Now is a really important time to remind Americans of something that the roughly half of us who took civics in school know. Only Congress can authorize a war. It's right there in the Constitution. It requires a majority vote of both the House and the Senate to authorize war, and any war that is not authorized by Congress is illegal. The president does not have the power to start a war; that power is exclusively given to Congress. The Founders did this because they did not want any president to ever acquire the king-like power of war making: they believed it was too much power in the hands of one person, and thus could lead to disaster. If Donald Trump tries to take us into war with Iran, Congress and massive public opinion must stop him. Call your member of the House and both your senators today.

-Thom

The American media world-both social media and "news" media-is afire with the news that actor Felicity Huffman is going to jail for spending $15,000 to bribe her daughter's way into college.

But a much bigger bribery scandal is played out every day in America with nary a peep from the media. It's the way billionaires and big corporations buy not just college admissions but tax cuts, deregulation, and hundreds of billions in government subsidies paid for with our taxes.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Pence says US is 'locked and loaded' to defend allies" by Morgan Chalfant.

Tweet: "....On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not...." by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!" by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "'Saudi Arabia Pays Cash': Trump Admits 'Unlike Other Presidents' He'll Be Renting Out US Troops for Military Action" by David Badash.

Article: "In major shift, U.S. now exports more oil than it ships in" by David Gaffen.

Article: "1967 Oil Embargo" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Who buys Saudi Arabia's oil?" by Harry Stevens, Lauren Tierney, Adrian Blanco and Laris Karklis.

Article: "April Glaspie" by Wikipedia.

Article: "As a matter of fact, in interviews in 1999 with respected journalist, and long time Bush family friend, David Herskowitz, then Governor George Bush stated: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade... if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." - My Testimony for the Downing Street Memo Hearings" by Cindy Sheehan, June 16 2005.

Article: "Saudi Arabia executions spike in 2019 - with 134 crucified and beheaded including six who were kids when arrested" by Jenny Awford.

Article: "House approves NDAA with no Republican votes" by Patrick Kelley.

Article: "Yemeni Civil War (2015-present)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Why is Yemen the world's worst humanitarian crisis?" by IEC.

Article: "Arab Spring" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Climate Change and Rising Food Prices Heightened Arab Spring" by Ines Perez.

Article: "Felicity Huffman's $15,000 is chump change - America's biggest bribery scandal is a whole lot worse" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann. Get "Screwed" by Thom Hartmann!

Article: "'I like them very much:' Trump has long-standing business ties with Saudis, who have boosted his hotels since he took office" by David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O'Connell.

Article: "Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Jamal Khashoggi murder: Trump refuses Congress demand for report" by BBC.

Article: "The World; Osama bin Laden, In His Own Words".

Article: "John Bolton resigns: White House turnover gets even costlier" by Kristin Myers.

Article: "USS Maine (ACR-1)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Gulf of Tonkin incident" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Reichstag fire", 27 February 1933 by Wikipedia.

Article: "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists" (AUMF) by Wikipedia.

Article: "How the Trump administration is using 9/11 to build a case for war with Iran" by Alex Ward.

Article: "Cokie Roberts, famed journalist and political commentator, dies at 75" by AP.

Article: "Osama bin Laden" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Obituary: Osama Bin Laden" by BBC.

Movie: "Charlie Wilson's War".

Article: "Does Trump Truly Want To End Endless Wars?" by Elias Atienza.

Article: "President Trump has made 12,019 false or misleading claims over 928 days" by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly.

Article: "Trump's Most Pointless Lie" by David A. Graham.

Book: House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties by Craig Unger.

Article: "Federal Reserve injects billions of dollars into financial system" by Adam Samson, Joe Rennison, Colby Smith and Robin Wigglesworth.

Article: "Trump's Turnberry scandal keeps getting worse with lengthy visits and government-purchased souvenirs" by Mark Sumner.

Article: "AOC endorses Marie Newman over Dan Lipinski" by Lynn Sweet.

Article: "The Origin of the Terms Big-Endian and Little-Endian".

Book: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

Article: "Dan Rather Defends the News Report That Got Him Fired: 'We Didn't Do It Perfectly,' But 'We Reported a True Story'" by Lindsay Kimble.

Article: "MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell: President Trump's Deutsche Bank loans co-signed by Russian oligarchs" by Shira Tarlo.

Article: "The oil industry vs. the electric car" by Gavin Bade.

Article: "If the Saudi attack was launched from Iran, America has a lot more to worry about than oil" by Mark Sumner.

Article: "Proud, Black and DEMO-crat: Foxes-v-Wolves" by Rohn Kenyatta.

Tweet: "In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran." by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "Now that Obama's poll numbers are in tailspin - watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate." by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face!" by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly-not skilled!" by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "The World; Osama bin Laden, In His Own Words", August 23, 1998.

Article: "Iran Encounter Grimly Echoes '02 War Game" by Thom Shanker.

Article: "Habeas corpus" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Many States Are Punishing Drivers For Owning An Electric Car" by Johnna Crider.

Article: "Trump's former campaign boss Corey Lewandowski grilled by House Democrats - live" by Tom McCarthy.

Talk Media News Segment:
- Douglas Christian

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

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

Article: "Trump impeachment hearing opened by Congress for first time" by Chris Riotta.

Tweet: "Such a beautiful Opening Statement by Corey Lewandowski! Thank you Corey! @CLewandowski_" by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "The New York Times is at its lowest point in its long and storied history. Not only is it losing a lot of money, but it is a journalistic disaster, being laughed at even in the most liberal of enclaves. It has become a very sad joke all all over the World. Witch Hunt hurt them..." by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Brett Kavanaugh Fit In With the Privileged Kids. She Did Not." by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly.

Site: Media Matters for America

Hour Three: Why Are America's Most Dangerous Volcanos Being Ignored?
- Dr. Seth Moran, Scientist-in-Charge, Cascades Volcano Observatory

Article: "We're Barely Listening to the U.S.'s Most Dangerous Volcanoes" by Shannon Hall.

Article: "Mount Hood" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Eruption History of Mount Hood, Oregon" by USGS.

Article: "Lahar" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Glacier Peak" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Lewandowski refuses to answer questions at first 'impeachment' hearing on Capitol Hill" by Marshall Cohen and Jeremy Herb.

Video: Trump offers to pimp out our military to his Saudi masters - Tulsi Gabbard.

Article: "The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters" (Interstate Crosscheck) by Greg Palast, August 24, 2016.

Book: The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Cover-up Attorney General Bill Barr strikes again" by Thom Hartmann.

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

Article: "William Barr Told All the Right Lies About the Mueller Report" by Jay Willis.

Did the Fed Just Signal That a Crash Is Coming?
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work/Capitalism's Crisis Deepens Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown / Understanding Marxism

Article: "Federal Reserve injects billions of dollars into financial system" by Adam Samson, Joe Rennison, Colby Smith and Robin Wigglesworth.

Article: "Repurchase Agreement (Repo)" by Nathan Reiff.

Article: "Lehman Brothers" by Wikipedia.

Article: "A quick guide to the US-China trade war" by BBC.

Article: "Israel election result too close to call - exit polls" by BBC.

Article: "The Greenbrier" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Designated Survivor (TV series)" by Wikipedia.

Tweet: "Talking to reporters, Trump - without a trace of irony - turned his face to the sun & declared, "I am the chosen one."
The Last Whopper & the new disciples.
#KingofTheJews https://bit.ly/2Z7SPx9 " by New York Daily News.

Article: "Book of Revelation" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Rapture" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Gold settles at a more than a 1-week high as historic oil outage rattles investor nerves" by Myra P. Saefong, Mark Decambre.

Wednesday 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.

Plus, Helping Homeless Families Transition... - Rob Strasberg (Co-CEO) & Treger Strasberg (Co-CEO & Founder), Humble Design / Co-Hosts, "Welcome Home" Saturday mornings on the CW network

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...

Should Trump Have the Power to Take Us to War?

Beyond Brett Kavanaugh's Crimes & Cover Ups

IRAN: Are We "Locked & Loaded"? (w/ Jamal Abdi)