Hartmann Report

Anybody who thinks cooler heads will prevail like they did in 2011 doesn’t know these Republicans. Buckle up - we’re in for a wild ride that could spell worldwide disaster. The United States is hitting our self-imposed debt ceiling this Thursday. Outside of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, it doesn’t seem that anybody in Washington or our national media is taking seriously the House Republican threat to crash our economy if Democrats don’t agree to gut aid to higher education, the EPA, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But the situation is worse than most people realize. McCarthy’s goons really intend to follow through on their threat to cripple America if Democrats won’t go along with cutting entitlements for average working people and regulatory agencies. And the consequence, if history is any guide, could well be a worldwide depression that might even throws us into World War III.

"...women can act. ... Because the demographics and the opinion polls are on women’s side. Because women’s hour on the stage is long, long overdue. Because, whatever new obstacles are mounted against the future march toward equality, whatever new myths invented, penalties levied, opportunities rescinded, or degradations imposed, no one can ever take from the American woman the justness of her cause." — Susan Faludi, "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women" (1991)

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The new House rules continue to embrace Reaganomics to further impoverish the middle class and poor while making the morbidly rich even richer. — The difference between the way the French and Americans think about Social Security is fascinating — Is voter suppression the cool new thing for Republicans? — The Taliban has arrived in Missouri — Big Oil lies, wins, gains more political power, and continues working to destroy life on planet Earth — Geeky Science! Doing "acts of kindness" is one of the most effective psychotherapeutic interventions known to treat depression and anxiety — Crazy Alert! Trump wanted to use a nuclear weapon on N Korea & blame it on someone else? — Tweet of the day! AOC calls out the GOP meltdown on gas stoves, following a report that one in six cases of asthma are from childhood exposure to a gas stove in the home

These are the two primary strategies we all use to motivate ourselves and others every day. We use them in our internal self-talk, we use them with our children, and politicians use them constantly. Increasingly, the Democratic and Republican parties are offering us all a very real choice: trust or fear. Think back to the 2022 election we endured just two months ago. Remember the ads you saw on TV? Odds are each one fell into one of two very simple categories: “be afraid of the other guy” or “trust that I’ll make your life better.” Most of the “fear” ads came from Republicans; most of the “trust” ads came from Democrats. Pain or pleasure. Fear or trust.

Our hairdryer math gets really bizarre when we apply it to global warming. Most people know that a hairdryer draws about as much power as your average modern outlet will give it — typically around 1000 watts or, at 110 volts, just shy of 10 amps. (Plug in and turn on two hairdryers from the same outlet and you’ll usually blow a circuit breaker: most homes max out at 15 or 20 amp circuits.) If those numbers are gibberish to you, hang on: it’ll all have meaning in a moment, particularly when I get to the really shocking part about climate change and hairdryers.

We’ve entered the new McCarthy era, and Kevin is doing everything he can to empower Jordan as the new Joe. This column could get me thrown in jail. And the fact that I’m even thinking that way is the entire point of Jim Jordan’s new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee which Jordan chairs. He and his fellow fascist seditionists want Americans to be afraid of them, particularly Americans who may be in a position to identify their crimes and hold them to account.

And it’s not like we haven’t tried to remove that parasite. Republicans have taken control of the House of Representatives, and already have their sights set on forcing major cuts to “entitlements” like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. One of the promises McCarthy made to become speaker was to force a vote on dialing back 2023/2024 spending back to 2021 levels — and there’s been a 7% inflation increase in costs/expenses since then. In other words, they want massive cuts.

And it’s damn well past time that the people who conceived and ordered and facilitated the execution of this crime against all the rest of us are held to account in a meaningful way. There’s a reason the Framers of our Constitution wrote the word “treason” into that document 7 times and the word “rebellion” 5 times: they knew how deadly rebellions are to democracy when they aren’t swiftly and severely punished. Yesterday saw that hard lesson play out in Brazil, with coordinated and simultaneous attacks — explicitly inspired by Trump’s assault on the US Capitol and cheered on by American Republicans — on Brazil’s presidential palace, capitol building, and supreme court building.

The Economy. "Some men rob you with a six-gun—others rob you with a fountain pen". —Woody Guthrie

The Best of the Rest of the News. — It's been two years since the insurrection, aided and abetted by numerous Republican members of Congress, and chaos is still the main note coming from the Republican caucus. — The hilarious meme floating around the internet about George Santos presaged the actual most recent lie he's pushing. — So much for "corporate responsibility" when it comes to political donations. — President Biden has taken serious action against illegal border crossings, even though there's not a single Republican in Congress, House or Senate, who's willing to engage in good-faith negotiations to reform our out-of-date immigration system. — When Trump took unknown millions or billions from the Saudis to bring the LIV golf tournament to the US after he left the White House, it appears he opened the door to that government getting inside information on the families of 9/11 victims. — Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold is calling on the Senate to revise their rules so more Democratic-aligned federal judges can be vetted and placed on the federal bench. — Geeky Science! Global warming is wiping out glaciers that feed some of the world's most important rivers. — Crazy Alert! Apparently dictators like to steal things.