Introduction by Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers Co-Founder and CEO

As author, broadcaster and scholar Thom Hartmann sees it, the lines between corporate power, billionaire interests, government authority, public “knowledge,” and foreign influence have not just blurred — they’re vanishing. This is not just politics as usual; this is an emergency. When has any small group of private citizens held such sway over both domestic and foreign policy? The America we once knew — where elected officials were accountable to voters rather than billionaires — is slipping away. This erosion of democracy is largely due to five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court ruling that political bribery equals “free speech,” allowing billionaires to flood our 2024 election with money. In truth, this long-developing alliance between American oligarchs and the Supreme Court marks a climactic corporate endgame to replace American democracy with plutocratic autocracy. Do we, the American people, still possess the power and will to challenge this oligarchic takeover? Yes, says Hartmann. This is a call to action.