Hartmann Report

Frank Luntz is advising his rich patrons to continue to kneecap the middle class with a slick new sloganeering strategy. Have Americans finally figured out the the "long con" of the Reagan Revolution? Frank Luntz, who made millions messaging for the wealthy and powerful, has an idea. His most recent survey found that across American society there is widespread skepticism about capitalism and outrage at the tendency of deregulated capitalism to produce mind-boggling wealth and terrible poverty.

Prosecuting Donald Trump and Bill Barr is not a matter of political payback. It has very little to do with Donald Trump or the Republican party, in fact: it’s about the future of our republic. Honoré de Balzac said, “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” Apparently there are multiple great crimes behind the Trump fortune, stretching all the way back to his stealing most of his initial wealth from other members of his family, as his niece Mary Trump is alleging in a lawsuit. But the crimes of Trump we should all concern ourselves with are his crimes against our nation and democracy itself.

"With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.” I’m struggling to explain why a Fox News host would say to the American people, “they’re trying to take down the white culture!”

Thom plus logo …we have to ask if the bullies have won, after all? Or is the Biden administration going to finally start setting limits and imposing logical consequences? Certain types of behavior can be contagious. Seriously; adolescent suicide is probably the most well-known example of this. It’s like they reach into us and draw out of us that part which may have a slight tendency toward that particular behavior and then, by drawing it out, fill us with it. A great example of this is bullying.

“Housing First” is a the solution that has been embraced by countries around the world. Time to repudiate the failed Reaganomics experiment and take it seriously again here in America. America has a massive homelessness problem. We could solve it in a decade or less with a simple solution that has worked very well in Japan, Denmark, Singapore and even parts of Canada. Simply outlaw homelessness. Not as in “make homeless people outlaws”: we’ve already done that. It hasn’t worked particularly well. What I mean is to mandate the federal government end homelessness.

The GOP and, sadly, a few white Democrats like Manchin want to answer that question with a definite “No.” This weekend, Louise and I took a long drive to a small town in a rural part of Oregon. Watching people walk down the street, we imagined we could identify who would vote Democratic and who would vote Republican largely by how they looked and dressed (and who wore a mask or didn’t). It sounds like a very superficial analysis, but take a look at the people who show up for Republican party meetings versus the folks who show up for Democratic party meetings. Or the people who show up to protest police violence and the people who show up to “support the police.”

Like the poor dogs in the animal shelter ads on TV, these Republicans need our help. Let’s work to save them, to rescue them, to free them! If Utah governor Spencer Cox or his wife Anne, both good Mormons, were diagnosed with heart disease and at risk of a heart attack, odds are they would get on their knees and pray. And then they’d go to the doctor. They probably wouldn’t show up at the fatty-food all-you-can-eat buffet and chow down as much heart-attack-inducing fried foods they could. Particularly after they talked to their doctor. Utah right now is in a severe drought, the worst in the recorded history. It’s the result of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels.

Why we will all be better off if we can reform our political and business cultures to be less psychopath-friendly and more humanity-friendly. Inequality is literally killing us, both individually and as a society, and its two main drivers are monopolistic business behavior, and greedy CEOs and politicians. Both are a result of psychopaths taking over politics and business.

The Democratic Party is in denial. Democrats need to start dealing with Republicans the way they would deal with the Klan. Trump dumped his blog because he has nothing to say that anyone wants to hear beyond one single message. He’s not thinking deep thoughts about the economy, or the state of the nation’s infrastructure, or offering insights into the Middle East. There’s literally no philosophy Trump holds — other than one single idea — that truly matters to the vast majority of the Republicans who support him.

The "Philosophers," "Thieving Scoundrels" and "Foreign Enemies" are having a collective moment that could take down America. There are people in this world who don't like —and even hate — democracy. They're on the move against it, particularly here in America, and the Qanon religion/cult is the glue that's bringing them all together.