As of last week, Republican efforts to ban birth control in America have officially started, and teenagers in Texas are its first victims. To paraphrase Pastor Niemöller, first they came for our abortion rights. Now they're coming for our birth control.

Psychologist Dr. Marty Klein notes at Psychology Today that there are typically only a few reasons why people oppose birth control. They are:

— Fundamentalist religions fear sexual pleasure, which birth control facilitates
— Contraception effectively limits family size, empowering women
— Contraception promotes personal autonomy [making women more likely to challenge male authority]
— Birth control may make abortion more acceptable to society

Lost in the Christmas holiday chatter, a Trump-appointed federal district judge in Texas just a week ago put a stop to teenagers getting confidential access to birth control pills and devices in that state.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Would Democrats agree to a deal in the race for House speaker?" by Steve Benen.

Article: "Dark Nancy's Final Insult to the GOP... For Now" by danarheaelliott.

Article: "With Kevin McCarthy's quest for the speaker's gavel in turbulent waters, lawmakers are publicly and privately floating alternatives" by Jordain Carney.

Article: "Dennis Hastert" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Report: Scalise's Pitch 20 Years Ago: I'm ‘David Duke Without The Baggage'" by Matthew Boyle.

Article: "The Invention of Elise Stefanik" by Nicholas Confessore.

Article: "Is the Right to Contraception About To End in America?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Age of Consent Laws" by Stephen Robertson.

Article: "Oppose the Confirmation of Matthew Kacsmaryk to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas" by Vanita Gupta.

Case: "Deanda v. Becerra".

Article: "Nixon shamelessly tried to sleep with female staffers" by Maureen Callahan.

Article: "Teenage pregnancy in the United States" by J Trussell.

Case: "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health".

Book: Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics by Claudia Koonz.

Bill: "H.R.8373 - Right to Contraception Act".

Article: "Trump judge's rollback of birth control rights forces Texas clinics to turn away teens" by Sharon Grigsby.

Case: "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health".

Article: "About Title X" by Every Body Texas.

Article: "195 House Republicans Voted Against Birth Control Protections" by Alanna Vagianos.

Article: "Legacy of Romania's contraception ban lives on" by Irish Times.

Article: "Some States Already Are Targeting Birth Control" by Michael Ollove.

Article: "Opposition Claims About Margaret Sanger" by Planned Parenthood.

Article: "Why Does the Religious Right Hate Your Birth Control?" by Marty Klein.

Article: "The Kind of Books Nazis Burned Is Super !@#$ing Relevant Right Now" by Alyssa Shotwell.

Site: "The Righting".

Article: "Live Vote Count: Tracking the House Speaker Votes" (4th Jan, votes 4 - 6) by Allison McCartney, Alicia Parlapiano and Emily Cochrane.

Post: "Some really good conversations took place last night, and it's now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA,THE ONLY SPEAKER IN U.S. HISTORY TO HAVE LOST THE "HOUSE" TWICE! REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT. IT'S TIME TO CELEBRATE, YOU DESERVE IT. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB - JUST WATCH!" by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Grow up! House GOP must stop this madness over speaker and go after Biden" by Michael Goodwin.

Article: "The Morning Briefing: New Republican House Majority Is a Driverless Clown Car" by Stephen Kruiser.

Article: "Kevin McCarthy becomes a squatter and whines ‘I earned this'" by Olivia Murray.

Article: "GOP senators visited Moscow on July 4, warned Russia against meddling in 2018 election: report" by Emily Birnbaum.

Article: "Why Did Sen Johnson Spend 4th of July in Moscow?" by Josh Dukelow.

Article: "Silly Putty" by Wikipedia.

Article: "5 Presidents Who Lost the Popular Vote But Won the Election" by History.com.

Article: "List of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Contract with America" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tip O'Neill" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mark Hatfield" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Surprise in Pennsylvania: Republicans Back a (Former?) Democrat for Speaker" by Campbell Robertson.

Hour Two: What is the future of Bitcoin? is there a role for alternative money?
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Economist / Co-founder, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books including The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself (also available as an e-book) / Host - Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff on FSTV

Article: "Happy Birthday, Bitcoin: Top Cryptocurrency Turns 14" by Rahul Nambiampurath.

Article: "The boldest bitcoin calls for 2023 are out — and a 1,400% rally or a 70% plunge may be on the cards" by Ryan Browne, Arjun Kharpal.

Video: How is Bitcoin Not the Same Thing as the Dutch Tulip Mania? (w/ Richard Wolff).

Article: "Bitcoin" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Bitcoin's Price History" by John Edwards.

Article: "Bitcoin to United States Dollar" by Google Finance.

Article: "What Is a Commodity and Understanding Its Role in the Stock Market" by Jason Fernando.

Article: "What Is Money? Definition, History, Types, and Creation" by Investopedia.

Article: "AARP" by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "January 6: The Facts" by Timothy Snyder.

Tweet: "1) IMPORTANT THREAD: On Nov 9, 2020 AFTER Trump lost he fired Esper and installed Chris Miller 'Acting Sec of Defense' and Kash Patel. In DC the only people who can deploy the National Guard are POTUS and Sec of Defense. These are the 14 times Miller denied the National Guard" by Sandi Bachom.

Tweet: "EDITOR'S NOTE: This tweet has been deleted. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said some Republicans had begun "preliminary" discussions with Democrats about deal to support consensus candidate. The previous tweet of this story contained incorrect information. https://trib.al/Ot6LiRh" by The Hill.

Article: "Currency: What It Is, How It Works, and How It Relates to Money" by Jake Frankenfield.

Video: Money vs Currency - Hidden Secrets Of Money Episode 1 - Mike Maloney.

Article: "The Ruff Times Newsletter" by Howard Ruff.

Article: "Constitution of the United States", article 3 section 2. "... In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make...."

Article: "Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?" by Jon Huang, Claire O'Neill and Hiroko Tabuchi.

Article: "Andrew Jackson" (Old Hickory).

Article: "US Budget Deficit by Year Compared to GDP, the National Debt, and Events" by Kimberly Amadeo.

Article: "National debt of Japan" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Putin Has No Red Lines" by Nigel Gould-Davies.

Book: "The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Report on the Subject of Manufactures" (11-point plan) by Alexander Hamilton.

Article: "Lauren Boebert's Attack on Trump Shocks Congress" by Matthew Impelli.

Article: "‘I've got to get out and tell people': Pete Buttigieg on his road ahead" by David Smith.

Site: The Lever (David Sirota).

Article: "Ted Liu literally gets popcorn ready for Speaker vote chaos" by Akemi Tamanaha.

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 1 section 8 (Powers of Congress). "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures"

Article: "Currency" by Federal Reserve Board.

Article: "The Biden administration could sidestep McConnell's refusal to pay America's bills by minting a $1 trillion platinum coin" by Andy Kiersz and Joseph Zeballos-Roig.

Article: "Specie" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Fiat money" by Wikipedia.

Article: ""We're open to that": AOC floats speaker deal with GOP after talks with Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar" by Rae Hodge.

Article: "There wasn't a single bank robbery in Denmark last year" by Hanna Ziady.

Article: "Enjoy your tax cuts while they last" by Jeanne Sahadi.

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

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

Plus, I'll be talking with Nate Gowdy, Photojournalist, INSURRECTION / Project Lead, American Superhero Project, a Photo-Journalist who was attacked by the J-6 mob while on assignment for Rolling Stone Magazine

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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Stephen Miller Sues Biden To Keep White Supremacy In America?

What Billionaires Funded Jan 6th Coup?