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.
Mark S -- How can you separate the shortage of labor (black plague) from the rise of industrial manufacture? How can industrial manufacture grow without a large demand?
Chuckle, maybe a few in 2008 but most didn't. Besides my point is, it is none of my business what a company pays it's CEO unless I have shares in it. I don't think those CEO's are worth that kind of money but I don't care because it's not my money.
My kind of America. Shausk. A place that allows you all the opperatunity in the world. A place that you can come to with nothing and achieve everything. It is nothing like the countries you mentioned.
Ckrob, Companies pay dearly for the use of those "commons". Of course companies should have rules and regs. But they shouldn't be told what they have to pay there employees. America is a free Counrty still isn't it.
World guy, most corporations pay very well. They have the best benefits. Well except for government jobs. It the small private companies that are the low payers in most cases.
Palin, you seem to pooh-pooh any efforts at problem solving except for guns, which many of us (myself included) feel is no solution at all. I appreciate Harry Reid's efforts to lasso in those rogue cowboys. Didn't you say the government has no balls? Again I ask: got any better ideas?! It's like, damned if they do and damned if they don't! - AIW
Yes Chuck, they sell grits here in the Northwest. And no, I'm not gonna ask you to research the posts, from me or Palin. But if Palin stays home on election day, he needs to be spanked (verbally of course... tsk tsk). Because anyone who stays home on election day is doing exactly what the fascists want! (Hear that, Palin?! Naughty boy!)
Just a friendly little tip, though: whenever possible, Chuck, it's very helpful to use quotes from fellow bloggers to exemplify whatever sparked your issue with him or her. And if you're responding to a statement in someone's post, it's also helpful to repeat that statement in quotes, sparing fellow bloggers the trouble of searching for the original comment; especially since the numbers assigned each post are subject to change. - Aliceinwonderland
Palin -- How can you say it makes no difference which party you vote for when I gave you list of the differences? They main thing you pointed out was the differences weren't nearly big enough. I think you can say that the 99% will not get all the power back. I think I can say we are getting some of the power back. Our argument might be how big the "some" is. I think voting democratic, supporting "move to amend" and "campaign finance reform" makes our "some" larger.
It seems to get our mass movement in action things need to be much worse. For FDR the unemployment rate was 33%. For Teddy Roosevelt, the poverty line was the 90th percentile.
Elioflight: $325 for a 5 minute consultation? That's ridiculous! What is it they call people who raise their rates during a national disaster? There should be laws against that sort of thing...maybe there are...but they sure don't hold against the medical/pharm/insurance industry.
I've read your blogs not only here, but on many other blogs as well and I knew about your medical condition.You have done a lot of blogs. Good for you. Get your message out to the people whenever and wherever you can.
There is a condition that is called valley fever that is very common mostly around arid locations, mostly in the southwest but I was surprised to read that it actually can exist almost anywhere especially in areas where a lot of farming occurs. "Valley fever is a fungal infection caused by coccidioides (kok-sid-e-OY-deze) organisms. It can cause fever, chest pain and coughing, among other signs..." And there has been an increase of cases even in areas like California and Oregon coastal area. Doctors usually misdiagnose valley fever for flu or colds or something else.
I have had an upper respiratory cough and get headaches frequently for a couple of months now. I thought it was probably the flu but now I don't know. I haven't seen a doctor yet. I suppose I am very remiss in not doing so.
Just like a politician to make bluster speech signifying nothing. We'll see! The government ain't got the balls to stand up to right wing gun toting citizens. Demorats are just pussies! Harry Reid won't do anything that will jeopardize his position. Chicken...cluck...cluck...cluck!
Just because horses originated in North America doesn't mean they're not invasive now. By that argument, lions are invasive in Africa, because they originated in Europe. (They did.) Horses weren't in North America for so long that they weren't part of the ecosystem--that makes them invasive by definition (becoming part of the ecosystem by relocation rather than evolution).
However, that implies nothing about whether they are helpful or harmful to the current ecosystem, and the caller would be well advised to learn that you shouldn't say one thing when you mean another. "Invasive" is an emotionally charged term, but the solution to people's misinterpretation of a term is not to abandon it to their misinterpretation and start using another term, which they may just as easily misinterpret, but to teach people the exact meaning of the term that is being applied correctly.
AIW -- I know you have never said that the parties are the same. As a matter of fact I recall you saying vote for the dems as bad as they are. Palin on the other hand has said he stays at home on voting day (please do not make me research all his blogs). My only request is on the first day or so of a blog when we criticize Obama and the dems we need to emphasize that voting for dems has some chance of restoring our democracy; maybe our only chance. After the first few days of a blog, I assume it is only the bloggers who know where everyone of us is coming from, so then is the time to take off the gloves. Do you actually have grits in the Great Northwest?
Using a tax on billionaires to provide the basic living stipend would be brilliant. It would use income inequality to defeat income inequality. My ultimate goal in tax policy is to figure out how all taxes can be structured to act as negative feedback and thereby stabilize the economy and even society.
In support of ckrob we have plenty of solutions. What we need is organization. Examples of how badly we need it can be seen from what the dems have not even be able to bring up in the house. One example, they wanted to specify that a certain amout of the oil coming from the XL pipeline be used in the US. For any percentage above 0%, the repugs would not let them bring it to floor. The next example, they wanted to impose the regulation on wall st that every trade (sell or buy) had to remain open for 1 sec. The repugs would not let them bring that one to the floor.
"CEO's get bonuses on profit and profit is what keeps us with a job." - Kend
So, Kend, it's okay for CEO's and shareholders to make a profit but it's not okay for the employees to make a profit (earn higher wages or bounuses)? What would happen if your heart kept all your blood and refused to share it with all the other parts of your body? How long would your health last? How long would you last? Taking this analogy further, if every company paid no attention to the damage their business was doing to the environment or their customers so it could make the CEO and the owners or shareholders rich, how long will that business last. Can any business act as if it has no connection to anything around it without, at some point, crossing a line of no return?
Selective perception, it's amazing isn't it? It allows us to focus on one tiny factor and ignore everything else. It's like becoming a heart specialist or an oncologist (cancer specialist). When we spend so much time studying hearts or cancers, we tend to forget about all the other things associated with a human life. As a person, we depend on the health of our entire body. Then, there are the people who depend on us, people like our children, spouses, friends, employers or employees. Even our plant and animal friends need us as much as we need them. Somehow, our thinking has become so compartmentalized and yes, limited, we strip away whatever is seemingly unimportant to us, what doesn't directly benefit us and then we pretend it doesn't exist.
Why do we do that? Are we afraid that if we don't act to protect ourselves first, others like us will beat us to the punch? Do we really believe that we're all separate and that we live in a vacuum, that life is about "survival of the fittest, it's eat or be eaten, kill or be killed"? Or, are we victims of our own beliefs? "I THINK the world is dangerous, therefore, it is." If we have that kind of power, why can't we see ourselves as both one with, and separate from, All That Is. Why can't we see ourselves as not only products of creation, but creation itself? If we have so much power, why don't we collaborate for survival instead of compete for survival? Instead of running from the fear of suffering and death, why don't we live for the love of being and creation?
We've seen what we can create out of money, power and privilege when we use it as a measure of success. What can we create out of love, truth and joy when we use it to measure success? Are we approaching a time when the value of money is so corrupted and abused it becomes meaningless? Is the job of a CEO becoming more of a henchman than a visionary, organizer and inspirational leader? If we allow ourselves to become small, frightened, selfish people, can we love ourselves. If we lie and distort the truth so much, we no longer know what it is, can we respect ourselves? What do we want most for our children, ourselves and the world? What works and makes us happy?
Kend, if you mean that a corporation should be able to go anywhere and do absolutely anything it wants to do without any limits at all so long as they can make a buck, then I would venture to say, 'no.' There is no 'private company' if that means they do not use the commons in any way, do not rely on transactions with the public and are not chartered by the state to do business. If you do not mean to imply that a corporation should never be called into question for any of its behavior, perhaps you can help define a line beyond which we might legitimately call it to task? Thanks.
Your vision of America sounds sad.
You may want to look to places like South East Asia and Africa, they rich fertile places for the old ways... use people and dispose.
Kend -- It is only your memory that is a problem. When times were bad, e.g. 2008, CEOs got bonuses and Thom complained about it.
An example must be made that will set a precidence. This is precisely what the anti-fascism movement needs. Let the Government make their mistake.
Rachel Maddow Show Article
House Rule XVI.5.a reads:
"Divisibility
5. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), a question shall be divided on the demand of a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner before the question is put if it includes propositions so distinct in substance that, one being taken away, a substantive proposition remains."
I originally thought this could be applied to the text of a bill that would become part of the law code, but since Sen. Sanders didn't mention it, I think it must only pertain to the action being taken in the legislature. But it does require only one member to effect the separation.
If Bundy were really rich, he wouldn't have this problem. I think people see a white male with a cowboy hat and has some land and automaticly think that he must be an evil slave owner. People should be proud that others got together and stood up against a BEAST known as the U.S. government.
So this is what America has come to. Thom and his bloggers talking about how much of a private companies money its share holders (owners) can keep. Shouldn't a private company be able to pay it's employees anything it wants. CEO's get bonuses on profit and profit is what keeps a business in business. Profit is the only thing that keeps us with a job. Funny I don't remember Thom complaining that CEO's didn't get any bonuses when times where bad. besides unless you own stock in that company it's none of your business is it.
Wow! Harry Reid wants to label those gun toting cowboys "Domestic Terrorists." Wow, who could have seen that coming?
Rachel Maddow Show: Reid Calls Armed Protesters "Domestic Terrorists"
AIW: Maybe, maybe not. Anything is possible. Even the fact that I am saying the things I am may be that I have been manipulated by right wingers to say them..even though I abhor the right wing and I never watch Fox Snooze. On the other hand, maybe all those who pretend to be lefties are not all they try to imply they are as well. Maybe they are merely tools being used by the ruling elite to keep people full of hope that will keep us all placid and only bitching and complaining on blogs..while effectively shunting any serious breach of the ruling elite's goals of total slavery of the masses to evaporate in the moment.
Bitching and complaining can be a great catharsis which can let the steam out of something that builds until someone snaps. Although, I suppose for some, it could feed their fires and rage and one day might snap. But that could happen no matter what people say. And if we all said nothing, to ensure that we never trigger an unstable person, then we will have voluntarily become deaf, dumb, and blind....and totally controlled. Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil. Some may differ in the order of priority here.
There are certainly people and institutions who pretend to be progressive and peace-loving who have purposely named their organizations with progressive sounding names. But their real aim is to serve the ruling elite...the over throw of anyone who gets in their way by using covert suggestions to spend a lot of time and money and effort on things that will never work...given the present circumstances. They are hope hypesters...they hype hope. And these organizations take on Liberal sounding names like International Center for NonViolent Conflict that have actually taken on tasks that the CIA was once chastised for...like fomenting internal dissent..sending in subversives to teach and rally internal dissenters and how to go about overthrowing their governments....supplying money and weapons for that cause. Even Presidents and Congress Critters who we vote for because they claim they are Liberal, or at least say liberal things when they campaign are being deceptive and will not represent those of us who voted for them once they get into office.
Who really knows how much of what we think and say has been manipulated by someone who may not have our best interests in mind? We are constantly bombarded by commercials that try to make us want to give them our money. We are constantly tugged different ways by politics. I guess we all have to make decisions about what is correct and true.
Mark Saulys: They want only those people who have been manipulated by Fox news to have them. They sure don't want the Progressive Liberals to have them. Oh, the weapons manufacturers would be delighted. And the Republican right-wingers only walk a tight rope so as not to tick off one of their major supporters...the Gun Manufacturers. Their idiot toadies will work as zombies easily directed against a Liberal government. And it's working already. Just the fear factor of so many right-wingers with guns is enough to bully the Liberals into submission. See how they backed down in Nevada!
Liberal politicians, although they may rant and rave, are still afraid of the people who are heavily armed. They know that the people likely to try an overthrow of our government are the nitwit righties who watch Fox news. It'll be like Ukrainian Yanukovych Presidency being overthrown by a bunch of Nazis but only here in the US.
AIW: It would be nice if it will work. But when you are totally outgunned ('gunned' meaning financially),when you have to use the same channels (ie: rigged democracy) that has led to our present state, we won't really have a chance. So, really, all those "movements" amount to is another way of bitching and complaining. I wish I was wrong...but that's how I see it. It's going to take way more than trying to work within the current corrupt system to change things.
I'd take any of the above! We've just GOT to get organized! (to quote from the comedy movie, "The Russians Are Coming...")
Elioflight, I find your story so sad and troubling. Your avatar says it all. (Did you or someone you know design it?)
I tremble at the thought of how I could have fared in your situation, because I have ALL the risk factors for breast cancer: family history, no children, etc.
Sounds like that cancer clinic is profiting handsomely from your misfortune. Three hundred-plus dollars for a five-minute office visit is obscene. Gee, how uniquely American! - AIW
P.S. your posts are not boring.