In a week, families all over the country will pack up their cars and make a trip to the beach, to a family picnic, or just to get away from day to day life for the holiday weekend.

And if the trucking industry had its way, those families would be sharing the interstate with semi-truck drivers who are exhausted from working more than 80 hours a week.

Seriously. If that sounds reckless and unbelievably unsafe for both the public and the drivers, that's because it is. Nearly 4,000 people die in large truck crashes each year, and driver fatigue is a leading factor according to the Department of Transportation.

Take truck driver Dana Logan, who recently told reporters the heartwrenching story about how she personally witnessed another truck driver fall asleep and ram an SUV from behind. The SUV was slammed underneath Logan's trailer, shearing off the top of the SUV and decapitating the two fathers and two children inside the SUV. The truck driver who had fallen asleep and rammed the SUV from behind managed to ask Dana Logan's husband one last question before he died, he asked simply "Did I hit something?".

More famously back in June of 2014, a Walmart truck driver had been awake for more than 28 hours when he slammed his truck into actor Tracy Morgan's limo van, killing one passenger and leaving Morgan in a coma for two weeks.

We all drive on the roads, so this is definitely a matter of public concern. So when will the public comment period be on this proposal to let trucking companies push their drivers even beyond an 80 hour week? When will the public get to weigh in on whether the truck drivers are allowed to work themselves to exhaustion and threaten public safety?

Never.

That's because these measures are being inserted into a must-pass spending measure that includes funding for transportation, funding for housing and military construction projects, funding for the Veterans Administration, as well as new funding for Zika prevention in the United States. Both the House and the Senate versions of this legislation would block the Obama administration from enforcing a regulation that requires workers to take two days in a row off per week, and caps truck drivers' hours at 70 hours a week.

And as the Huffington Post points out, bribing, excuse me, "making campaign contributions to", compliant congressmen to use this sort of legislative backdoor to roll back safety regulations is something that the trucking industry has been doing for at least the last three years.

But it's not just the trucking industry that does this, pretty much every lobbying group on Capitol Hill can pull a few strings to get riders inserted into must-pass spending bills, and even though they rarely have anything to do with the larger bill, they always have a clear benefit to special interest factions.

In the last few years we've seen spending bills amended with industry-friendly riders that would roll back clean water protections and net neutrality rules, we've seen riders to defund Planned Parenthood, to defund Obamacare, to gut the National Labor Relations Board and thus block a litany of safety regulations, and the list goes on and on.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Robert Teitelman, BLOODSPORT: When Ruthless Dealmakers, Shrewd Ideologues, and Brawling Lawyers Toppled the Corporate Establishment (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

    

Friday's Daily Stack 

Article: "House erupts in chaos after LGBT vote" by Rachael Bade, Ben Weyl and John Bresnahan.

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Site: Jeff Santos Show.

Article: "9 arrested, 5 officers hurt as May Day anti-capitalist march turns violent" by Seattle Times.

Site: Break Free Pacific Northwest.

Article: "Tao Te Ching" by Wikipedia.

Tweet: "The rich aren't just indifferent to poverty;they create it & maintain it-Jodie Foster" by @johndory49.

Article: "Pelosi defends Sanders: A 'positive force' for Dems" by Mike Lillis.

Article: "52 activists arrested after blocking train tracks to Anacortes refineries" by Komo.

Article: "New York Attorney General To House Republicans: Are You Kidding?" by Samantha Page.

Article: "The Faux Fracas in Nevada: How a Reporter Manufactured a Riot" by Doug Johnson Hatlem.

Video: Sanders and the Nevada debacle.

Article: "Senator Boxer: I Feared for My Safety and Felt Threatened by Sanders Supporters in Nevada" by Reuters.

Video: Barbara Boxer blowing kisses to Bernie supporters as she walks off the stage at NV Democratic Con.

Tweet: "Serious question, no attempt to take sides, please don't turn this into a flame: Can anybody show/send me a pix of ANY NV "chair throwing"?" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Bernie backers 'reality check' Nevada violence: Video proves we only 'lifted a chair in frustration'" by David Edwards.

Article: "The Chair Thrown 'Round the World" by Kim LaCapria.

Article: "The Oompa-Loompas" by Roald Dahl.

Article: "The Gary Johnson Swindle and the Degradation of Third Party Politics" by Mark Ames.

Video: #Bernie Delegate Erin Bilbray Joins Thom (Full Interview).

Video: Nina Turner Explains What Really Happened At The NV Convention... (Full Interview).

Article: "City Approves Four Massive Pro-Bernie Sanders Rallies During DNC" by Brian X. McCrone and Aundrea Cline-Thomas.

Site: Haaretz.

Article: "'There is no way I won't be' the Democratic nominee, says Hillary Clinton" by Judy Woodruff.

Article: "Police and Prison Guard Groups Fight Marijuana Legalization in California" by Lee Fang.

Article: "Lawmakers Introduce Bill Making It Harder for Police to Take Innocent Americans' Property" by Melissa Quinn.

Article: "Thousands rally to denounce Illinois Gov. Rauner's anti-worker agenda" by Sharon K. Williams.

Case: "Roe v. Wade", 1973.

Article: "Oklahoma Legislature passes bill criminalizing abortion" by Shawn Nottingham, Ariane de Vogue and Eugene Scott.

Article: "1968 Democratic National Convention" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Uh Oh: Trump Named In The Panama Papers 3,540 Times!" by Sarah P.

Book: The New Democrats and the Return to Power by Al From.

Article: "Puerto Rico, hard hit by Zika, reports first microcephaly case" by Liz Szabo.

Article: "Obama Asks Congress for $1.8 Billion to Combat Zika Virus" by Mark Landler.

Article: "U.S. Senate set to approve $1.1 billion in Zika virus funding" by Richard Cowan and Timothy Gardner.

Article: "U.S. House to weigh $622.1 million in new Zika funding" by Richard Cowan and Timothy Gardner.

Article: "Wall Street Money: Barney Frank To Oversee Democratic Platform While Running Big Bank" by Clark Mindock and David Sirota.

Article: "Murkowski becomes 1st write-in senator since '54" by Becky Bohrer, November 18, 2010.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Victoria Jones 

Article: "Egyptair debris reportedly recovered in Mediterranean" by Luke Vargas.

Article: "The Latest: French investigators question Paris airport crew" by .

Article: "Aloha Airlines Flight 243" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Oklahoma introduces measure to impeach Obama over bathroom rights" by Heide Brandes.

Article: "Obama to Congress: Give Me More Money to Fight Zika" by Maggie Fox.

Article: "New Nutrition Facts panel has line for added sugar" by Hadley Malcolm.

Book: Pure, White, and Deadly: How Sugar Is Killing Us and What We Can Do to Stop It by John Yudkin.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Article: "Quick Morning News - Egyptair Flight 804 wreckage found - May 20, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Quick Morning News - Sanders willing to Harm Clinton on homestretch - May 19, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: The Biggest Threat To Our Democracy & What We Can Do About It
- Congressman Rick Nolan (D-MN, 8th District)    

Article: "Rep. Nolan: 'The future of democracy' depends on stopping 'dialing for dollars'" by Libby Watson.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Article: "Nolan: Members of Congress Should be Governing, Not Telemarketing" (STOP Act) by Rep. Rick Nolan.

Article: "Constitution of the United States", article 3 section 2. "... the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make..."

Article: "The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (Continued)" (Federalist 10) by James Madison.

Article: "Star Tribune: Release the 28 pages on financial backers of 9/11" by Rep. Rick Nolan.

Movie: "Charlie Wilson's War".

Site: California Voter Registration.

Article: "Nolan Announces Seven Point 'Restore Democracy Act' to "Change the way we do politics in America"" by Rep. Rick Nolan.

Book: Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics by Ari Rabin-Havt.

Law: "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Proposed draconian cuts to Teamsters' pensions draws fire from retirees, who vow action" by John D. Schulz.

Bill: "S.1631 - Keep Our Pension Promises Act" by Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT].

Bill: "H.R.2844 - Keep Our Pension Promises Act" by Rep. Kaptur, Marcy [D-OH-9].

Bill: "S.2147 - Pension Accountability Act" by Sen. Portman, Rob [R-OH].

Bill: "H.R.4029 - Pension Accountability Act" by Rep. Joyce, David P. [R-OH-14].

 

Do you have all the info you need to vote for @BernieSanders? Find it here.

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

 

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

 

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!