Will Americans wake up to how bizarre and toxic this rightwing ideology actually is?

What is freedom?

Earlier this week, a group of "freedom fanatics," shut down the Covid vaccination operation at Dodger Stadium, slowing down the process for hundreds of people before the police stopped them.

They called it an "Anti-lockdown Freedom Rally and March," saying "We're not going to stop until we get our freedoms back."

They're the same type of folks who argued that New York's lockdown was an unconstitutional violation of their freedom, and spent much of 2020 proudly refusing to wear masks because "freedom."

Read more here.

-Thom

The roots and brutality of the January 6th coup attempt grew in the soil of libertarianism and Ayn Rand's writings

Many Americans are baffled by the Republican Party's embrace of a billionaire sociopath and elected Republicans' willingness to overlook the death of five Americans, including a police officer, in an attempted coup. (Particularly after they spent over 2 years and tens of millions of dollars obsessing on 4 dead Americans in Benghazi.)

But it's not just power politics; the roots of this movement in today's GOP run from a 1927 child murderer, to a real estate lobbying group, to Ronald Reagan putting both of their philosophies into actual practice.

Thus, Republican policies over the past 40 years not only gutted America's middle class, but led straight to the Trump presidency and the attack on the Capitol on January 6th that he led. Many Americans are now so confused about how government should work that they've embraced a bizarre conspiracy theory positing Trump as a sort of messiah.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "The Economic Bill of Rights" by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Speech: "A Rendezvous With Destiny", Franklin D. Roosevelt, 27 June 1936 speech to the Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power."

Article: "The "Freedom" Billionaires & the GOP Are Selling Americans Is Deadly" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Going to bed hungry" by Washington Post.

Article: "Senators push back on over-generous stimulus checks in Covid relief bill" by Louise Hall.

Article: "Republican Gov. Jim Justice Adds Pressure On Manchin To Pass Stimulus: Not The Time To Be 'Fiscally Responsible'" by Jack Brewster.

Article: "Family of Man Who Died of COVID-19 Slams Anti-Maskers in Now-Viral Obituary: 'His Death Was Political'" by Gabrielle Chung.

Article: "Trump's Cabinet has included more ex-lobbyists than Obama or Bush" by AP.

Article: "Clear Skies Initiative" by Global Energy Monitor.

Article: "L.A. Anti-Mask Group Vows More Actions: "It's Like a Flash Mob"" by Peter Kiefer.

Article: "Armed militia members, other protesters demand 'freedom' from Michigan Gov. Whitmer's stay-home order" by Allan Smith.

Article: "Anti-vaccine protest at Dodger Stadium was organized on Facebook, including promotion of banned 'Plandemic' video" by Isaac Stanley-Becker.

Article: "The Economic Case for Food Stamps" by Michel Nischan.

Article: "Anti-vax protesters briefly shut down mass COVID vaccine site at Dodger Stadium" by NY Daily News.

Article: "An armed Pokemon and a man with a doll in a noose were among the anti-lockdown protestors outside the Michigan Capitol" by K. Thor Jensen.

Article: "Manifest destiny" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Clinton signs 'Welfare to Work' bill, Aug. 22, 1996" by Andrew Glass.

Book: The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class by Thom Hartmann.

Quote: "On almost every page, I learned things that I should have known earlier as an American, but wasn't likely to find elsewhere" - Daniel Ellsberg.

Article: "Black "Americans"?" by Rohn Kenyatta.

Quote: "In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned." - Martin Luther King Jr..

Event: Feb 2, 5pm PT: "Powell's virtual event, in conversation with David Korten".

Hour Two: Conversations with Great Minds: American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power and Treachery
- Craig Unger, Author of five books on GOP war on democracy, including his latest, American Kompromat, & a Vanity Fair contributor for 15 years

Article: "The US has 4% of the world's population but 25% of its coronavirus cases" by Scottie Andrew.

Article: "Yuri Shvets" by Wikipedia.

Article: "StB" by Wikipedia.

Article: "New book claims KGB started grooming 'vain and greedy' Trump forty years ago" by National Post.

Article: ""he's A Lot Of Fun To Be With": Inside Jeffrey Epstein And Donald Trump's Epic Bromance" by Craig Unger.

Article: "Death of Jeffrey Epstein" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Armand Hammer" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump's Most Wanted Tenants" by Need to Impeach.

Article: "First Chief Directorate" (Ivan Gromakov) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Intourist" by Wikipedia.

Article: "That Time Trump Spent Nearly $100,000 On An Ad Criticizing U.S. Foreign Policy In 1987" by Ilan Ben-Meir.

Article: "Trump Has Laundered Russian Mafia Money 1300 Times Through His Properties" by Nicole Belle.

Article: "Eric Trump 'said we have all the funding we need out of Russia', golf writer claims" by Rachael Revesz.

Article: "Bayrock Group" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The troubling overlap between Jared Kushner's business interests and US foreign policy" by Mohamad Bazzi.

Article: "Trump Pardons And Commutes 143 People On His Last Day - But Doesn't Pardon His Family" by Joe WalshForbes, Andrew Solender.

Article: "Why Did Jeffrey Epstein Save Photos of Trump with Girls?" by Sean Adl-Tabatabai.

Article: "'Trump Often Soiled His Pants on The Apprentice Show, Wore Diapers', Claims Comedian Noel Casler" by Parwinder Sandhu.

Article: "William Barr Is the Wrong Person to Lead the Jeffrey Epstein Investigation" by Joyce White Vance.

Article: "What you need to know about the biggest hack of the US government in years" by Kari Paul.

Article: "For Donald Trump Jr., lingering questions about meeting with pro-Russia group" by Brian Ross, Matthew Mosk And Rym Momtaz.

Article: "Putin defies rumours about his health by dipping into freezing waters in -17C temperatures to mark Orthodox Epiphany" by Will Stewart.

Hour Three: Science Revolution: How Monopolies Have Created a Crisis in the Food Industries
- Barry C. Lynn, Director - Open Markets Institute & Author of the new book, Liberty from All Masters

Article: "Groups Call on White House to Enact Merger Moratorium in Food and Agriculture Industries" by Food & Water Watch.

Article: "Farm Aid" by Wikipedia.

Article: "How slaughterhouses became breeding grounds for coronavirus" by Emiko Terazono.

Article: "Tom Vilsack" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Vilsack gets Senate Agriculture backing to return to USDA" by Ellyn Ferguson.

Article: "Northwest Ordinance" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Golden Rule" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Platinum Rule" by Dr. Tony Alessandra.

Article: "President Biden's push for $15-an-hour minimum wage faces strong headwinds in Senate" by Jeff Stein.

Article: "Why the U.S. needs a $15 minimum wage" by EPI.

Article: "The impact of raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025, by congressional district" by EPI.

Video: Rep. Katie Porter on hiding with AOC during Capitol riot.

Article: "AOC reveals that she's sexual assault survivor as she recounts Capitol riots" by Rachel Elbaum.

Article: "Nikki Haley Hammered For Asking To Give Donald Trump A Break And 'Move On'" by Lee Moran.

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

Speech: "A Rendezvous With Destiny", 27 June 1936 acceptance speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt. "An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free men.""

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

Representative Brendan Boyle (D-PA, 2nd District) will be calling in to talk about the issues of the day and take your calls.

Plus, EU-UK Vaccine Dispute Will Be 'First of Many' Unless Patents Suspended - Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now

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...

Should Trump Be Charged With Treason?

Neuroscience of the Creative Geek (w/ Richard Silberstein)

Family Feud Over Trump's Backing Insurrectionist (w/ David Gosar)

Feb 2, 5pm PT: Powell's virtual event, in conversation with David Korten.

Get Tickets here for the Livestream event

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

Get Tickets here for the Livestream event

Feb 9, 4pm PT: Books & Books virtual event, in conversation with David Korten.

Get Tickets here for the Livestream event