Tehran Tom Cotton has done it again.

 

After embarrassing himself, his party, and his country last week by sending a totally unprecedented letter to the government of Iran, the Arkansas Senator then went on CBS' "Face the Nation" yesterday and said that, "Oh, my God, the Iranians have already secured Tehran."

 

That's right -- Tom Cotton is freaking out about the fact that the government of Iran controls Tehran, which IS THE FREAKING CAPITAL OF IRAN!

 

I think it's safe to say that Senator Cotton might want to skim through a Rand McNally World Atlas before his next Sunday show appearance. In fact, while he's at it, Senator Cotton should also retake high school civics because his letter to the government of Iran didn't just violate diplomatic protocol, it also turned back the clock to one of the most chaotic periods in American history.

 

You see in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, America was governed by a collection of documents known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were, for lack of a better word, a mess. They didn't provide for any real central authority and gave no clear guidelines as to who had what kind of power, which was a big problem when it came to things like foreign policy.

 

As historian Kathleen DuVal pointed out in excellent piece for The New York Times this weekend, the result was a total vacuum where anyone who wanted to could negotiate with foreign governments.

 

Things got so bad that at one point in 1786, North Carolina Congressman James White actually tried to work out a deal with Spain that would have seen the western part of his state secede from the U.S. and join the Spanish Empire.

 

This obviously never happened, but it's still a great example why when they scrapped the Articles of Confederation in favor of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers gave the president and only the president the sole power to make and ratify treaties. The Founders had seen the kind of chaos that came about when citizens negotiated directly with foreign governments, and they wanted to make sure that that chaos never reared its ugly head again.

 

And, for the most part, they succeeded.

 

Read more here.

 

-Thom

  

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Gerald Posner, God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

 

Be sure to check out our new videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio

 

 

Need to Know: White House schools Republicans on civics
- Tommy Christopher, The Daily Banter    

 

Screwed: Senator Whitehouse Exposes ALEC Climate Change Denial
- Brendan Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy / ALECexposed    

 

Conversations with Great Minds - Gerald Posner, God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican  

 

Monday's Daily Stack 

Article: "Tehran Tom Cotton was Bribed almost a Million Bucks to Send the Iran Letter" by riqster.

Article: "We Have a President for a Reason: A History Lesson for the Republicans Who Wrote to Iran" by Kathleen DuVal.

Article: "Articles of Confederation : March 1, 1781 ".

Petition: "File charges against the 47 U.S. Senators in violation of The Logan Act in attempting to undermine a nuclear agreement.".

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

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

Article: "A Christian Nation? Since When?" by Kevin M. Kruse.

Book: The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol.

Documentary: Merchants of Doubt.

Article: "4 Numbers That Prove America Is a Deeply Messed Up Place" by Paul Buchheit.

Article: "Israel's Gilded Age" by Paul Krugman.

Twitter: "47Traitors".

Site: Strengthen Social Security.

Hour Two: Hour Two: Is it time to disband the Republican Party?
- Dan Bongino, Life Inside the Bubble 

Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956", August 20, 1956.

Article: "Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy" by Brendan James.

 

Article: "Mitch McConnell Acts Like A Criminal By Offering Lie Filled Alibi For Iran Letter On CNN" by Jason Easley.

Law: "10 U.S. Code � 802 - Art. 2. Persons subject to this chapter".

Tweet: "Let's start having serious discussions about the real issues impacting the people of our country" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann. Get "Screwed" by Thom Hartmann!

Article: "Teapot Dome scandal" by Wikipedia.

Letter: "Letter to John Holmes" by Thomas Jefferson, Apr. 22. 1820. "we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go"

 

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney 

Article: "Let the debt ceiling games begin!" by Chris Matthews.

Article: "GOP fiscal, defense hawks square off over budget" by Seung Min Kim and Jake Sherman.

Article: "Trey Gowdy: House may go to court to get Clinton email server" by Susan Ferrechio.

Article: "Burton Releases Hubbell Tapes" by George Lardner Jr. and John Mintz, May 5, 1998.

Article: "Mitch McConnell rebukes Iran letter criticism" by CNN.

Article: "Obama 'Embarrassed' For Senators Who Backed Iran Letter" by Nicholas Salazar.

Article: "General Accuses Tom Cotton and 46 Other Republican Senators Of Mutiny" by Rmuse.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 3/16" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Banks Say "Thanks for the Bailout," Now We'll Park our Profits in Overseas Tax Havens" by Steve Straehley.

Article: "Martin O'Malley sounds like he's running" by Katrina vanden Heuvel.

Law: "Glass-Steagall Act", 1933.

Video: Justice for Abraham Bolden.

Video: "I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'." Ronald W. Reagan.

Article: "Here Comes Trouble: Can Jim Webb spark an anti-Hillary uprising?" by Bob Moser.

Article: "Arkansas lawmaker unveils bill allowing Tom Cotton to run for White House and Senate" by Nick Gass.

Book: "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Book: The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great by Harvey J. Kaye.

Video: Papantonio: The GOP Lunatics and Grifters.

Article: "Julian Castro" by Wikipedia.

 

Article: "Wisconsin Becomes 25th State with Anti-Worker Law on Books" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "It's not just right-to-work: Bills targeting unions multiply" by Jonathan Mattise and Nicholas Riccardi.

Article: "California's Innovative Plan To Crack The Code For Affordable Housing" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "Arizona Governor Calls Plan To Kick 500,000 Low-Income People Off Of Medicaid 'Responsible'" by Tara Culp-Ressler.

Article: "From Below: Campaign Aims to Foster Popular Uprising Against Crisis of Inequality" by Jon Queally.

Article: "Robots could replace half of all US workers by 2035" by RedOrbit.

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

 

I'll be talking with America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio about the issues of the day...

 

Plus I'll be joined by Eric Michelman of More Than Scientists, a new campaign that represents the 97% of climate scientists who know climate change is real, that humans are causing it and we have the power to stop it.

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

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Sincerely,

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