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tv   Breaking the Set  RT  February 25, 2013 6:00pm-6:30pm EST

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you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i had lunch i got so many i mean ham and eggs and i know that i'm seeing the same thing really messed up . and we're all really so personally apologize it's. worse for the little things. like how superman. radio guy for minestrone. what we're about to give you never seen anything like this i'm so. happy monday guys i'm having martin and this is breaking the set so today began a long awaited trial of british petroleum or b.p. for the largest offshore oil spills in history and now quotes the u.s.
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government blaming the corporation for the disaster that killed eleven rig workers and dumped four million barrels of crude oil into the gulf of mexico you know with even more interest in even though the government is so quick to pass the buck and placed the blame on b.p. now they work so willing to do that immediately following the disaster in fact they issued to the company even more oil and gas contracts and further solidify their but in love with the corporation you ask me all this in giant charade one smoke screen after the other what's comfortable let's break the sets. coming from the largest military empire in the world it's a wonder how little the establishment discusses the implications of war the downtrodden economy has taken center stage and the discussion of u.s. foreign policy has waned into a mere afterthought this is pose a challenge for many antiwar activists who've been forced to get creative looking for ways to engage and educate people about the perils of u.s.
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militarism one such person is a world renowned peace activist cindy sheehan who's a tory of actions like camping out at george bush's ranch in crawford texas in two thousand and five now so he's taken her activism on the road with a new proposal called torrent deep peace cross country bike tour starting on april fourth in vacaville california and in july third right here in washington d.c. so to talk about this ambitious initiative and what it hopes to achieve and joined by my friend cindy sheehan an antiwar activist former vice presidential candidate for the peace and freedom party and author of peace mom a mother's journey through heartache to activism cindy thanks so much for coming on. it's always great to talk to you thank you for having me on of course this is an extremely ambitious initiative i commend you for what you're doing i think it's amazing talk about the demands that this tour has because i know it's not just about the war what other issues are you trying to call attention to. will return in
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a close attention to whistleblower to. the war economy and the money spent on trying to call attention to the fact that there are war crimes happening right now but the previous administration committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the current administration is protecting the war criminals while they're persecuting most of lowers and their social justice and peace activists also and so you know i am a. huge will but i learned strange and when that. the movement or the lack of movement in the middle men and so d.c. is an important place that we learn to organize across the country we weren't to rally people together to say that these wars are still happening bomber has expanded africa thirty five or thirty six countries where u.s.
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troops are drones are and it's just pitiful the lack of response to it we have been organized seeing peace i mean i'm sorry turn to peace now for several weeks we have a couple dozen people who are committed to helping us across the country but you can be assured if it were if it were romney as president mccain or bush we'd have a couple thousand people committed to it so it's very frustrating that so many people have situational principles is they're against these things when a republican is in our office but not so much when a democrat is an office and obama of course like i said expanding the u.s. troop presence in africa he's barmy or has bombed about eight muslim countries and gives me just despicable that there is like you said there's very little test against we've been trying i've been trying since he's been president and i'm hoping
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more people will become involved and get excited about this trip because it's wrong no matter who's president of course and you know as president absolutely i mean as you know the antiwar movement of course has taken a big hit under obama despite the expansion of the drone wars like you just said some say it's worse than ground troops because it detaches people from the ground of war you're one of the very few activists and he has remained steadfast despite the change in party leadership i mean but then again you're saying that you know what we would have a couple thousand of romney or president and doesn't the signify though that liberals and democrats don't care about these. issues i mean legitimately what else can it it's what else can it be. well that's what i said i said they have situational principles and and the situation that the pins are on is who is in office and so we run we run a focus or in the movement or the liberals want to focus on the things that they
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think that the right republicans are responsible for like this current economic crisis when. attaching the fact that we're spending trillions of dollars a year on the empire and obama is responsible for that he's a commander in chief so you know it's just and then the environmental movement is not talking about how and we're very proud environment on this tour to we're taking bicycles instead what i call dynamo beals and so the establishment environmental movement isn't talking about the military industrial complex that sucks out more oil and fuel than any other institution in the world and pollutes everywhere it goes it was a rainy with all kinds of toxic sarah you know there's a lot of issues where dressin are mature absolutely of course it's all connected which is really so infuriating the people don't see the connection of the economy
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the environment everything with the military i wanted to quickly look at a map right now of all the cities that are firm so far you know that there might be some added on the tour we're looking at there right now city what are your plans for each city here. it's effort in. speaking talk about that. well the part that you have on is the first part of the taking route sixty-six winches also the called the mother road which i think is very significant because women and mothers are the ones that suffer the most i think because of these wars for empire but what we're hoping to do is rally people in every city. we have. you know many people who have signed up to host we're going to need housing we're going to need people's bonser rally is in the meeting and fundraise the end to get across the country and any money that we have left over our goal is going to go to.
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groups that help people in iraq and afghanistan so we're hoping to raise a lot of money about what it's going to cost to go across the country and then the second part goes for chicago to washington d.c. and our full room is published on our website too or at p.s. so if you're on a rig or if you're little bit off our route we don't mind going off the route a little bit and get ahold of us at two hundred apiece or again volunteer to organize in your community because we just really want to you in two thousand and five when i count out in george bush's right you are the antiwar movement was very demoralized very discouraging that rally people and we're hoping that this is going to rally people cross the country and we're going through the heart of america we're not you know we're not skipping the flyovers out where most activism happens i want to close because a closer you know more progressive but we're going through the heart of america and
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we have a nonpartisan two are not blaming the republicans we're not blaming the democrats are blaming the system and it's going to take everybody no matter you know what your political identification is to change things for the better well thank you so much senate toward peace everyone check it out i'm really looking forward to this happening let's definitely touch base the when you get here your end goal washington d.c. i really like in florida that's the new she had always also have you on thank you abby and see in d.c. . i completely forgot about the oscars last night but when i checked out what had gone down in the blogosphere i realized that all i had really missed out on was a bunch of self adoration bad humor and military propaganda and i'll get to that in a second but first i want to highlight a man who despite so many odds traveled all the way from palestine to the oscars to
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represent the plight of his people his name is emad burnat out and he's the co-director of the oscar document nominated documentary five broken cameras check it out. just what looked to. see if she. saw. her. it's a movie document in the struggle of palestinians living a day to day life under military occupation stricken with constant harassment and intimidation and a culture that by and large of voids the palestine issue it was great to see the academy giving due to this film unfortunately being nominated wasn't enough to provide easy passage for imad to attend the ceremony because upon his arrival he
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and his family were detained by customs and border patrol who could not fathom that a palestinian muslim man would be given such an honor in a statement he made about the incident imad likened it to what palestinians encounter on a daily basis he said quote although this was an unpleasant experience this is a daily occurrence for palestinians every single day throughout the west bank there are more than five hundred israeli checkpoints roadblocks and other barriers to movement across our land and not a single one of us has been spared the experience that my family and i experienced yesterday ours was a very minor example of what my people face every day. even though he eventually got there and surprisingly the film didn't win and i can't imagine what winning would have meant for the issue of large an issue for which we never hear or see the full story i truly hope that day will soon come until then for braving the injustice you made at home and here in the us. you were my hero today. so
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now let's backtrack a little bit because there are a couple things i'd like to call out from last night and no it's not the fact that the onion crudely called the nine year old best actress nominee the four letter c. word although that was very odd when i do want to talk about as the first lady as i'm sure you know by now michelle obama was the presenter for the most coveted award of the night best picture now. moment we have all been waiting. and the os goes to. argo. you might be wondering why in the hell white house official would take part in this holywood ritual but if one looks at their tight relationship that's not the part that's surprising after all we know that hollywood has been one of obama's biggest campaign funders but perhaps the most disturbing part of all of this is that michelle obama dressed like she was an oscar winner herself announce the award from
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the white house surrounded by military personnel donned with war medals not to mention that the actual board went to argo a film lionize the cia for its home roic whiskey of americans from its evil running captors yes the film was captivating and it did give some context to hostile relations between the two countries but of course argos villain is the country most vilified today by the government and media so how fitting it would come from the wife of the man who inherited the military empire and the war machine that's what i like to call very sophisticated propaganda less obvious of course the number one cia propaganda bestseller zero dark thirty so who is the villain won't cope the academy group that's ninety four percent white and seventy seven percent male look in an age of such diversity in emerging ideas it's curious that the people making these decisions represent the demography of the twentieth century so the old
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white clip of men who probably loves having the military and the president intimately involved in their precious award ceremony. you guys are the villains today. if you're wondering what i'm doing when i'm not on air you can follow me on twitter having martin like what you see find all my treats link into segments from the show as well as random thoughts i ask about the day and also please help us get a break in the set one day and on twitter some hashtags we can get trending on the twitter sphere but only with your help so at a twitter dot com and check now at abby martin take a break from my preaching but stay tuned to hear more about oh president obama's plans for trade next. story. since he.
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let me let me i want to know will let me ask you a question. here on this network in which we're having the debate we have our nights out. with the truth is this time to spend staying there together here in a situation where being i don't want me to talk about the surveillance me.
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and look. if you are seeing anything like this. now i want to bring up one of the most significant and most secretive trade negotiations in history being dealt as we speak it's called the transpacific partnership where the t.p. p. currently trade negotiations are ongoing among the levin countries including australia. chile malaysia is the on her route singapore the us and of vietnam most recently canada and mexico join the talks with japan showing a strong possibility of coming on board as well the t p p has been long criticized
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by activists and trade attorneys as a threat to national sovereignty he won rights internet freedoms and the environment so help me break down the t p p the two a.p. free trade versus fair trade i'm joined by mike dolan legislative representative for the international brotherhood of teamsters thank you so much for coming on things are happening and thank you for your interest in the d.p.p. and trevor i want to should be interested in it because i understand that it has very serious implications but before you get into those breakdown what exactly is your officially officially now the t p p the trans-pacific partnership is a set of ongoing trade negotiations as you mentioned eleven countries including mexico and canada now that are that are in it they've just concluded the fifteenth round of those negotiations down auckland new zealand i had the great honor and pleasure of representing the teamsters down there and all of them for that round of negotiations the next round coming up in singapore one important thing that your viewers need to know about these negotiations is that it's really the last time
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we're going to be negotiating a multilateral free trade agreement it's called the docking agreement and any other . countries that want to get into a free trade deal with us after just joining this thing after the fact so that's the kind of the official version on officially i have to say that it's really part of a larger geo political effort to marginalize china economically in the pacific rim so you think about that commercial gemini's in the geopolitics of the pacific rim and it has as much to do with our diplomatic goals our political goals as it does to do with so-called trade policy and what are its implications i understand and maybe you can correct me on this but it instills in international courts that resides over u.s. law shared laws yeah that's one of the most controversial aspects of the tepee you're referring to the investor to state dispute settlement regime this is a legacy of nafta the mother of all train fights the north american free trade
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agreement in chapter eleven which is the investment chapter in this found instance investor to state that's really an important thing for your viewers the investor corporation investment only showing in government federal and sub federal governments for and this is you know not a government to government solution he's in these tribunals they're like world trade court and. trade bureaucrats who make decisions out of the public view based on what the. corporations think of their their commercial interests that are being violated by by. governments you know democratically elected governments that are impinging on their expectations of profits under this agreement very controversial and that's the part that you're talking about investors and as you just mention kind of beneath the public view i mean we're talking about over six
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hundred corporate advisers overseeing the negotiations but really huge lack of public involved here no i mean that's exactly right not on. end result secretive those investors the state dispute mechanisms but the process by which they're getting to close this deal is also very secretive and that's for those of us who've been working on trade policy for a while one of the most concerning aspects that you know even members of congress don't have access to see this thing and of course and no wonder our constitution article one section eight it's the congress you know that has exclusive authority over the commerce among nations our trade policy and the congress right now with fifteen rounds of these negotiations completed still hasn't actually seen the text of the agreement. and there's some reasons for that highly troubling mike not probably prizing and i also know that there was a leak to portion of the tepee negotiations that kind of mimicked. on an
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international level which is not yet very comforting as well i mean what you're getting to was like who's going to benefit. who are the winners who are the losers sure i mean i've got to use you and i mean you know one of the easy answer is the one percent and then ninety nine percent lose but it's not just the ninety nine percent in the united states it's the ninety nine percent globally this is just another string of trade agreements under the nafta the sort of flawed and failed model the nafta w t o model where the investment in corporate elites are given incentives to move production around the world to the places with the least labor laws the lowest wage rates and the least consumer and environmental protections and creating that incentive system through the various chapters of the t.t.p. is the reason why barack obama's administration is u.s.t.r. he's keeping these these negotiations secret from the congress and the american
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people. but you know we just heard about the state of the union talking about how great the t.p. would be he also talks about the t a p but you know let's get to solutions here. you represent an organization that talks about stair trade versus free trade how do we get back to fair trade here so what a great question i have to say that you know the other trade agreement that you brought up in the in the state of the union other than the t.v. was the european union us all right so it's an interesting problem for those of us who are fair trade activists in europe for example the wage rates and the labor laws are in many cases superior to what we have in the united states so i look at that agreement as a possibility of upward harmonization of standards rather than what is their traditional model lowering those standards you know i'm cautiously optimistic that negotiations haven't started there yet but as far as the t.p.
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goes what obama promised us was what he called at the time in his first term at the beginning of his first term twenty first century haruhi and agreement and those of us who supported him the labor movement in particular in his election or really excited about that was you can mean strong labor standards and for example environmental standards consumer protections and does he look like we're going valerie wilson said we're going back and thank you mike dolan the senate representative for the teamsters like that we still have hope we always have hope if we can just wake people up in their daily in this thanks a lot for your time thanks abbi. thank you. let's talk about what a nuclear waste does the environment on the friday washington state government officials announced just how much talk sic way says made its way to quote me a river subterranean basin from
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a nuclear site in southern washington the radioactive soup is leaking from six underground tanks at the hand for a nuclear facility which has been regarded as the most contaminated site in the entire country it was developed as a nuclear weapons production facility in one thousand forty three as part of a manhattan project and has since held millions of leaders of radioactive leftovers this nuclear sludge is held in storage tanks that have long ago reached their twenty year lifespans now you heard me right these tanks that hold radioactive waste expire in just twenty years so not only is nuclear material being kept in containers that eventually deteriorate but leakage from the containers has been recorded the site since the sixty's since then nearly two hundred of these toxic bins have already failed according to washington state officials the leaks produce between one hundred fifty to three hundred gallons every year meaning that thousands of tons of nuclear sewage of already been contaminated the environment at
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the site for decades now if you're feeling outraged but the criminal negligence aligned one of the most beautiful states in the country been poisoned for the last half century should be but you might want to hold on to that anger because it's about to get worse finally state and federal officials agree that a cleanup at the site must be made one small problem no nuclear waste doesn't really go away no matter how much money the robot the problem it's there to stay for centuries a new report by the department of energy said the lowest estimate of the clean up at one hundred fifteen billion dollars and is expected to last until twenty ninety and of course the bill is for you and me the taxpayers to front always. falls in the backs of the people doesn't it even the location of these sites are designed to take advantage of the most vulnerable the hanford site was constructed in a sparsely populated mountain region other than the two hundred fifty thousand
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residents that are just downstream from the nuclear site there are also at least six native american reservations that are affected hanford is just another example of what journalist chris hedges refers to as one of capitalisms sacrifice zones which he describes as quote areas that have been destroyed for quarterly profit and we're talking about environmentally destroyed communities destroyed human beings destroyed families destroyed and because there are no impediments left these sacrifices zones are just going to continue to spread outward. the idea here is just like human beings as human beings just like the natural resources of our planet have become commodities to be exploited and abused the end result of which is collapse and the current trajectory this is unavoidable this exploitation is the byproduct of predatory capitalism just at the look at the most and areas of the country where natural resources abound and political influence is most scarce
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places like the coal mines about. where the profits made on the backs of the laborers fill the pockets of the rich coal barons who live far from the contaminated soils degradative waters and polluted air look the damage that hampered weeks of causes there reparable but the remaining threat posed as we move forward is far worse these sacrifice sounds may seem far away from what you and i know now but what would you do if this was in your backyard because soon it might be but we don't hold the gears of this machine we become the gears for the machine . and talking about the same story doesn't make good news no softball no puff pieces some tough questions.
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i would like. to know silence. of the invisible. every day is a struggle. for our children sleep soundly at night. we are palestinian women. in israel. we've done more for our kids than ali has the roots. we are phantoms in this life. well. financed technology innovation all the least of elements from
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around russia. the future covered. wealthy british style. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy. for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser report.

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