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Thom's blog
The Bait & Switch By Both Political Parties
 During his big economic policy speech Monday in Detroit, Donald Trump spoke out forcefully against so-called free trade deals. When he wasn’t being interrupted by protestors, he promised to reject the TPP, renegotiate NAFTA, and even leave NAFTA altogether if Canada and Mexico refused to play ball.
"If the TPP is actually approved it will be catastrophic. That's why I have announced we will withdraw from the deal before that can ever, ever, ever happen...
"I have previously laid out a detailed 7-point plan for trade reform, available on my website. It includes strong protections against currency manipulation, big problem, tariffs against any countries that cheat by unfairly subsidizing their goods, and it includes a total renegotiation of NAFTA which is a disaster for our country. A total renegotiation. And if we don’t get a better deal, we will walk away."
When he talks like that, Trump sounds a lot like, well, Trump.
No serious Republican presidential candidate has talked that way on
trade in at least a generation.
But when Trump talks about renegotiating NAFTA he also sounds like someone else.
He sounds like a certain junior senator from Illinois who way back in 2008 made criticism of NAFTA, CAFTA and other so-called free trade deals a big part of his presidential campaign. One of the reasons why I voted for him.
It’s easy to forget now, but when then-Senator Barack Obama first ran for president, he did so as an opponent of corporate-managed trade policies.
This is what he used to sound like:
Keith Olbermann: Scrap NAFTA, Senator Obama, or fix it?
Senator Obama: I would immediately call the president of Mexico, the president of Canada, to try to amend NAFTA, because I think that we can get labor agreements in that agreement right now.
Senator Obama: NAFTA needs to be amended and I've already said that I would contact the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada
It's absolutely critical for us to understand that NAFTA was an enormous problem. The permanent trade relations with China, without some of the enforcement mechanisms that were in there, that you voted for, was also a significant problem.
Flash-forward eight years though, and President Obama now sounds like this:
"As I've said before, it means that we have to do everything we can to make sure that everybody shares in prosperity, that we have strong rules to protect workers, to promote high wages, to make sure that our citizens are getting the education and the training that they need.
"But the answer cannot be to back away from trade and the global economy. It is here to stay. It's not possible to cut ourselves off."
So what happened?
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Karen Shragg, "Move Upstream: A Call to Solve Overpopulation" (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
Big Picture Rumble:
- Charles Sauer, The Market Institute 
- Alex Lawson, Social Security Works
- Jason Russell, Washington Examiner
Conversations with Great Minds:
- Karen Shragg, Move Upstream: A Call to Solve Overpopulation
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Community Square
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Wednesday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: Is Empathy Taught or Something You're Born With?
Quote: " The small minority of adults who are unable rather than unwilling to work, have to rely on voluntary charity; misfortune is not a claim to slave labor; there is no such thing as the right to consume, control, and destroy those without whom one would be unable to survive." - Ayn Rand.
Article: " Dunbar's number" ( suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships) by Wikipedia.
Hour Three: Your calls on the topics of the day!
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Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET
We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...
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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Thom's Poll
Who will win for Prez in November?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Politics Panel - Was Trump Calling for Hillary’s Assassination?
Politics Panel - Is the Ideology of the GOP Sedition?
Greenpeace Decimates Trump's Energy Plan
Stop Being Dumb & Partisan on So-Called 'Free Trade’
Crazy Alert! Dastardly... Dolphin?
Climate Change...The Madhouse Effect
Or watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 8/9/16: Trump Threatens Hillary’s Life
Tonight’s Politics Panel discusses Senator Susan Collins joining the Never Trump movement, Trump threatening Hillary’s life at a speech in Delaware, and Mitch McConnell’s proudest moment as a Senator. In tonight’s Daily Take Thom details the truth behind so-called "free trade.”
Trump's Economic Team - Billionaires, Banksters, & Bad News For The Planet
Thom Debunks The Social Security Crisis Myth!
Is Empathy Something We Learn... Or Something We're Born With?
Thom Hartmann Book Club - Threshold - August 10, 2016
FDR Didn't Start Out As A Populist...
Could Eating Cheese Be Shortening Our Lives?
Republicans Are STILL Trying To Kill Net Neutrality!
Did Thomas Jefferson Convince Us To Eat Toxic Tomatoes?
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