The Hartmann Report

The Republican convention’s first day was filled with sturm und drang, warnings and fear, hysteria and demagoguery. And what were they so concerned about? Sadly, most of the media is treating Trump and the weird show of supplicants and family members last night, as if he were some sort of aberration. In reality, Donald Trump is the logical endpoint of the Republican Party that started, in the...

Even the professional war criminals, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, are not willing to show up to this weeks Republican convention. It has become a death cult, where Trump’s own supporters enthusiastically cheer his efforts to make America more brutal, crude, and deadly. Thom is joined by Jacob Soboroff, Correspondent-NBC News & MSNBC / Author of the new book, SEPARATED: Inside An American Tr...

Congressional Progressive leaders Ro Khanna and Mark Pocan join Thom taking listener questions! Is the Postal Service being set up for privatization?.. Can the Postmaster General be prosecuted for destroying our machines?.. Will Trump succeed in getting elected by voter suppression?- and what might be his end game?..  Plus- Ending the revolving door between regulation and industry... And- cam...

Democrats want to govern. Republicans want to make money. Why else does Secretary of Defense Mark Esper want to shift millions in health care for our soldiers to the private market when the Pentagon just got its largest increase in funding ever? And that's just one example - - as the endless scams roll on, who else but government is going to protect us from billionaire predators? Would Reagan be r...

Regarding the hearings on the Post Office... Rand Paul gave the game away asking, essentially: If you were a venture capitalist what would you need done in order to privatize the postal service? The billionaires are circling the game, preparing to go in for the kill. Joe Biden hits a home run with his acceptance speech as the convention concludes. Callers respond. See Privacy Policy at https:...

Now that Steve Bannon was arrested for mail fraud, will he join a long list of Trump's operators and supporters already behind bars? Is Trump operating his campaign and his presidency as one massive con job? This is simply the latest chapter in Republican "Give us money, we'll give you what you want" grift- and as President Obama pointed out in his convention speech- "the consequences of this.. ar...

Xochitl Hinojosa from The Democratic Convention gives an overview of the goals and themes of Joe Biden's upbeat diverse launch. Never in the history of the United States has there been widespread violence perpetrated by the followers of a president - until now with Donald Trump. It’ll be interesting to see how many more of these people show up at the Republican convention next week. Thom welcomes...

Michelle Obama peeled the skin off of Donald Trump in her convention speech! But will the next would-be American fascist be as impaired or as incompetent as Donald Trump? Come November will we stop the advance of the Republican scam powered by the massive political influence of rich people allowed ever since the Supreme Court essentially declared bribery legal? Or will Republicans be able to use f...

Republicans Struggle to Reboot Their “Small Government, Personal Responsibility” Scam: Will Americans Buy It Again? David Sirota - Trump's Postal Service Chairman Has Led Senate GOP's $100 Million Superpac Greg Palast - Is America is Finally Waking Up to the Difficulty of Mail in Voting Christine Pelosi - #ProtectUSPSwhistleblowers Ilyse Hogue -NARAL Pro-Choice See Privacy Policy at https://art19....

Forget 'promote the general welfare' and forget the scientists, the Republicans under Donald Trump are on a mission to establish a fascist state by and for the rich people of the United States. And even with so many of us in need right now, will the right-wing agenda go beyond a government that fails to protect the people to creating a government that actively endangers us? See Privacy Policy at h...

As Trump's corrupt Postmaster General tries to destroy the capacity of the Post Office to handle vote by mail ahead of the November election, what can we do about it? Is Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's stock portfolio just a conflict of interest or is it also a clue to what he's up to?  Will postal workers be able to overcome the slowdowns and get all the ballots in time before Republicans c...

Covid-21?- A new movie under development imagines what the world will be like when the next pandemic hits- after SARS, HIV, Zika, and now the corona virus pandemic, why is it completely predictable that new diseases are emerging? And could the next one be much more deadly? And Dr. Howard Koh, former head of HHS under Obama who oversaw the H1N1 vaccination program phones in- could a Biden presidenc...

Trump and Mark Meadows are openly blocking that legislation because it contains funding for the Post Office, and Trump has now explicitly threatened to veto any legislation that increases funding for the Post Office. Now he is actively sabotaging the Post Office to steal an election. And Republicans, facing electoral defeat in overwhelming numbers, apparently agree with him that this is a good ide...

History and the intrinsic goodness of human nature have moved beyond the Republican Party’s century-long opposition to working people, voting rights and a strong social safety net. On the one hand, if the Republican Party doesn’t reinvent itself it will go the way of the Whigs. On the other hand, it appears the best the party has to offer for the future are billionaire Mitt Romney or fascist Tom C...

The single most consistent defining characteristic of an emerging dictatorship in a country that started as a democracy is that the dictator regularly holds elections and always wins, because he uses the instruments of government to make sure he wins. It will take tens of millions of us showing up, speaking out, and making sure that our votes are counted to stop this train-wreck before it utterly...

Trump says he is going to boost unemployment payments by $400, stop evictions, cut payroll taxes, and extend student loan relief. In fact, these are all lies. As usual, it’s a new con job, a grift from our grifter-in-chief. Progressive Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan answers listener questions for a national Town Hall meeting, addressing frequently asked queries on mail-in ballots and the deliber...

Judd Legum of Popular Info has been tracking the scams Trump has been using to raise money for his campaign. Will people learn to see through the fake contests that nobody ever wins and other ways Trump is ripping people off? Can the Republican party succeed at embracing black voters while at once trashing black people? Who is really rigging the election and what can we do about it? And- why are c...

Author Leah Stokes has been watching what should be a major bribery scandal over keeping unprofitable Ohio coal plants burning. What is Trump's involvement? Why won't the Republicans call a vote on the HEROES act passed weeks ago by the House of Representatives? And why doesn't the excuse Trump-humpers give for denying the unemployed the continued $600 per week apply to the very wealthy who don't...

Given the damage doctors are discovering Covid may cause to the heart and other parts of the body, is this disease more dangerous than we realized? As Arizona governor Mike DeWine tests positive test for Covid-19- joining a growing list of red state politicians with the virus- will we come together as a nation to fight the spread?.. and what can we learn from the approaches of other countries...

America needs to talk about Trump-proofing democracy for 2024 and beyond. The billionaires with strong fascistic tendencies are carefully watching Trump and his administration to see what works and what doesn’t as he pushes to tear apart our institutions of governance and divide America as a political strategy. 2020 Election Is Not About Trump Vs. Biden... Jeff Cohen joins Thom to discuss the #Vot...

The Trump administration is trying to take away protection for endangered species. Critical habitat should be provided for these species of suitable sizes. The new rules are starting to prevent this provision. Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity joins Thom to discuss the crisis due to the protection of the fossil fuel industry and logging. For the Book Club, Thom reads from "On F...

Is there a move towards fascism in the US? The Democrats are split, but it is the Republicans have gone way off the spectrum toward neo-fascism. Professor Noam Chomsky explains why... Congress appears disinclined at this time to enact a payroll tax holiday, a move that would give working Americans an immediate 7.5% raise. But can President Trump suspend the payroll tax on his own?  With...

Ken Klippenstein of the Nation, dove deep into the situation in Portland and found that the Department of Homeland Security still effectively has the power to arrest journalists. How can democracy survive this? And Justin Frank, psychoanalyst and author has some fascinating insights into Trump's psychology- why does Trump want to destroy the work of the Fathers of this country? What desperate move...

Donald Trump and the Republicans are working hard to rig the 2020 election, but the DNC is prepared. Lily Adams of the DNC War Room joins Thom to tell us how the DNC is going to stop Trump and the Republican party-- or will grifter Donald's schemes succeed and take America into Fascism? Plus - Who can energize the base as Biden's VP?.. How to vote when homeless... The chances Republican governors...

Why did Trump delay? It’s going to cost tens of thousands of lives, deaths that were completely unnecessary, and wreak massive damage to our healthcare system and the people who work in it. Why did he decide to do that, when he could see other countries getting this thing under control at the same time that Italy failed to because they followed policies similar to his? Why? America deserves an ans...