Hartmann Report

Is America in the final stage of the 40-year transition from a forward-looking & still-evolving democratic republic into a white supremacist ethnostate ruled by a small group of fascist oligarchs? The headline in this week's Fortune reads: "Billionaire investor Ray Dalio warns U.S. is 'on the brink' and estimates a more than 1 in 3 chance of civil war" Billionaires and civil war? A billionaire-funded Supreme Court Justice flew the American flag upside down outside his house after January 6th in apparent support of Donald Trump's attempt to overthrow our government. Americans for Tax Fairness reports that 50 billionaire families have, at this early stage, already injected almost a billion dollars into our political system — the overwhelming majority of it going to Republicans and in support of Donald Trump — in an effort to maintain enough control of our political system that their taxes won't go up. And that total is just what's reported: it doesn't count the billions in unknowable dark money that's sloshing around the system thanks to Citizens United.

"Both Texas and Georgia are actually Blue states; the only reason Republicans have as much power as they do in each is because of massive voter roll purges and voter suppression laws." If a state wants to take away your gun, they must first go to court and prove there's a clear and legally defensible justification for that "extreme" action. You can appeal their move all the way to the US Supreme Court. On the other hand, if a Republican governor, secretary of state, or local official wants to take away your voter registration or refuse to count your ballot, they don't even have to tell you they've done it.

Congress must stand up for what’s right and consistent with American values: Legally bribed politicians and judges isn’t that... Is there a way to reverse the decision by five Republicans on the Supreme Court that it’s OK for billionaires and big corporations to bribe politicians? Americans are watching with increasing shock and dismay: — President Biden tried to knock up to $20,000 off the debt of every person in the country with a student loan. Republicans decided this might somehow, someday mean fewer profits for banks — who financially support the GOP — so they sued at the Supreme Court. The Republican appointees on the Court, over the objections of the three Democratic appointees, killed the president’s effort without providing any cogent constitutional rationalization.

The GOP has gotten really good at stealing the White House… The GOP's favorite phrase when it comes to presidential politics appears to be, "Nobody knew at the time." Once a president is sworn into office, regardless of how much evidence there is of crimes and irregularities committed to get him there, both the press and the electorate just seem to want to ignore that evidence and move along. After all, there's never been a successfully contested presidential election in American history. Which is why the GOP will again count on getting away with their crimes against electoral democracy this fall. The big question for America will be, "What did we miss that we should have known at the time?" We have, you'll recall, seen this movie before: — When Richard Nixon ran against incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968, nobody knew at the time that Nixon's campaign had reached out to the South Vietnamese leadership and promised to make them rich if they'd refuse to go along with the Paris talks and thus sabotage the peace deal that LBJ had worked out with them earlier that summer.

Fully 20% of American business is now controlled by private equity, which is draining billions out of our economy every week to stash in the money bins of its morbidly rich owners... The last time Louise took one of our pets to the vet, there was a cute little dog running around the clinic as if he owned the place. She asked about him, and it turned out that somebody had brought him in for a medical problem but then wasn't able to pay the vet's bill; they simply left the dog behind. The cost of veterinary medicine has been exploding since 2020, in large part because that was the year private equity firms began buying up vet clinics across the country. Once acquired, the clinics and pet hospitals are drained of assets by some of America's most morbidly rich individuals. The simple result: higher prices for pet care. Most people think private equity is essentially the same as venture capital, the business/investment model you see on TV shows like Shark Tank. Venture capitalists invest their own (or their company's) money in startup companies so the recipient company can use that money to bring a new product to market, expand operations, and generally grow the business. The venture capital investors make their return by the company growing and thus increasing the value of its stock. Private equity, however, is an entirely different animal, borne out of Reagan era deregulation, lowering of capital gains taxes, and lobbying — facilitated by five Republicans on the Supreme Court legalizing billionaires buying legislation from members of Congress — that even created an entirely new income tax loophole called "carried interest" just for private equity managers.

If the continuous accumulation of wealth and the political power associated with it is a cancer in our economic, political, and social system, then the immune system that can take it on is an empowered middle class. A middle class that outnumbers both the rich and poor combined is a uniquely American invention. At our nation’s founding, the middle class made up the majority of free Americans, in part because land stolen from the Indians was so cheap, and free slave labor helped produce a general prosperity for white people. While the source of the American middle class in the 18th century may have been pernicious, the lesson for us today is how it produced a general economic, political, and social stability.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5° C target and say we’re heading for 2.5° C. Why isn’t this all over the media? — Vermont may become the first state to bill big oil for climate damage. — MAGA is already doubting the 2024 election. — Right-wing backlash around the world? — Chaplains could soon show up to “counsel” children in Florida public schools. — Good News Alert — Trump promised Wisconsin jobs, but he lied (surprise!); President Biden actually delivered them... — Crazy Alert! Republican Senator Katie Britt proposes a national registry of pregnant women. — Hunter in a Farmer’s World Alert: ADHD: The Conversational Power of Listening — Wisdom School Alert! Discovering How the World Really Is

The willingness to destroy our collective home in exchange for riches is one of the most extreme examples of greed run amok… "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed…" – Jesus (Luke 12:15) "My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy. I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy." – Donald Trump The Washington Post revealed yesterday that Donald Trump told a group of fossil fuel executives that if they'd give him a billion-dollar bribe, he'd use it to become president and then eliminate all of President Biden's environmental regulations and prevent any new ones from coming into law.

Even if Trump isn't put back into the White House this fall, the damage he's done to our nation's moral fabric will take at least a generation to heal... After just a bit more than a year of marriage and the recent birth of his youngest child, Donald Trump coerced Stormy Daniels into having sex with him by dangling a slot on Celebrity Apprentice and then physically blocking the exit from his hotel bedroom. Multiple other women have accused him of violent sexual assault, and he was also found by a court and jury to have sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll. And now he wants to again become president.

When it comes to seizing power, Republicans apparently believe the rule of law, and thus our democracy, is merely an inconvenient impediment to be brushed aside… The most powerful elected Republican in America declared war on the rule of law yesterday. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Congress, on behalf of wannabee "day one" dictator Donald Trump, is going to use every power available to him and his colleagues to nullify America's court system. "President Trump has done nothing wrong here and he continues to be the target of endless lawfare. It has to stop. And you're gonna see the United States Congress address this in every possible way that we can, because we need accountability. … All these cases need to be dropped, because they are a threat to our system."