Hartmann Report

Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin is now Chairman of the Judiciary Committee & for reasons apparently only known to him, he’s kowtowing to Republican senators blocking Democratic nominees... Why is Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin — Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, through which all judicial nominees must pass before getting a full Senate vote — letting Republican senators blow off qualified federal judges proposed by President Biden? Most recently, Mississippi GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked via “blue slip” Democratic judicial nominee Scott Colom, just like last year when Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Ron Johnson blue-slip-vetoed Judge William Pocan, the brother of Congressman Mark Pocan, apparently because he’s gay.

Besides talking about Impeaching Clarence Thomas - the Biden administration and Democrats in the Senate might be better served investigating Ginny’s corruption and attempted sedition.... Besides talking about Impeaching Clarence Thomas - the Biden administration and Democrats in the Senate might be better served investigating Ginny's corruption and attempted sedition.... What do pornography, Ginny Thomas, and Thomas Jefferson have in common? The answer may be a clue to what Democrats and the Biden administration could do about Clarence Thomas. First, the backstories, one from 1803 and the other from 1968.

The Unholy Alliance of Racism, Genocide, and Guns. "If I had my life to live over, I would die fighting rather than be a slave again. I want no man’s yoke on my shoulders no more." —Robert Falls, age 97, Knoxville, Tennessee

The Best of the Rest of the News. — A Trump appointed federal judge and lifetime anti-abortion activist has outlawed mifepristone, the drug used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. — Are the Tennessee expulsions a glimpse of the future? — Clarence Thomas broke the law for over 20 years: will Congress impeach him? — Republicans announce frivolous prosecutions as revenge for holding Trump accountable. — Idaho women are now facing prosecution if they go out-of-state or help a woman go out-of-state to get an abortion. — Elmo declares war on “mainstream media” while re-platforming Nazis and Russian trolls. — After giving an assisted living home her entire life savings, reducing her to poverty so she qualified for Medicaid to cover her costs, the place evicted her. — If you’re driving a Tesla, you may not want to walk up to your car (even in your own closed-door garage) when you’re naked. — Good news: Walmart is adding EV chargers to thousands of US stores. — Geeky Science! We knew sugar kills, but this is mind-boggling.

At its core, revenge is rooted in physical violence, intimidation, and murder. It’s war brought into politics and governance. Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives are furious and out for revenge. Two Black Democratic members and a Democratic woman had confronted them — and embarrassed them — over their unwillingness to do anything about the slaughter of Tennessee’s children in that state’s schools. To punish them and teach women and other young men Black men — who might think of being too troublesome in the legislature — a lesson, the GOP ran a pathetic Kangaroo Court for the world to see. And got their revenge.

If the free world fails in our efforts to support Ukraine’s self-defense & enforce this agreement signed by the United States, future prospects for peace in the world will be significantly diminished. While countries around the world are trying to create and build nuclear weapons stockpiles (particularly China, Iran, and North Korea) only one country in the history of the world has ever given up their nuclear hoard and unilaterally denuclearized their military: Ukraine. And former President Bill Clinton — who brokered the deal during the fourth year of his presidency — feels terrible about it.

Patriotism & religion are luxuries. When you can’t pay the rent or feed your family, when you’re pestered by bill collectors, it’s hard to think of anything other than money… America is experiencing a crisis. How did we get here? Ralph Waldo Emerson noted that “we become what we think about all day long.” It’s as true of nations as it is of individuals. As recently as 25 years ago, most of us valued patriotism and religion first and foremost, 70 and 62 percent respectively. Today only 38 percent of Americans cite patriotism as a core value and religion has collapsed to 39 percent.

Hopefully the deadly disasters sweeping Red states will wake up GOP voters & motivate them to demand their politicians stop taking money from fossil fuel billionaires while lying to their voters. Republicans have been lying to their voters in the Midwest and South for decades, and now those the same voters are dying as a result of unprecedented severe weather that ties directly back to those lies. This is a climate change story that fossil fuel billionaires and their GOP lackeys would rather you didn’t know.

This strategy, employed by dictators and autocrats, is as ancient as history. Caligula did it, as did Nero. Mussolini, Hitler, Putin, and Orbán achieved and exercised power using fear. Marjorie Taylor Greene is warning America that God is vengeful, evil will be punished, and the [international Jewish] “Globalists” are out to destroy America. Like most of today’s Republicans — particularly the Trump-humpers in the Congressional Sedition Caucus — she portrays an America under attack from within and in a state of decay and collapse. Most Democratic political messaging and ads are upbeat and talk about what politicians and the party have done and hope to do for working class and poor Americans. Most Republican ads, on the other hand, are dark, ominous, and point to danger, death, and destruction. Every wonder why this has been the case for at least 40 years?

Foreword By Mike Farrell Years ago, probably the late ’70s, I went to a fund-raising event in Los Angeles to hear Rev. George Regas, one of the founders of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race. I remember being struck by a unique part of his fund-raising pitch that day. He said that our society’s priorities are upside down: human existence is being endangered by the makers of war, so in a rational society those working for peace should be funded by the government while the Pentagon has bake sales to raise its budget. He said it better than that, but the idea stuck with me. And when I think about it, so many of the things we do in this country tell me he’s right. The “official” policies are too often counterproductive in a society that claims to respect the dignity of each individual, in a state that claims to believe in equality and says it intends to “promote the general welfare.” The general welfare means, roughly, taking care of the needs of the common citizen. And that’s us, folks.