Hartmann Report

Trump's fear of exposure, his criminal past, and the GOP's refusal to stand up to him are unraveling 249 years of hard-won democratic progress… Could Trump's weakness and the GOP's cowardice mean the end of democracy around the world? Could Trump's apparent participation in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell be the proverbial horseshoe nail that brings down majority rule and representative government worldwide? The world's first modern major confrontation between authoritarianism (in this case, a kingdom) and democracy was the American Revolution in 1776. Outside of tribal societies, democracy had been largely dormant all over the world for the previous two thousand years, but we installed an early version of liberal democracy here in 1789. Our first president, George Washington, not only fought the fascist forces of King George, but he was also a fanatic proponent of democracy itself, to the point that he refused to serve a third term in office so as not to set a "king-like" precedent. But 80 years later, America faced her second major confrontation with fascists who wanted to end our democracy and replace it with a strongman autocracy.

Voters don't rally behind policy papers: they rally behind leaders they can see and believe in. Democrats must end the era of weak, divided messaging and rise with a chorus of commanding voices… Illinois Governor JB Pritzker isn't pulling any punches. Yesterday, he gave a speech calling out Trump's and Miller's fascist cosplay, their lies and distortions, and predicting federal troops will soon be on the streets of Chicago. He came right out and said Trump is doing all this for his own wealth and power.

Machiavelli warned us. Bodin defined it. Brzezinski studied it. And now, Trump is dragging America into it... America is at risk of abandoning its founding principle of government, "by and for the people," in favor of a system older than democracy itself: rule by one man. Pretty much everybody understands that the United States and the old Soviet Union both had governments based on ideology or principle. The main notion of the US was expressed in the Declaration of Independence and has guided us toward what Lincoln called "a more perfect union" for 249 years.

If we let Bob Kennedy, MAHA madness, and his billionaire patrons redefine America as a place where only the strong survive, we will lose not just our health but our souls. Former Republican strategist and operative Rick Wilson called out Bob Kennedy as a "heroin addict, sex addict, anti-vaccination lunatic and aspiring architect of millions of deaths" who's dedicated to replacing real scientists with "radical eugenicists." And why would Kennedy be doing this?

Milton Friedman’s feet didn’t touch the floor. This was the University of Chicago 1975 and Prof. Friedman was God. God sat in a chair, the little man’s feet dangling, as he humiliated students who deviated in the slightest from the Gospel of Friedman, what he dubbed, "Neoliberalism." I kept my head down. Friedman didn’t know I was sent to study with him and his Chicago Boys by the city’s labor leadership. They wanted to know if this Friedman was as dangerous as he seemed. Friedman was the not-so-hidden hand behind the new dictatorship of Chile’s Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet liked to throw dissenters out of helicopters, whatever it took to create what Friedman called, “The Miracle of Chile,” a radical right-wing makeover of the nation’s economy. Bless Thom Hartmann for exposing the neo-lib Genesis story, the “Miracle” in Chile was a con. Hartmann notes that Chile’s economy went into free fall under the Chicago Boys’ regime; unemployment hit 30%.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The Appeals Court for the Federal District just ruled 7-4 that when the Constitution says only Congress can impose tariffs, it means exactly that. — Trump's fascist plan to militarize Blue cities to intimidate voters and flip states Red in the 2026 and 2028 elections takes clearer shape. — Trump's plan to destroy Medicare goes into effect. — Russia threatens to march on Paris. — We need fighters like FDR, not someone to send another "strongly worded letter." — If the Atlantic current collapses, Europe will descend into famine and chaos. — Trump is offering $5000 checks to voters who go GOP. — Crazy Alert! Bob Kennedy thinks kids should again be able to bring guns to school? — Geeky Science: Chinese company files a patent for a battery that will take a car 1800 miles on a single charge and can be recharged in 5 minutes or less.

Mamie Till did it in 1955. One grieving mother will do it again, and the gun industry will never recover… Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the brutal murder of Emmett Till. The day also brought us another mass school shooting, this time in Minneapolis with two children dead and 17 others in the hospital. There are lessons we must learn from both, as I'll lay out in a moment.

For decades, the GOP has perfected the art of sabotage, turning government into a racket where the suffering of millions is simply the cost of keeping billionaires happy… Yesterday there was another highly publicized school shooting. Republicans, as usual, are offering thoughts and prayers. But why?

When elections are stolen, history shows crowds flood the streets. Trump plans to crush the protests before they even begin… Monday night, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker came right out and said it. Trump sending troops into American cities has nothing whatsoever to do with crime or policing but, instead, is all about stealing the 2026 election: “Eight of the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans,” Pritzker said bluntly. “None of those states is Illinois.” In fact, the cities with the highest crime and homicide rates are Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri respectively, both in Red States. So, if this isn’t about crime, why is Trump working so hard to get Americans used to heavily armed troops — who aren’t trained in policing but can be very effective at crowd control — in our Blue cities?

How "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime" is rewriting American justice… I'm not just worried; I'm enraged. We're watching our system of government being systematically, step-by-step refashioned into a surveillance-fueled engine of political vengeance. Even worse, the same chilling logic that ruled Stalin's courts — "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime" — has become this administration's sinister operating principle. It retrofits guilt to the target, not justice to evidence.