Hartmann Report

What motivates Republicans to say they’re for the “little guy” when the only policies they'll pursue are to cut taxes for the rich, gut unions, destroy public schools & ship jobs overseas? Republicans are about to seize control of the US House of Representatives, where the Constitution says all taxation and spending must originate. And the result won’t be difficult to predict.

A book review for the New Year. On this first day of the New Year, I’m pausing the serialization of Threshold for a weekend to share with you one of the most important books in my life. I’ve treasured Markings since I first discovered it in the 1990s, and suspect it’ll become one of your favorites, too.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump's taxes may be the end of him. — Bernie Marcus, the Trump-humping DeSantis-supporting billionaire founder of Home Depot, wants you to know that Biden is "the worst president in history" and that "socialism" is destroying American businesses. — New research from the Fed suggests Republican Jay Powell's interest rate increases will provoke a recession this coming year. — After Trump, George Santos is the new GOP role model. — The fossil fuel industry's favorite Democrat, Joe Manchin, wants the US Treasury to "pause" tax credits and other incentives for Americans to buy electric vehicles. — Remember Senator Inhof's infamous and stupid "snowball stunt" to pathetically try to show there's no global warming? He now has competition for the idiot of the year award. — What could possibly go wrong with pouring radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean? — Crazy Alert! What do polluting cars, pornography, and small penises have to do with one another? — Geeky Science! Did Victorian-era Christian archeologists get mummification wrong?

It’s time to declare the 42-year Reagan Revolution’s neoliberal experiment a failure, and outlaw the stock manipulation that makes CEOs rich and impoverishes the rest of us. My radio/TV program and my daily Substack newsletter, Hartmann Report, together are a small business. The only way I can increase my income from that business is by increasing the advertising revenue to the show, getting more people signed up for the newsletter, or both. Build the business, in other words. Do the hard work every day. Keep my “customers” informed and thus happy: add value through research and share what I learn along the way.

In Title 42, Gorsuch plays the little boy who declared the emperor was wearing no clothes. Now, if only he’ll be consistent in applying his new understanding of the Court beyond just immigration... Apparently trying to prove the old cliché about broken clocks and twice a day, Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch defied his 5 Republican colleagues on the bench and authored an honest and factual dissent in this week’s Title 42 case. He came right out and said the Supreme Court shouldn’t be making policy.

Will the billionaires and corporations behind ALEC and other groups fighting racial, gender, income, and educational equality in America succeed? America is increasingly becoming two nations, a result of the Great Neoliberal Experiment playing out across the country since the start of Reaganism in 1981. One is made up of states representing modern democracy holding egalitarian values; the other has reverted to racist reaction, widespread indigence, and oligarchic ownership of state political systems.

Greed, one of the seven deadly sins, is both toxic to society and intrinsic to human nature. It can’t be ended or “stopped” -- but it can be regulated, which is the goal of good tax policy. In the late 1970s, the US Supreme Court, under the guidance of Justice Lewis Powell, decriminalized political bribery: specifically, in 1976 they legalized bribery of politicians by the morbidly rich and in 1978 they legalized bribery of politicians by corporations. With this newfound power to buy politicians and to shape American policy, CEOs and the very rich could have done anything. They could have ended childhood poverty. They could have made sure every American had a quality education at no cost. They could have given every American free, quality healthcare like in other developed nations.

Last Friday, with this recent bomb cyclone, 53.7% of the nation was covered in snow; more than any time since record-keeping began -- As the oil industry knowingly lies to us and rakes in profits. William Clay didn’t realize this was the weekend fossil fuel billionaires’ intentional actions would lead to his death, but that’s what happened. He died in Buffalo on his 56th birthday, Christmas Eve, and was found frozen to death about a mile from his house, attempting to walk home from the store.

"Too many people don’t know that when they harm the earth they harm themselves, nor do they realize when they harm themselves, they harm the earth" - Rolling Thunder (Cherokee, died 1997)

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The January 6th House Select Committee has issued its 845-page, eight-chapter report and it's a doozie — Omnibus bill passes, but MAGA Republicans are furious and promise revenge…against other Republicans. — Republican politics can kill you, according to Washington Post reporting on two massive peer-reviewed studies, one published by the British medical journal — Bernie claims a victory in the Omnibus bill that just passed. — Kaiser Health News reveals how badly privatized Medicare Advantage plans are ripping us all off, draining billions out of the Medicare trust fund and thus presumably speeding the demise of actual Medicare (my opinion, not expressed as theirs). — How to corrupt the news: give publishers big bucks to write glowingly about for-profit power utilities that are ripping off and poisoning their customers. — Geeky Science! Testosterone and narcissism interact in men to produce generosity.