Al Gore:

https://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

http://ay-wey.com/index.php/show/page/paxmaninterview 

@Dianerynlds

Lefty? Socialist? No, lm a realist. There is hundreds and hundreds (I've heard/read different figures... exact amount?) of trillions of this "faux money debt" thats spinning around the stratosphere of this tiny planet! Way more than the total GDP of every country combined... Way more than enough debt to bring down the whole world financialy.Now, thats reality!! And it has nothing to do with left or right... Socialist, Capitalist, or Fascist! Its the insane politics and religion of greed and power that is in the hands of a very few psychopaths...

@38 Rick Steves,

Cool. Company's that can't manage their business will not continue to be in business. Others are hiring. It's called the market.

Interesting how Thom Hartmann selectively picks an event in history and then attempts to find something that will support his hatred or love for what caused that particular event.

One question for all you malcontent leftie/socialists. If the rich (defined as anybody that has more money than you) are in control, things are rolling along at a strong pace, and they are in fact getting more wealthy, why the hell would they want to crash the economy? Your "logic" is bullshit and even the dimmest of you ought to be able to figure that out.

Learn people, that there have always been economic cycles and world markets will respond accordingly. Few, if any, can be blamed on one singular event as the cause.

Just don't pretend to be an accurate prognosticator of these cycles as you all can see clearly is a yuge mistake.

Odd isn't it that not one of those passages in the scripture says that government should do those things. Just as Christian conservatives give more and do more for the sick and poor than any liberal group(s) do. Liberals want to give money to the government and then throw up their hands and say "see, we did all we could".

Here's a quote for you deepspace:

"The devil can quote scripture for his own purpose" William Shakespeare

K2

Yep. The giant crash (bust) is just ahead of us. Its not even around the corner... The crash of 08 was saved by the "merchant princes" who own the federal reserve. To the tune of tens and tens of trillions of dollars (in the form of digital zeros and ones, not even worthless paper money) that they injected into computers of these " to big to fail" financial banks all over the planet... That trick wont work this time, because all those banks are still flush with all the "digital" money from ten years ago...

I am trying to find the app, Thom recommended to use to see how our ISP will block/slow content. It was mention in the show on December 21, I think.

stopgap. Extremely important point! Fascists must be held accountable at every level in every instance; otherwise, they'll only increase their power over the rest of us. That hard reality has slapped us upside our stupid heads repeatedly.

Great comments all to a great blog!

2950-10K. Absolutely! The corpse media may not be the original perpetrators of the Koch's Goebbels-esque "Big Lie" against the proper roles of government and private industry in a healthy economy in a functioning, constitutionally-protected, representative, PEOPLE'S democratic republic, but their crony corporate "news" rooms certainly are the loudest, most effective purveyors of the billionaires' libertarian, free-market (for the wealthy and the privileged), fascistic agenda.

Un-frigging-believable! The Republican reprobates in a stolen White House and Congress tripped all over their corrupt selves to ram this cynical, 100% partisan monstrosity giveaway to a small cadre of some of the richest bastards on the planet right before Christmas, right before God and everybody -- at the ultimate expense of every working stiff, present and future, especially the working poor in dire need of benefits to minimally fill the gap between starvation wages and the barest of living expenses.

When the Kochs ,Trumps, McConnells, Ryans, and the families of all the other Republican traitors who voted for or supported this purely evil legislation gather around their gaudy Christmas trees to open their shiny baubles and trinkets and Santa sacks full of donor cash, will they have the shameless audacity to kneel in prayer before their plastic idols of Christ on a cross? And what will they pray for? More and more and more?

Maybe they should actually heed their Saviour's admonitions:

Matthew 25:34-40 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[a] you did it to me.’

The parable of the great banquet seems to allude to the cozy relationship corporatized politicians have with the donor class:

Luke 14:12-14 12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers[a] or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Or perhaps all the truly righteous priests and preachers across Trump's kingdom should just hogtie his sycophantic trolls, hypocrites, liars, and other fake Christians who don't believe in adequate welfare and healthcare for the disadvantaged and downtrodden. Get the worthless bastards pinned down and brand 'em with a pithy proverb right in the middle of their sloped foreheads above the unibrow between their horns. Here's a few for starters:

Proverbs 29:7 A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.

Proverbs 22:22-23 22 Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate, 23 for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/business/economy/tax-bill-economy.html

Important discussion, but just to be fair there were other causes of the 1929 crash. Germany's inability to borrow more money to pay its ruinous war repatriation debts was a big factor. Incidentally, there was also a nasty smash-up in 1921, though it ended in a couple of years. That was largely due to economic dislocations as the country got off a war footing. So cutting taxes on the rich is only part of the story, though one we forget at our peril. Expecting this to lead to more jobs is as stupid as supply side economic theory, and I suspect most Republicans know it too.

You knocked this one out of the ball park, Thom!!