welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour last month a u.s. army soldier allegedly massacred seventeen afghan citizens of what could be is a trustee of war have to do with wall street's foreclosure crisis and the one percent a war on middle america also there's more to music than meets the year how could listening to music help make the lives of alzheimer's patients better and even slow the progression of the disease and internets daily take are you back to the ideals of harry truman who phony democrats from congress and return the party to its progressive roots.

in the eyes of the rest of the news in two thousand and eight wall street got bailed out and all what homeowners got sold out and now it's the children who are the biggest victims of the ongoing housing crisis cording to a new report from first focus and the brookings institution more than eight point three million children are facing the direct consequences of home foreclosures already more than two million children have seen their homes foreclosed on since two thousand and eight and another six million children are at risk of being foreclosed on in california alone more than a half million children have gone through the foreclosure process seen firsthand what it's like to have their homes taken away from their families who are foreclosed on at a higher risk of living in poverty and children growing up in poverty as nearly sixteen million currently are in the united states are more likely to drop out of school and get involved in crime. so not only did wall street steal seven trillion

dollars worth of wealth out of the middle class and working people they also stole a generation of young people as well even the eight million children affected by foreclosure doesn't begin to tell the story of the terrible damage those banks have caused the murders the suicides the financial ruin sweeping our nation as a result of that the national military to dig deep hurricanes joins me is the founding editor of the exile and coeditor of the exiled mark welcome. thanks renny on tom thanks for joining us from our new york studios which has the class warfare in america turned out and who's dying as a result. well really the class warfare started in a big way under reagan and then certainly reached a new peak levels since you know since the meltdown in two thousand and eight when the bailout was really a gigantic transfer when it should have been actually a redressing of of what had gone on the previous thirty years it was actually

a gigantic transfer of wealth again the middle and lower classes to the super wealthy and so in that way definitely has heated up and as always the victims are everybody but the one percent and now it's heated up to such a level that. you know people are killing themselves and killing other people on levels that they hadn't before. i wrote a book called going postal which is about these going postal workplace massacres and then school massacres which never took place in this country on a repeat of the sort of repeat scale until the mid one nine hundred eighty s. that is until reaganomics really set in and broke unions and wealth inequality started taking off so this is just sort of taking that process to a whole new level like you said in the in the introduction and i wrote about this in the story i mean there are nerds and suicide or murder suicides in foreclosed

homes people burning their homes down with themselves inside of it or shooting policemen or locksmiths who come to them from their foreclosed on homes and behind all this is crime it's fraud it's predatory banking fraud and crime to fleece people who don't know they're being fleeced who trust in the system still too much and who are not as sophisticated as these fraudsters are in house how extensive are these death by foreclosure killings and suicides around the. well there are no statistics on a you know sometimes these things reach the papers sometimes when they're a bit more spectacular a lot of times i found when i'm sort of searching through these things that they only make sort of local news and when i wrote my book on go on the going postal shootings in the workplaces and schools one of the things that really shocked me

was when i really spent time researching digging into it is how few how many more of these actually happened they never sort of make the news outside of the sort of the mayor region where these shootings might take place unless there's a spectacular shooting so when somebody kills themselves and sets their home on fire you're probably not going to hear about it you might have in the very beginning of the economic collapse but certainly over the last three years it's moved off the front pages for you know stories about. romney's dog and things like that i wonder how many people who would do something like that commit suicide so their home on fire. might be thinking or hoping that they're that tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire self-immolating and kicked off the arab spring is there any indication that some people are doing this not just out of despair but put out of. hope that it will produce a response and and if so is our media is unwillingness to cover these stories

making it less likely that they'll be any kind of an american anti-bank spring anyway or saddam. well you see the thing is these people are pushing this point of despair because there is actually so little media attention except for this little window few years ago on what's happening to them i mean the foreclosure fraud for example and that happened after obama came to power that happened after the bailout there were tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of illegal foreclosures on families to these robo signings they're completely fraudulent any illegal and they were happening right under everybody's noses and you know and this was the cause of a lot of suicides and murder suicides as well this particular kind of foreclosure fraud in the robo robbery for courses and so on. and i would think you know from studying these kinds of killings or suicides they are they take place generally

in such a void in such a kind of cultural media void that i don't think i mean these people just because they've completely given us just isolation is very rare the absolutely it's very rare it does happen sometimes but it's very rare where they sort of explicitly say i'm hoping to draw attention to what's going on in my workplace or like the guy who flew his plane only i rest building and left. behind what's the true story of sergeant bales'. well first of all we don't know he's been accused of. going into these villages and killing these women children interact others seventeen in afghanistan. by him yet alone by himself you know the detail of the story from the pentagon side is pretty suspicious and afghan investigators and the few very few and independent journalists who have gone in and interviewed the

witnesses said all of them to a t said he wasn't alone that there were other soldiers with him and some said there was even a helicopter and so on so the truth is we don't really know the details. of what happened we just know what he's accused of what we do know is that his family's home with his wife and two kids live back into coma washington their home was foreclosed on three days before the massacre you know there's been a lot of talk about how one of his buddies in his unit had his leg blown off a couple days before that very little talk about the fact that their family lost their home they'd previously when he was on his previous tour and in iraq. they lost their rental property to foreclosure and both of these homes. but word both of these homes had had loans taken out on them in two thousand and six that people in the mortgage industry short sellers on look at these loans and

said these are liar's loans these were loans that were intentionally designed to fleece these people you know the head of the seattle mortgage. industry or whatever this group is called he called these loans unconscionable and it's short sellers said that they were they were designed to steal their property and it's six so you know really what you have and this is why i wanted to sort of bring these two. sides of the story together. what you know basically what our. elite our establishment are doing here and abroad they're exploiting and preying on foreign countries to the military and then they do the same just different means at home these are these are two sides i think of one coin invading and raping countries and exploiting the profit opportunities through military contracts

ongoing military contracts and so on and so forth abroad and then at home primarily through through housing for through stealing people's homes through locking them in on loans that were absolutely predatory fraudulent illegal deceptive everything and these people get away with it and that's i get to that part of my story the head of the mortgage company that fleeced roger bales family bales is the guy accused of the massacre the head of the mortgage company that that sold those loans that he was accused by the state of washington his firm of a whole laundry list of deceptive and fraudulent practices including the c.e.o. and self was accused of doing these radio ads running them over and over and over that were themselves deceptive and for it he got off with a you know three hundred thousand three hundred thousand dollars fine i think the person to pay a three thousand dollars fine these guys made millions he's now yeah he's now awash

in money he's hailed in the sacramento area he wins chamber of commerce entrepreneur of the year awards amazing those are the heroes according to our establishment other guys that without everybody else in our our cames thanks so much for being with us tonight. thanks for having me on despite all the damage the bankers have caused both at home and as the case sergeant bales' illustrates a broad as well not a single banks or has been tried for his or her crimes on wall street and i've been the biggest tragedy of all time to do what reagan did after the savings and loan crisis in the one nine hundred eighty s. and that's throw a few thousand suits in prison. you . crazy alert run for your lives during a recent survival themed race in laguna province the philippines runners faced

a variety of obstacles both manmade and natural but the biggest obstacle they faced was the horde of two hundred zombies that were hiding along the racecourse two hundred paid actors dressed up as an army of the undead hid behind bushes trees and hills waiting to surprise unsuspecting runners organizers of the zombie lazed race that taught both amateur and professional runners to stay focused and to expect the unexpected some runners also said it was great problem practice for a future zombie apocalypse in order to ensure safety in the race organizers prevented the zombies from having physical contact with the runners so even grains and biting necks are strictly prohibited so skip the running of the bulls in spain and head to the philippines if you want some real death defying fun. coming up the democratic party has always prided itself on inclusion and letting people of all sorts of political stripes what portion of the party needs to be booted out so that harry truman's vision for the party could again be realized i'll tell you and i

still take. it we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old until the truth. i make sense and i am a total get it that i love rap and hip hop music and. he was kind of the jester. i'm very proud of the role without you see it's place. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse

something else you hear see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm sorry for the big picture.

it's thursday so let's get geeky in the past scientists have shown that humans are hardwired to react to music and of discover that music stimulates more parts of the brain in pretty much any other human function for example a report published back in two thousand and nine showed that aboriginal african people who had never before listened to radio were still able to pick up on the emotions in western music and songs when they. report included basic emotions in music and song are universally recognized regardless of culture or persons from social commas no surprise that music has the power to awaken those with alzheimer's right in moments of lucidity and memory recognition. see envy in the

media to quest and responsive and almost on a live then he is given and i quote containing the new he's fav of us and many to key he he lights up his face assumes expression his eyes open why he he starts to learn to seem to walk and to move his arms and he's being animated by the music and buds and associate director of research at the boston university alzheimer's disease says that there are two theories to explain why music has such a great effect on patients with dementia first as i mentioned earlier music has emotional content to it so if we hear a song of a trigger emotional memories that we have emotional memories are some of the strongest memories that human beings have so they have the best chance of being recalled by patients with alzheimer's secondly when we learn and hear news that we store the information as procedural memory a type of memory associated with repetitive activities and routines while dementia

destroys parts of the brain associated with episodic memory memories the corresponding specific events it leaves procedural memory fairly intact and since we don't lose procedural memory as we grow older we're able to keep that appreciation for music or music may allow alzheimer's patients to recall memories from their past it may have an even greater impact on in two thousand and ten boston university researchers discovered that alzheimer's patients had an easier time recalling words after they had been sung to them than they did after the words been spoken to nicholas sims stern one of the researchers this fighting suggests that music might promote new memory creation in house members patients as a result researchers are now trying to see whether patients can learn critical information like when to take medications through song and music. simmons stern says the unpublished results may support the idea and that music may become a very common tool for treating dementia in the future so next time you play

a cd in your car or throw on headphones just remember it's far more to music than what needs to ear. it's just. it's the good the bad of the very very angry. stray she is slowly ugly for good citi group shareholders at the c.e.o. shareholders at their annual meeting shareholders of citi group voted against the pay packages that had previously been given the company executives including twenty five million bucks given to citi group c.e.o. ron pandit although it is non-binding and can't influence the company's a practice is it set a powerful message of discontent to both citigroup's leadership and toolbars street firms in general one analyst called the move historic saying that no other wall

street firm had come under such fire from the shareholders let's hope this is just the beginning of a trend and the shareholders continue to pressure corporate executives to clean up their acts the bad senator john mccain earlier today mccain a strong supporter of mitt romney weighed in on the dog gate scandal he tweeted a picture of his son's dog saying good picture of my son jimmy's bulldog appollo i'm sorry mr president but he's not on the menu horse this line is referencing a section in the president's book dreams of my father where he talks about eating dog in indonesia as a child and what he didn't like it conservatism latched on to that statement using it in response to the attacks on mitt romney for strapping his dog to the roof of his family car and he senator mccain should point out that mitt romney was a thirty six year old adult when he did it not a nine year old kid really didn't want to be eating that dog food and go with the reality and fueling the conservative spin machine. and a very very ugly representative pap to barrett and

a tax policy some of yesterday's a very defended the paul ryan republican budget and also defended the idea that taxes on the rich needed. the taxes on low income americans should be raised referring to low income americans he said it's hard to lower taxes on people who don't pay taxes you don't have skin in the game even if it's ten bucks a quarter i think it changes the debate on what the role of federal government is what the role of state government is don't have skin in the game low income americans are the ones getting screwed by the republican budget to suggest that they shouldn't have any kind of say over this very clearly. in one hundred fifty two president harry truman had a message for democrats he said people don't want a phony democrat if it's

a choice between a genuine republican and a republican and democratic clothing people choose the genuine article every time that is they will take a republican you for those who are phony democrat and i don't want any phony democratic candidates of both this campaign. harry truman's message to democrats proved prophetic in two thousand and ten when nearly half of the entire fifty four member blue dog caucus in the house of representatives was voted out of office blue dogs are the ultra conservative democrats usually hailing from red states where as harry truman would call them republicans and democratic clothing you're talking republican code words like fiscal conservatism and smaller government now frankly some of them after act like republicans out of sheer political survival let's face it a progressive like nancy pelosi can't get elected in the second district or local but a blue dog democrat like dan boren who promises to act like a republican he can and the democratic party has always prided itself on inclusion

and letting people of all sorts of political stripes into it that's not necessarily a bad thing in fact i think it's kind of a good thing and that is why there tends to be a lot of infighting among democrats and when it comes to the blue dogs specifically the benefits of having more democrats in congress are typically greater than the trouble with these guy knows cause and president obama won in two thousand and eight democrats won a lot of red states that they normally don't in the ranks of the blue dogs. but tragically rather than working with a president who came into office on a fairly strong mandate for change the blue dogs generally worked against him right off the bat they worked to whittle down the stimulus package eleven blue dogs even voted against a much smaller stimulus package then they actively spoke out against obamacare creating a rift in the democratic party and giving republicans a chance to take control the messaging which eventually proof fatal for progressive

parts of the bill but the public option in the end twenty six blue dog democrats voted against their own president's obamacare and thirty two blue dogs voted against president obama's plan to fight global warming with cap and trade legislation. so even though the blue dogs caucus with the democrats voted alongside the democrats on most issues and gladly took campaign funds from the democratic national committee they turned their backs when it came to the really big stuff and support for major democratic reforms in the big areas we all really care about where the democratic party is like really genuinely strong things like health care energy policy the economy when these reforms were badly needed and the american people were begging for the blue dogs weren't siding with the people and tragically they weren't siding with their party instead more often than not they sided with big corporate interests. and the schism that that created in the democratic party

in two thousand and ten the blue dog opposition to democratic signature pieces the legislation ultimately was one of the major factors that led to the defeat of democrats in the election that year and it led to the decimation of the blue dog coalition itself with twenty four blue dogs losing weight so you'd think that the blue dogs were there last that harry truman was right but voters democratic voters who are real democrats republican voters want real republicans but unfortunately the blue dogs still haven't learned us this is to a representative sample alien from pennsylvania seventeenth district holden is a blue dog and he's one of the democrats who voted against obamacare and now after holden's congressional district was redrawn last year to include more liberal voters he finds himself in a tough primary against a real democrat a progressive named that artwork and the blue dogs are rallying together to protect

their own. as politico reports a washington d.c. based organization censor forward that like progress from the sun is that you know center forwards run by former blue dog representative bud kramer and funded with a whole pile of corporate money they're spending one hundred thousand dollars in ads against the progressive mr cartwright in pennsylvania accusing the progressive mr cartwright of working against president obama on health reform that's right the blue dogs who voted against obamacare are accusing the progressive who's running in the primary who supports a national health care system they're accusing the progressive of being an opponent of the president's efforts to reform a broken health care system first of the two men and only person who had a chance to vote on obamacare was blue dog representative to old and as you'll

recall evo didn't know you voted against his own president so the question democrats should be asking themselves specially in pennsylvania seventeen district and others like it is if they want a true progressive democrat or a blue dog democrat who fights against major progressive reforms on the other side of the aisle republicans have made their choice they're not rushing to the center the moving farther and farther to the right and in two thousand and ten that shift to the right paid off with major electoral victories why because voters want. old or so we should all take that as a lesson and politicians in particular harry truman was right we don't need a half hearted democrats especially when we have the possibility of a real progressive democrat. oh friend jim hightower said it most brilliantly in fact it was the title of his book he said there's not been in the middle of the

road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos the whole idea that democrats can win elections by being in the little road it's just as crazy as most republicans would say that the idea of republicans winning elections by being in the middle of the roaders because people people want somebody who actually reflects their views they want somebody who says this is where i stand this is this clear a place right here not in the middle road with the old stripes in the armadillos that you don't write here i'm a progressive i'm a conservative you know we george w. bush at least you knew what you were getting it was crazy you knew what you were getting and that's what people want their politicians they want to know what you stand for and they want you to stand for progressive that's the big picture for more information on the stories we covered visit our website the top part in our con free speech tonight or dot com also check out our two you tube channels roland so it's our dot com also tom hartman dot com check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback i don't forget the beginning you get out there and get

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