fm: Yes, I've heard of Dead Peasants Life Insurance. I suppose that is appropriately named. It used to be that only key top level people were used in this way so that the company would profit from their deaths. The practice has spread over the years to include even low-level employees...hence...dead peasants. Wives and families would never get a penny and usually the employee or the families knew nothing about the insurance anyway. Only the company would rake in the profit from their now dead employees. I read about this back in about 2008 for the first time. Now, I understand why these companies tried their darnedest to work us to death through mega-stress.

http://www.businessinsider.com/is-there-a-dead-peasant-life-insurance-po...

Corporate policies once considered illegal now commen place.

Why isnt there a link after every blog to electronically sign a petition to

Change things instead of just ranting about them?

I can yell at the wind.

I agree 100% with the first sentence in Thom's post. I would like to relate a two-part incident that I witnessed in Chicago in January, 1976. I was a 30-year-old white male then.

I had been a passenger in a car driven by somebody that accidentally drove north in the southbound (reversible) lane of the Lake Shore Drive. Although a head-on collision resulted, nobody was hurt worse than a few bumps. While waiting for an ambulance to take me to the hospital for X-rays, the Chicago policeman treated the driver of the car I was in--a white woman a few years younger than me--with polite deference.

He seemed angry, however, with the black man driving the vehicle that we collided with and, in fact, gave him a ticket for some minor flaw he found with his car.

Sometime later I was sitting in the waiting room of the OR waiting for an X-ray. As my injury was very minor, it was a rather long wait. During that time I witnessed the following incident:
Two Chicago policemen, whom I would describe as "barrel-chested" and "ham fisted" (and white) came in with a middle-aged black man. This man was crying--saying things like he had nothing to live for, that nobody loved him, and other things that showed that he was really, really down. Perhaps he had attempted suicide.

Both of these tough Chicago cops were talking to him in extremely kind, measured voices, that he had lots to live for, that they would try to find his wife (I guess that was part of the problem), etc. I was awed at the kindness and patience they showed him.

The cop that was rude to the hapless black driver who was in an accident that was somebody else's fault was probably more typical of Chicago cops in 1976. This was just about a month after Mayor Richard J Daley died. But the other two showed how it should be done in situations like those that do not involve split-second life or death situations--which must be the large majority of encounters between police and the people they are sworn to serve.

We definately need some laws and regulations to protect the people and the economy of The United States from corpoate greed. The heads of businesses take Business 101 to heart, hire your labor as cheap as possible, buy your materials as cheap as possible, and sell your product or services for as much as possible. That's good for business but not so good for the workers and the consumers. I often hear republicans complaining about how too much government regulation is hurting business and how regulation cost are passed down to the consumers. What's hurting consumers is the fact that there are not enough regulations to protect workers and consumers from corpoate greed. Do you think that the more money corperations make the more they will pay their workers? No, way that's going to happen in the USA unless they are made to do it. Corperations should have to pay taxes on what they earn in this country weather they are headquartered here or not. We buy so much stuff that is made in foreign countries that we used to make here. All of this outsourcing needs to stop and insourcing needs to start back up again. Free trade agreements have hurt the American workers more than it has helped them. FAIR trade agreements are what we need, fair for the American workers. If we were manufacturing all of the stuff we used to used to manufacture for ourselves, unemployment would be wiped out. Voting for the right political candidates that will collectivly make lobbying illeagle, regulate corporations, banks, campaign finance, and promote good wage laws is what it's going to take for us to have liberty and justice for all except for the liberty to screw over the American people.

You miss a vital point. This isn't the first time the US has been in this mess, when the richest few gained power over govt, to the great harm of the country. Each time in the past, the poor and middle class, workers and the jobless, ultimately united to push back -- to everyone's benefit. That can't happen this time. This time, the proverbial masses were successfully divided and conquered. That said, the hysteria about "illegals" is silly. It's illegal to hire illegal immigrants, and the penalties are very high. Not many companies can afford to take that risk. When you apply for a job, you're required to give full info re birth place/date, education and employnent history, etc., and employers are required to verify this. There is no reason to risk hiring an "illegal" because much has been done since the 1990s to increase the number of people who can be put to work at min. wage or less/no workers' rights.

Actually, upon taking office, President Obama went to work on repairing some of the damage done to Social Security by Bill Clinton. Since then, the Democrats in Congress have voted against Obama's progressive proposals time after time, knowing the public would blame the president. Interestingly, much of the media marketed to libs have virtually ignored Obama's many successes while implicitely supporting the hyper-capitalist ideology (i.e., only those who are of current use to the corporate state are deserving of the basic human rights of food and shelter). How do we explain a "liberal" media that has written VP Joe Biden out of the discussion in an effort to "sell" the neo-liberal (right wing) Hillary Clinton?

Still, the middle class embraced this agenda every step of the way. Remember Reagan's speil about how deregulating our "job creators" would result in an explosion of "good, family supporting jobs"? Right. Fast forward to Clinton, who told us all would be swell if we just agree to throw the poor off the cliff -- after giving us NAFTA, significantly increasing the number of poor. To sum up our choices dating back to the 1980s: We looked at the policies and programs implemented from FDR to Reagan, which took the US to its height of wealth and productivity, and decided to reverse course, doing just the opposite.

Does all Thom’s history books start in February 1981 and end February 1989. American presidential administration, including President Carter, has been functionaries of the business agenda of the United States and its constant war economy since the Eisenhower administration. Thom’s attacks on the Reagan administration is justified, but the historical evidence will clearly show that Reagan administration may have been openly friendly to the corporate sector, and enemy of labor. However, the Reagan administration was no exception to the rule they just didn’t apologize for the effects of their policies. They embraced corporate fascism as stated in their motto Trickle Down Economics which is an appropriate metaphor for urinating on the public.

The tide of corporate fascism was coming regardless of who was in the oval office. Limited representative government is a system set up for such control from established power centers like the Military Industrial Complex, Wall St., K Street, the Business Roundtable and other established centers of power. These agendas that were implemented during the Reagan administration came from established power that had been building and concentrating their efforts since WWII.

The Reagan administration was the fountainhead of a sea change that been concealed and protect by other administration. The difference between Reagan and other administration, other administration didn’t trumpet the coming wave of corporate domination, however, the Reagan administration didn’t just trumpet the arrival of Corpo-Fascism; they openly facilitated the government institutions to become corporate strong holds like the Supreme Court.

The corporate takeover of the US has been bipartisan effort with a historic record from the Truman administration to our current corporate lackey-and-Chief-Executive-Officer President Obama. When you single out one administration without historical context to another administration culpability, then you become single minded and obsessed like the conservatives were with Clinton and now with Obama. Yes, Thom, Reagan was a bad man, but so are all the other presidents past and present.

Believing that Ronnie was just one rotten apple that spoiled the barrel is like thinking if Exxon hadn’t spilled oil up in Alaska then BP wouldn’t have saturated the gulf coast with its own massive oil spill. The system is corrupt and easily controlled with money and that’s basis for the current situation. Giving Reagan sole responsibility for CEO largesse’s is letting other administrations off the hook for their collaboration with the corporate sector that's lead us to our current economic and social systems.

Thank you for your enlightening comments Mr. Sacredori. I too researched these reports and like you I found that things weren't quite as reported. I would not deny that there often appears to be a racial aspect to the character of police response. However, my scientific education sometimes brings into question the value of anecdotal information such as this. It often seems that the evidence paints a clear picture. But we live in a vast land filled with thousands of towns and cities of all sizes. The "data" points that we recieve from the news media and Thom Hartmann's of the world represent only a small fraction of the total. I frequently wonder if Mr. Hartmann is not willing to sacrifice factual reporting in favor of a political agenda. Our ailing country needs more men like you that prefer facts to heresay and are willing to put forth some effort to get them. S.J.Thomas, Disabled American Veteran

Reagan Bush 1 2 policies- laws -deregulation- amnesty - busting labor unions - massive unfunded Hidden debt- and Clinton's passing of NAFTA CAFTA GATT is bringing the middle class to near extinction Bring back Glass Seagal Fair practices End Citizens United Enforce laws against illegal EMPLOYERS hiring illegal workers ! Thats the easy way to fix immigration. Who has gutts to do it ?

Cut bloated war profiteers- No more war 'contractors who are robbing US blind. NO private for profit Jails . Medicare for all Increase min wage to $ 10 or more Then watch US economy soar ! FYI GOP will NEVER do ANY of this ! They only favor corps - billionaires. Not our kids education- seniors in poverty- who's pensions have been slashed - who's wages & benefits are down Thanks to millions of illegals taking US jobs C onstruction jobs alone employs 20 % of illegals Landscaping , carpet cleaning, restaurants cooks and more. I have NO ill will for these hard working folks but Americans deserve these jobs . Heavy FINES for illegal employers Problem solved.

Frosty, your vicious comments exemplify the ignorance shared by so many in this country. I am referring to the significant segment of people who, like yourself, are not capable of distinguishing what is factual and can be proven from what is simply believed. It is beyond absurd to suggest that anyone is allowed to commit murder “freely and openly” and then rewarded for their heinous act with a good job. If there were any truth in your remarkably bizarre statement I should think that this country would be run by homicidal maniacs. Equally ridiculous is your assertion that the National Rifle Association is staffed by murderers. The sickness that is rapidly growing in my country does not come from the NRA. And the hatred that is being “openly spewed” is rooted in the alarming numbers of ignorant hateful people like you. I must admit that I have never heard the term “gun fruits” before. At first I thought it was a little Archie ‘Bunker-ish’. But upon further reflection it doesn’t sound like a term that a typical American would coin.