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May 16, 2022Liked by Thom Hartmann

You don't mince your words Thom. So glad I subscribed to your newsletter. When Marianne Williamson becomes President, assuming she wants the job, you should definitely consider consulting for her.

That 9-word sentence Reagan made famous could now be changed to "Hi, I'm from (whatever) corporation, and I'm here to help." We've seen so many examples recently where the corporations are schmoozing the public only to turn and make their lives miserable in the long run.

Love how you boiled it down to one word: trust. One vowel in the middle of four consonants, such a simple word, but it really is at the heart of so many troubles we're facing. Thanks for your courage to print the truth, which is really the purpose of the media.

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How do we unwind the systems and processes that the morbidly rich have inserted into our democracy? We need a critical mass of citizens collaborating on a strategic plan of persistent nonviolent resistance. The plan should be to replace our government’s corporate whores with progressives who acknowledge their purpose is to promote our general welfare with best practice-based solutions and protect us from the morbidly rich and their avaricious ways.

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The assessed 90% reduction in deaths vs Australia is stunning. And you can add in the reduction in gun deaths since Australia imposed their "horrible tyranny" on gun rights. (sarcasm alert) I guess the dupes who have lost loved-ones to Covid must be in mass propagandized denial: it wasn't really Covid, or, Covid itself was a Biden plot??? I just don't know how you can overcome the propensity to believe anything, by a certain segment of our fellow citizens. I keep remembering Hans Blix, vox clamante in desierto......

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Yes, just like basic training. Create insecurity. Enforce absolute authority and mass punishment. We will tell you the right way to do everything.

There are people that love that kind of structure. They think in black and white, and they don't do nuance. When we have gun violence and complicated foreign policies to resolve, they are not going to be able to see the finer points of a solution.

The sad thing is after they "break" you in basic, they are supposed to bring you back brand new. Then you move to a phase where you WORK TOGETHER to complete your mission. Frankly, the concept didn't work on me, but I was over the age of 25 at the time and ready to work together when I volunteered.

This is why they want them young, but in the case of the far right-wing, they will also target the emotionally immature. They are already insecure making it a much shorter path. Buffalo brought a tear to my eye---that hasn't happened for a long time and after many, many rampages.

Until Black Lives Matter.....

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I don't think it's about destroying trust at all. I wish it was about destroying trust.

What I see are a bunch of seriously deluded and self entitled people who cannot reason logically, see enemies in all directions, and want to destroy what we trust, without trust being the actual target.

I only WISH that trust was the target.

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Mr. Hartman is essentially correct; but both political parties in the US have identified the same issue: Focus on destroying voters' trust in either government as a whole, or in specific programs. The money-rich people, their think tanks and their media have used deep and persistent psychological warfare advertising since the 1980s to erode our confidence in our own government-and voters have essentially allowed themselves to be spoon-fed a gradual adjustment in their support for programs and taxation approaches that built the world's best middle class in the 1946-80 period in America. The Democratic president, Mr. Clinton, sweet-talked all the democratic voters to allow Congress to abolish all the banking safeguards that were put in place after the Big Crash of 1929 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_legislation). Voters and Congress have allowed the global healthcare clearing house to be co-opted by Bill & Melinda Gates' foundation, and now WHO is quietly doing the groundwork for implementing a one-size-fits everyone with IHR (International Health Regulations) that will implement global requirements for so-called vaccination passports. (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pandemic-treaty-world-health-organization-cola/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=cf719764-03e4-4011-9605-d16b110d2c43). The Trust that most voters had for the medical system and the basic vaccination system has been significantly undermined by the pharmaceutical industry' 'mis-labeling' of the Covid vaccines as ' vaccines' when none of them prevented re-infection or prevented spreading of the virus. Somewhere between 30-50% of adult US voters rely primarily on alternative healthcare practitioners and their non-prescription preventive approach; and this block of voters, circa 50 - 80 million careful people in America, lost Trust in our nation's medical system-as it has been directed by very passionate liberal leaders and Mr. Biden during 2020-22. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pandemic-treaty-world-health-organization-cola/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=cf719764-03e4-4011-9605-d16b110d2c43.

Mr. Hartman paints the Republican party and the mega-billionaires club as the primary causative factors of our loss of trust in many powerful government programs, but that is only a partial explanation. In all fairness, the Democratic Party has slowly lost touch with its voter base, except the most radical factions, and the breaking of the trust many of us have had for this party has allowed the Republican Party to govern by default. This allows Mr. Bezos to NOT pay any taxes https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/16/bezos-praises-manchin-blocking-bidens-corporate-tax-hike?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_text) and median pay of CEOs to hit $14 million https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/16/median-pay-top-ceos-hits-record-147-million-workers-strike-over-starvation-wages?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=TOP+NEWS%3A+Kagan+Pens+Scathing+Dissent+as+Supreme+Court+Kills+Another+Campaign+Finance+Rule&utm_campaign=TOPS+NEWS%3A+Fri++5%2F14%2F22&vgo_ee=q3r6Xnz%2FS%2BXDOeHrOmr83g%2FJHormkOXX2LMVbgAiCEk%3D

Bottom line: It's a clever mess we have, but, again, we have to find enough voters to swing the US back to the common sense tax policies and regulations that were in place prior to 1980 and Mr. Reagan, and we probably need to enact a complete prohibition on allowing the pharmaceutical companies to use advertising to brainwash people and our doctors.

Mr. Hartman's Citation:

That element so essential to the functioning of government is: trust.

Trust, at the end of the day, is the only currency governments can trade in. Trust is so critical it largely defines the stability of a nation’s money.

Even a government’s use of force, over the long term, requires trust or it will be fought back against with force, as we saw in the American Revolution and have seen repeatedly around the world in the centuries since.

Trust is the single most important thing any government has; it is truly what makes a nation viable.

Its essential importance to a functioning society is what makes trust the thing enemies of democracies always target first

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