we're clearly not the safest. what's up guys i'm abby martin and this is the break in this that last month a report on the u.s. military's plans to build yet another base on the japanese island of okinawa keep in mind there are already thirty two existing u.s. military bases which occupy twenty percent of the land although what some call a military dictatorship but the island is already existed for decades the new attention on okinawa is also shedding light on another longstanding problem the hundreds of sexual crimes involving u.s. army personnel documents recently obtained by the associated press through a four year requests show not only the rampant scale of abuse by service members but also the high level of impunity for the crimes due to these cases being tried within the military chain of command the report cites infractions by all three

branches of the military but adds that quote the air force is by far the most lenient and that one hundred twenty four sex crimes over the course of eight years the only punishment given to twenty one offenders was a letter of reprimand look eyes it's clear that the continued occupation of a sovereign land is deeply hurting the people of okinawa not only is it undermining their culture but the culture of impunity surrounding the military sends a stark message to those on the island one that this country should and support and let's break the set. the. it was a. very hard to take a. look. at her act with that her right there though.

we all know that money drives politics but you might be surprised to learn about the amount of dark money pushing policy behind the scenes dark money is made up of funds obfuscated through different shell organizations making it extremely difficult to trace and perhaps no one's mastered this tactic more than billionaire brothers charles and david koch the koch's are well known for putting the money behind some of the worst legislation on the books and pretty silly some like was shed on the players behind the cloak themselves after a confidential donor list was left behind at a posh hotel in palm springs so to discuss what was in that document as well as the

role of dirty money behind the scenes from elections to vulture funds i'm joined now by investigative journalist greg palast is coming out with a new movie called the voters and vote rustlers thanks so much for coming on greg always a pleasure. to be with the abbey is so great let's talk about this koch brothers document that was recently left behind at the donor event what was the most damning takeaway from its exposure. well it's the list of the secret landlords of our planet these are the private funders the koch's are not exactly short of change . david and charles are each worth about twenty two billion and let's not forget brother billy or thirteen about five billion himself what we have here is a list of the other billion years that they're coordinating with who are basically funding an entire right wing political machine now in the good old days when america was a democracy we got to know who was putting money behind candidates who was putting money behind referenda legislation lobbying them days are gone what's happening

right now is that we have something called social welfare organizations which since citizens united and another court decision called speech now we don't know who these guys are unless someone leaves a sheet of the names of the billionaire secretly pooling their money with the cokes in a photocopy machine thanks a lot brad friedman and others who have passed this list on to me amazing and great and every time i cover the koch brothers on the show people write me asking when i'm an expose george soros i mean is there anyone on the left that's doing as much political damage as the koch far on the right. well the problem is that the left is not really responding that is for example the devotes family which was part of the funding be that pooling their money with the koch brothers their amway products they put forty four million dollars into michigan politics this is the center of the u.s. auto industry the center of american unionism and yet they just passed

a horrendous right to work what's called a right to work law basically it prohibits contracts between unions and businesses which say that if you're part of the con union contract you have to be part of the union. where were the where was the other side so you have millions and millions coming from all over the country pouring in to basically slice up and destroy the union power and yet there was no one on the other side not even the obama administration for example which you know in the op. bailout they used right wing republican harry will soon as the negotiator who works with these billionaires they use bruce ratner an infamous investment banker is not bruce travesties but steve rattner stevie the rat and you know they did not defend unions at all in the auto bailout in fact they let a thirty five thousand auto parts jobs go to china and they beat up the union something fierce so you don't have another side there's only one side here that's

the problem it's not like there's no money on the other side but you don't see obama actually defending the rights of the workers that makes the koch brothers out on the field with their other billionaire buddies playing against no team at all i mean it is it's worse than the seahawks and broncos. you know that's a very good point you don't see the systematic assault from really any left wing billionaires i guess you could say and you just mention the davis family and mother jones just wrote a great exposé saying are they the next koch brothers i mean it's in the book is it ever going to end i mean is billionaire families that are just a selfie in workers everywhere dismantling unions graig let's move on to your book vultures picnic i just heard about something really interesting called faulter funds that you cover in the book what are these and can you give us an example of how they're applied in the developing world. well in for b.b.c. television the guardian i went undercover and found that there was

a group of billionaires and one of them by the way who's the real goldfinger who makes the movie goldfinger look like what a girl scout what they do is that through bribery intimidation they seize what were considered a paid off debts of all of poor nations liberia congo nations that have been in civil war and they then use tactics which involve again bribery or intimidation to force these nations to pay them something like one hundred two hundred times what they paid for these bonds what it does. as it takes poor and destitute company countries and completely bankrupt them in in the case of the congo for example. we found out that that there was a group of vultures of vultures as they call themselves vultures like the number one guy paul the vulture singer i don't i don't make up the term vulture they like being called vultures they want to be afraid of them and they're pretty scary they grab ninety million dollars from the congo or tried to. in money that was meant to

end a cholera epidemic i was at the car i was at the cholera center in the congo and the doctors without borders running out of medicine and i traced the lack of money back to a bribe paid to the prime minister of bosnia these out the south these guys operate is not exactly just they're just not guys who are collecting old debts there are guys who are squeezing the poorest nations on the planet and playing fast and loose with the with the political system not only in these nations but in our nation other nations have outlawed after i ran a report in britain. on vulture funds their operations their tactics were outlawed throughout the commonwealth but not in the united states of america they have protection at the highest levels believe me well i guess you could say what the world bank and i.m.f. does is pretty much the same thing with their structural adjustment policies how are the vulture funds different. believe it or not the i.m.f.

the world bank don't like these guys because they actually bust up the deals that the i.m.f. the world bank come up with so for example we've had massive debt forgiveness for nations like the congo in liberia all that done is allow these vultures to come in and seize the the assets that are there for example the case of the congo they were trying to ship cobalt to to to europe and this was seized it's almost like somewhat legal piracy. these guys are really scary they they take the resource of these nation again i want to emphasize they don't do it just by buying up you know their technical means is that they buy an old bonds that are long forgotten by these nations that were issued before during the civil war a famine or some terrible event in which they pick up debt that's worth the paper is billions of dollars they pick it up literally sometimes for a penny on the dollar and then they don't demand just full payment they they demand

a several several hundred percent payment but it's enough to destroy these nations they stop them they basically take the aid we're trying to give these nations that the u.s. taxpayers european taxpayers are trying to give poor nations and they literally seize this money and that's why they're very different even than the eye of the i.m.f. is a sweetheart and a valentine compared to the vulture and compared to goldfinger and his gang but the important thing is that they're influencing our government for example the number one vulture investor paul the vulture singer is also the guy who was who brought in the koch brothers all three koch brothers to back chris christie's run attempted run for president in a little trouble the how of their idea of putting it chris christie in the white house got a little jammed up on the george washington bridge but i understand that single that the vulture funds are protect they are they are putting in

a massive amount of money to protect their vulture operations by by taking our white house by building a vault and it's in all of the white house it's all connected greg you work harder than most people i know thank you for staying on top of all of this you have a new movie coming out everyone check it out thanks so much for coming on. the best every thank you. outrage against the n.s.a. has only grown since snowden exposed the agency's dragnet surveillance of average americans but it's been difficult to put that frustration into action that's why today activists and online advocacy groups from around the world are hosting a worldwide day of action against the n.s.a.'s mass spying program this international protest is being conducted in honor of the late internet activist aaron swartz who was a leader in the movement to do rail to stop online piracy act only two years ago

and a press release for today's action david segal co-founder of demand progress said quote today the greatest threat to a free internet and broader free society is the national security agency's mass spying regime if anyone were alive to be on the front lines against these practices that undermine our ability to engage with each other as genuinely free human beings so take a few minutes to go to the website the day we fight back dot org and add your voice of the thousands of others who support the usa freedom act which would help stop indiscriminate surveillance and reform the fight as a court we must also urge our representatives to reject the pfizer improvements act a bill that could expand the n.s.a.'s spying program even more in fact you can take action right now by calling the u.s. capitol switchboard to leave a message for your congressperson to over two two two four three one two one so turn your frustration into action honor aaron swartz and do what's right tell congress to stop the spying reform the n.s.a.

and take this opportunity to spread the word. coming up i'll give you the latest on new york's fashion week stick around. please.

show the scars of war so that. there was. something in the finish line of the marathon thank. you alison. thank my. mum i'm. still. on the train de blasio push to raise the minimum wage for new york city residents to last night's enormous mafia drug bust there's a lot going on in the big apple but one fabulous event is overshadowing all of that

. new york fashion week is in full swing and we have some designers shakeups jason wood who has been named as the head of hugo boss he's the autistic to write to this season and we're expecting to see some fabulous things on the runway ok seriously how frickin cute is david back i'm taking selfies with all four of his adorable kids from the bravo i was quite victorious by. i should show could you die. right it's a week and the answer is yes i could die in fact i think i just did a little bit watching that all the back and spices of the world are deciding which rail thin model where is that fair wang skirt or hugo boss jacket the best one celebrity actually had the guts to reveal the high fashion industry is true colors . you know you'll be about history and fashion you know that you've got. all the notes and the nazis did that. you know they did. they saw you see. those russell brand at the g.q.

men of the year ceremony sponsored by hugo boss and i don't think you'll be invited back but hey we can still be going after clothing companies for world war two crime so let's take a look at some of the practice is the garment industry is responsible for today we all know western clothing brands and sweatshop labor go hand in hand due to exposure by journalist and human rights groups you would think that the conditions of workers in the garment industry have been. thanks to a wide ranging two thousand and eleven report by the international textile garment and leather workers federation we know the conditions of many of these laborers are in fact a worsening the study focused on eighty three different factories in the philippines indonesia and sri lanka that manufacture clothes for every brand under the sun from ralph lauren to banana republic aside from being paid mere slave wages the treatment of these employees goes far beyond compensation many workers are put on temporary contracts so that they have no power to unionize or fight back against unfair labor practices such as forced overtime and harsh punishment for mistakes

and complaints in another factory forty workers were locked in an unventilated room with no bathrooms for three hours for refusing to work overtime and unfortunately few improvements have been made in the two and a half years since that study in fact with this race to the bottom mentality bangladesh has become the epicenter of the garment industry last year the institute for global labor and human rights secretly met with the oil. is that two factories in bangladesh that produce wonders for many european clothing companies executive director charles kernahan described the factories as some of the worst he had ever seen and said quote there was child labor people were beaten cheated of their wages male supervisors were constantly press young women to have sex with them keep in mind all of current hands observations were made even before the horrific garment factory collapse in the country which killed one thousand one hundred twenty nine people and injured over twenty five hundred despite signs of the building was already severely dilapidated in an effort to meet quotas garment workers were forced to work in extremely unsafe conditions or lose their jobs

a job that paid thirty seven dollars a month unfortunately this catastrophe has largely been forgotten about along with multiple fires at other bangladesh factories but both wal-mart and gap which have a large percentage of their clothing made in bangladesh including the collapse factory itself have refused to sign on to a broad safety agreement that would legally force the companies to offer financial risk support excuse me for fire and safety regulations the agreement has already been signed by many european and canadian clothing companies that operate in the country the good news is that we have the power to stop this deplorable exploitation of labor with our purchasing power in fact a recent national consumers poll showed that fifty nine percent of americans said it was very important that the products they purchase are not made in dangerous or unfair conditions furthermore two thousand and four studies show that the actions of activists and government pressure against nike's reliance on sweatshop labor in

the ninety's led to a fifty percent wage hike for indonesian garment workers look i know that finding a job pretty close can be near impossible we're all contributors to this horrific industry but at the very least being aware of the worst players are can empower us to make better choices and put the pressure where it needs to be so maybe instead of talking about fabulous. clothes this week instead we should be talking about the people that put those clothes on our backs. looking back at the occupy wall street movement it's disheartening to know that not a single banker face trial for their role in the two thousand and nine financial crisis yet close to eight thousand occupy activists were arrested and of the thousands of arrests that did occur a quarter of them took place in new york city but in a spotlight on the conduct of n.y.p.d.

officers many of whom engaged in brutal tactics in the instance of twenty three year old occupy activists millon a confrontation with an officer on the night of march seventeenth two thousand and twelve resulted in a being that left turn conscious before she was arrested and detained the whole event was documented but instead of being able to sue the officers that beat her no one was charged with a felony assault which carries a jail sentence of up to seven years while this week mcmillan's trial began in new york city so to talk more about her case and the reason why this trial deserves more attention i'm joined by two volunteers of the justice for south of the mcmillan campaign jani miller and lucy parks thanks so much for coming on both of you. thanks for having me here thank you so much johnny let's start with you you were present at the time of sicily's arrest in two thousand and twelve can you walk us through exactly what happened that night. sure so this was march seventeenth two

thousand and twelve which was the six month anniversary of occupy throughout the day it was a very festive atmosphere and i think that was part of the reason why the n.y.p.d. had such a grotesque response at the time of such a. brutal arrest i was already being loaded up in the bus i was one of the people arrested that night and you know i saw. as they were dragging her up the bus. you know she was clearly not conscious she was not well and such and it was very traumatic and she's even thinking about it now speaking about it now is a very traumatic experience for me and what type of injuries did saucily suffer. so and were presenting to us in the courtis well when she sustained many bruises to her right breast and individual it's clear that the police officer grabbed her breast from behind was a plain clothes officer so i saw a lot of bruises on her body on her back and she has a red mark on her right eye which is also evident in

a lot of the photos at the time of the incident and lucy let's turn to you what was the justification for charging her with a felony. well essentially what they're what they're trying to say is they see this cop in the face really what they're trying to do to him i believe is show that you can't really protest legally anymore like you really can't go to a protest and be safe which is really scary so if they could successfully put such silly in jail for the two to seven years that they're trying to get then it can be a huge scare tactic to keep people from dissenting in the future. the part that really irks me is the fact that she was sexually assaulted by a police officer and what's even more shocking is that this is not a unique incident specially occupy wall street and y p d this is actually a common tactic extremely agree just cases of sexual assault. grabbing

breasts i mean numerous examples of this yani why do you think the cops are using this tactic. i mean it's very clear you know if one follows to money for example in june two thousand and eleven people working donated four point six million dollars to the n.y.p.d. . it's very clear who the police serve and protect and in my opinion to them occupy wall street represented a threat to the people that they served it was a challenge to their corporate heads that they are part of what i think sexual assault is sort of. women women are more vulnerable to that so the n.y.p.d. were really going for any tactics they could use to suppress people more and to get more people behind bars essentially so once they realized that they could use sexual assault as a tool for arresting people that they were sort of like why not it's pretty violent

we're going to be really continue. you know if we're going to be really honest. justice system to mass incarceration are overwhelmingly targets people of color black and latino youth you know and occupy wall street in new york city experience about two thousand arrests but we have eighty three thousand people in prison right now in new york state as we speak and overwhelming majority of them are people of color you know there was a joke an occupied at the u.s. stands for only whites in the system and it's true because even when suddenly was walking into court many people thought she was the attorney because most of the white people are either officers were attorneys. so they the entire justice system rely upon using the oppression of oppressed groups and oppressing them further like women and people of color. to keep people more to keep more people behind bars you know absolutely i mean the fact that you're going to get sexually assaulted by

police and if you try to fight back then you're facing two to seven years in prison is pretty egregious example of how twisted at the justice system is jani there haven't been many trials resulting from occupy wall street in fact this is one of the last ones you mentioned earlier why it's important i guess explain further why this case could set a dangerous precedent. you know as. you mentioned earlier there's a chilling effect if the n.y.p.d. are able to successfully. get beat up people and get away with it and so by fighting back and you know the whole justice system tries to individualize this turn into to specifics of the incidents of sicily mcmillan and by showing up and by supporting her or showing that this is a contextualized to arrest that this was about the suppression of occupy wall street as a whole on that specific night i mean there were about eighty other people arrested myself included and so by packing the courts by being physically there by sharing

and informing other people about the incident we can set a new challenge for example to bill de blasio to bill bratton you know that things need to change loosely the trials been postponed for two years why is that and how has that affected cicely leslie. i just really one of the main reasons i can see one of the only reasons i can see for them postponing this trial this long is to do their best to emotionally destroy her because late for the past two years she has had this like two to seven year sentence or actually it was originally one to seven years but then recently they brought up thing where because the trial's been postponed for so long they have some sort of legal loophole where they can actually give her another year on the minimum sentence so i think also because there is so much police brutality in the case they've been drawing it out

to really give themselves any advantage that they can because i my opinion they actually really don't have a strong case at all and then the other thing is you know they know that she said social justice organizer and so in the past two years there's a chilling effect on her first amendment right activities her right to protest to organize. protests a spin severely limited in case of you know her her current case will and you'll get a huge element of i'm sorry we just have about twenty seconds left i just wanted you guys to give out a quick web site where people can go to help her because really this isn't being covered much. lou so you want to go yeah this web site yeah we have a web site that just got put up actually it's just this first isolate dot com and for is the number for think we also there's also a facebook event thank you so much you guys were calling out of time everyone check

it out go to facebook check that out jani miller lucy parks thanks so much you guys . that's our show join me again tomorrow and i break the set all over again. i have. a site that i think we're. going to. do i'm. all about money and i'm actually sick for a politician right the last. week right. here

just to let. i would rather as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on r.g.p. question or. it's

funny there are approximately over two hundred eighty million licensed firearms in the united states of america female owner seem to be more and more common today one in five americans own at least one firearm a phenomenon which didn't exist thirty years ago. and i'm not a girl that's for all begun to joey i have a few pieces but i don't wear a lot of it and that what we do together as a family is collect against and target shame. the right to carry a gun is supported by the second amendment of the constitution.