Greg Palast

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
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"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.
 
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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?
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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
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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/
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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 
 
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Bobby Bobby, Bobby Kennedy, my dear dear friend of so many years, my co-author at Rolling Stone, Bobby, why are you threatening my life? Why are you threatening lives across America and even our not-yet-born great-grandchildren? You’ve blocked mRNA vaccine research. RESEARCH!!!!
Bobby, you know damn well that mRNA is our best hope for an anti-cancer vaccine. What are you doing to us, Bobby?
Bobby, my friend, you are sick, physically and mentally. I’m sympathetic, but don’t make everyone else as sick as you.
If you want to know about my years-long friendship with RFK Jr., and why I am compelled to go public with this private information about him, read my story, “I was on the phone with RFK Jr. when he lost his mind."  https://www.gregpalast.com/i-was-on-the-phone-with-rfk-jr-when-he-lost-his-mind/