'BradCast' 8/17/2023 (Autocracy on Parade in NC and TX; Democracy Striking Back in WI)
b"On today's 'BradCast':\\xa0 Hurricane Hilary in the Pacific Ocean is making an 'exceedingly rare' beeline for the Southwestern U.S., bringing equally rare August rain and potential flash floods. In North Carolina, the extremely-gerrymandered Republican-controlled state legislature over-rode vetoes by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to ram through unspeakably cruel laws targeting transgender children, inserting GOP Big Government between doctors and patients, and overruling parents' rights. Speaking of autocracy, gerrymanders and Big Government Republicans who dictate to small, local government and voters -- the Texas State Supreme Court has reinstated a new law allowing the GOP-controlled Texas state legislature to oust the chief election official in Harris County (Houston), just weeks before municipal elections, dumping the monumental task of running elections in the state's largest and most Democratic-leaning jurisdiction to the inexperienced county tax assessor. In Wisconsin, new petitions filed with the state supreme court seek to force the creation of new, fair legislative maps for the state's extremely gerrymandered House and Senate for the first time in more than a decade, and new emergency elections next year for ALL members of the state Senate, who are currently occupying seats due only to the GOP's unlawful partisan gerrymanders. Plus Desi Doyen has our latest 'Green News Report.'"