Hartmann Report

Nearly every generation since this nation’s founding has seen forward progress toward the ideals that our Founders, and Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and other American leaders have declared. Until Now... Nations don’t just exist geographically; they also exist psychologically. Every nation has a story it tells itself about who and what it and its people are, how it came to be and the core values that brought that about, and its ultimate goals as it works toward its highest purpose. For most of American history, the story we told ourselves about America was that we were a good and decent people who were striving to achieve a government that drew its legitimacy from “the consent of the governed” and championed the values of the Enlightenment. Clearly we didn’t always live up to those standards: from slavery to the Native American genocide to our support for foreign dictators and overthrow of democratic republics, we’ve come from a pretty grim start and made a lot of terrible mistakes. But always, at the core of the American ideal, was that goal, that ideal, that we are dedicated to expanding human freedom and possibility for all.

Nobody in America should be without a home, and for society to work, housing costs must track incomes in a way that makes housing both available and affordable… San Diego recently banned tent camping in the city; the homeless just moved to a riverbed just outside town. West Palm Beach Florida has banned feeding homeless people; the penalty is a $500 fine and 60 days in the town jail. In Maryland, some school districts are trying to get around federal law that requires educating the children of homeless people. Nashville is making a good-faith effort to help some of their homeless, but the need is overwhelming them. Denver mayor Mike Johnson is trying to create micro-communities for homeless people, but getting pushback from residents. The same thing is happening here in Portland. Forty-two years into America’s Reaganomics experiment, homelessness has gone from a problem to a crisis. Rarely, though, do you hear that Wall Street — the prime beneficiary of Reagan’s deregulation campaign — is helping cause it.

“Wait a minute!” I can hear you saying. “Cutting taxes on rich people makes them richer, but cutting taxes on working class people cuts their pay? WTF?!?” It’s labor day, so let’s look at the radically different ways income tax cuts or increases affect working class people versus the morbidly rich. Over the past 40 years, Republicans have pulled off an incredible magic trick. They’ve convinced average working people that tax cuts benefit them when in fact the opposite is true. It all boils down to two simple principles, which are — unfortunately — a mystery to most Americans and ignored in both our political and media discussions of income taxes. 1. Income tax cuts for the morbidly rich raise a nation’s debt but do nothing else.

"He got his fat dreams, he got his slaves He got his profits, he owns our cage, He has his prisons, he has his gates He has his judges, they have our fate." —Richie Havens, “Fates”

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Will New Hampshire be the first state to ban Trump from the ballot? — Alabama’s Attorney General says he can level “criminal conspiracy” charges against anybody who helps a woman leave his state to obtain an abortion. — Who will fall for “No Labels” trap? Some are working behind the scenes to get Trump back into the White House. — Pharma-funded Republicans fight for the drug industry as Biden helps Medicare negotiate prices. — Surprise! Ramaswamy appears to be corrupt, too! And helped Pharma Bro make his money... — Was your home in Florida hit by a hurricane and you need new appliances? Ron DeSantis has a message for you. — Geeky Science! Idalia’s dreaded “rapid intensification” has become the norm for Gulf storms that feed off waters superheated by climate change. — Crazy Alert! Jesse Watters hosts a disgraced oil industry-funded scientist for his denial of climate change and attack on green energy.

The next time you hear some TV pundit proclaiming the “solution” to the “problem” of Mitch McConnell or Dianne Feinstein being in office too long, consider their real agenda... This week, for the second time in public, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “froze” for about a half-minute while taking questions from the press. It’s not known how many other times this has happened in more private settings, but twice in a few weeks in public has provoked a conversation about the wisdom of an 81-year-old serving in public office. Unfortunately, much of the discussion prompted by McConnell’s health issues have focused on term limits, the practice of putting a limit to the number of years or terms a politician may serve in public office.

The merger of billionaire wealth with Republican governance — the public be damned — threaten the integrity and future of the American experiment… As we learned from last week’s Republican debates, the leading candidates for the GOP nomination all appear to agree on a broad plan to gut American government and replace it with a strongman president and corporate rule. The modern administrative state, sometimes called the “welfare state” by Republicans, was largely created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Republican Great Depression of the early 1930s. And every day since FDR was sworn into office on March 4, 1933, the GOP has worked feverishly to dismantle his legacy. Outside of Russia, China, and Hungary, this isn’t true at all for the rest of the developed world.

They’re getting their way and now we have the perfect storm... Republican politicians and the rightwing billionaires who fund them want a nation of uneducated, compliant serfs in their workforce, not a nation of well-educated union-conscious people who are willing to strike to get better pay and benefits. Which means Job One is to get America’s kids out of the clutches of those evil unionized teachers. Education, after all, is a liberal value. The conservative vision is “quality education for the children of the wealthy, while ending child labor laws for all the rest.” And they’re getting their way.

“The researchers found that the particles had begun to bioaccumulate in every organ, including the brain, as well as in bodily waste.” It was one damn startling study: “The researchers found that the particles had begun to bioaccumulate in every organ, including the brain, as well as in bodily waste.” Thus reads a University of Rhode Island analysis of research on microplastics by a team of their scientists just published in the International Journal of Molecular Science. The URI team fed mice microplastics via drinking water at levels comparable to high levels of human exposure, and this week the university reported: “They found that microplastic exposure induces both behavioral changes and alterations in immune markers in liver and brain tissues. The study mice began to move and behave peculiarly, exhibiting behaviors akin to dementia in humans. The results were even more profound in older animals.” As always with pollutants, there’s a political aspect to the problem of microplastics. But first, let’s look at what these things are and why they should concern us.

Unless and until we understand the genesis of the chaos sweeping our nation, we’ll be helpless to stop it and its consequences… There’s a factor — a group of people, really— who are badly distorting America’s political dialogue because of their members’ individual need to create chaos, and there’s virtually no discussion of them in our media or among politicians. And if we don’t get a handle on this soon, they will do even more damage than they’ve already done. Part of the problem is that such voices and behavior — which had been largely marginalized or ignored throughout most of American history — have acquired a new force and power. Social media and the rise of a dishonest, billionaire-funded highly partisan rightwing media infrastructure — both relatively recent phenomena — have now amplified the reach and power of this element in our society and body politic.