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.
Jailing the Banksters;
On Law and Order, they would charge them with negligence leading to suicides..
The show would end before your Supreme Board of Directors set them free..
If you can't jail the owner of the coal mines...
Sad,
Rick
Well, I'm not the only Canadian named Rick, so I used it a while back and just liked it..
Canadia; home of the Canadians.. ;-) Eh?
Rick
You know that old saying..."Behind every Great Man is a Great Crime."
@Rick in Canadia, where's Canadia? is that a new Disney theme park?
@Quark, fascinating family history. I can certainly understand how that would be an issue there (though until now never considered it).
There are generally two ways to become wealthy: steal or let your parents steal and then inherit.
Dog fighting ruling;
I just heard about a court ruling (not sure if it was a state supreme court or your 'Supreme Board of Directors') throwing out a conviction on free-speech rights where someone had been selling videos of dog fights. Haven't looked, but just how is it different from kiddie porn?
I'm sure plenty of tea party types are cheering, and I'm not a rabid animal rights activist, but basically someone I see kicking a dog might want to look at the steel toe of my boot before he decides to do it again..
Not couching violence, of course, but let's try a hypothetical..
If some dog fight organizer was caught (is it illegal in only some states?) and let's say he was put in jail with some agressive animal lovers.. Would it be someone's right of free speech to sell videos of that 'punishment'?
Hey, it is film of an illegal act, some might say obscene, what's the difference?
I might just sign up for pay-per-view..
Rick
Re: Carrie Lukas segment.
A couple of months ago I was blogging here after the show, when a right winger started going off about the myth of Climate Change. His argument boiled down to "Google it, you'll find support for my point of view everywhere." So I did, discarded all the opinion sites (there's a lot), until I found NASA's report on it, copied the link to the blog and didn't hear from the genius again. My main point to him that this was the official report compiled by the Goverment, an agency that didn't have the luxury of finding it advantageous to find in favor of technology changing the environment. I think I also found some other links to a British agency with similar findings, but I didn't figure he'd accept a foreign source.
My point being, you can find any information you want on whether there is or isn't climate change going on, but rarely (if ever) can you find trusted scientific agencies that deny climate change. Also don't let a Google search complicate an argument, always remember to discard the opinion sites (which are there in force).
That was one of my favorite days on this blog.
@Maxrot,
One interesting fact: my father's great uncle, a Jewish Hungarian officer, fought on the German side of WWI...
...and a good example, biker gangs, the Hell's Angeles started as WWII fighter pilots...
But, I would not put the folks working on Socialist/Communist labor organizing on the same road as those organizing the Putsch, which it should be recalled were financed by the industrialists in league with the Thule Society.
It is certainly true that WWI (the first conflict over oil) and its aftermath has reverberations that persisit to this day. The breakup of the Ottoman Empire by the allies into fiefdoms controlled by the British and French when the Arab communities were promised self determination is never brought up by those who maintain that Israel the only mideast democracy. Who installed the House of Saud and protected them? Or the Monarchies/Dictatorships in Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, etc.
The reverberations continue.
And now we've seen swastika banners flying on Los Angeles' City Hall grounds. I'll grant the First Amendment right to their assembly, but to my knowledge, neither the Mayor or City Council have denounced them.
Maxrot,
My husband's grandfather came to this country from the Ukraine because he was tired of being conscripted to fight by one side or another.
My concern about Rhandi is her absolute devotion to the US Military. While I absolutely support the care of our troops and veterans, I deplore the resources expended, the missions endeavored, the "America Uber Alles" approach to foreign policy that every administration has exhibited in my lifetime.
@mstaggerlee, surely you're not expecting me to talk to a Con. I'm an red-headed Irishman, trying to talk sense to an obstinate moron is more than my temper can handle ;-)
Well, duh . . . There is an "R" after his name.
@Robert S. did you get a chance to review my comments about the parallels to modern America and the Ottoman Empire?
I'm not now, or ever trying to make the comparison between how war experiences are harsher in one war vs. another. Only a soldier that endures his experience can know what was is endured. My comment about the German war veterans was that on top of their PTSD, they also had to endure the blame for the loss and on top of that, there was an enormous percentage of German young men that went through the war and returned to little to do but join a Freikorp group or Communist group, socialist group etc... more so because the only thing they wanted was a return the to the comradary of the trenches. Our WWII soldiers had similar issues when they came home, a lot of biker gangs in the '50's began as veterans getting together to ride motorcycles (that's a poor example, but the best I come up with off the top of my head). But even after WWII in Germany their veterans weren't treated as they were at the end of WWI, more so because the Allies didn't kick the country while it was down.
Thom should have asked Lukas if she believes in James Watt’s philosophy that a biblical Armageddon is just around the corner, and so there is no point in concerning ourselves about environmental protection. The guy I know who is developing an electric cab, and who is a “common sense” conservative, is apparently the kind of person that Lukas thinks is trying to make money off the global warming “hysteria.” He told me that it is a mistake to try to convince right-wingers about global warming; it makes more sense to talk about the long-term effects that "greenhouse" gases have on human health, and that since oil will eventually run out, there is great money-making potential in getting into the green energy business now, instead of waiting until it is too late.
Countrywide and Bank of America are doing exactly what Goldman Sachs did - they also should be investigated. Here's why: I am losing two houses to foreclosure. They were my rental business and the market here in Michigan has more than crashed. My mortgages were with countrywide and now, Bank of America. I tried to re-work the mortgages before I lost my auto engineering job and the rental rates were dropping. Countrywide refused, stating that the property needed to be at least 4 payments behind. ..so when that happened, they still refused to work with me, losing paperwork sending dential letters...I found buyers for a short sale, bank of america dragged their feet and kept refusing things and asking for more and more info, after 7 months, buyers walked.
A few months ago, a mortgage insurance company called me and said that countrywide had insured the mortgages on both houses when I bought them. They asked if countrywide worked in good faith with me to re-write mortgages, - I told him no and asked him why. He told me that they had insured the mortgages and wanted their money. Countrywide was betting on them being a risky mortgage due to the market conditions and rental rates dropping. Isn't this what Goldman did? Shouldn't this be illegal also? Countrywide and bank of america are getting insurance for the full value of the foreclosed mortgages, while still going after me for 10 years and sending me a 1099 stating that I had that income - this is double dipping!
Short sales aren't happening easy around here and this explains it - it's because they already got their money - why should they take a lower amount of money for a short sale and agree to it? They get their mortgage insurance and also whatever the house auctions off for, without having to agree to sell at a lower value, which would probably negate their mortgage insurance.
They should be investigated with Goldman Sachs!
Nels - The format of Randi's newsletter is essentially -
Statement - link. Statement - link. Statement - link.
Or (if you will) - here's what _I_ think is goin' on, and HERE are some FACTS to back up my opinion.
Dry reading indeed - until you find yourself talkin' to a Con. ;-)
Thom, Carrie has a problem with the u.s. defense department and not you or me if she doesn't think global warming is real. Unlike Carrie, the defense department has to live in the real world that deals with facts, empirical evidence and likely scenarios based on that evidence and not on ideology or what someone believes to be true like Carrie does.
Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security
The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.
Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.
Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/science/earth/09climate.html
@Maxrot,
"I know there is a lot of fear cropping up about the similarities between the Nazi's in the '20's and Today's Tea Party, but one of the biggest differences between Germany then and America now is this, Germany had the collective boot of vengeful allies at its neck, whereas America does not."
I will agree that the situation in the interwar period in Germany was different in some ways than the situation today, hyperinflation, and after effects of the "war to end all wars," yet the similarities remain ominous.
As we have seen in American communities from New Orleans to Detroit, the Rust Belt's abandoned mills to the vanishing family farms, the average American has seen the promise of a better tomorrow evaporate before than eyes. The idea that children will have a better quality of life than parents is gone, and it is expectations, after all, that fuel resentment.
You also mentioned the German WWI veterans. They certainly endured hell. But we should not deny the very real pain that our own veterans today feel. Timothy McVeigh was one, and if memory serves correctly, one of his tasks in the first Gulf War was to bury Iraqi soldiers alive in their trenches with an armored bulldozer.
Quark, the whole Eastern European/Middle East area has tragically been so churned up by religious persecution from at least Roman times, I doubt you could walk more than a mile in the area without there being a story of suffering and oppression to be told about a particular spot (though more than likely most of the stories have been forgotten, conveniently).
@mstaggerlee - I will give Randi's newsletter a try. I agree that she know her stuff, I just don't prefer her on-air presence, I guess. Thanks for the info!
@mstaggerlee, I don't know for me its a toss up between who's the bigger hypocrite, Beck or Palin. Though I guess I can see the argument that Beck is more aware that he's full of crap, whereas Palin is more likely just going along with what her handlers tell her.
I'm in no way trying to slam any other progressive host, I'm just saying some styles don't hold my attention, and I think that's a good thing, because thoses styles are probably appealing to others who don't like the shows I do.
I appreciate the newsletter suggestion, but I don't even find the time to read Thom's newsletter (no offense Thom/Louise, please keep sending the newsletter, rarely I do read it over).
Maxrot,
I will give your comment alot of thought. Incidently, I grew up with my mother admonishing me to eat everything on my plate because I should consider the terrible life of "the starving Armenians." She said her mother told HER (when a child) the same thing.
re: Kerry/s spiel: should our children be afraid of the future? Not necessarily, but we damn well better be afraid for them....
Jon Stewart's take on "taxing the wealthy":
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-13-2010/that-s-tariffic