I have tried to give the NSA and our government (politicians) the benefit of trying to understand the need to pull private information in that might give us a heads up concerning foreign enemies and what they are plotting. I realize many think that is being naive and overly trustful of an agency and government bent on spying on everyone in and outside of our country. But, if what Hartmann is claiming is true and can be authenticated, it is time to pull in the reins of this agency and change what they are doing. Pulling this type of basic info has nothing to do with national security and terrorist factions who are plotting against us as a nation and our allies. If the NSA is actually going to the extent that Hartmann claims in his blog, it is time to neuter these guys and make them impotent in their attempts to spy on us and others outside of our physical borders. It appears I may have been wrong in my assessment of this agency and what its true reasons for gathering this type of information are. If Hartmann is wrong in his analysis of what the NSA is doing and the information he spreads on his blog is only rumor or hear say, (apparently he has not seen the whole of this info from the British when he states, “may be exploiting apps") he owes us an apology, big time. If he is right, it is time to get the hanging rope out and use it. One thing we have to remember when commenting on unconfirmed info on this show, Hartmann makes his living by sensationalizing info on his show and in his blog. And this is true for most, if not all, the commentators from Limbaugh to Hartmann and from Fox to MSNBC!! K.W.

I'm curious as to why the "leaks" regarding spying via people's APPS isn't sourced. Do we not wish to mention Edward by name or am I incorrect as to the source?

I am confused by your response, especially the part about progressive being the educated elite. The history of progressive movements, throughout history, has come from the people not the elites. Look at the Gilded Age and how over time, with the help of a free press and the leadership of reformers, the people were able to overcome the Plutocracy that had destroyed our Republic. Why do people vote against their own interest, is a question as old as known history. During most of recorded history, people did not enjoy the right to vote or any other rights. However, the masses had to be controlled by those in power and they did this through laws, taxes and fear. As civilization evolved they used class warfare to control the masses and maintain their power. Today, we see this strategy in the attacks on education, the poor and people’s prejudices to keep the masses from looking at the real problem –the oligarchs and corporations.

I think it is curious that all the States that formed the Confederacy are “red”. Just as the vast majority of the soldiers in the army of the South were not slave owners, they were convinced that their cause was the same as the aristocracy’s. They were given enemies to distract them from the facts that most of them ranked just above that of a slave. Ignorance and constant propaganda, promoted by modern technology, makes this tactic even more effective today.

Thom I watch your show everyday on FSTV. I have been warning friends and work associates for over 40 years about the take over of our Republic by plutocrats, but no one wanted to hear about what was happening and the history of the conflict of capital and labor since before the founding of our country. I read your latest book Crash of 2016. The book is a great source of information that encapsulates what I have and continue to try and educate my generation

I agree with your assessment of Blue States vs Red States, but I noticed that my state, NC, was Blue. Was this a mistake, given the extreme "fright" turn of NC. I was active during the campaign of 2012 and was at polling stations asking people why they would vote for candidates that were going to change our progressive state into one of the crazy Red States. Not one of those who supported McClure or Romney could give me one reason why they were voting for them.

I am 70 years old and extremely angry and frustrated with my generations attitudes and dillusions about the loss of our Republic. They seem to be brainwashed by the propaganda of right wing media and they parrot their dogma. I believe generations should be judged by how they improve the general conditions for the next generations. Sadly, I believe my generation, who enjoyed the benefits and opportunities provided by our fathers' generation, have failed this test. Future generations will pay the price for our apathy and ignorance.

Pursuant to my post of yesterday, let's have Elizabeth Warren give the Progressive Caucus rebuttal tonight amidst the three conservative efforts at coherency.

The real reason HEMP is illegal has nothing to do with health it,s all about economics and power.

These laws are a reflection of what our society thinks of itself and this reflects where all the power is.Hemp could replace so many non renewable resource materials at a tenth of the cost ....hey we could actually have self sustaining community,s and jobs for everyday folks ! It,s not allowed because multinational corporation,s who grow cotton or produce rayon and cut vast amounts of trees down for paper would go out of business .They would loose so much money if it where allowed to be grown ! Marijuana is planet Earth,s number one sustainable resource but it,s the same argument why we have not mass produced electic cars or solar power in every home .Anything that considers the common good is ignored .That is the question facing us all right now what will it take to produce the highest good or highest interest,s of all ? I read today that 85 of the richest people on the planet have the combined wealth of 3 .5 billion of us half the worlds population something is clearly not working .

Responding to the post about Greece and debt ...

Respectfully, I seems you are saying either we should return to the days of pre-Reagan tax cuts to fund those things that made this country great - lisic relatively free upper education, buildina infrastructure the world has never before seen, and the technologthat hat revolution end our lives -or - throw our hands up into the air and join the working poor. There is plenty to feed , house, educate, anof provide healthcare. Uncontrolled debt is merely a symptom of giving up our political control - hence what we see ilost antes owned by corporate power.

WOW Mark, you might actually be on to something where ole Thom is concerned. I wasn't listening to him today, but I'll take your word for it. And I agree, that sucks. Thom's doing the public a huge disservice by stereotyping homeless people this way. While I think it's a safe bet that many (maybe even a majority) of schizophrenics are homeless, that does NOT translate to a majority of homeless people being schizophrenics. It's hard for me to believe Thom actually intends to instill such a stereotype of homelessness in his listeners' minds; but whether he does or not, he needs to be called out on this.

Schizophrenia aside, it seems to me that homelessness could be the cause of mental illness rather than the end result. Anyone who can live in such hideous circumstances for any length of time and keep their sanity would have to be made of sturdy stuff, mentally as well as physically.

Anyway Mark, I think you should try to get on Thom's radio show and address this issue with him. You have been an advocate for the homeless; you've had more than superficial contact with these folks and have seen that side of reality first-hand. You obviously know what you're talking about. I really think Thom could use a good stiff shot of your perspective on this. Thom's not cocky or arrogant; on many occasions I've heard him cop to inaccuracies and/or back down in debates or discussions where it seemed appropriate. He doesn't have to be right all the time. You seem more than qualified to set him straight. I'm certain that if you're respectful and civil towards Thom (as I'm sure you will be) and present your case persuasively enough, he will listen with an open mind. - Aliceinwonderland

Alice, did you hear Thom go on and on about how all the homeless are "paranoid schizophrenics"? How assinine! Doesn't he know that defining an entire group of people by the anecdotal evidence of the few that he "passes by on the way to work" is how bigoted stereotypes are born?

I mean, I love the guy but DAMN! He thinks he's God's gift to talk radio and everything else!

He is God's gift to talk radio - I don't know about everything else - but he's gotta be called out on this! I'll go to war even with him on it!

I know the homeless MUCH better than he may EVER! Defining them by a conspicuous few who make a constant spectacle of themselves is just a textbook example of that kind of stereotyping. Quite a lot, if not most, homeless people are very discreet about their housing status and you would be shocked to find out they were homeless. They don't give any appearance - don't look or act homeless in any way. That's a necessary strategy for their survival. To survive in the wilderness it doesn't matter if your shoes match, only if they're warm and dry. To survive in the city you have to look and act right or have the door slammed in your face and you won't be able to go inside anywhere when the Polar Vortex comes.

The homeless, thus, are a diversely various group. The majority are not mentally ill, the mentally ill amongst the homeless are comparably anomolous to the broader society and experience the same social outcast status among their fellow homeless people that they do from the society at large.

Our workers' organization (that I wrote about on the forum) started as a project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. We organized straight out of the shelters and dealt with the population that was "one paycheck away", that was now homeless, now not and now homeless again, i.e., aptly called "precarious" workers who moved in and out of homelessness with some regularity or were just not too far from being on the streets.

Amongst the poor, working poor, as it were, the poor minorities, poor whites, the ghettoes, housing projects, "trailer trash" homelessness is a routine occurrance, just a fact of life. Given their poverty - and precarity - it's simply logical that anyone from those stratas and segments of society are very likely to be homeless at one time or another - and, indeed, they often are. Almost everybody from that part of society has someone close to them who is or had been homeless if, in fact, they hadn't been homeless themselves. Amongst the lower classes it's simply routine and commonplace. I've even known completely sober, most uninsane, poor laborers make a rational choice to be homeless - to sleep in the park for a while, for example - because housing costs were so forbidding and they either wanted to save some money for some purpose - like for a car so they could leave town - or just because they wanted more money left from their paychecks than if they paid almost all of it in housing costs.

The most together, most sober, most uninsane people I'd ever known were a homeless family, a homeless couple with their homeless children, of which the parents sat with me on the Board of Directors of our workers' center.

In the '90s, a study by the University of Illinois found that 8% of the population of Illinois had been homeless at one time or another. Because people are commonly don't like to say they had been homeless the researchers thought the actual number could be significantly higher. Thus, they surmised,10% or more of the population of Illinois could've been homeless at one time or another.

Another study found that what distinguished the homeless from the rest of the population was that the homeless didn't have any family, or any family of any means, to back them up if things went wrong in their lives.

Now, for people who come from a middle to upper class background - who'd always had a full refrigerator and a nice place to live; whose lives went seamlessly from idyllic childhood, to highschool, prom, to college, to gainful career; who think that not only their basic needs have to be met but that everything in their lives has to be esthetically pleasing as well - for them, far from being routine and commonplace, homelessness is just unthinkable and unimaginable and just beyond anything. As far as they are concerned homeless people simply have to be insane or some kind of unfathomable aliens.

I guess there really are "two Americas".

I got it from "stastia" I googled per capita debt by state. I don't know how to cut and paste it on my ipad. I am not very good at this stuff. My point is the blue states have more debt and they do. right? Of course things are getting better they had nowhere to go but up.

Blame FOX and shows like Meet the Right Wing Extremists for the self injurious voting habits of Red Staters...not to say these citizens are totally innocent either......they just need a shot at hearing the plain old truth, and it ain't happening.

The new directive from Uncle Billionaire is for his Teabag House members to message that they in fact are the willing bipartisan public servants...... Obama and the Dems. are the obstructionists for being unwilling to compromise. This is their main message to Red Staters for the midterms. I'm already hearing this over and over, not only from my Teabag Rep.Tommy REED, but many others as well. I'm guessing someone took these guys out, got em drunk, and drilled this into their little heads. Of course they had to keep the message simple.....