coming up on r t v congress's approval ratings were low before think again a new poll looks at how americans feel about their elected lawmakers and let's just say it's an all time low take a look at the numbers just ahead in part of a secret trade deal known as the t.p.d. p. has come into the light we q it was released documents showing at the trans-pacific partnership what effect the u.s. and other negotiating nations from medicine to internet freedom more on that coming up. and there are growing calls for the guantanamo bay detention camp to be closed to president obama's promise to close the facility years ago hasn't been kept but what might a new debate brewing on capitol hill over the national defense authorization act i mean forget about that later in today's show.

it's wednesday november thirteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm sam sax and you're watching r.t. and we begin with a nine percent approval rating no that's not toronto's crack smoking mayor rob ford's approval rating that's the united states congress's approval rating today according to a new gallup poll nine percent is the lowest rating ever recorded in gallup's thirty nine year history of asking americans if they approve of the way congress is handling its job just two months ago in september it looked like congress was making a comeback its approval rating was ten points higher at nineteen percent still abysmally low but it's better than nine percent and then the government shutdown happened and americans watched as a congress specifically a right wing political faction in congress blew a twenty four billion dollar hole into the economy and cut g.d.p. g.d.p.

growth by more than a half percent that was the cost of the government shutdown. a deal brokered to end it virtually guaranteed that will repeat this disaster again at the beginning of next year but this is the way things have been going all year you might remember back in april when congress' approval rating was a slightly higher fifteen percent they couldn't even pass gun safety measures that had the support of more than ninety percent of americans get a bill that had the support of ninety percent of americans couldn't pass congress thanks to a filibuster in the senate and one of the reasons why that gun bill failed was that lawmakers were afraid it would lead to a national gun registry that the government would keep track of all gun owners and then a few months later everyone found out that the government is sort of keeping track of all gun owners well all americans in general when edward snowden began releasing documents exposing this is global in domestic spying operations and guess who was completely blindsided by the n.s.a.'s activities congress and institution we're

told is providing the necessary oversight to sum up how congress has handled these n.s.a. revelations here were two members of congress on one of the chief committees in charge of oversight the house intelligence committee arguing over when the committee knew what about the n.s.a.'s program spying on world leaders i'm interested to know mr chairman we would be happy doesn't take those down to the committee and spend a couple of hours going through mounds of product that would allow a member to be as informed as a member wishes to be on sources and methods and all activities of the intelligence community under the national intelligence framework i would just say and i just think this we need to be careful about what i've tried of i but i don't you wish to use the classification and i think would be disingenuous mr chairman if you're suggesting we have information if we don't have it. it's congress's job to keep the intelligence community in check it's failed utterly at that job and that's not my

opinion that's coming straight from another member of congress himself alan grayson what we see from the congressional overcome these congressional oversight committees regarding our so-called intelligence community is not the they're performing oversight rather overlooking and systematically doing so i think that they become apologists for the spying industrial complex and that i have literally never seen them do anything other than rationalize these in some cases of gross abuses and constitutional violations particularly with regard to domestic surveillance the confluence of surveillance revelations the refusal to do something about gun violence and dysfunction in the budgeting process have highlighted the inability of congress to do well really anything which is reflected in these historically low approval ratings americans struggling to stay in their homes or pay their student loans or find a job have had to look elsewhere for help organizations like occupy debt are

stepping up to address the needs of constituent americans for now congress seems to be done legislating for the year closing out one of the most unproductive years in the history of lawmaking no immigration reform no budget deal nothing what's worse there's still another year left in the hundred thirteenth congress and if things continue this way especially with an election looming and that nine percent number today might look pretty good come next november. i was staying on capitol hill lawmakers in the house may have just killed the trans-pacific partnership or c.p.p. quick refactored refresher here the d.p.p. is a new trade deal in the works that would open up markets between nations along civic rim like the united states canada and japan but there are major concerns that the trade deal could hurt workers in the united states and infringe on online privacy and a free and open internet those concerns are only heightened by the high level of secrecy surrounding the t p p tray. negotiations were even members of congress have complained they're being shut out of the process by more powerful transnational

corporations that despite all that this trade deal was headed for a fast track approval in congress many it couldn't be filibustered in the senate and it couldn't be amended this is basically the way congress has passed every trade deal over the last few decades but this time things may work differently one hundred seventy lawmakers in the house have signed on to a letter telling the obama administration that they will not grant fast track authority on the t p p a move that could effectively kill the trade deal altogether not only that some of the inner workings of the tepee have now been dragged out of the shadows and into the sunlight this morning wiki leaks leaked the actual text of the intellectual property chapter of the trans-pacific partnership to ninety five page document revealing in great detail just where negotiations currently stand on a number of very important ip issues the documents expose the united states as one of the primary drivers of a slew of new anti consumer laws that could take effect all across the pacific i

was joined earlier to discuss these new developments in the t.p. by peter mayberg new director of access to medicine a public citizen and james love director of knowledge ecology international and i started out by asking james what do the documents that were released today by wiki leaks show us. we have to depend on we can leads to find out what the hell is going on i mean the agreement is really about patents and copyrights primarily some some issues about trademarks these are not you would think big city state secrets but it's a battle it's really a. this chapter is really been driven by the lobbying by the pharmaceutical companies in hollywood and what you see in here is the united states table you know a whole slew of proposals that would benefit pharmaceutical companies and hollywood in the in the patent copyright area that sort of thing and then and then you see the pushback from other countries and so you can you can see on any particular issue how the various members japan and australia malaysia approved different

countries kind of kind of fall out on these examiners your porch the road up there's still a lot of negotiating to be done that the report showed that a lot of these provisions there's not agreement between the united states and other nations and that gives people who are seeing these documents an incredible opportunity to weigh in here well yeah and i mean the u.s. is talking like going to close the agreement now by the end of the year there's there's nine hundred brackets in the text i mean that you know they have a next meeting next week i mean this isn't the most recent version but it's but there's not a lot changed since this this version was was written so i think it's it's hard to say what we don't know as politically what kind of deals are being made i think that the u.s. is going to trade. market access to the united states which will cost some people their jobs in the united states in return for these other countries and dorsy in some measure of anti consumer provisions that will keep drug prices high and will

expand the the rights of publishers at the expense of consumers. peter on this issue of keeping drug prices high i don't think a lot of people understand are aware of the patents that go into medicine and patenting surgical methods what do these documents show about how you know certain medicines that are creating the u.s. are search. methods that are created in the us. aren't exactly going to be as available to other parts of the world that need them that's right well it's called trade agreement but really this is a secretive rule making against public health and it would lead to preventable suffering and death in asia and latin america while binding us consumers to high drug prices bad rules here at home there are a number of bad proposals that have been advanced by big pharma and as you mentioned includes incredibly patents on surgical methods own the methods that doctors are actually using on patients there their treatment practices anything that's not what the doctors bare hands potentially patentable monopolised you this

is some guy who wasn't there way before i mean surgical methods used to be something that people can just use that can be patented there are only two countries in the world that recognize that recognize these patents one is the united states the other is australia which actually opposes the u.s. proposal in the text eighty countries have banned these procedures outright as a outrageous violation of medical ethics this move in the house to. kind of stand up against this fast track fast tracking of this trade deal is that really significant because we know it will if all these countries are coming together negotiate something and they're afraid that whatever they come out whatever they come up with that the u.s. is going to take it back to congress and congress is going to amend it in make all these changes to it they just might walk away from the table these other countries could this move to not fast track could actually kill the trade deal together by think you have to have pressure on both sides it's an outrageous secretive process

and this is going to significantly increase the pressure not only the congressional move but the fact that for the first time countries proposals are are exposed in the united states is visibly isolated it has clearly lost the debate and is simply trying to bully and pressure countries by hook or by crook into lining up with big pharma hollywood anywhere in the united states can get that agreement but it's really not looking very good for those proposals. it gives enormous power to transnational corporations and it weakens the power in to some extent of sovereign governments to be able to pass laws that affect their own citizens and this comes out of this whole dispute resolution process and these kind of courts that are created in this deal can you explain more about this process by which corporations can sue governments over laws that help consumers. i think that's the most important thing that's going to take place in this agreement that we most trade agreements are most people think of trade agreements is agreements between countries the world trade organization you can only have a dispute if

a country susan another country and that does happen but it doesn't happen with. huge amount of frequency partly because countries are kind of reluctant to do that and maybe they have if it's been about their intellectual property laws they may have something in their own country that they don't really you know want to fight over but if you extend the right to litigate these things to private companies as the t.p. pete as in the investor state provisions. and then you eat then you're asking really disney or fives or or monsanto if they want to challenge a provision in a country's law and they really have nothing to lose and they will they will then push the awful open they really push these things so right now you've gone from a situation for a lot of these provisions where they could maybe test it or they could try to get a government to test it and now they can try the w t o if that doesn't work they can try to have a government raise it in the t.p. pay this regional trade agreement and if that doesn't work they can just bring an action themselves this seems like one world government here the straight out of

we're out of time here five seconds quit going to pull out yeah i mean it it should not be secret the only reason i think it is secret is because there is no one in the white house and there's no one in the congress this willing to say that it should be public other than maybe elizabeth warren and ron wyden i mean it's been there been very little congressional support for this as peter made director of access to medicine and public citizen and james love director of knowledge ecology international thank you both. according to the latest numbers coming to the philippines more than twenty three hundred people are dead after a massive typhoon tours of the nation last week that more than a thousand homes were destroyed and more than a half million people are homeless but assistance is starting to pour in there concern pace to contribute more than one billion dollars to relief efforts which could be the third highest total contribute for such an overseas disaster ever but is all that money really helping or jesus walt takes closer look five days after typhoon haiyan ripped through the philippines survivors are struggling to pick up

the pieces it's considered one of the strongest typhoon avar in recorded history thousands are dead hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed millions have been affected of this is what is left of. one of the hardest hit areas entire communities have been wiped out and dead bodies remain birdied under the debris and there is dozens of other cities like this that are still without aid in some places help is finally starting to arrive but the situation is dire but i'm trying. to. look. at it. how many people around the world want to help here are some ways to do it and some things to avoid

first off cash is best oftentimes people want to help in any way they can which is great but it's not always helpful disaster struck areas like haiti and indonesia have seen boxes upon boxes of everything from teddy bears to shoes for really well most of the victims need is food clean water and medical care sending money to reputable agencies that can get these lifesaving goods and services to the victims is the best way to help and that brings us to the next step which is. to support local efforts when disaster strikes time is of the essence that's home the philippines is around twenty five hundred but many more are expected to die of starvation the hydration and disease if they don't get the help they need these people need help now so resources should be directed to organizations that are on the ground to get aid directly to the victims organizations like the philippine red cross community and family services international and citizens disaster response

center. third we can learn from past disasters like haiti for example since the earthquake in two thousand and ten over ten billion dollars in aid has been sent to the country but years later the country has little to show for it hundreds of thousands of haitians still live in tents and infrastructure is still in shambles with some organizations that serve as the middleman the money can't be traced due to lack of transparency and accountability similar problems plagued relief efforts in indonesia after the tsunami which resulted in the ladies and this organization and bringing help to the victims you'll see here the victims don't have time. you know till the end of. this moment. when the flight.

at the moment. would. look. so donate to organizations that have a clear plan for helping people on the ground right away some tips there to make sure your efforts have the biggest and best possible impact here in washington liz wahl our state. early on on this day in two thousand and one president george w. bush signed an executive order giving him the power to detain suspected terrorists and to try them in military commissions this order pave the way for the prison facility at guantanamo bay which is now open nearly twelve years despite presidential promises high profile hunger strikes and growing discontent around the world the prison is still open and there are doubts if it will ever close or he's

going to start a jerk and delivers her final report on what's really going on inside. her. when it comes to this prison the numbers speak for themselves since being set up after the attacks of nine eleven a total of seven hundred seventy nine hundred have been held at guantanamo today one hundred sixty four people remain over half of them have been long cleared for release but remain locked up a total of six people is currently under trial alleged prisoners of war brought here since two thousand and two removed from the battlefield of america's ever expanding war on terror it's both the policy of the u.s. not to hold anyone longer than necessary but we also know that whenever we release someone we assume a written over a period of more than a decade the majority of detainees held here have been set free if the men of guantanamo are really these superhuman monsters you know the worst of the worst quote dick cheney. they would have been released. most of those still kept locked

up have not been charged and are being held indefinitely what sort of a black hole of a limbo a weak system in which the president of the united states simply refuses to say the innocent but u.s. officials say the law of war brings behind this barbed wire the idea that in a war when you capture folks you as the capturing authority are permitted to hold people during the duration of hostilities. when hostilities and or if there's no longer any purpose legitimate purpose. to hold them then they must be released a tiny problem the war on terror has no geographic borders with men once held here repeat treated to a wide array of countries. are only specific to guantanamo you called even you couldn't even have a go on top of the case on the u.s. mainland because it would be unconstitutional and illegal the war on terror also has no end in sight and national security is

a popular excuse to simply ignore the law the spite the rhetoric it really isn't about national security or prisoners being so dangerous that they can't possibly be released and that can't be true after being locked up the legal process if any moves at a glacial pace in two thousand and twelve five detainees were transferred to had completed their military commission sentence two were court ordered released. detainees have been repatriated and one was a suicide over the years countless detainee claims of mistreatment and abuse dozens of suicide attempts mass hunger strikes lost patience and hope just this year the majority of the prison population refused to eat for six months street only to be force fed the. mandate that we have is being able to provide adequate nutrition to preserve life washington has appointed a new and avoid to close a camp that is a dark spot on america's image this comes after

a mass hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that some have dubbed the gulag of our times even if close to it seems. to remain a state in u.s. history forever it's very easy to end one ton of. you release the men that you're not prosecuting. and as you said only six men are being prosecuted right now the military prosecutor has made clear that he intends to prosecute a few more but he's also made clear that it won't be more than a few more barack obama promised to close the notorious facility on day one of his presidency he's now in his second term it's only a president can do it and the idea that it's you know that it's congress's fault is just not correct it is the president that holding these men in detention some president has to come in and this. it's hard to tell right now exactly how long we'll be down here doing this mission.

is to see church and. one time to move. in on a saucer turner joins me now from our studios in new york and here in washington d.c. i'm joined by someone also very familiar with what's going on at guantanamo colonel morris davis former chief prosecutor. i want to start with you how closely are those who work at the prison and are involved in the legal process there or even detained there how closely are they following this debate stateside following the promises the president has made in the recent moves he's made toward closing the facility and what do they make of it all well you know i you know us i'm curious we oftentimes when we spoke with officials at get mo it sounded a little bit like they're not really paying too close attention in terms of when this facility is going to be shut down many of the personnel employed there you know it's just another deployment for them for many of them a very kind of proud location to work at and because there's been so much back and

forth coming from the white house in terms of what exactly to do with these detainees it seems like many of the officials on the ground at least have stopped kind of paying attention and they just don't know and they're just waiting to hear what's going to happen in terms of the detainees we certainly having spoken to countless lawyers know that they follow certainly very closely what's going to happen to them because of these indefinite conditions they're being held in for one we know they we've been told that they watch our t.v. as one of their news sources so you know certainly the detainees are watching everything closely in terms of officials are not so much colonel davis from when you were there is a kind of a bubble there are people aware of the kind of coverage that guantanamo gets around the world and the kind of debate that's going on in the united states about it they do i think they're very conscious of it that you have to go back to the beginning recall. all this was not a mission the military ever wanted this was a decision made by political appointees in the bush administration to try to avoid

the law and the uniform judge advocate general or all opposed so this is not a mission the military wanted twelve years ago and i don't think they still want to do it i remember you told me that last time we talked about this but you guys kind of went along with it trusting that you would make that this would be looked at later kind of like the nuremberg trials were looked at but we know now it didn't work out what we were in a real pro process of the military justice system there what are the flaws in it why has it not been able to do what ideally it should be doing well you know the process has started under president bush twelve years ago today he signed the order that authorized military commissions and then in two thousand and six the u.s. supreme court said it was a lawful order that it was unconstitutional violated the geneva conventions and shut it down congress passed the military commissions act of two thousand and six then in two thousand and nine to president obama get another military commissions act so we've tried and tried and tried and failed and even attorney general holder said last week in hindsight they should have prosecuted please check mohammed in

the others in federal court back in two thousand and nine so that was the right decision then it's still the right decision now and just to perpetuate this twelve years of failure at guantanamo it just continues to undermine america's reputation . civilian trials i mean there's been fewer than seven i think actual military commissions that attempted meanwhile there's been how many civilian trials i don't it's in the seven military commissions they were all convicted of providing material support for terrorism which the court of appeals here in washington said is not a legitimate law for offense so we convicted seven people of a crime this is not a crime on a starship is fear what's all to really keeping the prison open i saw in the report captain robert duran noted that anytime someone is released quote we assume a risk that suggests fear is the motive the motivating factor here and just how founded is this fear that people who are released will come back and strike america . well let you know this so this is

a problem of releasing the detainees that we've heard a lot on the ground was that this particular concern that they're going to return to committing certain acts of terrorism and being back to being involved in the war on terror and the numbers that u.s. officials are citing are at over twenty five percent which seems at least to me personally a little bit excessive because of all of these people that were detained after they ended up being released and not charged and not seen as dangerous why is it that these huge numbers returned to the battlefield according to u.s. officials why release them in the first place and why hold them there for so long without really investigating these personalities and that's what this prison is there for i think that's a pretty big question but in terms of the fear you know it's a very popular concern that even the existence of this president's self just ends up fueling more anti-american sentiment so certainly it's just like a vicious circle and i don't think many people these days consider one time

tomorrow to be a cure of anything at this point colonel davis there's two events on the horizon or there's a new national defense authorization act that's going to be debated on at the end of this year there's usually that's usually been used to deal with guantanamo and at the end of sometime next year the war in afghanistan supposedly going to end of course that was passed with the authorization for use of military force which underpins guantanamo when the war in afghanistan ends does the u.s. go away and what does that do to guantanamo does i mean that's been kind of a debated argument whether that was a legitimate justification this law of war you can detain the enemy notion but certainly even that notion and come two thousand and fourteen so there's about thirteen months for the u.s. government to figure out what we're going to do with these guys can they make up a new legal fiction to justify keeping them where they do the right thing and begin repatriating the ones that need to go home and prosecuting the ones that need to be prosecuted but it passed in the past the senate armed services committee

gives the president more authority so. that when it comes up next red there's the waiver national security waiver that the president still hasn't used and he can will be able to use it again we'll see what happens on a saucy target in new york and colonel morris davis former chief prosecutor at demo here in d.c. thank you both and finally john galt lives it's not exactly what iran had envisioned which is the world's billionaire industrialist fleeing the state going on strike and joining up with the revolutionary john galt in the mountains to remake society into a libertarian paradise but it's close well sorta goltz gulch is a farming community in central chile and its ability itself has the world's first libertarian real estate project to accept a bit coins that virtual currency that is soaring to new heights gold sculptures made up of eleven thousand acres of land prime for farming with ample access to both ground and surface water the spokesperson for the community jeff berwick who founded bitcoin a.t.m. said just like bitcoins i think land in emerging markets will only increase in

value over the coming years the u.s. dollar another fee currencies will continue to collapse and we recommend those holding dollars to divest themselves of those dollars as soon as possible we also want to shore a commitment to big coin and accept it very happily as payment for land add galt's gulch so we have ever increasing virtual currency being used to purchase ever increasing in value tracts of land what could possibly go wrong and that does it for now i'm sam sachs we'll see you back here at eight pm. negotiations continue but that does not stop the blame game from raging we are told around in the western powers are on the verge of an agreement regarding two ends nuclear program then the talks stalled into the familiar stalemate the enemies of diplomacy appear to have the upper hand is war the only option left.

i would rather i ask 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. .