Allison Kilkenny has been covering the US Uncut movement for The Nation, and she joins us along with J.A. Myerson, a "tax avoidance consultant", to discuss the new resistance to paying for corporate welfare.

Doug joins us via Skype to discuss corporate control over our communications, the fight for Net Neutrality, the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, the attempts to defund NPR, and more.

Bradley Manning, the accused leaker of many of the documents posted on the website WikiLeaks, remains in jail under increasingly harsh conditions. This weekend, protesters, including regular GRITtv guest Col. Ann Wright and Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, were arrested at Quantico Marine Corps base, rallying in support and demanding better treatment for Manning.

This Saturday, protests are planned in the UK, the US, and Canada against corporate tax avoiders and government austerity cuts. The UK Uncut movement has been going strong, occupying retail outlets as diverse as Vodafone and TopShop, and its solidarity movement in the US is just getting started. Using street theater and organizing largely on the web, the direct action movements aim to make tax dodging a whole lot less profitable for big banks like Bank of America and corporations like Verizon and FedEx.

Allison Kilkenny has been covering the US Uncut movement for The Nation, and she joins us along with J.A. Myerson, a "tax avoidance consultant", to discuss the new resistance to paying for corporate welfare.

Finally, Republicans have declared war on Elizabeth Warren. But what will it take to get Warren some real power, enough to really put some fear into banksters and their allies in Congress?

Smith notes their attacks are largely out of proportion to the real power that Warren wields. Though Republicans spent over two hours attacking Warren when she appeared before Congress last week, Smith points out that Warren's chances of actually being named to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are skinny.

And then there's the question of Bureau power itself. If you dream of a Bureau head with sharp suits who will track down and incarcerate mortgage bundlers and fraudulent foreclosers -- dream again. There's no chance in hell that even Wonderful Warren will be to the Banksters what Elliot Ness was to Al Capone.

After all, this is an administration gearing up for a reelection fight expected to cost a billion—with a B—dollars. Thanks to Citizens United, big business can throw some seriously big money around, and Obama has money worries enough. Way enough to stifle any likely pre-election moves on billionaires. Even if he had the inclination.

I have to wonder, too, if there's an element of sexism in the reactions to Warren. After all, there aren't a lot of women in high places in Obama's economic team—and it was mostly women, you'll remember, who warned and were ignored before the financial crisis first hit.

Nonetheless Krugman seems to think that the unhinged attacks on Warren are a perfect opportunity -- another --  to debate over who's responsible for breaking the economy. The administration may not have the guts for it, but groups like US Uncut, National People's Action, and BanksterUSA just might.

We may not have an Elizabeth Ness with a federal bureau at her back, but we do have popular protest -- from Wisconsin to Ohio to Indiana and back. Maybe we can have the conversation without them.

James and Bobby Tolbert of VOCAL-New York join Laura in studio the day after their successful protest action to talk about next steps, about Bank of America's tax refund from hell, and about the new wave of protest movements that are going to keep building beyond the next election.

Rosa Clemente just returned from Wisconsin, where she spoke to young activists of color about their concerns over Walker's attempts to crush unions and cut education budgets.  Rosa joins Laura in studio, and Lena via phone to discuss the next steps for the uprising in Wisconsin.

"We're seeing a populist wave right now that's going to go through 2012," says James Mumm of National People's Action, who says he's seeing "big ideas and bold demands" from progressive groups around the country. National People's Action is part of a coalition that shut down a Bank of America this week and protested at the National Association of Attorney Generals conference, and then took the fight to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell's offices in Congress.

James and Bobby Tolbert of VOCAL-New York join Laura in studio the day after their successful protest action to talk about next steps, about Bank of America's tax refund from hell, and about the new wave of protest movements that are going to keep building beyond the next election.

Finally, China's announced its new economic plan--focusing on reducing inequality, investing in infrastructure, and raising standards of living. Who needs THAT, though, when at home we've got the benevolence of David Koch!

Have you noticed a little extra being trimmed off the top of your account these days? Let's take Bank of America—Forbes notes that they're testing a new “fee structure” for formerly-free checking, adding $6 to $25 to their take of your money each month.

The banks have been adding fees to recoup profits lost under the regulations in last year's Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Of course, you can escape the fees by maintaining a high balance—so once again, the fees hit those who can least afford them.

Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citi are also hiking their fees.

Conveniently, while they're skimming fees from you, they're also neatly avoiding paying taxes back -- in tax dollars that could be used to rebuild the economy the banks drove into a ditch. Bank of America paid nothing in taxes in 2009—a big zero—and while they're one of the worst offenders -- bad enough to be the targets of the first round of US Uncut protests around the country this past weekend, yes B of A is bad -- but they're not the only ones.

Taxes and fees for us, profits and bonuses for the banksters. Is this the new American Dream? There's one solution to it, though, and that's to move your money—and if you're interested in more information about that -- we have a link right here.

Scot and Cory join Laura in Madison for a discussion of the depth and breadth of the fight working people face in Wisconsin--and to note that they are up for the challenge.

The fight in Wisconsin has national implications, and national leaders have made the trip to Madison to express solidarity with the workers and join their struggle. Perhaps none more prominent than Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been speaking to rallies, and led a march of students back to school today after several days off supporting their teachers.

Rev. Jackson spoke with Laura about the need to support the rights of workers when they are under attack, and to remind everyone of the connections between the civil rights struggle and the struggle of working people everywhere.

"Wisconsin has a proud tradition in terms of labor, the environment, of people standing up to the power and money of big corporations," says Spencer Black, former chair of the Wisconsin State Assembly Natural Resources Committee.  And those big corporations don't like that tradition one bit. The Bradley Foundation, a right-wing organization with connections with the billionaire Koch brothers, has poured money into Walker's anti-union, anti-worker campaign, and they're not stopping with union busting.

Spencer and David Newby, former president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, join Laura in Madison to discuss the big business backers behind Walker's campaigns not just to gut workers' rights, but to rig the next election.

"People are very concerned about what will happen next if their right-wing governors and legislatures are emboldened by something in Wisconsin," says Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. She notes that while she was in Washington last week, colleagues told her that Wisconsin had to win its fight because if not, their state was next--and she got on the first plane she could to get home to her state and stand with the protesters.

Rep. Baldwin joins Laura in Madison to discuss the larger national context for the fight over workers' rights in Wisconsin--and why it's connected to the larger fight over reproductive justice, health care, and rights for LGBT people.

The fight against Scott Walker's attack on working people isn't just in Madison--and it isn't just about a budget repair bill, say Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now and State Assemblyman Cory Mason.  Hundreds of people are protesting and attending town halls in towns across the state, sometimes towns with only a few thousand people living in them.  And if you think the fight is messy now, just wait until Walker rolls out his actual budget.

Scot and Cory join Laura in Madison for a discussion of the depth and breadth of the fight working people face in Wisconsin--and to note that they are up for the challenge.

"Today on the Capitol steps, what we did there was create a little bit of the world we'd like to see," says Tom Morello, musician with Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and solo performer as The Nightwatchman.  He joined the protests in Wisconsin to help lift the spirits and support the protesters, and he notes that this struggle is historic. "This is a shining example, for working people across the United States to not just hold dearly to the rights they have, but let's do some advancing of those rights as well."

Tom spoke with Laura in Madison about the role of musicians and artists in the struggle for rights, the role of independent media, and why it's time to take back the narrative around workers' rights.

While the Assembly continues to hold nonstop hearings, letting the people of the state express their anger, the Democrats in the State Senate are meeting outside of Wisconsin to hold off a vote in that chamber, and Mary and others are investigating the connections to Karl Rove, the Club for Growth, and other groups pushing for union-busting laws. Mary and Mark take some time to tell Laura why Wisconsin matters for the entire country.

"Unions realize that this is a threat to their very existence," says Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, of Scott Walker's attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers. And some of the usual suspects are behind Walker's attack--from the Koch brothers to Republican ideologues. "These corporations want to get these people off the playing field," says John Nichols, of The Nation. Matt and John discuss the history behind this week's historic labor protests.

If Scott Walker is allowed to gut public employees' right to collective bargaining, Sheila Cochran of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council points out, it will lower the floor for all Wisconsinites' wages and benefits.  The unions in the state have long helped keep wages high and benefits, including health care, good for all of the state's workers, even as factories have closed and jobs gone overseas.

The public sector remains the last bastion of union workers around the country, and Sheila and Diane Palmer of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin discuss the impact the cuts will have on working families in Wisconsin and around the U.S.

"People understand this is a national struggle," says Mary Bottari of the situation in Wisconsin right now, and Mark Pocan, Wisconsin State Assemblyman from the 78th District, says "This has to be the spot where we stop it nationally."  If Scott Walker manages to take away the workers' right to collective bargaining, they point out, other states will do the same--Ohio and Indiana are already trying.

While the Assembly continues to hold nonstop hearings, letting the people of the state express their anger, the Democrats in the State Senate are meeting outside of Wisconsin to hold off a vote in that chamber, and Mary and others are investigating the connections to Karl Rove, the Club for Growth, and other groups pushing for union-busting laws. Mary and Mark take some time to tell Laura why Wisconsin matters for the entire country.

"When firefighters see an emergency, we respond," says Mahlon Mitchell, the new president of the firefighters' union in Wisconsin. Scott Walker left the firefighters and the police out of his drastic cuts to union employees' rights, but the firefighters have been rallying in solidarity with the rest of the public employees all week. "It's not a movement, it's a way of life. It's not just a union way of life, it's letting them know that labor is important," Mitchell notes.

Mitchell spoke with Oliver Dykstra from The Uptake inside the Capitol building this weekend.

"There's nothing like learning about how you change something outrageous," says Laura Dresser of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, who's been at the protests in Madison all week with her nine-year-old son. It's not just the kids who are learning from supporting their teachers' union this week against Scott Walker's cuts--Laura notes that she's learned that even when the votes appear to be there in the legislature, there can be ways to stop a vote.

Laura joins our Laura Flanders to discuss what she's learned this week--and what it appears that Scott Walker still hasn't learned.

Thanks again to WORT Madison for the studio space, and for The Uptake and Free Speech TV for making this broadcast possible.