back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour whether you're twenty one one hundred nearly two hundred million people may be forced to leave low

lying areas across the globe thanks to rising sea levels will this startling new information finally convince lawmakers that they must act now to curb the devastating effects of global climate change and the right wing gun nuts really need assault weapons automatic weapons military assault rifles to help protect themselves from our government our founding fathers actually said no i'll explain in tonight's daily take. in screwed news meet the most ungrateful financial institution in america. the insurance giant would have brought down the entire financial system in two thousand and eight if it had not been for a generous one hundred eighty two billion dollars bailout courtesy of you and me we the taxpayers. but as the new york times reports a g.'s thank you might be to sue we the taxpayers for that same bell

leading up to the financial crisis of two thousand and seven and two thousand and eight g.m. made enormous profits insuring junk mortgages for other banks and financial institutions and paid much of that profit to their executives in the form of huge bonuses and those junk mortgages finally exploded and everyone came to a.g. to collect on their insurance claims she didn't have the money and had to be bailed out now she is arguing that the conditions of the bailout were to honor onerous and question holders tens of billions of dollars. gee that's a violation of the fifth amendment which bans the confiscation of private property without just compensation so here we have a business that would have failed without a bailout now thinking that suing the government is what just exactly what they should do for that bama let's bring in richard a scout now for more on this he's

a senior fellow at the campaign for america's future and a former g.e. executive richard welcome welcome back to the program. good to be here as always so you've been inside this company although you didn't involve miner saying you weren't involved with the the financial parts you work for a company was acquired by edgy but you've been there for you were there for seven years as i recall yeah quite a few years about seven altogether and. well regarded there and you know i had a good experience there i had a relationship slight matt every once in a while with hank greenberg hank greenberg who is the c.e.o. who's the sort of chess player behind this lawsuit so yeah i worked. for a few years and got along quite well there actually so what's your initial reaction of the story. first of all this goes back to a suit that greenberg filed about a year ago because he was forced to step down by eliot spitzer over some allegation

accounting allegations but he filed he still owns a lot of stock and he filed a lawsuit about a year ago and my first reaction was i just couldn't stop laughing because here is you know one of the toughest guys described as the meanest boss of in america by forbes magazine i think any filed a lawsuit that said that the government and the federal reserve use this as an opportunity to bail out their friends on wall street like goldman sachs so my first reaction was to laugh and say oh hanks joined the ninety nine percent and how much what he's done is actually very shrewd because he's place the board of a.i.g. in a very difficult position where if they don't consider joining and has launched suit they can be sued for not looking out for the fiscal wellbeing of the shareholders so he's really playing a master game of chess here and he's put them in a tough spot and no doubt wants to see them squirm as part of his strategy and he's

been very successful at it that's fascinating doesn't this also in some way demonstrate a sense of both entitlement on wall street and of being bulletproof. well i think anyone on wall street who demonstrates a sense of entitlement and the feeling that they're bulletproof is just reading the newspaper so i think what what hanks doing and what some of the other people are doing is just being much more naked about their awareness that so far they've been immune from prosecution and they have been both approved so why not grab as much as you can get and remember also i think there's a little bit of resentment why did they do this to us and they didn't do it to jamie diamond at j.p. morgan chase or lloyd blankfein at goldman sachs which they should so i think there's also a little bit of all that was in this wasn't goldman sachs arguably bailed out through the bailout because they were made whole dollar for dollar via a g.

with government money right and that's what at the heart of this lawsuit is you know in many ways it's ridiculous and ungrateful and all the things we say it is but the seed of truth in it is that a i.g. was used as a conduit for a backdoor bailout to goldman sachs and some other counter parties as they were called and who were paid one hundred cents on the dollar from a failing company thanks to the u.s. taxpayer that was outrageous and wrong and i think greenberg and the others are using this as leverage for this lawsuit saying hey whatever deal we made with you or our successors made with you to rescue a i g you had no right to use our money to bail out your pals that's the germ of truth that they're using to hang on this lawsuit and that david boies arguing it was a very good progressive attorney you know it's not as crazy as it sounds fascinates like it's like on peeling an onion richard thanks so much for being with us about wall street is now a parasite on our economy just like the billionaire is

a true minds we check out our latest web site no billionaires dot com. it's a visual two thousand and twelve was the warmest year every quarter in the united states according to the national oceanic and atmospheric administration average temperature for two thousand and twelve was fifty five point three degrees fahrenheit more than the read degrees above normal this news comes just a day after a new study was released stay in that a one meter rise in global ocean levels could force of millions of coastal residents globally to flee their homes by the year twenty one other researchers warn that if these new predictions hold true upwards of one hundred eighty seven million people will have to leave low lying areas across the globe which include both developed and underdeveloped nations so will this alarming new information finally be what it takes to force the u.s.

and other world governments to take the actions necessary to prevent a complete environmental catastrophe joining me now is angela anderson director of the climate and energy program of the union of concerned scientists angelo welcome thank you very much great to have you with us is this first of all this is the hottest year is this an anomaly is that some sort of you know weirdness of says to six or are we looking at a genuine trend line i think where it's a very genuine trend line and what we are seeing is that you know this is not the first time many of us have heard it's the hottest year on record and we're likely to break more records just like it is basically over the last thirty six years we have experienced a warmer than average temperature so if you think about it about a third of the population has never experienced a quote unquote normal. climate year well it's like the weather whether we're doing as become the new neuron what that is exactly right only only it's going to get

a whole lot worse the this one hundred eighty seven million people number that's being. i've seen numbers over the last decade variety of news stories in the year in the decade or so that i've been doing this. suggest that there's already millions if not tens of millions of environmental refugees in low lying areas like bag with for example and you've got pacific islands that are suing at the united nations saying we're on the edge of extinction how bad is it already well i think we're saying it's the science of climate change if you look at it over you know since the time we've really been talking about it we've been talking a lot about projections and what's shifted in the last few years is there's we're talking about how much can be attributed to climate change now so that's why there is this uncertainty about environmental refugees we are the scientists are getting better at beginning to see what's natural variability and what's caused by climate change and and when i say that i'm really talking about the changes in our climate

system that we're saying because of the build up of c o two in the atmosphere the burning of coal for electricity gasoline for cars etc how much of that human caused climate change is responsible for those kinds of displacements in the kinds of disasters we're saying that science is getting more sophisticated and it went and over time it's going to be really compelling particularly in the u.s. are you arguably the good news and bad news is kind of all in one package with regard to the united states we are now when you add in the incredible boom in natural gas and fracking and all of our offshore drilling and our coal production we are now the world's largest producer of carbon based fuels we're also the world's largest consumer of carbon based fuels although china is coming up on our heels and what that means is we could be the world's largest reducer of carbon pollution if we decided to so what's the situation right now with

regard to the united states in these areas and. what's it going to take to move in a direction that might help save the planet well in the midst of all this bad news there is some good news and that is that we have seen the obama administration pass some of some fuel economy standards than the previous administration that is making our. cars and trucks going to be more fuel efficient pollute less contribute to greenhouse climate change less we're seeing every day and today even georgia power announced the retirement of more and more of more coal plants so there is the beginning of a shift away from the dirtiest fuels and yet we there is the beginning wind power and other renewables are beginning to grow in the in the u.s. one of the fiscal cliff last minute deals included extension of wind production tax credits so those are some small steps in the right direction and i think that as

the country begins to really connect the dots between the really extreme weather we've seen and polls are showing that the public is beginning to connect the dots more we're going to be able to have a grown up conversation about climate change in this country and hopefully take the us to that point that you describe that we can be a real leader in and really contribute to reducing emissions we have the ability to to make these changes pretty quickly there's decisions teed up and close to being on the president's desk more e.p.a. rules to. thank you so much for being absolutely very nice to be. after the break gun rights activists love to claim that america's founding fathers wanted them to have assault rifles and military grade ammunition for protection from the government but in reality they could be farther from the truth i'll tell you what our founding fathers really invision and i was deleting.

the worst goes through the. white house of a. radio guy minutes from a click off that i want to watch what we're about to give you've never seen anything like this i'm told. let me let me i want i wouldn't let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we have in the bank we have our knives out. with you is this right to spend staying there or to get here in a situation where b. and i don't want to talk about the name and me.

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

of a very very broad jealously ugly good c.l.u. civil liberties organization has settled a suit with the u.s. government that will allow many military service members discharged into the anti-gay don't ask don't tell law to receive full separation pay many members who were discharged under the wall and received half of the separation pay they were due thanks to the lawsuit ex-military members though who were discharged after the member town two thousand and four due to don't ask don't tell will now be entitled to all of the money that they were originally do not don't ask don't tell was repealed it officially ended in september of two thousand and ten. now have the right to proudly serve and defend their nation without fear of retribution the bad police use of excessive force over the last few years there have been countless incidents of police using excessive force marked by wall street protests to college campuses but now the epidemic is spreading to. routine traffic stops a video of

a recent traffic stop in texas is circulating on the web we see two women can be seen being cavity searched the women were originally pulled over for littering an officer claim that she smelled marijuana in their car at the thorough search of the car no drugs were found but the officers still called a female officer over to perform invasive cavity searches on both women course nothing was found women are now suing the state of texas on this sad day for civil liberties in the united states and a very very ugly share of joe arpaio america's craziest and most legally challenge sheriff began sending out three thousand armed volunteers today to patrol schools in america but county arizona the armed posses will patrol nearly fifty schools monitoring their facilities and will not actually step foot inside the schools all volunteers are in charge of providing their own weapons with whatever

they may be it's even scarier is that according to arizona's three t.v. many of the volunteers have criminal pasts so now is sure of joe sitting armed vigilantes out to protect and patrol arizona's schools he's also letting convicted criminals do some of the work and that is very very ugly. sorry gun nuts on the wrong side of our founding fathers for example in a tirade against c.n.n.'s piers morgan alex jones argued this. the second amendment isn't there for duck it's there to protect us from thailand the cold government and street thugs yeah it's an argument that's often echoed by gun nuts as though

they're fully loaded a ar fifteen with one hundred bullet dramas going to keep them safe from a predator drone or a cruise missile if indeed this is the true intent of the second amendment protection from the government then here's a news flash you guys are woefully outgunned and the second amendment would have allowed you to own a cannon and a warship so americans today if there were a revolution would look actually even without would look more like somalia today with well armed awards running their own little fiefdoms in defiance of the federal government but luckily this was never the intent of the second amendment our founding fathers never imagined a well armed citizenry to keep the american government itself in check they thought politics and so you remember was all about protecting the american government from both foreign and domestic threats protecting our government poring over the first

hand documents from the seventeen eight from seventy nine first congress after the after the car after the constitution was ratified the details of first congress as debate on arms and militia you'll find a constant theme the second amendment was created to protect the american government the james madison resolution on the issue for example clearly stated and ultimately became a second amendment that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed since a well regulated militia is quote the best security of a free country for genius support of a right to bear arms was based on the same rationale a well regulated militia composed of the body of the people trained to arms is the proper natural and safe defense of a free state. ultimately as we know the agreed upon second amendment reads a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of the free state the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed it reads like

a conditional statement if we as a fledgling brand new nation are committed to our own security they were saying that it's best we have a regulated militia a well regulated militia and to maintain this well regulated defensive militia we have to allow americans to keep bear arms the other defensive option would have been what's called a standing army but at the time our founding fathers believed that a militia was a much better defense for our nation than a standing army because standing armies were to quote jefferson an engine of all pression our founding fathers were scared senseless of standing armies it was well accepted among the members of congress during the first gun debate that quote standing armies in a time of peace are dangerous to liberty and quote those are the exact words used in the state of new york's amendment to the gun debate later nine hundred fourteen

letter to thomas cooper jefferson wrote of standing armies the greeks and romans had no standing armies yet they defended themselves the greeks by their laws and the romans by the spirit of their people took care to put into the hands of their rulers knows such engine of zero pression as a standing army their system was to make every man a soldier at a blyde him to repair it to the standard of his country whenever that was reared it's made them invincible and the same remedy will make us so. wrote jefferson. had the early framers of our constitution embraced a standing army during times of peace. then there would have been no need for a regulated militia and thus no need for the second amendment. instead they openly opposed a standing army during times of peace want proof in the entire constitution there are no time limits on the power of congress to raise money and pay for anything

except an army we can have a navy forever we have roads or bridges or opposed to offices or pretty much anything else that supports the general welfare without limit and in perpetuity but an army that had to be reevaluated every two years when all spending for the past two years of the army was erode out it's right there in article one section eight line twelve of the constitution it reads that congress has the power to raise and support armies but no appropriation of money to that you shall be for a term for a longer term than two years the founders knew from watching the history of europe the military coups by standing armies inside the country a country where a greater threat to a nation then where the armies of other nearby or even distant nations so they required us our congress to re-evaluate our army every two years

or so without an army how do we defend ourselves well they said and thought with a locally based well regulated that is under the control of local authorities we have a net and national authority with a well regulated militia today we call this the national guard. article one section eight line sixteen of the constitution does not put that two year limit on the national guard militia instead it says congress has the right to provide for organizing arming and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the united states reserving to the states respectively the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by congress and make no mistake about it that militia was to be used to protect the government of we the people

both from foreign armies and from americans here who want to overthrow the government of the united states again line fifteen says congress has the power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the nation suppress insurrections and repel invasions nothing in there about taking down the us government in fact it's the opposite defending the go as a member of the national guard militia the second amendment is more of a civic duty than a personal right again it was all about defense of the state not defense against the state in fact during that first gun debate the state of new hampshire introduced an amendment that gave the government permission to confiscate guns when citizens are or have been in actual rebellion to those early legislators in new hampshire the right to bear arms stopped as soon as those arms were taken up against the government of we the people just as the ancestors of those who

participated in the whiskey rebellion in seventeen ninety four armed americans took up guns against what they viewed as a tyrannical george washington administration imposing taxes on their whiskey president washington call up thirteen thousand militia men and personally led the troops to squash the rebellion of armed citizens in bedford pennsylvania. no army no right to have guns to overthrow the o. press of u.s. government none of that but more than two hundred years later gotten lots of galaxies jones somehow believe that this second amendment was created for not against those americans who committed treason and took part in the whiskey rebellion and they're threatening another rebellion should the government ban the sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines as a red faced alex jones yelled at piers morgan. can't work took the guns stalin took the guns mounted guns they don't castro took the guns and hugo chavez took the guns

and i'm going to tell you seventy seventy six will come next again if you try to take our firearms doesn't matter besides being factually inaccurate hitler hitler actually encouraged the ownership of guns for example this is a dangerous line of attack used by today's gun nuts the biggest similarity between america today and colonial america part of the revolutionary war is that there was a transnational corporate stranglehold on our economy then and there is now back then it was called the british east india company today it's transnational behemoths like goldman sachs g.e. wal-mart b.p. but violent revolution is never the answer even the boston tea party revolt against the east india company wasn't violent george hughes who was there said it was the stillest night boston had enjoyed for many months peaceful resistance is the most powerful response to tyranny just as those egyptians who peacefully huddled together into a rear square until their kleptocratic ruler hosni mubarak eventually gave in to the pressure and step down had those idealistic young men and women whipped out the

n.r.a. as assault weapons there would've been a massacre instead of a rebellion or a revolution history tells us the power of peaceful revolution from jesus to gandhi to martin luther king but very few stories of successful violent revolution even the french revolution in imitation of ours failed as you can see in the movie limb is which takes place after the kings have come back to power nothing is more effective and nothing frightens the powers that be more than large scale peaceful resistance young people old people mothers with strollers the rich the poor people of all religions and races joined together in common cause in peaceful cause a million armed people do more to bring about revolution than three hundred million guns in america so let's be sure not to fall into that hysterical argument being pushed by alex jones and other gun nuts that our nation's salvation depends on each year. being armed to the teeth and ready to take on our own government that was never the intention of the second about you say want a revolution join

a grassroots peaceful movement and that's the way it is that i tuesday january eighth two thousand and thirteen don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag your. mission. critic ations three. four charges. arrangements three. three. three. moseley braun quality video for your media projects free media. government no longer represents the freedom. of the people who are going to take the term.

traditional look into the issue the money. the way our economic system currently is not going. to. want. to. let me let me i want to let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we have in the bank we have.