Donald Trump spent years hanging out and doing business with mobsters and people associated with them. His lawyer, Roy Cohn, was the chief lawyer for the biggest mobster in New York City, and the Italian mob had infiltrated the New York construction and real estate business. Now Trump's mobster tendencies are bubbling to the surface.

The Democratic superPAC Priorities USA has put together an ad that simply shows clips of Donald Trump at various times during the epidemic telling everybody how everything is just fine. It brilliantly displays Trump's lies and incompetence. Trump's lawyers have sent a letter to the television stations carrying these ads telling them that the FCC will shut them down if they continue running the ads. Meanwhile, according to popular.info, the Trump campaign has over 1000 ads running on Facebook that are openly deceptive. We are watching, in real time, what happens when a failed businessman who wanted to be a mobster tries to run a country.

-Thom

Thursday's Daily Stack

Article: "3.3 Million Americans Filed For Unemployment Last Week, Almost 5 Times The Record High" by Neil Paine.

Article: "Recession of 1981-82" by Tim Sablik.

Article: "U.S. Jobless Claims Jump to 3.28 Million, Quadruple Prior Record" by Bloomberg.

Article: "Unemployment Rate by Year Since 1929 Compared to Inflation and GDP" by Kimberly Amadeo.

Article: "Great Depression" by Wikipedia.

Article: "COVID: Test Results Could Take Up To A Week" by WLTZ.

Article: "Trump sends cease, desist letter on ad featuring one giant sound bite of his mad coronavirus musings" by Kerry Eleveld.

Article: "'Exponential Threat': Trump campaign seeks to block political ad using his coronavirus comments" by Benjamin Kail.

Article: "UPDATE: Facebook reverses course, removes over 1,000 deceptive Trump campaign ads" by Judd Legum.

Mid-day with Mark
- Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District)

Article: "After Senate vote, massive U.S. coronavirus bill moves to the House" by Richard Cowan, Patricia Zengerle.

Site: Congressional Progressive Caucus Center.

Article: "Remote voting with biometrics for U.S. Congress considered after members test positive" by Luana Pascu.

Article: "U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie plans to vote 'no,' threatens to hold up coronavirus stimulus bill" by Ben Tobin.

Article: "Dr. Anthony Fauci urges 'national shutdown' as coronavirus spreads" by Gabriella Muñoz.

Article: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom: 5 of largest U.S. banks to suspend mortgage payments" by Adam Beam.

Article: "Here's what the historic $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package will do to help small businesses" by Jacob Passy.

Article: "DeLauro, Pocan to Introduce Layoff Prevention Bills" by Rosa DeLauro.

Hour Two: The Economy, the Stimulus & 3.3 million Laid Off
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work / Understanding Marxism / Understanding Socialism

Article: "Fed slashes interest rates to near zero to prop up economy during coronavirus pandemic" by CBS/AP.

Article: "A record 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits as the coronavirus slams economy" by Heather Long and Alyssa Fowers.

Article: "Mnuchin: Record unemployment claims 'not relevant' given coronavirus stimulus package" by Niv Elis.

Article: "New York approves ventilator splitting, allowing hospitals to treat two patients with one machine" by Benjamin Siegel.

Article: "Coronavirus: UK manufacturers urged to consider switching to making ventilators" by Jedidajah Otte.

Article: "U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic" by Shane Harris, Greg Miller, Josh Dawsey and Ellen Nakashima.

Article: "Trump defends money for Kennedy Center in stimulus deal" by Jamie Dupree.

Tweet: "If @realDonaldTrump tells everyone to go back to normal next week, don't do it. If @GovernorKayIvey says it's OK, don't do it. This is a death cult and you don't have to follow it to where it's going. Stay home." by Kyle Whitmire.

Warning to Pandemic Profiteers
- Peter Maybarduk, Director - Public Citizen's Global Access to Medicines Program & a Human Rights Lawyer

Article: "Gilead Sciences testing antiviral drug to treat coronavirus" by Paul R. La Monica.

Article: "Rare disease designation for coronavirus drug is just a tax break [Updated]" by Jonathan M. Gitlin.

Article: "Gilead Must Relinquish Monopoly on Potential Coronavirus Treatment" by Public Citizen.

Article: "UPDATED: Gilead drops remdesivir's orphan drug designation" by Lucy Parsons.

Article: "Study Shows Hydroxychloroquine Is Ineffective Against COVID-19 - So What Now?" by William A. Haseltine.

Article: "India bans exports of possible coronavirus treatment hydroxychloroquine" by Evie Fordham.

Article: "Trump signed the Defense Production Act 'in case we need it.' But what is it?" by Libby Cathey and Jack Arnholz.

Article: "Defense Production Act" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Hydroxychloroquine" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Worried about a hydroxychloroquine shortage as coronavirus trials begin? Here's some advice" by Haley Hernandez, Andrea Slaydon.

Article: "Only US company that makes anti-malaria drug touted by Donald Trump as a possible coronavirus treatment DOUBLED the price as the disease was ravaging China (but insists it was just 'coincidence')" by Chris Pleasance, Natalie Rahhal.

Article: "Watch a doctor demonstrate how to safely bring groceries home during the coronavirus crisis" by Jen Hayden.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Fights for Laid-off Worker Protections in $2 Trillion Stimulus with Corporate Bailout" by Democracy Now!

Hour Three: Boris v Trump & Brexit or Breathing?!
- Victoria Jones, Executive Director - DC Radio Company LLC

Article: "Herd immunity" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Herd immunity: will the UK's coronavirus strategy work?" by Sarah Boseley.

Article: "Trump team failed to follow NSC's pandemic playbook" by Dan Diamond, Nahal Toosi.

Article: "London hospitals facing 'tsunami' of virus patients: NHS official" by AFP.

Article: "Boris Johnson's speech in full as Prime Minister puts UK in 'lockdown'" by Scotsman.

Video: Boris Johnson: British public must stay at home: Full speech.

Article: "UK police use drones and roadblocks to enforce lockdown" by Helen Pidd and Vikram Dodd.

Article: "Clap for Carers: Why people are being asked to applaud NHS staff during the coronavirus outbreak" by Imogen Braddick.

Article: "UK Health Minister Says 560,000 Volunteers Sign up to Help NHS" by Reuters.

Article: "Coronavirus: 'Mix-up' over EU ventilator scheme" by BBC.

Article: "Coronavirus: Dyson develops ventilators for NHS" by Cristina Criddle.

Article: "Coronavirus: Government orders 10,000 ventilators from Dyson" by Simon Jack.

Article: "Jeremy Corbyn vows his voice 'will not be stilled' in last PMQs as Labour leader" by ITV.

Article: "Labour's long leadership battle 'hampering coronavirus response'" by Kate Proctor.

Video: Videos for Cats to Watch - 8 Hour Bird Bonanza.

Article: "Viral Videos Of Cats Playing Tic Tac Toe Surface As People Self-quarantine | WATCH" by Kaushal Ladhad.

Article: "Coronavirus deaths in the US top 1,000" by David Aaro.

Article: "Trump team ignored a 2016 pandemic playbook that warned about testing and protective equipment" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "Coronavirus Doesn't Slow Trump's Regulatory Rollbacks" by Lisa Friedman.

Book: "A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas" by Charles Dickens (free).

Article: "Texas Lt. Governor Says Grandparents Are Ready to Die from Coronavirus for the Economy" by Luke Darby.

Book: Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty.

Book: Capital et idéologie by Thomas Piketty.

Article: "ARPANET" (Darpanet) by Wikipedia.

Site: Coronavirus Cases.

Site: COVID-19 Information - Johns Hopkins University..

Site: Tracking COVID-19 - Johns Hopkins University.

Article: "US virus deaths may top 80,000 despite confinement: study" by Patrick Galey.

Article: "CNN and MSNBC Staffers Wary of Airing Trump Coronavirus Pressers: 'So Full of Misinformation'" by Lloyd Grove, Maxwell Tani.

Article: "Hollowed-out Trump administration was not ready and now it's shopping for medical supplies on Amazon" by Laura Clawson.

Tweet: "Restarting our economy will require one thing above all else - testing. Testing to show who's currently infected. Testing to show who's had the virus and is immune. Social distancing won't end because it's Easter. It'll end when we have sufficient testing. Here's how we do it. ..." by Elizabeth Warren.

Article: "The Black Death & The Renaissance" by Deborah Watson-Novacek.

Article: "Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden proposes nationwide vote-by-mail in response to coronavirus" by Lizzy Acker.

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

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, U.S. Congressmember (D-WA, 7th District) & Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus / Senior Whip-Democratic Caucus & serves on multiple committees including the House Budget Committee & the House Judiciary Committee, will be here to discuss Issues of the day.

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"

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