The comment from yesterday by Tomonthebeach is revealing and central to the money in politics problem. He identifies capitalism as an obsession and an "ism" which has been worshipped in the U.S. as sacred and untouchable, and he recognizes that we have made wealth into a glorious good and the only path to happiness. It is heresy to reject those two propositions and Republicans have a monopoly on monopoly as the way to get the most pie for oneself and one's clan. Getting money out of politics requires making people aware that excessive wealth is corrupting and corrosive and that capitalism drives everything in this country and must be seen as only one approach out of many to creating a just and sane society and an economy which serves people, rather than forcing people to serve it. People who have more money are not better because they have more money. This is the brain worm which has infected our consciousness.
Once upon a time . . . we had something caalled the Federal Estate and Gift Tax. It imposed a heavy tax on very large amounts of wealth passing at death. It was never inyended to RAISE TAX MONEY. The STATED reason, as found in the Congressional Record, was to PREVENT the anti democratic accumulation of massive wealth in the hands of rhe few. Republicans got rid of it, because it diminished the political power of their super wealthy donors.
This post should be a speech given at the Democratic National Convention, and portions of it should be used in campaign ads and speeches by/for every Democratic candidate. We are in a class war with the corporate mafia, and thus far, Democrats mostly pretend there is no such war. If there is no class war, then why be a political party separate from Republicans?
I recently saw a piece on a business that is doing just that. The person interviewed was not at liberty to say who his clients are, but indicated that we would know their names.
The boiling point has been reached on every level. These Republican bastards know that. Here's info from Copilot AI: "Income inequality in the U.S. in 2025 remains at historically high levels, with the top 1% controlling nearly one-third of all wealth while the bottom 20% share just 3.1% of total income."
Workers Over Billionaires was one of the No Kings themes. Let's do another. Vote. Impeach. Convict. See you in the streets.
Because the Republican party is not the party of the working people, and never has been..
If you stop to think about it a Republic is rule by the elite, in Plato's Greece it was the property owners, the rich men, so called rule by the wise men, elected by the common man (not woman), it was the same in Rome, the Senatorial class were the wealthy land owners, and they were elected to the Senate by the common man, not woman.. And that is how the government was formed, but by then even the common man owned some property and thus could vote.
The property requirement to vote changed in 1792 with New Hampshire, it being the first state to drop the property owning requirement, subsequently all other states followed, and soon there was no more requirement to own property to vote, but previous even owning a slave was enough to qualify
Don't get me wrong, I am not engaging in any apologia, but the industrialist opposition to slavery, was that of what they considered free labor, having to compete with hired labor, and it wasn't long before the abolitionist jumped on board, and the abolitionist support was welcomed.
The Republican party has always been the party of wealthy, the oligarchy, the capitalist, the industrialist
However you want to define them, so many descriptors for the same class, the overclass.
The Democratic party was the party of the working man, and the working man was racist opposed to abolition, because abolition meant competition for labor.
All of that changed with LBJ and the Voting and Civil Rights Acts, the Great Society Programs.
The racist democrats fled to the Republican party, the policians that hung on, because changing party would jeopardize their power and position, were called Dixiecrats, and it was the racist Dixiecrats that mentored a young senator named Joseph Biden.
Part of the problem is that the Democratic party has never really successfully shed that old Dixiecrat ethos, or mentality.
comments One note here however. A while back we had Republicans and we had the GOP.Today We have a FASCIST party. Democrats seem to fear identifying what they see for fear of what they see. FASCISTS. If it walks like a duck and quakes like a ducok what is it my friends? In this case the duck is a fascists. We need to call what we have now "fascists" as a call to political arms and action.
If i am wrong please tell me why.
PS Have you read the book " The Nazi Mind" by Laurance Rees? Give it a read. Its well worth reading, along with Tom's every book, because we are experiencing it right now.
Trump is stealing from the American consumers through higher gas prices. He said America was becoming really rich because we produce a great amount of oil, except it’s Trump’s donors and oil producers who are getting rich from higher oil prices. The American consumers are already paying for this war. It is time for US oil producers to fund this war and end their price windfall. In World War II, the US raised taxes to fund the War and we had excess profit taxes to stop War Profiteers.
Congress needs to do the same thing today: immediately impose excess profit taxes, capture all excess profits on oil production caused by the war. Any increase in the oil price above the price that existed before the US/Israeli attack on Iran should be considered excess profit. A 100% tax on these excess profits should be imposed. These taxes should go directly to fund replacement of US weapons used in the war on Iran, instead of further stressing the American taxpayer.
This will remove any incentive to continue the war against Iran. Also, Congress needs to investigate who purchased oil futures before the attack on Iran began. Congress has to take the lead to eliminate these windfall profits and go after War Profiteers.
I have a habit of flagging and archiving articles that I think are so well-stated and concise that I'll need them in the future to support some point of discussion or another. I'm impressed that so many of my flagged articles are written by Thomas Hartmann. Keep up the good work!
Of course, Thom is right that the GOP is led by capitalists and capitalist wannabes, whose politics focus on enhancing their wealth by minimizing their taxes and business expenses - like pay and benefits. Why, they think, should I pay taxes for welfare, or vote to increase the minimum wage, just to support loafers who will not work for their money? I give them free education, police protection, and safe banking, as well as a military to enable profits from international trade.
Republicans rig the system to their own advantage at the expense of the workforce because they are more clever and hard-working than the workforce. Democrats do too, but to a lesser extent. Dems differ mainly in that their worldview is that government is all about promoting a better life for everybody, not just capitalists. That is socialism, not communism. Only democracy ensures government for and by the people.
Unfortunately, the average working American has no clue that they are not a capitalist because they do not live off their capital/wealth. They unwittingly support Republicans because they do not think of work as selling their time and effort for a paycheck, which makes them vulnerable to the greed and whims of their employers. It is only when we become capitalists (at retirement, if we are lucky) that we regain much of the freedom that the rigged capitalist system took from us.
So, why have the self-appointed opposition to this GOP grift -- the Democratic Party -- failed to develop and deliver both message and strategy to pound away on the roots of America's decline -- essentially refurbish and re-energize the NEW DEAL message and policy plan?
Why did the brain-trust, in face of Reagan's poison and treason, turn to a strategy of REPUBLICAN-LITE and push forward the Clintons, et. al., instead of real Progressive Leadership with a workable Progressive vision?
Why didn't Obama, when he had the opportunity, in 2009, to cut these monsters off at the knees simply mumble a few words about the country needing a financial system and then let off the Wall St monsters that destroyed thousands of Americans' lives with a slap on the wrist instead of 20 years in the penn??
Corporate Democrats, while tacitly permitting globalization of American production, have been dazzling people for years with the feel-good mission of DIVERSITY.
And, each time they bring another splinter group to the microphone to get their 15 minutes at the microphone, the Right Wing Echo Chamber salivates with a new opportunity to further drive wedges in between working people, ensuring grievances brew, and Republicans ride the this toxic stew into power.
Thom has rightly pointed out it is all about the money. The ONLY message Democrats or whomever is going to fight to save this country have to deliver is that to make America great again you have to KEEP THE MONEY IN THE MIDDLE.
And we already know how to do that, just review the NEW DEAL policies of the 1930s.
The Dems do not aggressively fight back for two main reasons, as I see it. First, they benefit from the rigged system too. Not too many working-class legislators in DC. Second, it is that the Dems are not as ruthless as the MAGA Republicans. Too often, Dems seem to assume that they have a shared moral code right up until they are Wile E. Coyoted off the political cliff. The Trump administration has shown that they do not share the same moral code as Dems - they just claim to share the same religion to confuse voters.
The undeniable truth of every single thing you wrote there Thom leaves only one great mystery: why aren't there tens of thousands of Mangiones out there, since the system clearly is rigged so thoroughly that there appears to be no other solution to the grotesque society we call the United States than that.
I do not advocate that for a few reasons. First, there is no guarantee that what would come afterward would be any better after a while. Because, second, my long life and study of history have demonstrated to me that human beings, given the chance, will by and large make choices favorable to them and their families, even if, often especially if, others will suffer in consequence. Third, because I have found life so underwhelming, and our species so generally despicable, I place little value on this world and its things, having been called to a deep religious faith very late in life (I was 70 when that happened). My only real hope is that God has something better in mind for us, and that this life is just a test, an audition if you will.
Which leads to my final observation about what one can do faced with the darkest cynicism and pessimism. It is this: to work as hard as possible to improve the lot of those the morbidly rich abhor, and to do our best to make possible a better future, truer to our ideals, for my grandson and those of his generation. That is why I keep posting, and fighting in my small way. Because all of us small fighters add up, and we may actually make a difference. November awaits. To borrow from Churchill, it will not be the end, nor the beginning of the end, but it could be the end of the beginning of the change we so desperately need.
The entities that pay off the Rs are the "Plantation Owners."
The Rs [including the Inglorious 6 on the U.S. Supreme Brothel] are their "Overseers."
Plain Americans are simply the Owners' wage "Slaves."
Clearly, this is a "Plantation Economy."
Hence, the need for a strong "Slave Patrol."
ICE/CBP for the Browns.
For the rest of us? THIS https://hstf.gov/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRdne1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFaa1B2cDhxWTFKT3JaUkVSc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHiBqdNlRCbHo9VMlBlJ-f9KWkE7yFgbwF_64vZJP-mnY0hhl7w02Pn-_rD3d_aem_XX8o_A2kcAXtCnboyWT3VQ
Oh, how true!
Yep
True.
The comment from yesterday by Tomonthebeach is revealing and central to the money in politics problem. He identifies capitalism as an obsession and an "ism" which has been worshipped in the U.S. as sacred and untouchable, and he recognizes that we have made wealth into a glorious good and the only path to happiness. It is heresy to reject those two propositions and Republicans have a monopoly on monopoly as the way to get the most pie for oneself and one's clan. Getting money out of politics requires making people aware that excessive wealth is corrupting and corrosive and that capitalism drives everything in this country and must be seen as only one approach out of many to creating a just and sane society and an economy which serves people, rather than forcing people to serve it. People who have more money are not better because they have more money. This is the brain worm which has infected our consciousness.
Most of us have FOMO. Fear of missing out.
In reality, 90% of MAGATs lose under Republican economic policies.
IMHO the real problem is cultural. They need to be "better" thsn us.
Once upon a time . . . we had something caalled the Federal Estate and Gift Tax. It imposed a heavy tax on very large amounts of wealth passing at death. It was never inyended to RAISE TAX MONEY. The STATED reason, as found in the Congressional Record, was to PREVENT the anti democratic accumulation of massive wealth in the hands of rhe few. Republicans got rid of it, because it diminished the political power of their super wealthy donors.
This post should be a speech given at the Democratic National Convention, and portions of it should be used in campaign ads and speeches by/for every Democratic candidate. We are in a class war with the corporate mafia, and thus far, Democrats mostly pretend there is no such war. If there is no class war, then why be a political party separate from Republicans?
You've missed every convention since JFK. https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/
Reagan’s core beliefs are still practiced by Republicans today:
* Less government
* Lower taxes, especially for the rich
* Less social programs
* Less restrictions on businesses
* Strong military
* Huge government deficits
Build a bunker and they will come.....
I recently saw a piece on a business that is doing just that. The person interviewed was not at liberty to say who his clients are, but indicated that we would know their names.
The boiling point has been reached on every level. These Republican bastards know that. Here's info from Copilot AI: "Income inequality in the U.S. in 2025 remains at historically high levels, with the top 1% controlling nearly one-third of all wealth while the bottom 20% share just 3.1% of total income."
Workers Over Billionaires was one of the No Kings themes. Let's do another. Vote. Impeach. Convict. See you in the streets.
With respect:
"...a national system would save the country an estimated half-billion dollars a year."
"Billion" should be half-trillion, with a T.
Because the Republican party is not the party of the working people, and never has been..
If you stop to think about it a Republic is rule by the elite, in Plato's Greece it was the property owners, the rich men, so called rule by the wise men, elected by the common man (not woman), it was the same in Rome, the Senatorial class were the wealthy land owners, and they were elected to the Senate by the common man, not woman.. And that is how the government was formed, but by then even the common man owned some property and thus could vote.
The property requirement to vote changed in 1792 with New Hampshire, it being the first state to drop the property owning requirement, subsequently all other states followed, and soon there was no more requirement to own property to vote, but previous even owning a slave was enough to qualify
Don't get me wrong, I am not engaging in any apologia, but the industrialist opposition to slavery, was that of what they considered free labor, having to compete with hired labor, and it wasn't long before the abolitionist jumped on board, and the abolitionist support was welcomed.
The Republican party has always been the party of wealthy, the oligarchy, the capitalist, the industrialist
However you want to define them, so many descriptors for the same class, the overclass.
The Democratic party was the party of the working man, and the working man was racist opposed to abolition, because abolition meant competition for labor.
All of that changed with LBJ and the Voting and Civil Rights Acts, the Great Society Programs.
The racist democrats fled to the Republican party, the policians that hung on, because changing party would jeopardize their power and position, were called Dixiecrats, and it was the racist Dixiecrats that mentored a young senator named Joseph Biden.
Part of the problem is that the Democratic party has never really successfully shed that old Dixiecrat ethos, or mentality.
Republicans must help their wealthiest donors accumulate more wealth by changing the laws to their benefit so they can extract whatever we have left.
I totally agree with Tom and all of your comments
comments One note here however. A while back we had Republicans and we had the GOP.Today We have a FASCIST party. Democrats seem to fear identifying what they see for fear of what they see. FASCISTS. If it walks like a duck and quakes like a ducok what is it my friends? In this case the duck is a fascists. We need to call what we have now "fascists" as a call to political arms and action.
If i am wrong please tell me why.
PS Have you read the book " The Nazi Mind" by Laurance Rees? Give it a read. Its well worth reading, along with Tom's every book, because we are experiencing it right now.
Trump is Stealing from You
Trump is stealing from the American consumers through higher gas prices. He said America was becoming really rich because we produce a great amount of oil, except it’s Trump’s donors and oil producers who are getting rich from higher oil prices. The American consumers are already paying for this war. It is time for US oil producers to fund this war and end their price windfall. In World War II, the US raised taxes to fund the War and we had excess profit taxes to stop War Profiteers.
Congress needs to do the same thing today: immediately impose excess profit taxes, capture all excess profits on oil production caused by the war. Any increase in the oil price above the price that existed before the US/Israeli attack on Iran should be considered excess profit. A 100% tax on these excess profits should be imposed. These taxes should go directly to fund replacement of US weapons used in the war on Iran, instead of further stressing the American taxpayer.
This will remove any incentive to continue the war against Iran. Also, Congress needs to investigate who purchased oil futures before the attack on Iran began. Congress has to take the lead to eliminate these windfall profits and go after War Profiteers.
I have a habit of flagging and archiving articles that I think are so well-stated and concise that I'll need them in the future to support some point of discussion or another. I'm impressed that so many of my flagged articles are written by Thomas Hartmann. Keep up the good work!
I agree. Thom is great every day, but today’s entry is essential reading. A great overview that explains why we are where we are today.
Of course, Thom is right that the GOP is led by capitalists and capitalist wannabes, whose politics focus on enhancing their wealth by minimizing their taxes and business expenses - like pay and benefits. Why, they think, should I pay taxes for welfare, or vote to increase the minimum wage, just to support loafers who will not work for their money? I give them free education, police protection, and safe banking, as well as a military to enable profits from international trade.
Republicans rig the system to their own advantage at the expense of the workforce because they are more clever and hard-working than the workforce. Democrats do too, but to a lesser extent. Dems differ mainly in that their worldview is that government is all about promoting a better life for everybody, not just capitalists. That is socialism, not communism. Only democracy ensures government for and by the people.
Unfortunately, the average working American has no clue that they are not a capitalist because they do not live off their capital/wealth. They unwittingly support Republicans because they do not think of work as selling their time and effort for a paycheck, which makes them vulnerable to the greed and whims of their employers. It is only when we become capitalists (at retirement, if we are lucky) that we regain much of the freedom that the rigged capitalist system took from us.
Thanks, Thom. Great summary. I am going to restack a chunk of this. And they were doing this even before Trump.
Brilliant!
Yes. absolutely true.
So, why have the self-appointed opposition to this GOP grift -- the Democratic Party -- failed to develop and deliver both message and strategy to pound away on the roots of America's decline -- essentially refurbish and re-energize the NEW DEAL message and policy plan?
Why did the brain-trust, in face of Reagan's poison and treason, turn to a strategy of REPUBLICAN-LITE and push forward the Clintons, et. al., instead of real Progressive Leadership with a workable Progressive vision?
Why didn't Obama, when he had the opportunity, in 2009, to cut these monsters off at the knees simply mumble a few words about the country needing a financial system and then let off the Wall St monsters that destroyed thousands of Americans' lives with a slap on the wrist instead of 20 years in the penn??
Corporate Democrats, while tacitly permitting globalization of American production, have been dazzling people for years with the feel-good mission of DIVERSITY.
And, each time they bring another splinter group to the microphone to get their 15 minutes at the microphone, the Right Wing Echo Chamber salivates with a new opportunity to further drive wedges in between working people, ensuring grievances brew, and Republicans ride the this toxic stew into power.
Thom has rightly pointed out it is all about the money. The ONLY message Democrats or whomever is going to fight to save this country have to deliver is that to make America great again you have to KEEP THE MONEY IN THE MIDDLE.
And we already know how to do that, just review the NEW DEAL policies of the 1930s.
D. Laghezza
The Dems do not aggressively fight back for two main reasons, as I see it. First, they benefit from the rigged system too. Not too many working-class legislators in DC. Second, it is that the Dems are not as ruthless as the MAGA Republicans. Too often, Dems seem to assume that they have a shared moral code right up until they are Wile E. Coyoted off the political cliff. The Trump administration has shown that they do not share the same moral code as Dems - they just claim to share the same religion to confuse voters.
The undeniable truth of every single thing you wrote there Thom leaves only one great mystery: why aren't there tens of thousands of Mangiones out there, since the system clearly is rigged so thoroughly that there appears to be no other solution to the grotesque society we call the United States than that.
I do not advocate that for a few reasons. First, there is no guarantee that what would come afterward would be any better after a while. Because, second, my long life and study of history have demonstrated to me that human beings, given the chance, will by and large make choices favorable to them and their families, even if, often especially if, others will suffer in consequence. Third, because I have found life so underwhelming, and our species so generally despicable, I place little value on this world and its things, having been called to a deep religious faith very late in life (I was 70 when that happened). My only real hope is that God has something better in mind for us, and that this life is just a test, an audition if you will.
Which leads to my final observation about what one can do faced with the darkest cynicism and pessimism. It is this: to work as hard as possible to improve the lot of those the morbidly rich abhor, and to do our best to make possible a better future, truer to our ideals, for my grandson and those of his generation. That is why I keep posting, and fighting in my small way. Because all of us small fighters add up, and we may actually make a difference. November awaits. To borrow from Churchill, it will not be the end, nor the beginning of the end, but it could be the end of the beginning of the change we so desperately need.