ok back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour with violence in syria a european economy on the verge of collapse and human trafficking branton around the globe the united nations is focused on happiness coming up why

a shift in how we judge the success and failure of nations could mean all citizens of the planet should be a lot happier also what is an army of one hundred thousand americans trained in the tactics of nonviolent direct action able law we may find out next week when the ninety nine percent spring officially blossoms and finally there was another case of police brutality against college students in california so why is it that the occupy movement gets a face full of pepper spray every few weeks for the tea party movement which arms assault with and guns it's welcome with open arms and answer coming up tonight still you say. to the best of the rest of the news this week the united nations is hosting a major conference on happiness that's right with the world obsessed with wealth

austerity and debt to g.d.p. levels the united nations is taking a step back and figure out what makes people in some nations way happier than people in other nations conferences hosted by the king of boot on a small country in mali and mountains which on is one of the poorest nations in the world yet it's the happiest nation in the world and one of the happiest in the world and so what does know that the rest of us don't well that's what the united nations wants to find out last night's show we talked a little bit about this topic by this sect in the nation of denmark which routinely tops the list of happiest nations on the planet take a look. so here we have denmark a nation with taxes and higher rates than we do in the united states gives basic health care and free education all its citizens hasn't sold their elections off to the highest bidder doesn't place any importance on arming their citizens against each other isn't involved in any wars abroad and has seventy two percent of its workers union eyes hearing those stats and probably have said what explode it can mark is the happiest nation on the planet were the nation that wrote the right to

pursue happiness into our first document our declaration of independence maybe we should take our own advice and learn a few things from denmark so what else can we learn about how to be a happier nation joining us now from new york to offer some answers as well and norbert norberg producer and co-director of the film of the economics of happiness and founder and director of the international society for ecology and culture helena my apologies for this mispronouncing your name welcome to the program thank you very glad to be here i understand you're in new york attending this u.n. assembly on happiness by the invite of the prime minister of woods on that's right am i pronouncing the country right and how did this come about. how did the invite come about all of them meeting well both. i've worked in bhutan side i've known the prime minister for actually for a long long time i worked in the eighty's and i've been working in the lead that

was his have a very similar region up on the tibetan plateau where thirty five years and i've been promoting this shift to a new economic paradigm we did in asia focus on happiness for many years and this film that we've made the economics of happiness is very closely aligned to what the government of the time is trying to do. and so what is the secret behind which are and why are they so. well i would say because they've maintained at a fundamental level i think it's because they've maintained community structures so that people feel a sense of identity and belonging through more face to face living relationships they have also maintain a situation where basically there is no unemployment so there isn't a competition for scarce jobs a gap between rich and poor is relatively small there is one but the very richest

and the various poorest see each other and can talk to each other so it's a lot to do with the scale of the economy a lot of it has to do with both financial and and and psychological security and i still say financial as its legal nomic because a lot of the gluten is our farmers so they're more dependent on a direct relationship to the natural world they're not so indebted to banks as we are so the united states is by far the wealthiest nation on the planet but not the happiest so is there any correlation between wealth and having. no i mean there are certain statistics that will show obviously if you are in an impoverished situation you know in the slums of calcutta or slums of new york for that matter that material well being is important but on a national level i don't think we see any correlation but there is obviously a need for having the certain basic needs met and once those are satisfied it's

very clear that a sense of belonging a sense of connection to other human beings and to the natural world a lot of our research shows that these connections are fundamental to our wellbeing in total gross national happiness theory. well g.n.a.t. was actually something that the king of the time came up with many years ago when the world bank came to retire and this is about twenty five years ago and the king said well actually we're more interested in gross national happiness than we are in gross national product that idea caught on with a number of economists and people like me around the world about five six years ago and there's now been a sort of global movement working with the government of good time to raise awareness about these issues what we're talking about is a fundamental shift in economic linking it needs to have a deeper and broader understanding so then once we look in

a more broad and deep way around the world what we see is that we've allowed a sort of empire of corporations and banks to run the world and they're pushing every government in the direction of abandoning allegiance to their local people to their local businesses to their local economies in that they were in favor of this speculative kissing where we can see very few people get super rich and the majority is marginalized you were talking about denmark earlier i'm from sweden originally and i had a sad to report that even in the scandinavian governments this pressure from this empire as i think we need to see it is global empire of corporations and banks are pushing governments there too in the wrong directions the good news about this is that we actually do have a good lobel majority of people who would really have

a lot to gain in the insisting on shifting economic paradigm one of the things we're seeing is that in order for there to happen we can't rely on economists we need to rely on people on writers anthropologist farmers all of us really thinking what's really important to us brilliantly so. thank you so much for being with us tonight. thank you more than forty years ago robert kennedy explain to americans the flaw in our using numbers like g.n.p. and g.d.p. gross national product to determine the success or failure of a nation here are his brilliant words in their entirety. national product. eight hundred billion dollars. but that gross national product if we judge the united states of america by that that gross national product counts air pollution

and cigarette advertising. to play highway carnage it counts special ops. and the jail the people who break it counts the destruction of the redwood and a lot of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl accounts. and accounts nuclear. and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our city. count with rifles and night on the television programs which brought by violence in order to sell toys to watch children. at the gross national product does not allow the health of our children. their education or the joy of their play. it does not include the beauty about the strength of our marriage and the intelligence of a public debate for the integrity of our public officials. learned

. compassion no i proposed to our country. measured everything and. accept that which makes life worthwhile and it can tell us everything about america . that's why we are proud that we are americans. just. the. it's a good the bad of the very very puts a lot of mostly ugly the good connecticut governor dan your malloy malloy is posed to poise excuse me to sign into law a measure to repeal the death penalty in connecticut for future crimes democratically controlled state senate will be voting on the bill later this week according to senate president pro tem donald williams should be enough votes to pass it and etiquette previously tried to repeal the death penalty in two thousand and nine that measure was vetoed by then governor jodi rell united states is the

only western democracy to carry out a death penalty last year two thousand and eleven time other states followed in connecticut's footsteps. death penalty and you know it's. bad it's guns and governor scott walker despite being declared unconstitutional on two separate occasions walker's voter id bill still managed to disenfranchise voters in yesterday's wisconsin primary and eighty seven year old woman was prevented from voting in waukesha wisconsin she showed up at the polls without bringing her id however she'd already registered to vote months before the watershed city hall and you wish you well it's her name was even listed on the official poll list and she was turned away anyway so despite being declared unconstitutional and having been suspended walker's id law is still rearing its ugly head and the very very ugly tennessee governor bill haslam haslam announced yesterday that he will likely sign

into law a bill that attacks the teaching of global warming evolution dialogical evolution and the chemical origins of life among other scientific tops the bill serves to intimidate school administrators and disciplining teachers who teach the most outlandish policies science in their classrooms basically haslam wants to allow state teachers to say whatever. they want about scientific concepts regardless of the actual facts as them joins the likes of the heartland institute and want to want to just censor the education of our nation's children to feed the interests of corporations and conservative think tanks and that is very clear. after the break spring is here and that doesn't just mean warmer weather it also means nationwide grassroots activism they've got something is happening one week from today that you need to know about and want to join the movement to take back america from the rich and powerful.

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week in homes places of worship and campuses all around the nation hundreds of thousands of americans will gather in an effort to take back this nation it's called the ninety nine percent spring and it will teach people the history of nonviolent direct action and how to start grassroots campaigns to put pressure on our elected lawmakers to undo the corporate takeover of our democracy and our economy at a time when republicans in congress are pushing those radical budget in our nation's history and the nation stands on the verge of a multi billion dollar election that will see unprecedented amounts of corporate cash and unrest is growing in cities and towns across america american spring

couldn't come at a better time so what can we the people hope to accomplish this spring and what movements are already in the ground helping make change happen joining me now is ben mann skitt tourney and democracy advocate and campaign manager for green party presidential candidate joel stein and poor ben welcome to even tell me about the american spring well what you're seeing is that there's a lot of different sectors of the movement that are mobilizing right now so the a.f.l.-cio is doing something unusual you see the steelworkers and a whole constellation of organizations that are holding trainings around the country there's also american spring that's happening here in d.c. with the now d.c. coalition that's actually why i'm here in town is doing the number of sessions about the move to amend and continuing to build this long term movement to overturn citizens united but also to bring democracy into our constitution and you're seeing that movement is moving forward in fact in my home state of wisconsin just last night west allis wisconsin which went fifty five percent for scott walker in two thousand and ten voted seventy percent for a constitutional amendment resolution and their constitutional in

a resolution is it makes clear the corporations don't have constitutional rights that we the people may regulate and it also makes clear that money is not speech it's a property yeah it's property and the reality is what the organize organize capital has been doing is they've been driving class rules. into the constitution they've been saying that if you have million dollars a year you know ten thousand times the person of somebody who you know has only ten thousand dollars and not a good thing the d.c. coalition here tell us about that how it came came into being and what this is not understand this is a pick up from what you saw this past fall with freedom plaza with the freedom plaza mobilization here in washington but the occupy movement i mean all across the country you're seeing every sector of what i think of as a larger democracy movement rising up you know and it's an early spring in many parts of the country everybody's been experiencing the warm weather for the mobilization it's picking up certainly in my home state of wisconsin with the recall sort of five now you're seeing that happen in so you know that's that's

basically the inspiration here in d.c. to what extent do you think the occupy movement that ninety nine percent movement the american spring movement the all of these different you know many different names it's kind of like a lot of thousand flowers bloom in fact arguably even obama went to egypt and he said standing right next to mubarak tear down this dictator what they did i mean you know to to to what extent do you think that that movement. could be animating the high level of voter involvement that might might flip the white house to keep the white house democratic hands the senate democratic hands maybe even bring the house back you know a large backlash to the two thousand and ten election or are on the other hand are you concerned that it might be used by the right as a polarizing tool like the way they did back in the sixty's and are concerned about that at all i think that we have a majority in a progressive movement right now and that's

a very positive thing we have to stay in that vein of what i am most concerned about is actually that the democratic party doesn't seem to have learned from its mistakes that led into two thousand and ten obama came in with a huge mandate he had congress in his hands american people with. ben nelson and blanche lincoln and the reality is he would have made. a lot of things happened then and he didn't in as a result of that we saw a depressed voter turnout two thousand and ten that's what delivered scott walker in office that's what resulted in russ feingold leaving office and in my home state of wisconsin you see that the democrats been handed a huge opportunity would a massive uprising in wisconsin win this recall which the democratic party didn't even want they tried to cancel it in august and the grassroots said no we're moving ahead with this thing and yet the appear to be on the verge of nominating candidates the grassroots don't support are very unhappy with so what i'm most concerned about is that without having independent power without having an independent voice going into this election like the green party's jill stein like independent candidates running for office movement politics yeah movement politics

at the ballot box then we will end up being at the mercy of democratic party operators in a political party that is essentially bankrolled by wall street as well and yet you know lyndon johnson didn't run as a civil rights pres and f.d.r. i didn't run as the new deal press both of them ran on very very different forms and the people were demanding something that's right and people got what they wanted that's right so you see all the rather sick and up and demand as it almost doesn't matter the party that's right and that's what that's really what has to have it's progressives of all stripes need to continue to stand up and speak in our vote in our own voice you know whether we're greens or democrats or independents who are socialists whatever our people identify we have to be united and not allow the political system to trap us in to sort of silence us because we have seen what silence gets us sort of turn us against each other. ben thanks for having to have you with us thank you good luck to get involved this season to take back your country.

crazy alert no it is treehouse let's start with a typical tree house let's call it the tree house for the ninety nine percent the one you probably grew up with made a scrap wood deal stolen from your dad's tool box definitely a bit wobbly here's a tree house for the one percent that kind someone like mitt romney grew probably grew up with but certainly in built this one was built by forest burgess a resident of tennessee and the world's largest according to burgess motivation to build the foliage fortress came directly from god in a vision we're just told the local newspaper that i was praying one day and the lord said if you build me a tree into the tree house i'll see you never run out of material towering tree tower is amazing ten stories tall around ten thousand square feet and even has an indoor basketball court cost of the building a building the house was

a little over fifteen thousand dollars it's supported by just six trees and held together by nearly three hundred thousand nails or as of the romney is put in an offer his you know three mansions are just not. on tuesday night thirty santa monica college students including a small child were pepper sprayed five students were treated on the scene for injuries inflicted on them by the police and two others had to be taken to the hospital so what did these young people do to deserve a chemical attack by the cops nothing absolutely nothing deserving that kind of a response they merely were exercising their right to peaceably assemble at

a board of trustees meeting at their college when they protested against the college's plan to charge more money for classes they were met with a face full of pepper spray just like these students at the university of california davis last year were doing nothing except sitting peacefully and they were doused with pepper spray also by campus police officers or these young women who were peacefully marching with the occupied movement and catalin by n.y.p.d. cops who then hit them with hot pepper spray as well they didn't deserve this kind of treatment. so what's going on here why are young people around the nation getting assaulted with chemical weapons or simply doing what patriotic americans are supposed to do organize peacefully and speak truth to power or perhaps more importantly why have there been countless uses of pepper spray against peaceful occupy protesters but not one use of pepper spray against armed tea party protesters the hypocrisy of this unequal response to two movements is on very clear

display right now in the city of tampa florida which is preparing to host the republican national convention this coming august city officials are taking precautions to defend the city from the nasty occupy protesters by banning water pistols guy fawkes masks and six during more than six inches long or guess what's not banned handguns so if you're an occupy protester we're in a guy fawkes mask you're going to get pepper sprayed and go to jail get strip searched if you're a tea party or strap a colt forty five year thought you are a k. . is a dangerous assault going on right now in america against our first amendment rights that assault is pretty much exclusively against young people calling for an end to corporate corruption of our government on the other hand largely older white americans who have no problem with corporate power and are preaching the destruction of large parts of our government and are routinely arming themselves at

demonstrations their free speech rights are being defended by the police they are getting cattle to not get be beat with baton or pepper sprayed or arrested by the thousands instead the koch brothers and multimillionaire lobbyists like dick armey are giving them multi-million dollar bus tours expensive sound stages and high profile speakers like sarah palin. who's defending the american way of life and who's trying to tear tara down put it aside for a moment the fact that tea partiers routinely carry guns they also period bizarre ideology they and their billionaire funders say the government should play no role in the welfare of its citizens condemning millions of americans to live in poverty without health care and to die alone in the streets it's an ideology the says the rich deserve even more tax cuts even though such tax cuts forced the layoffs of firefighters police officers and teachers it's an ideology this is corporate

polluters like the koch brothers should have free reign to dump toxic chemicals into our air and water and the c.d.c. and the e.p.a. shouldn't even exist much less be able to find out why cases of autism as momoa young americans are skyrocketing ultimately it's an ideology that if fully implemented would lead to the death of the united states as we know it whereas the occupy movement simply wants to bring back what's already been tried in america and what's worked for almost a century regulations on wall street fair taxes on the rich in corporations a strong social safety net and an end to the corporate and billionaire corruption of our government the occupiers want a middle class in america again so which movement should really be getting the pepper spray treatment from the police the occupy or the tea party. actually neither should free speech is free speech but the fact that occupiers around the country are facing this sort of constant brutality really says something about the

state of america right now and who or what is in power it's always more dangerous to protest against things that the rich and powerful want and right now the rich and powerful in america want the i got ideology pushed by the tea party and its millionaire and billionaire donors they want more corporate power they want a platform of lower taxes on the super rich no regulations of industry they want to destroy social security mel medicare and pell grants that let middle aged kids go to college and where the tea partiers realize it or not they're rallying on behalf of the rich and powerful and that's why they're protected bats why they're not getting pepper sprayed the occupy movement is the best thing we have going on in this country right now like the participants of the original boston tea party back in seventeen seventy three they're protesting corporate power and government corruption that comes from it these young people are our best hope for saving the american middle class get out there and occupy something. that's it for the big

pictures and i don't forget the bocher sea is not a spectator sport it begins when you show up when you participate it begins with you get out there and get added to your seal.

on. it.