and at the cemetery read is too damn high party expect a low voter turnout. going up i'll tell you who the real freeloaders in our economy are and what everyone needs to see to understand the heist that has screwed up. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions. made who can you trust no one who is in view with the global machinery see where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called sasha when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more.

welcome back to the big picture on thom hartmann coming up in this half hour today corporate america is the biggest welfare recipient in our country that wasn't always the case i'll tell you how organized money has been able to pull off the biggest ice the american dream and his bunga bunga sex party days may be over silvio berlusconi is back in the headlines today but this latest development is not up to his usual colorful standards and later in tonight's dealy take i'll tell you

otherwise of a new global empire maybe the best thing that's ever happened to the united states at least in generations. republicans such as sarah palin and paul ryan really hate crony capitalism and welfare than they should join the occupy wall street according to a new report by citizens for tax justice not only are massive highly profitable corporations not paying their fair share in taxes but they're collecting great big fat welfare checks as well and no industry is collecting more corporate welfare from you and me the taxpayer than wall street bankers rake in seventeen percent of all the taxpayer subsidies that our government dishes out utility companies come in second telecommunications third and the oil barons are in fourth place when it comes to collecting taxpayer subsidies and over the last three years the largest

single recipient of federal subsidies was none other than mega bank wells fargo i guess now we really know who the takers are and who the makers are. but it wasn't always this way the government wasn't always in the business of padding the pockets of big business used to be in the business of protecting the middle class and then something happened that something is the subject of a new film it'll soon be hitting theaters and can serve as the historical and intellectual backdrop for the entire i could buy wall street movement that movie is called heist who stole the american dream joining me now this country is working for the richest people delete them from nobody else. this is been the greatest wellspring turn in history at least the american time if not mankind this is honestly the folks who are in charge of earnings economy. red

light red light red light and caused car wreck after karmic after karma and no one can account for hasn't even been a conversation. for thirty years we've been turning up fifty on average americans slowly and it's been turned up at such a slow pace that if you say this is a crisis people look at you as if you we're when the majority of the american public can no longer feed their families when they had a crisis and that's where we're headed. joining me now from los angeles of the filmmakers behind heist journalist and former c.n.n. news editor frances causey and veteran social issues filmmaker donald goldwater welcome to you both. thank you tom thanks for joining us. with you donald what provoked you to get involved in making this movie. well it

began with francis actually starting out in the southern part of arizona making a film about undocumented workers who were being picked up by ice we're talking in the desert and then we happen to cross paths in the spring of two thousand and six and she brought the film might mention it's it's remarkable francis when did this shift happen when did our governments stop promoting the middle class and start basically promoting big business. well it really all begins in the early seventy's with a secret memo called the powell memo and from that organized business in the form of the business roundtable in the u.s. chamber of commerce begin this massive lobbying effort and so by nine hundred seventy eight jimmy carter has already begun the deregulation of industry

and really probably the seminal moment came with the defeat of a major labor reform bill as a result of lobbying by big business outspent labor three to wine and then it was it was a beginning of reaping the spoils is there anything in him in american history of it's analogous to what's going on right. francis or well. you know i think what is happening now is pretty much on precedent it even though if you laissez faire capitalism in the united states in the nineteenth century and of course leading up to the great depression with the crush of the stock market in one thousand twenty nine you could say big business certainly had its way then. and ordinary people didn't have a force but what's happened here is you've had

a major reversal of fifty years of progressive legislation at federal level beginning with the new deal that has systematically been eroded and with an amazing rise of the right wing heavily funded by on a number of corporate millionaires and billionaires that starts in the one nine hundred seventy s. so you see the emergence of heritage foundation cato and cetera et cetera et cetera and these are as the film for in south through david cay johnston these are ideological marketing organizations they are not nonpartizan think tanks as you would find them on campuses francis is pretty unprecedented if francis on this program and many of our conversations and debates we've pointed out that when a conservative buys a politician basically or you know runs them or. that they're making an investment

in it because they're going to get that back in tax cuts or tax breaks or benefits to their corporation we're as when a liberal flat philanthropist donates to to a progressive politician they're actually going to see their own taxes go up there's there's arguably not a good business deal in that for them so given how how circular this is how deeply entrenched the force of money is and how successful that money is that actually succeeding the corruption back you know the cycle how do we break it out and how do we how do we extract ourselves. well i think you know you have to have public funding of elections i mean senator sanders is wonderful in the movie talking about that and robert crandall the former chairman of american airlines is in the movie saying you know people go want to hear this but lobbyists are buying votes and so you've got to take money you've got to take money out of politics as best you can

one of the things that i've it's not in the film but you know i'd love to put it out there is you know make broadcast stations give free airtime to politicians you know i think they've got to be some way it's got to be some way where we can instantly take money a huge amounts of money that it takes to become you know to to get elected you've just got to take it out of the cycle and donald how does how does the movie play with this the wrong way to phrase the question but this extraordinary coincidence of your movie coming along and the occupy wall street movement coming along with very very similar messages i'm curious your thoughts on that resonance or the incidence. well we premiere the film on our tour for thirteenth and go valley california the novelli film festival and the audiences were just staggered by. the coincidence as you put it

of the movie coming out along with occupy wall street coming out on september seventeenth a few weeks before and that that is been the consistent message from everybody who's had a chance to see the film thoughts for which really numbers in the hundreds of this film has not yet been broadly released but everybody is stunned by how the movie totally overlaps with this occupy wall street movement you know we didn't time our release in connection with the merchants of occupy wall street but what we didn't know when we started out making this film was there was going to be an economic collapse we didn't know exactly when it was going to happen but we didn't know what was going to happen in fact robert kuttner in this book the squandering of america released in august two thousand and seven predicted it would

happen as did a number of other. progressive economists who were not prone to the right wing messaging machine if you will about how wonderful our economy was and ironically we were on wall street we were in new york the week that wall street collapsed the week of september fifteenth two thousand and so so we've had two amazing coincidences of this film that's the story marvelous and the film is brilliant and disclosure i'm i'm the narrator and so i just know less than anybody. but but even if i was i would die i just want to say i think it's an absolutely brilliant film francis thank you both so much for being with us tonight and for making this movie thank you thanks for joining us and you can learn more about it by the way by going to heist dash the movie dot com.

that's the good the bad of a very very supine you know vale of lee hardly good. farrago walang mill you will factory in minnesota has been a community staple since the one thousand hundreds employing local workers and shipping american made world blankets and other products all over the world that was until two thousand and nine when the factory went under and the company and all its machinery was slated to be sold in offshore pakistan has been to customs. stepped up at the last minute walk the company and reopened again in fair bobus minnesota putting many of the men and women in the right back to work in the factory currently the company has thirty five employees but expects to be up to fifty by the end of the year and the new owners hope that others will follow their lead. people are a little tired of hearing me. you know it is going overseas call of duty went on to

say we're going to do it here and i think that message can hopefully carry over to other industries and get back to manufacturing here in the united states well set time to bring back american manufacturing the bad suffolk county new jersey new york jumping on the austerity bandwagon suffolk county is making some tough budget cuts in particular one budget cuts surely children and one old war veteran in suffolk county disappointing county has decided to save six hundred bucks by doing away with santa claus this year that means eighty three year old world war two veteran david mackell who's gonna say have a suit and suffolk county over the last ten years is out of a job so g.o.p. t.v. also known as fox so-called news is looking for a ground zero in the war on christmas this year send a satellite truck to suffolk county a.s.a.p. but we have a second good tonight as an update to the story steve bologna who is running for

suffolk county executive at the polls today has announced that he will pay said his expenses with his own money to make sure the local kids don't miss out on the annual tradition of visiting santa after county run st james' general store the oldest continuously running general store in the county campaign gimmick or not mr blunt has to be given credit for saving christmas and so on and the very very ugly greg got feel the rising star over a g.p. g.o.p. t.v. explained if i can use viewers what the difference is between the tea party in occupy wall street. tea partiers in a sense makers occupy wall street are takers but here we go again with five so-called muses makers versus takers argument pitting americans against americans considering the tea party takes their orders from millionaires takes free bus rides to tea party rallies takes all the free swag and tea party convention sponsored by corporations and billionaires and takes all the free. the from fox so-called news meanwhile occupy wall street has had two from the beginning and continues to make

everything themselves from campsites to b.d. attention even general consensus and he got field has his makers versus takers distintion upside down and that's very. true as kone alerts what do you do when you're a small time crook and former cruise ship lounge singer who went into business with a partner now in prison and bought a radio station then a t.v. station then a newspaper then another radio station then another t.v. station then no the newspaper then a radio network going to t.v. network and you end up owning about ninety five percent of the media scene in italy . what silvio berlusconi did was created his own political party he did all that stuff too that i just described a moment ago and once he created his own political party ran for prime minister with his billions and the full support of his own wholly own versions of box dues foxx radio and box newspaper and surprise he won three times and through scandal

after scandal each one more blush inducing than the last and accusations of corruption and conflicts of interest that would have brought most powerhouses down in one news cycle there was gone he has managed to keep his office and his billions and now apparently at something as arcane is the economy it's doing him in earlier today berlusconi offered to resign after the italian parliament passes a key economic reform bill as the country teeters on the brink of a full blown debt crisis in a highly anticipated parliamentarian showdown berlusconi won a budget vote on tuesday but only after the opposition abstain this showed the political defections among his own supporters and left him roughly eight votes short of a majority in parliament leaving him vulnerable to a no confidence vote it could be forced on him by the opposition and sometimes wednesday suppose him. anyone who has miraculously won more than fifty no confidence votes over nearly two decades in power is about to become or may be

about to become the highest profile political victim of europe's roiling debt crisis because this truly is a case of the and justifying the means. after the break china is set to become the next economic superpower in the world so why is that a good thing i'll explain in tonight's daily to. what drives the world of fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions come to people who can weigh who can you trust no one who is in view with the global machinery see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more.

your take my take is the segment of the show when we answer your questions comments criticisms and opinions heard here on the big picture jack called the viewer rant line recently to bring to my attention a video that has gone viral and the blogs are. the police were dressing up in you know in civilian clothes and becoming part of the protest and there is definitive proof with the police that were dressed as protesters and showing them

as protesters and men in uniform at a later date so that might be something to look at because it seems pretty clear. that the that there was violence instigated by somebody very likely could have been the use of these law enforcement infiltrators. and here's a look at the video that jack was just talking. to make sure the next on. her. her. her. her her.

i think. maybe even the right. thing we have not been able to independently verify if the individuals in the video are in fact members of the oakland police department none of the officials we contacted to comment on the story but the video is quite compelling point here is that the patriots who are out there in oakland and new york city and here in washington d.c. and hundreds of other occupy wall street protests around the country are most mostly out there peacefully protesting the corporate greed and conservative

economic policies that landed us in the middle of a national tragedy with massive unemployment over twenty million people now living in severe poverty confrontations with the police and violence of any kind only detract from that message in fact organizers of occupy oakland as well as organizers of most of the other ninety nine percent protests across the country have all disavow the violence and vandalism that unfolded in open last week we have to be very wary of fringe groups whether they be undercover police or anybody else will try to manipulate what can often be frustrating and situations to push their own agendas. and this is the message that filmmaker and activist michael moore reiterated during his impromptu visit to occupy denver last week. yes. proc or third or fourth or i'll have

a watch or something if you. have got. her a member of this group trying to. generalize. that person to oh ok. so get out there an occupy something just do your part to keep it feet peaceful that's it for my take your take tonight if you'd like your questions and comments heard on this segment of the picture also we want to know your to send us your comments but visiting the tom harkin facebook page via twitter account underscore apartment or in the chat room on the message boards or the blog thom hartmann doug can also leave a message on a rant line to achieve by three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound on its all welcome to remember that your comments may be used on the year.

according to the international monetary fund china will overtake the united states as the world's top economy in just five years i'm twenty sixteen it will be the end of the american empire as we know it and it will be the best news our nation has received in a very very long time from our military misadventures abroad to our crumbling infrastructure and woefully slow start on adopting alternative energy here at home to our reliance on banks toure's in their boom bust cycles to the loss of made in america manufacturing the corruption of our media and the disintegration of accountability in our government. there were numerous troubling sign posts along our nation's road to ruin but many of these dangers are lurking just below the surface and not generally a top of mind for most americans but in two thousand and sixteen when china becomes the new top power player in the world economy then will no longer be able to ignore

america's fall from grace and on that day we'll have to look ourselves in the mirror and say you know maybe this whole empire thing was a bad idea from the getgo empire is cancer every single nation that has decided to extend beyond its borders to pursue empire has also succumbs to it what happen to the greeks it happened the romans it happened to the vikings it happened of the spanish the french the british the germans the soviets the vatican the ottoman empire no empire that has ever existed still exists today aside from the united states and our clock is ticking that's because empire depends on three things bread and circus and war war is

a critical component of all empires since it employs the young citizens of the empire and brings back home critical resources to keep the empire expanding for the romans for example were brought wood and slaves for the spanish war broader goal and slaves for us were brings or oil and banks of these natural resources from abroad the bread to feed citizens at home and the circus to keep everyone entertained it can all keep the holders of empire in power all across the employer . but like a cancer this continuous growth and parasitic existence of empire of the idea and the reality of it is unsustainable eventually the places they can easily be ward upon are vanquished or they begin to fight back as was the case of

the british empire when the american colonies revolted and their colonies in india revolted against the british as well and without war without a steady influx of more gold or more wood or more slaves or more oil than the empire runs out of the ability to produce bread and circuses. and the empire begins to unravel that's where we are today here in the united states in the middle of the great unraveling where early on these collapse these collapses painless they often lead to great depressions civil wars military takeovers but we may be able to avoid the traumatic collapse if we begin planning for the transition right now first we must realize that our nation was never intended to be a great empire thomas jefferson dreamed of america as a self-sufficient peaceful agrarian nation he debated the future of america at

length with one of his chief political rivals alexander hamilton who envisioned the united states as a global empire that would soon supplant the british empire ultimately hamilton's vision won out and the united states did replace britain as a great empire and thus caught the cancer that is claimed the life of every other empire in history it's not too late to return to jefferson's vision not only is it not too late it may well be our only hope as we stand on the precipice of collapse. if if china wants to be the next empire if they want to carry the cancerous burden of being a superpower then let them make the same mistakes we've made because when it comes to empire we have been there done that and wrote the book and it's time to move on

just like every other nation that has been an empire as eventually moved on from britain to the vikings norway to germany and experienced a rebirth and an overall better quality of life today than they had when they were emperor it's time to dust off the old jefferson books and figure out how to be a respected self-sufficient and exceptional nation in the world and not the police officers that the era of american dominance may be ending but out of an american renaissance a boom. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we've covered visit our website at thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org and our to dot com you can also check out our two you tube channel or links to tom hartman dot com this entire show is also available as a free video podcast and i tunes and we have a free tom hartman i phone i pad app at the apps and some of the feedback on

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