Hartmann Report

If we want to get crime under control and restore social cohesion to our society, we must also tackle inequality - and that means taxing the morbidly rich. Monday I wrote to you about how Democrats must engage with the topic of crime; that same day the Washington Post documented how the GOP intends to use crime as their major wedge issue in this November’s election. But the conversation does us a disservice if it’s limited to crime and punishment: we must consider what is driving crime and the social breakdown of which it’s a symptom.

It’s time to re-normalize taxes on the morbidly rich (and leave them where they are on working class people) so we can again have a growing economy and a prosperous middle class. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says he’s going to cut taxes for Floridians. The Florida legislature isn’t meeting again until March of next year, which is when governors typically roll out new proposals, but, hey, he’s heading into a make-it-or-break-it election against former Florida Governor Charlie Crist in six weeks. In West Virginia, Republican Governor Jim Justice proposed a 10% cut in income taxes, and in Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parsons is pushing an end altogether to progressive taxation, replacing the sliding scale with a flat tax that will hit middle-income people hardest.

How the science of the Big Lie & propaganda works to the GOP’s advantage. Donald Trump is still insisting he won the 2020 election, despite having lost by about 7 million votes and being wiped out in the Electoral College. Science, it turns out, is on his side. Not the science of elections: the science of propaganda. New findings from psychologists at universities in California and Georgia and published in the journal Cognitive Research show that the more often a statement — regardless of its truthfulness — is repeated, the more emphatically it’s believed.

When citizens begin doing the police department’s work & neighborhoods are hiring private security because police don’t respond - It's a crisis for the GOP to exploit. The headline/subhead for the top story in today’s Washington Post is: “GOP strategy elevates clashes over crime, race in midterm battlegrounds “Republicans are increasingly centering their pitch to voters in the midterms on crime, prompting growing accusations of racism from some Democrats, but also worries that the attacks could resonate” It will work. Here’s why.

For some people, particularly the young and the old, the local mall or big-box retailer or superstore is an important part of their social lives. They get exercise by walking up and down the aisles, greet friends they see only there, and have a special and often inexpensive meal. They notice what's on sale and what's new in stock, making both intentional purchases and the occasional impulse buy. Are Superstores and Malls "the New Downtown"?

Saturday Report 9/24/22 - Guess Who Is Showering Money Down on the "Big Lie" Candidates for the Midterms? Thom plus logo The Best of the Rest of the News. — The MAGAT (Make America Great Again Trump) House Republicans yesterday released their new "plan" to screw working class Americans if they regain power this November. — Is the Russia/Ukraine Crisis About to Come to a Head? What's Going to Happen? — The Internet solves Trump's new racial slur against NY AG Letitia James. — America's richest man jumps into the newest way to screw working class Americans: jack up housing prices while profiting off inflated rents. — Billionaires are pouring money into campaigns for "semi-fascist" election-denier Republicans this fall. — In Good News: A new poll shows that Ron DeSantis is now trailing Charlie Crist for Florida Governor this fall. — Geeky Science: Blueberries can reverse cognitive decline in elderly people? — Crazy Alert! On Hannity, Donald Trump alleges that when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lardo, they were actually looking for "Hillary's missing emails."

So much money is sloshing around in our political system that honest politicians are buried and actual criminals are stepping up. Republicans in the Senate yesterday killed legislation passed through the House that would require “dark money” to be publicly disclosed: not a single Republican voted for it, although every Democrat in attendance did. Ralph Reed’s Faith & Freedom Coalition, we learned Wednesday, is going to spend $42 million on the midterm elections, focusing on flipping evangelical Hispanics toward the GOP.

The idea of America as a true “land of opportunity” is anathema to their ideal of a nation of “classes and orders” where every person knows their place and morbidly rich white men are in charge. A new report finds that DeSantis’ Florida will, this 2022-2023 school year, move $1.3 billion in taxpayer money originally destined for public schools to private schools. This will gut the public school budgets across the state by roughly 10 percent. Florida is not unique in this: it’s happening all across the nation. Public education in America is in a crisis and has been for some time. It’s a crisis Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to make worse.

Cults of personality in governance have the Great Leader’s face and sayings splashed all over public places. Think Mao’s China, Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s Germany, Kim's North Korea... Donald Trump has built a cult around himself. This is dangerous to America and dangerous to democracy. Cults of personality in governance are broadly incompatible with democracy. They usually erupt in dictatorships where the Great Leader’s face and sayings are splashed all over public places. Think Mao’s China, Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s Germany, Kim’s North Korea. On a smaller scale and in a different context, we see how destructive such personality cults can be with the deaths around Jim Jones’ Jonestown, David Koresh’s Branch Davidians, and Charles Manson’s Family. This is what Donald Trump aspires to.

Voting for Republicans is, tragically, voting against America -- It’s really just that simple. Last week a very reasonable sounding fellow called into my show and said, essentially, “I voted twice for Trump and would again. Why do you think I’m a threat to America?” We ended up debating tax policy and I never did fully answer his question (I’m a sucker for “reasonable”), so here’s my shot at it. *Trump and the GOP are endorsing Tucker Carlson’s “Great Replacement Theory” that argues, in most of its various iterations, that wealthy international Jews (“George Soros”) are collaborating with Black and Hispanic people to replace white people at all levels of society.