Hartmann Report

If the continuous accumulation of wealth and the political power associated with it is a cancer in our economic, political, and social system, then the immune system that can take it on is an empowered middle class. A middle class that outnumbers both the rich and poor combined is a uniquely American invention. At our nation’s founding, the middle class made up the majority of free Americans, in part because land stolen from the Indians was so cheap, and free slave labor helped produce a general prosperity for white people. While the source of the American middle class in the 18th century may have been pernicious, the lesson for us today is how it produced a general economic, political, and social stability.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5° C target and say we’re heading for 2.5° C. Why isn’t this all over the media? — Vermont may become the first state to bill big oil for climate damage. — MAGA is already doubting the 2024 election. — Right-wing backlash around the world? — Chaplains could soon show up to “counsel” children in Florida public schools. — Good News Alert — Trump promised Wisconsin jobs, but he lied (surprise!); President Biden actually delivered them... — Crazy Alert! Republican Senator Katie Britt proposes a national registry of pregnant women. — Hunter in a Farmer’s World Alert: ADHD: The Conversational Power of Listening — Wisdom School Alert! Discovering How the World Really Is

The willingness to destroy our collective home in exchange for riches is one of the most extreme examples of greed run amok… "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed…" – Jesus (Luke 12:15) "My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy. I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy." – Donald Trump The Washington Post revealed yesterday that Donald Trump told a group of fossil fuel executives that if they'd give him a billion-dollar bribe, he'd use it to become president and then eliminate all of President Biden's environmental regulations and prevent any new ones from coming into law.

Even if Trump isn't put back into the White House this fall, the damage he's done to our nation's moral fabric will take at least a generation to heal... After just a bit more than a year of marriage and the recent birth of his youngest child, Donald Trump coerced Stormy Daniels into having sex with him by dangling a slot on Celebrity Apprentice and then physically blocking the exit from his hotel bedroom. Multiple other women have accused him of violent sexual assault, and he was also found by a court and jury to have sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll. And now he wants to again become president.

When it comes to seizing power, Republicans apparently believe the rule of law, and thus our democracy, is merely an inconvenient impediment to be brushed aside… The most powerful elected Republican in America declared war on the rule of law yesterday. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Congress, on behalf of wannabee "day one" dictator Donald Trump, is going to use every power available to him and his colleagues to nullify America's court system. "President Trump has done nothing wrong here and he continues to be the target of endless lawfare. It has to stop. And you're gonna see the United States Congress address this in every possible way that we can, because we need accountability. … All these cases need to be dropped, because they are a threat to our system."

Why are the GOP and billionaires so committed to gutting worker protections while increasing the wealth of the top one percent? Do elite Republicans and the CEOs who fund them hate working people? Or are they simply unable to control themselves, even when deep down inside they know they're ruining America?

The billionaires believe the GOP embrace of authoritarianism and oligarchy to replace the democracy that is increasingly rejecting them at the polls will keep them safe. They're wrong... The oligarchs are on the move, and they know who they want leading America. The RNC held an annual fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago this past weekend, attended by Republican senators and members of Congress, along with a few hundred morbidly rich individuals. Two donors paid $1 million to get up on stage to support Trump’s assertion that Jack Smith is a “fucking asshole,” “deranged,” and an “evil thug.” Trump added that Joe Biden is running a “Gestapo administration” and — in an astonishing bit of projection — is a “Manchurian candidate.”

Monopoly also produces extremes of inequality, and extreme inequality kills societies. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett of the Equality Trust in the UK have done extensive research on the topic, leading to two best-selling books and a brilliant website.51 They document in startling detail, going nation by nation and, in the United States, state by state, how inequality damages the lives of everybody except those who live in massive wealth bubbles at the top. It’s not the poverty that extreme inequality produces that does much of the damage. Instead, because we’re wired like all mammals to understand and perceive both fairness and unfairness, when we find ourselves in unfair situations, our interactions with the world and each other become distorted.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The New Republic is now publishing occasional content from Hartmann Report! — Republicans have handed America's wealth to the billionaires: where's the outrage? — Are Republican Supreme Court justices colluding With Trump to "catch and kill" his insurrection case? — Ankle monitors for pregnant women? Sure, Trump says, why not? — As bird flu spreads to chickens, cats, cattle and a dolphin, how concerned should we be? — Are Democrats finally standing up to Big Oil? — Bigot Alert: Republicans in Utah roll out a "snitch line" to turn in Trans people using public and school bathrooms in that state. — Hunter in a Farmer's World Alert! Is ADHD Useful in Our Workforce? — Wisdom School alert! Can mindfulness help in the workplace? — Crazy Alert! Local paper takes down Republican SD Governor Kristi Noem for lying about meeting Kim Jong Un.

The H5N1 "bird flu" is ripping across America, decimating bird flocks and even infecting a few humans and other mammals. Should we be concerned? The H5N1 "bird flu" is ripping across America, decimating bird flocks and even infecting a few humans and other mammals. Should we be concerned? Particularly since Trump is polling so well after he totally botched our response to Covid? Keep in mind, Trump shut down the offices of pandemic preparedness in the White House and NSC in 2017, leaving America vulnerable to Covid; in this week's TIME magazine interview he says if he becomes president again he'll repeat that performance by shutting down the new Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR) that Congress authorized in 2022.