We are close to either a collapse or a renewal of democracy: which way will America go? While there's apparently "nothing to see here" when it comes to conservative media outlets and even, in many ways, mainstream media, it's worth asking the question: "How far down the road toward authoritarian oligarchy, or even outright fascism, have we gone?"

The answer to that question informs our understanding of how close in time we may be to some sort of "final" crisis, and to how easy or difficult it will be to pull back and preserve a functioning democratic republic.

We've already passed through several stages that it's important to note, by way of orienting ourselves in time. And we must repeatedly check in on this to keep our bearings.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "How Far Down the Road Towards Fascism Has America Gone?" by Thom Hartmann.

Photo: "Adolf Hitler speaks to the widow of a Nazi party member who died during the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch".

Article: "Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen" by Glenn Greenwald.

Article: "The Port Huron Statement Of The Students For A Democratic Society" by Tom Hayden.

Article: "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer.

Law: "Civil Rights Act of 1964".

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Article: "Medicare (United States)" by Wikipedia.

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

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010)

Article: "Sinema's Reign Shows How Political Corruption Can Destroy America Like Metastasized Cancer" by Thom Hartmann.

Tweet: "The top 1% of Americans now own more wealth than the entire middle-class combined.

This is what oligarchy looks like." by Robert Reich.

Article: "Electoral College" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Law: "Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Telecommunications Act of 1996" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump's coup is being carried out by 'mediocre people of meager talents' who don't want to 'work a straight job': author" by John Wright.

Article: "Hollywood production crews vote to authorise first ever strike" by AP.

Article: "Alabama Coal Miners' Six Month Strike Against BlackRock's Warrior Met" by Stansfield Smith.

Article: "Amazon crushed the Alabama union drive – can the Teamsters do better?" by Steven Greenhouse.

Article: "Republicans made up a story about worker shortages and unemployment aid. Then reality caught up" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "Sen. Cassidy: Republicans Will Lose 2022 if They Relitigate Trump's Loss in 2020" by Pam Key.

Article: "Supreme Court Gives Green Light To Ohio's Voter Purges" by Sam Levine.

Article: "How Jeb Bush Stole the 2000 Election for His Brother" by Greg Palast.

Article: "CBS: Voter Purges Underway in 19 States" by Brad Friedman.

Article: "Georgia Senate releases first proposed congressional redistricting map" by Dave Williams.

Article: "Breakup of the Bell System" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Site: Sirius XM - Progress

Article: "Low Power FM (LPFM) Broadcast Radio Stations" by FCC.

Article: "Steve Bannon's guests tout precinct committeemen "chatrooms" to "take over" Broward County, Florida" by Media Matters.

Article: "Election deniers are organizing by state on a QAnon-linked platform to take over the Republican Party " by Justin Horowitz.

Site: Free Speech TV

Article: "Prevailing Wage for Workers" by Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Hour Two: The California spills & the whole toxic hole that is the Port of Los Angeles.
- Greg Palast, The Guardian / Investigative Journalist/Author/Filmmaker & Puffin Writing Fellow, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy / His new book, How Trump Stole 2020: The Hunt For America's Vanished Voters

Article: "California AG investigating oil spill that forced Huntington Beach to close " by Thomas Barrabi.

Article: "Surf City (song)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "California Coast Guard boards German cargo ship to probe whether its anchor ruptured pipeline and caused 144K gallon oil spill as it idled off coast due to supply chain crisis" by AP & Peter Belfiore.

Article: "Steven Donziger sentenced to six months in prison" by Greg Palast.

Article: "Steven Donziger: Why I Smile: Palast interviews human rights lawyer ahead of sentencing" by Greg Palast and Zach D. Roberts.

Article: "Donziger: Facing Prison for Fighting Chevron" by Greg Palast.

Article: "Fact Injection: Donziger v. Chevron" by Cary Harrison and Greg Palast.

Article: "Lawyer who sued Chevron over Ecuador pollution found guilty of contempt" by Sebastien Malo.

Article: "'Appalled' UN Human Rights Experts Urge Immediate Release, Compensation for Steven Donziger" by Jessica Corbett.

Tweet: "BREAKING: Judge Kaplan — the U.S. judge who charged me — ordered Amazon villagers to pay Chevron $395,000 for legal fees the day after I was sentenced.
In Kaplan's world, Indigenous peoples now must pay Chevron's absurd fees after beating the company in court. Deeply abusive." by Steven Donziger.

Article: "Liz Cheney" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Dick Cheney" by Wikipedia.

Article: "I'm no Democrat — but I'm voting exclusively for Democrats to save our democracy" by Max Boot.

Article: "We Are Republicans. There's Only One Way to Save Our Party From Pro-Trump Extremists" by Miles Taylor and Christine Todd Whitman.

Article: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bans any COVID-19 vaccine mandates — including for private employers" by Rebekah Allen.

Article: "Pelosi prepares Democrats to scale back $3.5 trillion bill as liberals raise new alarms about cuts" by Tony Romm.

Article: "The Manchin industry" by Judd Legum.

Article: "Joe Manchin's Dirty Empire" by Daniel Boguslaw.

Article: "Sinema Opposes Drug Bills After Receiving $750K in Donations From Big Pharma" by Tom Williams.

Article: "'Rivers in the sky' to deliver more drenchings as Earth warms" by Seung Hun Baek and Juan Lora.

Article: "Germany floods: Dozens killed after record rain in Germany and Belgium" by BBC.

Article: "Europe floods: Rescuers race to find survivors as hundreds remain missing" by BBC.

Article: "David Shor Is Telling Democrats What They Don't Want to Hear" by Ezra Klein.

Site: White Rose Society.

Article: "Viktor Orbán" (Hungary) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Augusto Pinochet" (Chile) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Adolf Hitler" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Andrzej Duda" (Poland) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Narendra Modi" (India) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Great Depression" by Wikipedia.

Article: "710 Indigenous people, mostly girls, were reported missing over the past decade in Wyoming, the same state where Gabby Petito reportedly disappeared" by Kelsey Vlamis.

Article: "Eastman memo shows how close Georgia GOP chair came to enabling Trump coup" by Jay Bookman.

Article: "New Senate report lays out Trump's efforts to overturn the election in frightening detail" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "Enbridge Line 5" by Wikipedia.

Hour Three: Conversations with Great Minds
- Dr. Keisha N. Blain, Historian/Writer & Columnist-MSNBC / Associate Professor of History-University of Pittsburgh & President-African American Intellectual History Society / 2022 New America National Fellow & Carr Center Fellow-Harvard University and a member of the School of Social Science-Institute For Advanced Study / Author of 2 books including her latest, Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America (previous book: Set the World On Fire) and editor/co-editor of numerous books, including Four Hundred Souls - edited w/Ibram X. Kendi

Article: "Sharecropping" by PBS.

Article: "Fannie Lou Hamer" by Wikipedia.

Law: "13th Amendment".

Article: "Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Martin Luther King Jr." by Wikipedia.

Article: "John Lewis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Angela Davis" by Wikipedia.

Video: How the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party started (includes Fannie Lou Hamer's famous speech).

Transcript: "Testimony Before the Credentials Committee, Democratic National Convention" by Fannie Lou Hamer.

Article: "National Women's Political Caucus" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw" by Wikipedia.

Book: The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "ECHELON" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Edward Snowden" by Wikipedia.

Book: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.

Article: "Sermon on the Mount" by Wikipedia.

Bible: "Matthew 25".

Article: "Manchin defends CEO daughter after company raised EpiPen price" by David Wright.

Article: "Heather Bresch" by Wikipedia.

Site: XRAY.FM.

Book: Friendly Fascism (New Face of Power in America) by Bertram Gross.

Article: "Salvador Allende" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Francisco Franco" (Spain) by Wikipedia.

Wednesday 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 - his latest is The Sickness is the System (now also available as an eBook)

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 There Time For Genuine Patriots to Rescue America?

Conversations w/Great Minds! The Brainwashing Of My Dad Part 2 (w/ Jen Senko)

Conversations w/Great Minds! The Brainwashing Of My Dad Part 1 (w/ Jen Senko)

Growing Nuclear Disaster Hidden Pacific Northwest (w/ Tom Carpenter)