Hartmann Report

Unlike the 1890s, when there were still papers engaging in serious journalism, today's yellow journalism is ubiquitous across media consumed by the majority of Americans… Over at his excellent Substack newsletter, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich asks the question that's probably on the minds of many: "Why are so many people prepared to vote for Trump?" After all, there have been at least seven national polls conducted by reputable organizations in the past few weeks and not a single one shows Biden beating Trump in a 2024 matchup. Reich cites the many crimes, lies, and outright fascistic statements attributed to Trump, followed by the considerable list of Biden's accomplishments, and then offers a poll asking if people say they're voting for America's first true wannabee dictator because of ignorance, anger/fear, racism/xenophobia, or Biden's age. All are no doubt significant factors, but I believe the largest variable in Americans' willingness to say they'll vote for Trump is far simpler: the consequence of yellow journalism.

The wealthiest & most powerful people, companies, & countries are working to frustrate efforts to salvage a livable planet for us, our children, and our grandchildren. We can’t let them prevail… More than 70,000 people from nearly 200 countries — including an estimated 700+ fossil fuel industry lobbyists (there were 636 at the last conference) — are arriving this week in Dubai for the opening of the 28th “Conference Of Parties” (COP28) that are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP is the main decision-making body of the UNFCCC. And already the Republican Party is doing what it can to sabotage any efforts by the Biden administration to help the world adapt to climate change while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

Both the MAGA faction and the old-line “conservative” members of the GOP are dead serious about killing off this vital and important part of FDR’s legacy… Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed Social Security through Congress, signing it into law on August 14th 1935, and Republicans opposed it then and have hated it ever since. This week, they’re planning to do something about it with a House hearing designed to set up a closed-door commission to “reform” the program. They figure when government funding runs out in January they’ll be able use the fiscal crisis they intend to create to force Democrats to go along with what the Biden administration calls a “Death Panel for Medicare and Social Security.” There is an incredibly long history here.

In a lawsuit filed this year by Noelle Dunphy, a former employee of Giuliani, she asserts that Giuliani was offering people pardons for $2 million, the money to be split 50/50 between him & Trump… Yesterday’s New York Times has a fascinating article about Trump pardoning a major drug dealer and violent loan shark; it’s titled “A Troubling Trump Pardon and a Link to the Kushners.“ Like with so much reporting on Trump and his possible criminal activity while in the White House, it somehow manages to miss a possible larger picture, in this case the multiple allegations that Trump and Giuliani were selling pardons for $2 million a pop. Although the allegations are well documented, including under oath in a lawsuit, there’s not a single mention of it in the Times article. The reporters do, however, an excellent job of laying out a case for Jonathan Braun not being pardoned.

We hear a lot about “the good old days,” as if to suggest that America was always an economically strong nation with a vibrant middle class. But the fact is that we got really, really rich—we being the bottom 90% of Americans—in just a few decades after World War II, as a result of Franklin Roosevelt putting into place the economic theories of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes, and those policies holding steady until the election of Ronald Reagan. In 1900, the average yearly household income was $4497— the equivalent of around $13,800 in today’s dollars. That kind of income today guarantees a life of want and poverty, and it did in 1900 as well. The only buffer then was the family farm; while today only 1% of Americans live and work on farms, in 1900 it was around 40%.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — America’s largest newspapers are actively working against our democracy. — The world’s largest iceberg is on the move for the first time in three decades. — Speaking of “polar,” President Biden did a “polar plunge” into the icy Atlantic waters this week as part of a long-running family tradition. — Fani Willis and her prosecution of Trump, et al, live on!

It shouldn’t surprise us that a political party that swears its first allegiance to billionaires and giant multinational corporations would choose money and profits over health and life.. Something terrible and deadly is happening here in the United States, and House Speaker Mike Johnson just announced that he wants to double down on it. More on that in a moment. If you were born and live in Japan, you can expect to live to 85 years old. For South Korea average lifespan is 83, as are Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Israel, and Australia. It’s 82 for Italy, Spain, Ireland, France, Finland, and New Zealand. Cuba (!) and Panama are 79; Uruguay and Croatia are 78. A total of 61 countries have average lifespans of 78 years or older, ranging from Singapore’s 84 to Estonia’s 78. And then there’s the United States. Our average lifespan comes in at a paltry 77 years, along with Iran, Tunisia, and Morocco. And it’s entirely because of Republican policies.

Who can argue that it’s crazy or wild to suggest that the “registration, license and insurance” that every cop asks for at every traffic stop wouldn’t be reasonable when somebody is found with a gun? It’s Thanksgiving, and many of us are gathering with friends and family. Given the horrific news of our having passed another world record for mass shootings, the dinner topic in many homes this afternoon will inevitably turn to the political debate around guns. That discussion about guns in America generally falls into two polar opposite positions: don’t regulate guns at all, or ban large parts of the spectrum of guns and heavily regulate ownership of the rest. And you know in your gut that this Thanksgiving crazy Uncle Ralph is going to go off on FOX/rightwing culture war stuff like the “right to own weapons of war.” But there’s a third position, entirely outside of that spectrum, which every actual “free market” conservative in America could embrace, and liberals could be down with as well.

Milei's victory is an international marker, of sorts, for America’s billionaires and largest corporations, who share his desire to end liberal democracy and the so-called “welfare state”... I hope I’m wrong, but I think I just saw the future of America if Republicans manage to sweep the 2024 elections, Trump or no Trump. Argentina just embarked on a Grand Experiment, untried before in any developed country in the world; it’s one that multiple American billionaires have been pushing in the US ever since David Koch ran for VP on the Libertarian ticket in 1980. When I arrived at the airport in Buenos Aires on Sunday morning this week, Election Day, I asked my cab driver who he’d be voting for and why.

The bottom line is that we — voluntarily or involuntarily — have now had the full GOP experience. We're no longer listening to the GOP politicians who are continuing to sell us this bullshit… The 1970s was a pivotal decade, and not just because it saw the end of the Vietnam War, the resignation of Nixon, and the death of both the psychedelic hippie movement and the very political (and sometimes violent) SDS. Most consequentially, the 1970s were when the modern-day Republican Party was birthed. Prior to that, the nation had hummed along for 40 years on a top income tax bracket of 91% and a corporate income tax that topped out around 50%. Business leaders ran their companies, which were growing faster than at any time in the history of America, and avoided participating in politics.