Hartmann Report

At its core, revenge is rooted in physical violence, intimidation, and murder. It’s war brought into politics and governance. Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives are furious and out for revenge. Two Black Democratic members and a Democratic woman had confronted them — and embarrassed them — over their unwillingness to do anything about the slaughter of Tennessee’s children in that state’s schools. To punish them and teach women and other young men Black men — who might think of being too troublesome in the legislature — a lesson, the GOP ran a pathetic Kangaroo Court for the world to see. And got their revenge.

If the free world fails in our efforts to support Ukraine’s self-defense & enforce this agreement signed by the United States, future prospects for peace in the world will be significantly diminished. While countries around the world are trying to create and build nuclear weapons stockpiles (particularly China, Iran, and North Korea) only one country in the history of the world has ever given up their nuclear hoard and unilaterally denuclearized their military: Ukraine. And former President Bill Clinton — who brokered the deal during the fourth year of his presidency — feels terrible about it.

Patriotism & religion are luxuries. When you can’t pay the rent or feed your family, when you’re pestered by bill collectors, it’s hard to think of anything other than money… America is experiencing a crisis. How did we get here? Ralph Waldo Emerson noted that “we become what we think about all day long.” It’s as true of nations as it is of individuals. As recently as 25 years ago, most of us valued patriotism and religion first and foremost, 70 and 62 percent respectively. Today only 38 percent of Americans cite patriotism as a core value and religion has collapsed to 39 percent.

Hopefully the deadly disasters sweeping Red states will wake up GOP voters & motivate them to demand their politicians stop taking money from fossil fuel billionaires while lying to their voters. Republicans have been lying to their voters in the Midwest and South for decades, and now those the same voters are dying as a result of unprecedented severe weather that ties directly back to those lies. This is a climate change story that fossil fuel billionaires and their GOP lackeys would rather you didn’t know.

This strategy, employed by dictators and autocrats, is as ancient as history. Caligula did it, as did Nero. Mussolini, Hitler, Putin, and Orbán achieved and exercised power using fear. Marjorie Taylor Greene is warning America that God is vengeful, evil will be punished, and the [international Jewish] “Globalists” are out to destroy America. Like most of today’s Republicans — particularly the Trump-humpers in the Congressional Sedition Caucus — she portrays an America under attack from within and in a state of decay and collapse. Most Democratic political messaging and ads are upbeat and talk about what politicians and the party have done and hope to do for working class and poor Americans. Most Republican ads, on the other hand, are dark, ominous, and point to danger, death, and destruction. Every wonder why this has been the case for at least 40 years?

Foreword By Mike Farrell Years ago, probably the late ’70s, I went to a fund-raising event in Los Angeles to hear Rev. George Regas, one of the founders of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race. I remember being struck by a unique part of his fund-raising pitch that day. He said that our society’s priorities are upside down: human existence is being endangered by the makers of war, so in a rational society those working for peace should be funded by the government while the Pentagon has bake sales to raise its budget. He said it better than that, but the idea stuck with me. And when I think about it, so many of the things we do in this country tell me he’s right. The “official” policies are too often counterproductive in a society that claims to respect the dignity of each individual, in a state that claims to believe in equality and says it intends to “promote the general welfare.” The general welfare means, roughly, taking care of the needs of the common citizen. And that’s us, folks.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump Indicted - Is America in uncharted territory? What will the reaction be? Could we see our first president behind bars? — Why has Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner received 2.5 billion from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar? — California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking his campaign to “fight authoritarianism” to the Red states. — Texas Republicans want the ability to overturn elections in Houston, the largest bastion of Democratic votes in the state. — Is it price-gouging or inflation? — What can America do about a “lying & deceiving” propaganda network posing as news? — Oh, oh: There’s a new study showing the collapse of the crucial ocean circulation system could bring big climate changes to the entire world. — Geeky Science - Why are American IQs falling? — Crazy Alert! America is not a democracy according to right-wingers!

Many Americans are baffled. Why, they ask, would Republicans refuse to act when semiautomatic weapons designed for the battlefield are used against our children? Now that Donald Trump has been indicted, expect to see the fascist movement in America heat up quickly. And become more deadly. That it’s happening at the same time our children are experiencing an unprecedented level of slaughter is no coincidence (more on that in a moment) and helps explain Republican unwillingness to do anything about guns. Many Americans are baffled. Why, they ask, would Republicans refuse to act when semiautomatic weapons designed for the battlefield are used against our children? When we’ve had 38 school shootings — and over 100 mass shootings — all using semiautomatic battlefield-style weapons in the first 90 days of this year?

Bannon’s grift in East Palestine is the smallest of the small, after his being busted for a “Build the Wall” scheme and others, but is still emblematic of the Republican strategy at governance... Nobody ever accused Republicans of not knowing how to make a buck or BS-ing somebody into voting for them. Lying to people for economic or political gain is the very definition of a grift. Whenever there’s another mass- or school-shooting, Republican politicians hustle out fundraising emails about how “Democrats are coming to take your guns!” The result is a measurable and profitable spike in gun sales after every new slaughter of our families and children, followed by a fresh burst of campaign cash to GOP lawmakers. But the GOP’s ability to exploit any opportunity that comes along — regardless of its impact on America or American citizens — goes way beyond just fundraising hustles.

Leadership from multiple venues in American journalism should get together and decide what photos to release, for maximum impact and minimum trauma. And now we have another mass school shooting, this time in Tennessee with three 9-year-old girls dead as well as 3 adults. Immediately followed by another pathetic Republican congressman claiming that Congress can’t do a thing. A community is grieving, schoolkids across America are terrified, and after 130 mass shootings in the first 87 days of this year — 33 of them in schools and colleges — you’d think average Americans would finally understand the horrors of the gun violence Republicans in Congress and on the Supreme Court have inflicted on us. This is a phenomenon as systemic and unique to the United States today as Jim Crow was in the 1950s. The gun control movement needs to learn from the Civil Rights movement. Back in 1955, young Black people like 14-year-old Emmett Till were routinely murdered by white people all over America, usually with no consequence whatsoever.