Several new studies and models suggest that if Donald Trump had simply declared a state of national emergency, largely shutting down the country, a few weeks earlier than he did, tens of thousands of people who are dead right now would still be alive.

He certainly had the information available to him. We now know that he was receiving classified briefings in December and January warning about the virus coming, and Peter Navarro had written a memo to him explicitly warning of exactly what is happening right now.

The problem is that Donald Trump doesn't read. He doesn't read his classified briefings, he doesn't read memos from his senior staff, he doesn't read his speeches before he gives them; he apparently doesn't read anything at all except Twitter.

While Trump may have some natural skills as a huckster, salesman and grifter, most the evidence - including statements by his previous teachers and professors - indicate he otherwise has a mediocre or even poor intellect.

So here's how banal our crisis is: our president is a man who is not particularly smart and doesn't read.

Read more here.

-Thom

Thursday's Daily Stack

Article: "Lockdown Delays Led to at Least 36,000 More Deaths, Models Find" by NY Times.

Article: "History will not be kind to the billionaire Trump whisperers responsible for so many COVID-19 deaths" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "US alerted Israel, NATO to disease outbreak in China in November - TV report" by Times of Israel.

Article: "The WHO Was Warned In December About The Coronavirus, Taiwan Says. The Organization Ignored The Warning." by Ashe Schow.

Article: "Trump was given more than a dozen briefings on coronavirus threat in January and February" by Walter Einenkel.

Article: "'Devastating' leaked memos: Peter Navarro warned Trump coronavirus could kill 500,000 Americans - back in January" by Bob Brigham.

Article: "For Spy Agencies, Briefing Trump Is a Test of Holding His Attention" by Julian E. Barnes and Adam Goldman.

Book: P. T. Barnum - The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money by P. T. Barnum.

Article: "Whitmer vows 'we will get past this' COVID-19 moment, attacks Betsy DeVos" by Beth LeBlanc.

Article: "Coronavirus Crisis May Worsen Symptoms In Children With Anxiety, Depression" by Patti Neighmond.

Site: Planet Proctor.

Site: The Firesign Theatre.

Article: "World War I" (1914 - 1918) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Spanish flu" by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "World War II" (1939 - 1945) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Korean War" (1950 - 1953) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Vietnam War" (1955 - 1975) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Cuban missile crisis" (1962) by Wikipedia.

Article: "New Deal" by History.com.

Speech: "Great Society" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Risk, resilience, and recovery: Perspectives from the Kauai Longitudinal Study" by Emmy E. Werner.

Article: "Beachgoers stage civil disobedience on Santa Cruz's Cowell Beach" by Jessica A. York.

Video: Santa Cruz Beach Protest Interviews 5.15.2020.

Article: "Perdue, Loeffler among senators whose stock trading during coronavirus raises questions" by Tia Mitchell.

Article: "Dianne Feinstein, 3 Senate colleagues sold off stocks before coronavirus crash: reports" by Dom Calicchio.

Article: "Senator Richard Burr Sold a Fortune in Stocks as G.O.P. Played Down Coronavirus Threat" by Eric Lipton and Nicholas Fandos.

Article: "Senator Richard Burr's phone seized in FBI insider trading investigation" by CBS/AP.

Article: "Burr Stepping Down as Chair of Intelligence Panel Amid Probe" by Steven T. Dennis and Laura Litvan.

Article: "FBI Questions Feinstein Over Stock Trades After Seizing Burr's Phone" by Andrew Solender.

Article: "Coronavirus in the US: At least 4 states combined numbers from two tests" by Faith Karimi and Steve Almasy.

Article: "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meat industry in the United States" by Wikipedia.

Article: "COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska" by Wikipedia.

Article: "COVID-19 pandemic in South Dakota" by Wikipedia.

Article: "6 states might be manipulating COVID-19 data as they reopen, reports suggest - here's what can skew the numbers" by Tyler Sonnemaker.

Article: "COVID-19 spreading through Southern, Midwestern states" by Reid Wilson.

Article: "New evidence emerges that the CDC has been 'distorting' the stats on COVID-19 testing" by Brad Reed.

Article: "ALEC Leading Right-Wing Campaign to Reopen the Economy Despite COVID-19" by David Armiak, Alex Kotch.

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

Article: "State Leaders Say “No Thanks” to Federal Bailout" by ALEC.

Article: "They Beat the Virus. Now They Feel Like Outcasts." by Sarah Maslin Nir.

Tweet: "AG Bill Barr speaks to CBS about Flynn.
CBS: When history looks back on this decision, how do you think it will be written?
Barr: Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who's writing the history." by Talking Points Memo.

Book: The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed by David Stockman.

Article: "What Happened With Merrick Garland In 2016 And Why It Matters Now" by Ron Elving.

Article: "Iowa businessman gets lucrative no-bid coronavirus contract after making big donation to Trump: report" by Sky Palma.

Site: Ronald Reagan Legacy Project.

Article: "Minnesota nurses hold socially distant protest for better working conditions" by Newsflare.

Article: "Trump says he will finish his hydroxychloroquine regimen 'in a day or two'" by Savannah Behrmann.

Hour Two: Is a Corporate Debt Reckoning Coming?
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work / Understanding Marxism / Understanding Socialism

Article: "A corporate debt reckoning is coming" by 13D Research.

Article: "Negative interest rates are a tool, not a gift" by Financial Times.

Article: "Dot-com bubble" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Financial crisis of 2007-08" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2020 stock market crash" by Wikipedia.

Article: "New report says greenhouse gas emissions have dropped a staggering 17 percent during coronavirus" by AJ Dellinger.

Article: "Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement" by Corinne Le Quéré.

Article: "Coronavirus 'good scenario' could be 20% of small businesses fail" by Ethan Wolff-Mann.

Book: The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Atrial fibrillation" by Mayo Clinic.

Article: "1967 Oil Embargo" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Iran Hostage Crisis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "American Civil War" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the Wal-Mart of the 1770s" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "American Revolution" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Iranian Revolution" (1979) by Wikipedia.

Site: Global Resilience Summit.

Article: "Roger Ailes career timeline: from trusted Nixon ally to Fox News kingpin" by Mark Sweney.

Article: "Was Roger Stone an Adviser to President Richard Nixon?" by Bethania Palma.

Quote: "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal" - Richard Nixon.

Hour Three: Banks Under Fire For Fossil Fuel Financing
- Ben Cushing, Campaigner-Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign - Sierra Club

Article: "Banking on Climate Change 2020: Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card".

Article: "JPMorgan Chase, Under Fire From All Sides Over Fossil Financing, to Host Online AGM" by Sierra Club.

Article: "JPMorgan Directors Reelected, Former Exxon Executive Overcomes Opposition" by Reuters.

Article: "Oil: Exxon Chairman's $400 Million Parachute" by ABC News.

Article: "Jamie Dimon" by Wikipedia.

Article: "JPMorgan Chase Tops Dirty List Of 35 Fossil Fuel-Funding Banks" by David Vetter.

Article: "The World's Most Controversial Oil Frontier Falls Out Of Favor With Big Banks" by Haley Zaremba.

Article: "Chase Iron Eyes" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Dispute over South Dakota tribal checkpoints escalates after Gov. Kristi Noem seeks federal help" by Erik Ortiz.

Article: "Trump's Liberation Army Is Said To Be Making Their Way To South Dakota To Fight Against Tribes Roadblocks" by Indigenous Life Movement.

Article: "Sturmabteilung" (Brownshirts).

Article: "Bill Press: Reagan Removed Solar Panels from White House Because He was Climate Change Skeptic" by Jack Coleman.

Article: "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Lindsey Graham's latest effort to embarrass the Obama administration backfires spectacularly" by Mark Sumner.

Site: What's Medicare?

Article: "What's Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap)" by Medicare.gov.

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

Article: "Why the 2005 Social Security Initiative Failed, and What it Means for the Future" by William A. Galston.

Article: "If Trump Loses In 2020, He'll Be The Nominee Again In 2024" by Nathaniel Rakich, Tony Chow and Sakshi Jain.

Article: "Andrew Jackson, Banks, and the Panic of 1837" by The Lehrman Institute.

Quote: "John Marshall has made his decision: now let him enforce it!" -- Andrew Jackson.

Article: "Andrew Jackson" (Old Hickory).

Article: "The Trail of Tears " by PBS.

Article: "Second Bank of the United States" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Arms control experts concerned by Saudi nuclear reactor push" by Jonathan Tirone.

Article: "Michael Flynn, Russia and a Grand Scheme to Build Nuclear Power Plants in Saudi Arabia and the Arab World" by Jeff Stein.

Article: "Flynn-backed plan to transfer nuclear tech to Saudis may have broken laws, say whistleblowers" by Ken Dilanian.

Article: "SpaceX launch: local officials scramble to plan for crowds on heels of coronavirus" by Rachael Joy and Dave Berman.

Article: "NASA Chooses American Companies to Transport U.S. Astronauts to International Space Station" by NASA.

Article: "TRUMP on SPACE LAUNCH: 'I'd Like to Put You In the Rocket and Get Rid of You for a While'" by Sean Hannity.

Article: "Unlike NASA, sheriff asks people to come to Brevard to see historic space launch" by Dave Berman and Emre Kelly.

Article: "Senate Leaves For Recess Without Passing More Coronavirus Relief" by Igor Bobic.

Article: "Understanding the twists and turns in the Michael Flynn case" by Salvador Rizzo.

Article: "Flynn's name was never 'masked' in FBI report on phone call with Russian" by Ken Dilanian.

Article: "President Trump made 18,000 false or misleading claims in 1,170 days" by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly.

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

We're off Friday and Monday for Memorial Day weekend. Please enjoy some best-of programs.

On Tuesday, Bakari Sellers Discusses His New Book "My Vanishing Country: A Memoir"

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...

Is Getting Rid Of Capitalism Only Way To Get Money Out Of Politics?

Why We Need To Cull The Military Industrial Complex (w/ Rep. Mark Pocan)

Pandemic Doesn't Need To Mean Disaster.... Unless You Live In The U.S.