Hartmann Report

Sadly, it’s clear that neither Bush nor Cheney will be held accountable for their lies and the blood and treasure they cost. Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s war against Iraq, which followed their illegal invasion of Afghanistan just a bit more than a year earlier. Given the costs of both these wars — and the current possibility of our being drawn deeper into conflict in both Ukraine and Taiwan — it’s an important moment to discuss our history of wars, both illegal and unnecessary and those that are arguably essential to the survival of democracy in the world.

It's now a certainty that the last legitimately elected Republican president who wasn’t a traitor to the United States was Eisenhower. In aggregate, this should be the biggest story in the media... It’s dizzying: in this one week we learn that there’s a witness to Reagan’s 1980 treason to seize the presidency, and that Donald Trump, who gave the Russians a spy in his first week in office (among other treasons), will be indicted for the crime that helped him avoid losing to Hillary Clinton. This is on top of Nixon’s well-documented treason with Vietnam and Bush’s explicit lies about Iraq. It's now a certainty that the last legitimately elected Republican president who wasn’t a traitor to the United States was Dwight D. Eisenhower. In aggregate, this should be the biggest story in the media.

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It is true, that in the meantime, we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war, and long oppressions of enormous public debt. …If the game runs sometimes against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost. For this is a game where principles are the stake." —Thomas Jefferson, writing about the conservative John Adams presidency

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Why Jerome Powell must go. — Trump continues to be funded by Putin? — Is Mark Meadow building a new school to train seditionists and white nationalists? — Rape survivors rail against Florida bill requiring "proof" of rape to get an abortion: "How Dare You?" — As the rail industry lobbies against a safety bill, two trains derailed in Arizona and Washington state. — Geeky Science! Is our perception of time driven by our heartbeat? — Crazy Alert! Trumpster Pastor thinks President Biden has been "replaced" by a body double & his proof is NUTS!!

The GOP needs a new slogan. Is there any area where Republicans will put the interests of life above making a buck or pandering to their base? I can’t find a single one… Because they oppose a woman having the right to terminate a pregnancy, Republicans claim to be the Party of Life. In fact, they’re the Party of Death. Seriously. Unless you’re white, straight, male, Christian, and morbidly rich, Republicans appear to want you and your children dead. In every instance, they will put a corporation or a rich white man’s making a buck over the life of anybody else. — Toxic waste kills people, but Republicans have worked for decades to cripple the EPA and other agencies’ ability to regulate it. Trump alone rolled back over 100 environmental regulations that protected families and children.

In the 1940s, Republicans appeasing a fascist dictator were led in the media by an ambitious young man named Charles Lindbergh; today’s GOP follows — and fears — Tucker Carlson. For Boris Johnson, a student of history, it must have been déjà vu all over again. The former British Prime Minister visited Republicans — his “fellow conservatives” — on Capitol Hill a few weeks ago and came away shocked that so many were rooting for Putin to crush the Ukrainian democracy and take over the largest country in Europe, much as Hitler did with Poland in 1939. When asked later in the week at a meeting at The Atlantic Council how NATO and the West should respond to Russian disinformation and propaganda campaigns, Johnson was blunt about his meetings with GOP lawmakers.

Now is the time for Republicans to show the courage of Mandy Connell and loudly and publicly leave their party. As Germans learned by the late 1930s, if they don’t act now it may soon be too late... Following the January 6th insurrection and coup attempt, The New York Times documented hundreds of thousands of Republicans across America leaving their party by going to the effort of changing their party registration. Most, like Republican strategist Stuart Stevens, say it’s because of the hate. Particularly since the rise of Trump in 2015, but certainly dating back to Trump’s 2008 Birther conspiracy theory — and with the seeds planted in Richard Nixon’s 1968 Southern Strategy — hate has become the rotted core of the GOP. Hate of queer people; hate of college professors; hate of Black people; hate of immigrants; hate of public school teachers and books; hate of Hispanics; hate of drag queens; hate of liberals; hate of American history; hate of Asians; hate of “woke” and other terms to describe tolerance and compassion. Hate has become the primary driving force within today’s Republican Party.

America has an entirely new type of slum we haven’t seen here since the 1930s, the product of 42 years of the Reagan Revolution. We call them “tent cities” & roadsides lined with old RVs and cars… Louise and I got home Saturday from a week with extended family in Central America. On the drive from our rented vacation condo by the Pacific Ocean back to the airport, we passed miles of slums or barrio bajos. Some homes were made from scavenged cinderblock and brick, but most were scrap wood and cardboard with tarps as roofs. Along the rudimentary streets ran ditches filled with raw sewage, and electricity was hijacked from streetlights. Back in the 1980s, when I was doing international relief work for the German-based Salem organization, I spent months in such places in Uganda, Peru, Kenya, Colombia, Mexico, southern Sudan, Ecuador, Peru, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and several other “Third World” countries. At that time, four decades ago, the “slums” in America looked like high-quality housing compared to those countries, with most having electricity, running water, and reliable sewer systems. But no longer: America has an entirely new type of slum we haven’t seen here since the 1930s, the product of 42 years of the Reagan Revolution. We call them “tent cities,” along with their more upscale neighbors: roadsides lined with old RVs and cars in which desperate or hopeless people live.

As we learned from the Iroquois, working on behalf of and protecting society from greedy predators should be the first job of every government… The failure of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) shows us, once again, that unrestrained greed isn’t good. For even modest greed to have a positive effect in society, it must be regulated. The CEO of SVB didn’t like the regulations imposed after the 2008 financial meltdown by Congress’ Dodd-Frank legislation, and spent over a half-million dollars bribing…er, influencing…legislators (legalized by 5 Republicans on the Supreme Court) to change the law and exempt his and other smaller, regional banks from what he argued was the heavy hand of government. While SVB and other smaller banks were generally prosperous and profitable, many wanted to escape from the regulations Congress imposed to protect both depositors and the economy, so they spread some money around Washington DC. Donald Trump then enthusiastically signed the deregulation of smaller banks like SBV into law in 2018.

"Crossing the Threshold Boldly dared is well nigh won! Half my task is solved aright; Ev’ry star’s to me a sun, Only cowards deem it night." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “To the Chosen One” (1797)