the u.n. security council agrees military intervention in syria is not an option but fails to reach a cooler how to end the crisis the ruling destined regime overthrown bunch of russian rules against meddling in the country's domestic affairs. and the clashes between government forces and rebel fighters continue on the outskirts of the topple so position has rejected a chance between some of the country's president instead stressing the assad family with a brutal and bloody end. on sixteen and all her million people a lot. of dead and threw him into. the percent who once since the birth of this nickel currency the figures were really just a day off the e.u. leaders pledged eighty billion year is to play for the cure all of that but i'm

going to try. and there's the headlines up next tom holtzman brings the florida republican primary into the spotlight the big picture. welcome to the big picture i'm tom hartman in washington d.c. you need to know this polls are closing in florida and it looks like mitt romney is back on top of the republican primary race whether voters in the sunshine state

tonight realize that or not they aren't choosing between candidates and choosing mitt romney or newt gingrich or rick santorum they are even choosing people that i voters in florida just like they did and south carolina and new hampshire and iowa they are choosing between special interest groups not candidates but special interest groups this is what citizens united has done to our democracy and to our elections we no longer have candidates running for office we have interest groups promoting the candidates that they own running for office interest groups like wall street or big oil like the for profit health insurers that all have the power to buy our elections now thanks to the supreme court their citizens united decision so giving that who really won in florida tonight let's look at the numbers i mean pretty straightforward stuff in the last republican presidential primary. about forty eight exactly forty eight point seven million dollars was spent and at this

point and six hundred sixty six thousand five hundred fifty seven ads have been run this year this year the candidates have only run thirty nine thousand four hundred twenty nine ads and a forty percent decrease in advertising and they've only spent thirteen point seven million dollars seventy two percent drop. so what's going on here seventy two percent drop in candidates by in ads i thought this was the year of massive negative advertising that the voters across the nation would be in and bit dated would see the ads well they are but the candidates themselves aren't the ones running the ads instead it's special interest groups in two thousand and eight for example special interest groups ran just seventeen hundred ads seven hundred sixty three specifically at this point the election for about one point one million dollars chump change nothing but this year thanks to citizens united those special interest groups have aired thirty thousand four hundred forty two ads that's a sixteen underage percent increase sixteen hundred twenty six percent to be exact

and they've spent fifteen point two million dollars doing it that's almost a twelve hundred eighty one percent increase so really what's going on here is the candidates are running anymore special interest groups the super pacs they're the ones actually running for president american crossroads or americans for prosperity just these two come. super pacs have spent eight point eight million dollars on ads around the country and where they're getting their money from american crossroads top fund funders seven million bucks from texas homebuilder bob perry big real estate two million bucks in the c.e.o. of chief oil and gas trevor reese jones big oil a million dollars to the dixie rice agriculture big agribusiness and americans for prosperity according to media matters they received over five million dollars from the koch brothers the richest of the rich people and the biggest of the big industries are the ones actually running this election in florida over thirteen thousand television ads have been run on behalf of mitt romney gingrich's only

aired two hundred and most of those romney ads were not paid for by romney or his campaign they came from a super pac called restore our future and guess who is the one of the top contributors to restore our future. surprise wall street billionaire hedge fund manager john paulson you know romney is running for president wall street and the hedge fund managers who want to protect their capital gains tax loopholes are the ones really running for president so tonight mitt romney's going to give a big victory speech but the real winner the big one or wall street. in two thousand and ten just like every two years every single seat in the house of representatives was up for reelection and thanks to the supreme court's citizens united decision earlier that year outside corporate front groups were given free rein to spend unlimited amounts buying the elections which they did over three

hundred million dollars was spent the two thousand and ten midterm election that's more than a four hundred percent increase in outside spending from the last midterm election in two thousand and six and because most of that outside money came from big corporations that want deregulation and billionaires who want tax cuts tea party republicans won in a lot landslide victory and have since defended their corporate and billionaire donors relentlessly they've blocked the most meager of tax increases on millionaires and billionaires they've blocked attempts to cut off oil subsidies for transnational oil corporations they've tried to destroy elements of dodd frank the wall street reform law that gives shareholders finally a say in c.e.o. pay and ends too big to fail bank bailouts and all the while they but it's hacking working people voting to end medicare and replace it with a voucher program to cut home heating assistance for the poor and holding unemployment benefits and tax cuts for the middle class hostage in exchange for extending the bush tax cuts for billionaires. it's literally the best house of

representatives money could buy meanwhile in the senate we're only thirty seven of the one hundred seats faced re-election in two thousand and ten there are still senators who haven't felt the wrath of citizens united who are bought off and who are trying to do the right thing one of those a senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island led by senator whitehouse democrats in the senate are pushing for a vote on what president obama has your group referred to as the buffett rule it's a rule that will require anyone who pay makes more than a million bucks a year to pay a minimum of thirty percent in federal income taxes regardless of where their income comes from keep in mind the top tax rate now for rate right now for people like warren buffett's secretary is thirty five percent so millionaires and billionaires will actually still pay less than she does but with the buffett rule in place people like mitt romney and paris hilton will make their money sit on their butts around the pool waiting for the dividend checks to arrive will finally pay their fair share in taxes and not just the mac current maximum of fifteen

percent senator white house is calling the legislation the ain't a fair share act so can such a proposal break a republican filibuster in the senate and actually get consideration in a bought off house of representatives here to offer his take on this is conservative commentator david selig from from our new york studios david great to see you thank you. it's always a pleasure. what's the one thread with the. the. kibbutz the telecast montserrat the heart. ok. why do you hate warren buffett's secretary. well i don't hate warren buffett's secretary at all but the fact of the matter is your viewing audience and much of america is being hoodwinked this is a nonsensical argument and i feel like warren buffett has really become almost this and feeble the old man who the president has paraded out in like

a soviet style show trial is almost a useful idiot for this nonsensical argument the fact of the matter is on earnings income where you go out and work they'll still pay the regular income rate this is the long term capital gains rate that should be a lesser amount and by the way on january first of two thousand and thirteen it's going up a whopping ten percent that will mean we're going to be taxed at twenty five percent why doesn't the president say how he's going to spend this money rather than just trying to kick the investor square in the fanny tom ok so you do you agree with grover norquist that raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires is an impeachable offense. it should be. ok. your argument if i recall our previous conversations about the reason why people receiving their income sitting on the bottom around the pool waiting for the

dividend checks to arrive is is maximally taxed at fifteen percent rather than the thirty five percent that warren buffett's secretary makes is because it's double taxation because the corporation pays taxes on their income before they distribute their dividends so they're right well let's only part of it tom i would remind you that if warren buffett work see pays the top rate as well but remember these super investors that you're talking about they really walk in lockstep with the government they are responsible for much of the opportunity and taxing them onerous taxation will quite a quite literally grind our economy to a halt you know this is ministration has basically to leave if you say most of us are yes sir if warren buffett can't well. that makes no sense to me if you're saying that this is double taxation exxon mobil paid out nineteen billion dollars in dividends in two thousand and ten they paid no u.s. income taxes general electric paid out about twenty billion dollars in dividends

they paid no u.s. attacks taxes this is not out of the scrape and that's because the bamboo sold this is ministration previously they always paid taxes and in this case they did not why is that because the c.e.o. of general electric played a couple of rounds of golf with the commander in chief because because they aren't crony deal the first of all a lot of these corporations haven't paid taxes in decades and you and i both know that do that and secondly those that have done all that in particular in two thousand and two thousand and ten weren't paying taxes they were doing so because the market crash and they were able to claim losses but they're still paying dividends and people are still getting those dividend checks they're still paying a maximum fifteen percent you know c.b.s. new york times poll shows that a majority of americans and seventy six percent. favor the buffett rule i think if somebody is making a million dollars a year like mitt romney does or or fifteen or twenty or thirty million dollars a year like mitt romney does that instead of paying thirteen percent in income tax on it they should pay the thirty five percent the mitt romney secretary pays i

don't don't think it approaches your villanova's argument absolutely not and i would like to address that issue the people who feel that way they should also say to this administration and perhaps the next one how are you spending this money i mean tom if they were to seize all of that money they'd probably just waste it there's no accountability he says in his shoe about a contrary miss why should paris hilton in the waltons aramis a lower tax rate on money that they literally you know fell into their laps and they got sitting around the pool where did you know paris hilton in her bikini why should she pay fifteen percent maximum income tax whereas the guy who's digging up the street in front of their new york city is going to pay up to thirty five percent it makes no sense where you don't eric and that's just not true and you know it because that guy who's digging up that street that hard working proletariat as it were when he or she invests their money they're going to appreciate that lower tax rate rather than to get reminded daily that is what he second point

working people are investing their money in for a one case which are tax deferred until they retire this is this is this this is a money this is a tax this is a tax rate for the rich david you and i both know this is an attack on the middle class tom and don't let them fool you saying they are an essential a x. in the middle class who are slowly reliant you have all these seniors who rely on that money they're going to be taxed right into the poor house it's not right it won't why don't the david if i did you know you're a senior who's making twenty or thirty thousand dollars a year on your investments you're not going to be paying thirty five percent income tax. we're going to among the second the second part of this argument that the president's been making is we have to close these tax loopholes and i think they do even i'm sorry we're out of time here yes but i think we could agree that we need to close tax loopholes ok. the only tax loophole is what section one fifty two

which allows the illegal aliens to claim dependents in mexico ok david thank you thank you for. coming up tonight on the rest of the show the u.n. releases a startling report on the world's population growth what do they say is needed to keep us from wiping out the planet and ourselves also the effects of the foreclosure crisis often go over looked at one particular group of americans and see who they are and who have really been hurt the most and new was able to squirm his way out of his open marriage g.m. the latest obstacle facing him for a lot more challenging. will be the. science technology innovation hall believes developments from around russia

we've got the future covered. critic three. months free. free. free. free book your videos for your media projects free media. screwed our planet in a new report just published the united nations is warning that rapid population growth which will likely see the number of humans living on the planet explode to nine billion by two thousand and forty will condemn billions more to a life of poverty the un's high level panel on global sustainability choir cautions

in their report we run the risk of condemning up to three billion members of our human family to a life of endemic poverty by twenty thirty the un estimates the world will need to produce fifty percent more food forty five percent more energy and thirty percent more water to sustain more people on the planet one key is energy because without energy can't produce food or distribute water and needing to produce forty five percent more energy from fossil fuels to sustain nine billion people might be impossible as more and more scientists admit the peak oil has been reached worldwide so what does all this mean for our crowded planet and what can be done about eli clifton joins us now from our studios in new york he's the national security reporter at think progress you know i welcome hi thanks for having me great great to have you with us how and why is this population growth and the demands for water and energy and food associated with it

a national security issue for the united states. well i think first of all when we when we talk about these numbers while we are talking about a population increase of seven to nine billion by two thousand and forty perhaps what we need to really be looking at as being the most interesting increase here is actually in the size of the global middle class which is going to increase by three billion by twenty thirty now that's really what's going to drive a lot of these these increased demands for food and energy and water and then to go to your national security question this is the type of discussion we need to be having now is how are we going to address these increased demands which are going to strain our natural resources and the global economy in ways that it really hasn't been tested before and in fact i believe was the world watch institute did the math some years back and found that if everybody in the world all six billion of us seven billion those whatever it is now everybody in the world live the lifestyle of

a poverty level family in america as i recall the number of the threshold they were using was like fourteen thousand seven hundred dollars a year for a family of four with the current given that you know half the world's population is actually living on two dollars a year with the current world population we need for planet earth's to provide the raw materials for everybody to have just poverty level the us standard of living is the prospect of adding a few billion people more pretty stupid and should we be doing something to stabilize human population. well i think definitely the questions about managing population growth come into play here at the same time we really do need to examine how we're going to manage even our existing population levels as we have a ballooning middle class in especially countries like china and india because that's something that you really can't go back on this is a population that for the most part the middle class of twenty thirty has already been born and the question is how are we going to manage this how are we going to

manage natural resources and how are we going to make. sort of macroeconomic policy decisions which will we'll work out by the time twenty thirty rolls around because that's something that we are definitely facing down and something that is going to occur if the current trajectories are accurate well those are really important questions you like what does the u.n. suggest needs to be done and what in your opinion needs to be done. well the u.n. in their report and the commission of theirs the road it tried to identify a number of what they call a new political economy which they hope will get to see implemented or at least sketched out at their upcoming rio plus twenty conference which is occurring in june now their hope is that a discussion about for instance with natural resource management the types of things they're asking for are reducing subsidies on fossil fuels and in the case of emissions getting those so at least natural resources are priced within within the global economy as opposed to the situation right now where very often there's very

little value or no value put on natural resources such as clean air or water the types of things identified in terms of policy approaches that could be implemented to deal with this would be things such as. carbon trading perhaps caps perhaps taxation on pollutants of these the types of things that i think you'll see discussed at the at the june meeting do you think this report is going to influence people who are still reluctant to fund renewal energy research or for that matter those people who are fighting against birth control and the battle we're seeing right now in the political arena. i do i think that this is the type of discussion in the way it's being presented right now in the context of a global economic crisis where and the report really does try to frame it in these terms that now is the time to take sort of a holistic view a holistic approach let's look down the road to twenty thirty and talk about one of the really solid economic policy decisions that we can make now which frankly are a necessity if we're going to be able to sustain the growth levels we would like to

see for the world's population by twenty thirty. thank you very much for being with us tonight very well thanks for having me this is a very serious problem in fact it was a serious problem fourteen years ago when i wrote a book on it titled the last hours of ancient sunlight the fate of the world and what we can do before it's too late a book which inspired leo dicaprio as movie the eleventh hour turning mankind's darkest hour into its finest there's there's some serious stuff here you know from the time of at the time of christ you know our zero year in in us numbers here in western numbers there were about a quarter billion people on the planet the current sunlight in the cube over here is current sunlight was basically providing everything right people's food their transportation their housing their clothing it all came from current sunlight those sun would fall the grass the cattle would eat the grass oxen would eat the grass horses would eat the grass we would transport ourselves with them we would use

their their skin or their grass for for housing for clothing and obviously for food by the time the magna carta was signed twelve fifteen about a half a billion people were were on the earth living on the earth or on the you're through one thousand more or less this is when we started using coal then then the numbers really start picking up in eighteen hundred and the year eight hundred we were up to one and at that point we had about a half a billion people by eight hundred we had a billion people that was our first one billion so all of human history this is ten thousand b.c. actually humans started hundred sixty five thousand years ago it's the oldest fossils of one hundred sixty five thousand years right up to one thousand years ago all that time hundred sixty five thousand years to produce the first one billion people in the united states in one thousand nine hundred. and then our second billion took only one hundred thirty years nine hundred thirty. about one hundred thirty we were full bore into the industrial revolution we were able to convert energy oil coal into into food basically instead of plowing a field with

a horse you had one hundred horses and you cover your tractor the third billion people didn't take one hundred thirty years the third billion people only took thirty years to hear the john kennedy stood up and took the oath of office the population of the entire planet was only three billion people less than half of what it is right now in one nine hundred sixty. the fourth billion only took fourteen years nine hundred seventy four the fifth billion only five years one thousand nine hundred seven the six billion only it's only eleven years twelve years nine hundred ninety nine and the seventh billion we hit in two thousand and eleven. the fact of the matter is right now because there are so many of us on the planet we have outnumbered termites as the largest single species biomass on earth is more human flesh than any other species we consume half of the freshwater on the planet and half of the net photosynthetic productivity that is all the output of

all the plants capturing all the sunlight on earth. richard leakey wrote a book called the sixth extinction he says we are producing the sixth great extinction because we're consuming so much water and so much of this photosynthetic output that all the other species that have to compete with us are being wiped out by us that we're at an extinction level that similar to when the dinosaurs vanished . we are we are facing as a consequence of using this ancient sunlight this oil and coal and gas where you are warming our globe we're producing enormous amounts of pollution. we need to frankly cut back on fossil fuels and cut our population so cutting back on fossil fuels great let's go to renewables how do we cut our population there are people who suggest that the room with a way to cut population is to make birth control more available to everybody but it turns out that in a lot of countries where birth control is widely available you still have ten eleven people children per for mother per family so it's not totally that i mean

that's important but it's not totally there there are other people who say it's all it's economics you want a country gets wealthy families get smaller but again there are families in the middle there are countries in the middle east where the average income is forty fifty thousand dollars a person as they spread the wealth around and again they've got twelve kids what's the deal it turns out that the number one thing that will cut population that will stabilize it in one single generation that will stabilize population right across the board is when women are educated and empowered. so we've got a serious problem here and this is one of the one of the number one solutions we're living in a spherical world as it were. we are the only species. we are the only animal. whose waste is not something else is food. think about that for a minute everything else on earth every other living thing on earth that's waste is food for somebody else and it was the case for us until the industrial revolution

and now we're producing waste whether it's radioactive waste toxic waste metal whatever it may be we are now producing waste that other things can't use that the earth can't recycle so it's like we're living in a sphere and we're producing waste in a line and eventually that line starts to push against the edges of the sphere. and pop but. what we're looking at here is the fate of the world or at least the fate of humanity. so you know we've got to do something about this we got to do something quick. crazy alert talk about being married to a cause a woman in seattle recently married an abandoned warehouse that she was attempting to save from demolition babylonia i vas told reporters when asked about her reasons for taking the plunge gentrification is happening it's a serious issue that affects poor people and especially people of color and this is

just the beginning of the fight the supreme court should have officiated their wedding after all if corporations are people why not abandon warehouses to the ceremony went smoothly with the attorney minister asking a vase if she would love and cherish and protect this warehouse to which i replied with a line from the famous cat power song sea of love it was even added her own verses verses to the ceremonies saying do you remember when we met i cleaned your rooms and washed your floors build community opened some doors you changed my life i'll never forget the day we met i'll cherish your community spirit until the day i die the ceremony ended with a large banner reading i do being draped from the building and the wedding attendees singing lean on me unfortunately they have honeymoon had to be cut short because the building the husband was demolished on friday it's unclear if ricky man on dog santorum was the guy driving the wrecking ball. after the break everyone

knows the foreclosure crisis has crippled the american economy and damaged the lives of many of the one group of americans it's made achieving the american dream just that a dream. as for shot four times in total. war as it were. sort of the boards are still in my body. and people should be allowed to defend themselves were they own guns in the hands of law abiding decent people are not a problem national rifle association. or group of basically retired military we love to shoot holes and i'm sorry if you know that the bullet comes out

here and this makes it go bang and it what's in front of here is going to die that's all the training you really really need raise your hand if you know something's been. ok to what i want to philadelphia only over streets. until about a hopefully we will never have to use the weapons for self defense but we should be prepared the full class including the teacher i think was. seventeen students. and one of seven or still alive. which brings them. from fun.