Hartmann Report

The Best of the Rest of the News. — This is what happens when five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court put our government up for sale to the highest bidder — Far-right activist Christopher Rufo — the guy who put DEI and CRT in the bullseye of Republicans and rightwing media — now wants to take on Harvard. — Will a jury ever convict Luigi Mangioni? — Weiner went to prison but Gaetz won’t? — The CDC reports the first severe bird flu case in the US involves a virus that has mutated in a way that makes it more effective at infecting human lung tissue. — My Australian friend tells me that there’s a huge housing shortage here in Oz “because conservative governments have let housing become an investment vehicle to make money” instead of an essential resource needed by humans that should be protected by government. — Hunter in a Farmers World: ADHD: The Butterfly Chaser and the Seed Planter — Wisdom School: Master the Art of Talking Less and Saying More — Knights Templar: How Powerful a Force is Thought?

The for-profit health insurance industry has attached itself to us like a giant, bloodsucking tick and "Scientific Racism" is part of the reason why There's only one person in this photograph/video of a recent G7 meeting who represents a country where an illness can destroy an entire family, leaving them bankrupt and homeless, with the repercussions of that sudden fall into poverty echoing down through generations. Most Americans have no idea that the United States is quite literally the only country in the developed world that doesn't define healthcare as an absolute right for all of its citizens. That's it. We're the only one left.

How algorithms distill fear and rage into society's deadliest addiction, destroying society and political systems in the process… A fascinating article in The New York Times this week by Kurt Gray, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gives us the beginnings of an understanding of how and why social media is so destructive to society. Gray points out that most people assume humans have historically been predators, the metaphorical big cats of the jungle. In fact, Gray says, we've historically been prey, the victims of predators: "This picture of fearfulness is consistent with our understanding of human psychology. We're hard-wired to detect threats quickly and to stay fixated on places where threats once appeared, even after they have vanished. We fear that 'child predators' will abduct our kids even when they are safer than ever. "Modern humans, ensconced in towns and cities, are now mostly safe from animal predators, but we are still easily frightened. Whether we're scrolling social media or voting for a presidential candidate, we all still carry the legacy of our ancestors, who worried about big cats lurking in the darkness." Thus, if you could invent a drug that would cause people to be fearful — and thus stimulate the rage that comes from fear — you could have incredible control over a population if you could simply tell them where and against whom to direct that fear-induced rage.

Hopefully this time Democratic politicians and our media will, finally, call the GOP out on Wanniski's and Reagan's Two Santa Clauses scam and put an end to it once and for all… Merry Christmas! The GOP-caused fiscal disaster and government shutdown has been postponed until March, but in the meantime, House Republicans have laid out their vision for the future of America. In a budget document they released last year, anticipating this very moment, the legislators proposed dramatic $9 trillion cuts to Social Security, food stamps, aid to women and children, Medicare and Medicaid, along a new round of tax cuts for America's billionaires. Their argument is that we need to "balance the budget now!" This is the classic Two Santas strategy that the GOP has been running ever since 1981. In addition to showing the hypocrisy and depravity of these politicians who are happy to live on the largesse of rightwing billionaires but see no benefit in feeding hungry children, it also shows that Jude Wanniski's grand plan, adopted by Reagan in 1981, is alive and well. It's no accident or coincidence that the threat of a failure to pay the nation's bills or fund an upcoming year constantly happens when Republicans control the House of Representatives.

During these short, dark days let's remember this ancient Christmas knowledge that illumination always follows darkness & that with love and compassion we will re-light our nations & lives... Today is Christmas Eve, a connection to some of the most ancient of all known northern European shamanic traditions. Like people living in the north for millennia, we continue to embrace them with regional, national, and religious tweaks. It occurs during the week of the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, when ancient holy men and women lit "yule logs" to push back the darkness and implore the gods or nature to bring back the light of summer.

Using the Tea Party's playbook to reclaim the Democratic Party and advance real progressive change Recently, I mentioned that I'd be sharing more specifics on how to reform the Democratic Party and seize control of our country back from the racist, misogynist MAGAs. This is the first article along those lines. Progressives shouldn't just be fighting the GOP: we should be learning from them. No, we shouldn't be learning from their bizarro economics; we shouldn't be discovering their selfish morality, misogyny, or racism; or selling ourselves out to the world's richest man. But there is a vital lesson progressives must learn, which is how the far right took control of the Republican Party over a decade ago and forced the entire Conservative establishment to lurch so far to the Right that they've even dumped people like Liz Cheney and George W. Bush.

Money in politics has a long and ignominious history. Corruption by money of individual politicians, and of the legislative process as a whole, hit three peaks in the history of our nation: during the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, the Roaring Twenties in the last century, and the years since 2010 when the Supreme Court struck down numerous campaign finance and good-government laws, throwing the doors open to corporate and billionaire cash with its Citizens United decision. The Gilded Age excesses led to the Tillman Act of 1907, which made it a federal felony for a corporation to donate money or anything of value to a campaign for federal office. It was gutted by Citizens United.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Republicans in Congress kick the can down the road to March. — Why is President Musk endorsing the "German neo-Nazi Party"? — Trump is already walking back his promises. Why don't the headlines simply say, "He Lied"? — President Biden says debt student debt cancellation is coming for public servants. — Hunter in a Farmer's World: ADHD: What the Heck is Time? — Wisdom School: Everyone "Sees" (or "Hears" or "Feels") the World Differently: Why It Matters...

President Musk and his sidekick Donald Trump are demanding that Republicans in the House and Senate cut funding to numerous programs that help average Americans (including food, medical, and even child cancer research) and raise the debt ceiling to pave the way for the federal government to borrow another $5 trillion to hand to billionaires in the form of more tax cuts. You won't hear about what they're doing, or how we and our children will pay for it, on billionaire Murdoch-family-owned Fox "News," of course, nor on billionaire-owned rightwing radio stations, or from podcasts supported by billionaires. But that's exactly what's happening and it's no secret. This is called oligarchy, as I detail in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class. It's a very different form of government from democracy, which is what most Americans believe we still have.

Trump's proven plan to crush opposition, corrupt government, and rewrite the rules in his and his billionaire buddies' favor… Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is wondering out loud if "President Musk" will force "Vice President Trump" and Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down our government as Musk tweets his orders to the GOP. It's all about raising the debt ceiling, Trump says, so they can roll out the next round of tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by average working people. It seems like a bizarre power play: The actual story is much more sinister. As Trump is in the process of teaching America, it's impossible to disentangle democracy-ending authoritarianism from billionaire corruption of government. They require each other. And the way this will play out won't need a crystal ball to see: Trump has already begun traveling a well-trod path that leads to the destruction of our form of government.