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.
Double dipping. Sounds illegal. They collect a salary from we the people but spend most of their time working for big business.
I think all candidates for public office should have the same fixed amount to spend on a campaign..let their stand on the issues be the deciding factor.
Which Corporate Lobbying group will the now retired US Atty General Eric Holder sign up with.... and how long will it take Mr. Holder to find that corporate firm?
Ellen Brown ran for State of California Treasurer in 2014, under The Green Party platform (and lost). She explains her objections to the Trans-Pscific Partnership in a recemt Huffington Posting:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/the-transpacific-partnership_b_7136112.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." -- Article IV, Section 4, US Constitution"
She highlights the financial impact, if the Agreement goes through (open/close quotes):
"Public Citizen observes that the TPP would provide big banks with a backdoor means of watering down efforts to re-regulate Wall Street, after deregulation triggered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression:
The TPP would forbid countries from banning particularly risky financial products, such as the toxic derivatives that led to the $183 billion government bailout of AIG. It would prohibit policies to prevent banks from becoming "too big to fail," and threaten the use of "firewalls" to prevent banks that keep our savings accounts from taking hedge-fund-style bets.
The TPP would also restrict capital controls, an essential policy tool to counter destabilizing flows of speculative money. . . . And the deal would prohibit taxes on Wall Street speculation, such as the proposed Robin Hood Tax that would generate billions of dollars' worth of revenue for social, health, or environmental causes."
Chi Matt -- You say the money that Hobby Lobby is paying the insurance companies does not belong to the employees. DAnneMarc says it does. I would ask either one of you to provide more detail except I disagree with both of you.
I'll go with Jesus of Nazareth. That money belongs to the government. With our constitution that means it belongs to "We the People". In Rome, it meant it belonged to Caesar.
We the People provide Hobby Lobby with LLC protection, copyright protection, a resonable stable currency, fire dept etc. If Hobby Lobby wants to operate in commerce then it should not be able to cherry pick what it wants.
DAnneMarc -- Your pure democracy via net has the same problem we have now. That problem is best summarized by the stat from the last election cycle: 83% of population did not know which party was in control of the House of Representatives.
AIW -- Viagra costs me $49 a pill out of pocket. Whose insurance provides it for free?
AIW -- Go, Alice, go after that LNG carbon corps.
Reply to #2 Pg. 2: Matt the Rat, non-limp dicks cause pregnancies, many of them unplanned and unwanted. Where the hell do you think babies come from?! Here’s a creative solution to the "moral dilemma" of male Catholics, Penilecostals and other dick worshippers: How about if all men who think it’s their place to dick-tate what women do with their eggs, fertilized or not, treat themselves to vasectomies? Hey, this procedure could even be performed as a religious sacrament! Or to put it more simply: Put up or shut up, hypocrites.
Men who nurse “moral dilemmas” over terminated pregnancies, religious or not, are simply dime-a-dozen variety control freaks hiding their true motives under fake halos.
Reply to #7, Pg 2: Marc, I love your common-sense solutions to these problems corporatists would have us believe are inevitable and unsolvable. Just one concern I have, regarding your endorsement of high-tech online voting: until some genius figures out how to make such a system hack-proof and tamper-proof, good luck with that. I'm not saying it'll never happen, but until then, I'd rather stick with paper ballots.
I think we need some sort of regulation sovereignty clause in our Constitution. No treaty should be able keep our government from making something illegal. From making something legal, sure.
I am seeing the following info that has been posted by others that are in defense of the TPP and it's transparencey......
1. https://ustr.gov/tpp/Summary-of-US-objectives
2.https://ustr.gov/tpp/outlines-of-TPP
But as I see it, these are simply outlines posted by the Gov office. I'm not seeing anything about the actual negotiations or any debate.
In regards to the story which aired on April 22, 2015 about the Republicans wanting to control health care, specifically birth control for women, I am outraged that congress wants to try to control birth control. First it is a violation of HIPAA which passed in 1996. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. which states that medical information is confidential to patients and is not to be given to a third party, namely employer, so why does the Congress think they can violate medical decisions between people and their doctors ?
Although I'd love to waste the better part of this weekend discussing this dead Hobby Lobby topic, I'd much rather discuss these more pertinent ideas from a previous post. Since our discussion has brought us to a new page, please allow me to repost it for all to see:
Any thoughts would be welcome.
ChicagoMatt ~ Fine. Them let them protect their own eggs. What gives them the right to claim ownership of other people's property and other people's bodies? That is the problem. They can do as they wish with their own eggs. They have no business controlling the body parts of anyone else. That is the height of fascism!
When I'm teaching my students how to debate, I often have to play the "Devil's Advocate" (a Catholic term, btw)... Because the students usually all have the same opinion, and it's not a debate without dissenting opinions.
You're welcome. See... I make things interesting. :)
If anyone were paying me, it should be Thom.
ChicagoMatt ~ Well, that's the first thing you've said on this thread that I can agree with. However, you should realize that the role you are describing here is called, "The Devil's Advocate."
For playing your role so well, you deserve an Oscar, and our thanks! ;-)
Mr. Townsley's comment is very good. Even local environmental laws can be considered to reduce profits. So companies will bring actions to these tribunals whose members come from corporate law teams. They will issue judgments that are costly. After a short time, so much for our local (and state and national) environmental laws. It is a real corporate power grab that Congress is even considering fast track legislation. It is mandatory that hearings be conducted when such an abrogation of our national sovereignty is up for grabs.
Because those procedures do not terminate pregnancies.
Also, the owners of Hobby Lobby aren't Catholics. They're Penecostals.
Also, they aren't against all contraception. Only the forms of contraception that kill a fertilized human egg, which they see as an abortion.
Tubal litegation, vasectomies, and condoms (both male and female) are not considered immoral. Birth control pills that prevent ovulation are also fine.
It's the "Plan B" pills and IUDs that cause the moral dilemma.
Aliceinwonderland ~ By the way, if commercials and comedians have taught me anything, what you refer to as "limp dick" is properly called, "occasional erectile dysfunction." Of course, as far as that particular condition goes, that is all I really know about it. However, if you really need to know more about it, I'm quite sure that our conservative friend Mr. Chicago Matt Abbott can fill you in. (Please, pardon the pun.) HAHAHA
(Sorry! I just couldn't resist.) This thread rocks!
I take it as a compliment that you all think I am some sort of professional shill. It means my writing is above average and I make good point. :)
But no, that's not me. I'm just a teacher who likes to practice writing, likes to argue, and likes to procrastinate. I get all three done here...
Plus, you all should be thanking the dissenting viewpoints that show up on this blog. We keep the conversation going. Look at all of the longest threads. They all have one thing in common: non-Progressives making a point, and Progressives piling on... Which is to be expected on a Progressive blog, I suppose.
Anyway, you're welcome. I'm helping you keep your minds sharp....
I realize that. The problem is that the government is forcing owner/operators of businesses to compensate their employees with things the owner/operators find immoral. If you owned a business, and you were told you have to pay your employees with something that was against your faith, wouldn't you also fight that ruling?
No one is saying employees shouldn't get fair compensation. No one is saying employers should be able to deny an employee's freedom to contrapception. Use your paycheck to get all of the contraception (or booze or hookers or guns or whatever else) you want. But, again, don't expect to be paid with contraception/booze/hookers/guns....
No. The government is deciding that employers can't just pay wages, but must also compensate their employees with a service.
It is, in the end, the employer, not the employee, who is spending the money on the insurance which includes contraception.
ScaryMary ~ Welcome aboard our cruise ship. Hope you stay a LONG while. One quick question -- would this lovely person be the Chicago Matt Abbott you so wonderfully refer too? Inquiring minds want to know.
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott
ChicagoMatt ~ What you fail to realize is that benefits are part of the compensation package. They are not paid for by the Employer as a gift, they are earned by the employee; and, as such, become the property of the employee when payment is due. If the employer belongs to a Mormon church; and, that church requires 10% of wages from it's members, is it therefore right for the employer to garnish 10% of the wages of it's employees for that church? It's exactly the same thing. The employer is deciding how the employees money is being spent before that employee gets paid soley for the personal religious reasons of the employer. I call that, a cheap excuse for robbery! In the case of Hobby Lobby, it is an excuse to inflict ones religious beliefs upon another.
That is precisely why the government must step and and prevent this kind of religious nonsense from allowing private companies to garnish wages of any kind from their employees for ANY REASON. Those wages--as benefits--are the property of the employee and ONLY the employee should decide why, how and when to use or not use them.
All the American People need to know about international trade agreements like NAFTA and the proposed TPP is that specific rights and privileges written into these agreements are afforded to all foreign signatories, rights and privileges that take precedence over existing U.S. laws ! We've seen the results of this over the past twenty one years as private U.S. business interests have piggy backed on various foreign business interests that have won an array of public and private contracts in this country, foreign business interests that were given the ability to skirt around various existing U.S. Laws by provisions written into NAFTA ! As far as we can tell from the limited access to the evolving terms and intent of the TPP, limited access that even members of Congress have experienced, this ability to skirt U.S. Laws has been expanded to infinity in the TPP ! Our legal system essentially replaced by a Star Chamber made up of three corporate attorneys that have the power to ignore the U.S. legal system and pass down judgments, based on the terms of past, present, and future trade agreements, and issue monetary awards that can amount to millions of U.S. Taxpayer Dollars to foreign business interests when and if their ability to turn a profit is impeded by an existing U.S. Law !
Matt’s all bent out of shape because our mean old government decided Hobby Lobby, and companies like Hobby Lobby, “MUST not only pay wages to their voluntary employees, but must also provide health insurance.” ( Horrors! ) It seems those rare occasions when the government actually does its job (defending the interests of its "ordinary" citizens), are when Matt is most likely to whine and complain about government “stepping in” where they don’t belong. Because in Chicago Matt’s realm of reality, we don’t work because we’re forced by necessity; we work voluntarily! We do it for fun!! Well gee whiz, that does put a different slant on things— doesn’t it!
You’re right, schoolteacher, employees don’t write the checks to the insurance companies. They don’t write their own paychecks either! So what. It’s still their money. They EARN those benefits just like they EARN their pay. Yeah I know, that’s a tough one to grasp.
Conservatives like Mat want to twist it around, re-framing and re-defining the very essence of this age-old employer-to-employee exchange. Instead of us earning our keep, we’re just volunteers who aren’t entitled to anything except whatever the Almighty Boss Man decides to give us, out of the kindness of his charitable heart… if only the mean old government wouldn’t “step in” to interfere with this sacred arrangement! Never mind that a majority of us would literally perish without a fucking job. Never mind that we happen to live in a society where most healthcare is employment-based. Matt sees fit to complain about business owners mandated to provide health insurance to their workers. Boo-hoo-hoo, ain't that a bitch. Apparently Matt thinks only millionaires, billionaires and trust fund brats should be entitled to healthcare.
No man has ever died from a limp dick. However deaths from childbirth in this country are at their highest in 25 years. According to a new study by researchers for the Institute of Health Metrics & Evaluation at the University of Washington (published in a weekly medical journal called The Lancet), a woman giving birth in the good ole USA is more likely to lose her life than a woman in China. Our maternal mortality statistics put us on a par with women in Afghanistan and Greece, along with several countries in Africa. In fact, we have more than DOUBLE the maternal mortality rate of Canada and Saudi Arabia; more than TRIPLE for the United Kingdom! Yet according to The Pledge, we're "One Nation Under God", that Big Dick In The Sky.
As always, male employees’ entitlement to Viagra, Cialis and other limp-dick remedies covered in THEIR insurance policies is never challenged. Only a woman’s need for gender-specific healthcare services, such as birth control and abortion, are held under scrutiny. Yet for some mysterious reason, I don’t hear Matt questioning the moral dilemma in THAT. Oh no. But hey, that’s Catholicism for ya! Men’s religion, men’s rules. Suck it up, ladies. But hey, we’re special; we’re exceptional! Glory to God, and God Bless America!!!