Hartmann Report

The reality is that Rand Paul’s beloved libertarianism can only be realized in an authoritarian oligarchy where average people lack the resources or political power to have a real say, like in Russia. Americans of all political persuasions were somewhere between horrified and mystified yesterday when Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul argued that the US shouldn’t help Ukraine gain NATO membership because, as Putin said when he started the war, Ukraine was “part of the Soviet Union.” Seriously — check it out...

Have we all been witnessing a young con-man walk away with billions after selling out Yemen, Khashoggi, and the US? With virtually no questions from Congress or the mainstream media? After President John F. Kennedy appointed his brother as Attorney General, Republicans freaked out and passed an anti-nepotism law against presidents hiring family members. When Donald Trump put Jared Kushner into the White House (even after he failed a security clearance), his Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel ruled, essentially, that Trump could ignore the law.

The GOP's naked appeals to racism, bigotry, and hate are as destructive to a nation founded on an idea as is their defiance of our Constitution. So now Ron DeSantis gets to trash Disney, claim the title of Chief Culture Warrior in an election year, and even raise taxes on one of the few Blue counties in Florida, all in one stroke. But his behavior is a lot more dangerous than just a political stunt. From their naked attempt to overthrow our government on January 6th, to Florida’s recent unconstitutional legislation punishing Disney for engaging in First Amendment-protected free speech, it’s becoming clear that Republicans are working to fundamentally change America by destroying our Constitution.

How Corporations Became 'People' - and How You Can Fight Back. Although the first shots were fired in 1775 and the Declaration was signed in 1776, the war against a transnational corporation and the nation that used it to extract wealth from its colonies had just begun. These colonists, facing the biggest empire and military force in the world, fought for five more years—the war didn’t end until General Charles Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781. Even then some resistance remained; the last loyalists and the British left New York starting in April 1782, and the treaty that formally ended the war was signed in Paris in September 1783. The first form of government, the Articles of Confederation, was written in 1777 and endorsed by the states in 1781. It was subsequently replaced by our current Constitution, as has been documented in many books. In this chapter we take a look at the visions that motivated what Alexis de Tocqueville would later call America’s experiment with democracy in a republic. One of its most conspicuous features was the lack of vast wealth or any sort of corporation that resembled the East India Company—until the early 1800s.

The Best of the Rest of the News. - The anti-truth campaigns in Russia & America. - Because of overreach by an incompetent Trump-appointed federal judge, flying just got a lot more dangerous. - Kevin McCarthy gets busted for his "Big Lie": Is this his political end? - Is Marjorie Green going to show the way to stop other crazy far right wing Republicans? - Elizabeth Warren says there's only 1 way to avoid disaster in November: is she right? - Crazy Alert: Fox "News" is hysterical that a bunny talked to President Biden! - Good News: California briefly ran the entire state on 97% renewable or carbon-free energy.

DeSantis, Abbott & other Republican neofascists are playing a dangerous game, that will rip America apart, using Disney as a proxy for the racial and gender minorities they want as whipping boys. Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has declared war on Disney, while his colleague in Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott, is on a jihad against the parents of trans children. This is how fascism progresses through its later stages toward tyranny. Democracies typically don’t turn into fascist oligarchies by being invaded or losing wars. It usually happens from within, and is driven by an alliance between demagogic politicians, corrupt religious leaders, bigoted street brawlers, and some of the wealthiest people in society.

We have the resources to deal with childhood injuries & deaths from the only product sold in America specifically designed to kill human beings - and it's now the leading cause of deaths in children. Nina Shapiro reports at Forbes this week in an article titled “The Leading Cause Of Death In Children And Youths Is Now Guns”: “Access to firearms by children, by unlicensed owners, and absence of safety measures when it comes to both intentional and unintentional gun-related injuries and deaths, are among the reasons that the incidence of this horrific, truly avoidable tragedy is on the rise.” The latest con from the GOP is that they’re all about “the children.”

While Brazil’s Supreme Court is now pursuing what’s called a “Green Docket,” here in the US the GOP is supporting a “Shadow Docket” to gut environmental laws that date back to 1972. Brazil, no environmental hero, is beginning to discuss how to save the rainforest; here in America, SCOTUS is speeding up the poisoning of our environment. When is our media going to figure out that the real threat to our country is not teaching history or acknowledging trans kids?

So why is it that Republicans tolerate breathtaking levels of corruption and criminality among their elected representatives and cronies, but Democrats won’t? Hunter Biden traded on his father’s name to get positions on boards of directors that paid him millions, but there’s no evidence he ever harmed American foreign policy or American interests. Jared Kushner, though, appears to have been paid $2 billion by the Saudis for steering his father-in-law’s administration away from the Khashoggi murder and toward millions in congressionally banned weaponry to further destroy Yemen. Now the Saudis, apparently still collaborating with the Trump family, are refusing to increase oil production so that high prices at the pump will politically damage President Biden and Democrats in the elections this fall.

If the fake news wins and neofascist politicians like Trump again gain serious national power, America will be on a fast track down the same road as Russia. Over on Fox “News,” a recent segment with Tucker Carlson suggested that vaccines are more dangerous than getting Covid. Why do conservatives fall for this kind of BS? Multiple recent studies show that Republicans are as much as 8.5 times more likely to both believe and share fake or false “news” with others than are Democrats. The phenomenon is obvious, actually: while as many as half of Republicans believe the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump, there’s no similarly disprovable “big lie” embraced by Democrats. And it’s not limited to things like elections that are overtly political: Republicans are more likely than Democrats to reject basic science about Covid, and thus die of the disease at much higher rates than Democrats.