Hartmann Report

As President Biden said, “We can't take democracy for granted any longer. … Make no mistake. Democracy is on the ballot...” NBC News reported this week that Trump is not only still leading the GOP field, but that his margin is growing: “Former President Donald Trump has expanded his lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of the Republican presidential field since Trump’s latest indictment on federal criminal charges, according to a new national NBC News poll.” Another national survey, reported by NBC on Monday, shows a tossup in a Trump-Biden matchup; Biden’s small lead is within the margin of error. All of which raises the question: what would America be like if Trump or a similarly fascist Republican were to take the White House in 2024? What would the dire warnings about American fascism, were they realized, mean in real life?

Is there something in the GOP’s core beliefs and strategies that just inevitably leads to hating on their citizens and worshiping poverty, death, and disease? Yesterday in my Daily Take I documented some of the horrors Red state governors and legislators are using stolen Blue state tax money to inflict on their citizens. They include specific policies intended to impoverish workers, subjugate women, increase gun violence, enrich local oligarchs, and make life miserable for racial, gender, and religious minorities. But how did they get to this point?

Red states are mooching off the Blue states, using that essentially stolen tax money to reinvent the old Confederacy, “own the libs,” and wage “war on woke...” America is rapidly bifurcating — becoming two nations — and one of the main drivers of the process is a federal system that encourages Red states to mooch off Blue states, using essentially stolen tax money to reinvent the old Confederacy, “own the libs,” and wage “war on woke.” Most Red states have become oligarchic white supremacist medieval-like fiefdoms with obscene levels of often multigenerational wealth at the top, extreme poverty at the bottom, and working people, women, and minorities kept in subordinate roles through explicit government and corporate policy. In this, these Red states are following the once-classic European and later Southern US tradition of a patriarchal, hierarchical society run by male kings, nobles, plantation masters, and wealthy churchmen, with all the work done by serfs, slaves, women, or impoverished wage-slaves.

If we are to have a livable planet going forward, we must take on this toxic, poisonous, and deadly industry that is apparently run by psychopaths with little regard for human life. The county I live in is suing the fossil fuel industry for over $50 billion because their products and their lies about their products’ dangers killed almost 90 of our citizens. It’s a small step, but one that — if it spreads worldwide — could save billions of lives. My grandson is 5; by the time he’s my age the entire planet’s ecosystems could in full-blown collapse, according to a new study titled Earlier Collapse of Anthropocene Ecosystems Driven by Multiple Faster and Noisier Drivers published in last week’s peer-reviewed journal Nature Sustainability.

"There are no free and democratic and wealthy countries in the world that have our rate of gun violence." —E. J. Dionne, PBS NewsHour

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Looks like we can add another right-wing justice to the Supreme Court ethics scandals. — Did the DOJ delay inflict irreparable injury on the people of the United States, the rule of law, and the Constitution? — The GOP just took electoral control of Texas’ biggest Blue county. — Why do Republicans in Ohio want “both sides” of slavery and the Holocaust taught? — Georgia teacher fired for reading book about acceptance to fifth grade class of gifted students. — Why hasn’t the FBI searched Bedminster? — America continues to screw native Americans. — Geeky Science! The fossil fuel industry and their lies killed almost 90 citizens of the Portland area in 2021, and our county wants to held them to account in court. — Crazy Alert! Rightwingers are now livid because men in romance novels aren’t “alpha” enough — really?!?

Trump's Trial is more important and historic than the courtroom drama of a country lawyer who murdered his wife & son… Donald Trump’s criminal trial in federal court in Florida is scheduled to begin in August, although most likely it’ll be months later, given all the issues around classified documents and Trump’s penchant for delay as a legal strategy. Nonetheless, it’s an historic milestone for both the presidency and our criminal justice system, and the American public deserves to watch it on television, live and in real time.

The GOP & the billionaires who fund them learned their lesson. Never again would they allow a rightwing justice to stray beyond the rigid ideological boundaries set at that justices’ confirmation… The media is interpreting the relationship between rightwing billionaires and Supreme Court justices as good old fashioned corruption, as if they’re trying to buy votes. But what if, instead, it’s actually something far more insidious than that? Billionaires Harlan Crow and Paul Singer both have had business before the Supreme Court, but both also argue that they’ve never specifically discussed that business with Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito, respectively. And Thomas and Alito, while not recusing themselves from those cases, claim that they’re not taking into consideration the positions, needs, or desires of their “good friends” when making decisions or casting votes. If all that’s true, why do we keep seeing instances of rightwing billionaires reaching out to Supreme Court justices? Why did the Koch brothers regularly invite Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to their mansions, resorts, and private events?

The essence of fascism is intimidation. It stops resistance, stifles opposition, and causes the fearful and desperate to cooperate. It scares off both researchers, reporters, and opinion writers… She thought she was doing the right thing, tracking down the source of deadly lies that killed a half-million Americans and almost led to the overthrow of the US government. Little did she know that the very people whose behavior she was studying would use the power of government to try to destroy her work, funding, and even her personal life and reputation.

Or, as was common in the 19th century, should they be dissolved by the state and have their assets sold to other corporations that will behave in a way that is not toxic to democracy or the community? Back in 2022, I suggested that our federal government should spend about one-third of the cost of the Trump Tax Cuts to buy the three largest oil companies in this country. They could then be run for the public interest, prevented from continuing to fund climate change denial, and end their support of toxic Republican politicians. So far, no members of Congress or the administration have picked up on my suggestion, but the people in Maine have a similar idea and they’re moving forward with it. Ninety-seven percent of the electric power in Maine is provided by two for-profit corporations, Versant and Central Maine Power (CMP).