Wall Street banksters raked in almost $27 billion dollars in bonuses last year, yet Congress can't even get it together to raise the minimum wage. According to the New York State Comptroller's office, the gamblers on Wall Street raked in $26.7 billion dollars in bonuses in 2013 – 15 percent more than they did the previous year. That's enough money to double the paycheck of every single minimum wage worker in our country.

Our economic system is so completely broken that banksters got another pile of cash after wrecking our economy while millions of real working people put in long, hard hours for paychecks that leave them in poverty. And, this keeps happening even though it does not make a lick of economic sense. Every extra dollar paid to a low-wage worker generates about $1.20 for our economy. When that dollar goes to line the pockets of the super-rich instead, it adds less than 40 cents to our GDP. The banksters and the corporate elite can afford to stash their money away in foreign countries and high-return risky investments, while real working Americans have to spend every single dollar just to get by.

If that $26.7 billion in bonuses went to the working poor, instead of the gamblers on Wall Street, our economy would grow by more than $32 billion. That makes a whole lot more sense than gifting billions to the very people who crashed our economy. It's time to fix this broken system, to stop rewarding the people who gamble with our economy, and time to put this money back into the hands of the real working people in America.

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

-Thom

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Thursday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Reflections on his father Fred, family and Westboro Baptist Church
- Nate Phelps

Article: "An Interview with Michael Hutchison" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Fred Phelps Was Reportedly Excommunicated From Westboro Baptist Church For Advocating A 'Kinder Approach'".

Article: "'God Hates Fags' preacher dead: Fred Phelps, founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, dies aged 84" by Rob Williams.

Article: "Homophobic Men Most Aroused by Gay Male Porn" by Nathan A. Heflick, Ph.D.

The Big Picture
- Nate Sweet, The Big Picture producer

Article: "Wisconsin Republican Legislator Tears Into His Own Party For Voter Suppression" by Josh Israel.

Article: "Paul Ryan Blames Poverty On Lazy ‘Inner City’ Men" by Igor Volsky.

Article: "Voting Restrictions Coming in Droves".

Article: "Corporate America Is Hiding $2 Trillion In Profit From The IRS" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "Obama Stays Out Of CIA-Senate Feud" by Julie Pace.

Article: "Kentucky Coal Ash Dumping Tracked By Hidden Cameras" by Renee Lewis.

Article: "If Hobby Lobby Wins, It Will Be Even Worse For Birth Control Access Than You Think" by Tara Culp-Ressler.

Article: "The Surprisingly Large Cost of Telling Small Lies" by Rebekah Campbell.

Poem: "No Man Is An Island" by John Donne.

Article: "Democrats' Worst Nightmare Coming True: Koch Brothers' Cash Reigns Supreme In The Battles Of 2014" by Paul Blumenthal.

Bible: "Matthew 22:35-39".

Article: "The Frog of War" (atrazine) by Dashka Slater.

Video: Kris Kristofferson - Jesus Was a Capricorn.

Book: "The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science- and Reality" by Chris Mooney.

Book: "Conservatives Without Conscience" by John W. Dean.

Book: "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.

Book: "My Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.

Hour Two: Is it time to take climate deniers to court?
- Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio

Case: "New York Times Co. v. Sullivan", 1964 (actual malice standard).

Case: "Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.", N.Y. 1928 (proximate cause).

Article: "14th Amendment

Article: "Cheney Energy Task Force Documents Feature Map of Iraqi Oil Fields" by Judicial Watch, July 17, 2003.

Video: George Galloway on Iraq and oil for food scandal.

Article: "Interview with British MP George Galloway" by Thom Hartmann.

The good: "Federal Patent Office Rejects ‘Washington Redskin Potatoes’ Trademark Due To ‘Derogatory’ Term" by Travis Waldron.

The bad: "Fox News host Bill Hemmer explains missing plane: ‘It took 2,000 years to find Noah’s Ark’" by David Edwards.

The very, very ugly: Rush Limbaugh: "Rush Limbaugh: We already have museums for women — ‘they are called malls’" by Arturo Garcia.

Book: "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" by Vincent Bugliosi.

Book: The Story of Edgar Cayce: There Is a River by Thomas Sugrue.

Book: The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation by Graham Coleman, Thupten Jinpa, Gyurme Dorje.

Book: The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Rom Suskind.

Site: Move to Amend

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

Article: "The Cancer Stage of Reaganomics" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The Average 25-Year Old's Debt Has Grown 91% in the Last Decade -- Will Borrowers Learn to Push Back?" by Hannah Gold.

Article: "Student Loan Debt Will Exceed Median Annual Income For College Grads By 2023: Analysis" by Caroline Fairchild.

Article: "The Whole Truth About Student Debt in 17 Charts" by Matt Phillips.

Article: "The Student Loan Debt Crisis in 9 Charts" by Maggie Severns.

Article: "Chart of the Day: Student Loans Have Grown 511% Since 1999" by Daniel Indiviglio.

Article: "Global Higher Education Rankings 2010" by Alex Usher, Jon Medow.

Article: "Permian–Triassic extinction event" by Wikipedia.

Book: "Only the Super-Rich can save us" by Ralph Nader.

Book: "Closer to the Light Learning from Near Death Experiences of Children" by Melvin Morse.

Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

Hour Three: Will there be justice for Abraham Bolden?
- Abraham Bolden, The Echo From Dealey Plaza AND Lamar Waldron, The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination

And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program...your media support group for "we the people"...

Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

Imagine going for a hike in the country on a beautiful sunny day only to find yourself imprisoned in solitary confinement for two years in a foreign land...that's what happened to 3 Americans one afternoon in 2009...I'll talk with Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal and Sarah Shourd...

Plus, the best of the rest of the news...all the information you won't hear from the corporate owned news media...

And, your calls too...right here on...

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program...Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"...

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