Hartmann Report

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. —Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938 message to Congress As Louise and I watched Trump descend that golden escalator in 2015, we felt what millions of Americans did: disbelief, followed by dismissal. Surely this reality TV showman, this serial bankrupt, this carnival barker would quickly fade. Yet as the years passed and my radio listeners increasingly reflected his worldview back to me, I confronted a haunting truth: Donald Trump didn’t happen by accident. He wasn’t, as so many have suggested (particularly Democrats) just some political anomaly or a weird, media-driven glitch in American democracy. He was, instead, the inevitable product of political structures meticulously constructed by morbidly rich ideologues and the fossil fuel industry over decades; all systems designed to concentrate power in the executive branch, weaponize the historic grievances that have haunted American politics for three centuries, and systematically dismantle the democratic guardrails that, up until now, have kept us a free nation.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump in mental decline or has he always behaved like an ass? — Big Brother tries to get bigger. — Judges are getting seriously pissed at Trump's illegal orders flooding their courts. — Trump is now literally hiding the economic scoreboard because the numbers are a disaster. — Is a cornered party as dangerous as a cornered rat? — What's happening in Tennessee — the state that brought us the Scopes Monkey Trial — is not careful "parental oversight," it's raw censorship. — Two new developments expose a country sliding into fear-driven reaction and abrupt scapegoating. — The Republican war on education, culture, and the American Way.

And if Donald Trump approved or encouraged these actions, then impeachment and criminal referral are not optional: they're required to defend the rule of law... Shocking as this moment is, none of us should pretend we weren't warned. When Donald Trump installed Pete Hegseth — a television provocateur whose public record is soaked in belligerence, booze, and culture-war performance — as America's Defense Secretary, the world could see exactly where it was headed. Still, nothing prepared us for today's Washington Post's revelation that Hegseth personally ordered U.S. forces to "kill everybody" on a small wooden boat off the coast of Trinidad on September 2.

From Jefferson’s era to today, history proves democracy’s defenders can still win… Yesterday was probably, politically and spiritually, the darkest Thanksgiving for our nation in our lifetimes. So how about a quick story out of America’s earliest history that eerily echoes this moment and may give us some hope? Donald Trump has told us he’s going to use the 1807 Insurrection Act to declare a state of emergency, which will allow him to round up not only undocumented immigrants but also his political opponents, who he refers to as “the enemy within.” He came to power using Willie Horton-style ads trashing trans people and is happy to demonize anybody else who stands up to his hunger for absolute power. In an age-old technique usually employed during wartime, Trump regularly uses the rhetoric America has employed against foreign enemies to characterize Americans who disagree with him and his policies. Remember the “raghead” slurs against Arabs from the Afghan and Iraqi wars? Or politicians referring to Vietnamese in the 1970s as “slants” and “gooks”?

Science proves that daily appreciation can dismantle stress, amplify joy, and create lasting mental wealth... Practicing daily gratitude is a habit I picked up from my spiritual mentor, Gottfried Müller; when Louise and I took a long hike through the trails of Forest Park here in Portland yesterday, for example, we stopped a few times to look around at the forest and just notice what an amazing world we live in and then to say "thank you" to all the life around us. Every day, when we take our daily walk, we do this. Sometimes it's our amazement at the clouds or the geese or the river or just the fact that we're alive. I think of what my parents or my deceased brother would give for just a few minutes of what I'm experiencing and it fills me with awe and appreciation. And I'm so grateful to you for reading and sharing my writings. You've helped built a real and meaningful community both here on Substack and on the radio/TV. Thank you! I always suspected that this daily practice of gratitude helped keep me sane in these insane times, but now I've discovered there's actual science behind the mental health impacts of it.

When this bubble bursts, the collapse won't hit Google's coders — it'll hit the electricians, nurses, teachers, retirees, renters, and low-income families who never got a penny from the boom… The number one most-read story in the Financial Times yesterday was headlined, "Nvidia shares fall on signs Google gaining upper hand in AI." It turns out that Google's AI software/product is doing about as well as its competitors but isn't using Nvidia's "must have" AI super-chips, shocking the market. But even with that, we ain't seen nothing yet: get ready for the Moores' Law shock and a few others that seem increasingly inevitable.

How a small nation's pragmatic, humane approach exposes the lie behind America's manufactured "crisis" and offers a roadmap for defeating the racist strongmen weaponizing immigration for power… Razor wire in the sunrise, shadows waitin' at the gate, Families walk from fire only to meet another state. Little hands on chain-link fences, tired eyes that plead for grace, A journey made for freedom ends in fear they shouldn't face. 'Cause the cruelty ain't a bug—it's the whole damn plan, Turning hope into a weapon in the heart of this land. But we can guard our borders without losing dignity; We can choose the road of mercy over cold strategy. The most gruesome feature of the Trump/Vance/Miller regime is their glee in brutalizing nonwhite people and terrorizing anybody who objects or tries to hold them to account. Their entire rationale is that the barbarity and savagery are "necessary" to deal with millions of "illegals." Denmark is onto something that could blow up their entire excuse for this violence against both people and our Constitution, and Democrats need to pay attention.

Trump has attacked the American Way and Congress MUST proceed with investigations and impeachment; rightwingers on SCOTUS notwithstanding, no one is above the law in a functioning democracy... I’ve been feeling something unusual these past few weeks: optimism. Not naïve optimism or the kind that ignores danger, but the real kind that arrives when you see people waking up, standing up, and refusing to bow before a lawless president who believes rules are for suckers and the Constitution is a mere suggestion rather than the foundation of our republic. We’re now governed by a man who treats legal limits as personal insults. Donald Trump doesn’t just violate our nation’s norms and laws: like every wannabe third-world tinpot dictator before him, he despises the idea that any law can constrain him at all. Trump and the spineless sycophants in his administration have rejected the entire idea of a rules-based society. He and his lickspittles are turning the presidency into a throne, trying to transform you and me into its subjects, and painting as enemies anyone who insists soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen (and others in government) should follow the law.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. — Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night What if the most powerful man in the world built his empire not on success, but on pretending he had it? I remember September 11, 2023. It wasn’t just the anniversary of 9/11; there was also a grim (but, frankly, satisfying) show going on in Manhattan that had the nation (and Louise, me, and the listeners to my radio program) glued to their TV screens. In a crowded federal courthouse in New York City, former president Donald Trump sat stone-faced as his former accountant testified under oath about the Trump Organization’s financial statements. For decades, Allen Weisselberg explained, the company routinely inflated Trump’s assets—sometimes by billions of dollars—to secure loans, insurance, and business opportunities. Properties were suddenly worth double on paper. Apartment buildings grew fictional floors. Golf courses sprouted imaginary mansions ready for sale.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Marjorie Taylor Greene, after being attacked by the man-child in the White House, pulls the plug on her congressional career saying she refuses to be a "battered wife." — After Trump called for the death of military and CIA veterans now serving in Congress who defended the Constitution in a video, they're predictably getting death threats. — Shocking Gallup Poll: 80% of Americans want what Democrats are working for. — A rightwing billionaire reportedly considering buying CNN was reportedly in discussions with Trump's people about firing Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar. — Hegseth hearts the swastika? — Another Texas woman has died because of that state's abortion ban; this is becoming shockingly routine in Republican-controlled formerly Confederate Red States. — Trump is preparing to give Putin everything he wants in Ukraine; is it because Putin has the Epstein files, as we learned from the recent email release? Or just because he hates democracy? Or is he still hoping for a billion-dollar Trump hotel in Moscow? — Crazy Alert! Who's "Piggy?"