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Thom's blog
We Need to Listen to the Founders and Stop the Forever War
Just a little over a year ago during his speech at the National Defense University here in Washington, D.C., President Obama talked about winding down Bush’s War on Terror. But as American bombers continue to strike against ISIS in Iraq and now Syria, it now looks like the War on Terror will be with us for years to come. And that’s a really dangerous thing for our democracy.
You see, aside from the return of the British Empire, there was nothing that scared our Founding Fathers more than multigenerational war - essentially, war without end. The Founders were scholars of classical history, and they knew that when given too much power, armies, like the armies ancient Rome, would push for more and more war, regardless of whether or not it was actually necessary for the safety of the people.
This threatened the very core of our system of government. As James Madison told the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention in 1787, “A standing military force... will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.”
This idea that a standing army made powerful by war would one day “enslave” the people through perpetual war scared revolutionaries like Madison so much that they devoted a whole section of the Constitution towards preventing it from ever happening.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... John Fugelsang on the American Dream Project (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
 Be sure to check out our new video: CARBON - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio
Need to Know: Reasons Liberals Should Admire Reagan- Tommy Christopher, The Daily Banter 
Screwed: Wow! GOP Operative Threatens Brad Friedman- Brad Friedman, The Brad Blog
The Best of the Rest...
Green report: How intact forests help fight climate change- Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International
Daily Take: Proof GOP is Committing Treason on Vacation
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Monday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: Is neo-liberalism more dangerous than ISIS?
Article: "" by Netanyahu addresses UN General Assembly.
Hour Three: How intact forests help fight climate change- Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International
Quote: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win". attributed to Gandhi.
Quote: "It would be a strange thing if Six Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such an union, and be able to execute it in such a manner as that it has subsisted ages and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies, to whom it is more necessary and must be more advantageous, and who cannot be supposed to want an equal understanding of their interests." by Benjamin Franklin, letter to James Parker, 1751. Bible: Genesis 2:7. " Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."
Thom Hartmann here – on the best of the rest of Economic and Labor News...
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Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET
Beach blanket rumble...the billionaire vs. the beach goers - Thom challenges conservative attorney Paul Beard II of Pacific Legal Foundation...
Plus, political commentator & comedian John Fugelsang on the American Dream Project...
And, the best of the rest of the news...all the news and information you won't be hearing from the corporate owned news media..
Together 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"
And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...
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Thom's Poll
Will voter suppression laws help Republicans in November?
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Pre-order Thom's forthcoming book, Death in the Pines: An Oakley Tyler Novel, at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now! |
Pre-order The American Revolution of 1800 by Dan Sisson with Thom Hartmann at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now! |
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 9/26/14: Capitalism vs. The Climate
Tonight’s “Big Picture Rumble” discusses the recent police shootings in South Carolina and Ohio, a new chart showing how income distribution drastically changed when Pres. Reagan took office and whether Republicans will block Obama’s Attorney General nomination. In tonight's “Conversations with Great Minds" Thom talks climate change with Journalist Naomi Klein, author of the new book “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate.”
Is Religion the Answer?
The Enemy of Our Enemy is not Necessarily Our Friend...
How Intact Forests Help Fight Climate Change...
More Secrets of JFK's Death Revealed...
Thom to Republicans: Stop Running Scared!
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Thom and Louise Hartmann founded the New England Salem Children's Village (NESCV) in New Hampshire in 1979. With states delaying payment for the children they entrust to the village, they need help with cash flow. Can you help? Now on Facebook. |
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