That phony, boozy "Father Knows Best" and "Leave It To Beaver" society created after WWII did not stand a chance against the baby boomers. They knew that was not what was happening in THEIR house. The far right wants to drag us back to the 1950's that never really existed.
The irony of Reagan's administration was how corrupt it was while he preached. Phony, phony phony! He created the welfare queens....the ones with "incorporated" behind their names.
President Biden is not cynical or jaded about the American people. Oh, what a difference a little humility makes! I believe he believes in us. I hope we don't let him or ourselves down. To quote a wise man, "Tag, you're it!".
Reaganomics trickle down deregulation Cuts for Corps,crushing unions, lower wages , no affordable colleges was insidious. Greedy senile old man put US on road to Ruin.
That negligible and stupid splinter group infected the GOP completely in the decades to follow that letter.
People don't call it the "Republican Great Depression" anymore. That prefix makes Republicans look bad in the history books, so like most of their failures and treasons, it went away. Or maybe it went away because it would be confusing to say which Republican Great Depression we're talking about, the one in 1930, 2008, 2020?
The intentionality of the Reagan Revolution to hurt ordinary people just boggles the mind. Trying to declare ketchup a vegetable to save on school lunch costs. Saving money by starving children; how positively Dickensonian!
Nov 25, 2022·edited Nov 26, 2022Liked by Thom Hartmann
Thom, as I read your incredible article, I thought the your punch line would the following:
Biden, in addressing the accumulation of wealth by some of the richest Americans, said: "My fellow Americans, trickle-down economics has never worked."
Biden, who was speaking about the need to raise taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, noted that America's billionaires greatly grew their wealth during the pandemic.
"It's time to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out," he said.
The one you chose is even more revolutionary. Thank you for your penetrating historical analysis and insights. You've also explained the far-right's admiration of autocrats and their appeal for foreign autocrats to intervene in our democratic elections, on their greedy and anti-democratic behalf.
I think you must qualify "coming to an end". Citizens are sick of the government attacking us, but GOVERNMENT is still being bribed to continue the attacks.
Though Biden lends hope, we citizens haven't had a voice in DC for most of my life.
Do you know the ACTUAL, despicable reason why women's rights were not protected for 50 years?
Nobody is offering bribes to protect women's rights, or larger bribes are offered to harm women.
The same reason is true for gun control climate change and other symptoms of the main problem, and many other issues.
In short, it's fair to say that what isn't being done is what doesn't bribe well..
We elected Democrats specifically to clean up NaziRepublican Party crimes In 1976, 1980, 1992, 2000, 2008, 2016, and 2020 (note: Democratic Party Presidents elected in 1980, 2000, and 2016 were not allowed to serve)
Every one of these elections, we watched in dismay as Democrats came up with flimsy and frankly unbelievable excuses to not prosecute. The closest we came was Obama, who five years and one day, that is ONE DAY after the statute of limitations expired, prosecuted the Banksters, resulting in stockholders paying most of our profits to the federal government while the CEOs who stole trillions all had to leave the room so we would not see them laughing with glee (and signing checks to buy Obama's books???)
Personally, I believe the USA will continue the 40 year trend of the NaziRepublican Party (and the Democracy Party too) reducing individual freedom, destroying our standard of living, and eliminating our free market economy. I don't see this trend changing until more Americans are starving than they feel like helping so they stay quiet..
"The Republican/Conservative “solution” to the “crisis” these three movements represented was put into place in 1981: the explicit goal of the so-called Reagan Revolution was to take the middle class down a peg and end the protests and social instability. "
The Annual Report of the Bank for International Settlements (central bank of central banks) stated in it's 1983 report that the standard of living of the west has to be reduced.
And Paul Volker when he was chair of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987 said the same thing, and Jerome Powelll is dead set on following through, under the guise of cooling inflation. However real inflation is caused by the interest that has to be repaid on debts which create, via the fractional reserve system, money out of thin air, based solely on the debt. As debt is paid down and off, the money created out of debt, does not create the money to pay the interest...hence "inflation". The Federal Reserve open window interest rate (the rate at which preferred borrowers can buy Treasury bills and bonds, is the basis for what is called inflation. The greater the interest rate, the more the dollar is devalued. The demand for debt, especially consumer debt and government debt, is inelastic, so raising interest rates doesn't cool the economy, it just makes inflation that much worse, down the road.
The other cause of rising prices, is not inflation, but corporate greed, both at the source and by the middleman, which is passed on to the retailer and supplier of services, each of which raises rates to catch up, and when added in their totality by the consumer is much greater than the government index of inflation, and results in bankruptices or choices between medicine and food for the family.
Great history, but the idea that republicans really believed that a strong and growing middle class would be a threat to our form of government is the height of naïveté. The middle class was a threat only to the power of the “ruling class”, whether that was in old England or the United States. A strong middle class is actually essential to a strong Democracy. It provides stability. And a strong Democracy is the last thing the oligarchy wants; it gives power to We the People. As we are seeing today, as the GOP denies that America ever was a Democracy!
That speech was kayfabe - intended to sustain the fiction that the Democratic Party is the resistance to the multi-feudal fascism the R Party so publically embraces. Both Parties are paid at the same window by slightly different subsets of the ~1000 B'naires. Now recall that the D Party received the somewhat larger part of the 16+B$ Dark Money invested in the 2022 midterms. I suggest that inActions speak louder than words: The in-yo-face most amazing being the 17th month delay in the 1st public hearing on J6 - tepid and timid with Zero appointees forced to testify, none jailed, Carl Albert spins in his grave.
On a lighter note, Powell still Chairs the Fed (Biden could have removed him long ago) - is now openly bragging that he can bring on a Depression. That's worth a few T$ by itself - as you recently argued in reviewing the depressions of the last 100 years. There are numerous other sins of omission by Senate Committee Chairs. A Lame Duck session that re-defines lameness. Biden supporting the vague Restrict Act attacks on 1A-speech - which will be use against life on Earth by the next President who - after the 6 gods rule next year on the Independent State Legislature Doctrine - will most certainly not be Biden. BTW the ISLD logic simply requires releasing the State Legislator from the Oaths to State & Fed Constitutions they have sworn - exactly as the sick 6 have released themselves from their Oaths. In all these blocked actions, the DNC, D leadership in Congress, and Biden are the Pawl to preclude any backsliding as the R Party ratchets up the fascism.
I recall that you recently estimated that it might require 4 or 5 election cycles to restore some semblance representative democracy. Our intersection with Climate Collapse will be fundamentally different 8 or 10 years out than is possible now. The Biden Party gets kudos (not from me!) for the perhaps 320B$ over 10 years, 32B$/yr, of actual Climate Remediation. PM2.5 is killing 8 to 9 million people/yr; comparable to WWII - but almost unremarked. We spent ~42% of GDP for 5 years. So 8T$/yr for 5 should be considered the ante for staying in the game of life against the far more destructive forces that we are subsidizing so heavily.
We stop subsidizing the monsters by taxing CO2e at $200/ton - that tax being calculated at the source. And every cent of that revenue going to a UBI (~$500/month for every adult in America, $250 for minors - at initial fossil/biomass usage rates). The dirtiest most energy intensive extraction techniques - fracking, tar sands oil, biomass - will be crushed immediately by market forces. The 8T$/yr will go to solar, batteries, HVDC undersea cables, and wind. Our actual peacemakers (not the damn missile) with install and connect these around the world - for free! Hey, we didn't charge them for the bombs in WWII (nor Korea, Vietnam ...)!
Now, other than that 32B$/yr, what has Biden done: Vast drilling leases in the Gulf, Willow, LNG in the Arctic and pipelines. Biomass: Trump EPA defined burning biomass to be carbon neutral. Biden EPA concurs. A clear mind and high school science immediately shows it to be 2+ times as bad as burning coal; though psychopaths argue otherwise. But, but, but, there's big money for carbon capture? That is a government subside for fracking. After we pay $600 or whatever to capture it, it is pressurized and pumped into the ground - which pushed out Methane and/or oil.
So no. Biden is not The One. We all knew (or at least you, me, Trump, and the DNC) who The One was in 2016. And in 2020, though then the DNC had a far more subtle and tastefully presented production.
But the One cannot solve the problem. Deep down we all know that. We all must know that corporate payola, the cancer of legalized bribery created by the Court in '76 and '78 Valeo & Bank of Boston; metastasized by Citizens United, McDonnell, Cruz; has effected that merger of State and Corporate Power that Mussolini called fascism. Ours is a unique fascism in that the corporations are dominant; pretty much as Koch, Federalist Society intended. Each corporate sector gets everything is asks for - and it all comes from us. This is what I referred to above as multi-feudal fascism. We are at the stage where most people have next to nothing - so scapegoating and foreign wars are the tools of choice.
Our tools are disruption by massive strike. The olies, or 'garchs if you prefer, have of course long planned for this. E.g. the Cop City protesters (and anybody nearby) are held without bail on terrorism charges - if still alive. Prisoners in our jails commit suicide when their release is imminent - always waiting till the surveillance cameras fail. And had Ghandi gone on hunger strike in Guantanamo, DeSantis would have force fed him.
I'm told that Irish Grandmothers admonish 'Hell boy! If it was easy assholes would do it.
I say again: I am so glad that Thom Hartmann is part of my intake. Intelligent and prone to foster constructive thought. Not shrill, not bomb-throwing. Actually optimistic. Geez. Such a relief. That said:
This article illustrates part of what has come to be my assessment of what underlies THE problem in America. I have lived it, have helped my family apparel business move through the period of 1972 to now, and have experienced the erosion felt by so many over that time. Have watched the insurance businesses of all kinds take control, while pharmaceutical companies have wreaked devastating havoc for sake of profit through opioids. I've watched BIG take over, siphoning trillion from the bottom and the middle to the very top, and becoming the dog that wags the tail of government. I've become aware of the revelations of The Panama and Pandora Papers, AND have noted that money laundering and tax evasion (of trillions) are never on the list of Primary Issues that are presented by blue candidates.
I challenge the optimistic, hopeful tone of this (while appreciating it, believe me) because, as you point out, nobody noticed that one, simple, powerful statement. Including ANYONE from the leadership of the Democratic party. If ever there was a rallying cry at a time it is so badly need, that was it. For me, the sad truth is that the DNC is part of the problem. There IS no unity, no shared, named platform that will stand tall for decades to come, the new definition of the Democratic party.
It could happen. But it would be nice if HOPE had some teeth.
That phony, boozy "Father Knows Best" and "Leave It To Beaver" society created after WWII did not stand a chance against the baby boomers. They knew that was not what was happening in THEIR house. The far right wants to drag us back to the 1950's that never really existed.
The irony of Reagan's administration was how corrupt it was while he preached. Phony, phony phony! He created the welfare queens....the ones with "incorporated" behind their names.
President Biden is not cynical or jaded about the American people. Oh, what a difference a little humility makes! I believe he believes in us. I hope we don't let him or ourselves down. To quote a wise man, "Tag, you're it!".
Excellent if he follows through, if Congress isn't bought off and if the Court doesn't create huge roadblocks. Guess we'll see.
Reaganomics trickle down deregulation Cuts for Corps,crushing unions, lower wages , no affordable colleges was insidious. Greedy senile old man put US on road to Ruin.
That negligible and stupid splinter group infected the GOP completely in the decades to follow that letter.
People don't call it the "Republican Great Depression" anymore. That prefix makes Republicans look bad in the history books, so like most of their failures and treasons, it went away. Or maybe it went away because it would be confusing to say which Republican Great Depression we're talking about, the one in 1930, 2008, 2020?
The intentionality of the Reagan Revolution to hurt ordinary people just boggles the mind. Trying to declare ketchup a vegetable to save on school lunch costs. Saving money by starving children; how positively Dickensonian!
Thom, as I read your incredible article, I thought the your punch line would the following:
Biden, in addressing the accumulation of wealth by some of the richest Americans, said: "My fellow Americans, trickle-down economics has never worked."
Biden, who was speaking about the need to raise taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, noted that America's billionaires greatly grew their wealth during the pandemic.
"It's time to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out," he said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/live-blog/live-updates-biden-set-give-first-address-joint-session-congress-n1265551/ncrd1265787#liveBlogCards
The one you chose is even more revolutionary. Thank you for your penetrating historical analysis and insights. You've also explained the far-right's admiration of autocrats and their appeal for foreign autocrats to intervene in our democratic elections, on their greedy and anti-democratic behalf.
Right on Mr Thom...well said and you take the thoughts right from my soul!
Thom,
I think you must qualify "coming to an end". Citizens are sick of the government attacking us, but GOVERNMENT is still being bribed to continue the attacks.
Though Biden lends hope, we citizens haven't had a voice in DC for most of my life.
Do you know the ACTUAL, despicable reason why women's rights were not protected for 50 years?
Nobody is offering bribes to protect women's rights, or larger bribes are offered to harm women.
The same reason is true for gun control climate change and other symptoms of the main problem, and many other issues.
In short, it's fair to say that what isn't being done is what doesn't bribe well..
I think it's too little, too late.
We elected Democrats specifically to clean up NaziRepublican Party crimes In 1976, 1980, 1992, 2000, 2008, 2016, and 2020 (note: Democratic Party Presidents elected in 1980, 2000, and 2016 were not allowed to serve)
Every one of these elections, we watched in dismay as Democrats came up with flimsy and frankly unbelievable excuses to not prosecute. The closest we came was Obama, who five years and one day, that is ONE DAY after the statute of limitations expired, prosecuted the Banksters, resulting in stockholders paying most of our profits to the federal government while the CEOs who stole trillions all had to leave the room so we would not see them laughing with glee (and signing checks to buy Obama's books???)
Personally, I believe the USA will continue the 40 year trend of the NaziRepublican Party (and the Democracy Party too) reducing individual freedom, destroying our standard of living, and eliminating our free market economy. I don't see this trend changing until more Americans are starving than they feel like helping so they stay quiet..
It sure looks like Trump the Demented is following the way of his daddy to the very end.
https://www.rawstory.com/trumps-health/
"The Republican/Conservative “solution” to the “crisis” these three movements represented was put into place in 1981: the explicit goal of the so-called Reagan Revolution was to take the middle class down a peg and end the protests and social instability. "
The Annual Report of the Bank for International Settlements (central bank of central banks) stated in it's 1983 report that the standard of living of the west has to be reduced.
And Paul Volker when he was chair of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987 said the same thing, and Jerome Powelll is dead set on following through, under the guise of cooling inflation. However real inflation is caused by the interest that has to be repaid on debts which create, via the fractional reserve system, money out of thin air, based solely on the debt. As debt is paid down and off, the money created out of debt, does not create the money to pay the interest...hence "inflation". The Federal Reserve open window interest rate (the rate at which preferred borrowers can buy Treasury bills and bonds, is the basis for what is called inflation. The greater the interest rate, the more the dollar is devalued. The demand for debt, especially consumer debt and government debt, is inelastic, so raising interest rates doesn't cool the economy, it just makes inflation that much worse, down the road.
The other cause of rising prices, is not inflation, but corporate greed, both at the source and by the middleman, which is passed on to the retailer and supplier of services, each of which raises rates to catch up, and when added in their totality by the consumer is much greater than the government index of inflation, and results in bankruptices or choices between medicine and food for the family.
Great history, but the idea that republicans really believed that a strong and growing middle class would be a threat to our form of government is the height of naïveté. The middle class was a threat only to the power of the “ruling class”, whether that was in old England or the United States. A strong middle class is actually essential to a strong Democracy. It provides stability. And a strong Democracy is the last thing the oligarchy wants; it gives power to We the People. As we are seeing today, as the GOP denies that America ever was a Democracy!
That speech was kayfabe - intended to sustain the fiction that the Democratic Party is the resistance to the multi-feudal fascism the R Party so publically embraces. Both Parties are paid at the same window by slightly different subsets of the ~1000 B'naires. Now recall that the D Party received the somewhat larger part of the 16+B$ Dark Money invested in the 2022 midterms. I suggest that inActions speak louder than words: The in-yo-face most amazing being the 17th month delay in the 1st public hearing on J6 - tepid and timid with Zero appointees forced to testify, none jailed, Carl Albert spins in his grave.
On a lighter note, Powell still Chairs the Fed (Biden could have removed him long ago) - is now openly bragging that he can bring on a Depression. That's worth a few T$ by itself - as you recently argued in reviewing the depressions of the last 100 years. There are numerous other sins of omission by Senate Committee Chairs. A Lame Duck session that re-defines lameness. Biden supporting the vague Restrict Act attacks on 1A-speech - which will be use against life on Earth by the next President who - after the 6 gods rule next year on the Independent State Legislature Doctrine - will most certainly not be Biden. BTW the ISLD logic simply requires releasing the State Legislator from the Oaths to State & Fed Constitutions they have sworn - exactly as the sick 6 have released themselves from their Oaths. In all these blocked actions, the DNC, D leadership in Congress, and Biden are the Pawl to preclude any backsliding as the R Party ratchets up the fascism.
I recall that you recently estimated that it might require 4 or 5 election cycles to restore some semblance representative democracy. Our intersection with Climate Collapse will be fundamentally different 8 or 10 years out than is possible now. The Biden Party gets kudos (not from me!) for the perhaps 320B$ over 10 years, 32B$/yr, of actual Climate Remediation. PM2.5 is killing 8 to 9 million people/yr; comparable to WWII - but almost unremarked. We spent ~42% of GDP for 5 years. So 8T$/yr for 5 should be considered the ante for staying in the game of life against the far more destructive forces that we are subsidizing so heavily.
We stop subsidizing the monsters by taxing CO2e at $200/ton - that tax being calculated at the source. And every cent of that revenue going to a UBI (~$500/month for every adult in America, $250 for minors - at initial fossil/biomass usage rates). The dirtiest most energy intensive extraction techniques - fracking, tar sands oil, biomass - will be crushed immediately by market forces. The 8T$/yr will go to solar, batteries, HVDC undersea cables, and wind. Our actual peacemakers (not the damn missile) with install and connect these around the world - for free! Hey, we didn't charge them for the bombs in WWII (nor Korea, Vietnam ...)!
Now, other than that 32B$/yr, what has Biden done: Vast drilling leases in the Gulf, Willow, LNG in the Arctic and pipelines. Biomass: Trump EPA defined burning biomass to be carbon neutral. Biden EPA concurs. A clear mind and high school science immediately shows it to be 2+ times as bad as burning coal; though psychopaths argue otherwise. But, but, but, there's big money for carbon capture? That is a government subside for fracking. After we pay $600 or whatever to capture it, it is pressurized and pumped into the ground - which pushed out Methane and/or oil.
So no. Biden is not The One. We all knew (or at least you, me, Trump, and the DNC) who The One was in 2016. And in 2020, though then the DNC had a far more subtle and tastefully presented production.
But the One cannot solve the problem. Deep down we all know that. We all must know that corporate payola, the cancer of legalized bribery created by the Court in '76 and '78 Valeo & Bank of Boston; metastasized by Citizens United, McDonnell, Cruz; has effected that merger of State and Corporate Power that Mussolini called fascism. Ours is a unique fascism in that the corporations are dominant; pretty much as Koch, Federalist Society intended. Each corporate sector gets everything is asks for - and it all comes from us. This is what I referred to above as multi-feudal fascism. We are at the stage where most people have next to nothing - so scapegoating and foreign wars are the tools of choice.
Our tools are disruption by massive strike. The olies, or 'garchs if you prefer, have of course long planned for this. E.g. the Cop City protesters (and anybody nearby) are held without bail on terrorism charges - if still alive. Prisoners in our jails commit suicide when their release is imminent - always waiting till the surveillance cameras fail. And had Ghandi gone on hunger strike in Guantanamo, DeSantis would have force fed him.
I'm told that Irish Grandmothers admonish 'Hell boy! If it was easy assholes would do it.
It won't be easy.
But getting hold of me is easy: Tom@TomWellsForCongress.com - omit 'Tom@' for the website
352-514-5467 FL-CD3 - R won 2022 by 17%. DNC/FDP will not expect a Progressive prob here.
What happens to comments?
I say again: I am so glad that Thom Hartmann is part of my intake. Intelligent and prone to foster constructive thought. Not shrill, not bomb-throwing. Actually optimistic. Geez. Such a relief. That said:
This article illustrates part of what has come to be my assessment of what underlies THE problem in America. I have lived it, have helped my family apparel business move through the period of 1972 to now, and have experienced the erosion felt by so many over that time. Have watched the insurance businesses of all kinds take control, while pharmaceutical companies have wreaked devastating havoc for sake of profit through opioids. I've watched BIG take over, siphoning trillion from the bottom and the middle to the very top, and becoming the dog that wags the tail of government. I've become aware of the revelations of The Panama and Pandora Papers, AND have noted that money laundering and tax evasion (of trillions) are never on the list of Primary Issues that are presented by blue candidates.
I challenge the optimistic, hopeful tone of this (while appreciating it, believe me) because, as you point out, nobody noticed that one, simple, powerful statement. Including ANYONE from the leadership of the Democratic party. If ever there was a rallying cry at a time it is so badly need, that was it. For me, the sad truth is that the DNC is part of the problem. There IS no unity, no shared, named platform that will stand tall for decades to come, the new definition of the Democratic party.
It could happen. But it would be nice if HOPE had some teeth.
🙏