Back when Thom had the Forum there were a lot of excellent posters. And then there were the Trolls. A lot of discussion took place about posting mindless non factual postings and posting fact with reference. I can post that Melania Trump was a prostituit before she married Trump. That is a mindless non factual posting. Nothing to back it up. Then you say refute it. All that you can say is no she was not. There is nothing that proves she was not. That does not prove anything either. Posting mindless non factual postings does nothing for this site. It just proves that Trolls normally only can post that way. The Trolls are very guilty of this. Did you not learn in High School about writing and documenting with Footnotes and references? That you just do not cut and paste from written articles without quotes and references?

Rick Steve,

In leftie/socialist lingo, a Troll is anyone who disagrees with their opinion.

Just like the Thom Hartmann show, this is an opinion forum not a high school English Lit class. We are free to express ourselves as we see fit. If you disagree, don't respond.

One of the only times I ever agreed with past poster Mr. Ed who said,

“You're not Mommy the Monitor. This is a free-speech zone, so post as much or as little as your black heart desires. If you can't handle my politically incorrect posts, then don't read them and don't respond.” See the pattern here?

The fact you constantly get the vapors over someone else not agreeing with you is of no consequence.

That was a strange post considering you seem to be someone who cannot enter a thought or comment unless it is accompanied by a google search. That just further proves my point that the democrats are becoming the true fascists. That is, they have quit thinking for themselves and now are content to let someone else do it for them. They must first consult the "offical sources" before commenting. After all, they can't having their progressive card revoked for saying something outside of the party boundaries.

You are right Legend...not worth commenting. Everybody already knows what your "sources" think. Apparently, you don't care at all to say what you think. Never mind...

Diane,

Enjoy your sense of humor!

Back to the topic at hand.

I keep hearing Thom trying to make the case that Trump is beholden to the oligarchs. If that were the case why is he taking on the trade policies that have benefited the corporations at the expense of workers?

There has been a lot of talk from Clinton/Obama on the campaign trails, and then when they get into power they do the opposite. Now all of a sudden the left is becoming Free Traders; that is what I get from reading Huffington Post.

Gumball: Trump not long ago signed legislation that will add at least 1.5 trillion to the deficit. Most of that money will end up in the pockets of the Fascists Thom makes the case "Trump is beholden to." Thom agrees with Trump on tariffs, that's about it.

BTW: Oligarchs don't necessarily promote racism and antisemitism....Fascists do! However the current fascists are being very discreet about it, even fooling most progressives. So calling them oligarchs misses the mark and creates a false sense of ease about the path this country and many others are following right now.

It appears nothing will be done to stop Putin's meddling in our elections in 2018. Why would we expect the party benefiting to stop the attack anyway?

I'll try to be clear about the real danger one more time. With each passing day and more info coming in I'm now convinced that very powerful United States citizens have in a sense farmed out the election fraud to a foreign hostile power just like someone would hire an assassin. This distancing from the actual crime keeps the domestic side of the collusion far under the radar. It's quite convenient to enlist Putin who has already been trying to subvert our democracy. Thus those who in a sense are using him are actually far more dangerous to the stability of our Republic than Putin.

This attack would have been ended immediatly had it been Democrats enlisting a Dem Socialist country for help to put someone like Bernie in the White House.

Our intel agencies have the ability to stop this. Ask yourself why they aren't...pretty obvious and all treasonous. It's a big fat lie that Trump won't give them permission to....it's their constitutional mandate to stop the attack....but the crime roots are domestic and fascist.

The Pope said stop breeding??! I always thought that Catholic families were big on huge families.

Bolton is back...anybody smell a new war? It's gonna bite us in the ass this time. Trillions in new war spending will be the least of our problems

Bolton is back? WTF!
I think its time to order a 1960s school desk...

You are the crown of creation.
You are the crown of creation.
And you've got no place to go.

"Crown of Creation"
Jefferson Airplane"
Circa: 1968

"we were all so close there was no room".... "we bled inside each others wounds" "we all caught the same disease" "we all sang the songs of peace" "some came to sing, some came to pray," "some came to keep the dark away" ....Melanie

The white bird is our friend!

Here is a fact supporting Thom's stance on trade. The U.S. has at last count 141 trading partners worldwide. All of those 141 have a VAT (value added tax) on imports. The U.S. does not, thanks to the globalists' sway over our legisltors.

For instance, Germany's VAT is on average 19.6%. Note that Germany has a near balance of trade or only a slight deficit despite being a high cost producer.

I'm quite sure Trump is totally unaware of this fact. Neverthe less, he's right that China is eating our lunch on trade. We are the world's suckers.

As you say, "there is no such thing as a free market." Someone please show me one "free market" that doesn't exist for someone to make a profit. They should simply be called markets since a "free market " is a self contradictory term. Barter could conceivably be called a free market but conservatives probably wouldn't be interested in anything that couldn't give them a chance to scratch up a few more bucks.

The "free" in free market means free of govt protections (regulations).

Does anyone know why Thom's blogs stopped on March 9?

Does anyone know why Sue's Daily stacks stopped on March 9?

ronnie raygun from his grave.

My Friend Legend,

I guess those “factless right wing trolls” aré smarter than you lefties——They won. :)

Interesting that shutting down conversation is considered a win. One can see why billionaires love right wing trolls.

The dear Lady in the photo you use without permission was apparently passionate about collecting valuable jewels. I am sure she wishes that you cease using her as an avatar without permission misrepresenting her opinions and values. ha

I don't think your desire to have as much as you can get as soon as you can get it is much different from anyone. The difference between you and the others on this blog seems to be that we realize that desire leads to the economy described so well by Charles Dickens. Of course, the 1890's, the 1920's and somewhat the 2008 are different versions of the Charles Dickens description.

It seems when Teddy Roosevelt said that everyone deserves “a good job, enough money to buy a house, take a holiday once a year, send the kids to college and retire with a good pension” he did not mean that is all they want. It seems that he meant that is a minimum they deserve for being a citizen of the US and putting in a full week’s work.

Interesting when Kend posts "Oh well looks like I might have to find a new place to argue my very intelligent, fact based comments." When he has never posted 1 fact, posts only opinion and has been called out on it multible times. Intelligent? You cannot even spell College correct.

I do not see how "knobs" can call a conviction in a court of law a "tRumped" up charge. Keep in mind that tRump can afford the best lawyers. For the tRump university con job he had to pay a $25 million fine. I do not understand how anyone cannot think that tRump is not a horrible person for screwing over so many students to make a profit. Worse than that, however, is a factual display that he pathologically lies. For a Prez, it seems to me that trusting his word, at least a little, is the whole enchilada.

I would like to mention that it seems that polls are a measure of whose propaganda is the best.

Fact is knobs the Trump administration is a train wreck everyday. He was living off of the Market going up but has now killed that. November cannot come soon enough.

I talked to a couple today (64 years old) that had $2200 per month insurance. The wife fell and hit her head and was taken to the ER. Minimal was done. The deductible was $6800. The bill was around $20000. This is insanity.