The following is from Thom Hartmann’s 2/1/24 The Progressive Populist article.
“The White Republican base has been so lied to and abused over the past 40 or so years that they’ve become easy marks for the predators in both big business and the GOP…”
“In the years immediately leading up to the 1970 creation of the EPA, pollution in America had gotten so bad, it was impossible to ignore……so Nixon did what was probably the only good deed for America of his presidency and helped create the EPA in 1970”
“The wealthy oligarchs of American industry – particularly fossil fuel and chemical industry oligarchs – hated the EPA from the get-go. Environmental regulations cut into their profits..It was almost as infuriating as having to pay a 74% income tax on everything hey earned after their first $3 million [in today’s dollars]>”…
“..America’s industrialists got serious about taking tobacco lawyer Lewis Powell”s Memo advice: the rich needed to step up and start buying off politicians and judges, seize control of the media, and use their endowments to stock universities with right-wing professors while pushing out the old-line liberals>”
“They got a big boost in 1976 [Buckley] and 1978 [Bellotti] when five Republicans on the Supreme Court ruled..billionaires and corporations buying off politicians was no longer considered criminal bribery: ..it was, instead, “Constitutionally protected First Amendment free speech” and corporations were no longer legal fictions but fully “persons” who could claim protections under the Bill of [Human] Rights.”
”Lewis Powell himself..wrote the 1978 “Bellotti” decision giving corporate “persons” – including foreign corporations – the right to pour unlimited amounts of “dark money” into political campaigns. [Five corrupt Republicans on the Court would double down on this in 2010 with “Citizens United.]”..
“..the fossil fuel billionaires and their fellow travelers got organized. They set up and funded policy think tanks..each one devoted to the two main goals of the billionaires: deregulation and tax cuts.”
“The challenge was convincing Americans..regulations were bad things, and..rich people should have their taxes cut..That top tax bracket..was the main thing preventing billionaires from grabbing all the money that was instead..going into the homes and pockets of unionized working-class people.”
”The think tanks got to work…Money flowed to Republican politicians…A small army of commentators was organized, some of them scientists and economists willing to to on-the-take, to convince Americans..regulations weren’t something that would protect average people but were..instruments of socialism or communism.”
”The agencies like the EPA that were doing the regulating would, henceforth, be known as the “deep state,” a designation so creepy ..few would choose to defend them.”
“After Ronald Reagan stopped enforcing antitrust laws in 1983 and Clinton deregulated..media in 1996, an army of radio and TV hosts ..[existed]..with over 1,500 local right-wing radio stations and Fox “News” rising in prominence. By 2000, Republicans were openly campaigning on platforms promising deregulation along with giant tax cuts for the “job creator” billionaires.”
“Now sufficiently indoctrinated to believe up is down, Republican voters became the nation’s useful idiots.”
“..think tanks ..[said].. climate change was a hoax, and they believed..Trump..[said]..the economy during his tenure was “the best in the history of the world”..and they believed..He said he needed to cut taxes on the morbidly rich by around $2 trillion, and..Republican voters nodded their heads..”…..
“The indoctrination of the Republican voter is so complete that when then-President Trump gutted over 100 environmental regulations – making it more toxic and dangerous to live..in America..there wasn’t a peep. Most Republican voters don’t even know it happened..”…..
“So why don’t Americans know who’s manipulating our political system and why?…
“The answer is simple: billionaires who favor unpopular, ultraconservative economic policies, and work actively to advance them..stay almost entirely silent about those issues in public.
“America’s billionaires got the tax cuts they wanted: instead of paying 74% like before Reagan, or even the high 50% range like most European billionaires, the average American billionaire pays around 3%..”
[Note; read that again – 3% income tax, not a typo – wouldn’t YOU. like to pay 3% federal tax??????]
“The fossil fuel billionaires also got much of the deregulation they wanted…and the Supreme Court justices they’ve bought off with million-dollar vacations and parental homes will soon debate whether to gut the Chevron deference and thus end the EPA’s ability to regulate..fossil fuel industry altogether.”
“..over $50 trillion has been transferred from..paychecks and homes of working class people into..money bins of the top 1% while our environment continues to deteriorate.”
So – my fellow Americans – is there. ANY. doubt about who has been manipulating the American political and economic systems – mostly since 1980????????? ”Follow the money”. said “Deep throat” in the “Watergate” scandal – it works here too. WHO got paid off – campaign contributions, and all the many other forms of “dark money”??? Research exactly. WHO in Congress pushed the bills that sabotaged the 1947-73 American system that actually worked for average Americans??????? WHO pushed for the corrupt “justices” that changed the rules??????
In which alternative universe of “democracy” are billionaires paying 3% federal tax – while YOU pay much more?????????????? In which alternative universe of “democracy” would ANY. “court” - in the face of catastrophic global warming – weaken the EPA’s ability to regulate THE. prime contributor to a crisis which could end normal human inhabitation on this earth??????????
WHY. don’t. YOU know – and vote – more on these issues???????? IF the world still exists in 100-200 years – what will people thing and say about ”adults”. in 2024 who allowed the perps to get away with such an obvious and blatant crime, and their own. DOCUMENTED manipulation???????????/
Is THIS the ultimate example and truth on the effectiveness of “alternative facts”????????????
With Justice For All 