Just a few months after Donald Trump told us all how much he loved Wikileaks, his Justice Department wants to arrest its founder - Julian Assange.

No matter what you think about Wikileaks or Assange - this is a serious threat to the freedom of the press.

Amid reports that the Justice Department was preparing a case against him - Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed Thursday that arresting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was a "priority".

"We're going to step up our effort and already are stepping up our efforts on all leaks. This is a matter that's gone beyond anything I'm aware of. We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks and some of them are quite serious. So yes, it is a priority."

So, is the New York Times next? It appears so, here's Jeff Sessions last week on CNN:

Kate Bolduan: "Should folks be concerned this would also open up news organizations like CNN or the New York Times to prosecution?"

AG Jeff Sessions: "That's speculative, and I'm not able to comment on that."

Shouldn't we start protecting acts of journalism, not just journalists?

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10:30pm... Greg Palast: "The True Story of Donald Trump's Tax Cut" (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Community Square  

 "Our National Parks Help Create Our Personal Stories"
  Posted by AKPhotog.

 

 "Inspection- Worshiping the Bully"
  Posted by ken carman.

 

 "Berkeley Liberals Need to go to School"
  Posted by tim1234.

 

 "Earth Day 2017 / Earth Day # 47"
  Posted by vegan3.

 

To upload an image click on the "add new blog post" link over at the community.

Wednesday's Daily Stack 

Hour One: Raise the Wage Act
- Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District)    

Event: DC, 26 April: "Tell Trump: workers need $15 and a union!" by Good Jobs Nation.

Article: "Sanders and 21 Democrats introduce bill to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024" by David Weigel.

Quote: "We all do better when we all do better" - Paul Wellstone.

Article: "White House Trumpets Tax Cut as Biggest in History" by Alan Rappeport, Julie Hirschfeld Davis.

Article: "Trump's Tax Plan: Low Rate for Corporations, and for Companies Like His" by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Alan Rappeport, Kate Kelly, Rachel Abrams.

Article: "An exemption for Congress roils Republicans' latest health care effort" by Sarah Kliff.

Article: "Bernie Sanders And Democrats Are Introducing A New $15 Minimum Wage Bill" by Daniel Marans, Dave Jamieson.

Article: "Interior secretary: Trump's border wall may be built in Mexico because "we won't cede" the Rio Grande" by Sophia Tesfaye.

Article: "U.S. Congress may seek one-week funding extension to avert shutdown" by Richard Cowan.

Article: "Top adviser to Richard Nixon admitted that 'War on Drugs' was policy tool to go after anti-war protesters and 'black people'" by Adam Edelman.

Article: "Bernie Sanders on making Democrats a 50-state party" by PBS.

Article: "Bernie Sanders says he could work with Trump on trade policy" by Jessica Yarvin.

Site: Congressman Ro Khanna.

Article: "Restraining order prevents disposal of radioactive waste near Arkansas River" by FOX23.

Site: Indivisible.

Article: "The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters" (Crosscheck) by Greg Palast, August 24, 2016.

Article: "House Republicans pull plan to gut independent ethics committee after Trump tweets" by Deirdre Walsh, Manu Raju and Stephen Collinson.

Article: "Andrew Puzder, Trump's labor secretary pick, withdraws from consideration" by Lauren Gambino, Ben Jacobs, Dominic Rushe.

Article: "Chaffetz Backs Off Bill to Sell America's Public Lands After Enormous Public Outcry" by Center for Biological Diversity.

Article: "Rural Electrification Act" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Pocan Launches Bipartisan Rural Broadband Caucus" by Rep. Mark Pocan.

Article: "Reps. Huffman, Pocan, and Nolan Introduce New Deal Rural Broadband Act to Close Digital Divide in Rural America" by Rep. Jared Huffman.

Article: ""courtney Has Earned The Nickname '2 Sub Joe'"" by Rep. Joe Courtney.

Article: "House Backing Away from Proposal to 'Tax' GI Bill" by Richard Sisk.

Article: "Trump slaps first tariffs on Canadian lumber" by Patrick Gillespie.

Article: "Trudeau and Trump clash over lumber and dairy tariffs" by Demetri Sevastopulo, Katrina Manson, Anna Nicolaou.

Hour Two: Trump's Tax Plan... Gift for the Wealthy?
- Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute    

Article: "Trump team unveils sharp cuts in corporate and individual taxes" by Sam Fleming, Barney Jopson.

Article: "2017 Tax Guide" by Bankrate.

Article: "When talking about Trump's corporate rate reduction, do not forget pass-throughs" by Jared Bernstein.

Article: "Statement on Today's White House Tax Announcement: "We Will Fight This Tax Plan Tooth And Nail"" by Americans for Tax Fairness.

 

Article: "How much would Bernie Sanders' health care plan cost the middle class?" by Linda Qiu.

Bill: "H.R.676 - Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act" by John Conyers.

Article: "Sanders says he will introduce 'Medicare for all' bill" by Rebecca Savransky.

Site: Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP)

Site: National Nurses United (NNU).

Law: "Voting Rights Act of 1965".

Law: "Civil Rights Act of 1964" by Wikipedia.

Law: "Tillman Act of 1907".

Case: "First National Bank Of Boston V. Bellotti", 1978

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010)

 

Trump's record on environment first 100 days & #FixThePipes in Flint
- Vien Truong, Green for All      

Article: "On 3-year anniversary, change is slow for Flint" by Kathleen Gray.

Article: "Flint, Michigan to replace 18,000 lead-tainted pipes by 2020" by Justin Carissimo.

Article: "People's Climate March", NYC, September 21, 2014 by Wikipedia.

Event: DC, 29 April: "People's Climate March".

Article: "Common Joins Van Jones and 'Green For All' to #FixThePipes in Flint" by Pennie Anassi.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Bob Ney 

Article: "Chaffetz: Flynn may have violated federal law" by Bryan Renbaum .

Article: "Senators arrive at White House for special briefing on North Korea" by Alexander Mallin.

Article: "The U.S. can't afford to end its global leadership role" by Ivo Daalder, Robert Kagan.

Article: "Judge blocks part of Trump's sanctuary cities executive order" by Tal Kopan.

Article: "Trump mistakenly blames 9th Circuit for blocking 'sanctuary city' order" by TMN.

Article: "Freedom Caucus endorses revised ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill" by Cristina Marcos.

Article: "Rescission" by Wikipedia.

Article: "White House readies order to quit NAFTA: administration official" by Steve Holland.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Book: Loving What You Do: The Elements of a Great Working Life by Ellen Ratner.

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

Hour Three: Workplace Safety...People Are Dying
- Charles Sauer, The Market Institute    

Article: "150 Workers Die on the Job Every Day" by AFL-CIO.

 

Documentary: Hot Coffee.

Article: "An exemption for Congress roils Republicans' latest health care effort" by Sarah Kliff.

Video: Donald Trump's Golf Resort Gone Awry: Real Sports (HBO).

Article: "Workers Building Trump Golf Course Face Deplorable Conditions" by The Takeaway.

Article: "U.S. Cars Must Get 55 MPG By 2025 Under New Rules" by Elizabeth Shogren, August 28, 2012.

Article: "Trump Rolls Back Obama-Era Fuel Economy Standards" by Paul A. Eisenstein.

Article: "Grand Rapids Police Under Fire for Stopping Young Black Boys at Gunpoint" by Democracy Now!

 

Running With Raven
- Laura Lee Huttenbach, Running With Raven  

Book: The Boy Is Gone: Conversations with a Mau Mau General by Laura Lee Huttenbach.

    

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

 

I'll be talking to Dr. Steven Stosny PhD, author of Soar Above: How to Use the Most Profound Part of Your Brain Under Any Kind of Stress, about Anxiety in the Age of Trump.

 

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...