it's in we question. not letting anything get to bring it home to the american people. long john harshman at washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture donald trump stood alone at the g. twenty summit in germany this weekend when he refused to support the paris climate accord turning america into a rogue state last john fugelsang in just a moment and with protests growing republicans are trying to force

a tax cut for the rich disguised as a health care bill through congress before the august recess will they succeed last day mccall and valerie herb into the politics of. the refuser in a donald trump's visit to the g. twenty summit in germany and they're bad really really bad the almost universal opinion of his european trip is that it was a disaster both for the president and for our nation is nine years after george w. bush left office america is once again a pariah state joining me now is one of the few people i know who can find humor in situations like this john fugelsang is an actor comedian and political commentator so as the host of tell me everything on sirius x.m. insight one twenty one john welcome back. what a pleasure mr harben greetings from the new york bureau thank you oh he's nice having you with us it's always nice to see you. whole g.

twenty trip strikes me as just wildly ironic i mean he gave his big speech in poland about defending the west and then what put that in quotes and then what about showing how wildly out of touch he is with genuine classical western values you know tarion ism and small d democracy and and you know your thoughts on all that well i mean the only thing sadder than you know being embarrassed for america in front of our allies is having our allies embarrassed for us i enjoyed the poland speech as much as i enjoy reading any right wing wiki entry on a country's history mostly what he did was reciting the poles many of whom were bussed in from the suburbs facts about their own country's history but you are very right and acute pointing out how many times he mentioned the west i believe george w. bush mention the word democracy fourteen times in poland barack obama said it nine times donald trump said it once and when he says the west he's not talking about

democracy he's not talking about civil rights he's not talking about liberty or even the private sector as we know it i think most people know this speech was written by steve benen and steven miller and for them the west is a different kind of code word referring to a certain kind of ethnicity a certain kind of tribal identity and so in that sense if you were a right wing white nationalist in poland you knew exactly what the president is talking about and that's why you were cheering i watched that speech and and came in here just to. name one of my producers and i said have you ever watched any rifle stalls movie triumph of the will because trump used the word will twice and triumph once that. it was i was familiar with it we said here for twenty minutes or so watch i spent probably forty minutes watching it looking for that little clip that was identical to some. and from you know trump speech i didn't find it but the but the tone was so similar in so many ways. curious if you're familiar with that

documentary or that probably i do a lot of a big fan of lady riefenstahl this was a lot like lenny riefenstahl's films but just worse cinematography and poor music otherwise i kind of get what you're saying in the echoes still reverberates you know i mean it was an it was a tense trip for donald trump he was meeting with vladimir putin and you know this is anyone who's work knows this the first time you have an employer employee performance review it's always a bit harrowing so it's a good thing that he was able to go to poland read a speech that was written for him by a couple of other white nationalist guys and we know one thing that mr trump didn't mean anything he said because he only means it when he's saying it and now he's moved on unless he's saying i do well and i look i mean who would have thought i mean donald trump has achieved something i never thought i'd see polish people are now telling american jokes so there's that ok a damning report on trump's g.

twenty trip by australian journalist chris allman has gone totally viral it's all over the internet here's a short clip from it. don't trump has pressed forward on the decline of the united states as a global leader he managed to isolate he's nice to confuse and unite his allies and to diminish america john you know i remember the bush years very well and how isolated america felt and frankly was from its european and western allies maybe tony blair accepted but it's only been six months of trump what will america's relationship with the rest of the world look like in your opinion at the end of three and well it's actually you know it's only been five months if you can believe that i mean five and a half months and that report was was very very astute and i was pleased it went viral everyone should look it up it's pretty devastating to see an australian journalist speaking so freely and you can realise this is how journalists speak. when they're not chasing the tea party viewing demographic you can't say things

like that on most broadcast networks in america because most broadcast networks in america are trying to pursue that donald trump demographic ratings wise one of the reasons why i like r t you guys say whatever you want to over here and you know the i mean the bush comparisons are up because what are we looking at here look at the policies look at the look at the look at the budget this is bush's third term but with twenty five chinese in the cabinet and again this is if he wants to cut taxes deeper than bush lot of foreign entanglements. you know irresponsible deployment of ground troops i mean there really isn't a lot of sunlight between donald trump's policies and those of the bush white house so i think it's kind of apt and i think america keeps on having the repeat the same mistakes again the you know the number one threat to our country in terms of air borne virus isn't a bola it's amnesia and this mentality that trickle down still somehow works it doesn't matter people will vote again and again for policies that we know don't

work and hurt our middle class if you keep promising them you're going to get rid of abortion and best of all you don't have to mean it just keep on saying it and the voters will punch themselves in the face for you when they see it again and we have been for some time we just saw in georgia just a week or so ago the moment that i think will really stick from the g. twenty meetings was when the other countries basically said they're going to move forward on the paris climate accords without us without the united states i thought conservatives want to america to be that shining city on the hill ronald reagan's you know. what you call it plagiarism of john kennedy but it is plagiarized from john winthrop but is turning america into a rogue state. yeah i mean isn't in this for america trumps in this for profit he's whether he's trying to make more money or pay off debts to individuals we'll never know about he's not in it for america he's not in it for conservatism and abandoning the paris accords is not conservative it's not sustainable it's not sane

it's denying the commerce of twenty first century green energy even the saudi royal family knows that fossil fuels days are numbered and so what's amazing is by pulling out of. the paris accord the remaining one thousand nations including saudi arabia have actually been able to strengthen it because when you lose america you lose a superpower that is in the stranglehold grip of money to oil interests so they were actually able to make the paris agreement even more comprehensive in trump's absence usually when donald trump pulls out of something he at least sends evoke in his place for a few minutes none of that now so here's the irony when another president takes over in america rejoins the paris accords it will be a much more progressive paris accord than even barack obama agreed so well how do you square that with what. was today maybe was yesterday that he's thinking of pulling turkey out of the paris chords because donald trump showed the way.

i think everyone is like trump going to do whatever is politically expedient for him he's of course caught in a very different kind of tug of war than donald trump being pulled one way by the e.u. in one way by cultural forces so i you know i don't think ultimately turkey will do it but we've been wrong predicting about european nations pulling out of all kinds of agreements in the last year all bets are off right now it's pretty much you know outrage whack a mole any time you watch the news this is like the o.j. bronco chase of presidencies except they brought all of us along in the bronco well said what do you think about this business of a vodka trump sitting in and sitting in for father during the g. twenty you know the optics are a bit different than what we're used to but is there a danger here of benghazi fine everything that trump does seem to me like that was just not that big a deal frankly. it's not that big a deal and you know that is i mean it is very disrespectful to people in america i mean i get a brilliant defense that she's part of the delegation and therefore has

a right to sit there as a member of the delegation and i do respect that but at the end of the day trump doesn't care about optics and the optics of this are the president brought along his daughter who plagiarizes shoe designs and handbag designs to sit in between the chinese premier and the german chancellor it makes us look small time it makes it look like our government is run by nepotistic gangsters and i appreciate yvonne katrina's white house role as secretary of police don't embarrass the first world today dad but it doesn't help her image too much either and yet in the big picture it's going to be forgotten in twenty four hours is another outrage of the moment but it didn't do our country any favors it didn't do our credibility any favors either point taken as republicans try to push this awful so-called health care bill through before the august recess bernie sanders has been holding rallies in red states specifically red to use in west virginia is in kansas where this bill is going to do the most damage i haven't seen much media coverage of this i saw one report and most of you see over the weekend and that was it is corporate media

media still scared of bernie and and no longer that i'm curious your thoughts as a as a fellow who shares my fascination with the religion who would jesus turned down for health care if he were mitch mcconnell. well it's a brilliant point i mean jesus time and time again throughout the gospels completely throws curve balls at his followers by telling them to embrace whoever it is they hate samaritans tax collectors roman centurion prostitutes time and time again jesus stands up for the least of these not the most powerful which is only one of many reasons this entire health care plan and i don't call it trump care it's g.o.p. care it's going to be around long after trump is gone off to some country with no extradition treaty it's g.o.p. care and it in no way reflects the teachings of christ like much of the trump era. it reflects the golden calf it's a massive tax cut for the wealthy it finds a way to gut medicaid after trump promised repeatedly on the stump he would never got medicaid his budget does the same thing it rewards wealthy people and it

punishes poor people and it's more proof that donald trump is jesus the followers of jesus who reject the teachings of jesus what bernie is doing is brilliant though because i you're right the corporate media won't cover it insurance companies pay for a lot of those quirky as we watch it between you know new segments but what bernie is doing echoes what howard dean did as d.n.c. chair in two thousand and eight the unsung hero of barack obama's election year was howard dean for crafting the fifty state strategy you know for too long democrats and i'm not a democrat but democrats have ceded the red states to conservatives or fight in battleground states but they don't really spend much resources on places the johnno soft razor thin victory razor thin loss rather in a district that's been red since the one nine hundred seventy s. shows that potentially every safe g.o.p. seat could be in play in two thousand and eighteen howard dean said let's go into these red states let's show them why trickle down hasn't helped them burnings

following that playbook exactly it's smart of the d.n.c. to employ him this way to to use him this way he's great fund raiser for the d.n.c. even if he's not a real democrat and he's bringing the message right to the red states that the politicians they vote for promise him a lot mainly abortion and never deliver on it so i have great hopes that bernie can defeat this bill before it defeats itself because this thing's about as popular as cannibals on bath salts tom as you well know agreed and i would say you know if f.d.r. is the definition of a real democrat bernie is one of the most real democrats i know but i guess you know point taken he's an independent technically so yeah john. thanks so much john for being with us it's always a pleasure tom thank you for your excellent show thank you and for all you seattle viewers out there john is part of stephanie miller sexy liberal comedy tour and will be in town on july. twenty seconds coming up as the god brothers wage war on solar power is a time to strip the profit out of the utility business once and for all as david mccullough and valerie irving incidents politics panel right after the break.

i think the average viewer just after watching a couple of segments understands that we're telling stories in our critics can't tell me you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth parties able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there to the american what's happening when a corporation makes a pharmaceutical chills people when a company in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the

dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every week and you know what they're working. there's a real irony going. in showing up plenty of things in a responsible way from the people and there is always well that's what it always looks and smells. like the old ordinary now wholesale surveillance you feel you have no meanwhile personally and to do so as you said the instructor has used to sell stock you know that while i always thought the story goes it's garbage in real sicko. all the fear we took. every the world to be real. good on the old world. according to

a gesture. for the ride back to. where the republicans rushing to tab pass their tax cut for the rich disguised as a health care bill before the august recess one of the indoor intrusive american politics has burst out into the open once again when it comes right down to it republicans simply do not believe that providing health care to anyone is an appropriate function of government and they've been saying it for decades for more on that let's turn things over to tonight's politics pam. with a for tonight politics pal are dave mccall a partner at capital media partners and valerie irvin senior advisor at work at the

working families party thank you both for being with us things great having you with republican senators like john mccain warning that trump care is as good as dead donald trump tweeted this morning that he can't imagine that congress wouldn't dare to leave washington for their august recess without a beautiful new health care bill fully approved and ready to go so is john kerry going to pass and isn't the real problem for republicans here the fact that they've been exposed as a party the fundamentally does not believe the providing health care is a fundamental obligation of the government i mean they used to just say it right out loud i mean even ten years ago on my radio show conservatives people from right wing think tanks would come on my program and say providing health care is not an appropriate function of government it's not in the constitution here's ronald reagan in one thousand nine hundred sixty one when medicare was being debated before the united states congress warning us that medicare and medicaid they can were passed as one bill that medicare if this is passed it will lead to socialism

behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country until one day as norman thomas said we will awake to find that we have socialism and if you don't do this and if i don't do it one of these days you and i are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in america when men were free what it wants you know dave i remember those days when men were free and nobody had health care. it wasn't a pair of eyes you know what what why don't why don't you know i don't mean to pick on you but you know you're you're the conservative conservative i get it. there are other to consider and i am older than i am older but you know as a a genuine question i mean i absolutely understand the philosophical underpinning of of you know that's not a role an appropriate role for government i can debate it but i understand it what

baffles me is why republicans are pursuing the policy of we don't believe that health care is an appropriate function of government but they're unwilling to say it out loud what's what what what am i missing here what what has what has happened in the last and it hasn't been just since obamacare or was it you know longer than that the republicans are afraid to basically say this is our position we believe it's a moral position we believe it's a constitutional position we believe you know ethically intellectually were correct what happened to that republican party or those conservatives well i think the bigger question is why is the conservative group so why are the conservatives the republican party not doing more to cut the cost of health care not to switch off and who's going to pay for because really the different from care in obamacare is just who's in to pay for taxpayers and pay for individual people to pay for no the conservative thing to do is to work on ways to decrease that cost because the cost of health care is what continues to drive up these health care premium but you don't really bankrupt america but you know it's kind of

a side issue though i mean you know fifty percent of america right now fifty percent of americans adult americans could not withstand a one thousand dollars bill if they got in a car accident or if they had a you know had to go to the e.r. and they got hit with a thousand dollar bill they cannot deal with that i mean that's for half of america i think forty seven percent is the actual number that's a shocking number and then you know we're going to say to those people but you know we're not going to provide you with health care i mean or maybe i'm wandering off topic you know it's you know why why not just be upfront about valerie or think is socialist. them equals health care for all i'm all for socialism i mean america is one of the remaining countries. in the world that doesn't believe that all of its citizens have health care as a right i don't think the republicans are shying away from that. the truth here is just that it's playing out in ways that we hadn't haven't seen before

and i think that the american public is letting them in on a secret and that is the american public believes that health care for all is there as our right as the american public is socialist too we're also sure if. you saw this was what i believe the government does have a distinct role in in a lot of our daily lives the question is how much of it but that's i mean your your point the government should be reducing the cost rather than deciding who's paying for it that is still assuming the government should play has some appropriate role to play in the health care arena i don't exist and it doesn't it's well but but a conservative would say it's not in article one section eight it's not numerated powers unless unless you want to take the first and last sentences which talk about the general welfare and broaden the general welfare to include health care which is what i would do but i know that william buckley never would have done well we could talk about the different points that each party has and and the attempt on either party to go to that side or go to that side it depends always left or right but it

always comes down to what it's like you know rand paul and mike lee and. ted cruz are so actually taking the old fashioned conservative position this is not a role for government you know just repeal obamacare there's no reason for it in fact and while you're at it repeal medicare and medicaid let's go back to those days when men were free you know the difference here is that this experiment that they're proposing that we haven't seen it before what's going to happen when twenty two million people have no coverage what's going to happen to hospitals i mean this is a. very very dangerous little experiment that we hope we don't go to the brink on but this is like really scary times for people who keep my when we hear that twenty two million people lose their insurance there are already going to be millions of people and eighteen million i think they're losing terms with obamacare in ways you know what you're right it is more but it's not like this is sort of extreme change but it's also gutting medicare i mean part of what we're seeing now that they're adding to the kitty is

a while are in there messing up obamacare why don't we take away what a lot of americans rely on well his medicare is no i think it's a dangerous precedent that it's really it really highlights the point that was made back in the sixty's i remember these debates i remember when reagan came over the dad had a copy of it. and he believed. and what they were so flipped out about was social security but it was because barry goldwater wanted to end social security and there was no way he could even talk about it i don't think we're ever to see medicaid medicare cut i don't think we're ever see so security gutted at all and only in d.c. i think. you said well in d.c. if you don't add to a program is that considered a cut it's a bizarre world that we live in here in d.c. but ultimately no what has to happen is that you keep those existing programs sure you're adding to them but you're also trying to find a ways for people to be able to afford these these other programs whether or not

like health insurance whether or not that's the case it's a different story and frankly this latest iteration of bill i'm just fascinated by the political philosophy of the whole thing but anyway the koch brothers in the utility lobby are waging a war on solar power as a new york times reports the slight decline in home solar installations over the last year is in large part due to a wave of legislation aimed at crushing something called net metering net metering allows you people you know if you have one people solar powers on their panels on their homes to sell extra power from those panels generated by. those panels back into the grid in exchange for credit against your bill and there's your meter runs backwards most of the anti net metering laws currently making their way through state houses across the country are based on model legislation crafted by alec the right wing group responsible for the stand your ground laws the right to work for less laws and voter suppression laws so isn't this a perfect example of why we need to decentralize and localize utility companies and

ban monopolies from lobbying or any other political activity we've got about half of the power of the electricity in this country provided by public utilities owned by communities and about half of it owned by for profit in the for profit the for profit utilities are buying politicians buying legislation pouring money into our like and making it harder and harder and harder for people who are just doing the right thing they're just sol arise in their house to even do that. well i love their argument the koch brothers argument their talking points are it's not fair people who can afford solar panels on their homes which i find laughable these are people who could care less whether or not you have the funds to be able to even afford a home let alone being able to afford solar panels but again it's setting up an argument against you know taking care of the environment and i think net metering

is really interesting because it's not just for people with salt solar panels it's also for people who are trying other kinds of methods. or wind power as one of the methane gas there are a whole lot of there's a whole series of ways that you can have the net metering work for you as a homeowner so that the notion that we're turning. public utilities into government organizations i think that's a powerful real or well that's still a bit crazy i think put it forcing them to do so would definitely be a socialist kind of dream well but in the end why not have stronger regulations that do protect the consumers well that's that's fine with me this is my point is that you know you've got what i refer to as natural monopolies i mean how many how many power lines can you bring into your house basically one cigarette of one power company there's just no way around that it's like how many water lines can you bring in your house how many septic lines these are these are natural monopolies and monopolies will always screw customers i mean it's just the nature of all

monopolies in the us they're either heavily regulated or owned by the customers that they're responding to so with the with the municipal and utility it's responsive to its customers they own it but with a for profit utility i mean some of them are just like not being able what then you end up doing that on the large scale you end up with like venezuela and everything so the government ordered it and we are if we are not. a good. i think either one of us would want that but you know the idea that either there should be you know have a regular order or just say you know it's like likes what switzerland does with health care you can't do it if you're a for profit company you know reincorporate is a nonprofit non-profits have their first job is not to make a profit it's to provide the service but one of the largest one of largest then organization industries in america would then be a nonprofit industry yes i think i think it would be a good thing any of dave valerie great having you both with us and i'm sorry we're

up and that's the way it is tonight and don't forget democracy is not a spectator sport get out there get active tag your. what politicians do something. they put themselves on the line they did accept the reject. so when you want to be president and should. somehow want. to going to be for us this is what them before three of them or people. interested always in the water.

people have got to know whether or not their present or six people deserve to know at this point does it mean to guard against the military industrial. war you should know that. yes we do. thank you. all right we are being lied to about syria we are being lied to by the president we are being lied to by the mainstream media this is my surprised face. last week fame to people it's a prize winning journalist seymour hersh revealed the motivations and facts given

by trump for bombing syria were about as truthful as a bill cosby testimony. and was the testimony of her jealous putting which i still believe people are generally live. i would rather to sully the name of jello. you remember trump justification for bombing was the use of chemical weapons by assad but hearst revealed that the syrian military did not use chemical weapons that the us military knew what assad's military was doing at the time and that the bombing was meant to hit a high level meeting of jihad as leaders and did just that hersh is source says it's this was not a chemical weapons strike that's a fairy tale military grade serin is odorless and invisible and death can come within a minute no cloud so if it were seren there would be no cloud but instead there was a slow moving cloud of chemicals a bomb damaged.