Hartmann Report

While billionaires warm their hands over tax breaks, Dwayne LaBrecque — a diabetic father of five in Maine — wonders how he'll survive the winter without toes, heat, or help… Dwayne LaBrecque, a diabetic who lost several toes and part of his foot to infection, will be severely impacted by cuts to LIHEAP, the low income fuel oil heating program that Congress started in 1981 and Trump and Musk put on the chopping block. After losing his job as a shipping manager, Dwayne's income plummeted, making it difficult to support his fiancée and five children in rural Maine. He expressed grave concern about making it through next winter without this assistance, stating: "If the president turned around and did away with that funding, I have no idea how we'd survive in the winter." But Donald Trump and congressional Republicans don't care: the budget Trump just released and they're endorsing kills off LIHEAP. Empathy is the ability to experience what another person is going through as a real sensation, a genuine emotion or even physical reaction, in body and mind. It's what causes us to flinch or look away when we see a dog getting hit by a car or a fellow human experiencing real trauma.

They say they're "bringing back jobs," but what they really want is a desperate, powerless workforce with no healthcare, no unions, and no future — just the way Wall Street likes it… Trump and his billionaire toadies like Howard Lutnik and Scott Bessent are peddling a dangerous lie to working-class Americans. They're strutting around claiming their tariffs will bring back "good paying jobs" with "great benefits," while actively undermining the very thing that made manufacturing jobs valuable to working people in the first place: unions. Let's be crystal clear about what's really happening: Without strong unions, bringing manufacturing back to America will simply create more sweatshop opportunities where desperate workers earn between $7.25 and $15 an hour with zero benefits and zero security.

FDR built America’s first truly large and robust middle class by passing the National Labor Relations Act (the “Wagner Act”)[xxxviii] that legalized and gave federal protection to unions and their members, while putting jobless Americans back to work with a variety of three- and four-letter federal agencies (referred to at the time as “the alphabet agencies”) that ultimately spent over $3 billion to lift over 20 million people out of unemployment and poverty. They principally included a number of programs that Republicans mercilessly attacked as “socialism”.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump loyalist eyes new enemy list? — Hegseth basically declared war on Iran Thursday night with an unhinged X post — Collapsing bird numbers in North America prompt fears of ecological crisis. — Geeky Science: Now that we know gut microbiomes can regulate everything from obesity to depression, here's some good news: you don't need a fecal transplant, just a high-fiber, low-fat diet! — Courts, including one run by a judge Trump appointed, are standing firm against his unlawful and unconstitutional behavior — "Don't fly into Newark; it's not safe." Trump's and Musk's cuts are taking a toll on air traffic safety. — Bob Kennedy is screwing up an updated Covid vaccine. — Rightwingers being paid by the Kremlin are now claiming that Ukraine is selling American weapons to drug gangs in Central America.

It’s not paranoia when it’s happening right in front of you… In the dark corners of America’s halls of power, something sinister is unfolding. Attorney General Pam Bondi has just launched an assault on one of the most sacred pillars of our democracy: the freedom of the press. And make no mistake, this isn’t just another policy change. It’s a deliberate strategy straight from the dictator’s playbook. Last week, Bondi quietly issued a memo rescinding vital protections for journalists that had prevented the government from forcing reporters to reveal their sources or surrender their notes during leak investigations. This wasn’t just any memo; it was a declaration of war against the very foundation of press freedom in America.

Forty-four years of plunder, and now Trump wants to garnish your wages to finish the job… Big news from the Trump regime: Next week, 1.8 million student loan borrowers who are currently in default will be under attack by our own government, according to billionaire, former wrestling executive, and now Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and documented by the folks at How We Fight Back. They note that McMahon bragged about her plans to go after financially distressed Americans in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on April 21: "On May 5, we will begin the process of moving roughly 1.8 million borrowers into repayment plans and restart collections of loans in default. Borrowers who don't make payments on time will see their credit scores go down, and in some cases their wages automatically garnished," McMahon wrote. Which raises the vital question: Is it time to lay down a claim for reparations for student loan borrowers and health insurance payers?

Mahmoud Khalil isn't a criminal. He's a student, a resident, and a protester. In 1841, Adams stood for people like him. In 2025, Trump locks them away… It was a cold, gray morning in Oklahoma when the government came crashing through the wrong door. Without warning, ICE agents clad in black tactical gear burst into a quiet family home. Guns drawn, boots pounding on hardwood, they moved like soldiers in hostile territory — except this wasn't a war zone. It was a suburban neighborhood. A home where children did homework, parents made dinner, and everyone believed, until that moment, that living in America meant having rights. They were wrong.

Structural eugenics isn't science fiction — it's happening right now, and if you're not terrified yet, you should be… Wake up, America! While we've been distracted by the daily chaos of the Trump administration, something far more sinister has taken root in our country. It's called Structural Eugenics (and a hat-tip to Qasim Rashid for putting this on my radar), and if you're not furious about it yet, you damn well should be. This isn't some fringe conspiracy theory: it's a coordinated assault on our most vulnerable citizens happening in broad daylight with deadly consequences. Let's be brutally honest here: the MAGA movement isn't just pushing bad policy, they're implementing a modern form of eugenics through selective attention and neglect.

America is slipping into the authoritarian nightmare Putin dreamed of for us... It didn't happen in some shadowy back alley or under the cover of night. It happened in broad daylight — in the heart of an American courthouse. Federal agents, acting without even the decency of a signed warrant, stormed into Judge Hannah Dugan's courtroom on Friday morning and dragged her away like a common criminal. No warning. No legal process. No respect for the law she had spent a lifetime upholding. But they made sure the cameras were there, so America could see what they were doing. Because this was not about justice. This was about terror. This was a warning shot aimed directly at the beating heart of America's judiciary: "Fall in line — or you're next."

Most Americans, even today, would tell you that being in the middle class enhances their sense of freedom and liberty, even though they don’t realize that a middle class is not a normal thing for capitalist societies. But the simple reality is that middle classes must be created, and that requires government intervention in the marketplace and government guarantees of some services that otherwise aren’t available to average working people (like free roads, public schools, and the ability to join a union).