You can't turn on a cable TV news channel these days without seeing some TV pundit or panelist saying that Democrats need to "move to the middle." What the heck do they mean?

Do they mean that Dems should say it's just fine that over 30 million Americans have no health care? We love that the big banks make hundreds of billions in profits by ripping us off and putting our economy at risk? That fossil fuel and chemical industries should continue to poison us and our planet? That it's just fine if drug companies and for-profit colleges and Charter Schools keep ripping us off? That it's just fine that the American Dream is dead and there's no need to bring back unions and union jobs?

What is "the center" beyond the status quo?

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "The dishonest smearing of Ilhan Omar" by Paul Waldman.

Article: "A brief, 90-year history of Republicans calling Democrats 'socialists'" by Ian Millhiser.

Article: "Mark Penn: Socialism is a rising danger in Democratic Party" by Mark Penn.

Article: "Conservatives target Ocasio-Cortez's 'Green New Deal' in New York billboards" by Alex Dobuzinskis.

Site: Haaretz.

Article: "US senators want report on Khashoggi killing from intel community" by Ola Salem & William Roberts.

Article: "House's Anti-Semitism Resolution Exposes Generational Fight Over Ilhan Omar" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg.

Tweet: "Just got an email from Trump. He writes: Democratic ...candidates 2020 strategy and it's TERRIFYING. Their main talking points:
*90% proposed tax rate
*Wide-open borders
*Full-term abortion
*Ripping away 2nd Amendment rights
*Government-run healthcare
*Full-blown socialism
#Liar" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The Oppression of the Supermajority" by Tim Wu.

Quote: "[A conservative is someone who] stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it." " by William F. Buckley Jr.

Video: Ted Kennedy on Republicans and Minimum wage. "When does the greed stop?"

Quote: "If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time" - Harry S. Truman.

Hour Two: Should Democrats Move to the Middle to Oust Trump in 2020? (Or, Is This Just the Latest GOP "Lie to Win" Strategy?)
- Bryan Pruitt, Contributor - RedState.com

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

Video: "New Covenant speech", October 23, 1991 by Bill Clinton.

Article: "Poll Of Likely 2016 Voters" by GBA Strategies on behalf of the Progressive Change Institute.

Law: "G.I. Bill" (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Socialism" by Terence Ball Richard Dagger.

Article: "Homeland Chair Scolds Kirstjen Nielsen For Claiming Kids Weren't Kept in Cages: 'Do NOT Mislead the Committee!'" by Tommy Christopher.

Article: "America is an oligarchy, not a democracy or republic, university study finds" by Cheryl K. Chumley.

Book: Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty.

Book: The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity, and Improve Everyone's Well-Being by Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010)

Law: "Tillman Act of 1907".

Letter: "To Edgar Newton Eisenhower" by Dwight Eisenhower.

Article: "Was Eisenhower more of a socialist than Bernie Sanders?" by Mike Tokars.

Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956", August 20, 1956.

Case: "First National Bank Of Boston V. Bellotti", 1978

Talk Media News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Book: Loving What You Do: The Elements of a Great Working Life by Ellen Ratner.

Article: "A plan to end Afghanistan War: Declare victory and give $2,500 bonuses to vets" by Leo Shane III.

Article: "North Korea Has Started Rebuilding Key Missile-Test Facilities, Analysts Say" by Choe Sang-Hun.

Article: "Pentagon deceived Congress on transgender troops, former officials say" by Bryan Bender.

Article: "The five most dangerous places to be a girl" by IRC.

Article: "This bill would have ended child marriage for those under age in Idaho. The House voted it down" by Cynthia Sewell.

Article: "Top US general in Europe: Don't give Turkey F-35 if they buy Russian system" by Aaron Mehta and Joe Gould.

Article: "U.S. House panel demands Kushner clearance details from White House" by David Morgan.

Article: "Cummings blasts White House for failing to comply with security clearance probe" by Morgan Chalfant.

Article: "JPMorgan to stop financing private prisons and detention centers after protests" by Reuters.

Article: "US trade gap hits 10-year high as Trump's trade war backfires - business live" by Graeme Wearden.

Hour Three: Guaido Returns & Challenges Maduro
- Greg Palast, Investigative Journalist/Author/Filmmaker, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Article: "As Guaidó Returns to Venezuela, Pence Threatens 'Swift Response' If Opposition Leader Arrested" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "Where Democratic Presidential Contenders Stand On The Venezuelan Crisis" by Daniel Marans, Nick Robins-Early, Travis Waldron.

Article: "Maduro Closes Venezuela's Border With Brazil to Block Aid" by Nicholas Casey.

Article: "Venezuela: The Trump Coup — And Our Next Oil War" by Greg Palast.

Article: "In Venezuela, White Supremacy is a Key to Trump's Coup" by Greg Palast.

Article: "Canada: Scandal Involving P.M. Trudeau Linked To Libya" by Christine Douglass-Williams.

Article: "After Seven Years, 'Kazakhgate' Scandal Ends With Minor Indictment" by RFE/RL.

Article: "Exclusive: Venezuela seeks to repatriate $550 million of gold from Britain - sources" by Mayela Armas.

Article: "Daily Kos Democratic Primary Straw Poll: March 4" by kos.

Site: Jim Terr.

Article: "Historian berates billionaires at Davos over tax avoidance" by Martin Farrer.

Book: Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever by Rick Wilson.

Article: "The White House tweeted a picture of Trump hugging the US flag and people are lost for words" by Greg Evans.

Article: "Quote Of The Day: Joy Behar On Trump's Flag Hugging At CPAC" by Frances Langum. "If he hugged that flag any closer he would have to pay it hush money".

Quote: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" - Samuel Johnson.

Article: "DNC announces fundraising, polling thresholds for early debates" by David Siders.

Article: "Overton window" by Wikipedia.

Case: "Brown v. Board Of Education", 1954 (Segregation in public schools) (overturned Plessy v. Ferguson).

Article: "Virginia's "Massive Resistance" to School Desegregation".

Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District) will be calling in to talk about the issues of the day and take your calls.

Also, Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work, author of Capitalism's Crisis Deepens Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown will be here to discuss economic news of the day.

Plus, Author/Lecturer & Activist Marianne Williamson will be here to discuss her run for president.

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...

Stopping the Oppression of the Supermajority!

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