well i'm tom foreman in washington d.c. here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture on tuesday the supreme court struck down section four of the voting rights act of nine hundred sixty five dozen gutting one of the most important pieces a civil rights era legislation but if things really changed america more on that with robert kennedy jr in just a moment also the united states is the only country in the developed world that doesn't guarantee its citizens paid sick leave new york city is going to start requiring a time off for illness next year but what's it going to take to get american workers the same benefits that almost every european worker adds and contrary to rot what ronald reagan said government is the solution not the problem i'll tell

you why in tonight's to take. you need to know this while the media's attention was focused on high profile cases involving the voting rights act and same sex marriage are nine unalike the unelected monarchs made a decision that could literally lead mean life or death for many americans on monday the court issued its ruling in the case of mutual pharmaceutical company b. bartlett striking yet another blow against our ability to hold drug companies accountable for the dangerous side effects of their products for more on this i'm joined by my pappa tonio attorney and host of ring of fire radio help welcome back . great great to see a so give me the you the cliff notes on this case. well the case is about a woman who do develop something called steven johnson syndrome where you burn your

skin burns up from the inside and you're left crippled by this woman she she this is a result of her taken in which is sue a scylla that has the name of the instead but the problem is this the jury came back in they heard this they heard about the tragedy but they heard the story behind the tragedy they heard that this company this generic company that had sold her this product understood that people taking this product have a high risk of having this syndrome that left her blind by the way burned sixty percent of her body have her on it has it on a feeding tube right now by the way she's crippled for life but they understood that that was a problem and they chose not to warn because they knew the direction that the supreme court was taking long before this this ruling it's been very evident the supreme court has been on the side of big corporations i mean the let this last go

around it was sixteen decisions pro u.s. chamber of commerce out of sixteen the u.s. chamber of commerce one thirteen so they understood this generic company understood that they could sell this product not worn and if they killed somebody it didn't make any difference right now eighty percent of all the pharmaceutical come out of all the pharmaceuticals sold in america are generics and the american public seventy percent of the american public is on some type of medication most of that is generic but they gave the generic pharmaceutical companies a free pass to kill people there's no other way to put it you can they can kill a person they can blind them they can cause them to have brain damage neurological illnesses birth defects this supreme court said that's perfectly ok the taxpayers will take care of the problem. the victim after they've been crippled the company doesn't have any responsibility that is this corporate this corporate controlled

supreme court it's the worst probably since the one nine hundred thirty s. that's owned operated by the u.s. supreme court made by the u.s. chamber of commerce this is mind boggling i said this isn't and said that's an acronym for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. drug which is which is what aspirin and tylenol and ibuprofen are this is a drug this woman took for a headache or for a fever and a burger skin off her body shoulder pain it burned sixty percent of her body disabled her per permanently let me tell you what the jury took of her shoulder for shoulder pain here's the problem with this tom not only did she burn up from the inside out that she then after after she burns you up it causes your skin to calcify this is a common problem with these types of of medications this company knew it but that here's the important part they also knew that this supreme court there was so

predictable that even after even after they had been told listen we the the the the problem is the generic is no different from the original drug that caused these problems in the last two years this is very interesting in the last two years i've handled cases similar to this one with generic drugs you've had nurul that people have had neurological diseases strokes blindness birth defects crohn's disease paralysis death brain damage of every kind and every time every time we took a look at the case the generic company had a history of knowing that the original medication because of these problems and they understood that in some instances tom these medications had been removed from the market and they still the generic company put them out there because they could make a. money and they knew the us supreme court would give them a free pass to kill and cripple people there's no other way that's not at all

hyperbole this supreme court under alito and roberts and scully all the usual the usual knee jerk suspects that worked for corporate america they knew what was going to happen here and they know that this is just a free pass for the pharmaceutical industry is there. i'm sorry go ahead you know worse than that now you're going to have the the main manufacturers are simply going to move their product into generics more more quietly secretly they're going to set up shell companies move it to generic where they have this protection and then they can sell all pharmaceuticals with complete utter immunity seventy percent of the american public now is taking some type of pharmaceutical far worse than the instead it's almost that's were this woman's life pap we have just a minute left this this was a supreme court decision is there are we left with a legislative remedy or is this simply the end of the road it's the end of the road

there will be no legislative remedy at the end obama argued on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry or tom obama's administration appeared from the u.s. supreme court on behalf of the drug company obama solicitor general stood up and said this is really good we need to pass you need to rule in favor of the pharmaceutical industry and you know what obama administration by the way the f.d.a. with an executive order could have made this disappear it never would have been a problem they are fully owned and operated by the by the drug company just like the supreme court is and just like virtually every member of congress with the possible exception of the progressive caucus. members my pappa tonio thanks so much for being with us thank you joe. on tuesday the supreme court struck down section four of the voting rights act the section of the landmark law that describes which parts of the country must have changes to the voting laws of. proved by the federal government or federal courts voting rights act was first an act that in one

thousand nine hundred sixty five and outlawed discriminatory voting practices that at that time had been responsible for widespread disenfranchisement of african-americans since tuesday's decision many of the states that were included under the law and introduced plans to enact voter id legislation as well as plans to gerrymander their congressional districts chief justice roberts may think that things have changed in the south it's clear that the supreme court ruling will provide fuel to those trying to prevent millions of eligible voters from having a say in our democracy so just how wrong did the supreme court get it on tuesday and is this decision a major step backwards for voting rights and equal rights in america joining me now for more on that is robert kennedy jr co-host of ring of fire radio bobby kennedy walk welcome back to the walk of the program thanks john good to be back thank you here father worked both as attorney general and as a senator on issues of civil rights and voting rights i'm curious and i'm sure of this is in your blood as well i'm curious your thoughts and what you think his

thoughts would be on the supreme court's reaction around the supreme court gutting the voting rights act. you know john lewis elizabeth every close friend of my father's was badly beaten. at that time and who is now a congressman from georgia and remained very close to my almost a surrogate father to my ten brothers and sisters after my father died he made a wonderful speech this week in which he said well yeah the supreme court is that things have changed but these have changed before in this and after the civil war or in the period of reconstruction all blacks could vote and they didn't have the vote that bill was taken away from and so you know there been times in our history when people have been given the vote and a vote was then later taken away and as use. seen and there is you know it's a fiftieth anniversary right and two weeks ago of medgar evers' death on and which

was precipitated by the riots and by the violence that had followed the integration of the university of mississippi where my uncle had to send twenty thousand troops as lord troops then were in vietnam during his entire time and off as more troops and president johnson sent to the dominican republic where sixty or six hundred u.s. marshals there with orders not to shoot there were sixty people who were injured two died. and my uncle went on t.v. the next day and said we're going to have a voting rights act it wasn't bastille after he died well what they found out as soon as they can has that they got rid of the most egregious. impediments which were the poll tax and then be. the literacy tests which were in famous because of course a black person would come in and there'd be a white panel there and they would say to the black person memorize recite the

constitution and then of course he couldn't do it if an illiterate white person came for the same panel they'd ask him what his favorite color was and he would be given the right to vote so there were a counties throughout the south that had a majority black voters many dozens and not i mean of forty black majority black population not a single black voter after we passed the voting rights act those states figured out new ways to block people from voting like literacy tests and like gerrymandering and so congress said wait a second you're just figuring out new ways to do the same thing we're going to have laws for the ten slave states that had slavery and six other states that have. continually shown discriminatory practices and they're voting. for those days we're going to make people aware going to major stage before they change the

voting rule kambal for the a get approval from the united states justice department and so that it is and that's the heart and soul the voting rights act it's the only thing that makes the voting rights act work and that's the thing you want out of the. hour justice roberts fellow threw out the ok lobby candidate thank you so much for being with us and thanks for sharing that story it's extraordinary. coming up today new york city joined a handful of all the u.s. cities in ensuring that all of their residents have been sickly but isn't it time for the rest of the united states enjoy new york city and the rest of the developed world and required all businesses to provide their workers who paid so sickly.

i would grab as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question more. 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 realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture.

here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call a donor. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot about my country you sir are a fool you know what that is my self you know want to listen to feature race and see a liberal. that's right. but it's. for you to distract us from what you and i should care about because there are profit driven industry that will stick garbage because that breaking news i'm happy martin and we're going to break the fat.

in screwed news the united states is currently the only developed country in the world that does not guarantee its citizens paid sick leave some municipalities and cities and force their own paid leave laws there is no national requirement and of the fifty states only connecticut requires businesses to offer their employees paid time off when they're sick today new york city joined a handful of other u.s. cities in ensuring that all of its residents have paid sick leave something most societies recognize as essential to a healthy labor force early the morning early this morning the city council overrode mayor michael bloomberg veto and passed a bill forcing all city businesses to provide their workers with aide sick leave starting next year for new york's low wage workers today's vote was a welcome one that's majority of workers without access to paid leave makes less than ten dollars an hour and often have to choose between getting fired and going

to work sick restaurant goers should be happy as well according to a recent study published by the center for american progress ninety percent of employees in the food service industry do not have a sick days now thanks to new york city they will this should make everyone happy workers will now be able to get healthy without worrying about losing their jobs and foodies get enjoy their meals without having to worry about someone coffee on their burger. there was a time the u.s. joined the rest of the developed world required all businesses to provide our workers with paid sick leave let's say let's ask david alaska director of communications for the new york republican state committee david welcome back to the program good to be with you again thank you so what do you dislike about workers having paid sick days we're talking five days a year here in new york city is this at the very least a public health issue if it's not a bowl reality issue well in theory tom it sounds like

a great idea but the issue here in those immortal words of president clinton from last year it's that a word arithmetic if the government is going to force employers to provide a benefit that they can't already afford well they're going to have to make up that lost revenue somewhere and they're going to make it up by firing people by reducing wages by cutting benefits or if nothing else passing the cost on the consumer so businesses are going to be hurt by this but in the end the people who are trying to help may end up bearing the brunt of the cost that's nonsense first of all if a company is confronted with an increased cost the first choice that they have is to reduce their profits i mean this is very very similar to how you the area that said i should target unless i want to get a gun to their head and demand that they do it they're not going to will back you do that with ted when they when they when they go it is the san francisco time when they did what they say wasn't you know it is very straightforward because when they did this in san francisco thirty percent of the lowest paid workers were either

laid off or saw a reduction in their hours when they did this of the lord or when they considered doing it was lower than when it ended and you're going to show that a horny percent of workers would have been affected they would have salary law in washington d.c. there was a recent audit done they found neither this law neither discouraged business owners from locate in the district nor encourage business owners to move their their their companies from the district but beyond that. still i'm still unsure if a company can't say yes you can have up to five. paid sick days a year they have no right being in business it were giving these companies the pain always or religious were also there look people can also use vacation days they can use personal days we have a fifth amendment you can bargain with your employer for more time off but look at here in new york city a full ninety percent of workers already have paid sick leave not enough so we're talking about a very small group of us industry you're talking about fewer than a quarter of the people who are working in new york city that's one industry overall we have we have in mind that are sent out to public radio and look at this

city council exempted manufacturing industries some manufacturing jobs from this new requirement in a sense that's a tacit admission that because that industry is struggling they ought to be exempt from the mandate if they did not that why can't they admit that maybe this isn't a good idea to be bad is that is not why they exempted that industry and but but back to the food industry do you really want somebody coming to work sick because they're afraid that they're going to they're going to lose their job or their kid that well then the and sneezing all over your salad before it gets passed out to you well that's that's that's a false dichotomy i mean there again you can bargain with your own poll employer for more time off without unpaid sick day good luck with that and keeping your job . well look i mean this is that's just what industry has already ninety percent of people have this data and we are and there are there are other glenmont ways you states david is right in it we don't say we're not an economy when a state doesn't matter where our economy is when a state or says to a company to an individual to a group of individuals i will grant you and corporation i will grant you limited

liability in the marketplace your liability will not exceed that of your capitalization plus you can write off your meals and everybody will subsidize that and will you can write off your advertising and everybody will subsidize that you could write off all of these basic cause we're giving you all these op we're giving you all these gifts essentially plus you've got all the infrastructure of the commons you've got the courts for free that you can use to enforce your contracts you've got a public education system is going to give you an educated workforce the least. we should do is we should say if you're going to do business in this community with all of this that we're giving you and all the infrastructure that we're giving you to make it profitable for you the least you can do is give people five damn paid sick days a year the right to do business is not a right that's afforded to individuals by the government that's not a it absolutely and that is a person no it isn't and then you hear only where the right is has risen every day it is business as free access to courts to enforce their condo where there is not that is after they had any sort of that david the word corporation doesn't exist in

the guise of the word companies or not other freedom to pursue happiness that if you believe that the government grants people the right to do business and that's not something that i not only believe that i know you won't because i've already businesses for years for decades you have have you have you run one you have i beg your pardon if i read run one and they were going to government that wouldn't and wouldn't and did a government mandate to force you to pay for sick leave that you didn't bargain with your employees on your own without of help your bottom line or heard it and i have your bottom line how would you what would you have would you have given up your profits on your own would you pass that cost on to the consumer or scale back your other benefits david i have run seven businesses with probably over two hundred employees over the last forty years that have generated in total over a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue i have never ever not given my employees paid sick days and it's fantastic just for you and that's why here in new york city ninety percent of people have paid sick leave paid sick leave then last or ten percent on the other side in the other ten he was in areas that have very honestly if you have

no right to do business in the city if you can't do business in an ethical and appropriate way you have no right to do business in this unless you're in manufacturing it right if that's what the city is deciding i think that there should be no exemptions because i think it's going to backfire if you get it again if you're going to get it you know what are your reasons because it's because it's an election here it's a let's an election year here in new york city and it's a little slow no legislation's perfect and a lot of a it's an art at the beginning. ennia david we're we're outside david alaska thanks for being with us pleasure tom. in the quarter there were in the best of the rest of the news yesterday marked a monumental day in the fight for marriage equality in the united states supreme court overturned the defense of marriage act and effectively legalize same sex marriage in california by ruling that the petitioners and hollingsworth of the perry had no standing to argue their case before the supreme court despite both of

these rulings there's still a long way to go until marriage equality is a universal right in the u.s. and opponents of marriage equality are sure to continue fighting to keep marriage between one man and one woman so while yesterday was a victory for marriage equality supporters are still a long journey ahead earlier today i had a chance to sit down with congressman mark ocana of wisconsin for an upcoming conversations of great minds segment i asked him a number of things including yesterday's supreme court rulings and what they mean for the fight for marriage equality going forward there's a piece of that interview. this is one of those moments like it like i think the fifty's and sixty's were for civil rights were more public opinion it where people are waking up it's not even the public opinion is swinging it's that it's the people who didn't even have an opinion didn't realize there was an issue before perhaps they were living in their nice insular little communities and and you know issues of race were not impinging upon them or they thought there is now it's

issues of people you know people being gay and having it and now there's a an awakening. do you think that that's first of all a reasonable analysis of what's going on yeah it exactly i think all the studies show when you know someone who is gay or lesbian then it changes your opinion right and so the more people are out and build live very freely and have their relationships recognized the realizing that hey this isn't a threat you know michele bachmann somehow was threatened yesterday i have no comment on that if she's threatened she and mark. it's has some issues it's not my marriage that's causing it but you know people really do understand this issue when they get to know people and the trajectory and demographically by age it's a huge difference well and i think that you could say in a very real way that the people who took the water in some cases was actually a very dangerous physically dangerous and emotionally dangerous choice to come out a decade ago two decades ago three decades ago and do so in ways that were probably whether sister their family and friends or whether it was public figures were the

ones who are the most responsible for this moment in time and we have to remember you can still be fired for being gay or lesbian in over twenty states in this country that's why we have to pass the employment nondiscrimination act we still have one hundred fourteen thousand people who are discharged between world war two in the end of don't ask don't tell simply for their sexual orientation and we have to make sure they have a good place to get their honor charge put back into their recognition is their discharge a bill that we've got out right now with over fifty co-sponsors but we need to make sure federal employees get equal benefits as the same partners that work who are straight couples who don't currently there's a lot of things we still have to do but marriage equality is huge it's a big big decision be sure to tune in tomorrow night for the rest of my conversation with great minds discussion of congressman.

crazy alert one of i told you that there was a video of glenn beck in a boy scout uniform ranting about. would you believe me because you should broadcast of glenn beck's show on the blaze the former fox so-called news pawn that went off on one of his trademark ransome defense of you guessed it all. dean and compared her critics to joe mccarthy. and when you go down the road of suppression suppression discouraging people from speaking their minds striking terror in the hearts and being a slave to political correctness by making them all go away you're engaging in mccarthyism where would the world be if columbus and magellan and other world explorers believed conventional wisdom that the earth was flat or they were told that's it you're not going anywhere to jail with here where would we be if martin

luther king didn't speak and challenge segregation and racism i don't know glenn that whole polity and thing is i'm ok and magellan thing might be a tad over water but whatever you say glen whatever his say this is so surprising and so on like you're usually so rational and coherent. hey i'm not a journalist i'm just a guy who cares. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot about my country and i think you do too. political right there. coming up the phone lines are now open for your take my take live segment so if you want a chance to ask me a question live in the big picture give us a call to a two i know for twenty one thirty four they'll be talking with you after the break .

that was a new alert and if they should scare me a little. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news. alexander's family cry tears of the why and in great things rather that there has to be adequate render at a court of law and sound. is the story. playing out in real life.

the worst you're going to go off the white house to the. radio for a minute. that i want. to give you never seen anything like good. little little. eerie is it possible to navigate the economy with all the details such as dixon information and media hype will keep you up to date by decoding the mainstream

headlines stating its in your wrangle. welcome to your take my take a live our phone lines are now open so if you want to share an opinion make a comment ask a question live on the air give us a call at two o two nine zero four twenty one thirty four calling from outside the united states at a one for the number let's start out with our first video question of the night kevin from kansas who is studying in new zealand. hey tom my question is more concerned about liquid floor aadhaar mean nuclear reactors and why they were not be explored basically it's a different type of nuclear reactors that was discovered in the one nine hundred sixty s. but was not utilized due to its byproduct being plutonium to see.