When you compare Trump's cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has swindled out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker.

They've been running a money-and-power scam on white voters since Nixon's "Southern Strategy" of the 1960s, a long con that went hypersonic with the election of Ronald Reagan.

This scam has two parts and one giant mechanism to make it possible.

Those two parts are money and political power, and the mechanism is a nationwide conservative media infrastructure for which there is no match on the Democratic or progressive side.

First came the con's funding and administrative infrastructure. Just like in the movies, a good con requires establishing a strong setup, kind of an alternative world that will bring in the rubes and help you convince them of your alternate reality.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Hour One: National Progressive Townhall Meeting
- Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District) / Member & Former Co-Chair-Congressional Progressive Caucus / (Committees: Appropriations / Also, Education & Labor)

Article: "Voters See Democracy in Peril, but Saving It Isn't a Priority" by Nick Corasaniti, Michael C. Bender, Ruth Igielnik and Kristen Bayrakdarian.

Article: "Sen. Johnson suggests ending Medicare, Social Security as mandatory spending programs" by Amy B Wang.

Article: "Senator Rick Scott wants to "sunset" Social Security and Medicare" by Michael Meeropol.

Law: "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022".

Article: "Critical race theory" (CRT) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Social Security Enemy Ron Johnson Endorses Plan to 'Coax' Retirees Back to Work" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "Fury as Texas homeowners hit with eye-watering electricity bills up to $17,000 due to 'high demand' during freeze" by Jessica Kwong.

Article: "Exporting Fuel, Importing Insecurity" by Alan Zibel.

Article: "Nancy Pelosi Has Agreed To Step Down By 2022 To Secure The Votes To Be Speaker Of The House" by Lissandra Villa.

Article: "Hakeem Jeffries" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Adam Schiff" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Steny Hoyer" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Inflation Rate - By Country" by Trading Economics.

Article: "Ohio BP oil refinery fire leaves 2 workers dead; facility shut down" by Claire Thornton.

Tweet: "Bigger corporate profits account for *over half* of the higher prices people are paying. [video]" by Rep. Katie Porter.

Article: "CHIPS Act Passes: House Approves $280 Billion Bill To Boost Microchip Production And Counter China" by Brian Bushard.

Article: "The Social Security 2100 Act" by John Larson.

Bill: "H.R.5723 - Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust" by Rep. Larson, John B. [D-CT-1].

Article: "Pocan, Khanna Introduce Bill to Strengthen Medicare, Define Alternative Plans" by Mark Pocan.

Article: "Medicare Advantage" (Medicare Part C) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Medicare Advantage Plans Often Deny Needed Care, Federal Report Finds" by Reed Abelson.

Article: "‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable': How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions" by Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz.

Article: "Revealed: oil sector's ‘staggering' $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years" by Damian Carrington.

Article: "Supreme Court will hear NC case with 2024 presidential election implications" by Will Doran. (Moore v. Harper)

Case: "Moore v. Harper".

Case: "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization" (2022) (abortion).

Case: "Roe v. Wade" (1973) (abortion legal).

Hour Two: Is There a BRICS Nations Plot To Kill the Dollar & Bring the US Economy to Its Knees?
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Co-founder, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books - his latest is The Sickness is the System (now also available as an e-book) & Host - Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff on Free Speech TV

Article: "Coming To Rescue The Dollar…" by Chuck Butler.

Article: "BRIC" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Truss Budget Fiasco Shows Power Of The Markets" by Véronique Dupont.

Article: "Trump officials bragged about pressuring CDC to alter Covid reports, emails reveal " by Rich Mendez.

Article: "Trump defends disproved COVID-19 treatment" by Darlene Superville And Amanda Seitz.

Article: "Ivermectin is the signature example of politics trumping health" by Philip Bump.

Article: "More Republicans than Democrats likely died of COVID-19, study shows" by Marty Schladen.

Article: "Editorial: DeJoy is tool in Trump's effort to disrupt the election" by CBC.

Article: "The Most Successful Con In American History Laid Bare" by Thom Hartmann.

Video: Transgender Rights II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).

Article: "Poll: More than two-thirds of Republicans say climate change is 'not an emergency'" by Andrew Romano.

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

Book: What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank.

Article: "Public Trust in Government: 1958-2021" by Pew Research Center.

Article: "Trump-endorsed trust-funder candidate busted for false claims about living paycheck to paycheck" by Matthew Chapman.

Article: "The Memo" by Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Article: "Biden to release 15M barrels from oil reserve, more possible" by Josh Boak, Zeke Miller.

Article: "Ukraine Aid Could Be on the Chopping Block in a GOP-Controlled House" by Shannon Vavra.

Article: "Who is Ginni Thomas and why is she important to the Jan. 6 hearings?" by Dan Cooney.

Article: "American Rescue Act Brings Back Government For The People" by Frances Langum.

Article: "The Child Tax Credit" by White House.

Article: "The real stakes of 2022" by Judd Legum.

Article: "The wealthiest 1% has taken $50 trillion from working Americans and redistributed it, a new study finds. Here's what that mean." by Paul Constant.

Article: "State Policy Network" by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "UK lawmakers approve windfall tax on oil and gas producers" by Reuters.

Tweet: "Chipotle: 26% profit increase. Raising prices ... It is 100% corporate greed." by Qasim Rashid, Esq..

Article: "Inside Steve Bannon's ‘disturbing' quest to radically rewrite the US constitution" by Ed Pilkington.

Article: "Next pandemic may come from melting glaciers, new data shows" by Linda Geddes.

Article: "Ron Johnson" by Open Secrets.

Article: "Mandela Barnes" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Newsom's office crafted law protecting PG&E after company's crimes killed 84 people".

Article: "PG&E confesses to killing 84 people in 2018 California fire" by Michael Liedtke.

Article: "Diablo Canyon: Newsom signs bill to keep reactors running at CA's last operating nuclear power plant" by Michael R. Blood.

Article: "California's Proposed Solar Tax is Unpopular" by Sharon McDonnell.

Article: "Oregon gubernatorial election, 2022" by Ballotpedia.

Article: "Betsy Johnson" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tina Kotek" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Meet the Candidate Who Could Crush Dem Dreams in Oregon" by Ursula Perano.

Article: "Patty Murray Seeks Reelection After 30 Years in U.S. Senate for Washington" by Isabel Vander Stoep.

Article: "Washington's Herrera Beutler, one of the ‘Impeachment 10,' concedes in her reelection bid" by Dan Merica.

Article: "Christine Drazan is bent on restoring GOP influence in Oregon. She now has her chance" by Dirk VanderHart.

Article: "Phil Knight donates $1M to Christine Drazan after donating $2M to Betsy Johnson last month" by Fox 12.

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

I'll be talking with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator (D-RI) & author of 3 books... his latest is The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court

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...

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