Josh Eidelson, Salon.com, joins Thom Hartmann. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is fed up with his city's teacher's strike - and wants to use legal action to force teachers and school workers to go back to work. Will Emanuel get his wish from the courts - or will the fight for better wages and better public schools march on in the Windy City?

David Selig, Conservative Commentator, joins Thom Hartmann. The message of economic equality that we hear coming from the Occupy movement hinges a lot on tax policy. One of the main gripes that Occupy has articulated over the last year was that the 1% no longer pays their fair share in taxes. Conservatives don't disagee - but they argue that low taxes on the 1%, will actually benefit all of us in the long run. They say it's all about helping the so-called job creators - making sure they keep more of their money to...well...create jobs. It's the basis of Reaganomics - or trickle-down economics. But as we know today - it doesn't work. Trickle-down economics works only to create a nation of peons. Since this trickle-down economic philosophy has been adopted - job creation has slowed - economic activity has been stagnant - and only the very very rich, the top 1% have seen any economic gains - while the rest of has have seen losses. And now there's this: a new report by the Congressional Research Service that delivers the death blow to trickle-down economics. The report examines tax policy since 1945 to determine whether or not low taxes on the rich actually benefits the economy. The report's conclusion: they don't. As the report says: "The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth...However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated ...

David Cobb, Move To Amend / Lawyer / Democracy Unlimited joins Thom Hartmann. One of the most contentious Senate races this year is in Massachusetts - between Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Scott Brown. How has Warren become the Occupy movement's biggest champion - and isn't her anti corporate personhood message at the center of Occupy's cause?

Jesse LaGreca, Journalist/OWS participant & Ravi Ahmad, activist/ participant-OWS NY join Thom Hartmann. One year ago - Occupy Wall Street hit the streets of New York City - marking the beginning of one of the largest grassroots social change movements in American history. We'll take a look at what Occupy has accomplished over the last year - and talk about the work that still needs to be done to create lasting change.

Happy Birthday Occupy Wall Street. One year ago today...Americans started occupying Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan - and over the next several weeks - hundreds of similar occupations popped up all around the nation. The movement went mainstream - and average middle class Americans were drawn to it because it targeted the two fundamental crises facing not just working people in America - but working people around the world. The first being the corporate coup de tat of our democracy. And the second being the subsequent corporate takeover of the economy - and the emergence of a globalized corporate financial economy that is today collapsing under its own weight. And since one year later - these two crises are still threatening us all - the Occupy Movement is just as important than ever. On the first front - there's a new report, written by an international commission chaired by Kofi Annan, which sends a warning to the world's democracies, specifically the United States, about the corrupting influence of corporations and money in the democratic process. As the report - titled "Deepening Democracy: a Strategy for Improving the Integrity of Elections Worldwide" - states, quote: "Across the world, uncontrolled political finance threatens to hollow out democracy and rob it of its unique strengths."

Thom talks the one year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement with three OWS participants. Also discussed: Elizabeth Warren's surge in the polls following her DNC speech, a new study released that takes down trickle-down economics and the latest from the Chicago teachers strike. In tonight's "Daily Take" Thom discusses how the system's been rigged in favor of the 1% for decades.

So, what the heck is going on in the Middle East right now? I submit for your consideration that what we're seeing is actually the logical continuation of revolutions against poverty and dictatorship that we've been calling the "Arab Spring." And it's going to continue - and get worse - until one very specific thing happens. Here's why and how. In a brilliant paper that explains revolutions far better than Marx & Engles, back in 1962 James C. Davies wrote for the American Sociological Review an article titled, "Toward a Theory of Revolution." In it, he proposed that revolutions don't happen because life is intolerable for people, which was basically Marx's theory. He points out correctly that there are countries all over the world and all through history where life was and is terrible, but people don't revolt. Keep in mind that of the 7 billion people on earth right now, about 5 and a half billion of them live on less than $5 a day, and about 3 billion of them live on less than $2 a day. Over a billion of them don't even have access to sanitation or safe drinking water. But they're not revolting. Why is that? Davies proposed that it's not life being terrible that provokes revolutions. Instead, it's all about the gap between what people expect life to be like and what it's actually like. When that gap is small - people live in squalor, but just figure that's the hand life has dealt them - then you don't have revolution. But when that gap is large, when people expect that ...

Gov. Jesse Ventura, former Gov. of Minnesota, joins Thom Hartmann. Corporations have destroyed our Democracy - with both Republicans and Democrats listening to the money - and not to we the people. How do we retake control of our government - and restore our founding fathers vision for America?

Marc Harrold, Libertarian Commentator & Erikka Knuti, Democratic Strategist & Neil Munro, The Daily Caller all join Thom Hartmann.

Marc Harrold, Libertarian Commentator & Erikka Knuti, Democratic Strategist & Neil Munro, The Daily Caller all join Thom Hartmann.

Marc Harrold, Libertarian Commentator & Erikka Knuti, Democratic Strategist & Neil Munro, The Daily Caller all join Thom Hartmann.

Thom talks with Governor Jesse Ventura about America's troubled political system and his new book "Democrips and Rebloodlicans." Tonight's "Big Picture Rumble" panel discusses Romney's handling of the unrest in the Middle East, the Fed's new stimulus plan and the latest from the Chicago Teacher's strike. In tonight's "Daily Take" Thom explains what's really going on in the Middle East.

With November looming, the fate of the Obama Presidency hangs in the balance. Billions of dollars are being bundled to be spent against him. Voter suppression ID laws are kicking his voters off the rolls. And Republicans in the House are sabotaging his`2 economic recovery. Right now - there's a chance that this election will be a replay of 1980. Barack Obama could be Jimmy Carter. And I'm telling you right now that it's up to us - it's up to Progressives to make sure that doesn't happen. We've seen this movie before. As investigative journalist Robert Parry points out in a new column on consortium news.com - the progressive anger toward Obama is nothing new. It's the same sort of anger that Jimmy Carter faced in his 1980 bid for re-election - and the same sort of anger that eventually cost Carter a second term and set the stage for the Reagan Revolution - which we're all still trying to put an end to, even now.

Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio, joins Thom Hartmann. I've told you over and over and over again - the only way Mitt Romney can win in November is by lying his way right into the White House. But in the last two days - he's turned a national tragedy into a misleading political attack. Is this a new low for the political Pinocchio?

The Good! *The Maricopa Community Colleges* The Bad! *Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R)* and the Very Very Ugly! *Rush Limbaugh*