this is the classic. it was like the if you. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy schreck help us. to make you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on and we go beyond identifying the truth rational debate and real discussion critical issues facing america ready to join the movement and welcome the big picture. but i'm john mara in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture british comedian actor and

recovering drug addict russell brand says that america's extremely stupid drug laws played a role in the overdose death of philip seymour some time to end our nation's failed war on drugs or remove the stigma from drug addiction with more americans don't have to die that and more and it's big picture rubble and many americans think their career on wall street puts you to a path of lifetime success but is working in finance all it's cracked up to be last sample a former wall street trader in tonight's conversations with great minds. you need to know this we don't need any more corporate shills in our nation's courtrooms there's already too many of them an airport published by the alliance for justice looks at the professional diversity of president obama's judicial nominations during his time in office it finds in nearly eighty five percent of the

presidential the president's judicial nominees have been either corporate attorneys or prosecutors at some point their careers. so the report highlights the fact that seventy one percent of president obama's district court nominees have worked primarily with corporate and business clients while seventy three percent of the president's circuit court nominees have worked in the corporate world citing the report and the corporate takeover of america's judicial bench as senator elizabeth warren called on president obama yesterday to nominate fewer judges who work for corporate interests and more judges who have public interest backgrounds at an event sponsored by the alliance for justice warren said that power is becoming more and more concentrated on one side well financed corporate interests line up to fight for their own privileges and resist any change that would limit corporate excess she added that it's unsurprising that the president and a majority of the senate gravitated to nominating corporate lawyers so that most

conservative senators would could not object to we have an opportunity to fight for something that balances the playing field in the other direction of the two hundred eighty one obama judicial nominees that the alliance for justice report looked at only ten have worked as lawyers for public interest organizations and only ten out of those two hundred eighty one have experience in labor and employment disputes so is the time to kick corporate shills off the bench and start filling our nation's courts with judges who truly care about the best interests of the american people let's rubble. joining a president's big picture rubble our kevin martin project twenty one black leadership network nicole williams democratic strategist and jury and patrick hedger freedom policy analyst with freedom works and thank you all for joining us today to see all again and you heard my intro i see two problems here one being that these this absolutely relentless republican filibuster which just got busted

up a month or so ago when harry reid pulled the kind of half nuclear option was preventing the president from. putting anybody on the court women women as well as what i'm going to get to right through my two points and then you go for number one that you know he really had to get people past the point that was before it was made it was so they had to satisfy the republicans because they could filibuster and number two that this is a so this is what happens when you've got citizens united this is what happens when you get the best the best. lawmakers money can buy and they give you the best judges money but wait a minute why weren't democrats crying when they were doing it in two thousand and six two thousand. to go filibuster judicial nominees nothing nothing like women in a way nothing like this bill wait a minute they would have once you started it like i was like this is like being on a plane rust or injure somebody is like it's like being on the playground and playing tag you're it and then when somebody told you you oh no no no no no no harry reid and harry reid did this because harry reid knows that he said nothing

goes anyway he asked me he's a real little and he gets out there he's so soft spoken and talks about the american people then he pulls this a.p. democracy crap ok when we have so drastically the rule of law the rules of the senate the rules to sit and now they're going to change them and now they're saying already change you know now the senate flips back like this predicted in twenty fourteen then the democrats need to also know we have to get back to constitutional but he didn't win the data may not know what democrats are not he could still have a kill list worry about it isn't exactly this is playing victim stuff is that i let you know it's time i was not about the big bad or i'm only doing i'm only speaking the truth and their call you know. the two things i put on the table are you know they're a can the can the can the president actually start appointing people who don't have to don't require a republican stamp of approval which means we get better judges and number two isn't this you mean like democrat but the problem here is like light like shockey

schumer do i do i do it to have a little bit of historically been the party the people who. operate in the. already of the right time to crack at it down every american knows every night mazes not just. people and i don't have any argument well first of all i applaud senator warren for calling the number of to show nominees that have come through the senate that's are i think it is imperative to have a balance you know yes you know you want to you want to have a balance and that that's what i think that he's trying to advocate there and so would you say president obama lied when he said there will be no corporate lobbyist or do you know the people in the ministry he would not appoint him face is that he would he would i said he is always what is always what he fit and so he like you waking corporate would like to know that i hold your head waiting say hell there was no. doubt that health care in patrick what you know the truth and you know i've got a few range of thoughts on this you know i find myself actually i never thought i'd

say this impartial agreement with the point some of the points of senator warren is actually making but i'm not sure that this is so much a partisan issue i think this is a washington versus the people issue i think for too long you've seen both democrats and republicans collude against the american people and put big money corporate interests in positions of power in the judicial branch and the bureaucracy and all across the government so i do think that needs and i take reservation at the portion of elizabeth warren statement that says we need more public welfare interest i think we need people that are actually interested i think we need people that are actually interested in defending the contours of here's a judicial here's a graphic the just to your point kevin that you want to read about this is filibusters over the last fifty years it's behind you tube and you know red is you know filibusters by republicans who is filibusters by democrats but much more a little bit of bread and tell us though is that there's also old growth in the size of government over this crap there are more positions that it requires nomination and it certainly does it certainly does i think if you look at the size

of government growth over this time period. there are more people to decide over being put into positions of power and his. i think you want your judges to have a wide breadth of experiences they're going to see places from all different backgrounds from all different subject area and you want your judges to have a variety of experiences with all the different subject areas that they are going to be i don't really think what the ok will really mine is back to citizens united citizens united is really born is a. citizen of the flea it's a money situation that's why you know more attorneys go into the private and back to that money situation former florida republican governor turned democratic gubernatorial channel challenger charlie crist was on my radio show yesterday that's a pretty strong thing to say about the current florida republican governor rick scott take a take a listen i have a record as having been governor before an attorney general before that secretary of education before that rick scott has now a record as governor for the past three and a half years but he's got a record before that and his record before that as the c.e.o. of columbia h.c.a.

health care company was that that company under his leadership had to pay the highest fine for fraud in the history of the united states of america at the time one point seven billion dollars in a fine it's like jamie dimon territory it's get in there and you know as a friend said to me the other day listen if you're just in the top ten of fraudsters or fraudulent companies in america you know that's hard to get there. so here we are the guy who was convicted of the largest crime and this is a crime and this wasn't this wasn't you know a penalty that he paid the largest crime in the history of america at least in terms of what he's a republican governor how a lot of money a lot of money is the time to get this is this is a symptom of citizens united isn't the time to get money out of politics i wholeheartedly agree tom i think it's nothing wrong for us to go to a public. campaign finance but we can't do that because the supreme court

discovered that in the first amendment the founders wrote in the first amendment that the first federal protection money you know you know what you know what's funny to me one side you have that you use that you don't need anyone and everyone calls them the pleasure of knowing everything of all races because what about corporate who put corporations the corporations are beholden to their shareholders who are about to make my union to be who do they buy because you have got an honest world you would use bob pollock you better get infected cells and i mean i blurted out that. it's about money to such an important point for many many states in the country in the numbers are actually shrinking because of paycheck protection laws unions can forcibly removed from their members and use like water or passes without disclosing it i mean the bacteria can make a person all i want you guys have done a marvelous job i congratulate you of trying to change the subject away from the fact that charlie crist was one of the biggest criminals in america and like so

many not. only christmas and new memories you don't think you missed you thank you very much ali charlie certainly didn't want to be described in one of them that's going to let. about a twenty jetsons. and still have us dr phil of us doing does not went in and i'm not you absolutely know that i'm new to the filibuster everybody and not in christ don't practice in his administration was going to. issue of money in politics. what are we going to do about this and what would you propose to i'm saying amend the constitution to say sorry the first amendment does not cover money well i think we when you look at some of the things that are happening in the freedoms that suzanne united has allowed to happen if you look at it i see it as we're looking at government versus the people this is no longer sort of a part of government is the will will not necessarily when we just have this entire discussion about corporations controlling government and corporate interest

controlling government so if i think of what you can get away friday get corporate how do you get big money out of government what solution you have other than amending the constitution i don't have i'm not sure i mean it's a touchy issue i think the. whole i think this is. like i said if you haven't you have a solution to get money out of government solution to get money out of the current crop of politicians out of washington although i do that when they can but when they can carpetbag slightly our way to the right away you fix it is that you get rid of the interest or time you get rid of the interest from money to be in the politics you've simplify the tax code you simplify the regulatory going to break down that it is always corporations that are lobbying for these regulations you actually think i do is monsanto is lobbying basically on you and i agree and so i wasn't always that washington is the only place where you come down with two thousand your pocket after six you didn't leave the ball to have militia left somebody would not say exactly what john is full of but more of today's big picture

coming up after. i've got a quote for you. it's pretty tough to. stay with sob story. but if this guy like you would smear that guy stead of working for the people most issues the mainstream media are working for each other bribery must be sure to fight. the good rather. than if it was a. very hard to take. once again to come on here to play live

happy ever had sex with her make her place. if it was safe. if .

thank you but i'd think picture rather with me kevin martin nicole williams patrick hedger let's get back to it the january job numbers came out today not good stuff one hundred thirteen thousand new jobs it's better than the you know seven eight nine hundred thousand a month that we were losing at the end of the bush administration but still it's only one hundred thirteen thousand and even worse i was at the senate on thursday when this vote happened by one vote the republicans prevailed in their filibuster of extending long term unemployment benefits so another one point six million people have been told by the republican party that they can just take a leap you know they can be almost like it's whatever ok some but. yeah once again

you know we have a group of individuals who are no longer going to be able to be productive members of isis id but being able to purchase food for their family or be able to have money for transportation to get to work thanks to our wonderful united states congress it's not that i'm any reason that they're in this situation the primary reason is that we have too many regulations to higher taxes that are choking off the job market here and there's been done numerous studies are present on long term unemployment benefits are keeping people in this cycle and they're preventing people from actually getting out into the workforce least name one regulation you would do away with all i would do with what i would do away with the that you can demonstrate has caused us to lose jobs well there's the actually the that we one regulation i worked on is the utility back regulation which actually forces a new. of utility companies to comply with standards that are impossible that increases employment how does that increase in a point if you already have a lot of us were either chen i'm going to tell me somebody has to design that scrub or somebody has to and somebody has to pay them for it or they'll shut down the whole plant that's that's right and i and all and all of that is increasing but but

if the company can't pay for it only lay people off that doesn't increase. let's let's hear what is one hand we have this administration tell us they didn't tell us in five years they were rounding a corner we've had stimulus son of stimulus we've had some of recovery we've had shovel ready jobs and i you said we would that will not happen. in an n n a no one will know and we have over forty some jobs bills late two thousand old harry reid's b.s. they are without even bring up didn't see it so we've been hearing from the president oh well we were getting a hundred thousand jobs no but to even keep up with what they said for stimulus a lot of stimulus shovel ready jobs we would have to be getting three hundred jobs a month ok ninety two million people out of our labor participation will the lowest since the cotton industry one one in six american men between twenty five and fifty four right now is not working right in this is that is even worse for the african-american community absolutely and in the democratic party's platform from

one nine hundred forty four to one thousand nine hundred eighty eight they said we should win in times of economic crisis the government should be the employer of last resort it's how we got out of the great depression but you really should do it again you remember when government is the largest and we're going to change global helping we're spent hundreds of millions or hundreds of billions of dollars in the stimulus plan and all we saw was an exit from the labor force that's continued into only fourteen republicans went off or worse and thousand government when it would have james clabbered tell us the haida research is governmental spending bill will pull the nation out of recession you know we have a jobless recovery why do we have a job to get and we're not able under the stimulus shovel ready jobs that americans recovered at all which stopped us from losing but you know in that game because the republicans block everything but they haven't gone bad. the two years things tried to do why did we have massive job growth first democrats controlled for a little less than a year until. sworn in but i didn't have nancy was good big job growth we.

were a big part of why did we had massive government job in the first year but we did have we haven't lost six hundred seventy thousand government jobs so what does it mean that it means that your question is incoherent i have to get my job done president obama tells the private sector is doing fine but the government is growing wild and your watch is growing i was president obama i'm not surprised to see him that i'm seeing the bug rather than the fact of the matter is that regulations are strangling off the economy to name another regulation we just saw this brand new report out of the c b o that says some of the marginal taxes imposed by the affordable care act are going to remove two point five million people from the labor force over the next decade that's not helping job recovery actually they're not exactly what the it's exactly what i said earlier they are not losing jobs they are going to be transitioning into different types no jobs has never been with the arrogance of presidents braiding around wait wait wait wait a second you are some plaining about the fact that because people are no longer tied to their employer that they don't have to stay in dead end jobs or work fifty and sixty hour weeks that people will be able to go home and spend some time with

their kids the people will be able to retire early because they don't have to worry about our you know not all businesses this is what mitt romney was calling for he said people shouldn't be tied to their health insurance. that is not revenue that is what about if you want to know if people go into a pot full of out of pocket they would leave the revenue now you know oh really because you've got four million five million six mo i get ten point eight million unemployed people out there who will step in and take a job at somebody else but then you know johnson really stepped in to take a did not want to maybe that's a label for this is the circular logic that's a whole completely different issue this is two point six million people who have decided to improve their lives it's the that's not at all the case no what is said there is a barrier to earning extra wages by working hard that there is a deny mission of return by working at. that this is exactly what or so did i just read it earlier that's exactly what happens this is a this is a distortion of economic distortion labor force that presidents when reading this is not a good thing the president is parading around the country right now saying work should pay and this law is basically working against that so you can work is not

going to pay you should not be you should not be chained to a job that you hate and you shouldn't and you know half of all the kids in america come home to an empty don't deserve as republicans are constantly useless yap of all the kids going to hollywood i don't know how is it we are that lets people say ok i'm going to go off at three and be home for my kids and you all are saying oh isn't this terrible two point six million people are not going to make any good working till five they should have the freedom to work till five in order to provide their child a better life pay for their homes that they are saying it is and they don't have that teenagers but it is no job at all a job it is not if you're only keeping the job you get help ensure that is. your problem is not an incentive surprise you in iran actor comedian sometime bad boy so that america's extremely stupid drug laws help kill actor philip seymour hoffman he wrote this piece for the for the guardian he himself branded as a recovering drug addict he said now we are aware that our drug laws aren't working

and that alternatives are yielding positive results why are we not acting tradition prejudice extreme stupidity the answer is all three changes hard apathy is easy tradition is the narcotic of our rulers. would often have died if this disease were not so imagine stigma if we weren't invited to believe that people who suffer from addiction deserve to suffer with the abode of drugs are regulated controlled or professionally administered isn't stewart brand right isn't it time to start treating drug addiction and i would health problem rather than a criminal probe i think there is something to be said i mean if you look at this situation he was in rehab twice before this situation and so clearly he recognized personally that he had some type of you know disease and with fighting constantly on a consistent basis. that's trying to deal with that and so i think that on some level you know he's korat you know this is a mental health it's not a switzerland and in the united kingdom they said we will treat heroin addiction with heroin and they then doctors can prescribe heroin and people typically after

a few years just. stop using it and you know just spontaneously stop they just reach a point in life or to say no but they're able to go to work they're able to conduct their lives and they don't overdose and they saw and when they and when both countries put these programs in the place they saw the media drop in hiv aids hepatitis c. and overdoses with personal responsibility and all this. believe me i'm a big proponent of personal he put the needle in his own no one no one force. is on every input that drug is on the same is true ok the same is true of alcoholics and that's what i've seen and. i wanna but you'd make a personal choice at some point in america i'm sick and tired of people telling me oh well person it's a program that needs to be done something this is something that you would have to go to war on drugs is killing more people than a cell you know i think that we do need to kind of take

a step back and re-evaluate some of the laws we do have in this country but at the i still agree with kevin at the end of the day society didn't put the needle in his arm government and put the needle in the philip seymour hoffman within you know his arm and it's a tragedy and i think it's a little bit too soon to be turning the tragedy which is a tragedy for his family and friends and for a lot of his fans myself included into something to make a political point it's not a political point i'm saying there are two countries where they have demonstrated that if you turn this from a criminal problem into a public health problem and you had doctors deal with it rather than cops fewer people die people like philip seymour hoffman you know the main side effect of heroin addiction is addiction it's not you know the main side effect of alcohol addiction is not the addiction it's not your liver and people crash cars i mean this is this arguably is a less destructive drug that alcohol. needs we would have to we would have to overhaul a whole mental mental i agree that i look look look at look at. clients who does it even though his son was little growth he had

a mental issue there with no beads available ok no i don't reckon closed a whole bunch of those things when. all we did was sit ok is time for the states of to go why is everything we people on the lip government federal government federal the federal government say as you know we don't have much out of this i'm not saying get them into it i'm saying get them out of it it's the war on drugs they're trying to you know they're coming into our arms are coming into our but. we're talking about where the last thing that's funny coming out kevin kevin martin a call williams patrick thank you all for thank you great to see. the day out plates and dignitaries from around the world gathered at the fist. olympic stadium in sochi russia for the opening ceremonies of the two thousand and fourteen olympic games attendees were treated to a two and a half hour performance that highlighted some of the most important moments of

russian history including napoleon's eighteen twelve defeat outside moscow in the construction of st petersburg lies our peter the great with the formalities over sports fans can now look forward to watching some of the world's most talented athletes compete for olympics gold we're in america should be thrilled with the prospects for team usa snowboarder shaun white who goes by the nickname the flying tomato will try to become the first american ever to win a gold medal in three straight winter olympics meanwhile the u.s. men's hockey team will try to improve on a silver medal showing four years or four years ago in vancouver and win the gold for the first time since the one nine hundred eighty miracle on ice and figure skater gracie gold will try to make up for a poor showing in the two thousand and ten alleged picks by team usa as women skating team those games marked the first time. since one thousand nine hundred four that the american skating team failed to get a skater on the medal podium whether you're watching because you're gung ho usa or because you want to watch some of the best athletes in the world it's going to be a heck of a show and keep an eye out for the norwegian curling team they've got quite

a lot. coming up the life of an investment banker has been the subject of many classic hollywood movies including martin scorsese's oscar nominated wolf of wall street but is working in finance everything it's cracked up to be sample former derivatives trader and i had conversations with great minds at work.

a chance for some at. six and the finish line of the marathon. was the main. thing you think. you can be.

i would rather i asked 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 r.g.p. question for.

the many americans success. means money and money means success that seems to be. super the case on wall street that's why even after the biggest financial crisis since the great depression a job at a top notch investment bank still holds a lure for many of young americans many young americans starting a professional life that is working on wall street really worth it for tonight's conversations and great minds i'm joined by someone who lived the life of wall street millionaire and left it all behind sam polk spent most of his twenty's living and working as a trader for a high power wall street investment firm actually a series of them but at thirty he decided to leave the world of finance for good since then he's become a successful nonprofit entrepreneur has written about his time on wall street for the new york times and forbes magazine and joins us now from our los angeles studio sample welcome to the show.