Greg Palast

Greg Palast
Greg Palast

Greg Palast is an investigative reporter, whose stories appear on BBC Television, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Rolling Stone. You can read/watch his reports at GregPalast.com. He is the author of the NY Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, Armed Madhouse, and the highly acclaimed Vultures’ Picnic. His full-length feature, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, was released in 2016. You can stream his new film, Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman — introduced by Martin Sheen and narrated by Rosario Dawson — for a limited time at: VigilanteMovie.com

  1. The Great American Tariff Scam — A Thom Hartmann Program Daily Song

    JUN 5

    The Great American Tariff Scam — A Thom Hartmann Program Daily Song

    "Steel was strong, but the truth is cold, He sold out the workers for a bar of gold." This song, which was created by the Thom Hartmann Program, was inspired by Greg Palast's latest article for the Hartmann Report,The Great American Tariff Scam — read it here.   The Great American Tariff Scam Lyrics   [Verse 1] He stood in a mill with his red tie tight Told the boys in hard hats, “I’ll stand and fight” But behind that grin and the photo flash Was a deal with the devil and a payday stash Steel was strong, but the truth is cold He sold out the workers for a bar of gold Laid off in Gary, gone in Duluth While the billionaires laughed in their tailored suits [Chorus] 🎶 It’s the Great American Tariff Scam A fist full of promises, a smoke screen sham Jobs fall down while the prices climb And the ones who get rich are the friends of the crime He said “I’m here to help,” then he took what he can— That’s the Great American Tariff Scam 🎶 [Verse 2] Steel rolls rustin’ by the railroad track While Wall Street wolves keep slappin’ our backs They killed the deal that could save the plant Now the furnaces cool and the wages slant Imports rise with a tariff tax Domestic jobs? Ain’t comin’ back From cars to cables, we all pay more While they cheer from behind their private doors [Chorus] 🎶 It’s the Great American Tariff Scam Wrapped in a flag with a glory cam He blocks the fix and blames the flame Says “I’m the hero!”—but he lit the game He’s the arsonist in a fireman’s van— That’s the Great American Tariff Scam 🎶 [Bridge] He said, “I’m here for the working man” But he hands the loot to the richest hands From Nippon Steel to the union hall It’s always the worker that takes the fall [Verse 3] Now the ladle’s dry and the silence loud As the union boys stand heads unbowed They know the truth from the spin and smoke From every empty promise that the huckster spoke [Final Chorus] 🎶 It’s the Great American Tariff Scam With a hard hat lie and a photo glam The jobs went south, the truth went cold But he sold you pride like it’s solid gold Steel don’t bend, but a worker can— In the Great American Tariff Scam 🎶 [Outro – spoken over a slow fade] “Praise me,” he said, “I stopped the fire.” But he was the one with the gasoline and the lighter. Subscribe to The Hartmann Report.

    3 min
  2. This Election is Going to be a Vote Suppression Bacchanalia

    07/13/2024

    This Election is Going to be a Vote Suppression Bacchanalia

    Let's stop counting Biden's brain cells, and start counting vigilantes. This election is going to be a Vote Suppression Bacchanalia — I’ve never seen anything like it. Mark Elias, who's considered the number one voting rights attorney these days, has said it’s is a virus coming out of Georgia. And it is. Before the last election we found that under a little-noticed provision of Georgia’s 2021 voting restriction law, SB202, 88 GOP operatives had filed challenges to block a breathtaking 180,000 voters from having their ballots counted. One woman alone had challenged a staggering 32,379 voters in Cobb County. This new Georgia law circumvented restrictions on states removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of an election, by allowing individuals to challenge an unlimited number of voters. And now this vigilante vote challenge tactic is spreading to other swing states. The organization that created the challenge lists is a group out of Texas called True the Vote. In Georgia in 2022, when they first launched this vigilante game, they had 88 vigilante vote challengers, now they have an army of 44,000 operating in battleground states across the US.   But understand where this vigilante voter challenge scheme comes from. The Ku Klux Klan created this system in 1946 when they incorporated themselves as Vigilantes Inc. According to the FBI, the Klan challenged every single black voter in many counties in Georgia. And it worked. The Klan got their chief strategist, Eugene Talmadge, elected governor.  Here's the strange thing... In 1946 — before the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act — Harry Truman's FBI was about to arrest Talmadge for leading this mass attack on Black voters, but days before they were going to arrest him, Talmadge drank himself to death. So, it was illegal in 1946, and now we have the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Civil Rights Act, and somehow mass challenges of voters of color are perfectly fine with our federal courts?!? The NAACP and Reverend Jesse Jackson, of Rainbow PUSH, have begged Biden to sign an executive order to stop these vigilante vote challenges. They're a clear violation of federal law, even without the Voting Rights Act. They're also a violation of our Constitution. And that's what the FBI under Harry Truman thought — so why isn't the FBI saying the same thing today? It was illegal in 1946, and it ought to be illegal now.    For more on this, subscribe to our newsletter.

    28 min
5
out of 5
36 Ratings

About

Greg Palast is an investigative reporter, whose stories appear on BBC Television, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Rolling Stone. You can read/watch his reports at GregPalast.com. He is the author of the NY Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, Armed Madhouse, and the highly acclaimed Vultures’ Picnic. His full-length feature, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, was released in 2016. You can stream his new film, Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman — introduced by Martin Sheen and narrated by Rosario Dawson — for a limited time at: VigilanteMovie.com

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