2023 Archives

Posted at Hartmann Report on Sep. 2, 2023

Saturday Report 9/2/23 - Who Will Fall For the "No-Labels" Trap?

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.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Sep. 1, 2023

How Term Limits Turn Legislatures Over to Lobbyists

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.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 31, 2023

The Shocking GOP Plan to Dismantle the American Government Revealed

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.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 30, 2023

Right-Wing Billionaires & the GOP Want a Nation of Uneducated, Compliant Serfs

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.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 29, 2023

How Plastic Created One of the Most Dire Crises Humanity Faces Today

“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.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 28, 2023

What's America To Do With the Chaos Agents?

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.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 27, 2023

Well-Regulated Smart Guns Are Here: The Hidden History of Guns and the 2nd Amendment

"The biggest enemy of western people is not war or terrorism, it is their own governments' lack of regulation of public health and safety". - British author and engineer Steven Magee

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 26, 2023

Saturday Report 8/26/23 - Have scientists now discovered why a record number of young people are getting cancer?

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Isn’t is weird that Trump is printing “Never Surrender” under the mugshot of him surrendering to authorities at the Fulton County jail? — Is Trump getting ready to flee the country? — Georgia Republicans prepare to oust Fani Willis from her job. — The world is subsidizing the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to destroy our planet at a rate of $13 million per minute. — Speaking of fossil fuels, the feds are cracking down on the pathetic, childish, and deadly practice of “rolling coal.” — Billionaire-funded rightwing think tanks are lining up to lobby SCOTUS to block even the possibility of Congress passing a wealth tax. — Ranked choice voting is gaining momentum, but both the Republican and Democratic parties are pushing back. — Tough on crime should not mean inhumane US prison conditions. — Geeky Science! Have scientists found a link between junk food and tumors? Is this why young people are getting cancer in record numbers? — Crazy Alert! A morbidly rich wannabee cult leader is calling himself a warlord and creating a city to survive the coming apocalypse, according to reporting in Raw Story and elsewhere.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 25, 2023

Is Vivek Ramaswamy a Different Kind of Republican Cat?

Instead of wanting to transform the agencies of government to dominate and control the American people like DeSantis promises, he wants to simply destroy them... The Washington Post says the two big winners of the first Republican debate were Ron Desantis (29%) and Vivik Ramaswamy (26%). In DeSantis, we see the GOP going full fascist with his assertion that he’s going to leave people at the border “stone-cold dead,” his unilaterally removing Florida elected officials, intimidating teachers, replacing college administrators, declaring war on Black History and queer people, and attacking corporations that call out his extremism. But Ramaswamy is a different kind of cat. Instead of wanting to transform the agencies of government to dominate and control the American people like DeSantis promises, he wants to simply destroy them.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Aug. 24, 2023

Is Trump to the GOP like a Parasitic Wasp to a Caterpillar?

They put an egg into a caterpillar or spider and when the wasp larvae hatches it eats its host, leaving behind only a husk.... The Republican presidential debate wasn’t encouraging: Trump’s hold on the GOP appears stronger than ever. And that’s bad news for America. In Robert Hubbell’s excellent Today’s Edition Newsletter on Substack, he made the point yesterday that Trump’s relationship to the GOP is like that of one of those parasitic wasps that puts an egg into a caterpillar or spider and when the wasp larvae hatches it eats its host, leaving behind only a husk. I’d take the metaphor a step farther: there’s a fungus, cordyceps, that infects ants and seizes control of their brains to alter their behavior to the fungus’ advantage. Another example is the toxoplasma parasite that’s often spread by cats: when mice are infected with the parasite, they no longer fear the smell of cats (and sometimes even want to play with them!), thus becoming easy prey. Scientists call it “fatal attraction.” What Trump has done to the GOP is really quite impressive, worthy of either cordyceps or toxoplasma. And, frankly, it’s amazing that they didn’t even see it coming or try to stop him. (More on that in a moment.)