welcome back to the big picture i'm richard fowler coming up in this half hour the obama administration is working on a new trade deal with the e.u. that could give international courts the power to strike down regulations is this the end to sovereignty sovereignty as we know it we'll find out in a moment also yesterday a federal court agreed to hear challenges the obama care's birth control mandates is the is the right winning the war on women we'll ask activist sam benefit about this live in the d.c. studio and the n.r.a. and its supporters are competent for something small tell us about it in the daily take. screwed news it's time to keep an eye on a proposed trade agreement between the united states and the european union that could give corporations unprecedented power to flout regulations and exploit our comments in its current form the deal known as the transatlantic trade and

investment partnership calls for creation of a system of rules governing investor state dispute resolutions investor state dispute resolutions is the fancy term for a legal procedure in which a corporation can use an international court to challenge a law or regulation that it doesn't like that was passed by a sovereign government it works like this if the united states entered into a trade agreement with canada that allowed for a investor state dispute resolution system and in oil company like halliburton for example could appeal any laws canada passed regulating the output of greenhouse gases to an international court just to fit in like a ensure the proposed trade agreement would sacrifice national sovereignty all around the world including american sovereignty to the interests of private corporations here to talk more about this trade deal and its potential impacts on the economy as laurie. the director of public citizens global trade watch lori

welcome back to the show thank you very much so we hear especially coming from the right all this stuff about one world government the u.n. and one world government agenda twenty one these the board the gun trafficking law or resolution that was just passed of the u.n. isn't what's really happening with these trade deals what they should really be afraid of when it comes to one world government well it's very interesting when right wing folks tea partiers here about the notion of a trade agreement submitting the united states the jurisdiction of three person attorney tribunals who who are meeting under world bank or united nations rules who are empowered to demand we pay unlimited sums of u.s. taxpayer money over any domestic law that u.s. firms have to meet but they don't like it makes their hair and fire on a bipartisan trans partisan right left in the middle kind of way most people don't

know what's happening so that's part of the deal. now now lori the interesting about this agreement that's just leave it to sort of talking about it is they're going to create this whole ideal of this investor state dispute resolution which is the first of its kind in which corporations can actually sue states for laws they don't like so if the united states were to pass a law giving us all off friday you know the german company could sue them and say this is an unfair law it's unfair labor practice it's going to screw up our trade agreement therefore we don't want you to do it so there's been a version of that investor state system typically in agreements between rich countries and developing countries and ostensibly the reason for it is that you can't rely on the developing countries courts it can be cropped it can actually be formed. so three years in the last ten years particularly as there have been increasingly attacks on totally legitimate laws you mentioned climate stuff there's a real one where u.s. corporate. and oil and gas corporation is attacking the ban on fracking and come

back right now under the investor state system and now after eli lilly is attacking can his entire patent system not in its courts but in a private corporate tribunals demanding taxpayer money what's different there we go tell us what's different laurie is the u.s. in the e.u. are not developing countries our courts are at the top of the list of courts that are reliable function well and international list of those we are not having scanned property rights here so both as far as the substantive rights of investors and the ability adjudicate fairly are property rights in courts the notion of having a parallel system on top of our constitution our courts that is just for foreign corporations to raid our treasury is obscene and. gets rid of the whole notion that what that investor state system is about is kind of accommodation for a developing country investment this is too rich country box but i think the thing

here that sort of scares me is sort of a crowd effect of democratically elected state legislatures or government lower you know national polluters because we don't want to pass laws are afraid are going to get sued by exxon mobil or or merck or pfizer and the all in all about the companies and. the congress and i think the crowding out their ability to really be truly religious for the people well this is a choice and we cannot make it is the answer so we have not gotten into this transatlantic agreement which they are trying to call brace yourself. let's call it by its true name which rhymes with now because this is like the north american free trade agreement on steroids as far as its effect so this task to deal right now is a figment of corporate imagination if people start talking about just this is this attack on our sovereignty and our democracy this is actually can be stopped as far as the tribe you know is this is going on at the same time as t.v. is going on as well are you are you nervous. the same sort of secrecy that we see

with these negotiations going on with this trade deal as well. i mean does it seem to have still the same sort of supporting congress despite all this. well what's an interesting thing is actually in congress it's going to be highly unpopular the notion of having investor state private corporation for some and the conservatives see the system in the us to the sovereignty of the world bank in the united nations and the treasury so the undermines both our sovereignty and our solvent see from the left side it's an attack on all of our domestic environmental how regulations and so on the notion of this with the e.u. it's going to be very unpopular it's sort of matched to fly under the radar with p.p. because you can argue because they're a bunch of developing countries that you need that extra place to ensure u.s. investors what's interesting is well the myth of that being the reason to do this. be punctured by doing it in taffeta absolutely and like you said if people know what's going on with their hair stands up and we need to make people know what's

going on to call their members of congress laurie thanks so much for telling us. in other news last december a three judge panel in the united states tenth circuit court of appeals blocked all requests from the retail chain hobby lobby which sought to block obama's rule requiring employer provided health care plans to cover birth control however yesterday in a move rarely done the full term circuit court of the court agreed to hear the case again in a full judge hearing so could this latest decision to take up hobby lobby's case deal a blow to women all across the country joining us to talk about it is sam bennett president c.e.o. of the woman campaign spawn and she should run sam welcome to the show welcome to you nice to see you so tell me we've seen this continued barrage of attacks on when women and women's uterus and what they what they can do and what they can do is this latest this latest move by the ninth circuit court. what's going on sam talk to me the bottom line on baby is we don't have enough women in elected office that's what it boils down to because this continued assault against women. just

wouldn't be happening if we had more women in elected office is a whole body of research that shows that for example in those states that have much lower levels of women in elected office are also those states where access to reproductive choices and options are much more restrictive there's an exact connecting line between those two things so these latest sort of assaults that we're experiencing are a direct reflection of that now let's all have a quick chuckle every single medical plan out there practically will authorize and pay for via agora but when it comes to women's own reproductive rights and choices that's where that where the rub is that's where the problem is that's the the pin that the angels are dancing on right now so and i hear that so what's the linchpin that's going to cause women to run for office and start to sort of i guess fight this war on women that's right it's a great question we're at ninety seventh among all nations the number of women in elected office i come from the state of pennsylvania ran for congress in two

thousand and eight that's right forty seventh among all of all the states the number of women elected office which means i come from the massage mystic center of the universe and the truth. so the truth of the matter is research shows american women when they run they win equal rights to men and our research shows that they actually are raising more money than men when they run what's the problem they're not running why aren't they running number one they're not asked number two they're really concerned about that kind of barrage of negative attacks that come your way particularly sexist attacks now what guy is worried about sexist attacks and zero right so it's the women that are at the receiving end of that and they're really it deters them so what do you have to do young man is you need to encourage every challenge a woman that you know to run for office you can nominate her to she should run and we can just fix the damn problem. ok and i think you know a couple. if so that's one aspect of this is that there's not enough

enough women in this is clear sexism going on and on women the other aspect is this is motivated by religion by the christian right as well and i want to read something that gary bauer you know a prominent evangelical republican said recently and he said quote if we gave our voters an accurate portrait portrayal of our ideas that we want to cut the rate of growth on social security give tax cuts to billionaires and then the values issues the values issues would be more popular than the economic agenda of the current republican party so i think he's saying you know economically we're not we're not doing so well here but we need to promote more of our religious values how do you respond to that is i mean does we're see coming from here to think that after all this it's their values issues that are going to keep winning them i like you know i think the whole. far right position on reproductive choices and options in the long run i think it's going to be an aberration i'll be honest with you because the research shows that overwhelmingly americans are with. women having access to

reproductive choices and options so what is truth is there's a very small percentage three percent call it the religious right call it what you will that seem to continue to beat this drum about restricting women's access to reproductive choices and options where is it coming from well there was this unholy alliance for back in the late seventy's and early eighty's between the american roman catholic church and the right wing evangelicals it's an embarrassment quite frankly to the roman catholic church that you have the richest nation in the world and american roman catholics overwhelmingly support birth control overwhelmingly support women's access to reproductive choices and options so man they want to kill that baby you know they want to cut that off at the knees and that's i think at the root of what we're dealing with right now now tell me you talked about where we have to be mad at me i apologize but that's not my research shows so so we have just twenty seconds left tell me for those folks for those women out there who want to run who want to make sure we change our society what should they do where should they go how do they find out more information our program she should run out over

a g. has a lot of information that they can access when they decide to run we can endorse them at women's campaign fund we would love to have them bring them on board the bottom line is women need to run and run in historic numbers women need to run and run in historic numbers thank you so much for being on the program we're always a pleasure. coming up earlier today connecticut governor malloy officially signed into law what would be will be called the toughest gun regulations in the country that's bad news for those gun toting biographer users will explain why on tonight. this is is trash to get rid of. but it's also a treasure. worth fighting for.

and a trap was no way out. download the official application to yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere.

about international and world in the very heart of moscow. and welcome back dozens of journalists from the international courts consortium of investigative journalists recently completed a project in which they sifted through millions of documents related to offshore. banking in the caribbean the group of journalists who studied more than two point five million files have cracked open the secrets of more than one hundred twenty thousand offshore companies in trusts exposing the hidden dealings of politicians

con men in the wealthy elite all over the world their records are a virtual who's who of offshore banking and tax evasion a list in the records are american doctors in the c.e.o.'s of wall street banks toure's eastern european indonesian billionaires international arms dealers in a sham company that the european union has labeled as a player and iran has nuclear development program this constant flow of offshore money legal and illegal personal and corporate has the ability to take down or bankrupt economies europe's continuing financial crisis has been fueled by a greek fiscal disaster that was made worse by offshore tax cheating and by a banking meltdown in the tiny tax haven nation of cyprus now that the cat is out of the bag it's time to put an end to offshore banking and tax evasion and make sure that the all of darks of the world are doing their fair share to support the

global economy. the good the bad and the very very. ugly good deed for months the beastie boys rapper has been providing free food to hurricane sandy victims in his hometown of rockaway new york while republicans the late he organized the rockaway plate lunch a food truck service that delivered fresh healthy meals to rockaway residents affected by superstorm sandy good work mike john boehner and eric cantor could learn a thing or two from you know bad fic asian experience believe burbridge a new restaurant has a new promotion going every wednesday any customer openly carrying a firearm see the ten percent discount on their meal. the restaurant patrons think that open carry ones are blast they say they've never felt safer. right now i feel like i'm in the safest place in leesburg virginia really absolutely. absolutely

because i if someone comes through that door good luck. restaurant bar whatever stays open throughout the open carry day because you know nothing says constitutional like beer and bullets and a very very old so ugly. on a march seventh recording released yesterday by right wing watch dot org the former house majority leader condemned the violence against women act new protection for transgendered americans as defiant his remarks made in it was made in a conference call organized by the tea party unity group. the balance again then it . violence against women act that includes homosexuality transgender setting up all kinds of different classes of sexual deviant i mean absolutely amazing that they did that and in recent weeks probably republicans like rob portman have come out in support of marriage equality some pundits have suggested the party might be

beginning to might begin to reevaluate is the so-called family values but the latest comments are just a reminder that many republicans have their views of gay americans and it's very very. ugly. well it looks like the n.r.a. is on the run in connecticut despite a desperate last minute bid to defeat sweeping new gun laws in connecticut a desperate bid that actually included robo calling residents of newtown with pro-gun messages the n.r.a. watch today as democratic governor dannel malloy signed the strongest new gun controls in the nation into law at a signing ceremony today governor malloy said simply quote we have come together in a way that relatively few places in our nation have demonstrated an ability to do

and quote very few places including the united states congress that is where one by one gun control advocates have seen crucially important life saving measures taken off the table first it was the assault weapons ban that it was a ban on high capacity magazines those magazines that seem to be used in every mass shooting in america and now the only thing left is universal background checks and that proposal will that proposal is just barely clinging to survival in the senate who knows if it'll pass but connecticut still shaken by what happened at sandy hook they passed all of these measures and more the bill signed into law today in connecticut bans more than one hundred types of military style assault weapons it limits the capacity of ammunition magazines to just ten rounds and bans armor piercing bullets seems like no brainer stuff here if you already bought one of

these high capacity magazines you can keep it but you can't load it with any more than ten bullets outside your home and you have to register it with the state the law also requires eligibility certificates for the purchase of any rifle and shock on or any ammunition and there will be background checks for all all firearm sales all firearm sales including gun shows and all firearms sales even private sales. so this is what connecticut accomplished new york and colorado have accomplished passing similar tough new gun laws to and we're still waiting on congress to see what these states realize that congress apparently doesn't is that our nation unlike canada and europe in the rest of the developed world now and states has a problem we have a problem with guns and that problem is made worse by gun nuts who obsess over their guns who promote wild conspiracy theories like fast and furious and agenda

twenty one to justify arming themselves to the teeth and who try to intimidate others by stuffing their big long guns in their pants and marching around next to grieving mothers and fathers who had to bury their children as a result of gun violence and who are just trying to save other families from the same grief the gun nuts who obsess over their big long and powerful guns are holding us back and like lawmakers in connecticut the rest of us need to stand up to them to not be intimidated by them because in the end we know what really motivates them they all have small penises and that is the subject of tonight's daily take people around the world are wondering out loud why america has a gun problem when canada and europe don't canadians europeans watch the same violent movies many canadians and swiss even have easier access to guns than most

americans live in a big city gun control but only america seems to have so many men buying guns hoarding guns and discharging guns it's. psychological problem we have here what would freud say about all this the famous psychiatrist may well have found interesting a line of research performed and published repeatedly over the past decade that shows that chemicals like bisphenol a b.p.a. are widespread in the american food supply but generally not as widespread or even are banned outright in canada and europe as nature magazine noted in an article titled us opts not to ban b.p.a. in canned foods b.p.a. mimics the hormone estrogen even in low doses estrogen of course is the hormone that makes girls into girls and women into women and what happens to men when they take estrogen their penises get smaller as yahoo news reported

a study in canada found that estrogen mimicking chemicals definitely can affect penis size the article titled bisphenol a may cause smaller pieces notes there's still research regarding bisphenol a influence in smaller genitals and penises in male humans may be a sizable problem for men already worried about the size of their nether regions articles author pending richards further notes that scientists in canada studied piano sizes and b.p.a. exposure levels of thousands of children and found a clear relationship between b.p.a. exposure and smaller genitals she wrote this news relating to small penis size and b.p.a. comes on the heels of past tests the scientific community has long known that rodents those with chemicals such as b.p.a. have given birth the feminized male babies effects include smaller genital tracks in the male mice a new canadian study also follows recent reports by scientists the united states reported that they noticed smaller penises in boys from moms who had higher levels

of b.p.a. b.p.a. while mostly banned in canada in europe is widespread in the american food supply virtually everything you eat. most fast food restaurants came into that restaurant either in a canned line with b.p.a. in a giant box lined the plastic bag made with b.p.a. and americans particularly gun loving americans seem to have a very strong affection for fast food and b.p.a. is only one of dozens of estrogen mimicking chemicals in the american food supply makes up a few of them over the course of a lifetime and you may end up with really really small penises so back to freud what would sigmund say about a nation filled with men whose penises are getting smaller and smaller because their food supply is laced with estrogen mimicking chemicals might they start turnin in large numbers to long things that look like big penises and can produce all inspiring in a jack elations when there are triggers or to hold. the idea of such

a problem was never presented to the great psychiatrist because such chemicals didn't exist back in his day but from his widely known penis envy theory a modern psycho therapist could conclude that freud would probably be on board with the idea that men who worry about the size or functionality of their penises might find ways to compensate like by buying using and displaying long thin things that can have something come out of the end like cigars or gun. freud of course famously said that sometimes a good cigar is just a good cigar he actually was speaking of the pipe but the meaning is the same. and presumably most rational gun owners are just rational gun owners not men freaking out about shrinking penises but what about those guys who seem to obsess so. let's leave the final word to that to the internationally known commentator on sociological conditions jim carrey and he's

a video for funny or die he sings near the end that as near as i can figure you're a big big man with a little bitty gland to so you need something bigger with a pair of thin trigger check it out. here is the little bit england so you need something bigger than freedom to give you when the sun comes out you make like a. makes perfect sense to me and that's the way it is tonight thursday april twenty third two named for more information on any of the stories we covered visit our website it's. free speech dot org. and if you missed any of tonight's show you can now watch it on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture also check out our two you tube channels there are links to thom hartmann dot com

also at tom foreman dot com check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback. as tom always says democracy begins with you get out there get active tag you're it we'll see you tomorrow. let me let me one wouldn't let me ask you a question from. here on this network is we're having a debate we have our knives out. to bring you this trial just about staying there again you're in a situation where being idle or even talk about the surveillance.

is you believe you to do is to. try. to meet. such. a potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit starting in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more patrie down saying the bottom line there's still a lot of snow out here

a good place for snowball fight. jason it is going to pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout much of in life nobody is allowed to be driving lessons from emergency vehicles are exceptions. the international airport in the very heart of moscow.