Ever had single payer health insurance? We want your story and so does Obama!Ten Democrats appear to be standing on the edge of health care reform: Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Max Baucus (D-MT). Thom received emails saying Bingaman is on board. Others said that Bill Nelson took his phone off line?
Obama wants stories of single payer health care. Thom, Shawn Taylor and a number of callers spoke of their experiences of single payer health care in a variety of countries including Germany, UK, Australia, France, Greece, Portugal, Peru, Canada, Spain and the USA (the VA).
Health care reform would be a jobs creation bill. The cost of health care has hit manufacturing and workman's comp would go and there would be no medical rider on car insurance.
Bumper Music: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Ennio Morricone.
Bumper Music: World Hold On, Bob Sinclar (video).
Quote: "No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. ... There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government." — Samuel Johnson.
Bumper Music: You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
Mark Sanford took a hike over father's day. Father's day was naked hiking day.
Have conservatives LOST it?! Law of the Sea Treaty debate.
As the Arctic ice melts, shipping, fishing and land are opened up. List of people on the left and right who are for the treaty. Frank Gaffney is against it.
Article: LOST justice? Frank Gaffney.
Guest: Frank Gaffney, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy during the Reagan Administration, Founder & CEO of the Center for Security Policy. Thom shares his concern about sovereignty. Why is he opposed to a treaty that allows an increase of the land that can be claimed? This is not about control over new territory, but ensuring we are not forced to compromise current control over the USA. It is crafted to extend the authority of the administrators into sovereign territory, as air and water migrate. We are binding others as well as being bound. Disputes over the Arctic. The goal is to normalize and stabilize relations to the ocean. He says the binding is unequal, because the US adheres and others don't. He says it is stacked against the US. People have not read the treaty. When people talk about the global commons, supranation, it is against sovereignty. There are mechanisms for disputes to be mandatorialy resolved.1) international tribunal - will work like others, we may not have a member, but we will always be outvoted. There is no veto like the security council. One country one vote, but there are blocs like Islamic countries, NATO (always a minority)
2) The US will always opt for arbitration, either ordinary or special, we can pick some members, deciding votes will be picked by somebody not on our side.
Thom said the alternative is no agreement, gunboat diplomacy. GATT, NAFTA, etc. are a surrender of (economic) sovereignty. The UN is designed to prevent countries from declaring unilateral war.
Why would conservatives be opposed to a lot of nations getting together and saying we will not declare on each other except for self defense, yet are not opposed to transnational corporations trumping US law? He is very leery of any transnational arrangements that are against sovereignty etc. Physical security is even more important than economic. Both wants what is best, and as much sovereignty as possible. Having some rules, principles to conduct discussion of the commons of the sea, or war and peace, is important. Thom is far more laissez faire about economics, blow up the economic treaties. Gaffney said this treaty will have lots of economic effects. Not all countries have oil refineries like the USA, and US would be told they are not up to environmental standards.
Bumper Music: Yellow Submarine, Beatles (video).
Bumper Music: The Grand illusion, Styx.
Go to thomhartmann.com for free live stream with Thom's newscast, Jim Hightower, WINS news, environmental news.
Upcoming Event: June 28 11:00AM - 1:00PM, Reno, NV – Washoe County Democratic Party Brunch – Reno Ballroom, 50 East 4th St., Reno, NV 89501. "The Washoe County Democratic Party are featuring a lively forum including presumptive gubernatorial candidates Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid and Nevada State Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley as well as Thom Hartmann, "the nation's number one progressive talk show host." Emcee: Reno City Councilwoman Jessica Sferrazza." Tickets are $50, Table for Ten $500, Tickets are available online at washoedems.org, or call 775-323-8683.
Report: Why The Arctic Matters: America's Responsibility as an Arctic Nation (pdf), Commonwealth North, May 19, 2009.
"This report provides a comprehensive overview of the issues related to the changing Arctic for state and national policy-makers as well as the public. It is set up as an overview that frames the issues and outlines their intersection with US national and Alaskan interests. Understanding and managing a changing Arctic will require Americans to become accustomed to thinking of their country as an Arctic nation. By raising awareness in the public sphere about Arctic issues and stimulating discussion, Commonwealth North believes that it can prompt the state and the nation to take action to bring about a desirable future for the Arctic."
Guest: Rick Barrier, Executive Director, Commonwealth North, a non-partisan public policy forum. He was in the studio with Thom in Anchorage last month. Law of the Sea Treaty (respond to Gaffney's perspective). GATT. Economic consequences. Their "Why The Arctic Matters" report. Alaska has an Arctic coastline, more coastline than the rest of the US. The other Arctic nations have signed off. The ones who haven't are Libya, North Korea, Iran. The US has signed but not ratified. Industries, oil companies, environmentalists are for it. The oceans are wide open, they have to be jointly shared and managed, as they have for years. It won't go away. What do we get? To be a player, part of the groups deciding the rules. We will be better off economically and environmentally if we join in. A small group including Inhofe, Bolton (who suggested blowing off the top floors of the UN then was appointed ambassador to the UN by Bush) are for 'bully America'. The US military, president, Hillary are for it. It is held up by cranky senators. The Senate committee reported it out 19-0, then Trent Lott refused to bring it to the floor? Disputes with Canada. Play ball.
Bumper Music: The Revolution Starts Now, Steve Earle (video).
Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
Article: William & Mary mascot ideas include an asparagus.
Article: Women's voices 'make plants grow faster' finds Royal Horticultural Society.
Law of the Sea Treaty. Conservatives see rights as economic, trumping everything, Democrats as the commons.
The government health care option is a Trojan horse? Use of the word "choice". The public option will be underfunded. The devil is in the details. Medicare part D, Billy Townsend, the Democrats who supported it thought it was better than nothing, Republicans were creating a subsidy for pharma, for insurance, and will bankrupt Medicare and then they can shut it down. It was a poison pill. This too, be eternally vigilant.
Article: Mind-enhancing drugs: Are they a no-brainer?
"In the middle of the exam season, the offer of a drug that could improve results might excite students but would be likely to terrify their parents. Now, a distinguished professor of bioethics says it is time to embrace the possibilities of "brain boosters" – chemical cognitive enhancement. The provocative suggestion comes from John Harris, director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics.Ritalin is a stimulant drug, best known as a treatment for hyperactive children. But it has also found a ready black market among students, especially in the US, who are desperate to succeed and are turning to it in preference to the traditional stimulants of coffee and cigarettes. Users say it helps them to focus and concentrate, and this has been confirmed in research studies on adults.
...
"Suppose a university were to set out deliberately to improve the mental capacities of its students. Suppose they further claimed that not only could they achieve this but that their students would be more intelligent and mentally alert than any in history. We might be sceptical but if the claims could be sustained should we be pleased?"
His answer is an unequivocal yes. He concludes that it is unethical to stop healthy people taking Ritalin to enhance their mental performance.
But in total disagreement, Professor Anjan Chatterjee from the University of Pennsylvania argues in the BMJ that there are too many risks. In the US, the drug carries a "black box" warning, the most serious, because of its high potential for abuse, serious adverse risks on the heart and the risk of sudden death.
He adds that there are cognitive trade-offs in taking Ritalin, with a loss of creativity, and points out that "being smarter does not mean being wiser". He raises the spectre of children at top preparatory schools taking Ritalin in "epidemic proportions" and pilots, police and doctors being pressurised to take it when on-call.
Progress often carries risk, says Professor Harris. The development of "synthetic sunshine" (firelights, lamplight and electric light) could have forced people to work through the night. The answer was not to ban it but to introduce laws to regulate working hours. "The same is or will be true of chemical cognitive enhancers," he concludes."
If we allow cognitive enhancers, there are a lot of nutritional ways to go at it, good supplements such as fish oil and vegetarian equivalents, what about natural substances? In Peru Thom met an indigenous group who still chew coca leaf with a little lime (not the fruit), it seemed no stronger than caffeine. We are already using natural enhancers, Thom has caffeine first thing then tea the rest of the day. Larry Diller suggested that if 3 million kids are on Ritalin, and the average class is 29, why not double it to 6 million kids and change the class size to 40? Tongue in cheek, immoral, but we are headed that way. The difference between kids being given stimulants and adults choosing to. Mateine, a xanthine from Yerba maté, has more kick than coffee.
A naked capitalism guest blog linked to a story about insiders, who have to declare their stock transactions, selling far more than they bought in the last 2 months.
Article: Insiders exit shares at fastest pace in 2 years as market rises.
Bumper Music: Come On In, Brad Paisley (video).
Article: Sarkozy vows to put jobs first, Ben Hall.
"I will not have a policy of austerity because austerity policy has always failed."
Article: Pessimistic executives cash out of shares, Anuj Gangahar, Michael Mackenzie.
Chemically augmenting brains. Chemicals are way over used, lot of concerns, we should use natural ones, caffeine to cocaine (coca tea, or the original coca cola).
Benzedrine in Dr. Bradley's magical math pill. A third of the people at ADD-related conferences that Thom went to were lay people, and half of them were on too much Adderal or Ritalin. Adderal addiction.
Bumper Music: Radio, The Corrs (video).
Article: Rwanda 'baptises' 18 endangered baby gorillas.
Ritalin can be good and bad. Some kids are so distracted, the side effects of failing in school may be worse than those of Ritalin? At the Hunter School school some are on medication, the goal is to take them all off. One of Thom's kids did well at a private school, one was homeschooled. If we spent more money, there would be smaller classes, and different teaching methods (for example kids educating each other like in one room school house) would work for ADHD kids without drugs. Natural remedies are not covered. Children with learning difficulties misdiagnosed as ADD or ADHD, given too much Adderall. She may simply have been a late developer, the system expects kids to be standard. The Hunter school has a 1 to 4 teacher to pupil ratio, as they are kids that nobody else has been able to work with, which makes it much easier to turn them around.
Disposal of drugs down the toilet. Hormones in water affecting fish.
Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
Conservative alert: Sen. Gregg, who names his earmarks after himself, says stimulus construction signs are ‘political self-interest’.
Boosting seratonin levels, using Tryptophan or 5HTP for children or adults with ADHD? They are precursors, the SSRIs prevent the body from disposing of seratonin rather than providing the raw material. They did not work for Thom. Seratonin not only mediates mood, but also is one of the primary mediators of our immune system. To increase levels Seratonin levels and your sense of well being, smile, laugh, walk, breathe deeply, stand up straight.
Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. She was stuck on the Redline last night. Obama press conference today. He said a public plan makes sense, we cannot keep tinkering around the edges, it is not the time for a second stimulus package, expects unemployment over 10%. Iran. Telling other countries how to conduct their affairs. Treading a careful line. Mousavi locked up for own safety. Iran is mistranslating things and blaming the CIA, last week blamed MI5. Measured and forceful.
