Americans Need To Stand Up To The GOP
By Thom Hartmann A...
America is confronting a crisis like we haven't seen since 1930, and, just as happened during the Republican Great Depression (yes, that's what they called it in the 1930s), the GOP is committed to making it worse.The Republican Party's latest 2020 scam gives Trump a tiny chance of hanging onto the White House while doing massive, permanent damage to American democracy and, as if they consider it a bonus, kneecapping and, in some cases, killing working class and poor Americans.
Covid diagnoses and deaths are exploding across the country; millions of Americans will lose unemployment benefits, eviction protection, and a pause in student loan payments the week after Christmas; and all Mitch McConnell will do is push more unqualified rightwing judges through the Senate.
Meanwhile, Trump is shifting his strategy to hang onto power and become America's first dictator away from challenging vote counts to asking Republican legislators in a few swing states to simply award him the presidency through the Electoral College, a strategy that held for three hours in Michigan.
He figures that even if he can't pull that off and stay in the White House, his scam has already convinced about 80% of Republican voters that he's a martyr, so they'll continue to follow him politically and keep sending him millions of dollars a month in the small donations.
The House of Representatives passed legislation back in May that clearly and quickly addresses most of the crises American families are facing, from ongoing unemployment payments and help for small businesses, to funding for hospitals and first responders in the states and cities to deal with Trump's Covid crisis.
Mitch McConnell, however, refuses to even allow a conversation about that legislation in the US Senate. And only four of his Republican members have acknowledged Joe Biden's victory, suggesting the rest are willing to go along with Trump's power grab and post-presidency fundraising scam.
If you are represented by any Republicans at the state or federal level, there has never been a more important time than now for you to reach out and demand that they fulfill their oath of office and stand up for the Constitution and the American people.
-Thom
Comments
#2
Is it possible ex-president trump mistook the Covid outbreak map (which is totally red) for a map of his supporters?
#3
The succession of the presidency is coming to a crescendo because of the raft of certifications in the next two weeks. Hopefully, this time is not seen as ripe for a power grab.
That said, Democrats need to flip the script by rapidly focusing on regionalization and honing well-developed federalism. This needs to start now because of the lead times to rally state legislatures to draft and adopt compacts.
In an era when investing in human capital is the societal and economic differentiator, the electoral map looks much like a set of dashboard indicators. Compacts may well follow many of the outlines in that map.
Some are already in place and need extensions, e.g. educational compacts, bio-region compacts around river management, taxation compacts, mental health, etc. Some new approaches such as healthcare and bottom-up fiscal federalism are urgently needed.
A Biden Administration should create mechanisms to fast track well-developed regional federalism. FDR started down this road and the journey should continue.
#4
We both know that even if Biden wins the White House, this is just a battle and not the war.
The Republicans are going to strike back with force after 2 years. I don't know how it's going to pan out. I'm sure that he GOP has got a lot of money and new ideas; evil things never seem to run out of them.
The Democrats had better rev up their moves, or get left behind in the dust of feudalism.
#5
Since his supporters don't take precautions, there is a lot of overlap between the two maps.
#6
That sucking sound you hear is the Trump Twitter crew moving to Parler. Parler is a Rebekah Mercer project. She is the one that introduced Bannon to Trump, you know real quality folks. Meanwhile back at Twitter, I am guessing Dorsey can't wait to see them go. Citizen Trump most definitely will not stand for anyone censoring him. As Thom says, he will continue to claim martyrdom on the Fake Twitter. And of course, the vast majority of his cult followers will do what followers do by joining him there.
DON'T let the birdcage door hit you in the tail feathers on the way out, you buzzard and cuckoos!
I noticed Pence didn't have the guts to take questions at the Covid Task Force briefing, or maybe he was just in a hurry to set-up his Parler account.
#7
So, where's the middle ground? How exactly do Biden, Harris, a slim majority in the House (and possibly a razor-thin majority in the Senate after the Georgia runoffs), and a hopelessly stacked, right-wing court system "bring America together" by compromising with cretins who wholeheartedly reject objective reality? Ain't gonna happen.
Unfortunately, politics is indiscernible from religion with these people, and they will carry their delusions to the grave ...because, you know, freedom, liberty, Jesus. And blind hatred of anyone (read evil liberal!) who tries to point out the obvious.
Note to Biden:
While it's totally understandable that you, as president of all the people, need to move away from daily, unrelenting, media-sponsored Trump and Trumpism to focus your office's considerable resources on the most pressing issues that the orange baboon buffoon blithely neglected -- the pandemic and economy are only the first steps in a long slog -- please, please, please follow through with what you said and allow the Department of Justice to have complete autonomy (as it should) to pursue the gross illegality of the Trump Organization and its crime family. Otherwise, there won't be any closure, and the next fascist will be waiting in the wings to complete the task for Wall Street. You can be one step removed and justice can still be served, even if only at the state level. Thread that needle, Mr. President.
Great comments all! Especially Xfilerose #2. Haha, he certainly loves all those red maps.
#8
No middle ground! Someone needs to crack this nut really really hard!
#9
Trump has seemed to survive where others would not. He competed against 17 others that were much better and won. The P grabbing video did not bring him down. Tearing down war hero John McCain did not bring him down. Russian connections in his campaign did not bring him down. Mueller Report did not bring him down (granted it was redacted). Impeachment did not bring him down (even though he was guilty). I am sure that I have missed several. As dumb as Rudy Gulliani is and how many courts turn him down. He is still here. He keeps spending others money and keeps the Coup going. The Michigan legislators that met with him to overthrow Michigan were filmed in his DC Hotel drinking $950 a bottle Champaign after the meeting. Are we going to get rid of him? Republicans are overthrowing our Government. Rally's are soon.
#10
I don't like Trump and wish he was gone already. That being said, Trump in an inept way has uncovered backwardness of our election system. Clerical errors abound and there is no attempt to reconcile number of votes for each candidate and total number of votes. While no race is close enough have outcomes affected by miscounts this easily could happen in other elections. There should be a national standard for elections. We need international observers to validate and critique our voting methods.
The Presidency has too much power. Thom Hartmann suggested some months back that Jay Powell would crash markets in the event of a Biden takeover. Trump is doing this by his actions depriving the Fed of money all by himself. Lets hope this vindictive ex-President doesn't succeed. This situation was predicted at least a year ago and nothing was done about it.
#11
In the second hour of Friday's broadcast Thom Hartmann recommended to a callin from Denver that she not enroll in a Medicare Advantage Plan. This is literally giving out medical advice when you do not know what you are talking about. Being from Denver she could enroll in the Kaiser Permanente Advantage Program, which is the only 5 star rated program in the state. She should at least talk to Kaiser who has excellent administrators that explain the program. Then she should talk to the For Profit, money gouging, Medigap Programs that are very costly, that you recommend. Then make the decision. It was obvious to me that Kaiser Permanente is a great program that I have been very happy with.
#12
Karlmarx. Trump will probably burn the White House down as his last act. One thing he did before the elections was defund Social Security by stopping the payroll tax. He did it on a temporary measure. They claimed it was to boost the economy due to Covid, but the wage earners that were paying it were gainfully employed. S*** will hit the fan in January when the temporary defunding stops and the workers (and Companies) are supposed to pay it back in full. If it is not repayed Social Security runs out that much sooner. Biden is stuck with enforcing payback and starting the deduction again.
One thing that I would strongly recommend that Biden publically have done before he moves into the White House (if it is standing) is have it professionally decontaminated and sanitized.
#13
karlmarx @ 10; good post , and all stated, would be a good start. AND, after that, a reworking of our "forever war" policies, that try to make the world safe for our fortune 500 companies to dominate other countries.
Trump has been fired, and that is awesome, but, so far, Biden's picks don't ease my concerns.
We'll see....
#14
karlmarx @ 10; good post , and all stated, would be a good start. AND, after that, a reworking of our "forever war" policies, that try to make the world safe for our fortune 500 companies to dominate other countries.
Trump has been fired, and that is awesome, but, so far, Biden's picks don't ease my concerns.
We'll see....
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"Hartmann combines a remarkable piece of historical research with a brilliant literary style to tell the grand story of corporate corruption and its consequences for society with the force and readability of a great novel."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Right through the worst of the Bush years and into the present, Thom Hartmann has been one of the very few voices constantly willing to tell the truth. Rank him up there with Jon Stewart, Bill Moyers, and Paul Krugman for having the sheer persistent courage of his convictions."
From Screwed:
"If we are going to live in a Democracy, we need to have a healthy middle class. Thom Hartmann shows us how the ‘cons’ have wronged this country, and tells us what needs to be done to reclaim what it is to be American."
Why are we no longer talking about Putin's potential role in all this? He seems to be the one gaining the most from Trump's actions. The erosion of Democracy, division of the country, etc.