Yesterday a federal jury in South Carolina sentenced the Confederacy-loving Charleston Church shooter Dylann Roof to death.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, the Senate gave a job interview to the living, breathing embodiment of the Confederacy's legacy - Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions the Third - who Donald Trump wants to be Attorney General.

Sessions - better known as Jeff Sessions - is probably Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet pick, and for one very good reason: he was too racist for the Reagan era.

Back in 1986 the Senate blocked him from becoming a federal judge because of repeated allegations of racism.

Sessions - at the time a U.S. Attorney in Mobile, Alabama - is supposed to have said that he "didn't think the KKK were such bad guys until [he] found out they smoked marijuana".

He's also supposed to have called an African-American colleague "boy" - and reportedly referred to a white attorney as a "race traitor".

Those allegations were serious enough that in 1986 the then-Republican-controlled Senate said "no" to him becoming a federal judge.

That was 30 years ago - and Sessions STILL might become the next Attorney General.

Amazing....

When it comes to Jeff Sessions, though, the past might honestly not be as concerning as the future.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10:30pm... Trump's Recipe For Kleptocracy (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Community Square  

 "Good Cops and Bad Cops: Why There is So Much Skepticism of Law Enforcement"
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 "It's the Congress Stupid!"
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 "The Rio Grande River defines nearly the entire Texas-Mexico border"
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To upload an image click on the "add new blog post" link over at the community.

Wednesday's Daily Stack 

Quote: "We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." -- Abraham Lincoln.

 

Article: "Live Video and Analysis: President-elect Donald Trump's Press Conference".

Speech: "Barack Obama's farewell speech in full", 10 January 2017.

Article: "These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia" by Ken Bensinger, Miriam Elder, Mark Schoofs.

Article: "Alt-Right Trolls Are Trying To Trick People Into Thinking Trump Dossier Was A 4chan Prank" by Ryan Broderick.

Article: "Trump Russia ties: How did reports of 'compromising' information emerge?" by BBC.

Article: "McCain gave dossier containing 'sensitive information' to FBI" by Max Greenwood.

Article: "Rex Tillerson confirmation hearing for secretary of state: the key points" by Julian Borger.

Article: "Trump will leave business, but won't sell" by Jill Disis and Jeremy Diamond.

Article: "Obama's farewell address: 'Democracy threatened whenever we take it for granted'".

Speech: "Farewell Address" by George Washington (1796).

Article: "Reince Priebus: BuzzFeed Report On Trump "Phony Baloney Garbage"" by Ian Schwartz.

Article: "Trump shuts down CNN reporter" by CNN.

Article: "Trump Refuses To Let CNN Reporter Ask Him A Question At Press Conference (VIDEO)" by Matt Shuham.

Article: "Read CNN's response to Trump's accusations of false reporting" by CNN.

Article: "Demented MCain Turns Dirty..." (Drudge Report title) by Darren Boyle.

Article: "CBS CEO: "For Us, Economically, Donald's Place in This Election Is a Good Thing"" by Lee Fang.

Law: "Telecommunications Act of 1996" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Most memorable lines from CNN's Bernie Sanders town hall" by Daniella Diaz and Eli Watkins.

Article: "Sen. Bernie Sanders town hall in two minutes" by CNN.

Article: "In Emotional Farewell, Obama Urges Americans To Guard Their Democracy" by Matt Shuham. "For all our outward differences we, in fact, all share the same proud type, the most important office in the democracy: Citizen."

Article: "Sanders Democrats claim victories in California delegate elections" by Christopher Cadelago.

Quote: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." - Isoroku Yamamoto.

Article: "Trump melts down on Twitter: 'Are we living in Nazi Germany?'" by Jacob Pramuk.

Article: "Donald Trump Compares Intelligence Community To 'Nazi Germany,' Says He Won't Divest" by Marc Torrence.

Article: "Cory Booker takes stage to rail against Jeff Sessions nomination" by Tal Kopan.

Article: "Donald Trump had nothing to do with our new US jobs, Fiat Chrysler reveals" by Rachael Revesz.

Article: "Meryl Streep's Golden Globes Speech" by Daniel Victor and Giovanni Russonello.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief 

Article: "Trump taps Under Secretary David Shulkin to head Veterans Affairs" by TMN.

Article: "Trump: Russia intervened in election" by TMN.

Article: "Trump lawyer: Trump hotels do not violate the emoluments clause" by MSN.

Article: "Trump plans to donate hotel profits from foreign government payments to U.S. Treasury".

Article: "Trump promises Obamacare replacement, border wall and Supreme Court nominee" by Stephen Dinan and Tom Howell Jr.

Article: "Marco Rubio Confronts Rex Tillerson on China and Saudi Arabia" by Matt Flegenheimer, David E. Sanger And Emmarie Huetteman.

Article: "Ignoring global outcry, Trump team readies Jerusalem embassy plan" by Luke Vargas.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Article: "Rubio grills Trump's secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson on Russia during confirmation hearing" by Pamela Engel.

Article: "Tillerson has a shaky show before skeptical senators" by Nahal Toosi and Burgess Everett.

Article: "Trump berates CNN reporter: 'You are fake news'" by Rebecca Savransky.

Article: "Democrats are playing with fire on Russia" by Norman Solomon.

Article: "Kakistocracy" by Wikipedia. " a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens."

Article: "Kleptocracy" by Wikipedia. "a government with corrupt rulers (kleptocrats) that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources ".

Article: "Oligarchy" "power effectively rests with a small number of people" by Wikipedia.

Quote: "It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being at the essence of getting the nominations for president or elected president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and Congress members. So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over'." - President Jimmy Carter on unlimited money in politics on the Thom Hartmann Program, 28 July 2015.

Tweet: "The number of US manufacturing jobs fell by a third after #China was awarded most-favored-nation trade status. (via Barclays)" by Holger Zschaepitz.

Article: "French presidential election, 2017" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Marine Le Pen" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Marine Le Pen: Trump win boosts my chances" by BBC.

Video: Marine Le Pen: Front National 'not racist' - BBC News.

Article: "Schengen" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Brexit" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Help America Vote Act" (2002).

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

 

Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District) will be calling in to talk about the issues of the day.

 

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...

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