We may well be facing that terrible question that Trump true believers faced last year: what do we do? Winter is coming... We're demonizing the wrong people.

This is not a call to "understand" or "have compassion" for Trump voters. Instead, it's a call for a wholesale political and social indictment of Trump's Big Lie, along with every elected Republican politician or media member who knows Trump lost but keeps perpetuating that Lie.

If we fail, history may repeat itself and — this time — the result will be far worse than Bush's lying us into two wars and privatizing Medicare.

That, in part, is because numerous Republican-controlled states are passing laws and gaming out scenarios that could enable a repeat of a variation on the election of 1876: if GOP-controlled swing states submit multiple slates of electors denying either candidate 270 uniquely certified Electoral College votes, the election could again get thrown to the House of Representatives (as was the election of 1800, too), where Trump (or another neofascist Republican) would win.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

If you were looking for a date when our modern American oligarchy started, it would be January 30, 1976. It was a clear day in Washington, DC, the temperature well above freezing with a light wind.

America has had several brushes with oligarchy, the first being when the South shifted from democracy to oligarchy early in the 1800s, leading us directly to the Civil War, a war that partially restored democracy to that part of America. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the oligarchic era began with two Supreme Court decisions in the 1970s and really got underway with the election of Ronald Reagan, then exploded after the 2010 Citizens United decision. The biggest problem with oligarchy, as I lay out in detail in the book, is that it's among the most unstable forms of government: it rarely lasts more than a generation or two before either reverting back to democracy or transitioning into full-blown tyranny. That theme and warning runs through The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

The Best of the Rest of the News.

— Violence has become normalized in the GOP.
— Trump says murdering Vice President Pence was just "common sense".
— McCarthyism reappears in Wisconsin.
— Republicans in Florida want to force employers — with a $50,000 fine — to keep people on the job and in the workforce who refuse to get vaccinated or wear a mask.
— A man in New York has been arrested for threatening a GOP lawmaker.
— Media Matters for America is reporting how Fox "News" has been spreading vaccine and Covid lies, myths and misinformation on a daily basis ever since Biden was elected.
— A few of our Nazis — specifically the ones who organized the "Unite the Right" rally where Heather Heyer was murdered — are being held to account in a civil lawsuit.
— The Bulwark is reporting on a 2020 plan to use corrupted police to keep Donald Trump in office.
— A judge whose phone's ringtone is Donald Trump's campaign theme song has ruled that the jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial can't know that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist who posed with a terrorist group and flashed the white power sign for an iconic photo.
— Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is making a point I highlighted in my book The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream.
— Coal baron Joe Manchin is, according to several billionaires who support him, soon to be the guest of honor at huge fundraisers
— Another woman has died because of "fetal heartbeat" and other draconian abortion restrictions.
— In Science News, as Covid recedes among Blue state humans, it's exploding in the feral deer population.
— Also in Science News, the oceans aren't the only thing rising from global warming: so is the outer edge of our atmosphere.
— In Good News for our Republic, Steve Bannon has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress.
— More good news: California has expanded booster access to all adults as research suggests immunity wanes after 6 months or so.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Monday's Daily Stack

Article: "Beto O'Rourke to run for governor of Texas in 2022 election" by Martin Pengelly, Alexandra Villarreal.

Article: "Will You Storm the Capitol If the 2024 Election is Stolen?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "What really happened in Florida? 16/2/01" (w. Greg Palast) by BBC.

Article: "Perspective 50. January 6: A Plot to Overturn the Election?" by Alan Dowty.

Article: "Election results, 2021: Party control of state legislatures" by BallotPedia.

Article: "Bush v. Gore proves Antonin Scalia's "originalism" doctrine is a fraud, so karma dictates that President Obama should nominate Al Gore to Supreme Court" by Legal Schnauzer.

Case: "Bush v. Gore".

Book: "The American Revolution of 1800: How Jefferson Rescued Democracy from Tyranny and Faction - and What This Means Today" by Dan Sisson with Thom Hartmann

Article: "The Radical Republicans" by American Battlefield Trust.

Article: "Another Trump Lawyer Wrote Memo Outlining Plan for How Pence Could Overturn Election, Jon Karl Book Reveals" by Josh Feldman.

Article: "Mark Meadows–Sent Memo Detailed Plan for Pence to Undo Biden's Election Win: Book" by Fatma Khaled.

Article: "Contesting The Vote: Challenging A Justice; Job of Thomas's Wife Raises Conflict-of-Interest Questions" by Christopher Marquis.

Article: "Examining The Vote: The Overview; Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote" by Ford Fessenden and John M. Broder.

Article: "Oregon's founders sought a 'white utopia,' a stain of racism that lives on even as state celebrates its progressivism" by Douglas Perry.

Article: "Voters' reflections on the 2020 election" by Pew Research Center.

Article: "Trump Got 10 Million More Votes This Election. Where Did They Come From?" by Britni de la Cretaz.

Article: "Six degrees of sedition: Was master trickster Roger Stone behind the Capitol riot?" by Roger Sollenberger.

Article: "The Hayes-Tilden Electoral Commission" by James Monroe.

Article: "Covid live: Egypt starts vaccine trial; Austria to put unvaccinated people in lockdown " by Jedidajah Otte, Caroline Davies.

Law: "Logan Act", 1799 - forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments having a dispute with the U.S.

Article: "Nothing would suit Steve Bannon more than to be an alt-right martyr in prison" by Sean O'Grady.

Article: "Messonnier, Birx detail political interference in last year's coronavirus response" by Dan Diamond.

Article: "America Must Never Forget what Trump & the GOP Did On April 7th, 2020" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Are Trump & His Cronies Guilty of Mass Murder?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Alaska lawmaker banned from airline over mask mandate gets COVID-19 " by Jesse O'Neill.

Article: "Steve Bannon surrenders over contempt charges for defying Capitol attack subpoena – live" by Lauren Gambino.

Article: "German Jewish Refugees, 1933–1939" by US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Article: "A Ship of Jewish Refugees Was Refused US Landing in 1939. This Was Their Fate" by Erin Blakemore.

Article: "Donald Trump on terrorists: 'Take out their families'" by Tom LoBianco.

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

Article: "Argentina" by Wikipedia.

Book: "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein.

Article: "Greece" by Wikipedia.

Book: "The Fourth Turning" by William Strauss, Neil Howe.

Article: "Milton Friedman" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Friedrich Hayek" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ludwig von Mises" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Chicago Boys" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Neoliberalism" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Joe Biden's drive to end 40 years of neoliberal hegemony" by Claudi Pérez.

Site: National Popular Vote.

Article: "The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world" by David Robson.

Article: "Prosecutors argue Kyle Rittenhouse provoked violence in Kenosha during closing arguments" by Isabel Keane.

Tweet: "How do you feel about that?
I don't know about you but this doesn't look like a fair trail to me. [picture]" by BCOOL.

Article: "New North Dakota law can't be discussed in North Dakota schools" by Judd Legum.

Article: "Redlining" by Wikipedia.

Case: "United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians" by Wikipedia.

Case: "Brown v. Board", 1954.

Case: "Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896 (separate but equal).

Quote: "Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time" - Harry S Truman.

Article: "Penguin parents, anti-bullying tips, teen romance: What we found inside three books flagged by a Texas lawmaker's schools inquiry" by Allyson Waller.

Article: "A Texas lawmaker is targeting 850 books that he says could make students feel uneasy" by Bill Chappell.

Book: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.

Case: "Loving v. Virginia" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Charge Bolsonaro with murder over Covid toll, draft Brazil senate report says" by Tom Phillips.

Is the World Locking Down Again on the New Covid Wave?
- Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, Epidemiologist & Health Economist / Adjunct Senior Fellow - Federation of American Scientists

Article: "Austria orders lockdown for those not vaccinated against COVID-19" by Francois Murphy.

Article: "The delta variant has a mutation that's worrying experts: Here's what we know so far" by Holly Ellyatt.

Article: "New clues to the biology of long COVID are starting to emerge" by Rob Stein.

Article: "In Israel, Being Fully Vaccinated Now Means Three Shots" by Dov Lieber.

Article: "Delta 'Plus' Covid variant may be more transmissible" by Michelle Roberts.

Book: The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett.

Article: "Immune privilege" by Wikipedia.

Article: "COVID antiviral pills: what scientists still want to know" by Heidi Ledford.

Article: "Battle of the Alamo" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Steve Mnuchin called Mike Pompeo about invoking the 25th Amendment on Jan. 6: ABC's Jonathan Karl" by Tom Boggioni.

Article: "Trump's White House ignored advice on COVID-19 that could've saved over 130,000 lives, Birx said" by John Haltiwanger.

Article: "'We're taking down the Biden regime': Steve Bannon urges fans to fight as he surrenders for contempt " by David Edwards.

Article: "Bannon is undaunted by federal indictment — and is plotting to 'take over all the elections': conservative " by Matthew Chapman.

Video: "Concord Project GOTV - 2010-01-07 precinct committeemen recruitment 13 minutes.wmv".

Video: "Concord Project GOTV - the importance of precinct committee members".

Video: "Concord Project GOTV - how you become a precinct committee member".

Article: "Steve Bannon pleads not guilty to fraud after arrest on luxury yacht" by Victoria Bekiempis.

Article: "Austria and Netherlands set out stringent curbs to control Covid-19" by Sam Jones.

Article: "Latvia bans unvaccinated lawmakers from voting, docks pay" by Reuters.

Article: "Netherlands enters partial lockdown as Covid cases soar" by Zaina Alibhai.

Tweet: ""It is bad enough that any state would seek to ban teaching about systemic anti-Black racism, but to offer a 'bounty' to ferret out those who seek to educate our nation's youth about the harm caused by bigotry is beyond the pale." - CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper" by CAIR National.

Article: "Kansas district orders 29 books removed from circulation" by AP.

Article: "Hopes renewed for Alzheimer's vaccine after trials reverse memory loss in mice" by Sarah Knapton .

Article: "The County That Closed Its Public Schools Rather Than Desegregate After Brown v. Board of Education" by Arica L. Coleman.

Book: Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers by Carl J. Richard.

Book: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann.

Law: "Civil Rights Act of 1964".

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Article: "The Turner Diaries" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood.

Book: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Article: "Night of the Long Knives" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Understanding Texas' energy grid failure" by Bill Hogan.

Article: "Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn't ready for the extreme cold" by Erin Douglas.

Article: "Data analysis estimates 700 deaths in Texas from Winter Storm Uri" by Chase Lawrence.

Article: "Joe Biden signs $1.2tn infrastructure bill into law – live " by Johana Bhuiyan, Lauren Gambino.

Article: "How did Republicans turn critical race theory into a winning electoral issue?" by David Smith.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution"

Article: "Rush Limbaugh" by Wikipedia.

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

Conversations with Great Minds: Psychoanalyst Dr. Justin Frank MD, Psychoanalyst & Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science - George Washington University / Author - Trump on the Couch (Previous books include Bush on the Couch & Obama on the Couch)

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 the World Locking Down Again on the New Covid Wave? (w/ Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding)

Will You Storm the Capitol If the 2024 Election is Stolen?

This Radical Plan Will Transform Home Into A Power Plant?

Anti - Abortion Laws Are Putting Women In Graves