Hartmann Report

“Blind faith in the efficiency of deregulated financial markets and the absence of a cooperative financial and monetary system created an illusion of risk-free profits and licensed profligacy through speculative finance…” —United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report on “The Global Economic Crisis”[liii] The neoliberal ideology of Mises, Hayek and Freidman (et al) has now heavily influenced much of the developed and developing world, creating economic, political, and social disasters from Thailand to South Africa to El Salvador. But its biggest openly-declared national-scale experiments were kicked off in 1973 in Chile, 1981 in the United States, and 1991 in Russia. In each case, rejecting a democratic government “of, by and for the people” and replacing it with a corporatist government “of, by and for the corporate and wealthy” has produced widespread disaster.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — So, we’re back to firing squads. — Trump’s approval rating and Americans’ economic sentiment collapse together. — Has Trump’s mental health deteriorated so badly he’s a danger to the world? — Brown skin, speak Spanish, even US citizens get deported by Trump’s ICE. — Trump continues to help Putin by coming up with ways to “punish” NATO allies as he tries to fracture the alliance. — DeSantis wants to further rig Florida’s electoral maps for Trump.

What began with data collection is rapidly evolving into something far more dangerous: systems that can decide and act to kill people here in America… Ever think a drone could chase you down the street or fire a bullet through your living room window because you pissed off Trump, Miller, or their ICE thugs? If the answer is “that’s science fiction,” please read on: that reality may be only a few months away, and every single part of the spying and death-dealing infrastructure needed to make it happen has been quietly assembled by the Trump regime over the last fourteen months.

The same bold playbook that built the middle class can restore it, and voters are ready… The “liberal” commentators are shocked. It was reported yesterday that Graham Platner, the Democrat who’ll most likely win the primary to run for the US Senate from Maine, has staked out some “truly radical” positions... One cable host mused out loud yesterday that these positions may help the 41-year-old progressive win the primary against septuagenarian moderate Governor Janet Mills, “but can that really win a general election?” This “don’t be Bernie or like AOC” is the great fear and marching anthem of the mainstream media and the Democratic consultant class.

Behind the noise is a ruthless, coordinated effort to dismantle the American system and rebuild it for the ultra-wealthy… “Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it in rags, a pygmy’s straw does pierce it.” —King Lear Trump is making insane proclamations about Iran again today, sabotaging efforts at peace by his unqualified, incompetent negotiating team. He’s lying to his supporters about obvious things like the price of gasoline. He’s not sleeping, up all night shouting in all-caps at anybody who will listen and, during the day, literally screaming at his aides.

The bill writes Joseph McCarthy's wildest fantasies into federal immigration law and dares the courts to do something about it… Republicans are at it again, and it’s hard to overstate how chilling this is and what it tells you about the direction people in this Party want to take America. Texas Congressman Chip Roy is preparing to introduce legislation he’s calling the “MAMDANI Act,” named after Zohran Mamdani, the recently elected democratic socialist mayor of New York City, that would let the federal government bar entry to, deport, and strip naturalized citizenship from any person who advocates for or is “affiliated with” what Roy calls “totalitarian” movements. The list includes, from Rep. Roy’s webpage: “[A] socialist party, a communist party, the Chinese Communist Party, or Islamic fundamentalist party, or advocates for socialism, communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism.” The bill targets people who “write, distribute, circulate, print, display, possess, or publish” material supporting socialism or any of those other ideas.

How power, money, and ideology converged to reshape American democracy into something darker and more dangerous… People feel like there’s a darkness that’s spread across America in the 15 months since Trump took office a second time. It’s being noticed all over the world, from the Pope to the leaders of our (formerly) allied nations, and is being embraced by dictators like Putin and MBS. The most corrupt Supreme Court justice in history, Clarence Thomas, who’s taken millions from billionaires and then voted to promote their interests, inadvertently helped us all see clearly the source of this depravity that’s permeated so much of our government at all levels. Last week he gave a speech at the University of Texas, Austin, and blamed the ills of the world (and America) on the rise of “progressivism.”

In his final days, I realized how completely unprepared we are for death—and how much that unpreparedness costs us... Note: Yesterday, I accidentally sent out today’s book excerpt, so today I’m sharing with you a post that I posted on my non-politics site, WisdomSchool.com. I hope you find it useful/interesting. —Thom My father died in stages, the way most people do, and the four of us boys — me and my three brothers, our wives beside us — didn’t know what we were watching.

"The nation is, at this time, so strong and united in its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government." – President Thomas Jefferson Neoliberalism has a few primary tenets that are easily identified and make it unique from libertarianism, objectivism and the “conservative” economic policies of the United States in the years prior to the neoliberal Reagan Revolution of 1981.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump Moves Toward $20 Billion Iran Deal After Blasting Obama for Far Less. — Is Cuba next? — Trump Eyes Billions From IRS in Stunning Cash Grab. — Is the Grocery Aisle the New Front Line of Economic Crisis? — Did a Trump Megadonor Just Prove ‘America First’ Was Always Optional? — When an 85-Year-Old Gets Detained, What Does It Say About ICE?