"Why Did So Many Americans Vote for Donald Trump?" asks the headline in The New York Times shortly after the election. Weirdly, that article - and hundreds like it purporting to explain the previous 2016 election - lacked even a single mention of the roughly 1,500 right-wing talk-radio stations that saturate every corner, no matter how remote or rural, of America.

As a 2008 Pew Research poll found, 16 percent of Americans got their general election-year information about presidential candidates from talk radio, a percentage that had held constant for eight years at that point, despite the explosive growth of the Internet over the same period.

Talk radio gave Lindsay Graham the edge to hold his seat in South Carolina - defeating Jaime Harrison's advertising - with 16 radio stations covering the Palmetto state. And in that flood of coverage, there was not one progressive voice speaking to the white community. Graham bet national and local talk-radio hosts would back him, and he was right, a reality that polling seems to have missed.

Read more here.

-Thom

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Mid-day with Mark
- Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District)

Article: "Government spending bill will come down to the wire" by Bryan Bender.

Article: "Congressional leaders close to COVID-19 relief deal that includes stimulus checks for Americans" by Mariam Khan, Trish Turner, Allison Pecorin.

Article: "Mitch McConnell finally called Biden the president-elect, and Trump was not pleased" by Vanessa Taylor.

Article: "QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene wins seat in US House" by Sam Levin.

Article: "Full transcript of "Face the Nation" on December 13, 2020" by CBSNews.

Article: "Jared Huffman" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Congressional Freethought Caucus" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The 126 Republicans who signed on for 'an act of cynical, unpatriotic, undemocratic hypocrisy'" by John Avlon.

Article: "Polis, Hancock Get Out of Testifying in Court About Homeless Sweeps" by Conor McCormick-Cavanagh.

Article: "Mixing Covid Vaccines Should Be Possible, Oxford Trial Head Says" by Suzi Ring.

Article: "Georgia 2020 Purge List".

Bill: "H.R.1 - For the People Act of 2019" by Rep. Sarbanes, John P. [D-MD-3].

Article: "Republicans shift from challenging rules to preparing to challenge individual ballots" by Rosalind S. Helderman, Emma Brown and Beth Reinhard.

Article: "Fred Thompson" by Wikipedia.

Site: National Popular Vote.

Bill: "H.R.1384 - Medicare for All Act of 2019" by Rep. Jayapal, Pramila [D-WA-7].

Bill: "Wisconsin Assembly Bill 185" (re National Popular Vote) by Rep Hebl et al.

Article: "Wisconsin Supreme Court tosses Trump election lawsuit" by AP.

Article: "How long could the Covid vaccine last? Experts warn we may need the Pfizer jab again if effects are 'short term'" by Alex Nelson.

Bill: "H.J.Res. 93: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States regarding the right to vote." by Mark Pocan.

Hour Two: Conversations With Great Minds: Science revolution: Climate Change: What Trends Scare You and Give You the Most Hope?
- Dr. Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology & Director, Earth System Science Center-Penn State University / Member-National Academy of Sciences / author of several books including his latest out in January & available now for presale, The New Climate War / (previously, The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy)

Article: "Hockey stick graph" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries" by Michael E. Mann, Raymond S. Bradley, Malcolm K. Hughes.

Article: "Earth Day and the Hockey Stick: A Singular Message" by Michael E. Mann.

Book: Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.

Video: An Inconvenient Truth.

Article: "Proxy (climate)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Guy McPherson" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Planting trees doesn't always help with climate change" by Michael Marshall.

Article: "Climate change: Seven technology solutions that could help solve crisis".

Video: Leonardo DiCaprio winning Best Actor.

Article: "As The Climate Crisis Intensifies, Trump Digs In On Denial" by Chris D'Angelo.

Article: "Paris Agreement (Climate Change).

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

Article: "The Trump Administration Is Reversing More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here's the Full List" by Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-Ripka And Kendra Pierre-Louis.

Article: "John Kerry, who signed Paris accord for US, is Biden's climate envoy" by AFP.

Article: "Biden picks former EPA chief Gina McCarthy as White House climate czar" by Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis.

Article: "Yes, Fossil Fuel Subsidies Are Real, Destructive And Protected By Lobbying" by Wal van Lierop.

Article: "Anatomy of a 'mega-blaze'" (Australia) by Kevin Nguyen, Philippa McDonald and Maryanne Taouk.

Article: "It's Australia's First Big Blaze of the Fire Season. How Bad Will the Summer Get?" by Damien Cave.

Article: "'War zone': Deadly wildfires rage in Western states: Death toll rises as hundreds of thousands evacuate" by John Bacon, Trevor Hughes, Jorge L. Ortiz.

Article: "2020 Colorado wildfires" by Wikipedia.

Article: "30 Storms in a Record Hurricane Season; Here's How Many More Could Form" by Jonathan Erdman.

Article: "Number of Category 4 and 5 Hurricanes Has Doubled Over the Past 35 Years" by NSF.

Article: "Experts: Warming makes Delta, other storms power up faster" by Seth Borenstein.

Article: "Ice melt and sea level rise" by Henrik Selin.

Article: "Shocking New Maps Show How Sea Level Rise Will Destroy Coastal Cities By 2050" by Jim Dobson.

Movie: "Waterworld".

Movie: "Blade Runner".

Article: "Kim Stanley Robinson" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mars trilogy" by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Book: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Article: "Net zero" by Carbon Trust.

Site: Project Drawdown.

Article: "Talk Radio: Democrats Can't Win if They Don't Play" by Thom Hartmann.

Site: Sirius XM - Progress

Article: "iHeartMedia" (Clear Channel) by Wikipedia.

Article: "The many strange long-term symptoms of Covid-19, explained" by Lois Parshley.

Article: "New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward is still reeling from Hurricane Katrina's damage 15 years later" by John Simerman.

Article: "SAS, Finnair Join Nordic Electric Aviation Network" by David Nikel.

Article: "Tesla's Battery Day Delivers Great News for the Planet" by Peter Douglas.

Article: "Oil depletion allowance" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Norway to 'completely ban petrol powered cars by 2025'" by Jess Staufenberg.

Book: "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany" by William L. Shirer.

Article: "NPR" by Wikipedia.

Article: "ADM (company)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tavis Smiley" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Diane Rehm" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Terry Gross" by Wikipedia.

Article: "KBBR" by Wikipedia.

Article: "WCPT (AM)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sunlight turns carbon dioxide to methane" by Penn State.

Article: "U.S. Navy Has Found A Way To Turn Seawater Into Fuel" by Emily Thomas.

Site: Thom Hartmann Podcast.

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

I'll be talking with for an hour with Dr. Edwin C. May PhD (Nuclear Physics), Founder/Director - Laboratories for Fundamental Research

Plus, Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Co-founder, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books - his latest is The Sickness is the System

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...

How Close Was Trump's Coup? (w/ Ruth Ben-Ghiat)

Do The Rights Of Nature Require Land Back? (w/Melissa Troutman & Joshua Boaz Pribanic)

Authoritarianism From Mussolini to Trump (w/ Ruth Ben-Ghiat)