well back to the big picture on thom hartmann coming up in this half hour with violence in syria a european economy on the verge of collapse and human trafficking is rampant 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 would mean all citizens of the planet would be a lot happier also what is an army of one hundred thousand americans trained in the tactics of nonviolent direct action capable of 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 but the tea party movement which arms itself with and guns is welcome with open arms an answer coming up tonight still easy. to. get 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 to 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 the 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 that taxes at 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 you guys bitter 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 unionized hearing those stats in public and said they would explode it denmark 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 of how one 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 his 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 with. that's right am i pronouncing the country right and how did this come about. how did be in five come about all of them meeting. well 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 was his

have a very similar region up in the tibetan plateau for thirty five years and i've been promoting they sift through a new economic paradigm we did major 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 if so what is the secret behind and so on why are they so happy. 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 yobs the gap between rich and poor is relatively small or 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 is the economic because a lot of the gluten is our farmers so then war dependent on a direct relationship to the natural world and not so indebted to banks physically are so the united states is by far the wealthiest nation on the planet but not our years so is there any correlation between what often happens. no i mean there are certain statistics that will show all of easily 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 this so 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 tulsa 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 are more interested in gross national happiness then 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 retiring to raise awareness about these issues what we're talking about is a fundamental shift in economic thinking it needs to have a deeper and broader understanding so then once we look in

a more broad indeed way around the word 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 the they were in favor of this speculative. seeing where we can see very few people get super rich and the majority is marginalised you were talking about denmark earlier i'm from sweden originally and i have a sad to report that even in the scandinavian governments this pressure from this empire so i think we need to see it this global empire of corporations and banks are pushing governments there too in the wrong direction the good news about this is that we actually do have a good lot of majority of people who would really have

a lot to gain by insisting on shifting the 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. thank you so much for being with us alone. 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. most national product now eight hundred billion dollars. but that gross national product if we judge the united states of america by that that gross national product counts and pollution

and cigarette advertising and. player highway carnage it counts special lock. and the people who break it counts the destruction of the redwood and a lot of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl it counts. and accounts nuclear. and armored cars to the police to fight the riots in our city. council with rifles and sticks knife and the television programs which brought by violence in order to sell toys to watch children. get the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children the quality of 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 a public official that measures neither of. learning

neither our compassion not opposed to our country it measures everything and show all except that which makes life worth while 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 salon honestly i really i realized connecticut governor dan your malloy more oil is posed to poison 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 some of 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. the bad guys in 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 a rock show i was confident she showed up at the polls without bringing her id however she had already registered to vote months before at the water city hall and you wish you well it's her name was even listed on the official poll list but she was turned away anyway so despite being declared unconstitutional and having been suspended walker's id law is still rearing its ugly and the very very ugly tennessee governor bill haslam haslam announced yesterday that he will likely sign

into law a bill that attacks teaching of global warming evolution biological evolution and the chemical origins of life among other scientific topics bill serves to intimidate school administrators from disciplining teachers who teach the most outlandish faulty science in their classrooms basically haslam wants to allow state teachers to say whatever. they want about scientific concepts regardless of the actual facts ask them joins the likes of the heartland institute and wanting wanting to censor the education of our nation's children is to feed the interests of corporations and so the think tanks and that conspiracy theory. 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 if you want to join the movement to take back america from the rich and powerful.

download the official apology how to keisha job i phone the i pod touch from the i choose up still. watch all she life on the go. video on demand all g.'s my bold colors and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the t. dot com. plumber

mission free accreditation a free lunch for charges free. range minutes free. free spirit side free. download free blogs just plug in video for your media projects and a free media or gone to a party dot com. with

. next 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 the most radical budget in our nation's history and the nation stands on the verge of a multi-billion dollar election that will see president obama's of corporate cash 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 on the ground helping make change happen joining me now is ben manske attorney and democracy advocate and campaign manager for green party presidential candidate jill stein and hell bent on the complete 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 it's a b f l c i o is doing something unusual you see the steelworkers in 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 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 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 that kind of social movement 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 yet it's property and the reality is what but the organized organized 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 or 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 my understand this is a pick up from what you saw this past fall with freedom plaza with the freedom plaza mobilization here in washington with 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 going to experiencing the warm weather and the mobilization is picking up certainly in my home state of wisconsin with the recall steps certified you're seeing that happen in so you know that's that's basically

the inspiration here in d.c. to 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 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 but what i am most concerned about is actually that the democratic party doesn't seem to have learned from its mistakes that let into two thousand and ten obama came in with a huge mandate he had congress in his hands american people with or without all sort of ben nelson and blanche lincoln and the reality is even put it may. a lot of things happened then and he didn't in as a result of that we saw a depressed voter turn out 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 with a massive uprising wisconsin with 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 they had they 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 like movement politics yeah movement

politics at the ballot box then we will end up being at the mercy of democratic party operators and 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 pro and f.d.r. i didn't run as the new deal press both of them ran on very very different forms but the people were demanding something that's right and people got what they want that's right so the level of a stand up and demand those 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 were socialists whatever our people identify we have to be united in not allow the political system to trap us into sort of silence us because we've seen what silence gets other assorted charges against which. 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 the typical three outs let's call it the tree house for the ninety nine percent the one you probably grew up with made a scrap wood nail stolen from your dad's tool box definitely a bit wobbly here's a tree house for the one percent kind someone like mitt romney grew probably grew up with but certainly in built this one was built by horace urges a resident of tennessee and the world's largest according to purchase 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 going to easing 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 rounding is put in and offered is three mansions i'm 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 occupy 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 for 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 an equal 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 by thoughts masks and during more than six inches long but guess what's not banned handguns so if you're an occupy protester we're in a guy fawkes mask you're going to have pepper spray can go to jail get strip searched but if you're a tea party or strapping a colt forty five year thought you are a k. . there's 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 cadel them they're not going to be with the tons 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 it tear it down. put it aside for a moment the fact that tea partiers routinely carry guns they also carry a 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 that 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 bum on 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 of middle class in america again so which movement should really be getting the pepper spray treatment for 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 idea 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 mellot 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 that's 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

picture tonight don't forget dr c. is not a spectator sport it begins when you show up when you participate it begins with you get out there and get active tag your it will seal. wealthy british style. ties. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cars or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars reports on

our key. mission. critics say should free in-store chargers free. range from and free. three stooges free. download free blank you know splitting video for your media projects a free media don carty dot com.