Fascism has often been defined as the merger of corporate and state interests, combined with belligerent nationalism. Donald Trump has now put an unprecedented number of lobbyists - nearly 300 - according to a ProPublica and Columbia Journalism Investigation - in powerful positions throughout government. We are literally witnessing the takeover of the executive branch by corporate interests. From the EPA to the department of interior, lobbyists are running the show. This kind of corruption should be at the top of our list of things to change with regard to campaign and election law.

-Thom

Longtime friend of the show and stalwart progressive Karl Frisch is running for local office against a Trump-loving Republican! His people-powered campaign for Fairfax County School Board in Northern Virginia needs our help to get his new digital ad skewering Betsy DeVos in front of Democrats and progressives who sometimes skip local elections. Join me by chipping in $10, $25, or whatever you can to help get Karl's message in front of voters so he can win on November 5. See the ad and contribute: KarlFrisch.com/Thom4Karl

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Hour One: What Do You Want to See in the Democratic Debate Tonight? PLUS, What's Happening w/Medicare and also the gun violence crisis?
- Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA, 18th District) / Chairwoman-Health Subcommittee

Article: "Medicare Advantage" (Medicare Part C) by Wikipedia.

Article: "CBO says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's drug pricing plan saves Medicare $345 billion over decade" by Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Article: "Eshoo Holds Field Hearing in Chicago on the Public Health Threat of Gun Violence" by Anna Eshoo.

Article: "Eshoo Holds Legislative Hearing on Lowering Drug Prices" by Anna Eshoo.

Article: "On an Average Day, 96 Americans Die By Firearms" by New York Times.

Bill: "H.R.8 - Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019" by Rep. Thompson, Mike [D-CA-5].

Article: "Twelve Democrats to take the (crowded) stage in Tuesday night's debate" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Article: "This Is Why Shepard Smith Ended His Career With Fox News" by Terina Allen.

Article: "Trump-Ukraine: John Bolton 'sounded alarm about Rudy Giuliani's actions'" by Tom McCarthy, Julian Borger.

Article: "How Fiona Hill's attorneys fought the White House's attempts to limit her testimony" by Mike 03.

Article: "Socialism" by Merriam-Webster.

Article: "Democratic socialism" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Turkey bought Russian S-400 missiles designed to down NATO planes. For the US, that's a problem" by Tim Lister.

Article: "US Nuclear Weapons Deployment in Turkey" by Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Raphael Ofek.

Article: "Cuban missile crisis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump lawyer 'pressed Oval Office to release gold dealer'" by BBC.

Article: "Read Trump's Call With the Ukrainian President".

Article: "Roy Cohn" by Wikipedia.

Movie: "Where's My Roy Cohn?"

Article: "Michael Cohen says Trump used 'code' language to coach him to lie to Congress" by Tom McCarthy.

Video: Biden on Giuliani's sentences: They're all 'Noun and a verb and 9/11'.

Quote: "Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference." - Franklin Roosevelt's Re-Nomination Acceptance Speech (1936).

Article: "RNC chairwoman raked over the coals for accusing others of nepotism - despite being Mitt Romney's niece" by Brad Reed.

Quote: "The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter" - League of Women Voters.

Article: "Trump doesn't have the integrity to be a mob boss" by Paul Krugman.

Article: "Trump University" by Wikipedia.

Video: Barr: Secularists are assaulting religion and its values.

Article: "Is this Barr's cry for help?" by Catherine Rampell.

Article: "The Trump administration fans out to defend Christianity across the political spectrum" by Philip Bump.

Article: "How likely is it Trump will be on the ballot in 2020?" by Jennifer Rubin.

Article: "Everything You Need to Know About the October Democratic Debate" by Madeleine Carlisle.

Book: The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The Syrian War: Today's Top Developments" (Oct. 14, 2019).

Article: "Russia-NATO relations" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Russia calls Turkey's invasion of north Syria ‘unacceptable'" by Henry Foy, Laura Pitel, Chloe Cornish.

Article: "Robert H. Schuller" (Crystal Cathedral).

Article: "Jim Bakker" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Why the Johnson Amendment is always debated and never repealed" by Jacob Lupfer.

Article: "Cyrus the Great in the Bible" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Cyrus the Great" by Wikipedia.

Article: "New Calvinism" by Wikipedia.

Speech: "Being a Christian Leader" - Mike Pompeo. (On State Department site!)

Article: "Did Opus Dei teach Bill Barr to ‘put away his scruples'?" by Daily Kos.

Book: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet.

TV: "The Family".

Tweet: "Democrats are allowing no transparency at the Witch Hunt hearings. If Republicans ever did this they would be excoriated by the Fake News. Let the facts come out from the charade of people, most of whom I do not know, they are interviewing for 9 hours each, not selective leaks." by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "Dear @realDonaldTrump: In an Impeachment Investigation, the House acts like a grand jury. Investigations into alleged criminal conduct are not done in public. If the House impeaches, which is like an indictment, you can confront witnesses at your Senate trial." by Ted Lieu.

Article: "Jim Jones" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Black Panther Party" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Pete Buttigieg Refers to Small Donors as "Pocket Change"" by ShaunCamp.

Article: "O'Rourke, Buttigieg Spar Over Gun Buyback Program" by Solange Reyner.

Article: "Update: We Found a “Staggering” 281 Lobbyists Who've Worked in the Trump Administration" by David Mora.

Article: "Bombshell testimony shows alarm over White House-Ukraine shadow diplomacy was early and deep" by Stephen Collinson.

Article: "CBS CEO: "...may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS"" by Lee Fang.

Bible: "Last Days".

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: "Fed Adds $87.7 Billion To Financial System in Latest Repo Transactions" by Micah Maidenberg.

Book: The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston.

Book: IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN YOU THINK: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America by David Cay Johnston.

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: "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: "Falklands War" by Wikipedia.

Article: "BREAKING: Pelosi Preps Joint Resolution With Graham to 'Overturn' Trump's Syria Decision 'Immediately'" by Aidan McLaughlin.

Article: "Heading to Dallas for President Trump's rally? Here's what not to bring with you." by Anna M. Tinsley.

Article: "Beto Plans a Counter Rally to Trump's Visit Next Week" by Meredith Lawrence.

Article: "Militia-style group, Oath Keepers, will be in Dallas for Trump rally" by Nic Garcia.

Quote: "I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power." - Michael Cohen.

Article: "Michael Cohen goes to prison, slamming Trump along the way" by Michael R. Sisak, Jim Mustian.

Book: The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking TRUE Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R by Jules Archer.

Article: "Smedley Butler" by Wikipedia.

Book: War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier by Smedley D. Butler.

Article: "Third time was not the charm: Rudy Giuliani's latest divorce is bitter, expensive and very public" by Roxanne Roberts.

Article: "Giuliani goes without a lawyer amid federal scrutiny" by Darren Samuelsohn.

Article: "Credit rating agencies and the subprime crisis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Federal Reserve drops toughening liquidity rules on foreign banks" by Kiran Stacey.

Article: "Bobby Kennedy on GDP: 'measures everything except that which is worthwhile'" by Simon Rogers.

Video: Robert F. Kennedy challenges Gross Domestic Product.

Article: "Turkey Wants U.S. To Extradite Exiled Cleric Blamed For Attempted Coup" by NPR.

Article: "Fethullah Gülen" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Federal judge in Trump tax case picks apart DOJ rule barring indictment of president" by Igor Derysh.

Article: "A Sitting President's Amenability To Indictment And Criminal Prosecution" by U.S. Department of Justice (OLC), 2000.

Article: "Re: Amenability of the President, Vice President and Other Civil Officers to Federal Criminal Prosecution while in office." by U.S. Department of Justice (OLC), 1973.

Site: The Convention of States (COS) Project.

Article: "Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Grand Bargain" by Seth Abramson.

Article: "Trump and GOP are blatantly encouraging foreign dictators to hack the 2020 election" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: Proof of Collusion by Seth Abramson.

Book: Proof of Conspiracy: How Trump's International Collusion is Threatening American Democracy by Seth Abramson.

Article: "Hunter Biden sits down for exclusive interview with ABC News" by Nadine Shubailat, Victoria Thompson.

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

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

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...

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