The Covid pandemic has exposed how corrupt and dysfunctional our American patchwork-quilt for-profit system has become: America can and must do better.

It has to be a scurrilous lie. Seriously: nobody is that evil.

Although it is the sort of thing that we've come to expect because our unique-in-the-world, for-profit health insurance system leaves Americans financially vulnerable to sickness but offers huge profits to companies and CEOs in the system.

Some cynical people are suggesting that the reason Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is forcing teachers and children to sit for hours every day in classrooms with unmasked children is because he wants them all to get infected with Covid…to make money for a friend of his.

Seriously. There's that theory out there, and it's almost too evil to believe it could be true.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Thursday's Daily Stack

Article: "The United States has closed at least 10 bases around Afghanistan. But drawdown details remain murky" by Susannah George and Dan Lamothe, November 27, 2020.

Article: "Solid Rumor: Team Kamala Is Quietly Shopping the Cabinet for 25th Amendment Removal of Joe Biden" by JD Rucker.

Article: "Time to impeach Biden: He's actively trying to destroy the America we know and love" by David N. Bossie.

Article: "A Crisis of Confidence in Biden" by Jarrett Stepman.

Article: "Afghanistan: Voters Blame Biden, Not Trump, for Taliban Takeover" by Rasmussen.

Article: "Nikki Haley Is Not Too Terribly Bright, Part Infinity" by Karoli Kuns.

Article: "Ex-national security director: trump said Afghan military won't 'last two days' but made Taliban deal anyway" by benson13.

Article: "Mike Pompeo" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Scathing Kansas City editorial slams 'disingenuous partisan' Mike Pompeo for total hypocrisy over Afghanistan" by Alex Henderson.

Article: "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer On Bin Laden" by John F. Harris.

Article: "Opinion: Trump Surrendered Control of Afghanistan To the Taliban Last Year" by Rmuse.

Article: "Who funds the Taliban? Where the Afghanistan militants' funding comes from – and who supplies their weapons " by David Hughes .

Article: "Purdue Pharma" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani flees 'with helicopter full of cash'" by Michael Howie.

Article: "Miami-Dade Schools Join Broward in Approving Mask Mandate" by NBC 6.

Video: Conservative Sacrifice Kids & Teachers To COVID For Profit (Jennifer Stefano).

Article: "Anti-masking and lies about critical race theory are all part of the Betsy DeVos agenda" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "Miami-Dade County Schools Issue Mask Mandate, Defying DeSantis Order" by Ted Scouten.

Article: "Axios-Ipsos poll: Most Americans favor mandates" by Margaret Talev.

Article: "Medicare-For-All Will Stop Boss-Men from Playing Games with Deadly Diseases for Political Gain" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "OECD Reviews of Health Systems COSTA RICA" by OECD.

Article: "The Catastrophic Cost of Uninsurance: COVID-19 Cases and Deaths Closely Tied to America's Health Coverage Gaps" by Stan Dorn, Rebecca Gordon.

Article: "Gov. DeSantis approves Medicaid extension for new moms" by Renzo Downey.

Book: "The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich" by Thom Hartmann..

Article: "Unprepared for COVID-19: How the Pandemic Makes the Case for Medicare for All" by Eagan Kemp.

Article: "Ron DeSantis has a very good reason to be pro-virus, and it's exactly what everyone $u$pect$" by Mark Sumner.

Article: "Anti-masking and lies about critical race theory are all part of the Betsy DeVos agenda" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "CMS moves to stop COVID-19 testing denials, cost sharing in private plans" by Nick Paul Taylor.

Article: "Concerns Mount Over Looming Surge in Bankruptcy as COVID Medical Debt Soars" by Steve Freiss.

Article: "Florida unlikely to expand Medicaid for 800,000 residents, despite offer of more federal money" by Gray Rohrer.

Article: "McGuire's payday is a shame, if not a crime" by Neal St. Anthony.

Video: Lawrence: 'Everything about Vietnam was much worse than what has happened in Afghanistan'.

Article: "The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program" by Human Rights First.

Article: "Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans - Who Were Employed by/on Behalf of the U.S. Government" by State Dept.

Article: "The $88 billion gamble on the Afghan army that's going up in smoke" by Bryan Bender, Paul McLeary.

Article: "Nixon's Secret Plan to End the Vietnam War" by History.com.

Tweet: ""A lie & they all know it!" CNN Panel calls Biden a liar on Afghanistan [video]" by Breaking911.

Article: "Fact Check: Anthony Fauci Does Not Own Coronavirus Patent as Viral Post Claims" by Parwinder Sandhu.

Quote: "When the last man who remembers the horrors of the last great war dies, the next great war becomes inevitable." - attributed to Arnold Toynbee.

Article: "'I Stand Squarely Behind My Decision': Biden Defends Withdrawal But Admits Afghanistan Fell 'More Quickly Than Anticipated'" by Colby Hall.

Article: "Full transcript of ABC News' George Stephanopoulos' interview with President Joe Biden" by ABC News.

Hour Two: What's the deficit, the debt, and why should we care or not care?
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books - his latest is The Sickness is the System (now also available as an e-book)

Article: "Taliban bans COVID-19 vaccine in Paktia: Report" by The Week.

Article: "Biden says Republicans won't let U.S. default amid debt ceiling standoff" by Sarah Ewall-Wice.

Article: "Deficit" by Carla Tardi.

Article: "The National Debt Explained" by Investopedia.

Article: "Modern Monetary Theory" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Andrew Jackson" (Old Hickory).

Article: "The Time the US Paid Off All Its Debt" by Stacey Vanek Smith, Darian Woods.

Article: "How Much Trump's Tax Cuts Cost the Government" by Kimberly Amadeo.

Article: "United States Treasury security" by Wikipedia.

Article: "How the Republican Party Has Conned America for Over 30 Years" (two Santa Claus theory) by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Did Trump Throw Kurds under the Bus for Turkey because of his Istanbul Revenue Stream?" by Juan Cole.

Article: "The Budget and Deficit Under Clinton" by Brooks Jackson.

Article: "How Clinton Balanced the Budget" by Joe Conason.

Article: "History of Federal Income Tax Rates: 1913 - 2019" by Bradford Tax Institute.

Article: "Quantitative easing" (QE) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump let this pesticide stay on the market. Under Biden, EPA is banning its use on food." by Dino Grandoni.

Article: "Iraq War" by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "Korean War" by Wikipedia.

Article: "War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Buildings Seen Collapsed in Haiti as Earthquake Death Toll Climbs to Over 2,100" by Storyful.

Article: "USS Arlington, Navy surgeons, head to Haiti, while a joint task force provides disaster relief" by Diana Stancy Correll.

Article: "United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists" (AUMF, 2001) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Libya" by Wikipedia.

Clip: "I like Ike" - Eisenhower.

Clip: "The Man from Abilene" - Eisenhower.

Article: "United States invasion of Grenada" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Rex Tillerson" by Wikipedia.

Article: "New info emerges explaining why Tillerson called Trump a 'f***ing moron'" by Aldous J Pennyfarthing.

Article: "Vidkun Quisling" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination " by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Juan Almeida Bosque" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Bay of Pigs Invasion" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Hitler and 'his Volkswagen': Tracing the 80-year history of the Beetle" by DW.

Article: "Why Adolf Hitler Was TIME's Man of the Year for 1938" by Time.

Hour Three: Haitians Don't Need Another Prez Chosen In Secret
Jakob (Jake) Johnston, Senior Research Associate - Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), lead author for CEPR's Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch blog

Article: "Haiti earthquake: Devastation and more than 2,000 dead" by BBC.

Article: "US military sending more air support to help disaster relief mission in Haiti" by Michael Wilner.

Article: "What We Know About The Assassination Of Haiti's President" by Jaclyn Diaz.

Article: "Jovenel Moïse" by Wikipedia.

Video: The Assassination Of Haiti's President (w/ Former Prime Minister of Haiti, Laurent Lamothe).

Article: "Laurent Lamothe" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2010 Haiti earthquake" by Wikipedia.

Site: Haiti Response Coalition.

Article: "Haiti indemnity controversy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "François Duvalier" (Papa Doc) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Jean-Claude Duvalier" (Baby Doc) by Wikipedia.

Article: "An Afghan woman in Kabul: 'Now I have to burn everything I achieved'" by A Kabul resident.

Article: "Taliban backs Covid vaccine drive in Afghanistan" (January) by Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Hamid Shalizi.

Article: "Taliban bans COVID-19 vaccine in Paktia: Report" by The Week.

Article: "Biden fires top official at Social Security Administration after he refuses to resign" by Jeff Zeleny and Rachel Janfaza.

Article: "Louis DeJoy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Remote hiking area where Northern California family was found dead treated as a hazmat site" by Steve Rubenstein.

Article: "Powell Memo: Attack On American Free Enterprise System" by Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Tweet: "Steve Walsh, press secretary to US Senate candidate, Rep. Vicky Hartzler, and husband of anti-vax MO State Rep. and congressional candidate Sara Walsh, has just died of covid." by Ron Filipkowski.

Tweet: "This decision allows people to attend church services. If you choose not to attend worship services for fear you will be one of the fraction of 1 percent of Americans who die from COVID you simply don't have to attend. Problem solved. Good grief!" by Steve Walsh.

Article: "Biden Approval Falls Below 50 Percent for First Time in Polling Averages Amid Afghanistan Chaos" by Tommy Christopher.

Article: "US State Department: 6,000 people at Kabul airport" by Jennifer Hansler.

Article: "Women's rights will be respected 'within the limits of Islam', say Taliban – video " by The Guardian.

Article: "Afghanistan: First female Afghan Air Force pilot says her 'heart is in pain' over Taliban's war against women" by Lucia Binding.

Article: "Abdul Ghani Baradar" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Meet the next leader of Afghanistan: Abdul Ghani Baradar is veteran resistance fighter who saw off the Russians and was FREED from a Pakistani jail by Donald Trump as part of deal with Taliban" by Ross Ibbetson.

Article: "The Taliban: Who are they, who are the leaders and what do they want?" by Joe Sommerlad.

Article: "Donald Trump's 13 Biggest Business Failures " by Tessa Stuart.

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

It's Anything Goes Friday!

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

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...

What's the Debt & Deficit & Is it Concerning? (w/ Prof Richard Wolff)

Why Trump Screwed Biden in Afghanistan?

Bill to Vaccinate World w/Pentagon Money (w/ Rep Mark Pocan)

Conservative Sacrifice Kids & Teachers To COVID For Profit (w/ Jennifer Stefano)