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Thom's blog
End the Banksters’ Get Out of Jail Free Card
 If you want a lifetime guaranteed get out of jail free card, all you need to do is break the law while working for a giant transnational corporation. Case in point: the Justice Department’s latest “crackdown” on the big banks. Today, the DOJ announced that it was fining a group of the world’s five biggest banks a total $5.7 billion after they all plead guilty to a series of rate-fixing scandals. JPMorgan Chase will have to pay $550 million, while Citigroup will have to pay $925 million. Barclays, meanwhile, will pay $650 million, RBS will fork over $395 million, and UBS will pay around $545 million. The Federal Reserve is also fining these banks an additional $1.6 billion. Speaking in Washington, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that the fines show that the Justice Department intends to "vigorously fight" those "who tilt the economic scales in their favor." Those are strong words, but ultimately they’re just that -- words. While $550 million sounds like a lot of money to someone like your or me, for a massive bank like JPMorgan Chase that rakes in as much as $22 billion a year in profits, it’s chump change. It’s just the cost of doing business. And that’s precisely the problem. At one point and time in this country corporations that committed a crime that harmed the public had to pay a big price for their actions. We actually used to have something called the “corporate death penalty.” If a corporation did something blatantly against the public interest, like gambling away people’s life savings or polluting local water supplies, the government would revoke its charter - the thing that gave it a right to exist as a private, for-profit business. Banks were shut down in Ohio, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania for behaving in ways that were “financially sound.” Oil corporations, match manufacturers, whiskey trusts, and sugar corporations were given the axe in Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska and New York. By the 1870s, nineteen states had amended their state constitutions to give lawmakers the power to “execute” corporations that violate the public’s safety and trust. |
Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Dangerous 'Trade Treachery' in the TPP? (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 newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners
Join Thom in London, England - June 22-26, 2015 - for a special week long course - Saving the World From Extinction — How to Create a World That Works for All - follow the link to Schumacher College for details!
Need to Know: Dangerous 'Trade Treachery' in the TPP?- Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL, 9th district) 
Daily Take: End the Banksters’ Get Out of Jail Free Card
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Wednesday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: Should men be excluded from the workplace?
Article: " Constitution of the United States" Article 1, section 8. " To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"
Article: " McConnell Says TPA Will Counter Chinese Dominance" by Rob Garver. " This is a six-year trade promotion authority bill that will give the next president an opportunity to enter into trade agreements with other countries around the world"
Hour Three: Should we make the banksters homeless?
Article: " 2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.Article: " 4th Amendment". " The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.". Facebook: " 10% of water in California is used for almonds. Alfafa alone - a crop that is not consumed by humans but fed to livestock - consumes 15% of California's water. 15% is just to grow alfalfa. The 2012 Pacific Institute study states that the overall water footprint of meat and dairy in California is 47%." by Cowspiracy. |
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Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
I'll be debating Liz Shield of PJ Media who says, "If They Can’t Get Your Guns, They’ll Get Your Ammo".
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"
And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...
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 Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions... |
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Thom's Poll
Is the recent WTO ruling an example of why we should opposed the TPP?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
TPP Won’t Balance the Power of China
Politics Panel: LA Gets A BIG Raise!
Politics Panel: How to Save Our Intellectual Infrastructure
Former CIA Admits Dick Cheney Pushed Him on Iraq
Or watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 5/19/15: Re-Thinking the War on Terror
Tonight Thom talks to Former CIA Director Michael Morell about re-thinking the war on terror, and what the US needs to do to defeat ISIS. Then in the Big Picture Politics Panel Thom discusses Los Angeles’s decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020, Bernie Sanders’ College for All Act, Wall Street financial professionals witnessing wrongdoing and unethical practices, and the astronomical amount of money fossil fuel companies receive in subsidies. Then Thom explains why knowing where our foods come from is getting more difficult. Plus in tonight’s Daily Take Thom talks about what could be the real reason why President Obama is determined to pass the free trade agreement.
Is the TPP Going to Poison us all?
Is this Just Men Behaving Badly?
Should Men be Excluded From the workplace?
Ralph Nader: Return to Sender...
Ralph Nader: What I'd Do as President...
Thom Hartmann Vs. Conservative: Investing in Infrastructure...
Ralph Nader on Bernie Sanders Running for President...
Congressman Dave Reichert: To Hell with the Old People!
Ralph Nader: Suddenly Baltimore - Wonder Why?
How Do We Fix Our Trade Problem?
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