2023 Archives

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 11, 2023

Could MAGA Republicans Plunge the World into a “New Dark Age”?

The bottom line here is that Republicans in the House and Senate who are dancing to Trump's pro-Putin tune are playing a dangerous game that could lead to unimaginable disaster… Last week, Senate Republicans refused to even allow that body to debate whether or not America should continue funding our commitment to the Ukrainian European democracy that is now under a brutal, violent, and sustained attack by Donald Trump's friend, Russian President Putin. The nations of the world are aligning themselves into alliances reminiscent of the 1930s. The dangers associated with this are radically compounded by the Senate Republicans' intentional decision to play politics and suck up to Vladimir Putin's protégé, Donald Trump, who is now demanding we throw the millions of people in Ukraine into the arms of a Russian army made up in part of freed professional murderers, rapists, and convicted criminal psychopaths. The GOP, bowing to the demands of Vladimir Putin via Donald Trump, is playing with fire. A fire that could destroy civilization itself.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 10, 2023

How Reaganomics Killed the Jetsons: The Hidden History of Monopolies

Ms. Mornin: That’s good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute. President Bush: You work three jobs? Ms. Mornin: Three jobs, yes. President Bush: Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that. —President George W. Bush, Omaha, Nebraska, Town Hall, February 2005

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 9, 2023

Saturday Report 12/9/23 - The stink continues with Trump's proposed loyalty-first Cabinet picks....behind the curtain

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The stink continues with Trump's proposed loyalty-first Cabinet picks....behind the curtain — Republican Senator wants the FBI to investigate op-ed writers...say what?! Is this a preview of what happens if Trump becomes president? — It’s the monopolies, stupid! Now we know where the inflation really came from — Texas’ allegedly corrupt Attorney General threatens to prosecute doctors and hospitals who perform an abortion for the woman a Texas judge ruled could receive life-saving care — Is the GOP trying to “kill” Hunter to emotionally destroy Joe Biden and thus shatter his presidency — When they pitched Medicare Advantage to you, I’ll bet they never told you that some hospitals across the country are refusing to accept it — A new study identifies planetary climate tipping points that pose an “unprecedented” threat to humanity — Putin Lover Alert! Tucker Carlson and Trump Jr demand Republicans go along with Putin and stop all US aid to Ukraine.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 8, 2023

Can America Wake Up from the “Free Market Magic” Lies?

America — and the Democratic Party — have arrived at one of our nation’s history’s great crossroads. Hopefully, we’ll make it through… Senator Chris Murphy gets it. And he’s begging his fellow Democrats to wake up, too. Forty-two years ago, Ronald Reagan launched America into a great social, economic, and political experiment. It was based on the 1940s utopian thinking of a handful of conservative economists and promised to bring peace and prosperity to the entire world through a magical thing they dubbed the “free market.” Reagan and his Vice President GHW Bush, who initially called it “Voodoo Economics,” became true believers, as did Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. And, it turns out, it was based on a lie and has produced an utter disaster for America.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 7, 2023

Dear GOP: You’ll Never Wash the Stink of Trump Off You or Your Party. Never.

At least never in the lifetime of anybody around today. Trump's stink is a tragic part of American history that will last generations… Dear Republicans, After the corruption of the Coolidge and Hoover administrations crashed the world economy, kicking off the Republican Great Depression in 1929, it took your party decades to rid itself of the stink. After Nixon extended the Vietnam War to get himself re-elected, unnecessarily killing over 20,000 American soldiers and a million Vietnamese civilians, and then got busted for Watergate and the bribes he solicited in the White House, it took you almost a generation to rid yourselves of the stink. But you'll never rid yourself of the stink of Donald Trump. At least never in the lifetime of anybody around today. Trump's stench is a tragic part of American history that will last generations.

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Dec. 6, 2023

Has "Corporate Personhood" Delivered America to the Brink of Dictatorship? You Betcha.....

Corporations don't need pure food, clean air, or safe drinking water, but they control our government and elections… and the outcome is proving disastrous. America is in the midst of a domestic political crisis with a literal madman and his cult/Party — heavily supported by some of America's largest companies — threatening to turn America into a dictatorship. As Yahoo news reports this morning: "Could a second Donald Trump presidency slide into dictatorship? A sudden spate of dystopian warnings has got America talking about the possibility less than a year before the US elections. "Dark scenarios about what could happen if the twice-impeached Republican former president wins in 2024 have appeared in the space of a few days in major US media outlets that include The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Atlantic." So, where are we now and how the hell did we get here? It turns out we are seeing the consequences of a corrupt, bribed Supreme Court from over 150 years ago. It was a fraud at the time, the result of a Supreme Court Justice having been bribed by the big railroads, and continues to be a fraud to this day. This didn't originate with an American billionaire paying off Clarence Thomas; that's just the latest incarnation of it.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 5, 2023

The GOP has Declared War on Their New Mortal Enemy: Zoomers

You could call it 21st Century Jim Crow, but this time it's more like Ja It's no secret that for years Republicans have targeted Black and Hispanic voters, doing everything they can to make it harder for these folks to vote. Their latest targets are young people: the GOP has decided (probably correctly) that Gen Z is their mortal enemy. The DLC's National Communications Director, Abhi Rahman, laid it out for Rolling Stone magazine... You could call it 21st Century Jim Crow, but this time it's more like James Crow, PhD. The GOP has turned voter suppression from an anecdote into a computer-based science, and they've had a lot of help along the way from five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 4, 2023

Will VP Harris Drawing a Line In the Sand for a Two-State Solution Hold?

Will VP Harris Drawing a Line In the Sand for a Two-State Solution Hold? Thom plus logo Will her stepping into this topic on the world stage help bring peace to the Middle East and elevate her profile? Behind the scenes at the COP28 Conference in Dubai, Vice President Harris has been engaged in aggressive diplomacy to try to bring about a two-state solution with a future Palestine and Israel, something currently opposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu. She has spoken with several Middle East leaders, including Egypt's President and the King of Jordan, at the global climate summit in Dubai over the weekend. Yesterday she gave an impassioned speech about it.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 3, 2023

Where Did America’s Middle Class Go? : The Hidden History of Monopolies

Then came the twin hits of trade liberalization in the 1970 — cutting tariffs and allowing cheap imports, so that American workers were competing with lower-paid, then-mostly Japanese workers—and Reagan’s massive tax cuts of the 1980s, which explicitly encouraged employers and CEOs to drain as much money out of their companies as they could rather than reinvest it or pay their employees well. Since the 1970s, productivity has increased by 146%,16 but wages have actually either stagnated (if looking at household incomes; today many more are two-wage-earner households) or fallen (looking at individual incomes). CEO compensation has rocketed from 30 times the average worker’s to hundreds of times, in some industries even thousands of times (for example, Coca-Cola’s CEO, James Quincey, gets paid $16.7 million per year—or 1,016 times the typical employee’s pay).

Posted at Hartmann Report on Dec. 2, 2023

Saturday Report 12/2/23 - Loyalty test for people who want to work in the next Trump GOP administration revealed...

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Sandra Day O’Connor has passed away. The former Supreme Court Justice was arguably the deciding vote installing George W. Bush into the White House. — Will the billionaires who bought the Supreme Court be held to account? — Loyalty test for people who want to work in the next Trump Republican administration revealed. — While British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, bowing to the demands of the fossil fuel industry in a way characteristic of “conservative” politicians across the world, brags about “scrapping” plans to convert UK home heating systems to heat pumps, King Charles III is pulling no punches. — A recent report from The New Republic is asking why Democrats in the Senate aren’t investigating the hundreds of millions (billions if you include Saudi funds) Jared and Ivanka made from their time working in the White House. — Firearms suicides have reached epidemic levels in the US. — Bucking a national trend, Michigan makes it easier to vote. — Crazy Alert! The man two heartbeats away from the presidency, MAGA Mike Johnson, wrote a foreword for a book that endorses using the N-word and promotes bizarre conspiracy theories.