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A subsidized jobs program that created 20,000 jobs around the Commonwealth shows that such initiatives can be a win both for those struggling for work and for employers. Continue reading
Recent Actions
- August 1, 2014| Rebecca Vallas
- July 31, 2014| Amy Traub
Today's economy doesn't contain a lot of good news for working people, yet the last few days have seen some notable gains. Continue reading
- July 30, 2014| Elaine Weiss and Tawny Stottlemeier
It's time for an anti-poverty contract that addresses minimum wages, paid sick leave, childcare, ending child hunger and ensuring that no one willing to work becomes destitute. Continue reading
- July 29, 2014 | Money & Politics
The group will spend $12 million during the midterms to support reform candidates. Continue reading
- July 29, 2014| George Zornick
Two House Democrats plan to introduce a bill tomorrow that would make labor organizing a basic freedom no different than freedom from racial discrimination. Continue reading
- July 19, 2014
As Detroit draws international criticism for shutting off water for low-income families, activists ask why people are being forced to pay while the Wall Street banks live large. Continue reading
- July 17, 2014| Eesha Pandit
Twenty-seven states have passed strict abortion regulations and volunteer groups are stepping in to help close the gap between the legal right to an abortion and the ability to get one.
Continue reading
- July 3, 2014
Cherish the words of the Declaration but also summon Thomas Paine's spirit to remind yourself that we can, if we really care, pick up the broken thread of democratic zeal. An essay by Bill Moyers and Bernie Weisberger. Continue reading
- July 2, 2014| Earthjustice
A rural town in upstate New York just won a major victory against oil and gas companies hoping to frack on its residents' land. Continue reading
- June 30, 2014
The youth rebellions that took place throughout the Middle East are still shaping the region. And there's more to come. Continue reading
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- Tom Robischon
I have been an avid follower of Bill Moyers for I don't know how long. I was delighted when KCET added him to its depleted schedule. But alas! I am unable to tune him in at any of the times he is now scheduled. And reading him, even seeing him, online is not a viable alternative. 9 PM on any evening but the weekend would be ideal! What would it take, what would I have to do, to get KCET to schedule him on Wed. at 9PM when Helen Mirren's show ends?
- Ilse
I believe that elections should be free, i.e., there should be no money involved in campaigns or, at the very least, if money has to be involved, it should be public campaign money, not from individuals and most definitely not from corporations!
- Steve Bleeke
Bill, love your show. Please look at the video available at this link and consider Sadhguru for your show.
http://inconversations.com/sadhguru/in-conversation/k-v-kamath/live/ He talks here about "inclusive economics" with one of India's leading bankers.
- Vincedemattia
Occupy needs a leader or leaders with a united platform. Over the last couple of years it has been disjointed, fractured… not organized. Small groups here and there. I am not criticizing any of those efforts… but, now we need to get everyone together… after all, we know there is strength in numbers… let's get those numbers in agreement and organized into one formidable group. Thanks. V
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1274462883 Terry Goffinet
We are coming together, from the inside it is apparent. And we don't need or want A leader. But we do need more centralized platforms focusing on the primary issues as detailed by the OWS movement. This is one of those, so thank you! We need to stay focused until we create some significant forward change. It is so tempting at this point to start adding things like climate change, education, healthcare, labor rights, and women's rights, which are all symptoms of the core issues. May 1st is the General Strike, and I hope it will signify a turning point of OWS focusing laser sharp where websites like this, a handful of our elected officials, and a few outspoken authorities are pointing. Time to take our queues from Bernie and Warren and go for the jugular, and do everything we can to elect Democrats to Congress. They are not the end all answer, but are the best thing we have right now. If we all just got 1 person to vote who would not have, boom, we'd win election after election in 2012.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/AMZVFOXE6KFSVOLARVQAOYHRUQ Cherry
A handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning.
I think that your comment policy says it all. Hate speech will not be tolerated! I just realized that I am wrong to pass on a lot of the posters, pictures, videos and comics, etc that are malign the right. I've opened up a dialog with a conservative relative and I'm finding that we have more in common than I would have thought. I want to stress solutions, facts, and compromises over beliefs wherever possible
- Jim Manning
…..by creating a "TRICKLE UP ECONOMY!"
From OCCUPY WALL-STREET, to the NEWS-MEDIA,
to FACEBOOK and BLOGS, and to the men (and women) ON THE
STREET, -everyone is TALKING about the despicable conditions of
our present political and economic system. Many people are
finally become aware of the real problems and causes, and many
are desperately trying to find solutions.
AT LAST, there is a practical, creative, realistic solution.
It's time we join together and createD a "TRICKLE UP ECONOMY"
where the 99% has the OPPORTUNITY to earn an adequate and
reliable income.
At the present time, the EXISTING political
systems and economic systems are unwilling and unable to even
consider realistic approaches to our problems. It's time we
encourage 100,000,000 (ONE HUNDRED MILLION ) individuals and
non-government organizations to work together and create a dynamic
grass-roots "TRICKLE UP ECONOMY" enabling the highest aspirations
of humanity to become a reality.
The "TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMY"
JUST DOES NOT WORK. Regardless of what government and
industry does in attempts to solve some of the tragic immigration,
financial, investment, unemployment, home ownership, economic and
political difficulties of our day, there needs to be a new
creative and unique PRIVATE GRASS ROOTS
"TRICKLE UP ECONOMY" where
anyone who so desires, should have the OPPORTUNITY, either on a
full-time or part-time basis, to earn
an adequate and reliable income (Up to
Regardless of one's condition or external problems,
–recession, tragic accident, disabling sickness, loss of job,
unemployment, underemployment, homelessness, poverty, physical
or mental shortcomings or any other limitation, people should not have to reply upon
government, charity OR TRICKLE DOWN FROM THE 1% to survive.
EVERY INDIVIDUAL who so desires, should have the
OPPORTUNITY to earn a STABLE income,
and an income ADEQUATE enough,
not only to provide the basic necessities of life, but for
individuals to HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY to become so financially
self-sufficient that they can develop their full potential as
human beings. And as radical as this sounds, such a program is
realistically possible.
As we join hands,
hearts and minds with people around the world who may
even have radically different religions, politics and
cultures, let us try to feel and understand each other's
anger, bitterness, hopelessness, revenge, hatred, despair, and
futility. Then let us resolve to find enough common ground to enable us to
rise above our differences and enthusiastically and creatively
unleash the massive pent-up desires,
yearnings, dreams, hopes,
aisprations and visions
of the entire human family.
There is ONLY ONE barrier preventing
this from happening. That barrier is "thinking such a vision is
Imagine what will happen when enough of us realize that
such a vision is
not only possible, but also probable and achievable.
Some see the horrors of the world and ask, "WHY?"
dream visions of a world that could be and ask, "WHY NOT?"
We can create a world
-where people of every religion, every race, every culture, every
political persuasion, every nationality and
background, can join hands and hearts and
minds to help create a better world, where we can all live
together in peace
and prosperity,
goodwill and
gratitude, decency and dignity, freedom and justice..
Johnny Appleseed 2nd a
legendary cosmic messenger and visionary, a planter of
- James Makaio
Thank you in helping us and this country in taking democratic assertive actions.
- http://www.CreatingHealthyCommunities.org/ Philip L Haberstro
Hi Bill! here is another "TAKE ACTION" public website http://www.HealthpromotionAdvocates.org with a focus on improving America's health and managing preventable "sickness care costs" by integrating health promotion into federal public policy. Best Regards Phil Haberstro , Buffalo, NY
- Hhaines32
Mr Moyers could I find a way to determine what your fee would be for a speaking engagement?
- Gerald Leddin
I'd like to see Mr. Moyers interview Representative Ron Paul. I think that would be very eye opening.
- Suzanne Reinhold
Great program today, April 1, 2012, as usual. Thanks.
Program suggestions:
(1) Economist Dean Baker on the right-wing effort to destroy Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and the Democrats' complicity.
(2) How to end the Bush tax cuts for the rich. There are economists who
could speak on the topic, and then there is my husband Bob Reinhold,
an attorney, who has been talking about tax cuts for the rich for 15 years.
- Richard 86
Your guest called his politics everything but was it is: Communism. I think the last 30 years of world history have proved that a Communist Utopia is not a functional, or fair system no matter how much you wish it were. Turning citizens into wards of the State is one of the cruelest forms of tyranny. Just ask anyone who lived under this tyranny in Eastern Europe or other areas subjugated to this system.
- Jean
Terrific program on The 99% spring. Keep helping us learn what is happening that is not covered by the major media. Thanks especially for the Take Action site.
- Jay F. Gypsy
America's Future: Read and Respond
Please forward-Print and distribute-Send a couple of copies to your Congressman
or Representative and everybody else you know.
B). Preamble
C). Institute a Flat Rate Tax, Eliminate the Tax Return and Restructure the I.R.S.
D). Make All Hospitals "ZERO PROFIT"
E). Make It Illegal to Advertise Prescription Drugs
F). Create National Pension Fund, Illegal to Invest Retirement in Stock Market
G). Restructure Social Security and Food Stamps
H). Restructure Bank Loans and Credit Cards
I). Institute Real Election Reform and Set Congressional Pay and Work Schedule
J). Restructure the Insurance Industry
K). Education, Colleges and Universities
L). Restructure the Prison Industrial Complex
M). Legalize Hemp and Endorse the Proliferation of Hemp Based Product
(With an environmental footnote)
N). Lower the Drinking Age and Legalize ALL Narcotics
O). Military and Pentagon
P). Jobs (?)
Q). Pet Peeves
R). Post-amble
B). PREAMBLE The first thing I'm going to say is that I am not a politician, I am not an Educator or a scientist, I'm not a Doctor or a Lawyer or an Indian Chief. I'm NOT a Republican or a Democrat or of the Green Party or the Tea Party! I'm just an Earthling and refuse to give myself any title to life that is more restricting than that. The world is way too small today to limit your self any farther. I'm just a concerned citizen who believes in the greatest good for the greatest number ever if it goes against what I want, personally. That being said, you are about to read (I hope) the ramblings of a sane(?) mind that constitute an overview of the thing that I see that I think need to be fixed and my ideas of how to fix them. None of this is to be taken as the perfect solution to any of these problems, nor is any of this meant to be a fully detailed accounting of any of these issues. I have a fully detailed presentation in my head for most of the issues presented below, if you'd care to hear any of them at length but, I'm going to cover a lot of topics over the course of this dissertation so, I tried to keep each article as short as possible. I fully believe that if America changed the things that I point out below, in the way I've suggested, all at the same time, we would have a better country and have a better chance for prosperity for every American. "We THE PEOPLE, in order to form a more perfect UNION!!!… Yes, I know that that is not what the Founding Fathers intended but, I fully believe that if the Government sector and the Industries and Corporations were required by law, as supported by "NATIONAL WAGE ENFORCEMENT" (SEE: sec. P.) to set pay grades for all levels of employment for Politicians, Government employees, Educators, Medical professionals, and any other "Public Sector" employees, as well as, all Corporation and Industry employee levels, America would become the "UNION" it was intended to be. I feel that in all of these employment positions there should be a SET National Scale with SET vacation time, sick leave, etc… All of the things that the Labor Unions have had to fight and beg for. Just to get what's fair; what's right. Please respond to this vigorously and vocally to any or all of what you're about to read. I want everybody to hear your opinion!!! I firmly believe that we, as a Country, should return to what The Founding Fathers intended…EQUALITY for ALL Americans and PROTECTION from "Big Government" and "The Wealthy". If we can't get there in a responsible, logical fashion then, I openly advocate doing the same things The Founding Fathers did to, "…protect our freedoms and our liberties, for ourselves and OUR POSTERITY…". On that note… I hope this proves to be exiting reading; I hope it stirs up the whole country and gets people thinking and talking and aggressively pursuing change instead of just lying there and taking it the way we have for the last thirty-five (35) years. Enjoy your read…C). INSTITUTE A FLAT RATE TAX, ELIMINATE THE TAX RETURN AND RESTRUCTURE THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICEC:1). 10% of the gross amount of ALL pay checks will be forwarded to the hospital located closest to the business where the check originates. Corporations or any other business that has state wide, region wide, or nation wide employment will send the withholdings of all the employees who reside in a given state, to the State Hospital Fund of each state where they have employees. Since the hospitals have become "ZERO PROFIT", since the insurance companies are out of the picture and since the Social Security offices have moved into the Hospital environs, it becomes most appropriate for the hospital itself to collect the money that is designated for the hospitals and Social Security.C:2). Each hospital would be responsible for re-distributing the revenue collected. 50% of the revenue would be placed directly into the STATE SOCIAL SECURITY FUND, (S.S.S.F.). ALL AMERICANS WILL PAY 5% OF THEIR INCOME TO THE S.S.S.F. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!! NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU MAKE!!!!! (also SEE: sec.G) C:3). The other 50% would be used to pay the operating costs of the Hospital, i.e., all medical supplies, utilities and salaries and all of the operating cost of the satellite medical offices in that hospitals region,(medical, mental and dental) and the supplies and salaries of the Social Security office in the hospital. (SEE: SEC. D)C:4). 10% of the gross amount of ALL pay checks will be forwarded to the Federal Government. ANY SHORTAGES IN "THE NATIONAL HOSPITAL FUND" WILL BE PAID FIRST AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ANY OF THEIR TAX REVENUES UNTIL IT IS PAID!!! They no longer have to pay for medical coverage for any of their employees, nor do they have to pay the exorbitant amount of money for tax return season so 10% should be more than they need to do all the things I don't approve of. (SEE sec. D:10).C:5). 5% of the gross amount of ALL pay checks will be forwarded to the coffers of the State where the employee lives. Again, since the States no longer have to pay for medical coverage for any of their employees, nor do they have to pay any amount of money for tax return season, 5% should be more than they need.C:6). 5% of the gross amount of ALL pay checks will be forwarded to the NATIONAL PENSION FUND, (N.P.F.). Any person who wants to assign more of their pay to their Pension Fund may do so at their discretion. All withholdings will be recorded in your Pension Account and will increase the amount of pay out at the time of your retirement.C:7). All employers will be authorized and requires to collect these withholdings and distribute them accordingly. All business owners will also be required to pay a matching fee of 50% of each of the withholdings collected and forward those moneys to their four appropriate destinations; Hospital, Federal, State and National Pension Fund. Businesses are not required to match any extra funds withheld for the N.P.F., (more than 5%), contributed by their employees. (SEE sec. F)C:8). All persons who are self employed will be required to submit a withholdings form listing your income for that month along with a payment of 10% of the gross of that income to the hospital nearest your business; likewise, you will submit a withholdings form listing your income for a month along with a payment of 10% of the gross of that income to the Federal Government, a withholdings form and 5% to state government and a withholdings form and 5% to the National Pension Fund. C:9). Payment schedules will be adjusted for Ranchers, Farmers, Fisherman or any other income that is based on "Harvest" as that the percentage payments will be due at the time of harvest. Those persons who are self employed will not match their own deductions, but will still be required to match the income of any employee who has his taxes withdrawn by the employer. Persons filing a 1099 will be required to pay their own deductions.C:10). There will be a NATIONAL SALES TAX of 5% on all every day commodities, there will be a NATIONAL LUXURY TAX of 7.5% on all luxuries and there will be a NATIONAL PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX at a rate of 2.5% of the purcgase price annually. (I'm NOT completely happy with this because I haven't done the math yet)C:11). Real Estate taxes for PRIMARY RESIDENCES will be set at a rate of .66% of the valuation of the property as determined by purchase price and adjacent property values with an understanding that the tax assessed on any person's primary residence will stop increasing after fifteen (15) years and will stay at that rate for the entirety of ownership. If, after thirty years of ownership the person wants to pass that property to an IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER AS A PRIMARY RESIDENCE, the tax rate will remain frozen at the previous owners' rate for a period of ten (10) years. After ten (10) years the tax rate will increase to the median between the tax rate of the previous owner and the tax rate that it would have been at the time of purchase. After twenty (20) years the tax rate will increase to the level that it would have been at the time of purchase and will remain frozen for the duration of ownership. If property values drop due to recession or other financial degradation the tax rate for the PRIMARY RESIDENCE will be reduced by an amount that reflects the downturn in property values. (NOTE: PRIMARY RESIDENCE does not apply to properties over $1,000,000 but, there will be an exemption granted for Ranch Land, Farm Land, Private Timber Reserves, etc…)C:12). SECONDARY PROPERTIES will be taxed at a rate that is double the tax rate for PRIMARY RESIDENCES and will enjoy NO tax freeze benefits as it is a SECONDARY PROPERTY, nor will a SECONDARY PROPERTY have its tax rate reduced as a result of any recessionary activity or changes in the property values. If that property has been owned for fifteen (15) years and becomes the PRIMARY RESIDENCE of the owner the tax rate for that property will be reduced to the level of a PRIMARY RESIDENCE at the time residency is established and will remain frozen at that rate for the entirety of ownership. The same formula will be followed if the owner sells that property to an IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER as a PRIMARY RESIDENCE, with the time frame of the twenty (20) year clause deriving from the original purchase.C:13). PROFIT TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!! ALL corporate employees and management, including CEO's and owners, will issue themselves a paycheck to be taxed at the same rate as their employees; i.e., a total of 30% in deductions. The company or Corporation or employing entity will file a profit report declaring their gross profit for the week, month, or year before the stockholders get their dividends. 30% of the gross profits of the company, Corporation, or employing entity will be distributed equally between ALL of the employees of that entity before the stockholders or any other entity gets their payout. Each employee's share of the 30% "bonus" will be taxed at the same 30% rate as any other income. Further, ALL companies with employees in the United States will have an office in the United States and the required thirty percent (30%) of profits from that companies' U.S. business dealings will be distributed among that companies' U.S. employees BEFORE that profit leaves the country or gets distributed to stock holders or any other entity including the United States Government. PROFIT TO THE PEOPLE!!! THEY COME FIRST!!!!!!C:14). THAT'S IT!!! You file no tax returns— you get no money back!!! All of your taxes are paid, all of your medical, mental and dental are paid, your Social Security obligations are paid, guaranteeing you a Social Security check of at least 150% of the poverty level (SEE: sec. G) and you will be guaranteed a pension check bases on how much you paid in. (SEE: sec.F)C:15). With the shift of the revenue flow and no more tax returns the I.R.S. will be scaled back drastically but, it will still be a vital part of our society. The I.R.S. can now implement and execute a program of fairness whereas the auditors can begin doing more intense investigations of the wealthy and super wealthy to make sure that they are paying their fair share and politicians and their associates and interests, to make sure that there is no hanky-panky goin' on. The mid-level employees who have been responsible for making sure that all workers and businesses are in the system and making their contributions will continue to do their jobs much the same way except that the money will be coming from a different direction and all of the employees who just lost their position with the I.R.S. can be instantly re-employed at the hospital level or State level processing the same type of information and incoming revenues that they are already trained to process. D). MAKE ALL HOSPITALS "ZERO PROFIT" AND RELOCATE THE SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICES TO THE HOSPITALS.I). HOSPITAL:D-I:1). Medical care should cease to be a for profit industry; it should not be an industry at all. All Medical, Mental and Dental care, INCLUDING DRUG REHABILITATION, should be transferred to the DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL HEALTH, with ALL health care being routed through the local hospitals with equipment, supplies and salaries being paid by a voucher system through the local hospital. D-I:2). All Medical Professionals will primarily work for the DEPT. OF NATIONAL HEALTH but will still have their private practices. The D.N.H. will only concern themselves with the health and well being of ALL Americans, i.e. keeping them alive and healthy. To that end, the D.N.H. will institute a national hourly wage for ALL Medical Professionals including, but not limited to: Surgeons, Doctors, General Practitioners, RNs, LPNs, CNAs, Nurses Aides, Dietitians, Physical Therapists and any other Medical Professional position. This will be a National Scale for all Medical Professional while they are doing any work that falls under the heading of NATIONAL HEALTH. There will be NO Governmental fee control placed on work done as "vanity" or "elective".D-I:3). Under this plan, ALL of your medical costs for necessary medical treatment will be covered. There will be a national campaign for preventative care starting at your family or general practitioner. All Americans will be encouraged to see their physician for regular check-ups and assistance with a pro-active, pro-health life style. The same goes for Mental, Dental and Substance abuse, or any other area of medicine where preventative care will make everything easier and cheaper for everyone in the long run.D-I:4). All drug and alcohol abuse programs will be run by the Hospitals. Since today's biggest addiction is from Pharmaceutical medication, I think it's only fair that the Hospitals take responsibility for what they've created. Every doctor knows that, even if it's some octogenarian who is being prescribed these medications, there is a significant chance that those medications are going to end up on the streets being abused so I therefore propose that every Medical Professional be required to spend some portion of their schedule, maybe four hours a week, working with addicts. Hopefully, if they see what they are causing, up-close and personal, they won't be so quick to prescribe the garbage they have been pushing.D-I:5). If a Medical Professional has a practice outside the hospital environs, that professional will see and treat patients the same as always with the exception that, after service has been rendered, the Professional will submit an invoice containing the amount of time spent on the patient: the supplies have been instantly re-ordered. The local hospital will reimburse that Professional for their hours and re-supply that Professional with the supplies used; there will be no bill or money due for D.N.H. work. If that Medical Professional does "Elective or Vanity" treatments on a patient, the bill for the doctor's time goes to the patient or to the "Insurance Union". All supplies for "Elective or Vanity" procedures will be requisitioned from the local hospital AT COST. The D.N.H. will order ALL supplies and distribute them to ALL Medical Professionals at the cost of bulk supplies plus shipping; NO MARK UP AT ALL!!!D-I:6). The ordering and re-supply will NOT be run by a government agency, as such. The monumental task of keeping all of Americas hospitals supplied will be given to a U.P.S./FED-EX type of distribution service with the point-of-sale (P.O.S.) scanners and distribution routes already established. This will be another "ZERO PROFIT" enterprise with the employees being paid from D.N.H. revenues. When there is any patient interaction at the hospital or doctor's office that involves ANY medical supplies, the medical professional will complete their treatment of the patient then use their P.O.S. scanner to "beep" the bar code on the patient's chart then "beep" the wrapper(s) or container(s) of each and every medical supply used and those supplies will be automatically re-ordered from "central supply". The information will automatically be entered in the patient's "file" making an instant record of supply usage that can be easily reviewed to gage overages and/or waste. D-I:7). At the end of each month, or whenever operating expenses come due, the Professional will submit those expenses to the same local hospital for payment or reimbursement; likewise, any equipment, machinery, or hardware necessary for the operation of that Professional's practice will be requisitioned from the same local hospital as those things are needed. The same procedures will apply for repairs, improvements, modifications or replacement of the equipment used by that Professional.D-I:8). All of those jobs at the hospital that have to do with paperwork, supply, re-supply and general support will be organized to where each job is the same at every hospital and each employee does their job in the same way as every other employee in their position at every hospital.D-I:9). Those Medical Professionals working outside of the hospital environs, i.e. off campus, will be responsible for their own rents, utilities and other expenses associated with operating a private office. Hospitals should take the initiative to try to create a "Medical Park" that is attached to the hospital or, in rural areas, possibly a "Medical Park" in a satellite area closer to the populace, where Medical Professionals will have access to offices at a reduced rate because they are directly connected to the hospital.D-I:10). Those hospitals that are in a high business area will take in revenues exceeding what is needed to operate their facility and therefore will have a surplus that will be sent to the STATE HOSPITAL FUND, (S.H.F.); Those hospitals that are located in a reduced business area will have a lower revenue base and will therefore draw funds, if necessary, from the S.H.F. to pay their operating costs. All moneys collected by each S.H.F. in surplus of their financial requirements, (including medical equipment, etc…), will be sent to a REGIONAL HOSPITAL FUND, (R.H.F.). All shortages in the S.H.F. will be drawn from the R.H.F. to pay their expenditures. The surplus from the R.H.F. will be forwarded to the NATIONAL HOSPITAL FUND, (N.H.F.), and all shortages will be drawn from the N.H.F. Any and all overages of the N.H.F. will be paid by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, out of their tax revenues and those OVERAGES WILL BE PAID FIRST before the federal government gets ANY of their tax money.D-I:11). The Government will also institute a policy of tuition deferral. This policy is, essentially, a grant of sorts available to any High School graduate with high enough test scores and GPA to qualify for a HIGHER EDUCATION GRANT. The H.E.G. will give qualifying students free admission to medical school on the condition that, upon graduation from medical school, the student will take placement as an intern and then position at a hospital for a set, reduced salary. (SEE: sec K)D-I:12). Vanity or Elective practices and procedures, i.e. Plastic surgery, prostheses', reconstructions, scar removals, etc… will be the responsibility of the patient and can be covered by "Vanity Insurance", or be paid, "out of pocket". In other words, if you were in a car wreck and you broke your leg and smashed up your face, the hospital will keep you alive, set your leg, set your face, suture any holes or openings and give you whatever care is required to help you heal and return to your life. If you want the scars on your leg or face removed or you want your facial bones manipulated to minimize the effects of the injury or the scarring, you must pay for that yourself. If the patient has breast cancer the hospital will provide medical attention, preventative treatments, chemotherapy, a mastectomy if necessary and ALL follow up care, but if you want prosthesis implanted or scar tissue removed, for your own piece of mind, then it will be covered by, "Vanity Insurance", or it will come from your own pocket.D-I:13). The same attitude will prevail for "Elective surgeries or procedures". Nose jobs, breast enhancements and other vanity procedures will be covered by "Vanity Insurance" or paid for by the patient. Dental procedures will follow the same rules, i.e. preventative, routine check-ups, cleanings, fillings, root canal, all preventative dental work is already paid for by your medical withholdings. If the tooth can't be saved it can't be saved and any crowns, caps, implants, partials or dentures will be the responsibility of the patient. (Another Million dollar idea: Make a small Titanium or stainless steel screw similar to a duct work screw with threads of a size to grab firmly into the Maxilla or Mandible without weakening the bone. The shaft will have an hour glass shape that will allow the gums to form to the shaft in the same manner as your natural teeth do. The head of the "tooth" would be hexagonal (six (6) sided) for the molars and bicuspits, male-phillip's head for the Canines and male slotted for the incisors. pull the tooth, drill the pilot hole, screw in the "tooth", DONE! These could be made available to Prisoners, Welfare Recipients, Low Income, etc… as they have reduced incomes or other financial shortcomings and can't afford "Vanity Insurance" and would also be available to the general public, at the time of extraction, free of charge, if they so desire.)II). SOCIAL SECURITY: DII:1). All Social Security Offices will be abandoned and the operation of those offices will move to the hospital(s) in their region, having the dual effects of one, everyone having a social security office no farther away than the closest hospital and second, having the medical services of every client be directly attached to the Social Security Office.DII:2). In urban areas you probably won't see much difference other than the social security office breaks apart and now has several different addresses; go to the closest hospital and take care of all of your S.S.I. issues. In rural areas the big difference will be, not having to drive for hours to reach an S.S.I. office. The larger, urban center based S.S.I. offices will close and the hospital closest to your home will have (an) S.S.I. case worker(s).DII:3). The other benefit of this switch is obvious; either you are an older American who has earned your retirement benefits or you are a person who has a medical or mental reason for receiving a Social Security Check. If you of the former group, you probably only need to do a little paperwork now and then, or talk to your case worker, so theirs no reason to make you drive for hours for what might be a ten minute meeting. If, on the other hand, you are of the latter crowd it really couldn't be any simpler than to have your medical professional in the same building as the people to whom you are trying to verify a disability. This brings the whole process into one building eliminating wasted time, wasted effort, duplication, un-necessary delays and undue stress and pressure on the client/patient.E: MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO ADVERTISE PRESCRIPTION DRUGSFor the rest of this paper, please e-mail me at firstname.lastname@example.com Subject: response…
- Phunkejay
so much for impartial reporting. when so-called journalists begin to advocate for one side or another of any story they cover, all objectivism and fairness is lost. but then again, what else would one expect from pbs, bill moyers, et al. except to advocate for any and all leftist leaning postions on every topic they cover. how about interviews with someone who might provide at least one opposing opinion, or able to help viewers see the issue from another point of view besides the prevailing "social justice" agenda (whatever that is supposed to mean) of the so-called 99%.
- http://billmoyers.com BillMoyers.com
Hi Tom,
It looks like KCET airs Moyers & Company Fridays at 8, but this may count as "the weekend" for you. Here's KCET's programming page for Moyers & Company:
Here's some KCET contact information for you to make that post-Prime Suspect request:
You can also plug your zip code into our TV Schedule tool to see if we're airing in other channels that suit your calendar needs:
We hope some of this helps!
- Kman1220
If people had a website they could go to, to find a list of companies that offend societies values as well as an alternative company they could use, we could vote with our money and "starve the beast".
Most products come from China and abroad nowadays so outsourced production shouldn't be the sole criterion. But many companies do things to participate in the move to degrade the lives of workers like moving to another state just to break the unions they are currently affiliated with and others promote corporate well being over human well being, etc.
If the offenders were put on a black list and an alternative were listed, even if they moved offshore and tried to sell here, they could be kept from doing business as usual in this country they so disrespect.
- Anonymous
Thanks for posting this. It's excellent for reference.
- Elizabeth Miller
It's also important to highlight the companies who are doing the right thing to reward and reinforce good behvior.
- guest
I agree, a leader is needed. Camping in parks is not really doing anything but destroying nature.
- GradyLeeHoward
Don't you hate it when people advocate for the general welfare and fail to provide an equal rebuttal for the super greedy wealthy? Even though the super greedy wealthy own most all the rest of media Bill Moyers is expected (under fascist fairness doctrine) to surrender at least half his one hour a week for their advocates to lie their heads off unchallenged. Is that the American way 'o life now? Mebbe so…
mebbe so.
- GradyLeeHoward
I object to item C unless we cap wealth and income at a reasonable subsistence level. Why should one who earns $30K surrender 20% leaving $24K when one who receives $300K surrenders 20% leaving $240K, and one who commands $3million surrenders 20% leaving $2.4million. The truth is that the most valuable person should not receive more than $150K. There is not that much difference between the skills of a bus driver and a vascular surgeon. And sports or films would be much more credible if the athletes and performers lived right with the nurse's aides in the 'hood. The mystique surrounding money is a crippling perversion. And we all are forced when we work to work too much. How about a 30 hour week which would lessen unemployment?
Gypsy may not have thought through all his demands but shows admirable initiative with this Manifesto. Rather than critique a flawed document in detail I suggest interested parties submit their own preferences. Then we can work toward consensus in a general assembly style.
- GradyLeeHoward
This is so original I forgot to laugh.
I guess blaming the Boogerman is a catch all solution
for those seeking easy answers.
- GradyLeeHoward
Been there, done that. Check the archives.
- GradyLeeHoward
Gratis for a good cause.
- GradyLeeHoward
It's good to see all these Treatises coming out of the woodwork.
Jim, Not for profits have repeatedly disappointed those they claim to serve.
I like the guaranteed income thing for those unable to earn a living which has been suggested since the 1930s (Townsend).
- GradyLeeHoward
Once you shake off the mental colonization most Americans easily join efforts in a consensus. We attempt to demonstrate that in Occupy assemblies. You have to be patient while everybody vents their received beliefs. Once the information is distilled down to truths solutions are easier.
- GradyLeeHoward
No-o-o-o! Please don't give the authorities targets for persecution and arrest, or to be harassed until they can be co-opted. The needs of this society are best embodied in a varied group that is always changing. Technology has now superseded the distances requiring proxies. Checks and balances are never more advantageous than in an inclusive democratic assembly. A practical, intelligent person will know better than to want to be boss.
I am not saying we don't need wise advisers, but that should not imply leadership authority or responsibility. We all need continual education.
- GradyLeeHoward
Didn't "camping in parks" get your attention?
- GradyLeeHoward
Good, celebrity and exceptionality arising from leadership privileges are a hazard and stumbling block. Egalitarianism must be enacted in process.
- GradyLeeHoward
Ever heard of a DVR? Or even an old fashioned programmable VHS deck?
Wild and crazy; don't be lazy!
- GradyLeeHoward
Hey, let's use Monopoly money from the boardgame for elections. Candidates could have some once they pass GO.
- GradyLeeHoward
Seven billion people… that's a lot of 15 minute fames.
- GradyLeeHoward
I've read shorter books on my I-pad.
- GradyLeeHoward
The word you seek is boycott.
That is coming. It is on the way by this Summer:
sooner than you'd expect.
- GradyLeeHoward
The word you're seeking is spending.
It's always out there.
- GradyLeeHoward
Parks? Urban postage stamp parks are nature?
And have you never camped out in a state or national park?
If you haven't, put it on your bucket list.
- Rallen1320
You need to wakeup and look around to see that democracy in America is on life support and the lefties have been second string players in bringing this about. We are now living in what is called by Wolin "inverted totalitarianism" meaning that instead of a totalitarian state calling the shots the "corporation" is in control of the state via it's unprecedented and massive expenditures on lobbying. These powerful corporate interests have bought and paid for the legislative, judicial and executive branches of our government. The facts (I realize as a republican you may be allergic to fact) indicate that republican interests are owned lock stock and barrel by the corporate lobbies and the dems are not quite completely corrupted but running a very close second. Regardless of how any of us view the efficacy, morality, or need for social programs, abortion and contraception we need to look beyond these incidental agendas and see the larger picture. Do we want to live on a planet and in a country that supports life, all life not just human? Do we want our children and grandchildren to have access to clean water and air? Do we want our elected officials to be free of the power and influence of a few people and companies with vast fortunes? Do we want the making of money to be the only defining criteria of freedom? Do we want anybody regardless of their affiliation with corporations, local state or federal government or a religious institution (Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, Islam or New Age) tell us, our children, our grandchildren what and how to think and act day in and day out? The big evil is not Democrat, Republican, Left, Right, Christian, Muslim or Atheist. The real enemy is AUTHORITARIANISM. The authoritarianism that restricts our freedom of both thought and action, the authoritarianism that dictates freedom in terms of making money only. The Authoritarianism that pits one group of American Citizens against another, that pits one ideology against another. The Authoritarianism that maintains a corrupt political system and sustains a social and political environment where people are afraid to work together for real change.
- Henry Percy
What you are asking for is found on the other 99% of infotainment/rightwing propaganda outlets. ALL journalism involves perspective and editorial interpretation. At least Moyers is up front with his can't say the same for the rest
- Tim Bowker
How we can take our government back
"An eye-opening look into the corrosive influence of money on our nation's
policies. And a surprising look at how we can take our government back." John Rauh, Founder and CEO, Americans for Campaign Reform
PRICELE$$ Movie Debuts on PBS Stations
PRICELE$$, is an accurate, delightful, hopeful, multiple award-winning
documentary, interviewing children (amazing insights on bribery), lobbyists and
politicians (funny examples of lying through their teeth), veterans, activists
and honest political insiders. It illustrates how bribery costs us much,
much, much more (in terms of our health, environment, infrastructure, climate,
finances, etc) than public-funded elections would ever cost.
- Ttarr
Hello Bill,
We heard you at Oklahoma City University last fall, are so happy you have failed to retire 3 times, and love your new show on PBS. Thanks for being a voice of reason in a time of extremes. You have a way of putting what is going on in perspective and helping me see what I can do to impact legislation. My husband and I think you are the best show on TV.
Much Health and Joy to you,
Sue and Tom
- Bill Moyers
It's a fact: With the relentless and implacable deadlines of weekly television I have no time for speeches, alas. But as Grady Lee says, I do them gratis when I believe in the cause. Bill Moyers
- norman kautsky
A n attractive bumper sticker was advertised " The 99″ with the modest donation benefiting the sponsoring organization. I have have it on my bumper. It gives a call to recognize those of us that have a common mission. We are the overwhelming majority affected by the callous minority.
Normsn Kautsky
Centennial, CO
- Bill Moyers
That was an evening I'll long remember among a thousand or so kindred spirits in my native state. Thanks, sue and Tom, for your encouraging words.
- Anonymous
I look forward to tuning into the "new Bill". If known by the voting public and properly marketed, Paul Volcker could have — and should have — been elected president. Carne Ross was impressive, thoughtful and courageous. I only wonder whether he represents a reprise to those days when people like him were regarded as "pinkos".
- Normanroddick
What is the answer to the question? Norman Roddick
- John Allendorfer
George Washington is our leaderless leader when he refused the kingship.
- mike
please look into nuru international……it's a non profit organization doing exactly the things you promote on your program……well worth your time.
- norman kautsky
Amid guttural comments and vague answers to Bill's questions. I give an "F" to Volcher's response for action to reign in the mega size banks.
- Fran G
Why? Occupy has succeeded in changing the conversation in politics. Occupiers fall into camps to champion their pet causes, but they're all for economic justice. It's interesting to watch the wind blow and to watch the politicians dance to try to guess which way we'll vote.
- Fran G
My fellow Occupiers in Lancaster, PA are deeply disturbed by the effects of fracking in the Marcellus Shale regions of PA. After a powerful lecture about the bullying tactics of energy corp's and the harm they have caused to the environment and the people, I was feeling overwhelmed; what can I do? I took up yarn and needles and knitted a prayer shawl for Mother Earth. When all else fails…. The prayer shawl is finished, and I will send it to the lecturer (Carol French whose organization PLGAS is traveling the region to inform citizens). She is saddened that her daughter had to leave home to get relief from the health problems brought on by polluted water. I think it will take a lot of prayer to heal the Earth. Knitters everywhere–join me!
- Anonymous
At our house we are proud to know you.
- Anonymous
I share your assessment, norm.
- Anonymous
Maybe not the best show ever but the most genuine host and most understanding creative team.
- Anonymous
norman- Who was that sponsoring organization and what did they do with the bumper sticker proceeds?
- Anonymous
She outta know. She's been there.
- sergon
I was wondering why the media does not refer to the Federal Employees Health Benefit program when talking health care. Not only do Supreme Court judges receive health care paid by and subsidized by taxpayers but every Congressman. Its never mentioned in debates or cut in the federal budgets. It saves money by keeping costs down by 5%, it covers dental and eye care and its a co-pay operation. In fact it works very seamless withing the framework of the federal budget. I would like to see Mr. Moyers go after this like he goes after the fed and other lies within the government.
- Pdigesu
I think the old saying talk is cheap comes from the fact that it becomes increasingly devalued through time. We need to organize as a nation or society and stop provideing the labor force and tax force that this unholy power feeds on. That is everything in a nutshell. I think we could learn from Ghandi and I think Jimmy Hoffa was the greatest american hero of the 20th century up there with Eisenhower. He and the people were the driving force behind the new deal and Roosevelts squeeze of industrial elites to fund 15 million federal jobs during the depression and start social security in America after Italy. Watch Richard Wolfs documentary and read "Reflection" by Guzziferno.
- Steve
All Moyers fans, you must see this video. Go to http://www.thrivemovement.com and then watch the free video. If this doesn't wake you up and get you thinking, just like Bill's shows, better check your pulse.
- Brepstein
It is no accident that the powerful are abandoning the middle and lower classes. Their concerns are based on their own welfare. They do not care about nationalism. They have the money and the power to live wherever they want.
- Robert Eller
A documentary called "The Secret of Oz." Fascinating history of the US monetary system. Bankers definitely do not want you to watch this.
- Robert Slate
When we talk about employment of people of color we have to start at the beginning–the day a person of any color is born. For that new baby to have a chance of succeeding in life the parents have to give that baby love, encouragement, and a feeling of empowerment.
Being an effective parent is the very important and the most satisfying job a person can have in life. You can be sure the parents of Steve Jobs, Bill Clinton, and Shirley Temple, to mention just a few, were very proud of what they produced. All parents need to be impressed with the possibilities and with their role in making it possible for them as parents.
The Red Cross used to hold classes for parents-to-be on how to bathe the baby, how to hold and support the baby's head. It was all hands on with parents-to-be using dolls in class. I remember my wife and I taking that class although it was nearly 60 years ago. At that time we didn't talk about the mental and emotional development of the child.
Today, we need classes for parents-to-be that stress their role in developing happy and productive children. We require driver's licenses to safeguard the public. We should do the same to be a parent. This could be done by giving a certificate to a parent-to-be who completes the series of classes. This certificate could be filed with the parents' income tax when their baby is born, to give the parents a tax credit.
I see persons of color doing outstanding work in different jobs. Some are caregivers of the sick, some are house cleaners, some are computer technicians, and some are politicians. They all have one thing in common: high standards of excellence and the will to do the job well.
P.S. Positive reinforcement isn't just for kids–adults respond too.
- Jmgr7
To whom it may concern;
My Name is John Manager, and I am a
resident of Topeka, Kansas.
At this point, I have tried,
greatly, to have an honest, decent life with the basic amenities
afforded other citizens of color. However, I have been unsuccessful
in this endeavor.
I have worked in mental health,
healthcare and television outlets in this area for the better part of
twenty years. In that time, I have seen many things that are
abhorrent. At Stormont-Vail Healthcare, I have been subjected to
persecutory and abusive treatment by my former supervisors, Julie
McDowell and Nancy Burkhardt. I have also been subject to abusive
treatment as well as passed over for promotion in favor of
less-experienced personnel at Pathway Family Services's TRAIL
program, and upon the time that program manager Marie Moore and
independent living specialist Adrian Rivera assumed their positions
at trail, it was made clear that any client, regardless of their
appropriateness for the services would be accepted, regardless of
their chances for success in an independent living program, and with
the express purpose of filling program vacancies solely for capital
gain. The recently closed Kansas Rehabilitaion School for the Blind
and Visually Impaired, upon the retirement of former supervisor Ann
Prentiss and the hiring of supervisor Dane O' Hara and Dennis Rogers,
began demeaning and insultory treatment toward all employees under
their supervision. My employment with the Menninger Foundation
resulted in discharge due to racial prejudice on the part of the
section nurse over my section at the time, Cathie Pawlicki.
In all these things, I have tried to
maintain a calm demeanor, professional behavioral standards, and give
my best to any organization I have worked for. However, with the
economic downturn, the State of Kansas making errors in my child
support deduction that were beyond my control resulting in over 4,000
dollars in arrears I cannot pay due to being under, and now,
unemployed, the pressures mounting against me as well as many others
that are the recipients of unfair treatment in the workplace have
become too problematic for me to cope with anymore. Thus, I have
decided to end my life.
The current news stories detailing
the heartless, senseless killing of the youth Trayvon Martin in
Florida, as well as the aforementioned grievances against me by
corporate entities and the state as well as Governor Brownback's
recent attempts to close the Kansas Neurological Institute are all
indicative of a culture that has gone horribly awry, and that despite
the election of an African-American president, speaks to a vast
racial problem still existing in America in general and in Topeka
Kansas in particular. Human resource individuals consulted at
Stormont, Pathways/The Farm Inc., the State of Kansas all were
ineffective and indifferent to my respective situations. In short,
there is only so much adversity one individual can endure without
losing any sense or modicum of hope. As such, I can see no clear
path to the hope of a decent job that can support me, friends that
will care and a life I can be satisfied with. Thus, the only
reasonable alternative I can see is to end my own existence as
quickly and painlessly as possible in order to gain relief from a
life where the odds are completely against me in regard to the
possibility of having any sort of life worth living.
I regret such a decision, as well as
some decent individuals and family I will leave behind. While this
is unfortunate, it is also a necessity, as after fifteen years of
trying and failing, there is no justifiable reason to believe that
with any effort, life will improve. Thus, like the individual who
has a terminal disease that decreases their life quality that cannot
be improved may decide the best alternative is euthaniasa, I feel
this is my only choice and recourse.
- Cathi
Given the approaching 20th anniversary of the LA riots, it is of much importance for us to continue to question and have a shared dialogue on race, class and community. Sir, I look forward to reading your commentary on the significance of this event. Also, I want to invite you to a community dialogue to be held tomorrow at the The Graduate Center, where the Korean American Community Foundation will be hosting a screening of Wet Sand and an intercommunity panel on this anniversary. http://kacfny.tumblr.com/post/21230359898/sa-i-gu-commemorating-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-la
- Koveta49
Saw your interview with Angela Glover blackwell last night. It was most interesting as she was a knowledgeable, informed advocate for any/all of us who are part of the "have-less-than"s in this country. And she is right, America does have an issue with race. It is past time for all of us to recognize the prejudices we have learned through exposure and experiences, so we can address the challenges and move forward.
Please have her again soon to continue this important discussion.
- Amilius
- Branchard
Your guests tonight were the reason that I turned you off for the first time in my life. REALLY??? Liberals are sitting around twiddling their thumbs! A bold faces lie and you know it, but just left his lie hanging out there as if it were true. I have been in the streets since Walker started stealing WI. Ao were 3,000 others. And OWS? I guess sleeping outside and tolerating police assault for 4 months is the same as doing nothing.
You have been my journalistic hero since I read your interview with Joseph Campbell. I'm so disappointed in tonight's show that I cried. If this is your new show format, I am utterly devastated. Now Al-Jazeera is the only reporting I can trust.
- Ebhalp
I would like to suggest a conversation in the near future with Diana Butler Bass, whose latest book, CHRISTIANITY AFTER RELIGION, through sound scholarship and lively writing paints a clear and comprehensive picture of the decline in Christian affiliation and the rise of a non-religious spiritual awakening in this country. She would be a welcome counterbalance to Ross Douthat's naive –and perhaps disingenuous–remarks.
- Karenwilson
On this week in northern Calif PBS show Friday April 19 2011 I was glad to hear the proposal to ban tv ads by state candidates. This way our local representatives get the word to us more directly. Time to deny tv all thT money and have no place to run distortions.
- Dpellar
Is anyone paying attention to the Student Loan bubble that is about to burst?
da Mutha Rappa has been forced into an activist roll …. dorky old ladies are going to have to take over the world!
Thank you for listening to her.
- daMuthaRappa
Is anyone paying attention to the Student Loan bubble that is about to burst?
- Arty Kraft
Because there's a critical shortage of accurate, comprehensive news sources and fair and profound analysis in America, a site like this is quite revealing since few of this caliber exist. It should be by all means and measures, that rare jewel; the thinking person's retreat from a world that is so often thoughtless and cruel. For here is the great attempt to extract meaning out of complexity, to grapple with fairness in the midst of inequity, to search for wisdom in an enormously difficult time. And, after the paint hits the canvas, ideally, it should be one of the few places where individuals with radically different beliefs can reach a wise accommodation, or, perhaps, if we're lucky, further general understanding as humankind moves forward, if only for an inch. But sadly, that doesn't appear to be happening here. And that's tremendously disheartening, since, for the most part, it doesn't appear to be happening much at all, anywhere.
Here we see "liberals" intolerant of justifiable criticism of liberalism, right wing zealots who discount extended fair minded inquiry with cliches built on ad hominem slurs like lefties and communists, single-minded activists hoping to change the world by cashing out in a materialistically craven culture too weak to resist fads and fleeting fancies. The list could go on. Change we can believe in? Not really. Obama has been a huge disappointment, but to his credit, he did say that the people would have to participate in that trip to the Promised Land and, hey, that part of the equation hasn't materialized. Why? Becasue the kind of change millions of us had hoped for requires something few Americans were prepared to provide: critical thinking — that natural resource more rare than platinum and more valuable than all the derivatives in all the vaults in all the banks of the world.
Like so many terms that have been mercilessly cannibalized, critical thinking came and went, more or less. Now, it appears, the pivotal term is simply education. Who really cares if Johnny can think critically; just get him into as good a school as possible, which, of course, requires a lot of "shopping around." If he's a smart lad, i.e., limited interest in the soft arts, he'll dedicate himself to one of those prosperous majors, like finance or law, and one day, may concoct a modernized, more arcane version of the Credit Default Swap that, like the Higgs boson, only four individuals in the universe will truly understand. Whether or not the world should have such a thing, or how ethical something so inaccessible to common reasoning is shouldn't really trouble Johnny. That is a problem, like moral hazard and Kant's categorical imperative, that should be left to those few people who actually pursue critical thinking, once they punch out at the retail store they work at part-time in order to pay off that student loan for a degree in philosophy three years ago
What's the jusification for this rant? After seeing the latest show with Alterman and Douthat, a group of idle thoughts and random ideas were somehow unified. Fearful that they would eventually bounce around until gravity sucked them into oblivion, they are now finding their way to the keyboard. First, it's been said before, but it nevers seems to matter: the American vernacular of liberal vs. conservative is woefully inaccurate and invariably misleading. Oddly, the guru of all free markets, F.A. Hayek, addressed this in (i)The Road to Serfdom(i): "I use throughout the term 'liberal' in the original nineteenth-century sense in which it is still current in Britain. In current American usage it often mean very nearly the opposite of this. It has been part of the camoflage of leftish movements in this country, helped by the muddleheadedness of many who really believe in liberty, that 'liberal' has come to mean the advocacy of almost every kind of government control."
First, every society with its roots in the Enlightenment, functioning with a democratic and capitalist foundation is liberal, politically, economically, culturally, and pyschologically. Being liberal meant breaking with the past, accepting reason, science, and the fruits of secularism. It didn't mean embracing Big Government. Currently, the liberal vs. conservative dynamic essentially signifies a false premise: Big Government, which Hayek and countless others insist will lead to totalitarian rule, vs. Free Markets, which "conservatives" claim will unleash the great creative talents suppressed by taxes and regulations. What a joke. This dynamic, refined by neocons, AFI, the Heritage Foundation, and others beginning in the '70s, is profusely discussed day in and day out as if it actually represents political reality. It doesn't. It's merely a lazy way of charaterizing complicated circumstances.
It's quite simple really, and it's very disturbing that Democrats and the left have not made these ponts clear: If the government didn't centrally plan the interstate highway system, who would have? If the government isn't going to protect natural resources by enforcing standards, who will? If the government will not involve itself in public education, what group will? If the government doesn't police industrial commerce, oversee banking practices, and provide protections like FDIC, flood insurance, and at least minimal social stabilization, then who will? The self-interested forces of the Free Market, which are relentlessly chasing their own interests? Never. That's not their job, nor should it be. If you like Free Markets then appreciate the fact that corporate entities can chase after their own interests without having tro build roads, sustain a military, and protect natural resources.
Alterman talked about how successful the right has been discrediting the term, liberal, which is sad because so-called conservatives preaching Free Market values may be the most liberal, or arguably, the most radical of all. Yet because critical thinking is in such short supply, that is turned upside down. After all, tally up all the corporate welfare, including TARP, add in all the costs for lobbyists, Super PAC funding, the vast teams of lawyers and accountants, throw in the write-offs and write-downs, including foreclosure losses and toxic assets yet to be declared, count up all the subsidies and tax deferment benefits, include the golf trips for legislators, the wages for those clevely passing on insider tips, the fees for managing offshore and overseas accounts and you readily realize. Free Markets are hardly free, Big Government, made big in part by corporate entities working the system, is, with rare exceptions, with not against the privileged, and welfare payments and safety nets are only bad when they are not enjoyed by corporate alpha dogs.
Perhaps because Democrats too are in on the fix or because they're dolts, these issues remain muddled. And so the rest of us are forced to witness these stupid debates about artificially defined circumstances until our eyes bleed. Until the left embraces critical thinking rather than paying it lip service, the right wing will shape the discourse, and Joe the Plumber or his cousin Joe Sixpack will rule the roost.
- Brepstein
Years ago on NPR, there was a program that discussed political propositions, questioning, examining and arguing a proposal on a current political situation. Perhaps it is time for such a program today to show people how the views of various political factions might be thought of more deeply.
- Cczibo
Money & Politics. Washington & Wall Street. If President Clinton signed the final provision to repeal thr Glaske Act, it really has me soul searching as to the legitmacy of Hillary Clinton's subsequent Senate Seat and political career in general.
- Robert Slate
A vote comes up today, but the Republicans want to take money from the Affordable Healthcare Act to pay for it, while Democrats want the money to come from other programs like subsidies to billion dollar oil companies.
- Lquilici
Thanks and bless you Bill Moyers for affirming, confirming, and disturbing truth about our government, media, and politics into an understandable, concrete, and forceful explanation of what goes on in the power centers of our country. We are in the process of losing our souls, sanity, and survival. Moyers gives us security, safety, and sanity.
Bill Moyers for President!
- Bruce Barni
Your program this week began with clips from the Marty Kaplan film "The Distinguished Gentleman." I suggest you also take a look at the mid 70's film by Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet "Network." It's all there: news as entertainment, reality TV, so much more.
- Gleasonb97
I'm watching Marty Kaplan's interview. It amazes me that no one talks about how the unions are a big part of corporate America. The fact that the union owners have bought a share of the government is something that the media doesn't want to admit. The media's fondness for the socialist polices is well known. The fact that "Some pigs are better than others." is the main point of the unions, educators, politicians, and the ones that own them. If you don't belong to a union, you don't deserve to work. If you don't have a degree, you are worthless. Like the cops who have the attitude, "that if your not cop you're little people." Obama is a TV star not a President. Mr. Kaplan seems only to see a narrow view of the issues. Kathleen Faulk who wants Walkers's job is on the union's payroll. The unions lost, because the people of Wisconsin were tired of them sucking the life out of the taxpayers. The national unions have poured so much money into the state, it's unbelievable. They will probably win, with the way the elections are rigged now. Does anyone remember Acorn. I don't like any of the politicians, they all owe their jobs to someone. The media is bigoted, not fair. Public Broadcasting is one of the biggest offenders. Because they like the ideas that socialism claims to stand for. They don't want to see what history shows happens to the media and everyone else in the Animal Farm world. It's easy to get illegal aliens to vote for you when you promise them the country. It's easy to get the very poor to vote for you when you promise them the moon. The problem comes when the taxpayers have to pay for those promises. The union leaders aren't going to foot the bill. The very rich won't pay the bill. It's the little taxpayer. Of course that's only if the lying politicians ever meant those promises. I realize that you don't care for anyone's opinion but your own. Not everyone in this country believes that all business is bad. As long as greed exists the powerful will oppress weak. The politicians will always side with the money. I read something when I was young: The intelligence on the planet is a constant – The population is growing. That leads up to this last comment: People get the government they deserve. As a nation we are too stupid to see how bad our government has become. I guess we're getting what we deserve.
- Anonymous
I cannot tell you how much your segment on Alan West reafirmed my own feelings when I heard it. You couldn't have expressed it any better as the Ghost of Joe McCarthy. I was just a child when it happened but it was never forgotten around our kitchen table. Are you the only reasonable voice left? I sometimes feel that I am all alone in my feelings about our political situation today. It just seems everything is falling away to the corporations and their ownership of our representatives to our government. I am ashamed of my generation. The generation that was going to change the world. We changed it but in such a self asorbing way. Everyone has theirs until even theirs is gone. Are there men of courage? Have they all sold out? I wonder. Keep up the good work because you are a lone voice of truth. I am so happy you are back.
- Anonymous
Isn't that what it has come to? Joe the Plumber, Joe Sixpack , Ted Nugent! We have all been dumbed down to this craziness. It is no longer about making our country great it is about power and money. The South is so angry that we have a black president that they have dragged the whole GOP so far right we should all be ashamed. There is no room for a middle, which is where most of us live. The Dems usually wind up shooting themselves in the foot because they never fall in lockstep with leadership. There are no men of courage. They all have a price.
- Mikpotry
I'm watching a special PBS program on strip mining in So Western Virginia. There are so many lies in the pro coal program it is depressing. (The WV governor is pro coal.) The ordinary people, subject to floods. bad (black) water, home and forrest destruction, etc., need a voice. The program I saw was on WETV So Carolina, 4/29/2012, 6:00 pm. Please have a look, please do a program on this issue.
We don't need coal when we have cheap much cleaner burning natural gas to run our utilities.
- Jolipkin
Union are still made up of a groups of individuals. Big unions can develop a lot of clout because they represent a lot of people. Big corporations may be a lot of people but often they are not. Look at the behavior of some corporate execs to block discussion at their annual meetings.
- Anonymous
I became very discouraged while listening to your program on April 29 about the fascination of our people with entertainment and what it has done to us. I am a retired teacher of 35 years, and I have not been one of those people. And I think that their are more of us out there. We are just quiet. One of the reasons I think this is that I just finished the book by Susan Cain titled "Quiet". In her book she points out the differences in the two personalities of the Extrovert and the Introvert and what our society has the "correct" perspective, sad.
- Betty Reckert
As expressed by Marty Kaplan in the discussion concerning
media and the news, we do have to jump online lily pads to get to some truths.
Starting points for this exercise pop up daily as in a New York Times Op-Ed
Column by Paul Krugman titled "Wasting Our Minds." The introduction states "Young
people, even with a college degree, are entering an economy that just doesn't
seem to want them."
I wrote a response for the comments section but could not post
because comments had been closed. Thinking that it is a worthy topic, I am
commenting here:
In addition to economic imbalances and disheveled company structures
that result in poor employment opportunities, there is a social struggle of
one-upmanship brewing in the hiring process.
For job seekers, there is evidence that education is reason
for suspicion on the part of the potential employer. In my own early
experience, my degree opened many doors. Now my education is questioned and
diminished by an interviewer who points out that he or she achieved position
without such credentials.
Creating a functional economy by hiring the best people for
the job and coordinating production for growth and profit seems to have given
way to internal struggles to maintain the status quo. If an educated person
suggests improvements or questions anything, they are considered a bad fit and
shown the door.
My heart goes out to young, educated people who deserve the
same opportunities I had at their age. They are being dumbed-down by the very
people who need their expertise to flourish. I would love to see young
graduates form new business models, discover jobs for people at all education
levels, recreate healthy competition and drive the current regime out of
- Skipper2491
Angela Blackwell says "it's about race". Is it, or is it really about social and economic class. I cannot divorce my past from being reared is an upper middle class white family any more than Ms Blackwell can ignore that she was brought up black in a black family. Our respective upbringings certainly color our perception of the world. I believe race and slavery in American history are related by using race to justify slavery and the way in which our forefathers treated Native Americans, Asians, and any number of other groups. It was a way of justifying their actions when the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the very standards by which we were founded as a nation challenged that mistreatment and slavery. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many believe that nationalities were races; the Irish race, the English race, the Spanish, Greek, Italian, German, etc. That was clearly nonsense, but it was used to justify discrimination on what were really social and economic premises. I cannot help but wonder if we would not get beyond "race" if we would focus instead on social and economic unfairness and let race become an issue of the past.
- Whummingbird
How religion became repulican or democrate, is odd. How governing became a religion… I thought the founding fathers came here it run from the head of chucrch running the government… Why are christians wanting the pope/ minister to rule .. does history tell us nothing. And did't god create all people????!! M Walsh
- Hermitfarm
Your recent program on the lack of depth in news coverage with Marty Kaplan reminded me of the time, 71 years ago, when my uncle introduced me to George Seldes IN FACT, tthe predecessor to I. F. Stone's weekly. What Seldes exposed was that depth of coverage does not guarantee accuracy and lack of editorial bias, e.g. The Chicago Tribune. The battle to control print & now visual media goes back to the invention of the printing press. One can only say, "Reader, Keep Your Eyes Open."
Skeptical Pete
- Librarian from Brooklyn
Bravo to you and your news team, Mr. Moyers! At least someone in the media is sticking up for our democracy. The conversation with Marty Kaplan, illustrated by clips from the current media was really informative. I was especially moved by your personal remembrance of the ruinous McCarthy era and the handful of brave Senators who stood up to Joseph McCarthy. Your television essay on the current movement to brand liberal politicians as Communists was chilling and hopefully will make people think twice about the labels they employ. Thank you for trying to inform a public that often has very little access to responsible journalism.
A Librarian from Brooklyn
- Enlgand
I was very concerned about the way white talk show host Bill Moyers showed his contempt for African American Congressman West and made false accusations about him. If this isn't racism, I don't know what is, and I think PBS needs to reconsider allowing Moyers to slander blacks in America to improve his ratings.
Moyers has a history of intolerance for blacks and homosexuals. Morley Safer of CBS news wrote in his 1990 biography that when Moyers worked for LBJ he bugged Martin Luther Kings private life and surveilled other civil rights groups in 1964. Moyers also hunted those he thought were homosexuals to destroy their careers.
- Houston Tx
Mr. Moyers, I just happen to catch your show because a McCarthy Video clip stopped me. I wanted to see if you were still presenting McCarthy in the same dim light. People only speak of the methods used by him. They conveniently leave out that most of the people named had ideals that mirrored communist ideals and philosophies. All I see from you (The high brow media elite) is the standard tit for tat. Congressman West is a true courageous American, something that you have not seen in along time or something you are simply in the habit of attacking.
- Pastor Oliver W. Wells
Mr. Moyers,
Just last Sunday, I preached on the danger of Absolute Truth vs. Relative Truth. (I'm a pastor) Your show with Mr. Kaplan re-enforced everything that I had said.
I'm writing and I'm urging all that I come in contact with to write their local television and radio stations. This is such a dangerous time! It's 2nd Timothy 3:7 ("always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.") right in front of us.
God bless you, your work your sponsors and public television. You're in the pulpit that was designed just for you!
Oliver W. Wells
- http://twitter.com/DollMakerBarb Barb Shillinger
May 1, 2012
Thank you, Mr Moyers, for your timely and sensible show at a time when our country is in such a state of dysfunction–I am SO GLAD you are back on PBS, my favorite channel. I'm a retired
public school teacher and a grandmother, mild-mannered and "sensible." That said, I am SO absolutely furious at the
current state of our country, both the economy and the Congress, that I have
become a political activist–I would rather not have to be one (I have never been one before) but I just can't
tolerate the condition our "democracy" is in today. Here we are, having to defend
birth control rights that we fought for and won forty years ago, as well as
our right to privacy and protection from Big Brother! I never thought I'd see the day when that highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, would aid the 0.1% to hijack our elections and do it under the cloak of absolute secrecy.
I can't even imagine what
the history books of the future will say about this period in our history, but I for one, am
not going to stand idly by and accept what
has happened to our country! We need to stop fighting
"wars" all over the world!! We are not "helping" the countries we claim to
be helping; we are destroying their lands and their commerce, as well as
killing their citizens and our own service personnel. Why?! So we can "export democracy" and make their
governments just like OURS! Ours is in a mess! We shouldn't send it anywhere, even if such a thing was possible. We need to stay home and take
care of our own problems. We have not won a war since WWII. WHEN will we learn
from our mistakes?!?! When will be ever have a country that is fair and just?!
- http://www.facebook.com/griffo.yger Griffo Yger
Great show! Loved all of it. It's time us to be fearless and speak from the heart
- http://www.facebook.com/griffo.yger Griffo Yger
Love the show. Thanks for being a role model. It's time for us, too, to be fearless and speak from the heart
- Senuv
protecting religuos freedom
The majority of Americans are Religous and would like to protect thier rights indicated in the Bill of Rights. I believe this could be accomplished if We the American People could vote on any Bill before Congress or any case before the Supreme Court which affects our rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights or Amendment 14. This would require an Amendment to the Constitution which is a difficult task but could be accomplished if all religuos people ask for the Amendment. I believe I have another solution which would be easier to implement. A law could be passed allowing The American People to cast thier vote through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. This vote coud be used instead of public opinion polls to guide our Government on how to vote to represent the majority vote of the People. Your opinion would be appreciated. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
- Senuv
Protecting Religious Freedom
The Majority of Americans are Religious and would like to protect their rights indicated in the Bill of Rights. I believe this could be accomplished if We, the American People, could vote on any Bill before Congress or any case before the Supreme Court which affects our rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights or Amendment 14. This would require an Amendment to the Constitution which is a difficult task but could be accomplished if all religious people ask for the Amendment. I believe I have another solution which would be easier to implement. A law could be passed allowing The American People to cast their vote through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. This vote could be used instead of public opinion polls to guide our Government on how to vote to represent the majority vote of the People. Your opinion would be appreciated. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
- Janet Harrison
Where is the petition for kartemquin films? Not sure if my name and comment registered when I went to their web site. I want to support! Janet Harrison Please advise!
- connieinak
While ALEC "ends" the push on their controversial voter ID and Stand Your Ground laws by dismantling their "Public Safety and Elections Task Force", they turned the reigns over to the "National Center for Public Policy Research" (NCPPR) who announced Wednesday that it will step in to help carry forward the "voter ID" agenda and form a "Voter Identification Task Force."
Amy Ridenour, chair of the NCPPR, said, "We're putting the
left on notice: you take out a conservative program operating in one
area, we'll kick it up a notch somewhere else. You will not win. We
outnumber you and we out think you, and when you kick up a fuss you
inspire us to victory."
NCPPR, receives funding from many corporate sources. Referred to as the "Queen of Scare Mail, chair, Amy Ridenour also does fundraising through "the National Center for Public Policy Research and several 'projects'
such as The National Retirement Security Task Force, etc. These projects
simply acquire the names of older people and mail them requests for
donations. These requests are sent with letters intended to scare the
recipient into donating. Often these requests are sent via Certified
Mail in the hope that the recipient will think the contents more
there's more to read: http://www.thenation.com/article/161978/alec-exposed#.
take action at http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Alec_Exposed:Community_portal
sign Bill Moyers petition at
Thank you Bill, for your tireless work and for being here.
let's all stand together and take back our country.
- Mmmead40
The JP Morgan buying credit default swaps certainly plays right into the too big to fail idea. As if I needed a reason.
- Jebkeller
When listening to your comments with Rose Ann De Moro, on the Robin Hood Tax, I thought Bill said said that .50 would be charged for every 100 thousand transacted by Wall Street, then I thought I heard Rose Ann say, .50 for every 100 dollars. What did I hear?
.50 for every 100 dollars would include every little and big bank in the country, it would include me with my small income and my Social Security transaction.
Which way is right? I am greatly in favor of this Financial Transaction Tax, even if it includes me, but I'm afraid of loop holes, that will favor Wall Street.
I love your work Bill Moyers, keep it up.
EJ Keller
- Billandjudith
Dear Blanchard: I don't know what you are talking about. You obviously haven't been watching every week. Go to billmoyers.com, click on the box to bring up every one of the programs we've broadcast, and start at the beginning. Moyers
- Anonymous
What can I do about it? Stopped shopping at Walmart years ago (they forced manufacturers to move their production overseas so they could sell cheaper). Moved my money to a small local bank. Stopped funding my 401K when working at a place that only offer mutual funds (look under the hood, Bank of America, JP Morgan). Eat at locally owned restaurants. Stopped buying anything unnecessary. Hired Americans. Avoiding unnecessary services (cable tv, fancy cell phone service, etc.). Vacation in the countryside. Buying organic (avoiding Monsanto) and avoiding the most blatant attack on the individual, corn syrup (GMO based).
There's a lot we can do. We support the 1% every day. Stop doing that in the ways we have 100% control over, your spending.
- Anonymous
Because despots will use anything including religion to gain power. And radical fundamentalist what everyone else to live their religion.
- MostlyRetiredCPA
I am listing to Ms. DeMoro. While I agree with her about the problems and that as a labor leader she must hold positions which represent her convictions, I have to disagree with her about some of her positions.
I don't disagree about a financial financial transaction tax, I think we all need to realize that businesses do not pay taxes. Taxes on business are just another cost of doing business and are passed on to customers. Only individuals pay taxes. That is not reason not to have such a tax. Individuals doing playing in the stock market can pay for each transaction they do. They will just make slightly less.
I agree that we should have universal health care but I also realize that we live in a very diverse country and we need to comprise as we move towards universal health care. I agree the bill is not perfect but we have to start somewhere.
- David Lockmiller
How do you contact you people? I have tried two dozen times now to submit an important idea for a program but all that I get back is a message ghosted out that says there are illicit characters in my submittal that may be some sort of computer attack. I am trying to help this democracy.
- http://www.billmoyers.com Theresa Riley
- Susan M
Let's petition for Kathleen Jamieson to moderate 6 Sunday Presidential Debates prior to the electyion. We need someone to hold the candidates to answer questions not just discredit the other.
- Vsanfi
Bill, do not say unions are in decline, 53% want to join a union, 70% approve of unions, the unions have been illegally suppressed and labor laws not enforced, please do a show on this problem, thank you
- Anonymous
The candidates would sooner agree to face a firing squad! Sadly, the "debate" in Presidential Debates is but a quaint notion anymore.
I do like your idea however and would like to raise you one. KJ on a third party ticket! I know, another quaint notion. But if there is one thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that they don't want a third party!
- Anonymous
But don't you know? This is the free market in action! Ain't it a beautiful sight to behold?
- Billandjudith
I will. Thanks. Bill
- Billandjudith
Send it again. Moyers
- Billandjudith
I read Seldes's book TELL THE TRUTH AND RUN and then interviewed him. He changed the course of my work. Moyers
- Jdp
Here's a protest song for you Bill " I Want The White Boy Deal !!" music video a must see.. it's funky… you will find it interesting Please pass it on to all your friends see what they think about it…My sincerest hope's for peace and success in all you Dream & Do…Thank you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poBoFHrlAOk
- http://artworldchicago.com/john-sibley/ John H Sibley
Bill you can read reveiws about my book "Being and homelessness" at amazon and B&N. I am trying to create a v0ice for the disenfranchised in the and globally with my art and books. I would be elated to appear on your show and talk about my life,activism, art and my books .
http://www.youtube.com/ watch
Title: John H.Sibley talks about his book Being and Homelessness: Notes from an Underground Artist
- http://profiles.google.com/dhfabian DH Fabian
Suggestion for an issue to tackle: Not everyone can work (due to health/circumstances) and there aren't enough jobs for all who need them. A massive number of jobs have been shipped out, a very large number of jobs were broken down into bottom wage workfare and prison labor. We ended the citizens' entitlement to poverty relief, and cities work hard to keep their destitute out of public sight. The more we ignore poverty, the more it grows. At most, this generation's sole response to poverty is to call for job creation, as we've been doing for 30-some years now. You can't rent a room with promises of eventual job creation. Instead of ignoring this issue, we need to start dealing with US poverty as it is. I want people to answer this question: Until everyone is able to work and there are jobs for all who need them, what should we do about America's poor?
- R Urysz
Good to see you back. Informative & motivating show. Tom Morell truly is a (the) Troubadour for Justice. Growing up in the 60s we listened to Barry McGuire " Eve of Destruction" and everything by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and later "Imagine". And of course everything referred to as underground music.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/XL3ETNMP5F3NCYQ66AY77X6XU4 earl
As Cheyennes only liscenced street musician I was thrilled to find Tom Morello singing a Thiis Land is Your Land on the Bill Moyers show. I play that song everytime I go out to play at the Farmers Market at Depot Plaza in the fall along with Eve of Destruction, Blowin' in the Wind, Imagine and many other 60's greats. 4years ago some friends and i Wrote a song in homage to Woody Guthrie in hopes it would become a rally cry for the democrats. I appeared briefly on the national news singing it during the Obama campaign and would like to share it with you. I don't know how to link but if you search youtube for Party Brave Wyoming Democatz you'll find it. Enjoy-Earl
- Cartuner619
I don't think the following artists qualify for protest, but some invoke protest, or action, sympathy, or a justified and more efficient stoicism. Suicide Machines' "95% of the World is Third World", System of a Down's "Deer Dance", Muse's "Uprising". 2Pac, Immortal Technique, "Blue Collar Man" by Styx, nice songs.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1642330769 Barb Shillinger
I so enjoyed the show on Tom Morello; he shows us all how to protest. I just wish more of my friends were up for protesting! What will it TAKE for the majority of people to get out in the streets? I don't understand how people can be so disinterested in what is going on when it affects us all so much.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1642330769 Barb Shillinger
In the last election, as Bill said, the word "poor" was never mentioned by either candidate. I work with the homeless in our town, handing out hoodies, shoes, socks, jeans, etc. I wish there were jobs for everyone, but as long as we ship all our jobs overseas, we won't have enough jobs here.
- Senuv
Protecting Religious Freedom
The Majority of Americans are Religious and would like to protect their rights indicated in the Bill of Rights. I believe this could be accomplished if We, the American People, could vote on any Bill before Congress or any case before the Supreme Court which affects our rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights or Amendment 14. This would require an Amendment to the Constitution which is a difficult task but could be accomplished if all religious people ask for the Amendment. I believe I have another solution which would be easier to implement. A law could be passed allowing The American People to cast their vote through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. This vote could be used instead of public opinion polls to guide our Government on how to vote to represent the majority vote of the People. Please contact your Representatives and ask for an Amendment or a law which will protect all of our freedoms. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
- John Foy
The University of Texas, Arlington used the German formula of making gasoline from coal to produce gasoline for $24.00 per barrel yet not a word has been said on any news media. Why? The USA has unlimited amounts of coal.
- Tomas
I caught part of the show about torture and hearing what was talked about made me wonder about 10-20 years from now and those who will fight about what was started during this decade, the torture for whatever purpose. How much worse can and will it get? What of those who came to the front line for power as in the past? Could it have been to sanctify, to hide, their fears or just to step upon people for their own wants. The wave they have rode is subsiding and they will past to obscurity. Now the many will go on as before till the next.
- mountain19.
goal 2000 is for the children under 12 yrs. to serve the commoncause/purpose. there wont be anyone able to think that far as the frontal lobe not developed till age 25 which the car ins. agencies have changed to how long held a licence rather than age 25 for rates to go down as not to bring attention to their knowingly useing humans at such a maleable age for thousands of yrs…1800's been implementing the hegelian sp? principal problem reaction solution. we are the last indigenous some what thinkers of this earth. (topside that is) re: phil schneider
- http://twitter.com/AriannaEditrix Arianna
I too did Tom, what I find disheartening is that he's had to teach the crowds at rallys the words to "This Land is Your Land" on THREE different occasions! I had tht song in my music book at school (imagine, music and books at a school!) and we had to learn ALL the verses!
- Robert G. Stepanovich
Bill Moyers;
I just watched your show with Jonathan Haidt. I t took the traditional focus on "Left" and "Right". While I found his thoughts insightful and provocative, I have found that traditional political spectrum to be meaningless. We have been taught that Communism is the extreme Left and Fascism is the extreme Right and our "System" is somewhere in the happy middle and it moves slightly one way or the other with each election. I fail to see what distinguishes Joe Stalin from Adolph Hitler. Instead I submit the meaningful spectrum is "Slavery" at one extreme and "Freedom" at the other extreme. This puts Joe and Adolph together and the Founding Fathers NEARER the other end. Our elections move us along this spectrum. While the Democrats started with TR and the Progressives to destroy our economic liberties and the Republicans began destroying our civil liberties in the 70's, we have been moving the marker toward Slavery for a century. The Democrats have worked to push toward Liberty in civil liberties and the Republicans have pushed toward economic liberties but neither can see we need both. We continue to move inexorably toward Slavery. Enter the basic Libertarian philosophy. It pushes everything toward Freedom which is supposedly the mantra of our "System".
- Howard Greene
I was in banking and finance for 40 years, retiring in 1999. I tried to submit ideas about solving the crises of Bear Stearns, Lehman, housing, unemployment, etc. I now have a strategy about saving our democracy and political system. I would very much like to contact any activest who is associated with a group that can get things done. I would especially like to contact Tom Morello, Susan Sarandon, Ben Affleck, Michael Moore and/or others like them
Howard Greene Contact me at email@example.com
- 65bugnut
The Weather Channel is being sued for Military Discrimination, by former employee Nicole Mitchell. I would like to hear what NBC has to say about this.
- Chrislyn
Bill, I love your show. Keep up the great work of keeping us informed and full of truth and facts!
- Skpeppley
I don't get to watch your show weekly but I do dvr them to view later. It never fails me on what a great show this is, on how it makes me really think about popular views and mine! Thank you. Please keep asking us to question our beliefs and showing us the other side of the story
- Jackhammer
Independent for US Senate Shuns Contributions06/14/2012 03:14 PM ET Danny Dalton of Brunswick says he's responding to concerns he heard from voters as he collected signatures to appear on the November ballot.BRUNSWICK, Maine (AP) _ One of the four independent candidates in the U.S. Senate race is shunning campaign contributions.Danny Dalton of Brunswick said that while collecting signatures to appear on the November ballot from January to May, voters expressed concern over the influence of special interest groups, lobbyists and other campaign donors.He announced today that he won't be accepting any campaign donations, so constituents can be assured that he'd be "representing everyone equally."Dalton is a former federal worker who wants to cut down on federal waste. He's also a small business owner.His announcement came a day after another independent, former Gov. Angus King, asked candidates to work together to limit expenditures by outside organizations–so-called super PACs–on behalf of candidates.
- Guest
What to do if our land, house it targeted for extortion-stealing due to political, public juditial-legal corruption?
We lost all our life savings trying to defend our property rights in Civil Court where we were send to by local polititians after Developer who recently bought his property next to us demanded that we must give all our land to him as" a gift "and walk away from our home that we own for 15 years,paid mortgages, property tax and put our savings into.
Local Department of Buildings officials approved construction 4 times to take over our land by Developer and send inspectors to tell us that Court will grant our property by deed to Developer. Court denied our preliminary injunction when opposition did not submit even an answer.Our Judge was named as corrupt by Daily News in 2008. Attorneys that we hired took our money and run away with our thousands of dollars that should be spend on defence of our property.
After our preliminary enjunction was denied our oppposition filed new case against us about the same property that already was in the same Court! The new case demand on the Court restrain us forever from our own property for use, occupancy, enjoiment by Developer! Also we must be restrain from speaking, living in our home, complain to all known law enforcement,remove our security cameras,forbidden to take pictures and pay to Developer 1,5 Million dollars for damages(?). We were harassed, assaulted ,out life's treatened, our property vandalised but police and other law enforcements done nothing for 2 years. Finally police arrested us on false accusations for 7 years going to the prison. We had security cameras and our charges based on policeman lied under oath were dismissed. Police officer was indicted by DA. But people who organized all of this just before the Court date still announcing that we are criminals and demanding our property.
Developer under full stop work order finished all illigal dangerous construction that is treat to all neiboghood and moved in under full stop work order!
Now it is final extortion push and as we understand developer must sell his construction with our land for better profit!
This is compleately lawless for us and full impression that we are living not in any Democratic Country but in the Country where it is no basic Huma, Civil, constitutional rights exist! We understand it as Corruption took all this rights away from us.
What to do? Crime of real property extortion-stealing is named falsely as Civil dispute and we are intrapted for being forsed to give away all our life savings fooling ourselves that Civil corrupt Court will protect our property from crime,falsifications, fraud,treats,vandalism. but it is not happening.
We do not need to be in Court because we have our deed, survay and done nothing to deserve all our life saving to be gone because real property extortions -stealings as well as all other crimes like banks robberry, car stealings and others must be investigated and stoped by law enforcements! Crime is not for disputes especcialy in Civil Courts!
Please, suggest to us anything to save us because we are living in Lawless America!
- Gary Johnson Supporter
why does Tom Frank or Bill Moyers mention the THIRD PARTY that has a candidate in all 50 states: it seems while listening to the interview that Tom and Bill are part of the problem. though i know different, they both are using the same frame of reference as any other commercial new agency. H E L L O: Gary Johnson will be in all 50 states. the interview with TF has no value because they failed everyone in that they used a very, very wide brush. please present the entire picture.
- dave
Why isn't Dish Network broadcasting in right wing Kern county ca… 1 PBS station but no schedule for Bill..
- Srdba10g
Deregulation didn't go far enough…
The free market will solve it…
If you really want to see what the unfettered, completely deregulated free market looks like, look at the Mexican drug cartels.
- Bareisner
Where is the petition to have Kathleen Jamison moderate 6 Sunday Presidential Debates prior to the election. We need someone to hold the candidates to answer questions not just discredit the other."
- Gary Johnson Supporter
Bill Moyers and Tom Frank owes an apology to Gary Johnson. what an outrageous biased and uninformed interview. Gary Johnson like Ron Paul must use the same invisibility cream.
- coelecanth5
Happy Father's Day! Mr. Moyers, PLEASE butt in and moderate political debates to keep the candidates honest! Well, that's one thing they DON't seem to want: someone keeping them HONEST.
As the poet Nikki Giovanni wrote: "One ounce of truth benefits like ripples on a pond." You, Mr. Moyers, are one gallon!
- NYC Supporter
Mr. Moyers, PLEASE continue the discussion of the DARK MONEY and how the concept of Citizen's United has now invaded other aspects of life in American. Even in academia, fund-raising on the part of Presidents of Colleges and Universities has become so important that, essentially, whole departments and programs are essentially "for sale" to the right bidder. Give a million, pick the faculty you want! Even at public universities, CUNY for example, this is not uncommon.
- Barbara Vollmer
Dear Mr. Moyers, I just watched "Black Money" to learn how horrendously corrupt politics is and particularly the election campaign funding. After following Christopher Hitchens from beginning to end I now only have you, Jon Stuart and Bill Maher to get some truth info. How about having someone on your show to explain "pursuit of happiness" which phrase I find totally superfluous. I am a dual citizen (EU and US) and follow both political movements. In the German consitutuion it says "everybody has a right to a dignified life" which makes more sense to me. I think the government's resposibility is there to protect that. Somehow I do not feel that the Republican Party here thinks that this is what government is here for. They'd rather stick to the "go West young man" idea a la Western movies. I would love to see a show of yours discussing that.
Best to you always. Keep it up.
Barbara Vollmer
- Brepstein
I think the political, financial and ecological systems in this country have already reached the tipping point.
- Richard A. Knee
I disagree with Thomas Frank that the nation needs a third party. There are plenty of third parties — Green, Peace & Freedom, American Independent, Reform, Libertarian et alii. What we need are news outlets, including PBS and NPR, that give those parties accurate and thorough coverage. FYI, I am a registered Green and a freelance journalist.
- Vette96_96
Bill Moyers comment on "perhaps his grand children will solve the problem" is really sad. He has the where withall to atleast start to make a change. Never mind that he is presenting the problems to the public. Do something. He has the access to the media.
- Gary Johnson Supporter
the bar for a third party in my head is whether the candidate is on the ballot on election day in All 50 States. when that bar is reached it becomes a Real Third party. so does/will the Green Party have a Presidential Candidate on the ballot in all 50 states on election day? Thomas Frank was sooo passionate about speaking for the need of a third party, that it needed some balance of equal passion. i know 'third' parties have been around all my life and i am old. all the punditry over the years, i submit that pundits have lost the vernacular to speak in many parties; like it is solving the problem for three or more variables in math. now here is a 'issue' topic for the McLaughlin Group. even if they start as many political viewpoints, it comes to two candidates: good and evil. pundits have lost that skill-set…..for the most part.
- gaylygopem
I was insulted by the statements in the June 17, 2012, show that money bought the vote in Wisconsin that kept Gov. Walker in office. Sure there was a lot of money thrown around on both sides. However, Moyer and his guest totally ignored the fact that many of us in WI are sick and tired of being held hostage by the unions representing public employees, particularly the teachers' union. Obviously, Moyer and his guest have little faith in the ability of the public to see through the many negative commercials and other promotional stunts, which occurred on both sides. Democracy ruled and when the votes were counted, Walker won by an even greater margin than in his original election.
- Soulmusic11
Now may we please hear something about electronic voting machines and the upcoming election? Some years ago computer experts were telling us these machines could be secretly programmed and manipulated to shift votes in any direction and perhaps even change an election outcome. I've heard nothing about this lately and wonder what's going on with these machines as the election draws near. I am also concerned about attempts to keep certain people (e.g., the poor, the elderly and minorities) from voting by purging of the voter rolls in key states such as Florida and requiring certain kinds of identification to cast a ballot. Please consider a show on these topics. Please don't wait until the last minute before bringing the situation to the attention of the public. Thank you for your great work.
- Anonymous
I thoroughly enjoyed Bill's last show featuring Thomas Frank and I am an admirer of his work. However I disagree with Thomas assessment of President Barack Obama as a person who actually had an opportunity to affect significant change after the financial crisis of 2008. To categorize the President as another of the politicians beholding to wall street is a bit of a stretch.
When President Obama came into office the system was already corrupt beyond repair and he had very little knowledge as to who were his real allies in the House and Senate.
Just as the financial solvency of America cannot happen overnight the same applies for our current problem with dark money starting of course with the Supreme Court.
Barack Obama desparately needs another term and then he will be in a position to impact the Supreme Court (via appointments) and seriously revisit campaign finance reform.
I shudder at the alternative.
- Halchris
I saw Bill's program in which he said his friend in Kansas or some such no longer "knew what to do." I feel the same way. Our country is very close now to a corporate-owned war-based totalitarian society. I think that everyone is in denial about this, but I am convinced that by the 2020 election, or because of it (who is elected) we will have the veil ripped off from all the Government secrecy and it will be made very clear to us that we live in a totalitarian society and that all our efforts for EPA enforcement, or ending racism, or equality for Gays amounts to nothing more than "happy" laws that will make us feel comfortable living under continual surveillance and the Patriot Act and other Acts that allow no free expression and allow us to be picked up, questioned, tortured and jailed. Hal Christiansen
- Jackhammer
This is very interesting!!!
- Susan Salmon
I did not know where to comment, so please read and advise please. I had several articles in The Ny Times first one May 2010. I went on facebook for the first and receiced 2 million hits telling my tale of Pole and Town Corruption. Paul Krugman dubbed me Queen Bee of corruption and the tornado. there were many articles and alot of meia attention. I spoke the tuth from my heart and did not even think I would get such support, o I thought. The articles have vanished I cannot even get a lawyer for my case because of all the media attention that I did not ask for and now is vanished. This is pretty much ruined my life. I am sick all the time cannot eat,sleep.I cannot even go to a hospital.I had pneumonia for 3 months and every hospital i went to Put me in a Physc Ward , no exam by a medical doctor they did not eventalk to me and tell me very scaryI have no where to turn. They might as well have killed me it is too much and is not getting better. I have just touched the surface. Please help me
- Anonymous
Lets control our Goverment by doing the following: REPLACE PUBLIC OPINION POLLS
Americans can cast their vote on any issue through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. Our Government would know exactly what WE want and not have to rely on opinion polls. We should vote on any issue which affects our Rights listed in THE BILL OF RIGHTS or AMENDMENT 14. Ask your Government Representatives to sponsor a Bill or an Amendment to allow us to protect our rights by casting our vote. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
- Jon Eric
They don't call Wisconsin folks like you cheeseheads for nothing
- Anonymous
Ladies and Gents, the underlying reason that we have the inability to change our nation's political dialogue and the gathering of the money at the top (see the banking story Bill did this week) is that beginning after WWII, the surface level federal government structure you visibly experience stopped being the real policymaker for our nation. Our direction is very little about the Congress and the Presidency except as they are bought and paid for by other more powerful centers of influence.
What has been building for the last sixty years (yes, 1943, maybe even earlier) is the power and domain of the invisible government and private interests (again, read/research Wall Street, big banking, big energy et al.) with multinational corporate structures that avoid national boundaries and laws, for the most part or are allowed to circumvent the rest for the right payment(s).
The Invisible Government was initially the OSS, then the NSC, and finally the CIA with its 1948 charter of which the last paragraph grants them power over the American military and every other structure that they believe they need power over (yes, that's how it is worded and was allowed to be interpreted). Truman was frightened by the power and reach of the act when he realized what he had signed and said so both publicly and privately. Eisenhower gave us his famous warning about the "military-industrial complex" as he was leaving office. Just in case you hadn't figured it out yet, they killed JFK because he threatened both to dump LBJ because of his legal problems and break the CIA "into a thousand pieces and scatter them to the winds." And those are only two of the sources of his killing that of necessity needed him dead. Bobby Kennedy was dismantling organized crime beginning with the mafia. Hoffa, Giancana, and others wanted him dead. Andthen there were the Bay of Pigs prisoners and other Cuban exiles who believed Kennedy had betrayed them. Yeah, I know that's a hell of a set of assumptions…but for me it isn't an assumption. After studying the players and the history of the post war era for all the years since the Sixties, including the ongoing releases by the 1992 act that began releasing hidden records from within CIA and the government, I'm writing a historical novel about it which has an ever-expanding 250 page timeline of events that will essentially show the causality. Wake up and smell the stink that was on us that we weren't allowed to experience after JFK's murder. LBJ was the target of a congressional investigation by Senator John McClellan's committee (which would have indicted him in December, 1963) and on the verge of criminal indictment for a whole host of charges – the TFX scandal, the Bobby Baker scandal, a dozen murders – all of which – before the assassination – was scheduled to hit within the month after JFK was murdered. The congressional investigation into TFX suddenly got put on hold when LBJ took over the presidency. Nixon whom we all loved to hate? He was a victim, too. The Watergate burglars were, to a man, CIA connected operatives for many, many years before Watergate. E Howard Hunt goes all the way back to the overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government on behalf of United Fruit. He along with Gordon Liddy was a central figure in the CIA JMWAVE station in Florida that trained Cuban exiles to overthrow and assassinate Castro. Then you have Carter who was a member of the new world order, George H.W. who was the key man for the Suite 8F group in Houston (oil and banking men) and who helped escalate the invisible government's power in the Fifties and Sixties. You remember him. He then became the head of the CIA. And on and on. I think you remember Iran-Contra? I'll trust that you know the more modern history. Obama, by the way, is the darling of Wall Street. You'll notice that nothing was done on behalf of the taxpayers during his first term to right the wrongs of the 2007 collapse and the bailout. And it won't be in his second term, either.
One of the lessons learned by people like Obama who decide the Presidency is something they want to compete for is the lesson of JFK. Don't make SERIOUS waves. JFK literally tried to reverse the flow, even ordering the first 1000 troops out of Vietnam with the commitment to get them all out by the end of 1965 – read NSAM 263. LBJ reversed that in NSAM 273, written before the assassination, talked about with McNamara on November 23rd, the day after the assassination, and issued publicly four days after the assassination on the 26th. I'm still not convinced that they'll let Obama live through a second term if he starts flouting his independence on behalf of the little people.
If you hope to change this government's way of doing business – yes, I really mean YOU, you'll have to figure out how to stretch our domain around the globe – and I don't mean illegitimately as we have done it for all these years. I mean by creating a worldwide agency (government?) that can actually hope to address worldwide domination by the banking and energy and defense industries, among others. That will involve getting people like Angela Merkel to go along. Good luck with that.
- NotLikeYouAtAll
Nope. Not interesting at all. Just another political hack.
- NotLikeYouAtAll
For the life of me, I cannot understand why there is no oversight of the one company that I know of that makes these voting machines. DIEBOLD. There are no assurances that the vote you cast on these machines is valid. There is no receipt. There are ways that we can very easily fix the voting issues in our country. One very simple thing is to take a picture of the person voting and put it right along with their registration form when they vote. No one votes twice. Dead people do not vote this way. Most of the voting fraud (having to do with the voting mechanisms) disappears. You would think the Republicans were concerned with voter fraud. They never try to help the situation. They do not want the situation fixed beyond fraud. How else can they continue to disenfranchise voters (predominately Americans of color).
Good post man.
- NotLikeYouAtAll
Sounds like you hate middle class working people. Are teachers rich? Which ones? It is the administrators of education who think they should be rich from doing their public sector jobs. Leave the teachers alone. Why do you not go after the top fifty companies in out nation that pay no taxes? Teachers are trying to get paid like everyone else. You denigrate their union because someone told you to. Not because you dislike teachers. Perhaps it is time for you to do your own research and analysis. Fox and Rush are disappointing you.
- Ron
Worth a Read:
GLOBAL ELITES THROWN OUT OF ICELAND: Iceland Dismantles Corrupt Gov't Then Arrests All Rothschild Bankers
- mak2012
July 1, 2012
Re: Nuns-on-a-Bus
On the evening of 06/29/12, I attended the
"Nuns-on-a-Bus" presentation in Philadelphia, Pa. A heart-felt message was delivered
by the novice who is a social worker in Kensington. The novice gave a face,
name, pain to the poor. I am extremely concerned about the other sister's
Yes, I heard about the comedian who got her nose stuck in
the door of the bus. Yes, I heard the sister who was on many talk/radio shows.
Yes, I heard the sister who cried when a poor man wrote her a money order for
$2.50. Yes, I heard how each sister loves working with one another, delights in
a 12 seat bus for 5 sisters, hated the heat in one location and terminated the
presentation because of the heat. I tried to picture Mother Theresa on the
stage last evening…and, I could not – Mother Theresa would be out in the
slums, the ghettos, the inner city streets caring for the poor, not giving
cutesy versions of her traveling adventures. I think I actually heard one of
the speakers refer to nuns on a bus as her "posse." The audience chuckled. But,
there is nothing humorous about the heart-wrenching condition of the homeless
or the atrocity of a lonely senior citizen cramped up in an un-air conditioned
dirty apartment in sweltering 100 degree temperature…and, dying from heat
stroke. There is nothing humorous about unvaccinated children, or little ones
with the teeth rotting out of their mouth due to no dental insurance. There is
nothing humorous about the many, many people in our country today without a
job. Additionally, the definition of posse according to Dictionary.com is
1645 (in Anglo-L. from 1314), shortening of posse comitatus
"the force of the country" (1626, in Anglo-L. from 1285), from M.L.
posse "body of men, power," from L. posse "have power, be
able" + comitatus "of the country," gen. of L.L. word for
"court palace." Modern slang meaning "small gang" is
probably from Western movies.
Sisters, really?
Are you defining yourselves as a powerful body of men? Or, are you
defining yourselves with the modern slang version of posse?
The sisters talked about diversity, yet there were no
people of color on the stage. There was no mention of the great civil rights
leaders in our country's history who championed the plight of the poor,
underprivileged, mistreated citizens in our country…the very purpose of "Nuns
on a Bus." After listening to the stirring impassioned Martin Luther King "I
Have A Dream" speech, I am compelled to promote social justice. I am concerned
that on a public forum where the opportunity to raise awareness for social justice
is profound, a sister needed to talk about one another's sleeping habits. One
of the nuns on a bus gleefully described a trite, sophomoric incident between
two traveling sisters who slept through a storm.
The sisters talked about inclusion of all religions, yet
there were no rabbis or religious leaders from other faiths on the stage. The
sisters choose two Marty Hageman hymns to sing. Why not choose one Hageman hymn
and make the second hymn a Spanish selection, or a Spiritual. Why not invite an area Baptist/Methodists/Lutheran/another
choir from each state to sing?
And, perhaps the most disturbing event last evening was
the slide presentation illuminating all five sisters faces among gold stars. Jesus,
who hung on a cross, would never have his face shamelessly self-promoted in such
an embarrassing childish shtick. Jesus chose to have His face imprinted in a
dirty piece of cloth. Instead of tacky gold stars surrounding Jesus' face,
there was a bloody, piercing crown of nails. How could the sisters use their
slide presentation differently? While traveling state to state the sisters
could actually visit and photograph the slums, the ghettos, the boarded-up
Section 8's. A picture says a thousand words. The sisters wouldn't have to
speak and tell silly stories. The pain portrayed in their photos would quietly
scream injustice.
The sisters bragged how easily they raised $150,000. The
sisters told us the check came in "fine stationary." Why does the audience need
to know the quality of note paper? Why
not give that money to the poor and instead take the train or better yet walk….like
Jesus did in sandals…not in that ridiculous, pricey bus. Their message would be
Maryanne J. Kane
- Mharper91
I love this show…comments about $$ in politics wonderful BUT BUT BUT
Why don't we go after $$$$in politics at the core of the issue….that is, our minds.
"How do you know your opinions are true…how do you know you weren't just manipulated by big money and a Super Pac?"
"Turn off your TV and trash all those mailers…don't let them buy your mind….."
"Are you REALLY thinking for yourself? Or are you just a parrot for rich people?
"That ad made you angry (made you fearful…made you sad) WHY? Who paid for it and what do they want you to believe???" "How do you know what they say is true?"
I think by the time we get Campaign Finance Reform it will be a travesty AND too little, too late. We need to fight back NOW and get people to stop listening
- Anonymous
JFK did betray the Cubans at the Bay of Pigs Invasion according to a book I read given to me by a Cuban family who left Cuba after Castro came to power. JFk had promised attacking the Cuban Military by Air strikes to support the invasion and changed his mind. WE can change our Government for the better by doing the following REPLACE PUBLIC OPINION POLLS
Americans can cast their vote on any issue through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. Our Government would know exactly what WE want and not have to rely on opinion polls. We should vote on any issue which affects our Rights listed in THE BILL OF RIGHTS or AMENDMENT 14. Ask your Government Representatives to sponsor a Bill or an Amendment to allow us to protect our rights by casting our vote. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
- Fed Up
Bill Moyers doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that Obama has a "sugar daddy". His name is George Soros. I don't think he realizes a lot people understand that most politicians are corrupt.
- Gretag
Your guest in Labor Union in Peril told of the incident where Bank Of America foreclosed on a women who was off taking care of her soldier son who was wounded in Afghanistan, playing on viewers sympathy, but without citing one tidbit of detail re. the possible legitimacy of the foreclosure. All citizens deserve more factual information vs. ploys to play on sympathy to support one side or the other … or America is NEVER GOING TO GET OUT OF THIS MESS!
- Fbenjul
Bill, how about one or more shows about the commerce clause and its future?
The education must begin now.
Best, FW, Madison, WI.
- Redmond O Colonies
Dear Mr. Moyers.
I have just read an excerpt from an interesting book called Homo Mysterious on the premise 'We are all wired to sing' . Here is an out-take.
Poor Alfred Russel Wallace! Virtually unknown these days compared to Darwin, Wallace was one of the 19th century's greatest biologists and perhaps the preeminent field naturalist of all time. Those who have heard of Wallace know him primarily as the codiscoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection. But whereas Darwin had laboriously worked out the details, with copious examples from the living world, over a period of decades, Wallace literally came upon the principle of natural selection in a kind of brainstorm, a moment of epiphany while he lay in a malarial fever at a remote island campsite in what is today Indonesia.
Here is a link to the piece in Salon.com.
Thia may be of interest to you and your program. Continued best wishes and thanks for your work. You are a beacon of light on the periphery of this cultural black hole.
Redmond O Connell, Victoria BC Canada.
- John D.
To: Bill Moyers
Re: Unions
The salient point that was missed during the discussion is
that in the war between professional managements and boards of directors and
the unions is that, in manufacturing, the unions has relied on the power of the
strike and the slow down, while management has discovered the nuclear weapon of
outsourcing, and opening factories in foreign third world countries. It is
interesting that our captains of industries rely on the citizens to shed their
blood in defense of the rights to property, and liberty to do business, while
at the same time exporting the jobs of the citizens, and, as a result
impoverishing the citizens.
- Pat S.
Dear Mr. Moyers,
I was listening to your segment on dark money in advertising and wondered what might happen if people decided that if they couldn't figure out who had paid for the political advertisement, that they would discount the message and give it no credence. If enough people did that, and the people spending the dark money became aware of it, might it make a difference?
Just a thought! Love your show (I listen on podcast) – it makes me feel sane again!
Pat S., Santa Cruz, Ca.
- Bethatmarshall
Bill, I am in total agreement with your comments on Citizens United. Can you get wider circulation of this? Perhaps print as an OP ED piece in local newspapers. Our Oregonian needs this kind of input. I refer you to Editor David Sarasohn. Thank you.
Beth Gillette, Portland OR
- Craig K. Comstock
In the piece on "banksters," you mention picking our pockets. For more on the "invisible hand," see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-k-comstock/hands-that-are-invisible_b_1662772.html
- Anonymous
Dear Mr. Moyers,
There are many of us out here who have also had it with our corporate-run failed government. At 60 years of age I am ashamed to admit that our government and political system are both shams. Beyond that, what to do?
Do we occupy? Do we boycott? Do we revolt? Do we give up or give in as our children's and grand-children's futures are destroyed?
I am not going down without a fight. We have to get the corrupt 1%'s and their prostitute politicians' attentions in such a way that it will bring these plutocrats to their knees.
Decades of insidious lies about world climate change, hunger, poverty, vital resources, jobs, labor, and war have proven their insane agenda for profit. We now face a crisis that no typical governmental propaganda or mirage triage can solve.
I want a Millions Mad March. Please discuss it on your show. Please open the space to create the way for leaders to appear.
Imagine millions of American workers and their families peacefully demonstrating in Washington. The only requirement to attend is that you know that you are mad at our failed government and its failed policies of greed.
We need those who really know to bring it to the streets and bring this "governmental" madness to a screeching halt.
We need not only to get the 1% run government's attention, but also to get worldwide attention.
Please help.
John "twopesos" Randolph
- Warfielr
Thank you for Vandana Shiva!!!!!!!
- Ellen
I'm watching the 'Can Banks Be Made Honest' episode and I admit that I am not financially savvy and am ignorant on this subject BUT what I don't understand is WHY the PEOPLE have to pay for this.
Banks have to pay fines BUT where does that money go? If we were harmed and illegally affected, why isn't that money given back to the people in a way so that they can keep their jobs and keep their houses. Why aren't the mortgages 're-adjusted'? Surely it would be more beneficial to adjust mortgages based on the abuse so people could continue to thrive because if the people are thriving, the institutions can thrive AND it seems to me it would be much cheaper in the long run than foreclosures and short sales.
I also have the same questions as many; what IS the answer to this corruption. What do citizens do to take their government back? Lee Iacocoa once asked, "Where is our outrage?" I am outraged BUT I don't know what to do with it.
- Anonymous
Bill, your segments by Sheila Bear and Vandala were fantastic. You are truly a great
patriot…..and wish you every all effort for the future. GMO's seeds and lack of labeling
are ridiculous! Corporations as people….ridiculous! The Banks unable to separate traditional banking from Specialty Investment Vehicles, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives and Hedge Fund Markets…….really ridiculous! We busted up AT & T…..we can certainly bust up JP Morgan – Chase!
All our love,
Ron & Anna Winship
- Frances in California
Good posts, Soul and NLYAA; I'd like Brad Friedman of BradBlog to do a number on Wisconsin. I don't believe Scott Walker "defeated" the effort to recall him. I think the Koch Bros. rigged it for him.
- Frances in California
I think what you're doing is commonly referred to as "poisoning the well".
- Frances in California
Mr. Knee: You are a freelance journalist. Somewhere in the essays you send around to get published, would you please do some informing about the Constitutional Amendment needed to abolish the Electoral College? We have such great potential for alternative parties in this country but the E.C. stands in the way. Yes, this will take several generations but that's not a reason we shouldn't do it.
- Frances in California
Dear Barbara: Watch Bill this coming Friday. Chris Hedges will be on!
- Frances in California
dave, think: right wing Kern Cty; has PBS; can't get Bill . . . think.
- Frances in California
Dear Bill: I was so inspired, back in the days of "Journal", when Patricia Williams and Melissa Harris-Perry (then Harris-Lacewell) were on your show. Is it because she's busy on MSNBC that we haven't seen MHP on Moyers & Co yet? Or is she just taking a moment in the Green Room . . .
- Anonymous
What we need is to be Represented in Congress. Our Representatives are voting for thier own interests. The only way to solve our problem is for us to Unite and request a change in our Government by doing the following REPLACE PUBLIC OPINION POLLS
Americans can cast their vote on any issue through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. Our Government would know exactly what WE want and not have to rely on opinion polls. We should vote on any issue which affects our Rights listed in THE BILL OF RIGHTS or AMENDMENT 14. Ask your Government Representatives to sponsor a Bill or an Amendment to allow us to protect our rights by casting our vote. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
- Pelder
Here's a story idea on the federal government encouraging gun use among youth.
Federal law authorizes the Civilian Marksmanship Program to sell surplus .30 and .22
caliber military rifles, parts, and ammunition. The CMP sells the
government-surplus M1 Garands, M1 Carbines, .22 caliber target rifles, and
small quantities of other rifles to the public. More research needs to be
completed to track CMP's record since 1998. Buy your rifle
here: http://www.odcmp.com/Sales/rifles.htm
More on CMP
The CMP also assists with the management of firing ranges in public
high schools and puts weapons into the hands of thousands of American
youth. It was initially established by Congress in 1903. The CMP
Mission is to "promote firearm safety and marksmanship training with an
emphasis on youth." Their vision is to involve every American child
in marksmanship programs. There are 4,806 clubs, high schools, teams
and other shooting sports organizations currently affiliated with the
The program started in 1903 as a way to encourage
individuals to develop marksmanship skill to prepare them in the event they
were called to serve during wartime. In 1996 Congress established a non-profit
entity, The Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and Firearms
Safety, Inc. to carry on the work of the Civilian Marksmanship Program,
although the organization is commonly known as the CMP
The Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and
Firearms Safety, Inc has total assets of $150 Million and annual revenue
topping $29M in 2009. Their 990 for 2009 shows $124 M owned in publicly
traded securities. They received $20.8 M in government grants last year.
Their chair, vice chair, and COO each make $300,000 a year
and they pay their Board of Directors members $13,000-15,000 yearly. They
report $9.9 M in sales less $8M in costs of goods sold, although the goods are
from government surplus. (FOIA, anyone?) They claim $597,000 in bank and
credit card fees and $259,000 in miscellaneous expenses.
Their 990 says — at not cost to the government — they
"develop curriculum for marksmanship instruction in the high
schools, train and certify JROTC coaches and inspect high school range
facilities." It's curious because CMP only spent $513,056 on these
important items, especially the inspection of the ranges. If there are
4,806 clubs affiliated with CMP and they only spent $513,056 on curriculum,
training and inspections, the cost for all three per facility is a meager
The Lead Issue
Many high schools have shifted from using .22's to pellet
guns. Pellet guns and .22's use lead bullets that spew lead particulates,
but CMP downplays the health risks associated with its facilities in its
publication, "Guide for Lead Management for Air Gun Shooting."
The publication asserts, "Target shooting with air rifles
and smallbore rifles does not create real health risks for shooting sports
participants." There is substantial scientific evidence to refute
The CMP also claims, "When air gun range cleaning is
performed according to prescribed range management guidelines, lead residues
from air gun firing can be effectively removed from the range floor. This
is probably a correct assertion, but can we safely assume guidelines are being
adhered to at all 4,806 CMP clubs?
In air rifle shooting, projectiles made of lead are placed in
the breech end of the rifle barrel and are propelled towards the target by
bursts of compressed gas. Lead management issues arise from handling pellets,
the passage of pellets through the barrel and the fragmentation of pellets that
occurs when pellets strike backstops. All of this may occur in the school
gym after school hours
There have been
numerous studies and press reports documenting health risks associated with
firing ranges, but little activism to exploit the issue.
- Minniespearl
Mr. Moyers, You're the only person I can think of who might have some information about my question. I want to know what Ford Motor Company did that enabled them to survive without a bailout, given the fact that they have had to deal with unions just as the other companies have. I haven't heard much about it, but I haven't forgotten it. I want to know because it's important to the argument about workers and unions ruining businesses. I'm a Detroiter; I believe unions are good, but I also know anything good can be overcome by bad influences. We need to know how Ford Motor Company managed to thrive in the same environment that GM and Chrysler experienced.
- Meg
Chris Hedges made a statement to the effect that what Israel is doing in Gaza is a war crime.
What exactly is Israel doing in Gaza that makes him say this? I have a friend who is very pro Israel and I would like to be able to present facts to back up that statement. I strongly suspect that Chris is correct but I have no facts to back me up.
- MadAs
emailed to many:
Just watched, and its really something to say this facing so many fantastic
guests, Moyer's best-ever guest (my mind obviously): Chris Hedges. Severely
staggered, yet still flailing.
If you have it on DVD don't miss watching. His vision aligns with mine so
precisely, but his tone and surgical incise lanced open, where I was
long-struggling, the despair I and so many of us are feeling. If you haven't
watched it, you must.
I am remembering a great Jimmy Stewart line from the movie Shenandoah,
where as a pacifist farmer he insisted his family not be part of the Civil War,
until he clung to the dead body of his son on the battlefield, and raising his
head to family gathered round, grimaced with emotioned grit through his teeth,
"It is our war now!"
- Anonymous
I decided a couple of years ago to make small contributions to each candidate (no matter what the State) whose views and actions align with my own. If 1 million people or more gave $5 to each candidate some of the problems of raising money would be eliminated and those candidates would know that they have support for their views across all of the states. Maybe they would then have the courage to do the right thing for the country.
- lamar33
I must commend Bill on his most recent show featuring Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco. The entire show was masterfully done.
Chris Hedges was incredible in his depiction of the (American Sacrifice Zones). Mr. Hedges was extremely effective in portraying the utter neglect suffered by the inhabitants of these areas and to a burgeoning degree all of us. The sense of sadness I felt was almost overwhelming and reminiscient of what we all felt during hurricane Katrina.
It was an absolutely flawless interview. We are truly fortunate to Have Bill and his team back on the job. The combination of the prose and illustrations from Mr. Hedges and Sacco proved spot on in reflecting a nation that was once at it's best democratic.
These are indeed serious times and in what may prove to be America's 11th hour efforts to inform and educate must continue.
- Puc Em
Bill, I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your sunday programs, your website, your commitment, your continued passion that you have for the need to expose the truth!!!! Please keep it up!!! We definitely need your work!!!! Thank you for coming back to TV and for expanding your website!!!!!!
- http://www.facebook.com/hank.watters Hank Watters
If we were to institute a public referendum before the next election that required "None of the Above" be a choice on all voting ballots, for all elected offices, in the US, the people would have a noticeably stronger voice, and a way to fight back against the oligarchy. My proposal is that if "None of the Above" receives more votes than all other candidates from all parties, new elections must be held within 90 days, the previously rejected candidates being disqualified from running again. If in the subsequent contest 90 days hence, "None" wins again, that office shall remain unoccupied for a period of one year, at which time the election will be held again and, as before, previously rejected candidates are disqualified from running. Shame is a harsh teacher but voters will have a real voice again and real power to push back at the media circus and the buying and selling of elections in this country. We are living in a culture of distraction and misdirection and we need strong social action with real results to get our country back again. Washington has become a toilet and we need access to the flush handle!
- Steveo77
Please start a post that tells where and
when the next peaceful demonstration will be held? I am free most weekends and
have car, will travel. If we can put a stop to a war in Vietnam, we can do this! I would also like to work on getting a lobbyist in congress to
promote the agenda of the rest of us, the 99% of average American citizens. From
what I see and hear, we are the only group that is no longer
- Mary S.
Speaking of taking action, I would love to see a show on the number of bills (and the issues addressed) that have passed by majority vote since Obama became president, but have been derailed by fake filibusters by the GOP (if no one puts in the time and energy on the floor, it is not a true filibuster). There is a false narrative in this country, perpetuated by the media, that nothing gets done because of simple gridlock, with equal blame to go around. Bills have passed by a majority that our last president, George Bush, is on record as stating constitutes a mandate. Obstructionism, simply to make sure that nothing gets done, is inexcusable. This is extremely important for the coming election.
- yangjspeak
I accidentally watched Bill Moyer interviewed Karl Marlantes. I was very happy to see this kind of interview still exist. I loved the interview. and will find time to watch it again online. It is rare to have this kind of interview these days! Great work, Bill Moyer, keep it up! So happy that you are still on air
- Terry Newland
Voting, but NOT voting for the two major parties says more than a Democrat or Republican vote will.
- Terry Newland
I'm not afraid. I took that same oath to defend and protect the Constitution that our so-called leadership has failed to. THEY are afraid. They are afraid of losing control. They are afraid of the Internet. And they are afraid of me. And they are afraid of you. They are afraid of free-agents. They are even more afraid if those agents become united and withhold funding from the criminals renting the House and Senate.
- Terry Newland
After Perot appeared for a few debates, the PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE INCORPORATED RULES changed to keep people like ANYONE from a third party from getting in on the action — so now all you're going to see is Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum on the tube or in major media. Sad thing is, they're both from the same party: There never was a second party in this system. There is no Santa Claus, children. Sending Santa, Obama, or Romney votes or letters near Christmastime is a waste of postage.
- Roger King
- shadow
I love your show and watched the one about Donald Trump and felt that he "crossed the palms College of Aberdeen with silver" and that is why he got a "honorary" doctorate degree. I wrote the college and told them this was an insult to the students who work very hard on studies and tests toward getting a doctorate degree.
- Anonymous
Mr. Moyers,
Please consider having Diane Ravitch on one of your shows. Please consider this as a worthwhile topic. See the recent article on CNN and please check out her blog. Thousands and thousand of teachers and parents read her every day.
Thank you.
- Liza Womack
Mr. Moyers: I am a school teacher in New York state. PLEASE, PLEASE: Invite Diane Ravitch onto your show for an in depth interview about the current state of education in our country. Terrible things are, and will, be happening to children if we do not act now. The public education system in this country is being privatized for PROFIT RIGHT NOW, and no one really knows (except for the teachers, and the multinational companies that are salivating at the profits they see awaiting them).
- Sarah
Please consider talking with Diane Ravitch about future of democracy and
public education in USA and current reform movements that are seeking
to de-fund true public education through corporate charters, rise of
unified common core standards, and high stakes testing, all promulgated
by US DOE and many states, and linked to ALEC proposals. All supported by profit making companies in the guise of philanthropy and championed by Obama and Dept of Ed Arne Duncan.
- gay bicycle
Bill Moyers Essay: Everyone Should Be Entitled to Medicare | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com
It always rankled me that as I was sitting pretty much bedridden with a bad foot for months on end, watching hour after hour of the Obama/Clinton debates (every single one, along with every one of Obama's daily speeches), the one lie that Obama told over and over with a straight face was always the comment about HillaryCare (formerly RomneyCare of the Republi-Fascist Heritage Foundation – a scheme only concocted as a phony answer to Kennedy's call, year after year, for what would essentially be "Medicare for All", so that the Republi-Fascists would seem to have something of their own to offer in contrast)…I digress…
The one lie that I so vividly recall was Obama saying in speech after speech, in debate after debate, was that he would be against any "mandates", not meaning gay or queer encounters, but rather, the "mandates" of HillaryCare, the proposal which had worked so well for the Democrats during the Clinton administration that they promptly, and deservedly, lost Congress for the first time in recent history.
I gave Obama my trust that he saw the need to save Medicare by forcing the decision into a Medicare for All context because, without the "mandate" to buy so-called "insurance" from a completely corrupt Mafia enterprise (the tycoon at the head of United Health Care (which sells its policies thru the AARP) makes in excess of $100 Million per year, just on his compensation package with stock options/futures etc. not counting his other investments), the whole HillaryCare scheme would fail, and the only option left would be Medicare for All. Yeah, right! Obama has a bridge to sell me, as they say (anyone recall ol' Bubba's "Bridge to the 21st Century?"). Yeah, seems like we're watching a repeat of Clinton minus the blow job from Monica while he was signing the Defense of Marriage Act, I guess.
What really rankles is the "frat-boy cluelessness" of Obama's sophomoric management style, the appointment of the Clinton-Mafia, the mainstream Democrats such as Biden who voted for both the Defense of Marriage Act when he found it in his favor to throw queer people under the bus, as well as voting for the Iraq War (as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, standing proud with Joe Leiberman on both issues), not to mention greasing Judge Thomas' way onto our Supreme Court when Biden headed the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Thomas and prevented corroborating testimony to prove Anita Hill's charges, on the specious assertion that in courts, such corroborating testimony would be treated as inadmissible Character Evidence rather than ADMISSIBLE Evidence of Habit and Custom, which it would have been, even though Judge Thomas was NOT in a courtroom facing charges which had to be proved, but was in a completely different context, in which Judge Thomas himself bore the Burden of Proof to prove his fitness and qualifications prior to his lifetime appointment to the bench where he now sits silently like a brooding, festering sore. But I digress again.
Yes, I should have known the writing was on the wall, the fix was in, so to speak, when Obama tapped Biden as VP, and then we ended up with a tax-cheating Treasury Secretary and a group of clueless frat-boy yuppies paying full face value for fraudulent schemes, money that isn't ours but on loan from future generations. When we most needed Obama talking "JOBS JOBS JOBS" (what everyone was aching to hear), Obama missed the golden opportunity to turn the Medicare for All debate into a debate about "JOBS, JOBS, JOBS", because freeing up American Enterprises from the onerous burden of paying for employees' health insurance would have improved U.S. global competitiveness at the same time bringing everyone into Medicare for All would have saved Medicare FOR All because it would have brought healthy people into the system and saved costs, costs thrown away on endless advertising, lobbying, and tycoon pay, the largest pieces of the greed/profit-based health care pie. In stark contrast to the CEO of United Healthcare's more than $100 Million per year is the civil service pay of the CEO of Medicare's $175,000 per year. That's why Medicare for All could have come in at half the price as our current system, and been more in line with the European standard of 10% of GNP for health care expenditures vs. 20% of GNP for health care for the corrupt U.S. system that provides, statistically speaking (coverage and outcomes), so much less for double the money that it is and will be unsustainable, allowing for people like Paul Ryan and the Republi-Fascists to now advance arguments and budgets to simply end Medicare for everyone in the future.
Yes, if Obama had endorsed Medicare for All, he could have hit several targets with a single policy bullet: 1) He could have saved Medicare for Everyone by bringing into the system healthy people who would have been paying premiums for Medicare through taxes at half the amount than the system currently costs; 2) He could have vested everyone in the U.S. with their own Medicare card before the last disastrous election and swung it the other way, because the voters would have heard him arguing "JOBS JOBS JOBS" had he chosen to change the debate into one he could win, and with him, the American People; 3) People who's health care future depended on the security of Medicare for All would be really resenting Paul Ryan and his plan to kill the program, which all the Republicans voted for in Congress; 4) The lowering of per-patient costs due to the inclusion of younger, healthier people would have made Medicare sustainable into the future, much more so than our current corrupt, fascist system which is costing twice as much as it should, using money borrowed from our future as it were, due to deficit spending.
So now the Republi-Fascists have upped the ante, and we are faced with a tax cheat, not as Treasury Secretary, but as President, paired up with a man (Paul Ryan) who has based his political existence on ending Medicare for Everyone!
Slogan for the Democrats: "Vote for Us, we'll destroy the country SLOWER than will the Republicans!" Now that's a real incentive! Speaking of slogans, "Where's the Beef?" the clueless fast food metaphor of clueless Democrats a generation ago, should really be, "Where's the sustainable way forward?"
At a historical moment when 2 out of 3 U.S. car companies were insolvent, we could have had Socialized rail, "JOBS JOBS JOBS" in a transportation system built for the next century rather than the last century, and instead got "Cash for Clunkers". We could have had a sustainable Medicare for All and instead got a Fascist scheme of forcing people to buy crappy products from a completely corrupt industry, and no one bats an eye. Coupled with the Citizens United decision, this simply means that the government can order us to buy anything, and that the purveyors of everything we buy can simply raise prices to charge us for the lobbying, advertising, and propaganda used to further our own defeat on every political front. A nickel more per banana, for instance, may not sound like much, but multiply that by the number of bananas purchased and you'll see that the United Fruit Company will have some real ammunition to spend on perverting democracy wherever they wish.
- Dr. Charles R. Beck
Dear Bill Moyers,
As a long time admirer of your attempt to better inform Americans of the critical social and economic issues with well informed guests, I strongly recommend that you invite Harry Belafonte to be one of your most distinguished guests. He is one of the most remarkable humanitarian and social justice advocates in America, and I suspect that many of your viewers are unaware of his dedication to these issues at home and abroad. As you no doubt know, he recently published his memoirs in a book and DVD. I am certain that he would feel honored to serve as a guest on Moyers&company.
- http://www.facebook.com/nicholas.galaday Nicholas Galaday
Dear Bill, beloved of Him. I just watched the rerun of your interview
with Luis Alberto Urrea. I've concluded
it matters little if "Him" exists or not, you do. You, and the likes of Luis Urrea continue
time and time again to reaffirm my faith in, well – beauty and the 'higher
cause'. I need little more. Thank you Bill. I no longer fear Col. Limbaugh.
I share this for Luis' benefit:
The more things change, the
more things stay the same. I had the
pleasure of owning a small restaurant in the copper mining town of Bisbee, AZ
(4 miles from the Mexican border) in the early '70s. Every morning the superintendent of the local
school district would come in for his morning coffee and doughnut. He'd sit at the counter and I enjoyed
chatting with him about local gossip and education. I mentioned on one of these morning visits
that I had substitute taught in an 8th grade English class the past week and
found some of the students from Spanish speaking homes, which accounted for
nearly half the Bisbee population, could not speak English well enough to understand
their homework assignments. I suggested
what has since come to be referred to as an "English as a Second
Language" curriculum, for these students; to give them a leg up, as it
were. He responded by asking, "Why
should we do that; we were here first.
Let them learn English on their own." This from the superintendent of the public
schools! I suggested he study up on the
local history and to look up the Gadsden Purchase in particular (the Gadsden
Hotel was in Douglas, the next town down the road). He never again set foot in my restaurant nor
was I called to substitute teach in a Bisbee school ever again.
- http://www.facebook.com/norman.spinrad Norman Spinrad
Norman Spinrad
blog:NORMAN SPINRAD AT LARGE
by Norman Spinrad
"Now is the time for a futile gesture!"
—slogan attributed to the Irish Republican Army.
Months into a scandalously vacuous Presidential and Congressional campaign proposing no real solutions to the greatest economic crisis in American history at least since the Great Depression of the 1930s and certainly the greatest political crisis since the Civil War, since no one else seems to be trying to do it, futile or not, I've decided to waste my time and energy and give it a try.
So here's a simplified easy to understand economic plan, best adopted all at once in the manner of FDR's first 100 days, but realistically probably piecemeal, if at all:
Most importantly, tax ALL income equally–wages, salaries, inheritances, royalties, gambling wins, novel advances, art sales, everything, emphatically including capital gains and dividends, presently taxed at a flat and scandalous 15%. But allow everyone income averaging over say a 5 year period, something writers and artists used to get. If it takes me five years to write a novel for which I make $100,000 in the fifth year, I've made $20,000 a year, and that's what I should be taxed on. Same thing for paintings, stock market sales, variable salaries, and so forth.
Tax the Fat Cats more, the 1%, and spread it out to the center, to sustain the Middle Class. Raise the top marginal rate to $49% of gross income (somehow anything above that seems unfair and probably economically counterproductive)while leaving the middle rates unchanged, but define the breakpoint higher than what Obama proposes, which is $250,000, to a more realistic $500,000.
This will accomplish several goods.
It will cut the Federal Deficit without harming anything or anyone. It will increase economic demand by shifting more money from investment to spending, since millionaires and billionaires cannot help but invest the lion's share of their annual income whereas the Middle Class has to spend it on goods and services, thus creating more demand for goods and services, thus creating more jobs without having to finance them through government deficits.
For as things stand now, there is already more capacity than is needed to satisfy reduced demand, so rich individuals and companies have no reason to invest income from cash flow into much of anything except plowing it back into the virtual economy, the casino economy, to make more money, which can only be plowed back into more dodgy financial instruments, to make more money…..
As I predicted in GREENHOUSE SUMMER, they end up writing the biggest rubber check in history and passing it off on themselves. It's already happened big time, and it's not getting any better. It's not just Goldman Sachs being a vampire squid sucking the lifeblood of the economy, it's the whole Virtual Economy vampirizing the whole Real Economy. These changes in the tax code would fix that at no cost to the Federal or state budgets.
"Obamacare" is certainly an improvement over what preceded it, but it's also a kluge, a Rube Goldberg Machine infinitely inferior to the health care systems of every other so-called developed country, more expensive per capita than anywhere else, and a drain on business in the bargain. Better models exist in Britain, Canada, and France, among many other countries, but a modification of the French system would be most politically attractive for the United States.
Abolish Medicaid. Medicare for all from the cradle to the grave. Medicare is not free for seniors, who currently pay about $100 a month out of their Social Security payments for coverage. So let everyone pay for universal Medicare from their very first earned income until they die. Maybe at a somewhat higher rate as necessary. This is something like the French system, where everyone has National Health Insurance, which pays amounts it fixes, but chooses their doctors, hospitals, and so forth, and for profit insurance companies offer supplementary insurance to cover co-payments, dental, eyeglasses, and so forth not covered by National Health Insurance.
This will sharply cut the cost of medical care by removing insurance company profits from most of it, but it will also help businesses, and particularly small businesses, by removing health care insurance via employment from their economic calculations and paperwork requirements. Another boost to jobs.
Raise the national minimum wage to $10 an hour, or better yet, if less simple, index it to the official poverty line definition, so that no one making the national minimum wage for full-time employment falls below the official poverty level. This will have little or no negative effect on employment from outsourcing, since most minimum wage employment–service jobs like janitor, home care, roadwork, and so forth–cannot be outsourced to other countries.
Lower the work week to 35 hours as in France or 30 hours as in Germany when unemployment levels are high.
Remove the present cap on payments into the Social Security fund by the payroll tax on income. Keep something like the present rates and don't graduate it but extend the tax all the way up the income tax brackets to the 1% who can certainly afford it and so can the middle of the Middle Class who in the end will most benefit when they retire.
There's a economic plan that is neither "left" nor "right" but analytical and therefore, yes, radical because it deals with the real world situation and offers up real world solutions, not vapid ideological smoke-blowing malarkey.
I hereby emphatically release this pro bono manifesto into the public domain and encourage anyone and everyone who cares to to copy it, post it, scrawl it on subway walls and toilet stores, spread it far and wide.
A long time ago, I was in a party in an apartment full of pot smoke when a cop appeared at the door. He stuck his head inside, sniffed the air, made a little speech, and departed. What he said was:
"My job is to tell you to do your job. Now I've done my job, so you do your job."
'nuff said.
Norman Spinrad
- http://www.facebook.com/richard.leonard.313 Richard Leonard
Why do you never mention the nations with the happiest and most productive people in the world? Why do we continually shy away from talking about where capitalism has taken this nation? A nation where 90% of the wealth is owned by 1% of the people. Richard Leonard
- wareworks
Sister Simone Campbell session: The last sentence of the sermon at Fist Baptist, Portland OR today was " May you be the answer to the prayer that you are praying."
About food stamps: rather than getting rid of food stamps I suggest that there should be more restriction on the food that is purchased. Limit to basic foods and not that that has been prepared etc.
- A. Ryding
August 31, 2012. Tonights' program should scare just about everyone in our United States, it certainly did me. What comes to mind is, "false prophets" and the end of everything we've all worked for, in our country. The sad thing is that so many of these Christian people just do not see this. For the most part, the religious "right" truly does think they are right and are like sheep being led to slaughter. And like the last commentator, amyinnh, I'm asking what can I do about it?
- Beverly Smith
Wull, just read your email on this site, and I think I'm in LOVE!!! (Don't worry, am only
kidding……and too old fer ya, anyhoo). But do want to thank you for listing so many of the things WE CAN DO to divert our monies AWAY from the CORPORATIONS and DIRTY DEALERS!!!! Bravo for you!!!
Beverly Smith
- kmkavi
How long did it take BAIN to
turn around one of its companies like Staples?
Do we know how long it takes
to turn a failing company around (or to run a successful company to ground and
I am sure BAIN successes
were not overnight. So if it takes time to turn around a company with
a few hundred to a few thousand employees, should we not be patient about
turning around a country with 300 million people?
BAIN managers had almost
full control in making their decisions; but Presidents of US do not have. Can
you imagine if one BAIN investor could veto its managers' decisions?
- J Seeley
Bill, Where is your fact checking on the Independent Party. They said that they drew from both parties evenly, and that the people who voted from Nader wouldn't have voted at all if not for him. That is not so. Clearly they drew overwhelmingly from people who would have voted for Gore, causing the election to go to Bush, and condemning us to years of abuse that we are still paying for. You need to challenge them with facts and show the repercussions involved by giving the Republicans the election again. You barely touched on this and let them run their false belief that they won;t sabotage the Democrats. I agree that a multiparty situation can make things work, but they need to build up to the presidential election with governor and senate wins first.
- Guest
I wished Mr Moyers would begin speaking about the crimes that are being committed by the CIA in Syria. As intelligent as Mr Moyer is, he should know that the so-called insurgents are a bunch of murderers hired by the CIA and sent to Syria to kill and maim innocent civilians and destroy public and private property.
- Vicki the truthteller
In 2004 the Social Security fund had 17 Trillion dollars in it. Now, IN 2012, there is less than 3 Trillion.
I read in the book titled "The Official Financial Report of the U.S." published in 2005 by our GOVT. Accounting Office, that our leaders are TAKING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS out of SS every year.
To be more exact, $173 BILLION IN 2005, AND OVER $180 BILLION IN 2006.
The money is largely used to pay down the national debt.
There is no law that says it must be paid back to the SS fund.
There is no interest charged on the amount taken.
There is no time limit stating that it must be paid back by a certain date.
In other words, our polititians are raping the fund, with absolutely no consequenses to them.
The SS fund, is stated as a "Stewardship" action. Leagally, the benefits you expect are only "scheduled", not "contractual". Which means our Govt. can end the program any time it wishes.
You want to FIX Social Security? Easy!!
Pass laws to stop the raping of our fund.
- Bill Hofgard
You did a hit job on Karl Rove, when will you do one on George Soros and Andy Stern of SEIU?
- Oscar
Why not a selective boycott of the corporations with the greatest political influence in Washington or on Wall Street….
- Rico
Thank you for the interview with Trevor Potter aired 9-23-2012 on WHRO. A government is to work for its citizens. The citizens are to be responsible/cognizant/aware of and to a community. I am angry that every four years what was becomes undone not because it was not good but because it was Republican pushed or Democrat pushed. When do we have 'if it is good enough for America, it is good enough'.
- steve in olympia
Re. upcoming show on ALEC, look at the second "law review-type" journal of ALEC published in 1981. In the introduction describing ALEC it refers to the glory days prior to 1870 or 1860 when management had control over labor. Was this the control that existed prior to the Civil War Constitutional Amendments, i.e., before slavery was abolished
- John Benton
I just listened to the program about Presidential debates. Ms. Jamieson was quoted as saying that the Obama campaign had misrepresented Ryan's Medicare plan about Medicare for people currently under 55. Her statement was correct in stating that people under 55 could use Medicare when they become eligible for Medicare. What was left out was that the applicant gets a voucher which will fully pay for Medicare the first year if the applicant should choose the Medicare option. The voucher will increase in value only one percent a year. Cost of Medicare or insurance programs can be expected to increase faster then the inflation rate. The voucher will become of decreasing value each year. This important point was left out and thus her statement was only partially true. The devil is in the details.
- http://www.facebook.com/joseph.elliott.9809 Joseph Elliott
The American people deserve a debate on the subject of gay marriage which is being ignored for the most part by the Media and Politicians. We should first of all accept the truth that gays are abnormal and should have rights, but should not have the right to change our Marriage Laws to accept their abnormality. We need to ask President Obama if he supports Senator Feinsteins Bill to repeal the Federal Law which states that Marriage is between a man and a woman. Senator Feinstein is not representing the majority of Californians who passed Proposition 8. Governor Brown refused to defend Proposition 8, which was his Sworn Duty. President Obama refused to defend the Federal Law which states that Marriage is between a man and a woman which is his sworn duty. We the People, the Majority, are no longer being Represented by our Representatives. We need to change our Government so that We the People have more control and I suggest the following action, REPLACE PUBLIC OPINION POLLS
Americans can cast their vote on any issue through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. Our Government would know exactly what WE want and not have to rely on opinion polls. We should vote on any issue which affects our Rights listed in THE BILL OF RIGHTS or AMENDMENT 14. Ask your Government Representatives to sponsor a Bill or an Amendment to allow us to protect our rights by casting our vote. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
The American people deserve a debate on the subject of gay marriage which is being ignored for the most part by the Media and Politicians. We should first of all accept the truth that gays are abnormal and should have rights, but should not have the right to change our Marriage Laws to accept their abnormality. We need to ask President Obama if he supports Senator Feinsteins Bill to repeal the Federal Law which states that Marriage is between a man and a woman. Senator Feinstein is not representing the majority of Californians who passed Proposition 8. Governor Brown refused to defend Proposition 8, which was his Sworn Duty. President Obama refused to defend the Federal Law which states that Marriage is between a man and a woman which is his sworn duty. We the People, the Majority, are no longer being Represented by our Representatives. We need to change our Government so that We the People have more control and I suggest the following action, REPLACE PUBLIC OPINION POLLSAmericans can cast their vote on any issue through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. Our Government would know exactly what WE want and not have to rely on opinion polls. We should vote on any issue which affects our Rights listed in THE BILL OF RIGHTS or AMENDMENT 14. Ask your Government Representatives to sponsor a Bill or an Amendment to allow us to protect our rights by casting our vote. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
The American people deserve a debate on the subject of gay marriage which is being ignored for the most part by the Media and Politicians. We should first of all accept the truth that gays are abnormal and should have rights, but should not have the right to change our Marriage Laws to accept their abnormality. We need to ask President Obama if he supports Senator Feinsteins Bill to repeal the Federal Law which states that Marriage is between a man and a woman. Senator Feinstein is not representing the majority of Californians who passed Proposition 8. Governor Brown refused to defend Proposition 8, which was his Sworn Duty. President Obama refused to defend the Federal Law which states that Marriage is between a man and a woman which is his sworn duty. We the People, the Majority, are no longer being Represented by our Representatives. We need to change our Government so that We the People have more control and I suggest the following action, REPLACE PUBLIC OPINION POLLS
Americans can cast their vote on any issue through the Social Security Department where everyone is already registered. Our Government would know exactly what WE want and not have to rely on opinion polls. We should vote on any issue which affects our Rights listed in THE BILL OF RIGHTS or AMENDMENT 14. Ask your Government Representatives to sponsor a Bill or an Amendment to allow us to protect our rights by casting our vote. Thanks, Joseph Elliott
- Collin
Bill please cover the crisis in the family courts. We need your help. Domestic violence is ignored. Children wind up being stripped from their protectors, and forced to be with abusers. There is a custody relocation crisis in this country in which state courts strip the victims of domestic violence of their civil liberties, their right to travel freely, to start over, to marry and to find happiness. Please help bring attention to this very important issue. See the documentary "No Way Out But One" http://www.change.org/petitions/congress-stop-domestic-abusers-from-continuing-to-abuse-and-control-their-victims#
- Greg
I related to the Obama failure to come through on
promises as Jorge Ramos stated. During
the last campaign Obama said he would protect the pensions of hard working
people, but in my case the Treasury, Automotive Task Force and Pension
Guarantee Corporation terminated my Delphi Salaried Retiree pension plan and
now I receive a 43% reduction. There are 22,000
Delphi Salaried Retirees who have similar stories.
However, the Obama administration kept their pension protection promise to the Delphi UAW
hourly retirees. They receive their full
health care, life insurance and no pension reduction. The Obama administration picked the winners
and losers.
VOTE JILL STEIN for President – that's one step towards democracy 90 million of us can take rather than feeling powerless and not voting or voting "the lesser of two evils!"
- http://www.oss.net RobertDavidSTEELEVivas
I just tried to use the Contact Form only to have it demand an admin userid and log on. Sent below message in.
I was briefing an accredited candidate for Reform Party nomination,
using the experience to put good ideas from many in one place (http://bigbatusa.org),
and to evaluate the two-party "tyranny" (Amato's term) and each of the
other candidates. Am the author of a number of books, the most recent
being THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth &
Trust. Former spy, honorary hacker, #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction
reading in 98 categories, pro bono CEO of Earth Intelligence Network, a
501c3 with zero revenue. Can someone please consider a preliminary
interview with me to see if I can get these ideas on your show? Cell
571.455.2883. In Oakton VA.
Pirates Party is looking interesting. I am certain that we could have saved 2012 if Occupy has been willing to listen, and if Ron Paul had been willing to lead a third party COALITION as I lay out at We the People Reform Coalition.
Right now I believe Greg Palast and his new book on nine ways the monied Republicans will steal the election is on target, and Obama has accepted the same offer Al Gore accepted in Florida in 2000–he will retire to Chicago a very rich man. In any event, neither party is honest and neither party is thoughtful. It's time to flush them both out and start over. Even the NGOs and advocacy groups, such as FreeandEqual, refuse to make a clean break — there are four active accredited parties (Constitution, Green, Libertarian, and Reform) that should be featured together, and the Independents need to get out from under Michael Bloomberg's three ring circus (NO LABELS, Americans Elect, and IndependentVoting.org) and get organized. I sincerely hope the ideas at http://bigbatusa.org inspire someone, anyone, that can be a better catalyst than I. ANY ONE OF US, with integrity, would be a better president than either of two individuals now running. IMHO.
- http://www.facebook.com/LVBabe Stacy A. Rich
I just wanted to congratulate Mr. Moyers on his dignified and very staisfying reaction to the, "Big Bill O'Reiley's" disrecpectful and clearly ill advised coments reguarding Mr. Moyers's show, network and body of work. For myself and my family, I count on the reporting and insights of Mr. Moyers and his clear and unbias truth in reporting, so sorely lacking in our societies "network reporting" sources today. As a nation we count on the Intergity and honest reporting available in such limited and under promoted sources such as Public Television and appreciate the sponsers of such. I appreciate and hold you in high reguard, with my trust and deep respect, I thank you for providing me and my Family your professional and trusted reporting on and within todays confusing and complicated enviornment.
Sincerely, Stacy Rich
- Bill Gellermann
Our lives are threatened — the recceding glaciers described in your story are not just a story, but a real threat to our lives. How can we mobilize collective energy to take corrective action before it is too late???
- V-Herald
On the show about the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), it might be interesting to question why CMD does not bring suit against the appointed boad members of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) for malfeasance in office for its failure to act on the CMD complaint about ALEC. After all, the GAB did act later in the year to confirm that Governor Walker could accept corporate titled "gifts" of beer and brats to celebrate his reelection win. The GAB cannot claim to act without transparency as an appointed board. Perhaps CMD should pursue a Freedom of Information Act request of all GAB communication regarding both issues.
- Anonymous
I was intrigued by a note from a young person during your most recent live blog, asking you for guidance on recommended reading. As a senior with a blissfully out-of-control, life-long reading habit (much like your own, I reckon), I would suggest to her and to others the "random walk" method; that is, read one book recommended to you, then find books related to the same subject or relied on by that author, and let the chase begin!
Quick example: your show with Rick Marlantes was almost the best thing I've ever seen you do (for me, the best remains your interviews with Joseph Campbell). So it's time to get his "What It's Like to Go to War." Of course, it's then time to support that excursion with several books about My Lai, then Neil Sheehan's "Bright and Shining Lie", then a re-read of "Best and Brightest", etc. The trail never stops. PBS' showing the 4-part series on the SF Bay leads to the contemporaneous geological report on the 1906 Quake (republished courtesy of the Carnegie Institution), leading to a modern set of geological field trips to quake-related sites, which leads to more in-depth geology, and by the way, why is the Colorado Plateau flat and elevated and rotated, and is it an analog to the Tibetan Plateau… See? In no time, a year is spent reading 150-200 books. This practice is hardly original with me: I just follow my bliss. Give thanks for low-cost used-book vendors available on-line. And great thanks to you, Mr. Moyers, a most valuable member of my own generation.
- Lamar
Just watched Great program featuring Crystia Freeland and Matt Taiibi on Plutocrats. Bill issued what I thought was a chilling observation when he suggested that the Guilded age has returned. Matt and Crystia both suggested that without any meaningful change America is heading down a road where she could turn into Russia or a third world nation. Given the overwhelming power wielded by a realitively few, it may already be too late.
- Speaker for Tribunocracy
Tribunocracy offers a new form of democratic voting the will reduce the role of money, shallow campaigning, and shallow voter information, shallow analysis. It can be introduced, tested, and evaluated in very small modest safe non threatening increments. It has the power to systemically and significantly improve our democratic process. Check it our at http://www.tribunocracy.org
- Speaker for Tribunocracy
If one is serous about
making a major improvement in our present practice of democracy, one must be
willing to consider safe experimentation with a change significant enough to
make a major difference. Tribunocracy is
such a change. It will greatly reduce
the role of money, shallow information, campaigning, and voter analysis. See: http://www.tribunocracy.org
- tootsie
I have always been taught that America's greatest resource is its people. This is why when mandatory health insurance goes into effect our economy will get a large boost. Or the states which approved the program will benefit. There will be an increase of jobs from trucking to surgeons. We have had an overwhelming amount of students in schools getting ready for this increase patient load. When more medical facilities are built this means construction; then jobs for the facility;more supplies means more manufacturing and trucking; more Computers and Tech equipment and tech jobs; more jobs in the community; insurance companies prosper, need more underwriters, agents. This in every metropolitan area, and hospitals built in new areas because of demand. We are are greatest resource and health reform can get us jobs and stimulate the economy from doing a heart transplant to manufacturing toilet paper. I do not know why it is so difficult to have a bit of vision
- robin
what happened to Occupy movement or the 99% groups? I would like to do something but need somewhere to go with my desire to help.
- Fred
I'm scared that we will soon be a police state. We are not headed for a revolution, but a civil war. Our society has been so dumbed down, they don't even know what a republic or constitution is. I fear for my children and grandchildren. I don't care if I starve to death, but my kids??? I've lost everything. It even takes money to protest.
- Richard M
Enjoyed your show on Sunday (PBS) Question ? If the entire aftertax earnings of the "1 %" was redistributed to the 99%, what would the average percentage increase be for the 99 %
- http://www.facebook.com/aloysius.dalli1 Aloysius Dalli
Recently President Obama stated that he welcomes ideas regarding Taxation… Here are my ideas: http://dalliandroyalty.com/?p=419
Aloysius Dalli
- Michele Shapiro
Portland Oregon Weeps, Our progressive radio voices aired on station KPOJ have been silenced by Bain Capitol primary owner of Clear Channel right after the Republican election loss. Famous show hosts such as Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Al Franken, & Carl Wolfson are gone. What can we do to change the telecommunication laws to eliminate media monopolies and retain local voices?
- Chris Mueller
One of the least reported inequities in low income opportunity is the plight of people who own Manufactured Homes. They are discriminated against by the financial community and government alike.
Owning a manufactured home is a way for people with little or no financial resources to become a homeowner. This begins ( as a manufactured home owner) with paying at least 9.50% for financing your home. Very few Insurance companies will even insure a manufactured home that has been added on to or modified in any form, even if the modifications improve the structural integrity of the home.
Next comes the value of the manufactured home. Even if the home is on owner owned land and is placed on a concrete foundation or a basement, the home depreciates as an automobile does Also even if you get your county to consider the manufactured home as Real Property, financial institutions still require ownership of a motor vehicle type of Title on that home. this is required even if the only way the manufactured home can be moved is by deconstruction.
Having a vehicle Title on the manufactured home also entitles the owner to refinance interest rates of 9.5% or higher while traditional rates are below 4.50%. Therefor your equity in your home is eliminated no matter what you do. The chance of using your home as has been traditionally done, as a stepping stone in gaining financial independence is virtually eliminated. The reasoning for this inequity is that the mobile/ manufactured home industry is governed by HUD regulations which Fannie Mae considers a reason to exclude this type of housing to be entitled to the what used to be thought as illegal.
Look at how many low and lower middle class families this issue cripples.
Watching the show on ALEC's influence on State legislatures – scary, scary, scary!!
- gaylajs
Channel 8, the PBS station in Houston, dropped Moyers & Company from its programming the week Naomi Klein was scheduled to be a guest. Channel 8 also recently dropped the Tavis Smiley Show. Apparently, they don't want to broadcast any progressive views about poverty or climate issues.
- Del Hagan
One thing that is not mentioned at all. That is the fact that there are nearly four hundred organizations and or companies that are costing the taxpayers money that aren't even mentioned in the media. For instance, NASA. The JPL … Jet Propulsion Lab. Now, I do appreciate what these entities do … but, I feel that medical care should come before rockets to Mars, or the moon. The new giant bilion dollar telescope the US erected in Chile isn't even known by most Americans, yet someone is paying for the employees and this machinery. MANY aren't even aware of the second huge telescope in space, after Hubble. SOME of these 400 could be reduced to save money, health care first.
- http://www.facebook.com/george.e.lawhon George Enice Lawhon
The first action we can take today is to write our member of the House of Representatives, and our Senators. The issue is the 'fiscal cliff; decision, the initial one, which is removing the tax cut on incomes above $250,000. At this time, Speaker Boehner is using the Grover Norquist ;'Pledge" as his guide, which is a clear violation of his Oath of Office. What I can do, and will, is to post the following on my Facebook Timeliine, at least twice daily:
By George Enice Lawhon
Author, "The Citizens Manual For
Amending the United States Constitution," Kindle Direct Publishing
You may have wondered why John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, refuses to even discuss the specific right or wrong of any tax legislation. You need only search the internet for 'Grover Norquist' and the 'Taxpayer Protection Pledge.' It can be found at the America for Tax Reform website.
As of this date, unelected Grover Norquist, accountable to no taxpayer or voter, has
managed to persuade 235 United States Representatives and 41 United States Senators, who are accountable to taxpayers, to sign a pledge to refuse to
support any tax at all, whatever the reason, thus in effect ignoring their oath
of office and its obligations.
Norquist says, "I don't want to abolish the government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the tub."
Here is the Pledge, Grover Norquist's "Gift' to the taxpayers he claims to protect:
_____, pledge to the taxpayers of the ____ District of the state of___ and all
the people of this state that I will oppose and vote against any and all
efforts to increase taxes."
Here is the current
Federal Oath of office, which was enacted in 1884:
"I do solemnly swear
(or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United
States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith
and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any
mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully
discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me
The public swearing-in ceremony consists of elected Representatives
or Senators raising their right hands and repeating the oath of office. This
ceremony is led by the Speaker of the House, and no religious texts are used.
Some members of Congress later hold separate private ceremonies for photo ops.
Compare the Pledge with the oath of office that each
Representative or Senator on the Pledge list has to take. Do you see a conflict of interest? Really?
So do I.
If you do see a conflict, then call your Representative or Senator, and
ask if he or she has signed up to the 'Pledge' and ask them if THEY see the
conflict or not. Remind them that Midterm elections arrive in 2014.
Why should a federal officer, who has sworn to uphold the
United States Constitution, refuse to perform due diligence to his or her duty?
That duty is specified in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, which reads in part. "…Section 8, 1: 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; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises
shall be uniform throughout the United States;…"
With authority comes obligations, in this case the obligation to raise the necessary revenue to support Government commitments. In appropriation bills, there may arise a need to raise the revenue to support the changing equipment needs for the military.
The problem comes with the phrase in the Pledge that says, "…I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." If the English language means anything, the 'any and all' means exactly that: 'any and all.'
I'm not a lawyer, but I am a taxpayer, and I don't want my Representative or
Senator using a so-called 'Pledge' to parse his or her Constitutional duty to
act, one of them being to vote for, not against any appropriation bill that is
needed for the defense of our Republic.
In the 2012 Elections, President Obama was re-elected with a majority vote, both Electoral and Public, sufficient to warrant pressing on with tax legislation that would remove the Bush era tax cuts from those who earn $250,000 and up, and retain them for the middle class. That legislation passed in the Senate on July26, with a 51-48 majority.
During his acceptance speech, a re-elected President Obama raised a pen in the air and announced to all that it could be used to end the coming conflict. Now I do not care if Speaker Boehner gets a hernia of the throat when he votes 'aye', or if it
brings tears to his eyes. I want to remind him and all those who have signed the 'Pledge' that we may not wait until 2016, midterms arrive in 2014, at which time he may have real cause to cry.
Please remember that Grover Norquist is a self-appointed leader, and has not been elected to any office. He uses the simple but effective practice of promoting fear in candidates in primary elections.
George Enice Lawhon
Author, "The Citizens Manual For Amending the United States
Constitution," Kindle Direct Publishing
- http://www.facebook.com/george.e.lawhon George Enice Lawhon
You may have wondered why John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, refuses to even discuss the specific right or wrong of any tax legislation. You need only search the internet for 'Grover Norquist' and the 'Taxpayer Protection Pledge.' It can be found at the America for Tax Reform website.
As of this date, unelected Grover Norquist, accountable to no taxpayer or voter, has
managed to persuade 235 United States Representatives and 41 United States Senators, who are accountable to taxpayers, to sign a pledge to refuse to
support any tax at all, whatever the reason, thus in effect ignoring their oath
of office and its obligations.
Norquist says, "I don't want to abolish the government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the tub."
Here is the Pledge, Grover Norquist's "Gift' to the taxpayers he claims to protect:
_____, pledge to the taxpayers of the ____ District of the state of___ and all
the people of this state that I will oppose and vote against any and all
efforts to increase taxes."
Here is the current Federal Oath of office, which was enacted in 1884:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith
and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any
mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully
discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me
The public swearing-in ceremony consists of elected Representatives
or Senators raising their right hands and repeating the oath of office. This
ceremony is led by the Speaker of the House, and no religious texts are used.
Some members of Congress later hold separate private ceremonies for photo ops.
Compare the Pledge with the oath of office that each
Representative or Senator on the Pledge list has to take. Do you see a conflict of interest? Really?
So do I.
If you do see a conflict, then call your Representative or Senator, and
ask if he or she has signed up to the 'Pledge' and ask them if THEY see the
conflict or not. Remind them that Midterm elections arrive in 2014.
Why should a federal officer, who has sworn to uphold the
United States Constitution, refuse to perform due diligence to his or her duty?
That duty is specified in Article I, Section 8 of the United
States Constitution, which reads in part. "…Section 8, 1: 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; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;…"
With authority comes obligations, in this case the obligation to raise the necessary revenue to support Government commitments. In appropriation bills, there may arise a need to raise the revenue to support the changing equipment needs for the military.
The problem comes with the phrase in the Pledge that says, "…I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." If the English language means anything, the 'any and all' means exactly that: 'any and all.'
I'm not a lawyer, but I am a taxpayer, and I don't want my Representative or
Senator using a so-called 'Pledge' to parse his or her Constitutional duty to
act, one of them being to vote for, not against any appropriation bill that is
needed for the defense of our Republic.
In the 2012 Elections, President Obama was re-elected with a majority vote, both Electoral and Public, sufficient to warrant pressing on with tax legislation that would remove the Bush era tax cuts from those who earn $250,000 and up, and retain them for the middle class. That legislation passed in the Senate on July 26, with a 51-48 majority. During his acceptance speech, a re-elected President Obama raised a pen in the air and announced to all that it could be used to end the coming conflict.
Now I do not care if Speaker Boehner gets a hernia of the throat when he votes 'aye', or if it brings tears to his eyes. I want to remind him and all those who have signed the 'Pledge' that we may not wait until 2016, midterms arrive in 2014, at which time he may have real cause to cry.
- Shiva D
Yo Bill!
gratz on a great weak
of info. between the little ditty on Grover Norquist's truth behind
his pledge, Mickey Edwards new book & interview on How
Conservatives have Lost their Way and Bernie Sander's Don't let Big
Media get Bigger, 'We the People' r becoming more enlightened! thank
u so much. i think that if Bernie & Mickey were Pres/VP AND
people listened to them, we could bring America back to what the
founding fathers hoped for within a month or two.
Washington warned about 'political parties'. Dwight D. warned about
the 'military industrial complex' Bernie & Mickey (and a few
others you have shared) r showing us what's wrong with big money,
system (jury) rigging, and corruption. but like you and Mickey
pointed out this week the public 'we the people' need to get
involved. the internet & wireless may finally be the straw that
breaks the 'old politics' back. and we all, i'm sure, thank you for
staying on the job and sharing so much of this needed information.
God (Krishna, Jehovah, Allah) bless you!
- Jean Warren
Dear Bill: I am so extremely grateful for "Moyers and Company" and passionately thank you and your staff for all the wonderful programs. You care so deeply about the state of America and continue each week to make America "right" again – to bring us good sense and wise judgement and to awaken us to the huge chasm of immoral actions that created the 2008 financial crash that affected so many, and is still shuddering around the world.
I often think if Obama had prosecuted those responsible for America's financial collapse, he would have won the 2012 election with a landslide! I look forward to the enlightenment and hope that is created with each program.
A program suggestion: Have you ever had on your program a past nun,
Karen Armstrong?? I think your viewers would enjoy your conversation with her.
- http://www.facebook.com/david.mallen.7 David Mallen
Dear Mr. Moyers:
Will you and your listeners consider joining my petition to Congress and President Obama on the need for a Victims' Assistance Program established by a national tax of a few pennies on each sale of guns and bullets?
Here is what I wrote:
We the People join in prayer and a non-partisan call to action for
Congress to establish a special fund for victims of gun violence.
We the People affirm that gun ownership is embedded in our American
Constitution and our American heritage; we reject an outright ban on gun
Yet, we recognize that gun violence is the price we pay daily for our
American freedom. So, we ask Congress to pass legislation to establish a
national fund to aid victims of gun violence. The victims assistance
fund will be financed solely by a tiny tax on the manufacture and sale of
guns and bullets.
We understand that a surcharge on inherently dangerous activities makes
good economic sense. For example, we tax cigarettes that kill. We
require insurance to drive cars that kill. Now is the time to tax guns
and bullets designed to kill, for the benefit of innnocent victims of
gun violence and their families.
Thus, we petition Congress to help victims of gun violence fix and repair
their lives, through simple economics — not politics. By spreading the
risk of loss among millions of people, we the people strike a balance
between our Constitutional right to own a gun and our respect for the
sanctity of life and limb.
We the people can no longer respond to gun violence merely with prayers and lamentations. We cannot stand idly by. Our national grief must lead to
meaningful action. Honoring the memory of millions of precious souls
lost to gun violence requires nothing less.
- Concerned Citizen
In my opinion the most under reported issue is that of the daily cost of the our military presence in the Middle East. While our elected officals are presently deciding how best to avoid the terms set forth by the Super Committee they remain silent about the amount of money spent each day to pay for conflicts in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other regions while debating to reduce funding for social services such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education, government jobs, and other necessary programs aimed to assist those people trying to improve their lives and the lives of their loved ones. As journalists you should expose the true cause of our deficit and challenge all members of congress as well as members of the administration to cease these conflicts sooner than planned in order to bring stability once again to our Great Nation. Along with ending our presence in the Middle East I believe that a number of military bases we have across the globe should also be closed. Finally, in order to beginning paying for the deficit congress and the administration should impose a national sales tax specifically for that purpose. The Middle Eastern conflicts were agreed to without a method of paying except for borrowing. So now it is time for us to pay for those conflicts and begin rebuilding our nation! Thank you!
- Anonymous
Since the Oil Embargo of 1973, we have been jerked around by OPEC. It's been humiliating to watch our last eight presidents embarrass themselves railing at OPEC, but
failing to make any progress towards cutting the OPEC chain. Now with natural
gas, we can cut that chain. And we should, just because we can. We can't bring
peace to the Middle East, but we can finally tell OPEC, "You keep your 4
million barrels a day. We will keep our 350 million dollars a day." Whether you
were a fan of President Ford or President Carter, it would be immensely
satisfying to cut that OPEC chain. All we need is for 23% of our cars to run on
compressed natural gas (CNG). And for national pride: Iran has 2.9 million cars
(23% of its fleet) running on CNG. If Iran can do it, we can surely do it.
- Joyce M.
Mr. Moyers,
I just had the great pleasure of listening to the remarkable exchange between you and Mr. Junot Diaz during your hour long show, Moyers & Company.
Thanks for your continued support of providing diverse perspectives through your programming.
I found the discourse refreshing, enlightening and elicited a desire for me to view the ideas presented through a different prism.
Again, your commitment to excellence, and providing balanced coverage is welcomed.
(a loyal fan)
Joyce McDowell
- JCarroll
Enjoyed climate change program today. Have you in past programs connected climate change with livestock emissions/meat-eating? 2.52 tonsCO2/person/year is alarming. Ten percent of human-created CO2 is from livestock? Sixty-five percent nitrous oxides is from livestock? Animal waste = 130% of human waste, and is untreated? 70% Amazon deforestation for grazing of livestock? If we individually want to have a significant, mitigating effect on climate change and want to prevent the 2 or 3 or 4 degree temperature increase that's looming, we might first begin by giving up meat. We must give up (so much) meat consumption. "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." – Albert Einstein
- http://www.facebook.com/jane.g.taylor Jane Grace Taylor
You forgot to mention the ECONOMICALLY motivated who know global warming is real but deny it because they think it will cost them money to comply with pollution controls,ie the coal industry
- Lew
Please, let's be clear here. Guns don't kill people (unless used as clubs), BULLETS kill people. More importantly, it is MUCH harder to make ammunition than it is to make guns (which are, after all, only steel). If somebody tries to make modern propellants and primers, they WILL be caught — by their local fire department!
I live and (sometimes) work in the world of military arms & ammunition. I know my way around it. I just (as in the last 3 months) designed a new sidearm for a Marine Corps proposal set. I have designed and built ammunition manufacturing systems. I know what it takes to make firearms (handguns through anti-tank weapons) and the ammunition they project.
Further, to be clear, the 2nd Amendment was written at a time when KNIVES and SWORDS were the "weapons of war." The "Kaintuck Toothpick" was the weapon that won our Revolutionary War and fought the War of 1812 to a draw. The first war where more people were killed by propellant-powered projectiles than sharp pointy things was the Crimean War! Just try walking down a street in ANY metropolitan area today wearing a 6-inch bladed knife on your belt. See how quickly the NRA will leap to your defense.
The flip side of this is that there ARE many places in the U.S. today where owning a firearm IS realistic. I live in an area with cougar, coyotes, and bear. Defending PEOPLE against such threats is NOT as rare as most metropolitanites may think. By banning firearms in ALL schools, many rural schools are facing the problem of protecting small children (who look like a good "meal" to a cougar or coyote pack). The one-size fits all, un-thought-out approach will not work.
If you ban legally made firearms (while still allowing unfettered access to ammunition), you ONLY create a market for illegally made firearms! It is much easier to make a fully-automatic firearm with simple tools than it is to make a semi-automatic (often mis-identified as "automatic") firearm. With a little bit of forethought, it only takes about 2 hours to make a (very poor quality) fully-automatic firearm that will shoot 50 rounds of ammunition in less than 3 seconds from (about) $20 in materials.
Please, think about it…
- james
I tuned in to your show tonight and felt like I was watching the Ed Show…. all of the topics were so one sided. Very disappointed in you!
- http://www.facebook.com/dennis.perry.779 Dennis Perry
There is a large and growing physician shortage which will soon reach crisis proportions. There is also a group of thousands of licensed, qualified doctors ready to pitch in and deliver care. But this group of doctors is ignored and marginalized while the established group takes information they have used for centuries and presents it as new information. Of course, I'm talking about licensed naturopathic doctors and physicians. Trained in conventional medicine with focus on gentle natural methods. It's cost effective, focuses on prevention. Why are these doctors not being enlisted and utilized in the health care system. They are systemmatically excluded.
- Sw
I saw the interview with Krugman, it was very interesting to hear Mr. Krugman's thought process. Will there be an interview with Thomas Sowell also?
- tomtruthseeker
I listened with intent to the Paul Krugman interview today, as Krugman said it was very important to him to show both political parties need to come and overlap each other. I felt that any minute Krugman was bound to say that the existing administration has yet to publish the budget for the previous years, and show what exactly had been spent with all the categories. This has gone on for 4+ years. I have been online and I look historically at all the budgets and spending info historically back to the 1800's, but then it freezes with the start of Obama's first administration. Come on Bill Moyer – ask the question. I have a genuine interest- what is spent on military this and that, what does unemployment cost, etc?
When money is spent, there is an inherent human nature that becomes unsettled when one does not know where the money went. Old bookkeeping saying "when you know where you have come from, you can decide where you are going" . We do not know where the money went in the last 4 years- we do know where the money was spent prior to them. Why did Mr. Krugman not mention that? One understands, irregardless of our education or mathematical comprehension abilities, a lot when they know where the money was spent, and now this is the new budget. All we need are pie charts with a few descriptions. We can handle the truth.
Bear in mind, I am not speaking about any future budget each year, I am ONLY speaking of the records of where the money that the government did spend- went???
So this was the elephant in the room, and this reduces credibility of any government spending discussion, when comparative thinking cannot be had of what was spent year to year, when there is great discussion of what is needed now. We all want to be a part of it. This is the law I am sure, yearly disclosure.
We are way smarter than this- all of this..
This is THE Discussion that needs be had. And hey, wouldn't be bad one day to see a budget. But that is not the topic of this comment.
- Anonymous
I wish I could convey to Bill Moyers how much he means to our family, and, we believe, to America. We are not "members" or participants of Facebook so we can't "like" him or his program, and in this day and age, if you can't "like" on Facebook, then you don't count! But we more than "like" Bill Moyers and all of his communications, we love him and them and value them very highly. I want to shout it from rooftops that we long for all Americans to listen and listen carefully to what he says. He reminds me of a wise oracle, a sage in the truest sense of the word. I wouldn't want to make him uncomfortable, but we do, in fact, feel love for him because he gets to the "heart of the matter" over and over again and we just deeply appreciate him and the way he cuts through the crap (sorry). In this "brave new world" where there are voices everywhere pushing an agenda that thinking people know is false but they don't know what is true or real or what to do, there are Bill Moyers and his guests: clarifying. In the midst of all the blather and lies and "flak" and smoke that is always in our eyes telling us 'this is the truth, this is what matters" from dissemblers and liars, and your gut tells you that you are being lied to, snowed, spun and manipulated to the nth degree, here comes Bill Moyers with his gentle manner and great intelligence saying, "wait a minute….not so fast there…." We are so grateful for his presence on TV, on the internet, wherever he can communicate, but everybody needs to spread his material because – just as Bill McKibben rightly warns about its being near to "end game" for climate change, so too is it nearly at end game for our democracy and for avoidance of the entrenchment of full bore plutocracy in the U.S. If people don't grasp the full meaning of plutocracy (and it has unfortunate "charming" associations with the former planet Pluto or the funny cartoon character Pluto), then that definition needs to be disseminated far and wide. Try economic fascism as an alternative, perhaps. Bless you, Bill Moyers, and please keep up the good work and please keep all of us working for good.
- Another voice
A question, an observation, and a suggestion.
1. I think we have demonstrated that capitalism has failed everyone but the capitalists. Can we reimagine economics in a way that levels the playing field perhaps, so that a nation's net worth is based upon their potential contribution — the number of workers and their education level, their natural resources, rather than their gross domestic product.when we are deciding how much to lend them? Would this help?
2. We can rewrite the laws that govern corporations. Right now the CEOs have a fiduciary responsibility to put making money first on their priority list, ahead of every other consideration so long as they obey the law. We can rewrite the laws so that corporations who want to keep their charter to stay in business must not only demonstrate fiduciary responsibility but social responsibility — must balance the needs of their stockholders against the needs of their workers and the communities in which they do business, and we can amend the constitution if necessary to say that corporations do not have political rights and that money is not free speech.
3. Things are stretched pretty thin and America has never called a general strike that I know of. I don't want to do anything to actually harm our fragile economy, but I think it would be good to demonstrate that we could. I'd like to see a general strike, down tools, stop traffic everywhere in America for 30 minutes some day just as a reminder that the 1% doesn't make any money without the 99%. I think it is a long overdue wake up call.
- Bob Rundle
Bob Rundle – Just watched your great interview with Paul Krugman. Reminded me that I forgot to send my nomination for Obama's reading list: Aganda for a New Economy (2nd ed) by David Korten. I have found that if you accept his view that our economy causes so many of the economic, political, social and environmental problems we struggle with, you never again look at them in the same way. If you want to do something to create positive changes you had better join the movement to build a new economy while also focusing on your area of concern, Korten's strategy for creating such an economy is both practical and hopeful. I am tired of hearing only short term solutions to our troubles that ignore their underlying cause. I hope you can get him on your program soon.
- unfoxworthy
as captains of industry ascend the ranks of profit driven machines…
they do not succeed due to their sensitivity to environmental issues, nor to their subscription to morality, nor to justice – in its humane embodiment,
only do they succeed in ascending
– by way of their ability to manipulate
– and through their peers' perception of their skill at driving
…the "driven" machine.
- Mortimer Snurd
This is a load of crap. I thought I was logging on to a site that would quickly show me where to send a message to my senator. But instead I find I will have to read war and peace to figure out what to do. Michael Perente was right.
- Pj
Please read the pledge of allegiance. The USA is a Republic not a democracy.
- Jerry
I watched the Abortiion Debate program thinking it would give both views and learned it was a pro-Abortion program. When will I see the anti-Abortion presentation.
- cristina
I absolutely agree. I only buy my clothes at consignment shops. I buy local, organic food (& humanely raised meat) and plan to start growing my own food. I will join a local barter group that exchanges goods and services. I support small, independent shops. I try and reduce the amount of garbage and recycling every week so that most of what I consume can be composted. Recycling, to me, is a bandaid- we need to stop purchasing anything plastic or even packaged in plastic. Don't support agribusiness or big banks or wall street or the Walmarts of the world. It's amazing how freeing living simply is.
- http://www.facebook.com/brian.schatz.31 Brian Schatz
I'm hoping that Bill Moyers gets the opportunity to have Richard D Wolff on his
show. Talking about worker self-directed and worker owned enterprises would be very helpful to those that think that there's nothing we can do.
Also, having Larry Lessig on to share his ideas about Root Strikers would be essential to
our democracy.
- E Ringlein
I recently received this e-mail and felt that it needs to be responded to since it reflects the feelings of many Americans:
you noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to as a
Benefit Payment"?
be part of the one percent to forward this.
am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will
in you.
keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.
The House of Representatives is now referring to our Social Security
checks as a "Federal
Benefit Payment".
isn't a benefit its earned income!
only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did
It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
If you
averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to
$180,000 invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future
value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month,
including both your and your employers contributions) at a meager 1%
interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd
have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved!
is your personal investment.
retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318
per year, or $3,277 per month.
almost three
times more than
today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month,
according to the Social Security Administration (Google it – its a
And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years
(until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)!
I can only imagine how
much better most average-income people could live in retirement if
our government had just invested our money in low-risk
interest-earning accounts (instead of borrowing from it for years
with the promise of paying it back someday).
Instead, the folks
in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff
ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot that
it was OUR
money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if
we wanted to lend the money to them.
And they didn't pay
interest on the debt they assumed. And recently, they've told us
that the money won't support us for very much longer. But is it our
fault they misused our investments?
And now, to add insult to
injury, they're calling it a benefit, as if we never worked to earn
every penny of it. Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't mean
that our investments were a charity!
take a stand.
have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare.
Demand that
our legislators bring some sense into our government.
Find a
way to keep Social Security and Medicare going, for the sake of that
92% of our population who need it.
Then call it what it
Retirement Income.
of people won't forward this.
Will you?
Positive Intent
- Bill Moyers
Dear Bill Moyers,
I am a long-time fan of you and your impressive works. I would appreciate the opportunity of sending you my sound proposal and appeal for solving the many corruptions in our government and restoring our democracy. How do can I get my serious words to you and be sure you have recieved my idea? I know you are very busy but I would greatly appreciate your reaction and response to my message. Sincerely, David Allred
- Bill Moyers
what to do?
- Anonymous
Please open up as much access as possible—-the public is and will continue to be susceptible to the fear infused campaign that mandates drones and kill lists as the expected necessary normal American way. The only enemy Americans should truly fear are those advocating these draconian methods.
- Anonymous
As well it is important to keep in mind that this rush to use Drones speaks to a visceral mistrust of all American citizens. That the US is as a government no longer interested in the due process of law or its citizens right to voice and demonstrate their opposition. This mistrust is now global where governments are stripping citizens of their inherent right to object to the dictates of the 1%. Which are to make all taxpayers financial liable for any financial whims or misdeeds of the banking and corporate elites, as self annotated thieves that are responsible but left legally unaccountable by their monied crimes. Although I have never visited the Middle East I have experience a heart felt loss for every victim of the orchestrated violence against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Mali, Palestine and soon to be Iran. The US no longer stands for or speaks of one lost word "PEACE". It is time to reconsider funding this global system, country by country. I hope for comments.
- Anonymous
I wish to commend you personally for your direct opinions on the obvious hypocritical actions of many so called elites be they governmental or corporate or financial. So few voices of fact and reason are voiced. Take care.
- dlb
I found the interview with Nick Turse ("Kill Anything that Moves") both interesting and disturbing. I was in the military during the 1960s, but not on Vietnam. Like most Americans from that era I was aware of the My Lai massacre, but thought of it as a very bad but isolated incident – unfortunately not true. I have visited Vietnam twice in recent years just as a tourist. I have found the Vietnamese people to be very open and friendly. I wonder how the citizens of the United States would react if the situation were reverse and our country had been torn apart for over a decade by a foreign power – not very well I expect. But this book should be a wake up call for our rather indiscriminate use drones and the so called 'collateral damage' associated with their use.
- http://www.facebook.com/janet.gilles Janet Gilles
More than half of climate change caused by modern agricultural methods, massively subsidized by the Federal government in the name of modernization and a misplaced efficiency.
- http://www.facebook.com/bruce.h.young Bruce H Young
Does America really trust democracy? Where are the democratic institutions in this country? Business, education, and government use mostly top-down management. School children are not taught the necessary negotiation and conflict-resolution skills to promote decision-making in a democratic process. For a country representing democracy around the world, America chooses mostly other styles of decision-making in its many organizations, systems, and institutions. Lets talk about this more.
- Nancy Murphy
Thank you for your recent comments on the use of drone weaponry. After watching your show I sent messages to both my senators and to my representative regarding this unconscionable practice. Clearly our government has abandoned all morality in our craven efforts to maintain world supremacy under the guise of insuring the safety and security of our people. The use of drone attacks is killing hundreds of innocent people who are dismissively referred to as collateral damage. It is wrong and we know it is wrong.
For too long our economy has relied on the profits that come from making all kinds of killing machines. How long will it be before the drone makers are selling this technology to our enemies, just like they sell other weapons to our enemies? How long before our local police are using drones against our citizens? Congress is indulging itself in boundless hypocrisy by considering measures to control gun violence in this country when at the same time we are we are killing hundreds of non-military people with our unmanned drones. There must be some way to hold our government accountable for these actions.
- aonang
Read Ray Griffin's "911- Ten years Later." A topic even Mr. Moyers can't stomach.
- Tom Dorn
I fell asleep and wake up to your show coming on. I begin watching and it appears innocent enough and then I realize one of your guests is none other than George Soros's son. You then give an absurdly softball interview with only a brief interlude into one Soros's PAC. Good grief, what a complete waste. I will change the channel. Get a life.
- Steve Royal
Re. Richard Wolf, What would I do about it?: 1. Glass Steagle restored, 2. No US corporations corporate money in tax free countries to evade US taxes. 3. Commence publicly funded elections in all elections in the USA, no corporate funding.period in that corporations are legal fictions. 4. Big Tax Credits to US corporations that move their manufacturing back into the USA. 5. Water down Citizens United as was done to Row V Wade while working to completely overturn CU. 6. Regulate and outlaw many derivitve manipulations. 7. Remove Wall St executives from the Federal Reserve and the revolving door from the FDA.while commencing labeling of GMO's, 8. Change filibuster rule in US Senate to a 50 vote ceiling. 9. Stop the corporate rigging of student loans and stop privitization of public schools and traditional governmental departments, 10. Stop the surveillance of US citizens under the guise of anti-terrorism an illusory fulcrum/rationale designed to bring Orwellian government/corporate control over all US citizens. 11,. Restore laws allowing workers unions nationally within all states. 12.. If corporations resist 1 thru 10 above. commence anti-trust Justice Department action.
- http://twitter.com/FVizier frances vizier
Make congress redundant. Vote electronically on every issue that they debate. We do everything else online why not use our vote all the time.
- Reformer1
We need to implement FDR's Economic Bill of Rights which states:
Employment, with a living wage
Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
Medical care (universal)
Social security (only one implemented)
- jon p. dorschner
i was confused by the feature on saru jayaraman that followed the segment on david wolff. in your discussion with dr. wolf, you both made it clear that one of the reasons why our society is characterized by growing inequality is because the conservatives are succeeding in their plans to undermine (and eventually eliminate) organized labor. then in the jayaraman segment you feature an organization that is attempting to better the plight of restaurant workers, but is purportedly not affiliated with any labor union. if ms. jayaraman is so concerned, why does she insist on setting up a non-union organization that does not have the right to strike, negotiate with employers, or sign contracts. wouldn't she be better advised to affiliate herself with a recognized union and organize workers? the segment reminded me of the ongoing attempts to organize walmart workers, who face incredible hardship and discrimination, without the organizers calling themselves a labor union. i couldn't help thinking that something similar must be going on here and that jayaraman is being supported covertly by the beleaguered labor movement and is not telling the whole story. otherwise, her efforts seem misguided and not all that promising.
- Fishing Leader
Humans are inherently competitive! We are the most vicious and destructive creatures on the planet! It is foolish to trade in a system where power is divided between thousands of corrupt corporations for a system that concentrates all the power into one government controlled by a few corrupt politicians! US history has proven that human ambition can be channeled into peaceful economic war through free market competition. By dividing power among multiple competing organizations the USA has lifted more people out of poverty than any other society. Instead of destroying free market capitalism, we need to stop engaging in violent physical confrontation and channel violent personalities into economic war. Our government is too big and it is being manipulated by large corporations and interest groups who collude against the people. This corporate-government complex prevents small companies and individuals from becoming competitors. Even today many corporations still are not concerned about environmental impact or a social safety net for those who fail to compete. The solution is to move toward dividing power across more small corporations and limiting government to regulating environmental abuse, worker safety, and helping private industry provide a social safety net that actually breaks the chain of dependence!
- Chalis Montgomery
What can I do? Start an independent voters movement in the 10th district of GA, and possibly run to defeat Paul Broun. I'm a mom, a teacher, small business owner, and lay leader in my church. There was a small but significant number of voters who were so disappointed by Broun that they actually wrote in Charles Darwin. I figure I can at least do better than a dead guy, and win or lose, the effort would send a message. I have zero campaign funds and am loathe to rely on corporate financing, should I choose to do this, so I would need to find some way to get some free press. Now, I wonder where I could find a journalist willing to cover a would-be public servant?
- Chalis Montgomery
Let's do it. Space is free on blogspot.com. The rest is just crowd sourcing. Great idea!
- Jim
Richard Wolf's concepts are what have destroyed the American dream. Over taxing and creating more government control and dependency destroy the American dream. There was a time when my father had a tax rate of 90 % for every dollar he made over $100000. He was self employed, and just slowed down and started earning less. He let an employee go. He started bartering. My observation, in countries where success is limited by high taxes, trading and bartering are the norm. Usually a bribe or a tip are expected requirements to have service or to get a government permit. I live in a state where unions seem to vary by city. Most of the "union" cites are dying, while the non-union areas flourish. None of my construction friends want to start a development in a "union" area. On the first day putting up a "hard Hat" sign someone gets told "you can't do that, it's a union job." I could survive in Richard Wolf's America, but living that way is not my dream. I think Charles Murray has the real answer to what has happened to America.
- dalec
Moyers, What a stupid A—Hole…
- JohnJ
What do you suggest Mr. Moyer that we do away with Capitalism and go to a socialist or communist type of governmant. You liberals make me sick. This is still the greatest country in the world and dit is because of capitalism.
- Dan Schmitt
Good Evening Bill. I really hate it when I miss seeing your program.
I caught something that I didn't agree with. The two of you agreed that it was
the war that brought us out of the depression. In part maybe but it was the
fact that the Bankers were of a much more humane heart. The fact is that Carl Wilken, a World War 1 vet who came home and was determined that the U.S. should not go thru what they went through. He convinced the bankers to follow his advice of making Parity
Agriculture the means of creating income to support the war and it created
wealth until 52 when Truman repealed it. We limped along until in the 1980's
Family farmers were bankrupted and big agriculture is now the norm. We in NORM
have carried Parity along until we lost so many that I'm about the only one
that knows about what creates real WEALTH. We in NORM printed a booklet that shows what each county in Iowa has lost by not having parity all these years. If this had been the case all over the U.S. we should not have had this collapse. Sincerely Dan Schmitt 2507 Oaks Ave; Marshalltown Iowa 641 753 7052 email@example.com
- Dixie H Dodge PhD
Dear Mr Moyers, I want to add to the inequality data. I am a practicing psychologist for 30 years and have not had a raise from the insurance companies in that time. My hourly rate is still the same as in 1983. With the amount of time and money I put into my education and the current importance of mental health in our society this situation boggles my mind.
- jeffery wayne coleman
i can't help but wonder why the minimum wage doesn't affect workers in the restuarant industry!! the flipside to this wondering thought is people should not apply for those jobs until wages are at the minimum levels as other workers. mr. coleman, jeff w.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=766796753 Gordon Graham
Just finished watching a rerun of your interview with Richard Wolff. I agree with his premise, that if our inequality of opportunity and income isn't resolved thoughtfully, revolution and the adoption of some other system is probable. What adds real force, anger and righteous rage to that revolution will come from confronting the consequences of the poisoning of our planet. The vilification of the 1%, here in the US, will broaden to include all of US, European, Christian & Whites for the damage we have done to all of the non-white peoples of the planet and to the life support systems upon which we can no longer rely.
- Rowboat70
What's wrong, and what to do about it.
As is now readily apparent, the imposition of austerity on the working class is a
Austerity shall be imposed on the successful, overpaid winners in life's lottery.
"If we raise taxes on the overpaid..….a recipe for social and political instability or even
chaos." Fortune Magazine, April 2011
Ah, the young people. If they would only get an education.
When I was a kid, Eisenhower was the President. The top tax bracket was 90%.
There was neither social nor political instability nor chaos.
Capitalism in the USA worked well when the top tax bracket was 90%.
The purpose of a confiscatory top tax bracket is not to collect taxes.
The purpose is to force the creation of deductible expenses,which means to create jobs to avoid paying taxes.
It worked for Eisenhower, and it will work now.
The concept of trickle-down economics is naive.
The overpaid people will use excess cash to increase the trust funds for their posterity.
The overpaid people will not voluntarily create jobs for people like me.
The overpaid people must be compelled to create jobs by the
specter of the 90% top tax bracket.
That is how Bell Laboratories invented the transistor and made the
whole electronics miracle possible.
The jet age and the space age were spawned because the executives
could not simply pocket the money.
Why should gold traders who gross $25,000 per day not pay 90% tax?
Wall Street is awash in bonus money.
Why should Wall Street traders who gross $1M per week ($50M per
year) not pay 90% tax ?
Why should Rush Limbaugh ($60M in 2010) not pay 90% tax ?
Why should Opra Winfrey ($300M in 2010) not pay 90% tax ?
Mitt Romney made $40M and paid $4M in tax, (10% in round numbers)
in 2010.
Romney should have paid $36M tax and taken home $4M, which is 50
times my gross pay in 2010. Sound fair to me.
The top 5% of taxpayers now pay 50% of the tax.
Therefore, double the top tax bracket, and the top 5% can pay all of the tax.
The resulting 95% tax-free economy will be well stimulated.
The unwashed masses should pay no tax at all.
If the main engine of the economy is consumer spending, then stop
taxing the consumer.
Elizabeth Warren makes my point exactly.
The overpaid, successful, winners in life's lottery should pay all of the tax.
The flat tax is a ruse, a red herring, with all of the complications of the existing tax.
The flat tax is applied to the net income.
The definition of "net income" is in no way simplified by the flat tax.
Payments to overseas entities should not be deductible expenses.
The sale of imported goods in the USA should be taxed on the gross amount of the sale.
This would force the price of imported goods to be greatly increased to cover the tax.
Import duties would no longer be necessary.
The solution to Social Security is to tax the entire income for Social Security, not just the first $113,700.
Under the current tax law, a person who is paid $113,700 owes the same number of
dollars in Social Security tax as a person who is paid $1,000,000.
Effective January 2013, the employee tax rate for social security has been raised from 4.2%. to 6.2%. a 50% increase.
Additionally, the social security wage base limit is $113,700.
The tax rate should have remained the same (4.2%), and the base limit should have been removed entirely, so that the entire income is taxed for Social Security, not just the first $113,700.
- WD Jones
I watched most of your show 2/24/2013. I always find your final thoughts at show's end very enlightening. You do have the jest of what is happening in the country today, as well as the possible outcomes if things are not solved soon. I ask this question, 'why is it prime time investigations and editorials are not talking about the same thing?' I am hopeful that things are now starting to evolve. In the last two weeks I have seen or heard news regarding what is really happening economically, politically and what needs to happen in order to fix what is wrong. Bill Moyers & Co. are one the those bringing the truth to the public. Are the big three networks, owned by corporations, failing the American people? When will their reporters, investigators say, 'this is enough!'. Its the job of the free press to protect the people…is the press no longer free? Thank you Bill, thanks to your staff and those who support shows like yours. Keep your faith and trust in God and America.
- Ed
Richard wolf's
comments on our economic situation for the working class American's was right
on the mark and his comments about this eventually boiling over are only a
matter of time. The American people will eventually wake up and demonstrate
against those who were in positions to make a difference and did nothing. History
has proven that all governments that ignore their people eventually fall. We
need to take back our political system and get corporate and foreign money out
of the system, we need term limits for our elected officials as they have become
professional politicians and spend more time on getting reelected then improving
the country. We need to start writing in our own leaders when voting and stop
letting the political parties tell us who to vote for. Our fore fathers were concerned
about a standing army and gave us the right to bare arms well they were
mistaken it's our politicians who are in bed with our corporate leaders and the
rich that we need to be concerned about. If we cannot find political solutions
to these issues we may have another civil war. For all men are created equal
and deserve the right in the pursuit of the American dream and a functioning
democratic government.
Thanks Bill for letting me vent.
Ed from the great state of Maine
- Mauricio
Excellent program today. Congratulations
- http://www.facebook.com/EllenDannin Ellen Dannin
Question for Richard Wolf:
I would like Richard Wolff to comment on the insights set out in the National Labor Relations Act as to the operation of the economy. You can find the NLRA at http://nlrb.gov/national-labor-relations-act In particular, take a look at Sec. 1 and, in particular, its first three paragraphs. Thank you, Ellen Dannin, Fannie Weiss Distinguished Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson School of Law http://law.psu.edu/faculty/resident_faculty/dannin
WOW! What wonderful awareness is FLOODING this planet? I am just thrilled. The illuminati's house of cards is falling…WE ALL FEEL IT DON'T WE? The suffering this planet has endured at the hands of nefarious ones for ions, is ending and well, the times they are a changin…….
DIVINE INTERVENTION is real.. this planet and it's people, now becoming a collective, are insisting and demanding peace and prosperity for all. We are co-creators and sovereign beings, Christ taught this truth. Love your brother as yourself. We have been taught lies intentionally to keep us "off track' of embracing our own powesr and divine heritage..but.THOSE DAYS ARE SOON GONE!
"Human things must be known to be loved…Divine things must be loved to be known"
URANTIA PAPERS if you desire to know the TRUE history of our divinely inspired evolutionary planet. Given to THIS generation…taken from Akashic Records and imparted by celestials, given divine permission by Creator. Truth WILL prevail!
- kierancox
Take control of our Representatives by: Reducing congressional pay to no more than $175,000 per year. In that way getting people in office who want to be 'Public Servants'; reduce paid congressional staff members from 15 to 5 so as to limit the amount of Political Action Committees gaining easy access to our Reps and having our Reps be totally open as to how they spend the time they are in Washington Representing us. Our Reps must be totally open with their tax returns and individual wealth prior to taking office and in that way we can track if they are enriching themselves. Congress must not allow the executive branch to wage war without a declaration of war, in other words, enforce the constitution. Congress must request pay raises from the American people by majority vote.
- Alex in New Orleans
Question for Dr. Wollf's next visit.
Politicians are always talking about "growth" economic and otherwise. Is there an inherent problem with our system of constant growth in a world of finite resources? And, what is the feasibility of creating a system by which the price of goods represents a more full picture of their societal costs (ie. pollution, renewal of resources used, half-life in landfill, etc.) as a way to curb this discrepancy?
- George Hunt
Really appreciate you wonderful programs. Glad you came back. Wrote a poem
you may enjoy.
A Child's Political Primer
The political process is something to behold
Just watching it as it begins to unfold
The many things you have to learn
Is to study politics and try to discern
The rules you need to get ahead
And how to be a leader and not just be led
This process has many a precedent
On the way to becoming a president
You may start by being a mayor
Or even a more active player
Male or female, it does not really matter
As long as your had is not in the platter
The first thing you have to learn
Is what you give and what you get
So that you become all the more set
To serve the people,you know, the one percent
But don't say this is what you meant
The "American People" is the best phrase
To allow you to get the most praise
The second thing you haver to learn
Is that you say one thing and yet do another
And give jobs to your brother
The third thing you have to learn
Is the study of hypocrisy
This may take all the time you are there
Or it may come without any great despair
This is the study of being insincere
By telling people what they always want to hear
Education is not a prerequisite for a hypocrite
Because you learn it bit by bit
For there isn't any difference from where I stand
Because all good works seem to have a brand
This is done in order to stay
Serving the people every other day
And the perks increase bit by bit
The longer that you can sit
In the chamber where you meet
And hope you will not suffer defeat
All of this one may learn
As to how you can return
The art of being a hypocrite does not come automatically
Until you have learned political practicality
If you are new at the game
Others may treat you with disdain
Ear;marks you will try to kill
But put it in another bill
Hypocrisy is but a hidden pretense
To promote programs that do not make sense
To insist that your agenda is right
And that the budget is oh so tight
While all along it doesn't do, what the people wanted it to
The corporations are are represented
Because they are being presented
As people like you and I
See this and only sigh
That some day politicians may be
Just people like you and me
The fourth thing you have to learn
Is stand on principal and not compromise
Because anything else would not be wise
Even though the principal is weak
And there won't be allowed even a tweak
You make it appear that you are strong
And that the other party's wrong
For the party you know is the principal thing
If one votes the other way, against the party line
They might be in trouble in a short period of time
The fifth thing you have to learn
Is the ability to talk and not say a thing
For no amount of reckoning this could bring
An analysis of problems are a concern
That is something you don't have to learn
Practicing sound bites is quite a chore indeed
How else then can one hope to succeed?
All this learning is costly you know
Money must be spent campaigning in the snow
So the people's business now takes the back seat
In order that you are the one that they keep
All this learning is an art and a special thing
So no telling then what tomorrow will bring.
George Hunt
- Greg DeMarco
Bill, I've been an admirer ever since your programs with Joseph Campbell which made a big impression on me. I've been listening to Richard Wolff's show on WMNF 88.5 Community Radio in Tampa,FL. I wanted to forward him a question from my 11 year old daughter. "If we're the richest country in the world why are we borrowing money from China?" I told her that the rich people in our country have kept most of the money. I know there's more to it than that. I have written the President several times asking him to leave Social Security and Medicare alone when confronting the deficit. I told President Obama that the deficit was created by the lack of fair taxes on the rich and corporations and a huge military budget for, what I consider needless wars. The deficit was not created by spending on social programs. How should I answer my 11 year old daughter, Emilee's question?
- Greg M
I have spent a fair share of effort in the past year and something trying to understand how the right is able to have any power other than there 1% or top 20% base. My conclusion is that it is there carefully crafted rhetoric. For example if you take almost anything that Congressman Boehner says and you replace "the American people" with "for the 1%" all the sudden everything he says becomes true. But the general public does not recognize that. They believe he is talking about them.
So one of the things I have been doing is going to political forums like on Craigslist in different regions of the country and respond to the right wing rhetoric by posting sources of information that I believe to be accurate based on the research that I have done. In particular I like research and statistics that show patterns over time. I have no dissolution that I am going to change the mind of the extremist that made the post, but if the 5 or 10 or 50 or 100 other people reading their views don't have any other source of information to way against, it is going to be much easier for them to buy into the distorted perspective.as truth.
I am respectful and polite in my responses. I simply offer sources of information that I believe are accurate. Then I try to have faith that the readers are intelligent and can discern the truth for them selves.
I have always believed that real change was going to happen at the grass roots.One person at a time. I know that I am making a difference when my polite respectful posts are deleted regularly, or I receive an irate response from the original poster.
Just imagine if there were 50 or 100 or 1000 or 50,000 people who simply respectfully provided accurate sources of information to the republicans continuous campaigns of misinformation the republican party would have no power. In particular if these campains were aimed at red states and districts. The republican party has no power without a successful campaign of misinformation. They have to sell the majority of American people on the "American Dream" to maintain power. There are only 3 million 1%'ers and only 60 million 20%'ers out of 300,000,000 Americans. The only way the republicans can be in power is to convince the majority that they have their best interests at heart. We have to uncover every untruth that they try to impose on our fellow Americans.
I believe this is what Bill Moyers has been doing on the macro level for many years. It has felt good to me to exercise my freedom of speech on a micro level.to share the truth with others at a grass roots level. Thank you Bill Moyers for being an example of integrity in your in your efforts to reveal the truth.
- J Kessler
good program on capitalism, but you may not like the answer to its pernicious puzzle
it's literally built-in to our culture, into our society, and that is what is changing right now
your see traditional family values breeds male dominance (which I call male dumbinance)
that, the competition rivaling and warring are subconscious drives for power (ego, ie. sex drive) that manifest "too big to fail" and its…"you can get away with what ever you are big enough to get away with" (hierarchies cannot be regulated)
what most are calling the "new normal" is the evolutionary change that is already leveling the playing field as you read this, I' m talking the advance technologies that globalization is spreading across the planet – man is not "in charge here"
I know you guys will keep up the good work, as best you can
best wishes and warm regards
- aj
Let's do this!
- James
"A glance at the situation today only too clearly indicates that equality of opportunity as we have known it no longer exists. Our industrial plant is built; the problem just now is whether under existing conditions it is not overbuilt. Our last frontier has long since been reached, and there is practically no more free land. More than half our people do not live on their own property. There s no safety valve in the form of a Western prairie to which those thrown out of work can go for a new start. We are now providing a drab living for our own people. The independent business man is running a losing race. If the process of concentration goes on at the same rate, at the end of another century we shall have all of American industry controlled by a dozen corporations and run by perhaps a hundred men. But plainly, we are steering a course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already."
Spoken in 1932 by FDR. From The Plot Against The President, by Sally Denton.
- Greg M
I have done a lot of research trying to understand the Republicans
perspective and how they are able to have any power, other than there 1% base.
My conclusion is that it is there carefully crafted rhetoric. They have a slick campaign of misinformation.
So one of the things I have been doing is going to political forums like on
Craigslist in different regions of the country (Red Districts in particular) and
respond to the right wing rhetoric by posting sources of information that I
believe to be accurate and unbiased. In
particular I like research and statistics that show patterns over time. Example:
Taxes on the 1% has gone down 50% over since 1970 while there wealth has gone
up 400% during the same period. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/the-income-made-by-and-the-taxes-paid-by-the-rich-in-one-graph/2011/05/09/AF2LmtzG_blog.html
I have no
dissolution about changing the minds of the extremist that make these posts,
but if the 5 or 10 or 100 other people reading their views don't have any other
perspective it will be easier for them to be convinced that the right wing
perspective is truth.
I am respectful and polite in my responses. I simply offer sources of
information that I believe are accurate. Then I try to have faith that the
readers are intelligent and can discern the truth for them selves.
I have always believed that real change was going to happen at the grass
roots level, one person at a time. I know that I am making a difference when my
polite respectful posts are deleted regularly, or I receive an irate response
from the original poster.
Just imagine if there were 50 or 100 or 50,000 people who simply
respectfully provided accurate sources of information to the republicans
continuous campaigns of misinformation. In particular if these campaigns were aimed at
red states and districts we could help our fellow Americans in those areas see
a different perspective. The republican party has no power without a successful
campaign of misinformation. They can not keep a large enough base without it. There
are only 3 million 1%'ers and only 60 million 20%'ers out of 300,000,000 Americans.
The only way the republicans can be in power is to convince the majority that
they have their best interests at heart. We have to uncover every untruth that
they try to impose on our fellow Americans.
I believe this is what Bill Moyers has been doing on the macro level for
many years. It has felt good to me to exercise my freedom of speech on a micro level and to share the truth with others at a
grass roots level. Thank you Bill Moyers for being an example of integrity in
your in your efforts to reveal the truth.
- Rick
I am in Canada and just watched an episode on economic inequality . I am shocked to learn that a minimum wage of 2.13 per hour exists in your nation. The lowest minimum wage in Canada is 9.50 , over 4 times that. Sickening that anyone can expect someone to live on that, I thought the US abolished slavery
- Frank
Do to a head injury in my early twenties, I can not help but believe in a creating entity, a God if you will. That injury and the resulting belief has made me believe that life has a
purpose and that purpose is spiritual growth. That injury has also made me ask
the following I believe important question….
'Why do I need religion to love God'
This is in resonse to Susan Jocoby
- Robert W. Donigan
Your second guest on today's program, Susan Jacoby, made a false statement concerning the Mormons. After being driven across the country in order to practice their religion, she said, they in turn persecuted the Indians and Protestants. In fact, the Mormons enjoyed better relations with Indians than did the government or any other agency. As for those of other faiths, one of the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,written by Joseph Smith himself, states, "We believe the privilege of worshipping Almight God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." Persecution remained directed at the Mormons. In fact, the LDS Church helped fund the construction of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Salt Lake City.
- Chris Jonsson
Here's something Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission, is up to. Could it be that he is going after
liberal news organizations?
Chris Jonsson
Dallas, TX
March 4, 2013
IRS Urged to Revamp How It Grants Charity Status to News Outlets
By Suzanne Perry
group of foundation and media experts issued a report today urging the
Internal Revenue Service to overhaul its "antiquated" approach to
determining whether to grant tax-exempt status to nonprofit
news outlets.
The current system has led to significant delays and confusion at a
time when financially struggling commercial media have cut back on their
local reporting and new online startups are attempting to fill the vacuum, the report says.
"Applying the 1970s rules to Web media makes about as much sense as
telling spaceships they have to use the freeway," Eric Newton, vice
of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, said in a statement. The
Knight Foundation made a $220,000 grant to the Council on
Foundations to set up the group of experts.
Meeting Standards
IRS has granted many news publications tax-exempt status in the past,
for example Consumer Reports and Mother Jones, the report notes.
the agency has slowed down its work in recent years, questioning some
applicants about whether their work is "educational"—a key standard
they must meet for tax-exempt status—and apparently relying on old rules
that deny charity status to nonprofits that gather or distribute news
in a similar way to commercial outlets, it says.
- Martha
An Urgent Call for Action – Makers: Women Who Make America.
Martha Hernandez-Martinez
My first encounter with "Makers" was Charlie Rose's
interview with Gloria Steinem and Amy Richards.
After watching a few minutes I turned off the TV and went to bed
furious. Here I was in 2013, and this man was talking about where the women's
movement was and had invited two white middle class women to tell him. Did he
miss what happened last year in the 2012 election? What kind of bubble does
this man live in that he keeps asking the same kind of questions that a
reporter would have asked in the 1980s?
I was going to ignore the documentary completely because my
first thought was this is another portrail of white middle –class oppressed
women and how they struggled for freedom as they threw their house work to
women of color and new immigrants.
It was my husband who called me to our living room to see
Makers. He showed more enthusiasm and interest than me. There was a point in the second half of the three hour documentary that we found ourselves talking about the very two distinct realities that we confront, not just because he is a man, but also
because he is a white middle-class educated man which it is quite the opposite
from the working class brown Latin@ background of his wife.
I said to my husband great, good points but you do not you
see what it is really missing here. The same thing that I saw in Charlie Rose's program, I asked my husband: Where are the women of color or minorities in this narrative? Why the discussion about socio-economic barriers for working women was touched by just one person for a few seconds?
More important than anything, and talking about the future:
Where were the African- American, Asian – American and Latina Women who are the
future of this nation in that documentary?
It was fair and right to include Mrs. Schlafly's view and
work to stop ERA but I wonder why the work of many women of color did not
receive the same level of attention. Why the last words were giving to white middle and upper class women who did have to choose between their children's food and their health? Why the discussion about reproductive rights did not touch the reality of many single moms: food, shelter or your medicine?
I was left with the feeling that we really need to have a very REAL CONVERSATION about the Women's Movement, which does not belong to one specific class or race. We need to start talking about All Women's lives and we NEED TO ACT.
- K.C. Halas
Bill, could you please do a 2 part on "America The Arms Dealer" so we can see the biggest elephant in the room that nobody ever talks about. Arms dealing is the basis for the whole Us and Them Cold war. Recently 911 gave the Arms Dealers the opportunity to enact a basic tenant of their business model:The more weapons are fired the more they need replaced. Unused arms do not make them money.This business shapes our world more than any other.
I know you and your staff read these posts and I have tried to explain this fact to as many people as possible, but you would do a much better job and the time for this information to get out is long overdue.
- John Miller
Thanks Bill, for all that you have done and continue to do.
For Richard Wolff
It took 200 years for the United States of America to accumulate $1 trillion in debt.
In less than 40 years our national debt has exploded to over $16 trillion.
I would like to make the argument that extreme wealth concentrations along with the
gross economic disparity in our nation are responsible for much of our current debt crisis.
Here are some statistics from the US Census:
·the top 20% of American households receives more income than the bottom 80%
·the top one percent receives about 20 percent of total income
·during the fiscal cliff "debate", which bandied about that arbitrary income
amount of $250,000.00 as being middle class, there was no mention that
over 97% of Americans don't make that annual income
According to studies done at New York University and the University of California, Berkeley, the 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom half (155 million) of American citizens combined.
Public announcements from the Federal Reserve (our Central Bank, a non-governmental, bank owned bureaucracy) state that between November 2008 and today, the Federal Reserve has purchased over $1.5 trillion of worthless
mortgage backed securities from Wall Street Banks with money we don't actually have. This is a classic example of the transfer of corporate losses on to the balance sheet of the American taxpayer.
Since 1970 the percentage of the federal tax burden paid by corporations has gone from 17% to around 9%.
The Center for Tax Justice reports that twenty-six profitable companies in the Fortune 500 (with names like General Electric, Boeing and Verizon) paid no federal income tax (in fact, they got refunds) between 2008 and 2011 . Some of the most profitable industries in America such as oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and financial companies receive tens of billions of dollars in government subsidies annually.
In 1970 the top federal income tax rate was 60%. At the end of 2012 it stood at 35%, but, Mitt Romney (he is not alone) was able to pay only 13.8% on $20 million in "investment income".
It is very clear, to me, that US economic and tax policy over the last 40 years has disproportionally been to the benefit of the wealthy and big corporations and in so doing created much of our current fiscal debt problems.
What, my fellow citizens, do you think?
John Miller – a proad supporter of public broadcasting
2023 North Madison St.
Rome, NY
(315) 337-2824
- Marcia DeForest
My lawn, backyard, will be converted to a food source for as many people as I can manage to invite. Last summer I put heavy cardboard down covering a 12foot by 12 foot –approx. space in best sunlight. Filled 18 large pots with tomato, basil, parsley, nasturtium(for good cheer)and bell pepper plants. This summer, pots get moved to new cardboard 'foundation'. On bare space left by previous tomato patch, add some composted soil (pref. mushroom compost, then planting lettuce of all kinds, peas,beans, maybe broccoli and whatever will work, edged on one side with strip of prairie plants like milkweed, goldenrod and others that will attract butterflies and birds. This will continue until I run out of sunny-grassy area. No more mowing, and a feasting place for the eye and tummy! Win-win! Give it a try. Not all of us have this sort of space, I am encouraging rooftop gardens, balcony food plants, and peapatches! It's not always easy I know, but where we can: YES WE CAN! Surplus will go to food pantry and friends. –and to chickens – just a few who share their range free eggs with me. Don't know for sure how I will be able to keep the poultry out of the food patch— have to do some sort of portable fencing, I think;}
- Marcia DeForest
Wisconsin grassroots community groups are trying an old idea in a new way. We are working to unite and support one another across the full range of issues. We are sharing our ideas and actions, seeking and supporting, even nurturing, better candidates and helping folks who wish to join us find us via our website map and contact info. It's free, it's all volunteers, and it's beginning to work! have a look at http://www.wisconsingrassroots.net Try this in your state, then we can all link together to move forward without paying dues, and in a way money can't buy. We are the feet on the ground and the hearts working to help one another rebuild a sustainable healthy society. The grassroots are growing in Wisconsin! We are inclusive and discovering how to rise up gently and firmly!
- http://www.facebook.com/lund.lang Lund Lang
As I was watching the show recently I realized how much
less interested with the issues I was becoming. Not because of the reporting
and coverage, but because I was feeling overloaded and frustrated with the
ability to do anything about it. It seems like there is a never-ending array of
dishonesty, self-profiteering, and erosion of Constitutional Rights by our
elected officials. It is no longer, 'Representation Of The People.' I wonder
how many other avid watchers of your show feel the same way.
I thoroughly believe that this is the process by corporations and government officials, to overwhelm the masses. To make them believe that it's too widespread, too common place, and too beyond their doing to do anything about the injustices that they are being subjected to. As was the phrase during the banking, investment, and auto industry collapse, "Too big to fail.' is the perfect insurance for corruption. Now day's with corruption as widespread as it is, it feels like the only thing to do is, either stay out of
the way, or find a way to seemingly climb on board to see if one can become
part of the winners of a political party.
When it's proven time and time again that one political party is as self-fulfilling, and dishonest as the other where is the, 'Representation Of The People.' What I keep asking myself is, why are we wasting our effort, and our taxpayer money for squabbling between elected politicians. Why don't we eliminate Party Politics? No Democrats, No
Republicans. Establish a law that prohibits any kind of Good Ole Boys special
interest association with politics, which would lead to party squabbling. Maybe then, 'We The People', could feel that our effort to get involved could be worth our involvement.
- Jamtse
THE plan to reverse desertification:
- Jean Warren. Canada
Re March 17, 2013 talk on Climate Change:
In 2010, it was estimated that there were 2.5 BILLION air flights
But those who are intelligent and who can afford it, still fly, and rejoice when there are discounted flights!. Given that most of those flights happen at approximately 36,000 feet in the air, at the edge of our atmosphere, is there any hope of change?
So very sadly, when not enough of the most intelligent don't care, I don't think so!
Does anyone realize that, when the glaciers melt, there will be no more rivers to provide water to the world? THIS IS NO FANTASY!!,
- Alexander B
Anthony Leiserowitz's comments were to the point re the necessity to QUICKLY build a GRASSROOTS movement to demand effective climate change action nationally. Disappointingly, there was absolutely no specificity on how to do so, AND ON WHICH ORGANIZATIONS MIGHT BE BEST ABLE TO TAKE ON SUCH A CHALLENGE…nor did Bill pointedly ask these questions.
- Dan Petersen
In regard to Richard Wolffs informative interview, I look forward to his return especially when he addresses "What do we do to change a system?" I am very interested in his response and especially if it is a response that can address multiple system changes that are needed beneath and beyond changes in capitalism.
My work is in supporting human potential and personal development which requires changing the systems of the mind, changes that I feel are core to the larger outer system dysfunctions. I am always looking toward insights in the overall arena of change.
Harvard professors and researchers Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey have made significant inroads with their research on personal and organizational change and subsequent book Immunity to Change. My belief is that bringing people like Richard Wolff together with the likes of Kegan and Lahey has substantial potential and I am interested if this is already happening.
Thank you so much for your weekly program which I never miss.
Dan Petersen
- Jim Putnam
Are we next?
Colleagues – for your information, received today from the
Opposition's Heritage Critic, Pierre Nantel.
Lara Wilson
Chair / Canadian Council of Archives
(250) 472-4480
~ sent from my wireless handheld device
Begin forwarded message:
From: "email@example.com"
Date: 18 March, 2013 3:21:22 PM PDT
To: "firstname.lastname@example.com"
Cc: "email@example.com"
Subject: A "Code of Conduct" for Library and
(Please share! Version française ci-dessous.)
The latest revelations about Library and Archive Canada's
new "Code of Conduct", imposed by its Conservative-nominated management, are
deeply disturbing.
Library and Archives' government-appointed management now
demands that the librarians, archivists and historians that work at Canada's
publicly funded archival institution must demonstrate "loyalty to the
government and its elected officials", which extends "beyond the
workplace to personal activities". LAC librarians and archivists are no
longer allowed to represent their institution at conferences and elsewhere, and
are banned from speaking on any subject related to LAC's activities.
My colleague Andrew Cash and I asked the Minister of
Canadian Heritage about this in the House of Commons today. The questions and
answer video is here: http://youtu.be/BlEYlzwvJXg
In summary: Minister Moore appointed Library and Archive's
management, which is now demanding "loyalty" to the government's "elected
officials". This isn't just mismanagement – it's another step in the
dismantling of this institution.
We say enough. The gutting of Canada's Library and Archives
has to stop.
Please spread this message to those you know who are worried
about the future of our national institutions responsible for preserving
Canadian history. Send us an email at firstname.lastname@example.com to get in touch
and share your concerns on this issue. We'd like to hear from you.
Best regards,
Pierre Nantel
Député de Longueuil–Pierre-Boucher | MP
Porte-parole de l'opposition officielle en matière de
Patrimoine | Official Opposition Critic for Heritage
Nouveau Parti démocratique
| New Democratic Party
Téléphone 613.992.8514
| Télécopieur 613.992.2744 |
npd.ca | pierrenantel.npd.ca |
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- http://www.facebook.com/nancydenker Nancy Denker
I will be presenting this to the State Central Committee of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. The graphic that goes with it can be found on my facebook page. Art inspired by Bill Moyers.
Resolution: The Earth First Initiative
Whereas our planet is the only place in the universe where we know life exists,
Whereas climate-change is a reality confirmed by scientists internationally that will destroy this life
Whereas climate-change is evidenced by:
rising planetary temperatures causing melting of our polar caps,
resulting in the swallowing up by the ocean of lands such as the Maldive Islands
and the loss of habitats such as for the arctic bears
increasingly severe storms with large-scale flooding of human habitats causing financial disaster
increasing areas of drought across our planet with a subsequent increase of wild fires causing damage to human and wilderness environments
an increase in the rate of global warming, rapidly approaching a point of no return
and whereas our intervention in our environment with pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) creates contaminants, toxins and pathogens with observable impacts such as:
a decline of bee colonies necessary to pollinate the flora of our earth
a rapid decline in butterfly populations that is considered a signal of environmental stress
a loss of native seeds and species
a measurable increase in cancers, mutations, and other illnesses across species
and whereas our actions are destroying our clean waters and clean air globally
and whereas the human species is responsible for these effects and ultimate destruction of life on earth
and whereas climate-change knows no social demographic, and affects the entirety of life on earth
and whereas many scientists believe it is already too late to reverse global warming
and furthermore, whereas science has demonstrated these unavoidable outcomes for decades, we live mostly in silence regarding the effect of human actions upon this planet
that we end the silence surrounding climate-change and instead dialog about this greatest crisis seen in knowable history
that the Democratic Party of New Mexico (DPNM) requests that our legislators consider the earth first when permitting, licensing or regulating industry
that the DPNM requests that our legislators create laws that provide financial incentives for the development of environmentally friendly technologies
that climate-change science be taught in our schools
that the DPNM creates an education committee to hold forums and host screenings on the impact of climate-change and on how we can lessen our impact on the environment
and that the DPNM consider climate-change the most important issue of this age and promote actions, industries, legislators and legislation that protect our planet
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Solarman-Jd/1713115944 Solarman Jd
3 top problems any Major Metropolitan City Worldwide (including USA):
1. adequate health care
2. clean drinking water
3. never enough low cost housing
This is why I have created a not for profit http://Not4ProfitSolar4All.org
introduced Low Cost Solar Housing (Environmental Prototype Homes of
Tomorrow EPHOT) each equipped with a Air to Water (ATW) technology for
drinking water from thin air and self sufficient…Grid or not…
LOW COST SOLAR HOUSING KITS can be erected on slabs using locale labor any were in the WORLD…
- Paul Maher
Listen up, the world is getting ready to change on many fronts at one time. The overlooked and largest change coming will be the way in which we power ourselves. The promise of Cold Fusion, LENR, and Focus Fusion is nearly at hand. The work being done by Brillouin Energy with the aide of SRI in California cannot be denied. Professors Bushnell and Hagelstein have the nanor which has been running at MIT for 1 1/2 years. And last but not least Lockheeds Skunk Works is working on a unit that will fit on a 40′ trailer that will produce 100 Megawatts of electricity, very cheaply. With $4,000,000,000 a year in oil based fuels at stake there is bound to be a rumble of discontent from many quarters. Tough
- Wayne Bachmann
Why don't you start exposing the truth? You are a very likeable person, but you keep promoting DEMOCRACY. Our Founding Fathers DELIBERATELY did not give us a democracy. It does not protect the rights of the individual. It is MOB RULE. The 51% can violate the rights of the 49%, which is exactly what is happening in our country for the last few decades. Our Founding Fathers DELIBERATELY gave us a Republic, because it too, is MAJORITY RULE, but it also protects the rights of the INDIVIDUAL. I am so sick of this massive promotion of democracy that does not protect the rights of the individual. Read George Washington's Farewell Address.
I am also very sick of people like wolff who attack capitalism. He sounds like a communist, which is now called "Progressives". As far as I'm concerned, if he does not have a patriotic spirit for the sacrifices our Founding Fathers made for us to have our rights and freedoms, he needs to find another country to call home. I'm glad I saw your show tonight. I definitely will NOT be supporting him.
Wayne Bachmann
- http://www.facebook.com/carl.landsness Carl Landsness
I wonder if We The People need to co-create a Mission/Vision/Values statement (e.g. http://weneedadream.org/ConstitutionProposals.htm#mission).
- http://www.facebook.com/mike.griffin.77398 Mike Griffin
I happened upon Bill Moyers' show with Dr. Wolff, ("Capitalism hits the Fan"), and it moved me out of my "comfort zone" (although I have felt un-comfortable and alienated as a US citizen since leaving the US Army in 1971). I have started a MeetUp group here in Hawaii, and also run an ad on craigslist.com for finding/persuading folks here to lean left and "get together…right now". I would suggest that those of you who want to get active to do this also in your communities; (craigslist is free, MeetUp is $19/month).
I also think the time is ripe for us to create a political-activism party for all of us who believe that Capitalism has "hit the fan". If we keep voting "the party ticket" of the current major political parties in the US (etc.) then we are wasting our democratic right to speak our minds. I assume that the Communist Party is still alive and well in the Americas, but, unfortunately it has a negative stigma, (at least in the USA). So we need something new: I call the folks in my MeetUp group "New Thinkers", and suggest that for a name for the new party, ("People's Party" suffers the same tinged prejudice as "Communist Party", so I vote against that name). Any suggestions? You can email me at firstname.lastname@example.com to respond to this. When I have collected 50 positive responses I will share the email addresses with all who have made those positive responses, and do likewise when I get each additional 50 positive responses. It's time….Mike Griffin in Hawaii
PS-feel free to share this message with anyone you think will be receptive.
- http://twitter.com/Hahistory Sidney Hatchl
I suggest that some one like you, Bill Moyer, wity a bully pulpit publish a check list of government expenditures that might be reduced or eliminated. Provide a column for yes, no, undecided. Count the votes, publish the results, and send it to the leaders in government. I suggest that a list of categories include: foreign government to government aid, subsidies to agriclture, the ethanol subsidy, loans, loan guarantees and grants to so called green industries, the Department of Education and federal funding other than the three military academies and junior and senior ROTC programs, tax credits for weathering ones own home, the earned income tax credit. I would vote to eliminate ALL of these.
"OBAMA SOLD OUT!" "DEMOCRATS SOLD OUT!" This is the anguished cry I hear from family and friends although little is mentioned in the news. On March 26th, along with the short term spending bill, Obama signed into effect a devastating law (section 735) benefitting GMO giant Monsanto: "Monsanto Protection Act". People need the safety of our food & water protected, not Monsanto!
- Alan D Smith
That democracy exists is pure bankster propaganda that We must stop repeating. What we call democracy today makes a mockery of the concept of democracy. So, let's call it demockery. Real democracy will be a publicly owned, free, transparent system designed to define and fulfill the will of the People regarding anything that can affect them. Our demockery defines and fulfills the will of the one percent at the great expense of the People.
The banksters and their corporate governments conspire to transfer all Our wealth to them. They wage a perpetual, secret War On All Humanity (WOAH) with every conceivable covert weapon. They're Humanity's only real threat and Mankind's only true enemy. Life without them will be like paradise.
Our only system of REAL democracy is at MajorityVoice.com's "votable" Issue Forum System. Help make it into the almighty voice of Humanity. Or start your own system of democracy and make that into Humanity's voice. Or, go quietly into the darkness of the New World Order. Only We can rule benevolently, because only we will always have our best interests at heart. And, only democracy can promise us the power to guarantee peace, justice and prosperity to Posterity.
- keith
Starting March 1 Las Vegas PBS has Quit carrying Bill Moyers Show. I can See it on the internet , but I would simply like to say I am incensed at the programming director.
Think GMO is not an issue for you? Would love to see Bill Moyers take this issue on again this year. Check out this new documentary on independent research: http://vimeo.com/responsibletechnology/gr2Password: LearnAboutGMOsNat2
Are you aware that the immigrants that come to this country get SSI which grants them free healthcare – including surgeries and other very expensive procedures? And in our area, the subsidized housing primarily (80-90% ?) is occupied by non-Americans. If they move into HUD housing, for instance, the rent is based upon one-third of their income. So, one-third of nothing is nothing or very close to that. They receive food stamps and go to food banks. The bottom line is they basically have free room and board plus free medical. Americans have worked all their life here and do not even come close to having this free arrangement. And many employers prefer hiring non-Americans (like Microsoft). Please advise the Republicans that the immigrants appear to be entitled, not American retirees.
- Anonymous
Are you joking–when is purging the voter roles of dead people and of the people who vote in multiple states a bad thing? I am from IL where they steal the elections every time by flooding the registration offices with thousands of bogus registrations brought to you by ACORN and Project Vote well taught by Obama and his cronies. Educate yourself with the truth. Voter ID is a good thing and may- may slow down the cheaters.
- http://www.facebook.com/topher.dean.1 Topher Dean
I just realized there's no way around it. we're done. Liberals think the world's coming to an end because of the environmental destruction and we have science on our side. Republicans think the world's coming to an end because of homosexuals and abortion and they have the Bible on their side. Nether one of us will ever change.
- Susan Walker
Nice… thanks Bill…!
- Lawrence
Bill, I have been waiting for someone to report on the response
the boston bombers parents gave to the press. Both had no
comment or compassion for those injured. Both seemed to blame
others for their sons horrendous acts — thus, it seems clear to me
from the parents response where the two brothers lack of care about
others – originates: I see this as a contributing factor in their crime.
- http://www.facebook.com/qwiknf Steve Irwin
We need to make as many of these issues into "reality" TV shows.
More people might/would take and interest. Much larger audiences.
- gadfly
mothers don't want gas storage, nucular, coal- etc,etc,etc to make electricity- yet they are the first to nturn on the lights when it gets dark and complain when the costs are too high.
All the people who stop solutions need to come up with better solutions to solve the needs of the people!:)
- gadfly
amyinnh asks what can I do about it? well I buy at Walmart- the onloy store I can afford. Never had a job to fund a 401k
Never had unnecessary services(cable tv, cell phone, etc) or a vacation. can't afford local(organic)
- Roger LABRUCHERIE
Thank you, thank you, thank you for presenting Glenn Greenwald, a rare voice of sanity on American national and international policy.
Roger LaBrucherie
former Peace Corps Volunteer
Tallahassee, Florida
- M Lynch
I channel surfed to the program with Sandy Hook parents. I want my kids protected. Why can't you interview some experts on security? These people are sad. I feel bad for them. I don't understand how singing songs about answers blowing in the wind can help. Please provide us with some journalism rather than exploiting these poor people.
- Dale Bertelson
Bill: Thanks for taking the lead on bringing attention to the direction of the country and its consequences. I'm old enough to remember when most people made enough money to support themselves, paid taxes with only a litlle complaining and believed that the direction for everyone in the US was up. I think that when our elected officials began indoctrinating the electorate that government was the problem and that public services should be run like businesses is the point at which our current problems began.
I'm not a social scientist, but I understood that government services were not intended to be profitable, but adequate. The transition from the old model to the new has seen the advent of a a strict accounting approach taken at all businesses and government agencies, focusing only on top line revenues and bottom line profits. Service and trust are among the victims of this new system along with stagnant wages and high unemployment.
With the restructuring of our social order, it appears that our representatives have, in many cases, stopped representing their broader constituencies and appear to be sock puppets controlled by a few constituents with enough money and influence to ensure their next election. As a result, I think many, if not most people, feel that voting is a pointless exercise, which serves the interests of the few who now control our policy makers.
Keep up the great work and programming.
Dale Bertelson
US Citizen
Fortville, IN
- http://www.facebook.com/jerry.brunswick Jerry Brunswick
Bill please do several show on the topic of gerrymandering and uncontested districts. Until we get back to fair and balanced congressional and state legislative districts, we will never reform our dysfunctional politics – always electing extremists who have to appeal to their base. It just makes me so impatient when the media keeps harping on our partisan politics and fails to investigate one of the key root causes! (I think you did do one show a few years ago re: the number of uncontested congressional districts in Florida)…thanks for all you do…one of the last bastions of true journalism left.
- Janet Bloom
A Vital Answer To Our Dead End Culture
a reply to Bill Moyers' statement that we've "taken leave of our senses"
There is a vital answer to our dead end culture that has, as
Bill Moyer points out, "taken leave of its senses."
We can come to our senses by turning to the regenerative
level of imagination where the delightful, healing, transformative inner motion
pictures that move us are in play.
For instance, as I was waking this morning I was thinking once again about
how these images – now scientifically known as eidetic (eye-deht'-ic) images –
cast spells on us. Looking inside for evidence of this I instantly saw my
five-year-old self jumping up alongside my pit bull dog Jasmine to reach the
tug of war rope Daddy has whipped up in front of us and is dangling over us
with a huge beaming smile of deeply engaged delight on his face.
Instantly I feel the surging jump of joy in me delighting in clashing with Jasmine's muscular fur and shiny toenails. The sight of this image has me in a fountainous spell of muscular joy.
Would you like to join in that feeling?
Then Close your eyes, and see yourself in my shoes, and see what scene shows up for you. As you concentrate on each feature of your image one at a time, ask your body Where is this touching me? How is this moving me?
Does your image touch you and move you even just a little bit? Then you can see what I mean by coming to our senses through concentrating on an eidetic image and seeing exactly how it moves you.
Coming To Our Senses
We have, as Bill Moyers said, "taken leave of our senses" because we are being taught to overlook this level of imagination – the eideticlevel – which all of us can now enter into directly, and grasp clearly, by learning the basics of the new Image Psychology developed by Dr. Akhter Ahsen since the nineteen fifties. This new way of seeing and sensing exactly what's moving us and what can change us enables us to systematically explore the vast archive of living inner motion pictures that shape everything from our attention spans and moods to our performance, health and outlook.
Practicing eidetic imaging enables us to come to our senses so thoroughly that we can now make sense of much that was as clear as mud to us. As we do we resolve problems we thought we were stuck with, and see our way clear to more and more solutions, solutions that will serve generations ahead while regenerating healthy living in our time.
Moving my mind out of experiencing this image, and looking back at it, I see that jumping with Jasmine is doing me a great favor. It is stirring up in me the experience of an upbeat energy that is the perfect, spontaneous antidote to the state of mind I was in.
Such bipolarity is always at the ready to come into play at the eidetic level of imagination. It surfaces images that can counter and rescue us from difficult situations. In this instance I am countenancing the fact that a dear friend of recent years, a man in his fifties, is now facing a sentence of sixteen years to life as a result of an attempted crime committed under the influence of his "drug of choice."
I was realizing this morning that when I encountered Image Psychology over thirty years ago I chose to turn my attention towards the life I saw eidetic imaging would give me. Having been suicidal for around twenty-five years at that point, I immediately gave myself over to the life giving possibilities eidetic imaging kept presenting me with abundantly. I welcomed its landscapes of new hope.
It never occurred to me, until this morning, to realize that
someone could be so much more deeply crippled by fear and dread than I was then that he could not choose to engage in the uphill struggle for life, as I did,
but could only move towards escape. I have fought the flight in me so hard I
could not see it in him.
I started to see how I might tell my friend's children, whom I've never met, that he did not personally reject them in making the mistakes he made. I was wanting to make it real to them that something compelled him to turn away from engaging in the life work of loving and turn to the escape mode of drugs. I want them to see that it is not a choice anyone makes rationally or personally. A person who does drugs doesn't choose to do drugs so much as he or she acts out of a compulsion to move in that direction because he or she does not know how to lift a finger to spring free of that compulsion.
I would like to make this somewhat clear to them in case doing so would spare them some of the extensive difficulty of shaking yourself free from feeling and acting in accordance with the strictures of feeling rejected and/or abandoned by your parents. It has taken me a long time to see that my mother had no idea that her narcissistic blindness to me struck me like total body blows, or that she was oriented to communicating with her intoxicant more than with her children. She worked very hard at being a good mother. She did not see herself as rejecting me. She did, in fact, in so far as she was able, love me and my sister considerably. But what I call her awayness – the diversionary, schizzy aspect of her being – won out. It compelled her to drink, and my sister to join in that drinking, as I did too for a couple of decades. That awayness won out with my stepmother too, as it has won out with this man too, even while he was professing his love for others.
No matter how much I tried to engage him in getting in touch with the regenerative side of himself, he was never sufficiently moved to sustain this contact on his own by doing his homework between eidetic imaging sessions. Because of this he never got the benefit of the healing capabilities the eidetic imaging brings to life in us. Now he faces a fate worse than death; not to mention the sickening feelings his family and I are left with.
Oddly enough I felt relief hearing Bill Moyers say, at the end of his program with a couple whose child died in the Newtown massacre, that our culture has "taken leave of its senses." He then cited the facts that there have been 8 school shootings since Newtown, and 3800 shooting deaths in the US since that time. Hearing the truth stated straightforwardly brings relief.
Add to those totals the total killed in various wars during this time interval, as well as those killed in domestic violence, in automobile accidents, in prison, and in pollution and so on, and you begin to see the extent of the dead end culture we have on our hands. It's not just guns, or drugs. It's an appalling attitude that's holding sway over life on earth, preventing us from upholding our true vitality.
That we are in such a dreadful pass is not surprising to me because ever since I began studying Image Psychology I have seen that the way we are taught to think is geared to disease and destruction and devastation and blockage, not to problem solving and life supporting revitalization.
For instance, our health care system is disease centered, not health centered, despite the current outcropping of wellness centers and health food stores. And we're switching out of any interest in the true, potentially strengthening and transformative dramas of our inner lives into being obsessed with brain science, even though it lacks the answers our eidetic images have in store. The causes of schizophrenia, for instance, become dramatically clear through eidetic imaging.
Before And After
Now, every morning I wake up I can look forward to seeing and sensing some revivifying image come my way to show me the way. Before I learned eidetic imaging I had nothing but a swamp of want to look into, and the chronically futile search for some way out of pain and discomfort.
I lived in dread. Even at my best I was imprisoned in the images on my mind that cast spells of dread over me; images that paralyzed, stunted and interrupted my healthy impulses with swerves of dread so steep they capsized my tendril efforts.
Through practicing eidetic imaging nearly daily for over thirty years I have seen the living images that cast dreadful spells over me as clearly as archeologists see potsherds, so I can show you the scenes that kept getting me down. I do this not to rub your nose in my dirt, but, on the contrary, to show you that by getting in touch eidetically with what is getting you down, an eidetic imager gets in touch with that energy within him that enables him to rise above that trouble. Over and over again in my transformational writing you will see an image as perfectly pertinent as this
morning's jumping with Jasmine image arise to release in me the energy that has
the power to break the dismal spell I'm in and show me how to outgrow it.
I'm so glad that my consciousness has now reached such a clear, healthy, resilient level that the jumping with Jasmine image was at the ready to come to my rescue spontaneously this morning, without my bidding, whereas in years gone by I had only despair to wake up to.
I tell you of the bad and good spells my eidetic images cast on me from within in order to show you what sort of scenes get people down, and to show you that now, as a result of Image Psychology, each one of us can see that it is within our own power to shed our mantles of dread systematically, and thus free ourselves from imprisonment in the death culture on our minds.
The dead end culture we are living in is not just out there in the headlines or on the streets or in the movies. What is happening out there is a reflection of the death culture in the inner motion pictures on our minds that is ready to be outgrown. The image that showed me where my suicidal tendency came from came to show me out of that state, not bury me in it.
When we look into the new transformative understanding that Image Psychology puts us in touch with we release the regenerative sides of our consciousness that let us see our way clear of our down sides. The dead end culture we're living in is not true to our nature. It's just the worst side of our nature allowed to overrun us.
I am confident of what I have to say about eidetic imaging because I see it being progressively effective with my students as well as myself. It keeps reliably showing me further and further out from under the mantling of scenes that made me suffer from suicidal depression for more than a quarter century of my life. Among them were scenes of my mother driving me, as a little girl of three, to my knees under the kitchen table or under my bed. I see her standing shaking her pointing finger at me and chewing me out with munching grimaces. I couldn't move.
When my eidetic imaging practice released enough vitality in me I saw an older me heist myself up on the kitchen table and dance there to my father's admiration, until that furious mother chimed in with, "She's none of your business, she's mine!" and, in the image, took a big bite out of my behind.
That image showed me why my depressions were so intractable.
I was in double trouble. I could only go from the frying pan into the fire.
Then came the image that showed me the root of my suicidal tendency. Again, I see myself around age four, sitting at the kitchen table in my chair next to Daddy's. I am squirming to get down and out of my chair. I want to go down as deep as I can go because my parent's quarreling sounds to me like bullets whizzing over my head. The sinking feeling body response I have as imager seeing myself as this little girl squirming to get down and out of her chair tells me in no uncertain terms that this moment is when I fell more than half in love with death.
Those three scenes show you the essence of what turned my perfectly natural jump-with-Jasmine vitality into a protracted death wish. I didn't want to endure any more of my mother's narcissistic blindness to me, or her alcoholic furies, or her schizzy awayness, or the tension with which my father suppressed his joy and endured her instead of fending her off.
The piano teacher who came to our house weekly to give my sister and me piano lessons, said when she heard my mother was divorcing my father, "You have the best marriage in town." With that level of thinking prevailing it is no wonder it took me so long to lift the dread off me.
Our society has "taken leave of its senses" by dealing with life as if it is a matter of just words and generalities. It isn't. It is a matter of palpable, dramatically clear, highly particular actions and interactions that touch us and move us in specific and consequential ways that are quite often plain to see and thus easy to respond to appropriately.
Our eidetic images not only have the complete living record of those actions and interactions. They are also ready to unfurl any needed polar opposite images of those actions and interactions in order to surface and activate the needed regenerative energies that bring out within us the balance and equanimity we need.
This natural balance is not available to us through our usual, superficial, linear and semantic thinking that is not in sustained touch with the holographic common sense our bodies can make.
I did not wake up this morning having the intention to solve one particular problem. I was, in fact, trying to see my way clear through various aspects of the utter awfulness of my friend's current position in life, and the lack of effective support all around.
Then I came to the point of realizing point blank: I chose to fight for my
life, whereas he gravitated towards escape.
This distinction finally made it clear to me why he had not turned to imaging to use it for all he could readily see and sense it to be worth. I could only surmise that his life impulse was even more diminished and damaged than mine had been and I had been blind to this. I sensed that ultimately it may be that underneath it all he wanted away more than he wanted to live with.
If I could have recognized that sooner I could have realized, as one person put it, a that "he refused" my "help," or as another person put it, "he doesn't want help," and pulled out sooner, devoting my energies to helping others readier to receive my help. But one man's love when I was young and terribly disturbed enabled me to know true love and keep it alive without him for fifty years since his death. I hoped to be as helpful as this to my friend. It has been hard for me to grasp how powerless love or any humanity is in the face of drugs, as it is in the face of guns.
Other people more and less dimly had the sense to know this in this man. They hinted at it. They didn't want to recognize it any more than I did. I couldn't because I needed to believe he wanted help, because I knew I had vital help to offer. I couldn't see his refusal of help because it was a refusal of my raison d'être.
So now I have to turn my efforts more owards people who are ready for and wanting help as much as I did when I began practicing eidetic imaging. Unlike the therapists who say, "I didn't promise you a rose garden," I can promise eidetic imagers that they will come up with an image that is equal to my Jumping-With-Jasmine image, and then find many more such images where that one comes from, if they want to.
Each one of us is a vast archive of such vital, life and energy giving inner
motion pictures – eidetic images – stacking up in us. These images are not stuck, fixated, forever in one place, and fragmented and fading like memory images. These images are forward looking aiming to show and move us into a better future.
We can all find that we have them once we start looking for them.
Each eidetic image has a beneficent vitality in it that an mager can bring alive by concentrating on the image properly. This vitality is primed to show imagers exactly how ready they are to overcome problems they think of as insuperable.
When you befriend this level of your imagination you keep finding it at your service by surprise, as I did this morning when mine showed me jumping with Jasmine at a time when my mind was being drawn down the drain my friend got into. As far as I know, only this resilient level of our imagination has the power to counter our dead end culture.
I chose to live with this naturally helpful transformative level of imagination in my early forties. Within a few years my eidetic images showed me out of suicidal and manic depression. Later they showed me beyond schizziness and reluctance. They put me more and more in touch with my perfectly natural eagerness to be alive, an eagerness I had not been able to live as a child. As you can see here, from the jumping- with-Jasmine image, my eidetic images have the resurgent power in them that can bring that eagerness out in me even at my worst.
As far as I can see, that eagerness is the most regenerative force within all our imaginations. It puts us in touch with what Jesus meant when he said, "Unless ye become like little children ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Through practicing eidetic imaging each one of us sees how to reach
for that regeneracy within us even when our minds are hell bent, as you well
see throughout thepages of my Transformational Autobiography.
What is needed now is for each of us to realize that we can and must join together in reviving our child's appetite for life, for without it, each one of us keeps suffering our privations privately, in isolation, being powerless to outgrow our dead end culture.
Dear Mr. Moyers: I'm hoping my answer to your recent words in the accompanying article will prompt you to let me give you a more thoroughgoing introduction to the new eidetic way of seeing ourselves and each other. While it is conceptually as lucid as can be, the best way to grasp it at first is by experiencing it.
I believe this can be a tremendous help in turning the tide of drug consumption and
domestic violence by empowering people of all sorts to work individually and
together to bring out the true substance of themselves by systematically coming
to their senses and realizing their true resiliance.
Yours is the program that makes me feel a little at home. Thank you.
I do so hope you will contact me for further information so you can see how much this new vantage point can further your aims.
Background on Website: http://www.imagegrove.org.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Herman/100001010274735 James Herman
The fact that we hear the phrase "protect property values" so often just confirms that the housing market is both dysfunctional and irrational. While cars depreciate in value, a properly priced home that is kept up should only increase in value at most at the rate of inflation. All the people struggling against eviction would be better served by just walking away. You need to think about saving for retirement rather than flushing any more money down the 30-yr mortgage toilet. You should have the right to live in an affordable home. Housing is a human right. The trouble is affordable homes have been unjustly zoned out. That is an unconscionable violation against your constitutional inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is where the fight lies. This is what needs to be corrected and sooner rather than later.
End exclusionary zoning and there never will be another mortgage crisis again. End exclusionary zoning and you'll be able to buy a house as easily and cheaply as you buy a car. It's really that simple. The housing market is not free so homes are not accurately priced. I went from paying $3,720/yr in lot rent to a mobile home park to paying $662/yr in property taxes once I was allowed to place my singlewide on a lot and pay property taxes like everyone else. I lived at Little Valley Estates near 8 Mile & Middlebelt (near Detroit). I was paying $310/mo in lot rent for a 26 ft by 60 ft lot. That extrapolates to $8,656/acre/month. After I lost my job at 59 in Oct 2008 I just retired (didn't even apply for unemployment). I was able to retire because I paid off my singlewide in less than 2 yrs. So I didn't flush a lot of money down the 30-yr mortgage toilet. If I had borrowed say $100K at 5% and paid it back over 30 yrs then I would have had to pay back $193K. My lifetime income was only $699K.
I lived in apartments for 20 yrs before buying my singlewide in Aug of 1991. By the time I moved my singlewide in May 2009 I had paid over $55K in lot rent over 18 yrs. I estimate that I could've saved about $45K if I just would've been allowed to place my singlewide on a lot and pay property taxes just like everyone else. But Farmington Hills, MI says your home has to be at least 24 ft wide and conform to existing housing. My singlewide was only 14 ft wide. I would've had to move 167 miles further north if I wanted to stay in Mi. Instead I moved my singlewide 300 miles south to a warmer climate about 55 miles east of Cincinnati.
We have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In order to have life you need the necessities of life such as shelter. You should be free to choose that shelter. So the president is derelict in his duty to protect and defend the constitution. But he's just another Pontius Pilate politician. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent but when the crowd yelled 'Crucify Him' then that's what the crowd got. Everyone knows exclusionary zoning is wrong. I'd like the crowd, including Occupy etc, to stop supporting exclusionary zoning. Aren't you tired of being sheared of your wealth like sheep? At least I was able to move my home. I didn't have to leave it behind for someone to tear it down.
240,000 people left Detroit between 2000 and 2010. They left but the houses didn't. It would be a lot easier to vote with your feet if your house could be moved too. Building a singlewide is much less complicated than building a car. So Detroit or Flint could easily build a quality formaldehyde-free singlewide. A 30 footer would be about 360 sq ft. Need more room? Just buy two and connect them with a hallway. When baby comes along then add a third. When baby goes to college then his/her unit could go too as housing for life. Motor homes are very easy to move. So are travel trailers and all the other things you can see at an RV and camper show. Here's a link to my face book page where you can view pictures of my singlewide. As you will see, it's a neat little home. Just copy and paste it into your browser. All my photos are public. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.149213788455629.25303.100001010274735&type=3&l=e9e55b12ea
- Sadie
… I recommend an interview with author of "Sacred Economics" , Charles Eisenstein.
- Anonymous
Moyers is nothing but non-stop far left nonsense with no journalistic integrity. Disgusting.
- Dr. Bob Ross
Bill, much of what is wrong in our country is discussed but little is done to actually improve it. At the core is the the corporate charter: from that document flows all evil. And until we get control of the corporate chartering process and actually change that document, we will continue to see our lives, our country, our environment, and our planet destroyed — for profit. I would suggest you have as a regular feature on your broadcasts some repeated message and method of how this could be achieved. You can easily fill you shows with ways that we're being screwed but unless the message of corporate chartering reform is repeated, your audience's ideas of how to improve our situation will remain fragmented and impotent. Bottom line: CASTRATE THE BASTARDS!
- Albert Martin
Hi Bill Please do a interview with Monolithic Domes !! Check them out at monolithic.com
- Mari
Help! How do I send a movie idea to inspire CITIZENSHIP to an activist producer? Can't find contact information. DUH ? Rob Reiner ? George Cloony? etc. firstname.lastname@example.com
- Kathleen Horne
Dear Mr. Moyers, I had to express my deepest gratitude to you for your remarkable interview with Tim DeChristopher. Despite being sentenced to prison to fight an injustice, he did not end up bitter or a danger to society, but is filled with hope and grace. His view on ecological justice might finally change the political dynamic. How ironic that the Sierra Club and not the NRDC or the EDF could be the catalyst for that change.
A powerful combination and a very interesting interview subject could be if Mr. DeChristopher teamed up with a veteran's sustainable farming enterprise that Dylan Ratigan, formerly of MSNBC, is working on in order to help veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq create businesses in all fifty states to challenge the current corporate farm practice of food for profits. On a recent appearance on ABC's The View, Mr. Ratigan seems to be filled with bliss since becoming involved with this effort. Bringing these forces together could galvanize this movement on how we use our land and protect our environment.
Best wishes for your continued powerful and thought-provoking dialogue. You are the primary reason that my family supports PBS.
- Anndm
You show KCET broadcasting your show on Friday nights at 8 PST, but they have not done so for at least the last 2 weeks.
- Kami
After watching the Sherman Alexie interview, I looked at your "Take Action" section hoping to support the cause of eliciting an apology from the United States Government to the Native Americans. Please include this vital cause in your "Take Action" section so the healing of the Native Americans may begin.
Would you consider a program about Monsanto, Bayer, SynGen and all the other corporations that are trying to push a monopoly of their GMO products onto the world? I just read that Monsanto dropped its plan to introduce GMO products in Europe due to "continuing strong opposition by the Europeans and lack of interest by European farmers" — at least Europe has some sense.
These corporations need to be brought to their knees (and btw: Obama recently signed the Monsanto Protection Act. Go figure). We aren't even allowed to know what's in the food we eat, and GMO products are making us ill. This is a story that needs to be told. Please.
Mr Moyers,
Would you consider doing a show about a Schenectady NY Veteran For Peace who is fasting in solidarity with the Guantanamo prisoners? Please look at the following article from our local paper – thank you. Terri Roben, Glenville, NY
Sharon Springs man on hunger strike in solidarity with Guantanamo detainees
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
By John Enger (Contact)
Gazette Reporter
Elliott Adams scoops out a handful of oats from the 50 pound sack on his porch. He's been on hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay since mid May, eating only a handful of oats each day.
SHARON SPRINGS — Elliott Adams wasn't always so skinny.
Three weeks ago, the Sharon Springs resident and past Veterans For Peace president had a sturdy 170-pound frame, but that was before he stopped eating.
"You got to do what you got to do," he said, moving slowly through his house Monday afternoon.
Adams is on hunger strike in solidarity with the suspected terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay. He's hoping his actions will help sway the American public so strongly against the prison that the U.S. government will finally shut it down.
More than 100 Guantanamo prisoners have been on hunger strikes for months with a similar goal in mind, but even after just 18 days, Adams showed clear signs of starvation.
A button-down shirt and worn work pants hung slack around his body, the shape of his skull starting to make itself visible through his skin.
"I look at my legs and I think, 'Whose legs are those?'" he said.
In sentences slurred by a brain starved of calories, he laid out key components of his cause. No single event prompted the start of his hunger strike, but rather a critical mass of horrific news from the prison.
"What's going on is against international law," he said. "It's against U.S. law. It's against common law and it's against everything we like to believe this country stands for."
He went on to say that many of the prisoners were never actually terrorists and have been cleared for transfer, "but there they still sit, with no proof against them, unable to see their lawyers without going through invasive searches designed to violate their religious beliefs."
He means to bring attention to the cause with his own and the fasts of fellow activists Brian Willson and Diane Willson in Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C., respectively. The problem is, hunger strikes work only with publicity and getting attention is taking longer than he thought.
"Right now we don't have the communication networks to really reach critical mass with the American people," he said.
At his current rate of losing a pound and a half a day — hitting 149 pounds Monday morning — he said he'd "die before anything happened with Guantanamo."
Staying alive
In order to stay alive until people start to notice, certain precautions are necessary.
In the small kitchen at the back of his house he readied one of his daily meals, filling an old pop bottle with water and a splash of Pedialyte, a cocktail of electrolytes designed to keep infants hydrated through bouts of diarrhea.
"I have to drink a gallon of water a day," he said. "The process of breaking down my muscles for fuel creates certain chemicals which could ruin my kidneys. I have to wash them out."
He sipped the concoction, which looked like apple juice or flat beer.
About a week ago, he added a daily half-cup of oatmeal to the usual water regiment to lengthen the fast.
Even with the oatmeal, his health could be permanently ruined by the fast. Worries include brain damage, kidney and general organ degradation and heart failure.
"Most of the people who love me are really mad at me," he said.
His wife, Ann, is one of the few still supportive. She's known locally as Saint Ann, largely for sticking with Adams through 40 years of activism.
"I can adapt well," she said in passing.
Adams himself didn't seem all that concerned about his own hunger or the possibility his heart might stop. His is a specific blend of national and personal conviction.
Like most Americans, he sees the country as a place of justice and morality, but unlike most Americans who still enjoy the regular cheeseburger, Adams feels like he has a price to pay.
Nearly 50 years ago, he was a paratrooper in Vietnam, then Japan and Korea.
"I went to war because I thought it was right at the time," he said, "but it was wrong. What I did was wrong. I have amends to make."
Those amends, he figures, involve stopping wars and closing down Guantanamo.
Realistically, his body will give out long before any prisoners are released. He plans to hold to his hunger strike until he feels enough Americans care enough to start a self-sustaining movement.
"The government is afraid of losing votes," he said. "If everyone in this country wanted the prison shut down, it would be, regardless of any law."
As his strike continues, Adams said his progress will eventually be posted on closeguantanamo.org.
- James Blakeley
You have done a good job presenting information on the economy etc. I would like to see some discussion that the one percent or at least some of it is gaming the whole system. It seem to me that Obama was selected to run because of his electability. Based on what he said when he first ran, it was highly likely he would win. He was the first black, he said all th right things to capture a broad constituency, and he was a great orator, etc. However, during his first two years, when he had both houses of congress, he did little except pass a health care bill, which the drug companies and the insurance companies a "free ride". Since then, he has little except "talk the talk" which was necessary to show those who elected them that he was supporting them. In reality, he knew full well what the outcome would be. More recently, he has been more direct going around Congress to achieve his goals which coincide with those of his handlers, the one percent. It's much easier than going public and risking the seats of compatriots. Even so, he still has supporters whom he so adeptly conned. I could go on and on, but you know what I'm getting at.
- Javaid Aslam
Dear Bill,
With a great drive and passion, I would like to ask you to start the following project:
Let's "integrate" the expertise of your distinguished guests (and possibly others too) to bring a long lasting reformation reformation to the whole world.
Yes I can be a volunteer/participant for facilitating the logistics.
No, I do not have much of ideas at this point, just a vision. But with your support we can develop it further.
Thank you,
- Javaid Aslam
Very true, indeed. But this just means that there is even greater need for the public participation.
- Tammy Reiss
Dear Mr. Moyer,
Please consider interviewing Dr. Anthoney Ingraffea a Cornell University professor that has taken on climate change head by writing a paper covering only facts on how Hydrofracking is speeding up climate change and how renewable energy needs to be implemented ASAP before our civilization start down a road of self distruction devised by the fossil fuel industry.
The paper is a map to our salvation and I know other people would want to hear his research that some of the brightest minds have written and he has been giving lectures to educate the public.
- Jerome Irwin
I recdently penned an op-ed piece on Edward Snowden's actions. It reads:
The plethora of personal
attacks being written about Edward Snowden, such as those in the New York Times
by David Brooks, Richard Cohen and Walter Pincus, as well as others written by
the likes of Matt Miller in the Washington Post and Jeffrey Toobin in the New
Yorker, are pathetic testaments to the time-worn adage "If you can't kill
the message then kill the messenger." But what is the real message that
some would like to see quashed, and who are the real messengers who need to be
It's an insult to one's
intelligence to have to read one cheap-shot character assassination after another
against Snowden that attempts to pitch the premise that for any society to
function well it cannot tolerate those like Snowden because it must, above all,
first depend upon a basic level of trust, cooperation, respect for institutions
and deference to common procedures.
OMG! What a laugh if it
wasn't so sad! That's a two-way street, isn't it? But when has the U.S.
government ever sought to likewise build trust among its citizenry by telling
the truth about anything or shown due respect for its own institutions by making
them do what they were originally intended to do?
The deluge of platitudes in
the mainstream media about what is legal, illegal, criminal or patriotic
behavior seems more like propaganda being uttered by some old communist hack or
KGB/Stasi mouthpiece back in their day against whatever "traitorous
behavior". However, where today in the mass media can one find anything
other than more such treasonous propaganda and witch hunt talk? How many times
does the U.S. Government's own Justice Department, CIA, FBI, DIA, NSA or Pentagon
create one leak after another whenever it suits their devious purposes?
Snowden betrayed the
privacy of us all by his actions. Or did he? What privacy did he betray that hasn't
already been betrayed, thousands of times over, by the U.S. government itself?
How are we not being daily betrayed if the U.S. government already is
aggressively violating not only its own sacred Bill of Rights &
Constitution but international law to the point that the entire world now is being
subjected to an on-going massive "Cyber-Digital Blackwater"
Perhaps what Edward Snowden
has succinctly revealed is that the U.S. government is nothing more than a
rogue government made up of a cabal of corporations who are not inside the
government because THEY ARE THE GOVERNMENT: its Executive, Legislative, Judicial
branches of government and courtier journalists mere lackeys of these corporate
The real "Prism" the
mainstream press is using to criticize Edward Snowden isn't a prism at all but
rather a hopelessly shattered mirror-image glaring back at what it hates to see
in itself. So if there is any killing of the messengers to be done, the target
shouldn't be Snowden but all those who have been willingly bought out and
silently follow the dictums of whatever complicit corporate-run government. In
the end, I Am Edward Snowden, You Are Edward Snowden, We All Are Edward
Jerome Irwin,
- St Orton
I have a proposal; perhaps the gun safety activists should appeal to the 18-20 year old's for support? They are legal, (voting) adults. Address the fact that they are legal adults being subjected to age discrimination, regarding a legal drinking age restriction. Remind them that the U.S. does not have a federal law for a drinking age – only state law's. Or, should the legal adult, voting, going to war, etc. age be raised to 21? It is not constitutional to have it both ways. That's why it always has to be a state law – – remember? I'm surprised all groups don't appeal for their support. That's quite a swath of the population that has a potential voice, currently. Also, for even more support, the businessmen of college town taverns and clubs would once again be able to service these 'stimulate the economy' forgotten potential customers. Question: Has anyone gone to their homecoming(s), and noticed the absence of taverns and clubs that used to have Thursday/Friday night lines to get in "going around the block'? Gone and out of business are places that had been there in the 50's, 60's, and 70's and prior.
These are three issues that would deeply affect this country. The Gun Safety activists seem to need more voices, especially young voices, some planning to have children.
This also supports the idea of bringing back Civics classes. Although, would those with power really want that?
- Walt
Obama care & Voter Registration
Dear Bill
Why not issue the 20-30 million new healthcare recipients a new voluntary voter photo ID card that could be used in Federal elections & work to also get states to accept it.
In addition, the voluntary ID system could be used for other non-register voters in voter suppression states. The entire process would be voluntary & without cost.
This could happen in the next 2-4 years and put 20-30 million new voters in the system. Almost 2-3 times the immigration numbers & a lot quicker than 13 years
- Helen Fernety
PROCESSED FOODS & POVERTY – more to this story
Dear Bill,
As always I found your show insight today, June
23, thank you. This week's show centered around ALEC. But one point made I think was not
correct regarding poor families only being able to afford processed foods. I
have lived on a limited income for a long period in the very recent past. When
I dropped process foods we saved money and we eat much healthier. I think there
is a story here that Michael Obama "gets" and is trying to open poor
mother's to. Processed food TV ads reflect this. They no longer have white
mom's as their stars. Schools and mother's don't teach Home EC topics any
longer such as basic meal planning and cooking. Fast cheap food is not only the
way America's poor eat it's building a population that will have long term
health issues that either our nation or their families can afford. Please
consider doing a deep dive into this issue to education people on how complex
this issue is.
– Thank you
Helen, Little Rock AR
- Anonymous
Ditto for Helen below. I live on frozen beans, rice, veggies, mushrooms, VERY LITTLE meat (hoping to lose that completely here soon) and carrot juice/superfood juice. My health is way up. I get my veggies at a roadside stand that sells local produce. The movie "At Any Price" got me off corn chips and anything else made with corn. I'm gluten free so – there goes a whole bunch of carcinogens and poisonous additives.
And I am starting to figure out how to grow veggies myself. Poor people – and everyone else too – need education about how bad processed food actually is for you. It isn't freaking real. What they hell is Guar Gum, Xanthum Gum, Monosodium Glutamate, Glycoglycerol, et al.? They are IN THERE and people are EATING THEM. Yick.
- Kathryn McKenzie
Your last week's program has come to me even clearer from a roundtable on Wisconsin Eye about bail bondsman and the WI state budget that has gone to governor Walker, Walker vetoed this provision 2 years ago. It's back brought there by ALEC according to one of the panelists– the WI sheriff's assoc., the county law clerks, the assoc. of criminal attorneys and now the Republican attorney general are all against this provision. One of the panelists stated that this was a solution in search of a problem. Wi eye link:
- Jane Kentner
Please do a show about how Iceland recover democratically from its economic crisis, a story never told here. I just read about it in "The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills" by David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu.
- PBSBear
Has any one examined the timeline of arrival for IRS requests for exemption over the last ten years? Perhaps the conservative organizations overwhelmed the progressive thus creating the IRS apparent rate of attention that resulted in congressional investigation of the IRS program…
- Betty Robbins
Mr. Moyers,
You are the most trusted presence in TV for me. You're a global voice for humanitarian causes and for justice. Thank you for your life long mission and ministry.
Please, when you have a program on hunger, address the fact that many people in the US have no access to nutrients due to city planning that has put inner state highways in locations that block the poor from access to all but quick stops. Even in OK City, OK, social workers who tried to cross inner state systems to reach grocery stores couldn't. They were replicating conditions for the poor who don't have autos.
Unless citizens in urban areas can drive to grocery story that sell healthy foods, they are doomed to purchase poor food choices at quick stops for their children and themselves.
Betty Robbins, Ph.D.
- Christi
Mr Moyers,
I watched your program on hunger . I could not watch all of it. I possess a masters degree. My daughter is in school for nursing, she has a beautiful son who is the center of life for us. She is on food stamps and runs out of food each and every month. She is also a type one diabetic, from age 9. My parents were not rich. My dad was a truck driver and mom stayed at home. We had many nights of soup for dinner, but we had food. I was not aware of the level of unconscious anger I possess because my daughter is in poverty after being raised in a middle class home. She has done nothing wrong and yet , she does not have the income to afford the proper healthy food !
- Walter Vaughan
I, too, was told I could buy out my home for $40, 000, while houses are selling on my street for $16, 000. The bank, Midfirst bank, had no motivation to work with me. The federal gov is footing the bill, and I am on the street in 3 wks. Midland mortage sent a number of people to eviction court while protecting the rights of the "investors".
- Beverly L
Mr. Moyers,
I watched your recent show "Surviving the New Economy" and the latest installment of "Two Families." Both shows made me sick at heart and represented, for me, what is wrong with the priorities of the powerbrokers in this country. The analysts on the former show, I feel, put their fingers on the problem–that our society is not being run by those motivated to serve the "common good."
I personally would like to know how such prominent conservative figures as John Boehner respond specifically to the problems presented by the people in "Two Families."
I have been a fan of yours for decades. Keep up your excellent work!
- P.J. McLaughlan
Regarding the 21st century Glass-Steagall Act or as I'd like to see it
Regulation of the Greed Impulse, Act
Too much has been taken from We the People or more accurately, too much has been acquiesce by the eighty percent of the population that does not (and can not) be directly and actively involved with regular and effective participation in political objectives that, as part of the larger group, favor us. We are busily involved daily managing our own lives and mandated trust to others guard the greater good for the lot of us. We have been sorely disappointed.
The "good" (good being a relative word in politics and imparting no moral attribute) politicians that represent a broader scope of their constituents are outnumbered by the lobby groups focused on the vastly narrower interests of older establishments, the moneyed and the "corporate person". Democratic expression has always been a question of money and those with money will always have more influence of that expression. They may not always gain a political victory (the 2012 presidential election) but the greater capital resources of the fewer status quo will, with greater frequency prevail. I consider this demoralizing unequal force a most important reason for keeping many citizens from participating in, and disconnecting us from, wielding a fairer share of power in decisions that directly affect our lives.
Life may not be fair but politics surely can be made fairer with policies (enforced rules) making participation and representation in political arenas more equal for all that will be involved. Good rules of a game provide fair consequences should any participant not follow them. They are mutually understood and agreed to, and are rightly, the fair thing to do.
Unfair to me, in both idea and person (and I'd like to think many other citizens) are the machinations of political gaming (gerrymandering or filibusters or "boiler room" lobbyists conjuring debatable "facts" and disinformation to persuade "white hat" citizens to endorse the political objectives of their clients (British Petroleum, Ohio Bell, Citicorp, Monsanto, Enron, etc). The game is inherently unfair because the narrow political objectives of these entities wield a greater leverage and more "democratic" representation for their desired goal than that of John & Jane Q. Public's. Let anyone deny the current degraded situation of political reality and I will claim they are not being forthright.
True democracy (expression through inclusive debate) has been captured. It is not held hostage but now owned and controlled by relatively few interests. If the 21st century Glass-Steagall Act does not pass (or passes in some toothless ineffective form) then what I have expressed in the above paragraphs will confirm my claim that democracy has been hijacked and We the People have been severed from any inclusive and fair debate on those policies that govern and favor us.
For any that care read chapter two "Well-kept Secrets" from Wiliam Greiders book "Who will tell the People". It is an informative description of the S&L Bailout and a harbinger of what has happened during the last couple decades and is now happening.
Patrick McLaughlin
- steve
Did I hear correctly? This show is going OUT OF PRODUCTION???? I hope not!
- Richard B.
Each week after watching the interviews, I wonder if it will
take anything less than revolution to stop the Corporate American Empire. The brainwashing of the American people appears to be almost complete? Black is white. Peace is a never-ending war. Patriotism in America is approaching fascism. Where are the mass protests that actually shut Washington down? Seniors and unemployed debt-ridden students should be leading the way. Seniors did it in the 60's and 70's, and for the sake of the country, "we the people" must do it again. Washington is: OUT OF CONTROL.
- Frances Feeney
Dear Bill Moyer, First, Thanks so much for your programs which always leave me a bit upset and the need to help. Sundays July 21st with Baldemar Velasquez hit me like a ton of bricks. How in a country so rich can we have the conditions that were pictured on Sunday's program of the tobacco farmworkers? I was in tears watching and still cannot keep from crying remembering it. Sooooooo, I want to send a large check and need to know where to send it. I do not like to use my card for sending this amount. Thank you. Frances Feeney.
- roller coaster
please send me some if you have a bit extra
- David Whittaker
I'm sure you folks get this video recommended constantly, but it reminds me of the kind of information you promote well. It is also a theme on Moyers and Company that the people who are best placed to change the system are also the best placed to profit from the status quo, not really news. The rich and powerful don't have to break laws, they write them and rewrite them to suit their needs, all legal, no need to ask about morality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcGh1Dex4Yo
- Brad Spencer
Dear Bill Moyers: My guess is that eventually you will have Reza Aslan on as a guest. I think some good questions would be to ask him how he compares his analysis with that of Reimarus, of Jefferson, and of Albert Schweitzer. (Schweitzer concluded it wasn't practical to engage on the quest, changed careers, and became the famous physician he was in Africa. When he wrote his book just a shade over 100 years ago he was an academic theologian.) Ask if any of his conclusions is remarkably beyond what previous authors, whim he has researched, have thought. Perhaps this will also involve the Quelle theory – which also goes back over 100 years. (I'll check out the articles on the four gospels in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica and see if any questions leap out from that. This is not a new topic, nor is analysis of the content of the Bible a new topic.)
- Ann J Wyly
My sentiments, exactly! It's time for us to start making some serious
demands. Here's one particular interest that I believe deserves
immediate attention, in the form of a furious public rebellion:
Subsidies,especially those awarded to energy and agricultural industries. These very companies realize billions in NET profits (e.g. profits, after
having paid many of their executives outrageous compensation packages.
This entire system of financial "arrangements" (i.e. deals) is neither
sustainable nor good for the future of America. Furthermore, many of
the subsidies afforded are going to corporations that are involved in
the most egregious violations of our environmental protection laws. Why
should we, the American people, continue to feed these "beasts"?
There ought to be contingencies attached to all subsidies, regardless of
business sector. For instance, the executives of any company/corporation
receiving taxpayer subsidies should be limited to reasonable amounts of
compensation,and reasonable tax benefits, such as deductions and credits, (perhaps based on the average US citizen's taxable income/deductions) in order for their companies to receive any subsidies. They should not be able to write off, or not pay income/payroll taxes on "non-wage compensation" they receive as part of their overall compensation packages. Companies that receive taxpayer subsidies should not be permitted to write-off exorbitant dividends they pay their Preferred Stockholders, most of whom likely have large vested interests in these very companies. Any such dividend write-offs should be limited to the same amount (as a percentage of their stock ownership) as that of Common Stock owners. These companies/corporations likely would not need any subsidies at all if all of the corporate tax loopholes were closed. Why should American citizens enable the executives working for these companies toget wealthier and wealthier indirectly via taxpayer subsidies? In my mind, it is utter nonsense.
In addition, any company that engages in the use of offshore
investments/corporations to siphon-off profits as a means of evading
paying their fair share of taxes should be strictly banned from
receiving subsidies and special tax advantages of any kind. They should
be the first to realize any cutbacks designed to help reduce our
deficits. Every American corporation (along with its executives) that
receives any advantage at the expense of taxpayers, should be required
to become completely transparent with regard to certain financial
transactions — especially with regard to subsidies, lobbyist
activities, executive compensation and benefits (tangible and
non-tangible) and offshore activities. They should be restricted, by
every possible legal means, from gaining (whether from tax loopholes or unethical legislators) at the expense of the remainder of the American community. (Pin their subsidies and tax breaks on these requirements!) Level the playing field. Until We the People rise up against our elected officials in a meaningful and poignant way, nothing will change . . . I believe it truly is up to us to make the demands.
- David
How about the public employee unions, bill????
Bill, this may be in the wrong box, but so goes it.
As much as I admire most of your coverage and rigor, I seriously doubt that
you have the journalist guts to take on the public employee unions around the country.
I hope I am wrong, but I fear that you fear taking on any entity with the word "union" above it.
You of course will offend many people. I told a BART worker in Oakland handing out pro-union propaganda, addressing the possible BART strike, that the salaries she and he cohorts make border on the obscene. She said, "but some of us only get $40,000 a year." And, oh, should I have shed tears there? I don't think I ever made that much. Think Detroit. Think California, and all the other government entities in collusion with politicians for vote who have raped the tax coffers.
Will you ever take this issue on, Bill?
I hope so.
- Molly C
Dear Bill Moyers – Your program on hunger caused me to tear up. Usually your programs stir frustration at the the inequality and injustice exposed. Your ability to bring attention to issues mainstream media ignores is laudable. Thank you.
- Liberal tax accountant
Dear Bill Moyers: I'm listening to the show with Richard Wolff on capitalism etc., and I think it's a great show. I want to take issue with one statistic I just heard (and which I believe I've heard on your show before)–the "increase" in social security tax this year. That tax has sat at 6.2% since 1990, and the two-year reduction to 4.2% in 2011-2012 was done nominally to temporarily boost consumer spending. (As an aside, I'd also mention that any economist worth his salt knows that the 6.2% "paid by the employer" is really paid by the employee also, so economically the "increase" is more accurately described as going from 10.4% to 12.4%.) In any case, it's not fair to describe the expiration of the two year temporary social security tax reduction as a huge tax increase. Perhaps it'd be wiser to focus on the overall (say, social security plus medicare plus income) taxation of lower income workers compared to higher income workers. Thank you for a great program.
- Mature Independent in Dallas
Richard Wolff and "Taming Capitalism Running Wild" was A-L-M-O-S-T a perfect program. He built a beautiful, articulate case. Just when he had us on the edge of our chairs, ready for the punch line for this HUGE systemic crisis, you cut him off and ended the program. I will never allow you to do that to me again.
- Jerry
Hello from Afghanistan – when I watch you there is always one thing missing that makes me scratch my head. You never have any mention of the fact that the vast majority of the so-called 1% folks are rich elitist liberals. See who President Obama hangs out with. He gets more votes and more cash. On the GOP side it is K-Street, lobby and get special favors for your interests. DeTocqueville talked about this over 150 years ago. I think your diagnosis is okay, but the solution is to find a way to cut off "crony capitalism" and runaway entitlement spending that is bankrupting our country. We can have an honest discussion on the level of government that is appropriate to create the atmosphere for character-driven captialism to flourish, but I think the facts show that when big business gets in bed with big government we are in trouble. There is no way to keep paying these huge bills. If these rich 1% folks are upset about their taxes being so low, why not voluntarily stop doing itemized deductions? And what about the 47 million on foodstamps and the close to 50 million who pay no income taxes? Things are upside down. Time for a good discussion. Europe is a bad model becuase of delining demographics. Take care. Focus on the hypocrisy of "limosine liberalism" as well as capitalism as a whole.
- Diane
I would love to see that interview and to see Charles Eisenstein's ideas reach a wider audience.
- 24b4Jeff
I just saw the rerun of the Richard Wolff conversation, and wonder why neither of you has referenced the work of Sheldon Wolin (do a Wikipedia search on "Inverted Totalitarianism "). His work is very relevant to developing an understanding not only of the behavior of the reactionary capitalists but also of the general public response of apathy and fear.
I say "reactionary capitalism" above because not all capitalists are reactionaries. Take Jeremy Grantham, for example.
- richard
a question for mr. wolff when he comes on in the future. do you think simplicity of regulation is better than more complex regulation. it seems to me that it is harder to deceive people when the laws are simple. one way to look at this is how much physical paper has been produced after the glass-steagall act in regulations and how well it has worked. I think the answers would be a whole lot and not very well respectively. just the legal concept of you have to be honest with the value of your assets and liabilities, and if you are not, you go to jail. also if bankers want to take risk, that is fine, just don't do it with other people's money and don't look for help if it goes south. goldman sachs, the grand daddy of investment banks had their own skin in the game not long ago at all. should we return to this way of doing business. it also seems to me this might work politically as both parties could agree on less regulation to get the ball rolling.
- Jim Newins Sr.
Mr. Moyers have you ever done a show on the Social Security mess. I would like to know just how they come up with the yearly COLA. This year it was 1.7%. Which means together my wife and I got a combined increase of $40.00. At this rate we can't keep pace with inflation, we keep slipping behind. I would appreciate your comments on this as you are a person I trust to look out for the poor and diminishing middle class.
- John Rodrigue
I am concerned about an article that appeared in the Tuesday edition of the NY Times regarding the documentary "Citizen Koch" and the WNET affiliate in New York refusing to air it. Do you think that the President of WNET, Neal Shapiro had anything to do with preventing this important work from being aired? I know that the influence of big donor money on elections is a topic that is important to you and that you are a straight shooter, so any input on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
John Rodrigue
- fargo james
I am so grateful for your show! I hate to miss a moment of your hour! I try to support your program in all cities where I work. I wish you were on the .2 PBS channels when you're not on the host channel(fundraising events knock off your program with no repeat or way to track down a current program). In any event, keep up the good work! I salute you for raising the bar on the return to ethical journalism! Bravo! and KUDOS!
- ktalkwilson
Hope you read this one! Thanks so much for being one of the best modern voices in America!!! Dr. Richard Wolff so clearly describes the USA capitalistic fiasco. One quote leaps out at 37 min mark: "This is a capitalism that has lost a sense of its social conditions…SOCIAL LIMITS"
He hits the nail on the head of what is the most appalling feature of the US economic structure today: the amorality of the rich. He so kindly weaves around chastising them by saying they are just doing what the capitalistic dogma demands of them, but this excuses them from the existence of any sense of human morality: to be so "extra absorbed/obsessed" in the capitalistic endeavor of amassing (hoarding) a wealth they cannot possibly, personally use, while millions actually suffer severely. This steps beyond, beyond the bounds.
I truly thank him for explaining exactly why I have had the same assessment, but wasn't able to without his information and expertise.
I am an ex-patriot living outside the U.S. because when Reagan was elected president and the intellectual,social, cultural climate of the U.S. changed for some kind of sleepwalking status quo, I could no longer stand living there. The 2011 Wall St. protest and subsequent protests around the U.S., have been the first glimmers of an awakening spirit that has so sadly been dormant for so many years!
When will U.S. citizens stop allowing the rich power mongers dictate what is correct intellectually, socially, spiritually, and economically, and stop adhering to the stigmas so successfully attached to the words: communism, socialism, and many other currently unacceptable ideologies, that have created the homogenized and deadly culture we are subjected to today?
- clockman
Think you should wake up and realize this country is not a democracy if so please quote for me the article or amendment of our constitution that states so. Sorry to say you will not find one it does not exist. Article 4 section 4 of our constitution which has never changed guarantees to each and every state in this union a republican form of government does not sound like a democracy to me. Wake up tell the people of this country the truth. You will not find the words democrat or democracy not one time in the entirety of our constitution therefore this country cannot possibly be a democracy. Our government has brainwashed the people in this country for so long they actually believe we are a democracy. We must force our government to destroy the partyism in our government it is destroying our government itself and everything this country stands for. We are not a government of the republicans for the republicans by the republicans nor a government of the democrats for the democrats by the democrats but our constitution says we are a unified government of the people for the people by the people and we must force our government to end the partyism and return our government to a unified government of the people for the people by the people. We must destroy both parties before they totally destroy our government and we the people ourselves. There is a solution for our tax problem in this country also. It was given to us by the farmers of our constitution themselves. You will find it in the very first article of our constitution read it for yourself. If our government would enact that tax we would not need any other tax illegally imposed upon us. There would be no tax loop holes for the rich or big corporations. Every tax imposed upon the people of this country does more than any other thing to destroy the economy of this country. If this tax were inacted our government could do away with the IRS in its entirety the money saved on unneeded gun toting tax collectors and the IRS itself would end our deficit in less than 5 years. Please sit down and read the constitution and understand your constitutional rights and demand your government obey them. Our government has become the most decietful and corrupt government in the world and we must force them to end it.
- Somewhat Jaded
I suggest a "Congressional Project," an idea generated by a comment made by one of your guests, in which you host dinners between the most diametrically opposed members of both parties and try to find common ground which could break the deadlock and in which they are forced to humanize rather than demonize the other.
- Lightengine
Here is the really big problem that overshadows anything like Sandy Hook
and yet no one wants to talk about it because we are afraid of a
politically incorrect controversy. A subculture of young black males
amounts to only a fraction of the 13% of the population that are black
and yet commits 50% of the murders in this country. The young black male
murder rate without guns is higher than the non-black murder rate with
guns. The majority of murders are the result of arguments. We owe it to
blacks to help save over 5000 black victims every year by recognizing
and counteracting the predominantly fatherless and feral "gangsta
culture" that is terrorizing black neighborhoods.
- Wilvirginia
Mark Leibovich's book, along with your stinging end-of-program coments, was
right on! Thank you for sharing the truth!
- Dave
Purpose dismays the pilot.
I had purpose. My
friends had motives.
I asked my friend to be a friend… he declined.
I asked my other friend to be a friend… he laughed.
I asked another person to think of being a friend… he laughed.
I asked the last person to be a friend… she divorced.
- moderator
Hi Henry,
The best way to get a proper answer to your question is to use our "contact us" page and hopefully someone will be able to help you!
Sean @ Moyers
- B Slater
If the tea party Republicans succeed in shutting down the government or defaulting on our bills, would that not weaken our national security? Isn't that a terrorist goal? Would they then be considered terrorists and subject to impeachment and removal from office? Or at the very least be considered extortionists? I find their actions wholly unamerican since they have vowed from day one to undermine this administration. I have never seen anything like this in all my 66 years!
- Peter Der
The Debt Ceiling Act is the Republicans' emperor's new clothes. The government shutdown can easily be avoided. WHY?
(1) The Debt Ceiling Act is not part of the Constitution.
(2) Any new law passed by Congress (that also passes constituional mustard) TRUMPS the Debt Ceiling Act when there are conflicts. A later law represents the latest will of the People and overrides any older law in conflict.
Thus, the President may just borrow without any further approval from Congress on any budget item already approved by Congress.
Bill, I need your help in getting this knowledge to the President. You have contacts. I have already tried. A shutdown will hurt the poor and middle class most. Please get through the President's gatekeepers.
- Michael Taub
Bill, We are working on the New Economy in Vermont! Help us spread the word please:
- Michael Taub
Like us on Facebook:
- Michael Taub
Come to our concert! I'll buy your ticket!
- David Berardi
Dear Mr. Moyer,
At the end of your program on Wendell Berry you discussed the congressional debacle on Obamacare and i agree with your views on politics but cannot shake the feeling that the health industry is reacting by penalizing retirees as a means to some shady end. I elected to join Blue Cross Blue Shield HMO with the idea to obtain a more comprehensive coverage for a monthly fee which from time to time is increased usually in percentages exceeding the federally indexed cost of living , but in the past has never reached the percentage by which it will go up beginning 2014. In my case: the monthly fee changes from $41.00 to $66.00, maximum out-of -pocket expenses increases from $4000.00 to $ 6700.00 and so on with other services. I cannot be faulted for thinking that these increases in excess of 50% percent cannot be the result of normal inflation but that they are related to the implementation of Obamacare. Whether the increases are driven by the economics of funding Obamacare or they provide the HMO with the opportunity to enable them without a real reason is not clear given the widespread confusion about this new plan and its funding. Obamacare might be an overdue plan for a first world nation but does the cost have to be passed on to us retirees? We live on fixed income and most of it is for basic living expenses and just so you understand what we face i quote the cost of two food items: a 101 oz can of of olive oil that sold 10 years ago for $8.00 is now 28.00, a braguette (bread) that sold for $0.75 to $i.00 is $ 3.00. Could your program the touch on the rationale behind this unusual increase next time it discusses the subject? I'm sure that many of us lifelong taxpayers can benefit from the straightforward discussions in your program.
- Russell Scott Day
Charge those like Mark Meadows who signed the Norquiest pledge with treason via the NC DOJ. Hamilton and those all wild to use debt to keep the nation together were tolerated through Shays rebellion when script from Britain had to be used last I remember. What good here Mark Meadows late followings of discredited moves?
Humanitarian values applied in Blue States have produced wealthier situations for the peoples. In the real world lots that sounds cool isn't.
The best strongest form of democracy turns out to be the parliamentary. I am for it because it is long lasting and strong as a democracy.
- Karl Idsvoog
Question university presidents about the risks and dangers of football concussions. Perhaps a university president will talk to you. No Division 1_A university president in Ohio would talk to me: http://www.presidentialfootball.blogspot.com
- Grizdbear
"Occupy your Legislator" movement needed to bring home the insanity if this government. Think how this would impact on their family and neighbors. All those people and media in front of their homes day and night.
- Flipper44
Mr. Moyer. My latest method to "take action" is to ask you to interview Al Gore regarding the "Carbon Bubble." OK, personally, I am trying to find a way to convince my family-relation-mutual-fund to create a carbon free version of their fund. I'm slowly gaining on them with my own investment strategy….maybe that will motivate them to offer more choices.
- Kathy Goble
I watched the interview with Ms.Turkle and I have to say that when she talked about politics and the internet, I disagreed with her about the ability to sign petitions on the internet. There are people like myself who are unable physically to talk to our politicians. I must admit that I have made phone calls, but find that being able to type is more efficient for me and others who may have cerebal palsy, or other crippling disabilities. While I agree that Facebook and texting on a phone can be hazardous, I don't agree that signing petitions on line can lead to people feeling like that is all they have to do. Voting is crucial also.
- Bigdirt
Couldn't believe you continue to give Peter Dreier a platform to spew his 'fair and just life fantasy' even once, let alone so regularly. So-o-o, I finally read his bio and now know he's never held a real job, hates the producers(the few remaining) in this country, and – like you- doesn't understand simple math and the ROT that insidiously kills a culture and the wealth that built it.
- J. Sugg
Peter Dreier is not really understanding what makes a great nation. Clearly the progressive idealism he spouts is one that leads us to socialism faster than anyone sees coming. Wake up!
- marilyn berkon
I listened with great admiration to Peter Dreier on the subject of grassroots activism. He is a man who understands how things can get done when people are willing to show strength, investing time and energy.
In Brooklyn, NY, just this past January, Citizens Defending Libraries was formed by a husband and wife who discovered that our Brooklyn Heights Public Library would be sold off to private real estate developers who wanted to erect a high-rise luxury condo in its place. The developers promised a new library at its base one quarter the size of our present library, though they were not legally bound to build it. Michael D. D. White and his wife Carolyn McIntyre were outraged to learn that this was also happening elsewhere in the city. They took action and mobilized us. Citizens Defending Libraries has grown into a large organization fighting not only for our Brooklyn Heights Library, but for libraries all over the city. We just delivered 16,000 signatures to Mayor Bloomberg last Tuesday. We also got the support of various elected officials, and became part of the court cases that stopped, at least temporarily, the planned destruction of the research stacks at the 42nd Street Library.
If the NYPL has its way, the 7 stories of stacks supporting the building will be ripped out to build a small circulating library in their place. This plan is part of a miserable trend in NYC and across the country to sell our public institutions to private real estate developers. This little circulating library would allow the NYPL to tear down the Mid-Manhattan branch for a luxury high-rise, sell off the rest of the SIBL, and cram those books into the new little library, which is just one third the size of those two buildings together. All this to allow billionaires a lucrative property deal on Fifth Avenue.
Citizens Defending Libraries hopes to put a stop to this trend, as does its sister organization, Save the New York Public Library. So far, we still have our Brooklyn Heights Library, and the endangered Pacific Street Branch, and we have kept the stacks at the NYPL in place, though they have been emptied of over 3 million books which were sent to New Jersey storage. I call that success. We will not stop fighting. I, for one, will be collecting more petition signatures tomorrow on a street in Brooklyn Heights.
- David
David M. Graybeal, Ph. D. firstname.lastname@example.com
Dear Mr. Moyers:
I am responding to your invitation last night to say what I think about our
drones. It may take me awhile to get there.
I am 92 years old. I was Engineering Officer on the USS SNOWDEN (DE 246) from
1942-1946. The early years were spent escorting convoys of about 100 freighters to Casablanca and Gibraltar and back to NY and Norfolk. Late in the war we were ordered to the Pacific, and we were entering Pearl Harbor on the night that Japan
surrendered, having taken two nuclear bombs from us. We were relieved, because
it meant that we did not have to go to Japan. But I wondered then and I wonder now, was not one such bomb sufficient to make our point?
But war is war, and it has its own logic. Are we at war now where the drones are being used? It is not clear to me. What is clear is that the drones are killing
innocent people. The thing that impresses me is that nukes and drones have
something in common. Neither makes me proud of my nation. I think that neither should be used, no matter how smart the drone control can become.
I think the 9-11 disaster caused us to receive some sympathy from many nations and people. We are not invulnerable, even now. Surely someone is planning to get even with us again. And if so, it may lead to another tragedy.
I wish my country were known worldwide as being committed to peace and justice and sharing, rather than domination and ruthlessness. To do so, I would ask Obama to ground the drones, and to make a public announcement to that effect. I am so glad he restrained his impulse to bomb Syria.
Thanks, Bill, for inviting me to speak my piece. Sunday night at 6pm is my time in this household. I think God is at work in you.
- Ruth I. Rubin
Dear Bill: I LOVE your show and your guests. I learn so very much, and I am encouraged about things. I've heard rumors that you plan to retire sometime this January. I hope they are just rumors. If you need a break, you could always have a guest host from time to time. We need you, please stick around.
Ruth Rubin (email@example.com
- Charlotte
Dear Bill,
Thank you for your show. It is so informative and I appreciate very much the guests that you invite to visit valid and real concerns in America. I'm writing in answer to your question as to whether I mind being monitored by government and big corporations and I say…absolutely, yes, I mind! All this is done in the name of "safety and security" or in the name of "business" and It is a total invasion of privacy. I mind for many reasons. I am a good citizen and I have nothing to hide but I don't believe the government or any business has a right to know so much about me. Our freedoms are slipping away through megabits of time until we have become as bugs under Uncle Sam's microscope which speaks of control and slavery…in time. We are seduced by the beauty of all this technology and giving up far more than anyone will realize until it's too late. I hope we will become courageous as Heidi suggests to temper this onslaught against personal rights and freedoms. Eric Snowden risked his life by doing what he did. I don't think it was self-interest, it was that he saw around the corner to what has happened to a freedom loving nation and took action. Thanks for letting me speak my mind.
- Dm
Dear Bill,
This constant and Worsening invasion of privacy in the United States is not only arrogant, greedy and disgusting but places serious threats in what is left of the fabric of this nation since the dreadful Bush years. There is no excuse for the allowance of this type of invasion of privacy.
- Mary
Dear Bill,
Thank you for providing this opportunity to comment. I am truly horrified at the continuous and ever-increasing lack of privacy. I don't accept that going online supposes acceptance of lack of privacy any more that I would accept that posting a letter assumes the post office will read and share the letter.
Thank you to everyone who fights for our rights.
Mary Schuermann
- Margi Park
Thank you for raising our consciousness and concern about a myriad of issues critical to our sustaining our US democracy and not a dollarocracy.
Very grateful in Sacramento
M. Park
- Michael Miller
Mr. Moyers,
What was a previously unknown tidbit of my personal life became public when I crossed the USA/Canada border recently. I've had a concealed weapons permit for over fifteen years and have crossed the border many times. The question of my concealed weapon permit and whether or not I had a weapon with me and just how often do I carry it in my vehicle was presented to me by the border agent.
I felt naked under a spyglass.
I am retired military and the places i went and the things i did in the military were under scrutiny.
Little did I know that years later that same scrutiny is now being visited on me by my government all in the name of security and safety from terrorists.
This is NOT the country in which I was born and raised.
- Stivumoyo
Mr. Moyers,
I watched with great interest the program with John Nichols and Robert McChesney. As I listened and learned that many journalists are no longer able to do true journalism, I could not help but think of what World News Group is doing with their magazine. Since I did not see the entire program the Nichols and McChesney I do not know if they gave credit to organizations such as WNG. If you can, please talk with the leaders at WNG and see if they can tell their side of the story–giving not the first line stories but getting to the truth about a story.
Thank you for such good interviewing–I have watched you for years!
- Sheila Garrett
Thanks for your show on Positive Resistance. As a long-time Quaker activist with years of experience in civil disobedience I'm delighted to hear about this part of the movement for change.
I urge you to contact and interview a member of the next generation of change agents, Daniel Hunter, from Training for Change in Philadelphia. Daniel's book, Strategy and Soul, is a brilliant memoir of a specific action demonstrating the capacity to change that I believe should be acknowledged and supported. We have a lot to learn from young people who have a new vision.
- Judith Hayes
I will give the Government (and Obama) the benefit of the doubt that they may have not wanted to cause a wave of panic (at first) about Fukushima, but the media to be at a standstill when babies in California were contracting thyroid cancer, and fallout was affecting people all the way to Boston, and still no one is talking (very little) about the things that can and should be done NOW alerts me to the facts the Nuclear Corporate wants to continue making money and keep the building of nuclear plants going strong. This can not and will not be done. This is just too much, and we won't take any more. Nuclear plants need to be shut down now. Our window of time is closing. 300 years is already on the clock. We could have been taking iodine pills with the initial fallout, and the Government should have been supplying them.
- Anonymous
Just listened to your great interview with Jill Stein and Margaret Flowers. Regarding not voting for the lesser of the two evils was the elephant in the room, Gore vs. Bush, in which Ralph Nader knowingly gave the election to Bush. I'd love to know their thinking on what eight years of Gore rather than eight years of Bush would've been like.
- Anonymous
Bill, I apologize for being so late in responding to your invitation for comments about drones.
The first point is that they've cost the U.S. dearly. Many "liberals" or "progressives" like myself sounded alarms about drones when they were initially used to assassinate people. At last, after an election cycle in which drone killing was kept out of the campaigns, the topic began to creep into national discourse, but only after tremendous damage to U.S. security and moral standing had already been done. We're in a deep hole. The U.S. drone policy makes the U.S. the outright world leader in the use of terrorism. As even Hamid Karzai just made clear, drone attacks in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia won't be tolerated. If they occurred in this country, impeachment would be immediately on the table.
The second point is that drone warfare is emblematic of the overall domination of our country by the military industrial complex (MIC) Eisenhower warned about. The MIC has maneuvered the mainstream media, and the duopoly candidates, into equating terrorism by Islamists with the nation-against-nation wars of the past. The MIC stands to lose its sway if drone warfare is curtailed, mainly because that would cause Islamists everywhere to pull back on anti-Americanism, thereby removing an important justification for keeping troops in the Middle East and pouring billions in taxpayer dollars into military aid to Israel and Egypt – which is really aid to our own MIC.
The third point is that drone technology has raised moral and ethical concerns the U.S. hasn't yet been able to cope with. What are the proper limits in the use of drones? Simply because we can, should we invade other countries with drones when a declaration of war would be unreasonable? Simply because it's easier to kill with drones than to capture and prosecute, should we kill with drones? What moral or ethical principals justify killing people electronically in a way that insulates the killers from the consequences of the killing?
Taking lives, whether of the guilty or of the innocent, demands absolute clarity of moral purpose. That's been absent among our policy makers when it comes to drone killings.
- Margaret Alexa
I agree! I just saw this, unfortunately too late. I hope you got your signatures.
- fanofbill
It has been stated that since Mandela's passing, there are no longer any larger than life truly great figures for us to apire to and emulate. We are blessed and privileged to have you, Mr. Moyers. The Pope as well, maybe. Thank you for bringing the conversation to me in clear and true reporting, and shining light in the rat holes of oppression and injustice. You deserve the Nobel peace prize if anyone ever did. I wonder , though, if you would accept the offer from the inventor of dynamite?
- Steven Schutz
I have seen and read plenty about actists in larger urban areas etc..and hardly any information and articles highlighting actists workin in places like the midwest and Omaha Ne…I would like to tell you about D'Shawn Cunningham out of Omaha NE and his groups FTP Omaha and Organize Omaha…I believe he is worthy of mention as he endeavors to cring all cultures and peoples together to form a collective energy to make positive change…Please look him up on facebook…Thank You…Steven Schutz
- Bob Bradford
Because Pres. Obama didn't have the cajones to even attempt to implement national single payer health care – the overwhelmingly successful and accepted model for nearly every other industrialized nation in the world – now he and his pleases-no-one-and-angers-nearly-all Obamacare are paying the price in dissatisfaction from millions of people who are forced to accept outrageous deductibles and annual caps in order to subsidize the profits of the insurance industry, who are responsible for his chicken s**t comprise-of-a-plan. This is what happens when you don't have the courage of your convictions and timidly cave to political expediency. You reap what you sow.
All US Banks give 3rd World Employees access to our Social Security number, date of birth, address and all other information that they have on U.S. citizens. Just got off the phone after speaking to a bank call center in Manila and was shocked to find this out. I don't think these other countries have laws to protect us and our laws do not apply there. In addition, I investigated and found out how much money such information is worth on the Black Market. Our personal information should not be allowed to leave the U.S. where our laws do not apply and control of such data is not as secure.
- Anonymous
I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from. For a long time I have looked at the promise of President Obama and the fact of his tenure and there has been a gap. At the same time I have watched the atmosphere of his tenure and seen some interesting things. Obamacare is the same health plan instituted by Romney as Governor. At that time it was widely accepted and by some even praised as being forward thinking. Some of the same people who praised him are castigating Pres. Obama's plan. There are a dedicated group of political terrorist who are willing to do any thing, sacrifice anybody to make this president look bad and block ANY program he tries to implement. no matter how beneficial to the country. Many of the programs that were introduced as bills get loaded down with so irrelevant waste and political graft that the ONLY thing that remained of the original bill was the name. As voters we have to be more involved and aware of congressional process and put as much pressure on congress as the people who pass white enveloped "personal donations" all congress members.
- Anonymous
I'm glad that you exposed the danger to democracy that big money poses in your "State of Conflict" show. In my home, Newark, New Jersey, I have seen some of the same things happen. Our city council had passed a pretty comprehensive statute against pay to play, yet when the city was in financial problems and needed some state aid to cover some fiscal gaps recently, the state required that the statute be replaced by a statute that only prohibited local pay to play. Pay to play from outside, big money, is now exempt from restrictions from influencing local government and political decisions.
- Rob Devereux
I am rather confused. Amidst all of this political turmoil and social stress, your show is relevant and a needed commodity in our current 'state of the union'. I was viewing your show through the PBS website and noticed (in the last year) that Goldman-Sachs is your corporate sponsor–and has ads at the beginning of every show the espouse that they are somehow 'investing in America' and allegedly taking action to better society. I am confused as you have commented several times on your show about this bank (and others) but yet they sponsor your show? Do you or your staff have any say in this or is this PBS becoming evermore corporate in nature? Care to comment on this Bill? You were my hero, in a way, until I began to see corporate America 'creeping' into even the most sacred of journalistic places in my eyes-and are you to blame?
Maybe you should take action and drop them as a sponsor, and if you have to leave PBS, I'm sure there are others on here that comment that would support your show via the online media outlet anyway. Take a stand or explain–I would hate to have to stop watching your show because you are taking funds from 'part of the problem' rather than being 'part of the solution'. I once told Ron Hull, a friend of yours from Nebraska, that I hoped to work hard to become like you someday, and that your journalistic approach was unique, amazing and an inspiration to me. I have seen you speak to other 'heroes' of mine, particularly Joseph Campbell-who spoke of the Power of Myth and of "Heroes'–your interviews have had a drastic and important impact on my life.
What would Joseph Campbell think of this, with allowance of Goldman Sachs to promote themselves on your show when you have openly taken a stand against them and other corporatist banks in your views and those of a majority of your guests? Would this be an action of a hero or a villain Bill? It is a paradox wrapped in an enigma, that you have brought me to a place that I feel proud of and I am taking action because of the influence you have had in my life–and now I am considering withdrawing support or watching your show because of this. I wonder if any other viewers have thought this as well? Would love for anyone who reads this to 'take action' and respond to what I have said.
- randy cofer
bill, thank u for deferring your retirement. we need u. thanks and keep up your good work.
- http://www.southwestpotters.com/ Jim Snoke
I just got an email from Governor Brown, who is formally declaring his intent to run for re-election. His sell-out of California and his outright lies about protecting the environment, and working with environmental groups to ensure a healthy future for California are obvious with his support and encouragement of fracking in our state.
Governor Brown's advocacy and endorsement of fracking in California is historically unprecedented and frankly shameful. Available research shows that there are more than 600 chemicals used in the fracking process, and more than 150 of them are linked to cancer and cell mutations. Nearly 40% of them affect human hormonal activity, 50% of them adversely affect the kidneys and central nervous system as well as the cardiovascular and immune systems, and nearly 75% of them cause
gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments. Methane gas contamination is
massively elevated at sites where fracking has taken place, and nearly 70% of
the fracking fluids remain in the ground after the drilling and "recovery".
The California electorate has a right to hear the evidence proving that hydraulic fracturing is safe. To the contrary, the scientific literature is replete with studies that show that fracking is not only dangerous, it is costly, risky, and causes severe environmental and economic damage. The following details are taken directly from a September 20th, 2012 Environment America Research and Policy Center report:
• In Dimock, Pennsylvania, Cabot Oil & Gas reported having spent $109,000 on systems to remove methane from well water for 14 local households, while in Colorado; cleanup of an underground gas seep has been ongoing for eight years at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more.
• Cabot Oil & Gas reported having spent at least $193,000 on replacement water for homes with contaminated water in Dimock, Pennsylvania.
• If fracking were to degrade the watershed of a city such as New York with sediment or other pollution, construction of a filtration plant would cost approximately $6 billion.
• Air pollution from gas drilling in Arkansas' Fayetteville Shale region imposed estimated public health costs of more than $10 million in 2008.
• The cost of reducing pollution from fracking and clearance of forest land in the Chesapeake Bay area is estimated to be approximately $1.5 million to $4 million per year.
Oil companies in North Dakota allowed more than 1,000 accidental releases of oil, drilling wastewater, or other fluids in 2011. In about two-thirds of the cases, contaminated leaked out from the accident sites and into the ground water of the surrounding communities.
Injecting a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into the ground to fracture rock formations deep below the surface eventually causes the waste water to come back up the well. Having done that, it must be disposed of. The average American thinks of "disposal" as "collecting the waste and driving away with it". However, this is not the case with hydraulic fracturing. Disposal, in this case, means injecting the waste into still deeper wells underground, sometimes as deep as 13,000 feet or more. A 2012 study in the Dallas, Texas area by a seismologist at the University of Texas Institute
for Geophysics, points out that this drilling and injection is causing earthquakes
in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Why? Because some of the disposal wells there
also happen to be on fault lines. California, of course, has no subsurface
geologic faults – right?
What will happen to residents here, lifelong taxpayers who trust and support the government of the state, work their entire lives, and retire to communities where groundwater contamination will destroy their investment in their homes? Who is going to pay for the loss they will incur due to negligence and poor decision-making on the part of those who are supposed to represent them?
As a college teacher of 42 years, an anthropologist, a humanist, and a life-long resident of California –I am appalled that the Governor of the largest state in the Union refuses to represent the people who elected him instead of the petroleum and gas industries who will certainly destroy our habitats and water supplies. If nothing else, at least give us the data so that we can have a clear idea that fracking is safe. Thus far, we have no such information coming from the Governor or anyone else, and we are left to conclude that representing the citizens of California is not part of the Governor's long-term plan — even though he is running for reelection. Ignoring the
potential for disaster here in our state and stiff-arming the electorate by
minimizing the inevitable long-term damage and cost of recovery is not only
unreasonable — it is like solving the problem of the sinking of the Titanic by
rearranging the deck chairs. We deserve better than that.
Jim Snoke
Anthropologist, Educator, and
Volcano, CA
- JayTee
I listened to Moyers and one of his guests just long enough to fully confirm that he's as up-in-the-night left as ever, and not worth spending another second with. Most of his guests are the pseudo-intellectuals whose specialty is complicating, confusing, denying, and ignoring the obvious. Anyone with the IQ of a large rodent knows that the left's specialty is wrecking civilized societies and ruining thriving economies, and then blaming it all on those who believe in actual progress. The fact that anyone still listens to Moyers is solid proof that we now obviously have way too many predators and parasites in our society, and way too few actual patriots, producers, and providers.
- Anonymous
While I applaud your
breadth of topics, I think you are fragmenting the discussion. We badly need to to focus on Citizen United reform, specifically rallying around States passing Constitutional amendments resticting campaign donation amounts. The GOP seems to be attempting divide and conquer and succeeding in fragmenting the opposition !
- http://www.southwestpotters.com/ Jim Snoke
We can kill Citizens United, and the capitalists will simply make another end run. Their noose is tightening all the time, and the McCutcheon decision is just one more proof of that. As long as global capitalism is the real elephant in the room, the efforts made to overturn things like Citizens United will only keep us busy putting out brush fires. Meanwhile, the inferno is raging. Nationalize the oil and gas industries, put these oligopolistic capitalists on payroll, and let them live like the rest of us. Then, nationalize the food industry, distribute the food to our underfed poor in this country, sell the remainder overseas, and put the farmers on payroll as well. Finally, create a comprehensive jobs program by rebuilding the infrastructure in this country – something our "transparent" president promised he would do, and never did. Stop the "supply side" economics crap and prevent the capitalists from selling American oil overseas and charging Americans more here at home — simply because the damn supply siders now claim that there is a "demand" in China. Global capitalism is a blight — a curse — and it needs to be stopped. One last thing — stop the David Ricardo crap about "comparative advantage" and the Milton Friedman "monetarism". Full employment is absolutely possible in this country– the real cause of inflation is tampering with the value of the dollar artificially.
- http://www.southwestpotters.com/ Jim Snoke
Sorry about the continual rant, but here is another thought. The Nation magazine just reported that 192,000 jobs were created last month. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are more than 30,000,000 unemployed. Do the math. The total for the past year altogether was only 182,000 jobs. The Nation also reported that all of the 192,000 jobs came from the "private sector", which should tell you at least 3 things: First, the President is not forthcoming, nor has he been… in the past, with a comprehensive jobs program. He has not put Americans back to work, and I can only conclude — since it is the 6th year of his administration — that he has no intention of creating a comprehensive jobs program. Obviously it is okay to use taxpayer money — trillions of it — to create drones that will be used to kill people without due process, but creating jobs is not part of the plan. Second, at the rate that jobs are being created in the private sector, it will take more than 30 years to end the current unemployment miasma, assuming that last month's job creation tallies hold. By that time, whole families will be wiped out, and unemployment — which continues to grow at an astounding rate — will be even higher. Third, since the jobs were created by the private sector it is patently obvious that those jobs — or any others created in the private sector — will be minimum wage jobs. Why do you think that the President is stumping around the country pushing for an increase in the minimum wage? Any gain made in hourly rate will be wiped out in a single, capitalist move to raise prices anywhere in the marketplace. I sure as hell couldn't live on $10 dollars an hour, and neither can you. What good is a job like that? It might work for a 13 year old, but not for an adult trying to support a family. A modest, 2-bedroom apartment in Sacramento requires a salary of $26.88 per hour, because living there requires paying for food, rent, insurance, utilities, gas, clothing, and other day-to-day expenses. What good is $10.10??????? Oh, Jim — you are forgetting that those who work — even though they can't live — will feel better about themselves because they have a job, and therefore they are "productive people" — instead of being "slovenly and lazy", as Adam Smith called them in Wealth of Nations. Oh yes — shove the psychological crap down their throats while the rest of shake our heads and say "oh well, it isn't me". Of course, with the Citizens United and the recent McCutcheon decisions, none of it will be you or me. No one in our income category — no matter how good it might possibly be — will ever, ever, ever be elected to public office beyond dog catcher, because corporate money will be thrown behind someone else, and that person will come only from the 1% of the country — not from the 99%. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what the Supreme Court of the United States just paid back to corporate America. Money can be spent on anyone, right? Wrong. It will come from the 1% — billions of dollars of it — and it will only be spent on the getting the 1% elected. "Representative Democracy", if it ever did exist, is now officially dead.
- http://www.southwestpotters.com/ Jim Snoke
The Nation magazine just reported that 192,000 jobs were created last month. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are more than 30,000,000 unemployed. Do the math. The total for the past year altogether was only 182,000 jobs. The Nation also reported that all of the 192,000 jobs came from the "private sector", which should tell you at least 3 things: First, the President is not forthcoming, nor has he been… in the past, with a comprehensive jobs program. He has not put Americans back to work, and I can only conclude — since it is the 6th year of his administration — that he has no intention of creating a comprehensive jobs program. Obviously it is okay to use taxpayer money — trillions of it — to create drones that will be used to kill people without due process, but creating jobs is not part of the plan. Second, at the rate that jobs are being created in the private sector, it will take more than 30 years to end the current unemployment miasma, assuming that last month's job creation tallies hold. By that time, whole families will be wiped out, and unemployment — which continues to grow at an astounding rate — will be even higher. Third, since the jobs were created by the private sector it is patently obvious that those jobs — or any others created in the private sector — will be minimum wage jobs. Why do you think that the President is stumping around the country pushing for an increase in the minimum wage? Any gain made in hourly rate will be wiped out in a single, capitalist move to raise prices anywhere in the marketplace. I couldn't live on $10 dollars an hour, and neither can you. What good is a job like that? It might work for a 13 year old, but not for an adult trying to support a family. A modest, 2-bedroom apartment in Sacramento requires a salary of $26.88 per hour, because living there requires paying for food, rent, insurance, utilities, gas, clothing, and other day-to-day expenses. What the hell good is $10.10??????? Oh, Jim — you are forgetting that those who work — even though they can't live — will feel better about themselves because they have a job, and therefore they are "productive people" — instead of being "slovenly and lazy", as Adam Smith called them in Wealth of Nations. Oh yes — shove the psychological stuff down their throats while the rest of shake our heads and say "oh well, it isn't me". Of course, with the Citizens United and the recent McCutcheon decisions, none of it will be you or me. No one in our income category — no matter how good it might possibly be — will ever, ever, ever be elected to public office beyond dog catcher, because corporate money will be thrown behind someone else, and that person will come only from the 1% of the country — not from the 99%. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what the Supreme Court of the United States just paid back to corporate America. Money can be spent on anyone, right? Wrong. It will come from the 1% — billions of dollars of it — and it will only be spent on the getting the 1% elected. "Representative Democracy", if it ever did exist, is now officially dead.
Jim Snoke, Age 71
Anthropologist, Educator, and Humanist'
Retired College Teacher of 42 years
- Tom in San Diego
Why aren't we seeing more discussion of this story: http://news.yahoo.com/us-navy-game-changer-converting-seawater-fuel-150544958.html
Navy scientists develop a way to extract gases from seawater and liquefy them into synthetic jet fuel (high quality diesel) and the it's been almost totally ignored by the media. If commercialized this technology could change our economy, world politics, the environment, financial power, you name it. Maybe I just answered my own question.
- tgreg
Hired Representative Democracy
- P. Harrison Picot II
Who lost Technology to China and India?
Ten or more years age, a member of the Programmers Guild approached a previous iteration of the Moyer's show to ask that they discuss the wholesale replacement of US born IT engineers with low wage immigrants (working for green cards, not good wages), from India and China. They were told by the Moyers staff that such a discussion would appear racist, so the show would not do it.
So, here is my challenge to you; go to Facebook, Intel, Google, the tech center for Fannie Mae in Northern Virginia, and count the number of black engineers you see. None? That is the most likely count. In fact, more than half of all US born programmers, over 500,000, have been replaced by low wage immigrants working for green cards that will supply not less that $250,000 in taxpayer, not employer furnished benefits. Ask Facebook, who are leading the demand for more green cards in the new immigration bill, how many American born engineers they employ? Talk to Dr. Norman Matloff at UC Davis.
As James Burke, in his book "Connections" demonstrated, innovation is not the work or one individual, but the product of a community, and technology is a community which American citizens are increasingly discouraed from joining by the lack of competitive wages or even a career that lasts beyond age 35.
You helped lose technology.
- P. Harrison Picot II
For anyone wanting more information on the wholesale replacement of US tech workers by low wage immigrants on H-1B visas (70% of whom are certified by their employers as being ordinary workers coming to do ordinary work at (less than) ordinary wages, I would suggest a paper by Dr. Norman Matloff reviewed and published by EPI
"The technology industry, in lobbying Congress for expansion of programs to attract skilled foreign workers, has long claimed that foreign students graduating from U.S. universities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are typically "the best and the brightest," i.e., exceptionally talented innovators in their fields. However, the industry and its supporters have offered little or no evidence to back up their assertion. The claim is investigated in this report, with a focus on former foreign students now working in the United States, the group viewed by the industry as key to innovation.
"The assertion that the foreign graduates offer superior skills or ability relative to U.S. graduates is found not to be supported by the data"
Besides Dr. Matloff, leading conservative economists have called the H-1B visa program welfare for billionaires. Opposing welfare for billionaires is not racist. Zuckerberg has spent more than $10 million to get more green cards from a Congress his agent has implied is for sale. Walmart has applied for 130 visas for tech workers. Are they looking for high tech innovation or billionaire welfare? In fact, what technology has Facebook invented? They use plenty, they invent nothing that makes you safer, or saves you money. You get the bills for educating the children of their workers, your STEM student can not get a job, and Facebook sends you email after email.
- crazy dave
Hello im Crazy Dave ! I dont know how to contact you ! But i might have the Answer if you would like it !
- crazy dave
Wow ! Im really here now ! Sorry about being excited about bring able to talk freely ! But have been living life while most people just watch others living on here ! I dont know how far back any of you go but im a Fortran or Colbalt Programmer ! You know ! Before the Web !
- crazy dave
Thank you ! Maybe i will hear from you someday ! Good Luck !
- Dennis Doyle
A corporation is a intellectual abstract, the purpose of it's existence is to limit the financial
liability of the people who operate the business that is incorporated. Is that by any definition what a person is? The 5 justices who voted for this insanity, are not impartial,
they are pursuing the agenda of the conservative right who now represent 1% of the population. This is not an aristocratic republic, It is a democracy, where the MAJORITY is supposed to rule, not justices who have personal agendas, and represent 1% of the population. A redress of grievances is in order.
- Anonymous
Gosh, Bill… I just had to comment! I watch your program RELIGIOUSLY each week and usually watch it twice. Most of the time I am busy fighting my own battles (survival!) and don't have time to do much else, like visit websites and take citizen action. But TONIGHT–what an obnoxious person the president of the American Enterprise Institute is! What a manipulative creep! Wow! I don't know how you managed to keep from reaching across the table and knocking him off his chair! The way he kept including YOU in his elitist Machiavellian beliefs about workers and their low wages… sickening! Smug, arrogant scumbag of psychological warfare! Reminded me of the scumbag Nashville attorney (Rep. Marsha Blackburn's personal attorney and president of her PAC, by the way) who hired me to proofread and copyedit the translated Part I of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation for him (which he intends to sell on Amazon!) then ripped me off for $2,200 and wouldn't pay me… BECAUSE HE CAN! Then charged me with EXTORTION because I kept bugging him to pay me! These people who think they are so powerful, and God's gift to the Earth, just run over the rest of us with not one iota of guilt, REMORSE OR PRICK OF CONSCIENCE! I'M SIGNING UP FOR THE REVOLUTION!!! P.S. I'VE NEVER SEEN YOU SO MAD! HURRAY FOR YOU!
- Anonymous
The Koch brothers fund Nova (or one of them does… can't remember if Charles or David)! I was appalled when I learned that; however, one of the brothers is big on science, so I guess that is a good thing–IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE FACT THAT PBS WOULD NOT ALLOW THE AIRING OF THE DOCUMENTARY "CITIZEN KOCH." Goldman Sachs is just tryig to look like a "good corporate citizen," but their money-obtained-by-major-theft should not be allowed to influence PUBLIC television!
- Kevin d
I am a loyal viewer and a real fan of your work. But today I watched the episode with the face of corporate America and was a little disappointed. Every time you suggested that large corporations, like Walmart (one of his big donors by the way) pay their employees a living wage with their huge profits, he dodged the question by spewing the same old rhetoric that businesses will automatically cut employees to make up for it. I reject that premise as I believe you do too, but you never hit back with the studies that show that even if they raised the wages to $10.10 an hour the effect on prices inside the store would be negligible, and be absorbed by all of us seamlessly. It was obvious that the money that supports him does the same thing that campaign contributions do to our political system. It gags everyone's conscience, even someone purporting to be a "compassionate conservative". I find it ironic that the people who should be most compassionate, the religious right, are the same people who want to do less for the bottom brackets. Republicans are truly the party of hypocrisy.
- Jay Rosner
Arthur Brooks does what both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush did – he puts a convivial, compassionate face on policies that protect the worst aspects of capitalism, to the detriment of the 99%.
Mr. Moyers, you got close to pinning down Mr. Brooks by honing in on the morality of Walmart paying so many of its employees wages that cannot support a family. While that is a systemic U.S. problem that extends far beyond Walmart, they are the largest US employer and could have great impact by voluntarily increasing their wages.
I wish you had used the term "family values": what does Walmart's wages say about Walmart's family values, the family values of an economic system that so often pays less than a living wage, the family values of a society that permits this, and the family values of Mr. Brooks, who defends this? And, if Walmart will decide to cut employment if forced to raise wages, as Mr. Brooks claims, would Mr. Brooks favor this, using the same logic: motivating Walmart to increase their employment by advocating for lowering the minimum wage so that Walmart can cut wages? I think Mr. Brooks actually favors that, but he probably won't say it.
- Anonymous
Mr. Brooks: "Basically you're one of two kinds of people: Either you believe in WINNING COMPETITION or you believe in shutting it down." [EMPHASIS MINE, @~ 15:40]
This unconscious application of the "football" metaphor to life produces vast dysfunctional behaviors. Let us focus on CREATION of value instead of taking what somebody else created and/or exploiting resources that existed before we had even evolved. Imagine the consequences if our Nervous Systems competed against , say, our Cardiovascular Systems. No, they cooperate to create a functional whole. We organize in order to accomplish those things that would not be possible in isolation.
And by the way, this is a global issue, not just a local one. We in the USA have progressed quite nicely over the past several decades, partly via exploitation of foreign resources and peoples. What happens when the guest workers tell us to pick our own nuts and berries? Perhaps we'll rediscover the word cooperation.
- Sail2DeepBlue
Just saw the interview with Mr. Brooks from AEI and I must say was just flabbergasted. It was esp. ironic for him to invoke Adam Smith as supporting his claims for NOT increasing the minimum wage esp. through legislation or moral suasion, as he puts it.
Smith, anticipating Henry Ford nearly a century and a half later, argued (along with his friend, philosopher David Hume) that an economy must essentially be a high wage one–so that workers can actually participate in the buying of the goods and services they actually produce for it. To wit:
"A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.
It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which occasions a rise in the wages of labour. It is not, accordingly, in the richest countries, but in the most thriving, or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the wages of labour are highest . . . The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it
is the necessary effect, so it is the natural symptom of increasing national
wealth. The scanty maintenance of the labouring poor, on the other hand, is the
natural symptom that things are at a stand, and their starving condition that
they are going fast backwards. (Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, ch. 8).
Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people. (Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, ch. 9).
We could, like the EITC, subsidize this through taxation, with taxes esp. aimed at the very wealthy owners of capital who refuse to provide a living wage but siphon off of public assistance. And I don't think Smith would mind that either:
"It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."
(Wealth of Nations, Bk. V, ch. 2).
And as too we should be highly wary of business interests and what they think is beneficial for society at large:
"The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [i.e., capitalists / business] ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not
only with the most scurrilous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.
Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI, Part III [p. 339 ]
- Anonymous
Mr. Brooks was very articulate, but terrifying. Amazing that anyone can still believe as he does, given four decades (that I personally know of) of living with the results of his kind of beliefs/thinking/policies/strategies. Please don't have him back, instead do shows that are reality-based.
- Engineer Canada & US
Regarding the interview with Mr. Brooks: The problems is not just low wages; it is also low hours which makes all non-management employees part timers. Retailers provide non-management employees 28 to 32 hours a week, or less. So no vacation and no benefits. Work scheduled varied from week to week such that it is just about impossible to have a second part time job. Welcome to the U S of A. The land of poverty for retail employees. From what I have heard, years ago retail was very different. Many employees had higher wages than they do today as well as benefits and vacation, But to improve profits, those benefits went away and and wages were lowered over time. Now I believe only supervisors and some employees that were 'grandfathered' in have benefits and vacation. Now many US bank are hiring tellers as part timers as well. The race to the bottom continues.
Several years ago a large US retailer tried to break in to the Japan market and lost millions of dollars and later pulled out. It would appear that in many cases the Japanese like to shop at smaller retailers and have a relationship with the sales people.
In the US some big box retailer come into a small town. The people think great lower prices. The profits go outside the community. The town's downtown stores can't compete and there is an implosion. The downtown shops become a ghost town of empty shops. The town's people see what has happened and say that they wish the retailer had never come to either town, but it is too late the damage has been done.
Is this making lives better? Is this progress?
Has this happened in European countries or do the politicians look out for their citizens? I don't think it has happened in Holland.
From what I have heard from US tourists to Switzerland that have spoken with locals, the Swiss have a living wage for all, but a high cost of living.
- Stuart MacGregor II
If Arthur Brooks had been following the weekly economic updates of Richard Wolff, he would have known that the U.K. just raised its minimum wage to equal more than $11 an hour, that in Germany the minimum wage is equal to $11.25, in Denmark it is $20.30 and Switzerland recently considered $25 an hour by ballot, though the measure was barely defeated.
In addition, the Russell Sage Foundation summarized in its recent report the
research findings of Pfeffer, Danziger and Schoeni published in November of
2013 in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,
showing the median net worth of US citizens in 2003, 2007, 2009 and 2013, as
2003 $88,000 * 2007 $98,000 * 2009 $70,000 * 2013 $56,000
Does it look like Republican beneficence is at work in america?
As to Brooks' contention that regulations are unnecessary, even the present chairwoman of the Federal Reserve disagrees: "Monetary policy faces significant limitations as a tool to promote financial stability," Yellen said July 2 at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. "A macroprudential approach to supervision and regulation needs to play the primary role."
- Stuart MacGregor II
As a counterweight to Arthur Brooks, please consider Dr. Gabor Mate as a guest. You can gain a great deal of information about Dr. Mate on Utube, especially the interview called "Capitalism is Making Us Sick," or you can pick up any of his books. "In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts," is a comprehensive and helpful compilation of research done on addiction and how our societies choose to foster healthy brains, or contribute to brains that are prone to an addictive personality. Your recent guest Mr.Lithgow touched on the importance of parenting.
I also recommend his interviews with Dr. Mate on Utube with these titles: "Close Encounters with Addiction;" and "Attachment: Wholeness or Health or Disease, ADD, Addiction and Violence."
- Randal Agostini
I was glad that you aired "too big to jail." There is no better example to highlight the greatest threat to our political and financial systems. The voters franchise has been stolen by a few – and the government has been purchased lock stock and barrel. You may well consider a companion subject "What ever happened to our Anti Trust Laws?" If the middle class is to be rescued from ruin voters have to be educated to vote for those that stand for all America, that can recognize true virtue and not this facade portrayed by those who seek to maintain power at any cost. Use the old adage "Follow the Money" and you will find the truth.
- Malawi Racum
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- Art Boyle
Art Boyle
I would like to know why the political pundits don't suggest the most obvious solution to our system of government. We all seem to agree that Congress has been a failure for a number of years. It's been a failure under the Republicans and the Democrats. Why then argue one party over the other, why reelect any incumbent that has been part of an important branch of government that has failed the people of this country in such a dramatic way. Congress has a failing grade, flunk the whole class. I live in Arizona, right now the news media is criticizing China for pre selecting Honk Kong's government and Arizona is picking it's next Governor. The Democrats have a previous lobbyist and the Republicans have a past CEO from an ice cream company. Seriously, is this the best we can do. Do we really not see the correlation between China picking friends of the communist party and the democrats and republicans picking our leaders. We need a reset election, let us vote 6 months before an election whether or not to accept the candidates that are given to us to run.
- kona ohana
The article
America's Exploding Oil Train Problem
September 2, 2014
by John Light
Needs to look into why these trains started blowing up just as congress told the KOCH BROS no on their pipeline. The pipeline that would destroy millions of acres of farming land for the Kock Bros Canadian sand oil that's a natural disaster in action.
As soon as the VOTE went down in flames for the third time. Suddenly trains started blowing up. Do your homework.
- Noon Bbl
I have often tried to "like" articles with the aim of posting on Facebook. In my experience, it doesn't work, yet. That should be an easy fix.
- Rosie
Dear Mr. Moyers. Would you help define what constitute a national discussion on issues that affect us all and when will we know when we will have one? Thank you.
- john
thanks for devoting so much time to the skyline and central park I live here
and there is no one else talking about it. the same thing is going to happen to the old south street seaport
great show thank you
- Clyde Grady
As an example of taking action, a lawsuit was filed against the U. S. Government based on the results of investigation of over 2 years. The investigation showed that:
(1) action and inaction by the U. S. Government was ultimate cause of the Flash Crash of the U. S. Stock Market on May 6, 2010 that cost individual investors 2 billion dollars of stock and 200 million dollars;
(2) the U. S. Government knew about 4 specific flaws in the U. S. Stock Market that would lead to the Flash Crash that included: up-tick removal, failure to regulate predatory HFT's, failure to regulate naked short selling, & elimination of "specialists" and their negative obligation.
(3) the legal basis given by the Tucker Act and the definition of a unilateral, implied -in-fact contract and the definition of a trust identify legal responsibility of the U. S. Government to compensate investor losses for failure to "maintain a fair and orderly" stock market which it had identified as its legal obligation
The preliminary result pending further legal action was the judgment in the Court of Claims and the Appeals Court is that the Court of Claims did not have jurisdiction to decide the case and therefore it had to be dismissed. This "judgment" or "non-judgment" was reached with the provision of false and misleading information by Government attorneys being clearly shown to the Court. Moreover the "judgment" was reached with the perverted labeling of the lawsuit by the Courts as being against only the Securities and Exchange Commission when it was clearly filed in the English language against the U. S. Government and explicitly cited failure and responsibility to the legislative branch. Yet no one in "journalism" or the publishing industry wants to touch the book exposing the "co-operation" between the judicial and executive branches. And lawyers to not want the action of the government documented in court papers to be published so far in legal journals. It is much easier to talk about taking action and to make conversation that to actually take action. So, the other thousands of other individual investors like myself who lost retirement accounts in the Flash Crash to the trading houses of Wall Street have only 2 years left to get justice and will have to go it alone. When will people understand that our only means protecting justice and our liberty is to gain limitation of the terms of politicians to one term. The legislative branch is our only hope of retaining what liberty we have and we only have this hope if we separate it from having to beg to Wall Street and others for funds to get elected and re-elected. The executive and judicial branches are beyond hope.
- Clyde Grady
There is a post script to the comment I placed on actually taking action by filing a lawsuit against the U. S. Government to make it take responsibility. A petition for Writ of Certiorari was filed with the U. S. Supreme Court for it to review the judgment of the Appeals Court on the basis that the Appeals Court contradicted several prior decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court. The petition also cited other reasons for the U. S. Supreme Court to review the action of the lower court that satisfied the criteria in the rules of the Supreme Court for reviewing lower courts. Yet, the Supreme Court declined to review the case even though it hinged on the Article One, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U. S. Constitution and the responsibility which the U. S. Government has in gaining control of the U. S. Stock Market.
So, tell me why the people who run this site feel that taking legal action rather than just having a "conversation" is not important enough to be displayed in the list of comments??
- signe stuart
A possible solution to campaign finance reform? What if campaign contributions (of maximum dollars) could only be given to candidates for whom one could actually vote? this would stop all contributions from corporations and unions etc. This idea would need to be expanded to prevent PACs and other dark money collection centers from also getting money
- Tori Holic
The Patriot Act breaks the US Constitution. It breaks the US Court system. It undermines the power of Congress. It sets a precedent where employees of the NSA are allowed to lie to Congress under oath (for example, James Clapper) but ordinary citizens aren't.
Yesterday, I used MoveOn.org's petition publishing application to petition The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President
Obama, asking for 4-month public review of any revisions to the Patriot Act.
Will you sign this petition? Also, would the producers of Moyers & Company
prominently display a link to the petition on the show's website?
The petition says:
"The Patriot Act is a huge piece of legislation. Are members of Congress prepared to say (on the record) whether Patriot Act does, in fact, undermine every American's rights under the US Court System and the US Constitution? The Patriot Act is scheduled to expire on June 1, 2015. However, revisions (and another extension) is proposed.
Allegedly, even the AUTHOR of the Patriot Act didn't think the Patriot Act gave the NSA (or President Obama) permission to do bulk data collection. How CURIOUS. Are members of the House and Senate prepared to explain why they let bulk data collection go on so long? Voters need time to review any proposed revisions to the Patriot Act. Voters should also have an opportunity to weigh in on the possibility of simply allowing it to elapse.
During the first month of a proposed 4-month public review period, we ask that each member of the House and Senate (and each member of the Supreme Court) respond on the record to criticisms of the Patriot Act made by:
1) Bill Moyers (in 2007) – http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal//09072007/watch.html
2) The issues raised by the case of Smith vs Obama (in 2014) (https://epic.org/amicus/fisa/215/smith/)
3) Journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald in the movie documentary CitizenFour
4) John Oliver (in 2015) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M"