sports sort of politics to join me now to give a take on all of the r t producer in a moment up of having high so many you know sport sporting riots around the world that's pretty common you know that's not unique to america of course but what is unique to america it seems like people only take to the streets to riot for sports not the plutocratic control not the police state not the n.b.a. not you know bankruptcy foreclosures student debt what is this is this. i don't know what i mean i think that's kind of an unfair question to be honest with you about us specifically rioting why do people only riot after sporting events share like that's like that violent kind of agitation that people have after sporting events that doesn't really occur out of just sheer anger that's not just here in the united states that's anywhere i think i'm asking why don't people riot for politics when they see massive like you are these subjects that i just brought up and what you're what you're suggesting though is why are we like protesting like greece where they're protesting these austerity measures where we have n.d.a.

here at home a third of the occupy wall street protests were out just because they were rioting doesn't mean that they're not out on the street i'm saying that about aston the thousands of people i mean canada for example the students who are protesting there that we have one trillion dollar debt here in the us sure but they're out protesting they're not out like what i'm talking about massive amounts of people sure but i say no no i understand but i think that what happens is that there is this misconception that people have about i mean you get tons of theories as to why people riot after sporting events it's the alcohol it's the adrenalin it's the war like mentality where you get that same war like mentality after political rallies but you don't see people turning over police cars after political rallies there's something inherent and innate about a sporting event that gets people to act violently and actually i don't know why why it is that people do that but it is different than any other type of event that people go to yes let's take a look at some of these photos from last night you know here here is people setting bonfires in the streets i mean. people were hurt injured burning buses buses

overturning cars i mean you know where were the riot cops look at this guy he's smashing a bus and everyone's like yeah dude i mean where were the hundreds of riot cops in the lines tear gassing but tahnee i mean where were they i think that's a really great question and i think that what happens is that with these like big manifestations that you have a sporting event people are out there doing really really violent things they're not they're not this guy isn't mad because of the n.b.a. this guy's mad probably because his team won yeah yeah yeahs just doing violent things that the reason you don't see riot police outside of this and you do outside of a what occupy wall street encampment is because this is not a threat to the establishment so when speaking out against the n.b.a. or speaking out against h.r. three forty seven or speaking because they want more civil liberties in this country that's a threat to necessarily what it all boils down to but i wanted it before we get into that i want to talk about how the s.f.

gate covered this absurd display of animalistic you know drunken whatever they said the crowd was delirious with joy and then you look at how k.g. w. news covered the occupy oakland protests which is pretty much i mean the same type of things you saw people with fires in the streets you know walking around i mean pretty much the same kind of image imagery and k.w. news called it an ugly riot protests turned into an ugly riot overnight so it just kind of shows that dichotomy of the media portraying very similar actions that's what you get the different that's what you get from the media in that's what you get from these media in this country and they're just as much to blame for these riots as anybody else in fact i think they're more to blame there's much to blame as the coaches for not saying you guys you know what enjoy the game watch the game have a good time the media what they do is that they sensationalize this is like look at the riots they're turning over police cars it's just craziness it's man. it's when

what they should be doing is during the game saying hey you all might want to take it easy or you might get arrested show a clip of a guy getting arrested show a clip of a guy getting thrown out of the stadium because he's being unruly but no the media focuses on completely the different so what they do is that they kind of perpetuate it and they grow or fight which is what you're seeing with. this you really hit it on the head earlier and i wanted to actually show a tweet from my friend sam jeweler who is also a member of occupy d.c. here he said something that summed up perfectly said you know the san francisco riots show that police tactics against protesters are not about the laws on the books but about the content of our speech and i think that really hits the core of the issue you know this isn't a threat to the people writing it sports events but when you see people protesting capitalism going out there protesting something that is a threat then that's where you see the state coming down in full force crushing them to set an example for people saying hey you can't do that you know we don't like that you know of course and to go back to your original question which is you know why don't we see more people out on the streets protesting what people should

be caring about in this country and i don't think it's a question of the united states like american citizens being more apathetic than citizens of other countries it's not a question of laziness i mean the american did but it does seem as though the american kind of go getter entrepreneurial spirit kind of just checks itself at the door when it comes to protesting you can be mad about and you can be mad about student loans but it seems like that always just fall short people are afraid of being labeled a socialist what you're getting a put up on saying hey this guy is the agitator that's what it boils down to in the face of the militarized police state yet it's getting harder and harder to protest really but and i also just want to say you know in the penn state riots were going on that i was just like wow they're protesting because this guy raped children that's crazy and then i found out that they were actually just writing because they were pissed that they lost him as a coach i mean that is sick that is a really sad thing that people care more about the fact that he was fired than he was raping children but anyway if you go on on and. i mean i have an analysis of

that that's just not that sells it is a matter of thank you for coming on. every now and then i get a chance to highlight someone doing something right in the world today no one deserves that highly coveted spot more than one of my heroes in journalism and he's not some big wig international correspondent he's a local reporter showing us journalists how we should all be doing our jobs right now i'm talking about ben swann he's an anchor at w x i x fox nineteen in cincinnati ohio but he's also the producer and host of an unprecedented local news show called reality check ben may be a local guy but he's known for tackling the less than local issues he's caught up the media for not talking about executive orders voting machines connected to

romney the national conventions being a sham al qaeda being supported by the u.s. the list goes on and on but perhaps most notably he's done what very few if any journalists have done press obama himself on the issue of the national defense authorization act check out a clip from that interview. when you signed the national defense authorization act into law you issued a signing statement at that time i said you would not use that power for indefinite detention of americans you understood the concerns that people had a judge earlier this year issued that the administration couldn't use those powers because it's unconstitutional i didn't want us to not be able to finance our military and pair of soldiers in our troops so i signed the bill but what i also said was look i'm never going to use this power and you know what i would suspect is that. the courts are going to agree with us over the long term you need to know here is that talk is cheap president obama says he is against indefinite detention

of u.s. citizens and yet his administration at every turn has fought to keep those powers in place but bottom line here actions speak louder than words and for anyone who has been following this case it should be undoubtedly clear where the president actually stands on this issue and that is a reality check. you know unlike other reporters that would fall over president obama and ask him softball questions if they got the chance to talk to him ben was just like but no music kill list and yeah i mean right off the bat you can see how dire the state of journalism is in our society until one journalist stands out just for doing his job correctly ben swan is doing what every journalist should be doing he's asking tough questions in a climate of fear and he's not selling himself out and that makes him a total bad ass and i've said that is why ohio and one is our hero of the day so he's the hero who's the villain well as you well know hurricane sandy wreaked

havoc last week in the northeast most people would just say that it's an effect of mother nature or perhaps a symptom of climate change but not according to one anti-gay preacher who says it's a no brainer who should get blamed for this catastrophe the gays yeah you heard me right gayness cause the wrath of god to hammer down on the northeast this is pastor john mcternan of defend and proclaim the faith ministries in pennsylvania he's a self-appointed biblical scholar and coincidentally he's also bigoted homophobe on his blog he recently wrote about hurricane sandy representing the latest proof that god is punishing us he said quote god is systematically destroying america as a political judgment for the homo sexual agenda but to further support his claim he says we should just look at the recent hurricane pattern just last august hurricane

isaac hit new orleans seven years later on the exact day of hurricane katrina both hit during the week of the homosexuals vent called southern decadence in new orleans rai so the fact that one thousand five hundred seventy seven people died in new orleans from hurricane katrina that was all by design folks let's call a spade spade a. because it's apparent the religious conservative right in this country has been completely hijacked by leaders like mcternan who use religion to rationalize their extremely offensive speech and it's not ok it perpetuates bigotry intolerance and ignorance and that is why this self-appointed biblical scholar john the turn in is our villain of the day. so if you like what you see so far go to our youtube channel and youtube dot com slash break us that and subscribe check out our facebook page at facebook dot com slash break in the set and follow me on twitter at abby martin stay tuned to hear about the state of our democracy and the path

toward a real change with activist david swanson next. wealthy british soil the sun. spot on the telephone. 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 a report on r g. eight it's easy to look it's. easy. to.

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stunts on t.v. don't come. to . me because like.

four years ago hundreds of millions of americans were gearing up to vote in historic election at a higher voter turnout than any time since one thousand nine hundred sixty eight during obama's term however the hope that u.s. citizens once had of a change in the policies that bankrupted this country and tainted america's image around the world fell short and in turn we saw the rise of a new generation of activists citizen journalists and truth seekers for seasoned activists the last four years have only solidified their message that the problem is rooted deeper and who was elected as president. of efforts to protect civil liberties jobs education health care retirement the rule of law and basic human decency without taking on some. straw city that means death to all of the above the military industrial complex it is a trillion dollar banker bailout every year that we never get back now is david

swanson activism campaigner for roots action speaking at the united national antiwar coalition conference earlier this year swanson isn't just an extremely vocal antiwar activists and journalists are standing and out of the establishment having worked as a press secretary for congressman dennis kucinich so to talk more about the state of our democracy the path toward real change i'm joined by david swanson thank you so much for your time great to be here so david you know in that speech you're talking about the military industrial complex and really does transcend these kind of you know four elections every four years we already know that what do you think about the third party candidates being completely omitted from the debates and kind of just the corporate media's omission of everything that is their party. well i don't think that's entirely new but i seem to resulted in the omission from those debates of perhaps more serious topics than ever before climate change you'll recall was not mentioned by any moderator or either candidate in the debates run by

the corporates presidential election presidential debates commission to the military question of finally resulted in president obama admitting it's not bragging that he is increased military spending every year of his presidency and i didn't see any media outlets rush out to correct the next day their endless claims that he's been cutting the military in dangerous degrees and then the other side of the debate of course is mitt romney who wants to dramatically increase military spending bloat its record levels of today and refuses to explain where he's going to get the money. you have excluded from that conversation. where the vast majority of americans are and where all four of the candidates in the alternative debate are ranging from joel stein in rocky anderson on the left. on the right oh

we want to cut military spending dramatically three three of those candidates at least have said they would cut it forty three to fifty percent immediately which isn't going anywhere as it should be david i mean look at the size that it's expanded since nine eleven i mean the whole climate change i mean absent from the debate could be in part because the commission on presidential debates sponsored by the coal industry maybe they didn't allow questions about climate change and there but yeah as far as the military industrial complex goes and cutting military spending how sad is it that obama you know is out there arguing that he's not soft on terror and war and you're like to call you soft and weak on terror be like calling know bush weak on defense i mean it's just sad that that's where we're at right now where obama is kind of on the defense and you have brahmi you know of course ramping up the rhetoric i mean david i know that you you told me before that you voted for obama in two thousand and eight but you've been one of the most vocal opponents to some of his policies how do you feel now looking back four years later

. well i think the primary thing that we need to come to terms with about elections is how incredibly only important and overhyped they are i think emma goldman was right to say that if elections alone would change anything they'd be banned and i think we need a choppy a little movement for change that's based around policies not around personalities i think obama was. trying to go as a disastrously bad candidate and turned out to be dramatically worse than maps i've voted already this year i voted for jill stein not because she's likely to win not because we're likely to create a third party in the green party that will take over and clean up the electoral system without itself being corrupted but because i've clung to think of lesser evil voting as part and parcel of lesser evil activism so that even when it's

not an election year people who identify themselves as lesser evil voters as needing to defend the democrats in the white house sent in congress do not act as independent activists and citizens they self censor they work through organizations that self censor were forbidden from saying single payer we must say public option which of course here and sees us nothing and we sell and we censor our intake of information as well so that most obama voters right now have no idea what he's done in the past four years. well put david i mean i think continuing to vote for either candidate just kind of gives them carte blanche to continue his policies but i agree i mean it really has very little impact of course there's some domestic issues that are different. but yeah i mean the grand scheme of things that really it really doesn't mean much david so you've written about election fraud you know

adamantly on your web site the case of kerry on a train well documented that there's been widespread voter fraud in the last three elections and carious was definitely stolen why you think i mean glorified a little bit why do you think kerry is so easily conceded and why is voter fraud and the rigging at these elections censored on alternative media as well i mean it's kind of just dismissed as conspiracy theory. well i think that al gore and john kerry both rushed to concede elections. that were highly questionable to say the least because they were terrified of being called sore losers and i think that other independents or so-called independent groups rush to follow the lead of the democratic party because they work with the democratic party and they get their funding and their access and their sense of power and the importance from their relationships with their party. but john kerry in two thousand and five according to mark crispin miller who i know and respect and who publicly describe the

conversation he had admitted that he had come to realize that two thousand and four had been stolen from him in ohio but he wouldn't say so for fear of being called a sore loser now whether that's his real motivation for staying silent or not i'm convinced that he does in fact recognize that it was stolen and so i wrote this article to say senator kerry we don't want to deathbed confession we know that bush isn't going to confess anytime soon you need to speak. out for the upcoming vote in ohio on weight in which people will be voting with machines that are owned by a company invested in by one of the candidate's own families and we thought we saw diebold also tell bush in two thousand and four we're going to get you in the white house i mean how does a spectacle is it that we have not only the republican establishment outright rigging votes in and invested in these voting companies but also that the democrats

concede because they're scared spit are going to say sour grapes i mean what a sad state of affairs that we live in. well and we're talking about organizations and companies and individuals and political parties that are quite openly suppressing the votes are being caught endlessly every day now throwing out voter registration forms telling people to vote on the wrong day threatening people with the rest if they vote and they these organizations in these interest. they're going to be counting our votes on machines that are absolutely on verifiable there is no way to determine i mean people like jimmy carter won't observe u.s. election because they don't pretend to any standards right and so people say to me you're going to fold for someone who can't possibly win how can you not take a lead you want to just not have elections i say no i think we should start having elections we don't have to now i think it would be a great idea as gandhi said of western civilization we we ought to have elections

but that means having paper ballots. but at every place it means every access to media and to ballots and to and to debates it means getting rid of this system of money purchased elections and gerrymandered districts and beginning to rise to some level of of the international standards absolutely and we really do need to transform that and i also think we should get rid of the electoral college and have a hopper representation in office but as someone who has done its percentages campaign manager and worked really closely with him for years when he got out of office what do you think about the political and media establishment marginalizing him saying that everything he did was out there wacky i mean really he was the most logical passionate rational politician that was actually looking out for the interest of the people i mean presenting and peter articles talking about g.m.o. labeling speaking out adamantly against the war as i mean it why do you think that he was painted in this extreme way and what is that really going to damage the

dialogue and america when we look at this person and the media paint him as as this a radical wacko wacko well i have known and liked congressman dennis kucinich since about two thousand and three i only worked for him on a campaign and that was in two thousand and four and i was his press secretary and it was a job that i gained a great deal of knowledge and experience from and admiration for him but he was working within an incredibly corrupt system and despite showing that he could. well i'm after time by his constituency in cleveland he was redistricted the redistricted into a district that ran all the way over to toledo and put up against another incumbent democrats who had massive amounts of funding and purchased incredibly does that honest advertising funding that came from the weapons companies and the other interests that congress nucleus and it challenged so he was one in eight will to

stay in that seat he. it's going to stay active we're going to continue to need is fleeced but it's shut out by the u.s. media because we aren't just fed particular lies about iran having weapons it doesn't have we are fed a range of debate and the range of debate cannot go further then for example we must bomb iran and on the other extreme we must have sanctions on iran someone who would suggest an alternative outside of their range has to be excluded not just not just mocked and ridiculed or debated but excluded there right david they did indeed phase them out and they the gerrymandering and all these things that distract and unfortunately we're out of time there so much more to talk about how to have you on again soon david swanson activist journalist thank you so much for your time thank you. you know david is right that it's considered wasn't just mocked and marginalized by the media and political establishment he was pushed out of the

system completely because he was one of the only real threats to the establishment he was one of the only voices from the inside that can physically challenge the wars the two tiered justice system and pushed us to reexamine our values system so it's time to start taking percentages ideals and efforts and making them ours because the system can't push us all out. i mean so no new city in europe and the host of the twenty fourteen winter the pick a. thank you. so much. thank you.

so.

what. place.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.