Recent comments

  • Daily Topics - Thursday June 14th, 2012   13 years 8 weeks ago

    Hey Thom,

    How do you feel about the Green Party as an alternative to the Republicratic party?

    Why not a Green Party president instead of Obama? Or would you say that it's better that the Green Party take lower offices first?

  • Daily Topics - Thursday June 14th, 2012   13 years 8 weeks ago

    neither can I

  • Daily Topics - Thursday June 14th, 2012   13 years 8 weeks ago

    hi. can't get chat room to work today, yet

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    Does it really matter what Obama is metaphorically drinking? All of our politicians have been purchased by the multi-national capitalists, Obama included, and are literally useless in terms of the common good. I agree with Chris Hedges, voting for Romney or Obama in this upcoming election is a waste of time and energy; neither one of them has the best interests of ordinary American citizens in mind. The common citizenry doesn't need or want the developing plutocracy but appears powerless to prevent it from happening. There are going to be some 'serious' times coming in our future... we've been through this before (and in my lifetime) but this time the workers of the country don't have any leverage. It's a sad and maddening state of affairs.

    The left intelligentsia is missing the boat by not being able to present effective arguments to counter the moral/fair/fear-based arguments posed by the right. The left appears needs to be correct but the right knows how to get voters to mark the X in the 'right' place. The left has a need to be intellectually accurate but the right knows how to sell products and get voters on-board their boat. The left wants to make sense while the right wants air time to show how shocked they are at how nasty, unfair, and immoral the left is. The right gets that air time because they know how to make good theater; the left gets little air time because they're basically intellectual elites and are often boring and boorish.

    A few last points: Obama still has Geithner as Treasury Secretary... what does that tell us? Obama still has Guantanamo open, modernized and expensive..what does that tell us? Obama still thinks the USA is the world's policeman... what does that tell us? Obama is committed to immoral drone warfare... what does that tell us? Obama is still kissing Jamie Dimon's ass... what does that tell us? Obama wants new powers for multinational corporations... what does that tell us?

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    I am shocked that the Obama administration would support this trade agreement as "leaked"! I'd like to see President Obama defend his support of this legislation LIVE before the American people! Could the leak be a product of the President's political enemies? Or is the leak a genuine attempt to get public response and/or attract more campaign funding from pro-business sources? What IS his agenda? We the people cannot stand by any longer. We have to have facts AND hold people accountable. Any "leak" such as this, intended to test the waters for public response, should call us to make our positions clear.

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    How's this for an idea. would anyone else like to see a show with thom and any other good sided person discussing the various topics for a full hour I mean anyone that is trueley giving us food for thought that will spark some more change and wakeup the masses of public that are as tired of this bull as I am . alyona, and other media reformers and outside groups like move on, move to amend, free speech , and the financial wizardry of some of the best minds along with a room full counter all of the abuse thom takes when he actually gangs up on himself with these right wing bigots and fights a fair fight. maybe we should present a petition to him asking for this media help ! hey thom, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK !

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    I feel the same as you do Thom, especially because as a citizen of France most of our sovereignty has been transfered to a non elected European Commission against the French People's will.

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    I agree with you 100 % and the knowledgeable should also do the same . and of corse the uninformed too. we do not need to be casting a vote for a trip back to the politics thet have so scheemingly have put us in the position were in for the past 30 or so years. stay with it and have some faith that the fight will bring the kind of change we need . no it's not going to happen overnight , and the other side wont give in or let it happen so easily.stick with thom and any other true reforming advocate and do all you can to pass on the wave of change that is erupting throughout the country. we finally have the means to broadcast and get through to the masses if we keep at it. DAMMIT ! im tired of nothing changing and staying that way for the past 45 or so voting years.

  • Is our electoral process completely corrupt?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    We can not say the statement clearly as their are so manyof the people involved in this and all are not the same so that we can not judge all of them because of the fault work of some.

    Regards,

    http://www.pureintegrity.com/

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    If you are going to vote for Obama...don't vote for him because you believe he is the least of the evils...or the choice who you foolishly believe will begin to fight for us instead of giving everything away to the rich and powerful. Vote for him because he sounds intelligent...even though he is likely lying about everything he says. Vote for him because he is young and has poise...or you like his voice or color of skin...righteous! we really showed the world how unbiggoted we are, didn't we...some of our best friends are....so now that history has been made and ignorance has been conquered (or has it gotten worse?) lets get on with it.

    Let's vote for Obama once more...not for any really important reasons that have anything to do with a government that will protect and support the majority of the people who happen to be at the bottom of the food chain..but for any other unimportant reason. Vote like you are a lazy couch potato who only gets his information on the 6:00 o'clock news...highly susceptible to being influenced by whatever shiney bells and whistles...banners and slogans..ebullient bravdo...campaign slogans...that appeal to you. It really won't matter because real democracy is long dead in the US. And there is nothing you can do about it...if you think voting is going to matter. It won't! The corrupt and sell-out Democrats are part of the illusion. They are the faux hope that they sell the masses to keep the masses from uprising beyond the crooked system that they call Democracy.

    I'll likely vote for Obama, again, but this time not because I think he will do anything good for us this time. I will vote for him because I detest that job destroying, sleazy opportunist Mitt Romney. If I have nothing better to do that day, yes, I'll probably vote again...waste of time that it is. Although, I will probably hate myself for participating,yet again, in a farce...further helping to support the illusion that we have Democracy in America. But, I'd much rather be looking at Obama than Romney for the next four years. Romney is just too much of a goof-ball, spoiled-rich kid, who exudes arrogance through every pore. Oh, and he will likely treat what remains of the American working poor very badly and do it in our faces.

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    On his tv show (I think again yesterday) Thom explained how, from this nations inception (until like the mid-1800's?) income into the Treasury from import tariffs paid for all expenses of the federal government. Now however we instead have an "insane" tax regime where corporations exploit 'the commons' while (through exemptions and/or evasion) are obligated to pay a relatively and/or historically low proportion of their income in taxes. I also appreciate (and previously have also adovocated for) the concept of there being a wealth tax on individuals.

  • Daily Topics - Monday June 11th, 2012   13 years 8 weeks ago

    What is the author/title of this book about the treasonous action by these certain members of Congress? Where is Sen. Mitch McConnell in all of this?

    Thank you for the information.

    Peace

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    It does seem like President Obama who promised transparency isn't keeping that promise either. But given the NONOs in Congress it is understandable why he hasn't moved in a more progressive direction. This PPT is troubling to me--more so than any other moves he has made or has not made. That being said, the alternative is to vote Republican--vote for Mitt. I refuse to do that!!! We must support Obama's bid for re-election in every way possible! But we have to put the pressure on the President to stop drinking that tea tinged Cool-aid! He is not a progressive, I don't think he ran on a progressive platform. But he has crossed a line here and is showing a hard drift to the right.

    Lets support Obama by getting involved with the Democratic Party and work from within to pressure the 2012-2016 Obama to move back toward the left!

  • Daily Topics - Wednesday June 13th, 2012   13 years 8 weeks ago

    RE sociopathy. Yes. Didn't hear entire segment, but several of the comments Thom made regarding these people- -- I certainly agree with him. ( I am a psychotherapist and have over the past 30 years trained numerous agency staffs who deal with the public on how to deal with clients who are "difficult" have "thinking errors" , are "antisocial" etc. Whether or not all of the men Thom discussed are sociopathic, some of them certainly fall in the category I call "Chronically Hurtful People". I have recently published a book on that topic, and several readers have mentioned to me that the voting public should be among the readers. I describe these people are "expert at fooling others, and expert at elliciting support," including obtaining our votes!!. I know Thom is swamped with reading materials but I would, of course, love his take on my work.!) Thanks for a great show, as always. I am long time listener, long time fan. Roxanne

  • Will we become a nation-less world where only transnational corporations rule?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    I say no, but for a different reason....there's too much money to be made from war. Some corporations will want to keep nations going to that end. And - where there's oil, there may be war.

    I more or less believe in 1 world government, but not run by corporations, and history has shown that trying to "conquer" the world has rarely worked out. But 1 government, made up of representatives from all over the world, in a counsel, with all parts of the world working together for the betterment of all, instead of fighting each other......too utopian, I suppose.

  • One of the biggest dominos in Europe is about to fall   13 years 8 weeks ago

    You're not over-taxed, you're underpaid. If wages had kept pace with production, no one would need an EIC. But the top 1% collected all the gains for the last 30 years, and laugh at the rest of us as we fight over what's left. It's called divide and conquer, and it's the same as cookie story. The richest 1% take 99% of all the cookies, then tell the working class.. look at that (poor, sick, elderly) person who's getting an EIC!!!!! He's trying to take YOUR cookie!!! The sad part is, the working class is buying this nonsense about a cookie shortage, and blaming each other, instead of demanding more cookies for all.

  • Education now only for the wealthy?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    I agree with most of what you said. The Waldorf system sounds ideal. And I totally agree that central administrators structure schools according to business models and horrible politics. They don't even try to see what's happening with kids in classrooms. They don't care about what teachers need to succeed. I'm speaking of large districts, not necessarily small districts.

    But, as an educator in Denver schools, I am writing because I caught Thom's recommendation that all schools be funded by the government and equalized throughout the country. Thom, that is the best idea I have heard to save our education system. I always vote for every bond issue, even though my children are grown, and I never complain about property taxes. However, families should not be penalized for living in a poor state. What I have seen in Denver is that there is a vast difference between living in Denver and living in a suburb. When I went to my own kids' conferences, I waited in line. When we had conferences where I taught, we were lucky to get a fourth of the parents there. There was no PTA in any of the schools in which I taught. There just wasn't sufficient interest. Some parents were working, more of them were involved in partying or gang activity. Fund raisers tend not to be very successful in schools that have 80% of their students on free lunches. And Denver does not have a real ghetto as many large cities do.

    Thanks, Thom. You're the best! I learn from you every time I hear you.

  • Florida Governor Rick Scott doubles down on his illegal purge of Democratic voters   13 years 8 weeks ago

    It's a "smoke screen" to keep off focus the "election fraud", in my opinion...

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    Although I agree there are plenty of things that can be pointed to for which there is no distinction between republicans and democrats, those things are uninteresting to me when it comes to deciding who to vote for, or whether to show up to vote or not. Reason being there are plenty of other differentiating factors. It's silly to think these two parties are the same, nothwistanding these nondifferentiating factors. One only needs to look at what came out of the Pelosi House, most of which was blocked by the minoriy (republican) party in the senate, with what has come out of the Boehner House. Folks, it is night and day.

    Please, even if at the end of the day you consider it supporting the lesser of two evils, please do it with your vote. Otherwise we just get stuck with the worse. Whether you think it's much worse or not, worse is worse. I happen to think it's much much worse.

    p.s. On a wealth tax. I was wondering what others think about this. Isn't it the case that every time the fed prints more money a wealth tax is being imposed?

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    Remember Dr. Ravi Batra from past Hartmann Shows? I learned about "The Myth of Free Trade" from the show, and it turned me against free trade for all time. The data presented only goes up to 1990, but clearly things have only gotten worse in recent years.

    Opinions and dogma sway public opinion back and forth, but hard data never lies. Someone needs to shove the data in Obama's face, shut up, and let him draw the only sane conclusion he can. - Free Trade Sucks!!

  • The Good, The Bad and The Very Very Sesquipedaliously Ugly!   13 years 8 weeks ago

    Could I obtain the title of the book by Paul Draper about the January 20, 2009 meeting that Frank Luntz, Newt Gingrich and others attended to plan the thwaarting of the President Obama's administration.

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    Where's that damn Aflac duck to plug all the leaks? And in addition to the already mentioned leak here is another one to further embarrass this fascist regime (the one that wears the name of Republican or Democrat...because you sure can't tell them one from the other anymore)....

    Kaspersky Labs has been investigating and analyzing the Stuxnet virus that was engineered and unleashed upon Iran's nuclear program by both the US and Israel. That virus got out and infected unintended victim's computers around the world.

    Since then, a new virus called Flame has been engineered, also by the US and Israel, and unleashed upon Iran. And, it too now has infested computers around the world. And if you listened to the 'Security Now' podcast, at grc.com , last week where they talk about this..they also talked about a man in the middle attack on Windows auto-updates....Scary, when what you think are Windows updates are actually man in the middle attacks who can cause all kinds of problems..steal sensitive data...inject viruses...whatever you do...don't bank online!

    Kaspersky found some strong evidence, in the code, that Stuxnet and Flame viruses were both created by the US and Israel. And that is in addition to the now publicly known fact that President Obama actually ordered a wave of cyberattacks, code named Olympic Games, that unleashed these cyberwar agents against Iran's nuclear program.

    Unfortunately, it has all come back to infect everyone else in the world who managed to get the malware. The Flame virus is a "swiss-army knife of surveillance" and can turn on computer microphones to listen in on people, capture screen-shots of what is on the computer monitor, and even pick up on blue-tooth cell phones near-by. This, of course, is not something new...because hackers have been doing this for quite a while. But Flame is supposed to be some uber version of spyware way above what the typical hacker might have.

    When most of the world has the "closed" (just trust us..it works) proprietary Windows Operating Systems, most of the world is vulnerable to the dictates of this American created software. Perhaps they should be using, at least, some version of Linux or other operating system that is "open source", like Linux...so they can easily catch any hanky panky code insertions that would otherwise be harder to detect in the non-open source Windows OS. How much do you trust your software...even encryption software..that they don't have back doors? How much do you trust that proprietary "Virtualization software" (even if, or especially if, it is free) that you think is protecting you from the "bad" guys (like 3 letter orgs that want to spy on you)? These 3 letter orgs have strong ties with well-known high tech companies and pay them very well for their services.

    This was all supposed to be highly classified and I suspect that much of the recent ire and statements made by embarrassed government officials about "the leaks" that will result in America's allies not trusting or cooperating with us anymore had to do with this recent key-stone kops cyber attack on Iran. The officials don't want us to believe unofficial leakers and call them names but expect everyone else to be gullible enough to believe their own intended internal leaks that they use for their own self-serving propaganda.

    I'm just glad the US and Israel have not yet used bio-warfare viruses against anyone..have they (AIDS?)? Flying Spaghetti Monster...I hope not!

    I suspect it won't be long...these idiots will destroy the earth one way or another. Somehow, I think they will not be satisfied in their ruination of the earth's biosphere causing global warming..they are going to get impatient and unleash something really horrible before that, I'm afraid. But first, they will be wiping out all our savings accounts and blaming it all on the depositors..mostly those that bank on-line who, allegedly, got hijacked by some hacker. And the courts have frequently decided in favor of the banks.

    Greek citizens are wise to stock up (horde) on food. We might do well to do the same thing.

  • Will we become a nation-less world where only transnational corporations rule?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    I believe Gore did win, and Bush should have gone to jail for the 'scan stolen election' we didn't elect him. Why did we go along with this? how can it be fixed? they are going to do it again...

  • Is President Obama drinking the Thomas Friedman, one world, so-called "Free Trade" Kool-Aid?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    OH MY GOD111 I no longer know where to turn or what to do. This newest secret deal is so insane that words fail me. Anyone who votes for this is a traitor to this country and should reap the full punishment heretofore dealt out to traitors, no excuses

  • Will we become a nation-less world where only transnational corporations rule?   13 years 8 weeks ago

    I'm not seeing it either Will take more pain to wake some folks up enough to make them act, move, protest , speak out . A lot depends on who wins in Nov. . If its Mitt we know what he & Ryan plan to do . More corp perks More deregulation Repeal health care . End EPA GOP cares not one iota about public safety, education, enviorment . Dump more toxic pollutants into our water and air . Bagger congress & Corp interests / lobbyists will run Mitt . Ronmey has shown NO sign of integrity or guts He can not even stand up to Trump or Rushs ugly crass comments, smears . Mitt will cower under Irans dictator . Cheney and Rove may run our gov't and foreign policy Just as Cheney did under Bush ! . www.factcheck.org           www.politifact.com    www.congress.org   I keep thinking what would it be like if Gore had been Pres..Very very different Fla Jeb & Fla courts handed Bush the election. in 2000. I have NO doubt.

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