Hartmann Report

The American Revolution would probably never have gotten off the ground were it not for meeting places available to the public—the most famous being Sam Adams’s tavern. Similarly, churches open to the public (although privately owned but regulated on a nonprofit basis) were the core of the 20th century’s civil rights movement. Facebook has, for millions, replaced these public places as a nexus for social, cultural, and political interaction. As such, it resembles a part of the natural commons. When radio achieved the equivalent of four hours of “screen time” a day for the average American, in 1927 and 1934 we passed comprehensive regulation of the industry to prevent the spread of disinformation and mandate responsible broadcasting practices.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — First Prez convicted of a Felony in history... — Chief Justice John Roberts — whose wife has taken over $10 million from law firms doing business with the Supreme Court — has told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin to go screw himself and his questions of members of the Supreme Court being on the take. — Why are Republicans fighting to keep America defenseless against the next pandemic? — Biden will allow Ukraine to use weapons for strikes in Russia! — Trump repeatedly used the N-word when filming the Apprentice show. — Hunter in a Farmer's Alert! ADHD: Our Culture is Increasingly Intolerant of "Different" People — Wisdom School Alert! Costa Rica: A Haven for Social Democracy and a Blue Zone

A movement, being about ideas, has specific, achievable goals. A cult, on the other hand, is mainly about devotion and faithfulness to one person… Donald Trump is now a felon, busted for and convicted of stealing the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton and the American people. Our criminal justice system has worked, and there will almost certainly be some political fallout to both Trump and the GOP. Nonetheless, odds are he won't see a day in jail or even a particularly punishing fine and will probably be long dead before his lawyers finish with his inevitable years, perhaps decades, of appeals. But what will this mean for America? How will it affect our political system and the Republican Party, which he has so thoroughly corrupted?

It’s already too late for millions of insect, plant, and animal species that have gone extinct; it may soon be too late for us if we don’t wake the hell up and take decisive action... It’s early summer here in the Pacific Northwest and the flowers are blooming; above is a photo Louise took with her iPhone yesterday morning as we were walking along the Columbia River. The hillside is ablaze with wildflowers. But it was also eerily silent. Look carefully: No matter how much you enlarge the photo you’ll not see a single insect. Thirty years ago this hillside was swarmed with bees, flies, and dozens of other winged bugs. Today, although pretty, walking by it felt like I was passing a graveyard. I’ll never forget the day the trucker called into my radio show from southern Illinois. It was about seventeen years ago, and he was a long-haul driver who regularly ran a coast-to-coast route from the southeast to the Pacific Northwest a few dozen times a year.

So, here we are, handing billions of dollars a month to insurance industry executives so they can buy new Swiss chalets, private jets, and luxury yachts... They're competing unfairly with Medicare, and you and I are paying for it. It's obscene. When George W. Bush and congressional Republicans (and a handful of bought-off Democrats) created Medicare Advantage in 2003, it was the fulfillment of half of Bush's goal of privatizing Social Security and Medicare, dating all the way back to his unsuccessful run for Congress in 1978 and a main theme of his second term in office. Medicare Advantage is not Medicare. These plans are private health insurance provided by private corporations, who are then fully reimbursed by the Medicare trust fund regardless of how much their customers use their insurance. Thus, the more they can screw their customers and us taxpayers by withholding healthcare, the more money they make.

How did America reach this point where about half our country thinks up is down, black is white, and Republicans are best trusted with our money and national security? The fifteen or twenty percent of Americans who follow actual news reporting are dumbfounded.

Such an action could swing our election toward Trump, but also risks provoking a third world war... Donald Trump has overtly taken the side of dictators including Putin, Xi, Orbán, and Kim over the past eight years, most likely because he admires the way each has crushed efforts toward democracy and ruled their respective nations with an iron fist. Now US intelligence agencies say their big worry is that one or more of these nations will reciprocate Trump's love by launching some sort of October Surprise to push voters closer to Trump in time for this fall's election. Such an action could swing our election toward Trump, but also risks provoking a third world war.

I was oblivious to the real significance of Facebook in everyday life until the company disabled my personal, private account. The list of possible reasons they posted for doing this included “impersonating a celebrity,” so maybe they shut me down because they thought I was pretending to be that guy who’s a talk show host and author (ahem).

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Six corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court just legalized racial gerrymanders. — Trump's felon crew wants to crime again in 2024. — Corporations are abusing "free speech" to destroy the world. — How 2016 WAS stolen — with help from Russia! — Is Putin trying to move his border into the Baltics? — Here's a poll that I'll bet won't show up on the front page of the New York Times. — Speaking of polls, do you know what that money Michael Cohen confessed to "stealing" from Trump was for? — Good News Alert! President Biden is moving forward with a whole series of progressive policies, even going around Congress. — Wisdom School Alert! My Journey to Mastering Writing: Discover How You Can, Too. — Hunter in a Farmer's World Alert! ADHD: Can You Learn to Pay Attention to Paying Attention?

Thus, today’s Republicans are finally close to fulfilling Hammond’s and Reagan’s vision (while ironically repudiating America’s first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln)… Odds are you’ve never heard of the “mudsill theory of labor,” but you and everybody else in this country really should learn about it. It explains a whole spectrum of Republican behavior that otherwise seems baffling and self-defeating. For example: — The past 7 years have seen a near-fivefold increase in documented child labor violations by employers. States have responded to this alarming trend in two ways: Democratic-controlled states are putting more teeth into their laws and upping enforcement; Republican-controlled states are loosening their laws and cutting back on enforcement so children can drop out of school and go to work.