Hartmann Report

Neoliberalism has failed - The question is whether we’ll return to sane & humane economic policies & ban big money from politics or if we’ll embrace the authoritarian policies of Putin, Trump & Le Pen A bit over 40 years ago the UK and the United States — followed within a few years by most of the rest of western Europe — embarked on a radical experiment in governance and economics. “Neoliberalism” was the word invented by a small group of utopian economists at a 1938 meeting in France, and it was turned into a movement at a 1947 meeting in Mont Pelerin, Switzerland. At that time the world had been shaken by the rise of Communism in the Soviet Union (and China) and the disaster Fascism brought to Germany and then all of Europe. The hope of neoliberalism’s founders was that it would prevent the rise of both communism and fascism in the developed democracies of the world: a sort of magic formula for governance that would keep the world safe and free forever.

Squeals of “socialism!” aside, we know how to do this and have done it before, repeatedly. This time it’s not just about saving our banks or fighting a war: this time, it’s about saving the world… If you want to trigger a conservative, just suggest nationalizing the US gas and oil industry. “Venezuela!” they’ll scream hysterically, perhaps adding a few, “Iran!” squeals. (Somehow, they always forget to yell about Norway…)

How Corporations Became 'People' - and How You Can Fight Back. While corporations can live forever, exist in several different places at the same time, change their identities at will, and even chop off parts of themselves or sprout new parts, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to its reporter, had said that they are “persons” under the Constitution, with constitutional rights and protections as accorded to human beings. Once given this key, corporations began to assert the powers that came with their newfound rights.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Why are people in power afraid of Trump? — The incredible takedown of Josh Hawley (R-QA). — Rightwing movements around the world & the GOP share a common goal with Putin: fascism. — While Ron DeSantis has spent weeks describing LGBTQ people as sexual predators or "groomers" of future victims it appears he's also trying help Rep. Matt Gaetz get away with paying underage girls for sex. — There's a global food crisis coming soon. — How the Supreme Court could endanger our lives. — Keep classy, Republicans. Video shows that as soon as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate Democrats stood to applaud her while all but three Republicans simply walked out. — UFO Alert? Shouldn't Americans know what security issues surround UFOs, including "unaccounted-for pregnancies"? — Geeky Science! Are sugar substitutes worse than sugar? — Death Cult Alert! Fox-so-called "News" talked about Ivermectin 300 times, then ignored a definitive new study of its ineffectiveness.

According to Trump & the GOP: teaching actual American history is “hating America.” Apparently, they believe the same is true of proposing a Black woman for the US Supreme Court... Yesterday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson became a Justice on the US Supreme Court; it was a truly historic moment, and she’ll take her seat this summer when Justice Breyer retires. But let’s not kid ourselves that passing this milestone is going to change much in America, at least short-term. Apparently proud of their racism, every Republican except Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski refused to applaud Judge Jackson after yesterday’s vote and instead walked out of the Senate chamber.

This move toward autocracy in the Republican Party is the biggest threat our democracy faces today. The Republican Party is committed to tearing America apart by pitting us against each other. Why would they do this? Here’s a clue: 63 Republicans voted this week against a resolution in support of NATO. Yes, they voted for Putin’s side of the war. Seriously. Although it’s been largely ignored by American TV media, you can read all about it over at The Washington Post in an article by Aaron Blake titled: “Why 30 percent of the House GOP voted against reaffirming NATO support.”

Strongmen are winning elections, from Putin in Russia, to Orban in Hungary, to Bolsonaro in Brazil, with an anti-LGBTQ agenda: Republicans here are implementing the same strategy. Ron DeSantis, the most likely GOP candidate for president in 2024, has gone to war with trans people and Disney, saying he’s doing so to protect Florida’s children. It’s a slick trick that seems to be working for him and his Republican colleagues, and is thus spreading to other states. Authoritarian politicians in electoral democracies typically exploit people’s fear to gain political power, and then use that power to destroy the democracy itself from within. But first they have to create that fear by building up a straw-man villain. Republicans today are running that strategy to try to turn America, like Hungary, into a strongman oligarchy.

If the Democratic Party wants to win big this fall and in 2024, their best bet is to oppose corruption in all its forms. And then, unlike the Trumpy Republicans, to walk the talk. Russian presidential candidate Alexi Navalny is rotting in a Russian gulag because he picked up the most powerful weapon a candidate can wave against an entrenched political opponent: “Corruption.” Democrats need to learn from his effort, and Republicans are handing them all the ammunition they’ll need for this fall.

In fact, all of the fossil fuel energy sources we use originated with light radiated from our sun. The number one thing you and I can do right now to slow down America‘s right-wing fossil fuel billionaires and Putin is to drive an electric car. We need to kick our addiction to ancient sunlight. The Guardian reports on a new, just-published study: “A speedy nationwide transition to electric vehicles powered by renewable energy would save more than 100,000 American lives and $1.2tn in public health costs over the next three decades…”

The Deciding Moment? Part of the American Revolution was about to be lost a century after it had been fought. At the time probably very few of the people involved realized that what they were about to witness could be a counterrevolution that would change life in the United States and, ultimately, the world over the course of the following century.