Author: Thom Hartmann

America has to reinvent our understanding of economics after 40 years of living under a tax-cutting, austerity-imposing, Republican-promoted trickle-down Reaganomics scam and return to a Keynesian system that still works in those countries like Norway, New Zealand or Denmark that never adopted “austerity.” The core idea of Reaganomics is that if we give huge tax cuts and multi-billion-dollar subsidies to billionaires and giant corporations, that will “incentivize” these “job creators” to expand the economy and raise prosperity all around for everybody. In fact, all those giant corporations and billionaires have done is put all that cash in their money...

“Be Afraid of Black People” is the GOP’s main message to white voters these days, leveraged by lies about an obscure academic pursuit sometimes called Critical Race Theory (CRT). Many white voters, it turns out, are listening. The Washington Post reported recently that: “The term ‘critical race theory’ was mentioned just 132 times on Fox News shows in [all of] 2020. In 2021, it has been mentioned 1,860 times, according to a tally using the media monitoring service Critical Mention.” Daily Beast Contributing Editor Justin Baragona noted that on just that one single day of Tuesday, July 6, Fox “News” had...

Republicans and the Australian billionaires who own and run Fox “News” have a mighty strange idea of what it means to love and respect one’s country. The network has spent years hosting White Republicans claiming “patriotism” to trash-talk Black athletes protesting racism in America, and they are at it again. For example, Representative Dan Crenshaw told Fox viewers about Black Olympian Gwen Berry, who is now heading to the Tokyo Olympics and turned to the side during the National Anthem: “We don’t need any more activist athletes. She should be removed from the team. … That should be the...

I am struggling to explain why a Fox News host would say to the American people, “they’re trying to take down the white culture!” But first, let me back up. Democracies don’t turn into fascist oligarchies by being invaded or losing wars. It always happens from within, and is always driven by an alliance between demagogic, populist politicians and some of the very wealthiest people in society. Step one for these right wing politicians and the morbidly rich who support them is to pit one group of people within the nation against others: Marginalize and demonize minorities, deny them...

Trump recently dumped his blog because he has nothing to say that anyone wants to hear beyond one single message. He’s not thinking deep thoughts about the economy, or the state of the nation’s infrastructure, or offering insights into the Middle East. There’s literally no philosophy Trump holds — other than one single idea — that truly matters to the vast majority of the Republicans who support him. He’s not Richard Nixon, who could be actually thoughtful on foreign policy. He’s not Ronald Reagan, who completely bought into the idea of supply side economics. He’s not George W. Bush,...