Source: thomhartmann.com
Hour One: SC Push Polls - what if I told you that Mark Sanford... tune in!
Hour Two: Happy May Day...latest on Labor - Josh Eidelson, The Nation / Salon / Plus, 3 more Boston bombing arrests...what's up? Barry Nolan, Journalist / Filmmaker
Hour Three: Bryan Fischer is worried Jason Collins will eyeball players in the locker room? Bryan Fischer, American Family Association (AFA)
Source: thomhartmann.com
Most of us are still feeling the effects of a struggling economy, but the corporate elite and the Wall Street banksters are doing better than ever. Many corporations have seen record profits in recent years, which have fueled buying sprees on Wall Street, pushing the DOW Jones to it's all-time high. But, the income gap between workers and CEOs, which has gone up almost 20% since 2009, shows that all that profit is going straight to the top.
This is exactly why many people don't feel the effects of the modest economic recovery - because this recovery is not our recovery – all the gains are going directly to the top 1%. And this is why corporations are actively fighting the part of the Dodd-Frank act, that directs corporations to report the income differential between workers and CEOs. In 1960, the average CEO was paid about 40 times as much as the average worker. By 1990, CEOs were raking in over 100 times the amount that workers received. And by 2011, some corporate executives – like the one who works for JC Penny's – were making more than 1700 times the salary of an average worker.
A Bloomberg analysis indicates that everyday employees are the only ones who are not benefiting from the historic profits seen since the 2008 economic meltdown. This is not only unacceptable, but it's undesirable – without a broad, inclusive economic base, long-term economic growth is impossible. It's time to stop the economic locusts who are sucking every last bit of profit out of our economy for the benefit of themselves alone.
Dodd-Frank is forcing the oligarchs to disclose the income disparity, now let's start working to correct it. Let's implement a Wall Street transaction tax, set limits on executive pay, and start taxing those who are obsessed with hoarding money.
Source: thomhartmann.com
Hour One: Why Gitmo won't be closed - Wayne Allyn Root, The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide
Hour Two: If Bangladesh can hold their corporate fat cats accountable - then so can we!
Hour Three: The problem with Maine's corporate personhood amendment...
Source: thomhartmann.com
Living as an undocumented immigrant in this country is a civil infraction, not a criminal act. But, some members of our House of Representatives are working to change that. According to the Think Progress Blog, the bipartisan immigration bill that is coming together in the House would force all undocumented immigrants to plead guilty for breaking the law, and serve at least five years of probation. This probation requirement would even apply to the Dreamers, who were came to our country as children.
One GOP congressional aide said the probation would be, “similar to how judges handles small drug crimes.” So, in order to get Republicans to stop whining about amnesty, this proposal would treat undocumented immigrants like drug dealers. In addition to insulting and stigmatizing the eleven million immigrants currently living in our country, this proposal would be a huge waste of the tax revenue collected during the legalization process. Instead of the additional funds being used to pay off debt, invest in our infrastructure, or simply run our government, the money would be spent processing eleven million people through our criminal system – and then monitoring them for years after that.
This is a horrible idea on every level. Treating immigrants like drug dealers is inhumane, and it goes against everything that our country was created for. And, our court system can't focus on real criminals when judges are busy processing eleven million new cases. Instead of criminalizing those who want to call them selves Americans, let's fix out broken legal immigration system, and create a real path to citizenship for people who came here looking for a better life.
Source: thomhartmann.com
Hour One: Are we powerless to stop terrorists from getting guns? Noel Flasterstein,The Gun Show
Hour Two: Congress flies while cancer patients die...
Hour Three: Jeremy Scahill goes inside America's "Dirty Wars" - Jeremy Scahill, Dirty Wars
Source: thomhartmann.com
Sequester cuts are hitting vital programs like Meals on Wheels, Head Start, and cancer treatment centers. So, it's difficult to understand why Congress would be pushing to spend $436 million on tanks that the Army says it does not need. According to Congress, keeping the production line of tanks rolling is important to jobs and supporting businesses in Lima, Ohio, where the tanks are manufactured. But the Army chief of staff says, “If we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way.”
The military must absorb $487 billion in sequester cuts over the next decade, and like various other programs effected by the cuts, they're finding it difficult to figure out where that money will come from. Reducing the production of tanks they don't need seems to be a reasonable cut. But, Lima Mayor David Berger says the plant is the city's fifth-largest employer, and closing the factory would have “about a $100 million impact annually.”
Once again, we see a prime example of how Republican austerity destroys economies. There's no question that it's foolish to be building tanks our military doesn't need, but without economic investment in that region, there may not be other jobs available for that plant's employees. And, as the sequester has also forced cuts to vital programs like unemployment aid, housing assistance, and nutritional programs, people who find themselves out of work will find it even more difficult to get by.
Instead of arguing with the military about whether or not the tanks are needed, Congress should be investing in Lima, Ohio, and creating new jobs for plant employees to turn to. While they're at it, they should also reverse the Republican austerity measures hitting children, seniors, and cancer patients in our nation. Let's demand that Congress put an end to the now-debunked austerity theory and start putting people back to work. Join the fight at No-Cuts.com.
Source: thomhartmann.com
"In for Thom today...please welcome Dr. Mike Newcomb, of The Mike Newcomb Show on 1480AM KPHX, Phoenix, AZ"
"Anything Goes Friday"
Hour One: Big retail ignores worker safety plan, hundreds dead in factory collapse -Anthony Arnove
Hour Two: What you need to know about the new bird flu - Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Source: thomhartmann.com
The motivation behind the world-wide economic con of austerity has been discovered. And, the source is none other than Pete Peterson – the debt-obsessed billionaire who stands to make billions off the privatization of our social safety net. Just days ago we told you how a 28-year-old grad student debunked the Reinhart-Rogoff study used to push austerity throughout the world. Well, now we know why Republican “fuzzy math” was used in the first place. Pete Peterson's organizations bankrolled that study.
Kenneth Rogoff, one of the study's leading authors, is a member of the Advisory Board at the Peterson Institute, which published the pro-austerity study. And, Carmen Reinhart is a regular participant of Peterson Institute functions, along with the likes of Paul Ryan and Alan Simpson. While the now-debunked study's math might have been written off as a mere error by the authors, the link to Peterson indicates that ideology, rather than incompetence, is the cause.
The austerity-induced human suffering and economic destruction should have been evidence enough for democrats to stop believing in budget-cut myths. But, the link to Peterson proves that “high debt causes slow growth” theory is nothing more than right-wing manufactured hysteria. Peterson and the corporatist machine have created this problem, and the so-called solution, to perpetuate the myth that government spending – not historically low tax revenue – is the real problem. And they have even gotten democrats to believe it.
It's time for President Obama and Democratic leaders to see the writing on the wall and take a formal stand against austerity. No nation, in the history of the world, has ever cut it's way to prosperity, and no fabricated economic study can change that.
Source: thomhartmann.com
Republicans want to stop the Securities and Exchange Commission from adopting rule 4-637, which would require corporations to disclose their political contributions. A group of shareholder activists, pension fund representatives, and Democratic lawmakers are pushing the S.E.C. to require corporations to report their political spending to investors. And according to the New York Times the agency is preparing for fierce opposition from corporations and lawmakers alike.
As the S.E.C. could propose this new disclosure rule by the end of this month, House Republicans are already trying to introduce legislation that would make requiring disclosure illegal. Despite nearly half a million comments on the proposed rule, the vast majority in favor of its adoption, Republicans think shareholders don't have the right to know how their investment money is being spent.
Even in the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision - which opened the flood gates of corporate political spending – public disclosure was considered the proper check against abuse. Some of our nation's most powerful corporate lobbying groups – like the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – have spoken out against disclosing how much they're spending to buy off our elected leaders. They don't want Americans to know how much corporate money is flooding into Congress, or who these bought-and-paid-for lawmakers are really working for.
As we continue our fight to say that money isn't speech, and corporations are not people, we should also support the S.E.C.'s effort to make corporations disclose their political contributions. Let's attack this problem from every side. Tell the Securities and Exchange Commission you support the public disclosure rule at SEC.gov, and join the fight against corporate power at MoveToAmend.org.
