a little bit a happy hour so there's a great local bar murphys tonight decided that they would host as and let us do our there happy hour in there let me tell you a little bit more about the conference so some of the big topics for discussion are of course the economy of course people are talking about unemployment and if you walk over here with me you'll see probably one of the biggest topics in the news these days we want to talk about wisconsin you want to talk about occupy it's small money versus big money and to talk about the corruption within our political system is incredibly important but i have to say there's something that i feel is missing from net roots nation and it's something you guys hear me talk about all the time and that is our civil liberties the erosion of our civil liberties and things that are happening by this democratic president under his leadership talk about having a democratic president the now is chosen he can play judge jury and executioner all in one we talked about drone strikes drone strikes and the impact that they have

abroad this kill list where the president sits in his office and decides who's going to be executed all on his own there's only one panel on civil liberties in this entire conference and so we decided to go around ask a few people why they think that is why that's missing from the discussion here. i guess i didn't notice it and she knows nothing. i mean i imagine you're saying. you. think. you can see some people out there care kind of they're disturbed by it but they also don't understand why it is that the organizers of this event chose not to put more emphasis on it and this is what i talk about all the time is that when it comes to the left today democrats today progressive today suddenly we are completely silent when it comes to the crimes the constitutional tearing that we're seeing under president obama and i don't know why the lead. doesn't care because when it was george w.

bush that was doing it you know there was a lot of outrage and so unfortunately just like what we see in the mainstream media just like what i criticize m.s.m. b. c. the supposedly liberal channel for the same problem still exists here today at the net roots nation conference which is that when it comes to the erosion of civil liberties when it comes to the executive abuse of power these are things the nets net roots nation chooses to miss. ok guys so here we are with our first interview at netroots nation in providence rhode island and i gotta say there's a lot of bad news these days right a lot of depressing news out there if you want to talk about the economy not only in the u.s. but if you look at europe if you look at china if you look at india everywhere growth is slowing but we do have a crisis of unemployment if you look at wisconsin you see labor unions dying down and there's just a lot of problems in the world right if you want to talk about stop and frisk

policies you want to talk about a police state that if you ask me is growing and so sometimes to counter some of that not only do we need just some real talk about it but you also need some comedy and so tonight i have two very special guests with me tonight for us a very to me thurston who's the comedian and author of the book how to be black as long as well as iran james who hosts a radio show this week in blackness so guys thanks for joining me tonight but if you're just your intro really really. and i was your age you're just. the world of the reunion was good and you know sure if you stop and frisk you look at you again but the camera is a. little bit of a. response would you give. our new one so i'm going to start with you because i'm see your book is called how to be black you're right so how do you or the whole point that there are that there isn't a way to just you know there's no one of your articles. i'm

a capitalist first. and a thoughtful person second no the there is a man though the title is a farce it's a satirical and comedic memoir and set of advice so if you buy the book and read it you're not going to genetically become black that's a much harder process and much riskier and i don't have the funding from nasa to pull it off instead i use the power of words to try to share this. i don't know i don't know you should have said i was white before i read your book and i know what you that what james why it is his full name yeah she dropped it she just intuitively by she was like she knew you were there because of the book i was a leopard i sent him there you know many of the names get a little odd when i'm in the power of a very serious discussion we had an obvious right because we look at what's going on in the country and one hand you have the first black president in this country which is a big deal and then you have to get on that a second then you have this whole burger he wasn't born here he's a muslim kind of conspiracy and i mean how do we how do you counter that how do you

know there's also critiques that maybe he's not black enough because he's only half black because he's an elitist and he went to harvard why does it have to be like that all the time there's a whole lot of gray area right now it's america that's why it has to be like that parenting that's exactly what we do i don't know if you were you'd like actually opened up this thing we have it's history books and apparently you always noticed that america treats people horribly all the time and if you just like watching my own why would they do this to the president like actually you should we have a book that says that they were going to do this to the first black president up front that's just is what it is what it is the things i say i mean certainly it is yes. it is built into you know every first has a lot of challenges obama's one of the biggest first we have he's a virus or a president who's by default black because it's america and the way you painted that picture he stuck between. rock in our blues like to black not black and the

pain we were the source of the criticism and the beauty of him i think is that he knew were going in that he's not like thinks about it he says loudly really kind of all over shoulders most of the time which for me like that's part of the magic of the moment and it's oddly he's the product of america and so that is part of his american act around like this done from either isn't so good when he's like he knew what he was walking into he's accepting it as gracefully as anybody ever got a job to do when we go to and it's a we were just talking about this is where the interview began it sounds like the most miserable job on the bar a blanik but i can't imagine what. it's worth to wonder every day why don't we do this it was the wife they just said are you doing any of this worth it to just call the every possible thing he's a socialist she's a fat ass just because they have a job that people don't think they should have one day you cash out and you know there are a lot of presidents that approve of this bill clinton is an example of that and i

guess that's where a lot of people think that ends up being worth it because both being president you get a lot of money coming your way but i do want to have to bring the discussion down a little bit unfortunately you know the way that i set the self is that yeah there is a lot of really depressing horrible stuff going on out there but things that we should be talking about if you ask me so that you can actually work through that but if you want to talk about unemployment if you want to talk about the fact of us as the biggest prison population in the world you want to talk about the fact that we have an education crisis on our hands or in and and you bring in a race into that there were one in three black chawner now are living in poverty. you're being divisive you're going to want to different race you're going to see you're messing up the whole thing but sort of it's a how do you actually talk about that realistically as i feel like everyone always wants to completely separate and act like a all of these issues are not connected at all of the drug war and the prison population and poverty have nothing to do with each other yet they do how do you get people to talk. but honestly. without doing.

this i mean people i think it's first important to say why they don't want to talk about race is as an exhausting topic for people is uncomfortable and to some degree is the question in this country like we did that already like you had your riots and your protest maya angelou had some poems you got a black president and oprah winfrey and j.c. and jay z. were watching the throne what else do you want from a and just go ahead and sort it out and the problem is the actual reality is that the so many policies so many systemic connections that lead to crazy horrible outcomes for certain types of people both poor and brown or people and so bringing that up in part just have to keep doing it you have to sometimes let the idiots die so there's a process of of the worst elements are never going to change you have to acknowledge

that some of the younger people really are going to engage and you find ways to bring it up in methods and packages that are new that are going to get rid of i at the way that people bring it out i'm interesting for a moment here is that recently we obviously saw this story with trayvon martin become something of a media sensation normally you don't see stories like this get that much coverage but then you know what do you think of the fact that everyone's going on t.v. . you know where a hoodie does that make it become kind of like the token black kid story again or or know or is that more powerful so can we like the idea i saw a lot of people mocking the hoodie thing or whatever and i for one actually appreciate the people who are trying to show the absurdity of my god he was in a hoodie and therefore dangerous and so i felt like that's what people were trying to do of course a lot of people trying to get their black red diversity points i look at me and when i heard you on the national television making a point all right cool but i appreciated the overall. i'm sept of the whole thing

and this is i don't think of this as a token thing what happened was it wasn't that this was so horrendous that a kid got shot because in the black community we're familiar with it yes kids get shot for dumb reason but a cop by other people that was the problem was kid does nothing on arm get shot dude walks away from it like everything is cool that was we were the outrage and i feel like people didn't get that part of their own lot of people die yes but there was a situation where the killer was like my dad he was scared me and even if they didn't all right cool just go about your day you can you're free and that's what i would have freaked the hell out and said no this cannot stand we're going to stand up for this and you also had as with any sensational police brutality murder crime type moment you had information you had the nine one one tapes you had the testimony of the girlfriend you had the picture of this kid and for me the hoodie was a humanizing thing when the president stepped in lightly as he did a part of if i had a son he'd look like trayvon which is just

a biological fact it was also saying like this could be your kid and we we do symbolic gestures of solidarity all the time the yellow ribbons the live strong bracelets the black armbands when someone dies the flag at half staff those are token gestures either i think it's the people don't know what to do but they've made them feel connected in a part of this larger issue where so many people with such a dramatic case like that could have been my kid and let me ask you just been running out of time to you when it comes to you i mean stop and frisk policy in new york rabbi and i mean that's names come under a lot of criticism and same thing if you look at the majority of the people that have been stopped and frisked they have been minorities and most of these people that are completely leggo right now they're not criminals by any chance by any means but i mean what does that legalize racism yeah here's the here's and here's the problem with it it's not just that there are targeting black and latino boys that's really what it is that they're going after kids they're waiting for them as they go to. school and come out of school because of being made late to class and

they're destroying the relationship like you wonder why people who don't trust the cops because this is your relationship with the police like why would you go to that person who makes your live hell every three weeks when something bad actually happens that's that destroys the whole community and it's well beyond like i was just in career for this black kid and i did and the thing with especially with stop and frisk a lot of a lot of the uncomfortable minutes with it is that this is not even something that we're surprised and the whole it is like oh literally mother is teaching a child what to do when you're stopped by a cop how not to be a confrontation out of these awful way of right by your mother we're taught that from the like being a baby and so in all of this and you're in your earlier question about racism and how do we discuss these things it's because our country does not like its own history but we want to get really honest about that's why every time you bring up don't ever bring up slavery i don't want to do those things because we can't handle that they got to the actual reality of what we what has happened and what's what's

been done the country can't handle so that's why it's constancy of the world when you bring up race when you connect the dots this happens because of a and this happens because of the it's like no no because the you have to acknowledge history and that's something that we have a very hard time doing this and the last thing on the last thing that i want to bring out and you can work your solution into that there's a running out of time here. and you guys obviously use comedy to talk about these topics as i was trying to tell me why you think that's so important if it's better for us to try to laugh through it or if it's easier to try to laugh their anger now and then at the same time if we're talking about this issue of poverty so much of inequality in the country and you have the occupy movement and it's now been around for eight or nine months but have you noticed if i keep my movement is probably with the exception of oakland not so much a minority movement i mean is a is it to whites should have bring more people together so there's a lot in the whole lot. of risk his we. do we use technology and our insights to

build an i phone app that allowed young black and latino boys to avoid the path of the stop and frisk is available how do you have fun without being beat up by the cops no safety from police that's the app that we should be working on comedy is great you know. i mean one of the reasons it works because it doesn't threaten people if you give folks a laugh you give them open up a little bit the kind of engagement topic that maybe they wouldn't feel comfortable with on your last point i passed my so i do it on the left with with with occupy i've actually this is what i'm the last words which they answer this because i've had beef with occupy because i pointed out possibly some of the monotone monochromatic way that they rolled over the same time you speak of oakland and then there are places like motherhood that specifically people of color are doing things with him and you know they are kind of out operate outside of the they're still a part of that so yes it is way too white absolutely but everything which white is way too white like to fight the white man of flicks you want to go down the list of

like what's too white give tons of things that are too white but the point is that if good can come out of them we're all for it it's just a question of when we point out certain things especially people of color and they all sort of started yelling you're defensive if i well that's problematic and now how are we supposed to be allies and work together as a group if i can ever point out my own issues that you might not share because you actually have the privilege of not having to deal with the same nonsense that i have and humor is awesome otherwise i would just be a large black guy yelling at you he's still just a large black thing where you live and that is a very very like i have got to wrap it up but thank you so much for joining us tonight a baritone a person and the line james all white thanks guys you're whining here i want to get the book didn't work. guys it's time to take our first. day to get it straight that we're going to speak to a number of occupiers that are here in this group me on this here and they're speaking the number of channels including time on the fire.

well the future of science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. ok so the occupy movement is that around for live aid to have almost nine months out and some people out there like to say if the movement lacks a message they haven't made a difference personally i think you guys know this we watch the show often i beg to differ and part of how we're seeing that difference in the incorporation of the occupy movement is the fact that they're here at the net roots nation conference at

the biggest progressive conference that's out there they're on a number of panels and so today we have two of those occupiers with us we have nick espinosa and matt brown or hamlin two guys thanks for joining me and if you could first do a quick introduction of yourself for the viewers so they know what occupy or from how you got involved. because bill's the from occupy minneapolis and occupy homes minnesota and my family is currently in foreclosure are fighting to save our home along with many other families in the twin cities. and my name's not run around when i live in washington d.c. and i run an occupier on start or. on campaign or i'm a member of the net roots and the way i want to be involved in this movement is adding my skills in the online space to help people fight off foreclosures so what do you guys think about the fact that occupy is that net roots i mean are you with me is that is that kind of a big step for the movement or not or is that expected. i think it's great i mean i think occupy is continuing to push the dialogue to create new possibilities and to

continue to hold people accountable and create. credit to the national dialogue to bring some of these issues to the forefront about wealth inequality about corporate domination of our of our country i think it's great to be in the online community has always been a place where the american left does actually have a really vibrant for teac of the current system and the political parties so i think it's a natural fit to see you know occupy folks like us here in gauging and folks who are more traditionally involved in democratic online. but so that's the thing right is this is more of a dead. radek conference if we think about it and this is one of the questions that i feel like no one's ever going to stop asking the occupy movement is what do you really want are you going to work with the democratic party or you know work completely outside the system i mean i'm one person so i was i can speak for the entire movement but for me it's about creating power outside of outside of the existing power structures to hold them accountable that doesn't mean that we're not

going to work with politicians but it also doesn't mean that we're going to endorse flat out and these democrats are going to hold people accountable to the push them . and then i think the biggest piece with occupy and what we can you especially with what we're doing with occupy homes is we're demanding answers to problems that haven't been addressed in the political system and as long as the people of either party democrats or republicans failed to address these critical questions like the foreclosure crisis we're going to be people like us demanding answers so if there is a way to get engaged in this community to push elected officials to do the right thing by homeowners support banks accountable and so on banks are secure and i think that's absolutely the sort of activity that occupy wall street and the occupy homes that we want to see out of the well why do you think it is i mean if you want to talk about the foreclosure crisis right this is something that millions of americans have been hit by that they're experiencing on a daily basis but it's not really what you hear so much in the mainstream media

it's not so much we hear about from politicians on capitol hill or even from president obama or mitt romney right who is now going to go to the republican nominee essentially and so why this foreclosure crisis kind of like out of sight out of mind issue because it helps the banks for it not to be i think it's one of the biggest things the banks have gone in their fight to keep people out of their homes is critical for a change in a culture where you're not supposed to talk about being in foreclosure because you've done something wrong with the sisters not true it's not their fault it's the bank's fault and a lot of the reason we're trying to do this work. our arms is to lift up stories of homeowners fighting and saying i'm not going to just give the bank my keys now as those stories get lifted up we can engage it in the political debate and it needs to before let me address something that i think i mean no one's going to deny if there are divisions within the occupy movement there are problems within the occupy movement you two gentlemen are you know very well address and refined looking but there are there are people out there and i was just speaking in fact to somebody

who's. from occupy prominence here and i said you know where the occupy providence people they were supposed to be outside on the street outside of net roots of the conference and they ran into problems because they have this anarchist element because they have other elements and there's just a lot of division and debate and argue man and so it seemed like the whole thing kind of fell apart and i mean you know what are you going to deal with that so that people don't only see perhaps you know i mean when there's been a lot of talk or if you want to talk about protests and clashes with police people always point to an artist elements or black bloc tactics how do you keep the attention away from just that i mean i think one of the things that we've seen with the occupier. is that when it's about a specific family and their fight to keep their home against the bank and rallying the community around them it's really hard for those sorts of divisions to exist and because it is you know this is very grounded work this is about you know this family at this address in the house is for you know years or generations and so i

think that's something that at least with our work directly we've been able to stay very focused on on how we're working organizing to help people fighting off those are an addiction so is the targeted campaigning you think the better way to go about it there's tons of issues going on this medical student crippling our third generation right now and so the money to be great to see more projects like occupy homes excel in with specific political demands is that push concrete victories for families but also for transformative and to change the way the system is working where is this where the. american spring breakers we kept hearing that i can buy them to come back with them engines that for the winter and so what if they're not actually physically occupying space anymore where is the spring because a loon i feel like it's kind of dying down a little i guess i maybe it's because i'm in the thick of it i see it every day and every day every week there are new small occupy groups that are coming up and approaching us going occupier homesite org and saying how can i get involved you want to organize people in our community you really mean that someone who's losing

their home want to do something and i think it is happening i think you have to keep in mind and i know you saw a lot of reporting on this there's a very coordinated crackdown around the country by city government simply supports an occupy protests they were trying to do everything they could to take away public space from the smooth and it has had its negative effects but let's be clear about something is very deliberate because of the power of this movement shows. this is not going away any time soon these problems are only getting worse the foreclosure crisis isn't going away and i think people are going to continue to be inspired by what's happening around the world and fun ways to play that well in many ways what's happening around the world too is that the economy continues to be at it in a worse and worse state around the world you know we're definitely not out of this hole that were and and secure and to ask you kind of an election question because we do have a presidential election coming up in november and while the occupy movement isn't supporting one party or another is it better for occupy if mitt romney wins i mean are you know are more people then probably aligned with certain progressive causes

like people here in every it's going to be mobilizing. you know i don't know that i would go that far but it would be great to see the mainstream democrats care more about the foreclosure crisis and care more about setting bankers to jail for their crimes. i think regardless of the outcome is going to continue to do what it's doing i think if that is a matter of amarah me these problems are going away until until you know people like obama show some real leadership and go after the base rust the bakers break up these. it begs to have a monopoly over over our democracy and that are taking people's homes away and just putting this entire nation. well we've never had a city bankers arrested yet arriving there a lot of people there would like to see that. you know if that can be transferred to some kind of action mc matt thank you guys so much for joining us tonight if you're. branding it's a big part of every convention and we know that the g.o.p.

brand is about freedom and smaller government but i want to know what is the progressive brand i think a progressive as someone who just attempts to make things better for other people a progressive is somebody who wants to advance the a values of american country to the american nation to make it more inclusive for everybody and ensure that all americans can succeed equally a progressive to me is sound one who moves towards solutions and who someone who is active not just reactive i think a lot of progress has care about the identity frame so like race gender class flame and our focus on building a movement in the us rather than just getting the same people locked in an office over and over again it seems like everyone had a different answer and i wasn't the only one that was confused by it is a really tricky question. yeah that's a that's a tricky question i don't know how to answer other than to say that like i think it

definitely did evolve from other you know words that people feel uncomfortable with now so i decided to change gears and i thought maybe people would have a more coherent message when telling an independent voter like me who to vote for come november i expected to hear a lot about this guy but i was wrong if i was going to say who you should vote for i would say you should vote for your beliefs i don't think anyone should vote for the left or for the right i mean i think that ultimately you should vote. issue by issue in order to use to succeed i think. and the electoral you have to side with with either or you know you have to there's always there's always going to be something another party that's going to push for against whatever move when you're trying to push forward but nobody wanted to fight for my vote and this guy was actually trying to lose it president obama he's not perfect there are some things that i would prefer that he had done differently i would have preferred that he had

taken the fight to the republicans immediately after the election and not wasted so much time trying to accommodate them i wish that he had gone after the banks toure's immediately after the collapse of the economy i would have preferred that he had pulled our troops out of i reckon mediately i would have preferred that he had close guantanamo bay immediately but. the republicans are going to field anybody that would have done the job on any of those things that i thought was a better one it looks like all i've come away with is a discussion topic for next year is that recess selling progressivism one o one for the ellen show and jenny church. i guess i take another break but a few because there's still a lot more coming up from our show here asking that rates nation conference in providence next hour we'll talk to a man that started a new attack company about advertising at getting what you want so we advertise will do a little monetary policy time with matthew yglesias so stay tuned. five

thirty am in moscow would be easier if you had like u.n. monitors investigating reports of a massacre in your home in syria find evidence of human remains in homes this is pressure builds on both sides of the conflict to lay down their arms with. these across the country the wizened condemnation from a broad. brush or crushes the czech republic for toward its first game as the euro two thousand and twelve football championship kicks off but also there's been controversy as host nations ukraine and poland use ations of human rights abuses and racism. the euro zone on a knife edge experts predict spain could bellowed this week and the move is expected to ease the country's banks and falls off credit rating slash. for part

two below to show now stay with us. guys so here we are at net roots and obviously one of the big topics for discussion here is the economy a lot of talk about unemployment a lot of talk about tax policy not so much when it comes to monetary policy if anything they have one panel about the federal reserve but it seems like it's more of an introductory class to the fed then a real honest discussion about it and so here to talk more about that with me is matthew yglesias from slate and also on the rent is too damn high so matt thanks for joining me tonight and you know why do you think that is like i just said that we don't really hear a lot about monetary policy or debt and deficits interest rates when you're at a progressive conference like netroots but you know for a long time i think the federal reserve was doing its job fairly well and the economy was plugging along very stable ie you know for decades and so it sort of.