Lev Parnas recently told Rachel Maddow that he's more afraid of Attorney General Bill Barr than he is of the mobbed-up foreign oligarchs he has betrayed. Barr, after all, can weaponize our prisons to punish Parnas.

"Am I scared?" he said. "Yes, because I think I'm more scared of our own Justice Department than these criminals right now."

An attorney general willing to bend or even break the law-and certainly willing to conceal crimes and lie to the American people-can be a corrupt president's last line of defense.

Read more here.

-Thom

The revelations in John Bolton's book, reported in today's New York Times, bring to mind the previous scandal surrounding a White House cover-up.

When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated, there were hundreds of thousands of pages of White House documents from Kavanaugh's time as an advisor to George W. Bush with regard to torture policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump ordered those documents locked down, and Republicans in the Senate went along with him; those documents were never allowed in the Senate hearings and Kavanaugh thus became a justice of the Supreme Court.

Now we learn that Trump and his White House have known since December 30, when Bolton submitted his book to the White House for vetting before publication, that the White House has known he was going to reveal that as late as August Trump was still trying to withhold aid to Ukraine until they announced that they were looking into Joe and Hunter Biden.

Much like with Justice Beer Bong, the Republicans in the Senate are now as much on trial as is Trump. If they continue to refuse witnesses and documentary evidence, they may well lose in the November elections. If they do allow witnesses and evidence, it could be the end of the Trump presidency. it's getting interesting.

-Thom

Monday's Daily Stack

Article: "Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Inquiries He Sought, Bolton Book Says" by Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt.

Article: "John Bolton's Account Upends Trump's Denials, but Will It Upend Trump?" by Peter Baker.

Article: "John Bolton's bombshell gives the GOP a glimpse of its nightmare scenario" by Aaron Blake.

Book: The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir by John Bolton.

Article: "Bolton says he will testify in impeachment trial if Senate issues subpoena" by Axios.

Article: "Executive privilege" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump dismisses Bolton book revelations as patently 'false'" by AP.

Quote: "nothing was ever said' to Bolton" - Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. With that being said, the..." by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Trump Invites Israel, Not Palestine, to Discuss Peace Plan" by Matt Stieb.

Article: "Who Is Justice Anthony Kennedy's Son? Justin Kennedy & Trump Reportedly Know Each Other Well" by Monica Hunter-Hart.

Article: "Explosive report indicates that Donald Trump's loans from Deutsche Bank were backed by Russia" by Mark Sumner.

Article: "Brett Kavanaugh" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The story behind the withheld documents of the Kavanaugh hearing" by Michael Kranish.

Article: "McConnell says he'll be in 'total coordination' with White House on impeachment trial strategy" by Jordain Carney.

Article: "US GDP by Year Compared to Recessions and Events" by Kimberly Amadeo.

Article: "The IMF Is Throwing Cold Water On Trump's Economy Boom" by Desmond Lachman.

Book: What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy by Thom Hartmann by Thom Hartmann

Article: "National Progressive Groups Make Unity Statement On Democratic Primary".

Article: "DNC changes superdelegate rules in presidential nomination process" by Adam Levy.

Article: "Virginia moves to brink of becoming 38th state to ratify ERA" by AP.

Article: "The Trump administration says the ERA is dead on arrival. It isn't." by Julie C. Suk.

Article: "Trump administration: Effort to ratify ERA has timed out".

Article: "Promises broken" by Judd Legum.

Article: "Trump Opens Door to Cuts to Medicare and Other Entitlement Programs" by Alan Rappeport and Maggie Haberman.

Article: "GOP Sen. Ron Johnson: 'My guess' is John Bolton is telling truth about Trump and Ukraine" by Brad Reed.

Article: "'Take her out': Recording appears to capture Trump at private dinner saying he wants Ukraine ambassador fired" by Katherine Faulders, John Santucci, Allison Pecorin, Olivia Rubin

Article: "Why Giuliani Singled Out 2 Ukrainian Oligarchs to Help Look for Dirt" by Jo Becker, Walt Bogdanich, Maggie Haberman and Ben Protess.

Article: "Aime Forand" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Senate impeachment trial: Trump's legal team mounts his defense" by Benjamin Siegel, Katherine Faulders, Trish Turner, Libby Cathey, Michelle Stoddart.

Article: "Impoundment of appropriated funds" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump's Hold on Ukrainian Military Aid was Illegal" by Sam Berger.

Hour Two: Issues of the Day
- Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA, 17th District)

Article: "Dems seek to shield Iran bills from Republican floor tactics" by Melanie Zanona, Sarah Ferris.

Bill: "H.R.5543 - No War Against Iran Act" by Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17].

Article: "House revives agenda after impeachment storm" by Cristina Marcos.

Article: "Rep. Khanna And Rep. Gaetz Bipartisan Amendment To Prohibit Funds From Being Used With A War Against Iran Overwhelmingly Passes In 2019 NDAA" by Ro Khanna.

Article: "Romney, Collins say Bolton claims strengthen case for witnesses in impeachment trial" by Tyler Olson.

Article: "Trump says reforming Social Security and Medicare is 'the easiest of all things' as he appears open to cutting entitlement spending" by Joseph Zeballos-Roig.

Article: "Steven Mnuchin Confirms Trump's New Tax Plan Is Imminent" by Andrew Soergel.

Article: "Trump Outlines a Significant Social Security Cut in His 2020 Budget" by Sean Williams.

Article: "Medicare Part D" by Wikipedia.

Bill: "H.R.5010 - To amend title I of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to authorize the establishment of, and provide support for, State-based universal health care systems that provide comprehensive health benefits to State residents, and for other purposes." by Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17].

Bill: "H.R.4359 - Police Exercising Absolute Care With Everyone Act of 2019." by Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17].

Article: "It Isn't Much to Ask That Cops Have a Higher Standard for Killing People" by Jamil Smith.

Article: "Trump lawyers brush past Bolton concerns in trial, Starr makes first argument" by Dave Boyer.

Article: "What Part B covers" by Medicare.

Article: "Former fighter pilot Amy McGrath announces bid to take on Mitch McConnell in 2020" by Rebecca Buck.

Article: "Amy McGrath" by Wikipedia.

Site: Amy McGrath for Senate.

Article: "Lindsey Graham Faces Formidable Democratic Challenger In 2020 Senate Race" by Nicole Goodkind.

Article: "Jaime Harrison" by Wikipedia.

Site: Jaime Harrison for Senate.

Article: "Republicans play the 'Obama did it too' card on military assistance-and of course they're lying" by Mark Sumner.

Article: "Tim Berners-Lee endorses Ro Khanna's Internet Bill of Rights–here's all 10" by Mark Sullivan.

Article: "Bolton wanted White House lawyers alerted to Ukrainian efforts, called it 'drug deal,' witness tells Congress" by Josh Lederman and Phil Helsel.

Hour Three: It's Time To Repeal The Second Amendment
- Professor Allan Lichtman Distinguished Professor - Department of History, American University / Author, latest book: Repeal the Second Amendment (His previous book was: The Case for Impeachment) makes The Case For A Safer America

Article: "2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Article: "National Rifle Association" by Wikipedia.

Article: "NRA: 'Revolt at Cincinnati' molded National Rifle Association" by Jeff Suess.

Article: "Federal Assault Weapons Ban" by Wikipedia.

Article: "List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution" by Wikipedia.

Quote: "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." - Louis D. Brandeis.

Article: "Repeal the Second Amendment" by John Paul Stevens.

Article: "'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens" by The Onion.

Article: "Port Arthur massacre (Australia)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tough gun laws in Australia eliminate mass shootings" by Meghan Rosen.

Article: "List of countries by firearm-related death rate" by Wikipedia.

Article: "'There will be blood': NRA rips apart Australia's gun laws" by Jenni Ryall.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

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

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

Case: "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", 2014

Article: "Citizens' assembly" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Citizens' Assembly (Ireland)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "UK citizens' climate assembly to meet for first time" by Sandra Laville.

Article: "French citizens' panel to advise on climate crisis strategies" by Angelique Chrisafis.

Article: "Extinction Rebellion" by Wikipedia.

Video: MSNBC Anchor: Everyone Is Drawing Huge Crowds in Iowa Except Biden.

Book: "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" by Ralph Nader.

How We Can Hold American Companies That Use Sweatshop Labor Accountable
- Nasreen Sheikh Founder - Empowerment Collective / International Speaker and global advocate for women's empowerment

Article: "37 Shocking Sweatshop Statistics" by Brandon Gaille.

Article: "Child Labour" by ILO.

Article: "No life for a child: The grim reality of Nepal's child laborers" by Bibek Bhandari.

Article: "The Impact of a Cotton T-Shirt" by WWF.

Article: "Bloomberg Has Spent Quarter Billion on Campaign: Campaign Update" by Ryan Teague Beckwith.

Article: "Viktor Orbán" by Wikipedia.

Article: "'The Most Dangerous Man in the European Union': The metamorphosis of Viktor Orbán" by Paul Lendvai.

Article: "The Great Wall of Europe: Hungary splits continent in two with huge fence to stop migrants" by Nick Gutteridge.

Article: "Indifferent to irony, Ken Starr laments the 'age of impeachment'" by Steve Benen.

Article: "Church Committee", 1975-6.

Article: "Trump gives Barr authority to declassify anything in campaign "spying" probe" by Sean Gallagher.

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.

Article: "Lev Parnas is afraid of Bill Barr - and he should be" by Thom Hartmann.

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

Science Revolution: I'll be talking with Mary Christina Wood, Philip H. Knight Professor & Faculty Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center - Oregon School of Law about the Our Children's Trust climate change lawsuit... what's next?

Plus, Stephen Smith, Progressive Candidate for Governor of West Virginia, will tell us about America's New Redneck Rebellion

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...

Impeachment Cover up Reminiscent of GOP Kavanaugh Ploy

Election Infrastructure Under Attack

Three Visions for America's Future Battle in 2020

Impeachment: Trump's Totalitarianism Vs The Founding Fathers

Trump's Impeachment Will End in One of Two Ways

When Cashing a Check Can Result in Arrest

How Biden Can Monkey Wrench Trump's Plans

Mon, Feb 17, 7:30pm PT: Berkeley Arts & Letter Series.

Wed, Feb 19, 7:30pm PT: Seattle Town Hall.

Sun, Feb 23, noon or 1pm: Blue State Ball.

Fri, Feb 28, 7:30pm PT: Powell's, 1005 W Burnside St., Portland.

Sun, Mar 1, noon: Frugal Muse Books -Chicago- tickets will go on sale Feb 3rd.