2024 Archives

Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 6, 2024

Saturday Report 4/6/24 - The Alabama GOP is trying to criminalize librarians just for doing their jobs

The Best of the Rest of the News. — How Trump is tapping into an “authoritarian axis” around the world. — Letitia James is not screwing around. — Republicans hate Social Security and they’re never going to give up — Could states be the ones who bring in Medicare for all? — Is this how Saudi Arabia weighs in for Trump? — Might the FCC bring back Net Neutrality? What is that? — Geeky Science! Can a vegan diet help diabetics? — Hunter in a Farmer’s World alert: ADHD: Put a Notepad By Your Bed For Ideas — Wisdom School Alert! Is Learned Resilience is a Key to a Good Life? — Alabama Republicans are trying to criminalize librarians just for doing their jobs.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 5, 2024

So, What Can We Do About the Naked Corruption of the Supreme Court?

Replacing Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh would take the balance of the Court back to where it was in 1973, before Nixon decided to drive Fortas out with bogus charges. There may be a way... When the Mifepristone case came before the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito bizarrely brought up their desire to see the Comstock Act again enforced. Even arguably worse, they're in part responsible for giving Trump months of delay in the case Jack Smith has brought against him for trying to overthrow our form of government.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 4, 2024

What if the Person the Majority of Americans Voted for Became President?

Yesterday, the State of Maine took America one giant step closer to ending the antidemocratic grip the GOP's had on our presidential elections… What if the person the majority of Americans voted for became president? It usually happens, but no Republican has been elected to the White House by a majority of Americans since 1988. Just imagine how different America (and the world) would be today if neither George W. Bush or Donald Trump had ever set foot in the White House because both lost the federal election, the national popular vote.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 3, 2024

Is the Republican Argument Against Women Voting Getting New Traction?

The Republican nominee for governor of NC, Trump-endorsed Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, knows how to fix America's political and social problems: prevent women from voting… The Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina this year, Trump-endorsed Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, knows how to fix America's political and social problems: prevent women from voting. In a video from his presentation to — ironically — the Republican Women of Pitt County in March of 2020, when Robinson was successfully running for lieutenant governor, he came right out and said it: "I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn't vote," Robinson argued. "Do you know why? Because in those days, we had people who fought for real social change, and they were called Republicans. … That's the America we want to bring back. We want to bring back the America where Republicans and principles and true ideas of freedom rule." Of course, Robinson isn't onto something new for the GOP. What's new is that some of the party's most extreme voter suppression efforts — theoretically only targeting Blacks and Hispanics — will be working this fall to prevent women from voting as well.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 2, 2024

Why Trump Sees “Racism by Minorities Against Whites” as a YUGE Issue

While democratic governments are driven by the public good, authoritarian governments — like the old American Confederacy that Trump wants to emulate — are driven by fear & hate… Authoritarian governments are drawn from and always represent, first and foremost, the interests of the majority group within their country. Christians in 1933 Germany. Orthodox Slavs in Russia. Hindus in India. Whites in America. Authoritarian leaders bind themselves to these groups by defining members of minority groups as "the enemy" of the larger majority, demonizing them and subjecting them to economic and physical brutality under the nation's laws. This is exactly the dynamic playing out right now in the nearly-all-white GOP. They have an extensive plan to exploit charges of "racism against white people" to seize control of the American government.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Apr. 1, 2024

How Franklin D. Roosevelt Called Out the Big Lie

Here the fascists are again, this time calling themselves MAGA. And they're using the classic fascist tactic of the Big Lie, just like Hitler and Mussolini did… Donald Trump has made good use of the propaganda technique known as the Big Lie, but he didn't invent or popularize it. While the strategy has been around as long as humanity's had psychopaths trying to seize power over others, the Big Lie was really brought into pop consciousness in the 1930s. I was going through my old audio library yesterday afternoon and found this short clip from President Franklin D. Roosevelt talking specifically about the Big Lie. FDR, of course, was the man who saved America from the Republican Great Depression (what they used to call it), created Social Security, the right to unionize, the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and fought and won against the Nazis in World War II even as he was so disabled by polio that he hadn't walked in decades. As you'll hear, it was as if FDR could see Trump using the Big Lie today. Which makes perfect sense, because FDR fought with his own Nazis and fascists in America in the 1930s and 1940s. They even tried to assassinate or kidnap him, but were stopped by a brave Marine general, Smedley Butler.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 31, 2024

The Early Days of Fox: Losing Money to Gain Political Power: The Hidden History of Monopolies

Conservative commentator Brit Hume noted, in a 1999 interview with PBS, “This operation [Fox News] loses money. It doesn’t lose nearly as much as it did at first, and it’s—well, it’s hit all its projections in terms of, you know, turning a profit, but it’s—it will lose money now, and we expect for a couple more years. I think it’s losing about $80 million to $90 million a year.” But that loss wasn’t viewed by these right-wing billionaires as a “loss”—rather, it was an investment.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 30, 2024

Saturday Report 3/30/24 - As the wealth of the top .1% hits a record, more & more GOP billionaires are saluting Trump...

The Best of the Rest of the News. — As the wealth of the American 1% hits a record $44 trillion, Republican billionaires are saluting Trump. — Will Jared Kushner’s billion-dollar grift finally get investigated? — Kentucky Republicans strip that state’s Democratic governor of his power to appoint Mitch McConnell’s successor should Mitch leave office early. — Liz Cheney is warning the Supreme Court about their current attempt to give Trump all the delay he wants. — Why this year’s House map is looking more Republican. — Hunter in a Farmer's World Alert! ADHD: Have a “Clutter Place” That You Periodically Clean Out. — Europe is now deeply concerned about rightwing extremism in politics. — Crazy Alert! Why the new RNC chair is breaking out in song.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 29, 2024

How Fascism Typically Takes Over a Nation by Rhetoric…

Words. Speeches. News conferences. Rallies. Media. Money. And they all point in one direction: violence in service of the fascist leader. Fascism doesn't typically take over countries by military means (WWII's temporary order notwithstanding); instead, it relies on rhetoric. Words. Speeches. News conferences. Rallies. Media. Money. And they all point in one direction: violence in service of the fascist leader. The rhetorical embrace and appreciation of violence is one of the cardinal characteristics of fascism, and a big step was taken this week in a New York City courtroom to push back against the current fascist campaign being waged by Donald Trump against our American form of government.
Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 28, 2024

Why Are the People Brave Enough to Hold Trump to Account Mostly Black & Brown?

There is no movement advocating political violence on the American left. It is entirely confined to the American right & the media needs to admit that, and the FBI needs to recalibrate their efforts… Donald Trump and his sons put a bullseye on the Hispanic daughter of New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan this week, identifying her by name and picture in repeated posts on his Nazi-infested social media site. Predictably, she's now receiving threats of violence, as is her Colombian-born father. The stock-in-trade of fascists is violence and the threat of violence.

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