explain to you how and why it comes to be that the government of the united states, like the government and many other countries, have been so stunningly unsuccessful in bringing this disaster to an end. then, in the most ambitious part of all, i am going to try to suggest to you what the solution to this crisis will be, must be, should be. and it is not something that the government has done, but it is something i am going to argue at the end the government should have taken the lead long ago in doing. now, just soright you understand, this crisis, which began in december of 27 -- 2007, which makes it almost five years old now, and there is no end in sight.

this crisis today is causing unbelievable havoc around the world. if you pick up your newspapers today or you watch television, you will probably see scenes in madrid, spain, and athens, greece, in which huge numbers of the lease are clashing with huge numbers of workers and students about what is going on there. last week, half a million people in portugal did the same. insightsst province gained, catalonia, is probably going to secede from the country, dissolving it. we are talking about fundamental transformations and upset about the same subject in these countries that i am going to be dealing with with the united states here today.

so, let's begin with the crisis. i have already told you how old it is, five years old. when it began in december of 2007, the number of unemployed people in the united states was estimated to be around 7 million. at the height of this crisis a couple of years ago it reached 15 million, more than double. five percent to 10% of the labor force -- labor force. today it is 8.5%. what does that mean? it means we have not come down even half way from the worst point of the crisis. indeed, in the last couple of months, unemployment has started to get worse again. the prediction for the next 12 to 18 months in this economy is for it to go down. not only are we not having the recovery we were supposed to have, we are having the opposite. governmentup, as the

does, the number of people who are without work today and the number of people who have stopped looking but are without a job, and you finally add the number of people who have a part-time job or who want and need a full-time job, we are talking somewhere between 20 million to 25 million of your and my fellow citizens. wow. the federal reserve, the central bank of the nine is eighth, keeps an interesting statistic. it is called capacity utilization am a fancy word, simple idea. they measure what proportion of the tools, equipment, factory, office, store space, is sitting empty. not being used, compared to what portion of our capacity to produce that is being used. and their estimate, a conservative estimate, is 20%. 1/5 of all of the machines,

factory space, office space, mall space, tools, equipment, typewriters, computers, positioned in a business, are not being used. well, what does that mean? it means that we have an economic system, our capitalistic economic system 20- cannot divide work for 25,000,000 americans who need it. and wanted. -- want it. at the same time, one fit of the tools, equipment, and everything else was people would need to work with and work on is sitting gathering rust and dust. if we put together as a nation with people who want to work with all of the equipment and raw materials they need to do the work, we could produce a wealth of output that would transform our cities, solve our social problems, or at least make a really big dent in them.

, not just all losers those of us who do not have a job, but all of us who do not thosehe fruits of what people and that unused equipment could produce. anany rational measure, economic system that performs so badly ought long ago to have , debated, and in all likelihood, changed. but we haven't done that in the united states. for 50 years, the capitalist system was something we weren't supposed to question, and very few people did. if you check the congressional therd, the record of all statements made of all the congress persons and senators, you will not find any sustained discussion for 50 years of capitalism, and which of those

who thought it was good confronted thought it was not. against itst up weaknesses, so we could have a national debate about whether the economic system we have, capitalism, is the one we want to keep, given how it is performing. i always find this running, and i want you to do that, too. we take pride in the united states that we question our educational system, we question, the last couple years, public health system. such institution such as the family, marriage, heterosexuality, and so on. we ask a lot of questions about basic heart of our lives. we debate the different points of view. that is the good thing about this country. but when it comes to the capitalist system, no debate. we outdo one another in , the biging at best

fat immaturity. our economic system deserves and needs criticism, just like all of our other systems do. that is how a society progresses. it weighs the cost and benefits, strengths and weaknesses, of all of its systems -- education, health, you name it. the baitars, note about capitalism. guess what? if you don't debate and you don't criticize a system, it rocked -- rots. that is what you do it, to catch the flaws early like diagnosing a disease. you catch it early, and you can make the changes. it will get you over the problem. criticism,t allow if you act like people who criticized economic system are either crazy or dangerous or disloyal or something like that, if you shut it down, then, guess what?

a free, without criticism, to go whatever direction it wants, and you and i are now living through the result of all of that. a system that has spun out of control, that is not delivering the goods to the american people, except for those at the top. but for the most of the rest of us, not so good. some symptoms, besides those that are already mentioned. we are doing damage to a generation of college students -- and, by the way, i do not take that example just because i am here at a college. i use it everywhere i go. but we are doing something extraordinary. we are condemning a generation, yours, to be put in an impossible situation. there are not jobs, as there ought to be, so many of you decide to go to college to improve chances in a bad job market.

makes perfect sense. meanwhile, we allow the cost of college to keep going crazy up so the only way to get the credential to get a job is to fork over money your family at this point have not the freedom to do. so, guess what your generation is doing? you know. darwin the money. borrowing tens of thousands of dollars to get a degree, only to discover the economic system that makes the price of education to high, that makes the financial resources of your family to support the education too low, and then load you up with debt is going to show you when you are done that you may not get a job, and even if you do, the cost of paying off your accumulated debt is going to follow you and damage you and your life for years and years to come.

that is not smart. that is making education a decision more and more people are not making. economists teach our students across america that the united states has to compete in a world economy, that the europeans, with the chinese, with everybody. and one of the morse -- most important things we have to compete with is the educational attainment of our young people. that that is what will shape as much or more than anything else the economic future of the united states. what are we doing to prepare ourselves? we are making college too expensive, we are lowering -- loading people would debt, distracting them from study from the anxiety of debt they worry about and have to worry about. -- smart, itpark

is damaging your future opportunities as a way of coping with the current crisis. a system that makes people do that is a system that does not work real well. me turn, then, from the crisis we are in, and there are endless more examples of it that i could go through if you would like later in the q&a portion. the let me turn to what the government did and has done about this. because when the capitalist system that we have breaks down, as it does over and over and over again, we usually turn upon the government to save it. by the way, to save it from what? to save it from itself. the last time we had a crisis of this proportion was the 1930s, it started in 1929 and it was not over until 1941. 11 or 12 years. we are in year five.

that one was worse than this one at least so far has gotten. when that capitalist economic system that we are living in collapsed in the 1930s, unemployment, by the the way, at its peak in 1933, 20% compared to 8.5% now. , bigovernment came in time. finally that crisis was over in 1941. the next big doozy was the one that started in 2007. but in case any of you imagined that capitalism only has a problem every 30 or 40 years -- between the and of the economic crisis of the great depression, 1941, and the beginning of the crisis we are in now, 2007, there were 11 other economic downturns.

capitalism is an extraordinarily unstable economic system. i like to drive that point home by saying the following -- if you lived in an apartment with a roommate as unstable as of this economic system, you would have a molded out long ago or demanded that your roommate get professional help. but since when did you live in a capitalist system that is just as unstable and ask yourself the same question. every president since the one in the 1930s -- his name was roosevelt, franklin delano roosevelt -- every president since then has been a president when the economic system goes down. sometimes it only goes down for a few months. sometimes, like this one, for years. every president has done the following.

he has said, if you do my policies, what i propose, not only will it get us out of this crisis, but it will make sure that no future crisis creates problems for our children. every president promised it. no president has yet delivered on that promise. that is why we have a crisis now, because the system does not know how, has not been able to solve this crisis -- these kinds of crises, and they sure as heck hasn't -- have not been able to prevent them. that is a reason to criticize the system that is working in this manner. what did the government do this time? what can we say about it? the first thing to say about it is, it hasn't worked. when this crisis first began to bubble up into thousand seven, the president at this time, george bush, promised us and repeated statements -- nothing

to worry about. it will be a downturn. it will not last very long. six months later he said, nothing to worry about, it just affects the housing market, the subprime mortgage market. we all scrambled to learn what the sub prime mortgage was. written mr. bush was out of office by the american people freaked out by this crisis who brought in a new president, obama, and he began by saying, we will get our way through this. i am the president who is going to fix all of this. ,ere we are, four years later had not happened. last thing on earth that george bush wanted at the end of his presidency was in economic crisis, because that is a way to lose an election. he did everything he could. he used every economist he had to try to prevent that from happening. the government does not have the weapons at its disposal, the

policy, to solve the problem. at least none of the things they tried worked. the last thing on earth barack obama wanted was to run for reelection, as he is doing now, at a time when the economic crisis he promised to solve with their everybody in the face on salt. he did not want that. he used all of his advisers to do everything he thought was appropriate to prevent that from happening. wrong again. now mr. obama risks being run out of office by the same crisis that brought him in. what is going on here? what did the government do? , firsternment decided under mr. bush and then under mr. obama, because they had the same policies. obama just did them bigger. just throw huge amounts of money at the nation's biggest inks. after that, huge amounts of money at some of the largest

corporations in america -- general motors, our biggest car company. aig corporation, our biggest insurance company. and a whole host of others. the government responded to the crisis by bailing out the failed bankrupt banks of the united states and many of the largest corporations. if thes the idea -- government helps them at the top, well, they will get going again, they will be healthy as corporations and the benefits of their profits as of their being healthy will trickle down to everybody else. they will hire people again i'm overcoming unemployment. they will spend money again getting the economy going. that was the idea. that has a name, that idea. it is called trickle-down economics. you help the top of him and you it trickles down to everybody else.

result of the obama- bush policies have been. have you helped the big banks? yes. did you get them over the crisis? yes. did you help the big insurance companies? yes. did you help general motors? yes. sheets look much better than they did in 2008 and 2009. but did the benefits to the top trickle-down? no. no. , it you just one statistics is now reported by economists that corporations in america are sitting on 2 trillion dollars worth of cash. they are not investing that money. they are not hiring workers, not expanding production. we not? the answer is, -- are responsible businesswomen.

we will not invest money when the economy looks as crappy as it does. we are not selling the stuff we are making now. why on earth would we make more? we can't sell it. so we are just going to sit on the money. meanwhile, if they sit on the money, then they have no jobs. there's no end to unemployment unemployment. here is the irony -- because they don't invest money they have, massive people do not get the money and because they did not get the money they cannot spend the money, and if half the people do not spend the money, businesses say they cannot invest it. this is called a vicious cycle. this is an economic system that is not working. the government only help the top five percent or 10%. is not helped. you were not bailed out. but here is not where the story stops. it takes another step. how does the government get a lot of money it used to bailout the banks, the corporations, and

so on? the way the government get to that money in our society is not by taxing people, or taxing companies. you could do that. if the government tax the money to stimulate the economy, then the government would not run into debt and there would not be a deficit because it would raise the money in taxes. it shows not to do that. and, by the way, let me make clear why -- because you would have had a revolution in the united states. you cannot subject the american people to a massive unemployment, the spectacle of bailing out only the people at the top and then say now you get to pay a ton of taxes to cover all of this. united would have in the states exactly what is going on in madrid and lisbon and athens now. so, the government did not do that. here is what the government did.

to bailout the banks, general motors, aig, all the rest of them, they borrowed money. the government borrowed the money. let me say that one more time -- the government borrowed money to bailout the top. and guess what? if the government suddenly stts to borrow huge amounts of money, which we did -- and like all of the governments the world, we are not unique. then the people who lend to the government -- and who are they? thanks, large corporations, and wealthy individuals and foreign countries, will lend to the united states. government borrows, the lenders get nervous because they keep lending to a government. the government keeps borrowing more money. the lenders begin to get where he -- you know, that government may not be able to pay us back. and you know why?

because when you borrow tons of money as a government, you got to pay interest on that, and you got to pay it back, at least in part. ?nd where is the united states like any other government, where is it going to get the money to pay off the lenders, the interest and principal they have to pay now because they borrowed to bailout those at the top? here is the answer, france. and pay attention, because this is your life. the way the government gets that money is a promises to the lenders, the banks, the big corporations, the rich people him and the foreign governments -- the u.s. government says, don't worry. we have the money to pay you back and pay the interest. you know how we are going to get that money? we are going to fire lots of public employees. we are going to cut that government programs. and we are going to use the money we used to pay those

workers salaries, and to pay for those programs, and instead we are going to pay off the lenders from whom we borrowed the money to bailout the top in this. of crisis. so all of you get to live in a country where all the leading politicians are discussing how , wheno cut, who to cut to cut, and among the cuts being considered, student loans. programs for old people. sick people. what an economic system. it breaks down -- in a doozy of a breakdown now. all the governments can think of is trickle-down economics, help the top and hope it trickle-down. meanwhile, borrow the money to help the top and then make the whole society pay for the money you ro to help the top.

you wonder why people in europe are in the streets? they wonder why you are not. because it is the same process. and as soon as the election who plot is over, you will be seeing on your daily newspaper all the signs of the cutbacks here that are called in europe austerity, a way to pay for the crisis you didn't cause, for the bailout you didn't get. but you get to pay for it. and as long as you, the people of this country, permitted, it will continue. that is why those people in europe are in the streets because they want their government to know they are not going to tolerate it. where does that end? no one knows. but the political and economic turmoil in europe is the worst and most profound that they have seen in half a century. and if you think that the

atlantic ocean is going to prevent that sort of thing from bubbling up here, you are very naïve. .k so much for what is happening, and so much for a government that can't figure out what to do. was it always this way? before i give you the solution, i would like you to consider. the answer is, no. and the great depression of the 1930s, something very different happened. the crisis, as i have told you, was worse. a democrat was elected president right in the middle, just like obama was in the middle of this one. franklin roosevelt was elected in the middle of that one. but franklin roosevelt did not behave like bush or like obama. he behaved very differently. first, i am going to tell you why, and then i am going to show you what he did.

why did he behaved differently? did he come in like obama to office? yes, he did. in fact, many of his proposals and campaign statements sound a lot like obama's. check them out, 1932, you will see. but he changed very fast once he was in. and what changed him? what changed him was the reaction of the american people to the great depression. remember, it hit october 1929. he only comes into office, mr. roosevelt, in january of 1933. it has already been going for several years. and the american people are angry. they are out of work in huge numbers. their families are suffering. their communities are suffering. people out of work, they don't pay taxes, because they do not have an income and all the cities, towns, states, federal government have no caps money coming in, so they have to cut their social programs. you can understand what happens.

you are living through a version of it now. but then mr. roosevelt discovered the american people in the 1930s reacted in an organized way. here becomes the different from today. the first organization, something called the congress of industrial organizations. what was that it started out being dumped mineworkers workers union -- it started out being the mine workers, led by john l lewis. he decided in the depths of depression when millions were losing their jobs or if they held on to the job it paid less, benefits of -- were fewer -- just like happening now. he said, you know what american workers would do? they would join the union if they believed at the union could protect them to what is being done to all the working people. so he decided to appeal to american workers to join unions. here is what may come to a support -- as a surprise to you. in a matter of months, tens of

millions of americans who had never been union members before joining unions. the most cunning unionization drive in american history. has everng that happened before and greater than anything that has happened since. within a year and a half, tens of millions of workers were organized in unions, and the unions went to the president and said, we've got millions of members that are very dissatisfied with what is going on, you better do something. hadns and union workers voted for roosevelt. they got him into office that first time. ofre was another kind organization that exploded in america at that time, too. this may surprise you even more. socialist hearties.

several of them. and a communist party, here in the united states, grew very fast, and had lots of influence and work very closely with the cio. they said that not only was the conditions of them massive working people intolerable, but they said we need system change, we need to get rid of capitalism because it is not working for most of us. we want socialism. and there were hundreds of thousands of these people, and they were well organized. they went to roosevelt altogether -- cio, socialists, and communist, and they said you better do something because what is building in america is a revolution. in case you are wondering what kind, look over to that other country, it used to be called russia. now it is called the soviet union. because if you think it could only happen there, think again.

and roosevelt got scared because roosevelt could see what everybody could see then, that these were not idle terms, not idle boasts. these were real. here is what roosevelt did. and, by the way, he came from the one percent. very old, wealthy family. his relatives had been president before him, teddy roosevelt, etc.. what did frank when roosevelt do? he got together his rich friends that he came from and the heads of the biggest american corporations and he said, listen to me, gentlemen. nowadays you had to say gentlemen and ladies -- in those days, it had not happened yet. i am going to tell you something you are going to have to understand. we've got two choices. we can stiff arm all of these angry workers, socialists and communists. we can't ignore their demands we do something for the people

of this country. but if we do, they are going to try to make a revolution here, and i am not sure they won't pull it off. and you can't be sure, either, he said, looking them right in the face. he said, i have a plan. of money, youlot corporations, you rich people -- you give me a lot of money, i am talking big money. and i am going to use it to really help the mass of the american people. i will go to those unions and socialists and communists and i will say i will do something for the mass of people in this crisis. toone condition -- you got stop talking about this revolution stuff. no more of that. no more pointing to the soviet union. leave the capitalist businesses alone. leave them alone, and i will get you help for the mass of people. he went to the rich ones in the corporations and he said, the only way i can give help to the

mass of people suffering at a time the government has no money is at you give me your money. , you will have a revolution, and you will lose everything. so, i advise you to take my deal. half of them did. he split the corporations and the rich. half of them bought what he said, and they gave him the money. i am going to tell you in a minute how they did that. they gave him the money. and guess what roosevelt did with the money? from the rich. in the middle of the depression, he created the social security system. we never had that before in america. he went on the radio -- no tv then -- he went on the radio and he said every american who spent a lifetime working, 65 years of age or older, we the government are going to give these people money every month, a retirement, for the rest of their lives. most of these people have no retirement. of those jobs did not provide that. -- those jobs do not provide that. he created a retirement.

and that act, he he took care of the old people and america on a massive scale and nature of the old people were not a burden on their kids, who, in a time of depression, could not help them. the second thing he did, he created the unemployment compensation system. any of you have ever been unemployed through no fault of your own? you know you can get a certain place and you get a check for six months, a year, year and half, every week. an unemployment check. because it is not your fault you are unemployed, in most cases. he created that. and here is the big one he created, beyond those two, beyond social security, beyond unemployment, he went on the radio and said it is a private set -- if the private capitalist sector of america cannot provide jobs for the millions of americans who want to work, we need to work, then there is no alternative than for me, the government, to do it. between 1934 and 1941, roosevelt created and filled 12.5 million

federal jobs. , a job, income, to millions of americans family groove thereby could make their mortgage payments and keep their home. , withime of depression no money, it turns out there is the money. we know where the money was then. that is where the money is now. it is in the hands of corporations and the rich. roosevelt went and he got it, they used it -- he used to pay for social security, unemployment insurance, and federal jobs. wow. here is how it worked. in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s -- what was the income tax rate that i had pay, the richest of american? the top income tax rate. here is what it was. 91%. what does that mean? every dollar over $25,000 -- a

lot of money those days -- every dollar over $25,000 you earned, you had to give uncle sam $.91 and you got to keep nine cents. you got it? what is it today? what is the top rate of the richest americans pay today? 35%. do you understand? the reason our government has no money is because over the last 50 years the richest people in america have enjoyed a tax cut that drops what they pay from 91% to 35%. if you are not a rich person, you don't have and you never got nor did your parents anything remotely like that. dollar, the every federal government collected income tax from people collected a dollar and a half from corporations. today, for every every dollar the federal government collects of income tax from individuals, it collects $.25 from corporations. the last 50 years -- taxes

removed off of corporations onto people and off of the richest people on to all of you. so, on behalf of america's corporations and wealthy people, i want to say to all of you, thank you. very kind of you. thank you for paying right through the nose for a government that could not save you from an economic crisis you did not cause. what is the problem here? the problem here is not that we don't have a cio, socialist or communist -- although that would make things quite different -- they have those things in europe. what is the problem here? let's go to the root of the problem. the problem are the corporations of america, the way we do business in america. most business in america, most goods and services are produced in something called a corporation. and in the corporation, which does the business of america, here is how the decisions are made.

operations are controlled by shareholders. you get one vote for every share you own in deciding what the corporation does. not one vote per person -- that is a democratic arrangement. one vote per share. so, if you own a million shares you get a million votes. if you own no shares, that is how many votes you get. most of the workers -- and i could pick any corporation. i will pick ibm, just for illustration purposes. most of the workers and ibm has few or no shares. they have, therefore, few or no votes. most of you in this room have no shares of ibm, so you have no votes. who has the votes? they are called major shareholders. usually a dozen people or institutions who own the block of shares.

those votes and title them to select the board of directors. that is the top group and any corporation. usually between 15-20 people. they make all the decisions, all the decisions. let me give you an example. they decide what the company produces. for example, the board of directors decided certain of the old gm cars are not going to produce anymore. you cannot get an oldsmobile. they don't make them. instead, they make other things. the board of directors decides what a corporation produces. number two, a board of directors decides how the production is carried out. with a dangerous chemicals or not? in a well r or not? with terrible noise or not? do you get benefits for working there or not? they also decide everybody's salary and wages and benefits.

wow. they also decide where production is going to happen. they are the ones who decide -- we are going to close the factory in the bronx and open it in shanghai. decision?eir yes. and here is the best part, four times a year the others gets together and decide what to do with the profits that all of the workers have helped to produce. and here is an example of what they have done over the last 50 years of this arrangement. because you live with what they have done. here is what they have done. they have taken those profits corporations have earned and they decided to give a very small number of people at the .op stupefying annual payments they get stock options and they get benefits and they get it.ses, and you read about that is as close as most of you

get. you read about it -- this one got 22 million, this one got 200 million. who decide that some people get all of that whereas the mass of people have a hard time making their ends meet? that is the board of directors. they make that decision. they decide who gets the profits. did they use all of the profits for salaries for the people? no. here is a second youth they made. america as anhat economic system -- and they figured it out years ago -- was becoming more and more unequal. i used to have to take a lot of time to explain this, but thanks to the occupy wall street movement, i don't have to do that anymore. i just use the term one percent, 99%, and everybody knows what i mean. this country was polarized over the last 40 years between one percent becoming much more wealthy and the other 99% not so much. >> you are listening to richard wolfe, the author of a number of books, including democracy at

work, a cure for capitalism. making the book available to you for a $75 contribution. you can get the dvd of the full address for $75. let them together for $125, the book and the dvd are yours. f is a well-known economist, talk for decades at university of massachusetts amherst and now teaching at the new school and new york. the number to call live 866-359- 4334. we already have people to thank. we urge you to call in. filled the phone lines. you are watching independent television, and you are the link to keeping it live. .all 866-359-4334, 866-359-4334 democracy at work, a cure for capitalism, it is a fascinating book we will like to make available to you. gnome chomsky says ideas of economic democracy are very much in the air, as they should be, with increasing urgency. suggest newf ideas

and promising foundations for much more effective democracy and sustainable and equable development, to be implemented directly and carried forward. a very valuable contribution -- contribution in troubled times. 866-359-4334 is the number to call. fill the phone lines. the book for $75, the dvd for $75, or put them together for $125. 866-359-4334. berly to think -- thank from diamond bar, california, betty from san francisco, and a caller from alexandria, louisiana. edward from a georgia. it is nice to know the south is watching. bob called from cooper, maine. wonderful to know that maine, my old one is in that house. and we hear from bar harbor, camden, portland? please call in from bangor.

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adrian called in from michigan. thank you so much. wayne has called in from california. lucille called in from virginia. can we hear from arlington, potomac, maryland? can we hear from falls church, rockville, maryland, ball or more catonsville, college park? tyrone has called in from far rockaway? how about your neighbors in long beach? leslie has called in from chesterfield, virginia. can we hear from vienna, virginia, annandale? and nablus, maryland? wendy calling in from california. anybody calling in from the district of columbia? a caller from el paso, texas. how about houston, austin? we urge you to call. if you are watching from galveston, the ireland, or up there in huntsville, give us a call, 866-359-4334. kerry has hauled in from knoxville, tennessee, james the michigan, north dakota.

patricia from gold river, california. nettie from los angeles. barbara from los angeles. a lot of people are calling in from california. it definitely california is at the top. troy from bakersfield, clarence from santa barbara. can we hear from the mexican border? .an we hear from mendocino we are asking you to go to the phone right now and let us know you are in the house. we cannot do this without you. only together, your call makes a difference. 866-359-4334. f'swill send you richard wolf book and the full speech, $125, the book and dvd. a missouriall him and minnesota, asking you to make call that makes the difference. along with maryland. if you live in new mexico or arizona or paola rodda, we are among to hear rummy you right now. 866-359-4334.

make a call that makes link tv happened. it is as straightforward as that. richard wolff talking, a cure for capitalism, a speech he gave at john jay college in september, criminal justice college. i urge you to call to keep link tv alive. if you want to come to the site of democracy now!, we are in the chelsea neighborhood. we are in the shadow of the empire state building, as we take on an empire. we are asking you to join us. you get to watch the broadcast live on the set and you get to bring a special guest. you sit here, drinking in democracy now! with fair trade coffee. muffins, bagels as well, hanging out with the folks that make democracy now! happen and then you get to meet the guest in studio. richard wolff, maybe isabel kahill,, maybe jeremy scal

whose book is coming up. we urge you to call 866-359- 4334. make the call that makes a difference. if you want to come to the set, bring your partner or a daughter or son or a mother or father, a friend you want to meet up in new york, we will tour you through the greenest internet tv radio and i will personally host you for dinner and we will sit back and told link tv. i get to hear your stories we get to the old friends fast there'd i am really looking forward to you calling because i am going out for dinner and a show tonight so i am very excited. i get excited everything -- every single time. i have done it hundreds of times with viewers and independent radio and tv listeners and viewers all over the country, and every time i look forward to it. i would love to host you both. maybe there is a birthday on the horizon, a graduation or anniversary, maybe a holiday. you do not have to know when you didn't do it. just make a plate. think creative.

maybe somebody is graduating and you aren't trying to rack your brain for a great gift. come to democracy now!, watch the broadcast, support link tv. ,t is a whopping contribution granted, $2000 contribution, but it is tax-deductible and charitable and directly goes to keeping independent media alike. if you could possibly afford this, it mean so much. please call 866-359-4334, 866- 359-4334. your call makes a difference. you make a link tv happened. it is as simple as that. .66-359-4334 so, if you make the pledge, my colleague randy gives you a call in a few days and she asked, when the month,? you might know the date or have no idea. you will e-mail each other or call in a few months. however it works for you, we will make a workout. that is how we have done it for years. you just say, dinner and a show. if you could possibly do this, link tv thank you so much.

then you might be saying, what, are you kidding? abi can did $25. great. we will send you a democracy now! bumper sticker. fire engine red and eight has actually of liberty, her torch is a microphone. -- it has the statue of liberty, her torch as a microphone. we have a number of other gifts as well. we ask you to answer the phone and stand up for independent media. you make it possible. .66-359-4334, 866-359-4334 you can get -- i am reaching over 40 democracy now! tote bag. the statue of liberty, or church -- her torch a microphone. democracy now! coffee. not just a market, but a movement, and that is yours for a contribution of $75. the mug, yellow or blue,

contribution of $100, and put together two months and the coffee, a complete set for $200. call in right now. that us know you are in the house. let us know democracy now! matters to you. please call in right now and let us know you are there. please, call in and let us know .hat democracy now! matters again, if you want the bumper sticker, it is a $25 contribution to the bumper sticker. you can get also for a $25 contribution, exception to the rulers. a signed copy of my book, the first book that i wrote, with my brother. you can get the whole democracy now! collection. static --s government liars, media cheerleaders, and the people who fight back, standing up to the madness -- ordinary heroes in extraordinary times. breaking the sound barrier, it has an introduction by elmore years. our book that just came out

this last winter, the silent majority. actually in the fall. it is a great book of columns that we him and dennis moynahan and i have done over the past three years. i will sign a copy and send it to you right away. if you want all five books all signed, that is yours for $200 contribution. if you call 866-359-4334, 866- 359-4334. i want to show you the democracy now! bumper sticker. it is wonderful. it has the statue of liberty, her torch a microphone. independent tv and radio news. yours for a contribution of $25 or more, if you called in right now. you can put it on your bumper sticker -- you can put it on your bumper, refrigerator, notepad, you can put it on your bicycle, click order, put it up on a wall at school and get the word out. please call right now, 866-359- 4334.

if you would like to get the democracy now! t-shirt or hoodie or sweatshirt, 125 dollars for the t-shirt, $200 for the witty and if you want the baseball cap, $100 contribution. wonderful eightball cap. statue of liberty, and on the back of it it says the exception to the rulers. make a call that makes the difference. we cannot do this without you. only with you. .66-359-4334 please, call them, let us know you are there. we have more people to thank. keep these phone calls coming in. but i know we want to reach out all over throughout ohio, throughout michigan, if you could possibly call in now, your call makes a difference. indiana, iowa and idaho, we need you. 866-359-4334. get the richard wolff book for a contribution of $75, the dvd,

$75. richard wolff says capitalism has spawned deeply economic crises alongside the bought and paid for establishment, neither serving modern societies needs. it advocates workers directing their workplaces. democracy at work shows why and how to make democratic workplace is real. it speaks to who realize capitalism -- capitalist economics has become intolerable and seeks a concrete action plan. the book and dvd are yours for $125 if you call right now. 866-359-4334. a person who worked for bear stearns as a banker and jpmorgan aase writes "imagining country where the majority of the population reads a majority of the benefits for their hard work, creative ingenuity and fromt, imagine a country

the bottom up and not a blue- collar -- photography from the top down." richard wolff in a stunning new book, he detailed how we get there from here and why we absolutely must. 866-359-4334. .he book is yours for $75 with the dvd, 125 dollars or the dvd alone, $75. call in right now. we only have five minutes ago. we ask you to call. we cannot do this without you, only with you. call in and let us know you are there. please, let us know that democracy now! matters to you, twice a day, monday through friday, 11:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the evening eastern standard time on both tv satellite networks, on dish network channel 9410, directv, callel 375, we ask you to them. if you live in arkansas or oklahoma -- my gosh, oklahoma,

everyone in the area of oklahoma city, our hearts go out to you. i have no words. the only thing i can say is we have just heard -- these numbers will change as this broadcast happens at different times. we broadcast on democracy now! that the medical examiner said 91 people were dead, at least. you rarely see the numbers go down in a situation like that, at this time, as we have come to air right now, we just heard that the medical examiner has said actually the number is more like 24, and that is remarkable. i wish the number were zero. so, for everyone who is dealing with this crisis in oklahoma -- and i know the danger is not even over, extreme weather events in this country are extremely serious, they take lives. i hope you appreciate our discussion with a survivor on the ground as well as with jeff masters who we often turns to

with the weather underground and we are there to raise the word not even asked the question form in any of the network, and that is the issue of global warming. you cannot talk about one weather event and say this was caused by global warming. we do not pretend that is the case, but it is looking at the case is over all, that the fact that 97% of the scientific establishment says human induced global warming is a very serious issue. these are the issues we raise. and if you appreciate that, i ask you to call in right now, 866-359-4334. make the call that makes a difference. if you live in mississippi, we want to hear from you. if you did in indiana,, wisconsin, calling, 866-359- 4334. stand up for your state, get a copy of richard wolff's book. get a copy of the dvd. fivehen together for 120 dollars. south dakota, north the coated,

nebraska, nevada, oregon, washington, utah, please, call in. canned, we ask you to be there. northt, pennsylvania, carolina south carolina. we need your support. we want to know your state is tuned into link tv, that you are will to stand up for the state of independent media. please, make your call, 866-359- 4334. make the call that makes the broadcast possible. we cannot do it without you. funny five dollars and get the democracy now! bumper sticker or -- $25 and get the democracy now! bumper sticker. or the dinner -- when you get there, we treat you royally. we will break bread together. i will hear their stories and get to know them well. they will come to the set of democracy now! and watch the broadcast. that is what you get for dinner and a show. they be somebody is graduating, your anniversary or somebody you care about.

you and your special guest -- or give this to two other people. if you do not have to know when you can do it but you have to call in and say i want dinner and a show. if you can that, i cannot wait to host you hear, get you through the door, for the greenest internet tv radio studio in the company. or $75, get the book by richard wolff "democracy at work -- a cure for capitalism anarcho 866- 359-4334 west says required reading "democracy at work." $75.book is yours for the dvd is yours for $75. but then together, it does not add up, $125. we give you a break. and you are keeping link tv alive. keep the phone calls coming in because we need you, you are the link to independent media. yes, you can make a difference.

we urge you to call in. we cannot do this without you. 866-359-4334, 866-359-4334. 866-359-4334, 866-359-4334. special thanks to amy

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