did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy correct help us. to make you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on and we go beyond identifying the truth rational debate and real discussion critical issues facing america are you ready to join the movement then welcome to the. blog tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture comcast net flix stream deal

is just the latest sign that the internet as an information commons is on the ropes so why isn't anyone in the mainstream media talking about this more on that in just a moment also the twenty fourteen midterm elections are still nine months away but a republican senate looks like more and more of a possibility every day but could medicaid expansion keep the summit in democratic hands and new research suggests that if we don't start tackling climate change right away it could be game over for civilization in just a few generations more on that tonight steely take. you need to know this the fix is in and unless we do something quick the internet as we know it will disappear for good on sunday comcast and netflix announced that they had reached a deal that will give netflix direct access to comcast sprog been network until now

and netflix has only been able to send its content to homeowners and energy users by using middlemen companies. cogent cogent which in internet. is known as a backbone backbone provider routes next lexus content through to comcast which then sends that tent to your home to millions of homes across the country but with this new mega deal netflix will get to avoid cogent altogether and send its content straight to comcast and from there to t.v. fans like you and me the short term this means that netflix users who get their internet from comcast will get to stream movies and t.v. shows at faster speeds than they did before so it's pretty good right but not so quick comcast customers will now be able to watch netflix says original show us the cards about having to worry about annoying lag time and loading screens this deal sets a terrible precedent for the future of the internet. when the next startup hulu or

the next startup net flix comes along out of somebodies garage or basement and tries to break into the streaming market they're going to fork over millions of dollars to comcast if they want the same access to comcast broadband network that netflix just bought if you're thinkin to start a net bed net based business in your garage good luck you're not an oligarchy are not going to have a chance sure netflix would prefer not to have to pay comcast but by doing so they pretty much guarantee themselves a safe spot at the top of the t.v. streaming market the internet is now officially a pay to play industry in only the industry our gross are welcome giant corporations make the rules and set the prices at small businesses have to suck it up and deal with it and therefore most won't ever be able to get off the ground and thanks to the d.c. circuit court's decision last month to strike down that a trial in the f.c.c. is unwillingness to declare i s p's as common carriers as pretty much nothing we can do about it to make matters worse big internet service providers like comcast

are only getting bigger in fact if their massive forty five billion dollars purchase of time warner cable goes through comcast will become the number one cable provider for almost forty percent of american homes for years the internet has been the last refuge of any semblance of a real free market but with the death of net neutrality in the rise of borderline monopolies like comcast and arise and it's rapidly becoming the new kingdom of the robber barons joining me now for more on this are rashad robinson executive director of color of change in new york and craig president and c.e.o. of free press here in our studios in d.c. and we shot craig welcome welcome both of you back to the program thanks to the inspector thanks for joining us craig if i may start with you you heard my rant. am i exaggerating or understating this seems to me like what's happening is that the internet is going in the cable t.v. business model and netflix to. we see this coming and we will pay in advance to be

channel number one and pretty soon google is going to pay to be channel over two for you two and who is going to pay to be channel over three or so and in fact we don't really know if google may already be paying you know these deals are so secretive that consumers don't have a lot of information and the important thing to remember is that all of us are already paying our fifty sixty seventy dollars a month so we can get netflix that's why we pay comcast right anywhere as in france is thirty five bucks a month much less pay him for it and comcast is now saying well great because there's no competition because you have nowhere else to go instead of responding to you as a customer and say hey we're going to invest in our networks because you want your netflix to work better they've said well you don't have a choice so let's go see if we can extract some more money from the netflix is of the world and that's what they're doing i think netflix probably felt they didn't have a choice in this debate and their customers were complaining so much they figured well we might as well make this deal with giant comcast rather than super giant super sized comcast that might show up after the time warner deal gets done if they

can get it done so i think this is a glimpse of the future of the internet and that is a glimpse that most people the average consumer can't participate in they don't know what's going on they just know their prices only go in one direction up and up some more. you guys have been blogging about this writing about this pretty extensively over color change your take on this you know i take is that you know i agree with everything that craig said in and they you said in the opening but this is not just about the business community it's not just about the small business that wants to innovate and enter the market it's going to have more challenges because of deals like this it's also a problem for every day people the person who wants to start a blog maybe in the aftermath of the trayvon martin tragedy and wants to start a blog or a tumbler where they can put up stories and say that they too are trayvon or people in their community the a bill. for their voices to enter the marketplace and to be part of the

conversation as quickly as maybe fox news that wants to talk about this issue maybe from a different perspective but has more money you know essentially what we're creating is you know a different set of highways a highway for the rich and a highway for those of us who don't have as much money and for an organization like mine a civil rights organization that represents every day people black folks and their allies poor folks in poor communities people who are already struggling to pay an expensive cable bill their ability to be able to access information in a day and simply just communicate at the same level is really being jeopardized in this netflix deal really underscores really where we're heading when big companies rich companies can pay more to really access the internet and access the ability to communicate to the point where when they take it a step further they do a like with the cable t.v. model right now if you get basic cable you get fox because fox is paying the cable companies a fairly high price and most obviously didn't want to pay that high price and so if

you want to see you got to pay your cable company extra five bucks i'm assuming that that's why maybe they just said hey you know let's charge an extra five bucks and split the difference what happens when you know i can hit craig's web site for free but if i want to go to color change i'm going to have to pay extra for that channel for the activist channel i mean this is just. for show i mean that's exactly that's exactly the problem in and maybe for organizations like mine and and for craig's we might be able to pay that cost but color of change you know eight years ago when we started as a very small organization in the aftermath of katrina where there was an online organizations that really gave voice to black communities in our way and that way and we we started through activists in their homes you know using the internet and trying to kind of bring the voices of those that were suffering in the gulf coast and give them a voice to challenge the government and hold the bush the blue. white house accountable for their failures the ability to be able to access the information and

move those voices to the forefront would have been in real jeopardy so now eight years later an organization like color of change was able to grow and flourish and have a lot of opportunity to bring people's voices into our democracy but we were able to do that because there was opportunity to bring those voices through an open internet cried rashad raises a really really interesting issue. perfectly and that is the first amendment guarantees our right both to association and to free speech and. arguably the internet is the new information commons it's the new commons it's the new place where we do associate with each other where where people get together to hold the bush administration accountable for its going on in katrina and as rashad just so eloquently said. that's kind of one end of the spectrum of arguments that could be made before going before the supreme court and saying this is actually a first amendment issue we need net neutrality the other much more cautious and of

the arguments that could be made is to suggest that under the telecommunications act section seven zero six there is a provision that could stop some of this stuff or that the f.c.c. should simply declare that the that the the. internet service providers are common carriers so like with the us which can't charge you they can charge you an extra fifty dollars because there's typically is stuff inside this box plus your pain insurance for breakage but you know they can't charge based on the value of what's in the package only the weight or just like the common carrier phone company can't say oh gee you're talking on the phone to craig well you know he's a real hot shot that's an extra fifty bucks if you're talking you know to his brother in law is not a hotshot that's only an extra five dollars they don't listen into our phone conversations and charges based on the content that's what that's that's exactly so what what are the one of the legal options also the best option it that you're hinting at is for the federal communications commission in to do what it. done years ago and make it very clear that broadband is

a common carrier service under what's called title two of the communications act and understand it sounds like a big idea but it's really about free speech it's really about common carrier ensures that not only can you just stand on that soapbox but this is the message you deliver can actually reach people and as we enter this new era as we move from the era of phones to the era of data and anybody under twenty five they're not communicating with the phone they're communicating through text they're communicating through data the laws have to keep up with it and unfortunately in washington we've gone the other direction and we've gotten rid of these baseline protections that built the great communication systems we've had moved away from those free speech values and handed them over to big companies like comcast and arise and so we need to reclaim that we need the f.c.c. will take action and we really need them to do it now act decisively or you'll start to see more and more deals like this comcast and netflix today for a rise in and probably tomorrow we have we have a little less than a minute and i'm guessing that free press color change dot org you guys have ways

that people can interact with the f.c.c. is that the point of pressure the f.c.c. we should be people be calling the members of congress all of them. yes all all of the above i mean for we're heading into an election cycle where our politicians are going to be working to raise money from from the telecom giants you know craig's organization in mine along with a number of other organizations have already delivered over a million voices to the f.c.c. to bring every day people's voice that they were in or that you know to keep on the heat tom wheeler is a former lobbyist for comcast well he is but you know the organized people can still be organized money and this is a political fight and we have to fight it on those terms we can't hope that the regulators are just going to do the right thing we have to actually give them no other choice but to do the right thing there you go rashad robinson craig thank you both for being with us tonight thanks for coming up republican lawmakers and twenty five states have said no to expanding medicaid under obamacare. could this be the

fuel democrats need to maintain control of the senate this election cycle. i got a quote for you with a pretty tough. stay with substory. let's get this guy like you would smear about john stead of working for the people most issues the mainstream media are working for each other driver i'm stationed in spite. of the good rather. it was terrible a. very hard to take. once again to come on here the plane flight had

never had sex with that her hair cut. and i want. to. see. what. if. what if what if. the people.

back to the big picture speaking to reporters in washington today arkansas governor mike beebe said that the arkansas house of representatives is two votes shy of the seventy five votes supermajority it needs to accept funding for obamacare is medicaid expansion sure an effort to compromise with republicans maybe got permission from the federal government to use a so-called private option system of medicaid expansion in arkansas that private option allows arkansas residents to use federal medicaid money to buy health insurance from for profit health insurance companies on their state's obamacare marketplace but now arkansas republicans who initially supposed supported the private option are trying to sabotage it by denying the state legislature the

seventy five votes required to ok the medicaid expansion funding if markets are republicans can successfully block funding that will in effect make arkansas the twenty sixth state to reject obama care's medicaid expansion is the mid-term elections inched closer and closer this issue medicaid expansion is starting to look like a winner for democrats especially democrats in tight red state races while many democrats from conservative states are trying to distance themselves from obamacare others are hoping the g.o.p. opposition to medicaid expansion of the health care law as most popular components will help them keep control of the senate that's why democratic. activists and lawmakers in louisiana and montana are trying to put medicaid expansion on their state's election ballots they believe the by putting expansion front and center voters or volt against republican sabotage and swing to the left come november joining me for now and now for more on this is neil's roca progressive strategist

and communications director for democracy for america neil welcome back great to be here great to have you with us you know there's a there's a whole bunch of moving pieces to this in terms of of strategy yeah on the one hand you know the old saying you can't social security is the third rail you can't take it away from people once they have it but if they don't have it yet they don't know what it's like they don't know it exists and they do know that they're screwed and they're blaming washington for that even though rick perry and rick scott or anyone . other than i will and i get a thousand dollars a year and i can't get health through i thought i could get all that you're right and then you know the koch brothers come along and run an ad saying it's big government surveilled so how do you have a message hey guys it's not obama who's keeping it from you it's rick perry yeah i mean i think you call a spade a spade and put it i think you can do a tremendous series of ad campaigns and activism to show these republicans in the state legislature are preventing you from getting something you should you and folks in twenty five other states have access to there's no reason why you

shouldn't have it and folks in illinois do so i think that's where it starts and i for democrats this is a very advantageous thing to have happen if you can encourage people to get out there and vote because these republicans are taking away something that you you know gratefully have you have a right to then that's a no brainer it's a good way to win an election it's a good way to drive up turnout and as we know as turnout goes up democrats' chances of keeping the senate and perhaps even taking back the house rise medicaid is funded out of the general fund not out of fica. so. you could make the argument you. personalized in the strict area but it's really true of all twenty five most of the twenty five governors a few are democrats but they've got republican legislatures but basically the. lawmakers that they're saying you pay taxes to washington d.c. you mr taxpayer mrs taxpayer ms taxpayer you paid taxes to washington d.c.

income taxes and now d.c. was to give it back to us but we're not going to accept them it seems like that would be the way for democrats to message it ric's rick perry is preventing you from getting your own tax dollars back now the only way you could shoot that down is by saying those people poor people are actually pain income taxes or pay payroll tax but i think the backs are but i think that distinction is subtle enough that if you lost and yet i think most people don't understand it they see at the end of their if they get a paycheck they see that they're paying taxes people you know regardless of what are the net take home people know that they pay taxes they know that they pay sales tax they know that they pay a whole bevy of other fees so this notion the only people that this you don't pay taxes works with are you know super rich right right wingers who you know already think the poor take too much anyway if that's if you're mitt romney talking to a group full of things that affect it so yeah. so will democrats succeed in getting these on the ballot in some states you have to have legislative approval you know

in other states it requires mind boggling numbers of signatures that's where it's a real challenge i think in a lot of these states it requires like you said legislative approval even if a senator once once this and it could be helpful for a democratic senator running for reelection to drive up turnout again it's going to be a challenge to get it on the ballot that's why in addition to pushing for these things to get on the ballot across the country progressive organizations like democracy for america and others have been advocating that these candidates should really push for populist progressive policies themselves they should get onboard with things that are really popular in red states blue states and purple states like social security expansion in kentucky raise the minimum wage raise the minimum wage in kentucky social security expansion. he one percent of all voters approve it in red state of texas fifty six percent of all voters approve of the idea of expanding social security benefits you can actually run a populist progressive campaign in winning in some of these deep red states and that's how these you know folks running in louisiana and mark pryor running in

arkansas if you really wanted to win in really wanted to push the envelope and show that he was a real progressive fighter that's the kind of position you'd have it seems like the old this is the conservative republican area this is the progressive democratic area these are falling apart what is happening is you're finding tea partiers standing side by side with progressive activists to amend the constitution to say money is not speech and corporations are people tea party are standing side by side with progressive to say we shouldn't be doing draw drone strikes on people have not been adjudicated in a court of law the n.s.a. shouldn't be spying on us you know it's right on down and i've seen increasingly it's not a it's not a question of right and left it's a question of one percent versus the rest of us and that's really what this fight is about and if you're on the fight of every day working people but ninety nine percent of so taxes and so we conventionally wisdom the democratic strategists you know the kind of old school bob shrum type democratic strategist the advice that they've given you know who is a good guy but he lost what four presidential elections. that that advice of you

know was stay within the democratic party don't reach out don't don't play populist . that seems not to be so it doesn't work in the polling it doesn't work at the polls so it's like go go to lot go to populist run as the populist progressive candidate if you will when if you run as a candidate of the one percent you're going to lose or as a so-called moderate i'm going in the middle yeah you know. how it is if the only thing left in the middle is armadillo that you had already. it's like that that's not going to work so. ok neal thank you so much for being with us thanks a lot for sure to have you thanks for being on the left are. when the obama supporters to the phones all but mr miller get results. for tonight's politically correct that i'm correct in wisconsin republican governor scott walker on fox so-called news sunday walker said that he has

refused to expand medicaid under obamacare in his state because he's just looking out for wisconsin taxpayers. i don't think the measure of success in government is how many people are dependent on government i want people to no longer be dependent because we empower them to get good jobs family supporting careers in the private sector and that's part of our philosophy we did something unique we didn't do what other states did by just not taking the medicaid expansion we didn't take the challenges that come with the medicaid expansion and putting our taxpayers at risk because i love the taxpayers don't put it at risk even before the governor walker says he loves wisconsin taxpayers but if you really love wisconsin taxpayers he'd be expanding medicaid to millions of wisconsinites who are living in poverty right now walker and republican lawmakers in twenty five states are preventing millions of people from getting their own tax dollars back in the form of expanded medicaid since the government is picking up one hundred percent of the cost of medicaid

expansion for the first three years and ninety percent forever republicans by refusing to expand the program are not saving their states any money instead they're preventing their own taxpayers from getting back their own tax dollars in the form of medicaid even the conservative leaning fact checking say one defect agreed with that claim saying that we we rate that statement mostly true so all gov walker might say that he loves the taxpayers might pretend that he's keeping money in their wallets he's actually preventing them from get the in the benefits of their own tax dollars and that's why he's being politically correct. just. the. it's the good the bad of the very very g.i. generously ugly the good rocco's little chicago pizza after the arizona legislature

passed a bill that would allow restaurants and other businesses to discriminate against gay people the tucson pizzeria decided to give lawmakers a taste of their own medicine to place a sign in its window warning all lawmakers who try to enter that it reserves the right to refuse service arizona legislators rocco's owner anthony rocco di god told the having imposed that he decided to put the sign up because opening the door to government sanctioned discrimination regardless of why is a huge step in the wrong direction i couldn't agree more i just hope arizona governor jan brewer is listening and vetoes her state's newest discrimination bill . the bad stacey flanagan the fairfield connecticut resident has made herself the enemy of waiters and waitresses everywhere by using tip money to pay for her meals according to police flanagan stole a tip jar from the counter and then while the cashier was distracted she stole

money from a different tip jar to pay for her order and his behavior would be a little more understandable if she were desperate for cash but she's apparently quite wealthy in fact fairfield town records show that her house is worth well over a million bucks so basically stacy flanagan is a rich person who pays for her lifestyle by stealing from working people. of course that's modern american life in a nutshell and a very very ugly rex tillerson of exxon mobil c.e.o. is all in favor of fracking plus of course it affects the value of is five million dollars texas home to the wall street journal tillerson has joined a lawsuit that is trying to block. the construction of a water tower near his texas home at water tower would supply water to a fracking site that's close by in a hurry with a lawsuit create a lot of traffic and noise tillerson his lawyer said that his client joined the lawsuit specifically to protect the value of his home fracking hurts the value of

homes all across the country and was nice i suppose the dollars and finally understands that it's apocrypha is jobs. here. coming up what does paradise look like for big oil well it might be in america without the evil a.p.a. and fight climate change and global warming by regulating those oil companies that have a day when this was argued before the supreme court and what does that mean for the future of the e.p.a.'s ability to fight climate change. there.

we welcome aaron eight and abby martin two of a terrific hosts on the our team network. it's going to give you a different perspective give me one stock tip i'll never i'll give you the information you make the decision don't worry about how breaking the set works it's a revolution of the mind it's a revolution of ideas and consciousness and frustrated with the system extremely you apologists would be described as angry i think in a strong enough either single. shots are force. six nations and the finish line of the marathon. might have. come up.

i would rather 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.t. question. i think. i've.

been screwed news big oil corporations and their republican allies are trying to do away with the e.p.a. it is the supreme court heard arguments in a case that challenges an e.p.a. requirement that companies get permits anytime they want to construct new plants or factories will emit a lot of greenhouse gases and thus increase pollution they go and republicans view that requirement as part of a larger environmental power grab by president obama even though it's actually an existential step to helping to combat pollution and climate change so what's the bottom line on the latest assault against the v.a. and what happens if the supreme court decides against the obama. joining me now for more on the cases.