For those not afraid to read Thom Hartmann -- this is really good.

[Grasswire2]

[link:http://

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=dz2z59NtIhfqkteI_v5rWQ|

The Biden administration laid it right out in the open.

When Trump 2016 campaign Chairman Paul Manafort was passing secret polling information about swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to Konstantin Kilimnik, as is laid out in the Mueller Report, it was part of a very specific and successful effort on the part of corrupt foreign oligarchs to help put their fellow corrupt oligarch Trump in office.

This was the data they would have used so troll accounts and ads could target individuals in those states via social media, particularly Facebook, to both suppress the vote for Clinton and encourage voters to show up for Trump and other down-ticket Republicans.

This is not the first time a Republican candidate for president has committed treason to get into the White House. In fact, it’s been the norm since 1968, and therefore it’s time to seriously discuss a 60-year problem we’ve had with treasonous and illegitimate Republican presidents.

America must stop giving criminal Republican presidents a pass. Every GOP president since Dwight Eisenhower used treason or deception to come to office (or inherited office from one who did), and it needs to end. It’s a truly astonishing and horrifying story.

It started in 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson was desperately trying to end the Vietnam war. It had turned into both a personal and political nightmare for him, and his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, was running for President in the election that year against a “reinvented” Richard Nixon.

much, much more at the link -- a good review

[rubbersole]

1. Thom Hartmann may be the most informed person in media today.

All media. Mandatory listening for a worldly perspective.

[Magoo48]

21. Yes, he is focused on Democracy and the defeat of creeping fascism, a strong progressive voice.

[YoshidaYui]

26. Thom Hartmann also seems like a very cool guy to hang out with

I envy his friends!

[burrowowl]

35. He does his research!

Always good articles!

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. I'm sure someone will complain

that it was written over a year ago. But it is still accurate. Everyone should read the entire thing.

One thing not mentioned here, but Hartmann does mention on his show, is the fact that the sleazy criminal Bill Barr sold himself to MF45 specifically to get tRump criminals off the hook the way he did for Poppy Bush.

[90-percent]

3. Thom is a true national treasure!

Always spot on, well reasoned, well informed and an excellent communicator. Been listening to Thom since late 90's. even called in a few times.

Thom's the most patriotic sportsman lefty gun guy I'm aware of. And he's for all common sense gun laws.

-90% Jimmy

[SalviaBlue]

46. I agree!

[moondust]

4. Corruption gone wild!!!

Nixon taught the GQP that they could get away with anything even if they get caught thanks to pardons and resignations. Forty years of Reagan's "greed is good" neoliberal jungle of predatory capitalism has led to increasing moral decay until TFG's GQP is now little more than a criminal gang.

Apparently part of their advanced criminal plan now includes threatening/intimidating the Attorney General into giving them a pass:

Kevin McCarthy threatening Garland

[barbaraann]

6. A lot of people don't understand how much damage Nixon did.

Hunter S. Thompson did:
"He has poisoned our water forever. Nixon will be remembered as a classic case of a smart man shitting in his own nest. But he also shit in our nests, and that was the crime that history will burn on his memory like a brand. By disgracing and degrading the Presidency of the United States, by fleeing the White House like a diseased cur, Richard Nixon broke the heart of the American Dream."

[moondust]

8. Indeed. He opened the door to Hell.

And after ~48 years of GQP moral decay:

Rep Jamie Raskin: What Trump did makes Watergate look like "work of Cub Scouts"

[Missn-Hitch]

31. Hear, hear!!

[90-percent]

50. MORE good HST quotes regarding

republicans and democracy

“The Republican establishment is haunted by painful memories of what happened to Old Man Bush in 1992. He peaked too early and he had no response to “It’s the economy, stupid.” Which has always been the case. Every GOP administration since 1952 has let the military-industrial complex loot the Treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency. Richard Nixon comes quickly to mind, along with Ronald Reagan and his ridiculous “trickle-down” theory of U.S. economic policy. If the Rich get Richer, the theory goes, before long their pots will overflow and somehow “trickle down” to the poor, who would rather eat scraps off the Bush family plates than eat nothing at all.

Republicans have never approved of democracy, and they never will. It goes back to preindustrial America, when only white male property owners could vote.”


-90% Jimmy

[barbaraann]

51. Yes, and now the RUSSIANS are helping the Republicans.

Can you imagine what HST would say today?

[moondust]

52. 👆👆👆

HST sure got it.

Bill Clinton spent years cleaning up the GQP MIC deficits until he was actually showing surpluses. The surpluses were projected to wipe out the national debt within a decade or so and then...along came GWB, big tax cuts, two endless wars, MIC deficits, and the Great Recession. Good luck, Barack!

Round and round she goes...

When will they ever learn...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. What link?

[crickets]

7. Here ya go.

How Different Would America be if 4 Presidents Hadn’t Committed Treason?
Accountability for criminal Republican presidents can't happen soon enough

https://hartmannreport.com/p/will-trump-end-up-in-prison

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. THANK YOU

Er, um, that wasn't me yelling. The keyboard gets excited sometimes.

[crickets]

16. No problem. 🤭

[cloudboy07]

29. Do not forget about the congress critters involved in this shit !!!

[rurallib]

9. exactly - I would love to read the whole thing

[Novara]

10. The orange fuck did not commit treason

Nixon did - it was wartime and he prevented the Paris peace talks ending the Vietnam war.

What Reagan did was criminal, but it wasn't treason. We were not at war with Iran.

Bush didn't commit treason. Underhanded and criminal, but not treason. Who were we at war with in 2000?

Only ONE of these presidents committed actual treason. Gosh, maybe that's why the rest of them were never brought to justice for a crime they did not commit?


It does no good to overstate false charges. My god, the truth is bad enough. The orange fuck committed insurrection and sedition by staging a coup. But it isn't treason.

Colluding/negotiating with a foreign power to win an election is not treason.

The Constitution specifically identifies what constitutes treason against the United States and, importantly, limits the offense of treason to only two types of conduct: (1) “levying war” against the United States; or (2) “adhering to [the] enemies [of the United States], giving them aid and comfort.”

The offense of “levying war” against the United States was interpreted narrowly in Ex parte Bollman & Swarthout (1807), a case stemming from the infamous alleged plot led by former Vice President Aaron Burr to overthrow the American government in New Orleans. The Supreme Court dismissed charges of treason that had been brought against two of Burr’s associates—Bollman and Swarthout—on the grounds that their alleged conduct did not constitute levying war against the United States within the meaning of the Treason Clause. It was not enough, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion emphasized, merely to conspire “to subvert by force the government of our country” by recruiting troops, procuring maps, and drawing up plans. Conspiring to levy war was distinct from actually levying war. Rather, a person could be convicted of treason for levying war only if there was an “actual assemblage of men for the purpose of executing a treasonable design.” In so holding, the Court sharply confined the scope of the offense of treason by levying war against the United States.

The Court construed the other treason offense authorized by the Constitution similarly narrowly in Cramer v. United States (1945). That case involved another infamous incident in American history: the Nazi Saboteur Affair. Cramer was prosecuted for treason for allegedly helping German soldiers who had surreptitiously infiltrated American soil during World War II. In reviewing Cramer’s treason conviction, the Court explained that a person could be convicted of treason only if he or she adhered to an enemy and gave that enemy “aid and comfort.” As the Court explained: “A citizen intellectually or emotionally may favor the enemy and harbor sympathies or convictions disloyal to this country’s policy or interest, but, so long as he commits no act of aid and comfort to the enemy, there is no treason. On the other hand, a citizen may take actions which do aid and comfort the enemy—making a speech critical of the government or opposing its measures, profiteering, striking in defense plants or essential work, and the hundred other things which impair our cohesion and diminish our strength—but if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason.” In other words, the Constitution requires both concrete action and an intent to betray the nation before a citizen can be convicted of treason; expressing traitorous thoughts or intentions alone does not suffice.

https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/article-iii/clauses/39

[crickets]

14. Yes, the treason label is hyperbole.

Although, the constitutional definition of treason is so tightly defined as to render the label (as is commonly understood elsewhere) nearly useless in the US.

[Novara]

17. Does anybody think THIS SCOTUS would loosen that definition ...

... or reverse prior SCOTUS precedent? It may be the only precedent they'd pay attention to.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

22. Tell it to the Kurds.

Where are the notes documenting Trump's meeting with Putin? Those are required to be preserved.

Of course, you could go all the way back to the campaign where he sent his campaign manager, personal attorney, and son to meet with Russian operatives to collect compromising materials on his opponent.

But let us limit our memory to the 7 public hearings held by the Select Committee. Trump worked long and hard to create an “actual assemblage of men for the purpose of executing a treasonable design.”

[emulatorloo]

11. Who at DU is "afraid to read Thom Hartmann?"

[gab13by13]

20. People who have Medicare Advantage plans.

[rubbersole]

23. I fell for an Advantage Plan through the IBEW.

Can't get out of it because of a preexisting condition. So far it hasn't bit me yet, but I pay $200 a month on it for a PPO. Use it all the time. I wish I had a supplemental. Wish I had listened to Thom.

[Deuxcents]

25. 🤗

[LymphocyteLover]

27. LOL!

[crickets]

12. Damn.

It's a long list of things most of us here already knew, but to see it laid out this way is mind numbing.

Must. Read.

[Snackshack]

15. Anyone...

Who thinks Republicans have any respect for election boundaries simply have not been paying attention. Last 20+ yrs the gop has given us 1 disaster after another. 9/11, 2 wars, financial collapse, 1 mil+ Americans dead to a virus they lied about.. and a coup. That’s just bush jr and DT.

Who knows just how far Reagan went. We learned about Iran-Contra but what we found out was superficial. They got North to fall on the sword and that was it.

Nixon- we know about Watergate… + a lot more because he unadvisedly recorded his conversations.

Farther back is before my release date but there is plenty of written work concerning the machinations of the GOP going back to its inception in the 1800’s before the Civil War.

It’s clear today’s Republican Party is party 1st everything else comes after including country which is completely contrary to the Oath they take when entering office. Why would we ever give them control again? The party needs to be ended.

[burrowowl]

36. Iran-Contra 200,000 to 250,000 Guatemalan Native People Killed

Barr sprang Bush I and Raygun. I'd say what they did is genocide.
My father was working in Mexico and Central America for ICAO setting unpair traffic control procedures and training. He was asked to investigate an accident. They had shot down a Maryknoll priest who delivered medication, etc. My father said: 50-caliber bullets in the fuselage and engine is not an accident.

[Snackshack]

40. No-

It’s not an accident. What Reagan /Cheney /Rumsfeld did in the Southern Cone was most likely war crimes and it was just a continuation of the actions the US had taken in the region since the 50’s. Naomi Kleins book The Shock Doctrine details some of this very well.

[krispos42]

18. He's told this story before

I used to listen to him on Air America, and he devoted a segment to it several times. It's a good segment. Doubtless he updated it for Treason Tot.

[lastlib]

19. TREASON and THEFT!

Reagan stole Carter's debate preparation motebook, giving him an inside look at Carter's prep. He committed TREASON TWICE--once by sabotaging hostage negotiations with Iran, then by selling them missiles to pay for weapons for the Nicaraguan contras. Oh, yeah--he and Daddy Bush sold Saddam the chemical weapons used against Iran and the Kurds. And that's just before we get to tRump and Putin.

[Deuxcents]

24. Thom Hartmann is on Sirus progressive station

I also get his daily newsletter thru my email. Loved the comment about Medicare Advantage..he has lots to say about that..

[Iggo]

28. Afraid? Well now I'm definitely not reading it.

See how that works?

[SalviaBlue]

47. La la la la

[Pepsidog]

30. Great post

[judesedit]

32. Get rid of the electoral college

[multigraincracker]

33. Thom Hartmann is a DU member, FWIW, and has been for a very long time.

Thom Hartmann is a progressive national and internationally syndicated talk show host whose shows are available in over a half-billion homes worldwide. He's the New York Times bestselling, 4-times Project Censored Award-winning author of 24 books in print in 17 languages on five continents. Leonardo DiCaprio was inspired by Thom's book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" to make the movie "The 11th Hour" (in which Thom appears), and the movie "Ice On Fire."

Talkers Magazine named Thom Hartmann as the 10th most important talk show host in America in 2019 and has been in the top ten for over a decade and is the #1 most important progressive host, in their “Heavy Hundred” ranking.

His radio show is syndicated on for-profit FM and AM radio stations nationally, on non-profit and community stations nationwide by Pacifica, across the entire North American continent on SiriusXM Satellite radio (Progress, Channel 127), on cable systems nationwide by Cable Radio Network (CRN), via subscription audio podcasts, worldwide through the US Armed Forces Network, and through the Thom Hartmann iOS and Android apps. The radio show is also simulcast as TV in real-time into nearly 40 million US and Canadian homes by the Free Speech TV Network on Dish Network, DirectTV, on cable TV systems nationwide, and live on both YouTube and Facebook.
https://www.thomhartmann.com/thom-hartmann-biography
more at link

[Just A Box Of Rain]

37. You left off Hartmann's 7 year tenure working with Vladimir Putin's

state-owned propaganda network, Russia Today.

For this Democrat, that's disqualifying. And that's an understatement.

[multigraincracker]

38. Do you have any quotes by him

supporting Putin? I forgive Biden for taking $ from the large banks.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

39. Your's was quite an omission, don't you think?

And your response is a criticism of Joe Biden? Hmm.

[FoxNewsSucks]

41. Sounds like you have no clue what the content of that show was

[Just A Box Of Rain]

44. No, I'm well aware of the content of the show and why

the got his slot on RT.

[SalviaBlue]

43. You're doing yourself a disservice.

I have been listening to Thom Hartmann forever… way before his stint on RT. He is a true progressive. If you are are pro democracy, you should rethink. He is one of us.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

45. I beg to differ.

[SalviaBlue]

48. Begging not necessary.

We differ.

[PatrickforB]

34. Hartmann, as usual, makes some incisive points. HOW will we address a political

party that has been treasonous since '68, and which is now willing to end the republic for good and replace it with a dictatorship?

I think it has to do with aggressive, ugly and in-your-face messaging from EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE.

We need to be pounding on Republicans making women second class citizens, with LGBTQ people next, birth control and God knows what.

We need to pound on corporate price gouging and getting billionaires and corporations to PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF TAXES.

We need to pound on Medicare for all Americans, and expanding Social Security.

We need to pound on relieving student debt now, and on providing our kids and grandkids with an affordable debt-free postsecondary education.

[FakeNoose]

42. K&R bookmarking

Thanks

[JI7]

49. The reason these people get support is many Americans themselves are racist

they continually vote for these people becsuse they don't like a liberal society where diverse groups of people can have equal rights.

Put Trump in prison and anti gay racist scumbag DeSantis will get support from many of these people.

Shitty people get into office becsuse shitty people keep voting for them becsuse they want the that shit.

[betsuni]

54. Yes, that's why they vote for Republicans.

Accountability has nothing to do with anything. Criminals never think they'll get caught. Lots of Nixon people went to prison and Republicans did much much worse things after that. They don't care.

[90-percent]

53. Thom and RT

This is from memory 10 to 20 years ago, but I think RT was one of more than a few outlets he was syndicated on or was available on. Thom repeatedly said he had complete journalistic freedom on RT and could say what ever his journalistic ethics deemed suitable, consistent with his entire record of responsible non-propaganda deep dive investigative JOURNALISM.

Thom did not catapult ruskie propaganda, in other words.

I think if the ENTIRE MSM APPARATUS adhered to Thom's journalistic standards the entire 20th century from Bush v. Gore on would have been completely different. Like no bogus invasions based on Dick Cheney's efforts to find a Saddam-9-11 connection combing through raw intelligence in a CIA basement. And planting false info in the NY Times via reporter Judith Miller, who relished her role as Cheney's propaganda catapulting apparatchik. Ahhh, the good ole' "Curveball" days.....

To the SC, the meaning and lessons of Bush v. Gore was that they could make political rulings instead of legal rulings and now the rule of law at the SC has been replaced with 14th century doctrine from an obscure dark ages catholic cult.

Merger of church and state, something the Founders worked real hard to prevent as they created the Constitution. 1787 to 2022 was a pretty good run for Democracy. It's too bad the majority of Americans now favor Dictatorship over Democracy. And, it's not a majority of Americans. It's a minority of about a third of Americans that truly favor fascism. It's all the MSM propaganda outfits that have engineered permanent fringe conspiracy theory nut job poorly educated minority rule.

I'm not a SC scholar by any means, but back about 2005-2009? when Roberts decided to gut the voting rights act because, paraphrasing, "racial discrimination is a thing of the past which no longer exists", that opened up the floodgates of restrictive voting laws designed to keep Dems and minorities from voting. These restrictive voting laws exploded in the heavily ignorant racist poorly educated southern states, who regularly vote against their own interests and have made major contributions to our current state of fledgling DICTATORSHIP.

So many rulings of the 21st century SC seem to verify that the current SC hates Democracy and they have utter contempt for the principles the Founders engineered in to our brilliant Constitution.

-90% Jimmy

[Just A Box Of Rain]

55. Given what happened, I'm amazed that you actually believe this.

[Grasswire2]

57. thoughtful comment, thank you. nt

[uponit7771]

56. K&R,