The democratic debate, operating entirely within the context of corporate TV stars' questions and largely Republican frames, shows once again why a for-profit "news" operation shouldn't be running a presidential debate. In 1988, the Democratic and Republican parties set up a corporation to handle the debates, and the League of Women Voters for the first time in generations refused to participate, saying the political parties had turned it into a sham. And a sham is exactly what we saw last night, with no questions at all about the environment, corporate power, media concentration (which gave Trump $2 billion in free publicity last time around), or why Congress only passes legislation to benefit the top 1%.

It's time to bring back deep and meaningful conversations like the league used to have, and get the multimillionaire TV stars off the stage.

-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

Wednesday's Daily Stack

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

Article: "Transcript of Westerville, Ohio, Democratic 2020 debate - Oct. 15, 2019".

Article: "Trump on Syria's Kurds: "They're not angels"" by Zachary Basu. "[O]ur soldiers are not in harm's way"

Article: "Pentagon: U.S. Troops Came Under Fire From Turkish Positions in Syria" by Julia Arciga.

Article: "Joe Biden, In Stumbling Debate Performance, Claims Credit For Elizabeth Warren's Signature Achievement" by Ryan Grim, Aída Chávez, Akela Lacy.

Article: "Documents Reveal Hospital Industry Is Leading Fight Against Medicare For All" by Andrew Perez.

Article: "Eugene McCarthy" by Wikipedia.

Tweet: "I am sorry, but a 3-hour debate that has time for questioning about Ellen sitting next to George W.--an issue barely valid enough for Entertainment Tonight--but has no time for a question about the #ClimateCrisis is indefensible. Tuesday night's #DemocraticDebate was a failure." by John Nichols.

Article: "Democratic Debates: Is It Time to Get the Corporate TV Stars off the Stage?" by Thom Hartmann.

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: "Contempt of Congress" (inherent contempt, criminal contempt, civil contempt) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Fast and Furious: Eric Holder held in contempt".

Tweet: "Just sent @SecPompeo a letter flagging that the Feb 2019 spending bill prohibits pay to federal officials who prevent other officials from communicating with Congress.
We refuse to bankroll this administration while they hold witnesses hostage. Sondland must testify on Ukraine." by Rep. Mark Pocan.

Article: "US Ambassador to EU Gordon Sondland, key impeachment witness, will testify" by Nicholas Wu.

Article: "Top diplomats testify in impeachment probe - live updates" by Emily Tillett, Kathryn Watson, Stefan Becket, Grace Segers.

Article: "Pharmaceutical lobby" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Medicare Open Enrollment" (October 15 - December 7).

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

Article: "Doggett, Brown Announce Bicameral Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Bill" by Lloyd Doggett.

Article: "'Just Absurd': Flood of Ridicule as Trump Readies Executive Order to Stop 'Socialist Destruction' of Government-Run Medicare" by Jake Johnson.

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

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

Article: "Opposition To F-35 Fighter Jets In Madison".

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

Article: "€54m voting machines scrapped for €9 each" by Paul Melia and Luke Byrne.

Article: "Russia hacked voting systems in 39 states before the 2016 presidential election" by Alex Ward.

Article: "Researchers Assembled over 100 Voting Machines. Hackers Broke Into Every Single One." by AJ Vincens.

Article: "Trump imposes sanctions on Turkey, calls for ceasefire" by NBC News.

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

Article: "U.S. to send additional troops to Saudi Arabia to boost defenses against Iran" by Dan Lamothe.

Hour Two: Democratic Debates: Is It Time to Get the Corporate TV Stars Off the Stage?
- Jefferson Smith, host/owner progressive radio XRAY-FM, Portland, OR

Article: "Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate" by New York Times.

Article: "Dean Takes a Shot at Media Concentration" by Bill McConnell.

Article: "Howard Dean Scream" by Brad.

Article: "Every Woman Noticed That Infuriating Elizabeth Warren/Joe Biden Debate Moment" by Michelle Ruiz.

Book: Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis by Eric Berne.

Quote: "Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." - Walter Mondale.

Article: "Elizabeth Warren dodges questions on middle-class tax hikes under 'Medicare for All'" by Kevin Breuninger.

Article: "Lieberman: I'll block vote on Reid plan" by Manu Raju.

Article: "Every Democrat Should Talk About Health Care Like Amy Klobuchar Does" by Jordan Weissmann.

Article: "United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Iran nuclear deal: Trump pulls US out in break with Europe allies" by BBC.

Article: "Pete Buttigieg" by Wikipedia.

Talk Media News Segment:
- Bob Ney

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

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

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Article: "Tulsi Gabbard Opposes 'Regime Change Wars' - But She's Not Anti-war" by Jessica Schulberg.

Article: "Federal investigation of Rudy Giuliani includes counterintelligence probe" by Evan Perez, Sara Murray and Shimon Prokupecz.

Article: "House Democrats focus on Mulvaney, Bolton after key witness testimony in impeachment inquiry" by Karoun Demirjian, Rachael Bade and Mike DeBonis.

Article: "Ukraine Policy and the 'Three Amigos': Impeachment Update" by Billy House and Erik Wasson.

Article: "Trump Judge Wants To Severely Limit Congress' Ability To Probe POTUS Misconduct" by Tierney Sneed.

Article: "MSF Suspends Work in Northeast Syria, Withdraws Foreign Aid Workers" by Reuters.

Article: "Joe Biden's Mysterious Claim That He Whipped Votes For The CFPB" by Ryan Grim, David Dayen.

Article: "Erdogan Says He'll Refuse to Meet Pence and Pompeo in Turkey" by Jamie Ross.

Article: "'Total humiliation of the USA': Trump roasted for Turkey's snub of Mike Pence" by Brad Reed.

Article: "Family 'Ambushed' By Trump's Surprise Meeting With Woman Who Caused Fatal Crash" by Laurel Wamsley.

Article: "Mulvaney emerges as a key facilitator of the campaign to pressure Ukraine" by Greg Miller, Josh Dawsey and Greg Jaffe.

Article: "Low interest rates fuel financial risk-taking, IMF warns" by Chris Giles.

Article: "Trump appoints author of 'Illuminati Secret Laws of Money' to federal education board" by Sky Palma.

Article: "A majority of Americans with employer-based health insurance don't mind if it changes to Medicare for All - as long as they can keep their current coverage" by Joseph Zeballos-Roig and Walt Hickey.

Video: Tom Steyer 2020 Presidential Run Inspired by Climate Catastrophe.

Article: "Northwest Detention Center" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tacoma officials balk at activist pressure to close immigration detention center" by Lilly Fowler.

Article: "A 'monstrosity' or a step forward? Puyallup Tribe, PSE in showdown over Tacoma natural-gas plant" by Lynda V. Mapes.

Article: "Kalama methanol plant decision on hold" by Pete Danko.

Article: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar to endorse Bernie Sanders, who announces plan to visit Rashida Tlaib in Detroit" by Gregory Krieg, Annie Grayer, Jeff Zeleny and Ryan Nobles.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Demonstrated His Health In The Ohio Debate" by Daniel Marans.

Article: "150 Achievements Of Liberalism That Conservatives Seek To Destroy" by Stephen D. Foster Jr..

Article: "Longevity and Health of U.S. Presidential Candidates for the 2020 Election" by American Federation for Aging Research.

Article: "Environmental activists fault some of Sen. Amy Klobuchar's moves" by Judy Keen.

Article: "The Spotted Owl Controversy" by Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez.

Article: "U.S. Senate candidate says foreign billionaires behind region's copper-nickel push" by Marshall Helmberger.

Article: "Rep. Tulsi Gabbard says she'll join Democratic debate after threatening to boycott" by Beatrice Peterson, Justin Gomez.

Thursday 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...

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The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

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Fact Check: Paying For Medicare For All!

Will Medicare Ever Be Expanded? (w/ Congresswoman Anna Eshoo)