Long Lines Will Not Defeat Democracy

0:00I have several cherished sweaters in my closet from Quince that I wear on repeat. You know, I run cold sweaters for sweaters often and that's one of the things that Quince does best. Quince also makes premium pants, fitted tees and polos and breathable active wear. Quality basics designed to work across your wardrobe and hold up to everyday wear. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and therefore they cut out the middlemen to your pain for high quality and not brand markup. And as such as clothing, Quince brings that same approach to everything they make from hotel quality bedding and bath and kitchen essentials and thoughtfully designed furniture. They make well-designed pieces for everyday living. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash Tom THOM. If free shipping on your order in 365 day returns now available on Canada and the UK too. That's q-u-i-n-c-e.com slash Tom. Quince.com slash Tom.

1:00This is the Tom Harbin program. I just wanted to emphasize a heads up. I got a phone call yesterday from a nice young man pretending to be with my bank. I've got my phone set so it takes, you know, it says, why are you calling? And it takes a message, you know, and it gives it to you as a text message before you pick up the call. So I never picked up the call because I knew that my bank wouldn't be calling me. But look out. I mean, this guy sounded like Mr. All-America. It was from a local phone number. I checked with the bank. Nobody there has that name. Nobody from there called me. This, you know, and these people are calling people, you know, finding out who you bank with is probably not particularly difficult to do.

2:00And these guys are, they call people and they get them to basically, you know, give up their passwords or their information or whatever. This is serious stuff. So be very, very careful. Your bank will not call you. Your credit card company will not call you. It's the scammers who will call you. Meanwhile, speaking of scammers, our old buddy Wayne Alleroo, who used to come on this program and debate me, is pointing out that when Donald Trump was on his program, a couple of weeks ago, and we talked about this here on this program, that he said to Donald, why don't you declare a national state of an emergency? And then you can just suspend the elections or seize the, seize the voting, you know, the ballots from places that will most likely vote Democratic. And Trump was like, stranger things have happened. And so Wayne Alleroo now is strongly suggesting that he believes, as does Steve Bannon, that sometime in the next eight weeks, you know, until the election, that Trump is going to declare a state of emergency,

3:07is going to shut down the elections and is going to basically declare himself emperor for life. And this is what Wayne says. He said, if you declare a state of emergency, declare a national security emergency, he said they can't take it to court. I'm going to sneeze, hang on. He says it can't be, it can't be legally challenged. He said the Supreme Court in 1983 in the Chata versus INS case, as you cannot challenge a national security emergency any other way, the only way to overturn it with a two thirds vote in both houses of Congress. And he said, what would that state of emergency contain? Photo ID pardon me, sneezing here. Photo ID proof of citizenship, strict limits on mail in ballots and many other things that were not in the Save America Act. Incredible. So he's saying that he really believes Trump is going to do this. By the way, you saw down in Terrant County in Fort Worth yesterday, the Republican commissioners just shut down.

4:12I'm going to sneeze a good pardon me, just shut down a bunch of polling places. You know, what about a quarter or fifth of the polling places in the entire county? Why? Well, because this is a blue county. This is, you know, and so this, the purpose of this pardon my sneezing here. It's freezing in the studio. The purpose of this is not just to discourage people from voting. It's to create long lines. And what's amazing to me is we have been seeing this for years and years and years. We see these, oh, isn't it wonderful? Look at the long line. People standing in line for five hours to vote. It must really, must really want to vote. No, that is voter suppression that you're looking at. The long lines in blue collar neighborhoods and black neighborhoods in neighborhoods that tend to vote Democratic in college towns. Those long lines are there to discourage people from standing in line. Is that simple? And get ready. They're coming to Texas. They're coming to any, any place Republicans control where there's a Democratic stronghold.

5:15There's going to be long lines. This is your cow down it. All right, let's pick up some calls here. Ken and Corralis, New Mexico. Hey, Ken, what's up? Hello, Tom. I appreciate that you mentioned the, you know, what that gentleman told Trump about the state of emergency. Because I think that's exactly what the playbook is. To me, Trump does not seem to fear the election. He was making fun of Ken Paxen yesterday. He hasn't released, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in his war chest to these candidates. He doesn't seem worried to me and we're fumbling over, you know, the details of Iran, which is very warranted. I understand all this is news. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter to him. He doesn't care about Iran if it goes south. He doesn't care about Paxen. He doesn't care about anything. He's got a strategy. And that strategy is a week or so before the election.

6:18He's going to do a state of emergency and we won't have elections in this country. And of course, he's capable of doing that. What do you think? I think you're right, Ken. I think there's a very good chance that you're right. And so what do we do about it? What can we do about it? That's what I don't know the answer to that. You know, number one, of course, everybody gets out in the streets. You know, in context, they're elected officials and there'll be lawsuits flying 16 ways to Sunday. But I don't, you know, I mean, this is, this is like, you know, there's a military coup kind of thing. You know, I mean, this is one of those things where you just, you know, you're not set up to deal with having a criminal in the White House who will actually commit a crime to stay in power, even though he did before. You know, in January 6th, 2001, when he encouraged people to go out and go down there and murder his vice president in the Speaker of the House and kill a few cops and they killed five of them.

7:18And so Tom, if you could just do us all a favor and kind of focus a little bit on that because everything about the polling stations, super important. All that is important. But that's not going to matter. None of that matters with a stroke of a pin. This orange disease will completely destroy our democracy with one stroke of a pin. And that's all he's got to do. And there's nothing we can do about it. Apparently. So we can talk about all this other stuff. It's great. I think that there are things we can do about it. I, you know, like I said, I'm not sure that. Well, I will have to say I was I started to say I'm not sure that our military or our legal system will tolerate this. But this is why he's been so aggressively purging both him and hexath and all the other fascists with him. So we'll just set the way and see. Ken, thanks for the call. Did you know your brain is roughly 73% water? That's why even mild dehydration can sometimes contribute to things like headaches, dizziness, brain fog and irritability.

8:35So we're staying properly hydrated with water and electrolytes, place an important role in supporting memory, focus and mental alertness. And as we age, hydration becomes even more essential for helping our bodies function at their best. That's where native hydrate comes in. Native hydrate is 100% natural with the thoughtfully designed formula that includes BCAAs and all nine essential amino acids to support muscle recovery, strengthen overall wellness. It helps replenish key electrolytes to support your body's natural energy levels. And it's free of artificial flavor, sugars and dyes with only five calories per serving. Every order comes with a 365 day money back guarantee. Try and risk free at native hydrate.com slash Tom THOM. And see what it can do for your hydration and wellness. That's native hydrate.com slash Tom. Mark and Highland, California. Mark, what's on your mind today? Hello, I'm yours is the greatest TV show I've ever seen. I'm 75 years old. Well, thank you.

9:36And the reason why I was thinking about Gloria Steinem, I thought, why can't someone in Congress introduce a law saying that only women may sit on the Supreme Court? Because the men on the court have totally failed to support the Constitution consistently. Amy Coney Barrett is not, you know, the world's best either, but she's threatened. She's threatened by the Trumpists. Yeah, if she's better than a lot of Republicans. No, I get it. In fact, I thought it was funny that the one of the top stories. It's my pilot, John Knau. But one of the top stories over a town hall today is that if women ran the country, it would be a disaster. I mean, this is this is the kind of stuff that Republicans are promoting right now. Is he don't want any more women running for office? And you know, it's all got to be us guys and with our testosterone shots and our pumped up and more beef. I mean, it's really, this is this is a set in Kennedy and you know, and and rotate and and Baron Trump and all these other pathetic want to be men.

10:44It's just it's a disaster. Mark, thanks for the call. Spot on Sharon and Arlington, Texas. Hey Sharon. What's on your mind today? Hi, Tom. I was just wanting to you said earlier, one four to one fifth of the polling sites were closed. It's actually one third. Whoa. And it initially wanted to do one half. Wow. And the sites that are being closed are in certain parts of Fort Worth and Arlington, which are tending more blue and actually the the meaning when in August when they were talking, I mean, you know, when they were talking about one half, the meeting got so contentious that a couple of the citizens speakers got upset and were using profanity. One was pulled out of the meeting. The other women was arrested the next day. So it's it's really, you know, contingent that and the redistricting a lot of that started with Tarant County and they wanted to go from four commissioners, three commissioners, they read and to a blue to four red and only one blue.

12:06And many wanted to take it statewide and at that time, Abbott said, no, we were afraid it would backfire. But then Trump came in and insisted that they read district district and that's where all that. Well, in some speculation, it may well backfire that they had to dilute some of these solidly read districts to move those people into the purple districts and make them more read. And the result of that is that the the strength of the Republican vote in those districts has been weakened. I mean, this might go up in their face. That's what we're hoping. But parts of Tarant County are very red and they have an extraordinary control of the state of the commissioners court, especially. Yeah. And it's it is for worth your capital city. I it's well, it's the I guess it's that you would say it's the head of the Tarant County, you know, what is the state capital for?

13:08The commissioners court in like Culliville and you know, different areas like that. Yeah. So it's a county seat. I get it. Yeah. I was I forgot that it was Austin that it's the capital city. Right. Austin is OK. Yeah. Capital of the state. Took me a minute there. Sharon, thank you for the help. I wanted to thank you also. I finally read your the profits way and I really appreciate the way you viewed your format to inspire in many ways. Well, thank you, Sharon. Thank you. Yeah. That book was a real challenge to write. It's mostly just diaries, but yeah. Thank you very very much for your kind words. You're listening to Tom Hartman. Visit Tom Hartman dot com for audio and video archives. So JD Vance was asked when are gas prices going to get back down to three bucks and he was like, oh, oh,

14:17and welcome back. James and spoke in Washington. Hey, James, what's on your mind today? Hey, Tom. I'm a complement to you and your crew. They seem like some firebrands honestly we got some great people here. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Well, the phrase of the day, and I really think, if you think about it from a psychological standpoint, a social standpoint, the root cause of all our problems today, you could be described by the phrase of the day, which would be terminal decadence. Or greed. Yeah. And that's what's causing the climate change as well, because it's just bad thinking, ignorance, bad education, and like that, and allowances that shouldn't be allowed. And the thing is, Tom, you remember, as I do when we were children early in our life, there was described oftentimes, I remember hearing it repeatedly about the delicate balance of nature. And I think the industrials got that out of the mainstream media. You haven't heard it recently. I certainly haven't in the last 50 years or so. Yeah. You know, when you upset the balance of nature, there is hell to pay. That was the idea. It took place and established over a long period of time.

15:20You upset it. You got hell to pay. And it doesn't rewrite overnight, no matter what you do. We need to arrest it now, or it is going to kill it. It's already killing people worldwide. Yeah. It's going to take us all out if we don't address it and arrest it. Yeah. Determinal decadence. Excellent point, James. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. Bless you. Yeah. Well, thank you. Back at you. Jeff in Portland. Hey, Jeff, what's on your mind today? Hey, Tom, it's been a while. So anyway, could get on and I'll try and be succinct. And I'll begin by saying, at Marquis, Senate primary, when this week, that was a day of the progressive movement on top of all the other huge wins we've had so far this primary season, which I think we might be at the end of all right. I'm not sure. But, you know, the times that are changing and regardless of age, people want fires like ed who are going to hold this wild corrupt and democratic administration accountable, while also taking on the affordability crisis and pushing Medicare for all. As Ed Duel says, get Maria to pause the tomorrow on pocket and pass Medicare for all.

16:23And finally, Tom, I agree with Mark Pocahne yesterday saying we need to really be laser-focused, you know, starting right now on this election. The fact that we have to be so concerned with all these new election interference schemes coming from Trump shows how far down the road is fascism we've already gone. So, you know, let's pull together. Besides voter suppression, authoritarian is only a win by divining us and it's time to get up the vote, protect the vote. And then we can argue how to put credit to leadership after we take that. Yeah. November, November 30th is ultimately no Kings Day, your thoughts. No, I think your analysis is spot on, Jeff. And then this election, Hillary Clinton this morning, no, it wasn't Hillary Clinton. It was, Kamala Harris was asked if she's going to run again in 2028. And this was on MSNBC a couple of hours ago. And her response was, I'm not even thinking about that. If we don't win this election, this 2026 election, the 2028 election won't matter.

17:26And or words to that effect. Yeah. And. And for her for saying that. Yeah. And, you know, yet a caller yesterday, Cody called in the ho-cams. You know, we got a focus on the pro-democracy message, but that term message and it didn't fly. And everything, but everything she predicted is started to down the road of fascism has happened. We got to stick to the affordability message. I agree with Mark Fokian on that. No, I get it. We've got to play politics the way the politics has to be played. But and it's possible to do that without compromising your principles, which is what I'm seeing from most of your progressives. Jeff, thank you for the call. It's always nice hearing from you. Appreciate it. We'll be right back. Welcome back. David and Elverson, Pennsylvania. Hey, David, what's on your mind today? Good afternoon, Tom. I have a question and since I've been on hold, I have one other question. I first wanted to say that I'm very grateful to be able to thank you for the information

18:28that you dispense. In my opinion, you are an American patriot. And thank you for all that you do. My questions are number one. Where does this double standard come from in the American part? I have no words, Republican and Democrats. In other words, I've watched for many years how the Republicans are able to get away with certain things that the Democrats can absolutely not get away with the same things that Republicans do. My second question is so. Well, let's deal with that first one first. The way they get away with it is that they basically own their own media. If you, I encourage you to watch Fox News for a half hour, one night a week, and you'll see what I'm talking about. They tell half the story with anything it has to do with Trump. They ignore the parts of the story that might make him look bad. And so these people are just living in this bubble. That's how they get away with it. And they've got a very, very, very powerful, coherent, well-funded, I mean, you know, they've

19:30got a couple hundred, two hundred billionaires supported Donald Trump's election the last time, three billionaires supported Kamala Harris. They've got this very well-funded media machine to take any little complaint they have, any little outrage. One, you know, Mexican voter, some state that they can turn into a national story. I mean, they have this incredible power. And they're right-wing billionaires own Twitter, own Facebook, own threads, own, I mean, it goes out and out and out. So that's why it how? Correct, absolutely correct, which leads me to my second question is, down through the years, Tom, whatever the past two decades or three decades, could you, I mean, I'm aware of the Koch brothers and these other things. Who are outside of media outlets behind the scenes, Tom? What would be sort of a short list of the major and doesn't have to be present day of the major influencers for the Republican Party?

20:34There's a group I think it's called Donors Trust, which is probably the most low profile and well-funded of the right-wing kind of billionaire vehicles. You got Leonard Leo and his whole thing to influence the judiciary. He's got, you know, this guy left him $1.4 billion in his will and he's well-funded. Beyond that, I, you know, obviously Larry Ellison and his son David who are buying up our media right now. I don't know, it's a good question, David. Nancy McClain wrote a good book about this called Democracy and Chains. It's a little out of date. I mean, she published it about eight, ten years ago. She's been on this program. And Jane Mayer wrote a book called Dark Money, which is also a little bit out of date. But those two books name and go through all the details on a lot of these right-wing networks. You might want to check out those two books. David, I got to run, but thank you. Also there's the nerd right. We've guild around that we just interviewed to last Friday. I think I'm this program.

21:35So we'll be right back. I'm going to get into it. How many lies dressed up as law and order before we admit we're standing at the border of something older than we want to believe? Something that takes more than it gives never leaves. How many democracies must fall before we admit they want the same outcome? For us all, different acts and different flags they weigh. Same old hunger for frightened, quiet grade.

22:35How many freedoms must we trade before we say their names out loud? How many democracies must fall before we admit it now? Patrick, can East Lansing Michigan, A. Patrick, what's on your mind today? Hi there, Tom. Hey Patrick. Thanks. I always learn from you and I love your segments with Richard Wolfe and other people who explain how to understand the economy. And I thought there's two things, big things that we should all understand. And I was hoping that if you've talked about it before, you'll let me know. But otherwise, I'd love to hear a discussion of it on your show. One is this whole phenomenon of corporate buybacks and how they made the management of companies

23:40extremely rich and increased the pay gap and resulted in very serious mass layoff. I've written several op-eds about that and done a lot of rants on the program about it. But it's probably time to do another one. It's been a year or so. Here's what I wanted to offer to you. I just read a book by Leslie Apold at the labor institute called Wall Street War on Workers. And we hosted him and I viewed him at an American monetary institute conference in 2025. And anybody can Google it and listen to it. And what he explains is that from 2010 to 2018, 91% of the profits of corporations were not paid in dividends or given to workers or put into investment. They were used to buy stock buybacks that were illegal before 1980. Right. It wasn't 1980. It was 82 or 83. It was Reagan who changed that rule. Yes.

24:4082. You didn't 78 with three SEC rulings. You're absolutely correct. 81. It was proposed 82. It went into effect. You're absolutely right. What Leslie Apold says is that the mass layoffs that resulted directly from the stock buybacks dislocated so many families. He lays out all the companies that had mass layoffs. But if you just take the states Trump won in 2016, it's over 23 to 24% of the families in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania. And it has huge consequences on their views of politics. So it's not just that the wealth inequality is going off the charts because of this. It's also in the pay gap between the average worker and the average CEO or manager. But it's also that it's dislocating communities and it's shredding the social contract. I agree. I absolutely agree. And you'll also find that information in my book, The Hidden History of American Monopoly.

25:42But yeah, spot on. And share buybacks are, you know, they're, they're a poison. They're a cancer in our economic system. And then basically what happens when companies buy back their shares, it increases the, the individual price of shares because the number of shares available is decreased, which means that all those executives who are paid with shares suddenly get a huge bonus, which is the whole point of it. And along with all the other stockholders and it, but it doesn't do a thing for the community. It doesn't do a thing for the company. It doesn't do a thing for the products and certainly doesn't do a thing for the consumer. Patrick, thank you. Well said. You're listening to Tom Hartman. Visit tomheartman.com for audio and video archive. And Leslie of Hold is a genius. He's been on this program a number of times. His writings are just brilliant. We'll be right back. Elizabeth in Oakland, California, hails. And thanks for watching us on Sub-Sack, by the way. What's up? Oh, no. Okay. I'm really disappointed that Ocean Springs High School had their first game this season,

26:44Audit 27. So it was a home game yet no tribute to Nolan Wells, no moment of silence at a typical for, for when a student has lost from a community school community. And Nolan played on the football team. He graduated from the high school and his brother is a current member of the football team. His mother was an audience. They should have done that. But because he's why do you think? Why do you think they didn't because he's black? Yeah, there's just no priority for him. And is this has this become a local story in Oakland? Is there outrage or is this just being glossed over by the media? Is this being glossed over by the media? And if there's no priority for him? And it's indicative of the rise and lynchings of black youth that not being covered, not

27:44being looked at and dismissed. Superintendent is just in sudden. He needs to do something about that. Elizabeth, thanks for the call. Don and Chicago, hey Don, what's on your mind today? Of course, thank you. A lot of the go you had to call or mention limiting the amount of children and all that. Or he said stop having kids. Obviously if we stop having kids, we don't have to worry about a carpent footprint because seven years from now we're all gone. Not having a Catholic Democrat. We've always taught more and more children. I got to say growing up there were three families on neighborhood with 12 kids. Some of the happiest kids. However, I wouldn't have 12 kids today because it's just a big deal. I mean, the Catholic families today aren't like they were when back in the 50s and 60s. There's widespread use of birth control in the Catholic community. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just about people. But anyway, I just controlling the population. I think it's well, you can't have no kids. My point was if you're looking for something to help the planet instead of having a burger

28:46today, have a salad or a tofu burger. Well, you know, I can say it, but the other thing too. In terms of meat versus veggie, I've been, you know, to lose weight, different ways to lose weight. And you can go totally vegetable, which I've judged, plus flat away. Yeah. Totally. Can I think what was mankind like a hundred years ago, be special? I don't disagree. Nobody is disputing the rise, you know, obesity and the diseases associated with it. Principally, type two diabetes and heart disease. And you know, just a wholesome diet is a whole lot better. You know, it can be a very effective way to lose weight. Don, thank you. Alan in Knoxville, Tennessee. Hey, Alan, what's on your mind today? Oh, yes, sir. I can't debate with you. I'm meeting your colleagues. I agree with all of them. Some are a little iffy, but anyway, I just want to make a statement and ask a question. Donald Trump claimed this a couple of times that he's lowered the price of drugs 600%. Well, I'm not a mathematician, but I need to visit my pharmacist. I think he owes me a lot of money.

29:47Exactly. But other than that, my question is, I never fully understood why President Trump, I watched his formerly from Honduras, why he pardoned the former president of Honduras. I never fully really understood that. I believe he got a multimillion dollar donation. Is that why? I'm pretty sure. I'd have to go back and look at it. I remember when it happened, and there was something real skeasy about it. Most of these big shots who have been pardoned have given massive amounts of money to Donald Trump or his family, and then suddenly, some miraculously, they get pardoned. You know, Rudy Giuliani, back six years ago, seven years ago, said that he and Trump were selling pardons for two million dollars a piece, and they were splitting the money down the middle. So, I mean, he actually said that to the press, or he said it to one reporter and got reported, and he didn't deny that he said it. So, I think it's pretty clear. You know, he's selling pardons.

30:48What if he's about my dad, he said, no, as much as that. There you go. There you go. Alan, thanks for the call. Look it up, and if I'm wrong, let me know, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. Thank you for the call. Anyway, thank you to you for reaching out to your local radio or television station, letting them know that you're watching or listening, and supporting our sponsors or our nonprofit stations. Thanks so much. Get out there, get active tag, you're it. You've been listening to Tom Hartman. For audio and video archives, visit Tom Hartman.com.