Culture Clash Founder and Award-Winning Playwright and Icon, Richard Montoya

From Pacific Radio in San Francisco, this is FlashPoint. I'm Dennis Bernstein with Miguel Gabri LaMalina. Today on the show, Cultural Clash Founder, an award-winning playwright in Icon, Richard Montoya, is keeping track of ice in Los Angeles, where life for undocumented and documented brown people has become a very treacherous. adventure. And Greg Palace is tracking Trump with his new voting project, Jim Crow, reloaded, as the criminal-in-chief gets ready to fling a couple of well-placed wrenches into upcoming midterm elections. All this and more coming up straight ahead on flashpoints. Stay tuned. And you're listening to FlashPoints on Pacifica Radio. My name is Dennis Fernstein. This is your daily investigative news magazine. We are always delighted to do the Friday show in collaboration with Miguel Gabila Malina, the whole Laland flash under crew, and a special... member of the crew. We love to think of them that way, is the founder of Culture Clash, Richard Montoya, who is a very old friend of our senior producer Miguel Gavila Molina. Miguel, good to have you with us. Richard, say hello to your brother, and tell us, would you remind people what culture clash is and what you do on this planet in terms of that context? Well, thank you, Dennis. Let me reiterate a very old friend of Miguel and the show. And I remember the old days on Shattuck, man, and those long hallways of KPFA on that street were near and dear. And, you know, you never knew who you were going to. run into in the archive of the old and Miguel was just merciful enough, kind enough to have a very green kid out of Sacramento who could barely keep it together. And if I smoked a joint before one of the shows, I was just completely lost. And I remember seeing Michael Fronte back there and some of the lots of deadheads. And it was just a heady. A heady mix of people and listening to Mumia right now reminds me of the activism and what we learned from Third World Strike, what we learned from Malakias Montoya, what we learned from Oakland, what we learned from Berkeley. And so I remember those days, and it was only because Miguel took a little bit of pity on me that I was able to grow into... the political activist, the satirist, the writer, the father, the person that I am now. But, man, I was a hot mess out of the Greyhound in Sacramento. But we're a political theater company of three men.

Culture Clash Group, born in the Mission District of San Francisco. But my origin story really does start there on Telegraph between Berkeley and Oakland and my father going to art school and really forming the very beginnings of the Rebel Chicano Art Front, which became the Royal Chicano Art Front. And these were the first Chicanoes. our romantic, our romance, meaning political romance, not romantic, but our beachhead of intellectuals, running the streets of telegraphs and starting in 59. So I'm getting more and more in touch with that origin story because we lived as young Montoya's, we lived in the Lakewood Garden Housing Project in East 14th and Fruitvale at that earlier. Early time, and my dad and my uncle Malakiaz even tell of an earlier version where they're working the canneries and the factories, applying the war effort, all of my Dias and my grandmother working all the canneries from Emoryville to Richmond to Oakland. So we go back pretty deep, you know, but all to say that these days we're writing. and reflecting this madness that, and we're trying to report it back to our audience, you know, as fast as we can. So talking with Miguel this week, I just keep seeing just stepping it up and up and up. And, you know, it's the elderly, the teenage, the young kids. you know, what could possibly go wrong with ice now arming themselves with electric gloves that can electrocute you just by touch. You know, so I know you're going to impact that. And it just, you know, it just keeps getting more and more maddening as this guy's hiding in catering carts, you know, for any, any, the snowflake of an idiot president. And so, you know, I'm like you guys, Dennis and again, I'm just kind of watching it from the Southern California perspective. And I just dropped my son off downtown. at his favorite mall with his friends, and you've got to constantly be reminding your teenage children that, you know, stay diligent, stay alert, and help others if you can. Copy Vonn? Absolutely. Especially, you know, when you have little ones, and right now it's back to school, so it must be high alert. Have you got... Any feedback, compadre, you know, from other parents, you know, talking about their children, maybe being, you know, I've heard some things where some kids don't want to go to school. They're afraid that if they go to school and when they get out, their parents won't be there. And that's something that I keep hearing over and over. Are you hearing much of that? Because I know last year, you know, you had to deal with situations on several occasions where ICE was, you know, near the school.

and, you know, it sends up alarms everywhere. Have you heard any of that, you know, so far this year? I know school just started, and like I said, a lot of kids are stressed out and parents. What have you heard from the streets? Well, you know, I pick up my kids, Miguel, as you know, and I see other parents and we talk, you know, and there are concerns and there are children that have that worried look. you know, on their face. I guess if I was to say something positive is that the LA Unified School District is leaning forward and leaning into this idea of that every child will be protected. So I've seen Bill Gates locked, and I know school is still in session. I've seen ICE agents turned away from schools. L.A. Unified, at least at the moment, is holding pretty strong. lawsuits pending, but they're pretty fortified in protecting their students, but it's an administrative and teacher-forced. of largely Latino, Chicano, Central American teaching workforce. So we have that, we have that empathy, you know, on our side. How long it will last, where it's going, working with L.A. County Sheriff, working with LAPD. You know, one can trust that about as far as they can throw a school burrito, but we're staying as diligent as we can. But you see. You see parents that, you know, they may or may not be U.S. citizens, and they look the most worried and the most frightened. But there are some schools where they're actually legal teams in place. And, you know, but the drag is you're just kind of waiting for the next year to drop. You know, something really stupid and big is coming. You know, you can just kind of feel it.

Yeah, it's palpable here. Miguel, I'm sure it is there in Oakland, parts of San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Rosa. Everywhere. Everywhere. They really, they've got a lust, a wonder lust for California. You know, they really want to show us what's up. Well, this also happens to be one of the largest concentrations of undocumented folks. And probably the largest undocumented agricultural labor force in the country is in California. And, of course, the population, you know, the Latino indigenous population in the state is, what, 45% of the population? So, yeah, they're looking at this. They're looking at the state. And that to say, I know. that the Royal Chicano Air Force was the rebels, that spirit continues with yourself, Richard. And, you know, using art to awaken people, using art to educate, to enlighten, to empower. I know you're working on some stuff. put out, you know, some feelers in theater to deal with the message. What is your latest work as an artist, as, you know, keeping that tradition of the Royal Chicago Air Force alive of rebel artist? Are you working on something right now that encompasses that you'd like to share with, you know, the audience, our listeners? Absolutely. You know, part of it, Miguel, is, look, you learn as an artist, went to strike quick, you know, when something needs to be done on a street corner or a bar. You know, there's a wonderful new documentary out, American Pachuco. I know we have different feelings about it, but it documents Teatro Campasino in the very early days. And I'm reminded that in 1965, 66, when the theater was forming, our great Chicano canon of theater hadn't yet existed. But what did exist was there were already epic writings and poems that were already created by the likes of Jose Montoya, Rausalinas, Koki Gonzalez, is I Am Joaquin. And Luis Valdez and Theatro smartly took those poems and they staged them. And so that instantly gave the theater canon, you know, muscle and literature. And it's greatly inspiring to me today because, you know, I might be standing in a collective circle of... of folks standing on native land in Tucson, and that might be the place for theater. You know, it's, what's happening, Miguel, is there's a whole rethinking of the gilded chandelier, very expensive theater world of Broadway and regional theaters, because our people just simply can't buy a $130 ticket to go see a culture clash and a play.

But what we can do is we can look at city colleges, we can look at auditoriums, we can look at alternative spaces where we can tell the story of Chavez Ravine, land taken to make way for Dodger Stadium. We can talk about and do poetry readings and do... Lalo Alcarus has a series of art shows about melting ice and abolish ice. And there's also a record album that's coming out. I know you guys know about it with Tom Arello. I'm on the album. Members of Culture Class are on the album. And it's just like 50 artists speaking out against ice and to abolish ice. And so these efforts are out there. We're just rethinking them because... The infrastructure that kept the big, rich, regional theaters alive and well, for the most part, that's all been turned upside down. It really hasn't recovered since COVID. And so the upside to that, Dennis and Miguel, is it's causing us to rethink, well, where are we going to do our theater? Where are we going to rethink our theater? And Luis Valdez and Theato Campesino. were really on to something early on where they just took a truck and they hit the flat beds of the truck and those that theater was porn that was theater for the people theater for the farm workers was performed right in the in the fields where they were working we have to we have to think like this it's guerrilla theater time it's guerrilla a lot of things time right now And we just can't rest and say, well, you know, you can come see us at the Pasadena Playhouse. You can come see us at the American Conservatory Theater, darling. No, we have to rethink where we're going to be doing theater and how we're going to do it. So to that regard, at the same time, paradoxically, I want to be thinking large. And I don't want to just do one play about ice in the desert. I want to do a suite of plays. So I'm thinking in terms of scaling up and large pieces that don't. move away from or blink or we can't be cut off from doing plays about family separations. The devastation to families, you know, that happens when all these guys going back to Obama are tough talking about securing the border and locking up families. We're dealing with that specifically right now. And as an artist, that's where my heart and my mind is right there. There's some things will be coming out soon, and we'll be reaching out through our third-tier allies to help us get some of this material out there. You are listening to Flash Points on Pacifica Radio. My name is Dennis Bernstein. We are always honored to be joined by Richard Montoya Culture Clash, our senior producer Miguel Gavala Molina, old friends with Richard. You know, we, I think it was last night. We had our contributor, Francisco Hadda, who works with the day laborers and who...

was telling us about a really beautiful program. You may have heard about it forming. It's sort of a people's protection program. People who are out on the streets now. They're on the corners. They're at strategic places, keeping an eye on what's going on, watching out for kidnappings. And, you know, I mean, that's a real... thing. But it's also a drama, and it's part of what I imagine needs to be documented now, Richard, how the resistance is forming and how people refuse to be shut down. And a lot comes out of this and the energy of fighting back. You're right, Dennis. And we We have to find ways to fortify that, to fund it, to divert some of our grant funding. And I'm wanting to support younger generations of artists. I mean, young people are out there. They're out there on the street. The new ballet looks like skateboarders, you know, routing cops or ice cops. And the perplexing part for me, Dennis and Miguel, is that there's a whole other school of theater makers, culture makers, stakeholders that are maintaining that things are just so bad right now that when we go to the theater, we need escapism. And so we need to be, people want to laugh right now. And that may be, but. It really turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to the drama, the tragic comic drama that's going on on street corners all over America. So we're going to continue to stay the course and stay diligent and find ways to fortify young artists that want to be dealing with.

what we're seeing and the drama of, you know, everyday lives, surviving America, surviving ICE, surviving Steve Miller, surviving Donald Trump, you know. Someone said the other day, I mean, I don't know how many days we're in, but we're not even that many damn days into this administration, man. It's, it's, you can, you don't need to be Nostradamus to see that, that. You know, some other stuff is coming. And although we don't want to just always be reactive and just be, you know, reacting to whatever's in front of us, we have to be a combination of both. Having our work ready and also being able to be nimble enough to move different ways when the attack on our people continues, sharpens, moves. And so we'll be doing our best. And I'm telling you, these weekly conversations with you, Dennis, and you Miguel, they really, really help, man. You know, I learn as much from you guys and listening to the bumpers going into flashpoints and coming out. And I'll usually stay on just to hear what's coming next. And I'm, you know, greatly inspired by the words of Mumia. President Rumio was just done before us. And so that's, and just listening to the fidelity of your commentary, Dennis, really, really helps. And Miguel is a big shot in the arm, too. So thank you guys for helping us make our way. Well, one of the things that I want to jump in and say, Richard, you know, back in the day, when Tieto Campesino first came to be, they were out in the fields. You're absolutely correct. They were outside of packing houses on the flatbed. The flatbed was the stage. I remember catching a couple of those instances way back in the day. But that said, right now the ICE, what I call ICE, inhumane, cruelty, enforcement, Gestapo, you know, shock troops. they changed their strategy. And this might just fall in right into which you brought up. They've changed your strategy. They're no longer going to be around courthouses. They're no longer going to be around hospitals, around schools. They're going to get themselves out of urban centers. And a lot of that is because, you know, like Dennis brought up and yesterday, we have Francisco Herrera talking about, you know, adopt a corner where... people in the neighborhood, you know, come out of the neighborhoods and adopt a corner to keep watch, to keep, you know, under surveillance. So if you see anything that ice shows up, they immediately alert, you know, that particular area and people come out. With a new strategy under this new director, Mullen, ICE, they're going to now target work sites. And a lot of the worksites that they're talking about are going to be on the outskirts of the cities and towns where usually they're called the industrial area, industrial zone, and also outside of city limits.

unincorporated areas. Well, there's no surveillance. You know, in those areas, you can't have adopted corners. There really aren't. Those aren't neighborhoods. There's not, you know, housing and so forth. It's industrial. It's for commerce. And the biggest area is the agricultural, you know, zones, which are the fields, which are the farms and orchards and so forth and so forth. And that's where they're going to start rating now. That's where they're turning, you know, their efforts into doing mass sweeps. So as Dianteau Campesino, you know, started out going into the fields, this might be the time to start taking theater. back into those areas where there's no surveilling cameras, there's no adopt a corner, there's no emergency alert, there's no phone trees, there's no first alert responders. And that makes those workers, that particular workforce, very vulnerable. So I think it's a perfect time. You mentioned it. This is, I think, the time to take triato, to take theater and art back into the campus, back into the fields. back into the packing houses and start waking people up and bringing attention to the plight of Campesinos. Because Campesinos right now... There's a big national, big national battle, and the United Farm Workers are suing the federal government, and they've brought up concerns, because right now, the federal government under the convicted felon serial predator, sexual predator, is out to standardize salaries. In other words, bring the salaries even lower than they are. And right now, Farm workers in particular, their salaries are the lowest in the country. I think it's like $7.25. Well, the government now wants to reduce those wages. That said, how can Art be used to push back against that? What do you think, Richard? Wow. I mean, that's a whole intricate. scenario that you just laid out that you know has my my job open it doesn't it it it's the challenge is that it's It TikTok's more like a procedural, you know, like a crime movie. You know, you almost need one of those Oliver Stone-type movies to keep up with all of this. But not to despair. We can. We can find ways to report, reportage, reflect.

But I know working with the UFW, the United Farm Workers right now, working with Teresa, the president, you know, I know that the farm workers really need us, you know, more than ever, you know, at this moment. And so while we're lamenting. the allegations and the disclosures about Cesar Chavez and that we're all standing with Dolores. There's still these other fronts, many, many other fronts that are going on that need our attention, need our donations, need our, you know, that need us. So to that end, we do our... our annual work with the United Farm Workers Union and the leadership here in Los Angeles, and precisely to do that to keep up these legal efforts that are going on across several fronts. You know, the farm workers were the only ones able to sue the federal government as you were just laying out, like other plaintiffs? couldn't do it. And so the farm workers had the mechanism in order to sue the federal government. And so that battle is on in the, you know, in the courts and likely will head its way, you know, up and up and up to Trump's personal, you know, Supreme Court. But we've just, we've got to find ways as you just laid it out. you know, we'll find ways to make theater poetry and song and report, report back to people. I wasn't even aware of everything that you just laid out and makes me want to research and go, go, you know, find out as much as I can. And, and Richard, do you, I mean, does this... The way in which we've seen ICE move into a certain kind of position supported by the federal government, do you think, are you a part of a community that do you... talk about different things in terms of what you want to tell kids and young people. If this happens, we want to do this. Is there strategy? Is there a consciousness now that didn't exist before this latest real backlash supported by this extreme right-wing president? I think so, Dennis. I like to think so at the same time, paradoxically. It can feel a little isolating, like, you know, am I in a small group of people? Or, and Miguel and Bernstein, I mean, are we the only ones out there? But no, the answer is, no, we're not the only ones out there. But it gets a little lonely sometimes. And some people are like, hey, you know, let's sleeping dogs lie. This is going to blow over. And don't you worry. And I'm not of the don't worry, be happy.

frame of mind, I'm like, no, we got to, we got to find ways to You know, we got to keep the word out there. So I'm very encouraged by some young people that I'm meeting all over the place, all over the southwest, that are fearless and, you know, want to keep up and step up. Some are doing projections on site of buildings. Some are out with their skateboarding crews. Some are doing a lot of graffiti. There's a lot of been a lot of stepped up graffiti. The global language of graffiti is alive and well on all the trains that I see. And so I've been encouraged, man. I've been both a little discouraged, but also very encouraged that the themes and subject matter that we're talking about right now, young people are taking some of that on. So that part feels good, but, you know, not celebrating just dead, just want to just want to keep it up and find ways to support the young people that want to keep up. So there's a young, there's a young band. Out of San Diego, the kids are all right, I believe they're called. They're just hitting it so strong right now. They're like teenagers. They have the backing of Tom Arello from Rage Against the Machine, and they're popping up all over the place. I just wish other bands and other people took a minute from their merch table and from making all this money on their tours. I just... I don't understand those artists that are not saying a word because that's definitely, as I keep saying and lamenting, that's the other side of it. Like some people are saying nothing, and some people are saying a lot. So we'll just keep trying to get balanced and to get people to step it up. But I'm seeing encouraging signs all over the place, guys. Final word, Garvilan. Before we say goodbye. Well, we're going to be there. And whenever you do your first flatbed truck theater, let me know, Richard. And we will come out. And if you need to get a flatbed truck, we can rent one. I think it's time to go back to the roots of grassroots guerrilla theater. And right now, the workforce. the undocumented workforce that feeds, not just California, but feeds the nation, is under attack. And this is the time to rise above all the noise, all the hatred, all the violence, all the bigotry, all the racism that the current administration is all about and push it back. And the pushback is... coming from the people. In the beginning, when the farm workers first showed up, there was very little support. But the leadership of the United Farm Workers realized that they had to reach out, and that's where Luis Valdez, that's where...

Jose Montoya, that's where others came in, and through their art, through their presentations, through the radical forms of using T-shirts as walking billboards to send a message, it awakened the country, and eventually a lot of young... White, at that time, hippies and alternative folks started joining the struggle, and it became a national movement. I think it's time to bring that back to life and get back to the grassroots and protect those individuals that not only feed us, but feed the nation. Right on, Miguel. That's what I mean. That's a shot on the arm right there. So we'll take that man, and as our sustenance for the day, our daily bread, and we will keep on and keep on. And I'll have more to report next week for you all. Thank you, Richard. Thanks for spending the time. And thanks for all the incredible work you do with the group and the performances. And we're looking forward to what's coming next. Thank you. Thank you, brothers. Thank you, Kopa. Be safe. See, se puerto. And you're listening to Cici Pueira, and you're listening to FlashPoint on Pacific Radio. This is your daily investigative news magazine. What we're going to do here, take this little break. When we come back, our good friend Greg Pallis is back. The battle for the vote, for your vote. Guess what? Trump is not going to... Welcome in. Many people have doubts now that whether he'll be welcoming in a fair and free election here in the United States of America. It's coming up. Stay tuned.

you're listening to flashpoints on Pacific Radio. People who listen to this show know, and listen to Pacifica Radio know who Greg Pallist is. He is known for many things, investigative reports. for the guardian bestsellers including the best democracy money can buy great palace film about the latest attacks on the right to vote is called vigilantes inc america's new vote suppression hitmen that's narrated by rosario dawson produced by martin chan he has been working with flashpoints for Many years now, we have concocted what we've been reflecting over the years as the election crimes bulletin and the election crimes continue. Greg, this an election or two. coming up and you have raised a few issues. Are you suggesting that given the current situation, these elections might not be free or fair or might not even be, period? Well, I think what we have to get ready. You know, it's a hard rain's going to fall. I'd bring your lead-lined umbrella. So what I'm doing today, in fact, I'm giving the FlashPoint's audience a special sneak preview of something the rest of the nation hasn't seen yet. They won't see until next week. We're here from next week is I've put together with Black Voters Matter Fund, Rainbow Push, you know, my... good old late friend jesse jackson's organization n wacep georgia transformative justice coalition and the southwest voter registration education product which is a project which is of course great hispanic grassroots organization i'm sure richard knows them well hey brother and um uh what we're doing is We're putting out a campaign called Save Your Vote. It's real simple. They've got all these new ways to shaft you out of your vote, especially if you're a voter of color on a reservation, et cetera. And we're talking millions of votes at risk. And I'm not exaggerating. It's millions. And so the organizations have come to have. I like this title here. You've labeled it Jim Crow Reloaded. And you're serious about that. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. We're back to Jim Crow, except instead of white sheets, they're using spreadsheets, their favorite game. And we've identified at least six major ways that they're trying to take away the vote, especially people of color, young people.

And so we're going to do a series of short video reels starring Ed Ward of the Transformative Justice Coalition out of Chicago. And not only tell people the dangers, because we don't want to just bitch. We want to. change the outcome so that the voters, not the vote rustlers, pick the next Senate and Congress. So for example, now if you go to save your vote.org, no one else knows this exists. It's kind of a hidden site at the moment. It won't be released until next week. You can see what we're talking about. You can check your registration and see if you've been purged. You can spread around the word and get the information. In a minute, I think we got teed up the audio from one of our first video reels. And this one is called, we're warning people about The Purge. So take a couple of minutes and listen to Ed Ward, lay it out for you. I think we got it up there. Let's run it. Stop illegal alien from voting. Foreigners illegally registered to vote. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen. They're stealing our elections? Stay with me for this episode of Jim Crow reloading to find out. Let's look at Utah. Utah spent a fortune auditing its voter role name by name. Department of Justice is suing Utah's lieutenant governor. Investigating two million registered voters. Guess how many illegally registered voters they found? Only one. Only one. And they did not vote. They did not vote. In 25 years. Only 99 people have been convicted out of several billion ballots cast, far fewer than the number of people hit by lightning. Now, the other thing it will stop is voting by illegal aliens. And I can tell you that's been going on, unfortunately, for a long time. The Heritage Foundation, who gave you Project 2025, says that there are six million illegal alien voters in the United States. When we asked them to name just six people, not six million, they came up with exactly none. Heritage, Trump, Kobach, armed with lists of names, with addresses, couldn't find anyone who actually illegally voted. So do these illegal alien voters actually exist? Nevertheless, 21 million people could lose their vote based on this delusional, insane, completely BS accusation. How? Under Donald Trump's Proposed Save Act, you won't be able to vote unless you can prove you're an American citizen. So how do you prove you're an American? Nope. Your license doesn't count. And in most states, your real ID won't work. And no, even if you're in the military, your military ID doesn't mean the thing. And this man, Chris Kobach, actually stopped an Air Force officer from voting because she couldn't get her birth certificate in time. To prove you an American, you'll need a passport or your original birth certificate. Do you know where your mom put your birth certificate? If you're anything like me.

It was lost a long time ago. Did you know 21 million citizens don't have a passport or a birth certificate? Are they all illegal or criminal voters? Not quite. But they won't be able to vote. Statistically, poor folks, younger people, students, unhoused folks, don't have original birth certificates. In Kansas, Trump's guy blocked 35,000 voters from registering, most of them students, who didn't provide their citizenship papers. In court, the state admitted that every single one of these voters, everyone is an American citizen. A scheme. to fly illegal aliens into the country, and then to escort them in mass across the border by the millions, which gives them access to the voting booth. And now, Trump wants to use lists of deported people known as the safe files to hunt for voters who were deported but swam back to vote in our elections? Florida used that list in 2012 to purge their role with suspected non-citizens. And guess what? They only found one illegal voter, a guy from Austria who voted... Republican. Yet 179,000 voters had their registration canceled. Along with thousands of others, Maureen was given 30 days to prove she's a U.S. citizen. A bit like a criminal. Like I did something wrong or something. I wasn't sure why I was getting the letter. So they're lying to us, creating a hysteria over outsiders invading our democracy. But it's really them who are trying to take your freedoms away. The freedoms of our parents and grandparents who bled for these rights. They're holding our freedoms hostage with a ransom note that says, show me your papers. What you can do about it is what those who came before us did. In 1965, when Martin Luther King crossed the bridge, it's helmet. Black people in Alabama couldn't vote. By the time King and thousands of others reached the state capital, the president of the United States submitted the Voting Rights Act. On their way, they were beaten. Four marchers murdered. I'm not saying you have to bleed in order to win, but you can't sit back on your behind and expect to keep your rights. So here's what I'm asking you to do. Get your passport or get your certified birth certificate. Now. Two, share this and make some good trouble. Three, join the fight because this may be your last chance. And we're back. Dennis Bernstein here sharing material with Greg Pallis. Greg Pallis.com. An old friend of this show. We've been working together for years. Who are you calling old, Dennis? Oh, sorry. Who am I willing friend? Better be careful. You call friend these days. Greg, we're speaking with Greg Pallist. We're talking about a new project Greg is working on. FlashPoint is happy to be associated with this work that's about securing the right to vote. All right, Greg, take a few minutes.

Give us your top five dangers of how we're going to lose our right to vote. Okay, so you just heard. This election will be swayed, can be swayed, might not be free and fair or at all. Anything at all. Yeah, well, you just heard Edward, who is the voice of most of the pieces of the investigative reports we're doing. He's a great voting rights activist. And he trains young people across the country on how to organize to protect the vote. And he's been going around on a bus with basketball hoops attached to it to get kids out into the street. They're shooting hoops. And he says, by the way. Are you registered? If you're older registered vote, you better be if you're going to or give me back my ball. And then where are your parents? Let's bring him out here. So this is a frontline activist. That's we need more of. And you can hear he's super articulate. And so the first one he was talking about is the citizenship requirement. Now, this is under the Save Act if it passes, but it doesn't matter because Trump is pushing it. through an executive order which says you have to prove your u.s. citizen in order to vote now that's by the way dennis that sounds reasonable i mean you don't want non-citizens voting except they don't heritage foundation said that there are six million illegal alien voters six million they wouldn't come up as ed said we asked them we'll give us six names you need six million after all if you're saying there's millions of illegal alien voters you've got their names they register you've got their address let's go arrest them They played this game for years. Now, why would they do this if there really are no illegal alien voters? And, you know, unless you see guys coming down from a spaceship, I don't see aliens voting. So the answer is they know who does not have that citizenship paper, which is number one, only one and three. African Americans have a passport, one and three. So two-thirds don't have that proof of citizenship. Your second proof of citizenship is a certified copy or the original birth certificate. Sorry, no photocopies, no driver's licenses, no military ID. None of that. That don't make you an American. What makes you an American on paper are those two documents. Now, So, and they know and who's going, who has a passport, what type of voter, you know, the people that are spending their vacations skiing in the Alps. That when I'm from Pequoima, there ain't a lot of Pocas that go skiing and have their passport. Now. The other thing is who does not have original birth certificates. Poor people, especially, and by the way, a lot of home births, they're people. And guess who else? I don't want to leave out the better half because 69 million.

women took their husband's last name and so now what do you do even if you got your birth certificate it doesn't match and then let's say you got married divorced remarried it's the first husband's last the paperwork you're going to have to bring in I mean it's going to be like like closing a lot of potential for chaos here well that's a lot of potential for chaos and chaos angry people that's right confusion people and then yeah so He can get away. So this is one of the things we want to warn people about, but we don't want to just bellyache. We're telling you. I know Ed asks you for a heavy lift. Go get your passport. Sorry. That's a lot of work. Go get. not not again it's not a driver's license or uh you know find your original birth certificate or look for get a certified copy you know he's think that's a lot of work pal it's just to vote for the school board yeah it is now you ask for a list let me give you a few the citizenship proof requirement that is unbelievably horrific and dangerous the second is the attack on mail-in voting. So most people in America now vote by mail. It's now the majority way that people vote. And Trump is saying a mail-in ballot is a fraudulent ballot. In other words, nearly 100 million Americans are committing fraud. You know, I could laugh, except it's tragic. And they selectively stop people from mail-in voting, like in Texas, where they know. that in the James Talarico versus Ken Paxton Senate race, that they know that the Democrats like to vote early or they like to vote by mail? Well, you practically have to get a letter from a doctor saying you're missing both arms and you can't possibly vote. I mean, it's almost impossible to vote by mail now there. And yet, as you know, one of the tricks is if you don't vote by mail, you've got to vote in person. and look at the difference in lines. So they understand how all these suppression tactics work together. So, for example, I'm in Ohio, and Ohio is another battleground state. Sherrod Brown stands a very good chance of retaking, the Democrat, retaking his Senate seat. He's running against a guy named John Houston, who I know as the purging general of Ohio. He's the guy, Houston, who's been mass purging. voters. Ohio went for for Obama twice. So what happened? And the answer is that what happened was they literally removed over half a million Ohio voters that went to the U.S. Supreme Court with the ACLU and NWACP and others saying, listen, these are legal voters. And they said, yeah, well, it doesn't matter. They're following their state procedure. Literally, the court didn't care that legitimate American citizen voters were wiped out. And they knew who they were wiping out. It's overwhelmingly in places like Cleveland. And then they don't let you vote by mail. They are purging the voter rolls. And then when you, if you, when I went to Dayton, Ohio.

that was a seven-hour wait in line in November outside. So people were freezing in a parking lot, November in Ohio. Seven-hour wait. Jesse Jackson called me from Cleveland. He was waiting nine hours with his, with a church group. And then I go to the white suburbs of Toledo and to see how long the lines were. And guess what, Dennis? There was a line. No, there was a line of poll workers. There were more, there was no weight. And not only that, if you were in the white, in the white polling station, they gave hot coffee and cookies for showing up. And you've got the band you're making this up. I can't. And in the band you stand, they're freezing in the, in an outdoor, you know, parking garage. And people are, I'm interviewing people and I can't see their faces because they're getting, you know, covered with, with mist as they're trying to talk. It was, you know, it's so bad. It's like, and you have to understand, you know, I cover elections around the world. You know, I mean, in Zimbabwe, they don't have this. I mean, and so you've got, okay, so you've got the citizenship requirement. You've got the big purge. About 20 million people are being purged as we speak. About, I'd say about four and a half million of those are legal voters. I'm not guessing because I got the Microsoft and America expressed a few other big corporations with the demographers and supercomputers. They go through all the names for me. I have to pay for some of it. And also I'm working, by the way, with the USPS. Remember that that organization, the Postal Service? You know, like they're being treated like they're al-Qaeda by our president, you know? Like, it's the post office, okay? You know, and they're under the gun. So they work with me and they go, we got. The Postal Office is Al-Qaeda. Well, that's the way Trump treats them that they're the enemy. They're the enemy. And so he's asking the post office, demanding at the post office withhold your mail-in ballot unless you are on a doge list of approved American citizen voters. The problem with that is America does not have citizenship lists. We don't keep them. We're not Russia. okay we don't keep citizenship lists we're not china but trump thinks we ought to be and but we're in this catch 22 you can't get your mail-in ballot if you're not on the list and the list is is nonsense so you've got the purge you got citizenship you got early you got the mail-in voting you got the closure of drop boxes uh all over the country they've decided because it's filmed 2,000 mules They're closing all the drop boxes around the country. Atlanta. Okay, so they reduced. I always used Georgia because I did this calculation. Georgia reduced the number of ballot drop boxes. So you don't have to wait in these ridiculous long lines by 75% in the African American majority counties. That is, in Atlanta and Savannah.

They reduced the number of drop box by 75%. It can only be one drop box for 100%. thousand voters but in those small rural areas they've actually increased the number of drop boxes they have a county with 6,000 people and 12,000 cows they get a drop box 100,000 people in Atlanta have to share a drop box now come on you know what's going to happen and then you go wait so then they can't get the drop box they wait in line and now they've got hours of wait so They understand what they're doing here. And then you've got the, like I say, so there's various, these are just some of the tricks that they've been using. We have at least six that we're going to go through in detail. How you say. And we really need to talk about how the counteract here. Let me tell people you're listening to Flashpoints on Pacific Radio. We're speaking with Greg Pallas. He's a regular could. attributed to the show on election and election policy and how for many years we've been losing our rights to vote in so many different ways. That's what we're talking about now. His book, one of his wonderful books, bestsellers, was the best democracy money can buy. His film about the latest attacks on the right to vote is called Vigilante's Inc. America's New Vote Suppression Hit Men, narrated by Rosario. Dawson produced by Martin Sheehan. I hope this is all correct information. Absolutely. What's the fight back look like? How do people restrain the government from stealing the right to vote? Well, what we have to do is start out. So the groups, our organizations, have put together a website. It's not public yet, but I'm going to tell your listeners at FlashPoint. You can just type in saveyourvote.org. Save your vote.org. You'll get a sense of it. You'll see some of these videos with Ed Ward. And I'm also on one. And, of course, we're going to have our people like Rosario Dawson and Robert De Niro and others that I work with who are also going to bring you the message. But the important thing is the action. In each case, we're trying to tell you exactly what you do. And I know many of you are saying, I have to get a passport to vote. Buddy, you got to get a passport to vote. Or get your original birth certificate. And, you know, again, who knows where your mom put it. And there's other things. Mail-in balloting. You better be prepared. here to make sure that it's absolutely perfect and try you're going to have to like go in and vote early we're going to give you different ways to to beat these systems but nothing's easy nothing's easy here dennis um so go to save your vote dot org and pass it around the idea okay i have so let me let me ask you this question i have a license and and a legitimate birth certificate am i safe

With the legit, well, you're a guy, I take it. And so you didn't, you kept your married name, I guess, is Bernstein. But if you're a woman, okay, number one, your license don't mean, sorry, your license don't mean spam. This is America. That doesn't make you a citizen. It makes you a driver. Like, you know, I've engaged to, you know. green card holders but if you have a green card you have and your drive you better have a license so the license doesn't make you a citizen doesn't isn't proof military card we have people in the military who are not yet citizens they've joined so they become citizen but that means it We had, you know, when I said that an Air Force officer was blocked from voting in Kansas, needless to say, it was a female African American Air Force officer. They know what they're doing. And so you can get, oh, by the way, if you do have naturalization papers, have those with you, if you're a woman who's changed your name. to take on your husband's name or a husband at some point or change your name for whatever reason you better bring those papers and match it to your birth certificate i don't know no there are no rules yet see that's the other thing we're heading into the election and they've come up with this cockamamie stuff and they're saying well well what if you've changed your name you know it's like uh you're a woman who took on your husband's saying what do you do there's no they literally don't have a system um and it's very very dangerous stuff So the other thing is make sure also that you go to save your vote.org and find out how you get around. this stuff. We're just very concerned, especially in the purge. Now, one of the things we're doing also at save your vote.org is there is a lookup. You can see if you have been purge, we're collecting the purge lists from around the country, and then you re-register. SV rep, which is the Hispanic organization, in 2020, the reason why Biden and Assoff and Raphael Warnock were able to win those elections, not that. We're partisan organization. We just help people vote is that SVREP made 150,000 phone calls into Georgia warning people that they'd had there. uh their registrations purged and they got the messages they were called in spanish and english and we got tens of thousands of people re-registered black voters matter sent out postcards rosario dorsen not only made a film for us but we have a big we had a big rosario electronic billboard over atlanta saying are you purged you better check so this type of campaigns we're running but now it's 50 states how to in you know basically

The GOP states, it's not all GOP states. We've got some big problems in California we've talked about on this show too. You know, they... 30 seconds, Greg, to be continued, how? To be continued. Save your vote.org. See you there. All right. Thank you. Greg Palace. Gregpalus.com. As always, appreciate the collaboration and more to come. Thanks, Greg. You're very welcome. And you're listening to FlashPoint on Pacifica Radio. Yeah, this is your daily investigative news magazine. We love the fact that we were invented in 1949. So many years ago, a free speech independent institution speaking truth to power. And we're here because you support it. Bye. And that does it for another episode of FlashPoints. Our executive producer is Dennis Bernstein. Senior producers, Miguel Gavalon Malina and Kevin Pina. Technical producer, Rod Akil. Our theme music written and produced by Charlie Lang. For questions and comments, email Dennis Bernstein at Dennis at kpFA.org. Thank you for listening.

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