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Thom's blog
Who's on your side - Elizabeth Warren or Jamie Dimon?
The history of America is the history of "We the People" confronting corporate power and winning. In fact, the whole reason we started this country was because individuals and small businesses wanted to fight back against the dominant corporation of the day, the British East India Company.
Here's a little history lesson you won't see on Fox So-Called News...
By the 1770s, the British East India Company, despite being the most powerful corporation in the world, was essentially bankrupt and faced fierce competition from small-business owners who were cutting into its tea trade with North America. And so it lobbied the Parliament of Great Britain to pass the Tea Act of 1773.
This act gave the British East India Company total control over the North American tea trade, exempted it from having to pay taxes on exported tea, and gave it a refund on any tea it was unable to sell. It was the largest corporate tax cut in the history of the world, and set up the East India Company to pull a Wal-Mart and put all the small, local tea shops across America out of business.
Not surprisingly, this really angered the American colonists. They were furious at seeing their business undercut to help out a big corporation, and so a group of them in Boston known as the Sons of Liberty decided to take action. On the night of December 16, 1773 they dressed themselves up as Native Americans, stormed a group of ships docked in Boston Harbor, and tossed chest upon chest of East India tea into the freezing winter water.
The events of that night, now known as the Boston Tea Party, set off another chain of events that eventually led to the Declaration of Independence and the creation of our republic. That's right, conservatives - the American Revolution started with an act of corporate vandalism by the good citizens of Boston!
The Boston Tea Party is just one example, though, of a much larger trend in American history. And that trend is the trend of "We the People" taking action, both through movement politics and through our democratic government, against entrenched corporate power.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Indiana's anti-gay law...when business & religion collide (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Need to Know: Indiana's anti-gay law...when business & religion collide- Bryan Pruitt, RedState 
Best of the Rest: Garbage...it's what's for dinner at a prison near you- Hugh Madden, Progress Michigan
Daily Take: Who's on your side...Elizabeth Warren or Jamie Diamond?
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Wednesday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: It's a special "Brunch With Bernie"... the honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joins Thom with all the news from our nation's capitol and as always he'll be spending the hour taking your calls and answering your questions too... Follow Bernie:    campaign site.
Hour Two: Is it time to re-invent religion? Article: " 19th Amendment " The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Letter: " Letter to Major John Cartwrigt" by Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, June 5, 1824. " We had no occasion to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts" Article: " Treaty of Tripoli" by Wikipedia. " The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" Bible: " Matthew 19:12" For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others--and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it..
Hour Three: Will Obama expose the dark $ donors?- Craig Holman Ph.D, Public Citizen Law: " DISCLOSE Act" (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act). |
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Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
I'll be talking with America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio about the issues of the day...
And, Dr. Peter Breggin will talk about what role antidepressants could have played in the Germanwings crash.
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...
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