Hartmann Report

It’s past time for the fossil fuel industry to face the same type of courtroom reckoning the tobacco industry did in the late 1990s and Alex Jones faced yesterday. The victims of Alex Jones’ lies about the Sandy Hook slaughter of their children were just awarded about a billion dollars by a jury of his peers. Jones made tens (perhaps hundreds) of millions peddling lies leading to years of stalking, harassment, and emotional torture of the families of the children who died. Which raises a vital question: When will the victims of oil companies’ lies — which have led to far more deaths than happened that terrible day in Connecticut — get their day in court? There’s an amazing backstory here.

The GOP has no unifying philosophy other than hate, fear, and kowtowing to billionaires and their giant corporations; the people who make up its governing class are similarly fractured. US News and World Report has a story about how the fringe has become the mainstream in the Republican Party. The headline of their story says it all: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Rises From GOP Fringe to Front.” The backstory here is fascinating and grim. The GOP is no longer a normal political party with a single governing philosophy: instead, it’s become a coalition of interest groups, each seeking its own ends. How did we get here, and where will this crisis of political governance lead America?

Shameless radical religious leaders are breaking the law while living off you and me - It’s time to cut them off from the “free lunch” of tax exemption. For Republicans, the purpose of religion is — as it has been for authoritarians since Old Testament days — political and social control. It’s not about spirituality: it’s all about raw, naked, taxpayer-subsidized power and the wealth associated with it. A Michigan county Republican Party just posted a video showing picture after picture of that state’s Democratic politicians, starting with Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who rightwing terrorists have already tried to kidnap and murder. Under each picture — including a picture of George Soros representing, presumably, the “International Jews” who Republican politicians suggest wield space lasers and secretly are trying to control the world — reads the death threat, in bold, all-caps: “GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN!”

Republicans always work against middle class people, worsen poverty, and direct all their efforts and opportunities toward the top 10 percent (and, particularly, the top 1 percent) of Americans. A middle class, when mishandled, can be a powerful and fearsome thing, as the rulers of Iran and Russia are discovering. Both regimes are now teetering on the edge of collapse because of popular uprisings that would not have happened without a middle-class in each country. People paralyzed by grinding poverty rarely revolt — it takes a lot to produce “barrio uprisings” — because their lives are consumed with day-to-day survival issues. But when people are prosperous enough that they’ve left behind the most severe economic insecurity — believing they’ll always find another home, job, or can get into another university — they begin to demand a responsive government and will rise in protest when it fails to meet their demands. Republicans have been warning about this since the 1950s, although not in the way you may think.

A short review of a masterpiece of a book you should have in your library. Back in 2006, Professor Harvey J. Kaye wrote one of the best history books I’ve read in decades: Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. I wrote a review of it back then that I recently stumbled across on the internet and thought you’d want to read. Hope you don’t mind a second “book” email in your inbox today…

Can we reclaim the dream of freedom and individual liberty in the land of its birth? I believe we can. Every culture and every religion of what we call the civilized world carries, in one form or another, a mythos or story about a time in the past or future when humans lived or will live in peace and harmony. Whether it’s referred to as Valhalla or Eden, Shambhala or One Thousand Years of Peace, the Satya Yuga or Jannat, stories of past or coming times of paradise go hand- in-hand with hierarchical cultures.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — What weakens a republic enough to lead to a civil war or major change of governmental system away from democracy? — DeSantis does a master class in how to create hatred and distrust of the media and crank up violence against your political opponents. — The beginning of the end of the drug wars! — Manufacturing is what creates "the wealth of nations" (as Adam Smith taught us) and, increasingly, Democrats in Congress get it. — It's a safe bet that the Supreme Court is about to further kneecap democracy in America. — How will OPEC's 2-million-barrel-a-day production cut hit America? — Will Putin use nukes in Ukraine and, if he does, what will the result be? — Will the crime issue win the House and/or Senate for Republicans? — Geeky Science! Can petting your dog or cat help your brain?

Americans can hold the same idea in two different contexts at the same time: While embracing interdependence at home, we must also embrace self-reliance on the international stage. We can’t build enough cars because the chips, invented here in America, are all manufactured overseas. 30% of America’s oil is now being exported by giant oil corporations that are jacking up our gasoline prices because of a “shortage.” This is insane! How did the Reagan administration and neoliberals ever since get away with making our nation almost totally reliant on China and a handful of other low-wage countries for everything from the chips in our cars to our cellphones to the tech necessary to build a battleship or missile? And who turned our energy fate over to the Saudis? Of all the concepts that ground most Americans’ idea of our country, self-reliance ranks among the top.

The Republican Party has, in fact, reinvented the old Confederacy, including treasonous iconography & fighting to preserve statues and place names of traitor Confederate generals. Hershel Walker’s abortion hypocrisy is a hot mess, but that’s only the smallest part of the story: the GOP actually has a template for what they’re attempting to pull off in the election this fall and “morality” has nothing to do with it. Instead, it’s all about white power and wealth, in a context that once ruled the southern states.

Decisions made by Powell, Putin, MBS, and OPEC+ are going to impact the midterms and the economics of the entire planet. Jerome Powell, Vladimir Putin, and Mohammad Bin Salman are on the verge of throwing the entire world into a massive depression. Powell’s interest rate increases are compounded by the action taken this morning by Russia and Saudi Arabia, leading the OPEC+ meeting in Vienna, to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day.