Now that Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are both starting to pull really well, the two of them combined well ahead of Joe Biden, the knives are coming out in the media. This morning on both MSNBC and CNN, commentators were complaining about how dramatically both of them plan to increase federal spending over the next decade.

Right now in the United States, federal spending is around 35% of GDP, or a bit more than a third of the economy. In Europe, across the entire European Union, federal spending is around 46% of the economy, or nearly half. The difference? In Europe, kids go to college for free; you never get a bill for healthcare, vision, or dental; you don't lose your home if you lose your job; and large numbers of people are not dying of suicide, gunshot, drug overdose, or alcoholism. Government is simply us taking care of ourselves. Americans need to figure this out...

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "What you need to know about Tuesday's presidential debate in Iowa: When it is, who qualified, how to watch" by Katie Akin.

Article: "Elizabeth Warren: Bernie Sanders "disagreed" with me that a "woman could win" the presidency" by Igor Derysh.

Article: "Warren's, Sanders' wealth taxes could cost American workers $1T, economists say" by Megan Henney.

Article: "What Are So-called Deaths Of Despair? Experts Say They're On The Rise" by Blake Dodge.

Article: "Qassem Soleimani: Timeline of events following Iranian general's assassination" by DW.

Article: "Trump vows new sanctions on Iran in bid to escalate 'maximum pressure' campaign" by David J. Lynch.

Article: "Evolution of a lie: from 'imminent attack' to 'four embassies' with no facts in between" by Mark Sumner.

Article: "Lee Says He Didn't Hear About Soleimani Threat To Attack Four US Embassies In Briefing" by Summer Concepcion.

Article: "Iraq warns of 'collapse' if Trump blocks oil cash" by Maya Gebeily.

Article: "Key Moments in the Unraveling of Iran's Nuclear Deal" by AP.

Article: "Esper Says He Saw No Evidence Iran Targeted 4 Embassies, as Story Shifts Again" by Peter Baker and Thomas Gibbons-Neff.

Tweet: "The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was "imminent" or not, & was my team in agreement. The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn't really matter because of his horrible past!" by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Warren Calls for SEC Probe Into Whether Trump Tipped Off Mar-a-Lago Pals to Soleimani Attack" by Erin Banco, Asawin Suebsaeng.

Article: "Trump Told Mar-a-Lago Pals to Expect 'Big' Iran Action 'Soon'" by Spencer Ackerman, Asawin Suebsaeng, Erin Banco, Betsy Swan.

Article: "House approves war powers resolution to restrict Trump on Iran" by Grace Segers.

Article: "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists" (AUMF, 2001) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002" (Iraq Resolution, AUMF) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Senator Predicts a Dozen GOPers Might Break with Trump over Iran" by Sam Brodey, Spencer Ackerman.

Article: "Sen. Chris Murphy says Trump's moves in Iran will cause 'catastrophic' damage to US" by Meg Cunningham.

Article: "The Wall Street Journal accidentally reveals the unbearable truth about Soleimani's assassination" by John Stoehr.

Tweet: "I stand stronger than anyone in protecting your Healthcare with Pre-Existing Conditions. I am honored to have terminated the very unfair, costly and unpopular individual mandate for you!" by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Trump's Golf Trips Could Cost Taxpayers Over $340 Million" by Chuck Jones.

Article: "Steve Mnuchin Hiding Cost Of Trump's Golf Trips Until After Election" by Aliza Worthington.

Article: "Trump Administration Says Obamacare Lawsuit Can Wait Until After the Election" by Margot Sanger-Katz.

Documentary: Where to Invade Next - Michael Moore.

Article: "GI Bill of Rights: A Profitable Investment for the United States" by Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute.

Article: "Joe Biden Says He's Open To A Republican Running Mate" by Matt Fuller.

Article: "Anita Hill" by Wikipedia.

Article: "How Biden helped create the student debt problem he now promises to fix" by Ed Pilkington.

Article: "Iraq says Iran warned them of missile attack before it happened" by Yaron Steinbuch.

Article: "U.S. knew Iranian missiles were coming ahead of strike; Trump announces new sanctions" by John Bacon and Tom Vanden Brook.

Article: "US budget deficit running 11.8% higher this year" by Martin Crutsinger.

Article: "Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Taxes and a Two-Santa Theory" by Jude Wanniski.

Article: "Barr to raise threshold for opening probes into presidential campaigns" by Justine Coleman.

Article: "Debunked Australian Bushfire Conspiracy Theories Were Pushed by Alex Jones, Murdoch Media" by Justin Mikulka.

Article: "James Murdoch" by Wikipedia.

Article: "James Murdoch Slams Fox News and News Corp Over Climate-Change Denial" by Lachlan Cartwright.

Article: "Lachlan Murdoch" by Wikipedia.

Site: Free Speech TV

Article: "Years of Living Dangerously" (TV Series) by Wikipedia.

Site: The Years Project.

Article: "Tennis player Dalila Jakupovic quits Australian Open after coughing fit in smoke-filled air" by Yuliya Talmazan.

Article: "Elizabeth Warren Is the Democrats' Unity Candidate" by Michelle Goldberg.

Site: Better Angels.

Article: "Iran announces arrests over shootdown of Ukrainian passenger plane that killed 176" by Morgan Winsor.

Article: "It's a 50-50 nation, so how does impeachment affect the political calculation?" by kos.

Poll: "Would you support or oppose impeaching Donald Trump?" by Civiqs.

Article: "The Great Hack" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel Dined With Donald Trump at White House" by Jacob Ogles.

Article: "Hillary Clinton wins 2,864,974 more votes than Donald Trump, final US election count shows" by Jon Sharman.

Article: "Trump's 'American Carnage' speech resembled an extended tweet" by Sidney Blumenthal.

Article: "Trump's full inauguration speech transcript, annotated".

Video: Michael Moore: Republicans Who Oppose Impeachment Are "Dying Dinosaurs," But Trump Could Win in 2020.

Article: "The Afghanistan Papers" by Craig Whitlock, Leslie Shapiro and Armand Emamdjomeh.

Article: "Smedley Butler" by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over" by The Guardian.

Quote: "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.

Site: US Debt Clock.org.

Site: Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

Hour Three: 2016 All Over Again? Cyber Hacks, Attacks and How to Protect Your Data & More
- Ramesh Srinivasan, Professor/Director, UC Digital Cultures Lab-Department of Information Studies and Design|Media Arts, UCLA, author of Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow

Video: Can Innovators Overcome Inequality, or Make It Worse? (Book Club: excerpt from Ramesh Srinivasan's 'Beyond The Valley').

Article: "Russians reportedly hacked Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company tied to Hunter Biden" by Andrew Prokop.

Site: Internet Research Bureau.

Article: "Is it time to regulate or nationalize Facebook?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Common carrier" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Video: Part 1: Meet Brittany Kaiser, Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Releasing Troves of New Files from Data Firm (6 parts).

Video: Part 2: "The Great Hack": Big Data Firms Helped Sway the 2016 Election. Could It Happen Again in 2020?.

Video: Part 3: Propaganda Machine: The Military Roots of Cambridge Analytica's Psychological Manipulation of Voters.

Video: Part 4: Facebook Is a Crime Scene: "The Great Hack" Documentary Details Big Data's Threat to Democracy.

Video: Part 5: "Democracy For Sale": Cambridge Analytica & Big Tech's History of Manipulating Elections.

Video: Part 6: The Weaponization of Data: Cambridge Analytica, Information Warfare & the 2016 Election of Trump.

Article: "Warren pledges to take action to cancel student debt on 'day one' if elected president" by Marissa Higgins.

Video: 1988 Bernie DEBUNKS Modern-Day Lie About Him.

Article: "Army-Navy Students Were Playing 'Sophomoric Game' Not Flashing White Power Sign" by Matt Shuham.

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

Case: "Bush v. Gore", 2000.

Article: "John Roberts" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" (incl. Mighty Texas Strike Force) by Robert F. Kennedy Jr..

Article: "Operation Eagle Eye (United States)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ivanpah Solar Power Facility" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sean Hannity threatens Iran's oil refineries 'could soon go up in flames'" by Matthew Chapman .

Tweet: "I've seen the claim several places, but does anyone have video or a reliable news source confirming Trump adviser Sean Hannity said on-air, online, or on radio that Iran was about to be hit by B52s shortly before an Iranian battery allegedly mistook an airliner for a US warplane?" by Seth Abramson.

Tweet: "As so many of you asked: the BBC reports PS752 was hit-per US officials, accidentally, by an Iranian battery possibly expecting an airstrike-approximately 9:44PM EST. Trump adviser Hannity was on-air declaring an imminent US airstrike during his 9PM show. https://t.co/q7PKCnerq3" by Seth Abramson.

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, I'll be talking with Dr. Nathan Donley, Ph.D, Senior Scientist, Center for Biological Diversity about Trump's EPA approving dangerous pesticides

And, what did you think of the Democratic debate last night?

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...

The Internet is Controlling YOU! (w/ Ramesh Srinivasan)

Poverty Keeps Millennials From Middle Class

Military Gets Billions For Wars Americans Don't Want To Fight!

Republicans Starving Healthcare To Stuff Their Wallets

Has Reaganomics Turned America Into a "Sh*thole" Country?

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.