Thanks to Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile and race-baiting rhetoric, the topic of fascism -- what it is and what causes it -- is once again on the minds of many Americans.

And while Trump’s rise to the top of the Republican field should scare anyone who’s read about how Hitler and Mussolini rose to power, what’s even scarier is that one of the key components of American fascism is already in place, and has been ever since the Reagan Revolution.

That component is monopoly, something former Vice President Henry Wallace identified as the key to fascism in a 1944 piece for The New York Times.

American fascists, Wallace wrote,

"…claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective… is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

At the time Wallace was writing, the threat of fascism was very, very real.

The U.S. was fighting a two front war against Axis powers, and was just three years removed from a Japanese fascist attack on its home soil.

It was also just eleven years removed from the tense days of 1933, when Marine Corps General Smedley Butler exposed a plot by big business to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt in a military coup.

That plot, the so-called Business Plot, was concocted by the very same rich men and corporations who Wallace said would support American fascism.

But luckily, thanks to the New Deal and Roosevelt’s trust-busting efforts, those forces had been kept in check, and would remain in check until the 1980s when President Ronald Reagan stopped enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

That act, which was signed into law in 1890, is our government’s most powerful tool against monopoly, and ever since Reagan threw it out the proverbial window, the monopolists -- Wallace’s American fascists -- have been on the march.

Almost every major industry in the United States is now controlled by a of handful giant multinational corporations.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... America's Defining Moment on Immigration (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

The Daily Stack

Article: "What to Watch for in Tuesday's US Presidential Primaries" by VOA News.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Telecommunications Act of 1996" by Wikipedia.

Tweet: "Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren't told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!" by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "@realDonaldTrump Send them. They deserve to see what an honest politician sounds like" by Millennials 4 Bernie.

Article: "Poll: Trump leads Rubio in Florida, Trump and Kasich are tied in Ohio" by Rebecca Shabad.

Site: FYI Nation.

Clip: "Paul Weyrich - "I don't want everybody to vote" (Goo Goo)".

Video: Voter Suppression ID Laws Reduce the Democratic Vote by 8 %!.

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Article: "Koch Brothers Rival GOP With Plans To Spend $900 Million In 2016" by Peter Overby.

Article: "Donald Trump Rally In Cincinnati Canceled, Candidate's Supporters Say 'Civil War' Declared" by Mike Bessler.

Article: "Donald Trump's West Chester rally: 4 takeaways" by Jeremy Fugleberg.

Article: "Surrogate Affidavit Form for the 2016 Democratic Precinct Caucus" by Washington State Democrats.

Toxic Tour of Los Angeles, Flint and the Election
- Actor-Director-Environmentalist Mark Ruffalo, Bernie Sanders Campaign

Article: "Mark Ruffalo Calls Out Governor Jerry Brown Over L.A.’s Urban Drilling" by Julie Miller.

Video: Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio's 'Toxic Tour'.

Site: Water Defense.

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

Book: How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy by Mehrsa Baradaran.

Video: Mehrsa Baradaran - Inequality in the U.S. Banking System.

Site: Free Speech TV

Article: "VA can't afford drug for veterans suffering from hepatitis C" by Chip Reid.

Article: "Congress outraged over hepatitis C treatment VA can't afford" by Chip Reid.

Book: How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy by Mehrsa Baradaran.

Article: "Donald Trump Supporter Tells Protesters To 'Go To Auschwitz,' Appears To Make Nazi Salute" by Ed Mazza.

Article: "Don't believe Donald Trump has incited violence at rallies? Watch this video" by German Lopez.

Book: "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer.

Article: "Carl Bernstein: Trump Is Birthing a New ‘American Fascism’" by Josh Feldman.

Article: "Ben Carson endorses Donald Trump" by MJ Lee and Eugene Scott.

Article: "Bernie Sanders says Donald Trump is a pathological liar" by Andrew Buncombe.

Article: "Bernie Sanders: GOP Sen. James Inhofe is a friend" by Gregory Krieg.

Article: "Marco Rubio Aide Urges Supporters to Back John Kasich in Ohio" by Maggie Haberman and Jeremy W. Peters.

Article: "Rubio tried to give Kasich an olive branch. Then Kasich's campaign lit it on fire" by Andrew Prokop.

Article: "The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies, a sensitive portrayal of a media witch-hunt" by Filipa Jodelka.

Site: Democracy Now!

Thom Confronts a Trump Supporter
- Scottie Nell Hughes, USA Radio Network

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

Article: "Donald Trump: Chicago Police deny advising Republican to cancel violent campaign rally" by Alexandra Sims.

Site: MoveOn.org

Article: "Soros Funded Moveon.Org Takes Credit For Violence In Chicago" by Kurt Nimmo.

Article: "John Kasich (R) - Top Contributors, federal election data " by opensecrets.org.

Article: "Our Planet’s Temperature Just Reached a Terrifying Milestone" by Eric Holthaus.

Article: "February Temperature" by Sam Carana.

Article: "This is unfair and undemocratic" by Tim Canova.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Events".

Movie: "The Producers".

Talk Media News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "White House knocks GOP leaders for not standing up to Trump" by Brianna Ehley.

Article: "UN mediator says no 'plan B' but war for Syria as peace talks begin" by Tom Miles and Suleiman Al-khalidi.

Article: "Putin orders forces to start withdraw from Syria" by TMN.

Article: "Amtrak train derails west of Cimarron injuring 32 passengers" by KSN.

Article: "Video Shows Man Apparently Peeing Into Production Line At Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats Plant" by Ed Mazza.

Article: "Urine therapy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Explain Your Letter: That Time We Claimed That Gandhi Drank His Own Pee" by Zach Schonfeld.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman

Article: "More than One-Third of US Innovators Are Immigrants" by Dora Mekouar.

Article: "Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan & Kevin McCarthy: Plot To Sabotage US Economy with Frank Luntz" by keepemhonest.

Article: "The Kochs Are Ghostwriting America's Story" by Michael Winship.

Book: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russell Kirk.

Article: "Gordon Gekko for Bernie: Inspiration for “Wall Street” villain endorses Sanders for president" by Kali Holloway.

Site: Aden Forecast.

Article: "Linda McMahon" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sanders, Cruz surging in Illinois -- Trump IL campaign in disarray – UIC protest bounce" by Natasha Korecki, Manuela Tobias.

Article: "Trump dumps Illinois campaign director" by Natasha Korecki, Ben Schreckinger.

Article: "Hillary Clinton had trouble explaining Obamacare to a layperson. Here's why." by Michael Hiltzik.

Article: "No, North Carolina police aren’t filing charges against Trump for inciting a riot; Update: Or are they?" by ALLAHPUNDIT.

Article: "Revealed: the 30-year economic betrayal dragging down Generation Y’s income" by Caelainn Barr and Shiv Malik.

Article: "Slaughter: Supporting women includes opposing TPP" by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.).

Article: "Bobby Jindal’s Anti-Tax Fervor May Have Destroyed Louisiana" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "Why Seniors—Not CEOs—Deserve a Raise" by Elizabeth Warren.

Article: "White House Pushes Plan to Bring Broadband to 20M More Americans" by Lucy Bayly.

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Full Show 3/11/16: Fukushima Five Years Later

Tonight’s Rumble breaks down the latest Republican debate, the increasing violence at Trump rallies, and the right’s war on abortion rights. In tonight’s Conversations with Great Minds, Thom discusses the future of nuclear power five years after the disaster at Fukushima

Thom Hartmann on the Economic & Labor News - March 14, 2016