welcome back to the big picture i'm tom arbonne coming up in this half hour right now there are drug conditions in sixty percent of the lower forty eight states as scorching temperatures continue to kill off more and more crops each day how are these drought conditions affecting the nation's food prices and our extreme weather conditions here to stay also forget maps books the expensive g.p.s. systems turns out we could be saving a lot of money using our brains for directions instead what this new research suggests about the possibility of a neurological g.p.s. system in humans and it's one of the daily take justice antonin scalia is out of touch with society out of touch with the founding principles of this nation and out of touch with judicial ethics is the time he was tossed out of the chamber.

in the best of the rest of the news this is average every culture secretary tom vilsack apparently he gets on his knees every day and prays for rain at least what he told white house reporters on wednesday acknowledging that our nation is now in the worst drought in more than fifty years and scorching hot weather is killing agricultural crops and pushing prices food prices to record highs soybean prices closed at a record high on wednesday and corn which is a staple in the american diet close to the near record high price after jumping up fifty percent over the last month and with grain prices rising that means an increase in prices across the board for meat to poultry to dairy currently drought conditions are persisting in more than sixty percent of the lower forty eight states and over the short term the weather forecast isn't providing much relief for farmers as more heat and dry conditions are. expected over the long term as the

planet continues to heat up from manmade climate change are looking to global food prices that can unleash instability across the planet joining me now to discuss more about what the united states and the world are facing as the global temperatures and freak weather increase is rob or engelman president of the world watch institute welcome thank you tom happy to be here thanks for joining us food prices going up around the world the last time this happened was two thousand and seven two thousand and eight the result of speculation well was there was there were a number of people weren't sure what the root cause of that was there was also an imbalance of food supplies as well speculation probably played some role there wasn't a huge drought in the united states but there were droughts in other parts of the world at that time similar with two thousand and ten two thousand and eleven it's hard to tell what the exact impacts were there but that was the time of arab spring and food prices played a role in the arab spring and that may have had some impact or been somewhat affected by russia's severe severe drought would comparable to what we're

experiencing now in the united states but russia is a much smaller food producer but usually supply and demand imbalances are part of this one way or the other so what do you think is going to be the consequence of this what do we know so far given what's happened and work to go if this continues and gets worse well what we know is that these this is the largest natural disaster area we've had in the united states ever i mean literally half the united states is effectively under drought conditions and considered disastrous drought consider conditions by the department of agriculture u.s.d.a. is estimating about a twelve percent decline in corn production which is one of our major crops there are some others that think that that's an underestimate could be as high as twenty four or twenty percent that's particularly crucial is it not because pretty much everything in america is made from corn and we use corn as the primary feedstock for all of our for most of our animal ripples through the economy i wish i wouldn't say everything more major wheat producers were major sort of producers so he was being affected by this well but corn goes in. two animal feed has

a lot to do with meat prices great effect on and it's primary sugar high fructose corn syrup a big impact on what some people would call junk food a big concern in new york mayor bloomberg that that whole ripple effect is a major concern in terms of food prices on the other hand as a lot of people are pointing quick to point out right now the actual price of corn is only one component in a relatively small one in food prices compared to transportation processing distribution so how it all plays out it's not very easy to tell and we're also still early in the drought it might say there's that i mean i just think we should be humble about this there could be a dry breaking rain at the moment it doesn't look at all good this is a this is a heck of a drought it's really severe right what does this say. the the the at least what's described as a debate in the united states and is the rest of the world doesn't consider it a debate about global warming global climate change carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. that whole spectrum so well it's really hard to pin down

a scientific case that any particular weather event even a drought that's affecting half the country and one hundred degree temperatures that are affecting half the country right now is the smoking gun that tells you human caused climate change is real and it's here but this is climate change in that we're experiencing climate that we've never experienced before we can argue about whether that's people or whether that's some natural occurrence but if i were sherlock holmes i'd be looking desperately for some kind of other piece of evidence other than the fact that human beings have changed the atmosphere dramatically so that the atmosphere traps a lot more heat we've had twenty five years in which not a single month worldwide has been below the global average for that month in the twentieth century so the probability chances of that occurring are essentially one in. there's zero basically as many stars in the universe bill mckibben as said about that so the idea that something is

a natural occurrence you need to come up with some natural explanation for weather is weird as we've had we're breaking far more heat records them or breaking records for cold we've had enormously weird weather this summer is any one thing telling me this is the proof that humans have changed climate no but a person who thinks that logically will think it's pretty likely that's the case and in fact that's what most scientists who study these things are saying and apparently most americans polls are showing that as a result of this summer the percentage of americans who feel that human caused climate change is behind this kind of very weird weather we've been experiencing for some time it's now up around seventy percent up from a little bit more than fifty just floats ago one of the sites scientific. prognostications suggestions about the future climate change future was that there will be parts of the world that are that are going to just permanently change theirs you know you're going to have to certification in places you're going to have you know more water in some places less water and others might this be an

early sign that i mean should we be looking at the map of the united states right now and saying maybe over the next twenty years we need to reorganize our agricultural policies or even our our you know where we live and how we conduct ourselves in order to respond to this given that there is so much c o two in the atmosphere we're not going to put the brakes on this tomorrow it probably more helpful for response took into account the possibility that we could actually cut down on our c o two emissions because that's where the that's the really preventive step to take but we have to be thinking about prevention and adaptation of the same done the world and the country and my scientists are very much mistaken it is going to get considerably warmer than it is today this is really an opening salvo in changes that big pretty fair to make this a different country and a different planet as this century goes on and so yes we are going to be living differently even if we didn't it. anymore or heat trapping warming gases starting tomorrow sea levels would be likely to rise for centuries literally there's

a good possibility that sea levels are going to redraw the map of the coasts of the world in a way that never would have happened if humans had on earth literally the power of fossil fuels so we need to think about adaptation we will need to change it's hard to know exactly how but certainly becoming more resilient i think one thing we should be thinking about is growing more food locally including in our own gardens in our own yards so we're less dependent on the industrial food production that suffered so much in a major drought absolute perfectly common sense thank you so i'm going to thank you for having me time which is our nation our species and our planet are threatened by manmade climate change we must act to build a sustainable planet before it's too late. it's thursday let's get people ever wonder why some people are great with

directions and can find their way anywhere while others have to pull over to gas station in the middle of nowhere and ask for directions take louise and me i'm great with directions if you drop in the middle of shannon doe a national park in virginia without a map compass or g.p.s. i could probably find my way back to washington no questions asked louise on the other hand would probably have some problems well turns out humans could have a built in biological g.p.s. system after all and maybe some of us are able to use them scientists at the university of munich in germany say they've discovered internal compass needles in the noses of rainbow trout which help explain why that fish and other animals can travel and navigate using the earth's magnetic field prior to this discovery researchers have discovered biological g.p.s. maps in the brains of pigeons which help explain how information on magnetism is in coded and translated in the brain or east. had no idea which specific cells in the pigeons were able to detect the earth's magnetic field and convert that information

in a nerve impulse is speaking about the trout discovery universe university of munich geophysicist michael when called for said that the magnetic field penetrates the whole organism so such cells could be located almost anywhere making them hard to identify however will offer and his team discovered a set of cells that could sense of magnetism in the old factory epithelium of the trout around the nose area of the fish so with the knowledge that animals like rainbow trout and pigeons and neurological g.p.s. maps the logical question becomes do humans also have a built in navigation system that functions off the magnetism of the planet and a study released last year by the university of massachusetts medical school scientists revealed that a protein found in the retina of human eyes consensus magnetic fields when it's implanted in draws ophelia common fruit flies this finding lead scientists to believe it's certainly possible that human beings have the ability to sense earth's

magnetic field and use it to determine direction and position think back to thousands of years ago how were the first human beings able to travel in migrate across the globe in order to find what they needed to survive it in a g.p.s. systems or maps that's for sure but over time and with developments like maps and g.p.s. systems it's possible that we may have lost the ability to use earth's magnetic field for navigation because we began to realize so much and other tools so next time you're on a road trip with a driver says i don't know where i'm gone or i do know or i'm going even though looks like you're completely lost they might just be telling the truth. after the break supreme court justice antonin scalia proved again last night that he's out of touch with the very ideals and beliefs on which america was founded is the time we said goodbye to this ethically challenged justice and kicked him off the bench play what we can do about that night's deleted.

full started here before going global and now it's pulling viral. log in. to the right of. choose your place take your stand. needs to. make your statement. split the world. occupy wall street along.

just. kids the good the bad of the very very low ho fake asli ugly for good u.s. district judge todd campbell yesterday campbell ruled that officials of rutherford county tennessee need to stop preventing muslims from worshipping in a newly constructed mosque legal battle over use of the mosque first began in two thousand and ten when county residents filed a suit claiming that islam is not a real religion and it's a solutions call intended to impose islamic religious law on the us government.

america used to be a country that was welcoming of all faiths and cultures it's time we got back to those ideals the bad congressman steve king republican king is sponsoring the moment of the house farm bill that allows forms of animal cruelty like confining pregnant pigs so tightly that they can't move a single limb but as horrible as this all sounds congressman king is actually very proud of his work king told the daily caller that his legislation quote wipes out everything they are rights advocates have done with pork and veal and quote course this is nothing new for king the same man who once spoke out against anti dogfighting legislation and said that the humane society of america prevents production agriculture and the very very ugly mike huckabee on yesterday's edition of the huckabee report huckabee was talking about the boy scouts of america's recent this decision to continue discriminating against gay scouts and leaders of

course of a conversation with a color blazer basically argue that the b.s.a. made the right decision because he said gays molest kids take a listen. we will try to target groups like that through get up that leadership. leadership area and i explained that there are structural and my troop i wouldn't fit in trying to fight for three years i think if anybody wants to argue about this case they need to hear your story and that's very powerful and i thank you for having the candor to share it with us and again you make us all understand why the boy scouts made a decision that at least i think was the right one numerous studies have shown the pedophilia and homosexuality had no relationship continuing to promote this conservative anti-gay myth is incredibly hurtful to the l g b t community and it's very very.

just a few weeks after trying to take health care away from more than one hundred million americans supreme court justice antonin scalia sat down with c.n.n.'s piers morgan what followed was a discussion with a man who's not only out of touch with the values this nation was founded on but also out of touch with the implications of his own decisions on the high court and out of touch with the ethical conduct of a sitting justice here are a few highlights to begin with to begin with justice scalia was asked which of the decisions he's presided over on the court has been the most contentious there was answered by guess the one that you know created the most the most waves

of disagreement was bush versus gore ok that comes up all the time when the usual response is get over it no regrets. oh no regrets at all especially since it's clear that the thing would have ended up the same way anyway the press did extensive. research into what would have happened if what al gore wanted done had been done county by county and he would have lost anyway and that's really a telling a lie wrapped in a little bit of truth or maybe the other way around the simple reality is that al gore sued to recount three or four counties in florida dade broward and i think there was one other and when the new york times a year later actually did the count and not just the new york times as media consortium actually counted the entire state they found that had the entire state been counted al gore would have won so gore just originally said just just recount

a couple of these states and then and then well what happened after after after that was the state supreme court came in and said no let's count the entire state so the compound that scalia's stopped was not the count in just those counties that al gore asked for which is what scalia just set the count that scalia stopped that the supreme court stopped was the count that the florida supreme court had ordered for the entire state of florida and that count would have given the presidency to al gore so in a very real way scalia and his four other buddies right wing buddies on the supreme court did decide the two thousand election and they decided in a way that was not what the american people voted for the you know the american people live by millions hundreds of thousands of americans more voted for al gore

than for than for george w. bush but on top of that even in the state of florida al gore beat george w. bush. as the new york times reported on november twelfth two thousand and one was a year after the election after it and a consortium of news organizations conducted their own recount in florida gore actually won the state the times wrote if all the ballots had been reviewed under any of seven single standards and combined with the results of an examination of over votes mr gore would have won the times looked at all the various scenarios dimpled chads pimple chads under votes overvotes intent of the voter ng in chads everything and concluded all the other combinations likewise produced additional votes for mr gore giving him a slight margin over mr bush in other words al gore won florida you'd think the revelation that the wrong man is sitting in the white house would be front page news instead it was buried in the seventeenth paragraph in

a story in the new york times misleadingly titled study of disputed florida ballots finds justices did not cast the deciding vote the reason why it was buried in that headline was misleading because nine eleven and just happened and the new york times did not want to diminish george bush's claim to the white house in the middle of a national crisis so the stolen elections good and school leah has the school knows this and he has the gall to go on national television and lie about it take a look again and just notice how carefully as he just talked about just those counties of al gore right by guess the one the you know created the most the most waves of. disagreement was bush versus gore ok. it comes up all the time the usual response is get over it the press did extensive.

research into what would have happened if what al gore wanted done had been done county by county and he would have lost anyway. now it wouldn't last anyway in fact he would have won today twelve years later after two illegal wars and economic depression and numerous scandals from outing a cia agent to politicizing the justice department to outright war crimes all on george bush's watch justice scalia tells america to get over it well for the thousands of families who have lost a loved one in war the millions who have lost their homes the tens of millions who've lost their jobs it's not so easy to get over that insult to injury there was justice scalia defending the court's two thousand and ten citizens united decision the one that sold off our government to a small handful of billionaires and transnational corporations. you know i think thomas jefferson would have said the more speech the better that's what the first

moment is all about so long as the people know where the speech is coming from but it will be yes money is speech corporate thomas jefferson just did a barrel roll in his grave not only with jefferson who feared the power of the aristocracy or the super rich more than any other founding father not only would he have disagreed with citizens united on principle he also would have disagreed with the enormous power grab the court made in that decision in citizens united scalia and the other four super right wing justices rewrote a century of established election law going all the way back to the tillman act of eighteen zero seven which banned corporate contributions in our elections under the administration of republican president teddy roosevelt and here's what jefferson thought about the supreme court overturning laws like mccain feingold which was overturned with citizens united that had been passed by congress and signed by the president as jefferson wrote to john adams wife abigail in eighty four the opinion

which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the legislature and executive also in their spears would make the judiciary a despotic branch and as jefferson wrote to virginia supreme court justice and patrick henry's father in law spencer roan and eight hundred nineteen if the judiciary is the last resort in relation to the other departments of government that indeed is our constitution a complete fellow does so a suicide pact the constitution on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary jefferson knew the job of interpreting the constitution should be left up to we the people not nine kings on the supreme court and certainly not corporations in the super rich as jefferson wrote in eight hundred twenty still bitter about the supreme court's decision in the twenty years earlier when the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutional they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity the

exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough i know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers as a society but the people themselves. and in fact the supreme court only struck down laws twice as unconstitutional in the entire first seventy years of our nation's history the first in eight hundred three in marbury vs madison and the second in eight hundred fifty seven in dred scott that worked out great arguably start of the civil war good record there supreme court so no justice scalia thomas jefferson would not have agreed with your citizens united but he would have agreed with me that it's time to impeach you that's because you justice scalia have violated and shredded the federal code of judicial conduct on the court this guy is the justice who went on a hunting trip back in two thousand and five with vice president dick cheney right before ruling on a case in which dick cheney was a defendant and then rule in favor of cheney he also went on

a hunting trip with the dean of the kansas law school and then agreed to hear two cases in which that very dean was the lead it bernie but i'll let scalia try to explain himself too if we had to recuse ourselves every time one of our friends was named even though his personal fortune was not at stake we would not sit in a lot of cases so that was a tempest in a teapot tempest in a teapot accusations that the highest court in the land has been compromised or that the justices particularly justice scalia can't be trusted to rule on on an objective basis of the constitution is a tempest in the teapot according to federal law any justice must recuse himself or herself from a case where his or her impartiality might be a question but justice scalia and the rest of the kings on the court have exempted themselves from the judicial code of ethics that the only judges in our entire nation who don't abide by it which is why scalia still has

a job on the bench instead of a cell in leavenworth. the point is americans don't have to look much farther than justice scalia to see that our supreme court is in trouble it's a court the revels in its power and doesn't shy away from overturning laws passed by we the people and giving brand new rights to scalia's fat cat buddies in their corporations it's a court that has no regard for ethics and routinely acts in a way that degrades the objectivity and wisdom of the supreme court and it's a court that's lost the faith of the american people recent new york times poll showed only forty four percent of americans approve of the job the supreme court is doing down from sixty six percent in the one nine hundred eighty s. when scalia joined the court so how do we solve this problem but one way is for congress to assume its constitutionally mandated role as the regulator of the high court and the hold my breath on that in the short term however here's a real easy way to restore some faith in the high court just three words impeach antonin scalia.

wealthy british science sun it's time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger or a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports . it's.

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