Hartmann Report

And are rightwing billionaires who want more, more, more money willing to make common cause with bigots, fascists, and wannabee killers to get it? ..."Transatlantic" is a gripping drama about a group of Jewish refugees — including Hannah Arendt and Marc Chagall — who are trapped in Marseilles trying to flee the Nazis as they sweep across France in late 1940. Complicating their flight, the American envoy and the head of the local French police are both in agreement with the Nazis that the Jewish refugees are “degenerates” and “animals” who should appropriately end up in the Nazi camps. The parallels to today’s America are startling. The Republican rhetoric about the queer and Black communities — and, often, about Jews (usually coded as “George Soros”) — is startlingly similar to that of the Nazis and the Vichy French about Jews. Donald Trump, for example, is openly calling Alvin Bragg an “animal.” But how do things get this far? How and why did it happen in Germany, and how and why is it happening here today?

From Columbus to Jamestown. "They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear." —President Andrew Jackson, in his fifth State of the Union address to Congress, December 3, 1833

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Will Clarence Thomas be indicted? — Is Congress now part of Trump’s defense team? — Ron DeSantis just effectively banned all abortion in Florida. — The GOP’s cruel push to gut food and medical aid for the poor gathers steam. — It looks like lifelong Republican and Fed Chair Jerome Powell is going to get the recession he wanted for the 2024 election. — Crazy Alert! Tucker Carlson lies that ‘American soldiers are fighting Russian soldiers’ just hours after three different Fox News reporters said the meme was a lie. — Geeky Science! Why we should be gazing at more sunsets...

If our republic is to be successful and Americans are to have decent lives, we must stop the commodification of America’s commons and turn power over life’s essentials to We The People. Americans used to understand the difference between private and public, between what government should regulate or even administer, and what is appropriately left in the private marketplace. Ever since the Reagan Revolution, however — as I lay out in The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America — even our very lives have become fodder for the buzzsaw of unrestrained raw capitalism controlled by the morbidly rich. Last week, the nation learned that it’s become a routine practice in the assisted living industry to drain elderly people of their entire life’s savings and then, when Medicaid kicks in at a slightly lower payment level to cover their costs, evict them onto the street.

No Labels and the Corporate Problem Solvers are now playing with political fire, flirting with fielding a “moderate” (i.e. bought-off) candidate for president next year. Dark money is preparing to disrupt the 2024 election, and it could get really, really ugly. All because a large handful of corrupt politicians and washed-out political hacks are enthusiastic about doing the bidding of their largest donors. — In the presidential election of 1968, George Wallace carried almost 14 percent of the national vote.

And even if there is no war, our children are now paying the price for the GOP’s embrace of this hate and bigotry — and the guns that go with it — every single day. According to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 21% of Americans have been threatened with a gun, 19% tell researchers a family member was killed by a gun, and 17% say they’ve seen someone shot in front of them. Fully 54 percent of Americans or members of their family have had one of these experiences. Eighty-four percent of Americans consider how to avoid getting shot when they go out in public. But why?

Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin is now Chairman of the Judiciary Committee & for reasons apparently only known to him, he’s kowtowing to Republican senators blocking Democratic nominees... Why is Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin — Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, through which all judicial nominees must pass before getting a full Senate vote — letting Republican senators blow off qualified federal judges proposed by President Biden? Most recently, Mississippi GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked via “blue slip” Democratic judicial nominee Scott Colom, just like last year when Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Ron Johnson blue-slip-vetoed Judge William Pocan, the brother of Congressman Mark Pocan, apparently because he’s gay.

Besides talking about Impeaching Clarence Thomas - the Biden administration and Democrats in the Senate might be better served investigating Ginny’s corruption and attempted sedition.... Besides talking about Impeaching Clarence Thomas - the Biden administration and Democrats in the Senate might be better served investigating Ginny's corruption and attempted sedition.... What do pornography, Ginny Thomas, and Thomas Jefferson have in common? The answer may be a clue to what Democrats and the Biden administration could do about Clarence Thomas. First, the backstories, one from 1803 and the other from 1968.

The Unholy Alliance of Racism, Genocide, and Guns. "If I had my life to live over, I would die fighting rather than be a slave again. I want no man’s yoke on my shoulders no more." —Robert Falls, age 97, Knoxville, Tennessee

The Best of the Rest of the News. — A Trump appointed federal judge and lifetime anti-abortion activist has outlawed mifepristone, the drug used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. — Are the Tennessee expulsions a glimpse of the future? — Clarence Thomas broke the law for over 20 years: will Congress impeach him? — Republicans announce frivolous prosecutions as revenge for holding Trump accountable. — Idaho women are now facing prosecution if they go out-of-state or help a woman go out-of-state to get an abortion. — Elmo declares war on “mainstream media” while re-platforming Nazis and Russian trolls. — After giving an assisted living home her entire life savings, reducing her to poverty so she qualified for Medicaid to cover her costs, the place evicted her. — If you’re driving a Tesla, you may not want to walk up to your car (even in your own closed-door garage) when you’re naked. — Good news: Walmart is adding EV chargers to thousands of US stores. — Geeky Science! We knew sugar kills, but this is mind-boggling.