Hartmann Report

Yes, we do defend our office as we do defend our homes. This is a constitutional right everybody has, and nothing’s funny about that. The only reason they get mad at the Black Panther Party when you do it is for the simple reason that we’re political. —Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, who was murdered in his sleep by the Chicago police and the FBI, December 4, 1969

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Donald Trump has been indicted for stealing top-secret national security documents from you and me — our government — and endangering the security of America and the world by leaving them around where random spies and bad guys could access them. — Trump's jealousy for the way Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley was heroically portrayed in the media caused him to share secrets with others merely to impress them. — "Scary as hell." That's how an expert in the modern white supremacist militia movement described the tweet from Louisiana Republican Congressman Clay Higgins that seems to tell armed militia members to prepare for civil war if Trump is convicted and sent to jail. — Geeky Science! They knew the earth would burn, but they wanted the money. — Picture of the Week! Trump's Snidely Whiplash moment — and does that look like the white power sign that Snidely's flashing for the camera?

Is The Supreme Court Buckling To Reality? In a decision that shocked most observers, the Supreme Court this week ruled that an Alabama Republican gerrymander was in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. John Roberts and Bret Kavanaugh joined the Court’s three Democratic appointees in upholding the principle that “packing and cracking” congressional districts along racial lines was illegal. What happened?

As Trump faces the music for a small slice of his crimes against our nation & our democracy, let’s not forget that he’s not the first. He was carrying on a GOP tradition stretching back to 1968… Every day that goes by appears to bring us closer to a Trump indictment on serious felony charges, most likely including violations of the Espionage Act; there’s considerable speculation that it may come as early as today. Most Americans view Donald Trump as an aberration, a one-off, the exception. He’s our first “criminal president” they think, the first to have committed crimes to get into office, while in office, or both. Most Americans, in this regard, are wrong, and it’s a tragic statement about both the way we teach American history in our schools and the way our corporate media deals with past presidential crimes. If previous Republican presidents had been held to account for their crimes the way it appears Trump is about to be, Trump may well have not been as brazen in everything from his violations of the Hatch Act to the Espionage Act to his explicitly asking Vladimir Putin to intervene in the 2016 election.

Trying to overthrow the government of the United States, however, may be another matter altogether. And that’s where Clarence’s wife Ginni may be vulnerable… Want to get Clarence Thomas off the Supreme Court? The best route to do so may be through his wife, Ginni. There’s history here, and it’s really worth knowing.

Turn on a light, the old saying goes, and the cockroaches will scatter. It’s time to bring honest and unflinching light to the Republican Party’s use of the word “woke”… Ron DeSantis says he’s going to save America from “wokeness,” proclaiming to a Los Angeles fundraiser: “So in Florida, we say very clearly, we will never ever surrender to the woke mob. Our state is where woke goes to die.” Nikki Haley declares: “Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic, hands down.”

It’s time to tax the rich, be they individuals or giant corporations, if we want to restore the American middle class and return our nation to the vitality that was once normal… If we want a healthy, happy society in America, it’s not enough to just raise the top personal income tax bracket; we must also raise corporate taxes. Let me explain…

"Whoever has experienced the power and the unrestrained ability to humiliate another human being automatically loses his own sensations. Tyranny is a habit, it has its own organic life, it develops finally into a disease. The habit can kill and coarsen the very best man or woman to the level of a beast. Blood and power intoxicate . . . the return of the human dignity, repentance, and regeneration becomes almost impossible." —Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of the Dead

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Republican leadership declares a new war on Social Security and Medicare. — Clarence Thomas was the deciding vote on behalf of giant real estate developers like his “friend” and benefactor Harlan Crow. — Can the GOP ever win an election honestly? — Manchin and Sinema join forces with Republicans to screw people with student debt. — Doorbell spying: Did you think I was exaggerating when I wrote The Hidden History of Big Brother? — Scientists say our planet is seriously ill. — Good News! The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that renewable energy will beat fossil fuel development worldwide this year for the first time in history. — Geeky science: don't eat junk food if you want a good night’s sleep!

We did it before, and the result was the creation of the world’s first and largest middle class and a level of peace and prosperity that held its own until Ronald Reagan took a meat-axe to it… “Succession” is over, but spoiled, entitled billionaire man-children are still very much with us, running social media companies, owning newspapers and television networks, and funding politicians and judges who then keep their taxes low and regulations minimal. America’s billionaires (and soon to be trillionaires) pay an average of around 3.1 percent as their functional income tax rate; as a result, America is the most unequal developed society in the world. The last time severe poverty and extravagant wealth coexisted in such extremes as today in this country was during the 1920s and 1930s.