Quote: "We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular." - Edward R. Murrow, 1954.
Anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London, 2005.
Why do Libertarians hate the middle class?
"OBAMA TAXATION PLAN IS REVOLUTION WORTHY?!" Thom challenges David Boaz, Executive Vice President of the Cato Institute. "A Revolution Worth Celebration, Taxation Worth a Revolution" - he did not put the title on the news release, but yes, he is upset...
Economists have advanced many theories of taxation. But as usual, the one that seems to explain the policies of the Obama administration best is what I call the Mikulski Principle, the theory most clearly enunciated in 1990 by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D, Md.):
Let’s go and get it from those who’ve got it.
Just take a look at the myriad taxes proposed or publicly floated by President Obama and his aides and allies:
As the links will indicate, not all of these taxes have been formally proposed, and some have already run into sufficient criticism to have become unlikely. But together they illustrate the mindset of an administration and a Congress determined to extract as much money as they can from Americans rather than cut back on expenditures, which have doubled in about eight-and-a-half years.
History of the middle classes. Plague, gold, North America's resources,. Nostalgianomics.
Article: Obama Adopts the Mikulski Principle by David Boaz.
Article: Paul Krugman's Nostalgianomics: Economic Policies, Social Norms, and Income Inequality by Brink Lindsey, Cato Institute.
Cato makes good arguments for its point of view - list - but the middle class is not a natural thing. They questioned if we needed kings. If you want people to govern themselves, bottom up, ideal on which country founded, it only works if the majority are in the middle class. The working poor are much more easily controlled. Jamestown was a company town, East India Company, named after the king, In Virginia which was named after the queen. The Tea Act dropped the tax on tea because entrepreneurial tea shops had sprung up. Hence the tea party, revolution. The second middle class was due to the New Deal, taxing the rich. It led to the 60-80s revolution.
Bumper Music: Radio, Radio, Elvis Costello.
Upcoming Event: Aug 8th - Seattle, WA AM1090 Presents - "Embracing Change: Moving Forward As The Majority" with Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Mike Malloy and Ron Reagan - Tickets are just $22 for Reserved Seating, $32 for Premium Reserved Seating, and $47 for VIP Floor Seating. Tickets go on sale Saturday June 27th @ 10AM. Purchase yours at the ShoWareCenter Box Office, or by phone at 253-856-6999. Doors open at 5pm, the panel discussion runs from 6-9pm.
Upcoming Events: Thom's book tour for "Threshold":
July 27th - Portland, OR - Baghdad Theater & Powell's Books 7p
July 30th - Seattle, WA - Town Hall. Details TBA
Aug 4th - San Francisco, CA - World Affairs Council. Details TBA
Aug 5th - Santa Monica, CA - Santa Monica Library. Details TBA
Aug 17th - Minneapolis, MN - details TBA
Aug 19th - Chicago, IL - details TBA
Aug 21st - Madison, WI - details TBA
Bumper Music: You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
Article: Staff strip naked to improve morale.
Article: Do Baucus' Ties To Health Care Industry Compromise His Reform Efforts? By Brian Beutler.
Article: Obama Overrides Aide on Health Insurance ‘Public Option’.
Bumper Music: Peace, Love & Understanding, Elvis Costello.
Article: Kyl: Obama Wants To ‘Make A Deal’ With Russia More Than He Wants To ‘Ensure The Protection’ Of The U.S. By Ryan Powers.
Article: Fascism Coming to a Court Near You by Thom Hartmann.
Book: The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works by Henry Waxman.
Article: Moustache of Justice by Robert G. Kaiser.
Clip: Tobacco CEO's Before Congress 1994 News Clip "Nicotine is not addictive."
Is Cap N' Trade a disaster, Marxism or the thing that will save the world?
"THE WAXMAN REPORT: HOW CONGRESS REALLY WORKS". Thom talks with Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Ca). His new book, "The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works". Christy Harvey calls him the moustache of justice. In 1994 thanks to his hearings, we heard tobacco executives' testimony that "nicotine is not addictive". A good start, but why are they not in jail? It is up to the Department of Justice to decide if there was perjury. Even without legislation, it was a turning point for tobacco, people saw middle aged men lie. Now there is legislation, the FDA can regulate tobacco.
Cap and trade. Thom had Peter DeFazio last week on the show who voted against it because it outlaws the regulation of CO2, and by giving away so many credits, it is a gift to Goldman Sachs. He disagrees. The alternative would be nothing. There are three clear objectives - more independence from foreign oil - national security, millions of new jobs, insist on reductions. With Peter, the perfect may be the enemy of the good. Why give away 85%, and ban the EPA from regulating? The Supreme Court said the EPA must regulate CO2. He said the EPA is not equipped. He didn't want a real shock to electricity customers, and regional inequalities. The acid rain bill worked. A lot of what Congress does works. Health care is the number one issue. They have a public option in the house bill, maybe not in Senate, Obama wants it.
Bumper Music: If You're Going Through Hell, Rodney Atkins (video).
Article: The Dark Side of Climate Change: It’s Already Too Late, Cap and Trade Is a Scam, and Only the Few Will Survive.
Book: "The Vanishing Face of Gaia.", James Lovelock.
James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis. Too much oxygen. Life inter-reacting. Cycling of minerals. A self-organizing system functioning to maintain its own aliveness. It was ridiculed then, now embraced. He said said there would be no life on Mars; the atmosphere is not inter-reacting with the land, they are two stable systems. There would be fine stuff from sea on land. His new book about Gaia, saying it is too little too late, only a few will survive. In the last part of the book he says that even if only a few hundred million will survive, if they do it with a light carbon footprint, they will start a new civilization.
Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
Article: Pair charged with stealing skunk from pet store.
China is building 2 coal power plants a week, often for Western companies. If we do everything right here, how are we ahead of the game? Set example. Report from week or two ago, the Chinese government has power, now investing hundreds of billions in solarising cities. They intend to have the largest percentage of renewables. They are suffering for their coal. We are needing more than one planet to live. Lovelock says max population is 2 billion, which we hit in 1930. For zero population growth, empower women - equal power, not necessarily same roles. Chapter in "Threshold". The difference between taking a car and a cow apart and trying to put them together again.
Book: "The Population Bomb", Paul R. Ehrlich.
Lean on other representatives to put pressure on Baucus for a public option. Obama said to quit picking on her, when Democrats were going to run ads against Mary Landrieu's opposition to a public option. But dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
Bumper Music: Have You Ever, Brandi Carlile (video).
Clip:
"Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome. Good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." Paul Weyrich (video).
Article: Republican IT Guru Michael Connell Dies In Ohio Plane Crash.
Statue of limitation of election fraud? Mark Crispin Miller, Bradblog, Blackbox Voting are working on the issue. Weyrich. Election fraud vs. voter fraud. Don Siegelman's case. Votes counted on the server of Bush and Rove's email accounts. It's a felony not to keep the emails.Article: White Firefighters Win Supreme Court Appeal By Mark Sherman, AP.
Guest: Bill Ayers, professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar. Testing And Cultural Bias...Yes, It Still Exists. Former weatherman. Supreme Court, New Haven firefighters case. The law said that if the outcome of the test demonstrates racial disparity, that test cannot be used. A right winger called Thom and asked him to justify affirmative action. Thom spoke of social capital whites have. But the issue is the test, so he asked an expert, Bill. How can racial bias occur in the test? What are we testing for? They should have addressed whether the test was testing for suitability for the job. Sotomayor got in to Princeton on affirmative action, but rose to the top - the test did not test for ability to do that. Some of his books. Underfunded schools. Cultural bias. You can't get a Newyorker cartoon unless you have the cultural background, for example Ross Perot sucking sound. Humor is culturally bound. The test had a picture of a house - what is missing? The answer was a chimney. You need to have encountered a chimney. It asked where people were sitting, you need to have encountered a porch to give the right answer. Initiative, hard work and commitment matter and are not tested for. We need a broad curriculum, not just math and reading and the test. We need to invest in schools, early education, teachers.
The Change We Knead Now - Bake Bread For World Peace. Baking bread in front of the White House.
Bumper Music: Let's Work Together, Canned Heat.
Rahm Emmanuel yesterday said all options including trigger. Obama in Russia suggested this was not the case.
Article: White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan.
"I would just make four simple points that I think are the crux of what we have to do going forward.
"The first simple point is that the Earth's climate is being changed by carbon pollution, and if we don't do something about it, our children and our grandchildren will bear that cost. It promises to be a very high cost. And it is simply wrong not to act.
"The second point is that right now polluters are allowed to pollute for free, and as long as they are allowed to pollute for free, and take the cost of their pollution and put it on everybody else in America, they're going to keep doing it. That's the American way. And it's the American way of government that's trying to set things up so that those perverse incentives don't continue.
"The third point is that behind that problem a new economy beckons with clean energy jobs and a future of energy independence for this country. It is an enormously powerful strength that we can tap into if we do this right.
"And the last thing is we have the choice now to be on the front end or the tail end of progress. I saw in the newspaper the other day that Toyota has something like 2,000 that it filed to protect its hybrid technology to keep people from competing. That's the privilege that you get when you're the front runner, and China and Japan and Europe, countries all over the place are investing to put their industries at the front, and I don;t want to see American industry at the back of that parade with a broom. I want to see us at the front, leading."
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Senate, 07 July 2009.
Democrats' fears that if they say the voting system is not working, people will not vote. If votes are not counted, what difference does it make?
Inequality, leveling field. Thom's grandparents came to the US with a lot of European capital, unlike African Americans who had a history of being owned, having no education.
Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News, in Warsaw, Poland, where there is not as much of a cult of Obama, but of Michael Jackson. Obama is in Russia, speech at an economic school, we can become vibrant economic partners, India, free fair and integrated. He said that state sovereignty is a cornerstone of international order, and named Ukraine and Georgia. Rahm Emmanuel and Obama playing good cop bad cop? They don't want to upset their two constituencies.
