Forty years of Reaganism and trickle-down economics have left America pockmarked with refugee camps and people hanging onto life by their fingernails.

The award-winning movie Nomadland is every bit as brilliant as the reviews, but it's also, for this era, a hell of a wake-up call.

Chloé Zhao's film is a brilliant drama centered around a central character named Fern (with a stellar performance by Frances McDormand), struggling to survive after the loss of her husband, job and home.

In addition to it being a great movie, at an only slightly deeper level it raises vitally important questions about how we've structured our economy and social safety net in America.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Star Wars Day: May the 4th Be With You" by .

Article: "Nomadland Exposes the Middle-Class Rip-Off" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century" by Jessica Bruder.

Movie: "Nomadland".

Documentary: Where to Invade Next - Michael Moore.

Article: "Mitt Romney booed and called 'traitor' at Utah Republican convention" by Martin Pengelly.

Tweet: "The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system." by Liz Cheney.

Article: "Liz Cheney is facing mounting criticism from her GOP colleagues" by John L. Dorman.

Article: "Nelson Rockefeller's Last Stand" by Richard Norton Smith.

Article: "Goldwater's 1964 Acceptance Speech", 1964. "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice... moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

Video: (High Quality) Famous "Daisy" Attack Ad from 1964 Presidential Election.

Article: "All The World's A Stage" by Dennis Weaver.

Book: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Article: "Andrew Mellon" by Wikipedia.

Article: "History of Federal Income Tax Rates: 1913 - 2019" by Bradford Tax Institute.

Quote: "As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth ... to provide men with buying power. ... Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. ... The other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped" - Marriner S. Eccles.

Article: "Milton Friedman" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Arthur Laffer" by Wikipedia.

Hour Two: Please Explain Why Cutting Taxes on People Making Less Than $75,000 and upping taxes on those over $400,000 is not a good idea?
- Dan J. Mitchell PhD, Co-founder - Center for Freedom and Prosperity & Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation @CFandP @danieljmitchell

Article: "National Debt" by U.S. Treasury.

Article: "Dwight D. Eisenhower and the birth of the Interstate Highway System" by Lee Lacy.

Article: "Economic history of the United States" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Government spending in the United States" by Wikipedia.

Article: "List of countries by government spending as percentage of GDP" by Wikipedia.

Article: "OECD Better Life Index: United States" by OECD.

Article: "Social Environments for World Happiness 2020" by World Happiness Report.

Article: "The Richest People In America" by Forbes.

Article: "French Revolution" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo.

Article: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.

Article: "Republicans, Not Biden, Are About to Raise Your Taxes" by Joseph E. Stiglitz.

Article: "President Biden Announces American Rescue Plan" by White House.

Article: "Bill and Melinda Gates divorce after 27 years of marriage" by BBC.

Article: "Conspiracy Theorists Are Freaking Out Over Bill And Melinda Gates' Divorce" by Rebecca Shepherd.

Article: "Joe Biden's Plan For Government To Replace The Family" by Terry Schilling.

Article: "Biden's Racist Presidency" by Joseph Klein.

Article: "Biden vs. Biden on 'Is America a Racist Country?'" by Patrick J. Buchanan.

Article: "Tim Scott declaring 'America is not a racist country' is key to fighting real racism" by Jack Hunter.

Article: "Democrat Child Abuse: White House Balks At Reopening Schools" by Pamela Geller.

Article: "Democrats are brazenly anti-God -- and anti-women" by Mychal Massie.

Article: "Charlie Crist, a Florida Democrat, will run against DeSantis for governor" by Patricia Mazzei.

Article: "White House will make unordered vaccine supply available to other states" by Isaac Stanley-Becker.

Article: "Eleven Madison Park, one of the world's best restaurants, is going vegan" by Kate Smith.

Article: "How Denmark was liberated at the end of World War II" by The Local.

Book: On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

Book: Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck.

Quote: "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires" - attributed to John Steinbeck.

TV: "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".

Book: The European Dream by Jeremy Rifkin.

Hour Three: How Do We Vaccinate the World?
- Lori Wallach, Public Citizen's Trade Watch @politicalbrief

Article: "How Hard Could It Be to Vaccinate the Whole World? This Hard." by Richard Pérez-Peña.

Article: "Pfizer's Covid vaccine revenues hit $3.5bn in first quarter" by Nikou Asgari.

Article: "Fauci warns against discarding trade rules on Covid vaccines" by Kiran Stacey.

Article: "The US and EU must waive the patents" by Lori Wallach.

Article: "The TRIPS Waiver as a recognition of public health concerns in the WTO" by Andrew D. Mitchell, Tania Voon.

Article: "Congressional Budget Office Scores Medicare-For-All: Universal Coverage For Less Spending" by Adam Gaffney David Himmelstein Steffie Woolhandler.

Article: "Declaration of Independence". "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

Article: "McConnell Says 'Zero' Republicans Will Back Biden's Infrastructure Package" by Zachary Evans.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

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

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010)

Article: "List of legislatures by number of members" by Wikipedia.

Article: "U.S. population keeps growing, but House of Representatives is same size as in Taft era" by Drew Desilver.

Site: "Democracy Alliance".

Site: "Voqal".

Article: "Polio eradication" by Wikipedia.

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

Representative 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. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft about why Mohammed bin Salman suddenly wants to talk to Iran

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...

Taxing the Rich Not a Good Idea? (Thom vs Dan J. Mitchell)

Exposing Right-Wing Inflation Lies

Can Fox News Cultists Be Saved? (w/Jen Senko)

Pro-Fox Viewer Debates Liberalism w/Thom

Are We On The Verge Of Another American Revolution?