Hartmann Report

If the GOP had the courage of the Senate Republicans in 1974, Milley never would have been in a position to worry that an American president might start a nuclear war just to hang on to power. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley stepped outside the realm of his constitutional power to prevent Donald Trump from starting nuclear war with China or Iran. It was definitely unconstitutional and probably illegal. But he’s not the true villain in this story; the true villain is almost never mentioned in the press.

So Texas kids continue to sleep on office floors, get handcuffed to desks, and trafficked out of state while Abbott & his GOP buddies bask in the votes of “concerned” white evangelical voters. Governor Abbott and Republicans in Texas will tell you that they’re very, very, very concerned about children. Particularly before they’re born. Even when they’re the size of a grain of rice and have a tail, indistinguishable from a tadpole, at around 6 weeks of gestation. But when children are “post-birth” and old enough that the State of Texas might have to use tax dollars to pay to care for them when their own birth parents can’t or won’t? Suddenly Texas Republicans have amnesia about their much-vaunted concern for kids.

Racism, Demagoguery & Political Opportunism are Killing America. Ray DeMonia of Cullman, Alabama was a good and decent man, an antique collector and auctioneer, beloved by friends and family. He and his family were vaccinated, so they didn’t have to worry much about Covid. Two days short of his 74th birthday Ray died of a heart attack that, in and of itself, had nothing to do with Covid. But that’s only part of the story.

America has been preaching democracy all over the world for more than two centuries. Isn't it time we tried it here at home - end the filibuster & let the chips (and the voters) fall where they may? Rolling Stone is reporting that President Biden has told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he’s prepared to begin lobbying so-called “moderate” Democratic senators to end or reform the filibuster this week. This is a very, very good thing. Ending the filibuster could be what puts the final nail in the Republicans’ coffin. When all Americans finally see their insane proclamations actually put into action, they’ll never govern again.

The best of the rest of the news. — On this day that America remembers 9/11, as many people as died that day will die this weekend because Republican politicians across America have banned mask mandates in our schools and “conservative” media like Fox “News” promote anti-vax lies and hysteria. Meanwhile, it’s a virtual guarantee that none of today’s media coverage will mention how the Bush/Cheney were warned multiple times that “Bin Laden [Was] Determined To Strike Within the US” and ignored the warnings while Cheney was carving up Iraqi oil fields and Bush told Tony Blair, 3 days after 9/11, that he was going to use the terror attack as a rationale to attack Iraq. Nor will there be any mention of how the government of Afghanistan had virtually nothing to do with 9/11. But on this terrible anniversary, Donald Trump is bragging to the media that he’s going to make “an obscene amount of money” calling a boxing match.

We're witnessing the symptoms of a culture going through the early stages of transition from democracy to oligarchy - it quite literally starts with “average people” randomly behaving like asses.

The monster of fear, hate, and greed the right wingers have created – as it rises from the primordial mud and shakes itself into life – will eventually consume them. Many commentators and pundits have worried out loud that the Texas “precedent” of using vigilantism to end safe, legal abortion in that state is either wildly unconstitutional or, if it stands, will set a precedent to take down other rights like free speech or protest. Republicans are playing with fire here, but it’s not just around abortion rights. They’re also explicitly going after a wide variety of other rights that Americans have fought to maintain for centuries.

The simple solution to the Medicare Advantage problem is to kill off the program. It was just a Trojan horse to privatize Medicare. Over 100 Democratic lawmakers last week introduced legislation to lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60. There is one small problem that needs fixing, though: so-called “Medicare Advantage.” This week my new book, The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich is officially available in bookstores nationwide and online. Here’s a chapter excerpt I think you’ll find interesting, particularly after all those awful TV ads with former football and sitcom stars we’ve had to endure the past few years…

Genuine patriots work to heal a country, to bring out its best, to strengthen its social and political fabric and make a better nation and world for future generations. They show up at school board and city council meetings sometimes literally wrapped in the American flag while carrying semiautomatic weapons in one hand and bibles in the other, screaming obscenities and threats at public officials. They demand that children be exposed to Covid in school, then support governors who refuse federal money to expand Medicaid in 12 GOP-controlled states that would have paid for the medical treatment of low-income kids and their parents when they become ill.

We don’t need to read fiction about “handmaidens” to know what America is capable of when religious fanatics make and enforce law. This actually happened. Back on August 30th, I wrote a Daily Rant here about how hate, misogyny and the use of religion to control Americans was nothing new. That was before the Texas Abortion Bounty Hunter Law was allowed to go into effect by the Supreme Court. In that Rant I included a few verses from John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, first published in 1894, titled How The Women Went From Dover. Given the events of last week, it’s worth reading in its entirety as a reminder of what happens when “religious” men assert their claim to power over women’s minds and bodies.