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.
I'll bet anything the 49% who did not express support for single-payer are the same citizens who thought Obamacare and the ACA were two different health insurance programs. However most of the polls I've found regarding single-payer support are much higher than 51%. The Hill poll seems way off??? I assume that's the one Thom has used.
Make government the servant our founders intended, not our ruler. Once the 49% understand this is what government's roll is, they'll realize medicare for all is the answer. Resist Fascism Now!
BTW: I'm getting reports that the vote was flipped in favor of Handel by 11%, not that anyone cares anymore...this is just accepted now. The Dems are too busy on defense as always.
"I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating" William M Tweed.
IOW, The Democrats and the Republicans are ALL nominated by the money people. That's why we only get to choose from TweedleDumb, and TweedleCrooked. Why would anyone expect that these politicians will vote for, or put up anything other than what benefits their benefactors?
In my lifetime, I have seen the steady debasement of politics. Since the advent of the obscenely mis-named "Citizens United" SCOTUS decision (should have been "Corporates united"), the quality of Democracy in the US is in freefall along with the tsunamis of dark cash that that decision has unleashed on our elections. The part that really pisses me off though, is that the Conservative judges in the SCOTUS at the time, were warned that this would happen, and blind Freddy could se that it would. IMO, the cons judges knew that this would happen and they believe(d) that politics should only be for the wealthy.
So how do we get the money out of our elections?
Gotta slap my hand. I did the knee jerk $5 donation (many times) to the Ossoff campaign. Wouldn't have done it if I had read up on his platform.
So why work with the Democratic Party...Why not start a Sanders/Warren/Merkely style Progressive Party?
Sure, it would keep the Rpubs in power for a couple more terms till the numbers built up...not winning anything currently anyhow...so what's the difference...except you'd eventually leave the Corporate Dems hangin in the wind. My guess it there would be a higher success of winning the low hanging/more local fruit...which is how you build a base. You'd also get rid of that awful 'D' word...(corporate) Democrate.
Is America a socialistic country? Are you being sarcastic? Blowing up the world, subjecting your people to what goes with the evils of consumerism, racism and militarism along with creating the realm of loving things and using people as opposed to loving people and using things are hardly socialistic.
Brilliant, Professor Dodson. When the wheels come off, I hope someone in a position of authority remembers your suggestion. The odds of getting it past the establishment, as you must realize, are zero. In the shorter term, if the Sanders crowd would just develop the stones to give up on the Democratic Party we might possibly zero in on your suggestion through a process of successive approximation.
About 10 years ago I reached the conclusion that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats would ever take the steps necessary to rid our society of systemic problems. The two parties are all about the distribution of spoils associated with holding political power. I registered as a member of the Green Party, realizing that the struggle to build enough support for Green Party candidates would be decades in coming.
A few years ago, as I was preparing to teach a course examining the socio-political arrangements and institutions most likely to yield justice in any society, I introduced the idea that we should build support (via Initiative and Referendum options) to eliminate all elections to our legislative bodies. Instead, we should choose our legislators by lottery.
Any citizen willing to serve on a city or town council, in the state legislature or in the U.S. House of Representatives would have to take and pass what amounts to a civil service examination to demonstrate competency. The person's name would then go into the lottery. If chosen, one would serve a 4-year term (subject to recall by the simple measure of 51% of citizens in the jurisdiction electronically declaring dissatisfaction), then returning to one's private life.
No campaigns. No fund-raising. No elections. No pay-to-play politics. Legislation in the public interest. Actual democracy.
I disagree that it would be better to run "as if" the Democrats were Progressives. The problem here is that this is what we have had in the past; people who pose as one thing when they are actially another and once in office they then fly their true colors. I think it would be better if we get rid of the posers and run actual Progressives who (1) won't take corporate or PAC money, (2) who are not looking to genuflect before the 2%, (3) who actually care about working class people and the environment, (4) who aren't sociopathic personalities with a pathologic need to lie about everything even when it's not necessary to lie, (5) get their funding from small donations from the public, (6) who will never become lobbyists or executives of corporations after their time in office, and (7) have the chutzpah to stand up to the bad guys and get the job done.
This country has been running on crooks and criminal behavior for FAR too long. We need a deep house cleaning and a fresh start getting back to the days of FDR with peace and prosperity for all. ***
As Republicans chortle and Democrats sulk, keep in mind that Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District is red as hell. (The Democrats lost the seat to serial-philanderer Gingrich in 1978 and have not regained it since.) Also keep in mind that Georgia is a badly gerrymandered state, notorious for voter suppression, even going as far as locating polling places in police stations in predominately black neighborhoods, among many other underhanded tactics.
In fact, as a fanatically partisan Secretary of State, Karen Handel worked long and hard to make sure that everybody but white Republicans had a most difficult and unpleasant voting experience -- that is, if their names were not already purged from the registration lists. Don't forget that her buckets of out-of-state, secret PAC cash also pushed a last-minute hysteric ad that turned the Steve Scalise shooting into violent political rhetoric and that shamelessly lied about how Democrats "praised" the incident. (Never happened anywhere!) Ignorant, bigoted Republican voters deserve their low-life candidates -- a good match.
IOW, this election is further proof that America does not conduct fair and honest elections and therefore is not a democracy. If everyone was properly registered and required to vote -- and if all the votes were counted -- we wouldn't be top-heavy with undeserving billionaires, Jon Ossoff would be representing Georgia's 6th, Rob Quist for Montana, and Karen Handel would be scraping mushy dog turds off hot sidewalks along with Greg Gianforte, a job most suitable to their talents.
https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2017/6/21?autostart=true
https://www.thenation.com/article/karen-handel-has-a-long-history-of-suppressing-votes/
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/6/1640743/-Spooked-Georgia-GOP-re-gerrymanders-Atlanta-suburbs-revealing-worries-over-House-special-election
Thomm,
Do we even HAVE any Democrats with enough guts that will run on the platform that you stated? Or are they afraid that they will lose?
Why are we NOT sueing over electronic voting machines that can't be certified? This drives me mad!
Certainly past time to give up on status quo. Obama tapped the youth movement but since then they have lost their way to corruption. Youth are no dummies and see what has taken place. Clinton and Wasserman-Schultz corrupted the process and it cost them the election, not Russian hacks, but Democrat failure to listen to youth.
Wouldn't Chimps fare better if they billed themselves as human? Come ON! The Democratic Party of FDR has long since given way to CORPORATE Democrats. The Blue Dog Democrat. The Neo Liberal Democratic Establishment which is suckling off the same corporate teat as their Republican cronies. The political establishment, "left" and right are all part of the same country club. The majority of our legislators are millionaires. We need to reject this Kubiki Dance in which one party poses, juxtaposed against the other as "standing for" some set of principles that mean absolutely nothing. It's just words, echoing endlessly in the media echo chamber. Until the PEOPLE open their eyes to this scam it will be more of the same until the ultimate "Collapse" (a great book, by the way by Jared Diamond that details what happens to societies when they persist in keeping their heads up their asses). SCREW the Democratic Party Establishment! There will be no changing these elite political dilatantes. We need to establish a new Progressive Party with a bold progressive agenda!
Fiction vs. reality...
DianeyWorld vs. real world...
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/22/15854614/senate-gop-health-bill-poor-pay-more
...all so the immoral, greedy, unpatriotic takers at the top get even more tax breaks and don't have to pay their fair share for a functioning society that works for all of us, while they reap the rewards of a one-sided economy and then spend billions of their ill-gotten gains on secret PACs to pick at the bones of what used to be the world's greatest democracy.
Thom what about adding up the monies spent on the politicans to do this healthcare .... and then ask your listeners ...how much could that money go towards HEALTHCARE for ALL . Expose the Medicare PLAN "D" prescription drug pay off that GAVE billions to the Rx companies to HELP , supposedly , the medicare users . The MONEY is mind boggling ! And just think where that could have all been spent better in a one payer system. thanks
Could it be that the Russians who without question (the debate is over) changed the election results that took over 1000 Democrat party seats across the country are blackmailing the Republicans to destroy obamacare so the entire population of the US dies and they can paddle over and enter through Sarah Palin's backyard and take over our country without firing a shot
or,
do the Ruskies want to force the Republicans to keep obamacare and break us into tinder by driving us all into personal bankruptcy because of rising premiums?
More foil for your hats.
Please make voluntary euthanasia legal so I can get away from conservatives once and for all.
Much like the Democratic Party, Single-payer never sees the light of day in media coverage or discussions. I'm still waiting to see a white Democrat make an appearance on Meet the Teapublicans. If any candidate for the midterms starts pushing medicare for all, they will absolutely win..never been a better time.
The Republicans will get their cake and eat it too. Why? Because Democrats, who are said to be the opposition but are not, will allow it to happen by limmiting their discussion to Obamacare and ignoring what is really going on.
Democrats know that what is comming is not about Obamacare, though that will be its disguise. They know that the comming project is going to lower taxes for the rich. They know that if they keep on lowering taxes, sooner or later, the nation is going to go broke. If it does, the US will go the way of the USSR. So what the Republicans, with the help of the Democrats, are doing is to betray this nation.
That is what all this is about. The US can't be beat in a war with an outside enemy, like Russia, without destroying the rest of the world with it, so, they are destroying the US from the inside.
Fact is that I think that is the reason we are being pushed into a war with Russia. Right in the middle of the war we will find that our debt is so massive that no one will sell us weapons. Without bullets we will not be able to bully the world into helping us out and the federal government will have to shut down. When it does, it will be bye bye US.
The reading is really helpful! By the way, if you need help with math problems here now. By the way, I have pleased to read the entirety of the post as mentioned above in detail. Thank you so much.
"Who casts a vote decides nothing. Who counts a vote decides everything." -- Joseph Stalin
Based on past performances, I would not be surprised -at- -all- to find the Republicans had =literally= stolen the Ossoff-Handel election. But guess what? :As: :usual: no one will say a thing and the Republicans will once again get what they want, and "democracy" be damned!
Will Americans -ever- "grow a pair" .. or will we wind up in the dustbin of history without so much as a whimper?!
-
The excuse will be that they didn't have time to understand what was in the bill before it was passed into law and we will be gushing sorrow for them sacrificing their valuable time serving the public good. It all happened so fast in order to improve the lives of Americans. This is herd mentality, no one knows anything, playing dumb.
The Senate Democrats have vowed to take any Health Care bill the House proffers and send it to committee where they will debate its merits and at the same time report to the American public. Thank goodness! It's about time the Congress became functional again and not just a rubber stamp for the Deep State. If this Health Care bill doesn't cut the mustard, the Senate will quash it in committee and that will be the end of that.
President Trump, in his campaign promises, said he was going to deliver an exceptional health care plan that would cover everyone in an affordable way. He needs to keep this promise to the American people. And the best way to do this is to give us Single Payer/Medicare for All, and have the VA administer it (without interference from any and all corporate interests by law).
Even after spending 5 times more money than the Republicans on 1 congressional seat in Georgia, the Democrats lost again. When are they going to realize that the "washed up lefty" message doesn't work. The Democrats are 0 for 5 in special elections since November 2016.
Does a final exit poll on the Ossoff Handel election exist? I can't find one. Ossoff was polling ahead leading right up to yesterday's election, just like Clinton. ...hmmm?