Hartmann Report

A single memo launched a strategy to control media, courts, and public opinion, reshaping American democracy. To reclaim it, Democrats must build a powerful media and policy network. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." —Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816 Republicans are using their massive structural media and social media advantage to try to destroy Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass, and the California Democratic Party. It follows an old script, that's recently been played out in Russia and Hungary, among other nations: Want to seize control of a nation and turn it into a neofascist state with the consent of the people? Just take control of the channels of public information and news, and then turn lies about your opponents and their supporters into a perceived reality.

The Republicans have successfully pushed their monstrous lie of double voting and non-citizen voting because of the ways that states handle voter registration rolls. Ideally, a state’s voter registration rolls should carry only the names of people who are both currently legal residents of the state and qualified to vote. The reality is much different. For example, I grew up in Michigan and voted in that state until I was 27 years old, in 1978. That year, we moved to New Hampshire, where I registered to vote—and never told Michigan that I’d left.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The fossil fuel industry is apparently paying off Republicans — in a practice legalized by Republicans on the Supreme Court — to make sure Congress never passes legislation to hold them accountable for all the death and destruction they've caused by lying about climate change for the past 50 years. — Convicted Felon Trump now has the "Scarlet F": Our first felon President. — It's not just social media that's giving violent white supremacists a pass... — Greedy insurer interrupts cancer surgery in shocking mid-procedure call... — Indiana Republicans want to threaten rape victims with felonies if they try to get an abortion. — Wondering why Trump is on a jeremiad against Panama? — James Carville suggests Jeff Bezos is trying to buy Trump via Melania. — Crazy Alert! Greenlanders really hate Trump, so Don Jr. had to hire homeless people to make it look like somebody was welcoming him. — Hunter in a Farmer's World: ADHD: Wrong or Different? — Wisdom School: Talking Circles — Knights Templar: Challenging Reality: The Mind-Matter Connection

Why the fossil fuel billionaires and their companies bear some responsibility for the fires in Los Angeles… Public Citizen would like you to know that there are killers among us. They wear $2000 suits and travel in private jets, unbothered by the TSA or the teeming masses. Their children attend the finest universities in the world, and they vacation on private islands and yachts. Many "earn" more in a day than most Americans take home in a year; their positions ensure their heirs will never have to work a day in their lives. Their fortunes are the result of poisoning you, me, our children and grandchildren, every other living thing on Earth, and destroying the temperature stability of our atmosphere. This week they're arguably responsible, in part, for billions of dollars in losses, numerous deaths, and thousands of shattered lives in Southern California. Illegitimate president-elect Trump is trying his best to cover for them, claiming that the fires ripping through the Los Angeles area are the fault of California's Democratic governor, calling Gavin Newsome by a childish name to draw more attention to Trump's efforts on behalf of the Republican Party's most generous donors.

Trump has long admired dictators who weaponize civilian gangs to crush dissent. Will his next chapter involve unleashing his own militias to terrorize the American public? One of the most common characteristics of rule by an authoritarian who's taken over a democracy is his use of unofficial civilian paramilitary groups and militia gangs to terrorize or even kill his political opponents. Back in the day, Hitler had his Brownshirts, Mussolini his Blackshirts. The practice has since become far more widespread — routine, almost — as we can see across multiple formerly democratic nations taken over — by election — during the past three decades.

Why Zuckerberg's changes at Meta signal a darker future for Democracy... Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg (wearing a $900,000 watch) announced yesterday morning that across their over-7-billion-user-strong social media empire — Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp — they'll be dialing back on fact-checking. They're also preparing to promote more "political" content (among other changes that support those two moves, like no longer filtering out trash-talking queer people or immigrants, and moving what's left of their Trust & Safety team from liberal California to conservative Texas). Here's the problem: Republican politicians rely on lies, distortions, and falsehoods to sell most of their policies and candidates.

While other nations offer universal benefits, we double down on serving billionaires' interests… Yesterday, Congress certified the electoral vote count making a billionaire president again, starting after he's sworn in on January 20th. Yes, we chose a billionaire. Again. After other billionaires spent billions to convince us to make that choice. As you're reading these words, billionaires from America and around the world are making pilgrimages to his shabby golf motel to kiss our upcoming billionaire president's ass and hand him envelopes with $1 million checks that represent a few hours (at most) of income for most of them or their companies. Meanwhile, our billionaire president-in-waiting is packing his cabinet — the heads of all of the most important federal agencies — with even more billionaires. This is all being celebrated over on billionaire-owned Fox "News" and on billionaire-owned hate radio networks, as well as in the billionaire-owned Washington Post, LA Times, and the roughly half of American local newspapers owned by billionaire hedge funds. Other countries enjoy benefits like free healthcare and college; modern mass transit; and affordable housing, food, and drugs.

This is exactly the sort of environment which can turn normal people into monsters who then seize control and ultimately destroy nations from within… "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." — Friedrich Nietzsche. To get the public to go along with the kind of radical social change that strips people of rights and privileges — and, eventually, their wealth — requires a shock to the political system which can then be exploited by a cynical political leader, his party, and their media allies.

Kris Kobach’s national debut was as a speaker on the first day of the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. I attended that convention and broadcast my show from there, sitting next to Sean Hannity, interviewing and meeting many of the GOP luminaries. And most of what they wanted to talk about was the same as Kobach’s speech: the danger of Mexicans sneaking into the United States and voting (along with robbing, raping, and drug running). Ironically, they didn’t seem so concerned with Mexicans taking American jobs. When I repeatedly brought up with Republicans how Ronald Reagan had pretty much stopped prosecuting employers after his 1986 amnesty for five million “illegals,” and how entire industries that used to have an all-American labor force and were heavily unionized, like construction and meat packing, were now mostly just employing people who were in the country illegally, they’d just shrug their shoulders. One said, “Well, it did help break the unions” or words to that effect.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — 2025: The year American Oligarchy officially begins? — Is the “Scarlet F” coming to Trump? What is the legal significance of Trump being a convicted felon? — How the media has failed on Trump coverage. — It looks like Net Neutrality is dead. — NOT AGAIN: China downplays mystery virus deaths despite pandemic fears. — Also, some thoughts and details about Jimmy Carter from an earlier Daily Take that you may have missed in all the coverage around his death and upcoming funeral — And, finally, apologies for the publication confusion — Hunter in a Farmer’s World: Wired for Wonder: Decoding ADHD — Wisdom School: Sweat Your Way to a Longer Life: How Saunas Boost Your Health & Extend Your Lifespan! — Knights Templar: The Pervasive Universal Consciousness Model: A New Frontier in Understanding Reality