It used to be politicians presented themselves as being just average folks, part of the American middle class or, as in the case of a rich guy like FDR, at least understanding the needs of the middle class and working people. The idea that a rich donor might give money to a candidate's campaign and then expect that candidate to vote their way was shocking. It was considered bribery. In 1952, when Senator Richard Nixon was running for Vice President, Democrats pointed out that he'd taken $18000 - around $150000 in today's money - from some fatcats donors. Americans were so shocked by the allegation that Nixon had to go on national television to address them. It was his second most famous speech of all time, right behind his "I am not a crook" speech, as he tried to reassure Americans that he would never, ever cast a vote in a particular way or enrich himself because of his position as a senator. We also liked candidates who were "average people" or at least could understand average people. Harry Truman drove back to Missouri and lived in a modest home until his death. Jimmy Carter walked to his inaugural, as the Washington Post noted right afterwards: "But what undoubtedly will be most remembered about Jimmy Carter's inauguration was that long walk from the Capitol to the executive mansion. It took him 40 minutes to cover the mile-and-a-half. As he walked along, with Amy prancing, jumping and dancing along at his side, he was shattering recent presidential practice and ...

This is what you need to understand about LIBOR - It's stands for the London InterBank Offered Rate. So what does that mean? It's basically the rate that banks around the world are lending money to each other. And the way it's calculated is each day - the banks submit what rate they can afford to borrow money at - and the average of what all the banks submit becomes the LIBOR rate. But what's really important to remember here is - LIBOR doesn't just apply to the rate banks lend money to each other. It also applies to the rate that we consumers pay on several different types of loans - including mortgages, car loans, and credit card rates. So if those rates are manipulated by banks - and artificially driven higher - then it affects a lot of people - and leads to working people paying more on their loans. Which is exactly what happened. Earlier this week - the CEO and COO of Barclays bank resigned after it was revealed their bank was routinely manipulating LIBOR rates between 2005 and 2009. Barclays has since been hit with a $450 million fine for this criminal activity. But the question is - was Barclays alone in this? Or were other banks involved as well - and not only that - were governments and regulators involved in the scam too? Disgraced Barclays CEO Bob Diamond is alleging just that. As the Washington Post reported on Wednesday: "Fallen banking titan Bob Diamond on Wednesday described regulators on both sides of the Atlantic as partly complicit in a scandal involving ...

Lee Fang, RepublicReport.org joins Thom. Rhode Island has become the first state in America to pass a law requiring political groups airing ads in the state to reveal their donors. So - with this new level of transparency and disclosure being thrown into politics in the Ocean State - are more states across the country likely to follow?

Americans love their furry feline friends - with over 84 million cats in households across the country. But new research suggests our love for cats might actually be driving women insane.

The Good! *Arturo Scungio* Scungio - an Italian police officer - is being called a hero after he paid for stolen candy that a woman took from a supermarket. According to Scungio, the woman "was obviously very scared and was shaking like leaf." The Bad! *Rep. Bill Young (R-FL)* Yesterday - Young was asked by a constituent at a Fourth of July Parade whether he would support the Democratic proposal of raising the federal minimum wage to $10 dollars per hour. When asked by the constituent, Young said he would probably not support the proposal. and the Very Very Ugly! *Rev. Mel Lewis* Lewis - the founder of Christian Identity Ministries in Alabama - is holding an annual conference this week. But - the only people invited to attend - according to a circulated flyer - are "all white Christians."

Mike Papantonio, Attorney/Host-Ring of Fire Radio joins Thom Hartmann. A new report out says that much of Mitt Romney's wealth is hidden in a shady network of offshore tax shelters. What is this presidential hopeful really trying to hide in the Caymans - and is a man who outsources his money to foreign countries really the best fit as America's president?

ask any Republican in America - and they'll tell you there is an epidemic of voter fraud sweeping the nation. But - in reality - UFO sightings in this country are more common than people voting illegally. So what's all this nonsense from the hard-right really about?

Guest host Sam Sacks examines what's worse than Super PACs this election season. Also discussed: Nixon's (and Obama's) failed war on drugs, how close scientists are to discovering the god particle and in tonight's "Daily Take" Thom discusses how the Republicans latest attack on Obamacare reveals their larger, treasonous plot to make Obama a one-term president.

Ireland decided this week to scrap their voting machines--like the ones here stored in Dublin. They're selling them for scrap metal, because they found they were too unreliable and too easy to hack. They'd only used them once, back in 2002, but that was enough. Unfortunately, America hasn't learned as quickly as the Irish. It used to be in America that exit polls were the gold standard to determine if there were shenanigans in an election. For over a century we used them, and we got very, very good at it. They almost never deviated by more than a few tenths of a point from the actual electoral outcome, and when they did, it was a sure sign of fraud. Such a sure sign that exit polls were used successfully to expose - and then overturn - fraudulent elections in Ukraine, Serbia, and Georgia. Polling companies were really good at this, and had great success in the election of 1998, when voting machines only recorded 7 percent of the national vote. But in the elections of 2000 and 2002, something odd began to happen. It was called "red shift" because, in certain states where there were a lot of voting machines being used, Republican candidates did better in the vote the machines reported than in the exit polls. In the election of 2004, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio led the charge with a red shift toward George W. Bush of 276000 votes in New York, 228000 in Florida, 190000 in Pennsylvania, 169000 in Ohio. It had started two years earlier, in 2002, when voting ...

Horace Cooper, National Center for Public Policy Research & Richard Fowler, Democratic Strategist join Thom Hartmann. Are Republican Governors going to put politics ahead of the well-being of millions of Americans? And why are SuperPAC's worse than Mafia hitmen? All that and more in tonight's edition of The Politics Panel

Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. For the first time since before last year's March earthquake and tsunami - a nuclear reactor in Japan is up and running again. Despite 200000 protesters gathering last week in Central Tokyo to demonstrate against turning any nuclear reactors back on - reactor number three at the Oil nuclear plant in the Fukui Prefecture in Western Japan was officially flipped on Sunday night - restarting Japan's embrace of nuclear power. Many of the other 49 reactors that have been shut down since last year - are scheduled to be turned on again later this month. But scientists are warning that the plants still haven't been properly upgraded to withstand a strong earthquake and tsunami - like the one that took out the Fukushima plant, which is still in the midst of a nuclear crisis. Last week - record levels of radiation were discovered inside reactor one at the plant. A lethal dose of more than 10000 millisieverts an hour was registered in the reactor - that's ten times more radiation than in reactors two and three. According to the operators of the plant - TEPCO - workers are unable to enter the site due to the high levels of radiation. So is it really wise for Japan to be restarting its nuclear plants while the country still tries to resolve the world's worst nuclear disaster?

The Good! *The DC Republican Committee* The committee has included a call for LGBT equality in it's official party platform. The platform reads, "We, the Republicans of the District of Columbia support the belief that all individuals, without regard to sexual orientation, are entitled to full and equal protection under the laws and the Constitution and that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect." The Bad! *Shell* Last week - the Obama Administration gave the green-light to oil companies like Shell to start oil drilling in the Arctic. But - if the company causes an oil spill - it has no idea what to do about it. And the Very Very Ugly! *Mike Malzone* Since the Supreme Court's ruling on Obamacare last Thursday - Conservatives across the nation have weighed in on the decision. That includes Mike Malzone - the founder of the Merrimack Tea Party in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Jamie Henn, 350.org join Thom Hartmann. Millions of people are still without power around the nation's capital - and left to deal with a record breaking heat wave without air conditioning. Fueled by all-time temperature highs on Friday, a massive freak storm ripped across the Mid-Atlantic Friday night - killing at least 17 people and knocking out power to more than three million. West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Washington, DC have all declared states of emergency. Meanwhile, on the other side of the nation - a wildfire continues to scorch Colorado - where tens of thousands of people have been evacuated out of harm's way and more than 350 homes destroyed. Firefighters claim they now have 55% of the fire contained at Waldo Canyon, Colorado. On the heels of this freak weather is a new report from climate scientists around the world warning that when it comes to rising sea levels, the tipping point has already been passed. Scientists with US research group Climate Central warned that even with drastic cuts in CO2 emissions, rising sea levels cannot be stopped over the next few hundred years - threatening roughly a tenth of the world's population that lives in low-lying areas. So here we have massive wildfires, catastrophic storms, and rising oceans. Climate scientists have been warning us for decades about the effects of climate change - are we now starting to see their warning come true?