it's frustrating. everybody go to do 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 shrek. will. never go on i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on we go beyond identifying a problem you trust rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing america are you ready to join the movement then welcome to the big. blonde tell our man in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. yesterday comcast america's

largest cable provider announced that it will be buying time warner cable america's second largest cable provider whatever habit of competition in the marketplace and what could this birger mean for free and open access to the internet ad and more in tonight's big picture rubble and while the east coast is digging out from the latest massive winter storm west coast is dealing with a devastating drought how much more severe weather does america need before lawmakers in washington get serious about fighting climate change and ask evan weber and angela anderson in tonight's conversations great it's. good to know this yesterday comcast the nation's largest cable television provider majority owner of n.b.c. an m assembly c and one of the nation's largest internet service providers announced that it will be buying time warner cable the nation's second largest

cable television provider for forty five billion. dollars that's a very big deal pun intended and it has huge implications for the type and amount of content consumers might have access to on the internet on cable television comcast and time warner are two of america's largest internet service providers providing millions of americans access to the world wide web if you factor in comcast proposed takeover of time warner with last month's ruling on net neutrality by the d.c. circuit court of american consumers could be seriously screwed last month the d.c. circuit court of appeals struck down the obama administration's net neutrality rules is rules were put in place to prevent big internet service providers like comcast and time warner from slowing down your access to certain websites or on the flip side charging those websites to access you for example with net neutrality

rules in place comcast would not be able to slow down your access or charge you more for your access to h.b.o. or c.b.s. or c.n.n. just because they wanted you to use n.b.c. which they own and operate thanks to the d.c. circuit court ruling though and the potential takeover of time warner comcast is well on its way to being able to discriminate between web sites and make the owners of competitor websites pay more money to run their websites at higher speeds and to reach millions of american consumers in an easy direct fashion it also means that comcast can jack up internet costs back in two thousand and nine read it user quick created a graphic detail in what internet prices might look like without net neutrality since last month's court ruling the graphic has gone viral and does a great job detailing a world without net neutrality the graphic talks about a fictional internet service provider named telco the telco in this new world we are in now with out neutrality they can set it up so you get basic internet service

for twenty nine ninety five a month with a big. catch the catch is good luck finding any websites that you can access with that plan that's because in a world without net neutrality internet service providers will be able to hack huge websites much like cable providers do with t.v. channels for example if you're a search engine user in a lot of looking up things on google being a yahoo then telco could charge you an extra five dollars a month for access to them but if you're a real news junkie and like taking in the news from a global perspective telco could charge another five dollars a month to access international news websites like the b.b.c. but don't think that means telco will give you access to u.s. based news for free nope it wants you to pay another five dollars a month for access to american news websites like c.n.n. . new york times say you're done reading the news do you want to kick back and watch the latest viral you tube it or an episode of your favorite show on netflix to do either of those things are going to pay telco an extra ten or fifteen dollars

. finally say you're big on line shopper well if you want access to sites like amazon e bay or overstocked. you get to pay telco another five dollars a month while this could happen today if the comcast time warner merger goes through it becomes far more likely in the event of that that merger so shouldn't we be enforcing things like the sherman antitrust act so that we have a lot of small and medium sized internet service providers competing with each other keeping down prices for american consumers and isn't it time to put net neutrality into law so that these big internet service providers can vulcan balkanize the internet like with telco example let's rubble. joy if you guys big picture oberle are lisa deep as well a columnist with townhall and author of finding mr right just sam bennett political

strategist and author kevin martin martin member of project twenty one black leadership network thank you all for joining me tonight it seems we're having it all back with us you all heard my rant here now in this no longer we do we have. and now if these two companies merge forty three of the top fifty markets in the united states are in for internet services are going to be dominated by one company i positioned this in the context of we could be on the receiving end of you know like the way the cable companies all you want h.b.o. a search for five dollars but you could also flip it around i mean these these comcast could now be in a position where they say to to amazon or to you know you know we're going to we're going to give you slower traffic than e bay because they're spiffy i mean isn't it time for us to be saying there's a war for government to play in the us anybody well if i don't think i mean does

that mean we all agree that we should let the free my. it decide what. things i know well most are creative. and they were never seems like the only time i hear from the left what about the free market what about the choice from consumers to have to make all the choices they want to make it seems like the only time we hear about the free market is what they want to get involved in a business deal a free market will always lead to a monopoly i mean in a free market you're going to end up with comcast being the only internet service provider in america because of the biggest ones that got the biggest momentum i'm not a fan of i'm not advocating a free market i mean advocating regulated when you say that they're in forty three of the largest the largest market if the largest markets. all of those are people still short choosing bios in your eyes then and he majority and i'll answer now fifty biogas i don't use either i said as what i read it in your sister transcends that i mean clearly i think our founding fathers and the mothers behind them i would like to contend who would have anticipated

a vehicle like the internet would have developed right so i think i agree with you tom i think we've moved into that area where we've got to have some sort of government elation because the the complete free access to anything that anybody wants on the internet is foundational to exchange of information exchange of commerce and there's only downsides to the kinds of restrictions that are going to be the natural outgrowth unless we have some sort of regulation but tom why is it you told about bring it up but time warner told us over a year ago that they will put this division up to sale ok time warner and say look we're getting out of the business we're going to focus more movie that only those and their everyone will still play because comcast alone since i got the money you make the best deal for tom want to buy up all the chips and love to buy it who knows so i'm glad i could files by and if i could do satellite bio if this raises two really important issues though the first is the issue of monopoly which you

know where sam is addressed but the other two of you and the other is the issue of the commons is the internet our information commons is at the modern day equivalent of the library have no question if it is the information commons and that's you know from the constitution on down from the founders the debates and in seventeen eighty seven back is the appropriate role of government is to regulate the comma but was that something we all like all the all of you also have free in admit you have free internet playing in d.c. you walk around your tablet say hey free we're free public why not what we're about to not have it which is we're potentially the situation of the government is providing but that but if i could say that i would suggest it's not so much about regulating some. it's protecting something which has become the new interchange the new place the new commons in your language tom the thing that totally cracks me up is for comcast to stand up and say that this will enable them to be more competitive when did he miss the lesson and in economics how does making something

the larger make something more compelling and now interests you need to have lots of different players in the field to have something to really be college has model legislation to that for states to pass but they have state representatives republican state representatives introducing making it a crime in their states for a city or municipality or a county to offer why fire service to be to be the provider of white face and that's it has picked it has made the hands of a flock of ending the comments that you're talking about that's my point blank yes well you say there's no competition but there's phials as thieves the dish all concept here you have on the tissue or or five her own is that's not competent really companies to do all the come just all becomes i know of around the companies in new mexico the coal companies in colorado i have watched you decide you want to auction where i live one cable one coming into my house and that's it i can't get i can't get high speed broadband over my power service although in some places in the world you can i can't i can't order up anything else come into my house and most of

d.c. is that i mean if you try to have like communications satellite you're uplink in a satellite you've got to dial into a telephone line uplink to the satellite you know the hughes those all flew on stage internet overnight i don't like that you can compare a service that's available in a large metropolitan area to where all that it's computes it's lucrative to have a lot of different players which is not large but you probably want what about the people who live best i'm saying that's where the problem is where they're going to be severely limited and we're seeing i think we're seeing the internet go the same way that the media has in one thousand nine hundred three you had fifty companies that controlled the vast majority more than eighty percent of all of our media now it's six companies that control more than eighty percent of our media and if you and i would suggest you go back to the one hundred thirty or forty years probably five thousand companies you know know i. tom lansing where i used to radio every single radio station was local in a panel you know there are eight or ten right now they're all owned by two companies. and that's why i think the government has a very vital role to play about right now in protecting that commons quality so that we can have free internet level playing field free exchange of information i

mean who would argue who would argue that the internet has been probably one the most powerful transformative forces in in any history so so kevin and lisa. are either of you do either of you have any solution other than i mean i will. say there's only regulation regulated capitalism you haven't we use you say there's only one provider or you are i mean is that because companies don't want to do business where you are actually that's because to dig up the street to run a fiber line is something that most companies are not willing to pay for. and that's true of much over ok well i mean i live in washington d.c. and i haven't written and there's tons and tons of of options so i i mean i wonder if it's government regulation you know on top of what you have multiple wires coming into your house you know i mean there are tons of different options of services and i live in mobile and if i also have hughes i have dish network you know those are both those a satellite receiver i want to wire coming into your house you know. that's great

more of tonight's big picture all coming up that. there were made in abby martin to a precocious teen at work. it's going to give you a different perspective if you want to never i'll give you the information you make the decision. the revolution the mind it's a revolution of ideas and consciousness. extremely you produce would be described as angry i think in a strong team elf. other single. i marinate join me. in that impartial and financial commentary cancer

news and much much. only on the bus and. i'm the president and a society. i'm a big corporation mind. can do i'm the bag i get all that all about money and i'm a catholic for a politician writing the laws and west. bank are. just too much. of a society. that. back

to the big picture with me tonight are lisa de de pass wiley sube and sam bennett and kevin martin boy it. has been that kind of week i'm sorry anyway this morning president obama spoke to the congressional democrats they're retreating cambridge maryland he talked about his executive order to raise the minimum wage ten dollars and ten cents for the new federal contract workers and people with that affects take a listen. to be next to folks average age by the way thirty five these are teenagers these are folks who are looking after families and trying to raise kids and to see what it would mean to them for us to have. a federal minimum wage of ten dollars and ten cents an hour and how much relief that would give. and how. committed they were to the american dream and getting ahead and just hoping that

somebody was standing up for them. it reminded me of. why i'm a democrat. and it reminded me of why i'm so proud of this caucus because you're standing up on behalf of them so if democrats for decades have been standing for a while for a century it's now have been standing for a higher minimum wage actually it was republicans before that it was taft and and teddy roosevelt but nonetheless it's been democrats ever since wilson. standing up for a minimum wage roosevelt actually put it in place and. the republicans have been fighting the minimum wage in fact rand paul doesn't think there should be any minimum wage much less seven dollars twenty five cents an hour. what does that make the republicans if the democrats are the party that we're going to. be actually. libya in i'm not a republican independent but i am a federal contractor i mean it's president have you ever heard of davis bacon oh

i'm sorry that that day why isn't davis making me and of course david smick human being forced in would i use a little no no look i know that in alabama and you make fourteen dollars an hour down a working at the air force base. let me just for people who don't know what we're talking about let me just explain this real quickly david spade is a piece of legislation is passed or unbacked i think johnson was of the just a majority in the bag. just passed some some time back the basically says that any time the federal government is paying for something private corporation that private corporation has to pay their employees the quote prevailing wage which is typically the union wage wherever town was so the question kevin is why is it that we've got people who are working at the smithsonian here in washington d.c. this is one of the highest wage cities in the end yeah states and why did it is why is why are they needed seven bucks and i have a washington d.c. business contract. you show me someone who the people dave's big then say i am for do you have to pay on davis you have

a bowl of david spade you actually want to thirty thousand out so how does the smithsonian get away with not doing i have no clue i'm not in the security down this is only if that's what you're saying not every industry has to abide to space which is yes but there are other ways mcdonalds will remember it but believe me there is a federal contract the present federal contract right most only i did not i got into a contract at the smithsonian security is not a federal class not a federal you have someone working the tour shoprite who sent you know an hourly person working there they don't fall under the benefit of francis bacon and what percentage of the usa you david save us bacon sorry about that stink in shakespeare and sick in shakespeare on a valentine's day reading so we are not just about to miss right so the truth matters what small percentage of the american workforce you know benefits from the legislation this presidential executive order well apparently it's only going to be if we're going to as of now as one people know it's going to be one one point six

percent of three hundred. thirty million people in america know of one hundred fifteen million people in our work force him one hundred fifty and in the ninety five million enter the minimum wage has been tracking so far behind cost of living including symbol means you're going to if you're thirty five years old you're making a minimal wage something is wrong with a lot of well you know what only has your community service gone to hell that's why i think that if we i think as a republican i could get behind the minimum wage increase if there were other things that were part of a larger plan like school choice something that's going to actually get people out of minimum wage job exactly how does school choice get people out of minimum buy how they are going to have one. on the left turn left turn that i started out in my last hour on that is sort of a public school teacher failed schools look here look here let's take a woman. school up in north wales they get all the resources they meet but with elementary school southeast mobile office located pretty much all of materials

hammy them those parents will like the signature of the key elementary school ok but someone says oh well you're taking textiles out of the neighborhood but if the neighbors are right and why don't we raise up the school in your neighborhood what do you tell me i mean because he's making the list of all the concept of federalism has been the local communities to the extent it's possible you have local things done by local governments time please take the money we're going to the local why don't you have it here how do you know that somebody who has a department of education exists since i think since the kennedy administration you know see this is the court of no you're right why are you why here is because you know has gone down how you have a few failed schools you are putting a lot of people i am also you admitting we have failed school well clearly that's why not allow people to leave their money in schools because there's other options that are what are affected i am from allentown pennsylvania my children have always been educated in our public school system which has had its challenges but because

in my hometown of allentown pennsylvania the community has become engaged and has supported our public school system we're doing better than ever so i don't really used to take any money away from challenge the public i love our school district but the parent but they but they want to belong to the parents they don't belong they paid it i did actually make sure that she did not get to like me which you like someone else does is really here is you one hundred percent well and here's healthy really couple that is paying into the system they don't have children in the school system they don't have money in the school system but but but wait a bit but it's all their children as terrible as it was their quality of life elder not going to be their dog that you actually write teachers that so but but but just what i just want to make a point and we're wrap this up and move on and that is that one of the things that we find with so called school choice where you go into a. horribly impoverished neighborhood and you say oh you can send your. anywhere you want is that their kids very often don't do well in other schools because the problem isn't the school the problem is poverty and we need to be doing something

about what our brittleness it's about it's all we've taken we see kids come out of those probably schools go to progress in excel so we absolutely have but there they i would say that they're the exception that proves the rule and look at the percentages if you look at for example my school district which has eight thousand dollars to spend per student compared to the suburban school districts around us that have thirteen fifteen thousand dollars to spend per student we've managed to make that eight thousand dollars work and increase our test scores why because we as a community of become engaged taking money away which is not a we're only making eight thousand we'll have eight thousand literally taking money away and i'll be able to close out all because like you book these teachers a lot is teach them teach me still hopes and they say going to three years and they're gone they're going to teach you all that these india is going to buy have a hard time have already worked in those schools my kids have to wait before they have money to kick in when you know they could get a voucher all businesses were with kevin that we needed a part of education equalizes all this stuff absolutely don't have it and i have

worked in those public schools absolutely in the inner cities and it's if they're out in three years it's because it's one of the most stressful jobs on earth it's insane they're right up there with cops who were going to say neighborhoods and inner city and the huge them there and they're right up there with the people living in those neighborhoods in terms of stress and that's why we need to do something about this but any of what what we do about poverty then that starts on the conversation which will have some of the night republicans might believe that moving on climate change in climate change after all a recent poll by the yale project on climate change communication found that fifty five percent of republicans think the carbon should be regulated and treated as a pollutant study also found that a majority of republicans were in favor of increased funding for renewable energy and in favor of cuts to fossil fuel subsidies so are the republicans in washington just refusing to listen to their constituents are they totally bought out by the oil. and history what's the deal why why is it that republicans are ignoring their own base their own voters to nominate one question so carbon steel to be regulated

so what are you going to do they're going to shove a tube down my throat because i breathed out. how do you how can i. say but you see in our favor you always put a bag over the head but i mean right yeah no no this is not the question we just settled volcano erupted into these you two weeks ago tons of carbon into you know. it basically changed into so what would be easy to pull of the volcano down nobody . does that that's a silly argument yet if we are you know that this is yeah it's me but it's really about logic that will argue is the larger question here is clearly climate change has come of age in the same way that same sex marriage has come of age as a general broad based agreement we've got a problem on our hands and we need to regulate it and it's become increasingly non-partial how we can have a good sign how we do regularly occurs naturally because we don't see

a lot of you know. the old you know about how only to exchange views oh oh when they were george herbert walker bush we had a huge sulfur dioxide problem acid rain back in the eighty's already it was a wipe out you know it was cutting up cars it was tearing down buildings it was doing all kinds of horrible things and so george herbert walker bush said we can solve this with the marketplace will do cap and trade and it worked it would about you know if they would put it in years what about the scrubbers the free markets came up with. what was there was a cap and trade the free might have been reset was to cap and trade for what you really see these polls everybody says yeah i believe in may make you know climate change or or whatever but when it comes time to spend their own money they still want oil cars they're not spending money on solar panels they're personalize it but then here's the course it's not why well is that every issue personalize this you know i mean all these guys say we have societal and everybody. wants to say yes this is what i believe in the government should do this but when it comes time to have actual options they they don't win so as many money on that you all four of us

as individuals than any of us as business people have to pay to take our trip why should the fossil fuel industry be the only industry in america and i don't think anybody should get rhapsodies ethanol so no how do you get this isn't even a subsidy they don't have to pay to take out their trash they dump the stuff into the atmosphere and they don't have to pay and the trash falls on us so we will not be any any image in energy producing whether the solar when they put a kid out there trash but highly paid when one solar panel companies make solar panels they create waste and they pay to dispose of that well that is when mill manufacture absolutely when we're growing very. you are going to a steel mill they pay to take out that trash when there was a fuel industry year olds stuff out of your labor is it is here is the kicker for you to big bill sold me to want to run those windmills you need hydraulic fluid ok to woolies are you suggesting that because they need to use energy to make better

forms of energy we shouldn't be doing it at all no believe great this is a great thing to use oil for when we started a little bit and we were getting was it pulls keep the subsidies that well if the oil can stop making those things how you can have a windmill how you can have a single player the only one only do walking about not letting people use fossil fuels to good ends what we're saying is what we're talking about is if you use fossil fuels and you're polluting the air and you're an industry making money off that generation you should pay for it at all as to what point to they decide it's not worth it and right on wells it anymore that's that's the catcher in the sky saying that it may lead to the past sampat kevin martin thank you all for joining me you know it's a great day. coming up right now there are trillions of gallons of fossil fuels trapped and if the ground that big oil has yet to tap so how do we make sure these dirty one thousand century fossil fuels stays underground and clean green sources of energy companies. norman america that and more that's conversations of great minds with evan weber and angela enters.

the world of the. science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've done the future covered. please please please. click.

cross talk rules in effect get into can jump in anytime you want. i've got a quote for you. that's pretty tough. stay with substory. let's get this guy like you would smear about john stead of working for the people both issues the mainstream media were pretty much on the bridegroom's vision. of it rather. a chance are forcing that. six nations in the finish line of the marathon.

because it. might mean nothing but. right now parts of northern new england are still dealing with the remnants of the latest massive winter storm which has crippled much of these coast this week dumping upwards of four or more of snow in major cities like philadelphia new york baltimore and washington along with the snow came freezing rain and sleet with iced over roads and power lines up and down the east coast as well as traffic nightmares from atlanta to boston meanwhile across the country the west coast is suffering from one of the worst droughts in recent history these severe weather events are stark reminder that we need to move away from the one nine hundred century fossil fuels and dry.