Daily Topics - Wednesday December 18th, 2013
By shawnt56
Catch The Thom Hartmann Program LIVE 3-6pm ET M-F!!
Hour One: What the Fed's taper plan means for the economy - Dr. Stephanie Kelton, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Hour Two: Why conservatives insist Santa is white - Kevin Jackson, The Black Sphere / Plus, What you need to know about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Michael Schaffer, The New Republic
Hour Three: Has marriage become a luxury? Koa Beck, Salon
Comments
#2
Pension plans are under attack in part because of outsourcing. A recent article here in Texas points out that the state pension plans are in trouble because 1) underfunding 2) poor return 3) fewer current employees paying into the system. So, as government (or any company) reduces its (US) workforce either through outsourcing or contracting, it robs the pension system. Of course they don't tell us this.
Another way to steal from pension plans is to sell off parts of a company. When a division is sold off, the pension for those employees are supposed to follow the division, but they can play lots of games with this and essentially convert the pension money into profit for the company.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"In an age rife with media-inspired confusion and political cowardice, we yearn for a decent, caring, deeply human soul whose grasp of the problems confronting us provides a light by which we can make our way through the quagmire of lies, distortions, pandering, and hollow self-puffery that strips the American Dream of its promise. How lucky we are, then, to have access to the wit, wisdom, and willingness of Thom Hartmann, who shares with us here that very light, grown out of his own life experience."
From Screwed:
"The powers that be are running roughshod over the powers that OUGHT to be. Hartmann tells us what went wrong — and what you and I can do to help set American right again."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"With the ever-growing influence of corporate CEOs and their right-wing allies in all aspects of American life, Hartmann’s work is more relevant than ever. Throughout his career, Hartmann has spoken compellingly about the value of people-centered democracy and the challenges that millions of ordinary Americans face today as a result of a dogma dedicated to putting profit above all else. This collection is a rousing call for Americans to work together and put people first again."
This was a reply to the comment about Jesus having short curly hair according to Time magazine. This is actually a common theme put forth by protestants who quote Saul/Paul and common Jewish texts of the time period. However, Jesus was a Nazareen. This group of Jews practiced wearing their hair long and their beards uncut as was a common practice by many Jews at that time and actually a strict requirement according to the Jewish texts. The practice of cutting their hair and beards was only done in larger cities to appease the Romans and as we all know not many Jews were very fond of appeasing the Romans at that period of history. The common theme of claiming Jesus had shorter hair these days seems to be a shot more at the "dirty hippies" of America and the lower class that the right wing "Christians" are trying so hard to ignore altogether when it comes to real Christianity.