we never got those two for keeping safe get ready for freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so bleak you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here sees some other part of it and realize that everything is all. part of the big. four. ft.

walton back to the big picture and charm are been coming up in this half hour another look at some of the big picture stories we've covered in recent months on this show that had you the viewer buzzing on our you tube pages in our blogs and over get to log on it's on arbonne dot com to find out about all the different ways you can send us your questions comments and rants about these stories and anything else that goes on here at the big picture or on my radio show.

it looks like another republican has read the story of robin hood backwards and is stealing from the poor to give to the rich michigan residents are getting screwed over by their governor rick snyder yesterday republican snyder signed into law legislation that would cut six weeks from unemployment benefits every state in the country currently pays out twenty six weeks of benefits right now michigan will lead the way and ate out only twenty weeks and that's a state that's had higher than ten percent unemployment rate for longer than any other state in the country in other words the state with the worst unemployment numbers also treats the unemployed the worst. as u.s. congressman sander levin says about the move it turns the clock back fifty years at a time when unemployment is at its store highs since the great depression i call it the republican great depression not only does governor of snyder's bill amount to

nothing less than a war against poor people he also fails to realize the pain out unemployment benefits helps to boost economic activity and get people back to work this is just heartless it's bad economic policy. but i get it the other snyder has to take money out of someplace like poor people's pockets in order to pay for his two hundred million dollars bad big corporations and their fact can't c.e.o.'s so let's see the effect of these republican economic policies in our little city here in the studio democracy this is our back to democracy bill we've been here before and there's basically two competing theories of economics that are being played out the democrats are playing demand side which is how economics of work for six thousand years the republicans are playing supply side which is how economic support for the last thirty years which is one of the reasons we're in such deep trouble now with

to start out with demand side this is this is how it actually works here is here's a little town that has been basically devastated by the bush great depression that we're experiencing right now we have just a couple of homes here we've got a farm or the little you know a field out here. and. a little grocery store supermarket and so not much happy people are out of work right they they're just scraping by so we come in as the government and we say ok we're going to give you some unemployment money we're going to do the opposite of what rick snyder is doing because you're an employer and here's some cash we're going to give that to the homeowners so the homeowners then take some of that cash and they then they go to the supermarket and they buy things and the owner of the sewer and they you know they're buying things from those who are in the owner of the supermarket and course has to give some money to the farmer the farm now is making money and they say you know gee maybe we ought to buy something from like you know

a store i mean let's let's actually you know get the a.t.'s lawn service out here and fix up our you know the help clean up the farm and make it look better and you know let's. buy some shoes and things and it's not. the farmer by the way because you know these people have some money too and in fact and so then you know it's a let's open a shoe store let's open a clothing store you know put some then you know put some on it because there's demand now because there's money circulating in the environment let's let's open this restaurant here just southeast let's let's open juice at his restaurant and they're going to get some now what happens when all these small businesses open they all need employees so they're going to give money from them to the people in the houses they're going to say come back to work and so you get more houses and more people move in and they've got jobs because they're working for these people here and what has happened is they have a little bit of money that was put in to jumpstart the thing in terms of either you

know food stamps less welfare payments were unemployment payments that little bit about money going to going to the store and the farmer and to these other stores then circulates and creates what's called a virtuous cycle in economics as i said this is economics one hundred one this is and the story basically in the epic of gilgamesh written six thousand years ago about a city state or now here's the conservative supply side theory their theory is that that's all nonsense and that instead what you should do is take all the money and you should give it to the rich people who just give it to the rich people there you go guys have a pile of money and supply and then the rich people will do something with that money well it turns out most that with the rich people do and of course you give a bunch of money to big corporations you say please create some jobs but the rich people the corporations are going ok thanks for the money we're going to take that money and we're going to stick it to bank. and it's just going to sit there in the

bank. and i mean you know maybe they'll buy a few things one of these stores might be gucci's basically there's not a y. economic activity being created by this and so what happens is because there's no economic activity going on you know all of these are starting to and particularly if a lot of money is going to big corporations so we end up with monopolies they're putting out of business the small companies are just knocking them over because you know everybody's just vine from the big chains the big corporations that got the giants actually breaks that the little companies they didn't get giant text breaks and so what happened even the giant supermarkets you know and you know knocking them out about a business and so happens is you know the people are now in a crisis because they're getting laid off because of the consolidation of the big corporations and because these giant corporations by the way are shipping the jobs overseas and so people you know are losing their homes and you people are committing suicide suicide rates actually go up the b.b.c.

did a spectacular one hundred year analysis of suicide rates in the u.k. and australia and they found that that whenever conservative governments came in suicide rates went up one of the liberal governments came in suicide rates so you have more suicides now on the other hand you may have more households because you know when you have poverty as poverty increases in the united states as inequality increases teenage pregnancies go up so maybe you were going to add a house back here because we've got you know these extra babies coming on line but they're very very poor babies i mean you can forget about the money the money's been sucked up. by all the rich guys over here who are putting it in the bank and by the way the bank might not even be in the united states the buy bank might be in switzerland that's for the for taking that money and putting it in in u.b.s. you know we're we're phil graham the guy who you know graeme least while in the commodity futures modernization act he's on the board of directors or at least was so this is the difference between these two systems between demand side economics

and supply side economics. how supply side economics whites entire economies which is why in the last thirty years eighty percent of all the growth of our economy of all the money all the benefits eighty percent in the last thirty years has gone to the top one percent of americans and the average american today the average american worker today is making twenty seven hundred dollars less per year than he was making when ronald reagan came into office they've been stealing us blind it's an insane theory it's time to put it to bed it's time to put it to you and you know give it a nice funeral let's go back to classical economics. and . we have another new segment for you and i regular listeners of my radio show are familiar with the geeky science segment i've been doing for eight years my chance to share what i think is a really interesting science story every week science news is reporting this week

that stone age this is the story by the way the stone age human ancestors living in south africa's pinnacle point they have learned to keep track of the tides it was from tides in order to harvest shellfish and their access to this food source which is bringing food extraordinarily may have played an important role in human evolution archaeologist from arizona state university their phone artifacts in a cave in south africa that attests to complex thinking and behavior including lunar literacy in other words you know when about now actually keeping records keeping track of the moon and the cycles of the moon and ritual activities these findings challenge the longstanding view that stone age people did not really think abstractly or perform complex rituals until about fifty thousand years ago so here's the deal you know one of the big questions is always been why are humans the only primates who have who are basically paralysed below their heads other than the

air. is where the water lines would be like you know if you were moving through the water why you know why would that be why why is it that humans are the only mammal the only the only primate anyway that can give birth under water and the babies that we give birth to under water are they have a lot of fat into their skin unusual for mammals and for primates but it would insulate them in cold water and the baby can actually breathe underwater and not not breathe the baby can live under water without breathing as long as the umbilical cord still attached babies can swim at birth human babies can swim birth other primates can't and and a lot stephen jay gould famous of scientists he's now deceased suggested that there was this thing called the change to the darwin's theory of evolution called punctuated equilibrium that what would happen was that every now and then you know evolution might move along slowly but every now and then there would be some kind of a horrible disaster that would happen and ninety nine percent of all the members of

a species could be bacteria or it could be people who get wiped out and that one percent to survive were there once or one percent who carried with them an adaptation a gene a mutation that allowed them uniquely to survive the aquatic ape had a hypothesis suggests this that basically there was some kind of awful thing that happen one hundred sixty five thousand years ago like a drug can take volcanic event huge wildfire in we had produced climate change huge wildfires swept across africa or possibly the surrounded by darkness and things didn't grow whatever it was the wild animals came to the sea coast looking for food and humans went into the water and literally we stood arse between the sea shore up to our necks for a generation or two and the only humans who survived were those who were relatively arable so they were well adapted to the water and who could give birth in the water it's an interesting theory nobody really knows it's very controversial you can google. it and find out more about it.

crazy alert yet philip with over chavez in an attempt to squash talk that he may now be fit to run for reelection after undergoing cancer treatments then as well and president chavez has released a workout video to show just how it healthy he really is plank by his cabinet members shot as offers of some exercise tips complete with a techno soundtrack and countdowns he also says that a healthy mind and body lead to a healthy government and i exactly any eggs but it's not a bad workout schedule unclear where chavez got the work idea from but expect other embattled world leaders to follow the next up sweating to the longer bugger beats with silvio berlusconi or maybe he'd be more comfortable demonstrating his natural .

drives the world of fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions through that through to people who can you trust no one who is in view with noble mission to receive where we had a state controlled capitalism is called. when nobody dares to ask you r t question more. for. five.

your chance your questions comments ranson observations about anything we talk about here. in my radio show as by chance to give you my take on it one more time our first comment is a message from the viewer rant line one viewer makes an interesting observation that perhaps the republican position during the negotiations on the debt ceiling speaks to the fundamentals of the party's ideology about the role government should play in running this country it would be america people would have learned that when they left the party who says that they don't believe in government. that they were absolute go. to the point they can't run government because they don't

believe him can you what the republicans would have learned. in the ninety's under clinton. under. the old malcolm about goes to learn from history are doomed to repeat it doesn't apply in this country anymore well doug actually it does apply and i think that you just made that point. kind of backwards but i think you're right and i think that our failure to learn from the lessons of history are playing right into the republican strategy to take this country as far away from traditional democratic values both small d. and large as possible the the president has been talking as i mentioned in my rant a little bit ago about transitional presidents and compromise and how wonderful and how important all that is i think frankly it's time to return to the core values that this country was founded on and that built this country in the built the great middle class during the middle part of the twentieth century we've wandered away

from those values when we went into greed is good you're in the first few years of the reagan administration and elevated billionaires to to very high status people you know starting with reagan's inaugural ball and you know it's i kind of like jimmy carter walk into. any our next comment is also from the brand this viewer called to share her outrage about the lack of shared sacrifice from wealthy corporations and the millionaires and billionaires have become the patrons speaking of today's republican party. ok for milli vanilli to attack the corporations that are wealthy it's just unbelievable that this country and get away with the republican shabbath they put upon the country of the people we didn't do that. the majority of analysts agreed today and the debt deal struck last night between the white house and the republican leadership was overall a win for the g.o.p. because the republicans achieved drooled rules they avoided tax increases and they got a dollar for dollar cut in spending to match the amount by which the debt limit is

going to be raised so you know this is a this is a real problem and if president obama was going into this full tilt boogie gun. oh as jane had jane hamsher is suggesting and i think all of us need to take a serious look at what's going on here and ask ourselves what what is what it what what differentiates the parties anymore what does the democratic party stand for and if it doesn't stand for social security and medicare for example what does it stand for and our last comment tonight is from the message board over tom hartman. of office is often said that a person and a political party's ideology stems from their perspective on the world depends on whether you view the world through a window as in what's in it for me or how will i benefit from the situation or but the you view the world through a wee window as in how will the situation impact the greater good and this viewer

asks what's what is it in us that makes us one way or the other perfect conditioning it seems is the distinction between selfishness and sharing between caring for all the people as opposed to caring for only a few between empathy and cold indifference for the needy among us it's like the story of the good samaritan what is it that makes one behave in such a way contrary to the group to me it's what defines what has been historically democratic and today progressive and i think the poster actually meant the democratic to be a capital d. but in any case america was founded as a we society we're nation of barn builders i know daniel boone is the great icon you know the guy who just puts on the screws him capitated his rifle and goes out to the wilderness but even daniel boone. paddick had a community even daniel boone was educated even even the great rugged individualists have been part of our society humans are social animals and the idea that we're aware of me society and that's the way it should be and that we're not

a we society and we've never been is just wrong as as as humans as mammals as you know fellow citizens of planet earth we have always been we society and every human civilization that has ever succeeded and the only way back to tribal times has always been based on a core concept of we're all in this together and now that we're all in it together addle at the global level with things like global climate change we really need to be considering that we're all in it together that we society and dump this crazy libertarian whack a doodle notion of oh it's just me my and that's it it's just doesn't work that'll do it for your take my take tonight if you'd like your comments and questions heard in this segment of the big picture listen up we want to know your to send us your comments by visiting the facebook page twitter at tom underscore hartman are in the

chat room on the message boards and through the blog at thom hartmann dot com you can also leave a message on our rant line at two two five three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound off its all welcome or remember that your comments may be used on the air. you know nature hates vacuums and so does government republicans appear to have won the debt limit debate successfully getting trillions of dollars in spending cuts and bringing us all closer to their vision of a miniature sized pocket government but one thing everyone seems to forget is that as government power shrinks something else has to fill that power vacuum. and that something is always historically been the or has always been historically the power of either great wealth of corporations since the birth of our nation corporations have slobbered of the idea replacing government they were hungry for the billions

they could skim off the top of privatizing social security or the money they could make from medicare or the massive profits they could make if they don't have to follow pollution limits anymore and in one nine hundred eighty these power thirsty corporations backed ronald reagan and set out to smear the good name of government they figured if they could just get the american people to buy into the idea that government was broken and ineffective and they could we will or we had a power and faced and today many americans have also bought into this idea and surprise the corporations are moving in today far too many of us see this theater of ineptitude on capitol hill and think the government is never work and never will and therefore we should starve the government and scrap it all together and it's not just what's going on in congress it's what's going on everywhere feeling public schools the debt ridden united states postal service here bankrupt

amtrak bailed regulators and wall street incompetent oversight of oil rigs mismanaged disaster relief black hole pentagon spending soaring medicare prices we see government programs failing all around us and nobody trumpets these failures like the republican party whose members could barely spit out five words without putting out a government program that they've broken so badly that it's no longer working. that's why people hang teabags on the tricorder hats and scream of a governor so i drove as if young people thought behind ron paul lap up every word about dismantling federal departments and that's why the frame of debate in america has shifted from what should we be spending money on to what should we be spending less money. that's why this debt limit deal is all spending cuts not because cuts are good for the economy but because we've all bought into the same idea. this strange notion that government not only doesn't work but can't ever work and it's

the wrong idea it's not even the idea that this country was founded on. the truth is it's not government that doesn't work it's when republicans run government that it doesn't work. i had historian thomas frank on my show recently talk about republican run government here's what he had to say. cynicism pays massive dividends to conservatives and what's creepy about this is that it's sort of self-fulfilling so conservatives tend to deal in very bad government the the they govern very poorly there's one line from the wrecking crew that i always like to repeat because it could never get out there enough and it's from a it's from a guy who is the president of the u.s. chamber of commerce back in the one nine hundred twenty s. and he said in an interview that i found in a very popular magazine from the late one nine hundred twenty s. the best public servant is the worst one nobody's ever said it quite that bluntly since and you can find echoes and i do in the book i find echoes of this remark

right up to the present day i mean conservatives say this sort of thing all the time you don't want competent people in government you don't want because if you get government works if you have smart people in government people know what they're doing in government works for the public will trust government then you won't have the cynicism you won't you know things things will work and then you know if that's the democrats will be elected you know that it's it's their right there if people find out the government programs work the democrats will get elected so for the last thirty years since reagan republicans have been busy running government. good name right into the ground hiring inept bureaucrats corporate cronies to get its people and the government can't do its job and give the republican party exactly what it needs to keep getting reelected a platform of government doesn't work so they can defund government and replace function functions like social security with their buddies on wall street. but it wasn't always like this republican president dwight eisenhower presided over

a time in america when government programs worked and as he told his brother in a letter and i. fifty four should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear that party again in our political history there's a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things a few texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas but their number is negligible and they are stupid. eisenhower new government worked and that enrich the lives of everyone in america and anyone who wanted to get rid of it was just plain stupid but after thirty years of bad government courtesy of the modern republican party we've all gone stupid and even president obama was just barely twenty years old when ronald reagan won the white house can't remember the days when government worked and the american people would revolt against those who were trying to dismantle it. that's probably why he's gone along

with the tea party really every step of the way bowing to their demands rather than just calling them stupid like eisenhower did. but the tea party and ron paul fanatics fail to understand. is that is the government is the only thing that stands in the way of corporate power. what do you want between you and your doctor to paraphrase the eternal question for the health care debate the government you can petition an elector on elect or a for profit health insurance corporation whose c.e.o. will have you arrested if you try to visit his office to talk with. what you want keeping an eye on our environment and government scientists working for you are exxon mobil's a lobbyist working for them the reason why republicans won this debt limit debate is the same reason they've won nearly every single economic debate in the last thirty years in america and that reason is we've offered gotten the america of the middle twentieth century a time when government actually worked and if we don't remember it soon if the tea

party zombies and ron paul worshippers don't really come up from this collective amnesia. and the corporations will take full control of america and i can promise you whatever problems you may have with uncle sam today will pale in comparison to the institutionalized crying of united states of for example enron. exxon mobil goldman sachs. and that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our websites of. free speech dot org and our team also check out our two youtube channel is there a link to tom hartman dot com this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free thom hartmann i phone and i pad app in the app store you can send us feedback at twitter at tom underscore harben on facebook at underscore hartman on our blogs message boards and telephone comment line at tellme dot com and don't

forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag your it see the. wealthy british.