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Thank you thank you thank you for this. Now get the message to Nancy Pelosi who never should have seated the 127 (?) GOP house members who participated in this sedition as was done during the civil war times.

Mostly, get it in the editorials in all major media.

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Sep 8, 2022·edited Sep 8, 2022

Has the federal judiciary always been so blatantly political? I've almost totally lost my faith that we will ever again have rational, common-sense rulings that seemed to be the norm growing up in the 60's and 70's. While I never studied law, the latest decisions that I've read from the Supreme Court on abortion, guns and vaccine mandates made no sense to me at all. I could not follow the reasoning at all. The clarity of RBG's arguments before the Supreme Court and her opinions as a member at least made sense. How does this get fixed? It is absolutely terrifying that these unaccountable judges have so much control over our lives. At least Judge Mathew helped restore my belief in the courts somewhat!

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Don't these judicial rulings where the judge disallowed evidence also indite the Judges in giving aid and supporting the attempted Coup? Can't they also be removed from government permanently?

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Yes. Although rare, federal judges can be impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate just like a president. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/impeachment-and-removal-judges-explainer

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Couy Griffin and Judge Mathew both look like they are out of central casting. Moreover, the judge is a grad of Notre Dame, a good Catholic, and well regarded by his colleagues. Mathew seems to be the only one of the judges that took the Constitution and the insurrection seriously.

And there we have it, the real problem being that some have looked at what happened January 6th as some kind of rinky-dink, political stunt they saw on TV. The far right's attempt to gaslight the nation on this subject worked only too well on those that believe in Trump. They are still all-in on him.

We do have to take heart that the 1/6 Committee is going to do their level best to show the rest of the evidence they are gathering daily. They have and will continue to prove how a serious coup was planned and how it turned deadly. The drama was all too real and the "part" Griffin and the insurrectionists "played" damaged a lot of American lives. The founders knew such people have no business representing any of us.

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Trump Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon is right out of central casting for the Trump horror show -- a manipulative, ladder-climbing sycophant who legally just placed one man above the law, elevating Trump to a unique kingly status that literally no one else enjoys under our system of so-called "law," which is rapidly losing the confidence of the American people. Is it any wonder why?

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Firstly, all members of the House #SeditionCaucus who voted against the Electoral College declaring Joe Biden the designated 46th President of the United States should be removed from all their House committee seats by reason of the 14th Amendment. Even if their presence in Congress is determined by state courts as noted above, each one can be reduced to a feckless voice with no power whatsoever to vote on or craft future legislation in committee. That anvil around their political necks should be a cornerstone of their challengers’ campaigns.

Of course, the preferred solution is to extract them NOW from Congress as Thom’s headline urges. Perhaps he could ask Mark Pocan if a House committee could investigate those who have demonstrable actions violating the 14th Amendment like MTG and Boebert and start the expulsion process from that evidentiary line.

Secondly, we need to use hashtags and phraseology to harpoon the GOP brand at both national and state levels. Here are a few examples:

Judging by their obsession with voter disenfranchisement and #ElectionTheft tactics,

The most important freedom right now for Republicans is

Freedom FROM democracy!

Today’s GOP isn’t conservative, they are #CORPservative; in servitude only to corporations and billionaires.

They’re only out for CEOs not average Joes.

To whom they say, “Let them eat BOOTSTRAPS!”

And lastly, to boost the Dem brand:

Vote blue for your children’s children

Vote blue for your boss’s boss

Vote blue to end the threat

Of medical and educational debt

Only Democrats legislate based on

#22ndCenturyThinking

If they seem worthy, please pass these ideas along. Thank you from a fellow progressive who has been a listener since 2004.

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If Democrats organized to pass policy's that the majority of both Dem and GOP voters support then they would not be about to lose the congress and clinging to the Senate with their fingernails.

Instead they have chosen to ignore issues that voters in both parties support like medicare for all, National $15 min wage, higher taxes on the rich, breaking up the "too big to fail" banks.

I think it is better for democracy to get Republicans out office because they don't support policy that improves Americans lives rather than get them our of office using the Seditions act. What goes around comes around. If we an lose the house we can lose the Presidency again. Time to get smart .

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It's not very smart to promote false narratives about why it's so hard for Democrats to maintain a viable majority in Congress when they consistently win the popular vote by wide margins. Evidently, it's not the message as much as the system itself, which corruptly favors rule by the minority and rule by money.

It's not very smart to cling to the false hope that Democrats, if only they would "organize," could somehow pass progressive legislation that would have the support of both parties. When have Democrats not done that? When have Republicans not blocked them at nearly every turn?

It's not very smart to constantly and falsely criticize Democrats for not solving all the intractable problems created by Republicans while rarely holding the responsible party responsible. Although the majority of voters, including a sizable minority of Republicans, may support common-sense reforms based on morality and human dignity, the majority of Republican leadership does not, using arcane, undemocratic rules left over from a bygone generation of slaveholders, misogynists, and religious whackjobs, such as the Electoral College, filibuster, and gerrymandering, to block the will of voters. Republican leadership will NEVER reform and update undemocratic rules and traditions because that's the only way they can maintain their oversized power, which doesn't even represent the best interests of their own minority of rank and file voters, only their wealthy donors.

Political naivete is not a very smart strategy.

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Deep

Democrats do not consistently win the popular vote other than in Presidential races. In the Senate and House they win majorities no more or less than the GOP. And there are more liberals, progressives and Democrats that could vote than there are conservatives. So the question is WHY? Why don't the democrats get enough votes from Americans to actually do the things they say they want?

The answer is obvious to most Americans other than the died in the wool blind partisans in the Democratic party. The Dems who are as blind to the rest of the country as MAGA voters.

When given the power the Democrats choose to serve the donor class over the worker class. The evidence is irrefutable.

This country elected Obama in 2008, he got millions of votes from future MAGA voters and they gave him strong majorities in the House and Senate. Had he lead like FDR by going directly to the voters and organizing them to support him in fighting the corporate control of law makers the Democrats would have won every election to this day. He did not. He chose policy teams that were controlled by the Banks, by big Pharma and health care (did you know every word of Obama care was written by lobbyists).

Obama had the trust of enough Republicans to make all of the changes the Hillary, Pelsosi, Biden Democrats have been promising for decades. And he was stopped cold in his tracks. Not by Republican law makers, they were irrelevant in his first 2yrs. He was stopped by Democratic party leaders that so strongly support today.

Yes, Democrats can easily get enough votes from Republicans to have real power. They did it 2008. The polls still show majorities of Republicans support Free Health Care, higher min wage, higher taxes on the rich etc... But at this point those Republicans no longer trust any Democrat to deliver on those promises. Are they wrong? Would Biden deliver? He said flat out he would veto Medicare for All if it came to his desk. Did he say that to help the poor and middle class? Or did he say that to get money from donors.

Victory is there for Democrats but it will never come with power or consistency as long as the leaders of the Democratic party you seem to support (Pelosi, Biden, Schumer, Clinton) have the real power in the party. Right?

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Wrong. I support policies, not people, especially not the corporatists who populate both parties, Republicans 100 percent. Actors on the stage wink in and out of existence like fruit flies. Sometimes our elected representatives make good decisions; sometimes they make absolutely horrible decisions. Anyway, it's all about the voters, both the responsibility and the blame. Neither do I accept arguments about the past that go nowhere. All I know in heart and mind is that the Democratic Party and its traditional liberal platform must survive this latest maelstrom and prevail going forward into the future, or we're all royally fckd!

What other realistic choice is there to further the cause of democracy this late in the game of American politics other than to vote big-D Democratic and by default little-d democratic? A third Party? Nope. The Republican Party? Nope. Not voting like a dummy? Definitely nope. With only 62 action-packed days left before one of history's most consequential elections, it's a little late to change many minds in such a polarized environment. At this point, it's all about getting out the vote. Who wins the ground game in 2022 will set the next stage for 2024 and beyond.

The presidency is always the big enchilada, the ultimate power on planet Earth. In a little over three decades, the GOP won the presidency with the popular vote exactly twice (1988, 2004) even though they occupied the White House as much during that same period as the Democrats did, who easily won the popular vote five times (1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012). Go figure. Bad policy ideas or a bad system? https://www.statista.com/statistics/1035521/popular-votes-republican-democratic-parties-since-1828/

Most of the down-ballot politicos ride the coattails of the big guys anyway, like it or not. In the midterms that's usually bad for the incumbent party, depending on which way the propaganda winds are blowing -- information based on either an accepted platform of shared factual reality or wild speculation that twists reality to fit an unhinged agenda, usually the latter. Exceptions to the rule are driving today's frantic news cycles.

In fact, the modern Republican Party has no agenda other than Trump, Trump, Trump, and hate everyone else ad nauseum, 24-7. After seven miserable years, aren't you sick to death of all the drama-queen inanity and insanity of Trump World? So is everyone else with an intact cerebral cortex and limbic system.

The big question is not the plethora of reasons not to vote Democratic up and down the ticket this time around; it's, why on earth would anyone enable the fascists and traitors of the misnamed Grand Old Party by NOT checking a "D" on every line on every ballot across America -- county, state, and federal!? Traitors to democracy must repeatedly experience devastating losses by the very system they hope to destroy.

It's time for each voter to take responsibility for democracy in a proactive way instead of just whining all the time about ineffectual leaders fighting with one hand tied behind their back in a rigged system of legal bribery. It's the rotten-to-the-core system we're stuck with primarily because individual voters (who add up to the majority), for one idiotic reason or another, refuse to give the Democratic Party big enough margins to overcome the stacked odds and pass progressive legislation.

Democrats have repeatedly tried to pass progressive legislation out of the House only to have it die at the hands of highly partisan Republicans (and a few stray, bought-off Democrats) in the Senate. To deny the mighty efforts, albeit rare achievements, however compromised, of Biden and a Democratic Congress despite a 50/50 split, is to fall victim to all the right-wing babble disseminated by corporate media, which has always favored Republicans and corporate-minded policies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsoyTj6Hwho (In this dated but timely video, substitute the word liberal with Democrat and conservative with Republican. Who should you never trust, not even to hold your beer?

"But at this point those Republicans no longer trust any Democrat to deliver on those promises." That's rich; after seven years of Trump, Republicans suddenly have trust issues? Haha, the biggest fools whose judgement Republican rubes should never trust are the sad clowns staring vacantly back at them, brushing their teeth.

Trumpees are goners. Persuadable, fence-sitting, Republican-lite types are far and few between. This election will be won by whipping up the base of liberals and progressives instead of wishing upon a star over the rainbow that enough disaffected conservatives (whatever that means in the Trump era) might see the light and cross over to vote intelligently. Some day perhaps -- like the sixty-second day from now?

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Deep

Your views on Republican voters are extremely harsh. You don't seem to be well enough informed on their grievances for any of them to view someone like you as having any empathy for their legitimate concerns. You are an expert on their illegitimate concerns.

Bottom line is that most Americans are in terrible shape economically. Their quality of life is declining rapidly and this is seen in the data from declining labor force participation to declining income mobility to growing numbers of deaths by despair. The data is irrefutable...

Insulting these people the way you do insures that they will be harder and harder to get to vote for our party.

Obama did it, so we know it can be done. And he crushed the Republicans. So we know it can be done.

What we are equally sure of is that that wont be done with rhetoric from voters like you. I am pretty sure most politicians see voters like you as a net negative to the party.

I realize you are never ever going to give a shit what anyone says. Its like talking to a MAGA loving Trumper. They wont listen to anything that does not tell them exactly what they want to hear.

I think the party is moving away from voters like you, just like they abandoned labor under Clinton. Don't you agree?

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Sep 8, 2022Liked by Thom Hartmann

Ha! Anyone who blindly appeases Republicans and overlooks their full-throated culpability in destroying our democracy is about the last person with whom I would ever agree. It's a nonstarter shamelessly excusing or glossing over the immoral behavior of Republicans, the Party of Liars. Their continuing, accelerating criminality has resulted in most of the societal ills not-so-subtly blamed on Democrats. (Nice try, though.)

Empty rhetoric is as much of an insult to the plain truth of today's political realities as it is to an honest rendering and reckoning of history. If anything, my comments about Republicans' loudly broadcast malicious intent is not harsh enough. (Watch Thom's video in my previous post at your peril; his assertions are spot on, historically accurate, and impeccably resourced, as usual.)

To be sufficiently "informed" is to realize the utter devastation Republicans have wrought across not only America but the entire world, how they've systematically gutted democracies and economies from Nixon to Reagan to the Bushes and Trump -- bigotted religious intolerance, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, climate denial, resource wars of choice, the self-righteous, shortsighted pursuit of worldwide hegemony and full-specrum dominance, lavish tax breaks for their well-connected Wall Street cronies and billionaire donors, the self-proclaimed "masters of the universe." In one word: it's called fascism.

If Republican perps and their clueless enablers would only realize that the transparant right-wing rhetoric they stupidly rely on for their illogical arguments rings hollow, is highly insulting to most people with a brain, and factually wrong. It's embarrassing.

Self-realization is a difficult path. Take a deep breath, relax, and clear your head. Which party is promoting Trump's "Big Lie" about nonexistent voter fraud while engaged in widespread election fraud? Which party plotted a coup and engaged in an armed and violent insurrection in the heart of our democracy, breaking America's most respected aspect in the world of its otherwise hugely flawed democracy: the peaceful transfer of power? Which party is lying through its teeth directly to America's face? Which Party gave us an impeached Nixon, the warmongering Bushes and the twice-impeached Trump? Which party gave us Reagan, who busted unions, sold us out to Wall Street, and subjected American workers to the tender mercies of the vreedy and ruthless billionaire class?

I could go on and we could keep going around and around, but what's the use? Recognizing harsh realities is not for the faint of heart. Good luck on your path of discovery.

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Deep

Is it safe to say that in your view Americans that have voted for and still support leaders that have harmed American lives should be shamed, rejected and minimized by society?

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Deep

Democrats do not consistently win the popular vote other than in Presidential races. In the Senate and House they win majorities no more or less than the GOP. And there are more liberals, progressives and Democrats that could vote than there are conservatives. So the question is WHY? Why don't the democrats get enough votes from Americans to actually do the things they say they want?

The answer is obvious to most Americans other than the died in the wool blind partisans in the Democratic party. The Dems who are as blind to the rest of the country as MAGA voters.

This country elected Obama in 2008, he got millions of votes from future MAGA voters and they gave him strong majorities in the House and Senate. Had he lead like FDR by going directly to the voters and organizing them to support him in fighting the corporate control of law makers the Democrats would have won every election to this day. He did not. He chose policy teams that were controlled by the Banks, by big Pharma and health are (did you know every word of Obama care was written by lobbyists).

Obama had the trust of enough Republicans to make all of the changes the Hillary, Pelsosi, Biden Democrats have been promising for decades. And he was stopped cold in his tracks. Not by Republican law makers, they were irrelevant in his first 2yrs. He was stopped by Democratic party leaders that so strongly support today.

Yes, Democrats can easily get enough votes from Republicans to have real power. They did it 2008. The polls still show majorities of Republicans support Free Health Care, higher min wage, higher taxes on the rich etc... But at this point those Republicans no longer trust any Democrat to deliver on those promises. Are they wrong? Would Biden deliver? He said flat out he would veto Medicare for All if it came to his desk. Did he say that to help the poor and middle class? Or did he say that to get money from donors.

Victory is there for Democrats but it will never come with power or consistency as long as the leaders of the Democratic party you seem to support (Pelosi, Biden, Schumer, Clinton) have the real power in the party. Right?

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