Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
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.
Your "How many trillions have been wasted on this war???"
5 Trillion: just Google it.
Thom, where did you get major escalation out of President Trump's speech? So far all I see is him following Obama's policies. Your declaration of it being a of a major escalation is interesting and profound.
Let's concentrate on something more meaningful,
his kids
election rigging
Russians
Nazis
lease on the old Post Office
his ties
@ #15
"imeach"
"Rumpterds"
"idiot extradinary"
Priceless
Trump's problem is that he is a theif. He used to steal dollars. This time he stole an election to steal money. He has no shot of being a good president because he has to spend all his time defending his burglary.
Had he not done that, he was still unprepared for the job and without a caring soul. But he might have been able to be "a" president had he won fairly.
Now, he can't.
He has to go.
GOP will know soon.
https://englishcode.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/coup-d-etat/
Excellent article. I was looking at a few other related situations. Here they are:
1868 -- Republicans impeached Democrat Andrew Johnson for refusing to abide by a law that restricted his authority -- the Tenure of Office. He was almost removed. The Supreme Court did not agree with the Republicans later on.
1876 -- Republicans lost both the popular vote and electoral vote, but set up a scheme to steal the White House -- and succeeded.
1896 -- Republicans and Oligarchs joined together to fund a coup. They paid large sums of money, had friends in the press help them, and even had people watching their employees under threat of firings to make sure that they voted 'correctly.' No secret ballot for that election.
1933 -- Oligarchs planned to send 500,000 men to remove popularly elected Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Traitor to the traitors, General Smedley Butler exposed the scheme. Coup failed.
1960 -- Richard Nixon pursued recounts against John F. Kennedy. After early tests, Republicans did not like the results, so they had to swallow the loss. Another attempt by Republicans at a "secret coup." That one failed ...
"GOP leaders had reason to conduct even a doomed campaign. Even if they ultimately lost, they reasoned, they could still taint Kennedy's victory. They could claim he had no mandate, galvanize their rank and file and build a winning issue for upcoming elections." http://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/10/local/me-49741
1998 -- After years of investigating under an "independent counsel" law, Republican Kenneth Starr finally found a reason to impeach Democrat Bill Clinton -- lying about a blow job. Knowing they did not have the vote count for removal, they impeached him anyway for a political propaganda "silent coup." After Bill Clinton was not removed, the Supreme Court declared the law permitting Kenneth Starr to investigate to be unconstitutional.
It's funny that today Donald Trump supporters are complaining that investigator Robert Mueller is not on Donald Trump's side and therefore should not be investigating. This turns the entire concept of "adversary system" on its head.
2016 -- Republican Senators used Judicial Activism to steal a Supreme Court seat, thereby maintaining a Republican majority since 1970. I wrote much about this myself. http://www.weblinenews.com/supreme-court-justice-charts
Thom, Trump is diverting attention away from his pro-Nazi BS from last week. Easiest way? Start or jack-up a war. Wave flags, mom & apple pie. Now, don't we all just feel SO MUCH BETTER about our little Donnie?
Thom, you need to ask the most perceptive questions, not the superficial GOP BS ones.
So I wonder how all of those vets and current soldiers feel about a damn rich boy draft dodger telling them they weren't fighting to win all these years? Are the Generals willing to admit they haven't been fighting to win?
How many trillions have been wasted on this war??? So is it tax and spend warfare Republicans????..or is it.... spend on endless war, create debt, and then blame the Democrats for out of control spending??? As we all know, our fascist controlled media dictates what flows into the heads of the populous.
Those who control the message have most of the country thinking our debt was and is being created by liberal " entitlement spending", you know Socialist programs like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, food stamps, low income housing programs, meals on wheels, PBS, postal system etc.
The only message Diane, Kend, Bachmann and the average citizen hear ... lazy people are why you pay so much tax....never a word about the cost of endless warfare. The dems sure as hell won't go on offense and mention it anymore than the party doing all the spending. We could easily have single payer with all those trillons....and then raise the cap.
a permanent occupation of afghanistan would be a dream come true for the red state defense industries. thus far, republicans have failed on their cap gains tax cut promises from obamacare repeal, and their new so called tax reform bill which mirrors the mid 1980s design of removing middle class itemized deductions so the rich can have an even lower tax rate. nothing in trump's agenda will likely ever benefit the working classes.
Have been off of the grid for 2 weeks. How many times do you have to fail in overseas wars with by far the most expensive military in the world, before you learn the lesson. We went into Afghanistan to Capture Bin Laden.... We failed.... Then Bush changed the mission.... He never captured Bin Laden.... Obama did... But we remained under the Changed Mission of Bush " Bring Democracy to the Middle East". WTF????
Donald Trump is going to declare a win in Afghanistan the same way George W. did when the Navy landed him on that aircraft carrier. Any thing that goes wrong after that will be the fault of his Generals. That's why he always tells us that they have full control. He needs a win. Even a temporary one will do.
There ar many ways to impeach the SOB, con man, liar and so forth. We need all of the people, except for the Rumpterds, to write their congressmen to imeach Rumpty Dumpty, idiot extradinary.
Yeah, "The Donald" is sending more troops but he's changing some of rules to confuse the bad guys. Uh, no it won't. Groups like the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS are basically running a low cost operation. Heck, most of their material is given to them (in some cases buy us!). Let's not forget that these nations are very well versed in L-O-N-G protracted wars----ask the British! Even Alexander the Great coud never subdue these tribes. Nevertheless, I think all this is about the ruling elite, the Oligarchs. They want this to continue. If they didn't, it would be over by lunch. They find the war(s) very profitable. They are good for periodic distractions, and they keep an otherwise sluggish economy on a near-like wartime footing, which, again, is good for their bottomline. Besides, war is a great way to "bleed off" what would otherwise be unemployeed (and likely unruly) workers. This keeps their numbers down. Nope, we are committed to Iraq, Afganistan, and damn near everywhere else as long as it's profitable. Meanwhile, we have other artifical distrations and manufactured divisions to occupy us. Afterall, they wouldn't want a united America looking lifting the curtain now would they?
2950: I know from your previous posts that you don't oppose a third party and are a Bernie fan. So am I. And you're right, the mainstream media acts today as a megaphone for wealthy special interests. A misinformed electorate will make the wrong choices every time. The only remedy for our "media misinformation problem" is to support alternative media wherever we can find it. This media is identifiable to anyone with a modicum of critical thinking ability by its balanced, objective coverage of issues and events.
Dianereynolds: If you think Socialism is all about a bunch of freeloading ethnic minorities that won't work, you are woefully misinformed. As Sanders has correctly pointed out, the socialist democracies in Scandanavia enjoy a higher standard of living on average than we do, have free universal (and superior) health care, and their populations poll consistently happier than people in the USA. How do you feel about "corporate welfare", where companies like GE pay no taxes, collect dividends from Uncle Sam at the end of the year and stash their profits off shore? Oh, I see, these companies are headed up by rich white guys that, like Trump, are proven to be "smart" because they know how to game the system. Beautiful!
Within his disease process, his role as President will be destroyed by the delusional and paranoid process he has truly exhibited so far! He has characteristics of severe denial, minimal insight, and certainly no judgment for his responsibilities as a Leader. On top of that, the aging process has its own monsters that he has to adapt to every single day .... I do not think he has the strength, energy, or motivation to attempt a "turn-around" for the Nation and the people of America!
He is quite ill and at this point may be beyond the reach of those professionals who have the courage and perseverance to help him. There may not be a thread of hope that he can continue at the level we have all seen and experienced! And the people around him and his family nucleus are enabling him in ways we can no longer count!
I feel very sorry that he cannot receive the help that he truly needs! But The United States of America will survive, no matter what may befall President Trump. If he cannot resign on his own accord, one way out of the network of stress and pain that he is initiating every day with the American unity, is for us to step up and put in place the process to remove him from the office he has tried so deeply to destroy!
And now may be his time to go forward with the life he may have left ... without the destruction of the Presidency as we know it to be, and the Government and Constitution we have respected and sacrificed everything for!!
Bernie Sanders was not a Democrat, he is a Socialist, thus his appeal to those who abhor honest work and expect others to pay for their free stuff.
Outback: I have nothing against a Democratic Socialist third party and even think Bernie is still capable of future success along these lines. That said, I still feel strongly that without a way to communicate truth to the populous it won't matter how effective Bernie's message is...look how the corp media has shut him down so easily. Bernie remains the only Democrat my foxmerized friends have ever had a fond word for.
2950: I can relate to your frustration. I think where we differ is in our perception of the roles played by the two "sanctioned" parties. You state "We won't be able to change things until we get control of the message." To me, that sounds a lot like " how can we (the Democrats) 'out-message' our adversaries, the Republicans". Isn't this just political gamesmanship?
In my mind, both parties are equally culpable in perpetuating the great economic divide that separates the "haves" from the "have nots". The Republicans are unabashed in their promotion of a meritocracy. The Democrats differ only in that they promote an agenda of providing some minimal subsistance level of survival for the unfortunate third of our population that would starve to death otherwise. Beyond this, the real action is at the top. Neither of these two parties deserves a second look by anyone genuinely interested in economic justice, starting with tax reform, extending through education and ending with a total restructuring of our national budget, which would include halving of our annual "defense" budget and redirecting the $500 BILLION thus saved toward rebuilding our infrastructure.
We need an entirely new political paradigm. Which is to say, a viable third party.
Recent polls indicate over 70% of Teapublicans think Trump is doing a good job. Obviously his lies leading up to November mean nothing to them. This little fact sounds boring and I'm preaching to the choir as usual, I realize that, but this is extremely important because it proves a point I've been desperately trying to communicate for years on this blog.
We won't be able to change things until we get control of the message. As per the above poll, it's clear the corpse media has virtually brainwashed a huge segment of the populous, and without a massive media vehicle to counter with truth, I'm quite convinced we're going to still be in this same god damn hellish situation after 2018 and 2020.
Why a billionaire with half a brain won't step up to save our democracy and global environment with a network to go after foxaganda and the Bannon's out there I don't know....maybe the few sane billionaires out there have no offspring????
Until I'm red faced I've warned my local Indivisible group that It won't matter how good out local candidate is without educating citizens about the foxaganda lies confusing them....they'll simply vote for their "team" again.
You know what... I didn't give a crap that we can't get single payer passed right now, that's not the point...the point about control of the message is that current democratic public servants need to continually speak out that they will pass single payer if voted into a majority roll...why in hell is it so hard for them to understand what offense and message is about????
Unrelated: Thom knows as well as I how much pain and joblessness will result from the inevitable crash thats coming....as always the price of unregulated greed by the few will be paid by the working class many. My hope is that at least hard working citizens can be clued in and transfer 401K funds before the worst hits. Wall Street has shown us they stand behind an extreme right-wing agenda by the insane exuberance since the election. The 60% of voters who didn't vote for Trump can vote again right now by moving their money to a safe harbor... an excellent way to fight back.
We can only hope!
I thank outback for his fantastic comments alsothe ex classmate of Trump. There is something I think that Tom should look into. I watch his show onRtnetwork mondat through friday every day. I live in san Francisco and I watch it on Cable channel 103. It is The Big Picture. For approximately the last 4 weeks the reception for this show which I watch at 4.00 pm pst has been terrible. This also includes whatever shows follow it at 4.30 or 5.00 pm pst. This includes Chris Hedges Show and Redacted tonight. There is no problem with any other show that I watch on RT or any other channel on my Tv. Could this possibly be done on purpose. The shows are ok for about 5 seconds than fade out to dark yhan do it again . This goes on for the entire show. You can however always hear the voices and what is bieng said. Has anyone else mentioned this or am I the first one. If Tom is reading this or if anyone else is reading this who can inform him of this situation please do so. I would really appreciate it. I think that it is bieng done on purpose by maybe a right wing hacker hacking into the network. These shows are the most progressive and best shows on RT where you hear the truth and these are the only shows that it is happening to. It never ever happens to the Larry King show mainly because he is an ass kissing power adoring sycophantic little weasel. Please inform Tom Hartmann of this situation. Thank You Very Much.
Since the man betrayed everyone who ever trusted him--his tenants, his backers, his contractors, his wives--there is no reason to trust what he says. (He is now following Nixon's script and throwing aides under the bus.) But he cannot admit failure, even if he has to take on the burden of proving he can do better. He is enamored of generals, or at least ones who will "act tough" and be macho fighting men. Having apparently no knowledge of history or other cultures he is utterly unable to comprehend why the Afghani opposition fights on. Changed his position? As an outsider he was happy to critize. Now inside his worldview is on the level of a comic book. Don't expect more.
The generals have given Trump an ultimatum. Shape up or ship out. That's what we see now. He got that same message at Fordham - 53 years ago. And they shipped him out. We will see. But whatever, he is a phony person.
The generals have their own agenda, and way of milking profit from the system. Only Bernie had this right. It's one issue: GREED. Not racism, not terrorism. They are fueled by greed to. And our capitalistic society needs brakes on its capitalism to stay effective. Otherwise it progresses to wealth disparity, anger, police state, fascism. If people are greedy by nature, we need to legislate sharing the wealth. Its that easy and NOTHING ELSE will work to sustain our democracy.
Trump certainly missed the history lessons about Vietnam and Johnson's war. Maybe he was to busy dodging the draft? Stop hey whats that sound everybody look whats going down...
As the old Watergate saying goes: "follow the money"