The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

There is nothing new under the sun. Five centuries ago, the Portuguese conquistadors imposed a toll (“cartaz”) for ships trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz. Yet Trump and Hegseth didn’t know what every ship captain has known for centuries: the importance of securing the Strait. And the wee problem with Trump’s plan to collect passage tolls in partnership with Iran is that it violates international laws against piracy.   Get the full story: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/trump-the-pirate-of-hormuz/   For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack:https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com   Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh

In one of my most elaborate undercover operations for BBC Newsnight, I got my hands on the secret plans for the invasion. Nope, not Trump's attack on Iran. It was 2004 and the plan was secretly drafted BEFORE George W. Bush invaded Iraq. I’m only bringing up 20-year-old history to tell you that, while Bush’s hidden plan for the oil fields of Iraq evidenced greedy secret scheming to grab Iraq’s oil industry, at least we could say this: EVEN GEORGE BUSH HAD A PLAN. So no, I have not uncovered Trump’s secret plans for the invasion of Iran, or his plan to protect the world’s oil supply, BECAUSE TRUMP HAS NO PLAN. The only thing more evil than a secret plan is to have no plan at all. Get the full story: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/hormuz-blues For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh  

Investigative Journalist Greg Palast talks to Rick Smith. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon and two-time presidential candidate, passed away on February 17, 2026, at age 84, surrounded by family. On The Rick Smith Show, host Rick Smith welcomed longtime friend and investigative journalist Greg Palast for an emotional tribute. Palast, a New York Times bestselling author known for exposing voter suppression, shared intimate stories from their five-decade alliance forged at a United Auto Workers event. Palast recalled their first meeting 50 years ago, both young activists championing labor’s role in progressive change. “He always called me ‘young man,’ even when I was 73,” Palast said, noting Jackson’s insistence on early morning calls despite Parkinson’s, which limited his speech after 2 p.m. Just last week in Chicago, Palast planned to meet Jackson for 2026 voting rights strategies, sensing it was “end game” but committed to the fight. Command Performances and Unyielding Activism Jackson commanded action, summoning Palast from Europe for his film Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen premiere at the 2024 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Wheelchair bound but defiant, Jackson stayed through the screening and Q&A, pounding his armrest when aides tried to leave. They cowrote an op-ed on vote suppression and even collaborated on the bestselling comic Steal Back Your Vote, available free at GregPalast.com. Palast highlighted Jackson’s labor ties post-Martin Luther King Jr., walking picket lines and allying with unions against corporate thieves like Chicago’s utilities. He praised Jackson’s “rainbow coalition” empathy for the underclass, Black, white, poor, seeing race as a class marker exploited by billionaires. Their work smashed programs like Interstate Crosscheck, with Rainbow/PUSH continuing under leaders like attorney C.K. Hoffler and daughter Santita Jackson. A Legacy for Ordinary Fighters Palast rejected portraying Jackson as “extraordinary.” From humble Greenville, South Carolina roots, Jackson was “an ordinary guy” who volunteered with King in Chicago’s economic justice push and refused to stop. He dismissed critics like Elizabeth Warren who overlooked him, emphasizing his role in history like the Selma bridge marches, stories even young staff need to hear. “Is he replaceable?” Smith asked. Palast urged, “You are the leader.” Jackson’s marching orders? March yourself, don’t wait for icons. His cussedness lives in ongoing fights against vigilante vote challenges targeting voters of color. As Palast kissed Jackson’s forehead at that final screening, feeling goodbye, the message endures. Battles don’t end, carry them on.   Watch the Rainbow PUSH edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy featuring Reverend Jackson. Get the DVD, download, or stream it for free. Learn more at GregPalast.com.   

For 50 years, the Reverend and I fought side-by-side, and sometimes fought face-to-face. He's the only man, other than my dad, I've ever kissed, a year ago, when I kissed him goodbye.  Remembering Reverend Jesse Jackson (1941-2026): Investigative journalist Greg Palast talks to WCPT’s Joan Esposito.

You are watching the theft of 2026 before your eyes. The FBI raid on Fulton County is NOT, as the media seems to think, about Trump’s attempt to prove he won the 2020 race. The warrant says the FBI wants the envelopes from the 2020 election to hunt for crimes. But that’s just the legal excuse for the storm trooping. This is all about 2026 and 2028. Look at a map. Fulton County is the heart of “Blacklanta.” And Atlanta is the electoral heart of Georgia. And Georgia is the swingiest of swing states. The game is to force a state (i.e. Republican) takeover of Fulton County voting (possible under SB 202). And you can’t separate the invasion of Atlanta voting offices from the Purge’n General Bondi’s demand that Minnesota hand over its voter rolls.   Get the full story. Read my latest Substack report, The real story of the FBI raid on Fulton County: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/the-real-story-of-the-fbi-raid-on   For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/   Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh    

Palast discusses his latest report on Venezuela with Thom Hartmann The Acting President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez and Donal Trump desire the same thing: to send Venezuelan oil to the US. But Donald, we already had Venezuelan oil…until YOU embargoed imports of their crude. Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez enjoyed taunting George W. Bush. I remember when Chavez spoke at the UN General Assembly right after Bush left the podium. Chavez began, “There is a distinct smell of sulphur here.” Bush went after Chavez. It was a bit less subtle than Chavez’ comment. Bush backed the kidnapping of Chavez in 2002. Unlike Trump, Bush’s scheme face-planted and Chavez was returned by his kidnappers, more popular than ever. But despite the barbs and kidnapping, Bush, with Chavez’ encouragement, kept Venezuelan oil flowing to the US, more than a million barrels a day. Trump is crowing that, “we’re going to be taking oil” from Venezuela. Mr. President, we were taking Venezuela’s oil until you stopped the flow with an embargo. Now, it will be nearly impossible, and cost a prohibitive amount, to crank up Venezuela’s production to get back up to the flow quantities we had before Trump’s embargo. Because, when the extraction of super-heavy oil of Venezuela stopped, it congealed into tar and then into asphalt. Refineries and pipes are choked and destroyed, a destruction Trump engineered through blocking Venezuela from paying for equipment to maintain the lines. Now, Trump is trying to bully US oil companies to invest as much as $100 billion to restore the oil infrastructure that Trump himself destroyed. Trump wants praise for (expensively) rebuilding what he demolished. He’s like an arsonist who wants praise for calling the fire department. * * * * * Excerpt from my latest report, How New Venezuela President Will Save Us from Trump’s Crazy: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/how-new-venezuela-president-will For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/ Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh  

Investigative reporter Greg Palast discusses his latest article, "When Venezuela’s de facto President Delcy Rodriguez banged on my door at 2AM." Read the report: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/when-venezuelas-de-facto-presidenta For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack:  https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/    Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh

25 years of investigations. Millions of voters erased. A system built to decide elections before you ever touch a ballot. Vigilantes Inc. exposes the real-life hunt for ‘illegal voters’ — and the shocking truth behind who’s actually being targeted. Last month, Vigilantes Inc. was screened as part of the Teaneck International Film Festival, a prestigious human rights event. The sold out screening, held on November 9 at the Puffin Cultural Forum, featured a Q&A with filmmaker Greg Palast. Anthony Johnson of ABC News hosted the discussion — the perfect choice given that as a young man he worked for voting and civil rights icon John Lewis. “I spoke to him six months before he passed away,” Johnson told Palast, as they introduced themselves to the audience after the film. “One things he said to me was that ‘they’re gonna try to take us back, but we’re not gonna let them.’ And by giving us the information that you shared in [this film], there’s more reason to believe more optimistically, as sad as this is, that that will not happen.”  Johnson’s first question for Palast: How did it all begin? “I started 25 years ago, when I was a reporter for The Guardian and BBC television,” replied Palast. “It’s the 2000 election, and I’m watching all these Black people come before the BBC TV cameras, one after another, saying I couldn’t vote in Florida.” Palast was a conspiracy expert for the US Justice Dept and began questioning the purge of 58,000 Black men from the voter rolls. It was the beginning of an investigation that would uncover a political machine capable of deciding elections long before a single ballot was cast. And, after 25 years of digging, that investigation became the award-winning film, Vigilantes Inc. During the Q&A, the audience got a rare look behind the curtain: how a “conspiracy theory” turned out to be a very real conspiracy. What the Q&A made clear is this: It’s not about Democrats or Republicans. It’s not about partisanship. It’s about rights. It’s not about left or right, but right and wrong. And it’s about the unseen tools used to erase voters — often without their knowledge — while the public is told to “trust the process.” Palast shared many of the heartbreaking stories highlighted in his film: a military veteran purged because he was assigned to duty out of state… a 92-year-old civil rights icon showing up to vote for her 50th straight year, only to find her name erased… and entire communities losing access to ballot drop boxes overnight. Palast also talked about the math — a part of the story almost no one hears. The investigation found that for every illegal voter caught, around one million legal voters were wrongly targeted and removed from voter rolls. This isn’t speculation; it’s data reviewed name-by-name by experts who usually work for Amazon and Microsoft on mailing list hygiene to prevent delivery mistakes. The bottom line? Vote suppression is not an accident. It’s a system. And Vigilantes Inc. exposes the system: the strategists who designed it, the politicians who enable it, the billionaires who fund it — and the communities fighting to overcome it. If you’ve ever wondered how elections flip in ways that defy demographics… why millions of provisional ballots never get counted… or how “election integrity” became a euphemism for mass disenfranchisement — this film’s for you. And if you’ve ever felt like your vote doesn’t matter, this Q&A makes one thing painfully clear: Someone out there is working very hard to make sure you believe that your vote isn’t valuable.  Because your vote is valuable — valuable enough to steal.   Vigilantes Inc. is more than a documentary. It’s a warning, a wake-up call, and a blueprint for fighting back. Stream it for FREE on Youtube and share it with everyone you know: https://youtu.be/P_XdtAQXnGE Host a community screening: https://www.gregpalast.com/vigilantes-inc-the-movie/ Learn more about how to protect your vote by subscribing to our Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/ And don't forget to CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION: http://vote.org  

Trying to force a protégé to sleep with him is the least of Larry Summers sins. I’ve been hunting this toxic asset for three decades, and his victims number in the millions. No kidding. The current charge that finally brought Summers down was the revelation that he was asking Jeffrey Epstein for advice on how to seduce a young mentee, using his position as one of the world’s most powerful economists to get her pants off. Yuck. But I’m not writing to tell you about Larry the Lecher. Rather, I want to let you in on the secret known by a couple Nobel Prize winning acquaintances of mine who would agree that Larry Summers may just be the most dangerous, destructive economist on Earth. (And that’s saying a lot because I was a protégé of another killer economist: Milton Friedman, the mouthpiece for the phony “free market” horrors that have bedeviled the planet for decades.) What set me on Summers was a whole stack of confidential documents I obtained via the brilliant investigator Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy. She’d gotten her hands on hundreds of secret documents of the World Bank where Summers had been Chief Economist. But the killer doc was a highly confidential note written in 1997 from Summer’s flunky, Timothy Geithner, who was then Ambassador to the World Trade Organization when Summers was Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton. Clinton would soon give Summers the top job as Treasury Secretary when Robert Rubin went off to Chair Citibank (for a $126 million paycheck), a financial monolith created by banking “deregulation” as promoted by Rubin, Geithner and Summers. The Summers plan for de-regulation allowed banks to gamble our savings accounts in the new derivatives markets. It didn’t take long for the crash. In 2008, Summers’ suckers — that’s you and me, the public — ponied up some $4 TRILLION dollars to bail out Citibank, Goldman Sachs (once chaired by Rubin). America went bust while Summers, Rubin and Geithner cashed in big time. Get the full story, read: Larry Summers, Epstein and the “End Game” Memo https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/larry-summers-epstein-and-the-end    For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack:  https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/    Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh      

Investigative journalist Greg Palast joins The Rick Smith Show to tear open the newly uncovered emails between Harvard’s Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein — emails in which the very-married Summers leans on the convicted predator as his “wingman,” seeking tips on how to seduce a young economist he was mentoring. Palast lays out how Summers — Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and Obama’s National Economic Council Director — helped engineer the global deregulation spree that detonated economies from Wall Street to Latin America. And he returns to the infamous secret “End-Game” memo he first exposed in VICE: a blueprint showing how U.S. Treasury insiders quietly colluded with a cabal of banking titans to bulldoze financial protections worldwide. Will this Epstein scandal finally push Democrats to cut loose the high priest of neoliberalism? Is this the long-overdue Summers reckoning? Learn more: Read Larry Summers and the Secret "End-Game" Memo: https://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/ For more from Palast, subscribe to his Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh  

LBC's Matt Frei talks to Greg Palast about the latest madness in MAGA-land in this interview first broadcast on Nov 15, 2025

In this edition of the Election Crimes Bulletin, first broadcast on Nov 6, 2025, investigative journalist Greg Palast and Flashpoints host Dennis J. Bernstein unpack the results from Tuesday’s election. Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election by 181,000 votes. The early vote in New York was a record-breaking 735,000. That's where Mamdani’s margin came in. When you let people vote, they vote progressive. That’s why Trump has gone after mail-in voting and early voting, because that is how minorities vote these days. In a democracy, the voters are supposed to pick the politicians. But now we have politicians picking the voters. Around 22 states have made it more difficult to vote by mail or use dropboxes. They cut the number of voting stations and dropboxes in low income, student and minority areas to engineer long lines, while the people in the white suburbs have zero wait to vote. These states are also “caging” voters, using the euphemism “voter-roll hygiene” to remove mostly poor, young, and minority voters from the rolls. Onerous ID laws, heavy restrictions on early and mail-in voting, gerrymandering, laws that allow mass challenges — it's a soft coup. It's not troops in the street grabbing ballot boxes. It's seizing control of the procedure to make it impossible or difficult for people of color, students, and low income voters to vote. To stay informed, and to learn how to save your vote, subscribe to our newsletter (GregPalast.com/subscribe) or Substack (Substack.com/@GregPalastInvestigates).

For years, I was BBC Television’s correspondent covering Venezuela and US attempts to overthrow their elected government. Trump invented nothing. This is at least the fourth US-backed attempt at overthrow and assassination of a Venezuelan president. To understand why Trump has ordered a covert operation to overthrow their government, you need to understand three things about Venezuela... Get the full story, read my Substack report: I met Chávez and Maduro. I know drugs are not the reason Trump wants war with Venezuela: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/i-met-chavez-and-maduro-i-know-drugs Watch the film of my BBC reports, The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, produced with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Richard Rowley, on YouTube: https://youtu.be/syExbfVPDnU Get the DVD: https://donorbox.org/palast-the-assassination-of-hugo-chavez-dvd Or download it: https://donorbox.org/palast-the-assassination-of-hugo-chavez-download Support our work with a tax-deductible donation: https://donorbox.org/palast-fund  

"When cowards are ordering around heroes, there could not be anything more dangerous for America." — Greg Palast Greg Palast's full speech from the #NoKings rally in Waterfront Park, San Diego on Saturday, October 18, 2025.   For more from Greg Palast, subscribe to his Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/ Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh

Thom Hartmann’s new book, The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party and a World on the Brink, is one giant fact check on the Whopper-in-Chief, and much more — a disturbing dive into the roiling miasma of self-aggrandizing, self-deluding, psychologically shattered, wailing man-child who is Commander-in-Chief. Don’t read Hartmann’s book twice, as I have. It’s not just the nightmares it induces; it’s the fact that you’ll wake up to the nightmare that is our new reality. “Democracy,” Hartmann concludes, “doesn’t announce its departure with trumpets. It slips away in silence, one institution at a time.”   But we do have Hartmann’s bugle blast. Hopefully, it’s a wake-up reveille and not Taps for this fragile experiment called America. * * * * *    Thom Hartmann and Greg Palast will be speaking in San Diego on Friday, October 17 and in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 18 at fundraisers for the Pacifica Radio Network. Follow the links for more info: https://www.gregpalast.com/the-last-american-president/ Get a copy of Hartmann’s Last American President signed by the author for a tax-deductible donation to the Palast Investigative Fund. Only 5 signed copies available: https://donorbox.org/the-last-american-president-a-broken-man-a-corrupt-party-and-a-world-on-the-brink

Trump and Hegseth's gathering of the generals wasn’t patriotism — it was theater for authoritarianism. When you tell the military that America's “inner cities” are "a big part of war now” you’re not defending America — you’re declaring war on it.  The question now is stark: when the illegal order comes — to turn U.S. troops with live ammunition on the American people — will these generals follow it? And are they more or less likely to after this gathering? Learn more and stay updated, subscribe to our Substack: https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/ Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh

On Tuesday, Pete Hegseth told our military’s top brass that they must restore the “male warrior spirit” to the armed forces. “Male” spirit, Pete? My Mom would’ve kicked your a** Get the full story on Substack. https://gregpalastinvestigates.substack.com/p/mom-wouldve-kicked-pete-hegseths Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee. https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh  

What would Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s father, Robert F. Kennedy, the man who saved Martin Luther King’s life, think of his son now? By endorsing Trump, Bobby Kennedy Jr. has endorsed everything he ever fought against. Trump is undoing all the environmental laws that Bobby fought for. To Bobby, the issue of global warming was paramount. And now he’s joined up with Agent Orange to say let the planet burn. Bobby, what’s happened to you? Trump won the election by removing voters he didn’t like. And we’re just at the beginning of that — that’s the dangerous thing. Bobby was a voting rights advocate. How could he stand there next to that man who is mass challenging voters of color? Bobby used to say — and it was kind of creepy, but I understood ‘cause he had his mental issues and he went through trauma — that he thought “daddy” was watching his every action and could still reward or punish him like a parent. He would suddenly become a little boy and talk about his daddy looking at him from Heaven and watching him. Well, hey, Bobby, if your daddy’s looking at you from Heaven now, what do you think he’s thinking? What do you think he’s thinking? As I told Off The Record host Egberto Willies in this clip, Bobby’s father saved Martin Luther King’s life. Not many people know this story. Read it, then imagine what King would say to Bobby Jr. now. https://www.gregpalast.com/rfk-saved-mlks-life/ Stay informed, subscribe to our Substack: @gregpalastinvestigates Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee.  

RFK Jr. is putting lives at risk — I can’t stay silent. His attacks on mRNA research and science funding aren’t politics — they’re threats to our health and future. This is painful. This is horrible and feels a bit like a betrayal. But I have no choice. Bobby Kennedy Jr. was my friend and co-author. We wrote stories together for Rolling Stone. Bobby introduced my New York Times bestseller and wrote a chapter for Billionaires and Ballot Bandits. And, with Jesse Jackson, we co-authored the Number 1 selling adult single issue comic book of all time, Steal Back Your Vote. But then, Bobby lost his mind... This is my story: https://www.gregpalast.com/i-was-on-the-phone-with-rfk-jr-when-he-lost-his-mind/

Thom Hartmann lays bare the origins of the scheme to take from the poor and give to the rich in his brilliant book, The Hidden History of Neoliberalism.    Get Thom’s book at your fave bookstore — or, to support my own reporting for the Hartmann program, make a tax-deductible donation to our foundation and get a copy of The Hidden History (I’ll sign the foreword) as our thanks: https://donorbox.org/thom-hartmann-s-the-hidden-history-of-neoliberalism?preview=1756859378    Support independent journalism. Buy Greg a coffee: https://buy.stripe.com/14kdRh1QhgDi34s4gh