Jeff Sessions coming in as attorney general, we have to start investigations now. I am in washington because an asianamerican group and the Congressional Black Caucus representative hastings, they have presented 50,000 signatures to the Justice Department begging justice, please, open an investigation of this racist crosscheck system created by Donald Trumps operative operating in 30 states, knocking off asian americans, africanamericans, latinos voters, please open the investigation now before it becomes a new Justice Department or maybe it is in a Justice Department. Amy i want to thank you, greg for your report. Stone. Ast of rolling when we come back, we will talk about another trump appointment. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Donald trump has officially announced he will nominate fourstar marine general john kelly to be secretary of Homeland Security. Kelly was formerly the head of United States southern command, where he oversaw the military jail at guantanamo bay, cuba. Kelly becomes the general tapped third for a top position so far. The head of United States southern command, kelly promoted the alliance for prosperity, program that provides hundreds of millions of dollars in Police Military funding. He has repeatedly called u. S. Mexico border a threat to National Security, leading many to worry he will escalate the militarization of the border and u. S. Immigration policy overall. To talk more about kellys nomination, were joined now by two guests. In los angeles, Roberto Lovato is an independent journalist working out of the San Francisco writers grotto. Baherre we are joined by azmy, legal director of the center for constitutional rights, which has been representing guantanamo detainees since 2002. Roberto, lets begin with you. What is your understanding of general kellys record . Amy, and everybody, general kelly is a 40 year veteran of the marines. I think he embodies the military values that have been instilled, not just in the marines, air force, army, but also within the homeland itself. Ishink you have somebody who very clear in terms of what his mission is as a general. And that is a communications function more than anything else, oddly enough. He has this one quote, this oped in the miami herald, were he says, columbia showed us the way. He sees columbia as the way to instill peace and bring prosperity into a country, where dont know anybody knows anything about columbia, but that he Million People are just laced, massacre military and death squad operation. Massive impunity on the part of the policing and security and military with police functions. One of the good things about i think kelly is that he makes obvious the militarization of not just immigration, but of u. S. Society since before obama and bush, even. Homeland securitys budget has gone from, like, 4. 3 billion to now 34 billion. Look at Standing Rock. People a lot of people did not realize, but there were standingtrol agent at rock. What was the Border Patrol doing at Standing Rock . I think major kelly makes that really clear in a way that barack obama and telling us in the cadences of Martin Luther king, Homeland Security was a good thing, does not do so. Again, responding with fear is useless when you have the most militarized cabinet in u. S. History, right . It is three people. It doesnt help us to respond with fear. I think we need to be clear. The beauty, i guess if there are beauty and this, is that it is very clear what your government is doing with your tax dollars. Amy general kelly said, responding to his nomination the American People voted in this election to stop terrorism, take back sovereignty at our borders, and put a stop to political correct this. The to long has dictated our approach to National Security. Roberta, your response . I would at what happened under obama with occupy, with black lives matter, and Standing Rock. The role of Homeland Security is very clear as far as occupy a black lives matter. Massive surveillance and other sorts of interventions we will find out as those papers get released. Although now, we have reached the point where the privacy of the population has been diminished, while the privacy and secrecy of the government has been expanded to recordbreaking levels. So that said, i think when kelly talks like that, you have you always have foreign wars and domestic suppression being siamese twins. Having such a militarized cabinet, i think theyre getting ready to do what many people fear, you know, it cant happen here. It is happening here, amy. It is happening through the back door of, say, immigration where a lot of people thought Homeland Security was primarily about repressing immigrants. I have written about this. It is not just about immigrants. It is about immigrants being used to normalize the militarization within the borders. Going around what is known as the posse, titus act. But respondingg, with fear is not going to help. Responding with clarity is. Amy i want to bring in baher azmy. You have long been dealing with guantanamo, representing prisoners there since 2002. What did general whatever general kellys position . In general, i think the have someone in charge of the largest civilian agency in the United States who not only defended by further distorted one of the most grotesque extralegal practices in American History in guantanamo is really, frankly, chilling. Once more, during his time there, it is fairly welldocumented on record that he attempted to undermine his officials in guantanamo, sabotage president obamas efforts to transfer detainees forced of amy what evidence do you have . Theres a compelling reuters report that demonstrates open hostility to state Department Efforts to match detainees with Foreign Countries in a case involving one of our own clients, a longtime Hunger Striker, at a foreign delegation was interested in meeting with him. Our client, his officials said that our client had not released had not consent to release his medical records. That was a lie. In charge of a massive Hunger Strike in 2013, and he responded through brutally solitary confinement, fast force feedings. He called these math Hunger Strikes, change the term, called them longterm nonreligious fasting. Mapping perfectly with the kind of orwellian cast of mind in guantanamo that he would want to internalize inside the United States. Amy do you think the fact he lost his son in afghanistan in 2010, making general kelly the highestranking military officer to lose a son or daughter in iraq or afghanistan, has had an impact on his policies . Some of the reporting suggest that it has. Of Defense Department officials felt that way in terms of the population there. There is a way of running National Policy from based on personal experience as sad as that may have been it should not interfere with a mandate from the president and his obligation to treat detainees humanely. Amy overall, your response to the fact that kellys the third general name to trumps cabinet yet the flynn heading nsa and mag. Mattis as defense secretary. And overall, the trump picked so far . It is remarkably worrying. After my academic hat on. The commanderinchief powers given to the president of the United States not as many people think to magnify his warmaking power. It was done because the framers were worried about military running civilian government so we would have civilian control. Because the military generals, think what you might about how necessary they are, it is not a democratic institution. They are not responsive to Democratic Politics or democratic accountability. There is a separate system of justice. They do not have the same obligations to things like deliberation. Nd so i think it is very worrying. His statement, i had not realized that he wants to end Political Correctness and National Security policies. Just a really worrying dog whistle to the altright who once more torture and more profiling. Torture is not problematic because it is politically incorrect. It is problematic because it is illegal and immoral. Registration and surveillance of muslims is illegal and immoral. This is ad think that problem and National Practice is incredibly concerning. Amy and the possibility that kris kobach, the 10th of secretary of state, though he was considered for Homeland Security, could be his deputy . Even more worrying. Kris kobach is the architect of ,lection will godfather numerous laws designed to exclude and criminalize immigrants. He was the author of sb 1070 and a number of other laws. I think what is worrying, he would basically empower nationalize arpaios policy of the federal government. Amy we have to leave it there, baher azmy ofccr, and roberto baher azmy ofccr, and Roberto Lovato, thank you for joining hello, im hubert keller. When i entertain at home, i love to pick dishes that really come together in a onepot meal or dishes that really please a crowd. On todays secrets of a chef, i will share with you two of my star recipes. Our first recipe is an alsatian favorite, choucroute, or sauerkraut, served with a beautiful array of colorful seafood. Learn cooking techniques for salmon, halibut, prawns and mussels. Then we go to the south for a traditional gumbo made with sausages, chicken, vegetables, spices and a deeply flavored roux. It comes together beautifully in a onepot meal. Two of my star recipes, and its all happening today on secrets of a chef