Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
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.
"OU", a classic example of a "moronic" comment is equating government-funded healthcare with for-profit monopolies like AT&T and DirecTV merging into even bigger monopolies. Gimmie a break. Only a true moron would need to ask a question like "Why is a monopoly in the entertainment / phone business bad and a monopoly in health care good?" DUHHH…
Tax-supported infrastructure (like single-payer healthcare) belongs to everyone and no one, is not for profit and simply exists for everyone's benefit, regardless of financial or social status. This is what is known as "the commons". In case you haven't noticed, "OU", healthcare in the U.S. has been monopolized for decades already, by a for-profit insurance extortion "industry" whose only function is blocking access to care. (Talk about death panels… We've already got death panels, stupid!) Healthcare should be a public service, not a "business". It does not belong in the marketplace. In countries where it already exists, single-payer is not a "monopoly" because nobody owns it. Only an ignoramus would suggest otherwise.
Your questions and comments have already told me way more than I would ever have wanted to know about you. - Aliceinwonderland
Craig, excellent post!
By the way, are you running for a seat in the Santa Cruz city council? I sure hope you win. If my husband and I still lived there, we'd vote for you in a heartbeat. - AIW
If they give them the 195 million you will open the flood gates to all cities, towns etc. who over spent to follow suit and go bankrupt and cash in on free money so hundreds of millions will soon turn into billions. Be very careful here.
"let workers unionize" isn't that what put them in the trouble they are in? will you ever learn from your mistakes?
We need to put back into place laws and policies that balance the powers of employers and employees, and let workers unionize. Only then will we once again have a strong and flourishing American middle class. - See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/05/how-war-workers-changing#comment-form
:-))
Bluntly put Corporation like Netflix are lobbying to push the FCC towards ending internet neutrality. The voice of the people must be louder. One way to let us use our power i to say. NO TO NETFLIX free the internet. Everyone should be cancelling their Netflix subscription to keep the internet as is. THE MOTO "CANCEL NETFLIX KEEP THE INTERNET" should be on every post. The point is to hurt where it is felt. Taking hostage a corporation as a target to publicize our discontentment. I already cancelled y Netflix.
Join the national student-teacher movement to divest from the petrol chemical, fossil fuel economy..Demand a 4 day work week at same pay, 3 day alternative shift with a living wage. We must learn to work less, to consume less, to live more. Provide home ownership for single income families that are water and energy efficient. Declare water an inalienable human right and a public common managed to the benefit of all.
There is a demonstration planned at the capitol May 21 to bring awareness to global warming. Organized by our senators. I hope the corporate media shows up? We need a federal jobs program to provide capital for new technology to usher in the green economy.
Robindell -- I agree with you, in spite of the fact, that the only thing on my my mp3 player are Thom Hartmann's podcasts.
Ou812 -- Are you seriously asking what is the difference between entertainment and healthcare?
Here's a question. Libertarians suggest all/most activities should be by contract between consenting parties regardless of the differences in power between the two. Can we think of the relationship between the citizen and a democratically elected government as a meta-contract?
Stopgap, you know nothing about my dreams. Please stick to the topic. Why is a monopoly in the entertainment/ phone business bad and a monopoly in health care good? By the way I'm against ALL monopolies. One more thing, governments in this country change by elections, no being overthrown:))
In Santa Cruz CA we are having problems with reception when the Thom Hartman or Amy Goodman comes on. There are distorted speech streaming and blackouts at the most inopportune times. Is this deliberate? The other channels do not have these problems. Imagine when the corporate run monopolies control streaming speed. All under their control? Without net neutrality freedom of the press and speech is over. And, with that comes the end of democracy!
We have a big problem here finding ways get out truth. The corporate media buries our message. We voted 70% by public referendum to get a vote on desal technology. Our city council ignored the vote and moves ahead to waste money on a flawed EIR. This desal technology is being pushed by a fracking corp. Their only experience treating water is treating their industrial waste water. Desal demands 10 times the energy as conventional, it requires the most chemical treatment, creates the greatest environmental damage compared to new 21st century water science technology. We must run out the frackers with their desal technology from CA or we will all go the way of the dinosaurs. Read bushforsccouncil.99k.org for a view of water politics here in Santa Cruz.
There is an important measure O for Monterey coming up. It is a battle between private ownership or public municipality to conrol our water resources. Fracking corps are buying up aquifers. This will reduce litigation costs when they foul and eliminate roadblocks to fracking. The corporate media here runs ads everydayagainst our move to take back our commons. We have no say. Vote yes on measure O. Take back our commons for the public good. We can create perpeptual sustainable water systems in balance with nature. Water is an inalienable human right. It must be managed in a most efficient manner on a regional basis. The systems must be mutually beneficial for us all and the life of this planet.
Would you risk heating the planet and drying out our protected watersheds? All for a head of iceberg lettuce, sprayed strawberries and fine Monterey wine? I would rather see the salmon return and our ecosystems restored. We must expect agriculture to step up, invest and utilize new conservation technology. We are all in this together. YES ON O
Where did I say that AT&T and Direct TV are in the news business? I referred to the news programing of NPR and PBS. However, even in this instance the NPR reporter said that the merger of these two mega communication companies can affect the content and control of what is aired through their services.
It is more likely that companies will merge, thereby resulting in less companies competing for you dollars, as has happened numerous times in the past, than the government being over thrown. Although, installing a Fascist government seems to be what the billionaire corporatists have in mind, which in that event, your dream will come true.
By the way Stopgap, I didn't know AT&T and directv were in the "news" business. :))
What happens to single payer when the 'other side' controls it? Government's change. A monopoly is a monopoly, no matter who runs it. I prefer to select from a those who are competing for my dollars and will offer me the most service for it. It's not right or left. It's good business.
You know nothing about me, Alice, so please keep your moronic comments to yourself.
Thanks "stopgap", for your excellent reply to "OU812". We can always depend on conservatives to post some of the stupidest questions.
Healthcare is not supposed to be an "industry", because industries are all about profit. This whole idea of pitting our health needs against someone's profit motive is sick, sick, sick.
"OU", maybe if you stop eating all that nitrate-contaminated processed meat, you might start thinking a little clearer and be able to answer these questions for yourself. - Aliceinwonderland
Perhaps a big part of the problem in America is that people have come to confuse the news for "Entertainment" - There's a tornado heading our way …how entertaining! Never mind that news that is intentionally misreported is propaganda. But creating ones own definition of long accepted terms seems to be one of the Rights favorite ploys.
Maybe Single Payer can be defined as a monopoly. So the choice becomes whether you prefer to have a Fascist health care system or a Democratic-Socialist system that is at least accountable to the people and not some greedy multinational corporate billionaire that could care less about your heath, but only the bottom-line.
I'm curious?
Why are some so concerned about a potential monopoly in something so unimportant (my opinion) as the entertainment industry, but welcome a monopoly ( single payer) in something so important as the health care industry?
The more we allow corporations to merge and become monopolies, the less vast programming choices we will have. I don't want just Left, Right, and Tea party info. I want to know what they're ALL doing and saying! That's the only way we the people can make proper choices. None of them are correct all of the time. Rather, it's the merging of the good from all of them that allows us to make conscious-based good decisions which affect all of us. NOT from the merging of all of them together. Let us hear their different platforms, so we can make our own decisions.
How do corporations get away with it? Because government was not set up to defend your rights to a healthy environment. Government was set up to limit the liability of businessmen when something goes wrong after they tried to make a buck by putting nature, worker, and consumer at risk. Look at the history of politics. The laws that limit liability are centuries older than the laws that “protect” the environment.
How can we get government to befriend citizens instead of lobbyists? One key reform is restrict the power to tax. Don’t let politicians tax anything they want. Limit them to taxing infringements such as pollution. Let them use taxes and fees, etc, to recover common wealth — such as the worth of Earth — and to leave our private wealth alone.
Worried about no longer taxing the rich? Don’t. First, we don’t really accomplish much of that anyway. Second, if we recover our common wealth upstream, then there won’t be any undue fortunes downstream to long to tax.
Once government can’t tax anything, and as long as politicians want to raise revenue, then they’d have to capture the same natural values that are now being captured by the oil companies. Once oil companies are no longer filthy and unduly enormously wealthy, they won’t be able to pay government to do their bidding — and limited liability could be severely curtailed.
Then, when businessmen have their own incomes on the line, they won’t be so cavalier about putting everyone else at risk. Industrial “accidents” would become as rare as a misplayed note at a symphonic concert. Industry should not be sloppy; it could become a thing of beauty — once deprived of free and easy limited liability. More at Progress.org.
johnbest ~ Very well said!! I second that. However, I'm sure we are beating a dead horse. The grave must already have a yellow hue and smell like a back alley somewhere in New York. Actually, my opinion of Mr. Ronald Wilson (666) Reagan is that he should go straight to... Exactly where he most certainly already is. Fry thee well 'Raygun!' Say, "Hi" to Falwell and Hitler for us. I'm sure ya'all just git along real good.
There is nothing good that can come of this. History proves that. Once again, the words of Karl Marx are sounding more and more like prophecy. Consolidation is anti-freedom. When will the greed end? When?Like that old song by the Australian group Midnight Oil said so well, "If the sugar refining company won't save us... Who's gonna save us?"
Will someone who lives in the vicinity of F.A. Saint Raygun's grave please go there and piss on it. I am sick of the greed and corruption orchestrated by this dimwit.
I gave up on PBS and NPR when they helped sell the invasion of Iraq on the News Hour, and other programs, which resulted in the murder of thousands of young American troops and hundred of thousands of Iraqis. Now they want to sell us the benefits of corporate monopolies. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I don't have any headphones with me, so I cannot listen to the above excerpt from NPR. But I believe that NPR at least some of the time tries to include what critics have to say about corporate mergers. They may not always do an adequate job, but they are not their to editoralize one way or the other. The public radio stations I am familiar with have on a program, which sometimes has both a morning and evening edition, called, Marketplace. The programs are only something like 10 minutes and therefore they don't have much time to go into that much depth on any story. Marketplace Morning comes from New York, and the evening show from Los Angeles. The shows are not from NPR but instead are from PRI, another public radio production source. The shows are business-oriented and are not there to tear apart the momentum of business and corporate activity.
But I would like to somewhat disagree with what Thom said just a short while ago today to a caller. I only caught part of the what the caller had to say, but I think I got the gist of it. He was complaining about a lack of classical music and jazz programming on NPR stations. In response, Thom asked a strange question: "Why should the taxpayers support this kind of programming." Thom, you were not at all clear if you were simply being rhetorical, or if you meant this question literally. The caller said that this kind of music is something that people and society should cherish. Thom answered again by saying that now adays, a person could buy a MPG player at a reasonable price and download classical music. Although this is true, I nevertheless disagree with the response. Let me first say that I don't expect a commercial political talk show to spend any time at all on the arts, and none of the hosts I have heard ever do. Thom admitted that the taxpayers now provide very little financial support to public broadcasting, so why the question about why should taxpayers support classical music or jazz programming? Thom described public radio as having been privatized in terms of its financial support, and that he doesn't like this model. He went onto say that if there is to be public broadcasting, it should be like the BBC, 100% government-supported, with no corporate or individual donations. That is fine as far as it goes; we are not going to have a fully publically supported radio or T.V. network in this country any time soon, if at all. The part I disagree with is that there are some radio listeners who may not be able to afford to by an MPG player and to pay for music downloads. Also, Thom does not seem to be familiar with classical music stations, including some NPR stations which include this type of music. One person may not have the ability to own recordings of many works which a radio station would have and would be able to play. NPR had a program which they still may have called Perfomance Today. On this program, which is no longer carried in my market, I once heard a performance recorded live of a symphony orchestra in my state which does not make commercial recordings. It would be difficult if not impossible to hear this orchestra unless you went to one of their concerts. This was of interest to me. There may have been some interviews of musicians which one might not otherwise get to hear unless a program such as this is available. NPR also has a program called From the Top, which is producted in conjunction with the New England Conservatory of Music. I don't think Thom is familiar with this program. This program has performances by very talented and advanced young people, who are still studying their instruments. Some of them are involved with all kinds of activities, both musical and non-musical. The program shmissing fows that music is a talent that needs to be developed at a young age; it shows the very construtive nature of art music, which is generally called clhave some ofassical music. It shows that music can open many significant horizons for those who play an instrument, and also for those who are exposed to this art form by young musicians. The program is hosted by Christopher O'Reily, a well-known pianist who gives many concerts and recitals outside of hosting the show. I went to see him accompany a celloist, and briefly met him after the recital.
The decline in arts education and an interest in the arts, from the average person who at one time would not think twice about attending a recital or symphony concert, to the support of performing arts organizations by individuals and companies, goes along with the overall educational decline in America. We used to be at the top internationally when it comes to producing college graduates. We are now lagging behind several other, smaller countries. Other than problem-solving test scores, we are more like in the middle when it comes to test results in math and science. At least the U.S. high school graduation rate has increased, but I am not sure how many of these graduates are prepared for or can afford to attend college.
At one time, news magazines such as Time often had stories about classical music and musicians, with mention being made of orchestra or opera productions. Today, there is not a word on the subject in such publications. In Venezula, there is something called "the System." The country created a system of free music lessons and set up youth orchestras specifically to provide an uplifting, enriching experience for impoverished youth who otherwise would not have the chance to learn about and become familiar with classical music. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra is the artistic culmination for the young musicians who advance through the system and audition to join the orchestra. The orchestra's music director is Gustavo Dudamel, who himself came up through the System, and has served as music director of the well-known Los Angeles Philharmonic whose home is Disney Concert Hall. Music takes place on different levels, and there is a reason this type of music has lasted for so many years, and why it is considered to be "high culture" rather than popular. It has nothing to do with elitism. If kids in Venezula can learn to love and perform classical music, I don't quite understand why so many Americans are so closed-minded and insensitive to something that has many positives to it. Intricate music teaches people, among other things, how to listen, and this skill is lacking in many Americans, including progressive ones.
Thom said that he attended Michigan State. I don't know much about their music program or department, but I do know that the University of Michigan is better known for its music instruction. missing f