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Isn't Your Body More Important Than Your Home?
Thom plus logo  Last night was the third Republican presidential primary debate, and the 10 candidates spent the majority of the time demonizing the federal government and social services.

Medicare is near the top of services that the Republican candidates want to cut or privatize, with candidates like Ted Cruz also taking aim at doing away with Obamacare completely.

The conservative ideology is clear, their logic is simply that anything that can be done for the public good must also represent an opportunity for capitalists to make a buck .

But strangely enough, those very same conservatives drive on public roads, rely on public police departments, and would call the public fire department if their house ever caught fire.

Not all of those services have always been publicly provided though, in fact, fire departments were privately run in America up until around the time of the Civil War.

Before that time, private citizens paid fire companies for fire insurance, and then hung a medallion for that fire company on the front of their building.

If and when a fire broke out, the different fire brigades would all race to put the fire out, if the building had the medallion of a fire insurance company.

And if it didn't, then the blaze would simply be allowed to burn until it threatened a building that did have a medallion on display.

But around the time of the Civil War, big cities like New York started abolishing their for-profit fire departments and created their own city and state run fire departments.

Which just makes sense, because a fire doesn't just threaten the individual property owner.

Just look at the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 for a prime example of how a fire on a single property can threaten an entire city.

And even though the super-rich in this country are known to hire their own security teams, just think about how dysfunctional our country would be if we privatized all of our police forces.

If someone were to get robbed or if your identity were stolen, you could hire the police to investigate, if you still have money to pay.

Or, if someone was kidnapped, their family could choose between paying the ransom or paying the cops to try to bring them back home safe and sound.

Unlike fire departments, police forces have always been public in this country, because keeping the public safe and making sure that citizens obey the laws of the land is a necessary public good.

And the whole point of government is to provide necessary public services that promote the "general welfare," as they refer to it repeatedly in the Constitution.

So if we care so much about our buildings, why don't we protect our bodies the same way.

Read more here.

-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Police Brutality on Children / How To Combat Bullying (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Green World Rising Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Need to Know: The Myths & Lies Exposed in the GOP Debate
- Christy Setzer, New Heights Communications  Twitter
- Neil McCabe, One America News Twitter Twitter

Screwed: NOAA Defies the GOP McCarthy Witchhunt
- Dr. Michael Mann, Earth System Science Center-Penn State University/Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change (2nd edition)  Twitter

Best of the Rest: Police Brutality on Children
- Professor Carla Shedd, Columbia University/Unequal City.

Everything You Know Is Wrong: How To Combat Bullying
- Professor Ann Marie Gardiner Halstead, Bucket Filling Fairy  Twitter  Twitter

Daily Take: Isn't Your Body More Important Than Your Home?
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Thursday's Daily Stack Daily Stack
Hour One: Proof That Republicans Have Gone Off the Rails...
Article: "FBI director concedes he has little evidence to support 'Ferguson effect'" by Ciara McCarthy and Sabrina Siddiqui.
Article: "Shooting of Jordan Davis" by Wikipedia.
Article: "'Cromnibus' Spending Bill Passes, Just Hours Before Deadline" by Bill Chappell, December 11, 2014.
Article: "Mensheviks" by Wikipedia.
Article: "Bolsheviks" by Wikipedia.
Article: "Seventh-day Adventist Church" by Wikipedia.

Hour Two: More of Thom's thoughts on the debate - plus yours!
Article: "Report on the Subject of Manufactures" by Alexander Hamilton.
Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 1 section 8. "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States".
Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.
Article: "The Black-White Sleep Gap" by Brian Resnick.
Site: "Congress.gov".
 
Talk Radio News Segment:
- Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief Twitter
Article: "Ryan Elected Speaker" by Justin Duckham.
Article: "Boehner Bids Farewell" by Justin Duckham.
Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.
Article: "TRNS News Notes- 10/29" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Why Ohio Will Be Even More Fired Up in 2016
- Woody Taft, Yes On 3 Ohio Twitter
Article: "Death of Sandra Bland" by Wikipedia.
Article: "Truth (2015 film)" by Wikipedia.
 
Article: "The Cost of Federal Regulation" by National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
Article: "National Association of Manufacturers" by SourceWatch.
Article: "We All Stand Together as One People" by Bernie Sanders.
Movie: "Reefer Madness".
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Rumble: How Trump or Carson would destroy the GOP
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