Hartmann Report

Whether it’s Barbie or the Trump prosecutions that have brought about what feels like the a sea-change in the American zeitgeist — or the combination of them both around the same time — I’ll take it! Have you noticed Americans are beginning to reject hate? Trump’s popularity — even among Republicans — is dropping like a stone, and parents are beginning to show up in large numbers at school board meetings to talk back to bigots and haters. MSNBC and CNN are filled with Republicans who have rejected Trump and hate. Increasingly, pastors are speaking out against Trump and hate. Trump called for huge protests at his arraignments, but only a handful of people showed up, and the Wall Street Journal is calling for Republican presidential candidates to organize themselves in a way that will prevent Trump from becoming the GOP’s nominee again.

There’s a deeper truth here: the Trump/MAGA faction of the GOP hasn't just committed electoral crimes -- they've declared war on democracy itself... While it may be satisfying to call Trump and his enablers “fascists,” there’s a deeper truth here, with which America must come to terms: the Trump/MAGA faction of the GOP has declared war on democracy itself. Funded by rightwing billionaires who, themselves, view democracy as an inconvenient pain-in-the-ass and — when Democrats talk about them “paying their fair share” — an actual threat, these MAGA Republicans have also joined forces with wealthy international elements dedicated to ending democracy all around the world. They’re supported by a media machine itself largely created by rightwing billionaires — Murdoch’s Fox “News,” over 1500 rightwing radio stations, and think-tanks and publications based in every state in the union — dedicated to tearing down democracy in our country and promoting the interests of oligarchs, the fossil fuel industry, and autocrats. They gin up suspicion of racial, religious, and gender minorities to replace the natural distrust working class people have historically had of corporate bosses and the morbidly rich.

Why are Republicans across the nation insisting that the country’s most severe problems are teaching Black History and trans kids wanting to be recognized for who they are? There’s a popular internet meme going around that says: “Say you’re in a room with 400 people. Thirty-six of them don’t have health insurance. Forty-eight of them live in poverty. Eighty-five are illiterate. Ninety have untreated mental illnesses. And every day, at least one person is shot. But two of them are trans, so you decide ruining their lives is your top priority.”

We can’t afford any more George W. Bush’s or Donald Trump’s, who were both brought to us by Democratic-leaning voters thinking they were doing the right thing by voting for third party candidates... One of the most fashionable statements these days among progressive-leaning voters who pretend to great political insight is: “I want to vote for the person I like the most, not some party or candidate that I only half-agree with.” Its corollary is: “You’re just trying to get me to vote Democratic because you support that party’s corruption. I won’t be intimidated: I’m going to vote for the best person to run the country!”

What if Hunter’s laptop and Jared’s billions are all part of the same story of a handful of petro states trying to end American democracy? So, Hunter Biden gets a special prosecutor and Jared Kushner gets three billion dollars from hostile foreign governments. What’s wrong with this picture?

A lot of the people who keep a gun at home for safety are the same ones who refuse to wear a seat belt. —George Carlin

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The co-founder of the Federalist Society and two other Federalist members agree that Trump is already disqualified from running for or holding public office. — Ex-Trumpster horrified by plot to have the military turn their guns on Americans. — Does America need a Psychological Defense Agency? — As I pointed out on the air two weeks ago, the Hunter Biden thing is a Russian disinformation operation. — Are “Christians” trying to remove Jesus because he was too liberal? — And speaking of religion — is the GOP really invoking the Bible to defend Abbott's “barbaric” razor wire & circular saw buoys? — Clarence Thomas took 38 vacations — or should we call them bribes — from his and Ginni’s billionaire sugar daddies. — White locals won't let a Black mayor be mayor after he was elected. — Geeky Science! Wow: the world’s largest study on walking shows that the more you walk, the longer you live. — Crazy Alert! Will AI replacing psychics and tarot readers?

An increasingly desperate GOP is doing this because they know their policies are unpopular: racism, pollution, privatizing Medicare, ending Social Security, criminalizing abortion, etc. If you live in the Blue part of a Red state, Republicans don’t want you to vote. And their latest strategy is their most brute-force method: simply remove you from the voting rolls. A shocking new study from Demos lays out the dimensions of this voter purge crisis of democracy brought to us by an increasingly desperate GOP.

No former president in American history has encouraged such violence or tried to inspire stochastic terrorism. Outside of the Confederacy, no politician has worked so hard to tear America apart... Yesterday morning at 6:15 am Provo time, Craig Robertson was shot and killed by the FBI after posting to Facebook that he was going to assassinate President Biden during his trip this week to Utah. Had the FBI not stopped him, he may well have pulled it off: he had a high-tech sniper rifle and apparently knew how to use it. The shoot-out he started with FBI agents trying to arrest him, if nothing else, was a tell. This, I believe, is exactly what Donald Trump wants.

How far can a political party take trolling as its main way of motivating voters before it turns into something like the fascist parties of Europe in the 1930s or modern-day Russia and Hungary? So, Donald Trump says that if Judge Tanya Chutkan orders him not to reveal details of the prosecution’s case before they can be presented to a jury, including the names, addresses, and testimony of witnesses against him, he’s going to do it anyway and challenge the court. And there’s little reason to believe he won’t do it: he’ll take what he’s asserting as his First Amendment right to troll and threaten witnesses against him all the way to the Supreme Court he packed with three rightwing crackpots. If nothing else, it may buy him enough time to get elected president and pardon himself before he’s convicted. In this, Trump has raised vicious social media trolling into a form of electoral performance art. He’s become our troll-in-chief.