Daily Topics - Tuesday June 28th, 2011
By shawnt56
Get the new IPhone App for Thom Hartmann
Hour One: Corporate CEOs have a secret they don’t want you to know about… / Plus, should a mentally ill accused killer be forcibly medicated so he can face the death penalty? Dr. Arthur Caplan
Hour Two: The Tea Party plan to take over the GOP - Mark Williams
Hour Three: Could you pass "The Psychopath Test?" Jon Ronson / Plus, what if the BP Gulf oil disaster happened in the Arctic? Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International
Comments
#2
I was reading an article on The Nation.com website when this program started. It was about the current situation in Greece. Prior to reading that article I read an article about Greece on The LA Times.com website. What the LA Times story did not cover is the rise of fascist sympathies among the people of Greece. The Nation article reminded me of the historic rise of fascism in Spain and Italy during the 1920's and 30's, and I'm wondering if this is what ultimately is going to happen there. I'm also wondering if that has been the plan all along or just a satisfactory side-effect of pressing the people into a desperate situation. We're fast approaching the first 100 year mark, in which fascism as we know it began, will that scourge upon civilization be revisited upon us by the 2020's?
N
#3
Wow, I just read Jonson's article about psychopathy a few days ago: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/21/jon-ronson-how-to-spot-a-psychopath. For his information, I found it through the blog Not Exactly Rocket Science on Discover Magazine: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/
#4
The President does have a substantial hand to use to counter GOP instransigance in the debt ceiling negotiations - thanks to George W. Bush
Bush's National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive - also known as Directive 51 includes emergency powers for the executive in the case of a number of vaguely defined emergencies - including economic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_and_Homeland_Security_Pre...
Claims power to execute procedures for continuity of the federal government in the event of a "catastrophic emergency". Such an emergency is construed as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."
#5
Well it happened again today. A progressive called in to voice some basic criticism of the Democratic Party, and Tom cut him off, motor-mouthed him, and then hanged up on him. (Interesting that progressives get very similar treatment if they call Limbaugh to voice progressive ideas.)
They used to say don't argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel. It might also apply to Hartmann - don't argue with the guy who owns the mic.
Here's what he misses, and he has debated with Sirota, so it's not like he is unaware of the problem: Democratic and Republican leaderships appear to share the same goals, but adopt differing tactics. The R's forthrightly state their goals. This serves them well in that the base is solidly aligned behind them, and can easily be led to the goalpost. It also scares the Democrats, but more importantly, allows people like Hartmann to espouse the lesser evil meme, as he did today.
Democrats, on the other hand, contain progressives and render them ineffective. Hartmann has repeatedly said that Obama is learning, needs to understand negotiating, and other excuses. It's nonsense. Obama is plenty tough when he needs to be, as when he is extending the Bush tax cuts or roping us all into mandated private health insurance.
Hartmann can be good at times, but needs to get a better understanding of politics - he needs to think like a politician. If he can do that for one day, he'll see that trying to corral his listeners into the less evil party is a losing strategy.
But I think he knows this, and that is troubling.
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.
Images of Thom
From Screwed:
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If someone is legally insane when they commit a crime, how is it reasonable to consider after the fact if the person is then medicated to a state considered sane, that they would then be responsible for their actions committed while insane?
I can understand holding someone responsible for there actions while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, for they made the decision to consume said substance. But how can you hold someone responsible for a condition in which is not chosen?
Of course the whole issue of state sponsored execution is abhorrent anyway. The life imprisonment in a jail, or mental care institution is appropriate. The other question is where the responsibility for those who allowed a man who showed erratic behavior to be left both alone and untreated.
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