From Thom Hartmann, The Hartmann Report

It’s now a certainty that the last legitimately elected Republican president who wasn’t a traitor to the United States was Eisenhower. In aggregate, this should be the biggest story in the media…

It’s dizzying: in this one week we learn that there’s a witness to Reagan’s 1980 treason to seize the presidency, and that Donald Trump, who gave the Russians a spy in his first week in office (among other treasons), will be indicted for the crime that helped him avoid losing to Hillary Clinton. This is on top of Nixon’s well-documented treason with Vietnam and Bush’s explicit lies about Iraq.

It’s now a certainty that the last legitimately elected Republican president who wasn’t a traitor to the United States was Dwight D. Eisenhower. In aggregate, this should be the biggest story in the media.

Read more here.

Facing the challenges of sustainably managing and sharing water — our most precious natural resource — requires collaboration, education and outreach. The Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that was founded in 1977 in the midst of a deep drought, has put water resource issues in California and the West in context to inspire a deep understanding of and appreciation for water.

This resource of information on water in the western United States is probably among the most comprehensive available to the public. Please take a look and maybe even help support their effort. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

Another excellent source for information on complex water issues is The Pacific Institute. Their mission statement: The Pacific Institute creates and advances solutions to the world’s most pressing water challenges. Our vision is to create a world in which society, the economy, and the environment have the water they need to thrive now and in the future. Click here for more.

Finally, we can add to the shelf; Friends of The River, so no shortage of resources for one to become an expert or just educated enough to know that we can and must work toward sustainable management of our most precious earthly resource.

In each Assembly District, 14 Democrats are elected as Delegates to the Democratic State Central
Committee (DSCC). The first 7 candidates in both the Self-Identified Female (SIF) and Other than
Self-Identified Female (OSIF) categories will become DSCC Delegates. Of the 14 Delegates elected,
the top vote getter who is Executive Board eligible will also become a Member of the CADEM
Executive Board. Winners are highlighted in Green.

From Kings County Democratic Central Committee, we have Tasha, Shelisa (also E-Board), Karla, Alicia, Aldo & Norberto having won their bid to take on a significant role in their advocacy for our democratic principles within the State Central Committee as delegates, including the state convention in Los Angeles. Congratulations!

Also, we have a slate of delegates from KCDCC set to attend the state convention in LA:

Barbara Hill, Terry Norris, Crystal Jackson, Lynda Mays, Claire Fitiausi, Stephen Tarr, and Cathleen Jorgensen (Chair).

We’re now set to make a difference by growing our democratic community right here in Kings County; that said, we always need new people to join in to sustain our progress down the road so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you too would like to become an active part of our democratic community. We have a pretty big tent..

#UNFOXMYCABLEBOX

Pay for cable or satellite TV? You’re subsidizing Fox News whether you watch it or not.

Your cable or satellite TV provider pays a subscriber fee to carry Fox News. That cost is passed directly on to YOU.

Every network charges cable and satellite providers a small fee per subscriber; the one for Fox News is extraordinarily high. A typical household pays Fox News almost $2 per month—about $20 per year— via their cable or satellite provider, regardless of whether they actually watch the channel. Read more here to sign up.

MoveOn.org has a petition as well, asking that we “not support FOX News at all. I’m offended by the constant lies and demagoguery they pump out on a daily basis. FOX News has been the main driver of disinformation and misinformation in America as it relates to the 2020 election and Donald Trump’s Big Lie; to the ongoing pandemic; the deterioration of political civility; and a sharp rise in anti-democratic/anti-democracy, nationalism and authoritarianism. Yet they’ve never been held accountable.” This effort is seeking 2K signers and already they’re more than half way there.

From WAMU via KVPR –

The American West is experiencing its worst drought in over 1,000 years. That’s making a lot of farmers rethink their sustainability practices and reimagine land that has become infertile.

One way to innovate is via solar energy. Solar panels can make use of depleted land and help offset a farm’s energy costs. They also preserve groundwater and help with crop growth.

There is a price to be paid. The transition isn’t always cheap. Could expanding solar on farmland make it harder and more expensive to feed America?

We go to California where there’s plenty of sun and an appetite to reach aggressive climate goals to hear about the possibilities. Click here for the story.

In his State of the Union address, President Biden noted:

“So, some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage — I get it — unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what those plans are.

“Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans — some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s a majority —”

At which point Republicans in the audience started shouting, booing, stomping their feet, and yelling, “Liar!”

They were, of course, trying to keep up the pretense that they actually support Medicare and Social Security, programs the GOP has been openly and enthusiastically trying to kill off since their inceptions in 1966 and 1935 respectively. Read more here.

The Inflation Reduction Act lowers energy costs for consumers and small businesses while creating good-paying jobs as America’s clean energy economy and manufacturing sectors grow. Learn more below on how you or your family can save on utility bills, get support to purchase electric vehicles and energy-saving appliances, and access the economic opportunities of the clean energy future. Read more here.

The Hartmann Report, January 17, 2023.

We’re told by the Declaration of Independence that our nation was formed to provide every citizen with the basics of what government can and should provide:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

The “governed” in today’s America, however, aren’t getting the “happiness” they want or even, frankly, that they need:

— Poverty and homelessness stalk our land: more than one-in-seven Americans live in poverty today
— Millions have no access to affordable healthcare and families suffer over 500,000 medical bankruptcies every year
— Higher education is increasingly just for the well-born and well-off
— Most non-unionized workers have few rights and little say in the workplace: only 10.8 percent of non-government American workers have a union
— Cynicism about politicians is so widespread that only 62 percent of Americans eligible to register to vote have even bothered to do so
— Our wealthiest pay virtually no income taxes: For example, America’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, paid less than 1 percent and NBC reports “The 25 richest Americans paid little to no federal income taxes…”

To contrast, citizens of other wealthy democracies generally have:

— Lower rates of poverty (Finland 5.7%, Denmark 6.5%, Ireland 7.4%, Belgium 8.1%, Netherlands 8.3%, France 8.4%, Norway 8.4%, Canada 8.5%, Sweden 8.8%, etc.),
— A national health care system, so nobody goes bankrupt because somebody in the family got sick (51 countries have national systems)
— College at little to no cost (Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden pay their young people to go to college: the monthly stipend paid to students in Denmark, for example, is $1,078/month; over 10,000 US students are currently attending college in Germany for free, and Americans can also attend college for free along with locals in France, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic)
— Widespread unionization (Iceland 89.1%, Sweden 81%, Denmark 74.5%, Finland 74.2%, Belgium 56.6%, Norway 53%, Slovenia 44.2%, Israel 37.7%, Austria 36.9% etc. [2000 stats])
— More eligible citizens registered to vote (Sweden 80.3%; Belgium, New Zealand, South Korea, Denmark, Australia, Iceland, Netherlands and Taiwan all in the mid-70% range, etc. [2022 stats])
— Rich people who pay their taxes (very top income tax brackets [federal, state, and local] are over 50% in Japan, Denmark, France, Austria, Canada, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Israel and Slovenia and above 45% in Netherlands, Korea, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Australia, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Spain according to the OECD)

So, how did America become the outlier? Why do other countries have extensive and functioning social safety nets and wealthy people who pay their taxes, and we have neither? Read more here.