A democracy cannot function when the people are not fully informed about the government's actions, and when the government refuses to protect the constitutional rights of its citizens.

Yesterday the Trump administration went into court here in Oregon to claim that it was just fine if their secret police storm troopers shot at clearly identified and credentialed reporters who were observing the police riots in Portland. So far, multiple reporters have been shot or otherwise injured here while simply trying to report on those police riots.

Reporters and news organizations are citing the First Amendment protection of the press, but the Trump administration is basically saying that it doesn't give a damn about the press or the Constitution. They'll simply shoot at, gas or violently beat with billy clubs, whoever they want, they are arguing in court.

If the Trump administration prevails here in Portland, and if this goes up through the chain all the way to the Supreme Court and they prevail there, this will do major and possibly irreparable damage to democracy in the United States. This is not how democracy works, nor how people who embrace the founding values of this country behave. This is how autocrats and dictators behave.

This may be the largest and most significant flag yet that the Trump administration has given us that they intend to turn this country into something few Americans could've imagined five years ago.

Be warned.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

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

Article: "House panel wraps up lightning-fast appropriations for 2021" by Niv Elis.

Article: "House passes defense bill with provision to remove Confederate names from bases" by Daniel Uria.

Article: "House Committee Approves New WRDA Bill" by Tom Ichniowski.

Article: "COVID-19 HEROES Act: When Will the Senate Vote?" by S.M. Walsh.

Bill: "'Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act' or the 'HEROES Act'" by Rep. Nita Lowey.

Article: "The extra $600 unemployment benefits will end before July 31" by Megan Leonhardt.

Article: "McConnell Laughs When Asked If Covid-19 Bill Will Pass by End of Next Week-When Unemployment Benefits Expire for 30 Million" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "QAnon follower wins Senate primary in Oregon" by Christopher Wilson.

Article: "QAnon supporter defeats incumbent Republican in Colorado primary" by Andrew Naughtie.

Article: "Bull Moose Party" by Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Video: Conservative columnist George Will says he will vote for Biden in November.

Article: "Jon Huntsman Jr." by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump Administration Redacts Meeting Minutes on the Presidential Transition" by Courtney Bublé.

Video: President Trump goes one-on-one with Chris Wallace | Full Interview 19 July 2020.

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

Tweet: "NEW: Trump's postal service is piloting a new program that will take already-delayed first-class mail and delay it further, by ordering carriers to no longer sort and box newly arrived mail in the morning and then deliver it. Instead, they must wait till the end of the day." by Ryan Grim.

Article: "Starve the beast" by Wikipedia.

Article: "U.S. Must Release Children From Family Detention Centers, Judge Rules" by Miriam Jordan.

Article: "2.4 million pounds and counting: How sending surplus crops to food banks is helping Washington farmers and hungry families" by Scott Hanson.

Article: "Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)" by NY DoL.

Article: "Trump signs '2-for-1' order to reduce regulations" by Lydia Wheeler and Lisa Hagen.

Article: "After two years, Trump's tax cuts have failed Americans" by Michael Linden.

Article: "1926.20 - General safety and health provisions." by OSHA.

Article: "With "Midnight" Executive Order, Meatpacking Slaughterhouses Become Trump's Forced-Labor Camps of Human Sacrifice" by Mark Karlin.

Article: "Trump to Send Federal Agents to Chicago, Maybe Other Cities" by AP.

Article: "Why suburbs are suddenly the focus of Trump's campaign pitch" by Steve Benen.

Article: "Wisconsin to send mail-in ballot applications to 2.7 million voters" by Simon Lewis.

Article: "Jayapal Introduces Paycheck Recovery Act" by Pramila Jayapal.

Article: "September 1859 geomagnetic storm" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Coronal mass ejection" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Electromagnetic pulse" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Murkowski Blocks Effort to Protect US Power Grid" by Ken Timmerman.

Article: "House passes $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill, but McConnell calls it 'pointless political theater'" by Michael Laris.

Article: "2020 Talkers Heavy Hundred 1-25".

Article: "Constitution of the United States"

Article: "United States Bill of Rights" by Wikipedia.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution"

Article: "DHS Authorizes Domestic Surveillance to Protect Statues and Monuments" by Steve Vladeck, Benjamin Wittes.

Article: "Feds object to exempting journalists, legal observers from crowd dispersal orders" by Maxine Bernstein.

Article: "Acting DHS Sec. Says Due to Lack of Local Law Enforcement in Portland, Feds Must 'Proactively Arrest Individuals'" by Reed Richardson.

Article: "Trump's acting Homeland Security secretary just made a damning admission on Fox News" by Cody Fenwick.

Article: "Trump says 'a lot of people in jail' after Portland protests, but few were charged" by Jack Date.

Article: "DHS actions in Portland are making things worse, by design" by Mark Sumner.

Article: "Pelosi Gets GOP Defector & Wins Vote 215-190 To Stop Trump Secret Police" by Caleb Newton.

Video: Nancy Pelosi calls coronavirus 'the Trump virus'.

Article: "Ted Lieu: Trump Is Stoking Xenophobic Panic In A Time Of Crisis" by Minami Tamak.

Article: "Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote" by Ford Fessenden and John M. Broder, November 12, 2001.

Article: "Trump says of Jeffrey Epstein's jailed associate Ghislaine Maxwell: 'I wish her well'" by AP.

Article: "Prince Andrew's biographer thinks Trump is dangling a pardon to Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for silence" by Travis Gettys.

Article: "Death of Jeffrey Epstein" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Aborting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails 'Cover-Up'" by David Johnston.

Article: "Academi" (ex Xe, Blackwater) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Erik Prince" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Michael Brooks, political commentator and podcast host, dies at 36" by Allison Morrow.

Video: Remembering Michael Brooks.

Article: "BCSO Sheriff Gonzales to meet with Trump at White House" by Christina Rodriguez.

Article: "Sen. Heinrich calling for BCSO Sheriff Gonzales to resign" by KOB.

Article: "National Maximum Speed Law" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Oath of office of the President of the United States" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Did a Holocaust Museum Display a Poster Listing 'Early Warning Signs of Fascism'?" by Dan Evon.

Article: "14 people shot in hail of gunfire outside Chicago funeral home" by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon.

Hour Three: FBI Raids/Arrests Ohio House Speaker Householder et.al. re: Ohio's Billion Dollar Bailout of Two DANGEROUSLY Age-Degraded Nuclear Power Plants...
- Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist - Beyond Nuclear

Article: "Ohio Speaker, associates accused of using $61m in 'dark money' to get energy bailout bill passed" by Ian Cross.

Article: "Ohio State House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder, et al., arrested for $61 million public corruption racketeering conspiracy related to Ohio's 2019 $1.5 billion nuclear & coal bailout House Bill 6".

Article: "Trump administration weighs a show of force in more cities" by Betsy Woodruff Swan, Natasha Bertrand, Daniel Lippman. "Senior DHS officials said they expect the unrest to escalate at least through the November election"

Article: "Austin hospital is leaving dead patients in their rooms".

Tweet: "DETROIT FEDS ON THE GROUND Several armed DEA, CBP and FBI agents were spotted in unmarked vans on Seven Mile and Evergreen this morning. #Detroit [IG:detroitwillbreathe]" by Chad Loder.

Article: "How Donald Trump Moved Millions From His Campaign Donors To His Private Business" by Dan Alexander, Michela Tindera.

Article: "Fact-check of viral climate misinformation quietly removed from Facebook" by Judd Legum and Emily Atkin.

Article: "Trump asked ambassador to help him get the British Open hosted at his Scottish resort: report" by Matthew Chapman.

Article: "Police unions are working with Trump administration on crackdowns - without telling local officials" by Travis Gettys.

Article: "Trump's unpaid security bills are finally catching up with him as Florida sheriff reveals he can't secure RNC convention" by Sarah K. Burris.

Article: "White House Says 40 U.S. Code 1315 Gives Trump, DHS Jurisdiction To Act In Portland" by Christian Datoc.

Law: "40 U.S. Code § 1315.Law enforcement authority of Secretary of Homeland Security for protection of public property".

Article: "Officials: DEA agents spotted in Detroit weren't responding to local protests, but serving unrelated warrant" by Cara Ball.

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

Article: "Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Peaceful Protesters Gassed So Trump Can Do a Sacrilegious Bible Photo Op" by Ed Kilgore.

Article: "President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law" by ACLU.

Law: "Patriot Act", 2001.

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

I'll be talking with Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Co-founder, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books including Understanding Marxism and his latest, Understanding Socialism.

Plus, Chuck Rocha, President & Founder - Solidarity Strategies / Former Senior Adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders & author of the new book, Tio Bernie

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...

Trump Plans Chaos To Win 2020!

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Trump Leases Your Land To Coal Industry (w/ Jenny Harbine)

Will Trump's Secret Police Provoke Modern Reichstag Fire?