never imposing restrictions wasn't until activists stepped in and pressured their government to nestle back down and accepted the drought rule of course now they're clear. that they're the corp and the province was any sort of limit during a dry season well sorry i can't shed a tear for you nestle because even though you can't turn ontario into a desert you can still turn british columbia into a barren wasteland along with any other province to have your greedy wet little fingers then so quit with the crocodile tears and props to the activists who are standing up to the water profiteers. the. it was a. very hard to take a. long. line that had sacked the center right there.

after a twenty year long legal battle a major trial has begun at a new york city federal court it's called chevron corp versus stephen and it calls attention to an environmental disaster at an oil field in ecuador that dates all the way back to nine hundred sixty four the oil field in question was operated by texaco later bought out by shotgun it was an area for steam the amazon rain forest three times the size of manhattan but has since been subject to the catastrophic effects of oil contamination sea texaco spent decades dumping an estimated sixty five billion gallons of toxic waste. directly into the ground in one thousand nine

hundred five ecuador's national oil company petroecuador had seized most of the land destroyed by texaco and reached a settlement with the oil giant which texaco agreed to clean up a portion of the contaminated land and since chevron acquired texaco in two thousand and one chevron has said that its hands are clean obligations already fulfilled but chevron did nothing to address the damage done to entire communities directly impacted by contamination and up until two thousand and eleven chevron probably thought it got away scot free until an ecuadorian court ruled in favor of the spill victims awarding indigenous communities eighteen point five billion dollars to be paid by chevron but as underdeveloped exploitation and immunity for oil companies goes shopping was going to let that slide yet what should've been an unprecedented win against corporate impunity wasn't instead it's become a long drawn out legal battle between one of the largest oil companies in the world and indigenous residents of the amazon rain forest these ecuadorians continue to

suffer from a slew of health effects direct result of living on this toxic land chevron having no remaining presence in their country has managed to avoid pain one cent of the eighteen point five billion dollars owed moreover giant is now accusing stephen turney representing villagers in the case of committing fraud by bribing justice officials and i quote or to rule against chevron and just to add insult to environmental injury chevron recently subpoenaed the federal government for private data belonging to activists lawyers and journalists who criticize the company over the course of the trial after all of this blatant criminality chevron still maintains that they are the victims here victims of a mass extortion conspiracy chevron the world is conspiring against you it's amazing the legal team representing the actual victims is not what's in question just you. yesterday dozens of activists rallied outside the courthouse in new york

where chevrons extortion charge just kicked off so how much is this latest trial setting back the real issue at hand justice for those who were poisoned tell me break down the latest in this case i'm joined by spokesperson for the ecuadorian victims of chevron contamination thanks so much for coming on thanks for having me so what's your response is chevron saying you know what we bought out texaco it wasn't us who created the disaster. well quite simply you mention adding insult to injury i think one of the most important points about this whole case is that it's not just stephen danziger on trial chevron has actually sued the victims of its contamination in the most sort of agree just new form of blaming the victim chevron is suing under rico all of the forty seven named plaintiffs who were part of the class action that originally took them to court for contamination massive contamination throughout the ecuadorian amazon so it's not just stephen it's not

just their legal advocates here in the u.s. it's actually the ecuadorian victims of chevron's widespread pollution throughout the rainforest that are named in this suit and who are defending themselves in court this week thanks for explaining that talk about this contamination talk about the actual scope of it well they really have been able to get a proper assessment certainly. to show that i'm fair. it should be noted that you mentioned i think in the set up that they dumped some sixty five billion gallons of toxic waste water now we don't have evidence of that and i think it's actually much lower they've admitted they've actually admitted. in a newspaper ad actually trying to clear up the facts of the matter that they've dumped sixteen billion that's still a tremendous amount that's polluting twenty four seven for the twenty or twenty

five years that texaco now chevron operate in the region now they dump this toxic waste water directly into the streams and rivers and marshes these streams and rivers in the area that are depended upon by thousands of people for drinking water for bathing for fishing in this was an area that was pristine when texaco arrived in one thousand nine hundred sixty four to begin oil operations and now it is. a wasteland of environmental. disaster you know it was an environmental free fire zone essentially for several decades and there are waste pits that chevron left behind that are open air online sludge filled crude filled waste pits that leach into the groundwater and into the soil there is that i mean the water poisoned everywhere so that the victims that were during villagers who live in that area suffer from an epidemic of oil related illness cancer birth defects miscarriages it's horrific thing to behold and i've been there myself numerous

times and i you know i wish anybody who doesn't necessarily believe the facts in the case to investigate this because really chevrons allegations in this new rico suit are really just the latest egregious stage of its campaign to evade accountability and let's go back a little bit because i think the part that's most startling is the fact that chevron actually lost this case and was ordered to pay for reparations and damages and then they basically were just able to completely avoid this all how did that happen well chevron has just thumbed its nose at the entire legal system in ecuador and it's important to note that in one thousand nine hundred ninety three this this lawsuit that they lost was originally filed right here in new york in the same court where they're now litigating this case against the ecuadorian victims of their pollution it was filed in one thousand nine hundred three because that's

where the headquarters in new york because that's where the headquarters of texaco was at the time and it seemed like the appropriate forum to hear the case now chevron fought for ten years and prevailed in their efforts to move the case to ecuador that was the form that they chose that was the form that they said in numerous affidavits was the most fair most appropriate mode. transparent for to hear the case and in two thousand and eleven after eight years of litigation down in ecuador that included. you know some two hundred twenty thousand pages of trial evidence in the case record eventually. they were found guilty they were found liable of massive contamination which everybody knew but. basically they were expecting an adverse judgment and expecting an adverse judgment they launched this retaliatory rico lawsuit this campaign to evade accountability and that's

where we're at now amazing not only with a force that the whole lawsuit out of the country but then when they did they use that kind of as a justification to say hey you guys bribe these officials absolutely unbelievable and not only of the not had any money they're now alleging that indigenous ecuadorians in their lawyers committed fraud. and yet the actual claim i mean what evidence they have to back up these allegations well basically you know what i was saying to somebody recently i can't recall but that they've really done a fantastic job just the most amazing sort of political and media jujitsu where they've taken all of the things that they've done over the course of this twenty year legal fight corrupting the judicial process bribing judges attempting to entrap witnesses falsifying evidence and they've basically accused us of doing and what they have is the tremendous power and might of one of the

largest most colossal corporations that has ever existed in human history and they're putting it all behind this case they have thousands of associates working on this from legal lawyers to private investigators that they've hired to lobbyists to p.r. flacks and you know they're throwing everything that. they have at it because i think that they're nervous not just about paying for the disaster that they created and helping the victims of the company's pollution but i think that they're concerned about the precedent that it could set for. holding companies like chevron accountable for their abuses whether at home or abroad thank you so much we need to keep the pressure up hold chevron accountable for this mess absolutely incredible that tactic has been to mitigation are just astounding thank you so much spokesperson for ecuadorian victims of chevron contamination thank you. after the

break we'll speak with musician activist eleanor goldfield stick around. well told you my language is old but i will only react to situations i have read the reports. put in the know i will lead them to the state department to comment on your letter telling them to say to the security of a car is on the job here no. job no more weasel words. when you need a direct question be prepared for a change when you have to. be ready for a. freedom of speech and let down the freedom to watch.

the news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. one hundred twenty three days. through. the cities of russia. by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killings. in a record setting trip by. air. space. torch relay. m r t r g dot com.

technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia. although the modern music industry is the tortoise the vapid or few diamonds in the rough that use art to advance social consciousness one of those artists is eleanor goldfield is an l.a. based singer songwriter and front woman of the band rooftop revolutionaries owner has also been a vocal supporter of occupy wall street and amend this movement to keep money out of politics she joins me now from l.a. studio eleanor welcome. thank you for having me and so i hope the ship government shutdown shame has given you some material to be inspired by you know we hear a lot about armchair revolutionaries but what exactly is a rooftop revolutionary. well. i used to live on

a roof here in los angeles in the silver lake neighborhood and rooftop revolutionaries started actually as a political group and then i came up with the idea to combine my passion for political activism and my passion for music so that's where rooftop revolutionaries was born and like a bridging are not division of course we know it can ostracize a lot of musicians from a lot of audiences of why did you choose to really politics in your art. well i think it's actually i think it's the job of artists to be that voice of a generation as artists musicians painters movie makers we have the strongest voice in popular culture and unfortunately the voice of so much of my current generations popular culture is don't stop the party and things like that and i think that there is such a much more important message to be put out there most notably being the end of

corporate rule and corporate power that is the biggest issue facing my generation worldwide and i think that since we do have that strong voice it's our job to take up. that fight and to promote that too to fans and to people all across lines social lines through music and through our. music really does have that ability to bridge a lot of people together past just a kind of a political bantering back and forth and really galvanize people your band is a lot of american flag imagery i thought this is really interesting why did you choose to embrace nationalistic symbolism. because i do think that the flag itself just like this country was founded on tremendously strong ideals and tremendously powerful ideals that promote the idea of a democratic republic and promote the idea of power by the people and i think because that is so strong i'd like to put that back into the spotlight as

a positive symbol and not just a symbol of where we've gone wrong and the issues and the negative effects of that flag i think it could be a strong symbol for good and i'd also of course it is a very strong symbol so pushing that out there also promotes the idea that the band is a political band and to not be afraid of being political because like i said it's very important these days to be politically active and that flag is a very strong symbol of that well that's what i like about it because that when you usually see that flag it's a lot of super patriotic musicians and songs and so i like how you're going to be using it but to say a very stark message and kind of warning about where this country is going i want to play a song for our audience complicity off your album resolute let's check it out. i

knew you cons took up their arms in faith genocide wears suits and ties let's play a very powerful lyrics what does that song mean to you. basically it's that the idea that because we do live in a republic democratic republic everything that this country does has our stamp of approval on it whether or not we do approve of it our silence speaks louder than any words that we have so far put across so complicity is basically the that were complicit in this crime or complicit in the crimes that the united states performs here and overseas and that's with that with that song is saying the melon on your blog you were saying that it is rare to find musicians or music industry professionals especially in l.a. who are intellectual or quarter why do you think that most aren't. again it goes

back to the idea that popular culture these days seems more interested in not stopping the party and as my guitarist brian actually put it once this generation seems really intent on preaching escapism and basically the idea that let's not pay attention to the bad things that are happening right now let's just pay attention to sex drugs and rock n roll and sure that's fun but again there are more pressing issues and it can also be an entertaining way of discussing these issues and that's the idea of bringing it to a musical medium is that you can have fun at a concert i don't want people to come to our shows and be bored or depressed music is a very entertaining way of putting forth this message and when people are entertained when they feeling gaged they're more intent on sticking with it and that's the whole idea behind it as to why people aren't more politically active i think there's a bad rap basically on being politically active. and i see it all the time as well

i mean a lot of people that i've dealt with and move to amend or money out voters in or even occupy wall street a lot of those people were much older than me and so it is this problem that a lot of people in my generation and the music industry entertainment industry feel that it's not cool or it's not sexy to be into political issues just tune out completely of course the industry suppresses a lot of political activism with music and all the like thank you so much eleanor goldfield amazing to have you on activist songwriter everyone check it out thank you so much abby i. i i i we're living in an era of greenwashing as people are becoming more environmentally conscious corporate america is using the green movement to its advantage case in point ethanol what started as a concept to reduce dependence on foreign oil and. clean air initiatives turned

into a wall street backed crony industry with little to no oversight or regulation see years ago the e.p.a. mandated that oil refineries mix ethanol with gasoline or they had another choice by ethanol credits in the form of thirty eight digit renewable identification numbers better known as ren hang on these credits are provided by the government to incentivize the expansion of the renewable fuel industry sounds great now there's a federal requirement on the amount of ethanol credits that you need and if you don't have them you can be fined up to thirty two thousand dollars every day. and of course wall street being as corrupt as it is seized upon this new market and transformed an environmental program into a profit machine by hoarding hundreds of millions if not billions of britons to sell and trade so how does happen and who's hurting as a result of this shady practice joining me now host of a new art to show boom bust area they are all related things there is on my eyebrow having me on and i have to say better than most people reading this is the front

page of the new york times about what i guess six weeks ago not only about this and it was my mind but i don't know what i was going so how is it and this is my question how is it that banks are able to trade commodities because i thought back in the day they were unable to. know they weren't banks were actually function and they functioned as banks and they were banked if you will their appeal glass steagall in one thousand nine hundred nine basically what non financial institutions participate and own nonfinancial corporations like commodities operations like ethanol like aluminum like other other commodities banks can own those and if you own it obviously talk about being an insider and there's no need for insider trading when you are the insider you literally own the company on which you're trading so crazy why are banks even invoke a i get that and i understand that banks are just you know they see the profit the dollar. signs are going crazy but i just don't understand why the e.p.a.

allowed banks to be involved in a market that has nothing to do with energy or if i mean you would think would be if you would say hey people i can get these credits are the energy companies or the refiners and that is exactly who can get the credits however while the they do issue these credits it goes back to what you were saying before this market is built for what wall street salivate for this poorly regulated not a lot of transparency it's built for corruption if you will but it's not corrupt because it's not illegal because the e.p.a. really doesn't have any oversight created this in an effort you know for like you said renewable energies but then when they created the market they then said oh let's let's let the free markets dictate it you can't create be the market creator and then spout about free markets just don't work that way you have to come in with some sort of regulation but basically they allow the banks to get involved it doesn't function like a regular commodity on a regular exchange with an exchange there's some level of transparency because there is an exchange this has not you and i could trade britain's renewable energy

renewable can you think there are now new ball identification number of the thirty digit renewable identification number you and i can trade brands it's john like the good old days of wall street believe in one spark that you literally can pick up and start trading which is why the spreads on it are so much bigger than you'd see with a regular stock on a regular commodities exchange so how you know how is it that there's so little regulation i guess is the next question i mean how is it the has almost no transparency you know what that's that is the question of the hour and a lot of people been asking not i hold the e.p.a. to a higher standard than a lot of other other agencies in the government and the fact that they are just touting free market don't let the free markets dictate it basically the e.p.a. is saying this is a great thing this means that there's more renewable energies winds are going out the person is going out but what they never did they didn't take the time to stop and think that it was in two thousand and five that this law that required you know energy companies to to put this thirty eight d.

. written on the bottom of each barrel that says you are you mixed definitely or you paid the price that because you didn't extend they didn't realize that when they made this law. the market would continue to grow they thought the market would grow into twenty twenty two it hasn't two thousand came there was just people started using more fuel efficient cars tesla everyone loves now a i mean that doesn't buy it though i don't buy that the saying hey we don't see anything shady going on what's going on. so what do you paint what is going on you . do i guess keeping this just completely like again for a i mean they created a mini monster in the sense that they created this market that they weren't involved in and it's really really difficult you know to anticipate a market's actions and what a market's going to do when you don't know the market and. when you're just creating and you're not familiar with an you're not from there it's and then you leave it loosely regulated and say hey that's

a good thing that means people are buying these things that we say are better someone is out there again you're absolutely right it's a matter of finding who that person is that is the lobbyist for the ethanol markets i mean the ethanol markets thumbs up a ok there may be a rock runs of money because now they have a built in market the government requires everyone to have this and it's it's a trickle down effect to will affect ultimately the consumer it also affects the cars the cars that we produce you can only put so much corn in gasoline. so yeah basically the cost is going to be laid out on the people who are these banks are hoarding all these returns they're selling them for way costlier than they should be and of course the companies that are really that price on the consumer at the gas pump right and here's the thing we don't even know what that price is we know that in the first six months of this year six billion dollars worth of runs were issued and traded traded six billion dollars in six months how much do you think that is since it started since that certain two thousand and five. i mean it but

then we don't know we don't know how much it is because there there isn't any transparency the commodities the commodities future excuse me the commodity futures trading commission they say that you can voluntarily participate and tell us how many were in j.p. morgan and citibank guess how many participate so you take a guess you didn't. know one participates in a search so it's i mean it's just it's kind of a scam and someone is out to profit and it's trickle down like george i'm glad this is becoming exposed as i had no idea what do we do i guess how can we scale this back if you want us i mean it's funny that you bring that up just the other day when i was getting ready to come in here are two and i generally yoga with the television on i saw a commercial saying you know stop the ethanol market manipulation like you see further and i was like whoa this is getting out there and that's a good thing i mean let's keep our eyes on the ball and we'll be checking out your show boom bust on our teacher be awesome thank you so much for going on breaking this down thank you thank you abbi that's it today for our show have

a great night be sure to tune in to boom bust everyone check out the promo. true guy so always never. surplus deficit. boom bust. some may disagree. but i believe america is exceptional. let's we can't.

let. let's. look. you know. please. a pleasure to have you with us here today.

splits the syrian opposition party takes a close look at life on rebel ground is just a particular moment us from the capital damascus that is like a state within a state free syrian army that foley's big syrian military cannot and tear parties morea fanaa reports from fragmenting syrian rebel held territory. syria on the rebel group. to. get.

a little. place. and. i. one hundred twenty three days. through two hundred cities of russia. really fourteen thousand people or sixty thousand killed. in a record setting trip.

torch relay. on r t r g. a short term fix president obama signs a last minute deal to restart the government and to raise the debt ceiling but the root causes of congress's most fierce battle in recent history remain on addressed . as the detainee hunger strike and one tunnel bay prison continues our team gains rare access to the infamous u.s. detention center. you've heard about it like several movies but you don't really need it it's just a place that people forget about why they don't ever think about it we ask those who make the facility take what it's really like to work there and do they have any regrets. britain's prime minister slams a guardian newspaper over its reporting on whistleblower.