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.
Nah I'm half Irish we would never let it go that far! There needs to be a great awakening in this country like what is going on and keep the momentum going. Some people will remain ignorant to real facts and continue watching the likes of Glen Beck, Hannity and all those Fox talking heads but there are MORE of us than them!
I agree that is why we in Wisconsin are raising so much hell over Walker's Middle class busting budget!! One person one vote and we have to help those that maybe affected by new voter restrictions laws get their ids and their right to vote! That is why the GOP trashed Acorn and now they're going after NPR.
A good documentary to watch is called the "Shock Doctrine." The book/documentary argues that the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some countries because they were pushed through while the citizens were reacting to disasters or upheavals. Nixon, Thatcher, Bush, and others are covered in it....its a real eye opener!
I wish that I could tell you what we really need to do, but since that is only a dream, the best we can do now is put our hands in the air and give up. The only thing that will help America now is to let all of the registered Republican voters who work get exactly what they all voted for. Once they get tired of working 12 to 14 hour days; 7 days a week for $1.50 per hour (if they are lucky,) at a job they hate, witn no benefits, no vacation, no job security and no way to retire at 80 years old because they are so deeply in debt with no savings and are still leasing their car and paying rent because their monthly doctor bills and health insurance were not afordable and they are getting further and further behind on their "Breathing" taxes therefore in danger of losing their lives to the new Corporate-Supreme Court laws. . . they will change their minds and want to fight. When that day comes, their a%s better be nowhere near my hole because only God will be able to help them then.
Tom answered this concern once before on his show. He stated its limited and there are huge restrictions on trucks.
What I find interesting is the GOP is cutting funding for boarder patrol and protection so watch them pack people in crates and bring them over. So who would be to fault there? Obama or the GOP?
On that tune Texas wants to pass a bill about illegal immigration that would exclude domestic help? Now who in Texas has the money for maids, pool boys and gardeners? Rick Perry for one :)
Patent and manufacture Tesla generators
In the past I tended to think that the governments of some countires (e.g. wealthy nations such as the USA, Japan, European nations) at the very least did the necessary work, planning and organizing to be able to help citizens during times of disaster. After witnessing the aftermath of Katrina, and now the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I realized that these wealthy nations are just as inadequately prepared as any other. What are our elected officials doing once they get to their posts in the local, state and national houses? It seems that many (of course not all) of our government officials, once elected, get right to work making wonderful business deals for themselves and their friends and family. Instead of working for the public good they are working to make themselves money. This is the downfall of our Nation: Public servants who serve themselves.
Corporate and financial interests have taken over the government. Big business has no loyalty to America. They pay no taxes. They've exported our jobs. They've robbed our treasury. Most of our politicians have sold out, whether they see it that way or not. It is looking more and more that the only remedy for what has happened in our country is for the workers, and I mean ALL the workers including the poor and unemployed, to rise up and fight back. We need to take to the streets, vote for honorable people, and strike when appropriate. Most important, we need to educate our friends and neighbors about the relationship between the economy and the giant businesses that influence and corrupt our government.
Mostly agree but lets not decalre doom and gloom yet. First recall how we got to this place . Last almost 30 yrs .USA has lived under Reaganomics trickle down-1986 amnesty with open borders- for slave wages- deregulation of Robber batons / ruling class- Reagan Bush 1-2 con courts that greatly favor wealth- 12 yrs under Bush 1-2 Cheney- 20 + yrs under Greenspan then Rubin-Paulson-Bernacki aka the Goldman FED boys. 8 yrs under Reagan 1980 -1988 . Bush Paulson 2008 global crash - 700 billion TARP- 2 long wars based on lies-fear- Halliburton Blackwater Lockheed - massive war profits. Reagan Bush & GOP 2010 congress ALL gave billionaire tax cuts - Bush while waging 2 long unfunded wars.! Bush had a GOP congress 6 yrs Guess what They never said HELL NO NOT ONCE Saved that for Obama/ Dems People Think logically- Read check facts www.factcheck.org
How about one of the latest ... the Obama administration lifting the ban with Mexico, to allow Mexican truck drivers to drive all over the United States. Say goodbye to American truck drivers. That was one area my husband thought would be safe from outsourcing, when we lost our 30 year business to deregulation and Nafta, ten years ago. Not only more American jobs lost to another country (and here at home), but say hello to more highway safety issues, and we taxpayers will be paying for new electronic equipment in mexican trucks.
Find a person that is engineering (chemical, electrical, software, etc) that have lost their employment since mid-2001. You will find that 80% or more have not become re-employed. They can earn money by taking a 3-month contract (and if they are lucky all the contracts taken will be W2 rather than 1099 so they can get some employment from time to time). The contracts they are low paying and even when it a a W2 have no benifits. Try to retire in even 10 years from now when you can not contribute (without a company match) to a 401K plan as the personal IRA is limited to only $5000/year when not employeed for the past 9 to 9.5 years. I have seen this requardless of carreeer path (even capenders and mechanics) for 10 years when a person over 39 losses their employment they are doomed.
Until the recent nuclear catastrophe in Japan I thought my only exposure to radioactive waste was from blast tests before the comprehensive test ban treaty in 1997.This Japan trajedy has made me paranoid so I have done some research and found out that no-there's more-I swam in the Ottawa River many a time and the Chalk River reactor has been leaking into it on many occasions.Maybe my tadpoles don't swim upstream anymore.
And more! peak oil happened in 2008 and conventional oil is now in decline.Rising costs of raw materials and energy will kill the economy every time we attempt to grow.
Growth is NOT SUSTAINABLE and we are reaching the END OF GROWTH!
Eventually we will get more jobs but not the jobs we used to have. These "new" jobs will be in trades, agriculture, animal husbandry, animal training for agricultural work and transportation, old fashioned logging with horses or oxen, small farms will increase but poverty will rise as will hunger because we are so very overpopulated. This huge growth in population was made possible by cheap abundant coal, oil and natural gas but these are a TEMPORARY CARRYING CAPACITY and as they decline, so must our excessive population.
The politicians care not one wit for the average working person, to them, we are expendable and they are grabbing all the weath they can before the collapse and already have their "bug out" mansion built in what they hope is a safe place.
The best some of us can do is to be as sustainable as possible, home gardens, live in a low population area with nearby farmland, learn the skills our ancestors used before the industrial revolution, aquire as many useful hand tools as you can, if you have a pellet stove, trade it in for a good wood stove, pellet stoves are worthless when the power goes out and pellets take a lot of energy to manufacture, grow fruit trees, have storable food on hand, rice, wheat, dry foods, canned goods etc.If your in one of those huge cities, GET OUT!
In other wordsl, prepare for the worse and hope for the best!
The private international bankers that control the Federal Reserve essentially own the U.S. because of the national debt owed to them. International bankers control the money supply by issuing credit through the Fed. The major banker family that influence/controls the Executive Branch, regardless of party, is the Rockefeller family. They control through the Federal Reserve and the Rockefeller Foundation funded Council on Foreign Relations(CFR). The CFR has an agenda that is not beneficial to the interests of the U.S. The Rockefellers and other U.S. elites along with the elites of Europe and Asia want to control the World. They are getting closer every day.
If you are not familiar all this or see it as a nut job conspiricy theory, I urge you to do your own research. Look up Prof. Carroll Quigley's books "The Anglo-American Establishment" and "Tragedy and Hope". Prof. Quigley was Bill Clinton's mentor at Georgetown U. and was instrumental in getting Clinton his Rhodes Schlorship. Cecil Rhodes' original Round Table Group with Lord Milner and Rothchild led to the formation of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London and Its U.S. branch, the Council on Foreign Relations. If interested, also look the Bilderberg Group and Trilateral Commission. The Republicans are 100% tools of the elite but so are the most powerful Democrats. We will not be able to win this war against the elites without a better understanding of the agenda.
Christ, I don't even know where to start with what's wrong with creating laws that make having certain files with illicit material in them. First off, how do you make a PC Tech accountable for knowing whats in all the files, I mean its one thing for them to stumble across material, its a whole other thing to make them responsible for checking all the files (do you know how many pictures can be contained on a typical 200 GB hard drive). Second, who's to say the files were intentionally downloaded by the user, there's a plethora of malware out there that is designed to secretly download onto your computer and then open websites and download whatever its specified to download, all done in the background unbeknown to the user. This could especially be the case if a user is bringing in their computer to deal with a suspected virus. I think there is too much overreach of any government trying to dictate what's legitimate for a computer to have on it. A computer is a computer, and putting any variety of files on it is not the least bit difficult for malware.
The other issue here, is computer piracy. Well frankly, I don't have give an iota of a damn about so called intellectual property. You can go to a library and borrow any book for free, if corporate publishers could re-write the laws, they'd make you pay a royalty fee every time you borrowed a library book. Evey time you went to an art museum you would have to pay a royalty fee to the artist of each painting or sculpture you looked at on top of the fee (if any) when entering the museum. As far as I'm concerned, the Internet should be considered the modern version of the Library system, whatever is available for free on there should be kept free. After all if I allow someone to use peer to peer networking to download a copy of a mp3 on my computer, that file doesn't get taken from my computer, I'm not deprived, so I wouldn't consider it stealing. I don't think copying a file is anymore stealing of property, then taking a picture of someone is capturing their soul. Stealing is wrong because you're taking something away from someone, not because you're in possession of what they have.
Not quite as dramatic as the push to dismantle workers rights in Wisconsin but the goal is the same: New Mexico Governor Susanna Martinez, a Republican, has disbanded the Labor Relations Board making it is impossible to handle worker grievances. Labor unions in NM are taking the issue to the state's highest court.
The Gulf Oil Spill in Japan is like running around on your farm spraying DDT when the wind is blowing away from your house.
After the Enlightenment, men and women of Science began to make incredible discoveries and inventions, for instance in energy, transportation, communication and biology. They were our leaders. After the turn of the 20th Century, the only new discoveries and inventions have by and large been mere miniaturized or power improvements to the 19th Century geniuses' efforts - or, worse, Rube Goldberg versions (look at the state of virtually all software programs - an 'improved' version every six months or so, but the improvement for most users is negligible). Scientists began to lose their eyesight and became the stereotypical 4-eyed-geeks whom no one wanted to follow. Less qualified and unqualified people who had great distance eyesight but difficulty with 'book learnin'' picked up the leadership slack. Wha' hoppened?
international corporations own the news channels . . . goodbye democracy
In the 20th Century, as the decades went on, more and more people who should have become leaders became followers, and more and more people who should have become followers grabbed the reins of power and tried to be or pretended to be leaders.
We need to move to a Parliamentary system so that we always have a government that works for its platform. Divided government allows republicans to destroy america while blaming democrates. I don't like divided governement at all. The House and Senate should be combined in one Parliament always and the president should be the elected prime minister of that parliament. The minority should always form a shadow government. As far as the Supreme Court goes, Citizens United was treason by the Gross Injustices Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Kennedy, and Roberts. They deserve to be impeached, stripped of their salary for life pensions, disbarred, tried for treason, convicted, sentenced to death, and then promptly guillotined on the steps of the Supreme Court building. The Supreme Injustices deserve nothing less than some good old fashioned French style justice from We The People.
As a 63 yr old Michigander and approaching retiree, I never imagined that I would be thinking of moving away from my country to spend my retirement years in a more stable and less chaotic country. Pick an issue - democracy becoming a plutocracy , religion intertwined with the law, income desparity, the dumbing down of education, infrastucture neglect, climate change denial, etc
As a Combat disabled Veteran, and a Wounded in the line of duty, Law Enforcement officer, I do not recognize the country, I took an oath to serve and protect. it seems to have become a Facist nation, or even worse, an Cleptocracy !
a lot of jobs have gone overseas, but not all. but it really does seem like we're getting the 3rld world treatment as naomi klein predicted.
We don't need to stop using nuclear power, we just need to adjust our source of it. I suggest we use the largest nuclear power plant we have available... THE SUN.
N
Today is Thursday, the 17th not Wednesday the 16th, but it is St Patrick's Day... so I'm not sure what's going on with the Daily Topics header date.
Anyway, while Thom was talking to his guest about the Nuclear crisis in Japan, and the leaks and so forth, I began wondering if this happens when electricity fails, how bad would it be if a plane did hit a nuclear plant... then this suddenly hit me, and I never heard this question before, but what would happen if a Nuclear Bomb hit a Nuclear power plant? I mean wouldn't it stand to reason if a country wanted to do the most damage to another, that it would target its most vulnerable as well as its most promising target to add to a destructive effect?
It just seems to me, that having a nuclear power plant is like having a large potential dirty bomb that would compound the effect of an atom bomb on an exponential scale. Please tell me that I'm wrong.... please.
N