Hartmann Report

How algorithms distill fear and rage into society's deadliest addiction, destroying society and political systems in the process… A fascinating article in The New York Times this week by Kurt Gray, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gives us the beginnings of an understanding of how and why social media is so destructive to society. Gray points out that most people assume humans have historically been predators, the metaphorical big cats of the jungle. In fact, Gray says, we've historically been prey, the victims of predators: "This picture of fearfulness is consistent with our understanding of human psychology. We're hard-wired to detect threats quickly and to stay fixated on places where threats once appeared, even after they have vanished. We fear that 'child predators' will abduct our kids even when they are safer than ever. "Modern humans, ensconced in towns and cities, are now mostly safe from animal predators, but we are still easily frightened. Whether we're scrolling social media or voting for a presidential candidate, we all still carry the legacy of our ancestors, who worried about big cats lurking in the darkness." Thus, if you could invent a drug that would cause people to be fearful — and thus stimulate the rage that comes from fear — you could have incredible control over a population if you could simply tell them where and against whom to direct that fear-induced rage.

Hopefully this time Democratic politicians and our media will, finally, call the GOP out on Wanniski's and Reagan's Two Santa Clauses scam and put an end to it once and for all… Merry Christmas! The GOP-caused fiscal disaster and government shutdown has been postponed until March, but in the meantime, House Republicans have laid out their vision for the future of America. In a budget document they released last year, anticipating this very moment, the legislators proposed dramatic $9 trillion cuts to Social Security, food stamps, aid to women and children, Medicare and Medicaid, along a new round of tax cuts for America's billionaires. Their argument is that we need to "balance the budget now!" This is the classic Two Santas strategy that the GOP has been running ever since 1981. In addition to showing the hypocrisy and depravity of these politicians who are happy to live on the largesse of rightwing billionaires but see no benefit in feeding hungry children, it also shows that Jude Wanniski's grand plan, adopted by Reagan in 1981, is alive and well. It's no accident or coincidence that the threat of a failure to pay the nation's bills or fund an upcoming year constantly happens when Republicans control the House of Representatives.

During these short, dark days let's remember this ancient Christmas knowledge that illumination always follows darkness & that with love and compassion we will re-light our nations & lives... Today is Christmas Eve, a connection to some of the most ancient of all known northern European shamanic traditions. Like people living in the north for millennia, we continue to embrace them with regional, national, and religious tweaks. It occurs during the week of the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, when ancient holy men and women lit "yule logs" to push back the darkness and implore the gods or nature to bring back the light of summer.

Using the Tea Party's playbook to reclaim the Democratic Party and advance real progressive change Recently, I mentioned that I'd be sharing more specifics on how to reform the Democratic Party and seize control of our country back from the racist, misogynist MAGAs. This is the first article along those lines. Progressives shouldn't just be fighting the GOP: we should be learning from them. No, we shouldn't be learning from their bizarro economics; we shouldn't be discovering their selfish morality, misogyny, or racism; or selling ourselves out to the world's richest man. But there is a vital lesson progressives must learn, which is how the far right took control of the Republican Party over a decade ago and forced the entire Conservative establishment to lurch so far to the Right that they've even dumped people like Liz Cheney and George W. Bush.

Money in politics has a long and ignominious history. Corruption by money of individual politicians, and of the legislative process as a whole, hit three peaks in the history of our nation: during the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, the Roaring Twenties in the last century, and the years since 2010 when the Supreme Court struck down numerous campaign finance and good-government laws, throwing the doors open to corporate and billionaire cash with its Citizens United decision. The Gilded Age excesses led to the Tillman Act of 1907, which made it a federal felony for a corporation to donate money or anything of value to a campaign for federal office. It was gutted by Citizens United.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Republicans in Congress kick the can down the road to March. — Why is President Musk endorsing the "German neo-Nazi Party"? — Trump is already walking back his promises. Why don't the headlines simply say, "He Lied"? — President Biden says debt student debt cancellation is coming for public servants. — Hunter in a Farmer's World: ADHD: What the Heck is Time? — Wisdom School: Everyone "Sees" (or "Hears" or "Feels") the World Differently: Why It Matters...

President Musk and his sidekick Donald Trump are demanding that Republicans in the House and Senate cut funding to numerous programs that help average Americans (including food, medical, and even child cancer research) and raise the debt ceiling to pave the way for the federal government to borrow another $5 trillion to hand to billionaires in the form of more tax cuts. You won't hear about what they're doing, or how we and our children will pay for it, on billionaire Murdoch-family-owned Fox "News," of course, nor on billionaire-owned rightwing radio stations, or from podcasts supported by billionaires. But that's exactly what's happening and it's no secret. This is called oligarchy, as I detail in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class. It's a very different form of government from democracy, which is what most Americans believe we still have.

Trump's proven plan to crush opposition, corrupt government, and rewrite the rules in his and his billionaire buddies' favor… Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is wondering out loud if "President Musk" will force "Vice President Trump" and Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down our government as Musk tweets his orders to the GOP. It's all about raising the debt ceiling, Trump says, so they can roll out the next round of tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by average working people. It seems like a bizarre power play: The actual story is much more sinister. As Trump is in the process of teaching America, it's impossible to disentangle democracy-ending authoritarianism from billionaire corruption of government. They require each other. And the way this will play out won't need a crystal ball to see: Trump has already begun traveling a well-trod path that leads to the destruction of our form of government.

As the old guard fades and democracy is under siege, the next generation of leaders is missing in action: who will step up and fight? Monday morning MSNBC and CNN (and, presumably, Fox, etc.) gave Trump roughly 40 minutes of live television time to rant and lie, threaten an Iowa newspaper and pollster, propose privatizing our Post Office, and muse about ending schoolchildren's vaccine mandates for polio. Everybody watching cable TV probably saw it; it was later the topic of numerous newscasts and newspaper articles that are still echoing across the news space. Around the same time, President Joe Biden spoke at the inauguration of the Francis Perkins National Monument to FDR's famous Labor Secretary and principal author of the New Deal. He truthfully pointed out that his one four-year administration had helped create 16 million new jobs, more than any single presidential term in history (and more than the jobs created by the Bush Sr., Bush Jr., and Trump administrations combined).

From Disney to big business: Corporations are aligning with Trump to avoid punishment and secure their place in the authoritarian future… "Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals." —Donald Trump Dec. 10, 2024 The 1986 American Heritage Dictionary defines fascism as: "fascism (fash'iz'am) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism." We're about to be there.