Hartmann Report

We can't solve our very real & serious issues if we don't confront them, and it's tragic that the GOP would use this national platform to once again deny America's most tragic reality. President Joe Biden, last night, gave one of the best presidential speeches and policy proposals of my lifetime. It rivals Jack Kennedy in 1961, and, if passed, will undo much of the damage of the Reagan Revolution of the past 40 years. In the Republican Party's rebuttal, without seriously addressing even one single specific proposal of President Biden, Senator Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican in that body, instead went out of his way to promote the GOP idea that, in his words, "America is not a racist nation."

Is Tucker Carlson Inciting Racist Police & “Karens” to Harm Minorities? Thom plus logo This latest stunt by Fox News and Tucker Carlson goes way beyond bad taste or a cruel prank. Its intention appears to be to terrify & harm the most powerless in our society. Bill O'Reilly spent months working to get Dr. George Tiller, calling him "Tiller the Baby Killer" 24 times on the air. His efforts finally succeeded when the abortion doctor was assassinated by a zealot in May of 2009. In terms of creating chaos, pain and human misery, Tucker Carlson appears to be following in O'Reilly's footsteps.

Republicans are channeling Joseph Stalin who once suggested, "It doesn't matter who votes; what matters is who counts the votes." Lore has it that Joe Stalin once said, "It doesn't matter who votes; what matters is who counts the votes." Republicans in Arizona are today engaged in an act of political treachery worthy of Stalin's quote. There's history here.

Republicans in state after state are loading cannons as you're reading this, and the very concept of democracy is the target. Will their scheme be completed by 2024? Americans thought January 6 was the peak of the effort to end democracy in America and replace it with strongman authoritarian rule. But January 6 was merely the tip of the iceberg. And it's not just about Donald Trump. This "iceberg" monster that threatens to sink the United States is about ending democracy altogether here and replacing it with a wealthy, white aristocratic oligarchy.

For businesses wanting a competitive edge, a "let's all live" marketing strategy is the opportunity of the decade! Well, it’s started. The United States has reached the point, in many parts of the country, where there are more vaccines available then there are people willing to take them. Most of this so-called “vaccine reluctance“ is driven by pure politics.

Reagan defunded the Democratic Party in 1981: And, really, it's just a case of "turnabout is fair play." Yesterday I told you how the Republican Party is animated by one single force: greed. And greed in modern society is all about money. Which is why money is how you take down the Republican Party.

It doesn't matter how many people die, struggle in poverty, or are poisoned, as long as the profits roll in and taxes are low. Republican greed is why Americans can't have nice things.

America must have a conversation on the history, purpose and practice of policing. There's much celebration in America that a murderous, psychopathic cop will spend the rest of his life in jail for killing George Floyd. While this moment – this rare moment where a white cop who kills an unarmed Black man actually is held to account — does appropriately get nationwide recognition, it also should provoke nationwide introspection.

America can't let them get away with it. The 21st-century version of the Confederacy is fixing to repeat the Big Lie strategy of its 19th century forebearers. And this one goes beyond the Big Lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Now they're trying to sanitize treason as well. George Orwell famously pointed out that, "Those who control the past control the future," and the GOP is furiously trying to rewrite the history of January 6th to hide their participation in a heinous crime and promote their authoritarian agenda for the future.

If America is to again be a "shining city on the hill" we must end our gun violence epidemic. America, John F Kennedy said, was like John Winthrop's idealistic "city on a hill." Ronald Reagan added the word "shining" to that description when he plagiarized Kennedy. And now Republicans across the country want to change the word "city" to "armed encampment."