you know this is just really a new set of smoke screens to perpetuate what is coming to be a a just. tremendous control for odd but what is it in the american character that makes them feel good about getting screwed my own theory is that american life is just so frantic you know with people struggling very hard to make a living and being distracted by every kind of you know electronic message and show in program and entertainment conceivable that they're just you know the cognitive dissonance the collective noise in our brains is so immense that we can't really reflect on anything that's happening to us however is going back to some previous conversations we had where i scolded you for making revolutionary remarks i'm beginning to wonder whether we're going to get what i would call a john brown moment and john brown for those of you who might have a fragmentary memory of american history was that fellow who in the late eighteenth

fifty's mounted an insurrection at harper's ferry and really changed the tone and tenor of the national debate about what we were going to do about that big problem of the time which was were we going to continue to be slave holders or not and he galvanized the attention of the of the nation and about two years later we were in the civil war the greatest convulsion that the united states ever went through and so i'm wondering now you know when will the john brown moment come for financial misbehavior that you know is not only unseemly unethical criminal and bad but is really hurting this nation terribly the revolution in tunisia started with one fruit seller the french revolution started with one girl talking you know the price of bread going up and talk about john brown one individual starting the the revolution back in the u.s.

and that time you know you talk about the financial crimes you know to contrast let's say and middle a start. africa the more information they got the more upset they became you know the satellite photos and to nancy of how the top one percent was living got everyone upset in the us however the more information they get the more they become you know julian assange or wiki leaks giving information makes people want to just lie down and cuddle up into a fetal position and hope it all goes away isn't there again is it drugs in the water is it obesity is it too much football what's is it did evolution are americans doubt i know a lot of republicans don't believe in evolution but do they believe india evolution because it appears as though the mindset of the average american is the evolving there are a number of things going on that revolve around the question of authority and legitimacy and especially the news media and you know i it personally i consider myself allergic to conspiracy theories and i don't think

that there is a media conspiracy to keep the american people ignore it but they're certainly doing a terrible job of reporting you wonder why the call thought leaders in places like the wall street journal and the new york times have they haven't reacted at all to the shenanigans going on with the new york state attorney general and the taskforce for mortgage fraud and the smoke screen at the department of justice they're just not paying attention so you know we're seeing some kind of. an epoch a failure of people in charge if it's like you know control fraud itself which is using accounting. by people who run things namely people who run banks and the people who regulate them and the whole idea that you are a legitimate vested authority and people expect you to be discharging your duties

and doing things properly but yet you're not. doing it and you know there's kind of an equivalent to that in the news media. so we're getting kind of a control fraught of news too but you know it seems to me to be more a matter of incompetence than malice in the case of the news media akkad don't buy into the conspiracy theories that are out there however a cording to a recent survey people who watch fox news are less informed than people who watch no news so clearly the fox people all know that if you have a population that is being dumbed down by purposefully inflating the debate with lies deception and fraud that's a that's a population that you can steer by the nose in any direction you want to go ok now chris hedges believes that part of the reason for the national defense

authorization act is that the banks are going to collapse and that bankers don't trust the police to maintain order so they want to give the military some boosted powers in the united states because they see this thing collapsing and they want protection from the mob your thoughts chris is a very intelligent guy and very experienced as a war correspondent and you know i think that he's a voice that we ought to pay attention to i would imagine the problem a little differently you know i think there's just kind of a general level of nervousness throughout the whole culture that it's not just the bankers but it's really everybody in any kind of authority is so nervous about about the failures that they brought about that you know they they really no longer trust the system to keep on running it and you know they're taking extraordinary measures in regard to your previous statement about fox news when i was

a young newspaper reporter i investigated religious cults and pull. a tickle cults and one of the things that impressed me tremendously was how a group of people could simply subscribe to a bundle of ideas or shall we say programming and then you know their whole mental program was then set and they didn't really have to review any of their beliefs and i think that that's happened to a tremendous extent now and in our culture right so you've got bill o'reilly is more like charles manson than edward r. murrow now let's talk about something you're very keen to write about and talk about over the years peak resources and i want to ask you is there any connection between the curtailment of civil liberties in the u.s. and this peak resource the peak oil peak water etc well there's certainly a connection between all of these enormous looming issues the failure of capital

finance the failure of civil order and the faith that we can run a civil society and the availability of the vital resources that we need to have an economy that continues to grow and produce the ability to do things like service debt so yes that you know these things are all intimately connected and they all end up read down being into the question of whether or not this is a society that has enough confidence that it will be able to keep going carrying this project of civilization into the future right now we're not too sure about that but james council has another curious thing there's a washington post show that with a democrat navas the anti-war movement made up mostly of democrats has declined drastically they are apparently fine with the wars while they team up while their team is in so to speak how what's that all about it probably again

a question of authority you know if you identify your. if as a democrat or a progressive and your party is carrying out the wars and doing it in a way that you know there's no draft so people aren't being dragged off to you know against their will they're volunteering and in fact it's really kind of a job center for that disappearing cohort of young men especially you know who who need to work with their hands and can't go to work in a factory or do some cardio you know or or any longer you know build houses or do other construction jobs so you know they work with their hands killing people in other lands so you know probably it's regarded as a kind of a jobs program right well and of course when they go to these wars they often lose their hands and then goldman sachs creates hand come out of times and collateralized futures contracts they trade with other banks and they profit in another way on the death and misery of poor u.s.

servicemen sent to do goldman sachs dirty work ok and there's another war the ongoing financial war and then once again frankly the democratic voters don't mind financial crimes because their guy obama is in office so somehow like i listen to bill maher on h.b.o. no matter what finance a crime is committed he repairs the same stupidity that comes out of white house about how the bailouts are profitable how the auto companies are doing fantastically well and so these liberal so-called just because they have their guy in office they don't seem better still to finance a crime is what is it just financial illiteracy on that huffington post side of the aisle i don't think so and i think it is certainly all parts of the political spectrum thomas frank wrote a book a few years ago called what's the matter with kansas and the basic point of his book was why do voters get snookered by political parties into voting against their own interests but the situation's changed now

a few years later and what we're seeing is something a lot worse than that what we're seeing. it's now a comprehensive failure of leadership and not just in politics which is the most visible kind of leadership but comprehensively through american life and to some extent western life you know a failure of leadership in politics business in the media you know in the clergy. in education at every level and that makes for a very. nervous society all right james howard kunstler we're out of time thanks so much for being on the kaiser report quite welcome that's always a pleasure all right that's going to do it for this edition of the kaiser report with me max kaiser and stacy herbert our thing my guest james howard kunstler you can find howard kunstler at consular dot com if you like to send me an e-mail please do so at kaiser reported r t t v r u r e can follow me on twitter until next

time x. guys are saying bye oh. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. world with the. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered.

arbonne washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. republicans like any in government are supposed to follow the principles of the constitution so why are they following the actions and words of a tax billionaire instead also state prisons everywhere are for sale at least that's what the corrections corporation of america wants is this desire signaling the doomsday scenario for capitalism in america and in tonight's daily take why are americans being valued by the telecom interest industry europeans are free to text

whom ever they want. you need to know this as expected one day after president obama released his twenty thirteen budget proposal a top or ranking republican in the senate mitch mcconnell is declaring it dead on arrival he was the minority leader speaking on the floor of the small. we've got a little more time to look at the president's budget and up so you want the more one looks at it the harder it is to believe that there's the president's concern or response to the crisis that we thought last year's budget wasn't worth the paper it was printed on and neither is this one not worth the paper it was printed on. and then this morning the ranking republican on the senate budget committee jeff sessions put in his two cents. this budget increases spending over what we agreed

to last year it wipes out part of the sequester half of it increasing spending one point five trillion dollars increase in taxes by nearly over one point five trillion and that it was the tea party house of representatives turn to respond speaker of the house john boehner slammed the budget saying the president's budget is a gloomy reflection of his failed policies of the. verb america's future failed policies of that past that have created twenty three straight months of private sector job creation i might add and then house budget chairman paul ryan whose own budget last year ended medicare as we know it said president obama's irresponsible budget is a recipe for a debt crisis of the decline of america so this isn't really surprising republicans lining up against a democratic president's budget there's a bigger picture here or something else causing these republicans to line up

against the president's budget beyond just typical politics one of these four guys have in common what the senators mitch mcconnell and jeff sessions and representatives john boehner and paul ryan all have in common beyond just being republicans what is it give up they've all signed multimillionaire lobbyist grover norquist anti-tax pledge forbidding them from raising taxes on anyone anyone except one hundred sixty million working americans by letting the payroll tax cut expire and these four lap dogs aren't the only guys who signed the pledge so to have two hundred thirty six other representatives all but six republicans in the house and so to have thirty nine other senators all but seven republicans in the senate. and since president obama's budget calls for making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share of three major tax increase republicans are contractually obligated to vote no on it just as their anti-tax

master grover norquist demands in other words republicans are choosing grover norquist. over our founding fathers. according to the article six of the constitution members of congress shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support the constitution that oath reads i do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic and 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 god but two hundred seventy nine republicans in congress have taken another rose oath as the americans for tax reform both the taxpayer protection pledge. pledge to the taxpayers of the

state of blank and the american people that i will one oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and businesses and to oppose any net reduction or a limitation of deductions and credits unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates in other words no income tax increases no closing tax loopholes no cutting off taxpayer subsidies for millionaires billionaires and big corporations no matter what so there's a fundamental cost constitutional conflict here or conflict i guess governing conflict between the constitution and the oh what do you do if you have a war. in egypt you need to pay to fix a front to defend the nation right well actually george bush didn't he just put on the credit card trillion dollars what if you have an energy crisis what if arabs cut off for oil again for example or you need to make new investments in clean energy you're not allowed to cut off oil subsidies no you can't touch those will

subsidies those those are important to billionaires financial crisis one of the banks do incredible temperature of the economy oh no tax increases and for the banks manufacturing crisis cutting off job tax breaks for job outsourcers not can't do that sorry that would be cutting away a tax loophole congress is basically paralyzed today because nearly every single republican has put a lobbyists oath above their oath to support and the constitution now the republican lapdogs grover norquist have a new strategy. a lot of people are saying the house republicans caved yesterday when they proposed extending the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year without paying for the straight clean bill basically what democrats were asking for all along but this is not a cave this is merely the release of one hostage one hundred sixty million working americans who are eligible for the payroll tax cut and the retaking of another hostage millions of unemployed americans who depend on unemployment insurance

benefits to survive by deed linking the payroll tax cut from unemployment benefits republicans can avoid looking like they're about to raise taxes on working americans but at the same time quietly hold millions of unemployed americans hostage until they get the spending cuts they want or at the very least until they kill any prospects of tax increases on the rich that's not a cave so how much longer will republicans bow down before millionaire lobbyist grover norquist while ignoring the general welfare of millions of unemployed americans as the constitution demands here to offer his take on this is vice president of government affairs of the national taxpayers union andrew welcome pleasure to be here great to have you with us i. know you're a fan of grover norquist pledge i take it sure i believe that we should be reducing taxes not raising them i have a pledge for you hear that and see if you want to sign it i ended moylan pledge that i will always put the interests of the very wealthy few ahead of the interests of my country my fellow americans including during times of war famine pestilence

and natural disasters. we've we've already discovered a difference between you and me which is that i'm not going to impugn your motives than having a difference in policy i think that we have a federal government that's too large and small is those who much are not always what is that what i just read in a different big room from from i will tell you exactly why the reason is that that you think that my job that my goal in life is to protect the very wealthy few and that's not the case my goal in life is to protect my three year old daughter who is sitting at home right now to make sure that she has a country that has a solid future. that doesn't have that kind of debt crisis in its future and that's what i'm caring about i don't care as much about millionaires as i do about my daughter and about my family our debt our so-called debt crisis you know when we left when we ended world war two we were one hundred twenty seven percent of g.d.p. and debt right now we're less than one hundred percent you know how we got out of that debt and after world war two economic growth is the biggest answer we borrowed more money. go back and look it up harry truman and dwight eisenhower

democrat and republican they borrowed more money they built the national highway system they built hospitals they built schools they put people like my dad through college for free and gave one hundred dollars a month stipend to live on they borrowed more money and spent it and invested it in the intellectual and physical infrastructure of this nation and and created fifty years of prosperity as a consequence of it and then reagan came along and said not we're not going to do that anymore we're not going to invest in our people we're going to stop building schools stop building hospitals stop putting you know no more federal funds for anything and by the way tax cuts for the rich in and he ran up the biggest debt in the history the country ronald reagan one guy you are more money than every president of israel are going to jimmy carter you just reveal the prob with your argument which is that you bring up ronald reagan and a lot of folks talk about ronald reagan certainly people in my side of the world are very fond of him but people forget that ronald reagan spending under ronald

reagan was actually very high comparable to what we're seeing right now twenty two twenty three percent of g.d.p. year after year after year so if what you're saying is true that spending a lot of money as a percentage of g.d.p. or as an absolute amount is what's going to ensure prosperity for the future then you should i guess i'm going to say it's investing in america will ensure prosperity ron reagan spend a lot of money stupidly he had almost a trillion dollars off to his buddies in the defense industry for the star wars program that never materialized and a lot of money just vanished into space i'm not not literally but well actually literally i suppose but you know if you're concerned about your three year old daughter i would think that you would be wanting america to be making investments in their feet in our future like we did fifty sixty years ago not just spending money for the sake of running up the debt so that the you know the good when excuse to santa clause three could play out like reagan was where if you run up the debt big enough the democrats when they come into power are going to be forced to cut social security but i don't think that there's anybody that disagrees that there are certain investments that we ought to be making for. future i wouldn't advocate

that we should be cutting government by ninety percent or anything like that what i'm saying what a lot of folks that are fiscal conservatives are saying is that we have a spending problem in this country we have nothing we have spending right now that's at twenty two twenty three out of g.d.p. and we are. we are spending at historically low levels barack obama just introduced a budget that never balances he envisions a future in which we never balance the budget i think that that is insane i think that the debt that we have right up to this. day and our economic growth and that well you know. again i say go back after world war two we grew our way out of that debt you put people to work they start paying taxes tax collections go up being go you're doing great and you know what happened at the end of world war two there were a lot of keynesians who said when government spending was going to drop dramatically that we were going to put ourselves into another depression at the end of world war two when we ramp down all of that military spending there were a lot of folks who thought that the sky was going to fall and it did and you know

it started at the g.i. bill because you had all those guys come in and they're what they were saying was that all these guys are going to come back seven hundred thousand men are going to come back to the united states without a job and it would have been a disaster without the g.i. bill the g.i. bill it was done with borrowed money and and and here we are you know it built a great nation so but anyway andrew thanks for coming in sparring with bridget and . a souvenir i'll take my three year old they are going to go for it bags all. coming up coming up after the break the corrections corporation of america wants to buy your state prisons well this for profit corporation be lobbying to make it legal or illegal so you can be tossed in the slammer increase their revenues. thank you. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and don't you tell the truth.

i have a confession i am a total get a friend that i love grabbing hip hop music and. he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world without you see his place. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome is a big issue. in

screw news corporate america's high crimes plunged our nation into a great recession in two thousand and eight pushing several states to the brink of bankruptcy today and now they're back looking to turn a profit off the damage they caused and the corrections corporation of america the largest for profit prison company in the nation c.c.a. is now reaching out to cash strapped states hoping to make a deal basically c.c.a. is saying sell is your state prisons and we'll take over the job of incarcerating your citizens why would c.c.a. want to do that because they want to sort of profit off each new person who gets thrown in prison in the same way for profit health insurers turn a profit off each person they deny life so. medical care as part of a contract states the individual states have to pay c.c.a. what are called prisoner perdiem or per day costs and looking over the letter c.c.a. sent to forty eight different states corporation has just a few requirements the state has to agree to to maximize insure me to insure

maximize profitability one being that the prison has to be able to hold a lot of prisoners minimum one thousand beds to be exact and another being the state has to guarantee a minimum of a ninety percent occupancy rate over the term of the contract which is twenty years . that shouldn't be much of a problems and c.c.a. working with alec has been successful in passing several stricter drug laws that lead to more and more americans being thrown into prison for longer and longer times just last year ohio's old state own palais curie correctional facility to c.c.a. for seventy two million dollars according to a report by policy matters of ohio that state will actually that sale is going to actually cost ohio taxpayers eleven million dollars more over the next twenty years than it would have had the state simply kept ownership of the prison so here we have corporations making huge profits buying up the commons forcing taxpayers to then guarantee and subsidize their profits and then making a living off throwing those very same taxpayers in prison this isn't a good deal for the states this is the cancer stage of capitalism the point at

which the drive to make profits is literally ruining the lives of america so this is really the sort of economy we want joining me now is business attorney seth barron's way seth welcome pleasure to be here glad to have you with us so of all the things we privatized shouldn't police functions like imprisoning people with a very very last well police functions in the broadest sense in many instances are not privatized you're talking about in this aspect a small segment of prisons the prison system there has been a trend over the last twenty five years to privatized prisons at both the state and federal level c.c.a. is one of over a dozen companies that provide proposals and bids to the federal government the aggressively bid against each other they're under financial pressures to be able to sharpen their pencils and give the best deal and in this kind of an era where we have huge budget deficits at both the state and federal level this is an opportunity to be able to save very rare federal.