Hartmann Report

When you compare Trump’s cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has swindled out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker. The title of Maggie Haberman’s new book about Donald Trump is “Confidence Man” and, truth be told, Trump has been a con man his entire life. Haberman documents it all in excruciating detail. But when you compare Trump’s cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has conned out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker. He played his role in that GOP con, of course, setting up the very richest Americans to get more billions of dollars a year in tax breaks for the foreseeable future, but he’s a Johnny-come-lately to the GOP game.

It’s all in the message and it’s repetition, but if you don’t engage a topic, put it at the top of your 3-item list, and relentlessly pound on it - it’s as if it doesn’t exist. Republicans are pulling ahead in the polls right now because of the issues of the economy, crime, and homelessness, according to a new New York Times/Siena College poll published just yesterday. More than a year ago, I wrote about this very danger in an article titled, “A Crime Wave Could Take Down the Democrats in 2022” (among others). Democrats must start addressing crime and homelessness right now, and the most effective way to pull it off is to fold it into a holistic message that includes two more issues — say, the economy/inflation and the environment — so that they’re making use of “the rule of threes.”

History shows that letting dictators get away with land grabs & genocidal attacks on nearby nations leads not to peace but to even worse wars than stopping that activity early would have done. History shows that letting dictators get away with land grabs & genocidal attacks on nearby nations leads not to peace but to even worse wars than stopping that activity early would have done. This morning the strongman dictator of Russia used 28 "Kamikaze" drones supplied by the theocratic dictators of Iran to attack the democracy of Ukraine's capitol, Kyiv. Some of my tragically misguided former colleagues and guests on the left are joining with the most virulent Trump-humpers and Orbán/Putin-lovers on the right in calling for Ukraine to simply surrender a fifth of their country to Russia in exchange for "peace." (As if giving other people's sovereign land to violent dictators has ever led to peace.) What these people on both political sides are missing is the power of democracy itself to prevent wars, along with the certainty that oligarchy and autocracy, in their end-stages, so often lead to war.

Our vote is the most important part of the American commons. The commons are those realms that we all own and jointly administer through our government. They include our air and water; our roads and skyways; the frequency spectrum we use for communication, radio, and television; our public school system; our military, police, and fire departments; the agencies we use to ensure the safety and quality of our food and medications; the systems and laws that keep people playing the game of business within legal boundaries; our jails and prisons; our oceans and public lands; and our social safety net—among other things.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Were other senior officials in the administration conspiring with Trump to end American democracy? — The Fed's rate hikes are not working: is that because our inflation is not being caused by an "overheated economy" but instead, at least in significant part, by the confluence of supply chain issues, corporate greed, and the price of oil? — Fake news is poisoning America. — Are Putin's agents trying to "clean up on aisle 5"? — Rightwing power continues unabated in America as experts warn about violence that may come along with our elections next month. — Crazy Alert! Don't mess with Nancy Pelosi! — Good News! Seniors are getting a raise starting in January. — More good news! Representatives Pocan and Khanna have introduced the "Save Medicare Act" in the House of Representatives.

Corruption never backs down - As long as the fraudulent Citizens United Supreme Court decisions are allowed to stand, fascism stands just within the outer hallways of our system of government. Could it be that American oligarchs and politicians are working with hostile foreign governments and greedy corporations to increase inflation, screw average Americans, and thus meddle in the upcoming elections? We all know how Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United have let corporations legally corrupt our nation’s politicians. But what if the flow of corruption is working both ways, and some of our politicians are also calling the tune that some corporations — and even foreign governments — are playing to with regard to our economy and other issues?

It’s past time for the fossil fuel industry to face the same type of courtroom reckoning the tobacco industry did in the late 1990s and Alex Jones faced yesterday. The victims of Alex Jones’ lies about the Sandy Hook slaughter of their children were just awarded about a billion dollars by a jury of his peers. Jones made tens (perhaps hundreds) of millions peddling lies leading to years of stalking, harassment, and emotional torture of the families of the children who died. Which raises a vital question: When will the victims of oil companies’ lies — which have led to far more deaths than happened that terrible day in Connecticut — get their day in court? There’s an amazing backstory here.

The GOP has no unifying philosophy other than hate, fear, and kowtowing to billionaires and their giant corporations; the people who make up its governing class are similarly fractured. US News and World Report has a story about how the fringe has become the mainstream in the Republican Party. The headline of their story says it all: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Rises From GOP Fringe to Front.” The backstory here is fascinating and grim. The GOP is no longer a normal political party with a single governing philosophy: instead, it’s become a coalition of interest groups, each seeking its own ends. How did we get here, and where will this crisis of political governance lead America?

Shameless radical religious leaders are breaking the law while living off you and me - It’s time to cut them off from the “free lunch” of tax exemption. For Republicans, the purpose of religion is — as it has been for authoritarians since Old Testament days — political and social control. It’s not about spirituality: it’s all about raw, naked, taxpayer-subsidized power and the wealth associated with it. A Michigan county Republican Party just posted a video showing picture after picture of that state’s Democratic politicians, starting with Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who rightwing terrorists have already tried to kidnap and murder. Under each picture — including a picture of George Soros representing, presumably, the “International Jews” who Republican politicians suggest wield space lasers and secretly are trying to control the world — reads the death threat, in bold, all-caps: “GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN!”

Republicans always work against middle class people, worsen poverty, and direct all their efforts and opportunities toward the top 10 percent (and, particularly, the top 1 percent) of Americans. A middle class, when mishandled, can be a powerful and fearsome thing, as the rulers of Iran and Russia are discovering. Both regimes are now teetering on the edge of collapse because of popular uprisings that would not have happened without a middle-class in each country. People paralyzed by grinding poverty rarely revolt — it takes a lot to produce “barrio uprisings” — because their lives are consumed with day-to-day survival issues. But when people are prosperous enough that they’ve left behind the most severe economic insecurity — believing they’ll always find another home, job, or can get into another university — they begin to demand a responsive government and will rise in protest when it fails to meet their demands. Republicans have been warning about this since the 1950s, although not in the way you may think.