Hartmann Report

Sunday book excerpt: The Hidden History of the War on Voting. Outside of Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan (and a hedge fund guy), just about all American billionaires are white. And while their white privilege helped most of them to become billionaires in the first place, for the politically active billionaires on the right, it’s their money that they care about the most.

Today is the day to celebrate peace and wonderful memories... One-hundred-four years ago today, November 11th, 1919 at 11 am, an armistice was declared to end World War I, known then as “The Great War.” An armistice is a peace agreement, and Armistice Day was, for decades, celebrated here as the day when “the war to end all wars” was over and peace would, humanity hoped, reign worldwide. A national holiday in France, it’s still celebrated that way, as Armistice Day, as well as in Canada and across Europe, although we’ve renamed the holiday twice here in the US and some countries call it Remembrance Day.

Republican policies have already created crises that challenge our very survival as a species - will these crises be solved by Zoomers? The pundits are mystified by Tuesday’s election outcome: they were certain a red wave was on its way. They missed the Zoomers. They missed the Fourth Turning. It’s been 76 years since the Silent Generation birthed the first Boomers after World War II in 1946. That’s exactly four times nineteen years per generation (4 x 19 = 76).

In democracy, the people choose their leaders; in fascism, The Leader chooses his people. The elections appear to be a mixed bag, with young people and women, in particular, rejecting the rightwing Supreme Court Dobbs abortion decision. The early youth vote in Wisconsin, for example was 360% higher than in 2018 according to Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. It’s a good start toward returning sanity to our nation, although even in Wisconsin that state’s House, Senate, and delegation to the US House of Representatives all remain in Republican hands because of massive gerrymandering. And Donald Trump says he’s going to make a “major announcement” next week. If Republicans seize control of the House — as it appears they will do when all the election results are in — the January 6th Committee will be shut down and with it much of our nation’s ability to publicly hold Trump accountable for his crimes in office.

The GOP wants to install their very own version of Putin, Duterte or Orbán in the White House in two years, regardless of what the majority of Americans want. VOTE! There are only two ways that independent nations can be governed: by the people themselves through free and fair elections with maximum participation, or by an elite group that is only acting for its own benefit. Democracy or autocracy. Freedom or oligarchy. Liberty or tyranny. Violence or the rule of law. Trump and virtually the entire GOP have chosen autocracy, going all-in on voter intimidation, throwing people off voter rolls or preventing their votes from being counted, and trying to rig future elections.

We now have two years to prepare for what may be American democracy’s final act. Three major trends are driving American politics right now and will continue to for at least a decade. If Democrats fail to understand and respond in a meaningful way to each, expect a Republican White House, House, and Senate in 2024. And, with it, the probable end of democracy in the United States. These three political megatrends are: * Generational “social” changes in America and the Republican Party’s exploitation/demonization of them. * The entrance of rightwing billionaires into America’s political scene with the blessing of 5 corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court. * The Republican Party’s rejection of democracy.

Sunday book excerpt: The Hidden History of the War on Voting. Before considering the details of how Republicans have, for the past 40-plus years, waged a war against the right to vote for all but wealthy white people (and why Democrats did the same before the GOP picked up the mantle), it’s important to understand why each party historically has worked to manipulate the electorate to its own favor. The Democratic Party’s antipathy toward voting had roots deep in the 19th century, in the years following the Civil War. That war, and the subsequent 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution pushed through by Abraham Lincoln’s Republicans, gave pretty much all adult men, regardless of race, the right to vote.

The Best of the Rest of the News. Axios is reporting from three sources within Trumpworld that Der Führer plans to announce his 2024 run for the presidency on November 14th. — Trump's hands are dripping with American and Ukrainian blood. — Geeky Science! If we’re going to stop changing our clocks twice a year, scientists are saying permanent Standard Time would be healthier than Daylight Savings Time: they agree with me! — GOPers have a weird definition of “saving” social security. — Did the coup chain go from John Eastman to Ginni Thomas to Clarence Thomas? — Is Ken Paxon’s office a harbinger of what’s to come for elections in other states controlled by Republicans? — The election bad news is how many open fascists are running, using fear and hate as their campaign messages. The good news is that young people — who skew Democratic — are turning up to vote in record numbers and early voting numbers are also skewing Democratic.

This time it’s not just about saving our banks, keeping our schools intact, or fighting a war. This time, it’s about saving the world. Back on October 13th, I wrote an article here titled When Will the Victims of Oil Companies’ Lies Get Their Day In Court? detailing how Big Oil has been deceiving Americans — and, thus, killing Americans and our climate — for more than a half-century. Their model, “Doubt is our product,” was borrowed from the tobacco industry and weaponized against us. Suing the big oil companies like we did the tobacco companies is a good start, but we need more to get our climate-destroying emissions under control.

This election may well seal or determine the fate and future of democracy in the United States and, by extension, most of the rest of the world. “American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the United States refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election,” President Biden told the nation last night. “He refuses to accept the will of the people, he refuses to accept the fact that he lost.” I wrote about this six months ago, and it’s time to talk again about what an American fascist government would look like. Because over the next two weeks we may or may not, depending on how these elections turn out, very rapidly slide into a state-by-state form of fascism much like the old Confederacy. Like the old Confederacy, it will feature political violence and threats of violence, rigged elections, and single-party rule combined with a corrupt oligarchy that finances the politicians.