Handel-ing It: Jim Crow's Iron Fist in Southern Belle's Lace Glove

Democracy Now reporter assaulted for exposing Jim Crow tactics in Ossoff-Handel race

by Greg Palast for the Thom Hartmann Show and Democracy Now!

June 15, 2017

I was in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District to investigate strange doings in the race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel (who received an endorsement—and kiss on the lips—from President Trump).

Handel was happy as a Smurf doll when I asked her if the Democrats were stealing the election. ("They’re pulling out all the stops!!")

But when I asked about Republican Jim Crow tactics I’d uncovered, it got real ugly. First, a deep-fry-bloated goon jumped between me and the candidate then pushed me backwards. A second grabbed my arm while a third started muscling me around.

Wow! And only because I asked—quite politely—if in her prior post as Georgia’s Secretary of State, she’d cleansed the voter rolls of voters of color.

Watch the 8-minute broadcast—and get a full blast of weird.

It was, honestly, more comical than threatening. Is this the new Republican method of answering uncomfortable questions?

The bigger story in the report is my hunt to answer the question: How did tens of thousands of voter registrations simply VANISH?

And why did Georgia Republican officials use Gestapo-style tactics to raid the offices of the Asian-American voter registration drive?

You’ll hear Georgia Project leader Nse Ufot explain that 40,000 voters they’d registered never got on the rolls. The Republican Secretary of State denied they’d received the forms — but the Project had the photocopies! Now, Ufot faces criminal charges similar to the threats used to destroy the Asian-American vote drive.

And behind it all is Trump’s new "Elections Integrity Commission" chieftain Kris Kobach, who created a 606,708-name voter purge list for GOP officials. You read that number right.

As Dee Hunter of the Washington DC Civil Rights Center tells us, Ossoff already won. He fell just 3,700 votes short of an outright win in the first round of voting, but was denied victory by this onslaught of New Jim Crow tactics. If these tactics steal the Sixth, they’ll roll them out nationwide. ***Watch the clip, pass it on, then help me get back on the hunt for the missing voters.

The report cost our foundation $27,000 to produce. A donor promised to cover the cost — then vanished like a Georgia voter. So my investigations team is deep in the hole. When the funding disappeared, we continued: the trail was too hot, the facts so chilling and important, we chose to continue and put the truth on credit cards.

This ain’t no foolin’ around. Can you help by making a tax-deductible contribution to our continuing investigation? It continues in Georgia, but now we move to Virginia, Michigan, and Ohio.

We are preparing an "Activist" update of our film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy—a shortened version specifically designed to open action meetings. Our first outing was right there in Georgia’s Sixth, at the Eagles Nest Church, Lee Jenkins, Pastor. You saw him in the Democracy Now! report. He screened The Best Democracy Money Can Buy then hosted a confab with the NAACP, Common Cause, ACLU, Georgia Project and many luminaries of the new voting rights movement, organized by Hunter of The Civil Rights Center.

This butt-kicking team is going on the road—to Virginia next month, then Michigan, Ohio and wherever votes and voters are at risk. We will be there with them, with the facts.

So, please, right now, make your tax-deductible contribution for any amount no matter how large or small. Or become a monthly contributor today.

For a tax-deductible donation of $1000 we’ll list you in the credits of the Activist version of our film as a Producer. For $500 become a Co-Producer.

Or, get the combo of the full-length film on DVD, with the book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, signed…and I’ll add in a link for you to stream it (in case you don’t have a DVD player). Already have the DVD and book? Well, get more, hand them out — and stir up trouble. The trouble I call "democracy."

Excuse me while I answer the door. It’s the wolf, and I want to tell him to hold off because you are coming to our rescue.

Palast Investigations Team can’t thank you enough.

* * * * *

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Stay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.

Palast is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Armed Madhouse and BBC Newsnight book of the Year Vultures' Picnic.

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