My fellow Americans...

 

The state of our union is strong, but it could be so much stronger. Over the past year, we've continued to see how our politicians are bought off by Big Oil tycoons, Wall Street billionaires, and giant transnational corporations. And that's the first challenge facing America right now.

 

Our Conservative-controlled Supreme Court has said that spending money to buy politicians is protected by the First Amendment. Thanks to the disastrous Citizen's United decision, the Conservatives in the Supreme Court chambers have made it easy for billionaires to flood our democracy with the corporate cash which is slowly destroying the democratic principles that our founding fathers fought and died for.

 

In the 2014 midterm elections, we saw yet again how America truly has the best politicians money can buy. Estimates suggest that nearly $4 billion was spent during the midterms to elect the politicians the rich folks want in Washington DC and statehouses around the country. Just imagine how much stronger our nation would be if we were to get money out of politics, and thus prevent corporations and billionaires from corrupting our democracy.

 

The second problem our nation is facing is at the core of why we have a government in the first place. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said that, "governments are instituted among Men" to "secure" the "unalienable" rights of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

So, why do we have government? To provide life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

 

Read more here.

 

-Thom

        

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Citizen's United...5 years later (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

 

Be sure to check out our new videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio

 

Big Picture Politics Panel: State Of The Union
- Jennifer Kerns, Washington Times / The Blaze  
- Neil Sroka, Democracy for America    
- Dr. Day Gardner, Project 21 / National Black Pro-Life Union / The Day Report    

 

Screwed: Citizen's United...5 years later
- Ian Vandewalker, Brennan Center for Justice, New York University    

 

  

Tuesday's Daily Stack 

Hour One: How expensive is it to be poor?
- Neil McCabe, The Washington Mercury  

Article: "How Expensive It Is to Be Poor" by Charles M. Blow.

Article: "US wealth inequality - top 0.1% worth as much as the bottom 90%" by Angela Monaghan.

Article: "Americans tested on taxing the rich" by Megan Murphy.

Article: "Corn Laws" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Article: "Mergers and acquisitions" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Big Ideas Project" by Progressive Change Institute.

 

Article: "How America's Wealthy Stole the American Dream and Cashed It at an Offshore Bank" by Les Leopold.

Site: "The No Billionaires Campaign".

Article: "Koch Seminar Is Early Proving Ground for G.O.P. Hopefuls" by Ashley Parker.

Article: "John McCain and Congress helping mining company steal ancestral, ceremonial Apache land" by Carissa Lovelace.

Article: "Report on the Subject of Manufactures" by Alexander Hamilton.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren.

Site: Ronald Reagan Legacy Project.

Article: "Joni Ernst Is Giving the GOP Rebuttal to Obama's State of the Union Speech. Here's What You Need to Know About Her." by Patrick Caldwell.

Article: "Despite Campaigning on Pork-cutting Family Living "Within Our Means," Sen. Ernst's Kin Took Over $460,000 in Farm Subsidies" by Sam Knight.

Book: Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy.

Article: "Advice From 'America's Worst Mom'" by Jane E. Brody.

Article: "Authorities investigate Maryland parents who let kids walk home alone" by Fox News.

Site: Hunter School 

Book: "Beware Dangerism!" by Gever Tulley.

 

Article: "Pipeline Breach Spills Oil Into Yellowstone River" by AP.

Article: "Traces Of Oil Found In Montana Town's Water Supply After Spill" by Krishnadev Calamur.

The good: "Scahill: Cable News 'Terror Analysts' Profit from Fear" by Evan McMurry.

The bad: "Dinesh D'Souza Identifies True Hero of MLK Day: Dinesh D'Souza" by Evan McMurry.

The very, very ugly: State Sen. C.B. Embry Jr. (R) "Lawmaker Wants To Pay Students $2,500 If They See A Transgender Person In The 'Wrong' Bathroom" by Zack Ford.

Law: "Commodity Futures Modernization Act", 2000.

 

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones 

Article: "TRNS News Notes - 1/20" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Most popular password of 2014 was '123456'" by Matthew Sparkes.

Article: "President Obama is back at 50% approval. Here's how" by Aaron Blake.

Article: "Poll: Obama's job approval higher on positive economic news" by Mark Murray.

Article: "Islamic State threatens two Japanese captives in video" by Luke Baker.

Article: "Yemen's President 'has no control' as Houthi rebels storm palace" by Josh Levs, Nick Paton Walsh, and Laura Smith-Spark.

Article: "Supreme court rules Muslim inmate in Arkansas may wear short beard" by AP.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "Murder of Adam Walsh" by Wikipedia.

Site: Oak Meadow School.

TV: "America's Most Wanted" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tell Congress: Oppose Title X --- Save Net Neutrality".

Article: "SOTU Schizophrenia: Middle-Class Jobs vs. Fast Track and TPP" by Lori Wallach.

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "To Catch a Predator" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Paris mayor: We intend to sue Fox News" by Gregory Wallace and Brian Stelter.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: SOTU Preview: Republicans To Attack Obama For Addressing Income Inequality" by EarlG.

Article: "Disappearance of Etan Patz" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Oakland County Child Killer" by Wikipedia.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

 

Article: "New Analysis Shows West Virginia's Chemical Spill Traveled Into Kentucky" by Emily Atkin.

Article: "Scientists Create New Cheap Asphalt Material that Can Capture and Store Carbon" by Catherine Griffin.

Article: "USDA Green-Lights Yet Another Monsanto GMO crop" by Wenonah Hauter.

Article: "Are You A Narcissist? Your 'Selfies' Say So, Study Says" by Kathleen Lees.

Article: "Meet The New Chevy 'Bolt': An Electric Car For The Masses" by Ari Phillips.

 

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

Greg Palast will be here to talk about the forthcoming Greek parliamentary elections, which new party of the Left, Syriza, is forecast to win.

 

Plus, I'll be talking to Carrie Lukas about her view of women and the net neutrality debate.

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Free excerpt, read book for free at Truthout, buy the book!

The Thom Hartmann Program is a Charity Wine Partner with the Organic Wine Company. Purchase any wines and they will donate a portion of the proceeds to The Hunter School for children with autism, ADHD, and other learning challenges.

 

One of my favorite wines is CHATEAU VERONIQUE 2011 - The wine that started the Organic Wine Company. Subtle and sophisticated, this wine will complement any table.

 

Purchase your next bottle of organic wine here - www.ecowine.com

 

Thom

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Thank you for being part of our ever growing community for News, Debate and Opinion on the Thom Hartmann Program.

 

Click here to subscribe to the Thom Hartmann Newsletter.
 

Sincerely,

Order Thom's latest book, Death in the Pines: An Oakley Tyler Novel, at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now!

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Order The American Revolution of 1800 by Dan Sisson with Thom Hartmann at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now!

Full Show 1/19/2015: Seven ways the GOP is trying to turn back the clock to the Jim Crow era

In tonight's Martin Luther King Day Bigger Picture Politics Panel Special, Thom talks with Joe Madison, Host of Joe Madison radio, Hilary Shelton, NAACP Washington Bureau Director and Flavia Jimenez of the Advancement Project about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would feel about modern day race relations.

Economist Richard Wolff talks with Thom about the soaring Swiss Franc, uncertainty in the Eurozone, Pres. Obama's new tax on the rich, and the 1% controlling half of the worlds wealth.

Is it Child Abuse to let your Kids Walk Home Alone?

What Thom Would Say if he were Delivering The State of The Union...

How Expensive is it to be Poor?

Thom Hartmann on Science & Green News: January 19, 2015

Caller: The Left has Hijacked the MLK Message...

MLK Day Should be for Everyone...

What would MLK, Jr. Think of America Today...

Has the GOP Been Taken Over by Satan?

MLK Day...Time to end Police Brutality

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"Crash of 2016" website

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