Donald Trump has corrupted pretty much every federal agency, but the one that is most concerning is his corruption of the Department of Justice. Bill Barr, in 1992, ran the cover up of the Iran/Contra treason scandal on behalf of George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan. Now he's running, according to Lev Parnas, multiple coverups for Donald Trump. From every federal agency, to every member of the House and Senate, to the Vice Presidency, Donald Trump has corrupted them all. He's able to do this because in 1976 and 1978 the Supreme Court legalized billionaires and corporations owning politicians, and the Republican Party put out a "for sale" sign.

The big corporations and oligarchs don't just own the politicians now, they own the media outlets, the television stations, the radio stations, the television networks, and a massive number of major Internet sites. One of the biggest oligarchs, Mark Zuckerberg, has directed Facebook to allow Donald Trump's ads filled with naked lies in them to continue without restriction.

At every level our republic has been corrupted by massive amounts of money legalized by the Supreme Court in 1976 in 1978. It gave birth to the Reagan Revolution, it was cemented into law with Citizens United, and if we don't act soon it will destroy this nation.

-Thom

Thursday's Daily Stack

Quote: "[A conservative is someone who] stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it." " by William F. Buckley Jr.

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

Article: "Trump's AG Bill Barr has a history of cover-ups - and he just struck again" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Lev Parnas implicates Mike Pence, Bill Barr, and Devin Nunes in Trump Ukraine scheme" by Igor Derysh.

Video: Rachel Maddow 1/15/20 (Lev Parnas).

Article: "Cohen: Trump isn't joking when he says he can 'shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it'" by MSNBC.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

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

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

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

Article: "San Onofre" by Wikipedia.

Article: "11/29/2018: NRC admits San Onofre Holtec nuclear waste canisters are all damaged" by Donna Gilmore.

Tweet: "right now some Deplorable with a persistent cough is driving a crappy car on crumbling roads past abandoned storefronts to a low-paying job and pumping his fist and going "hell yeah!" as he hears on wingnut radio about how Trump wants the Supreme Court to gut Obamacare" by Jeff Tiedrich.

Article: "Government Accountability Office Finds That Trump White House Illegally Held Up Ukraine Aid" by Lachlan Markay.

Article: "Collins questions delay on Lev Parnas documents" by Alexander Bolton.

Tweet: "Why was Marie Yovanovitch monitoring me, and others, when we began exposing her role in the Ukrainian collusion scandal with the Obama administration and the Democrats? Has she truthfully answered that question yet?" by Dan Bongino.

Tweet: "She was doing the same to me apparently and other private citizens. Media wouldn't cover a rogue Ambasador monitoring American citizens... I wonder why???" by Donald Trump Jr..

Article: "Giuliani henchman Lev Parnas had 5 iPhones and 2 iPads with evidence Congress needs for impeachment: report" by Bob Brigham.

Article: "Giuliani's Indicted Associate Hands Over Messages and Photos 'Relevant to Impeachment Inquiry'" by Matt Naham.

Article: "Arizona Sen. Martha McSally calls CNN reporter 'liberal hack' in hallway dust-up" by Katie Surma.

Article: "'Do you paint houses, too?' Nancy Pelosi suggests Trump is a mobster with line from The Irishman" by Bob Brigham.

Article: "Trump call summary shows he pressed Ukrainian president to probe Biden" by Grace Segers, Kathryn Watson, Clare Hymes, Emily Tillett.

Article: "Here's the full, declassified memorandum of Trump's phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky" by AP. " whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. ... Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor bf New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General."

Article: "'Barr had to have known everything': Giuliani associate Lev Parnas alleges AG Barr was 'basically on the team' to pressure Ukraine" by Sonam Sheth.

Article: "Parnas: I Met Devin Nunes 'Several Times,' He 'Knows Who I Am'" by Justin Baragona.

Article: "Lev Parnas: Mike Pence Canceled Ukraine Visit in Quid Pro Quo" by Betsy Swan.

Article: "Sondland: 'Everyone was in the loop,' ambassador says about high-level efforts to pressure Ukraine" by Deirdre Shesgreen.

Article: "Lev Parnas implicates president in first TV interview: "Trump knew exactly what was going on"" by Joseph Neese.

Article: "Parnas: Trump threatened to withhold more than just military aid to Ukraine" by Justine Coleman.

Article: "'It was all about Biden - it was never about corruption': Lev Parnas tells MSNBC's Rachel Maddow" by Sarah K. Burris.

Article: "Pence knew about - and actually participated in - Trump's apparent Ukraine extortion plot: report" by David Badash.

Article: "1973 oil crisis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Impeachment trial security crackdown will limit Capitol press access" by Katherine Tully-McManus.

Article: "McCarthyism" by Wikipedia.

Article: "When a Candidate Conspired With a Foreign Power to Win An Election" by John A. Farrell.

Article: "Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs" by Brown University.

Article: "Roy Cohn" (Trump mentor).

Quote: "That very word freedom, in itself and of necessity, suggests freedom from some restraining power" - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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

Hour Two: When the Fed Puts $500 BILLION Into the Repo Market... Where Does That Come From and Where Does It Go?
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work / Understanding Marxism / Understanding Socialism

Article: "Explainer: The Fed has a repo problem. What's that?" by Richard Leong.

Article: "Fixing repo market a 'trial and error' process, former Atlanta Fed president says" by Jesse Pound.

Article: "Dallas Fed chief: Bond-buying program likely helping to boost stocks" by Dion Rabouin.

Article: "Federal Reserve" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Subprime mortgage crisis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Dairy Giant Borden Files for Bankruptcy Protection" by Niraj Chokshi.

Law: "Glass-Steagall Act", 1933.

Article: "House Impeachment Managers Read Articles On Senate Floor" by Brian Naylor.

Article: "The ridiculousness of Devin Nunes suing 'Devin Nunes' cow' - and what it really signals" by Aaron Blake.

Tweet: "Amazing Lev Parnas interview on #Maddow. Also, I'm disclosing that the lawyer for @DevinNunes wrote a letter saying Rep Nunes will sue me if I didn't apologize for saying last month that Nunes conspired with Parnas.
Devin, I'm adding to my statement: "Your pants are on fire."" by Ted Lieu.

Article: "Dem lawmaker says Nunes threatened to sue him over criticism" (Ted Lieu) by Rebecca Klar.

Article: "Nancy Pelosi angered Republicans by using 30 different personalized pens to sign Trump's 'sham' impeachment articles" by Sahar Esfandiari.

Article: "Here's What Giuliani's Associate Lev Parnas Was Sharing On WhatsApp As He Investigated The Ukraine Conspiracy Theory" by Ryan Broderick.

Article: "Former mafia prosecutor: It sounds like Trump associates were plotting 'a mob hit' against Marie Yovanovitch" by Catherine Garcia.

Article: "Robert F. Hyde" by Wikipedia.

Article: "New Figure in Ukraine Scandal Was Taken Into Police Custody at Trump Resort Last Year" by David Corn.

Article: "Marie Yovanovitch Calls for Investigation Into 'Disturbing' Possibility She Was Stalked in Ukraine" by Anna Kaplan.

Article: "New Documents From Giuliani Associate Parnas Submitted for Impeachment Trial" by Siobhan Hughes.

Article: "Ukraine launches probe over whether US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was tracked" by Kim Hjelmgaard and Deirdre Shesgreen.

Article: "FBI Pays Visit To Robert Hyde's Home And Office" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "Cohen: Trump isn't joking when he says he can 'shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it'" by MSNBC.

Book: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russell Kirk.

Book: "Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes, 1651.

Article: "Edward Snowden" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sondland: Trump only wanted Ukraine to announce investigation into Biden, not start real inquiry" by Madison Dibble.

Article: "Justice Dept. winds down Clinton-related inquiry once championed by Trump. It found nothing of consequence." by Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky.

Tweet: ""This particular technique the Russians are using is called upstreaming... You release all of the material that's true or valid, but at strategic points you insert black propaganda." - @MalcolmNance on the Burisma cyberattack https://t.co/lPlnCn4KxK" by MSNBC.

Quote: "Your Liberty To Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins" - anon.

Book: Democracy In Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean.

Book: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer

Article: "Libertarian Party" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Tillman Act of 1907".

Hour Three: Science Revolution: The Rollbacks to Environmental Law Coming Out of the Trump Administration
- Jayson O'Neill Deputy Director - Wester Values Project (a project of Accountable US)

Article: "Trump Gifts Interior Secretary Bernhardt Long-Desired Rollbacks to America's Bedrock Environmental Law" by Yetta Stein.

Article: "David Bernhardt" by Wikipedia.

Article: "James G. Watt" by Wikipedia.

Law: "National Environmental Policy Act" (NEPA).

Article: "Cuyahoga River Fire" by Michael Rotman.

Article: "William Perry Pendley, opponent of nation's public lands, is picked to oversee Bureau of Land Management" by Ellen Knickmeyer, Brady McCombs.

Article: "Trump's pick for managing federal lands doesn't believe the government should have any" by Steven Mufson.

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

Article: "Lobbyist-turned-acting interior secretary had loads of unreported meetings with fossil fuel execs" by Jen Hayden.

Article: "National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Compliance" by federalregister.gov.

Article: "Chief Justice John Roberts swears in senators for Trump's impeachment trial" by Rebecca Shabad, Frank Thorp V and Jane C. Timm.

Book: Conscience of a Conservative by Barry M. Goldwater.

Article: "Lyndon LaRouche" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (Continued)" (Federalist 10) by James Madison.

Article: "Greg Pence" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Milton Friedman" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Chicago school of economics" by Wikipedia.

Article: "'Antitrust was defined by Robert Bork. I cannot overstate his influence.'" by Dylan Matthews.

Article: "Robert Bork" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ayn Rand raged against government benefits - but grabbed Social Security and Medicare when she needed them" by Joshua Holland.

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: "10th Amendment" "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"

Article: "Russians Hacked Ukrainian Gas Company at Center of Impeachment" by Nicole Perlroth and Matthew Rosenberg.

Article: "Putin consolidates power as Russian government resigns" by Matt Clinch, Holly Ellyatt.

Book: Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us by Donald Trump Jr.

Article: "Civil Rights Act of 1964" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Article: "Did Trump Propose SSI Changes That Could End Disability Benefits for Thousands?" by Dan MacGuill.

Article: "New Calvinism" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump's Impeachment Trial Is About to Begin. Here's What to Expect" (Tues 21st January) by Andy Kroll.

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

Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA, 17th District) will be here to talk issues of the day and take your calls.

Plus, It's Anything Goes Friday!

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...

Where Does the Federal Reserve's Money Come From? (w/ Richard Wolff)

Trump: "It Doesn't Really Matter" . . . STRIKE!

Trump Puts US Military For Sale...

Trump EPA Approved 100-plus Products With Pesticides Banned Elsewhere or Slated for U.S. Phaseout

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

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

Sat, Feb 22, TBA: Blue State Ball.

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

Sun, Mar 1,TBA: Chicago Book Store - TBA.