We could be looking at the end of the American experiment, and it has gone so far that it'll take a political revolution to set things right again.

On Monday, Charles and David Koch, the Koch brothers, pledged they would raise and spend $889 million to help elect Republicans in the 2016 election cycle. To put just how huge this number is in perspective, $889 million is more than both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee spent combined over the course of the 2012 elections.

This is the brave new world we live in thanks to the Supreme Court and it’s doctrine of money as speech and corporations as people. Two billionaires - two oil barons - now have just as much power, arguably even more power, than America's two main political parties. But the Kochs are just one example of a very big problem. And that problem is the near total takeover of our political system by plutocrats.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “Since Citizens United was decided in 2010, there has been more than $1 billion in super PAC spending. Just 195 individuals and their spouses gave almost 60 percent of that money - more than $600 million.”

It’s clear that this investment has paid big dividends for the plutocrats. Republicans now control 69 of the 99 state legislative chambers across the U.S. as well as both houses of Congress, where they’re hard at work pushing corporate-friendly legislation like a bill to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline.

On the state level corporate influence has become so pervasive that in Kansas Governor Sam Brownback submitted his state budget to Koch-funded lobbyists weeks before he submitted it to his own state's legislature.

Meanwhile, wealth inequality remains at an all-time high as the top one percent has captured 91 percent all income gains since the Recession.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The GOP declares war on Native Americans (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our new videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio

Big Picture Rumble:
- Kris Ullman, Conservative Commentator/Activist
- Sam Sacks, The District Sentinel
- Charles Sauer, The Market Institute

Best of the Rest: The GOP declares war on Native Americans
- Tara Houska, Tribal Rights Attorney
- Dallas Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

Community Square

"Alternative Fuels......"

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Law: "Alien and Sedition Acts", 1798.

Article: "The Danger of American Fascism" by Henry A. Wallace.

Article: "GOP's Frightening Plot to Build Laboratories for Plutocracy in States They Control" by Zaid Jilani.

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Audio: "A Richer World, but for Whom?" by BBC.

Article: "A Richer World... but for whom?" by Andrew Walker.

Article: "Tell Congress: Oppose Title X --- Save Net Neutrality".

Law: "Communications Act of 1934", of which Title II regulates common carriers.

Article: "Let the 2016 Koch ring kissing begin" by Joan McCarter.

Article: "Continued Assaults on Health Reform" by NY Times.

Article: "Lobbyists Got To See Kansas Budget Before Legislators Did" by Susie Madrak.

Article: "Fascism Anyone?" by Laurence W. Britt (The 14 Characteristics of Fascism).

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Trans-Pacific Partnership" (TPP) by Wikipedia.

Site: Highlands Group.

Law: "Federal Advisory Committee Act", 6 October 1972.

Article: "Meeting with Pope John Paul II" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "The Prophet's Way" by Thom Hartmann.

Site: Hunter School

Article: "Michelle Obama headscarf controversy - do Saudis really care?" by BBC Trending.

Article: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Article: "Mergers and acquisitions" by Wikipedia.

The good: "Setting Precedent for Public Institutions, Maine University System Pulls Funds From Fossil Fuels" by Sarah Lazare.

The bad: "Fox Host Decides That America 'Saved The Planet' With Iraq War (VIDEO)" by Brendan James.

The very, very ugly: "Fischer: You'll Never 'Find A More Directly Demonic Energy Than When You Deal With The Homosexual Agenda'" by Kyle Mantyla.

Article: "Emperor Justinian's Closure of the School of Athens" by James Hannam.

Article: "Monopoly (game)" by Wikipedia.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "Lynch Defends Obama’s Moves On Immigration" by Nicholas Salazar.

Article: "Fifty-Four Years Later Judge Tosses Sit-in Convictions for Friendship Nine" by Loretta Lewis.

Article: "IS hostages: Jordan offers prisoner for captured airman" by BBC.

Article: "Mitt Romney to Attack Hillary Clinton in Speech" by Zeke J Miller.

Article: "Senators resurrect bill to require a warrant for email searches" by Mario Trujillo.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 1/28" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 1/27" by Victoria Jones.

Law: "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", 2014.

Article: "Downsize Democracy For 40 Years, Here's What You Get" by Murray Dobbin.

Article: "Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'?" by Nafeez Ahmed.

Article: "Epic of Gilgamesh".

Article: "Ur, Iraq" by Global Heritage

Fund.

Quote: "The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor" - Voltaire.

Video: Schoolhouse Rock: America - I'm Just a Bill Music Video.

Site: "Icelandic Economics" by Olafur Margeirsson.

Site: "Economy of Iceland" by Wikipedia.

Book: "Threshold: The Progressive Plan to Pull America Back from the Brink" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Taken For Granted At Davos That US Government Run On ‘Legalized Corruption’" by DSWright.

Site: Nouriel Roubini.

Video: The American Dream - George Carlin.

Event: Minneapolis, February 27th, 2015 "AM950's 11th Annual Blue State Ball".

Book: Today's ISMS: Socialism, Capitalism, Fascism, Communism, and Libertarianism by by Alan Ebenstein, William Ebenstein, Edwin Fogelman.

Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

I'll be talking with America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio about the issues of the day...

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Has the United States become a plutocracy?

Vote here!

Is the New Greek Finance Minister a Lefty Radical?

Politics Panel - Should we rename America... Kochistan?

Politics Panel - Who Are the Real Radicals In Greece?

The Deficits Republicans Don't Want to Talk About

The Good - The Bad - And the Very Very Neanthropicly Ugly

Full Show 1/26/2015: America’s Real Deficit Problem

The Politics Panel debates the Greek anti-austerity movement, the Koch brothers billion dollar 2016 campaign, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s rise. Hughey Newsome of Project 21, progressive commentator Nate Sweet, and Scott Greer of the Daily Caller join Thom on set.

Richard Eskow, host of The Zero Hour radio, talks Greek election ramifications, if Republicans are planning the same anti-austerity measures here in the U.S., and the Koch brothers impact on 2016.

Gilgamesh: A Tale Of... Ecology?

Why Is DC Suddenly So Wealthy?

Is Syriza's Victory in Greece Good News for U.S. Progressive Democrats?

Democrats Call the Benghazi Select Committee a "Sham"

Caller: U.S. Pledges Addt'l Funding to Vaccine Alliance!

Do Fascists In America Scare You? What About "Superpatriots"?