Hartmann Report

While the ideas and policies promoted by the libertarian wing of the Republican Party have made CEOs and billionaire investors very, very rich in recent decades, it's killing the rest of us. As noted yesterday, über-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, according to The New York Times, now professes to be a libertarian. So, once again, why are Republicans so cruel and why do they seem so fond of libertarianism? Why does Greg Abbott put razor wire in the Rio Grande river? Why does Donald Trump target people for assassination by his followers? Why does Ron DeSantis revel in keeping tens of thousands of low-income Florida children from getting Medicaid? Why would Zuckerberg hook up with a group that wants to strip Americans of basic social safety net protections and regulations? Yesterday, I laid out the terrible impact libertarian policies, which have infected the GOP for five decades, have had on the United States. But where did the whole idea of libertarianism come from, and who started the Libertarian Party? Get ready for a wild ride as we do a deep dive into America's most bizarre (and phony) political party. How is it that Republicans so often embrace casual cruelty like tearing mothers from their children or throwing pregnant women in poverty off public assistance? Why have 11 GOP-controlled states refused to this day to expand Medicaid for their 30 million minimum-wage working people when the federal government covers 90 percent of the cost?

But where did all this "greed is good" as a political philosophy that Zuckerberg is now embracing start? A new profile of mega-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg in last week's New York Times identifies America's richest millennial (he owns 1/50th of all millennial wealth in the US) as a Libertarian: "Privately, Mr. Zuckerberg now considers his personal politics to be more like libertarianism or 'classical liberalism,' according to people who have spoken to him recently. That includes a hostility to regulation that restricts business, an embrace of free markets and globalism and an openness to social-justice reforms — but only if it stops short of what he considers far-left progressivism." Zuck, of course, isn't the only one. It's high fashion across Silicon Valley and the GOP to claim your Libertarian credentials; Ron (and now Rand) Paul turned it into a moneymaking scam, and most all of the Putin Caucus in the GOP love to talk up libertarianism, as do multiple rightwing tech billionaires. Senator Mike Lee proclaims himself a Libertarian, and has for years. We see it writ large in the rhetoric of Republican members of Congress and conservative pundits who argue that shutting the government down is a good thing, because most government functions are "unnecessary" or "woke." Libertarians believe the only legitimate functions of government are running the army, the police, and a court system to adjudicate crimes. Forget about everything else, from protecting consumers and the environment to the social safety net.

Inside the GOP's 30-year plan to dominate America's talk radio system… "Whoever controls the media controls the mind." — Jim Morrison After Ronald Reagan struck down the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule, Republican money men got the memo. Whichever party controlled the most states would have a big edge in both the Senate (and thus control of the Supreme Court nominations) and the Electoral College, and most of the low- and medium-population states had relatively inexpensive media markets. You could buy or lease radio stations for less than a party might spend over a four-year electoral cycle on advertising, so why not simply acquire a few hundred stations across a dozen or more states and program them with rightwing talk radio 24/7?

And odds are Fox viewers are blissfully ignorant about the pitched battle in a Reno courtroom over the future of their beloved propaganda outlet... This week may well see a court decide the fate and future of Fox "News" and thus the Republican Party, at least in its current hard-right neofascist form. And odds are Fox viewers are blissfully ignorant about the pitched battle in a Reno courtroom over the future of their beloved propaganda outlet. Sir Keith Murdoch was the notoriously racist and misogynist owner of a small newspaper chain in Australia. It was inherited by his son, Rupert, who — using sensationalism and bigotry — turned it into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that spans three continents. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called Rupert Murdoch "the greatest cancer on the Australian democracy" in the pages of The Sydney Morning Herald, the New York Times of Australia.

At least it's not what decent, caring, honest, hard-working, patriotic, family men do. None of it. Instead, this is what bigots, racists, and fascists do, be they male or female… North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson apparently posted to a porn website that he's a "Black Nazi," would like to own slaves, and is really into weird sex, including with his sister-in-law. This is the same guy who: told an audience in a church that, "Some people need killing"; called the queer community "maggots," "filth," and "flies"; claimed Michelle Obama was born a man; said Jewish bankers are one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse; the moon landing was faked; it's "time to start reading" the writings of Hitler and Mao; and claimed the movie Black Panther was made by an "agnostic Jew" who was only interested in Black people's "shekels."

On October 8th, my newest book — The Hidden History of the American Dream — hits bookstores and will be delivered by online sellers. Here’s the book’s introduction to get you started: The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group. — Franklin D. Roosevelt. Back in the 1980s a lot of us worked like hell to try to stop the Reagan Revolution. We failed. Which is why the next few years may be our last chance to save American democracy, our environment, and what’s left of the American Dream.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Caution: We are entering the desperation phase of the Trump campaign. — Why didn’t the Teamsters union endorse Kamala? Could it be racism? — GOP claiming they never heard of North Carolina Lt. Governor and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson? Say what?! — How Georgia is laying the groundwork for chaos on election day. — A report finds the US healthcare system ranks dead last compared with peer nations. — Geeky Science! Norway does what we could’ve done if we had listened to scientists instead of the lies from the fossil fuel industry and the politicians it purchased. — Hunters in a Farmer’s World Alert: Distracted by Design: The ADHD Brain in a Modern Maze. — Wisdom School Alert: Unlock Your Inner Superhero: The Life-Changing Power of Lucid Dreaming.

I can hardly wait... Donald Trump has seemed so larger-than-life to so many Americans for so long that it's almost impossible to not think of him as a perpetual, ongoing threat. And, indeed, he has already tried to mount one coup against our nation which was largely ignored by our Attorney General for two long years, setting up the virtual certainty of a second attempt this fall should he lose by a small margin. That, however, is not what current trends, an innovation in political science, and world history tell us will most likely happen over the next four months.

The GOP's desperate election ploy: disenfranchise women to win… Republicans don't want women to vote. They now think they may have a strategy that could help make that happen. House Speaker Mike Johnson and former president Donald Trump were pushing the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Eligibility Act), demanding it be part of must-pass legislation to fund the federal government for another year (the funding runs out at the end of this month and then the shutdown begins). It died in the House last night, but, like a bad penny, you can bet it'll return. Now they're pushing for it in the Senate, with a version authored by Joe Manchin, his final goodbye kiss to — or future bet on — the Republicans. Trump, on his failing, Nazi-infested social media site, ranted Tuesday that Republicans must get "every ounce" of the SAVE Act passed or shut down the government "in any way, shape, or form." He said it was necessary because Democrats are "registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS, as we speak," ranting the vicious lie that, "They will be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election." Trump, Vance, and Johnson claim that the SAVE Act is necessary to prevent people who aren't citizens from voting, but are entirely unable to prove that any meaningful number of noncitizens have ever illegally voted in any American election. After all, it's a felony for a noncitizen to vote, and few are stupid enough to take that sort of a chance.

Congressional Republicans push to keep drug prices sky-high, defying voters, and fueling corporate greed… Congressional Republicans are enthusiastically doubling down on the corruption openings five Republicans on the Supreme Court gave them when they legalized political bribery with Citizens United. Their newest scam is trying to stop Medicare from negotiating drug prices. A new study this year by the RAND Corporation found that Americans pay 4.22 times more for brand-name drugs than the citizens of any other developed country. That's a 422% markup against the (already profitable) prices people in other countries pay for the same drugs, with the entire burden borne by citizens of the US, directly or indirectly. And that price-gouging has been on hyperdrive since the Bush administration got legislation passed in 2003 that forbade Medicare from negotiating drug prices like the Pentagon, big hospital chains, and drug store chains do routinely: Between that year and 2020, retail prescription drug spending exploded by 91 percent in the US.