As the Russian campaign of murder, rape, and destruction continues, America has both a moral and a legal obligation to defend Ukraine and enforce the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting the United States today and speaking to a joint session of Congress.

He will be pushing back against those on both the extreme left and right who keep whining that in 1991 President George HW Bush said NATO would not expand toward Russia (a comment that was never reduced to writing and never part of any agreement) and the Minsk cease-fire Agreements, which President Putin declared on February 22 "no longer exist."

Hopefully President Zelenskyy will remind Congress that America is party to an actual contractual agreement to protect the integrity of Ukraine's borders, an agreement we signed to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world.

That's the "Budapest Memorandum" of 1994, an agreement worked out just three years after the Soviet Union dissolved and Ukraine had again become an independent nation.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Will America Keep Our Word to Ukraine? " by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons", Budapest, 5 December 1994.

Article: "Zelensky's full speech at Munich Security Conference" by Volodymyr Zelensky.

Article: "Why care about Ukraine and the Budapest Memorandum" by Steven Pifer.

Article: "Zelensky calls NATO 'weak' after alliance rejects Ukraine no-fly zone" by Adam Schrader.

Article: "Kyiv gave up its nuclear weapons in return for security assurances. So much for that." by WSJ.

Article: "Zelensky to address Congress amid rising fears of massive Russian winter offensive" by Laura Kelly.

Article: "How Nixon's VP Spiro Agnew ran America's most brazen political scandal of bribery and extortion out of the White House - but it went unnoticed in the shadow of Watergate, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reveals in new book" by Caroline Howe.

Article: "Despite Mandate, I.R.S. Delayed Auditing Trump in Office, House Panel Finds" by Charlie Savage, Emily Cochrane, Stephanie Lai and Alan Rappeport.

Article: "Document: Report on the I.R.S. Mandatory Audit Program for Presidents" by House Committee on Ways and Means.

Article: "Office Hours: Are you concerned about a hyper-partisan Congress having access to your tax returns?" by Robert Reich.

Article: "House Democrat angrily confronts Mnuchin over refusal to release Trump's tax returns" by Veronica Stracqualursi and Ali Main.

Article: "Iowa Election Results and Maps 2022" by CNN.

Article: "Iowa Democratic Party chair won't seek reelection" by AP.

Article: "Tesla board members reportedly concerned about Elon Musk's use of Ambien" by CNBC.

Sen. Sanders's new position as Chair of the Senate's HELP committee
- Senator Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator (I-VT) / Chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions / 2 time candidate for President of the U.S.

Article: "Bernie Sanders mittens meme" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Here comes Bernie Sanders as HELP chair" by Peter Sullivan.

Article: "Bernie Sanders on Health Care Costs" by Matt Stevens.

Book: It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders.

Article: "The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure" by Nick Hanauer, David M. Rolf.

Article: "What BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Are Doing to the Economy" by Farhad Manjoo.

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

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

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Article: "Sanders Welcomes Finnish Ambassador to Vermont for Town Meetings and Exchange of Ideas" by Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Town Meeting with the Danish Ambassador" by Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Bernie Sanders on target saying 3 richest have as much wealth as bottom half of all Americans" by Tom Kertscher.

Article: "Great Depression (1929 - 1930s) by Wikipedia.

Article: "New Deal" by Wikipedia.

Article: "1973 oil crisis" by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "Immigrants Appear for Their Court Hearings, New Data Shows" by Walter Ewing.

Article: "Most people released by immigration authorities do attend their court hearings" by Maria Ramirez Uribe.

Article: "immigrant" by Merriam-Webster.

Article: "refugee" by Merriam-Webster.

Site: Bracero program.

Article: "John Dillinger" by Wikipedia.

Hour Two: Are the bipartisan retirement proposals mostly just More Tax Cuts for the uber wealthy?
- 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: "Progressives Slam Omnibus Retirement Provisions as 'Giveaway to the Rich'" by Kenny Stancil.

Article: "New Spending Bill Makes It Easier for Americans Saving for Retirement" by Tara Siegel Bernard.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

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

Article: "Reagan tax cuts" by Wikipedia.

Site: End The Bribe System (incl. bumper stickers).

Article: "Introductory Material to the Final Report of the Select Committee" by Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Article: "Report to the House Committee on Ways and Means" (Donald Trump's Taxes (2015-2020)) by Joint Committee Taxation.

Article: " Report On The Internal Revenue Services's Mandatory Audit Program Under The Prior Administration (2017-2020)" by House Committee on Ways and Means.

Article: "Texas deploys National Guard to block migrants along border near Rio Grande" by Hanna Seariac.

Article: "How Medicare Advantage Plans Dodged Auditors and Overcharged Taxpayers by Millions" by Fred Schulte and Holly K. Hacker.

Article: "My mom's Medicare Advantage journey" by maxrandb.

Veteran War Correspondent in Kiev, Ukraine, Phil Ittner, on the ground in Kyiv, Ukraine
- Phil Ittner, Veteran War Correspondent in Kiev, Ukraine

Site: Philip Ittner on Youtube.

Video: Ukraine's Winter from Hell & How to Help Featuring Dr. Irwin Redlener.

Article: "As Winter Sets In, Ukraine's War Passes the 300-Day Mark" by Daniel R. DePetris.

Article: "Zelensky's visit to Bakhmut aims to show Ukraine's resolve." by Marc Santora and Anton Troianovski.

Article: "Zelensky-Biden news conference: freedom, sovereignty, only path to peace with Russia" by Joe Fisher.

Article: "Christmas in Ukraine: doves, military deliveries and a change of date amid the darkest December yet" by Tom Mutch.

Site: Medi-Cal.

Article: "Stop the Medicare "Advantage" Scam Before Medicare is Dead" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "California to cut solar net-metering payments by 75%" by Ryan Kennedy.

Article: "Solar power in Germany" by Wikipedia.

Hour Three: The future of carbon capture? - carbon drawdown project
- Matthew Sniff, Matthew is a technology entrepreneur w/a degree in Geology from William & Mary
- Natalie Marcotullio, digital marketing professional making climate action more accessible to the masses

Site: DrawDAO.

Article: "Panel's Warning on Climate Risk: Worst Is Yet to Come" by Justin Gillis.

Video: DrawDAO & Carbon Gardener Launch.

Article: "Facts About Benzene" by CDC.

Article: "Fracking Companies Using Toxic Benzene in Drilling: Group" by Mark Drajem.

Article: "Halliburton" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Halliburton Loophole" by Earthworks.

Article: "Black Panther Party" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Top China expert says Covid 'spreading rapidly' after rules easing" by AFP.

Tweet: "2) Summary of #CCP's current #COVID goal: "Let whoever needs to be infected infected, let whoever needs to die die. Early infections, early deaths, early peak, early resumption of production." @jenniferzeng97 Dead bodies piled up in NE China in 1 night—" by Eric Feigl-Ding.

Tweet: "THERMONUCLEAR BAD—Hospitals completely overwhelmed in China ever since restrictions dropped. Epidemiologist estimate >60% of China & 10% of Earth's population likely infected over next 90 days. Deaths likely in the millions—plural. This is just the start—" by Eric Feigl-Ding.

Article: "China's COVID-19 outbreak has U.S. worried about new variants" by Bloomberg.

Article: "Back brace scams target people on Medicare" by Lisa Lake.

Article: "Report: Omnibus Bill to Include Electoral Count Act that Was Crafted in Response to January 6" by Jordan Dixon-Hamilton.

Article: "Unions Welcome $25 Million NLRB Funding Boost Included in Year-End Omnibus" by Kenny Stancil.

Article: "What got LEFT OUT of the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus bill? Cannabis banking, Covid funds, 9/11 health, extended child tax credit, and aid for Afghan allies among items kept off 'last train' out of DC" by Geoff Earle.

Article: "Gov. Gavin Newsom says Prop. 30 was devised to benefit one company. Is that actually true?" by Stephen Hobbs.

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

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Everyone at The Thom Hartmann Program

The show is now on vacation - we'll be back Tuesday January 3rd, 2022.

In the meantime please enjoy some great reruns.

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

UKRAINE: Living Day to Day – How? Featuring Phil Ittner

Is Bipartisan Retirement Plan Just Tax Cuts For the Rich? Featuring Richard Wolff

It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism Featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders