clashes in catalonia more than sixty are injured and at least thirteen arrested in the spanish region in a pro independence protest against a meeting between the prime minister and the local leaders. in secret projects by u.s. democrats test online tactics and during a state election is revealed in a new york times report its claim to the news the methods of an old adversary was much maligned russian bots. decision to withdraw troops from syria stirs conflicts in the administration but also among u.s. allies all turkish support supports it rather than washington's purge partners are less than thrilled. or two dot com has more on the latest headlines there is

a new episode of the big picture heading your way right now and stay with us. opioids now kill more americans than guns or cars or breast cancer and these overdoses are lowering our average usa life expectancy our doctors hooked on prescribing them also on this week's show what a week here in washington our political panel is warming up but first a rare bipartisan moment on capitol hill criminal justice reform holland cook in washington this is the big picture on our t.v. america.

with congressional democrats and republicans agreeing on little else lately rare coom by as what's called the first step. has passed the united states senate and house of representatives and by the time you see the show president trump may have signed it as he said he would among the provisions of this bill shorter mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes letting judges for instance impose twenty five year instead of life sentences for three strikes convictions improved rehabilitation and conditions in federal prisons broader use of halfway houses and home confinement and education and work programs to earn time credits stored early release is this first step meaningful one and what's the next step let's ask paul wright who his resume includes seventeen years as a washington state prisoner jailhouse lawyer political activist and journalist he is executive director of the human rights defense center and co-founder of prison

legal news a monthly magazine published in one thousand nine hundred that is prisoner written edited and published and he's the author of the selling of america. paul welcome back. hi thanks for having me on the show a other than a few outliers like tough on crime senator tom cotton many members of congress are congratulating each other over this how big a deal is this first step. well i think it's pretty significant just because this is probably the first piece of progressive. prisoner rights type legislation that's ever been passed at the federal level until now in american history the only other federal laws have ever been passed. that positively impact prisoners of people in prison or the prison rape elimination act which despite the name of the data collection act that that actually do anything to actually stop much less

eliminate rape and the religious land use institutionalized person sacked which solidify the right of the religious rights of prisoners but this is a principle a landmark bill just be because it's the first one to do much of anything that's positive and i think that just kind of points out kind of how dismal and dire the situation is that such a modest tepid and. you know very very lukewarm measure like this is so significant and i think that's the context that we have to look at em seems to be backtracking a lot of stuff that happened in the eighty's and with most states having now legalize medical marijuana and many now legalizing it for recreational use the logic of locking up nonviolent drug offenders is collapsed you were inside a lot a years have you seen violent consequences of commingling these low level offenders with dangerous felons. well you know not not really exciting fit and general of the

way prison systems are generally working is they are sticking they stick people in prisons based on supposedly based on classification depending on generally the length of the sentence the longer the sun is the higher the security level and that's been kind of so that happens around the country so i think that's that's one of the bigger drivers but the other bigger driver is that of simple bed space that's the field of dreams situation were they build a maximum security prison or they're going to fill a. and most of the prison construction that happened in this country in the last thirty years has been primarily medium in maximum security prisons it hasn't been a huge building of minimum security prison so untypically prisoners are housed based on their sentence length rather than that anything else actually now how would these new provisions have impacted your time behind bars. not at all i think that's one of the things that we have to note is that this law only affects federal

prisoners and there's one hundred eighty thousand people locked up in the federal prison system compared with around the no two point three million people that are locked up at the state and the local county levels so for the state and local prisoners this is not affect them at all it only affects federal prisoners and i think that's one of the things too is that you know the big drivers of mass incarceration this country were things like the federal crime control bill of one nine hundred ninety four which passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support of the big dieties. things that made prison conditions much worse were the prison litigation reform act which largely hamstrung in curtail the ability of preserves the challenge unconstitutional conditions of confinement and you know these laws have not been repealed you know a lot of these laws which also did things like. eliminate the ability of preserves at the state level as well to get a higher education. bills that gave prison state prisons literally billions of

dollars if they change their sentencing laws and made prisoners serve longer sentences none of that is impacted by this bill and those were the real drivers of mass incarceration these were the laws that enabled the united states to literally double its prison population in ten years in one nine hundred ninety when i started publishing prison legal news the united states had one million prisoners so you could say that from seven hundred seventy six to one nine hundred ninety is how long it took us to lock up our first million prisoners and then between one nine hundred ninety and two thousand we locked up another million so we literally doubled our prison population ten years as a result of these laws most of which the bulk of which were all the handiwork of president bill clinton. paul i got thirty seconds so i need that quick and. there is this first step back in to save taxpayers a lot of dough. probably not because most of the most of the costs of running

the american police state are fixed so this is just blowing around the edges that a let a couple of people out a lot of couple thousand prisoners out a little bit sooner but it's not affecting the drivers of mass incarceration or will it significantly reduce the prison population all right prison legal news dot com thank you for coming back to the big picture and merry christmas thank you and as prison legal news dot org oh gotcha very good i'm glad you corrected that. ok ok thanks very much opioids kill one hundred fifteen americans every day every day these powerful narcotics were pain killers of last resort until an aggressive marketing campaign by oxycontin manufacturer purdue and drug abusers discovering how to multiply the effect by crushing and snorting pills senator susan collins of maine. mr president i've heard stories about criminals who actually

scanned the obituary pages to figure out when the family will be away at the deceased persons funeral so that the criminals can target that time to break into the family's home to see you know these dangerous. imagine that over the past two decades more than two hundred thousand americans have died from overdoses involving prescription opioids legal drugs and illegal opioids like heroin fentanyl a synthetic opioid fifty times stronger than heroin and one hundred times more potent than morphine we have an epidemic the president has declared a public health emergency how did we get here and how do we get out dr john dombrowski is a board certified anesthesiologist and a board certified addiction medicine specialist washingtonian magazine named him as one of the area's top docs and the web site for his washington pain center is d.c.

pain doc dot com welcome thank you how did doctors get hooked on prescribing these drugs well i'm not sure that we got hooked on it but i think we were trying to do is really do the best for the patient back in the early eighty's you know we were very cautious of these medications then we started being told that we need to treat pain aggressively and really in the late eighty's it was called the fifth vital sign and we were going to be doing you know medical legally or just by by withholding care so just like a. if you had an antibiotic and you withheld that care you'd get in trouble so the pharmaceutical industry the government got involved and then physicians were told hey you can write these medications without much for you no problem in terms of addiction and there we were off to the races so this really happened for about a decade we started doing this and then probably i'd say about fifteen thirteen years ago we did start to realize my god look at all the problems that we've created now you know the road to hell was paved with good intentions in his bestselling book painkiller an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid

epidemic kulit surprise when a new york times reporter barry meier noted that starting in two thousand and seven distributors of prescription drugs sent enough pain pills to west virginia over a five year period to supply every man woman and child there with four hundred thirty three of them with all the attention this crisis is getting how common is it for a pharmacist to check back with a doctor before filling an opioid prescription that's a great point and it is critical that we all talk to each other and that's what how do you get really good medical care if the pharmacist thinks something is going on give me a phone call i get those all the time to make sure no that's appropriate this patients cancer they already have bad all sorts riotous i mean you talk about west virginia those guys work really hard in coal mines they might in need these medications you don't know that's where and why there's that feedback loop to get to the doctors a surprise medications or perhaps they are seeing something that i don't know in terms of abuse potential or diversion potential right to get that information back

to me is there a squeaky wheel effect where the insistent patient can nag the doctor into writing a prescription because in managed care the docs are under so much pressure to keep the conveyor belt move and. i guess there is that component but you know at the end of the day we never want to be pushed into something that's going to harm the patient so you we might even say yes i know it's going to be a lot easier for me to write a script for you and then you're out the door but that's not medically correct we're going to spend more time to talk to you to come out figure out another way to take and. if you mean we can get you all these medications perhaps you might have an addiction problem we need to talk about so i'm not going to write that script or perhaps you can go to a physician anesthesiologist who can actually do a pain injection or an implant or something like that to actually make you better versus a two minute script you mention the implant i'm told you're involved with an innovative implant alternative talk about that sure so there are two possibilities one is the implant for addiction so right now we know that there's a medication called naltrexone that's really been around since the seventy's both for alcohol as well as opiate addiction unfortunately if i'm an addict i don't like

to take these medications i can't get high so the company called bio corrects out in california has now made an implant that goes underneath the skin that keeps you sober six months to a year and the other implant that's been around since the seventy's is a pacemaker for pain so most patients i've started opiate based medications will have a pain issue how about instead of drowning in an opiate we can look at other technologies and my goodness we have those since the seventy's i got about thirty seconds but for our viewers benefit how can we be smarter health care consumers in this regard great follow up question i think the bottom is a bottom line is is this the bed acacias best medication for me jim any other ideas that would be appropriate for my care and again the whole idea of most patients understand this one pill is not going to be everything so you might use a host of medications that really are going to make you feel that much better is the government doing enough i think the answer is they're doing their best right

now we're no we now we're not going to create more addicts are right now the american side of anesthesiologists the operating room we we now know not to give you these pain medications but more importantly we've got a decade of patients that are now have an addiction potential or are truly depend on these medications or we have to care for them too and they are putting a lot of money towards this dr john dombrowski i know you're a busy guy so i appreciate your time merry christmas merry christmas great to be here. come on up if there are. our still anymore slow news weeks christmas week should be one and we're going to need a week to catch our breath after this past week some of these important stories are still unfolding and we'll talk about them next this is the big picture on r t america.

my seven years doing drugs my nephews was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse started when anthony users in the prison population sewer we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill i became convinced that the war on drugs was a mistake there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for. a long sentence in this for whom our own are minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in waves and say by day as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easier. and

many newspapers the print byline people the big shots and the online staffers or junior varsity not this week when major stories are changing moment to moment to moment what still new. by the time the end dries and what next let's ask jeannie old new york radio and t.v. pundit steve malzberg and mitch caesar's joining us from florida former a florida state democratic party chairman gentlemen welcome dateline oval office eleven remember this. yes if we don't get what we want one way or the other whether it's through you through a military through anything you want to call i will shut down the go ok and i answer out and i was just wondering i am proud to shut down the government for

border security check because the people of this country don't want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into our country so i will take the mantle i will be the one to shut it down i'm not going to blame you for the last time you shut it down and didn't work i will take the mantle of shutting down and i'm going to shut it down the border but we're going to you shouldn't shut it down but you think well as they say the camera never blanks and as we do this show on friday just a little earlier today the senate said no to the nuclear option mitch will the democrats or the republicans end up owning the shutdown. i think the republicans own it first of all donald trump said on live t.v. in his usual mode that he usually succeeds in but failed here said he owns it you know the republicans control the house republicans who control the senate they control the veto power with the president they are they're acting as if this is the

last stand at the alamo in their old davy crocket and jim buoy and they know they're going to lose but there's great honor in losing the country gets hurt that is stupid what's occurring is that the president made a it's not about border security it's about the wall and even republicans who've had two years of control of everything don't believe the was a good investment five billion dollars to pay for campaign promise rim what president did say he said i want to wall and i want mexico to pay for right mexico is said they're not paying for it so what's occurred is he's now going to shut down the government so americans can pay for well and they are there's a go fund me page that is raising millions of a billion dollar goal we the people will fund the wall is the name of the fund raiser but before you enter your credit card number the president tweets that mexico is paying into rectally for the wall through the u s m c a which is the replacement for nafta far more money coming into the us because of the tremendous

dangers of the border and clued in large scale criminal and drug inflow the united states military will build the wall steve prediction will that wall be built and if so when. i think the wall will be built i disagree with mitch you know it's nice to say the republicans controlled everything no barack obama and the democrats for his first two years controlled everything because they had sixty votes in the senate if the democrats don't go along in the senate you know you don't control everything so that's why it's not going to pass the senate the bill that nancy pelosi said couldn't pass the house in that oval office meeting you don't have the votes mr president guess what for a change she was wrong again and it did pass the house quite easily yesterday i am so proud of the president i hope he sticks to his guns close down the government people don't care close it down for as long as it takes if you can fund planned parenthood and you could fund p probably broadcasting and you can fund the border securing our border shame on the right to crack down good let them take that stand

take that stand ms pelosi usually counts better than this but also on twitter the president surprised congress by announcing that we're pulling our troops out of syria he says we've defeated isis not so according to typical trump ally lindsey graham who said on the senate floor to those who say we have defeated isis in syria that isn't in the accurate statement they have been hurt they've been degraded to say they've been defeated is an overstatement and is fake nudists republicans are howling louder than dems about this texas sen john cornyn who is up for reelection next year is irked that congress wasn't consulted limousine graham general trump is repeating a mistake general obama made steve now defense secretary mattis is quitting are you concerned the trump is freelancing on the world stage at this scale. i

think it's a huge mistake to get out of syria and it's a huge mistake to drawdown in afghanistan as he's instructed the pentagon to start drawing up plans to do was well if the if the report that i heard is true that i heard but that he talked to air to one to president turkey who is not a good guy in my view it doesn't belong in nato and he told them to pull out and trump said ok that's a huge mistake i hope he backtracks i hope you reconsiders but i got to laugh at the hysteria of the media they all have the same line the only adult left is left the room we're doomed it's a more dangerous country now we're in danger without that as you know out will find another secretary of defense calm down we don't have to hide under the ass you know what and who will be we'll be fine let's see who trump on the stump told us he was smarter than the generals and mitch statements like we've defeated isis and w a pronouncing mission accomplished back then easily come back to haunt us exit in syria asap good idea bad idea and what about getting out of afghanistan quickly how

about image. well first let me say i agree with the first half let's make a note in the notebook that agree with steve's comment on the first half about this is a mistake blaming the media of course is an old trump playbook and when nobody has anything to say about blaming the blame the media which is easier the bottom line is here is that we finally have something republicans and democrats can agree on the christmas and the holidays and that is specifically this is a big mistake as you read senator graham's comment he hasn't a fee to die since that's a ridiculous ignorant statement and like he has said and the exact quote is something like i present trump i go with my gut did my guts usually right you know all the time as opposed to experts telling me anything that is more or less a paraphrase that that relates to his foreign policy which seems to be very transactional to him personally which is a problem it's also a problem as to our world leaders and how we've acted what's not forget that he really started out saying oh i got the generals i will the generals this is the

last general standing who is now leaving in about a month or so and he wrote a goodbye letter were interesting as he went to the white house told the president i need to change the policy i think it's wrong and why he refused the submitters resignation letter the most interesting thing and that the media's really focused on what he said not what he didn't say right what he said was you know you need someone who can agree with your policies which i don't what he didn't say was as in most resignation letters it's been such an honor to serve and you've done such a wonderful job that was totally absent from the letter and this is to make us leo marine general with some dignity and class well there's another general in the news general kelly and now await sentencing after denying that the f.b.i. ambushed him and a judge told him he sold out his country and after yet more congressional questioning james komi said i hope the donald trump is not removed from office by impeachment because it would let the country off the hook and it would drive into

the fabric of our nation a third of the people believe and there was a coup. and we do know a moment of inflection where we'll all get off the couch and say this is not who we are and in a landslide we rid ourselves of this attack on our values the acting attorney general says he will not reach them self the president's pick for permanent a.g. has criticized them all or investigation is moller safe. well i think we're goes where donald trump hopes for i think two thousand one thousand still going to be moeller time i think that's definitely going to remain consistent there's been reports that his work may be wrapped up by mid march will see he's handling it very quietly he's done it with dignity he doesn't have leaks like everything else in washington seems to have no matter what side you're on but especially the strong white house i think there's a lot of from the do don't forget he's referred a lot of things to the state attorney generals and that's a place where presidential pardons cannot apply i think the trump charities are

very very vulnerable the new york attorney general has already forced him to shut down it was what we would call in tax more or less a pass through was like a sub-s. after corporation just going to his benefit so i think trump world is kind of ending around the corners what i'm concerned about more than moeller although i am concerned about him being protected is that at least fifty percent now it seems like about two thirds of the country everybody but trump space does not believe anything he says on a day to day basis and when we reach the point of a national emergency two thirds of the country will not yeah you can't cry wolf and let me get steve in on this because steve the state attorney general there in new york where you are affected the dissolution of that suspicious trump foundation the incoming state a.g.'s say she's loaded for bear with over a dozen actions against mr trump at various stages could you envision the president resigning for

a plea. absolutely no i mean this is this is so ridiculous you know we have an inspector general's report where they quote e-mails he quotes e-mails of the f.b.i. saying to each other during the hillary e-mail investigation boy that guy lied through his teeth but nobody gets charged the deep state is showing and call me biased political statements and is not answers over two hundred fifty times i don't remember i did. no i forgot why how the deep state is in it up to here they're out to get shrub mahler's is evidence that he's sending these cases to the state where they kid me don't pardon this is all a deep state plot take get trump and to show anybody in the future if you're not one of us you better stay away from us or look what's going to happen to you this is a tragedy that's happening to this country and the media will look at it a vast left wing conspiracy thank you steve malzberg in new york and i q mitch

caesar in florida merry christmas to both the and exactly is the big picture you know if you see a somewhere else r.t. america is now streaming live at youtube dot com slash r t america i'm holland cook in washington back here same time next week and in the meantime i'm at holland cook on twitter where if you follow me i follow you merry christmas and question. i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat and where i would sleep. but i'm facing christmas alone on the streets of london. you know the snow still give out food for the.

city to be feeling next to the big you know. and then. the guy just came over to me soon gave me a change of this book. the

relations between the u.s. and e.u. are in tora with uncertainties. and calls for a new european army are the tensions temporary or a major divide in the making i talked to matthew boris a veteran cia analyst and a former national intelligence councilor who's also taking part in the m.r. tag conference two thousand and eighteen. the u.s. and european. leaders president trading jabs. and. what needs to happen to heal the transatlantic rift. thanks a lot for being with us today it's great to meet you in person because i know we've done this over the satellite. things have changed from the last time

we spoke will start with united kingdom and the future of the brics it deal is still uncertain and u.s. secretary of state has said that you know the states will keep its very special relationship with the united kingdom it when. the case is the scenario i remember when i was in the united kingdom he was actually supporting the rebel conservatives who are who are calling you know for hard so is no. the deal right now something that is convenient for washington is that what washington really wants and why no i don't they go they would want to know dio simply because it causes huge amount of confusion it could tip it certainly will tip britain into recession but it could tip also europe and you know we're on the edge there are a lot of a car.