is that it dangerous to go down that never ends well i agree that we can have a debate about what the terminology should be but the principle of being is a good thing and certainly this is not an attack or not intended as an attack upon traditional heterosexual families i say live and let live and that means trying to make language inclusive and not specific so that everybody feels part of it and i'm very pleased that i really do believe the you both in essence agree with each other and. even if you may know realize that many things. to touch a pleasure. and it's a pleasure to have you guys with us thanks a lot and often now. there's incontrovertibly evidence that we're being visited in frankly everyone in very high ranking classified projects know this the public hasn't been told because

they've been wanting to keep the secret for reasons of technology and the macroeconomic have for dollar system. readings and salutation. these days it seems that the only thing rarer in washington d.c. than honesty is accountability. like catching a unicorn eating pancakes on the glen this week saw both honesty and accountability in a very unique moment on capitol hill the freshman congresswoman out of minnesota representative

ileana maher rolled up her sleeves and delivered a one two punch combination of honesty and accountability to long time foreign policy insider and president donald trump special envoy to venezuela one elliott abrams you remember our good buddy elliott abrams he was one of the ronald reagan era types who found himself in hot water when he was convicted of lying to congress over the iran contra affair he was later pardoned by george w. bush which is out of the game is played here in washington but mr abrams duties in the reagan administration didn't end with just secretly selling arms to iran to fund contras and a note he also focused on supporting brutal human rights violating armed anti-communist groups which was us latin american policy at the time it was this record of our boy and brooms that representative omar felt needed to be acknowledged in a wednesday house foreign affairs committee hearing on the current situation in venezuela let's take a listen to how this played out. doing that massacre some of those troops bragged

about raping a twelve year old girl before they killed the. girls before they killed them you later said that the u.s. policy in el salvador was a fabulous achievement do you think that massacre. was a fabulous achievement that happened under our watch that is a ridiculous question and i guess our no no i learned this i will make you happy yes i am not going to respond to that kind of personal attack which is not a question. oh and it didn't and there are no no things only got even more contentious with abrams clearly getting serious work represent all more power bringing up his controversial past you see the powerful and insulated get uncomfortable when a congresswoman actually represents honesty and accountability in washington by watching the hawks. were to. get

the. real that it would be. as if you were to pull out of it. for the day like you that i got. with that we. would. be. welcome around the watching the hawks i am tired and on top of. this is an amazing day i write when i saw this regardless of what one thinks about the representative from minnesota this is what needs to happen over and over over again in washington that's my opinion on this is actually holding people accountable for their actions i mean in watching that back and forth you know between omar and elliot you know what what struck you most about it well i think it's one of those things where

a moment and time when you see what's supposed to as you said what's supposed to happen that was someone comes and to take a job that they have a past and not being able to do that job very well or in holding american values of or hear about human rights you know close. to their heart while they're doing these kinds of jobs you have to ask those questions and i think what struck me was how ill equipped abraham was abrams was to handle that line of questioning it's not as if it's a secret you know the iran contra affair is not a secret his involvement in it was not a secret his nice cozy little you know part was not a secret so to sit there and act as if no one's allowed to talk about it is antithetical to our entire democracy so you know and that's the problem here in washington is you have you know people associated with war crimes or war criminals

directly over and over and over they just kind of like oh not the never bad happen to them no one's ever held accountable for that because we haven't before we have to move forward good more you know not look back you know and that's the thing that really needs to hear more in and saw my hat off to the senator from saying you know what i'm going to say the giant elephant in the room that no one here wants to talk about and i'm going to because it's a legitimate question you're now in charge of venezuela are we going to see those same war crimes happen and you know and genocides that happened in el salvador they're going to happen again to venezuela that's a legitimate observation because you're looking at something where it's not it's not as if you know this is so far from oh do you want socialism or communism or fighting one or the other whatever it is it's this you know living on this fear and then ultimately you know going on i think that massacre is something that's really important for people to understand it wasn't just some soldiers did some bad thing

though this was they were talking eight hundred civilians were killed in the village of elmos that they including one hundred thirty one children under the age of twelve by the old salvadorian are being abrams another administration officials at the time. pretty much dismissed the reports of the massacres like communist exaggerations remember this is the early eighty's they're making it up the battalion. the committed the massacre the representative was referencing that we're talking about was actually trained by u.s. advisors and two months after the massacre abrams themselves cited the battalion's professionalism right you know i mean that's ridiculous and gross you know but. well i think the thing we also understand is and we've seen it in the weeks that we you know that you know senator omar is is in a position where she's going to be unfairly criticized for things that some of her peers people like mr abrams don't have to do see have actually tweeted this about are her fellow freshman senator congresswoman so you said she's a she's

a somali refugee she has felt the ravages of war watching her question trumps envoy to venezuela who pled guilty of us have a lawyer on contra crimes feels like just and that's that's something we have to remember she's coming from a place of someone who's seen these things happen and these for her constituents voted for her to come here and and ask those hard class jobs but what's crazy is you still see the washington elite you know close circle with oh no we can't have accountability mean i mean we're going to go former usaid assistant minister david harden tweeting out i was a career after so and later obama appointee elliott abrams was a claim thoughtful nonpartisan mentor let's try to see the best rather than the worst in people followed up by better and deploy nicholas burns tweeting elliott abrams is a devoted public servant who has contributed much of his professional life to our country it's time to build bridges in america not people though that is absolutely

ridiculous you have to call out wrongdoing when you see it and i applaud the representative from minnesota for doing exactly that and holding people accountable for change. these are the america has a lot of incredible voices telling the stories of people like you who watch us every day from kansas to caracas the news never stops from watching the hogs to news using the news we're always looking for the tales that are in question the booms of the bus but sometimes there's just a little too much nose to process even here on our team america which is why our c america's ashley banks news show premiering this sunday on our team america will help you just press play. your world wire has never before. seen information that was staying away let me end. the read. just press.

this is really exciting always love to see you know talented individuals get to get their show in good to get their voice out to the world so i got out to go tells what what can we expect from just press play what happens when we prosper right which you can expect we plan to bring our audience and depth reports exclusive interviews that they may have missed here on our teeth throughout the week now we know people get busy we get busy so you can't always be glued to your phones the internet the television so you're not always in tune to what's going on but as you guys know we're producing some amazing content so we're putting together just press play so that our audience can see would watching the hawks as doing news with rick sanchez scottie show on contact larry king lee cam all of our hosts let's see what they have to offer and as we know guys mainstream networks they come with a slant carrot are to america we have so many shows that we're able to have on

a lot of intellectuals professors people who come with a different perspectives whether it's from the left or the right but we're able to give our audience a well rounded view of what's taking place here in the nation and across the world so just press play or basically going to take the most important segments and put them together and a show for people to tune in and watch this is fantastic and it's really great because i'm about as one of the things here where we aren't left leaning right leaning we have those different things we don't know you don't always want to hear that sort of you know they call it the echo chamber for a reason and it's it's nice to be able to do that here we have so many we do so not even the breaking news on a repeated over and over again that gets old pretty quick. but. nothing's worse than what you would look at like these other three or mention of. them or some to see fox you know and it's the same story across all the platforms i mean here or you know you can catch a bit from story on a different show and i think it's about time that we have a show like yours that you're premiering the somebody the kind of says look here's

all these different perspectives we have and we're putting it all in the govern this great package our super committee when is it right and we're going to run we can't of either so what is coming up on this sunday's premiere episode when you have it back so the show this sunday it is packed so we're going to have interviews from larry king he spoke with tyler perry's out right hand man we're going to have rick sanchez is an interview with the jimmy door where. they covered auto loan payments and how a lot of people are falling behind on those p. minutes most of us have cars it's pretty easy quickly forget that you have to make a payment you can end up in debt very quickly or credit score so it's really interesting the things that they cover on that show but we're going to bring that for our viewers this response to see. because a you've been here a while we were you know we worked in the news and we've been on this show before and although i it's going to be hard to do this show because there's a lot of the sort through there is you know i mean i was seriously like i don't

even i can't even begin to figure like how you and your producers are going to certain start from like somebody and come all the way up to it's a lot and we have a great process and i have a really great team so i'm excited to see what you guys produce the projects you guys have coming up as well and will be short career that for our viewers you know what it's great i'm just so glad that you have such a great to you and your team are going to be going to sift through that and make it a little easier on sunday i love cup of coffee a danish love it made me step back and was that america got to know you got your week range is as i don't know if you missed an artsy america and. tune in this sunday to see the new show for the world premiere of the new a first edition of the arts. america's show just press play it will be every sunday at five thirty seven thirty and nine thirty pm right here on our team america you don't want to miss that how well you know we always look at how far the well is a joke that guy actually banks of just pressed play. as going to break or quaters

don't forget to let us know what what you think of the topics we've covered on facebook twitter and you tube and see our full shows at our t.v. dot com coming up the streets of haiti tragically exploded in political protest in the people so joining us will be the director of the search for justice and democracy in haiti brian concomitant to bring us a better understanding the situation taking place on that island nation state to watch her go all. the bipartisan senate intelligence committee shocked the liberal media when it needed there was no evidence of so-called collusion between the trump world and russia so what have the last two years been all about and what is the damage left

behind when russia gate fades from the new site. seems wrong. on all levels just don't call. me. yet to see how it does they come to an answer. and indeed from an equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. join me every socially on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you that.

the united states and haiti share a long and controversial history first invaded by french and spanish colonizers after christopher columbus landed on the caribbean island in fourteen ninety two it wasn't until eighteen zero four at the beginning of a new year that haiti finally won its independence from france after fighting a long revolution that the united states refused to recognize them actively provided aid against despite the similarities in both countries fight for independence united states even invaded and occupied haiti back in one nine hundred fourteen over suppose it fears of german influence in the region many governments hurricanes and u.s. led shenanigans including a virtual takeover of haitian politics by the u.s. state department and then secretary of state hillary clinton in two thousand and ten after a devastating earthquake rocked the island and we reached today where haitians once again have taken to the streets in protest after years of economic stagnation and

government corruption to help us better understand where the haitian people stand today the motivations behind the current protests and what the future might hold for the caribbean nation we're joined by human rights lawyer and the executive director of the institute for justice and democracy in haiti brian cameron thank you for joining us brian. well thank you for having me brian i want to just so people can get caught up because tragically i don't feel like what's happening in haiti is covered enough from the news right now not that there's you know i just drew it's kind of being lost in the cycle what are the current motivations and causes for the protests that we're witnessing today down there. i think it's important. to look at both long term medium term and short term causes the long term causes as you mentioned you have a history of foreign intervention in haiti supporting brutal and undemocratic and predatory regimes also some of the blame has to be put on the on the haitian leaders who have been brutal and corrupt and you so you have

a government that is not able to provide basic government services including policing including education health care clean water things like that in the medium term you had of the election cycle in two thousand and fifteen and sixteen that was largely supported by the international community but was violent and corrupt and only about twenty percent of haitians participated in those elections because they were either scared or disillusioned and you end up filled all the you filled all the constitutional offices including the president including parliament but there were people who had a tiny percentage of the vote and so you ended up you have a government that does not have much popular popular legitimacy instead what the government has been doing since it can't govern with the support of the people it's developed a patronage network that keeps it going and it's very expensive patrons network and the government has had to divert money from the treasury from social programs in order to pay its friends and its supporters the short term causes it started in

july the government needed an international monetary fund bailout in order and in order to get it agreed to raise gas prices that that. kicked off a series of protests in july and then over the fall there were continued to be protests mostly over there they centered around corruption especially around the petrochem rebate oil program from venezuela where at least two billion dollars was was misspent and also the fact that the government fails to take any measures to to to enforce the laws in to fight corruption and so you have the people. who really have their backs against the wall socially and economically and have no faith in their government and a government that can only exist by diverting money from the people to its patronage network. looking at these current protests this is this current round of protests the events leading up to it how has the us government's we have seen it

continued what many would call meddling. in their politics how is as that meddling sort of played a role in this what we're seeing right now these protests. that the troubled ministration has actually been less involved in haiti than please previous administrations but what the international community is doing and the general community was really happy for for the current president giovino new movies to be in office it has continued to support him it has not spoken out when there have been things that should be spoken out in one classic example was in november there was a police gang collaborative massacre over seventy people were killed over one hundred houses were sacked and nobody really spoke out against that that's obviously giving the government a green light to do more of the same the government continues to get financial support from the us and from other donors and when the international community the

official international community has spoken out it is to deplore the destruction of cars and businesses and things like that during the protests not to deplore police shootings and in the massacres in the in the towns nord nor does it deplore the great corruption that is that is inflicting misery on ten million haitians and i mean i think we've already seen the government you don't join me the last count that i saw was around five protesters you know and not to mention i think it was tear gas and other such things were you it's interesting because the you mentioned earlier the. kind of deal actually links haiti to venezuela through this oil purchasing program and you mentioned the corruption the that was seen by the govern . maybe through that i'm also curious as has how is that relationship benefactor to you go by the current u.s. sanctions on venezuela and you know the current turmoil politically going on in venezuela is that have not had an effect on the situation in haiti. yes it has that the petro korea bay program was terminated

a couple years ago so no more there's no more of that oil coming through but what has happened is the u.s. placed a lot of pressure on the on eighty to vote with it in the organization of american states to to condemn venezuela and this is part of a you know the u.s. which is done historically used the organization of american states as a way to meddle in the affairs of our latin american neighbors several let american countries try to stand up for venezuela haiti historically has in part because been as well it has historically stood up for eighty but this time the government abandoned that position which was deeply unpopular in haiti and the government voted along with the united states to to refuse to recognize venezuela's president most haitian observers expect that was a quid pro quo that the haitian government knew that it was that it needed some external help to maintain its power and that it would hope that by abandoning its

principles on ben as well if it would get more help from the from the u.s. in fact haiti's foreign minister is on his way up to the united states where he has a meeting with john bolton who is the united states national security adviser and someone who has a long history of supporting u.s. intervention that has raised concerns in haiti that perhaps that is that is a play that the u.s. is going to provide some kind of security assistance to the government and help help support the government in its in its defense and obviously legitimate defense and legitimate policing operations and it's ok to help another country with that. but where the government has been shooting its way out of a crisis the fact the u.s. adding to its lethal capabilities is obviously dangerous that is very much dangerous and brian tell me you've spent a lot of time working for justice on behalf of the people of haiti what do you feel is the biggest misconception the u.s.

and others have about not only the political situation there but the people of haiti as well. i don't think the government has much misconceptions i think they're going in with their with their eyes open i think the american people don't understand the role that our own government has in haiti ever since haiti you talked a little bit about this the history of the marine occupation in the meddling in the two thousand and ten elections throughout haiti's history the u.s. has been has been involved in haitian affairs and is to a large extent responsible for haiti's ploy certainly haitian leaders bear a lot of the blame but what the united states needs to end in haiti will never become a prosperous stable country unless the united states let's it we need to stop choosing who we think should lead haiti we need to stop choosing the policies that haiti's leaders will implement we need to we need to accept our own rhetoric on point human

rights on democracy and let asians decide for themselves how they should run their country a little bit of time left and i want to ask you the you know this is a country that has been rocked over and over again by by political and natural disasters throughout a lot of its history what is the best way for in your opinion for the world and a rescuer for everyone to truly help the people of haiti and help this country find its find its footing and find its own power. i think that what we need to do is let haiti find its own path that's that's obviously easy. to say it's extremely difficult for for the for europe and united states and canada to do they repeatedly admit that that's what they need to do and then they did then they completely failed to do that with time and again trying to choose who they think should run haiti i think we also need to put haiti's interests first and

again that seems like a surprising thing to have to say but time and again i'm especially because haiti is such a poor country it's so tiny that the u.s. could certainly with a rounding error error on its budget could could solve many of the problems of haiti but we can continue to do policies that help our farmers that help our exports that help our friends rather than the haitian people and it's a very simple reorientation of our policy to really help the haitian people rather than to then to united states elites and that can make a decisive difference but it most definitely could i want to thank you very much for coming on the bear and really providing some good insight for the viewers on this subject of a hope to have you back again to talk about eighty in the future once again this is a human rights lawyer and the director of the institute for justice and democracy humanity brian concannon thank you so much for coming out. well thank you for covering haiti. in the words of the ancient greek philosopher socrates is the

only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing and when it comes to physics it looks like we might not know nearly as much as we think the monthly notices of the royal astronomical society published a new paper recently that attempted to find out why after the big bang the universe expanded but its expansion rate measured by what's known as the hubble constant isn't slowing down instead it's speeding up that's why researchers simon berger at the university of california berkeley and his team decided to measure the hubble constant using light from very bright quasars and cosmic radiation but no matter how hard they try it seems like the hubble constant isn't very constant we'll have to wait a while before scientists have more answers but isn't it nice to know that even in the world of physics we really really have so so much to learn this is fascinating when i saw that story by the way those good souls really this is a fascinating by the way the guy mean knowing that the universe you know you hear

about the big bang and everything coming you know it's all these various magical theories so it's going out it's go out faster than what it started right which is totally against what we believe physics works and that's fascinating to me and i hope we figure this out come on smart folks out there i know you can do it all around i wish yes. world is a mysterious place and let's let's keep studying that mystery all right that is our show for today remember everyone in this world we are not told that we are loved enough so i tell you all i love you i robot and i'm top of the lawless keep on watching all those hawks out there and have a great day and night. tough and finding another one of the. ways are both the food. ballot itself

mukti it on. plus we've got two dogs so hard not to think of the other disappeared this moment the work of a coward and i know you thought that if. this is the only thing that we do is music because everybody fights his way. on the floor you can call the film is worthless woody and i'm gonna hold even a lot of the moment on the. what i think is this is the fund that is a company and. there's been controversial evidence that we're being visited in frankly everyone in

very hiring cames classified projects know this the public hasn't been told because they've been wanting to keep the secret for reasons of technology and the macroeconomic petrodollar system. trumps decision to quit the i.n.f. treaty takes the world a step closer to a new clear haul of course that's the warning from the twenty twenty us presidential candidate who's introduced a bill to try to paedo the move. us president also declared a national emergency to go.