to take on the millionaires and billionaires and future tax debates. drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it sort of made who can you trust no one who is in view with the global machinery to see where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called satchels when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question morning.

welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour the divide between the haves and the have nots keeps getting wider maybe matters worse is the debt limit. again as a let the richest americans and the nation off the hook next what president obama needs to do to give back the support of the american people and go after millionaires and billionaires once and for all plus you've heard it before you could learn a lot from a dummy head will talk about the specific things progress is can learn from those tea party goons in tonight's daily terror. and the details are disturbing and his defense outrages see how the sexual assault case against the self-proclaimed prophet warren jeffs is changing the way we view. polygamy and religion in this

country. as we speak right now forty six americans are on food stamps combined that was soaring poverty numbers and soaring unemployment numbers and we see a pretty grim picture of the american working and middle class and yet as we just saw in this debt limit debate it is precisely these people who are suffering around the nation and who will bear the brunt of a deficit reduction at the billionaire hedge fund manager who pays a lower tax rate than a secretary at the billion dollar oil corporation that is raking in more profits than any corporation the history of the world but still gets billions in taxpayer subsidies and not a billionaire corporate jet owners who pays lower taxes than normal jet owners and airlines republicans and half the democrats in congress let these oligarchy off the

hook even though the richest americans that they have seen their tax contributions drop to a fifty year low president obama still wants us to believe that the super congress gang of twelve in charge of finding another one and a half trillion dollars in deficit reduction in november will make the necessary tough choices to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires but is speaker of the house john boehner told c.b.s. there's not a chance. can you imagine republicans smacking increased taxes if that's what the committee recommends would think to put it that would be a stretch doesn't seem likely to me but it would even be recommended much less supported. but just like last december the billionaires in america dodged another tax bill so how long can our economy with growing wealth inequality creating a whole host of social ills how long can we sustain these historically low tax rates for the richest of the rich and what lesson can president obama learn from past presidents to get this economy working again for everyone and not just the

richest one percent here to offer some answers as samples about a associate fellow in inequality at the common good. for the common good and the common good at bay is through policy studies at editor of too much he's also the author of the book greed and good understanding and overcoming inequality the limits are alive sam welcome thank you very much tom pronouncing your name right yes thank you very much i have a chance to ask you where you can why is inequality important well any qualities is important because if we let wealth concentrate at the top we distort our society in every way that counts we distorted economically we distorted politically we distorted culturally inequality even has a great impact on how long we live all sorts of research from. just those of the scientists who study the health of population show that the more work that will concentrates the more equal

a society becomes the shorter life spans of everyone in the society and not just the poor but middle class and comfortable people swell so historically how have societies jolt with this and how do the most successful societies deal with wealth inequality well the most successful societies in the world that is the sides that are working for all their people or something close to all their people those societies tried to narrow the gap between the top and everyone else and some societies japan in sweden in the other north countries have been rather successful about that and the outcomes that people she had been have been solid and important and significant and lasting for some time and. it's interesting just an anecdote here i the interviewer i think was on bloomberg american reporter interviewing a german businessman and he kept asking him you know about his tax rate was fifty six percent or about and the american just couldn't figure out why the guy was was

not outraged and finally this fellow says to the american you probably heard the story you know. i don't want to be a rich man in a burka. tree threat and i don't understand why the tea partiers and the koch brothers in the republican party are so hell bent for leather to create a nation where the rich people or rich people in a poor country would you know tom i really think that a lot of the people who voted for tea party candidates in the last election were not voting for rich people or not voting for a nation where rich people were getting rich or they were voting in outrage against the bailouts to wall street they did was not done by the bush administration and and they didn't realize that i had said i don't think they realized because the democratic party was party to those bell. i was bad on messaging but you're right it was a bi bi partisan bring how did president obama drop the ball in this debate and

what does he like you know should he be channeling f.d.r. absolutely f.d.r. faced the situation almost identical to the situation that barack obama has faced over the past year f.d.r. in one nine hundred forty two one thousand nine hundred forty three faced a hostile congress people people now don't remember that for the one nine hundred forty two when we term elections all those g.i. couldn't vote and all those workers and what you cross the country to work and work time factories couldn't vote so the turnout was very low conservative democrats and conservative republicans were robbed built up of huge congressional working majority and f.d.r. was in trouble so f.d.r. wanted to tax equitably wanted to put in a little both tax policy and into effect and face this hostile congress and what did he do i mean did he back off and and can't compromise no he pounded the

rich again and again and again even when the republicans tied their hostage taking to work to a debt ceiling bills amazing and you know. famous that i welcome their hatred it's i have a hard time imagining president obama saying this and sam thanks so much for dropping by it's great to great to have you this yesterday the right colorado coalition turned in a petition with one hundred forty two thousand signatures of the colorado secretary of state's office clearing the way for november ballot initiative to raise sales and income taxes to nine hundred ninety nine levels that's one hundred forty two thousand coloradans who are trying to work around there republicans starve the beast state legislature and raise much needed revenue in the cash rate strapped state purpose of the tax hike is to collect three billion dollars to pump into the state's public education system it's withering under deep spending cuts as one state senator argued about the upcoming ballot measure he said by voting yes colorado will establish yourself as a national leader by reinvesting in our future our kids jobs and our economy

republican politicians may be economically stupid about taxes but the people are. it's the good the bad and the very liberals sidedly liberals sidling ugly sometimes the cavalry words are first good nancy pelosi if republicans want to play hardball with the upcoming super congress gang of twelve palosi is game she should progress is a she'll do everything she can to make sure and are not put on the chopping block in the super congress by appointing democrats to the gang of twelve who no way no how her words will support such cuts in an interview with t.p.m. pelosi said this is a priority for us i know that whoever is at that table will be someone who will fight to protect these benefits she and other progresses were thrown under the bus

by president obama in this bad deal at a feeling she won't be lepers she won't be letting herself be thrown under the bus like. the bad gretchen carlson the former beauty queen turned fox and friends talking head picked a fight was funny bob square pants this morning so called news department of education released a cartoon featuring sponge bob to teach kids about carbon pollution and global warming so of course fox so-called news went into full attack wrote. a government agency showed kids this cartoon again it out folks that play nanny for global warming but they did not tell kids that it's actually a disputed fact. because it's not in dispute in fact gretchen at least not anywhere else in the developed world except on fox news and far so-called news is trying his hardest to keep them and the very very ugly herman cain a republican who's running for president on a platform of fear in muslim be afraid be very afraid seems also to be running on a platform of economic support for honduras turns out herman cain for president t.

shirts his campaign is selling for thirty bucks a pop. around here in the united states the maiden's there on douras i suppose that's not too unreasonable and syrian almost nothing is made the us any more besides cruise missiles and tanks but what is unreasonable is cain's response when a reporter asked if he should switch to campaign gear that is made in the us instead. of the reason why i somehow didn't want me to change change either because someone says this made sense united states alone is the reason so if i have a compelling reason yes but i don't know the reason so i guess over nine percent unemployment in america is not a compelling reason for mccain to support putting americans back to work making his campaign donations but at least is his lot of thought is one hundred percent made in america by the way a.b.c. news investigated all eight republican candidates as well as the president's reelection campaign and his report of the campaign t.

shirts for newt gingrich or rick santorum or google his name ron paul and herman cain were all made outside the united states and that's a very very. crazy alert it's not the aliens it's the wallabies tasmanian farmers have been scratching their heads and looking out into the universe to find the culprits behind crop circles but now it has many officials have found the real creatures behind the farmland vandalism and their eighty's instead there's stone with wallabies that's right tasmania grows path of the world's illegal opium and the opium crops are a favorite of wallabies but munch down and then go on mind altered rock through the tasmanian parm lands beating down crops and creating elaborate crop circles one official told b.b.c. we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields getting as high as a kite and going around in circles when they crash stone sheep also been known to

get the game as well but besides stone wallabies and sheep i think there might be another culprit. thank. you. thank you. still ahead of the big picture of the polygamous trial of warren jeffs takes a strange twist inside a texas court room next i'll talk to author and writer sanjeev bhattacharya about why polygamy still exists in our society whether or not we'll see a conviction as high profile. drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions through get through to being made who can you trust no one who is in view with a global missionary see where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called

sackfuls when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more. to the republican party's presidential candidates or mormons a new lawsuit in utah seeks to decriminalize polygamy from the woman's sacred texts some interpret as recommending multiple wives for

a man to get to have it romney's great grandfather had four wives of his great great grandfather parent we had thirty was and speaking of polygamous mormon. today is day eight of the warren jeffs trial in texas jeff is the leader of the morgan mormon polygamist sect known as the fundamentalist church of jesus christ of latter day saints and he's charged with sexually assaulting two under age girls by raping he called it marien a twelve year old and impregnating a fifteen year old today prosecutors played for jurors a twenty one minute sex tape jeff jeff said recorded allegedly featuring jeffs and a twelve year old girl for the end of the tape after what sounds like heavy and jeffs is heard saying in the name of jesus christ amen to which the twelve year old echoed on that prosecution then rested its case and the attention now turns to jeffs to mount a defense all on his own because he fired his entire legal team on friday when he decided to defend himself by sermonizing to the jury and justifying the religious tenets of his church so what is it exactly that motivates jeffs and other

polygamist mormons and what could this trial mean for their community here does offer some insight his son jesus bhattacharya writer and u.s. correspondent for esquire u.k. and the author of the book secrets and wives the hidden world of mormon polygamy sanjeev welcome thanks for having me tom that's a very good thanks for joining us from our los angeles studio more than a weekend what do you make of this trial so far well you know today was kind of disturbing with the with the sex tape but you know going to say we're in this morning jeffs has been. pretty high quality entertainment for about the last eight years and it looks like he's building up to a grand finale you know the what we're seeing at the moment in the courtroom is precisely the kind of religious lunacy that he was exhibiting back in two thousand and three when he was banning everything under the sun the and i'm using books everything. he even banned laughter because he said the spirit of god would leak

out of you if you laughter that was one of his high points but you know we shouldn't be too surprised i don't think that. he is quite this doraine just firing his legal team and reading out a letter that he said was written by god and threatening everybody with sickness and death and that sort of thing because i thought he's a profit that's that's that's his that's his day job and this is kind of what profits do so he sorts in the job description he sees himself as or probably jeremiah actually would be his role model what makes people like warren jeffs and how frequently are mormon polygamists also pedophiles like giraffes well the thing about mormon polygamy is it's not one of the things that jeff said in in his kind of long rambling defense that it was a fifty five minute speech. from what i've heard he had about ten minutes

a good material any kind of drag it out but he did say that this isn't a fly by night culture this doctrine is kind of here to stay and on that front i have to agree with him i mean mormonism is strong potion it's been very resilient fundamentalism has existed outside of the law in this country now for over one hundred years now that's you know that some of the country where i don't think it's going to go anywhere. dogma is very powerful but i think one of the things that has been missed in this and i think you pointed it out is that the perception of polygamy is getting pulled in in both directions at this point but on the one hand you've got to arrange sex criminals like warren jeffs and on the other hand you've got an attempt to decriminalize polygamy by this kind of reality t.v. show family who are essentially a marketing vehicle or they may as well be for the fundamentalist lobby so we're getting into which one is the real polygamy you know is it is it sister wives or is

it warren jeffs and and you know in my book i try and explain it's actually a very broad spectrum for a small subculture it's a very warped and dysfunctional subculture it's there's good and bad amongst it and we have to accept as a society that polygamy is going to be exist how are we going to deal with it well and obviously in favor of decriminalization you are and polygamy does exist and in i believe the majority of cultures around the world and i'm not certainly endorsing it. if you just good marriage majority of cultures over north america majority of people around the world it's. right it's been it's been one of the you know the oldest kind of forms of marriage you know in our history but i want to be clear i'm not endorsing polygamy as a lovely lifestyle it's very dysfunctional and it does create. awful characters tyrannical prophets like warren jeffs sure and it should be said many other signs

you only one there's plenty of them up in use are signs you just have that the place is crawling with them yeah we are we are we have a little less than thirty seconds left just very quickly how what impact is a setting on mainstream mormonism and might it have on the candidacies of mitt romney and john. well you know i think that whenever polygamy is raised in the context of the word mormon it does damage to some extent. you know the prospects of mormon candidates you know but i think the effect of that at the same time is somewhat exaggerated and of paranoia of the l.d.s. church when it comes to polygamy. you know it's it's kind of all their own choosing to some extent sanjay thanks so much for being with us tonight thanks tom with two republican candidates for president it's mitt romney and jon huntsman practicing mormons and one of the leading voices on the far right plan back

a practicing mormon don't expect a debate over this controversial religion and its subsects its subsidy to subside any time soon. i have a mission for you and it's not impossible progressive shouldn't be fighting the tea party we should be learning from. actually we should be fighting them but not just . heading out not from there but we should be learning from their bizarro economics we shouldn't be learning from their selfish morality or their destructive idealism but instead we should be learning from how they took control of the republican party and how they forced the entire conservative establishment to lurch so far to the right if they've even dumped people like david frum if it's hope to have any shot at influencing today's democratic party and kicking out the corporate blue dog

democrats and replacing them with the real deal progressives and we need to get to work right now and do exactly what the tea party did a year and a half ago to take power and it starts in our own backyards let me introduce you to the concord project a right wing organization in charge of getting out the vote for republicans last year the concord project expanded their get out the vote strategy beyond just traditional phone banking canvassing and putting of both republican signs they decided to infiltrate local politics by encouraging tea partiers and conservatives to become precinct committeemen here's their pitch what's the most powerful political office in the world it is not the president of the united states it's precinct committeemen i so why is a precinct committeemen so important. first because precinct committeemen and only precinct committeemen get to elect the leaders of the political parties if you

want to elect the leadership of one of the two major political parties in this country then you have to become a precinct committeemen. as in politics starts at the bottom it starts with precinct committeemen and women people who are either appointed or win local elections with very few votes at stake in some cases ten or twenty votes positions that pretty much anyone can hold the positions that wield enormous power it's precinct committeemen and women who elect district county and state party officials and delegates who choose primary nominees that then go on to hold elected office and who helped draft the parties for so if far right tea partiers move in and take over precinct committeemen and win seats and they'll also nominate a slew of tea partiers told higher offices within the republican party and for primaries that was their pitch and those tea party republican party primary candidates would then be winnowed down in the primary to one tea party republican

to run against the democrat in general election that was their pitch and it worked control the primaries and the precincts committee people do and you control the ultimate candidate election and ultimately the nation as we saw this week when the tea party republican freshman who were elected because of a strategy blew up john boehner deal with obama to raise taxes. here's a video from january of two thousand and ten the same concord project representative encouraging the tea party to do exactly what i just described. this video is for all the people out there tea party. robbers speranza which is for people who are really fearful of what's going on in the country. want to do something six. what was. the best way to ensure that good conservatives win that all important primary election it's become a real ball player the ball game of politics that ball game it's called party

politics and this is a secret they don't want the party establishment and the incumbents don't want you to know about this and that's why i'm telling the whole only precinct committee controlled to elect party leaders only precinct can vote forced to do so again that was in two thousand and ten eleven months before the elections in two thousand and eight half of the republican party's precinct committee positions around the country were vacant but today motivated by the efforts of people like the concord project the tea party has swept in to fill the gaps they filled up the republican party and we saw the results of the can a precinct committee take over last year when tea party candidates were i mean away on a nearly every ballot around the country and actually picking up eighty seven new seats in the u.s. house of representatives and nine new seats in the senate and even though the tea party doesn't control

a majority within the republican party in congress they do control the republican party's platform because they have the control of the precinct committees and therefore progressives need to do the same thing only within the democratic party. if we've learned one thing over the last few years it's that the democratic party has shifted to the center and it's a stablish what is unwilling to adopt real progressive change when it comes to things like health reform energy reform and election reform just to name a few and as we saw in the bush tax cut debate last year and the recent debt limit debate this unwillingness to stand up and fight is leading to an endless stream of republican victories and the dismantling of programs that progress is fought so hard for over the entire last century we have been too often losing these fights and to win them it takes more than union protests in wisconsin or us uncut demonstrations on wall street or activism against

a member of congress although those are all important but to really take power like the tea party did in one short year it'll take an infiltration of the democratic party itself through claiming precinct committee positions if this year starting now we execute the exact same strategy the tea party did last year and we can move the democratic party back to its progressive roots and finally see the progressive reforms that we've been fighting for so here's your assignment mr and mrs phelps should you decide to accept it we have fifteen months before the next election and your mission is to show up at your local democratic party headquarters actually begin the infiltration as always should you or any of your team be caught or killed my producer shawna and sam will disavow any knowledge of your actions this video will self-destruct in three seconds good luck.

that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website at time arvin dot com free speech dot org and. also check out our two you tube channels there are links to thom hartmann dot com and this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free tom hartman i phone i pad app at the app store he said the speed back to twitter and tom underscore are both on facebook and tom underscore our top blogs message boards and telephone comment line. and don't forget democracy begins with you when you show up when you participate become a committee person tag you're it suitable.

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