Thanks for this timely analysis. How ironic -- tragic, actually -- that this attack on the privacy and freedom of 51 percent of our citizens comes as a result of political manipulation by the party that used to sell itself as the protector of Americans’ freedom. It was in fact always a band of partisans dedicated to conformity -- in this case, to a particular set of behaviors aligned with a harsh right-wing Christianity. So sad. Keep hope alive by organizing and voting!
Aug 31, 2022·edited Aug 31, 2022Liked by Thom Hartmann
There are so many deeply disturbing things about what you’ve brought up today, particularly about the lack of HIPAA protections, lack of CPC regulation and tax exemptions and for profit data collection. What I’ve never understood though is from the first time that I heard about the $10,000 bounty is how such a draconian law itself is constitutional and how the Supreme Court could let such a divisive, harmful and devastating law even go into effect!
Thom, you are giving them the info---let's hope they use it.
These are great points for candidates to use when on the campaign trail or in debates. Most people have watched enough crime dramas to know how anyone can be tracked using their cellphone. They have been educated about HIPAA at their docs and pharmacy.
The sleazy tactics and lies of the CPC folks track with everything this 21st Century Republican Party does. They keep going back in time, while the Progressives and decent citizens try to move forward.
And on the subject of the bounties, the guys could ask for small bills, so they are ready to hit the strip clubs. The Republicans DO have a platform---hypocrisy, brutality, and sleazy tactics are the planks.
Wow. That is all so horrifying. Id heard of the CPCs but didnt realize the data collection was so detailed, not subject to HIPAA, and are aggressively networked so broadly!
Can a case be made to sue them for “practicing medicine” without a license? I mean deliberately giving incorrect medical advice sounds like it should be illegal.
Also Thom, how are you doing post-surgery? Please rest. Recovery takes time. 🙏🏼
Superb article. And I mean SUPERB. Arguably the most informative article I've read on the subject. What I like about Thom is on every subject, no matter how well he knows it, he acts as if he knows nothing and digs for everything.
Bet you $50 he learned a lot writing this. I know I did reading it. Good work, Thom. As usual
True believers on the fringe right have convinced themselves their one and only true god directs all their thoughts and actions, except when they sin because of the Devil (instead of just assuming personal responsibility for their own dumb choices in life). That's fine; people believe all sorts of strange things when contemplating life, death, and the hereafter. Whatever gets them through the day so they can sleep at night -- it's a free world. Kinda.
True self-righteous fanatics, on the other hand, have not only convinced themselves their infallible god directs their own thoughts and actions but also that He (always a he) must direct the lives of everyone else, commanding that His flock with Glocks go forth amongst heretics and heathens and convert them, or else. For, it is commanded that to save this Christian nation from eternal damnation, true patriots, i.e., Republicans, MUST all think alike and all believe in the same god (of wrath).
And all the sinners, i.e., DemocRATS, MUST be purged from the face of the Earth ...or at least from the voter rolls. So why, then, would not their god be totally cool with aborting Democratic babies? Or Black or Brown babies? Who needs a bunch of second-class minorities anyway, gumming up the works in the white master race's march of civilization?
The Great White Fathers might need those yellow ones, though, to grow up as techie nerds. For some weird reason, probably stray genes or something, Orientals are pretty dang good at all that boring brainiac stuff. (Just remember though, Little Johnny, all that CRT shit ain't true, goddammit!)
So what better way to demonize your "enemies" than as baby killers, whom your god hates to high heaven? It's all about one tribe of apes having power over the other tribes, usually for predatory purposes, such as hoarding bananas to dole out as political favors in the hierarchy of society. Clinging to economic and political power at the expense of truth, fairness, and common decency is a secular endeavor pursued by mere mortals who are hugely flawed.
Hate to break it to all you citizens of MAGA Land, but your knee-jerk bigoted attitudes are learned behavior, not some mythical power of the gods working divinely through you to create a chosen race under some cockamamie color-coded system. (Seriously, guys and gals still clinging to Trump and Trumpism, get a real life that means something beyond the petty.)
To recap: Blowhard wingers with bullhorns aimed at their gullible prey don't actually give a damn about abortion except as a wedge issue. Republican hypocrites only harp about it loudly, using false prophets and false religion to manipulate and divide citizens to score cheap political points with a rabid base of fanatical religious zealots who don't tolerate any dissent.
Deeply programmed true believers to the right of Atilla the Hun, like a Terminator robot, have lost their humanity and cannot be reasoned with, cannot be appealed to, and certainly cannot be expected to honor the higher instincts a functioning, multi-faceted democracy demands. They can only be out-voted.
The issue of pregnancy, abortion and when or if a fetus is considered a human being will always be controversial. The case of the woman being ticketed for driving in the HOV lane who argued that being pregnant allowed her to do so. A citation was late dropped. So my point is, at the time of conception shouldn't a woman be able to claim an additional dependent on her taxes, apply for a social security number or be able to have two votes if pregnant during an election years? Can we see this happen if laws were changed?
I am no fan of state policy that turns in woman for getting an abortion...
But in a democracy it begs the question. Why do the majority of woman in Texas support such legislation?
Is Hartman framing this issue in a manner that enables the reader to understand why so many woman support this policy and would it not be better if we had these issues framed in a way that opened the door for compromise?
With the abortion situation unpopular with the majority, maybe the more successful scheming like this is, the more outcry it will create from taxpayers who have to pay for it? Maybe privately cheer the legislators on in what hopefully is their death march
Thanks for this timely analysis. How ironic -- tragic, actually -- that this attack on the privacy and freedom of 51 percent of our citizens comes as a result of political manipulation by the party that used to sell itself as the protector of Americans’ freedom. It was in fact always a band of partisans dedicated to conformity -- in this case, to a particular set of behaviors aligned with a harsh right-wing Christianity. So sad. Keep hope alive by organizing and voting!
There are so many deeply disturbing things about what you’ve brought up today, particularly about the lack of HIPAA protections, lack of CPC regulation and tax exemptions and for profit data collection. What I’ve never understood though is from the first time that I heard about the $10,000 bounty is how such a draconian law itself is constitutional and how the Supreme Court could let such a divisive, harmful and devastating law even go into effect!
Thom, you are giving them the info---let's hope they use it.
These are great points for candidates to use when on the campaign trail or in debates. Most people have watched enough crime dramas to know how anyone can be tracked using their cellphone. They have been educated about HIPAA at their docs and pharmacy.
The sleazy tactics and lies of the CPC folks track with everything this 21st Century Republican Party does. They keep going back in time, while the Progressives and decent citizens try to move forward.
And on the subject of the bounties, the guys could ask for small bills, so they are ready to hit the strip clubs. The Republicans DO have a platform---hypocrisy, brutality, and sleazy tactics are the planks.
Wow. That is all so horrifying. Id heard of the CPCs but didnt realize the data collection was so detailed, not subject to HIPAA, and are aggressively networked so broadly!
Can a case be made to sue them for “practicing medicine” without a license? I mean deliberately giving incorrect medical advice sounds like it should be illegal.
Also Thom, how are you doing post-surgery? Please rest. Recovery takes time. 🙏🏼
Superb article. And I mean SUPERB. Arguably the most informative article I've read on the subject. What I like about Thom is on every subject, no matter how well he knows it, he acts as if he knows nothing and digs for everything.
Bet you $50 he learned a lot writing this. I know I did reading it. Good work, Thom. As usual
True believers on the fringe right have convinced themselves their one and only true god directs all their thoughts and actions, except when they sin because of the Devil (instead of just assuming personal responsibility for their own dumb choices in life). That's fine; people believe all sorts of strange things when contemplating life, death, and the hereafter. Whatever gets them through the day so they can sleep at night -- it's a free world. Kinda.
True self-righteous fanatics, on the other hand, have not only convinced themselves their infallible god directs their own thoughts and actions but also that He (always a he) must direct the lives of everyone else, commanding that His flock with Glocks go forth amongst heretics and heathens and convert them, or else. For, it is commanded that to save this Christian nation from eternal damnation, true patriots, i.e., Republicans, MUST all think alike and all believe in the same god (of wrath).
And all the sinners, i.e., DemocRATS, MUST be purged from the face of the Earth ...or at least from the voter rolls. So why, then, would not their god be totally cool with aborting Democratic babies? Or Black or Brown babies? Who needs a bunch of second-class minorities anyway, gumming up the works in the white master race's march of civilization?
The Great White Fathers might need those yellow ones, though, to grow up as techie nerds. For some weird reason, probably stray genes or something, Orientals are pretty dang good at all that boring brainiac stuff. (Just remember though, Little Johnny, all that CRT shit ain't true, goddammit!)
So what better way to demonize your "enemies" than as baby killers, whom your god hates to high heaven? It's all about one tribe of apes having power over the other tribes, usually for predatory purposes, such as hoarding bananas to dole out as political favors in the hierarchy of society. Clinging to economic and political power at the expense of truth, fairness, and common decency is a secular endeavor pursued by mere mortals who are hugely flawed.
Hate to break it to all you citizens of MAGA Land, but your knee-jerk bigoted attitudes are learned behavior, not some mythical power of the gods working divinely through you to create a chosen race under some cockamamie color-coded system. (Seriously, guys and gals still clinging to Trump and Trumpism, get a real life that means something beyond the petty.)
To recap: Blowhard wingers with bullhorns aimed at their gullible prey don't actually give a damn about abortion except as a wedge issue. Republican hypocrites only harp about it loudly, using false prophets and false religion to manipulate and divide citizens to score cheap political points with a rabid base of fanatical religious zealots who don't tolerate any dissent.
Deeply programmed true believers to the right of Atilla the Hun, like a Terminator robot, have lost their humanity and cannot be reasoned with, cannot be appealed to, and certainly cannot be expected to honor the higher instincts a functioning, multi-faceted democracy demands. They can only be out-voted.
The issue of pregnancy, abortion and when or if a fetus is considered a human being will always be controversial. The case of the woman being ticketed for driving in the HOV lane who argued that being pregnant allowed her to do so. A citation was late dropped. So my point is, at the time of conception shouldn't a woman be able to claim an additional dependent on her taxes, apply for a social security number or be able to have two votes if pregnant during an election years? Can we see this happen if laws were changed?
I am no fan of state policy that turns in woman for getting an abortion...
But in a democracy it begs the question. Why do the majority of woman in Texas support such legislation?
Is Hartman framing this issue in a manner that enables the reader to understand why so many woman support this policy and would it not be better if we had these issues framed in a way that opened the door for compromise?
With the abortion situation unpopular with the majority, maybe the more successful scheming like this is, the more outcry it will create from taxpayers who have to pay for it? Maybe privately cheer the legislators on in what hopefully is their death march