Hartmann Report

Right-wing billionaires know that if average Americans understood their real agenda, we’d never again elect a Republican. And it’s been that way for a long, long time. As historian, author, and University of Wisconsin professor Harvey J. Kaye wrote in 2015 for Bill Moyers’s online magazine: Polls conducted in 1943 showed that 94 percent of Americans endorsed old-age pensions; 84 percent, job insurance; 83 percent, universal national health insurance; and 79 percent, aid for students—leading FDR in his 1944 State of the Union message to propose a Second Bill of Rights that would guarantee those very things to all Americans. All of which would be blocked by a conservative coalition of pro-corporate Republicans and white supremacist southern Democrats.41 It wasn’t always this way.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump Aide Who Assaulted Arlington Cemetery Worker Was a January 6th Mastermind. — On the subject of Trump’s “Big Lies,” his cultists are freaking out because he just admitted that he “lost the election by a whisker.” — Authorities are now going after the parents of school shooters. That’s a good thing. — Oklahoma Schools Revolt Against the State’s Absurd Bible Mandate. — Liz Cheney Rips Into ‘Misogynistic Pigs’ Trump and Vance. — Judge Juan Merchan went along with Trump‘s lawyers request to postpone his sentencing, so now it’s set for the week of Thanksgiving. — Wisdom School Alert: NLP: The Map Is Not The Territory-learning The Legend — Hunter in a Farmer’s World Alert: Are ADHD Characteristics Leftover Hunter Genes? — This morning at 9 am PT/noon ET, I’ll be hosting this week’s “Ask Thom Anything” for our paid subscribers. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Hopefully, for the good of the nation, the party will reject its most extreme billionaires and politicians and return to the classically conservative side of true American values... Liz Cheney — a member of multi-generational Republican royalty — didn't just tell Republicans this week they shouldn't vote for Trump. That would have been easy; he's manifestly unfit for office and a danger to our republic. Instead, though, she took a huge step beyond that, saying that she was voting for Vice President Harris and Governor Walz — openly implying that every decent, America-loving Republican should do the same. "As a conservative," she said, "as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this — and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris." This could represent the earliest leading edge of a critical turning point for a GOP that has lost its way and, in the process, become an actual threat to our nation, peace in the world, and our children's future.

He intends to use it to try to bring the Biden administration, and thus the Harris/Walz campaign, to its knees in the next few weeks... Get ready. Donald Trump has made good use of the propaganda technique known as the Big Lie 1.0, famously claiming that the 2020 "election was stolen" from him. And now he's preparing to use Big Lie 2.0 to shut down our government this fall, believing it'll hurt the Biden administration and thus the Harris/Walz campaign. That second weapon — this Big Lie 2.0 — is the false allegation of widespread "voter fraud" in America. He intends to use it to try to bring the Biden administration to its knees in the next few weeks. And, as a bonus, if it works, he gets to prevent millions of people, particularly minorities and women, from voting. Republicans have been using this lie to attack the heart of our democracy right out in the open ever since the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, the year they responded by rolling out Operation Eagle Eye, yelling about nonexistent "voter fraud" and using it as an excuse to intimidate minority voters in the Goldwater/Johnson race.

It drained many of us of our hope and optimism, much as it did in the 1950s when Joe McCarthy last led a national bullying campaign… On his eponymous TV show, Joe Scarborough pointed out this week how angry and toxic Xitter has become recently. I've seen the same thing, as have many others; quitting Xitter has become a thing, largely as a result of the venomous culture that's taken hold there. This seems to be more closely connected to it being taken over by a morbidly rich South African immigrant who seems to delight in bullying his own child (and others) than to the political season; previous election cycles didn't see similar reports of such widespread hostility and bullying behavior that was driving people to quit particular social media sites altogether. That's probably because one of the first rules of social organization is that culture flows from the top down.

When we handed America over to Ronald Reagan in 1981 it was a brand, gleaming new country with a prosperous and thriving middle class… Today begins the official political season of 2024, the fall countdown to election day and inauguration day, and the start of billions of dollars raised by morbidly rich rightwingers that will be pouring into our media, email, and phones. The Democratic Convention was really rocking (I was broadcasting live from the SiriusXM booth), laying out both the horrors of Republican red state governance and expanding the good-for-America-and-the-middle-class programs that President Biden first signed into law almost four years ago. He's stopped inflation and given us the highest stock market, best jobs numbers, and fastest return of factories to America in over 50 years. It all raises a critical question: How did America go so far astray after FDR saved us from the Republican Great Depression? And what can we learn from FDR that can help Democrats win elections and put America back together again?

The NRB's lawsuit could be the death knell for the Johnson Amendment… A group representing rightwing preachers is trying to bring about a merger of church and state with a new lawsuit. This is incredibly dangerous.

Outside of Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan (and a hedge fund guy), just about all American billionaires are white. And while their white privilege helped most of them to become billionaires in the first place, for the politically active billionaires on the right, it’s their money that they care about the most.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — For fans of Ali Velshi’s brilliant weekend show on MSNBC, internet gods permitting, I’ll be on with him at 11:45 AM Eastern time tomorrow. — The “Other Project 2025.” — Trump is promoting a street-sign campaign by a notorious racist who goes by the name “Sabo.” — “The bullying needs to stop.” — CNN shows everything that’s wrong with 2024’s repeat of 2016’s election coverage. — Why aren’t the Department of Defense or the Department of Justice seeking criminal assault and trespass charges against the Trump staffers who assaulted an Arlington National Cemetery employee and then proceeded to use gravestones as end-tables and campaign props? — Hunter in a Farmer’s World Alert: How to deal with the problem of time. — Wisdom School Alert: Are you reaching the happiness available to you?

A federal ruling could finally tear down the legal shield that lets platforms profit from poisonous content—and it's about time… This week saw a dramatic turn in our nation's desperate efforts to clean up the increasingly poisonous online sewers that we call social media.