Hartmann Report

From fireside chats to Facebook failures: Why Democrats keep losing the media war... Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump held a rally in Las Vegas. It was streamed and mentioned on social media millions of times within an hour of his repeating his "No tax on tips" mantra. By the time Facebook, Meta, X, TikTok, and Instagram were done with the weekend, using their now-heavily-tilted-to-Republicans algorithms, it's safe to bet Trump's rally got hundreds of millions of impressions. Senator Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, read the most boring speech ever on the floor of the Senate condemning Trump, evoking the Democratic version of the old "tree falls in the forest" question. I listened to it online (couldn't find it on social media), but, frankly, it was so deadly tedious that I can't remember a word he said. Being media savvy — and exploiting the hottest new media — isn't a new thing. You'd think Democrats would have figured this out by now; they sure did in past generations.

Grant Ferguson, a blue-eyed, clean-shaven sales manager in Iowa, was taken aback when a sheriff ’s deputy arrived with a warrant for his arrest. Even more shocking was the reason why. According to an AP report, Ferguson “was stunned when he learned the reason: his unsuccessful attempt to vote in the 2016 election. The supporter of President Donald Trump would ultimately face $5,000 in legal costs to resolve the charges, which stemmed from a bureaucratic error that unknowingly kept him on Iowa’s list of ineligible felon voters.” Iowa is unforgiving when it comes to ex-felons casting ballots, the report said, and prosecutors pursue cases relentlessly.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — TRUMP LOST. Vote Suppression Won. (Greg Palast) — GOP introduces an Amendment allowing Trump to run for a third term — but not Obama. Say What?! — Trump threatens to "get rid" of emergency agency FEMA and tells states to "take care" of disasters themselves. — "Shove it": Canadians revolt after Trump says they'd have better health care as 51st state. — How the 2 percent of bitcoin owners who own 90% of all bitcoin in circulation are planning to use Trump to make a killing. — Hakeem Jefferies says Democrats won't help Republicans raise the debt ceiling or cut taxes even more on billionaires. Will they hold the line? — A Black kid — a school shooter this week — decided to kill a classmate (and wound another) and then himself after watching Candice Owens' online rightwing propaganda convincing him that he's no good cause he's Black. — A Mississippi legislator just introduced legislation outlawing male masturbation unless it is done specifically for the purpose of producing a baby (like for artificial insemination). — Hunter in a Farmer's World: Living Outside the Box: ADHD, Identity, and Resilience — Wisdom School: Telepathy: Coincidence or Consciousness?

Here are the numbers from investigative reporter Greg Palast... A guest post by Greg Palast for the Hartmann Report Trump lost. That is, if all legal voters were allowed to vote, if all legal ballots were counted, Trump would have lost the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Vice-President Kamala Harris would have won the Presidency with 286 electoral votes. And, if not for the mass purge of voters of color, if not for the mass disqualification of provisional and mail-in ballots, if not for the new mass "vigilante" challenges in swing states, Harris would have gained at least another 3,565,000 votes, topping Trump's official popular vote tally by 1.2 million.

Get ready for investigations, arrests, and show trials of the people who've tried to hold Trump accountable for his crimes and traitorous behavior… By repealing President Lyndon Johnson's 1965 executive order (EO) banning racial discrimination in hiring for the federal government, Donald Trump has proudly proclaimed his intention of Making America White Again, at least with regard to political power and economic opportunity. Another EO Trump signed this week proclaims that our sex identity begins at "fertilization" when, in fact, sexual development doesn't begin to start until at least the sixth week after fertilization. In addition to attacking transgender individuals and setting them up for rank persecution (this EO's main goal), it's also a way of laying the groundwork for fetal personhood, a doctrine that will ultimately lead to a total ban on abortion and several methods of birth control. But the most troubling of his executive orders is the one with the Orwellian name of "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government."

How $TRUMP coins create a cash funnel for influence and foreign meddling. Both Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon took cash bribes while in the White House and before. Agnew's dated back to shakedowns he did as Maryland governor, while Nixon helped Jimmy Hoffa get out of a prosecution and allegedly ran interference for a group of milk producers. Since then, bribing politicians has gotten a lot easier thanks to five Republicans on the US Supreme Court. Their Citizens United decision, decided 15 years ago this week, legalized political bribery so long as it is done through campaign, PAC, or SuperPAC funds. But for some people there's just never enough money.

Restoring power to the richest, whitest men in the room. How long can democracy survive under Trump's iron grip? Welcome to your first full day in the new Confederate States of America. Much like the old CSA, the new CSA (also known as MAGA America) is devoted to: — Making American as white as possible, — Stripping women and minorities of political and economic power, — Gutting workers' rights, — Rigging election outcomes, — Leaders nakedly taking bribes, — Using a phony veneer of Christianity to justify brutal policies, — Making queer people invisible, — Reconfiguring schools for indoctrination, — Having militias terrorize minorities and their opponents, and, — Maintaining a government of, by, and for rich white men.

We need a new phrase to identify these oligarchs who are reaching out to seize control of our government, our economy, and our culture... What should we call them? Attending Trump's inauguration today will be six of the wealthiest and most powerful men in America: Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and the respective leaders/owners of TikTok, Google, and ChatGPT. Want near absolute power in America with the approval of at least half of the American public? Simply tweak the top-secret algorithms that determine what posts you see most often on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, and TikTok; algorithmically filter the search results of Google and ChatGPT; and control the content of The Washington Post. The massive wealth of these men, along with their political and media power, resembles the oligarchs America has seen rise and then repeatedly get rejected or defeated throughout American history.

The idea of democracy is simple: issues are put to voters, each person gets one vote, and whatever position gets the most votes becomes law. Our country was not established as a direct democracy, though, and citizens aren’t given an affirmative right to vote in the US Constitution; the issue is placed in the hands of our “laboratories of democracy,” the states. When people think of voting, they tend to think of the presidential election every four years. Many people don’t pay attention to local elections, and more and more Americans have found the political landscape so divisive that they’ve simply tuned out.

— What's your survival plan for the next 4 years? For Monday, January 20th? How are we all going to make sense of and survive the next 4 years of of the Trump Oligarchy? — Will the TikTok ban stick? — Is CNN the next media operation to bend knee to Trump? — Republican legislators in five Red states want to prosecute women for murder if they get abortions or use certain types of birth control. — Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary warns there will be an "economic calamity" if Trump's billionaire tax cuts are not extended....really?! — Putin just sent Alexei Navalny's lawyers to prison. — The Costs of Treating Healthcare as a Business Alert! Doctors and dentists are pushing medical 26% credit cards on patients. — Hunter in a Farmer's World: ADHD: Visualize the person you want to be, and determine what will be necessary to get there — Wisdom School: Is Your Brain Rigging the Game?