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Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
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Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
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Thank you Thom for hitting it right on the head with your explanation of Net Neutrality.
The ultimate Game-Theory Moral I see here;
If they advocate for something, it is because they have some manipulative plan to gain more power over the rest of us with in mind, that they simply create an alter-motive cover-story to snow us with, and presto we're all chasing their made-up geese, and no one is the wiser.
'Cept us I guess.
=^>
Thom, keep in mind the word "neutrality" when debating these idiots. What does "neutrality" have to do with "transfer speed"?
What Net "Neutrality" means is that if one customer is trying to access my tiny blog and another customer is trying to access Disney.com, currently, both sites get the same ("neutral") priority. What the corporations want is for THEIR sites to receive priority when two customers are accessing different sites at the same time. Small sites get "put on hold" while visitors to "big" sites receive priority, so their page requests receive attention "first", and the blog-visitor must wait.
The other issue, Thom, is the fact that many people are now making a full time income online. Big corporations don't like that - we're no longer beholding to them for jobs. If they could slow down Internet service, it would hinder the efforts of "little" people trying to make a living online - and would play right into the interests of the corporations.
Thom, your "anti-Net Neutrality" guest is speaking complete nonsense.
As a PC tech of over 25 years, one users "downloading" does NOT "slow down" other users (unless they are on a shared-bandwidth connection like cable, which has NOTHING to do with "Net Neutrality".)
The "anti" argument is that all that bandwidth hogging costs money to provide, and they want to be compensated for it. It has NOTHING to do with the "transfer speed" of other users. (if anything, it may only affect the amount of time it takes them to "connect".)
Students at the University of Toledo have a table outside the Student Union with a petition for a public option in health insurance. One column is 'I will call my representative' - check that and a student speed dials March Kaptur and hands you the phone. Great idea! Pass it around. I'm going back to suggest they change to George Voinovich - Marcy is already in the public option column.
During yesterday's final segment I kept waiting for a single word to be uttered which would define what was being debated. In talking about the application of hate crimes, that word which cried out for being spoken was MOTIVE. One caller alluded to it by mentioning the word intention. Right-wingers and conservatives almost always look to put everything in a neat little slot and then move on confident in their superior judgment. They abhor shading and see things as either black or white. Having to consider the shadings inherent in considering motive only complicate the certitude they seek. Judicial process is paramount to the conservative and justice is only a happy accident when it is encountered. This is a fundamental difference in how each camp views the world. Complexity is to be not only avoided in the conservative world view but it is to be dismissed as being soft, immoral, and false. Of course this all changes when the microscope of public opinion is turned on them. Just consider the recent cases of Diaper Dave Vitter or Sen. Mike Ensign. Black & white judgments are no longer adequate or fairly employed when their tit is in the wringer. For liberals and progressives motive matters when sitting in judgment of an act. For the right, it is too much intellectual work.
The featured story on the front cover of Tuesday’s USA Today is another example of how the media fails in its responsibility to question propaganda meant to deflect attention from troublesome topics, such as the continuing problem of excessive lethal force by police. The story was allegedly about how police in Denver are being trained to avoid the appearance in racial profiling; but the “training” addressed this issue not in the slightest. Rather than confront stereotypical or prejudicial attitudes an officer might have, the training was just an excuse to justify lethal force under apparently any circumstance in which the officer feels “threatened,” regardless of the true nature of the threat.
The example of this training given was of a white police officer confronting an agitated black man in a hospital emergency room; we don’t know exactly what he is agitated about. The white officer tells him to calm down; the black man reaches for something in his back pocket. The officer has only a split second to make a “life or death” decision—that is, concerning his life. Pop, pop, pop, pop. Four shots from his 9mm pistol drops the black man stone dead; “lucky” for him, the black man has a knife. No one shot to disable him, just kill him. The examiner tells the officer he has “passed” the audition. But one suspects that the officer would have “passed” even if the black man was only pulling out a comb. This has been shown to be the case over and over again.
The use of excessive lethal force has nothing to do with racial profiling; a couple weeks ago I wrote here about an intoxicated white man who was tasered in his car, which caused the car to lurch forward which gave the cops an excuse to pump seven bullets into his body; the man’s family filed a lawsuit just to begin the process of getting answers. The use of excessive lethal force by police is always excused by demonizing the victim; the fact is that people who are shot by police are often not in the process of committing a crime or armed in a manner the puts an officer’s life in jeopardy. The ultimate issue, of course, is why do we have police on the street who think kill first, and disable second, and why do we allow it to continue.
Racial profiling, which was not in fact addressed in the “training,” continues unabated. I recall a time when I was waiting in my car during evening rush hour for through traffic to pass so that I could make a left turn; I noticed that there was no cars passing in the through lane to my right. Suddenly I heard cars honking; I looked over my right shoulder and I observed a Kent police car sitting behind me in the through lane, and a line of irate drivers were waiting for him to move. When he realized that I knew what he was up to he moved on through. Through long experience it was clear to me what his intention was: he was waiting for me to turn into traffic so he would have an excuse to pull this “Mexican” over. A couple days after this incident, I observed two cops force a bespectacled black driver into a parking lot; while one officer patted him down, the other stood behind the car with his hand on his holster. And then they just left, leaving the black man to wave his arms about in the air—“What the (bleep) was that about?”
The Warning
I had an opportunity to watch Frontline’s “The Warning.” We need more Brooksley Born’s in our government. Greenspan, Larry Summers, and Rubin were deeply involved in the 2008 meltdown of our economy that started in 2006. Greenspan says he was wrong. What good will an apology mean with Americans losing their pensions, savings, investments, and whatever else they possessed. Larry Summers is now in the Obama’s administration. Unless there is significant regulations on our banking and financial institutions will have ongoing meltdowns from time to time, such as every fifteen years or so. Trusting our politicians and our government is an impossibility!!!
In Erik Ericsons’ (sp) book, “The Eight Stages of Human Development” every stage starts with Basic Trust for the baby and child with the parents and relatives. At age 45 or so the eighth stage should have been reached with Integrity. With all the crooks in our government there are many politicians and government employees who are in key positions and they are 45 years or older. Our government has no Integrity. Our nation can no longer trust any of these people in government.
Louis Tice of the Pacific Institute in Seattle, Washington uses the book, “The Eight Stages of Human Development,” to develop his theories on Team Development and Corporate Development. With lack of Integrity in the United States and in the world so rampant, how can we have a viable United States and a viable world? We live in a country and in a world of crooks, banksters, gangsters, coons, and thugs!!!
A Hate Crime is an INTIMIDATING POLITICAL ACT--an attempt to control others to one's will and goal through FEAR and THREAT. Using the word "hate" is probably the problem here. The word "hate" insinuates that emotion is the drive here, but that diregards that political/religious ideology and the specifics of their goals -- as these are driving the "INTENT" of crime as pointed out by a couple of Thom's callers today.
Calling these specific acts of violence and intimidation/threat by the term "hate crimes" makes them seem akin to crimes of passion. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are premeditated and often planned; they are ingrained in many ideological platforms. I think they should be called "Political Crimes".
Hello,
I love the show and I wanted to make a comment. Racism does happen to white people also. It is sad for it should not happen to anyone. My two sons are 7 years apart and were going to school in Daly City, CA. My oldest was in junior high. He was bullied by a boy all year. Actually, my son who was almost 6 feet at the time basically ignored the kid. Finally toward the end of the school year, this boy decided to throw a hole puncher at my son's head. My son just pushed the kid to the ground and the next thing he knew, he had 30 Filipino boys on top of him. My other son was in grade school, and almost the same thing happened. It was so sever that when my ex=husband came to me because he wanted to buy a home in Oregon, both boys wanted to go. In addition, when my mom was sick in a hospital in Daly City two years ago, the only way you were guaranteed to be helped by a nurse or nurse's aid was if you were filipino. I know, I spent two months visiting my mom in the hospital, and sometimes she would ring the bell. Finally, after 15 minutes I would go searching and would always find them in a room where a filipino was hospitalized. No one ever talks about this. I have never been racist in my life, yet my kids were affected. I am sorry that anyone has to suffer in this way.
Wow- Sallie James was simply stunning on your show- I had no idea that the middle class was disappearing because “they are getting richer”. I did not know that the 50% cut in my income actually means I have more! Or that my brother-in-law has become “richer” because he was laid off when his company went under and he is now collecting unemployment.
Honestly, I could not believe the statements she was making. Thanks Thom, for not allowing her mis-information to go unchallenged on your show!
Yes, everything we know is wrong, so let's run with it, quick, while they are counting their huge profits, they won't even notice we fixed everything.
Here we go:
It is not so much the inequity as it is the fact that they believe these "profits", made on the backs of the poor and working poor, don't need to be reinvested in providing jobs or even making credit available (which was the reason they got the funds in the first place ), but, instead must be paid out quickly to these Corporate Elitists, quickly before the American Public is duped again by the Health Insurance industry who is poised to collect the next round of bailout funding. But really, this is our chance to change everything.
With these two are all set to pounce, let's really pull the rug out from under 'em:
Go directly to Campaign Finance Reform, stopping the constant fund raising burden we have placed on our elected officials, making the LOBBYIST obsolete and ending the ability of corporations to own our elected officials( or at least offer them lucrative employment when we do vote the bad ones out!) Next, pass Medicare for all, PAID for with Corporate taxation in line with that of the OTHER people, the real people, and doing away with Corporate special tax treatment; if they are PEOPLE let 'em pay taxes like REAL PEOPLE (28%-30% not 1%- 2% .) Roll back the tax cuts, (remember how they passed without bipartisan support) and voila, single payer health insurance for all, paid in full.
"Fixing" Medicare payouts and tweaking Social Security would be a piece of cake with all the new tax revenue and the balanced budget.
Oh, and if the Corporations don't like it, and they want to threaten us (like the Health Insurance companies tried to last week) let 'em fail, or better yet, let 'em move offshore, United Emirates or Dubai or wherever those all American Corporations like to Offshore to . Then, we can let the great Entrepreneurial spirit take root and replace them with new companies that are NOT... too big to fail.
If I only had a...
Why do they hate America?
It shouldn't be surprising that the contractors operating outside the U.S. in countries where "law and order" is in the hands of anyone with a gun that crimes go largely unpunished. William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies" examined how civilized people act in the absence of restraint. Blackwater "guards" were accused of killing Iraqi civilians, but this came to nothing, and they were never charged, and no one introduced a bill stating that they should be.
It should be noted that many companies have "gag" rules that employees must sign on to. One of these companies is Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions. I recall maybe ten years ago a former employee sued the company for some reason, noting that among other things she had observed that the few male employees were discriminated against and treated like objects. It shouldn't be surprising that Winfrey applied her considerably "weight" to the matter, counter-suing the ex-employee for breaking the clause in the contract that said that current and former employees could not say anything negative about the company.
On a "lighter" note, sports personality Jim Nantz and his wife are in divorce court; she wants $1.5 million a year in child support, but one suspects that this money isn't for their one kid. She apparently has a $1 million a year jewelry habit (kind of like Paul McCartney's ex's $100,000 a month wine bill), and was famous in Connecticut for her jewelry shopping sprees. In court she was asked about one recently purchased and particularly expensive item; she seemed unable to describe why it was so pricey or what impulse made her buy it, but she thought it had a "stone." The sports radio host who related this story noted that it is small wonder why men feel jobbed by the courts in divorce cases.
@Scott, RE Revolution: Corporations don't bleed. They are not flesh and blood humans . . . No matter what Obama, Roberts, Scalia, Alito and Thomas believe.
Why isn't it recognized as a hate crime when men kill women because they hate all women and want some kind of revenge? (It would apply to women who do this to men as well, although I think that rarely happens.)
Thom
You've been using the a definition of a "hate crime" as a crime that is aimed at terrorizing a whole segment of society, not at just hurting the victim of the crime.
I disagree and it would be difficult to convict perpetrators of many hate crimes because it would be hard to prove that there intent was to terrorize a particular group. In many cases, it's much easier to prove that the victim was selected because he/she/they was a member or perceived to be a member of a particular group.
The FBI agrees with my definition on their webstie
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offenses_reported/hate_crime/index.html
Definition
A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.
GENSLER SPEAKS
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Institute (CFTC), talks about his involvement 10 years ago (under Clinton) with then-treasury secretary Larry Summers and predecessor Robert Rubin to create "The Commodity Futures Modernization Act" which established no regulation for credit derivatives and helped lead to the current major financial meltdown.
Currently, Gensler is working with congress (Barney Frank, etc.) to address these problems and create more transparency in the market. (Video)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#33396018
Thom might believe the lies that "tea-baggers" tell him to his face, but saying they are not partisan is simply not plausible. They were not around when the Bush administration was passing out that first $350 billion to the banks without any strings attached, or when the Fed was passing out trillions under the Republicans' watch without any accountability. They only came out when when Fox drummed-up its thinly veiled racist notion of a black man with his hands in your white pockets.
On "Hate Crime"
Thom, you mentioned "child pornography".
Carrying your Libertarian guest's argument to its logical conclusion, Child Pornographers should only be prosecuted for the injury they inflict upon "each child" and not for the crime itself.
Is it possible that the situation has become unreparable? Does corpofascism have so much power and money that the only hope is a bloody revolution?
Richard L. Adlof
That lawsuit didn't have to do with the Fox News Channel. The lawsuit you're referring to was against a local Fox owned and operated station, not the Fox News Channel. Same owner but different entity.
Thom,
Thank your for the link http://www.republicansforrape.org/legislators/ and talking about this issue . . . I am sure that my daughter, wife, sister, mother and every other woman will thank you, too.
dday, thank you! i missed the name of the institution that did the study.
Dr. Maddow & Mr. Olbermann basis their opinions largely of FACTS and reality.
FOX News is the only “news” network specifically granted the First Amendment Right to LIE. On August 18, 2003, a Floridia Appeals Court ruled against Jane Akre and Steve Wilson and FOR Fox’s RIGHT TO LIE. See http://www.foxbghsuit.com/ and click on “Resources for Reporters and Others” link.
EVERYTHING broadcast or printed by FAUX Noise must be viewed or listened to through this lens . . .
ccatanzaro,
Google: University of Maryland Media Study