The United States is home to five percent of the world's population, but we house 25 percent of the world's prisoners. That is just one of the reasons why President Obama is calling for sweeping reforms to our Justice System.

During a speech last Tuesday at the NAACP, the President called for changes to mandatory minimum sentencing, for a review of the use of solitary confinement, and for more investments in education and assistance programs that keep people out of jail in the first place.

He said, “Any system that allows us to turn a blind-eye to hopelessness and despair, that's not a justice system, that's an injustice system.” He added, “Justice is not only the absence of oppression, it's the presence of opportunity.”

And, the President addressed the fact that our Justice System has never really been blind when it comes to race or economic standing. He pointed out that African Americans and Latinos only represent 30 percent of the American population, yet those groups account for 60 percent of all inmates.

Statistics clearly show that these minorities don't commit crimes more often, but they are more often subjected to harsher penalties that trap them in a cycle of incarceration.

Although many of us have been pointing out the racial disparity and injustice in our nation for decades, more Americans are finally recognizing these massive flaws in our Justice System.

At his speech last week, President Obama said, “The eyes of more Americans have been opened to this truth, partly because of cameras, partly because of tragedy, partly because the statistics cannot be ignored. We cannot close our eyes anymore.”

Incarcerated Americans are still Americans and it's time that our Justice System stands for more than injustice.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The Worldwide Assault On Liberal Democracies (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Big Picture Rumble:
- Gianno Caldwell, Caldwell Strategic Consulting - Ari Rabin-Havt, The Agenda-SiriusXM Progress 127/The Benghazi Hoax
- Dr. Day Gardner, National Black Pro-Life Union/National Clergy Council/Project 21

Best of the Rest: The Worldwide Assault On Liberal Democracies
- Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work

Plus, Obama In Prison
- Maya Schenwar, Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better

Monday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Should Donald Trump Apologize To John McCain?
- Neil McCabe, Townhall/Gravis Insights

Article: "Tapper to GOP Rep.: Didn’t You Guys Swiftboat Kerry?" by Evan McMurry.

Article: "Jeb Bush’s Letter Praising Swift Liars" by Pamela Leavey.

Book: Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry by John E. O'Neill, Jerome R. Corsi.

Book: Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War by Douglas Brinkley.

Article: "Legal Tactics: Finding Public and Subsidized Housing: Immigrants and Housing" by MassLega.

Article: "NYC mayor de Blasio says no to Uber's call to debate" by AP.

Article: "GOP's actual track record on supporting veterans" by JLFinch.

Article: "Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan & Kevin McCarthy: Plot To Sabotage US Economy with Frank Luntz" by keepemhonest.

Article: "Fox's Doocy Spins For Trump: He Was Criticizing McCain's "Senate Record," Not Military Service " by Media Matters.

Article: "Fox News Didn't Disclose Pro-Trump Guest Roger Stone Is On Trump's Payroll" by Eric Hananoki.

Article: "Fox & Friends Defends Donald Trump's Comment That John McCain Is Not A War Hero " by Media Matters.

Book: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russell Kirk.

Article: "Permanent normal trade relations: U.S. and China" by Wikipedia.

Article: "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade" (GATT) by Wikipedia.

Site: World Trade Organization.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Supporting NAFTA Was the Kiss of Death for Democrats --Why Dems Should Think Twice About Voting for TPP" by Sarah Anderson.

Article: "Donald Trump might not like the people building his new hotel" by Claire Groden.

Article: "Am I Insured If I Take an Uber?" by MoneyTips.

Book: "When the Tea Party Came to Town: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives' Most Combative, Dysfunctional, and Infuriating Term in Modern History" by Robert Draper.

Article: "The Breathtaking Hypocrisy Of The Republican Freak Out About John McCain, In One Letter" by Judd Legum.

Video: Anonymous - The TPP: What you need to know .

Article: "Fast track (trade) (TPA)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: Where Was Their Outrage When..." by EarlG.

Book: Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President by Jerome Corsi.

Bible: "Job 1" (Satan visits God in heaven, who allows him to torment Job, a righteous god-fearing man).

Article: "Boos Heard At GOP Debate After Gay Soldier Asks About 'Don't Ask'" by Mark Memmott.

Article: "New poll shows Walker leading in Iowa; Trump second" by Ed Tibbetts.

Article: "The Safe and Effective Implementation of Orthoiodosupplementation In Medical Practice" by Guy E. Abraham, MD.

Article: "Cruciferous Vegetables and Cancer Prevention" by NIH National Cancer Institute.

Article: "Pope Francis: Unbridled Capitalism Is ‘Dung of the Devil’" by Jon Queally.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "Cuban Embassy To Reopen In DC" by William Hadden and Patrice Harris.

Article: "US must hand Guantanamo Bay back to Cuba, says foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez after reopening embassy in Washington DC" by David Usborne.

Article: "John Kerry will travel to Havana on Aug. 14" by Adam B. Lerner.

Article: "WH 'expects' Obama to nominate an ambassador to Cuba" by Susan Crabtree.

Article: "Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET" by Lee Billings.

Article: "Security Council Unanimously Endorses Iran Nuke Deal" by Elizabeth Wilks Parry and Luke Vargas.

Article: "Obama: UN vote reflects 'broad consensus' for agreement to rein in Iran's nuclear program" by AP.

Article: "McCain: Trump Should Apologize To Veterans, Not Me" by Nicholas Salazar.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 7/20" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Ashley Madison hack threatens to expose millions of users" by Daniel Cooper.

Article: "Even “cheating dirtbags” deserve privacy: The Ashley Madison hack shows we’ve reached peak sex shaming" by Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Article: "I gave up Ayn Rand for Bernie Sanders: How I grew up and traded libertarianism for a progressive “socialist” " by Edwin Lyngar.

Article: "The main event at the Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix, Arizona last weekend... " by Robert Reich.

Article: "Muslim scholars name climate change as dire threat" by Kieran Cooke.

Article: "Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement" (CAFTA-DR) by Wikipedia. (CAFTA pre January 2004)

Article: "I, Racist" by John Metta.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Sets A New Record As 11,000 Show Up For Rally In Red State Arizona" by Jason Easley.

Article: "Large crowd greets Bernie Sanders in Houston" by Marcelino Benito.

Article: "Crowd of 8,000 greets Bernie Sanders in Dallas" by Adam Schrader.

Site: Professor Guy McPherson.

Article: "Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, e-mail says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years " by Tim Macfarlan.

Book: Progress and Poverty by Henry George.

Article: "Mass Incarceration in America" by Sen.. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Youth Jobs Plan Wins Key Senate Vote" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "What Sanders COULD have said:" by OilemFirchen.

Article: "Jesting, McCain Sings: 'Bomb, Bomb, Bomb' Iran" by Don Gonyea.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Consistently Stands with People of Color. Questions Remain about Clinton" by Eric Stetson.

Article: "President Obama Frees 46 Prisoners Serving Decades-Long Sentences For Drug Offenses" by Aviva Shen.

Article: "Obama Calls for Sweeping Criminal Justice Reforms in NAACP Speech" by Maya Rhodan.

Article: "Advocates to Deliver Over 2.5 Million Petition Signatures to the White House Conference on Aging in Support of Expanding Social Security" by Lacy Crawford, Linda Benesch.

Article: "Trial Begins For ‘The Worst Voter Suppression Law We’ve Seen Since The 1960s’" by Alice Ollstein.

Article: "More Than 165,000 Petition Signers Demand SEC Finalize Rule Requiring CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratio Disclosure" by AFL-CIO.

Article: "Pope Calls on World Youth to Rise Up Against Global Capitalism" by Lauren McCauley.

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

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Are Republicans being hypocritical about defending John McCain?

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Rumble: Doesn’t This Show Bernie Understands the Real “Average Joe?"

Can Poverty be Banished?

Rumble: Trump Removed From Politics

The 2016 Money Wars

Fox So-Called News Caught Lying Big Time

Full Show 7/17/15: Fox News is Not News and Was Never Intended To Be

Tonight’s Rumble discusses how Fox News isn’t real news, The Huffington Post’s decision to not include Donald Trump in their campaign coverage, and Obama’s trip to a federal prison. Thom discusses how to end world poverty with authors Marianne Williamson and Sam Daley Harris and how to get money out of politics with filmmakers David Hagen and Jennifer Cusentino.

Black Lives Do Matter to Bernie Sanders!

Caller: Anyone Who Served in Vietnam is a Hero!

Should Donald Trump Apologize To John McCain?

Thom Hartmann on Economic & Labor News: 7/20/15

Illinois Governor Bullying Democratic Lawmakers...

Fox News Making Millions off the Republican Scam Machine!

Caller: Black is the New Black!

San Francisco Supervisor to Fox News: You're not Real News!

New Poll: Bernie Sanders Beats Some Republicans

Republicans Screw Unemployed to Protect the Rich!

Rapper Killer Mike: I Support Bernie Sanders...

Beware of the Debt Bomb!

Who Should be Donald Trump's Running Mate?