One of the most dangerous low-level conflicts in the world right now is the fight over the South China Sea, and if a war breaks out there, it could tank the American economy.

Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the intricacies of East Asian geopolitics, here’s a little refresher as to what’s going on: After decades of more or less peaceful coexistence with its neighbors, China has, over the past few years, started to stake its claims to the waterways off its southern coast.

The problem, though, is that China isn’t the only country with claims to the South China Sea -- Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines also claim parts of this strategically important body of water as their own. But the Chinese are doing everything in their power to make sure they’re the top dogs in the region.

They’ve even gone so far as to build fake island chains by dumping billions of tons of dirt on top of reefs and in shallow waters so that they can then declare that "new land" as Chinese territory and use it to strengthen their maritime claims.

America, which has its own strategic interests in the region as well as mutual defense pacts with the Philippines and Japan, has tried to keep China in check, but so far this hasn’t done much.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. As Barry C. Lynn of the New America Foundation pointed out in a recent piece for Reuters, back in the 1990s, supporters of so-called free trade told us that opening up our economy to Chinese goods would “liberalize” China.

They said it would make China more willing to engage peacefully with the rest of the international community. But 20 years later, it’s pretty obvious that the exact opposite has happened.

China is now more aggressive than ever, and it’s bullying its neighbors and largely ignoring America's objections. And that’s because the Chinese know there’s nothing we can do to stop them without destroying ourselves in the process.

Thanks to so-called free trade, our economy and our ability to function as a nation is now hugely dependent on China.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Cops Legally Rob MI Women - 'Why Take My Vibrator" (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

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Big Picture Rumble:
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Screwed: Cops Legally Rob MI Women - 'Why Take My Vibrator"
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Best of the Rest: Can Bernie Sanders Start a Revolution?
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Community Square

"Fear the Economics Textbook/ A Rap Video"

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Wiki-Leaks Issues Call for $100,000 Bounty Reward on Monster Trade Treaty: The TPP! Good Video Watch".

Article: "South China Sea: Australia raises alarm over possible Chinese military build-up on contested Spratly Islands" by ABC.

Article: "Why China has the upper hand in the South China Sea" by Barry C. Lynn.

Article: "US Senator Elizabeth Warren to Those Promising TPP Is So Great: ‘Prove It. Let Us See the Deal.’" by Jon Queally.

Site: ObamaTrade.

Article: "Impeachment of Bill Clinton" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Top Agriculture Negotiator on to the TPP: Monsanto" by Barbara Chicherio.

Article: "Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) - IP Chapter" by WikiLeaks.

Article: "Tobacco giants vow to fight Canadian judgment handing C$15bn to smokers" by Jennifer Rankin.

TPP Petition drop at the Capitol today!
- Ari Rabin-Havt, The Morning Agenda (SiriusXM Progress 127)/The Benghazi Hoax

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "Fast track (trade)" (TPA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Talkers - June 2 2015".

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Green Festival DC!
- Dr. Corinna Basler, Green Festivals, Inc.

Event: June 5-7, Washington D.C. Green Festival.

FaceBook: "Northern Illinois for Bernie Sanders".

Article: "Congress plots to pay for a trade deal by raiding Medicare" (Rep. David Reichert) by Michael Hiltzik.

Article: "The liquidity timebomb - monetary policies have created a dangerous paradox" by Nouriel Roubini.

Law: "Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act", 2010.

Article: "Useful SEC Contact Information".

Site: Where is Mary Jo White?

Documentary: Freedom.

Article: "Feast for investors sells workers short" by Michael Kranish.

Article: "New Data Offer First Infuriating Glimpse At How The Richest 0.001 Percent Pay Income Taxes" by Alan Pyke.

Borowitz Alert: "Bush Sorry Patriot Act Repealed Before He Got Chance to Read It" by Andy Borowitz.

Book: "Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy" by Will Bunch.

Book: The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed by David Stockman.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney

Article: "Senate Passes Major Reform To Patriot Act" by William McDonald.

Article: "Report: Obama Nudging House Moderate Dems Over TPA" by William McDonald.

Article: "TPP and TPA Opposition Strengthens" by Patrice Harris.

Article: "How Mitch McConnell Tried—and Failed—to Weaken NSA Reform" by Max J. Rosenthal.

Article: "Senate GOP feels heat for NSA fumble" by Julian Hattem.

Article: "FBI operating fleet of surveillance aircraft flying over US cities" by AP.

Article: "Menendez Urges House To Keep Malaysia Out Of Obama's Trade Deal" by Laura Barron-Lopez.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Article: "TRNS News Notes – 6/3" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes – 6/2" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Patriot Act vs. USA Freedom Act - A lose-lose for our Constitution
- Bruce Fein Esq., Constitutional Scholar & Attorney-Bruce Fein & Associates/Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy

Quote: "The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter,—but the King of England cannot enter; all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!" - William Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

Article: "Writ of assistance" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Habeas corpus" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Burr calls 'Eric' Snowden a traitor" by Dan Roberts.

Article: "NSA's phone spying program ruled illegal by appeals court" by Jonathan Stempel.

Video: "I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'." Ronald W. Reagan.

Article: "Yom Kippur War" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Obama warns TPP failure would let China write trade rules" by Bloomberg.

Article: "WTO Says U.S. Consumers Don’t Need to Know Where Meat Comes From" by Anastasia Pantsios.

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 6 section 3. "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Article: "Oath of office". "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. "

Book: The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

Article: "China sentences GSK-linked investigators to prison" by Brenda Goh and Engen Tham.

Article: "China jails health official for 19 years over bribes" by AFP.

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

I'll be debating the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement with Bryan Riley of the Heritage Foundation

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Politics Panel: “Bernie-Mentum" Is Here

Politics Panel: Cowards! The Freedom Act is Passed

The State of Surveillance in America?

ObamaTrade Is What's for Dinner

Big Pharma Is Killing Us

Crazy Alert! Woman jailed for noisy sex?

The Good, The Bad and the very very Uxorovalently Ugly

Full Show 6/2/15: Poll: Big Majority Want Money OUT of Politics

Thom discusses how the FBI has been using a small air force of low flying planes to spy on Americans with CAIR’s Robert McCaw and a discussion on “Obamatrade” with conservative Curtis Ellis. Tonight’s Politics Panel talks the passing of the USA Freedom Act, a bill introduced in Congress that would track police killings, and whether Martin O’Malley will take away some of Bernie Sanders’ momentum. In tonight’s Daily Take Thom discusses how terminally ill patients are getting screwed by the drug companies.

Wanted Dead or Alive: Wikileaks Will Pay Big Bucks for TPP Text!

Thom Hartmann on Why 'Fast Track' is Unconstitutional...

Caller: Just call Fascism 'Capitalism'...

The History of Asset Forfeiture in America...

Caller: Store Loyalty Cards are a Form of Surveillance...

Should Militarized Police be a Side Effect of Medical Marijuana?

Fascism is Economic Savagery!

Caller: The Patriot Act Smacks of the Gestapo!

Just Who is Benefiting from the USA Freedom Act?