Hartmann Report

Is this all a continuation of Trump’s January 6th coup attempt and his desire to convert America from a democracy into a despotic strongman-rule nation aligned with Russia? Amazingly, it’s the second anniversary of January 6th and we’re still talking about an ongoing attempt to sabotage the American government. Yesterday, I argued that the Freedom Caucus members and their handful of compatriots voting against Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House may have been doing so because the rightwing billionaires who back them want to roll back FDR’s “big government” in America. Now comes investigative journalist Dave Troy noting that America’s rightwing billionaires aren’t the only ones who want the US government to fail. So does Vladimir Putin.

While the battle for House Speaker appears to be about personality, it’s really about ideology. It’s about the future of “big government” and the American middle class. While Kevin McCarthy’s struggle to become Speaker of the House of Representatives appears to be about personality and struggles within the House Republican caucus, it’s really about something much larger: the fate and future of American “big government” and the middle class it created. Ever since the Reagan Revolution, the phrase “big government” has been on the lips of Republican politicians. They utter it like a curse at every opportunity. It seems paradoxical: Republicans complain about “big government,” but then go on to support more and more government money for expanding prisons and a bloated Pentagon budget. Once you understand their worldview, however, it all makes perfect sense.

As of last week, Republican efforts to ban birth control in America have officially started, and teenagers in Texas are its first victims. To paraphrase Pastor Niemöller, first they came for our abortion rights. Now they’re coming for our birth control. Psychologist Dr. Marty Klein notes at Psychology Today that there are typically only a few reasons why people oppose birth control.

Somehow the “conservative” base voters never seem to figure it out. Why? When will Republican voters figure out how badly they’re getting screwed by Republican politicians?

What motivates Republicans to say they’re for the “little guy” when the only policies they'll pursue are to cut taxes for the rich, gut unions, destroy public schools & ship jobs overseas? Republicans are about to seize control of the US House of Representatives, where the Constitution says all taxation and spending must originate. And the result won’t be difficult to predict.

A book review for the New Year. On this first day of the New Year, I’m pausing the serialization of Threshold for a weekend to share with you one of the most important books in my life. I’ve treasured Markings since I first discovered it in the 1990s, and suspect it’ll become one of your favorites, too.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump's taxes may be the end of him. — Bernie Marcus, the Trump-humping DeSantis-supporting billionaire founder of Home Depot, wants you to know that Biden is "the worst president in history" and that "socialism" is destroying American businesses. — New research from the Fed suggests Republican Jay Powell's interest rate increases will provoke a recession this coming year. — After Trump, George Santos is the new GOP role model. — The fossil fuel industry's favorite Democrat, Joe Manchin, wants the US Treasury to "pause" tax credits and other incentives for Americans to buy electric vehicles. — Remember Senator Inhof's infamous and stupid "snowball stunt" to pathetically try to show there's no global warming? He now has competition for the idiot of the year award. — What could possibly go wrong with pouring radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean? — Crazy Alert! What do polluting cars, pornography, and small penises have to do with one another? — Geeky Science! Did Victorian-era Christian archeologists get mummification wrong?

It’s time to declare the 42-year Reagan Revolution’s neoliberal experiment a failure, and outlaw the stock manipulation that makes CEOs rich and impoverishes the rest of us. My radio/TV program and my daily Substack newsletter, Hartmann Report, together are a small business. The only way I can increase my income from that business is by increasing the advertising revenue to the show, getting more people signed up for the newsletter, or both. Build the business, in other words. Do the hard work every day. Keep my “customers” informed and thus happy: add value through research and share what I learn along the way.

In Title 42, Gorsuch plays the little boy who declared the emperor was wearing no clothes. Now, if only he’ll be consistent in applying his new understanding of the Court beyond just immigration... Apparently trying to prove the old cliché about broken clocks and twice a day, Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch defied his 5 Republican colleagues on the bench and authored an honest and factual dissent in this week’s Title 42 case. He came right out and said the Supreme Court shouldn’t be making policy.

Will the billionaires and corporations behind ALEC and other groups fighting racial, gender, income, and educational equality in America succeed? America is increasingly becoming two nations, a result of the Great Neoliberal Experiment playing out across the country since the start of Reaganism in 1981. One is made up of states representing modern democracy holding egalitarian values; the other has reverted to racist reaction, widespread indigence, and oligarchic ownership of state political systems.