Hartmann Report

From Hungary to Ukraine to America, one message wins: expose the rigged system and mobilize voters to defeat it… Péter Magyar defeated Viktor Orbán in last weekend’s Hungarian elections because he ran a Navalny-style playbook, calling Orbán’s and his billionaire buddies’ capture of the media and most other aspects of Hungarian life a “state capture system“ grounded in good old-fashioned corruption. From Orban’s son-in-law pulling a Jared and using his government position to become one of the richest men in the country, to his billionaire cronies buying up the media like the billionaire Ellisons are doing here now, corruption was Magyar’s singular through-line message. And it worked, producing an overwhelming turnout and undeniable victory. It will work here, too!

Sunday night, on Orthodox Easter, Donald Trump posted to his failing, Nazi-infested social media site an AI image of himself as Jesus, healing a man who looked suspiciously like Jeffrey Epstein as a woman who looked a lot like a young Ghislaine Maxwell looked on, with a horned demon overhead.

The Strait of Hormuz crisis could be following the same path that led to World War I… Saturday’s back-to-back headlines on The Washington Post were: “‘They Have Chosen Not To Accept Our Terms,’ Vance Says“ and “U.S. Intelligence Shows China Taking A More Active Role In Iran War.” They echo headlines from a century ago that reported on the early days of what quickly became World War I. In 2021, China and Iran became military allies, signing a “broad strategic partnership encompassing economic, diplomatic, and security dimensions.” Russia signed a similar comprehensive military/security agreement with Iran in January of last year. The three countries are now military allies and formally assisting each other. Hold that thought.

"The great innovation of Hayek and Mises was to create a defense of the free market using the language of freedom and revolutionary change. … Even as the welfare state and the mixed economy were coming into existence, Hayek and Mises set as their political imperative tearing them down."— Kim Phillips-Fein. The American among the Three Musketeers of neoliberalism was Milton Friedman, who taught for years at the Chicago School of Economics and has become a figure of cult worship on the economic and political right in America. He was a speechwriter for Barry Goldwater’s 1960 campaign for president, and a formal advisor to, among others, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Donald Rumsfeld (who he pushed Reagan to take on as his VP instead of GHW Bush in 1980).[xli] Friedman was the functional theologian among the three; he absolutely believed that there was a near-mystical power to unregulated markets and that virtually any sort of governmental intervention in or regulation of the marketplace produced economic distortions that prevented capitalism from working its magic.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Is Trump privatizing Medicare? — The economy is falling apart as Stagflation looms on the horizon — The GOP’s white male supremacist project rolls along at the Pentagon. — Trump has promised to pardon the people who’ve committed crimes for him in the White House, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. — Carlos Hernandez, 36, is the father of a two-year-old daughter and works rehabbing houses that have been damaged in fires; ICE thugs pumped 6 bullets into his body, including one into his face. — When will the other Melania shoe drop? — Speaking of which, the attorney for the woman who says Trump forced her to give him a blow job when she was 13 years old and she bit his penis, leading to him beating her up, is now demanding that the president testify under oath. — Best News of the Week: New polling estimates show Trump is underwater (below 50%) in the districts or states of 135 current Republican members of the House and Senate.

Trump makes mob-style threats. Only instead of, “I’m going to mess up you and your family,” it’s now, “A whole civilization will die tonight.” He must be impeached now… Donald Trump used to have Michael Cohen to make his threats for him (after Roy Cohn died and could no longer serve Trump and the New York Mafia families).

As a new federal pre-crime system begins identifying Americans for what they might do — before any law is broken — the Trump regime is making a list and expanding its network of concentration camps… Trump’s thought police may already have your name in their database, which is growing — according to Kash Patel — at the rate of around 300% right now. They’re not looking for people who’ve committed crimes, but, rather, for people who they think may commit crimes in the future. Thought and opinion crimes. Yeah, like in the movie Minority Report, only with an Orwell 1984 twist. You could call it the FBI’s New Political Pre-Crime Center.

Using the same tactics that made him a TV star, he stokes outrage, scripts conflict, and dominates headlines even as his actions weaken democratic norms and heighten international risk… Well, 8 PM ET came and went, to paraphrase TS Eliot, “Not with a bang but a whimper.” In the latest episode of Trump’s reality show presidency, he decided he’ll give Iran “another two weeks” (we’ll get to that in a minute) to open the Strait of Hormuz because something something Pakistan something. Some are suggesting it was a predictable TACO — “Trump Always Chickens Out” — while others, including at least one retired general who was on MSNOW yesterday, say sources tell them that the commanders at CENTCOM simply and bluntly refused to carry out his and Whiskey Pete’s orders to commit massive war crimes. In either case, it shouldn’t surprise us that Trump has backed down. Throughout his entire life, this nepo-baby has only been good at two things beyond inheriting and squandering his father’s money.

When people lose faith in government, the result isn’t reform, it’s instability, extremism, and eventual breakdown… Trump is tearing America apart with his threats against Iran and comment that domestically, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” He’s also succeeded in intentionally pitting Americans of different races, religions, and across the rural/urban divide against each other.

As Trump demands sweeping new resources in the name of war, the scale of funding raises a chilling question: is this about national security or consolidating power? On Easter Sunday, Donald Trump posted to his failing, Nazi-infested social media site a rant that has shocked the world, threatening multiple war crimes with a level of obscenity that no Republican would have tolerated from President Obama or any other Democrat: "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP"