Hartmann Report

Today, things are even worse than in FDR’s time. “The top 1 percent of families captured 58 percent of total real income growth per family from 2009 to 2014,” wrote economist Emmanuel Saez for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. In large part, the concentration of both wealth and income has come about in the era since the Reagan presidency and the introduction of “Reaganomics.” In the 40 years prior to Reagan, income and wealth among working people was growing at a faster rate than it was for the top 1%. Since Reaganomics was instituted—a system within which we’re still operating— the wealth and income of the top 1% has exploded.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab. — Quote of the Day, “One thing. I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing. One. That I can go campaign on and say we did,” Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy said. “One!” Is he watching my show? — How Mike Johnson got played. — Is a national abortion ban coming? — Coming to a Republican-controlled town near you? Murfreesboro Tennessee outlaws being gay. — Why the Washington Post published graphic images of mass shootings. — Crazy Alert! The “QAnon Queen” threatens locals with public execution as she abandons tiny town....say what?!

There are few Americans alive today who remember Hitler, the details are lost to the mists of time. But Donald Trump is bringing it all back to us with a fresh, stark splash of reality… The Nazis in America are now “out.” This morning, former Republican Joe Scarborough explicitly compared Trump and his followers to Hitler and his Brownshirts on national television. They’re here. At the same time, America’s richest man is retweeting antisemitism, rightwing influencers and radio/TV hosts are blaming “Jews and liberals” for the “invasion” of “illegals” to “replace white people,” and the entire GOP is embracing candidates and legislators who encourage hate and call for violence. Are there parallels between the MAGA takeover of the GOP and the Nazi takeover of the German right in the 1930s?

Preply did a national survey of Gen Zers that was published last month & found that more than half of them were seriously interested in or actively considering permanently moving out of America.. Young Americans have a resource those of us who came of age before the late 1990s lacked: instant and easy access to information about people and life in other countries. Between the Internet and social media, Gen Zers have a better understanding of what life is actually like overseas, and they’re liking what they’re seeing. Or, put another way, they’re looking around at America and not liking what they’re seeing. The language tutoring site Preply did a national survey of over 3,000 Gen Zers, published last month, and found that more than half of them are seriously interested in, or actively considering, permanently moving out of the United States. For a bit over a quarter of them, the main attraction of living in the UK, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Ireland, or Italy (the top 10) was free or low-cost access to healthcare and higher education.

Why won’t Congress act? Because they’re on the take. Courtesy of Citizens United and its predecessors voted into law by five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court… “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” — Frédéric Bastiat (French economist)

What baffles me is why a TV news host who earns $2.9m a year would go to such lengths to avoid even mentioning a solution that’s been signed onto repeatedly by virtually every Democrat for decades? Why did NBC’s Kristen Welker use an incomplete frame for her question about Social Security at last week’s GOP debate, and why didn’t Lester Holt or anybody else correct her? Here’s her question: KRISTEN WELKER: “Americans could see their Social Security benefits drastically cut in the next decade because the program is running out of money. Former President Trump has said quote, ‘Under no circumstances should Republicans cut entitlements.’ Governor Christie, first to you, you have proposed raising the retirement age for younger Americans. What would that age be specifically, and would you consider making any other reforms to Social Security?” The simple reality is that if a person earns $160,200 a year or less, they pay a 6.2% tax on all of their income. In other words, a person making exactly $160,200 pays $9,932.40 (6.2%) in Social Security taxes.

Americans love freedom: it’s in our political DNA. Can democrats reclaim the political high ground while forcing Republicans to defend their increasingly fascistic and death-promoting policies? Democrats must embrace a 21st century “Freedom Agenda.” Last week I wrote about how important it is for Democrats to reclaim “law and order” as their own by embracing a non-racist community-oriented model of law enforcement and rebuilding the services available to the mentally ill and homeless that were gutted by Reagan, Bush, and Trump. This is part two in a series about Reclaiming American Values. As much as Americans want the safety and security of law and order, they want freedom even more. The challenge is in defining that word and applying it as a brand to a political party.

On April 20, 1938, the Associated Church Press—a group of reporters for religious magazines and newspapers—met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC. One of their first questions was, “I would like to ask you, how great is the danger of fascism in this country? We hear about fascism-baiting in the United States.” FDR’s answer was blunt, and it reveals a lot to us today of how Americans thought of “fascist” enterprises back in that day. “I think there is danger,” he replied to the question, “because every time you have the breaking down or failure of some process we have been accustomed to for a long time, the tendency is for that process, because of the breakdown, to get into the hands of a very small group.”

The Best of the Rest of the News. — If Trump gets a second term, be worried. And if a bunch of third-party candidates like Joe Manchin & Jill Stein jump with the goal of eroding the Democratic vote, be really worried... — Speaker Mike Johnson wants to end your right to birth control and, by the way, Ohio Republicans claim they’re going to ignore the state’s constitution and prosecute doctors and women who get abortions. — Will the Senate Judiciary Committee ever vote on issuing subpoenas to billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow and conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo? — Tommy Tuberville really is Trump’s useful idiot, performing Trump’s retribution against a military he believes confounded his coup and preparing the groundwork for his takeover in 2025. — Could the Swifties be the tipping point for Democrats in 2024? — World population hits 8 billion and we're all living on ancient sunlight. — Geeky Science! Only do what you’re good at, and don’t feel guilty about not being able to do what you’re bad at. — Crazy Authoritarian Alert! Is Trump thinking about Tucker Carlson for VP?

This begs a bigger question, "Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?" With a government shutdown looming a week from today, the House of Representatives adjourned yesterday for the weekend after Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson failed to get a successful vote on two essential funding bills. One, a transportation bill, would have gutted Amtrak, so a few east coast Republicans objected; the other, funding government operations and oversight of banks, went down in flames because it had a draconian anti-abortion provision built into it and Tuesday’s election appears to have spooked the GOP. Just a week earlier, Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott — who became a near billionaire running a company convicted of the largest ($1.7 billion) Medicare fraud in American history and hails from Ron DeSantis’ home state — endorsed Donald Trump. These stories are connected, and answer the question: “Why have Republicans in the House and Senate become so unable or unwilling to do the nation’s business?”