Hartmann Report

In 1982 a study of America’s five hundred largest corporations reported that “23 percent of them had been convicted of a major crime or had paid more than $50,000 in penalties for serious misbehavior during the previous decade.” If Corporations Are Persons, Why Aren’t Their Crimes in the Statistics?

The Best of the Rest of the News. — In the past 11 years, Republican gun policy has killed over 26,000 American children. — Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court choose voter suppression over democracy. — Now that DeSantis has brought to Florida the requirement for students and professors to register their sense of political freedom on campus with the state, will the GOP try to pass similar laws nationally? — A Canadian study has found that US cops are five times more likely (per capita) to kill a citizen than Canadian cops. — Only 5 percent of Republicans — having marinated in 4 years of lies and attacks on the press by Trump — say they trust American news; six times as many Democrats say they trust the news. — The Supreme Court's Dobbs decision striking down Roe v Wade is now putting the lives of women with lupus, severe arthritis, and cancer at risk. — Russia is betting that if the GOP takes control of the House of Representatives or the Senate this fall, their loyal Republicans will kill US support for Ukraine. Representative Matt Gaetz confirms that's the plan. — Speaking of Russia, the Financial Times (subscription required) is reporting that they're intentionally targeting Ukrainian hospitals and healthcare facilities to worsen the chaos their indiscriminate shelling of civilians is causing. — Crazy Alert! Women cause mass shootings, not guns, according to Fox "News." — Special bonus story: Gavin Newsome all but announces he wants to run against Ron DeSantis for president in 2024

If DeSantis — an authoritarian who’s even followed Il Duce’s lead in creating a private police force answerable only to himself — becomes president, George Washington’s nightmare could become true. I just got an alarming email from Ron DeSantis. More about that in a moment. Historians and political observers have been predicting that America would get our very own Mussolini ever since the days of Barry Goldwater. And there’s been no shortage of candidates: bribe-taking Nixon; Central American fascist-loving Reagan; Gitmo torturing and war-lying Bush; and, of course, Trump. But with Ron DeSantis, we may finally be facing an all-American politician who has Mussolini’s guile, ruthlessness, and willingness to see people die (from Covid or lack of medical care/Medicaid) to advance his political career, all while being smart and educated enough to avoid the easily satirized buffoonishness of Trump.

It turns out that America actually does have an issue with “cancel culture” but, the media has been focusing on the wrong one. Republicans are all about canceling things: you could call it GOP Cancel Culture. Most recently, for example, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is trying to cancel the First Amendment, requiring university teachers and students to register their political perspectives with the state. He has, in his rush to run for president in 2024, achieved a pinnacle of success, a victory of sorts, within the newest iteration of Republican Cancel Culture.

For much of the past four decades, climate activists have been warning us that we’re approaching tipping points that will alter how Americans live - now we’re there. There’s a new study out about climate change — and our new climate normal — that is truly shocking and, for those of us concerned about future generations, alarming. The lead researcher’s first name is Cassandra, no doubt an unintentional choice in the paper’s authors’ pecking order, but still. For much of the past four decades, climate activists have been warning us that we’re approaching tipping points and thresholds that will alter how Americans live, cost us a fortune, and kill thousands of Americans every year. Now we’re there. Our “normal” climate is dead; the weather has gone insane, and it is killing Americans and millions of people all around the globe.

Civil society requires that its citizens feel safe in public spaces; destroy that generalized sense of safety and you will radically warp public opinion to the right. Yesterday was, by some media counts, the 309th terrorist mass shooting in America so far this year. No other country in the world experiences this so often or so severely. Civil society requires that its citizens feel safe in public spaces; destroy that generalized sense of safety and you will radically warp public opinion to the right (which promises safety and “tough on crime”) while producing a whole new generation of safe-space destroyers.

The future of our nation is now at risk just as much as it was in 1800, only this time it’s a radicalized Supreme Court that’s hell-bent on rewriting the American social and legal compact. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1:9 In that famous verse, Solomon could have been writing about the Republicans who control today’s Supreme Court. Having helped blow up the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch now want to dial the First Amendment back to 1798.

"You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessings." —President Andrew Jackson It costs money to run a government, and the more you want the government to do, the more it usually costs. One point to consider is how much do we want our government to do? Another is, who should pay for it?

Saturday Report 6/2/22 - Can a Flu Shot Reduce Your Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease by 40%? Thom plus logo The Best of the Rest of the News. — This weekend we celebrate the Founding generation successfully fighting a Revolutionary War against what several identified as the rich, theocrats, and warlord kings. — Polling shows that Trump beats all comers, including DeSantis, in a Republican primary as speculation swirls that he may announce a 2024 run for president this 4th of July weekend. — This Supreme Court is committed to remaking America in the vision of the rightwing billionaires who paid for it. — Texas educators are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place when it comes to teaching the history of slavery in that state. — Tucker Carlson is two-timing Orbán for Bolsonaro, his newest favorite strongman wannabee dictator. — Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law took effect this past week and schools are rolling out restrictions on teachers wearing rainbows, blocking discussion in class of same-sex parents, and forcing teachers to notify parents if they think a child may be dressing or behaving in a way that’s not “traditional” for their gender. — Arizona is doubling down on the GOP war on public education wit a new “universal voucher” law that gives $7000 a year to families who pull their kids out of public schools and put them into for-profit private, religious, or all-white rightwing schools. — Worries about the economy are spreading, according to polling. — Geeky Science! Can a flu shot reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s Disease by as much as 40 percent? — Crazy Alert! Rudy Giuliani was offended when Cassidy Hutchison testified this past week that he’d sought a pardon from former President Trump.

This scenario isn’t just plausible: it’s probable. GOP-controlled states are already changing their state laws to allow for it, regardless of how their people vote. Six Republicans on the Supreme Court just announced — a story that has largely flown under the nation’s political radar — that they’ll consider pre-rigging the presidential election of 2024.