Author: Thom Hartmann

When profits kill: The dark reality of corporate healthcare that gains wealth at the expense of health

The recent assassination of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the health insurance company with, reportedly, the highest rate of claims rejections and thus dead, wounded, and furious customers and their relations, gives us a perfect window to understand the stupidity and danger of the Musk/Trump/Ramaswamy strategy of “cutting government” to “make it more efficient, run it like a corporation.” Consider health care, which in almost every other developed country in the world is legally part of the commons — the infrastructure of the nation, like our roads, public schools, parks, police, military, libraries, and fire departments — owned by the...

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Seoul’s cautionary tale: Democracy shows its fragility in an age of autocratic rulers

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose declaration of a state of emergency on December 3 shocked the world, has often been referred to as “South Korea’s Donald Trump.” A political outsider, he came to power with anti-establishment and often outrageously inflammatory rhetoric, trash talking women’s rights, “reforming” their healthcare system, and pushing hard for a neoliberal agenda that included raising the workweek from 52 to 69 hours. In that, he reflects a growing trend among advanced democracies around the world, as decades of neoliberalism have weakened multiple nations’ abilities to sustain middle class lifestyles while enriching an oligarch...

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Dictatorship vs. Democracy: Why the fight for Ukraine’s sovereignty could redefine America’s future

Russia unleashed one of its most violent missile attacks against Ukraine recently. The United States and at least one other European country have given President Zelenskyy permission to use long-range missiles to attack within Russia. Putin has also brought in North Korean troops, internationalizing the incident as if he wants to turn it into World War III. Europe and the United States both know they must stand against this. And on November 20, Putin presumably launched an ICBM against Ukraine. Ever since the days of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have always notified each other of...

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A Mafia State: Why all Americans are now stuck living in Alexander Hamilton’s worst nightmare

Alexander Hamilton thought he and the others who wrote the Constitution had it all figured out. He and his colleagues never imagined that a group of billionaires would spend 43 years and billions of dollars to seize the U.S. Supreme Court, which would then legalize political bribery. They never conceived of a foreign billionaire family coming to American and building a nationwide media ecosystem that was capable of convincing Americans that up was down, wrong was right, and a convicted fraudster and rapist would be a noble president. They would have laughed at you if you told them that...

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War on Democracy: How the 50-year plan built on Trump’s oligarchy finally allowed Billionaires to win

“Our nation is broken, perhaps beyond repair. It is unthinkable, that instead of being able to celebrate a glorious, hopeful new chapter in the story of this nation with a leader who appealed to the best of our natures — we will instead be holding an autopsy for democracy as we enter our 250th year, stewarded by a malevolent sociopath who despises empathy and shuns the law.” – John Pavlovitz We just watched the final fulfillment of a 50-year plan. Louis Powell laid it out in 1971, and every step along the way Republicans have followed it. It was...

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If hate continues to dominate GOP politics then another “Trump” will always lurk in the shadows

Suddenly, it seems, the American mainstream media has figured out, or thinks they have been given permission to discuss, the fact that Donald Trump is a fascist. That he literally wants to imprison and even execute his enemies including other politicians like Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris and former employees who have betrayed him, including General Mark Milley. Multiple commentators (including me) have wondered out loud if the defeat of Trump this fall will chasten Republicans and cause the Party to revert to its old “merely corporate and billionaire friendly” form, or if Trump has...

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