Links to today’s show transcripts:

Stacey Abrams Slams Brian Kemp on Suppressing Vote as He Worries Too Many Georgians Will Vote
With the midterm elections less than two weeks away, we look at the governor’s race in Georgia, where Democrat Stacey Abrams is attempting to become the first black woman governor in the country. Polls show Abrams and her opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, are in a dead heat, but the race has been roiled with accusations that Kemp has used his power as secretary of state to suppress the vote. Earlier this month, Abrams called on Kemp to step down as secretary of state for placing 53,000 voter applications on hold. Seven out of 10 of the stalled applications are for African-American voters, in a state where less than one-third of the population is black. Voting rights activists have also sued Kemp for purging voters from the rolls. On Tuesday, Rolling Stone published an audio recording of Kemp privately telling Republican donors that he was concerned about too many Georgians exercising their right to vote. Hours later, Abrams and Kemp sparred in their first debate. Leah Wright Rigueur is a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is the author of “The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power.”

Greg Palast Sues Georgia’s Brian Kemp for Purging 340,000 from Voter Rolls Ahead of Election
A new investigation has found Georgia secretary of state and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp has overseen the removal of more than 340,000 current Georgia residents from voting rolls. Greg Palast, a journalist who has been investigating Brian Kemp and voter suppression in Georgia is interviewed. He has joined a lawsuit against Kemp over the purge.

Stacey Abrams Stands By Burning the Racist, Segregationist Georgia State Flag in 1992
During Tuesday’s debate, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams defended her actions in 1992 when she helped burn the Georgia state flag, which at the time contained a prominent Confederate battle flag. In a victory for civil rights advocates, the flag was later changed. Leah Wright Rigueur is a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Latino Voter Suppression in Kansas: Dodge City’s Only Polling Site Is Moved Outside City Limits
In Kansas, local officials are under fire for moving a majority-Latino city’s single polling site outside of city limits, more than a mile from the nearest bus stop. Dodge City, Kansas, is 60 percent Hispanic, but the Associated Press reports that Hispanic turnout was just 17 percent in Ford County, where Dodge City is located, compared to 61 percent turnout for white voters in 2014. The ACLU reports that the city’s lone polling site services more than 13,000 voters, compared to an average of 1,200 voters per polling site at other locations. Johnny Dunlap, chair of the Ford County Democratic Party is interviewed.

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Rula Jebreal: My “Secret Interview” with Jamal Khashoggi Before His Brutal Murder by the Saudis
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has directly accused Saudi Arabia of the premeditated murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen alive entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in Turkey on October 2. Erdogan said a team of Saudi officials had planned Khashoggi’s murder days in advance, directly contradicting Saudi Arabia’s claim that Khashoggi died after a fight in the consulate. Turkish officials have claimed that audio and video recordings show Saudi officials used a bone saw to dismember Khashoggi’s body, but Erdogan made no mention of the audio and video recordings of the killing. Fallout from Khashoggi’s murder is being felt across the globe. Rula Jebreal is a journalist, author and foreign policy analyst who conducted one of the last known interviews with Khashoggi. She says calling Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a reformer is “like calling David Duke a civil rights activist.” Her new cover story for Newsweek is titled “Jamal Khashoggi Secret Interview: The Saudi Journalist’s Views of Islam, America and the ‘Reformist’ Prince Implicated in His Murder.”

The U.S. Helped Destabilize Honduras. Now Honduran Migrants Are Fleeing Political & Economic Crisis
President Donald Trump is lashing out at the Central American migrant caravan of some 7,000 people making their way through Mexico and toward the U.S. border. On Monday, he claimed without evidence that terrorists and members of the MS-13 gang had infiltrated the group. Trump has doubled down on his threat to cut aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and called out Democrats over U.S. border policy, in an ongoing attempt to turn the caravan into a main issue in upcoming midterm elections. Two Central American-born activists are interviewed, Patricia Montes of Centro Presente and Oscar Chacón of Alianza Americas.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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“Counterproductive and Dangerous”: Nuclear Arms Race Feared as U.S. Quits Key Treaty with Russia
President Trump has announced plans to pull the United States out of a landmark nuclear arms pact with Russia, in a move that could spark a new arms race. President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987. The INF banned all nuclear and non-nuclear missiles with short and medium ranges. The treaty helped to eliminate thousands of land-based missiles. On Saturday, Trump vowed to build new nuclear weapons. Daryl Kimball is the director of the Arms Control Association. He previously led the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers. He has been advocating for the U.S. and Russia to preserve the INF Treaty.

Trump Admin Attempts to Erase Existence of Trans People After Years of GOP-Led Attacks on Freedoms
The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is attempting to eliminate the rights of transgender people by creating a narrow legal definition of gender. Citing a government memo, the Times reveals that the Department of Health and Human Services has undertaken an effort across several government agencies to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex. That definition would be either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals a person is born with. The Times reports that the memo says, “Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth. The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex.” If enacted, the proposal would reverse the expansion of transgender rights that took place under President Barack Obama. We speak with Chase Strangio, staff attorney at the ACLU.

“Reminiscent of South Africa’s Grand Apartheid”: Israeli Human Rights Group Slams Israel at U.N
Shortly after Israel announced a new “zero tolerance” policy toward demonstrations in Gaza, some 130 Palestinians were injured Friday while protesting ongoing Israeli occupation and demanding the right of return. Four paramedics and 25 children were among the injured. Ten thousand protesters gathered along Israel’s heavily militarized separation barrier with Gaza as part of the weekly Great March of Return protests that began March 30. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 170 Palestinians, including more than 30 children, and injured thousands more. Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem is interviewed. He was in New York last week testifying before the U.N. Security Council officially for the first time.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.