2025 Archives

Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 7, 2025

The Bootlicker Brigade for the Morbidly Rich & Their Never-Ending War on Democracy

How fake patriots are betraying their own country... Former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin accused Congressman Al Green and other Democrats of “disrespect” and — absurdly— “inhumanity” for standing up and pointing out Donald Trump’s over-100 lies in his State of the Union address. This is the same on-the-take Senator Joe Manchin who refused to break a filibuster and thus blocked legislation that would have reversed Citizens United and established an absolute right to vote in America. The same sellout-coal-baron Senator Joe Manchin who opened the door for Elon Musk to buy the election for Donald Trump and Republicans to throw around 4 million mostly-Democratic voters off voting rolls or refuse to count their votes.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 6, 2025

Social Security’s Death Warrant Was Just Signed — Are You Ready?

America’s safety net is their next profit scheme — and you’re the target… Tuesday night, Donald Trump stood before the nation and, with the full backing of billionaires like Elon Musk, laid the groundwork for the biggest heist in American history — the rapid, systematic destruction of Social Security, disguised as “reform.” We saw the formal announcement of it during Trump’s State of the Union address, and the DOGE announcement earlier in the week that 7,000 employees at Social Security are to be immediately laid off — with as many as half of all Social Security employees (an additional 30,000 people) — soon to be on the chopping block. Republicans and their morbidly rich donors have hated Social Security ever since it was first created in 1935. They’ve called it everything from communism to socialism to a Ponzi scheme.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 5, 2025

We Crushed Fascists Before — It’s Time to Do It Again

The last time American fascists tried this, FDR and Wallace took them down. Will we? Last night, we were treated to a litany of grievance, political bullshit, and lies. Of particular note was Trump’s declaration of war against the government of the United States, particularly Social Security, which I’ll discuss at more length tomorrow. But the larger issue, given the GOP’s adoption of neofascism, is how far Trump and his Republican enablers have dragged America from the form of government on which America was founded.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 4, 2025

Could Russia Win a War Against America Without Ever Firing a Shot?

Russia’s cyber attack on Ukraine and subsequent invasion, it turns out, may just have been dress rehearsal… Tonight is Trump‘s first State of the Union speech of his second term. Observers all around the world are wondering how deferential he will be toward Putin. Already, there are ominous signs that he and Musk intend to bring America to its knees on behalf of the Russian dictator and to destroy our defenses against a possible Russian attack, should Trump lose Putin’s love or the next American president directly challenge Russia.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 3, 2025

The Empire Strikes First: Trump, Putin, and the Global War on Democracy

What happens when the country that once led the free world becomes the enemy of Democracy? Elon Musk just called for the United States to withdraw from NATO, leaving Europe to Putin’s tender mercies. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Hegseth ordered our federal operations to detect and stop Vladimir Putin’s infiltration of American cyber security — from our nuclear facilities and dams to our news and social media spaces — to cease.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 2, 2025

The Electoral College and a National Popular Vote: The Hidden History of the War on Voting

Stopping Politicians from Choosing Their Own Voters As noted earlier, the Supreme Court in 2019 threw open the door to political gerrymandering by whichever party can gain control of a state in an election year ending in 0 (the Constitution requires a census and reapportionment every decade). Legislation should be passed explicitly overturning this decision and providing for “good government” nonpartisan commissions to draw legislative districts.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Mar. 1, 2025

Saturday Report 3/1/25 - The plan to “demolish” Social Security is underway: Who will stop them?

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Donald Trump and JD Vance betrayed America yesterday. — Wealthy Republicans poised to write their own tax cuts. — The plan to “demolish” Social Security is underway right before our eyes: who will stop them? — Is the flu shot for next year getting canceled along with the developing plans for a bird flu vaccine? Is a diseased population “easier to control”? — How Trump and the GOP Fixed the 2026 Election — Yes, 2026. — Good luck if you’re flying. — Crazy Alert! Proof Trump runs Fox-So-Called-News.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Feb. 28, 2025

Small Government, Big Chains: The Lie of Trump’s Libertarian “Freedom”

Welcome to the Hunger Games: This is what happens when government shrinks... They’re lying to us again. The American government isn’t too big or too bloated: it’s too small. And the result of it being too small is a steady erosion of Americans’ freedom over the past forty-four years. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his March, 1933 inaugural address: “A necessitous man is not a free man.”

Posted at Hartmann Report on Feb. 27, 2025

Adopt a Red State: How Democrats Can Expose Republican Cowards

GOP lawmakers are running from their own voters — Democrats should take their place! Republicans have a new strategy to deal with town halls that are going poorly: Run and hide. Democrats have a great opportunity here. Congressman Mark Pocan has been doing it for years. Representative Ro Khanna is doing three of them this coming month. Bernie Sanders is doing it, too. We should all be reaching out to our members of the House and Senate to ask them to do the same. I'm talking about elected Democrats traveling to Red districts (House members) or Red states (Senators) to hold town halls in those places where Republicans refuse to show their faces.

Posted at Hartmann Report on Feb. 26, 2025

How Trump and the GOP Fixed the 2026 Election — Yes, 2026

By Greg Palast for The Hartmann Report Greg Palast is a forensic economist and recipient of the Global Editors Award for Data Journalism. Watch Palast's latest film, "Vigilantes Inc: America's New Vote Suppression Hitmen," produced by George DiCaprio and Martin Sheen. You can ignore Trump slyly hinting to the Lord's chosen that he just might call off the next election. "Four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed, it'll be fine, you won't have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians." But don't ignore this: Trump won't be calling off the election because he doesn't have to. The Fix for 26 is already in. The Republican plan is to win next year's election this year. Yes, the voting will be bent, jacked and hammered this year, 2025, one year before the official voting. Because this is the year of The Great Purge. And if The Great Purge doesn't do the trick, Republicans are ramping up other vote suppression tactics they rolled out to win 2024, including a private army of MAGA-nauts who challenged over a million voters' ballots in 2024 and plan on way more by the 2026 midterm.