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.
Since earlier you were suggesting Congressmen wear NASCAR-style patches on their suits to show their "sponsors", I thought I'd show you the picture of Max Baucus I photochopped back in 2009 during the health care wars.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2630/3676562202_f4875f0cf8.jpg
I hope you like it.
Well, they do both mean "go with": con- (with) + gressus (p.p. of gradi, to walk), co- (another form of con-) + itus (p.p. of iri, to go).
The characters on The Big Bang Theory keep mispronouncing "coitus"; the o and the i are supposed to be separate, like in "coincidence", "cooperate" and "coalition".
After hearing Gabby speak I had to put in my two cents. I blame our dysfunctional legislators for the gun killings. While listening to the debate I realize just how stupid many seem to be. They pass gun laws with a sunset clause? They should have added on to those laws not sunset. They opened the barn door and the horses are out. Now they want to close it but leave it open a little bit. We have to understand that over half of households have a firearm in the home. What are the political realities of new gun laws in this congress? We must move on what can be done. We can end the private transfer of all guns. This does not infringe on the second amendment.
Require all gun dealers to buy back all firearms they sell. If you want to sell your firearm you must take it back to where you bought it or a local federal buy back store. End gun shows. This policy ends public sales without background checks. End all private transfer of firearms. With this policy we may make a difference in about a hundred years. Someday we may see the time when people stand in lines to sell their firearms to a federal buy back store. Rather then the lines now to purchase assault rifles. It will have to start from within.
If he has so much courage then why did/does he consistently give in to the Republicans? Why did he appoint all of those right wing crazies, some of whom created the financial mess we're in..like Rubin and Geithner. Obama is a politician that has proven himself to be full of hot air and empty promises. Why didn't they go after the corporate criminals instead of the whistleblowers? Why are they increasing domestic surveillance and trying to disarm Americans? No, Obama is part of the problem right along with a Congress that is also part of the problem. I agree with almost everything else you said except.....
Maybe what America needs right now is a lot more randomness and chaos. It is the 'order' of such systems that allows some people to amass such fortunes and power that leads to tyranny. And history has shown that when such things happen, that only 'chaos' shakes a little of that amassed wealth and power from the trees of tyranny.
David Abbot- As usual, you are spot-on: "Our government and American-owned corporations, have worked very hard over many decades, to de-stabilize and ruin the economies of Mexico, Central America, and South America, by offering foreign aid on the condition that those countries allow American agribusiness corporations to export food to them." And: "...if America doesn't like the problem, America can very easily solve the problem, by not subsidizing the sale of cheap food in those countries." BINGO. - Alice I.W.
P.S. If I ever start a debating team, "tag you're it"!
Why are we discussing amnesty when 15 to 20 million Americans have no jobs or unemployed? Why are we allowing mass immigration, somewhere around 60 to 70 million since 1990, when incomes, adjusted for inflation, during the same period have been stagnant? These are simple questions that need to be addressed.
If Harry Reid had done REAL filibuster reform, we would be in the process of filling 700 federal court vacancies. Please notice that this court decision did not "appear" until AFTER Mr. Reid gave away all his power to influence the future course of the American judiciary. Had Mr. Reid enacted REAL filibuster reform, these judges would have been worried about angering Mr. Reid.
Is it just a coincidence that one meaning of 'congress' is coitus and that's also where
the American people can count on getting screwed? (Also available at bookstores
near you.)
YEP...I do have more to add, GLOBAL, but I must get out there and work my precious job; got alot of hands reaching in my pocket. If those hands took that money and put it towards Single Payer Health Care For All, I wouldn't mind, but...
In the mean time do listen to that song I told you about; "Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go Round)" Dead Kennedy's
For Thom or ANYONE else to assume that more Law's are some how magically going to save us from "random" act's of anything is naive at best all anyone need do is look back over time then honestly ask have they worked up to now ? Well you don't have to be a genius to be able to reflect back but you do however have to at least be honest and the answer is a resounding NO . So let's go ahead and safely assume they already know this but there agenda is NOT our safety but rather there's ? Now look back honestly at the Law's put in place to see who they have really served and you will without question see a completely different agenda a sort of circling of the wagons type agenda one that favor's & protect's the very people responsible for so very much suffering, fraud, larceny and corporate wilding . We live in a world of admit to nothing and deny everything a world where the "Rule of Law" not the law of the jungle is a vulgar joke a world where a deft dumb & blind man can see what's taking place just not our 5 major News Media outlet's our weather people or our many many infamous Law enforcement agency's a world where you or I can't get down the thruway without a seatbelt yet Wall street can plunder us into poverty or Halliburton can defraud our tax dollars into the billions a world where manufactured evidence is the only place WMDs ever were goe's completly overlooked while our kids get shipped back in bag's a world where the word "PULL IT" and we watched as the building collapsed mean's "Oh I meant pull your men out" A world where invader's can call the occupied "terrorist" A world where the law's that are already on the book's are laughted or completely changed to make whatever crime's commited NOT CRIMES .. anyone with even a heart beat can see somethings just not right ..and somehow you think more Law's on the book's are going to address all this ? What's taking place in this country at this moment is the pre-invasion process ...Clean out your head gear and watch it all unfold...
To your question #9...Human consumption; drinking, cooking, hygene, isn't the sole danger to the water supply...More so the waste, i.e. reverse osmosis (3 gallons to make one). Also irresponsable use...Supplemental watering for lawn and landscape. Trying to make grass and trees grow in the dessert, Farmers using millions of gallons of water during freezing weather to protect their crops, (We have seen the adverse effects of this in Fl.), Using nonreclaimed water to wash your car,(not to leave out the chemicals that leach into our waterways).
I could go on but I think you get the point...It's a combination of over population and abuse. But it isn't an over population of any one race, or culture. However that being said...The American culture has proven itsself with a looooooong history of being glutenous and wastefull consumers.
No argument here Nachos, but I don't think black has anything to do with it. No doubt this country is stuck in the left- right paradigm. They have all us drones watching a stupid game and taking sides like it matters While the massive defecit spending on special interest group voters AND corporations demands (military industrial complex) continues. Spending is the tool for re- election and more centralized power. If you don't have inflation protected assets in this storm you will never build wealth or financial security as this irresponsible fiscal policy relies on the accommodating monetary policy of the federal reserve to create the fiat money. Inflation is the monster that is and will be eating the so called middle class that both parties say they want to help. We have to break the cycle, reduce the spending reduce the tax burden, take some pain and push through it.
Global...I'm not picking up what you are laying down...Not sure if you even know what you are saying.
Zeitgeist is a German word that means the "general" intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era. Therefore "zeitgeist" isn't any one specific society as much as it is a collective of philosophies and beliefs created/adopted/interpreted by a socoety to create A Cultural System, i.e. America's religious and political philosophies and beliefs as a collective and the climate it creates (era).
Oh, you mean like president Darth Cheney did? Would not be surprised to see a story about competing book titles or movie titles about his story titled something like "The Imperial Vice Presidency".
Talk about a dictator ... while W was either riding his bicycle or on vacation at the "ranch" in Crawford Texas, Cheney was attempting to re-write the constitution in order to fill the pockets of his fat cat buddies back at Halliburton. Cheney somehow had people scared into not challenging his redefinition of the powers of the office of vice president.
Both of those SOB's should have been arrested for war crimes for their torture regime, among other crimes. Lawyer shopping until they found some Justice underling that would write them a "get out of jail free card" that authorized torture techniques banned at least since Nuremberg?
Any "dictator" charges leveled at the current president are far outweighed by the actual offenses of the previous administration that have resulted in them, since they left office 4 years ago, being afraid they will be arrested if they leave the country.
The current administration has also not exercised that "signing statement" techniques W and Cheney loved to use to ignore portions of laws they did not like. You may not think the current president's use of executive orders is legal and constitutional, but it is, and so was the b.s. the previous administration pulled with the signing statements.
Someone has been consuming too much RW radio or TV or some other media that may be delivered with a touch of an Australian accent. The Hitler references again? Please!
Make a ban on handguns pass at any cost. Things have gotten way too distorted here in the US, if we have to start throwing gun loving Politicians in jail to make change NOW for the People NOW - so be it. Might as well get some more use out of Gitmo since it is still open.
Ever the collective. You mean my labor is your property? Thought you believed in the sovereignty of the individual? That perspective sounds like whatever a person earns through his labor is actually the government collective first and they the masterminds decide how much you can keep. you must be wanting the Zietgiest society.
Ken Ware says: "You left wing liberal progressives make me puke, along with people like Hartmann and Palidromedary" and "I live in Southern California, and have seen firsthand what the Illegals do to the American workers standard of living by depressing wages...." and blah-blah-blah. (Who needs PMS, anyway?! tsk tsk)
Need I remind you sir, that nobody has held a gun to your head; or by any other means, forced you to participate on Thom's blog? I'm sure there are plenty of other blogs that would be much more to your liking... unless of course, you're simply using this as a dumping grounds for your aggressive urges, or just your day-to-day frustrations... Whatever.
I won't attempt to speak for anyone else on Thom's blog. But I am getting very tired of the negativity you bring to this discussion. You're obviously not happy participating, and you're not doing us any favors... so what's the point, then? You sound like just another dime-a-dozen variety, Angry White Man. It really is pathetic. You guys can't seem to get a grip on the idea of sharing this planet and its bounty with everyone else. You and your sense of entitlement make ME want to puke.
Mister Tough Guy, I'd like to see you try working in the fields with those Mexican immigrants you hate so much. Try picking strawberries and artichokes and so on... just for one twelve-hour day! Ask any farmer how Anglo Americans have fared in such jobs, and for how long. The fact is, Ken, most Anglos can't cut it more than fifteen minutes out there in those fields; they lack the skill as well as the stamina. What's more, you apparently are clueless as to the extent to which our economy is dependent on the slave labor of "illegals". Has it ever occured to you why these Mexicans can't find work in their own country? They'd have to be pretty desperate to tear up roots and and risk everything just to come here, subjecting themselves to a foreign language & culture where they are so despised by the likes of you. Your assumption that these workers don't pay taxes might be a convenient means to justify your xenophobic little grudge; but the fact is, they DO pay taxes. (Sorry to burst your bubble.) Whatever the reason they can't survive in the "mother country", I'd bet money it boils down to American corporate interests having had some sort of negative impact on Mexico's economy... not to mention the damage this country's "war on drugs" has imposed on our neighbors south of the border! Oh and by the way, here's a bit of history you immigrant-hating racist bullies conveniently overlook: California and Texas used to be part of Mexico, before it was stolen from them! So much for white folks "coming here legally". This whole friggin' country was built on stolen land!!
Again & again you've accused us of spouting off on things we know nothing about, but that is exactly what you are doing here. If you can't stand us bleeding-heart LIBERALS then go find another blog... or better yet, buy yourself a nice big-ass punching bag to unleash your aggressions on, or punch a few pillows! Or go jump off a cliff. - Aliceinwonderland
Too many times I get too Philosophical but,
This thing called a filibuster seems to waste time not talking about anything. I didn’t know that Congress persons could do that, as I watched c-span, the Congressional channel, viewing an empty room while listening to classical music. Perhaps that is the way the old world government really worked. It didn’t work whenever it felt like. So, not too much has changed, America still is the old European style with a cable television twist, now we all get to see the empty room, do nothing room.
One of the reasons I am so cynical and bitter at times is when I found out not only this filibuster stuff but after five years a Congress person can get a pension. Thinking about it, seems they have the capability to do their own collective bargaining whenever they want to, or raise their own pay whenever. Isn’t that funny. All the while America is an “at will” working country where an employer can fire anyone who might want a collective bargaining situation. A very extraordinary miserly situation that falls under the category of extravagance that represents the excess power that exceeds the ordinary electorate that placed them there. Like me or you.
This whole scene falls under that what is evident where all men are equal are not equal. After working better than twenty years or for different companies, because of treaties, corporate decisions, greed economy to cut jobs, or downsizing I have to retire into poverty. Early in my career paid my allegiance to my country to volunteer to fight in Vietnam for this miserable ending to my American dream, for everyones freedom. Please let it be known that I shall endure but dam the lot of those who believe they are good leaders, for I went through the mill of American political damnation. I can easily fathom who is good.
For a time span I had to exhaust my retirement. One employment period the company I worked for went into bankruptcy and my pension with it. This happened because of Senate and Congressional decisions at the time. I became accountable for this and my credit rating collapsed. My personal life collapsed too, almost lost my home, and my wife. From my view whenever a recession is called what is evident is the Congress and the Senate should be held accountable for malfeasance in periods like that.
Especially after war profiteering where many Congressional and Senate and with presidents that expand their bank accounts in what the electorate should identify as “Extravagate”. This whole scene that we witness is an obnoxious crime, previously characterized by Hal Fonts said it very well, and has my sentiments. Now is the moment not only for a president to fix the economy, immigration , or jobs, ending war, etc., and besides pardoning a really good new style president one who could and should start to issue indictments rather than just pardons at the end of a term.
This America is really looking for that balance of power that a president is capable of. Just as President Obama can issue a bill about immigration or better such as jobs. What is expected from a new and young America is looking for that leadership, with a directive such as investigations that lead towards indictments. Any and all that could clean up our government. No, Obama is not a messiah, but I keep hearing he has courage.
From my view, The American government and the industry is so unbalanced and corrupt it will never have a golden era, a golden age of peace and prosperity that can be newly recorded with the greatest consumer society ever recorded in history. For those who believe in God it would be something proud to give that notion, that pease prosperity, happyness, and tranqility back to him the God that knows it can happen for the many of us that believe in God. For if you only believe in random order into and out of chaos that is why we are where we are.
I care who caused the problem, because they're still causing it, and they will keep causing it until they are stopped.
I repeat: the Mexicans who have moved away from their homes, away from their families, generally do so for one reason only: we have wrecked their econcomy and/or made it so unsafe for them to live in their countries, that they almost have to come here. Have you ever talked with an illegal immigrant? I have talked with lots of them, and worked alongside about twenty of them.
I blame both Reagan and Clinton, and all of the other presidents who have signed off on our inhuman foreign policies and disastrous foreign aid programs. And I blame Bechtel, Halliburton, and all of the other corporations and banks that have bribed and coerced our presidents to commit those crimes.
And I was quite clear about what I think should be done: temporary work visas, only for workers who have been offered a job in America. And when their job is finished, they return to whatever country they came from, with a good amount of money that they earned by working for it. And they should have to belong to a union and pay union dues. And rather than the books for all this being declared top secret national security documents, they should be posted in libraries and online.
And yeah, for the most part they really are doing work that most Americans can't or won't do. Take me, for instance. I thought anything anyone else could do, I could do. So when I was offered a job doing hot tar roofing in 112˚ weather in Los Angeles, I said, "Well, with one helper I can do a 2,300 square foot composition roof every day that I work, so sure, I can do that."
After a few hours of carrying two 5-gallon buckets of 470˚ hot tar up a ladder, I found out that in point of fact, I was not as tough as the Mexican roofers. I collapsed under a tree and could not get up. I could barely breathe. But let's face it, I have always been a weakling. I'm sure that like most men, you are much tougher than I ever was, so why don't you go to LA- or even better, to Phoenix Arizona which is even hotter, and take a hot tar roofing job from a Mexican?
Well well, Mr Global...Why do you think government spending is soooo difficult???Bush had no problem running up America's credit card on an illegal and unnecessary war.
Since the Industrial era and WWI the real names who run this country (and the World for that matter) are on constant summer vacation; while we the pawns to the Machine keep hitting the feeder bar; suffering by our refusal to acknowledge our psycotic behaivour...Holding on and hoping that God or an American President will make it all better.
Of course when the P.O.T.U.S. is a Democrat, conservatives get upset, (especially when he's...B-L-A-C-K!!!YIKES!!! And of course when we have a Republican as president everyone on the left is upset. So no matter who's in office and spending money the other side is upset.
Listen to Dead Kennedy's "Kinky Sex Is What Makes The World Go Round"
I hadn't heard of Quinn until you mentioned him, Nachos. But then, I don't get out much. I'll take a look at it.
Yes, "If our country was properly run..." I think the only way that will happen will be a result of a relative of Quinn's hero- a fellow called the hundredth monkey. And the cool thing is, no one seems to know who exactly that hundredth monkey is. Which should encourage me to treat people better than I sometimes do.
But just to make sure that Ken understands me, this is NOT an apology! Its a... it's a... It's a perfectly good excuse!
David Abbott"If our country was properly run..." Reminds me of Daniel Quinn's book Ishmael, where an 800lb Ape trys to explains Mother Culture and man's plight. There have always been two groups...Leavers; people who cultivate and live off the land, have an understanding and a respect for all mother nature offers.
Then there are the Takers; those who exploit resources for profit and have no regard for the adverse destruction they create, including poverty, war, and slavery.
Are you framilar with Quinn and his writings???
That's OUR money. You don't actually think that state defined property rights are handed down by God or unquestionably legitimate do you?
My comments on this web site are my thoughts only. I do not speak for anyone else.
And because this is America, the place that I fought to grow up in, I will continue to speak my mind. I think this is something that Ken can respect, even though he and I disagree on some very important issues.
He'd need a crisis, a 9/11 or burning of the Reichstag so he could do what Bush tried to do and Hitler did, gain dictatorship by getting emergency powers to the excecutive branch.