time once again for community form and we're very lucky to have back with us live in the studios this morning david cobb david cobb is co founder of move to amend also the national spokesperson for move to men he's also a community organizer democracy unlimited david thank you very much for coming in and spending time with us again this morning thank you mike it's always a pleasure to be here and i got to say you know they one of those examples of actual community driven radio that goes good so it's i really appreciate the opportunity to have this form so for those who aren't familiar tell us about move to amend might move to him in a multiracial multiethnic coalition of groups and individuals who have come together to demand a constitutional amendment to abolish in its entirety the completely illegitimate totally court created absolutely made up and ridiculous idea that corporations must be treated as if they're persons with constitutional rights and also overturned the equally odious also court created completely made up outrageous idea that the expenditure of money is first amendment protected political speech mike these are not legal technicalities these two doctrines are the reason that one percent rules ninety nine percent in the united states of america that purports to be a democracy and yet the majority is constantly thwarted in public policy what do i mean the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights means that any time a law that actually attempts to control the global corporation from polluting the planet exploiting workers or otherwise you know actually can having economic democracy corporate lawyers can go into court to overturn those laws which means environmental protection laws get challenged and overturned public safety laws get challenged and overturned laws designed to protect workers you guessed it gets challenged and over turns mike what i'm getting at is these doctrines are not technicalities they are how our sacred right to self government in this country has been lost so moved to mend is a multiracial multiethnic coalition of people who are waging peaceful loving nonviolent revolution in this country to assert our sovereign right to govern ourselves it's really just that simple and yes that profound so how exactly are you  mike what we know is this that what we're talking about doing is a huge task to amend the constitution is arguably one of the hardest things that you can do politically in this country it's because it's the supreme law of the land it's the thousand ational document for how our political and legal system works and to amend it is profoundly difficult it takes two thirds of congress and then three quarters of the states to ratify or two thirds of the states to call for a convention and then three quarters of the states to ratify any proposals that come out of such a convention it is as we say a heavy left so what we know is we have to replicate the social movements of the past we have to look to the american revolution the women's suffrage movement movement the civil rights movement the trade union movement and most recently the civil rights and l g b t movements to see what did they do and what we learned is from this study is they shifted the culture they engaged ordinary people they educated they agitated the organize they had a legal strategy but they also had a media strategy they had direct action strategy they had a community organizing strategy to move to amend is literally implementing all of those things mike when move to men began as an immediate reaction to the horrific citizens united versus federal election commission decision in two thousand and ten we were twelve people in a living room today we're four hundred eight thousand people and growing every day after i said four hundred and eight thousand people and we've helped seventeen states call for a resolution and support our amendment effort quick little flag washington is go eighteen california will be nineteen because in november washington and i should have seven thirty five is on the ballot so those listeners in washington state you too can vote to become part of this movement by voting yes on and they should have seven thirty five and for those of you listening in california and i'm looking at the pens on the board i see you've got a lot of put people that at least call in and donate money to this nonprofit station from california you too can vote in support of this by voting yes on proposition fifty nine so seventeen states now soon will be nineteen but i'm not through yet mike because we also have helped six hundred and eighty communities resolutions of support at the city council our county commissioner level but my favorite objective number we've been on the ballot three hundred fifty times across this country that's where ordinary people get to vote to weigh out on whether or not so not just city council members voting to represent citizens but actually citizens exercising direct democracy to weigh in do you support the concept of a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate constitutional rights and money of speech mike we've been on three hundred fifty ballots i want you to guess how many times we've won it's unfair or you know the answer on this but is three hundred fifty we haven't lost yet and i want you to think about that and yes it includes san francisco and berkeley and madison wisconsin and san francisco you know they're very liberal places that you and your listeners would expect that an outfit like move to many would win and so yes we did win there and we won by super majorities but we also won in salt lake city utah we won in waukesha wisconsin that's the hometown of republican tea party governor scott they haven't voted for a democrat for president or congress in over forty years and walk a shot well we were on the ballot we won seventy percent of the vote there mike we were on the ballot in montana yes folks that montana one of the most politically culturally conservative states in the union moved him in was on the ballot we won seventy four percent of that vote what i'm telling you is moved to him and has found a way to build a progressive organization that  is committed to an anti racist approach a feminist approach we take on hetero normative or the we take on the idea of of unmasking and grappling with white skin privilege and male privilege and recognizing that we have to actually deal with shifting the culture at that level and we can relate authentically to genuine conservatives can service that would never want to get on board with lefty progressive organization we can say ok you don't have to get on board with the organization move to men just support our and minute campaign called the we the people amendment house joint resolution forty eight and mike that's working to not just at the ballot box but organizationally i want to share with you and k e x p listeners that move to men had our bill introduced in the congress last session we had three co sponsors this session twenty two co sponsors including our first republican and get this that republican is a tea party republican walter jones from north carolina infamous for during the iraq war renaming french fries freedom fries so i saw your grimace that your your viewers and listeners didn't because the cameras pointed at me but mike rolled his eyes i get it i want to tell you representative jones rolls his eyes at me about all sorts of my positions on other matters but on the house joint resolution forty eight on the we the people amendment to abolish corporate constitutional rights and money is speech he said we're in agreement here son you're right the founders original intent on what the corporation is supposed to be you are right that the expenditure of money is not the same thing as what our founders fought for for protected political speech you're right that we're supposed to be a democratic republican form of government you're right that this money b union money and corporate money is turning our elections into options by the way the fact that moved to amend is willing to say that neither corporations for profit or nonprofit or unions are persons with constitutional rights is part of the reason we're able to build those alliances the last quick anecdote i think we've got time for i want to share with your listeners this mike that i gave a standard move to him in presentation in lincoln nebraska a gentleman stood up at the back raised his hand he said look i'm with you on this amendment language and i'm with you on the opposition to judicial activism and and the founders original intent and the need for a democratic republican form of government and that the issues of campaign finance and they are our political questions not constitutional questions so i'm with you on this house joint resolution forty eight but son you got to stop talking about racism and white supremacy and patriarchy and and all that nonsense so i can work with you and i said sir i can't not talk about those things because it's who i am and honestly i don't think you should join move to amend the organization because that's who we are and the kind of organization we're building but if you're sincere and i take you at your word that you want to support house joint resolution forty eight and the language of that amendment let's work together authentically recognizing you're a principled conservative i'm a principled progressive but we actually have some common ground that was two years ago mike two months ago to cut to the chase the pottawattamie county republican party didn't just pass a resolution in support of our language they amended their party platform folks for those of you who may not be  like like on the up on the ins and outs of politics i wish you could see my expression because he went like that why because a party platform requires deep work with all of the member participant leaders of that party they debate it they discuss it and it took about a one year process where republicans actually went through an internal good conversation they amended their platform to call for a constitutional amendment to abolish the concept of corporate constitutional rights for any artificial entities including corporations nonprofit corporation than unions and to abolish the concept of money is speech mike that's a long answer to your question what's it going to take it's going to take a mass movement in this country where people are educating agitating it's going to require people getting in gauged it's going to require the conversation about whether or not we're going to have a democratic republican form of government happening not just on the airwaves of k e x p during mind over matter community time slot we're going to need your listeners to actually start having these conversations with their families and friends need you the listener to actually use your facebook page and twitter account and and instagram and snap chat to use social media to say hey i just heard about this movement and this organization called move to  you're on facebook you use your status update to type and w w w a dot move to amend dot au argy so that all your family and friends who are following you it'll pop up on their facebook feed we've got to actually start having conversations with each other about what the hell is going on in this country right and part of the in that i lift up k e x p and i always make it a point to come the nonprofit community radio stations is because this is where it's not just that we got our start here so i it's a special place in my heart which it is it is the recognition that the kind of conversation we're having is almost never had on corporate controlled media this is k e x p is a source of non corporately filtered news information and analysis i know most of the time ya'll are kicking it with some awesome music which is great but this community radio station also has this community hour and several other public affairs programming and this kind of conversation is not heard on corporate media is being brought to you by k e x p and the internet because it's still a place of free open internet so fight for internet freedom and support move to a net you know people like ralph nader who we carried to interview with him from six to seven this morning have pointed out repeatedly that if people on both left and the right whatever their viewpoints would just recognize that they actually have more in common than what separates them there would be similar to what you're seeing with your move to amend campaign there would be an awesome political power there that could theoretically displace the corporations listen let's be clear the ruling elite have always used divide and conquer to prevent we the people from actually organizing ourselves collectively the only way that ordinary people actually have any power in this society is if we organize collectively the ruling elite have tried to keep us individualized right that that's their biggest thing like can we can we keep people you know on their computer screens by themselves can we get them bowling alone can we get them individual  d if they come together let's make sure it's for the super bowl or so you know this spectacle right where it's just they're passively consuming entertainment if there is going to be any politics let's keep them divided around th that core constituencies i think is where organized labor is and by the way let's make sure that the carpenters but make sure it's the sheet metal workers let's make sure it's the steel workers let's let's try to even keep organized labor divided so that i not labor doesn't speak with one voice doesn't stop there and let's pit environmentalist against organized labor right well and let's pick women's groups against both of those groups all let's put the peace groups against them oh and then let's put the tea party against those groups think about this for a second i wish that we had a visual so i could do it so i'm going to ask k x p listeners on their radio and on the internet to imagine then diagram those are the set of circles right imagine one circle that represents the tea party and what is the is the tea party angry about you know where we say and what i'm from again but really it's government spending that they're angry about now i want you to imagine another circle that is called occupy and what is occupy angry about why it was in its name occupy wall street now want you to imagine these two circles actually have a moment of intersection right and that moment of intersection is the sweet spot where a very profound truth is told and that is wall street america has taken over our government so that government expenditures are actually in government policy is actually being done to represent wall street and big corporations instead of the people think about this the tea party actually began as outrage over the troubled asset relief program right didn't begin as a koch brothers funded outfit for six weeks the tea party w actual populist uprising in anger about corporate america and wall street and the bailout frankly that's supposed to be a progressive issue progressives were too busy congratulating themselves on barack obama's victory to go out and organize those people so six weeks later the koch brothers you know politics of horrors a vacuum mike with six weeks later the koch brothers set organizers and buses and and slick placards and materials and they turned the tea party in on itself imagine what would have happened if ordinary people had and ordinary progressives had gone out and talk to ordinary principled conservatives found the common ground in opposition to the troubled asset relief program and said instead of a corporate bailout and a bank bailout we should have a new deal and let's invest all that money in infrastructure putting people to work etc you know sort of a green new deal imagine the world would be living in today so a ralph nader is correct you are correct the viewers and listeners who are thinking about hey you know what would it be like if we were able to find common ground with principled conservatives in principle liberals the answer would actually have a genuine democratic republic in this country and would actually have the majority in issues actually finding its way into public policy so this one last week we saw bernie sanders campaign launch of our revolution project and also saw those following the news that  majority of the staffers bailed ship on on day even before day one when jeff weaver was announced to be running that can you talk about that and how that's actually not an anomaly for the democratic party well so there's two real questions there right so let's let's look at the our revolution launch and jeff weaver and then let's put it into context the first thing let's just be clear the reason that staffers left in math and in some news reports i heard it was the top five in others i heard seventeen so it's not only the entire top echelon but most of the middle staff just completely walked why it's not because jeff weaver is like mean it was not a personal jeff weaver went to a billionaire to get funding for our revolution yeah exactly like so for many of the people they were like this is a profound at best mis step like and for some of us who are like this is a complete betrayal of the idea of what quote our revolution was supposed to be and then you have we were said there must be direct command and control any organization has got to actually have a leader that issues instructions and that followers follow and i thought that yeah that's how corporate see i think that's actually not how revolutions operate in revolutions are actually when ordinary people begin to assert their power so this sort of top down model is is just very problematic you couple that with the top down model been saying oh we're going to go to billionaires and the wealthy in order to to get our funding to actually do it when bernie had already proven that you don't have to do that it was heartbreaking so a lot of people left now i want to say put it in the context you know mike you know you and i have had some conversations so you know that i like you worked on the jesse jackson campaigns in eighty four and eighty eight so i had that experience and i learned a lot there i learned as a white person how to hold myself and put myself under the leadership of people of color i learned about building ties between organized labor and environmentalist and women's groups and i learned about foreign policy and palestine and like you know i learned a lot on that campaign you know what else i learned the democratic party's presidential primary is where genuine progressive politics goes to die because all that enthusiasm and excitement that gets built up in the primary  squashed by the corporatists militarist empire imperialist who actually run that country and so i want to remind you and your listeners or those who don't know i invite you to go back and look at history and see if i'm not telling the truth because i'll tell you in eighty four and eighty eight jesse jackson had that experience and he said ok we lost in the primary but i know what we should do let's build an organization to take over the democratic party and shift it left work within the democratic party to do at that was called rainbow push in jerry brown came along during the primary lifted up progressive aspirations by the corporatists militarist empire imperialist to run the democratic party jerry brown said i know what let's do let's create an organization within the democratic party we'll take it over push it to the left that was called we the people then dennis kucinich came along that raised up aspirations of progress within the democratic party squashed by the corporatists militarist imperialist who run that party he said i know what let's do let's create a poor organization within the democratic party shifted to the left that was called progressive democrats of america fast forward to howard dean raise the political aspirations squashed by the corporatism militarist he said i know what let's do let's create an organization within the democratic party to take it over shifted to the left that was called democracy for america and remember that howard dean in fact even became the chairperson of the democratic national committee so he actually controlled the organ and the apparatus of the democratic party and then obama did it with organizing for america mike it doesn't work i mean this is the thing that's heartbreaking to me is that this idea of somehow creating within the democratic party a rump caucus that then grows so big that it can actually take over the democratic party and shift that to the left is  failed strategy over and over again and i guess what i would say is this bernie sanders inspired so many people and every time i see a young person involved in politics you know and for me at my age it's like thirty or younger right that's young  any time i see somebody thirty and younger in politics i say bernie sanders right they give me a thumbs up and i give them a thumbs up right he inspired so many people especially millennial and young people for which i'm grateful his messaging was so good everything about his program and platform you know was so inspiring but here's the thing like everybody gets to be wrong sometimes even bernie sanders i believe he is simply wrong about the idea of quote taking over the democratic party by working within it it just doesn't work and so that leaves us with about four minutes in to talk about third parties joel stein scamping you were actually in her shoes so to speak back in two thousand and four you ran for the presidential election and what did you learn from that and what do you say the most legitimate critique i could find so far for jill stein is campaign is that the green party really doesn't appear to be doing much at the local level well i guess i would say this that you have to look for it because the corporate media doesn't cover us the reality is that there are over two hundred greens elected at the local level and proving that greens can govern at the city council level you will find greens on soil in conservation districts on school boards you know the fight against the corporatization of schools is almost always led by greens and progressive democrats working together so greens actually have a very long history for twenty years of actually working in the trenches at the local level but you won't find it because they don't cover us as greens they just cover us as individuals but actually green party members are deeply entrenched and movements the other thing i want to say about the campaign and and frankly the stein baraka campaign because it is a towering figure in human rights circles and in the concept of building movements that can then actually assert power because the this is the difference going into the democratic party and trying to convince it to do something versus building social movements that force the entire culture to react to social movements right and that's why i think that the movement for black lives and their vision for but power and black liberation that has concrete demands is a profoundly different approach and i think something that we should be emulating that's what move to amend is trying to do with our house joint resolution forty eight build movements that force politicians to react to us rather than go to politicians and and try to convince them to do something it's just a different mindset i think the green party is poised to be the electoral arm of these growing movements no we're running out of time so i want to make this case mike i believe that the growing mass movement that we're seeing in this country and i by that i mean black lives matter occupy wall street the climate justice movement move to a man in the campaign against corporate constitutional rights but also the movement against the president duster a complex the movement against the corporatization of the tension centers and immigration policy all these mass movements across issues of race and gender and class all of these movements that are getting more powerful more militant quite frankly more robust these movements are either going to completely transform the existing democratic party or they're going to destroy it and i think it's probably the latter quite honestly because i don't think that the leadership and the corporatist who control the democratic party apparatus will allow progresses to actually take it over i think they will take it over the cliff before they do but even if i'm wrong i doesn't matter because at the end of the day i know this the kind of peaceful revolution that i started this conversation with that i want to be part of it requires social movements in the streets and in the pool halls and the bowling alleys and the beauty salons and the barbershops across this country and it requires an electoral arm at the ballot box and honestly that electoral arm i don't care whether it's called the green party the socialist alternative party the labor party the new party or the democratic party i do know that we need a political party that actually represents ordinary people i don't think it that either the democratic or the republican party do that because i want to say this my principal liberals and progressives have been lied to and sold out by the upper echelon elite of the democratic party who are taking their money and their marching orders from corporations big banks and wall street america but there is a corollary to that and that is principled conservatives have been lied to and sold by the upper echelon of the ruling of the republican party who are taking their same money marching orders from the corporations wall street america and big banks we're back to your earlier observation if we actually recognize that principle liberals and principle conservatives alike actually have a lot in common we can fight over our different issues and we should but at the end of the day there is a common thread and that is we have allowed our country and our institutions including our political parties to be hijacked by the billionaire class and we're going to have to unite and fight or they are going to destroy the planet that we depend upon for life itself seattle washington at the park i don't know the exact address but if you go to the green party of seattle website it'll be there so green party of seattle on the web from twelve to three and then there is a fund and then at seven thirty pm we'll be having a movement circle with leaders from move to amanda from the green party from socialist alternative from youth groups a whole set and it's a very sort of informal what we're calling a movement circle build movements not campaigns and that will be at red square here in seattle so three different ways that you can touch down there you're welcome to any of them but twelve noon green party of washington all right well with that we are unfortunately i want to thank you very much for coming in spanking and remember folks this is k e x p this is genuine community radio only your community is actually expanding outside of seattle and now spreading across the country the same way move to events trying to do  time for a special sunday morning edition of community form and we're very lucky to have with us live in the studios morning greg palast greg palast is an investigative reporter who's broken front page stories for b b c television news night the guardian nation magazine and rolling stone magazine he is the author of the new york times best sellers the best a mock receive money can buy billionaires and ballot bandits armed madhouse and vultures picnic and he is in town for the seattle premiere of his new film the best democracy money can buy a tale of billionaires and ballot and it's which he shared in person last night with audiences here in seattle at the ark lodge cinema greg bestseller which was an amazing investigative work on the two thousand elections and now you've got a new book and film out the book is a sequel it's a sequel to the best democracy money can buy because i've had a lot of when you have a big hit you kind of cheat and use the name again so it's called the best democracy money can buy a tale of billionaires about banas just came out the first one was number one in seattle for quite some time and this one ought to be not because  it's great writing but this is so damn interesting and important but the big thing is hey wait for the movie which is here right now in seattle the best democracy money can buy it at the arc lodge what a great place man i just did that place  in columbia city and it will be here all week through thursday three times a day ok that's the end of my ad here's the thing mike your buddy donald trump says that the election is rigged and he is absolutely correct because he knows because his billionaires are rigging it so it is a rigged election and for rolling stone i've done a two year investigation which you follow me in real time on the film uncovering exactly how the trumpeters are stealing this election now they may you know you can see all the votes all the time and he's working real hard at making sure that he can steal  record but i think that this is that we're look we're looking at dig this they have a scheme which is effectively knocked off as we speak a million black latino asian american voters one million which they'll show up november eighth and they aren't going to be able to vote forty one thousand in virginia thirty five thousand north carolina over fifty thousand ohio the swing states which also will control the united states senate is technically in the documentary category so i have to be realistic so i to be realistic i fall asleep at a bar watching law and order on t v not knowing where to go next this is my head hits the bar somehow iced tea and detective munch at the richard belzer jump out of the t v set and join me on the investigation tell me where to go so i get help from them so the how the p operatives are going to snatch a million votes away and probably use this to keep the senate and i think it also flip ohio for trump but it won't do enough how they're going to do it is a strangely funny film though you will laugh through that first hour and then it's a feature length and then at the end if if you don't laugh and then you don't cry mike i will pay for your therapy that's true it's very that happens on interstate highway or some it ok here's the trick kris kobach who you've probably never heard of you know you just heard that song come in and white guy in a business suit ok that who is the katherine harris of two thousand and sixteen this is the guy who is donald trump's advisor of guy who told trump to build a wall and make mexico pay for it ok now he's not your ordinary you know mid midwestern white guy bigot he went to yale harvard and oxford he's no guy to mess with and he's gotten thirty republican secretaries of state he's one right to give him their voter rolls including every person voting in the state of washington he has all your information social security numbers you name it it was handed over by your secretary of state now here's they're doing he's looking for people who are voting twice now to see remember what people are not paying attention to what trump said he didn't just say the elections rig he says it's rigged because people are voting many many times it's his people are voting multiple times that's the claim now he's not just blown through his comb over otherwise you could ignore it but what's happened is he's saying people are voting the specific charge when you go into it is that is voting in washington state and mike mccormick is voting in texas now if that means that you've committed a felony crime mike really you're on the list ok i just wa i looked you up and you are a felon i don't want any you know i'm not to let you out it's going to be citizens arrest time unless you have a good explanation except that you've been forgiven in washington state seattle what you called seattle sions what seattle seattle ites that's very like sixty's and let's face needle seattle ites anyway your washington secretary of state is one of the only there are two republicans who pulled out of this deal got cold feet and they said this isn't double voters mike mccormick's a common name or you know but here's the thing a lot of them are are of the nonwhite persuasion that's the game here so here's the names that are in there so like in my film i first of all how do i get i have to get the list at the of of accused now you have to understand they say that there are seven point they have a list of seven million names seven point two million names that means that they're claiming  three million americans are voting twice right to vote twice it's seven million three million now for example here's a typical example in georgia there are two hundred eighty eight guys named james brown who they say are voting in another state and that includes and for example they match james brown jr and james brown sr right now you might say their father and son well obviously that means that they're not the same voter so that just means that you're not a republican the second you know an american you know a patriot ok you don't understand how these black people double vote in fact i showed that double vote accusation is over one hundred years old it was if i have a little clip from the film in my film the best democracy money can buy i have a clip from birth of a nation the original birth of a nation which is a coup klux klan propaganda film and then white actors in blackface cast sneaking around in casting second vote you'll see it in the film and and so it's old accusation it's black voters plus there's a lot we i also we have voters several i mean there are literally hundreds of voters this whole group of women who call themselves maria hernandez who are voting many times is a maria cristina hernandez in louisiana who is supposed to vote a second time as maria that's a christina maria  ysabel hernandez in virginia there's supposed to be the same voter and you say yeah but they have different middle names haha that's how sneaky these people are they using you know the changing middle name that's is kind of their way of saying you know we're pulling this over on you  now i by the way i thought this was just some republican races trick to get rid of voters of color like maria hernandez because you'd say well maria hernandez is the common name no it is not for republican and so but then i actually encountered a woman maria hernandez who said they confessed to it she said that the that's why hispanics and asian people and black people all pick common names when they're born so they can get around the voting laws it turns out actually it was it woman named william a nelson who voted in mississippi and then there's this other guy in texas who's like this and it turns out it's a guy in texas voted fourteen times he's a stoner musician he lives on a bus so he can get around all these states and who goes by the name of willie nelson and willie nelson i go and i confront him in his bus with the evidence that he's voted according to the republican operatives could get a stray and he confessed to what he's getting through the whole thing he wouldn't stop giggling so i did i i'm not sure if it was real confession because i thought he was a little bit high so i have fact i asked if he was smoking something he thought i was because he saw this list and willie nelson's in the film but the truth is it's not made up this is a documentary willie nelson is really truly accused by trump and company of voting a second time as william a nelson a woman and this is the list that's going to it's so humorous and so and so weird and so stoned out but it's going to pick our senate for us and if something strange happens it's a million votes for a million votes wiped out that would have gone against the trumps your by the way the way it works we got all these experts i want to thank ellen saito faust of seattle who is part of our team of experts that went through the list now again how do i get the list these are if you vote twice you're committing  federal go to jail crime so i called twenty eight republican secretaries of state and i said could you give me your list and all and everyone said we can't it's a criminal investigation is it yet seven other people on the team got the list and by the way your washington secretary of state after i got the other list from other people said i said this isn't the list of double voters and her people said no i guess it isn't so you could i said then i can have the list can i cause these are criminals are they mike mccormick really didn't vote twice so i will have you know that under scrutiny or washington secretary of state pulled out because she didn't want to be caught  so some other shmuck name mike mccormack is going to lose a vote and believe me it's going to be a poor person black person young person according to our experts including the great ellen sado faust technician here in seattle  know the you end up with one in seven are you ready for this one in seven voters of color are on this list in republican states one in seven that's thirty states thirty states see the republicans are smart even in states where they don't have the governors of the senators they go for that voting office like board of elections chiefs and secretaries of state to little katherine harris's and this guy kris  katherine harris look like thomas jefferson high heels let's not think about that but that's and by the way there in the film oh what katherine harris and jeb bush are in the film as cartoons because i got to tell you mike i don't want to make you're you know a petroleum broadcast system type of documentary with white guys in front of bookcases you know you saturday morning cartoon out of jeb bush and katherine harris removing thousands of black men from the voter rolls going after their ex cons criminals you know mother from the voter rolls of the there are ninety four thousand times they remove fifty six thousand black men from the voter rolls that elected george bush president the united states in florida in two thousand bush won by five hundred thirty six votes after fifty six thousand black men were removed from the voter rolls not one not one was an illegal voter and you get to meet him in my film willing nelson he comes through through he pops out of the cartoon with me so i get you've got cartoons willie nelson rosario dawson what else do you need that's it i mean that's you're going to see this film has a lot of humor in it but the people you talk to whose votes have been stolen are not finding any of this very funny well no in fact as i said if you're going to laugh cry or otherwise they pay for your therapy because they take away your vote for a reason and remember the best democracy money can buy it's subtitle is a tale of billionaires and ballot bandits billionaires are behind is not necessarily problem in billionaires so it's billionaires who need a republican senate for example there's the billionaire behind donald trump is a waiter and i thought trump was a billionaire no he plays one on t v he doesn't have any money he's out because he's hot to his bag of  nuts that's a squirrel humor hocked up his little hands and he does not have a billion dollars or enough even ten million left to run a campaign so he turned to a billionaire named j p known as j p and or j p the foreclosure king this is a guy who sucked up five billion dollars personally in a single year two thousand and eight by pushing the mortgage market over a cliff you saw big short that's a gutless little film because it went after the small fry who kind of figure out how to make money on the deal but this guy actually crashed the market in a conspiracy with goldman sachs and i don't use the term conspiracy lightly that's a term used by the securities and exchange commission the conspiracy with goldman sachs to crash the mortgage market by the way goldman had to pay a half billion dollar fine and they busted j p s french assistant but j p got away with the whole thing he paid over ten million dollars to the chairman of the f c c the recent chairman the f c c harvey pitt to write up the case against goldman that somehow mitt made it seem like he was in the men's room in the boy's room every time they were saying something illegal so this and by the way santa claus explains this in the film that is as near to santa outfit because i like santa claus i like rosario i want all things that i like in the film and santa claus is there but he's angry and then we go see but we do go get to while j p earned it this one thousand dollars every time a house foreclosed in america every time a house went to foreclosure j p made a thousand dollars  that's i mean five billion in a year and got away with it but then we get to see his homes which are not foreclosed on the biggest house in manhattan the biggest house in colorado and seventy were mansion vail and then i get i got half a clearance to run a drone over his monster mansion in the hamptons so you get this by drone and by the way i do that all this stuff then i went undercover ms bad penny my sidekick camera in the hat band it's dark when you're quite cool and and we got him on camera so i'm yakking away this is greg palast take it away mike i don't know what to say more except if you don't see the film i have to i'm going to come and i'm going to find you and like you say once you see these things you go we go from the hamptons to dayton ohio and that's this election going to be decided in ohio my good friends and in north carolina the senate and presidential races in those two states and they have wiped out the votes of the workers who are also the victims of the billionaires schemes i talk about how do i explain how a guy named the vulture who's also funding this creepy stuff with j the general motors parts division grabbed general motors by the parts and took over g m s auto parts plants extorted and i'm using term extortion that's a term that was used by the united states treasury department that j p and the vulture extorted twelve billion dollars from the u s government out of the auto bailout fund so that general motors would have parts to stay in business and then closed all those auto plants moved every single union job to china every single one and then you get to meet those guys including one named dale stamper they take away their votes because they took away their homes  foreclosure they took away their jobs and if you take away someone's home and take away the way their job you better take away their vote and so that's why you see that these guys you'll meet the guys whose votes have been taken away one said who lost his job he said you know a lot of his quote friends were considering committing suicide that's what's going on you go to dayton ohio and you can see i say in the film the best democracy money can buy is that there's no such thing as a victimless billionaire you get i confront these guys i jump in the film and no american journalist has the guts to confront these guys and has the ability to confront these guys you know that's not easy to do these jumps on these guys are heavily armed guards and they don't like you and they don't want you near them and they certainly don't want you asking uncomfortable questions and but that's what i do because you know what i can't stand it anymore y from a nice jump from the film where you're at j p soiree undercover and then you go from there to the soup kitchen lines i believe you know people are going to have a state in ohio and are being devastated bush stole it in two thousand and then in two thousand and four i wrote the piece about john or john kerry actually won ohio and the minions for bush to the vote and that's and and by the way john kerry said greg palast is right this is a quote great pounces right i've read his book and he was right about what happened in ohio in other words i want that's why it's so weird how dare trump say that the election i don't owe the wonderful american elections get rigged two thousand in florida two thousand and four in ohio and now two thousand and sixteen no elections in america do get it's not the world gold standard and everyone is envious of our democracy if some dictators are envious of our democracy but i was just on my films on prime time in germany and introduce it by saying you're going to see something about american elections which of the wearies damn things that you've ever seen your life americans don't actually have votes our democracy so called voting system is considered an international embarrassment a joke and a shame it's one of the reasons people hated george bush because they knew he was he was never elected going to be stolen in two thousand and sixteen now may not can steal all votes all the time the donald may have blown it but look at that senate race look at the congressional races look at and look at the darn film  best democracy money can buy a tale of billionaires and ballot bandits greg palast reporting from mike mccormick as well as the new book the best not democracy the sequel yeah the sequel to the best democracy money can buy now call the best markets the money can buy and you can read it until the patriot act three goes into effect there's also the d v d and download you know you can download it what is it amazon you stream it and whatever that they do yeah so are you with the key getting this out right now in screenings cross the country are you looking to actually change the election or just give people the ammo to or the information to be able to defend themselves and fight it  jesse jackson says he wants he's going to put in two hundred churches on souls to the polls day that's sunday before election day when a lot of black people go from their churches to the polls and by the way you see that in the film and the congressional black caucus is we're going to have a screening we're going to be in washington for a week run washington d c with the congressional black caucus which is pick this up also hastings took my film my my  reporting from rolling stone on the day after his eightieth birthday he walked to the justice department and put it in the hands of attorney general loretta lynch and said madam here's the evidence from greg palast don't say you didn't see it and hastings said i was a i used to be a federal judge i know a criminal conspiracy when i see it this is it i don't want just an investigation of this trickery i want indictments so there's action being taken because of the film in the book and the rolling stone investigation and so it's both yes you're supposed to laugh and in fact even in the book there's a forty four page comic book shoved in the middle of the book by the great ted rall and you get the roger rabbit cartoons and you get all santa claus in it as new and rosario dawson but you also get something that hopefully will get you out of your seat and get you mad and get you moving and that's the whole point of the darn film if you go to greg palast dot com in fact find out where the film's going to be how you can get it you know the usual places in the book but also i'll give you a bonus you signed that petition you signed that petition at great palace dot com says i'm petition then you go once you're there great pals to come and get something else you get a sixty page comic book of the film the best democracy money can buy free dollars for free so you get something for doing the right thing just sixty seconds so you've been reporting on this in a way the same scheme that just keeps happening every four years are really expecting things to change this time around yes they do they can steal all the votes all the time in fact well the reason obama got reelected in twelve is that one of the scheme time busted in twelve was this crazy scheme where a quarter million black voters were given absentee ballots when they showed up at the polling station at a real balance that's why karl rove went crazy he thought that those ballots were going to be thrown out and in fact we got it you'll see in the film we go to a lawyer in the middle of night who stops the s so yeah these things have effects we've busted them bobby kennedy work with me and we bust the republican party had to pull out in two thousand and eight they had to drop one of their thieving little schemes this is what happens we can do  but we have to keep fighting them every for you every four years they come up with something new and and yes democrats do it too but that you'll have to read the book to find out about the dems all right well with that we are unfortunately out of time i want to thank you very much for coming and spending time with us this morning