back to the big picture i'm tom arbonne coming up in this half hour as greeks go to the polls again at the end of the week the fate of the greek economy and society looms large if greek you have greece decides to leave the euro what kind of a shock waves will that decision have on the rest of europe also another secret government document was leaked today revealing new information on president obama's free trade policy beliefs what exactly did the report say what is the why is the white house standing up for foreign companies and not the american workers and what ever wonder what america would be like with a fascist government a bit romney becomes president former vice president may well have suggested we'll find out very quickly explain why and how into that steely take.

in screwed news of an election looming at the end of the week greeks are preparing for the worst case scenario an exit from the euro and is suing economic crisis polls show that the leftists are is a party which is against austerity and wants to cancel the greek bailout is winning by a slim margin heading into sunday's election a series of party victory could mean greece leaving behind the euro and going back to their original currency the drachma fear mongering about a dangerous and irresponsible exit from the euro is coming from the political right in greece as they try to sway voters away from the surrealism already ahead of the june eighteenth elections thanks to this fear campaign bankers in greece say that as many as a billion euros a day are being withdrawn from greek banks and used to stock up on food like pasta and canned goods but so is a party leader alexis sapir us pushed back on tuesday saying that the e.u. will be forced to. negotiate with greece once his party takes power saying if one

of the seventeen countries is brought to collapse the fire will become unquenchable and will not be limited to greece and the southern countries it will break up the eurozone and that will not be in anybody's interest sapir as went on to detail some of the reforms he will push through once elected saying if we are elected we will move swiftly swiftly to recapitalize banks with common voting shares what we call socialization of the banking system put them under public and social control so the greek depositors feel safe so this is the right way forward for greece and how might the technocrats and banks toure's who are ramming austerity down the throats of working people in greece and all around europe react to this weekend's elections richard wolf joins me now he is an economist and visiting professor at the new school university and author of numerous books including his latest occupy the economy challenging capitalism professor wolff welcome back to the program thank

you tom live to be here thank you for joining us tonight just how important is this greek election on sunday and you know for both greece in the entire euro zone. it's an extremely important election more for the symbolic significance of what has changed in europe than for the particulars nobody can know whatever the outcome is whether they will or will not leave the euro those are just as you said scare tactics mostly by the enemies of what mr tsipras and the series of party are trying to do let me explain up until recently the european response to the crisis like the one in the united states has mainly been to bail out the big banks and bailout the big corporations and put the burden of paying for the bailout on the massive people by cutting public employment cutting public services cutting salaries and all the rest the worst case greece where the cuts were the strongest what i happen until

now has been people in a state of shock sort of like here in the united states and tending to accept it in the hope that this horrible experience a crisis a bailout that you don't benefit from and then being told you have to suffer the burden of paying for the benefit you didn't get this has no longer the support of the french people and the greek people the two elections the greek one and the french one were massive statements of people no we won't have it we will not continue to be hurt by a crisis and a government response that are not our responsibility we didn't cause the crisis and we're not benefiting from any of the help and this is got to stop that's how it should be seen that it's very important that the two parties in greece who exchange governments sort of like republicans and democrats in this country have been pushed aside by the greek people and a new left party with

a much more radical program reflects the fury of the greek people at how they've suffered from the crisis how they suffered for. a response by the government that only made it worse and there's a deep lesson here for americans to pay attention to. you couldn't you also extend that to germany i mean germany is kind of at the center of economically the center of europe right now the german government of the merkel government has been pushing austerity in all these other people and yet in in northern germany and run was failure they just had an election where merkel got slapped down basically it was the same kind of response which is completely you know theoretically should be completely inconsistent with that because the germans are not suffering you know they had that the kurds are by program they they made it through the roof the global recession quite well is this is this something much much larger than just local people really being upset because they've been stepped on. no i think what

you're seeing is a movement of working people against the status quo against the conventional parties and politicians even in germany though it has been doing better the government has also been sniping away at the social safety net what is called social democracy their government benefits government supports as all business men and women around the world are doing seeing this is a time of difficulty for workers and unions and there for a time to make advances for a while the germans were distracted by seeing suffering in places like greece or spain or italy as worse than what they were being told to accept but it has kind of dawned on them now that they are not as bad as in the south of europe but they are being hurt by this crisis and hurt by the government austerity sort of like their brothers and sisters in the south not as bad but they're beginning to push back

merkel has been defeated in by elections several times over the last twelve months and her time is also ticking for being pushed out she's now riding the wave of trying to figure out whether she maybe ought to switch gears follow the new socialist government in france towards an expansive program rather than or sturdy to keep her job do you think that in the u.k. where they've you know the been overtly and enthusiastically campaigning on austerity is david cameron's government and nick clegg i mean are the if a liberal the lib dems go along with it that they're seen their their economy has been either quite collapsing or flat lining depending on the which month you're looking at. is this going to be a europe wide response and if so what lessons will america take from them. well i do think that england is doing is going down the same road that mr cameron

is losing more and more support literally with each time he opens his mouth and does another austerity move the british economy is now again in recession his policies of austerity just like those in greece or spain or portugal or ireland have not worked and consequently you're building up a head of steam in europe of anger and resentment that is very likely to blow them all off of the political map and again that's why the greek election is so important because in a sense it gives the rest of europe the vision of where this can go and how a small leftist party in favor of nationalizing the banks and breaking with austerity can suddenly become the powerful number one or number two party in the country and the message for the united states is the same before occupy wall street

americans believe only in europe were people in the streets fighting against government policy and book and blaming the crisis on the people who deserved it the bankers and the corporate heads they thought it would never come here occupy wall street proved them wrong it is the same now the opposition takes longer here but when it comes it will be very similar as an accumulated anger and resentment in my judgment fully justified that the crisis was not their fault they've already suffered five years the government programs are not working in fact making it worse and at a certain point they're going to say no more and look for real alternatives and why hasn't the democratic party more aggressively grabbed on to this it seems to me like the first political party that comes along and says you know what we've been doing you know as i'm in working what they're doing in europe has been working. here is the direction we should go. i don't get why why they don't you know and

i've been more aggressive about this it's a wonderful question the same a question applies in europe even in greece for example for many many years the dominant party there was p.a.'s ok pasok to the greek socialist party everyone wonders why don't you take a different position they in fact won the office three years ago claiming that they would oppose austerity and reverse themselves once they were in power i'm afraid the only answer is most of the traditional parties have become so intertwined with the business community with the financial community with business as usual among bankers and politicians at the top that they literally cannot imagine an alternative and will keep pushing in the direction they're used to that their financial bankers support until literally the mass of people have to shake them out of that situation and i don't expect much different visibly the democratic party in

this country either i suspect you're absolutely right richard wolffe dr will thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you again and glad to see you again thank you whatever the pain a euro exit might bring to greece and can't be worse than five years of recession and austerity that have pushed the great greek people to the brink and literally forced many of them to commit suicide it's time to just rip off the band-aid see greece move out of the euro and go back to the drachma and abandon the insanity of austerity. coming up if mitt romney takes over the white house in november bashes will be running the show in washington d.c. across america i'll tell you why and i was fairly taken and bigger government documents were leaked today this time revealing startling new information on president obama's free trade policies why is the white house standing up for

foreign companies instead of look you know for american jobs and american workers. heat.

down the official ante up location. called touch from the. one show on t.v. lights on the go. video on demand all keys money old girls. and streets in the palm of your. question on the dot com. to emulate. the air.

but. it. was. wealthy british science i'm. not on the. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger or a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds of reports .

and the best of the rest of the news president obama is drinking the tallis friedman one world so-called free trade kool-aid currently the president is working on a new trans-pacific partnership trade pact to open up trading markets with eight pacific nations but today the critical fifty two page document outlining new provisions in the trade deal was leaked and uncovered by public citizen revealing the president stands behind giving foreign transnational corporations unprecedented power to abuse american workers to pollute our environment and to destabilize our markets under this agreement american companies would have to comply with american law and labor banking and environmental regulations that's american companies but foreign companies operating on u.s. soil wouldn't have to instead they can appeal to an international tribunal that has the power to overturn laws passed by our congress and levy trade sanctions on the

united states now there was if this trade deal passed that america's laws would no longer apply to foreign business tycoons setting up shop in the united states. so is this yet another blow to american sovereignty and the power of we the people to protect our commons and our workers i think so from our president to members of congress on both sides of the aisle everyone is addicted to senseless free trade and now we're headed toward a nation less world where only transnational corporations rule they aren't exactly big fans of democracy or the middle class it's time to stop drinking the kool-aid and get back to protecting american industries and selling products that once again are made in america. and one more story to keep an eye on tonight j.p. morgan chase c.e.o. jane diamond faced off with the senate banking committee today where he was grilled over his bank's three billion dollars in losses earlier this year but diamond

didn't get most of the heat from the senators many of whom have received generous campaign donations from diamond's bank instead he got it from average americans who showed up at the here at the hearing to speak their minds even before the hearing started protesters shouted down diamon as going in to face the people he's foreclosed on and to stop the foreclosures now tragically we can no longer rely on our bought out members of congress to hold the banks was accountable anymore instead we the people have to do it and one of the best ways to do it is to move your money out of wall street banks like j.p. morgan chase and into local credit unions so let's get moving. it's the good the bad of the very very ag a. goal lauded jerkily ugly

but could the workers add all of their own t.p. . elevate their own team was greece's second largest newspaper founded after the fall of the military dictatorship of nine hundred seventy four a left wing newspaper featured strong independent reporting and fought against corruption in government among other causes but with the collapse of the greek economy paper was forced to shut down but now about one hundred twenty former workers at the paper have brought it back to life in a managed to publish special editions of the newspaper they've already produced two editions and a third is on its way this week before the g. with the greek general election rerun hopefully the workers of the newspaper will be able to keep the paper alive so there continues to be a strong independent voice for democracy in greece the bad burger king in america seventeen percent of children and adolescents are obese while nearly a third of all adults in our country are also abuse in other words we have an

obesity epidemic and instead of working to fight that epidemic burger king is introducing a new on althea menu item the fast food chain has released a bacon sunday that's rated ice cream sundae laced with bacon bits and bacon strips over five hundred calories and eighteen grams of fat burger king's bacon sunday is just another unhealthy fast food option that does nothing to combat america's obesity problem. and the very very ugly the n.r.a. the n.r.a. is now offering insurance to cover members should they face a legal battle as a result of shooting someone in so-called self-defense or in other words the n.r.a. appears to be giving its member. full protection when they decide to invoke stand your ground shoot first yes insurance plan provides coverage for criminal and civil defense costs it also offers criminal defense reimbursement and n.r.a. members get this coverage for the low price of just forty seven to sixty seven

dollars a year the n.r.a. was instrumental in pushing stand your ground shoot first laws across america and now it appears they've given their gun toting members who commit murders of these laws a get out of jail free card too and that it's very very. in the economic turmoil of the one nine hundred thirty s. fascism swept across europe taking hold in germany italy and spain and eventually throwing the planet into a world war fascism is a word that means the merging of government and corporate interests with a tinge of nationalism and typically racism to keep the population in line and united against a perceived enemy as mosul and he was dissolving italy's parliament in one nine

hundred thirty eight and setting up his come out a day fasi day data that corporate sione the chamber of fascist corporation's italian philosopher giovanni gentile argued that fascism should be more appropriately be called corporatism since his hands government off to corporations in one nine hundred forty four the vice president of the united states of that time henry wallace wrote an op ed in the new york times about the dangers of fascism and threats that fascists posed to the united states. he wrote fascism is a worldwide disease its greatest threat to the united states will come after the war within the united states itself another fascist danger is represented by those who pay in lip service to democracy in the common welfare in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives do not hesitate sarap tish's lee to a vade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion

even though vice president wallace was warning us about fascism at that point in time he believed that the american system of government was strong enough to avoid ever becoming fascistic to avoid becoming a corporatist state at that time it was pretty much on heard of the c.e.o. would run for political office and wallace's view politicians knew that their obligation was to represent we the people and protect us from the corporate cartels as wallace continued in his article for the new york times happily it can be said that as yet fascism has not captured a predominant place in the outlook of any american section class or religion it may be encountered on wall street main street or tobacco road some even suspect that they can detect incipient traces of it along the potomac but if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and with malice toward none and charity for all go forward on the great adventure of making political economic and social democracy

a practical reality we shall not fail. a year later the fascists in europe were defeated and the fascists in america banished the political wilderness as roosevelt's new deal revolution really fickle but today four generations later the fascists are back and we need to revisit that poignant warning that vice president wallace had for us in one thousand nine hundred four when he wrote for the new york times american fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the car to balance the deliberate poisoners of public information and those who stand for the k.k.k. type of demagoguery this fascist coalition of corporate cartels and entire television network devoted to disinform mission and right wing demagoguery is stronger today in america than ever before we now have an open corporate jets

corporations are people my friend mitt romney running for the highest office in the land romney fits wallace's description of a fascist perfectly is a man who pays lip service to democracy in the common welfare but in his insatiable greed evades laws that protect the common welfare by stealing pensions from and then laying off thousands of american workers closing american factories just to make hundreds of millions of dollars as head of the pirate equity firm bain capital and other corporate is fascist from banks years to all barons to corporate fronts like the u.s. chamber of commerce pledging to spend over a billion dollars to make sure that their front man is elected in november wallace's new york times op ed defines the american fascists this way. they claim to be super patriots but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the constitution they demand free enterprise but of the spokesman for monopoly and

vested interest their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously they may keep the common man in eternal subjection and the corporate cartel now has the help of those who was called the quote deliberate poisoners of public information and quote the corporatist media outlets on cable news led by fox so-called news along with the corporatist agents of the right wing blogosphere and right wing talk radio as wallace wrote the american fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fish or of disunity every crack in the common front against fascism they use every opportunity to him pune democracy and the strategy of the vice president wallace identified in one nine

hundred forty four continues with today's purveyors of hate who regularly appear on those same corporatists media outlets they include the islamophobia the religious zealots who rail against gays and the economic elites who are trying to pit working americans against each other the private worker against the public work the union worker against the nonunion workers the male worker against the female so nearly seventy years after wallace is warning we now know that it can happen here that we too could be taken over by fascism and to some extent already have been and considering what fascism did to the world the last time it took power. we should all be very concerned about the next few years in america and the very real challenges we face as we try to reclaim our democracy and our economy the high stakes struggle for american democracy against the forces of fascism begins today

that's it for the big picture tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our websites and thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org in archie dot com also check out our two youtube channels you'll find links over at tom hartman dot com this entire show is also available as a free video had podcast on i tunes and you can visit thom hartmann dot com to download the audio podcast of our daily three to six radio show they also have a free tom hartman i phone and i pad app and get him over the app store and there's a link to them from tom hartman dot com he says feedback on twitter at tom underscore arbonne on facebook at thom hartmann dot com on our blogs under underscore apartments on our blogs message boards and telephone comment line at town or window and don't forget democracy begins when you get out there and get active tag your it occupies something suitable.

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