welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour republican senators up for recall elections in wisconsin and thought of a way to hold onto their seats yeah it's called cheating so what's tiki tactic do they have up their sleeves in detail plus he's seen as the g.o.p. has really taken the philosophy of ai and rand. and rand who hated religion doesn't this interfere with their constant courting of the religious right. in the latest news coming out of wisconsin the dates apparently are set for a dozen recall elections against sitting state senators in the fallout over governor scott walker's radical budget plan elegant party was constance already made their campaign strategy public plan to run fake democrats in the primary elections just to disrupt the democratic party family style it works but these

recall elections against republicans couldn't come any sooner for one industry in wisconsin craft beer brewers that's right small independent craft brewery businesses are next up on governor walker's list of people to screw as part of his new overhaul plan of the state's beer industry governor walker is trying to make it illegal for small craft beer brewers to sell their product directly to a restaurant or bar instead of forcing them to go through a middleman wholesale distributor just like the big mega multi-state corporations like miller coors have to do fact will of course played in solitary role in shaping the proposal that benefits them and other giant beer corporations but screws over their smaller competitors so much for government looking out for small businesses so how will this latest corporate power grab unfold and what can we expect in the upcoming recall elections for some answers on this i'm joined by john nichols russian correspondent with the nation magazine john welcome. it's great to be with

you tom a thank you very much what's behind this move against craft beers well i know it sounds pretty bizarre that you know all of these struggles over everything from collective bargaining to local democracy to voting rights we've got a crowd here fight in fact that matter is that governor walker has established pay to play politics in wisconsin and the big brewers are paid to basically erect a ceiling on top of small purse and basic concept here is that if you're going to you know sell a few bottles out of a group you could probably do ok but if you do gallop a craft beer that starts to get popular they want to make sure that you can't compete and you can set up your own distribution network and really get in again and effectively what this means is they're creating the perfect situation for the mega breweries it means that if the little guys starts to take off they can prevent

him from getting too big and then force the little guy to sell and the big guy is everybody every breath talk to understands exactly what's in play here is there an incredible irony here john in the. miller corps or corps was founded by joseph corps who became very wealthy on this and he along with the koch brothers and richard mellon scaife were the initial funders of things like berridge foundation and major republican foundations. alternately brought to power people like scott walker and the republicans in the state it was. no irony in words so well. let's be clear these folks never believed in capitalism they never believed in free enterprise what they believed in is monopolistic situation and make sure that they always win and the way they do that is by buying power and

scott walker is really at the forefront of their national project he is somebody who with his legislative allies that fitzgerald brothers who run on the assembly and state senate in wisconsin is entirely willing to craft a budget designed to reward wall of their aid to play campaign contributors and in this craft brewing issue is really just one easy to understand example of how it works but there are literally dozens throughout the budget it's incredible now if we could just shift to the primaries here are the elections that are coming up. something i'm totally baffled by why would the democrats allow primaries and why would they run multiple candidates for these seats that that may open up if the republicans can get knocked out when that dilutes the elm and the republic downs the phony democrats who are actually put up by the republican party could be coming in with millions of dollars from the cokes and others and overwhelm the real downs

in television let's bombing campaign. look this is this is complexity here where was god since tradition of open government with very weak political parties comes into conflict with the new politics of the twenty first century citizens united arrow and corporations can spend whatever they want the fact of the matter is there are always going to be primaries it's very easy to get on the ballot in wisconsin even in a recall election it only requires a you know eight hundred thousand signatures that can be done by just about anybody and so the fact of the matter is that there are going to be primaries where the democrats are trying to do is to make sure that their primaries in all of the districts so that there isn't a sort of cookie cutter there isn't sort of out and your regular pattern where you have some primaries no primaries and a lot of disarray you're trying to bring a little bit of order to essentially a disorganized process now you're right there is

a very real possibility that the big money folks the koch brothers and others may try to come in and mess with those primaries but i do want to associate tom i've been on it. john we just you just froze up and we lost you so john nichols with the nation thanks so much for being with us if you can still hear me let's hope the senate flips after next month's recall election so the democrats can finally put an end to governor scott walker's radical agenda that's frankly hurting working people in wisconsin and then when next year olds around and walker and self is eligible for recall that's now big fish. there's an inherent contradiction emerging within today's republican party for decades now republicans have been courting the religious right claiming to be the party of family values and morality and that courtship has paid off very well the polls but now as highlighted by the emergence of the tea party in the passage of ball ryan's budget plan republican party has embraced

a new ideal one belonging to iran rand and atheist who despised religious morality and one religious organization the american values network has taken notice of this new direction in the republican party and they are please take a look at an excerpt from a video that the group released recently. i am god i don't have a religion it's a sign of a psychological rudeness i regretted as evil or evil where i could just. like most every other this in the contemporary american way of life judeo christian religion you scorn churches and the concept. of these accurate criticisms yet i am picky and i mean you know m r l e t m r allocate not based on faith. joining me now for more on this issue is there except executive director of the american values network eric welcome to the program pleasure to be here first of all american

values network what's this where a face based advocacy group that works to bring the full gospel to america's public square it's called and some of the wealthiest people in america and in some cases even corporations are not only a green with iran but they're out there plugging atlas shrugged and i was babbling could it be this. that they're basically you know given that all the great religions of the world i mean just even going beyond christianity judaism into islam buddhism. islam that all of them preach mercy you know care for the poor feed the hungry heal the sick. i mean it's a universal teaching and yet these large corporations and these republican politicians were in rand are just totally opposed that could it be that they're fundamentally anti religious or moral i mean is there a more reality here that extends even beyond religion so i think they are falling in rand's teachings and just out for themselves they said that has the highest

value and what we're trying to highlight in the video is there's only one sin in the new testament take it's the divine death penalty and that's a proxy and really yes and what what is happening here is you have political leaders who are telling folks and in middle america elsewhere who are truly trying to be good people they're trying to do what's best for themselves for their families trying to be moral and they're being told if you want to be a good christian you've got to follow these teachings and yet you've got you know paul ryan who's out there you all heard clips then paul ryan comes out and on his own web page post videos saying what we need is more of iran's more out what he requires more of the staffers to exactly him and several other republicans congressman and senator ron johnson said that iran's book atlas shrugged is his foundation book and his political work so it was constant definitely is a state that pulls a lot of people but to your average christian are just i'd say any person of

goodwill you hear that and that starts to raise really serious issues in especially the republican christian base as they are trying to combine the tea party with the christian right and this ralph reed event this last week it was all about covering up those differences this is saying now folks need to pay attention and ask where these people's heart really lies i mean rand was an outspoken atheist does being an objectivist or a cause or libertarian or a follower of iran's require being an atheist she said that and that is kind of our point too we don't editorialize in this comment this is and i say no you know these are. publicans they knew somebody or whatever it is simply iran's words people who say well i'm a christian and i can follow my own rand well by definition you can't because iran taught you can't follow her and follow christ and she said that christ's teachings were evil and the root of most of the problems in today's society so if you're saying you follow both of them you clearly don't understand at least one of right

and what she what she opposed was everything that was an ethical selfishness because she felt those selfishness was the highest value corporations are organized by law to be selfish if you go back to the first as for supreme court case in the one nine hundred twenty s. when. sued henry ford because he was seen as workers five dollars a day and dodgers only paid a dollar a day he said that's wrong you can't pay them all that money and the quit the supreme court ruled that as long as what a corporation's officers are doing increases the value of a corporation for its stockholders it's legal in other words corporations by law have to be selfish so it makes sense that corporate leaders would embrace the i am brand philosophy and say christianity stuff screw that but in matthew twenty five which is to my recollection i've only read the bible four times but the only time when the disciples actually sat down jesus is that how do we get into heaven exactly said here's the list feed the hungry you know clothe clothe the naked do

the modern equivalent if you know how is the homeless. and heal the sick visit those unjustly in prison and they all freaked out because they'd never they said we've never seen you hungry we've never seen you thirsty actually didn't say feed the hungry isn't when you fed me when i was on your day when you healed me when i was sick that and they were like we never healed you when you were sick you were never sick we're not going to go to heaven and they were pulling their hair out and he said don't worry as you have done to the least of these my brother you've done to me that's the sales pitch that these republicans by and large and sometime president have been using for years and years as were followers of jesus but that's the teaching and it's the exact opposite of objectivism. libertarianism and iran how are these guys ever going to reconcile this and and how do you and and do you think that you can wake people up to this dissonance but how they're going to do it is or how they're trying to do it is how they have in the past with billions of dollars and a massive advertising communication network and finding people who are trusted by

again folks who are trying to do what's right and having those people twist twist things a little bit iran was pretty convincing at times so you pull that part out and you trick people of this what our ad tried to do what we've been trying to do is start a discussion and what she stands for you laid out perfectly is so counter to everything that jesus was about and she herself said i am standing for everything that jesus is not that people of faith they hear that we say you know some some folks like you look republican budget we're told some of them out the way you can judge somebody where their heart is by the fruits a lot of people you look at the budget you say those fruits are rotten clearly that's not in keeping with matthew twenty five another thing for so many or we could see it all day on the air but because policies get so politicized and there's so much money put into framing them you can't get through to some people in the

policies but when we say it's not just the roots that are rotten it's not just the fruits it's also the roots that are rotten there's a lot of folks especially in republican circles and moderate circles who when they hear that it's based on this totally anti christ message they they want to step back and pause think take a second look that's what we're hoping for is to raise this discussion up lead to a better faith based discussions group thanks for the great work you know pushing thank you of inviting us since republicans have enough on their plate trying to satisfy the religious right and pass an atheistic budget let's be sure not to remind them that iran herself took medicare and social six. when she became eligible and lived on them both until the day she died their heads might explode as they learned. after the break it's been one hundred years since the deadly triangle shirtwaist factory in new york was caught on fire in tonight's daily take i'll tell you how free trade is reinventing this tragic story of employer abuses all around

the world for the help of american corporations. go through. and get. into the mirror military mechanisms and do the work to bring justice and accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. but i would characterize obama as the charismatic version of american exceptionalism.

it's the good the bad of the very very insatiably ugly good utah attorney general michael shirtless after battling cancer and now being declared cancer free it's very general came out to say he is in full support of legalizing medical marijuana in an interview with the salt lake tribune. until you've experienced chemo you can't describe exactly how it feels you just suffer that's one of the reasons i understand why people who are going through a prescribe medical marijuana we can use these medicines. we can use these methods we just need to put an end to nixon's drug war first the bad michele bachmann it's looking like the are you hypnotized congresswoman from minnesota is jumping into

the race for the white house not to be outdone by temple lundy's radical new tax scheme which the bush tax cuts on steroids bachmann introduced her own plan cuts corporate taxes from thirty five percent down to nine percent even though some of the biggest corporations in america already pay zero taxes her plan also gets rid of the estate tax and the capital gains tax to taxes that really only affect millionaires and billionaires and then bachmann plans to raise taxes on people who currently don't make enough to pay taxes the poor as she said a system in which forty seven percent of americans will pay any tax and ruinous for democracy. but it's accessed in the breed's massive wealth inequality and corporate rule isn't ruinous for democracy. and a very very ugly rush limbaugh on his radio show today limbaugh is explaining who is really to blame in the winner gate scandal liberal women have

a list. what created a women his infamy winner been around his whole life he has been. oh a bunch of these kinds of women who have been attacking testosterone who have been attacking traditional male roles he's been around women to whom the idea of a real guy is so metro sexual weener did what he did because he's been surrounded with women like them for his whole adult life. for you never waste an opportunity to bash women even if the story is about a male sex worker and that's a very serious. one hundred years ago this year a fire broke out at the triangle shirtwaist factory in downtown manhattan fire killed one hundred forty six employees of the factory mostly women who were burned

alive or jumped out the windows because their exit doors on the on their floors the eighth ninth and tenth floors were locked so the women couldn't take breaks without management's permission it was the deadliest event in new york city at the time a mark that stood for ninety years until the attacks of nine eleven and it goes down as the fourth deadliest industrial incident in u.s. history but the fire highlighted was just how dangerous workplaces in america are when they lack safety regulations without regulations corporations can make enormous profits by paying workers very little and cutting corners when it comes to things like safety and for most american history up until the shirtwaist factory fire that's just what corporations did operating mostly free from government interference and regulation but the fire changed everything it shocked america. a funeral for the dead workers was viewed by nearly a half million people who were outraged at factory owners all across america who

put profits out of the lives of their workers from that point on our nation pressured politicians to pass regulations to make sure nothing like this ever happened again it led to the creation of the international ladies garment workers union which by the late seventy's one nine hundred seventy s. was on the ropes when outsourcing started to pick up steam to fight back that union produced a series of ads about how their wages were going to feed the kids and run the house here's one from one nine hundred seventy eight. there used to be more of us in the international ladies garment workers union a lot of our jobs have disappeared a lot of the clothes americans are buying for women and kids are imports are being made in foreign places when the work's done here we can support our families and higher taxes and buy the things other americans make that's what it means when the label says union. guy you say what.

doest. was. from the one nine hundred twenty s. until the reagan presidency that union grew and lobbied hard in state capitals and here in washington d.c. and lawmakers list passing a bunch of new workplace safety measures in the years after the incident and today batteries have to abide by strict fire codes employee safety standards. although today republicans are trying to do away with many of those restrictions cutting for example ninety nine million dollars out of the occupational and safety health

administration it will lead to eight thousand fewer safety inspections every year republicans are also introducing legislation that requires all government regulations to expire every two years that way they can use a filibuster when it comes time to extend regulations and kill him off for good they've already killed off the international league our lady garment workers union we no longer make clothing in the united states in the meantime corporate c.e.o.'s have found a new way to increase profits in an unregulated work environment enter free trade thanks to free trade c.e.o.'s can now just look overseas to set up new factories in places where there are fewer of those pesky regulations in other words they just ship they're trying all shirtwaist factory fire traps elsewhere out of sight and out of the mind of the american people for example in two thousand and one president george w. bush signed into law the jordanian free trade agreement opening the door to set up

shop in jordan and import products in the united states without any tariffs no taxes as if they were produced right here in the united states one business taking advantage of this new free trade agreement was a garment company named classic it specializes in making clothes mostly for wal-mart but also ains and kohl's and the gap in other products and what goes on behind closed doors at the classic factory will shock you a new report by the institute for global labor and human rights details rampant human rights abuses at the classic factory in jordan the report is titled sexual predators and serial rapists run wild at wal-mart supplier in georgia and you can probably take a guess at what the report is talking about from its title. this factory is filled mostly with women of mostly sri lankan origin because the company doesn't want to pager again ians who would likely ask for higher wages and safer working conditions

and these sri lankan women have to work thirteen hours a day seven days a week for sixty one cents an hour their passports are taken away and they're forced to live in cramped dorm rooms that don't have heat or hot water and they are infested with bedbugs but that's not even the worst of it they are also routinely subject to sexual violence they rounded up on a weekly basis and forced to have sex with managers of the factory in a nearby hotel if they refuse then they're beaten and raped and deported back to sri lanka where they become outcasts in a culture that values virginity in order to be eligible for marriage on a daily basis women are selected by the male managers for rape within the factory those who become pregnant are forced deported back to sri lanka usually after being violently beaten and their lives are literally destroyed in every sense of the word . take a look at this interview with one of the female workers at the classic factory. and what. i do with my mommy i'm going to and here. he was on the day on.

the committee that. he. would be on the other not that he's going to do that but me yet maybe i'm not about that i'm not in the bed the denali nothing that i do that in my time i know that not only has the minister of labor in jordan begin been made aware of these abuses but so too has wal-mart and the other companies that buy from classic and yet no one has done anything to stop the regular sexual assaults that's because the jordanians are afraid if they speak out then classic will shut down the factory costing jordan millions in economic activity as the factory moves to some other country that allows raping employees at this moment but half the countries in the world fall into that category you see the regular rape of these women actually helps improve profits because the women know that if they complain about working wages working hours or wages they themselves will be the next one rate this is the

ugly truth about free trade and people like thomas friedman and other globalists want you to know not only has a promoted corporate human rights abuse as we've seen in jordan and in bangladesh and it dozens of other low wage labor hotspots around the world it's made american small businesses unable to complete to compete in a global market how can small american based businesses compete against transnational corporations that use weight to maximize profits that includes a company like keynes that made over a billion dollars last year wal-mart that made more than fourteen billion dollars last year thanks in large part to buying cheap products from factories like that classic factory in jordan that uses rape to keep its employees in line. free trade has created a race to the bottom around the world for the most intimate and labor force is the least protected conditions in factories across america had dramatically improved in

the hundred years of the triangle shirtwaist factory one of the planes we shouldn't sleep any easier at night just because employee abuse is out of sight and out of mind and exists all around the world in places like jordan and bangladesh or corporate power has overtaken sovereign governments and the power of the protections offered average workers as long as so-called american corporations like walmart are dealing in abusive labor practices around the world and so too is america and the only way to put an end to that of us is for us to put an end to this so-called free trade. as the big picture first night for more information on the stories we covered visit our website it's on arbonne dot com and our team dot com also check out our you tube page at thom hartmann dot com slash the big picture i cheat on our dot com slash or you tube dot com slash and this entire show is available as a free video podcast on i tunes and don't forget democracy begins with you when you

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