and carrots and thinks sexual violence is just food right come on people there's nothing sexual about it it's fruits vegetables right i mean what's the big deal. meanwhile newt gingrich and donald trump a proposed zucchinis cucumbers and carrots be considered essential foods in the new food pyramid. when it comes to the ongoing european financial crisis is time to prepare for the worst if that's what the bankers are doing. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through that sort of being made who can you trust no one who is you know in view with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to

ask we do our t. question more. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour bank stars in europe and here at home are kicking plan b. into action in case the euro collapses and france and germany aren't able to save

the day a little work in this week's edition of geeky science i'll share with you fascinating new findings about why and how exercise does the body and mind good and in tonight's daily take the theater of the absurd continues on capitol hill it's not time we all tell our congressman that it is enough. you need to know this banks are waiting around while france and germany figure out a way to save europe from financial collapse they're making plans of their own to deal with what might happen if or when the europe the euro does collapse is the wall street journal is reporting european central banks are actually trying to figure out a way to bring back old national currency they haven't been in circulation since the euro was created back in two thousand and two meanwhile nations like ireland

and england are looking into whether or not they have enough printing presses online to deal with. heightened demand for their national currencies should the euro go up in smoke switzerland is looking around for new currencies besides the euro to serve as a reference point for their franc as are latvia and bosnia and herzegovina and montenegro which isn't officially in the euro zone but uses the euro is looking for a new national currency altogether as the wall street street journal points out the fact central bankers are even studying the possibility which until this fall was considered unthinkable underscores how swiftly conditions have deteriorated meanwhile u.s. banks are preparing to j.p. morgan chase put out a report yesterday urging investors to begin edging their beds against a possible collapse of the euro the bank put the likelihood of a european collapse at twenty percent so are those odds about right and is the world prepared for what might happen if it all comes crashing down professor cost

of panic this joins me now from new york he is the associate professor of sociology at new york city college of technology of at c.u. n.y. and author of the book remaking scarcity from capitalism inefficiency to democrat to economic democracy professor welcome. thank you for having me on your show thank you so much greece is literally the cradle of democracy do you think any greek citizen alive would have thought a year ago that today their democratically elected prime minister would have been replaced by an unelected banks or with ties to goldman sachs. no i think it's a very disturbing development it shows the magnitude of the crisis in greece as things have deteriorated. very rapidly traditional the traditional political establishment because some lost legitimacy and now

all of the major parties of the basically right center right even the socialists in a sense are part of the center right of sort of aligned themselves behind the. policy and they have to unite because there is a growing opposition among the greek population and they're basically trying to. push and support these failing policies even against the growing conviction of greek citizens that these policies are not leading anywhere yeah well he was pushed out when he said let's ask the people i mean and then we saw the same thing out in italy when they they have a banks there with ties to goldman sachs running italy now as well are we watching the beginning not just of the unraveling or possible unraveling of the european single currency but of at least some portion of democracy itself in europe. i think what's happening in europe is your european political and economic

elites and they want they have me stagg knows the crisis they have used the crisis us further as a sort of opportunity to further it and trance the. neo liberal free market architecture underlying the european project and as they are there is a growing opposition growing resistance in europe they are very anxious to post changes with giving european citizens at sonce to have a say over their future and of course there have been many instances in the past when european citizens to citizens of different countries were asked the referendum what they thought about the vireos. sainz isn't treaties that. have made up the european project over the decades and they have often said said no

so i think the european economic and political elites are committed to the use of europe as a way of eroding. the european social model that some degree of well first states and they want to push it. even against the growing opposition of european citizens who see themselves suffering from us very good policies that are primarily designed to protect those who caused the crisis in the first place professor in the in the minute or so we have left is it is it possible that there's a silver lining here we have three and a half minutes is a possible is a silver lining here that this thing could crash in such a way that there will be a reorganization that actually might be more small d democratic or might you know return national sovereignty to some of these nations and in ways that it is more

rational than than this irrational neo liberalism. well i think if the whole thing process in a do so or that way the result with very well be chaotic and it could be disastrous for europe and the global economy as well so i think our hope the best hope we have is that resistance escalates so. there is a movement towards a real reintegration of europe in a more progressive direction a european project that prioritizes the needs of ordinary workers and citizens rather than the needs and. interests of but the financial sector that's that's and dodginess in an internal you know reorganization restructuring what if there's an

exodus attack what for example in thailand famously in the whole asian you know contagion back a generation ago came down when investors attacked individual investors attacked the bought a could the same thing conceivably happen with the euro banks there is basically crashing a currency while speculating out there have certainly been you know banks through runs on the bonds of these various countries particularly greece and italy. yeah i mean the shock in a certain way has already happened in europe and it took the form of course of the financial crisis of two thousand and eight that mean we oftentimes talk now days about the sovereign debt crisis and we forget that many of the countries that were in that diary facing trouble right now did not have deficits and debts before the current global capital is crisis so this is already happening this has happened and of course financial markets are trying to do their best to sort of speculate

and benefit from from this situation and there is a kind of irony in seeing all those financial luck those who were bailed out by governments now turning around and pointing the finger at governments and telling them that governments have been irresponsible and that therefore they have to cut basic social services. for the citizens so. i think you know the situation is very volatile and very precarious and of course. the financial sector or has a great responsibility of the european leaders who are basically obsessed with asperity policies that do not deal with the underlying issues. i think you would be solid spot on analysis professor person professor cheeseman thank you so much for being with us tonight thank you.

just. the good the bad and the very very very ugly the good georgia state representative scott holcombe republicans in georgia are following in the footsteps of florida governor rick scott and trying to force all welfare recipients to submit to and pass a drug test before they can receive any benefits so democratic state representative holcomb is turning the table on his colleagues into this legislation forcing lawmakers to submit to drug tests as well as welcome said if required for the poor we lawmakers need to stop the bad newt gingrich just when you thought mitt romney best represents the one percent in the republican race the smoking gun got ahold of want to newt speaking contracts so what does the former lobbyist for fannie mae

demand when he's asked to give a speech somewhere well it starts out as sixty thousand bucks then goes to first class airfare first class would tell accommodations and upscale dining but here's the truly strange thing gingrich also demands a nonsmoking one bedroom suite prefer blue with two bathrooms why on earth newt needs two bathrooms for himself one can only venture a guess but i think a guy with a half a million dollar line of credit at tiffany's and extravagant speaking to man's have a tough time talking like a populist and the very very ugly gretchen carlson this morning g.o.p. t.v.'s favorite christmas warrior went on a tirade against rhode island governor lincoln chafee's decision to put up a holiday tree rather than a christmas tree not only was chafey ambushed by o'reilly's little sidekick jesse waters he was also but he also had to endure quite a tongue lashing by grouch. what is the debate. what's the debate december twenty fifth is christmas there's no debating that i don't get it that's just an easy way

to try and push people aside and follow the p.c. mode that we have fallen into my the way the governor defended the exact argument that the people against him are using yeah back when you went to elementary school we said the lord's prayer in school and slowly but surely things have changed and maybe christmas more be a federal holiday coming up if it continues down this path is that more and maybe santa claus will be thrown in jail and maybe rahm rudolph will be turned into glue who could be the next casualty of the war on christmas it's unclear how long until fox news realizes that america is home to all sorts of religions and not just christianity sadly christmas is still seventeen days away meaning we'll have to continue listening to this nonsense for a few more weeks and that's very very. real

word game breaking a sweat may be the best thing you can do to keep your mind and memory sharp scientists at the university of dublin just released a study that shows a direct link between memory function and exercise the researchers asked a group of sedentary male college students to take part in a memory test followed by strenuous exercise first the young men viewed a series of photos with the faces and names of strangers after a break they were asked to recall the names they'd just seen as the photos flashed across a computer screen afterward about half the students are exactly happy students rode a stationary bicycle at a really fast pace and till they were exhausted the other group sec quietly for thirty minutes then both groups took the name recall test again the group that had exercised perform much better on the memory test and they had their first try all the volunteers who had rested showed no improvement at all. the biological

explanation blood samples taken throughout the experiment revealed that immediately after the strenuous activity the cyclist's had significantly higher levels of a protein known as brain derived neurotrophic factor b.d.n.f. which is known to improve and maintain the health of nerve cells the men who had sat quietly showed no comparable change in b.d.n.f. levels for years scientists have assumed that exercise simply improved improve the flow of blood and thus oxygen glucose and other nutrients to the brain which accounted for exercise related improvements in brain function but b.d.n.f. which is unrelated to joe biden's b.d. b.f.d. but is nonetheless is a b.f.d. helps explain why mental functioning appears to improve so significantly with exercise and why those improvements could be so long lasting particularly involving memory and recall in fact this is the fourth study published this fall that shows a definite link between improve mental function and memory and an increase in b.d.

and f. levels in both humans and mammals across all age groups so grab those ten issues and move your brain will thank you for. after the break republicans forced a reading of the constitution on the first day of the majority house representatives so why nearly a year later they pass a piece of legislation that the rug shreds the constitution like one of my deleted . what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions it's going to break through it through d.p. and maybe who can you trust no one who is in view with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more.

your take my take is the segment of the show where we answer your questions comments criticisms and opinions heard here on the big picture last week i did a daily take on how curious it is that even though the mainstream media especially the talking heads of g.o.p. t.v. were all gung ho about being waterboard or tase don camera when those tactics were

in the headlines now even though they're quick to downplay the painful effects of pepper spray none of them are chomping at the bit to be pepper sprayed on camera in pursuit of the truth or at least in pursuit of high ratings. well fox seems to be content defending the use of pepper spray no one there is lining up to be pepper sprayed like hannity was lining up to be waterboarding maybe that's because pepper spray really is that bad i had the inventor of pepper spray on my show this week and i asked him. if pepper spray is a food product and i put it on my burrito. didn't exactly find it funny but i use weapons grade pepper spray to spice up a burrito pepper spray is so fortified and is formulated to a point of gases and propellant some chemical that's of us going to such nutrition is cooler than evolved that unity journey to there is impossible to eat that is no food anymore thousands of times i'm stronger than any kind of you ever put in your

mouth well and i've had i love. it is designed to immediately produce inflammation of mucus membranes them as your eyes shut you have difficulty in breathing what are the long term effects of these individuals i mean you know each one of us respond to chemicals and these are differently we don't know what's going to happen to these eyes of the disease or it's reduces them and we just enter the norm world that's what i was shocked and this was the guy who invented perspiring the point of this pepper spray is a chemical weapon it is more painful than getting tasered and has far more long lasting effects than waterboarding at least physically which might be why g.o.p. t.v. talking heads are willing to praise its use from a far but not willing to put their face in front of want to listen to pike's pepper spray canisters and until they do so hannity or meghan kelly or all rally walk the walk and take in a face full of pepper spray and they should hold off on making comments about how

it's a legitimate use of force against peaceful protesters and the occupy wall street. well we we posted that daily take on the thom hartmann facebook page and asked the question should meghan kelly take a face full of pepper spray you consensus was a resoundingly yes. john wrote i think she needs to spoon some of it onto a salad or sandwich in eat on the air since it's a food product essentially and terry lynn posted give her a full dose of what the o.-w. s. got and hold the water for a while too it's kind of nasty rick pointed out something that the conservative media have been ignoring in the coverage of protesters being sprayed with pepper spray he wrote as the blog from scientific american points out is not only a chemical weapon it's a nerve agent that fact needs more widespread attention drawn to it genevieve said i'm not sure if it's the same chemical product but we had some bare me go off in our home office and not only ever in our home once not only did we have to vacate

our house for hours to let it air out but upon our return the plastic on our television set that had been hit by the spray had melted i say yes spray your face in and see what she has to say about it and we actually did a little research according to the websites of several companies that market both pepper spray and bare mace they're essentially the same chemical agent but bear mace has a higher concentration of only a resin capsicum chemical compound that causes all that burning pain near a taishan so city would be pepper sprayed and the canisters of bare mace are designed to spray a much longer range than ever sprayed but genovese point is well made this stuff is not a joke and finally roseanne posted yes right after glenn beck is waterboarding the don't hold your breath oh wait better hold your breath. that's it for your take my take the night if you like your comments and questions heard here on this segment the big picture listen up we want to know your to send us your comments by visiting the tom hartman facebook page but twitter at that time underscore apartment or in

the chat room on the message board you through the blog at tom hartman dot com you can also leave a message on a rant line at two two five three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound on it's all welcome but remember that your comments may be used on the year. so what we're house republicans up to this week if you guess creating jobs you'd be wrong but if you guessed passing unconstitutional gimmick legislation then you'd be right on point that's right yesterday house republicans passed the reins act short for regulations from the executive in need of scrutiny the act is essentially a colossal power grab by congress and considering that congress has about

a nine percent approval rating we should all be a little wary about legislation that gives congress more power what the reins act tries to do is to give either chamber of commerce out of the senate veto power to strike down any new regulations coming from the white house or other executive department agencies so for example if the e.p.a. wants to set a new limit on how much pollution koch industries can pump into our atmosphere then it would first have to be approved by republicans in the house of representatives many of whom have received direct contributions from the koch brothers essential separation of powers that keeps our government in balance and was put in place by the framers of the constitution seventeen eighty seven would be completely wiped away by the rains act. congress writes the laws the president carries out the laws that's the way it's always worked now congress wants to not only write the laws but they also want to tell the president how to carry him up to as in sure mr president

you can have new clean air standards just not on koch industries or yeah go ahead make our water safer mr president but you can't put new regulations on dow chemical they gave us a lot of contributions last last election you would think that the same house republicans who insisted the constitution be read cover to cover with a few convenient omissions on the first day of this new session would be a little more careful when passing blatantly unconstitutional legislation but beyond its unconstitutionality it's completely unnecessary republicans argue that they need this new law to curb excessive new regulations coming out of the white house what they fail to mention is that president bush issued far more regulations and president obama has republicans also argue that these regulations are burdensome and they kill jobs lower economic activity something that hasn't

been proven at all in fact just the opposite has been true so far over the past decade each new regulation actually creates jobs and boosts economic activity after all if you tell a power plant operator that they have to clean up and spew less pollution and the power companies have to go out buy a new spokes stack and scrubbers hire people to install them and boom more jobs are created there's more spending in the economy as a c.e.o. of american electric power over by the name of mike morris admitted in an interview with the washington post when asked what the impact of new regulations are on job creation. he said we have to hire plumbers electricians painters folks who do that kind of work when you retrofit a plant jobs are created in the process no question about that so the rains act isn't really about economics it's about republicans doing something to satisfy

their campaign donors who want to make as much profit as they can by polluting as much as they want plain and simple luckily the reins act has no chance of passing the senate which makes what republicans did yesterday all the more absurd and frankly in a way obscene because it was a complete waste of time and with the payroll tax cuts set to expire at the end of the month that could result in actual economic damage plus unemployment benefits also set to expire and one in five americans out of a job and a record high forty nine million americans living in poverty and forty four million americans depending on food stamps and fifty three million americans an able to get health insurance and a level of wealth inequality unseen since the great depression with the wars climate disasters the european debt crisis social unrest in the streets the question for speaker of the house john boehner has to be why the hell are you

wasting your time and our time with this constant really call him up and call your member of congress especially if there are republicans who voted for the reins at and ask the same question i'd love to hear their answer. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website to tom harkin dot com free speech dot org and r.t.e. dot com also check out our two you tube channels are going to thom hartmann dot com this entire show is also bills and free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free tomorrow i phone or i pad out at the app store you sent us feedback on twitter at tom underscore her on facebook at tom others who aren't our blogs message boards and telephone on that line at target. and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there and get active show up participate tag your it occupies something sit.

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