The reality is that Rand Paul's beloved libertarianism can only be realized in an authoritarian oligarchy where average people lack the resources or political power to have a real say, like in Russia.

Americans of all political persuasions were somewhere between horrified and mystified yesterday when Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul argued that the US shouldn't help Ukraine gain NATO membership because, as Putin said when he started the war, Ukraine was "part of the Soviet Union."

Seriously — check it out.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Rand Paul Hearts the Russianized Libertarian Version of the Laissez-Faire System" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Sen. Rand Paul meets Russian senators in Moscow, invites them to the US" by Patrick Reevell.

Article: "Rand Paul Names Patrick Byrne as Part of Tech Counsel" by Jp Buntinx.

Article: "Ex-Rand Paul aide pardoned by Trump is charged with funneling Russian money into 2016 election" by Graig Graziosi.

Book: "The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness" by Thom Hartmann.

Tweet: "SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): "The countries that have been attacked, Georgia and Ukraine, were part of the Soviet Union."
SEC. BLINKEN: "That does not give Russia the right to attack them." [video]" by Heartland Signal.

Tweet: "Democracy isn't the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that." by Mike Lee.

Tweet: "Never forget the time John McCain said Rand Paul works for Putin on the Senate floor because it's still true to this day [video]" by Wu-Tang Is For The Children.

Article: "A Tycoon's Deep-State Conspiracy Dive" by Sheelah Kolhatkar.

Article: "Senator Paul delivers letter from Trump to Putin's government" by Doina Chiacu, Jeff Mason.

Article: "DeSantis' first veto favored local control" by Gray Rohrer.

Article: "Eight Republicans pick the worst possible place to celebrate July 4" by Dana Milbank.

Article: "Russia accused of 'blackmail' after halting gas supplies to two European countries" by Holly Ellyatt.

Quote: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse doe to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship" - Alexander Tytler.

Article: "US Unemployment Rate by Month" by multipl.

Article: "Gross Domestic Product" by BEA.

Article: "United States Inflation Rate" by Trading Economics.

Article: "The Supply Chain Is Still a Problem—Just Not as Bad for Some Companies" by Teresa Rivas.

Article: "Oil Nations, Prodded by Trump, Reach Deal to Slash Production" by Clifford Krauss.

Article: "McCarthy Feared G.O.P. Lawmakers Put 'People in Jeopardy' After Jan. 6" by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin.

Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure...
- Professor Yascha Mounk, Professor of the Practice of International Affairs-Johns Hopkins University / Founder-Persuasion / Contributing The Atlantic & Senior Fellow-Council on Foreign Relations / Author of the new book, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

Article: "Brexit" by Wikipedia.

Article: "American Schools Are More Segregated Now Than They Were In 1968, And The Supreme Court Doesn't Care" by Ian Millhiser.

Article: "New Polling: Are Republicans Embracing Fascism?" by John Amato.

Article: "Robin DiAngelo: How 'white fragility' supports racism and how whites can stop it " by Sandee LaMotte.

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

Article: "How a racist hate-monger masterminded America's War on Drugs" by Laura Smith.

Article: "Chris Hedges" by Wikipedia.

Video: Missing Historical Context of Ukraine Invasion - Chris Hedges and Richard Wolff.

Article: "Tucker Carlson, Matt Gaetz slam Kevin McCarthy as 'MSNBC contributor,' 'weak' over leaked Jan. 6 comments" by Peter Weber.

Article: "Sudetenland" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ukraine is Putin's Sudetenland" by Mark Karlin.

Article: "Neville Chamberlain" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Poland" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Aristotle's Concept of God" by Stanley Sfekas.

Article: "Thomas Jefferson on the African Race" by Cynthia Smith.

Article: "Marine veteran Trevor Reed released from Russian prison as part of prisoner exchange" by Patrick Reevell, Kevin Shalvey and Guy Davies.

Hour Two: How is bitcoin not the same thing as the Dutch tulip mania?
- 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: "Tulip mania" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The History of Money: From Seashells to the Crypto World" by Emrit.

Article: "Bitcoin's Price History" by John Edwards.

Article: "Bitcoin to United States Dollar" by Google Finance.

Article: "Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes first Black woman confirmed to Supreme Court" by Maureen Chowdhury, Ji Min Lee, Meg Wagner and Melissa Macaya.

Article: "Servant of the People (TV series)" by Wikipedia.

Video: President Obama Roasts Donald Trump At White House Correspondents' Dinner! (2011).

Article: "Petro Poroshenko" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Jan. 6 committee's bombshells hiding in plain sight" by Kyle Cheney.

Article: "Republicans refused to help Trump steal 2020 election. Don't expect different in 2024" by Michael A. Cohen.

Article: "We need to plan now in case Trump loses in November — but refuses to leave the White House" by Thom Hartmann.

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

Article: "John C. Eastman" by Wikipedia.

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

Article: "Trump Allegedly Rewound The Footage Of The Jan. 6th Insurrection On A White House TV So He Could 'Gleefully' Watch It Twice" by Jessica Toomer.

Article: "'I Trusted the President and That Was a Big Mistake': Jan. 6 Rioters in Their Own Words" by Nomaan Merchant.

Article: "Marjorie Taylor Greene tells far-right Catholics their church is ruled by Satan" by Kathryn Joyce.

Article: "Marjorie Taylor Greene doubles down on linking Catholic Church leaders to 'the Devil' in new rant " by Brad Reed.

Article: "Limited hangout" by Wikipedia.

Article: "As riot raged at Capitol, Trump tried to call senators to overturn election " by Sunlen Serfaty, Devan Cole and Alex Rogers.

Article: "Central African Republic president authorizes cryptocurrency" by Jean Fernand Koena.

Article: "Bitcoin Rollout in El Salvador Looks Like a Bust, Survey Finds" by Michael D McDonald.

Speech: "I've Been to the Mountaintop" by Martin Luther King Jr.

Article: "Killing of Ashli Babbitt" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Marjorie Taylor Greene testifies as part of a legal challenge to her candidacy" by Sam Gringlas.

Article: "Marjorie Taylor Greene's Lack Of Recall Over What Millions Know She Said Was 'Shocking'" by Mary Papenfuss.

Article: "Watch: Fauci Declares United States 'Out of the Pandemic Phase'" by Colby Hall.

Video: Could The End of the 1918 Flu Pandemic Answer COVID-19? (w/ John M. Barry).

Article: "Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count" by NY Times.

Article: "You Can Now Order More Free COVID-19 Tests From the Government. Here's How" by Katie Teague, Dan Avery.

Article: "Coronavirus in Oregon: Cases up nearly 50% for second week" by Fedor Zarkhin.

Article: "72 people at high-profile D.C. dinner test positive for Covid" by Christina Zhao and Molly Roecker.

Article: "Vice President Kamala Harris tests positive for Covid" by Jasmine Wright, Maegan Vazquez, Betsy Klein, Kevin Liptak and Ted Barrett.

Article: "Kevin McCarthy lets GOP's Benghazi mask slip: It's all about derailing Hillary Clinton" by Sophia Tesfaye.

Article: "GOP voters less concerned with homophobic, racist remarks than Dem voters, poll finds" by Morning Joe.

Article: "Jerry Falwell" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ralph Reed" by Wikipedia.

Article: "SPLC wants Stone Mountain Park to revoke permit for this weekend's Confederate rally" by Richard Elliot.

Article: "Biden pardons former Secret Service agent and 2 others" by Aamer Madhani, Don Babwin.

Video: Justice for Abraham Bolden.

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

Article: "Edward Hanrahan" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Richard J. Daley" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ulysses S. Grant" by History.com.

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

I'll be talking with Daisy Pitkin, Organizer for over 20 years & is currently working on the Starbucks campaign w/SEIU, Workers United in Pittsburgh, PA / Author of the new book, On The Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity and Two Women's Epic Fight To Build A Union

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...

How is Bitcoin Not the Same Thing as the Dutch Tulip Mania? (w/ Richard Wolff)

Is America Pretending We Are Not Still In the Pandemic?

Would You Sell Out Democracy & World Peace for $2 billion? Jared Did...

Did Bernie Sanders Change The Democratic Party Forever? Featuring Ari Rabin-Havt

Are Voter Fraud Police Taking Over For the Klan in FL?