Author: Thom Hartmann

What country in its right mind would allow a foreign entity to come into their country, set up a major propaganda operation, and then use it to so polarize that nation that its very government suffers a violent assault and its democracy finds itself at a crossroads? Apparently, the United States.  And we are not the first, according to former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Writing for The Sydney Morning Herald (the Australian equivalent of The New York Times) Rudd called Rupert Murdoch and his rightwing news operations “the greatest cancer on the Australian democracy.” “The uncomfortable truth is,” Rudd wrote, “since...

Kevin McCarthy’s House Republicans, in their demand that Democrats gut Social Security and education monies to give more trillions in tax breaks to billionaires, are once again trying the Reaganomics hustle. Only this time with a twist. Boomers and many Gen Xers remember how the media swooned for Art Laffer’s napkin in the 1980s, and then President Reagan turned it into a movement to cut taxes on billionaires because, he lied, it would make average working-class people richer. What most don’t remember — because none of us were alive back in the 1920s or 1890s — is that Laffer and Reagan hadn’t...

Why are America’s plutocrats funding efforts to weaken our democracy and replace it with plutocracy and oligarchy? Is it just about money? Or is there something much deeper that most Americans rarely even consider? An extraordinary investigative report from documented.net tells how morbidly rich families, their companies, and their personal foundations are funding efforts to limit or restrict democracy across the United States. In an article co-published with The Guardian, they noted: “The advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative think tank based in Washington, spent more than $5m on lobbying in 2021 as it worked to block federal voting rights legislation...

If you think Republican politicians in Congress are corrupt, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Check out how little it costs to purchase access to a Supreme Court justice. Conservatives on the Supreme Court famously legalized billionaires and corporations bribing politicians back in 1976 and 1978, respectively (Buckley v Valeo and First National Bank v Bellotti), doubling down on and expanding the doctrine in 2010 (Citizens United). Back in the 1970s Democratic politicians’ campaigns were largely funded by unions: the movement was awash in cash as it represented nearly a third of American workers. So when the Court legalized political bribery, most...

They call themselves culture warriors. In reality they are fascists. Both the world and our American political system are rapidly dividing along two simple political lines: democracy or fascism. And the typical device fascists have used to rise to power, in country after country for centuries, has been what Republicans today refer to as their beloved “culture wars.” Democracies allow healthy debate about cultural and political issues, from the level of government support for the needy, to limits on immigration, to the funding of public functions like schools, libraries, and utilities. Control of government in democracies regularly and peacefully...