The GOP's deepest brand is white, straight, authoritarian, wealthy & religiously fundamentalist. Their vulnerability is these can be re-cast as bigoted, homophobic, fascistic, greedy & hypocritical…

Institutionally, Republicans know how to brand, or at least did until recently. Democrats don't appear to, and haven't for decades.

The result is that Republicans have established a 40-year-long stable and largely consistent brand (at least until recently) while — because Democrats haven't invested in their own brand — the GOP has also succeeded in branding Democrats.

So, what is branding, how does it work, and why should progressive Democrats take it seriously as soon as possible?

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Friday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Progressive Town Hall
- Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA, 17th District) / Author of 2 books, his latest Dignity In A Digital Age: Making Tech Work For All Of Us

Article: "Historic winter storm turns deadly, freezing temperatures persist across Pacific NW" by KATU.

Article: "US Representative Ro Khanna leads group to Taiwan" by Bloomberg.

Article: "Morris Chang" by Wikipedia.

Article: "FY 2023 Defense Budget" by DoD.

Article: "Mystery Over Missing Sidewinder Missile That Failed to Shoot Down UFO" by Ellie Cook.

Article: "Colorado Passes Landmark Agricultural ‘Right To Repair' Bill" by Karl Bode.

Article: "House passes bill allowing Puerto Rico to vote on statehood, independence" by Farnoush Amiri, Dánica Coto.

Article: "Reported Ivanka and Jared subpoenas remind us: This isn't the Mueller probe" by Jordan Rubin.

Law: "First Amendment"

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

Article: "Full transcript of Biden's State of the Union address".

Article: "EPA steps up cleanup oversight in Norfolk Southern train derailment site in Ohio" by Monroe Trombly.

Article: "Is Donald Trump to Blame for Ohio Train Derailment?" by James Bickerton.

Article: "Indian Point Nuclear Plant Owner Plans to Dump Radioactive Waste Water into Hudson River" Democracy Now!

Article: "Fed on track for tens of billions in losses amid inflation fight" by Michael S. Derby.

Bill: "H. CON. RES. 9: Denouncing the horrors of socialism.".

Article: "The GOP's ‘horrors of socialism' resolution was bait. Dems took it." by Zeeshan Aleem.

Article: "ACO REACH" by CMS.

Article: "Why Medicare and Social Security Are Sustainable" by Paul Krugman.

Article: "NEM 3.0: what does it mean for you?" by Kerry Thoubboron.

Article: "What's in the House-passed Build Back Better bill? Paid leave, universal pre-K and more" by Joey Garrison and Ledyard King.

Article: "Regulatory capture" by Wikipedia.

Article: "War on Drugs" by history.com.

Article: "Homeland Security Act of 2002" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mass Shootings in 2023" by Gun Violence Archive.

Hour Two: Putin's Mein Kampf
- Greg Palast, Investigative Reporter / Author & Filmmaker - latest film is "Vigilante: Georgia's Vote Suppression Hitman" - produced by Martin Sheehan & George DiCaprio. Narrated by Rosario Dawson

Article: "Marjorie Taylor Greene tells Tucker Carlson all about 'this war against Russia in Ukraine'" by Walter Einenkel.

Article: "Russia's Medvedev floats idea of pushing back Poland's borders" by Andrew Osborn and Caleb Davis.

Video: Vigilante film.

Article: "Putin's Mein Kampf: An Invasion Foretold" by Greg Palast.

Article: "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" by Vladimir Putin.

Article: "Kievan Rus'" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Patriarch Kirill of Moscow" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Russian Orthodox Church" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Grigori Rasputin" by Wikipedia.

Article: "LGBT rights in Russia" by Wikipedia.

Article: "4 oil companies had total sales of $1 trillion last year" by Irina Ivanova.

Article: "Automatic Transfer System (ATS) Explained in Details" by Edvard.

Article: "Are Republicans Facing a Branding Crisis?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "A Media Ceiling is about to Fall In On Democrats" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "What is DeSantis's ‘Stop WOKE Act'?" by Brooke Migdon.

Book: "Cracking the Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "A Wealthy ‘Anti-Woke' Activist Joins the 2024 Presidential Field" by Maggie Astor.

Video: The New American Dream.

Law: "Civil Rights Act of 1964".

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Article: "Nixon's Southern strategy" by James Boyd.

Article: "The text of DeSantis' higher education bill has been released. It's terrifying" by Nevilledog .

Article: "DeSantis' six conservative picks for New College board could remake school" by Ryan Dailey.

Article: "Augustine of Hippo" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Saint Monica" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Fort Mose" by Wikipedia.

Site: Fort Mose Historic State Park.

Site: Fort Mose Historal Society.

Article: "Underground Railroad" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ron DeSantis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Dr. Robert B. Hayling" by Visit St. Augustine.

Article: "MLK Jr Day Weekend: The St Augustine campaign, a written history" by Kartik Krishnaiyer.

Article: "Andrew Young" by Wikipedia.

Quote: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." - George Orwell, 1984.

Article: "Sequoiadendron giganteum" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Police and Detectives" by BLS.

Site: Kremlin.

Article: "Ukraine" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Polish–Soviet War in 1920" by Wikipedia.

Book: Freedom's Guardians by Richard N Van Wickler.

Article: "Killing of Tyre Nichols" by Wikipedia.

Article: "OMG! Did We Help Do This???" by Cal Dem Syd.

Article: "How to Stop a Senator From Blocking a Federal Judge" by NY Times.

Article: "Senate BLUE SLIPS!" by Cal Dem Syd.

Book: Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, rev. ed. by Ian Stevenson M.D.

Article: "White supremacists behind over 80% of extremism-related U.S. murders in 2022" by Kanishka Singh.

Article: "Trump's white supremacist dinner date put on No Fly List after threatening to strangle flight attendant: report" by Brad Reed.

Book: The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl R. Popper.

Article: "Surviving Death" by Wikipedia.

Book: Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives by Jim B. Tucker M.D.

Book: Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, rev. ed. by Ian Stevenson M.D.

Book: Old Souls: Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives by Tom Shroder.

Article: "Federal officials say more than 100 children worked in dangerous jobs for slaughterhouse cleaning firm" by Laura Strickler and Julia Ainsley.

Article: "The GOP's Grand Immigration Con Job" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Kleptocracy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The ‘egg cartons' of the Russian tanks: the poor protection of many T-72B3 and T-80".

Video: Army of looters: Russian troops steal toilets, carpets and potato in Ukraine.

Quote: "Say anything you like about me, but spell my name right" - P. T. Barnum.

Article: "Paradox of tolerance" by Wikipedia.

Article: "China Uses Military-Grade Laser to Blind Philippine Coast Guard" by John Feng.

Article: "Philippine Coast Guard Receives 'Welcome To China' SMS While Patrolling Own Economic Zone" by Kent Masing.

Article: "Ukraine war: Zelensky wants Xi Jinping meeting following China's peace plan" by George Wright & Jaroslav Lukiv.

Article: "2023 Chinese balloon incident" by Wikipedia.

Article: "In 1945, a Japanese Balloon Bomb Killed Six Americans, Five of Them Children, in Oregon" by Francine Uenuma.

Article: "Texas and Michigan getting toxic waste and contaminated soil from East Palestine" by Patty Coller.

Article: "EPA says it can fine Norfolk Southern $70,000 a day if it falls short of cleaning up and paying for the Ohio toxic train wreck" by Nouran Salahieh, Holly Yan and Christina Maxouris.

Article: "Norfolk Southern Authorizes Stock Buyback Plan Of Up To $10 Bln" by RTTNews.

Article: "Finland, Home of the $103,000 Speeding Ticket" by Joe Pinsker.

Article: "Why Some Members of Congress Are Wearing AR-15 Assault Rifle Pins" by Anisha Kohli.

Article: "New Republican bill would make the AR-15 the ‘national gun'" by Steve Benen.

Article: "Donald Trump Jr. joins America First Insurance Group!" by America First Insurance Group.

Article: "Walmart Sued For Collecting Life Insurance on Employees" by James Call.

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

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