Politicians in New York State are discussing making Covid vaccination mandatory, and, predictably, Republican cultists are freaking out. "Freedom!" they scream as they run around maskless, assaulting their fellow citizens with virus-laden breath.

GOP cultists claim that vaccine manufacturers are participating in mind control experiments and public health measures are "un-American," while we are dying from the highest rates of Covid infection and death in the developed world.

GOP cultists on the Supreme Court even say the Founders of our republic and the Framers of the Constitution would never go along with preventing churches and synagogues from holding large superspreader events. It's all a lie.

Read more here.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

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

Article: "Second stimulus check update: Here's what's in the bipartisan coronavirus relief bill" by Jonathan D. Salant.

Article: "White House Makes Offer to Democrats of $916 Billion Covid-19 Relief Bill" by Andrew Duehren and Kristina Peterson.

Article: "$2.2 Trillion CARES Act Provides A Lifeline To Small Businesses" (signed March 27, 2020) by Rohit Arora.

Article: "House passes marijuana decriminalization bill" by Grace Segers.

Site: Fair Fight.

Site: Jon Ossoff for Senate.

Site: Warnock for Georgia.

Video: Representative Mo Brooks on Electoral College Vote Challenge.

Article: "Texas AG Ken Paxton sues to overturn election results in 4 states Trump lost" by Taylor Goldenstein.

Case: "State Of Texas v. Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania, State Of Georgia, State Of Michigan,".

Article: "Texas AG Ken Paxton was indicted for fraud 5 years ago. Will he ever face a jury?" by Lauren McGaughy.

Article: "Texas AG Whistleblowers Sue for Wrongful Firing, Retaliation" by AP.

Article: "What's in the House Democrats' $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill?" (Heroes act, passed House May 15, 2020) by Grace Segers.

Article: "Jayapal Announces The Paycheck Guarantee Act" by Pramila Jayapal.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump admin held back phone numbers and addresses that could have reunited separated migrant children with parents" by David Badash.

Article: "US still hasn't reunited 666 children with parents after 'zero tolerance' at border" by Josh Marcus.

Article: "Pocan Visits Florida Child Detention Center" by Shawn Johnson.

Law: "Buy American Act", 1933.

Article: "FDA recalls are a reminder that China controls much of world's drug supply" by Maggie Fox.

Article: "How did the US come up so short on PPE?" by Erin Schumaker.

Article: "'Corruption In Real Time': Rep. Katie Porter Shreds McConnell For Stymying Stimulus Bill" by Nick Visser.

Article: "Sen. Ron Johnson invites AIDS-denying anti-vaxxer to testify on COVID" by David Badash.

Article: "Contempt of Congress" (inherent contempt, criminal contempt, civil contempt) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Republicans Are Trying to Kick Thousands of Voters Off the Rolls During a Pandemic" by Ari Berman.

Bill: "H.R.1 - For the People Act of 2019" by Rep. Sarbanes, John P. [D-MD-3].

Article: "A Proposed Amendment to Establish a Constitutional Right to Vote in America" by Rep Jesse Jackson Jr.

Article: "15th Amendment", February 3, 1870 "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude"

Article: "19th Amendment "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Article: "24th Amendment" "The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax."

Article: "26th Amendment". "The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age."

Article: "Longtime Union Members Pocan and Norcross Announce Labor Caucus to Advocate for Workers in Congress" by Jessica Corbett.

Article: "Prop 22 passes in California, exempting Uber and Lyft from classifying drivers as employees" by Sara Ashley O'Brien.

Article: "When the Yellow Fever Outbreak of 1793 Sent the Wealthy Fleeing Philadelphia" by Sarah Pruitt.

Article: "US Supreme Court votes to block New York Governor Cuomo's capacity caps at Catholic churches and synagogues" by Reuters.

Article: "U.S. Has Highest STD Rates In Industrialized World. Experts Blame A Lack Of Resources." by Lauren Weber.

Article: "3 ways the US can catch up after falling behind in science and engineering" by Greg Douquet and Peter L. Levin.

Book: Thomas Paine Complete Works - World's Best Ultimate Collection - All Works: Common Sense, Age Of Reason, Crisis, Rights Of Man, Agrarian Justice, Short Writings Plus Biography & Bonuses [Annotated] by Thomas Paine.

Article: "New York legislation could make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory" by Fox 5 NY.

Article: "8 coronavirus vaccine myths, debunked" by Amanda Capritto.

Article: "Harvard Law professor says early Congress mandated health insurance for seamen and gun ownership for most men" by C. Eugene Emery Jr.

Article: "1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic" by Wikipedia.

Article: "America's Devastating First Plague and the Birth of Epidemiology" by Joshua Kendall.

Article: "20th Amendment "The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January..."

Article: "Republicans on Inaugural Committee Block Resolution Recognizing Joe Biden as President-Elect" by Ken Meyer.

Article: "When Reagan Broke the Unions" by Julia Simon, Kenny Malone.

Article: "Democratic Leadership Council" (DLC) by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

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

Article: "The Biggest Donor To A Pro-Kelly Loeffler Super-PAC? Her Husband." by Michela Tindera.

Article: "Rick Scott 'oversaw the largest Medicare fraud' in U.S. history, Florida Democratic Party says" by Amy Sherman.

Article: "Most Red States Take More Money From Washington Than They Put In" by Dave Gilson.

Article: "Darrell Issa to return to Congress after victory in California's 50th Congressional District" by Kerry Picket.

Article: "Postal Enemy #1: Darrell Issa and His Quest to Privatize the USPS...with Help from Congressional Colleagues" by Elaine Magliaro.

Article: "Meet Robert Mercer, the conservative billionaire who was a megadonor for Trump during the 2016 campaign but is notably absent in 2020" by Debanjali Bose.

Article: "Watchdog org: Trump '16 campaign, PAC illegally coordinated" by Garance Burke.

Article: "This Week in Political Money: The Mercer Family Extends Its GOP Influence" (2016) by John Light.

Article: "The real story of Cambridge Analytica and Brexit" by James Ball.

Article: "Government Accountability Institute" by Wikipedia.

Book: Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich by Peter Schweizer.

Book: Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends by Peter Schweizer.

Article: "Robert Mercer" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Prominent conservative donor Rebekah Mercer is bankrolling Parler - the rapidly growing right-wing Twitter-like app - to overcome 'the tyranny and hubris of tech overlords'" by Jenny Stanton.

Article: "Who is Rebekah Mercer? The woman behind Parler, who wants to 'protect liberty and fight tech tyrants'" by Anuka Roy.

Article: "Elizabeth Warren's proposed tax on enormous fortunes, explained" by Matthew Yglesias.

Article: "Tesla: Elon Musk moves to Texas in Silicon Valley snub" by BBC.

Article: "State and Local Tax (SALT) Deduction" by Tax Foundation.

Hour Three: Conversations With Great Minds: Democracy vs. Plutocracy
- Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director Institute for Local Self Reliance & Author, Big Box Swindle, Home Town Advantage

Event: December 6: 12:30 pm: "Panel: Democracy v. Plutocracy" (Thom Hartmann, Kenny Ausubel, Maurice BP-Weeks, Stacy Mitchell.

Article: "Why the Left Should Ally With Small Business" by Stacy Mitchell, Susan R. Holmberg.

Article: "Covid Is Crushing Small Businesses. That's Bad News for American Innovation." by Justin Lahart.

Article: "How Small Business Drives U.S. Economy" by Robert Longley.

Report: "Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets" by Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Article: "New Deal" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Overton window" by Wikipedia.

Article: "East India Company" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Amazon Doesn't Just Want to Dominate the Market—It Wants to Become the Market" by Stacy Mitchell.

Article: "As Amazon Rises, So Does the Opposition" by David Streitfeld.

Article: "The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the Wal-Mart of the 1770s" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "John D. Rockefeller" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Hepburn Act".

Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Law: "Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914".

Article: "Great Depression" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Facebook's 'monopoly' must be split up, US and states say in major lawsuits" by Gabrielle Canon.

Article: "Common carrier" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Communications Act of 1934", of which Title II regulates Common carriers.

Article: "Editorial: Google's Threat to Democracy Hits AlterNet Hard" by Don Hazen.

Article: "AT&T's Successful Spinoffs" by Andrew Beattie.

Article: "Crack Down on Amazon" by Chris Sagers.

Article: "Zappos" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Diapers.com" by Wikipedia.

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

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

Plus, How Do We Recover From Trump? I'll be asking Dr. Justin Frank MD, Psychoanalyst & Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science - George Washington University / Author - Trump on the Couch (Previous books include Bush on the Couch & Obama on the Couch)

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...

Trump's Fans Only Want This & It's Disgusting

What is Authoritarianism

The Republican Party Has Been Seized

How Not To Diet During COVID Lockdown (w/ Dr. Michael Greger)

Texas AG Sues To Overturn Election & Install Trump