Yesterday, in an interview with the Washington Post, Former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn revealed he was "stunned" by Trump's proposed 2020 budget recommending $26 billion in cuts to Social Security and the Social Security Disability Insurance program.

What's stunning is that anybody would be stunned by this.

Republicans in Congress and the trump administration are proposing these cuts to Social Security by billions of dollars, while increasing multibillion dollar subsidies for the oil industry and eliminating the ability of states to protect themselves and their citizens from badly constructed oil pipelines. This tells you everything about their priorities: big bucks for billionaires and their planet-poisoning oil wells; retired people and disabled people can just die in the streets.

The GOP is going to try to distract us with hysteria about the southern border, abortion, and gun control. But this is their real agenda.

-Thom

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Wednesday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Mid-day with Mark
- Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District)

Article: "Full Replay: A.G. Bill Barr Faces Second Day Of Questions About Mueller Report" by Tim Hains.

Article: "Full Replay: AG Bill Barr Testifies Before Congress For First Time Since Receiving Mueller Report" by Ian Schwartz.

Article: "Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Aborting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails 'Cover-Up'" by David Johnston.

Article: "Essay; The Patsy Prosecutor" by William Safire.

Law: "H.R.6407 - Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act", 12/20/2006.

Article: "Trump's Tax Returns Were Formally Requested By A House Committee - Here Are His Options" by Caroline Burke.

Article: "Trump adviser Stephen Miller a 'white nationalist', says Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar" by Chris Baynes.

Article: "Ineligibility Clause" (Emoluments Clause).

Article: "Vichy France" by Wikipedia.

Bill: "H.R.1004 - Prohibiting Unauthorized Military Action in Venezuela Act" by Rep. Cicilline, David N. [D-RI-1].

Article: "U.S. House Democrats introduce sweeping 'Medicare for All' bill" by Yasmeen Abutaleb.

Article: "t's deadline day for Trump's tax returns" by Lauren Fox.

Article: "CNN Poll: Majority says Trump not exonerated of collusion after Barr's summary" by Jennifer Agiesta.

Article: "What the midterms can teach the Democrats about winning in 2020" by Tom McCarthy.

Article: "Victory! The House of Representatives Passes Net Neutrality Protections" by Katharine Trendacosta and Ernesto Falcon.

Article: "Trump suddenly pulls ICE nominee to go with someone 'tougher'" by Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands, Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond and Jim Acosta.

Article: "A tougher direction: Kirstjen Nielsen steps down as secretary of homeland security" by J.E.F.

Article: "EB-5 visas: 5 things to know about the "golden ticket" to U.S. residency" by Aimee Picchi.

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 1 section 8 (Powers of Congress). "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States..."

Article: "Preamble to the Constitution of the United States".
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Article: "Congress Is About to Ban the Government From Offering Free Online Tax Filing. Thank TurboTax." by Justin Elliott.

Bill: "H.R.1957 - Taxpayer First Act of 2019" by Rep. Lewis, John [D-GA-5].

Documentary: Where to Invade Next - Michael Moore.

Article: "Pelosi Abandons Budget Cap Bill Amid House Democratic Divisions" by Erik Wasson and Jack Fitzpatrick.

Article: "E-Verify" by USCIS.

Hour Two: Vicky Ward - new book, Kushner Inc.: Greed, Ambition, Corruption
- Vicky Ward, Editor at Large - Huffington Post / Author of the new book, Kushner Inc.: Greed, Ambition, Corruption

Article: "The Story Behind Jared Kushner's Curious Acceptance Into Harvard" by Daniel Golden.

Article: "VIDEO: How Jared and Ivanka's greed and ambition compromise US foreign policy" by Amy Goodman.

Article: "Charles Kushner" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Why Chris Christie and Jared Kushner hate each other so much" by Emily Stewart.

Article: "Qatar Shocked, Shocked To Learn It Accidentally Bailed Out Jared Kushner" by Bess Levin.

Article: "Al Udeid Air Base" by Wikipedia.

Article: "'Denial': House Democrats Pass Law for a Fossil Fuel Future" by Eoin Higgins.

Bill: "H.R.1616 - To prioritize the efforts of and enhance coordination among United States agencies to encourage countries in Europe and Eurasia to diversify their energy sources and supply routes, increase energy security in the region, and help the United States reach its global energy security goals, and for other purposes." by Rep. Kinzinger, Adam [R-IL-16].

Article: "S.704 - European Energy Security and Diversification Act of 2019" by Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT].

Article: "U.S. House judiciary chair seeks any Mueller summaries on Trump-Russia probe report" by Reuters.

Article: "United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) " by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump Names Lori Loughlin Education Secretary" by Andy Borowitz.

Article: "What I've Learned From Collecting Stories of People Whose Loved Ones Were Transformed by Fox News" by Luke O'Neil.

Article: "Pigeon drop" by Wikipedia.

TV: "The Good Fight".

Article: "Cancer eating the heart of Australian democracy" by Kevin Rudd.

Site: Free Speech TV

Article: "The Color of Water" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Art Bell" by Wikipedia.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution" Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Article: "Alex Jones Floats Conspiracies Over Sandy Hook Father's Death" by Robert Rojas.

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: "'Spying on a political campaign is a big deal': Attorney General Barr says Justice Department will look at origins of Russia probe" by Kevin Breuninger.

Article: "Trump calls Mueller probe an 'attempted coup'" by Rebecca Morin.

Article: "Trump's Executive Order Is A Gamechanger For Oil Shipping" by Irina Slav.

Article: "Trump to issue executive orders seeking to speed up oil and gas projects" by Steven Mufson and Toluse Olorunnipa.

Article: "Job layoffs surge 35% to highest level to start a year in a decade" by Jeff Cox.

Article: "Trump basks in Netanyahu's victory by highlighting their personal alliance" by Julian Borger.

Article: "Trump rejects giving Dems tax returns, citing audit" by Brett Samuels.

Article: "Remarks by President Trump in Roundtable on Immigration and Border Security | Calexico, California".

Article: "China Can't Solve America's Fentanyl Problem" by Bryce Pardo and Peter Reuter.

Article: "The West once flooded China with opium. China is returning the favour" by Economist.

Article: "Opium Wars" by Kenneth Pletcher.

Article: "Trump says he has not seen or read Mueller's Russia probe report" by Reuters.

Article: "AG Barr refuses to say whether he's shown White House the Mueller report" by Emily Singer.

Article: "Trump: "There Is A Hunger In This Country" To Investigate Origins Of Mueller Probe "Illegal Witch Hunt"" by Tim Hains.

Article: "Yes, the Mueller investigation is costly. But the millions seized from Manafort have it on track to break even" by Kevin Johnson.

Article: "Trump says he's the only one in charge of setting his immigration policy" by Jordyn Phelps.

Hour Three: Censorship... Just Like China... Here in the U.S.?
- Nandan Joshi, Attorney - Public Citizen Litigation Group

Article: "'Blatant Violation of the First Amendment': Public Citizen Sues Betsy DeVos for Censoring Its Website" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "Tiananmen Square online searches censored by Chinese authorities" by Jonathan Kaiman.

Article: "Charlottesville car attack" by Wikipedia.

Quote: "you also had people that were very fine people on both sides" - Donald Trump.

Article: "Ted Patrick" by Wikipedia.

Article: "President Trump has made 9,451 false or misleading claims over 801 days" by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly.

Geeky Science: "New species of ancient human discovered in the Philippines" by Michael Greshko and Maya Wei-Haas.

Article: "Dennis Miller" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The True History of Libertarianism in America: A Phony Ideology to Promote a Corporate Agenda" by Mark Ames.

Article: "Potemkin village" by Wikipedia.

Documentary: The Brainwashing Of My Dad by Jen Senko.

Article: "Attorney General Barr puts team in place to investigate FBI probe of Trump" by Claude Thompson.

Article: "Beck denies being "responsible" for planned massacre at office of group he demonized" by Fae Jencks.

Article: "Oakland freeway shootout" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Freedom Caucus" by Wikipedia.

Article: "FreedomWorks" by Wikipedia.

Article: "David Horowitz" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Beer Hall Putsch" by Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Book: Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, 2nd Edition by Flo Conway, Jim Siegelman.

Article: "Leslie Van Houten" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism" (Robert Jay Lifton) by Wikipedia.

Quote: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." - Lyndon B. Johnson.

Video: My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor.

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

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.

Also, Conversations With Great Minds: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom - Professor David W. Blight, Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition-Yale University / Author or Editor of a dozen books... his latest is Frederick Douglass: Profit of Freedom

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...

Don't be Afraid of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & Social Democracy (w/ Mark Pocan)

Do Billionaires Completely Control the GOP?

Dirty Money in Trump's Bank Accounts (w/ Julio Rivera)

Barr's Mueller Report Cover Up – Investigation Buried

Betsy Devos' Charter School Scam Already Wasted a Billion Dollars!