very quickly i'll explain why and how into that steely take. in screwed news 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eighteenth elections thanks to this fear campaign bankers in greece say that as many as a billion euros a day are being withdrawn from greek banks and used to stock up on food like pasta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 cirus a party leader alexis sapir us pushed back on tuesday saying that the e.u. will be forced to renegotiate 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 well not 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 you know. versity and author of numerous books including his latest

occupy the economy challenging capitalism professor wolfe welcome back to the program. thank you tom lead 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 bail out 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 and 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 a 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 austerity to keep her job do you think that in the u.k. where they've been overtly and enthusiastically campaigning on austerity is david cameron's government and nick clegg i mean it's a liberal the lib dems go along with it that they're saying their their economy has been either quite collapsing or flat lining depending on which month you're looking at. is this going to be a europe wide response and if so what lessons will america take from that.

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's the direction we should go i don't get it why why they don't you know and i've been more aggressive 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.s. ok 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 masses 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 and. thank you again and glad to see you thank you whatever the pain a euro exit might bring to greece it can't be worse than five years of recession and austerity it 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 out they have never 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 in tonight's daily take and your 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 in the. the looking out for american jobs and american worker.

the. comfort is the least you have. money is the last you need if you travel this way. language is common. to. the. emotions are intense. and experience priceless. if you're followed up on my debt snowball the. chinese are sort of

a throwback and i can't part of our long. and it goes back to a time when people would write out of their forces in the wild west and pick up these future dates and putting them into the sheriff for prosecution i don't think much company may follow suit. when they go out there. and have to hope that nothing bad can. flow. or we're chasing killers and you gotta keep that in mind how does the two million dollar deal for his arrest. without super hero be can be killed to you know they shoot me in the head i'm going to die. and. once you hit and run you never go back to. and anything else.

and the rest of the rest of the news president obama is drinking the thomas 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 could appeal to an international tribunal that has the power to overturn laws passed by our congress and lobby trade sanctions on

the united states in other words 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 of this 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. jamie dimon 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 heat from average americans who showed up at the at the hearing to speak their minds even before the hearing started protestors shouted down diamon asking him 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 toure's 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. just. it's the good the bad of the very very agatha. goldwater jerkily ugly good workers add all of their own t.p.

. elevate their own was reasons second largest newspaper founded after the fall of the military dictatorship nine hundred seventy four left wing newspaper featured strong independent reporting and fought against corruption in government among other causes 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 of other words we have an obesity epidemic and instead of working to fight that epidemic burger king is introducing

a new on healthy 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. and a 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 other words the n.r.a. appears to be giving its members. full protection when they decide to invoke stand your ground shoot first will see insurance plan provides coverage for criminal and civil defense costs and also offers criminal defense reimbursement and a members can 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 mussolini 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 its 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 tisha slee to of aid 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 if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and with malice toward none in 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 then the political wilderness as roosevelt's new deal revolution really took hold 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 nine hundred forty four when he wrote for the new york times american fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartel it's 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 ation and right wing demagoguery is stronger today in america than ever before we now have an open corporate just 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 corporatists fascists from banks to use to oil 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 in his 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 wallace called the quote deliberate poisoners of public information and quote the corporate media outlets on cable news led by fox so-called news along with the corporatist agents in 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 fisher of disunity every crack in the common front against fascism they use every opportunity to him 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 worker the union worker against the nonunion worker 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 of 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 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 harkin dot com he says feedback on twitter at tom underscore arbonne on facebook at thom hartmann dot com on our blogs under underscore hartman on our blogs message boards and telephone comment line at home and don't forget democracy begins when you get out there and get active tag your it occupies something suitable.

progs will ask the u.n. to open up syria's skies for western bombers and another broadside on assets regime leaders number two endorses the rebellion. a scary walk in the woods with an infuriated general down opposition journalists clay county investigators have been accusing him of my feelings. and egypt to be any different agency short lived the thought is again allow the army to take a civilian out of the presidential election by now but it's the country's women who fear the worst. the very latest well these twenty four hours a day care and l.t. france could ask the united nations to allow a no fly zone over syria the country's foreign minister also says he hopes the u.n.

will authorize the use of force they want to bring about peace and within syria the rebels have received the blessing of the second in command video of living in the u.s. says was killed in a pakistan drone strike shows him calling on islamists worldwide to go to syria and join the uprising against president asset this man for national reports it's further evidence that extremists might be taking advantage of the country's civil war. this video is a clear indicator that in the conflict in syria al qaida global terrorist organization has taken saeed and supporting those who are fighting against president bashar al assad and they are tending their presence in the country it's not the first message of its kind earlier in february we heard al qaida is leader calling on all muslims to support the syrian rebels president assad has been blaming militant groups and international terrorists for violence of his country since the big.