the. headlines the ten pm moscow time from our given time to the ignored world's most famous whistleblower premieres his talk show here on this channel with controversial news makers who get by the mainstream. syrian rebel factions kofi annan says peace plan is the last chance to end the bloodshed but russia warm some forces remain intent on stirring the conflict. and america's torture techniques are equal to war crimes that leaked state department memo with grave concerns over the bush administration's brutal interrogation. sixty minutes in the company of a lone a no on the alone a show next. are

going to be alone show up at the real headlines with none of the mercy and i live in washington d.c. now tonight we're going to have our monday hangover panel and we're going to talk taxes last buyer tax system is so complicated how software companies are lobbying to keep it difficult for you to pay up and the buffett rule then one cold joins us to discuss same sions against iran are we forgetting history underestimating or possible global economic effects and it is stop cyber spying weeks we're going to talk about the new effort to mobilize against cispa now ask what it really takes to make an internet protest a success we'll have all that and more for you tonight including a dose of happy hour first take a look at the mainstream media has decided to miss. right

so president obama arrived in colombia this weekend for these summits of the americas to meet with more than thirty other heads of state and thanks to an embarrassing episode of a secret service before the president got there let me it's very media is going crazy. not so secret service issues pesos and presidential polling is the shakedown the white house just want to go into a new fallout this morning on the prostitution scandal rocking the u.s. secret service president obama has made it clear there will be a thorough and rigorous investigation into an alleged sex scandal involving the secret service and the u.s. military secret service sex scandal eleven secret service agents and officers and five u.s. troops working with them they supposedly brought the prostitutes to this hotel in the lead up eleven agents now placed on administrative leave following bombshell accusations they solicited prostitutes have some tell and hard to hang you columbia shocking new questions about the president's inner circle and the secret service

agents entrusted with protecting his life this could have severely compromised the president's security they found her in a room fighting with an agent after he failed to pay for the worst scandal in secret service history. i know it's get a few things clear here is this episode and embarrassing one for the secret service obviously can we really be shocked if the mainstream media is going absolutely nuts over a story that involves the secret service and prostitutes in of corn country well absolutely not right it has all of the elements that a scandal of says press desires but the thing is i mean three media is going so incredibly overboard on this that they completely left out the reason the president is even there to begin with the americas and this year there's a lot of talk about the think that back in two thousand and nine garnett powerpoint was greeted as a rock stars the newly sworn in president that so many around the world had hoped it as the man who promised so much change but this year was

a whole lot different for starters we saw the governments of mexico and colombia for the first time joining with the rest of the chorus put pressure on obama criticize him for america's completely out of date policies on cuba and this is one of the other you could say broken promises of the obama administration we heard a lot of talk of resenting our policy that leads to lifting the travel ban and now some news of the made on that restrictions on academic religious or cultural groups traveling to cuba were lifted but still a long way to go another topic that was big at the start it was the drug war and its incredible failure some countries with as far as to call for all out legalization of all narcotics others just wanted to put the pressure on to point out yet again that the drug war is not working as it is and needs to be reevaluated but perhaps the biggest takeaway from the summit was that it seems like maybe we're seeing shift the maybe latin america central american countries want to be clear that if they have a concern with u.s. policies they're not going to be afraid to say it so you think you think that

a waning geopolitical influence a critique of our outdated failing policies would register even for a second on the mainstream media's radar when they cover the president's trip to colombia but of course not there's a secret service scandal for the news that actually bears any significance. they chose to miss. all right so it's only monday but there's a lot to talk about because the news doesn't stop over the weekend even of technically you might not have been here in the office and this weekend i was feeling that a lot of americans out there are busy doing their taxes and those taxes are due tomorrow and i take the opportunity to discuss how miserable the entire process is and some of the because debates over our tax code down to it has been lobbying to make sure that you can do your taxes in five minutes and for those of us using tax preparing software like for botox instead of an accountant surely be free from iras

penalties and the buffett rule for about the senate today but is the idea of taxing the rich going to go away if it fails so get ready for your monday hangover. the numbers. are right here to discuss with me is matt welch editor in chief of reason magazine and their thompson senior editor at the atlantic. hello gentlemen thank you for joining me. it is so much fun everybody let's talk about taxes right you actually posted some stats today that i've decided to read for the audience here in the tax code and just about how miserable and complicated this is the tax code is now three point eight million words long for everybody you know over the last ten years they have made about four thousand four hundred twenty eight change is through the tax code which equals out to about more than one a day and the results are some seven point six four billion hours of paperwork for

americans so. why is our tax system so complicated our tax code is so complicated because we want to be complicated we're basically running a buffet and saying rather than have one person created a favor going to ask everybody what do you want and everybody has a thing that they want one person says ok the thing i want to tax code is protection if i buy a home what i want is some money if i have a kid or what i want is just some money in exchange for working because i'm low income on the basis on the merits of each of these individual things they might be good to have in the tax code but what do you end up happening is you have a tax code that bloated because every single group won something in there that is theirs and it's a very difficult to take it out because it's more important to that group to keep it in than it is for the broader country to take it up so you remember a day do you think that you think a birthday is a good way to. remember barack obama's seat in a dress this year he said we need to simplify the tax system which he said all the time in two thousand and eight on the campaign trail where you support the tax code is too complicated for everybody we also need targeted tax breaks for companies

that are exporting the manufacturing jobs of the future with green technologies and then we're single working mothers. about six huge changes to their tinkerings with this happens every day it's the easiest thing easiest way to reward constituencies and it's the hardest thing to do right and so i don't know exactly it's the same as saying that a phase too big here are two more entrees i mean i actually want you know how do you really simplify the tax code. and and keep everybody happy so that they still feel like they might at least you know maybe they don't want options maybe they at least feel like the system is fair i mean people can't spoil because there are so many tax breaks and something they can take advantage of we are spoiled i mean my guess and i don't know if it agrees my my guess is it's the same with episode reduction you basically have to say look a lot of people are going to lose something if we simplify the tax code tax is going to go up for some people that are really privileged right now taxes are going to go down for some groups that may make us feel uncomfortable but we're if we're all in it together then we can sort of take on the heat is one but it's going to

have to be bipartisan it's going to be long and messy and it's going to look a lot like deficit reduction and we saw what happened there the first thing you have to do is take care of the mortgage interest deduction which is the single largest deduction in the code and it affects most people who are rich enough to hold a house it's an upper middle class and title might if you go after that which is something that a lot of people squawk about and if you get republicans and democrats which wouldn't you know it would increase the overall tax if you got rid of it you could say this is a demonstration project this is distorting the market it actually led to the housing bubble to some degree we're subsidizing mortgages in this country so let's go back to that as a demonstration project and then go after all the rest of them afterwards but of course there's not a lot of political courage in washington or anywhere else and also some of the one hundred things that we hear you know the most about you is obviously the focus on the income tax and so one of the things that you hear is that there are sixty percent of americans out there that don't even pay any income tax and it makes it seem like it's such an unfair system and so many people are really keeping it but then at the same time when you start factoring in taxes local taxes that's where

you see where lower income americans really do actually pay more taxes you know payroll taxes are capped for people who make more than one hundred eighty or something dollars they start paying into that and also they are automatically called warren buffett is automatically qualify for medicare so as you turn sixty five regardless of his ability to pay for his own private health care so there's a lot of that half of the country doesn't pay and. federal income taxes and overall taxes because payroll tax is the same share of government revenue as income tax but that fifty percent eighty percent of the group makes less than thirty thousand dollars a year it's by far the vast majority of them are poor people who are getting what they call it refundable tax breaks like earned income tax credit child care tax credit they're simply getting money from laws that were passed in one nine hundred seventy s. one nine hundred eighty s. one nine hundred ninety s. that we thought were good for low income working families and this is why reforming the tax code is going to be very difficult because who wants to be that person who

stands up and says low income families don't deserve this tax break well it's a lot i guess you could say easier and probably a lot more politically popular at the moment to say that the rich should pay more taxes right so let's talk about the buffett rule first i don't know if the vote has actually happened right before the show started but basically the senate is supposed to go to the buffett rule today out as was expected to die this slow quiet death there the buffett rule seems simple it had a catchy name a catchy idea behind it that he should be paying more than a secretary does but if the buffett rule technically dies the senate does the does the idea go with perry or do americans they still like this. my old colleague at the atlantic who's now in business for you josh green said to the obi wan kenobi rule applied to buffett rule which is if i die i will come back and only be stronger and the idea is that the buffett rule as a rule doesn't really matter that much what matters is that obama is running to raise taxes and i don't remember the last time a president ran on a campaign to raise taxes so we do something he has to beat the republicans at

a political game so what he's doing is he's daring them to vote against a very small tax increase on a part of the country that americans don't have a lot of pity for so that when republicans do vote against the buffett rule he can run against that vote no that i think is where the buffett rule is about and not about any sort of particular important policy right and it's about also the cowardice to really run for raising taxes and defending the size. cost of government which no one really still feels comfortable in doing for a full throated way because most americans don't really necessarily believe that we should pay twenty five percent of g.d.p. for ever if not more on government right so you say we can tax these millionaires in a way that is politically popular perhaps but think about it if they had spend this much energy on on making sure that the bush tax cuts expired we wouldn't be having this conversation with this because americans perceived rightly or wrongly that the bush tax cuts was not just for the rich it was for the broader middle class and

they didn't want their taxes raised and democrats were too afraid and the president was too afraid to say no sorry you need to have your taxes raised well the point is that nobody ever wants to have their taxes raised if aside from a few patriotic millionaires out there that are part of this movement but in general when he really wants to pay more i want to move on to some other little technical stories that just kind of i think show a sign of the times for example so matt stoller wrote this piece talking about into their software developer they create all these you know tax preparing softwares that you use on turbo tax and all these other websites so turns out that they spent nine million dollars lobbying since two thousand and eight against programs that could simplify your taxes because that's also one of the things that the president promised when he was still campaigning is that i'm going to make it's the you can do your taxes in five minutes i think california tried a program even federally they want to try a program where you just receive this return it's already a calculated for you and you basically sign it and send it away but into it is working against that they're lobbying against it here's an internal investor report

that says our consumer tax business faces significant competition from the public sector where we face the risk of federal state taxing authorities developing software or other systems to facilitate tax return preparation and electronic electronic filing at no charge to taxpayers i mean can you imagine the horror i mean would you disagree with that as he wrote this story to me i think is you know i mean that's the editor of a libertarian magazine and this is truly one of those rare moments when the government might be able to do something more efficient. in the private sector if we did simplify the tax system so that there was simply one page that you could just review and sign check off if you itemize deductions deductions then you were done five minutes that could be done but first to simplify the tax code then you could create one of these one page one of one page tax filers but it's an issue to have the private sector is essentially acknowledge that given a few changes government could do something more efficient to them but it's not profitable for them to make it easier and i mean corporatism is not a one party versus the other type of concept it works everywhere i'm more worried about he got so bad at that it's true i wasn't totally convinced by the story but i

mean i assume the worst on everybody comes to taxes but i'm more concerned with the federal government now have incredible licensing requirements for people who file your taxes it's basically the h. and r block you know christmas tree bill so you have all these people the smaller people who have to file a lot of paperwork and and the barriers to entry for them becomes much more difficult and so they're doing a lot of taxes off the books so that they can remain competitive out there it's just crazy the whole thing is complicated because we didn't even get to this last little tidbit i wanted to bring out but also if you have somebody who's accountant file your taxes for you and there is some kind of a mistake on there the i.r.s. can waive some of those penalties for you but if you use turbo tax or one of these other softwares there is no such thing it works and that you are in the past but the rest of us don't get zero joy that kind of immunity and so i mean here we go ahead with a little bit thanks thanks for the great conversation. are we taking

a quick break but coming up next he said i read it and then juan cole is going to be on the program so i've got to run the history behind sanctions and what we just cannot seem to remember. which crisis if you move. from the silence to the sun.

don't come. all right it's time for you said it i read it right take time to respond to my brilliance and engaging viewer comments from facebook twitter and you too because you've got some to say i listen now first on respond to a viewer that watched our interview on big banks slowly working their way back into the street he led shady lending practices which almost brought down the world economy have baldwin commented on facebook to the banks ever learn or is it that they just don't care and you know i think that it's probably a combination of both i don't i don't think that the banks learned anything because nobody on wall street was ever actually held accountable for their practices no real trials no arrests just a little public shaming if you can even call it that and the regular regulations are put in place to be a god frank. well those have been weak to say the least and the american people on

the other hand they've suffered plenty for the actions of the banks millions still looking for jobs and millions underwater on their mortgages and whether or not the banks actually care obviously i can't speak for all of wall street but i think that we've seen one report an interview and statement after another that highlights how far removed wall street bankers are from the rest of the country and the issues that most americans face and next i want to share some the feedback we received from last friday's happy hour so if i have found what commander sloan said on you tube finally they take a sip of that alleged martini the canadian dude commented on you tube now my big question is that real goos if they haven't those martini glasses and donnelly daraa treated show love the show tonight finally got to see someone drink the martini and who was great so more controversy around the martinis on happy hour with a plot thinking thinking. we could appear to be enjoying a drink well we still can't tell you what's actually inside the houses but that

would ruin all the fun anyway i also want to respond finally to a viewer who wants to know where to send story ideas david horner asked this question suppose i know of a possible story you guys might want to cover who can i put in touch with and we would love any stories or tips so if you guys do have something do you want to share with us feel free to email t. as producer at g. mail and it's at my ranch this week but i'll be back with more later in the week. after a meeting between iran and five u.n. security council members in turkey over the weekend the iranian foreign minister said today that iran is ready to solve all nuclear disputes quote quickly and easily get another round of talks about that next month and once again the possibility of an external supply of enriched uranium is being discussed by the iranian foreign minister also urged for sanctions that have been put in place by the u.s. and other western countries to be lifted so we have to take a serious look at the economic policies or you could even call the economic warfare

that's being waged against iran washington seems to think that sanctions are the key to holding off israel and getting iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions but if you look back at history sanctions really just lead to the opposite joining me to discuss is juan cole teacher and writer of history at the university of michigan and author of the blog informed comment but i'm very nice to have you on the show tonight now you just wrote a piece about this last week called by washington's iran policy could lead to global disaster and so i'm excited to hear your take because one of the things that we hear often especially from republicans is that president obama has this policy of appeasement when it comes to iran and that so dangerous for the world but when you look at the same sions that have been placed upon iran with you call that a policy of appeasement oh no these are the most crippling sanctions that have been placed on any country since the case of iraq in the nineteen ninety s. it's no longer a matter of just sanctions i think. the the u.s.

is now engaged in a blockade of your army and control units trying to prevent iran from selling its major export. well what do you think that the chances are that iran might in this case basically start to agree to some of these other deals for example getting an external source of petroleum because i when have you could say that maybe the sanctions will backfire iran won't listen but then if we look at the results from this last round of talks we're now they're saying maybe we could resolve this quickly and easily according to the foreign minister you know what does that say there though that the iranians initially were enriching uranium to three point five percent that's to make fuel for nuclear reactors to make electricity they also have a small medical reactor that the u.s. actually gave them decades ago which however needs your rainy i'm enriched

to almost twenty percent to produce the medical ice isotopes and when they started enriching to nearly twenty percent that set off alarm bells because people figure well it's not so far from twenty percent to ninety five percent and ninety five percent you can make it so but the iranians weren't making medical isotopes from that level of enrichment before recently and they had to do it because they they lost their external sources for those for that reactor so yes if it's the world would provide them with uranium suitable to make medical isotopes i'm sure that they would take that deal and if the if this is the big sticking point then that's fine with them but remember that the sanctions initially report on to stop them from enriching altogether and that they want to but you think that

any sense that's a sign that perhaps the sanctions are working in terms of very to put pressure on iran. well the sanctions are putting enormous pressure on iran the iranian middle class is is nearly disappearing people can't afford to travel anymore that the iranian currency is losing its value against the dollar it's bad times in iran because of u.s. sanctions and now they even want to try to start of the government funds coming in from the oil sales so there isn't any doubt that enormous pressure is being put on iran but it can't have a total result you can't have the result of stopping their nuclear enrichment program altogether because that program is a guarantee from their point of view of future energy independence and we hear about energy independence all the time in america well that's what the iranians want to. so what we what might we see that and instead write if the sanctions are

not actually going to have an effect on iran's program of mentoring irradiance copaken move toward energy independence as you said you know what are the adverse effects going to be on just the global economy. well the sanctions are being put on iran in order to get them to stop enriching uranium as i said because israel and the west are convinced that the enrichment program is dual use that at some point the iranians will turn around and try to make a nuclear bomb the iranians deny this there's supreme leader has said that atom bombs are tools of the devil they're not allowed in islam so i think one of the compromises that might come out would be if the iranians would cooperate with the united nations inspectors and they are cooperating to a large extent but the the cooperation is not entirely satisfactory from a u.s. point of view if they if the iranians would open up more show the u.s.

and its centrifuge design but then have more access to facilities they already have access to the nuclear facilities then i think that some compromise might might be achievable because what the americans really care about is that the iranians are not trying actively to make a nuclear weapon but in the meantime these sanctions are hurting the world economy because they're reducing the amount of petroleum on the market. well let's talk about how long something like that can even last right i mean right there is this oil blockade first of all obviously have everybody's support or western european nations are on board but china india said no dice you know we need that iranian oil pan and south korea have also asked for exceptions in that sense and you know do you think that saudi arabia can really make up for that supply. well there are a lot of oil experts who have profound doubt that the saudis can replace you ronny

and petroleum iran is exporting well it had been exporting something on the order of two and a half million barrels a day this not obvious where you would get the supplies to replace that remember it's not just a matter of replacing the iranian truly but also world demand is increasing china's demand probably will increase about five percent this year and that older fields are declining so you not only have to replace the army of petroleum but you have to provide for new demand and you have to provide for old field fields declining it doesn't seem to be plausible to force iran to keep all or even most of its control even the ground but you could keep them from exporting to receive a hundred thousand barrels a day maybe more but then that's going to hurt greece it's going to hurt spain it's going to hurt italy we've got a major financial and economic crisis in southern europe and there's

a point at which you're going to have a choice of having the euro collapse and greece go down or of lightning up on the run and i just want to ask you to write that perhaps what we have a kind of a bad memory are we aren't so good at learning from our mistakes or learning from history so what specifically should we learn from history when it comes to the policy towards iran right now. well the thing to remember is that this is not the first time that the u.s. has been involved in an embargo of iranian petroleum environ go now is a financial one rather than a military one but in one thousand fifty one iran nationalized its petroleum it kicked out the what is now b.p. the anglo iranian oil company and as a result the british empire put a an embargo on iranian petroleum trying to convince nobody to buy it and then the us joined in under eisenhower and that embargo deeply harmed the

iranian economy it cost labor strikes it caused crowd protests it weakened the prime minister and then the cia and the british intelligence on opportunity and they got up the plot to overthrow the elected prime minister of iran and his elected parliament and put the shah on the throne so that when you when you start something like thoroughgoing. embargoes against another nation it can draw you in because you want the policy to be successful if you're afraid that the embargo will slip and you'll lose chris stevens you might be tempted into covert action or even a military attack as happened with with iraq so these deep sanctions profound economic sanctions or even embargoes are a slippery slope and they can lead to an involvement in the other country of

a massive sort i want to thank you so much for joining us and i and i will see if things don't change it looks like there's only going to be more rounds and it's only going to get more difficult and i have thanks. just ahead and i read how the latest on the taliban's spring offensive in afghanistan and its anti cyber spying we are going to talk to me chatting about cispa and what makes a successful online protest. feel . close up she has been to the sverdlovsk legion. where blacksmithing has developed from a craft into an industry. no archie goes far north. where returns to put roads and rails are a battle against the elements where really culture is.