Steve Bannon was just arrested for running a giant con on Trump supporters.

He and a few buddies started a "charity" inviting people to make contributions to help "build the wall" on our southern border. Gullible and vulnerable people gave them millions of dollars, and they used that money for their own purposes.

This shouldn't surprise us. The entire Trump campaign has been one long con job.

It started when Trump announced he was running for president, not because he thought he would be a good president but because he thought it would force GE and NBC to pay him more money for his Apprentice show.

He assembled a group of grifters around him, like Bannon and Manafort, and, with the help of several foreign governments including Russia, they managed to squeak him into the White House.

Read more here.

-Thom

Thursday's Daily Stack

Article: "Steve Bannon indicted in scheme to defraud donors to campaign pledging to build border wall" by Melissa Quinn.

Article: "Twitter Blows Up After News of Bannon's Arrest: 'It's All One Big Con. The Whole Thing'" by Leia Idliby.

Article: "Steve Bannon was arrested by US Postal Service agents" by Grace Panetta.

Article: "Brooks Brothers riot" by Wikipedia.

Article: ""Shut Him Down": Trump Will Claim He Won the Election on Night of November 3, and Biden Is Trying to Steal It: Bush 2000 Tactic. A BuzzFlash Editor's Commentary." by Mark Karlin.

Article: "Michael Moore claims Trump ran for president because of Gwen Stefani" by Sara M Moniuszko.

Article: "Howard Stern: Trump's candidacy for president was a 'publicity stunt'" by Kate Sullivan.

Video: Obama delivers powerful speech at DNC.

Article: "Oil Companies Can Set Their Own Rates for Royalties From Drilling on Public Lands Thanks to Trump: Report" by Julia Conley.

Article: ""It must be investigated": Trump donors get $569 million contract to build 17 miles of border wall" by Igor Derysh.

Article: "Wealthy Trump 2016 donors are ignoring campaign cash pleas after he handed them a big tax cut: report" by Tom Boggioni.

Article: "Donald Trump is destroying the Post Office" by Ryan Cooper.

Article: "'Trump hasn't grown into the job, because he can't': Obama tears into Trump and delivers a forceful endorsement of Biden in DNC speech" by Sonam Sheth and John Haltiwanger.

Article: "American Legislative Exchange Council" (ALEC) by SourceWatch.

Article: "Portland police arrest pro-police protester they believe fired live rounds at Saturday protest" by K. Rambo.

Video: Watch Sen. Elizabeth Warren's full speech at the 2020 DNC.

Video: Gabrielle Gifford speaks at the 2020 DNC.

Article: "Warnings of DeJoy Scheme to 'Kill Postal Banking' as USPS Reportedly Considering Plan to Let Wall St Set Up ATMs in Post Offices" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "'Free money'? Incredulous Oregonians line up around the state for $500 relief checks" by Mike Rogoway.

Article: "Rand Paul: No incentive to open economy "if you soften the amount of suffering"" by Rashaan Ayesh.

Article: "Dems can use this constitutional trick to stop Trump's judges from dismantling Biden's agenda" by Matthew Chapman.

Article: "A Constitutional Weapon for Biden to Vanquish Trump's Army of Judges" by Christopher J. Sprigman.

Article: "What Happened With Merrick Garland In 2016 And Why It Matters Now" by Ron Elving.

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

Book: The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream by Thom Hartmann.

Case: "Brown v. Board Of Education", 1954 (Segregation in public schools) (overturned Plessy v. Ferguson).

Article: "Roe v. Wade" by History Channel.

Article: "Supreme Court Jurisdiction" by John Roberts, 1982.

Article: "Constitution of the United States", article 3 section 2. "... In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make...."

Article: "Andrew Jackson" (Old Hickory).

Case: "Dred Scott v. Sandford", 1857

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

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

Article: "Mystery grows over Covid-19 spread in China via contaminated food packaging" by Bloomberg.

Article: "Hidden in the HEROES Act, A New Multiemployer Pension Plan Bailout" by Elizabeth Bauer.

Article: "Pension funds for nearly 1 million workers are on verge of collapse" by Brian Williams.

Book: "Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes, 1651. "And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."

Article: "Libertarian Party" by Wikipedia.

Article: "You don't know what 'Libertarian' means..." by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Democrats Drop Demand To End Fossil Fuel Subsidies From Party Platform" by Alexander C. Kaufman.

Article: "Thousands of chicks arrive dead to farmers in Maine amid USPS turmoil" by AP.

Bill: "H.R.6800 - Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act or the HEROES Act" by Nita Lowey [D-NY-17].

Article: "Yep, Masks And Protective Gear Are Still Hard To Get — Especially For Small Buyers" by Joel Rose.

Hour Two: Is the Dollar Tanking? And, What Does This Mean To America?
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work / Understanding Marxism / Understanding Socialism

Article: "China's Bank Regulator Warns Dollar Dominance Is Seed of Crisis" by Bloomberg.

Site: Aden Forecast

Article: "Will Enough Americans Show Up to Stop Trump From Using the Dictator's Playbook?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "If Biden Wins, Get Ready for Trump to Punish America" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Imelda Marcos" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Barron Trump is a Dual Citizen of Both Slovenia and the US Which is Odd for the Son of the 'America First' President" by Jason Miciak.

Article: "Moscow Skyscraper Talks Continued Through 'the Day I Won,' Trump Is Said to Acknowledge" by Mark Mazzetti, Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt.

Tweet: "Kris Kobach is the general counsel of the Build the Wall PAC that Steve Bannon was just arrested for being involved in as chairman. The advisory board includes Erik Prince, former CO congressman Tom Tancredo, Sheriff Dave Clarke and former pitcher Curt Schilling." by Edward-Isaac Dovere.

Article: "Tweet falsely claims announcement of RNC speaker lineup" by Amanda Seitz.

Article: "A Kremlin-Linked Firm Invested Millions in Kentucky. Were They After More Than Money?" by Simon Shuster and Vera Bergengruen.

Quote: "Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions." - Thomas Paine.

Book: "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, Jan. 10 1776.

Article: "NY officer suspended after refusing to respond to Planned Parenthood 911 call due to Black Lives Matter sign" by David Edwards.

Article: "Mark McCloskey & Patricia McCloskey: St. Louis Couple Pull Guns on Protesters" by Emily Bicks.

Article: "Armed St. Louis protesters broke iron gate, threatened couple before they drew their own guns, attorney says" by Stephanie Pagones.

Article: "Did LBJ Advocate: 'Convince the Lowest White Man He's Better Than the Best Colored Man'?" by David Emery.

Quote: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." - Lyndon B. Johnson.

Article: "Southern strategy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump on black supporter: 'Look at my African-American over here'" by Jeremy Diamond.

Article: "Bannon vows a daily fight for 'deconstruction of the administrative state'" by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa.

Article: "Skull and Bones" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Judge throws out Trump challenge to Manhattan DA subpoena for tax records" by Tucker Higgins.

Article: "Airlines in bankruptcy land" by Charles Leocha.

Article: "McConnell's Legislative Graveyard" by Nancy LeTourneau.

Book: Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age by Larry M. Bartels.

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Article: "Lewis F. Powell Jr." by Wikipedia.

Article: "The St. Louis couple charged with waving guns at protesters have a long history of not backing down" by Jeremy Kohler.

Hour Three: Reaganland
- Rick Perlstein, Journalist & contributing writer-The Nation / former chief national correspondent for the Village Voice, former online columnist for the New Republic & Rolling Stone / Author of 4 books, his latest, Reaganland

Book: Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein.

Book: Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America: America's Second Civil War and the Divisive Legacy of Richard Nixon, 1965-1972 by Rick Perlstein.

Book: The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein.

Article: "Republicans Struggle to Reboot Their "Small Government, Personal Responsibility" Scam" by Thom Hartmann.

Video: Morning Joe: Conservative writers discuss what conservatism means now.

Article: "Debategate" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Thomas Hobbes" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Jean-Jacques Rousseau" by Wikipedia.

Article: "John Locke" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Edmund Burke" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Thomas Paine" by Wikipedia.

Book: Rights of Man by Thomas Paine.

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

Book: The Oxford History of the French Revolution by William Doyle.

Article: "Right-to-work law" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Moral Majority" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Jerry Falwell Sr." by Wikipedia.

Book: Armageddon and the Coming War with Russia by Jerry Falwell.

Article: "Bohemian Grove" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Bilderberg meeting" by Wikipedia.

Quote: "Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that's my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today's establishment." - Steve Bannon.

Article: "Esper eyes $2.2 billion cut to military health care" by Lara Seligman, Dan Diamond.

Tweet: "A proposal by Pentagon officials to slash Military Healthcare by $2.2 billion dollars has been firmly and totally rejected by me. We will do nothing to hurt our great Military professionals & heroes as long as I am your President. Thank you!" by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Reporter finds 'graveyard of mail sorting pieces' at Michigan USPS location day after sabotage was supposedly suspended" by Kerry Eleveld.

Quote: "Less government in business and more business in government." - Warren G. Harding.

The Politics of Climate Change..Biden/Harris Plan Bold Action & Green Energy Jobs
- Lori Lodes, Executive Director - Climate Power 2020 / Obama admin alum

Article: "Mike Pence's unbelievable answer on whether climate change is a threat" by Chris Cillizza.

Video: Kamala Harris on Climate Change and Racial Justice.

Article: "Harris, Ocasio-Cortez introduce environmental justice bill" by Alexandra Kelley.

Article: "Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces $14 Million Settlement With BP for Underground Fuel Storage Tank Violations".

Article: "Senators File Brief in Ninth Circuit Case to Hold Big Oil Responsible for Climate Change" by Kamala D. Harris.

Article: "Democratic A.G. Candidate Rips Prop. 23" by Santa Barbara Independent.

Article: "A.G. Schneiderman, Former Vice President Al Gore And A Coalition Of Attorneys General From Across The Country Announce Historic State-Based Effort To Combat Climate Change", March 29 2016.

Article: "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mortgage Refi Costs to Rise in September as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Add 0.5% Fee" by Christy Bieber.

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

TV: "The Family".

Article: "Photos appear to show mail sorting machines in parts in US postal facility" by Olivia Rubin.

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.

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...

Will Trump Supporters Vote For Him After This?

Can We Raise The Post Office From The Dead? (w/ Rep. Mark Pocan)

WE THE PEOPLE: The Democratic National Convention (w/ Xochitl Hinojosa)

Can Libertarians Stomach Trump's Pandemic Unemployment Cuts? (w/ Charles Sauer)

Tue, Aug 25, 5pm PT: Powell's virtual bookstore event
- Thom Hartmann in Conversation With David Korten.

Get Tickets here for the Livestream event

Fri, Sep 4, 6pm PT: Town Hall Seattle virtual event.

Get Tickets here for the Livestream event