What we saw last night was the dictator's playbook.

Tell violent white supremacist racists to "stand by" and encourage them to show up at polling places to intimidate voters.

Bully, bluster and threaten like Mussolini did, promoting your brand as "tough guy" when in fact you're a lazy coward.

Claim that the other side is evil, like Hitler did, setting up excuses for state-run police violence and vigilante brutality.

Trash-talk democratic institutions, including the vote, like Hungary's Victor Orban and and Saudi Arabia's dictator Mohammed bin Salman do.

While millions of Americans are struggling with loss of jobs, lack of healthcare during a pandemic, and an absolutely gutted social safety net after 40 years of Reaganomics, all Trump did was brag, yell, and threaten.

This is classic dictator's playbook.

The only winner of last night's "debate" was dictatorship and oligarchy.

Russia, China and authoritarianism around the world were the big winners last night. America was the loser.

-Thom

America's first COVID death was on February 29 of this year, roughly 200 days ago. In that time, more than 200,000 Americans have died of the disease, the equivalent of 1,000 people a day.

That's how many people would have died if between February 29 and today three fully-loaded jumbo jets had crashed every single day, even on weekends, for 200 days.

Now that we've passed this grim milestone and are still losing around 1,000 people a day, and Donald Trump acknowledged-bragged-to Bob Woodward last winter that he knew COVID is both deadly and airborne, many Trump-lovers are starting to look for factual information about the virus.

With this handy list, you can help them out.

Read more here.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Trump paid someone to take SAT for him, niece writes in book" by Mike Brest.

Article: "The Most Brazen Trick Trump Tried to Pull on His Taxes" by Adam Chodorow.

Article: "New report confirms Trump lied to banks about being a billionaire" by Emily Singer.

Article: "Trump Holds $421 Million In Debt, Could Owe IRS $100 Million In Penalties, Times Says" by Nick Visser.

Article: "How Many Times Has Trump Cheated on His Wives? Here's What We Know" by Melina Delkic.

Article: "Melania Trump Apparently Knew Donald Trump Was Lying to Her About His Affairs" by Louisa Ballhaus.

Article: "Trump campaign accused of 'laundering' 170 million - companies linked to Brad Parscale are implicated: report" by Bob Brigham.

Article: "Fact check: Trump unleashes avalanche of repeat lies at first presidential debate" by Daniel Dale and CNN.

Article: "Post-debate CNN poll: Six in 10 say Biden won the debate" by Jennifer Agiesta.

Article: "The Trump-Wallace Debate was Literally the Best Thing I've Ever Seen in My Entire Life" by Andrew Anglin. "Donald Trump is the greatest person on earth. He shouldn't be president, he should be king. If he were king, he wouldn't have to deal with all of the scum in Congress, the scum that runs his government, and he could deal directly with the needs of the people.". (Caution: neo-Nazi website)

Article: "Trump clearly defeats Biden in first presidential debate" by David Bossie.

Article: "Trump's Family Didn't Wear Masks During Presidential Debate - Except On Social Media" by Jenna Amatulli.

Article: "Biden Pummels Trump With Straight Talk: 'You're The Worst President That America Has Ever Had'" by Sean Colarossi.

Article: "Biden: Trump 'wouldn't know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn'" by Tom Howell Jr.

Article: "Biden Defends His Family Against Trump's Insults".

Article: "Biden Says Trump Is Russian President 'Putin's Puppy'" by AFP.

Article: "The Legal Fight Awaiting Us After the Election" by Jeffrey Toobin.

Case: "Bush v. Gore", 2000. "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to petitioner Bush"

Article: "We need to plan now in case Trump loses in November - but refuses to leave the White House" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The Hayes-Tilden Electoral Commission" by James Monroe.

Article: ""Stand back and stand by": Trump declines to condemn white supremacists at debate" by Melissa Quinn.

Article: "Trump urges supporters to patrol polling places on Election Day" by David Sherfinski.

Article: "Benito Mussolini" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Adolf Hitler" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Viktor Orbán" (Hungary) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mohammed bin Salman" (Saudi Arabia) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Number of Americans seeking unemployment aid is rising" by Irina Ivanova.

Article: "U.S. intel agencies failing to counter threat from China, says House Intelligence Committee report" by Ken Dilanian.

Article: "Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Three Of Trump's Mar-a-lago Buddies Are Secretly Running The V.A." by Bess Levin.

Article: "Joe Biden To Tour Ohio, Pennsylvania By Train" by Chris Mosby.

Article: "Biden Tells Alliance Crowd Debate Was 'National Embarrassment'" by George Nelson.

Article: "Ginsburg mourners greet Trump with 'vote him out' chant as he arrives at memorial" by Allan Smith.

Article: "The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground" by Pew Research.

Article: "The coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at an alarmingly high rate" by Reis Thebault, Andrew Ba Tran and Vanessa Williams.

Article: "How Jared Kushner's Secret Testing Plan "Went Poof Into Thin Air"" by Katherine Eban.

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

Article: "'My Job is to Be as Invisible as Possible': A Look Inside the Preparations of Fox's Chris Wallace Ahead of Tuesday's Debate" by Joe DePaolo.

Article: "Chris Wallace Interrupted Trump 5 Times More Than He Interrupted Biden" by Paul Joseph Watson.

Article: "We Counted Every Single Time Trump Interrupted During the First Presidential Debate" by Jeremy Stahl.

Article: "Study: Guns in home increase suicide, homicide risk" by CBS News.

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

Article: "Democrats eye Wednesday vote on $2.2T COVID-19 relief bill" by Scott Wong.

Article: "Latest Polls: President: general election" by FiveThirtyEight.

Article: "Trump brags about not paying taxes: 'That makes me smart'" by Dan Mangan.

Article: "GOP senators' report calls Hunter Biden's board position with Ukraine firm 'problematic,' but fails to show how it changed U.S. policy" by Karoun Demirjian, Tom Hamburger and Paul Sonne.

Article: "Ron Johnson Flip-Flops On Supreme Court" by Shawn Johnson.

Video: Chris Hayes explains how Trump is using DOJ to manufacture voter fraud scandal.

Tweet: "@BarackObama will attack Iran in the not too distant future because it will help him win the election. If the... (cont) http://deck.ly/~RSKCl" by Donald J. Trump, Nov 14, 2011.

Tweet: "@BarackObama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected." by Donald J. Trump, 17 Jan 2012.

Tweet: "Just as I predicted, @BarackObama is preparing a possible attack on Iran right before November." by Donald J. Trump, 3 Jul 2012.

Tweet: "I always said @BarackObama will attack Iran, in some form, prior to the election." by Donald J. Trump, 16 Aug 2012.

Tweet: "Now that Obama's poll numbers are in tailspin - watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate." by Donald J. Trump, 9 Oct 2012.

Article: "Trump to Rush a Vaccine by Nov 1. What Can Go Wrong?" by Mish.

Article: "Trump: 'The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged'" by Morgan Chalfant.

Site: EastmanforCongress.

Hour Three: Science Revolution: How the NEXT Pandemic Could Arrive in America and How We Can Stop It
- Tanya Sanerib, International Legal Director & Senior Attorney - Center for Biological Diversity (& lead author on the report)

Article: "Report: America's Massive Wildlife Imports Fuel Global Pandemic Risks" by Tanya Sanerib.

Article: "Dealing in disease: How U.S. Wildlife Imports Fuel Global Pandemic Risks" by Tanya Sanerib and Sarah Uhlemann.

Article: "Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services" by IPBES.

Article: "Trump is literally a crying baby in Biden's post-debate ad" by Peter Weber.

Tweet: "Had enough? [video w/ crying baby]" by Joe Biden.

Quote: "The Commission on Presidential Debates sponsors televised debates for the benefit of the American electorate. Last night's debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues. The CPD will be carefully considering the changes that it will adopt and will announce those measures shortly. The Commission is grateful to Chris Wallace for the professionalism and skill he brought to last night's debate and intends to ensure that additional tools to maintain order are in place for the remaining debates." - The Commission on Presidential Debates.

Article: "Trump cancels WW1 memorial at U.S. cemetery in France due to rain" by Luke Baker.

Article: "Cancer eating the heart of Australian democracy" by Kevin Rudd.

Article: "Is Rupert Murdoch's Ex A Chinese Spy?" by James Warren.

Article: "Pope denies audience with Pompeo; Vatican warns against playing politics over China" by Philip Pullella.

Quote: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes" - Leona Helmsley.

Quote: "Ward : Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson!" - Mississippi Burning.

Quote: "Anderson : These people are crawling out of the SEWER, MR. WARD! Maybe the gutter's where we outta be!" - Mississippi Burning .

Article: "The People Stealing Everything Won Last Night's Debate (Exclusive for Subscribers)" by David Sirota.

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

Book: On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, 1859.

Article: "House Democrats introduce package to 'keep our republic.' It requires booting McConnell" by Joan McCarter.

Article: "Nancy Pelosi Prepares the House for Possible Vote on the Presidency" by Randy DeSoto.

Article: "We need to plan now in case Trump loses in November - but refuses to leave the White House" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Trump claims in debate 'Portland Sheriff' gave him endorsement; Reese quickly responds: I 'will never support him'" by K. Rambo.

Tweet: "In tonight's presidential debate the President said the "Portland Sheriff" supports him. As the Multnomah County Sheriff I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him." by Mike Reese.

Tweet: "Donald Trump has made my job a hell of a lot harder since he started talking about Portland, but I never thought he'd try to turn my wife against me! #PortlandSheriff #Debates2020 #DebateNight" by Mike Reese.

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

Science Revolution: I'll be talking with Dr. Michael Mann, Professor of Meteorology & Director, Earth System Science Center-Penn State University / Member-National Academy of Sciences / author of several books including The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy / Recipient of the Tyler Prize

Plus, I'll be talking with Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Co-founder, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books - his latest is The Sickness is the System.

And, Conversations with Great Minds: Harald Eia, Sociologist & TV host / his Ted Talk: "Where In the World Is It Easiest To Get Rich" has been seen over 1.9 million times

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...

Tweak To Medicare Could Lead To Universal Healthcare

Is Every Single Part Of the Trump Presidency a Con?

Voters Are Being Purged Before 2020 Election! (w/ Greg Palast)

Debate 2020: How Joe Biden Can Beat Trump

Is This The End Of Democracy? (w/ Prof. Jason Stanley)