Christopher Wiley, the guy who worked at Cambridge Analytica under Steve Bannon, has laid out how they identified potential Trump voters. They looked for the same type of vulnerabilities in white people who the military had previously been profiling among American muslims as vulnerable to indoctrination or radicalization by groups like ISIS. Targeting American whites they thought could be easily brainwashed, through a few dozen metrics they could identify based on Facebook profiles, they set out to radicalize them, only for Trump and the alt-right, instead of for ISIS. It's been a mystery for some time why Trump voters would be so enthusiastic, even cult-like, when Trump's policies would actually screw in them badly and just help out the billionaire class.

Now we know why. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch runs Fox News the way that the billionaire Mercer family ran Cambridge Analytica - reaching out to white people who are easily radicalized, and turning them into Trump cult members who would support policies that make the rich richer while burrowing deeper and deeper into hate and paranoia. Now America's big challenge is,

"How do you do you de-program a person who's been brought into a cult through a very carefully done multi-million dollar campaign of screening for vulnerable people and then breaking them psychologically? How do we help them realize that by aligning themselves with billionaires and polluting corporations, they're just hurting themselves?"

Plus - In Order to Stop Billionaires From Messing with American Democracy - We Need to Repeal the Reagan Tax Cuts!

-Thom

After Brown v. Board and its subsequent supporting decisions in the 1950s, and Roe v. Wade in 1973, Republicans concluded that they needed to curb-or seize-the power of the Court. The easiest way to do that would be to have as many Republican presidents in the White House as possible, as each could potentially nominate new conservative justices to the Court. In 1968, Richard Nixon stole the presidential election, scuttling President Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam peace talks and setting up four GOP appointments to the Supreme Court. In that, he set a precedent for every Republican president since: do whatever it takes to win an election, even if that means committing treason or attacking the very core of American democracy, voting, in order to control who's on the Supreme and other federal courts.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "'Trump was trying to get angry Erdogan off the phone': New report suggests horrifying reason for Kurd betrayal" by Travis Gettys.

Article: "State Department blocks ambassador from testifying in Trump impeachment inquiry" by Allan Smith and Geoff Bennett.

Article: "Antisocial Personality Disorder" (sociopathy) by Kathleen Smith.

Article: "PM Orban flags big changes to Hungary's constitution" by Reuters.

Article: "Andrzej Duda" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump Called Rodrigo Duterte To Congratulate Him On His Murderous Drug War: "you Are Doing An Amazing Job"" by Jeremy Scahill, Alex Emmons, Ryan Grim.

Article: "Buffett says he's still paying lower tax rate than his secretary" by Chris Isidore.

Article: "The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You" by David Leonhardt.

Article: "subpoena" by Merriam-Webster.

Facebook: Heather Cox Richardson.

Event: Portland, OR - October 10 @ 7:30 PM: Booksignings w/Thom Hartmann - The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America at Powells City of Books.

Article: "The Cambridge Analytica whistleblower explains how the firm used Facebook data to sway elections" (Christopher Wylie) by Rosalie Chan.

Article: "China won't show NBA preseason games as backlash over Hong Kong tweet grows" by Michelle Toh.

Article: "1989 Tiananmen Square protests" by Wikipedia.

Tweet: "Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China!" by Donald J. Trump.

Quote: "If You Don't Stand for Something, You'll Fall for Anything".

Article: "Chicago School of Economics" by Akhilesh Ganti.

Article: "Kurds" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Project for the New American Century (PNAC)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "China's Economy and Its Effect on the U.S. Economy" by Kimberly Amadeo.

Article: "The U.S. Military's Greatest Weakness? China 'Builds' a Huge Chunk of It" by Michael Peck.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)" by Public Citizen.

Site: World Trade Organization (WTO)

Article: "Why Trump Voters Stick With Him" by David Brooks.

Article: "Warren attacks Facebook for 'quietly' changing its political ad policy after Zuckerberg's meeting with Trump" by Lauren Feiner.

Tweet: "As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I've done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over..." by Donald J. Trump.

Tweet: "....the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!" by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Gay rights battle against employment discrimination extends beyond the grave, and to the Supreme Court" by Richard Wolf.

Article: "The Supreme Court Is About to Hear 3 LGBT Rights Cases That Are Way Bigger than Marriage Equality" by David S. Cohen.

Article: "Inside the Supreme Court Discrimination Cases That Could Change LGBTQ Rights" by Tim Teeman.

Article: "One country, two systems" (China, Hong Kong) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Yalta Conference" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump campaign threatens to sue Minneapolis over "phony" security bill for rally" by Marissa Evans and Jessie Van Berkel.

Article: "Why The Trump Campaign Won't Pay Police Bills" by Dave Levinthal.

Article: "Trump campaign accuses Minneapolis arena of extortion, threatens to sue" by Colby Itkowitz.

Article: "READ: Senate Intel Concludes Russia Intervened In 2016 To Boost Trump" by Josh Kovensky and Tierney Sneed.

Article: "Bipartisan senators ask for laws to block foreign interference in elections on social media" by Ken Dilanian.

Quote: "There's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." - Margaret Thatcher.

Article: "IRS: Sorry, but It's Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poor" by Paul Kiel.

Article: "Key U.S. ambassador posts remain vacant" by Roey Hadar, Sandy Petrykowski.

Article: "Madison's notes on the Constitutional Convention of 1787: July 20, 1787" by James Madison.

Article: "History of the Kurds" by Wikipedia.

Video: State department withholding US ambassador messages, says Adam Schiff.

Article: "Noah" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Jeremiah" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Stephen A. Smith Pauses Between Bootlicks To Tell Daryl Morey To Grow Up" by Lauren Theisen.

Hour Three: The Privatizing of Medicare, Social Security, Nafta 2.0 bad pharma
- Alex Lawson, Executive Director - Social Security Works

Article: "Medicare (United States)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Targeting 'Medicare For All' Proposals, Trump Lays Out His Vision For Medicare" by Selena Simmons-Duffin.

Article: "'Just Absurd': Flood of Ridicule as Trump Readies Executive Order to Stop 'Socialist Destruction' of Government-Run Medicare" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "Medicare Advantage" by Wikipedia.

Article: "What's Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap)" by Medicare.gov.

Article: "Warnings of 'Stealth Privatization' Effort as Trump Signs Executive Order Expanding Medicare Advantage Plans" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement" (USMCA) (NAFTA 2.0) by Wikipedia.

Bill: "H.R.860 - Social Security 2100 Act" by Rep. Larson, John B. [D-CT-1].

Article: "The Social Security 2100 Act" by John Larson.

Article: "Trump's Executive Order Could Bankrupt The Medicare Trust Funds In Less Than 5 Months" by Dan Munro.

Article: "Some Parts Of Trump's Executive Order On Medicare Could Lead To Higher Costs" by Julie Appleby.

Article: "Big Pharma Giveaways Must Be Removed from NAFTA 2.0 - A Thread" by Public Citizen.

Article: "United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Latest betrayal of Kurds risks undermining defeat of Isis" by Martin Chulov.

Article: "US withdrawal from Syria leaves fate of Isis fighters and families in detention uncertain" by Martin Chulov, Bethan McKernan and Julian Borger.

Article: "Trump Towers Istanbul" by Wikipedia.

Movie: "A Few Good Men".

Article: "John N. Mitchell" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mulford Act" by Wikipedia.

Speech: "First Inaugural Address", Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 4 March 1933. "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Article: "Inept" by Merriam-Webster.

Article: "Evil" by Merriam-Webster.

Article: "Incarnate" by Merriam-Webster.

Book: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt.

Quote: "It's very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it" - Donald J. Trump.

Article: "What Does "Cadet Bone Spurs" Mean? Trump's Nickname Was Coined By Sen. Tammy Duckworth" by Monica Hunter-Hart.

Article: "What Is Happening at Migrant Detention Centers? Here's What to Know" by Madeleine Joung.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be discussing Trump's betrayal of the Kurds & how this happened - AGAIN - with Dr. Edmund Ghareeb, Adjunct Professor, Middle East history & politics - School of International Service at American University, the first Mustafa Barzani Scholar of Global Kurdish Studies-Center for Global Peace, American University, a professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, co-author of The Historical Dictionary of Iraq, author of The Kurdish Question in Iraq and co-author of War in the Gulf

Plus, Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District) will be calling in to talk about the issues of the day and take your calls.

And, Is Trump Destroying Incriminating Evidence? I'll be asking Mark Karlin, Founder/Editor - BuzzFlash.com

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Inside The Mind Boggling Corruption Of The Trump Administration

Did Trump Abandon Kurds To Keep His Turkish Hotel?

LGBT People Could Lose Their Jobs & Housing Under Trump! (w/ Alphonso David)

Thu, Oct 10 7:30 pm: Powells City of Books.