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How a Lack of Power and Guns Go Together
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The NRA's brief moment of sanity is over. On Tuesday, the gun group apologized for a statement published on its website that called gun rights protesters in Texas "weird" and "scary." That statement, which the NRA put out last Friday, came after gun activists in the Lone Star State brought assault rifles into busy restaurants and stores to show off their "open carry rights." For a moment there, it looked like Wayne LaPierre and company were actually being reasonable. But yesterday, the NRA's director of legislative action, Chris Cox, called back his group's statement, saying that it wasn't the NRA's job to "criticize the lawful behavior of fellow gun owners."
 
Since Cox made that apology, there's been a lot of talk on the progressive side of things about how the NRA can't escape the influence of the more radical parts of the gun movement - the people who, for whatever reason, want to bring an AR-15 to Chipotle. And while that's an important discussion to have, it misses the bigger question: Why would anyone feel the need bring an AR-15 to Chipotle in the first place?
 
The obvious answer is that America is a gun-obsessed country with a frontier history and that open carry activists are just a small, but vocal, part of a much bigger subculture. But I think it goes deeper than that. Just saying that open carry activists are a symptom of American gun culture doesn't tells us why they've picked right now, the spring of 2014, to protest.
 
I think this has everything to do with the economy and the destruction of the middle class. For the past thirty-three years, Reaganomics has blown a whole right through the heart of the American dream. Wealthy inequality is near Banana Republic levels, unionization it as at an all-time low, and the American middle class is now the smallest it's been in decades.
 
Read more here.
 
-Thom
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Lone Liberal Rumble:
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Are Your Taxes Paying For Walmart CEO Bonuses?
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Will CA Secede and Why?
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What Can You Learn From a Comedian?
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Daily Take: How a Lack of Power & Guns Go Together

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Hour One: Maureen Dowd Ate Too Much Pot In Denver And Freaked Out...
Article: "Don't Harsh Our Mellow, Dude" by Maureen Dowd.
 
Article: "China's Quarter Century Of Cracking Down On Dissent" by Christopher Bodeen.
 
PLUS, POWs & Families Now on the RightWing Hate List
 
Article: "Pharmacognosy" by Wikipedia.
Movie: "W".

Hour Two: Who should be the ambassador to Somalia?
Article: "14th Amendment
Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann. Get "Screwed" by Thom Hartmann!
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Talk Radio News Segment:
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Article: "TRNS News Notes- 6/4/14" by Victoria Jones.
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Article: "G7 leaders meet without Russia, take firm line on Ukraine" by Luke Baker and Roberta Rampton.

Hour Three: No soldier left behind...?
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Book: The Benghazi Hoax by David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt, Media Matters for America.
Article: "Bowe Bergdahl's Vanishing Before Capture Angered His Unit" by Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and Charlie Savage.
 
Article: "Cannabis foods" by Wikipedia.
 
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Full Show 6/3/14: Will Congress Overturn Citizens United?
Full Show 6/3/14: Will Congress Overturn Citizens United?

Thom discusses U.S. and China's plans to cut carbon emissions with climatologist Michael Mann and the Senate's hearing on overturning citizens united with Move to Amend's Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap. Tonight's "Politics Panel" discusses the release of Bowe Bergdahl, Seattle's vote to raise their minimum wage to $15 and Alabama's residents demanding Medicaid expansion. In tonight's "Daily Take" Thom details how America has become one of the worst country's in the world for workers.

Caller: I'm a Progressive in the top 1 %
Caller: I'm a Progressive in the top 1 %

Time for a Student Loan Debt Jubilee!
Time for a Student Loan Debt Jubilee!

99Rise, the new Occupy?
99Rise, the new Occupy?

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Caller: There are Background Checks on Private Jet Passengers

Debtors' Prisons Alive and Well in the U.S.
Debtors' Prisons Alive and Well in the U.S.

What's the Difference Between the Rich and Poor?
What's the Difference Between the Rich and Poor?

Either Security Theater ends or Include the 1 %
Either Security Theater ends or Include the 1 %

The Thom Hartmann Program - June 3, 2014
The Thom Hartmann Program - June 3, 2014

Thom Hartmann on Economic and Labor News: June 2, 2014
Thom Hartmann on Economic and Labor News: June 2, 2014
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