Thank you Thom Hartmann, for being the calm, lucid antidote to BS Fatigue

Thank you Thom Hartmann, for being the calm, lucid antidote to BS Fatigue on all levels. The informed, engaged citizen may engage locally, nationally and/or globally.

Many of the forces affecting national politics have trickled on down to the local level, where we have unqualified celebrity politicians, aiding and abetting the moneyed class and destroying landscapes, mowing history and community down in their path. Of course they use all the NewSpeak and Doublethink techniques of the Right Wing hatemongers and Luntz clones.

The latest crazed behavior of the Astroturfers on Health Care and Teabaggers on -- everything under the sun at this point -- is too much. This is Orwell's Two Minutes Hate on steroids and one step from a new McCarthyism. Contrasted with the reflection and compassion, inspired on the occasion of Teddy Kennedy's death, the hostility and nonsense and nonsense has become merely irrelevant and unhealthy.

I am already selective with what I watch/listen to and don't know half of the hatemongers or shows that people complain about on DU. Dr. Andrew Weil recommends occasional news fasts. If I had to choose one voice to listen to, it would be yours.

Thank you for your calm, lucidity, wide ranging knowledge, graciousness, occasional rants not out of control, your peace- and health-making, community focus; your ability to educate and inform those who may not be "on your side" and talk to them respectfully...

You are the master of cutting through the chatter.

Thank you. :yourock:

The thing about Thom Hartmann's show is that it grow on you. I never feel like I've had too much of it. He doesn't rant and rave. He is courteous to listeners without letting them run over him. He has a great voice. And he is not conceited. He is always willing to listen to other people and concedes points all the time. He tells someone when he agrees with the and also when not. I don't get the feeling that he puts people down just for sport. He disagrees with them, but he doesn't disrespect them. That is what I like about him the most. He can separate the person's ideas and language from the person, and he seems to always have a sense of the value of the person with whom he is talking. He is a great listener even though he practically always knows and understands a lot more than the person with whom he is talking.

And that's what you need when all the shouters and freakouters become WAY too much.

At this point, it seems to be Battle of the Lies. Thom's oldschool. He invites the truth on his show.

no ranting, raving or insults. He cuts them down with truth, information and knowledge. He's brilliant.

:toast: :spray:

Hi, omega. This is also the line of thought I have been on since Ted Kennedy died, and I have been reminded of things long ago forgotten, because of the coverage and reaction of real people to it: the long range of history and memory, and not just flashes of corporate products being sold to us; a world of people and meaning, social and political; reading and words, not pictures and graphics; thinking, feeling, remembering. I have actually had the TV shut off all today, and most of yesterday, after the burial ceremony and one special rerun on PBS. I have felt so much more peaceful, I feel that this is actually the country I live in, and I recognize it again, and time moves slower again.

The media has become such an obnoxious product-seller and capitalist propagandist, that first of all, I don't actually learn anything or enjoy it, and second, it is like being abused by someone standing right in front of you--they do all the talking and you can never answer, you are nothing, they lie and you can't correct it, you never win only they do, they laugh and jeer at things you love, and praise things you know have hurt us all, etc. All it does is induce a stressful, pissed-off resentment, and never gives you anything you would actually want to think about. It distracts you permanently from the real world, and the world you love.

This is also why I hate listening to "framing" types, because "framing consultants" and abusers actually have the same behavior--fake, manipulative, picking up on your every incidental word and throwing it back at you, never talking sincerely on the deeper level of the topic, pretending to be superior and read you like a book and play you like a game, etc. Pisses me off just to think about it, and it has killed real discussion--and solution--of issues.

To shut the crap off and be quiet, to feel the actual ghosts I really want to dwell amongst, and to shut off the noise and annoyance so I can think at all, it reminds me of the line from Wordsworth, the poem of the same name as the first line, "The world is too much with us/late and soon." Be alone with quiet thoughts and peacefulness, and regain your own intelligence and grace. All the coverage, and reaction of people, even though the sad occasion of it, has made me become more like myself again, too, and the thought I really have; not the Goddamned endless corporate blaring noise that takes your own life away.

This is a heartfelt and heart-full OP and response. I listen to Thom Hartman on my way home after work. His voice mellows me out and I find I can retain what he says. He's such a far cry from the barrage of marketing blathering that the 'news' blares at us non-stop. Their strategy is to wear us down with the constant noise. He is a calm quiet island in a storm of cacophonous earsplitting noise.

:applause:

:pals:

What a beautiful spot on post. You've captured it and apparently share feeling the shift that occurred when Teddy died. A big whiff of compassion blew through and around news events. A reminder of those times and our humanity, of lives lost and lives devoted to what used to be public service. Makes the manufactured hate machine's insanity more obvious than ever.

"It distracts you permanently from the real world, and the world you love."

"Be alone with quiet thoughts and peacefulness, and regain your own intelligence and grace. All the coverage, and reaction of people, even though the sad occasion of it, has made me become more like myself again, too, and the thought I really have; not the Goddamned endless corporate blaring noise that takes your own life away."

like him. Very intelligent and an excellent debater. He lets the facts speak for themselves.

I am going to try to be more like him....first, I will grow a beard. lol. Then I'll grow a ....

charming smile :spray: good example of someone with "a pair" willing to be gracious and respectful.

yep, he's way cool. Should be many more like him.

from the other side with fact after fact after fact. And without rancor. And without getting personal during heated moments. This is what leads to the ultimate of credibility and respect!!! :applause:

True skill and grace and IMHO = "walking the walk" while 'talking the talk."

I'm in awe of his ability to stay calm while debating WingNuts.

indeed :hi:

I know I couldn't do it!..:hi:

:yourock:

To Hartmann & Malloy...you will love it, will be wildly entertained as well and become happier than you ever thought apossible, caring lovely active progressive...You won't be able to help yourself and your will be loved for it...we need you...listen....It's wonderfully free

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

http://www.mikemalloy.com/

:hi:

i'd start listening today, but unfortunately i don't have sound on my computer... :(


:hug:

:think:

No question, he is the best in the progressive talk business. :yourock:

:think:
:bounce:
:bounce:

:hi:

I think it's called Keyword Hijacking. CIA "used to" do this.



First it was a social contract. Then it was a salted cracker.

Sort of like Thom's podcasts.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I try to listen to Thom's podcasts wherein he extols the virtues of "The Commons" as a social contract.

Then Thom does the opposite by PRIVATIZING his podcasts.

Who's the Right Winger? Are you missing the point entirely?

Apparently you're taking Republican lessons, if you think that criticising your own kind's hypocrisy equals "pissing" on them (in your words).

That's like saying "My Country Right Or Wrong". "Saint Thom, right or wrong"... He needs to lead by example, when he's preaching The Commons.

If all this is over your head, then Thom is too smart for you also and you should turn on Rush Limbaugh.

And go back and look at how you attempted to make your point. And quit being that way.

Does the man have a right to make a living off of his work? Are there other ways available to listen to his show for free?

Yes and yes.

Your insults and hamhanded behavior don't belong in this thread and clearly you don't really want to listen to Hartmann, except to tear him apart.

:rofl:

Not sure why that poster is so hostile. There are free ways to listen online to Malloy and Hartmann. One is Seatlle 1090 am

Thom doesn't do this for the money. If you need help figuring out a way to listen to him for free, let me know. I will be glad to show you how.

:kick:

and at least 1 hour of discussion! Obama might lear something useful!

:toast:

The rant we all KNOW this stuff. What's next?

this over that Oh So Popular and Broadcasted Anger Bulletin.

We have a choice to make and now is the time.

I understand that some folks == we're all at different points-- and some want to rant and rave.

Let's be careful folks, not to turn into the haters, they have become SO rabid there is nothing rational about that level of discourse.

And those of us burnt out on all the lies -- time to invent those alternatives, even if it's just Turning The Noise Off. :hi:

:yourock:

is the flip side of this F bomb rant.

Time to make the change, be the change. :thumbsup:

game and keep fighting no matter what.

:toast: optimism and insipiration

Nice to listen to, but eventually we are going to have to either fight these people, or be killed off. If you like Thom you should also listen to Malloy to get a slightly more realistic view of the dire straits we're in.

We have to fight them, but not become them.
We don't need to adopt their anger and hostility or their vile tactics.

The recent insanity has gone so far off the charts, many of us are refocusing our energies. We can be (maybe even more) effective if we are not wasting energy fighting lies and liars all the time, wasting energy being distracted by anger.

We're all at different points. And I understand even Ed Shouts' audience needs to be at the HELL YEAH BUBBA state right now.

My point is that if we as a group or individuals really are close to becoming LIKE those we are battling, it's time for a reality check and to regroup.

''...listen to Malloy to get a slightly more realistic view of the dire straits we're in."

We are and have been in dire straits for years. I was at the Impeachment Forum that Malloy chaired at the California Dem Convention 5 years ago. Sometimes being aware is not enough.

Hartmann and Malloy are both masters of lucidity and cutting through the chatter, in their very different ways.

I'm sick of the chatter altogether right now. I don't want to give it any more of my energy now than necessary.

you can continue to repeat the same platitudes for 3 hrs to the same 2,000,000 people every day and, as I said, it's good, encouraging listening. But you need to open your eyes to the fact that Obama's approval is in free fall and we are headed for a massacre next November unless we do something besides talk to each other.

And talk to each other about what do we need to do to be effective?
What new ideas and creative projects do we need to invent, with power freed from sorting through lies and tangling with insane people?

I understand your point and agree somewhat, and know that there is certainly nothing wrong with yelling or swearing, at just the right time, to make a powerful comeback statement, a "refusal to be fooled," etc., but I don't think that was the main point on this thread. I think the distinction is between sane, clear thought, and the kind of strange and scary, annoying screaming, that only intends to shut everything down, and not even talk at all. If you want great examples of how powerful and popular, clearly expressed anger and challenge are--as opposed to nutty yelling that only exposes maladaptive socializing--just read some of the great, and angry, speeches by Franklin Roosevelt against "economic Royalists" and corrupt, greedy corporations and Republicans. They are fabulous, brave, and calmly expressed, although powerful and angry. Only the incoherence is being criticized here. You fight, but with clear, lucid thought; only that has any content to it, and only that can win.

The insanity, nonsense and anger at this point is completely irrational. People acting and reacting on that level are out of their minds. It doesn't matter what they're saying -- they are overcome by emotion, no one is listening to anyone.

The fact that some of the Dittoheads think they're thinking, as they spew talking points and arrogantly hold up misspelled signs, has hit the Orwellian mark.

If "we" scream back, we're in that zone of emotionality. If we let it grab us on that level, we are diverted from something constructive. There is no making sense with this type of nonsense!!

We can't become that mad, unthinking, shouting, mob.

only that has any content to it, and only that can win.

You haven't been paying attention during the Limpballs Years. The lying, hatred, and propaganda are winning. We had a little comeback a year ago when Obama was able to engage enough young people and liberals to win the White House, but besides that it's been basically one right-wing victory after another, with the result that our country is now the most reactionary, divided, stratified, elitist, oligarchic, and hate-filled that it's ever been. Appreciate your idealism, but it doesn't jibe with reality.

Actually, they themselves have not been winning one victory after another; they have made so much progress on their corporate takeover of the Government and public sphere because of corrupt, corporate-owned, pseudo-"Democrats" helping them and sabotaging good Democrats such as Dennis Kucinich, Marcy Kaptur, Barbara Boxer, Andrew Weiner just now on the House health care (or, "insurance") bill, and people like Bernie Sanders; Obama loading down the Cabinet and staff with Clinton "D"LC, etc. The other side did not win victories except when they were colluded with, after huge payouts of lobbyist money--and none of this will be solved by shouting or "education," as most people are clear as to what is going on, and it stops nothing. This is far worse than that, and the solution is not at all clear, especially after Obama lied--("no lobbyists in an Obama White House," blah blah, then Daschle came back to organize the health "insurance" "reform")--and the election of Obama actually should have solved the problem, as that was the act that people took. "Yelling" at somebody, doesn't get anywhere near the problem.

They tried to change the law when Terri Schiavo was dying, and people revolted and they were thrown out at the next election; they tries to dismantle Social Security (with Rahm Emanuel's help) and put it on the stock market, the people revolted and they were thrown out at the next election; they try now to kill "Medicare for All" and put fake corporate plants in these town halls, and the people favor a public plan by some 80% and are pressuring those in Congress one by one; Republicans have their lowest approval ratings since Nixon, and now many of them even deny being Republicans; they tried to kill abortion rights in South Dakota, and with a special election there, the people crushed that attempt. Over and over, there have been good signs happening these past several years--and none of them have had anything to do with the corporate media or official Party. The people did it, not fooled, but ignored.

There was a town hall forum on health care on C-SPAN with Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, at a residence-complex for elderly people. If you want to learn how to fight, study old people. They fell for nothing, they supported a public plan, they looked pissed off every time Van Hollen started giving them "framing" slogans--which was a lot--and they were very educated as to what was going on with the bill in Congress. At one point, there was even an asshole "plant" who gave the line about Obama supposedly telling a gravely sick woman to "take a pill." "What kind of a pill??" the fake plant yelled. Do you know what that audience of old people did? They sat there for a few seconds--and then they started laughing. Nobody wanted to hear any crap of any kind. This is what will win: you are impervious to the Republican/corporate-media shit; you live in a world of good, Democratic left-wing, educated, compassionate thought ONLY.

NOT. As HS points out above, they haven't "won" anything, except corporate rule.

They've got the corporate megaphones, we've got the numbers. We don't "win" anything by trying to shout down the "lying,hating propaganda." It's a waste.

Hidden Stillness: "I think the distinction is between sane, clear thought, and the kind of strange and scary, annoying screaming, that only intends to shut everything down, and not even talk at all."

You: "...basically one right-wing victory after another, with the result that our country is now the most reactionary, divided, stratified, elitist, oligarchic, and hate-filled that it's ever been."

That's the result of "the lying, hating propaganda," not "one right-wing victory after another." Your view doesn't jibe with reality. The lies that "intend to shut everything down and not even talk at all" will not succeed if we transcend that level of vitriol and violence, elevate the discussion and energize action by not playing their bullshit game.

And I thank him (talk to my radio in my truck... yes I do) for that on a pretty regular basis.

He has a way of honoring the caller while arguing the points that many of us could learn from.

Thanks Thom.

Every comment of appreciation reveals another nuance of his peaceful power.

as a longtime member (although usually pretty quiet) it's really an honor to read this on my second "home"... and one of the best activist sites on all the tubes and trucks of the internets! <g>

Thom

:toast: :pals:

Your show is must-hear for me, every day. If I can't make the noon cast on KPOJ, I catch the re-cast at 3:00 on ohiomajority. Sometimes I listen to both.

I love the way you slice & dice the propagandists and liars from cato, aynrand, iwf. Once in awhile you should let some callers at them though ;-). You are also a nice counterbalance to Malloy, whom I think of as "our Beck".

"Our Beck" as you know, is incredibly insulting to Mr. Malloy and those who appreciate him.

I just meant the more passionate and edgy in comparison to the cerebral and low-key Hartmann

:hi:

Mike is passionate and does his homework. Beck is a crazy mofo.

Thom and Mike are part of my day, almost every day.

:yourock: