earlier this month victims of the two thousand and ten gulf oil spill want to major battle against b.p. concerning the access to compensation funds say for over a year b.p. claim that the settlement process was unfair because individuals that suffered no harm were allegedly scamming the company out of billions of dollars unfortunately for b.p. the fifth circuit court didn't fall for that argument and rejected the corporation's appeal now of b.p. trying to block payouts isn't enough to convince you of its greed and moral bankruptcy statements from the company's own employees might and the article

written by investigative journalist highlights current and former b.p. officials who are disgusted with how the company has reneged on its pension promises to employees and warns deepwater horizon oil spill victims to expect the same kind of treatment see according to russell's stouffer a former b.p. head of finance for the gulf of mexico the company has cut hundreds of employees pensions by up to seventy five percent from what they were originally promised back in one thousand nine hundred seven another former employee kurt wardlaw compared the pensions of two ation to the plight of the gulf oil victims same quote those depending on b.p. to do the right thing in the gulf of mexico should be aware of b.p.'s unfair and callous treatment of employees failure to adhere their own code of conduct and the unwillingness to hide behind a standard of we did what was technically legal but it's not just former disgruntled employees speaking out against the company for its good there was and current b.p. employee and alaska actually went on the record to speak about d. . water horizon because he says his union protects him from retaliation good there

said quote it would not surprise me that b.p. is not compensating folks when i saw them backing out of their promises in the gulf i said yep welcome to my world listen it would be one thing that this was a struggling mom and pop business failing to compensate their employees and victims of its own gross incompetence and criminal negligence no this is b.p. a multinational money hoarding machine all things considered one would think that bad press would have at least cut the b.p.'s profits by now but i guess the millions of dollars the company spent on p.r. to control the narrative is why they posted record profits year just in the first quarter of two thousand and thirteen being the peace profit was twenty billion dollars and which they only paid two point eight billion dollars in taxes. but at least the crisis has made them step up their safety standards right actually only nine months ago the petroleum safety authority in norway said that the lack of

maintenance and management of b.p.'s oil platform in the north sea led to another leak of about one hundred twenty five barrels of oil this after the same agency had already discovered that the platform had inadequate fire and explosion protection which could have caused another major accident so instead of just asking how many more employees have to come forward with b.p. pays their pensions the bigger question is how many more millions of barrels of oil have to spill before b.p. pays the real price. when most people in america will agree the biggest problem facing the political system today is money and nothing has exacerbated the problem or in the supreme court decision that was handed down four years ago yesterday citizens you. added

the federal election commission which allowed unlimited campaign spending by unions and corporations citizens united pave the way for the creation of the now ubiquitous super pac which serves as a third party and to do to accept campaign contributions and then legally shell out the dough to candidates according to the center for responsive politics during the two thousand and twelve cycle in which outside spending top one billion dollars for the first time super pacs accounted for more than nine hundred million dollars of that spending so looking back at the last four years with the notion that corporations are people and money is speech where does that leave democracy to break it down i'm joined by our team political commentator sam sax my hands are going well i'm sam so how many decades of campaign finance law did citizens united completely abolish well you can go all the way back to the tillman act of one nine hundred seventy you passed out of the robber baron era when the tycoons of industry were buying off politicians basically outlawed all corporate spending in elections and contributions to to politicians you can go to nine hundred forty seven taft

hardly act which been corporations and big and unions from spending money directly in elections you can go to a series of laws passed out of the watergate area and then more more recently mccain feingold laws that the supreme court basically just wiped away with this decision so historically it was a very profound decision that's dramatically change the game and brought us back to where we were in the sort of robber baron era in the late eighty's and let's go back to that robber baron erika's on the flip side corporate personhood isn't really a new concept you were telling me earlier that this actually goes back to the eight hundred concept i mean this is one of the elements of this ruling is affirming corporate personhood that corporations are people therefore they have access to the bill of rights they have free speech rights as well this was in the first case that a for a firm corporate personhood you can go all the way back to eighty six city clark county versus other precipitous railroad a simple tax case that the railroads had tried to turn into a corporate personhood case and tried to carve out this. place for them in the bill

of rights and they succeeded thanks to a pretty tricky court reporter there's a great book on equal protection read by tom hartman all about that stuff but then you look but this eighty six decision you can see that since then other court decisions have referenced this and affirmed corporate personhood again and again giving corporations more and more access to our bill of rights from the right to speech to the right to lie to equal protection of the last sooner or later they might have a right to second amendment they can go to their corporate headquarters i mean that's what this is this assault has been happening for quite a long time and it just kind of finally cemented it was this is united but didn't really change that much i know they are saying it really stripped away you know a century potentially of campaign finance laws but jack off the former lobbyist who is now you know seen the light told me you know they would be finding ways to really do this kind of thing even if it weren't for citizens united is that true well i mean he would know i. look at there's always going to be shooting dealings going on in there was this sort of business going on before citizens united well

boyd says you noted that it legitimized broader public when you have to do it in the secret corporations have to be very careful but how they're going about it now that this is completely legal and legitimate they can just be out in the open in lawmakers and this is the most nefarious thing about it they don't have to spend money all they have to do is threaten to spend money a c.e.o. can go to some southern democrat and say hey there's this bill coming up to defund the e.p.a. you can vote for the bill and defund the p.a. in which case i'll do nothing but if you go to gunston you support the e.p.a. i'll dump fifty million dollars into your district as a budget went through all this just the threat is all it took and that's something they couldn't really do or they talk about this new case mccutcheon versus the f t's c i mean this is another supreme court case that people are actually calling citizens united on steroids and what will this mean deliberated i think in the spring is going to annul decision on the right the arguments were heard at the end of last year it's going to be coming out in a few months so the distinction here citizens united a lot of corporations to spend on their own is much more. if they won the elections

but they still can't give as much money as they want directly to candidates as part of contributions there's limits on that you can give those will you give twenty syria does that's what they're basically trying to do is you can give twenty six hundred dollars to any individual came to that's the most you can max out and you can max out in total in all of the donations you give to candidates about forty eight thousand dollars so you can max out to about eighteen candidates and then you can't really spend any more in that election mccutcheon this rich businessman out of alabama wants to get rid of that top limit aggregate limit that he can give to all the tenets that way he can basically max out every candidate running for office that he wants all around the country so that's a little bit concerning as you give wealthy people much more outsized influence in elections all around the country not only that if you knock down that top aggregate contribution limit sooner or later you're going to knock down the individual contribution limit of twenty six hundred dollars which will leave billionaires basically the koch brothers can just by their intended completely bankroll the staff the whole candid operations as well as all that seems completely fair sam

come on let's let's get on the same page here. does any other country other than america i found this really understand i mean i don't know living here i kind of i'm biased but it just seems kind of out ranges that we just broke a billion dollars it's just expected to go up in that in the last election cycle does any other country compare really when it comes to this insane amount of spending looking at sort of western advanced democracies no not really i mean there are a few countries where you see huge amounts of corporate spending india's expected to have a two billion dollar election brazil had something around the tune of a two billion dollar lection even president dilma rousseff ninety eight percent of her contributions came from corporations but you know as the united states that likes to think of itself as the beacon of democracy for the rest of the world you know the oldest democracy in this sort of modern iteration of democracy you would think that this is pretty troubling that people are spending as much money as they want and more often than not it's. the person way more often than not is the person

who has the most money that's when he's elections all right what do you think about the solution erick is obvious if you ask me on the street the sale of course money in politics what's the straw in the system. and really is there a chance for non-solution repeal here and is that the only way to get back to an even playing field when we need to we need to go beyond citizens united i mean there are problems with our politics before two thousand and ten we need to address corporate push personhood it's going to require a constitutional mandate the basically says corporations are not people money is not speech there's organizations like move to a man who are doing this we've seen hundreds upon hundreds of local municipalities pass languaged calling for a constitutional moment you've seen state this happen on a statewide level but it's going to require you know changing the constitution is something that's very difficult it could take a lot a lot of time or it could happen real quick as we've seen with previous amendments like to raise. it to get to raise the voting to lower the voting age and that's up so we'll see what happens maybe more and more of these elections that now that we've passed the billion dollar mark will wake people up to this for i mean as long

as our supreme court is filled with justices who have you know all turkey or agenda is pretty much i mean i don't really expect this and i've been home. for riverside roll of the supreme law as it happened. thank you so much sam really appreciate it sam sachs coming up you guys all highlight one t.v. commentator who thinks global inequalities fantastic.

jimmy savile here's a guy who committed pedophilia with over four hundred children and he's taken to the court take on the old bailey and his defense is if you prosecute me i'm going to go to switzerland that's what i just be a say if you prosecute me and our scads and scores and hundreds of incidents of fraud we threaten to leave the country and the government says oh no. fraud to.

come in the future. so we fix the roads focus on new technology. on this show no posses complete with old school shootings clutch and wheel about the next angel suv evolution this is the potential to save lives. we've got the future covered. guys i know that i cover really depressing news day in and day out so today i'm especially excited to finally bring you guys something positive. and oxfam of the world eighty five richest people is equal to the three and

a half billion poorest people it's fantastic and this is a great thing because it aspires everybody gets the motivation to look up to the one percent and say i want to become one of those people i'm going to fight hard to get up to the top this is fantastic news and of course i applaud it. what could be wrong with this yes really. yes in case you're wondering what the one percent actually thinks of the fact that only eighty five individuals own the same amount of wealth as the poorest three billion people on the planet. it's fantastic news and of course i applaud it. folks give it up for mr kevin o'leary evidently one of the most callous a holes on television today and in fact you might recognize him from the vultures to t.v. program shark tank a game show where a handful of one percenters decide whether to crush or finance the dreams of optimistic entrepreneurs although i think the show would be more entertaining if

o'leary himself were thrown into an actual shark tank and by the way that new oxfam report that o'leary thinks is so amazing is actually the latest devastating statistics on the ever growing wealth gap between the rich and the poor the study reveals some disturbing facts including how just eighty five people control one hundred ten trillion dollars and half of the world's wealth is owned by just one percent of the population furthermore the us has the fastest widening wealth gap of all between the rich and the poor in the entire developed world and while fat cat one percent or o'leary thinks this is all great news oxfam's most harrowing analysis is that global inequality is threatening both the social stability and the security of the entire planet but according to a larry nothing is more empowering then poverty and this study is somehow going to motivate the three and a half billion poorest people to become the next bill gates what he doesn't seem to get is that this unsustainable model of crony capitalism is designed to keep the

wealth gap growing but at least o'leary's co-host amanda lang seems to have a slightly less sociopathic head on her shoulders. tell me that you want to redistribute wealth again that's never going to have all you want to take a simple step like this which is neither good nor bad it's just a fact it's a celebrate stories that i'm very excited about and i'm wonderful to see it happen i tell kids every day if you know what's going on what's wrong with it it's at a cocktail party not men what's wrong with this possible response you had work hard you might be stinking rich talking about people in extreme abject poverty that's how you get through and have no where to go if you were just talking to a really. oh my bad i didn't realize the story was about the plight of the poor is about validating the wealth hoarding skills of larry and associates now whole areas is it that amanda lang said that the study which according to her has neither good nor bad would be a good topic at a cocktail party could you both be anymore out of touch and here's the bottom line

there's three to have billion people that are starting to get real pissed off at the fact that they're being asked over by the system so while one percenters like o'leary sit on their high throne celebrating the abysmal state of the world what they should be really doing is cowering under them. the obama white house is calling the month of january trade promotion authority month the idea is to promote a bill called the bipartisan congressional trade priorities act of two thousand and fourteen although it sounds innocuous this piece of legislation is so packed full of toxic language that if passed it could lead to a near corporate credit. this bill is essentially a free pass for obama to sign the trans-pacific partnership or t.p. into law via a fast track luckily as more people are becoming aware of the intentions of the

shady trade deal the less political support it's receiving from congress and only seem to months ago seem like an inevitable global corporate takeover is finally looking like something we the people can actually defeat so join me now to talk about what's best for the special interests are at play and what steps you can take to make sure this bill is a family and i'm joined by legislative representative for the teamsters union i don't thank you so much for crab night and for having me so mike to someone who has no idea what the t.p. is of course that they're not watching our t.v. or other independent media sources they probably don't talk about what ways it could be damaging to the average american sure well it's hard to know because as we've discussed previously it's been it goes. it in a great deal of secrecy the absence of transparency around these negotiations is one of the tell tale signs that it might be heading in the wrong direction so we've really relied on leaks weiqi leaks in particular is released to you know on the internet two chapters the intellectual property chapter that sopa through the

backdoor which we discussed last time and more recently the environment chapter which looks really really bad so some of the other countries in this t p p there's twelve altogether so malaysian singapore and and vietnam in there pushing back on the u.s. proposals on the environment it's looking very bad and all our brothers and sisters in the environmental movement are fighting it in terms of what's not in it there's nothing in there about currency manipulation most of the congress both the senate and the house have demanded that there be something in there to keep our trading partners from manipulating their currency to undermine the tariff reductions so it's a very controversial deal hoping that most of your viewers are aware of it but the fight is really heating up this year they're close to concluding the negotiations then we'll be able to take a look at it but in the meantime the fight is heating up on capitol hill it is indeed i'm glad you mentioned the secrecy six hundred corporate advisors just with

the you last i mean basically no public and sight on this bill mike talk about the union aspect i mean the teamsters are among the most vocal group working to try to stop the fast track from a union and labor standpoint what should we be worried about means that ng from just from the narrow labor perspective and i with the teamsters and we've been fighting for fair trade since the mother of all trade rights nafta our focus is always been on raising labor rights and wage rates globally and not the downward harmonization that the nafta model has you know been carried. bi so for example in t v p we're looking for. a strong labor rights protections was specifically from the international labor organization the aiello there are conventions on labor that protect against child labor force labor you know the rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining these are important to

us in the labor movement and we'd like to see other countries you know in force similar labor provisions so that there isn't that downward harmonization as you know one of these trade deals you know they create incentives for. race to the bottom corporations they move production to the place of the least labor laws and all the rest so we want that and we want to be enforceable by the same sanctions trade to sanctions that protect commercial interests labor capital may not be nice is what we're demanding and we want to see that amazing and let's talk about the fast tracking of this and the same bill of like you mentioned that it's heating up on d.c. it sure is i mean congress is so far looks like not really that supportive of the fast track and you speak out also pushing this through it was resistant so last week when the congress is in session they're out this week but before they left for this recess. the chairman baucus of the senate finance committee and his ranking

member orrin hatch a republican introduced with. chairman camp of the ways and means a thing called the fast track bill i actually brought to colombia for you there it is and we are opposed to the fast track bill and i mean they're all going to read every single page and you know i've been aware that i have been suffering from insomnia lately so i know i've been able to jam into it so it's what fastrack is the precondition that they need to get the tepee and the other trade deals you know passed they it's what it is is the delegation some people say an abdication of constitutional. our article one section eight of the constitution gives to the united states congress the congress the clues of authority over our trade deals the authority of the commerce among nations and what the fast track bill would do and grandfathering in the t p p would give to the executive branch of

the u.s. t.r. into the administration the exclusive power to choose the partners trading partners write the contents control the content of the trade deals and then write implementing legislation that would then be treated in the house on an up or down vote no amendments limited debate just it's why i call it a kind of a legislative laxative that's bad for the constitution and it is a double entendre saying that. and we're opposed to it and today was actually a national day of action the teamsters and other groups all across the civil society different constituencies fighting fastrack it doesn't have an original co-sponsor in the house democratic and frankly it doesn't deserve one so it's in for a big fight and i encourage your viewers to get involved to go to stop fast track dot com or go to keep misters dot org our website and see how to join the fight

against this bad bad bill i just can't imagine what members of congress would think that voting for the fashion would be a good idea politicly unless of course they want to kind of pass the buck off to obama and just say oh you know i decided i let the real bill was a thought i like to do things like that you're absolutely right and especially in an election year right in their reelection so they weren't sent to washington d.c. to capitol hill to export jobs and to give up there and abdicate their constitutional responsibility over this and so cutting across party lines democrats and republicans both recognize that this is a bad bill and so there's been an upsurge in both sides. our own on both sides of the hill against fast track to fast track to t v p and the other train to green will shock and they know if this isn't the only agree just trade deal currently happening. obama also spoke about the transatlantic partnership the t. a.p. what in the hell is that ok so we're calling it because it sounds like nafta it's

the transatlantic free trade agreement and that is a new set of negotiations going on i'll be tracking it for the for the teamsters and i'd like to be hopeful we worked really hard for obama we really hope that he was going to introduce kind of a whole new trade doctrine upwardly harmonizing environmental and consumer and labor standards i'm not sure we're going to see that in these negotiations but i have to say that europe unlike some of the other countries that we do these deals with has no comparatively high wage rates labor standards environmental consumer protections you know their consumer protections against g.m. and in favor of labeling on food safety on the food safety front so i'd like to believe that these are some negotiations that we can raise standards up i have to say that as a regulatory regime there is concern for the downward harmonization of the consumer

and food safety standards and what not we'll be tracking and it's going to go on for a couple of years before that's ready for us to fight in the congress. after clinton and the whole nafta i really don't have any faith and whether democrat or republican to pass any sort of hair labor standards act on a really quick we have about twenty seconds left any websites again for people to go on and take action today sure stop fast track dot com and then citizens trade all one word citizen straight dot org action packed talking points flyer make the voices make a difference let's keep the pressure on right now thank you. much mike i don't appreciate it that's our show you guys thanks for watching and join me again tomorrow my break the step all over again.

as a new physician i swear to abide by the hippocratic oath. to the best of my ability and judgment. i will prescribe for the good of my patients. i will not give deadly doses to anybody. or advise of those to do so. i will never do harm to any one. doctors of the dogs on on to. after three years of. the death toll of over one hundred thousand. lomas see and common sense come together with one message. war is not the

answer. does peace have a chance. to tanya played it well tell me how you are my little grandson. i don't like i don't like. was being cut off. except as an ecovillage that the spiritual side is destructive. i tried to convince her to try to preach that it was a sect but it's dangerous that she had to leave it was a story she had lost her mind all. you know you see we'll come back i know that and i will wait even if it means i must wait until my dying

day.

live pictures for you here when i see international opposition. protesters against violence the city split by bunning barricades was. killed in the. rival positions clash of the geneva two conference on syria even before the warring sides of the conflict even sit down for direct talks. and n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden reportedly rushing off more protection amid mounting death threats.