Author: Thom Hartmann

Christian bigotry takes national spotlight in latest attempt to overturn public accommodation laws

The Supreme Court appears bent on making America bigoted again. Step-by-step, they are undoing every bit of progressive legislation from the past 80 years that they can find. Now they’re going after the right of gays and lesbians who want to get married to shop for a website, or pretty much anything else that requires “creative” effort. There was a time in America when any retail business could, as the old sign said, “reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason.” Often such proclamations were just slightly more subtle than the “No Negros,” “No Jews,” or...

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Inspired to hate: Why mass shooters and their political patrons should be classified as terrorists

A terrorist attacked Club Q in Colorado Springs. Days later another terrorist attacked WalMart workers in Virginia. It has happened over 600 times this year. But nobody is calling them terrorists, and that is a problem for America. We didn’t call the jihadis who blew up the Twin Towers “mentally ill,” “disgruntled,” or discuss their “troubled past.” We correctly called them terrorists because they used mass murder to try to “right a wrong” or achieve a political goal, which is the literal definition of terrorism. Osama bin Laden was nowhere in the vicinity of 9/11 — we later learned...

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Our authoritarian society: When an American political party needs an armed paramilitary wing to rule

When I was a child there was a kid in our neighborhood who made my life hell. Dennis was a bully and delighted in chasing and beating up me and several others; we’d alter our route home from elementary school to avoid him. Some of the kids he pounded on joined him as a way of protecting themselves from him — the way Lindsay Graham sucks up to Donald Trump — which only increased the terror level for the rest of us in our little lower-middle-class suburb as Dennis and his friends formed their own gang. If there was...

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When Republicans politely deny antisemitism in public while fueling their base who actively embrace it

Republicans finally got around to condemning Trump for having a Thanksgiving week dinner with Nick Fuentes. In front of a crowded dining room that rose to their feet and applauded when Trump, West, and Fuentes walked into the room. For the cameras and the world to see. Senator John Cornyn of Texas is the Senate Minority Whip — essentially the number two Republican in the Senate behind Mitch McConnell — and for four years was the chair of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, in charge of getting Republicans elected. And, like the old pro he is, Senator Cornyn knew...

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The bill is coming due: Holding hope for the day when the Fossil Fuel Industry must face its victims in court

The victims of Alex Jones’ lies about the Sandy Hook slaughter of their children were just awarded about a billion dollars by a jury of his peers. Jones made tens perhaps hundreds of millions peddling lies leading to years of stalking, harassment, and emotional torture of the families of the children who died. Which raises a vital question: When will the victims of oil companies’ lies — which have led to far more deaths than happened that terrible day in Connecticut — get their day in court? There is an amazing backstory here. During the week of Christmas, 1953 a group...

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How the Boomer generation let political fat-cats rob Millennials and Zoomers of their future wealth

Dear Millennials and Zoomers: back in the 1980s a lot of us worked like hell to try to stop the Reagan revolution. We failed. The next two years may be our last chance to save American democracy, our environment, and what’s left of the American middle-class. When my Boomer generation was the same average age as the Millennial generation is today, back in 1990, our generation held 21.3% of the nation’s wealth. Louise and I shared in that wealth; although we were still in our 30s, in 1990 we owned a profitable small business (our fourth) and a nice home in suburban Atlanta....

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