thank. you. thank. you. takes the world. to a nuclear holocaust from twenty twenty u.s. presidential candidate. french air force jets turn up the heat on rebel fighters in the central african country of chad using their firepower. and for the

children with expelled from indonesia the insistence of parents. to. go. to school. or you can go to r.t. dot com for more on the latest headlines the big picture is all new coming up next . on this week's show it's your turn it's presidents' day weekend and in the next half hour tell us if we were carving mt rushmore today. which

four presidents would you put there but first viewer discretion advised as we go inside animal factory farming and we give the industry equal time to respond holland cook in washington this is the big picture america. we struggled with what you are about to see the topic is animal farming what happens upstream from the neatly packaged product at the supermarket we were given video shot undercover on the iowa farm so what we saw was too disturbing to show you uncut excerpts you will see are tough enough to watch but will spare you the more troubling scenes while animal cruelty laws protect their critters we live with

farm to animals suffer indeed there are laws that prevent us from knowing how they live and die what's being done about that let's ask liz push out of factory farm undercover investigator formerly with mercy for animals lives welcome hi thank you during the recent and possibly impending government shutdowns food inspectors were among the various protective services that were put on pause in normal times how effective is food inspection unfortunately there is quite a bit of room to do more on the inspection level. me food inspectors are few and far between we find especially on the larger and the food production scale and there simply isn't enough manpower to do the job safely inspecting the food that we eat every day and is particularly vulnerable when we remove certain levers to scrutinize. those facilities as we have seen in these ag gag laws around the

country you personally went undercover and shot some disturbing footage describe your experience and tell us what you saw yeah i investigated several facilities most notably in the state of iowa i investigated a hog farm which was the largest in the state of iowa fourth largest in the country and found really disturbing animal cruelty young piglets being castrated without any pain killers often leading to intestinal ruptures and death mother sow's living in just a shame crates which are so cruel they've been banned by the united kingdom and canada where the pig can't turn around even or sit down comfortably for her entire life time i saw young piglets having their tails cut off also without pain killers and these are all to serve the means of the industry not for consumer protection or safety whatsoever or even for enjoyability of the meat products you gave us the legal slang term gag meaning gag laws that actually criminalize whistleblowers tell

us how that works against us knowing what we're eating it's a fairly disturbing trend we're seeing twenty six states have attempted to pass these laws six have succeeded we are seeing essential the attempt to criminalize whistleblower activity on the farm level and in slaughterhouses so instead of for example passing new laws to make animal cruelty less available to the industry they're just circumventing consumers and passing laws to criminalize us learning more about how our food is made and iowa was the first to pass their law but not the last well when you went inside did you fear for your safety being under cover like that i fear for my safety simply being inside these facilities they're absolutely horrendous the worker conditions are terrifying the animals live in worse conditions than you can possibly imagine illness. among the workers are

rampant injuries and oftentimes when you're working with a population that is typically undocumented or have fewer avenues to maybe health care or legal representation we're seeing a lot of workplace violations that we would simply not stand for in other industries and a modern nation president trump is making good on one of candidate trump's campaign promises deregulation or every if you go to wave a wand what should be doing about animal farming i think we absolutely need more protection for farmed animals on the farms themselves i think it's a common misconception that we have legal protections for farm animals throughout every stage of their lives which simply isn't true we have one major piece of legislation that governs what happens to them when they reach the slaughterhouse but there's no federal law governing what you can do to a farm animal during its life on the farm so i think that's

a loophole that needs to be closed it's intentionally left open for the industries to have flexibility in their practices and that's where we're seeing the most cruelty in the supermarket and on restaurant menus we often see terms like free range and usually those items are more expensive is the ultimate cost to the consumer perpetuating cruelty. unfortunately i believe that it is these consumers who are ethically minded they're conscious about where their food comes from we see increasingly consumers are interested in doing the right thing and spending their food dollars where it really counts are unfortunately being often lied to about where their food comes from in a way that is compelling them to spend more samples for a carton of eggs or. a jar of milk than it would be otherwise and there. actually

is no guarantee that those labels actually have any meaning for the way that those animals were raised or farmed lives push odd thank you for the mercy you have shown for animals and for your courage going inside them for joining us here on the big picture appreciate your time. being the big picture means looking at the story from all angles so let's welcome john smith president and c.e.o. of the animal agriculture alliance k. thanks for being here thank you describe your organization's mission sure the animal agriculture alliance is a five zero one c three nonprofit organization and our mission is to help bridge that communication gap between farm and port our whole role is to connect the industry to engage consumers and engage influencers who have the ear of the consumer to help them better understand modern animal agriculture but we just got an earful from the other side respond to what well unfortunately the term ag gag is really just a it's

a mischaracterization of what those laws were are in states where agriculture is extremely important to the economy extremely important too to our country because we need a strong domestic food supply here in the u.s. so the legislators who have introduced farm protection legislation is really they've done it because this tactic of undercover videos has become so rampant with animal rights activist am i right to extremist groups who ultimately their goal is to take meat milk and eggs off of everybody's plate it's not really about improving animal while fair it is really about eliminating animal agriculture and many of the organizations involved in doing these sort of undercover videos their leaders have said that there are alternate goal is to abolish animal agriculture do all there is support i've seen in the roster of groups like a.c.l.u. consumers union young farmers coalition united for. workers in support of

mcdonald's thinks that these undercover videos are instructive not surprisingly. american society for the prevention of cruelty to animals came up with a poll that says seventy one percent of americans do support the whistleblower going inside with a camera on the camera doesn't lie this is pretty scary footage isn't it and many of those cases the camera does live as well so every one of the videos we are our organization has tracked all of these undercover videos and tactics we've taken a look at how they were used what they were used for in every single case where we've had the opportunity we've asked for the full uncut unedited version of the video and they've refused to turn it over not only to us but to the farms themselves to law enforcement the individuals who get hired to go undercover like your last guest they are paid by an organization whose mission is to eliminate

animal agriculture the farm is hiring them and paying them a salary to be there to take care of the animals or to report when they've had concerns about any sort of mistreatment they don't report it to the farmer they don't report it to the owner they haven't reported it to law enforcement until weeks or months later when their video comes out and they tag that video that they tie it in with the campaign to either pressure a mcdonald's or a retailer or restaurant or to tie it to legislation that's being introduced in the state to ban certain production practices and then they also use it under their big donate now button it is a huge fund raising tool i mean factor organization mercy for animals the founder of that group said it is the lifeblood of their organization that's how they make their money. whoever they do or don't show the video to and we've chosen not to show the grizzly stuff a camera you can search it on you tube it is tough to watch what the. why is when

they're castrating the little piglets and some of the other stuff is there room for a more humane system inside the farm well so let me back up and say so nobody understands farming better than a farmer and nobody understands animal care better than a farmer or that variants that they work with to establish their practices there are practices that are done and it is done for the long term health and wellbeing of the animals is done for soup food safety purposes and unlike what she said there are reasons for certain procedures that are done that are hard to watch they are hard to see to the average layperson but if you are watching a surgeon who's the most skilled surgeon going in and operating and doing some sort of cardiac surgery would you know what's good and what's bad whether or not he's doing it right or he's doing it wrong and then there are certain procedures that are done again for the long term health and well being of the animals so they are the narrative that they place with those undercover videos is not really what's

happening i mean might see it and what is happening you see what's happening but in some of those cases it's done and those are the prescribed scientific that nearing approved recommended practices that are done on farms for again the long term health and well being of the animals are going to dental implant coming up as a general to understand and i would want to see video of it but couldn't there be humane and there's a step impose their. way yes there are no approved in particular like with piglets there are no approved and no g.'s dix that are are are approved by f.d.a. and it would have to be approved by f.d.a. so there are reasons why we don't use certain analgesics when there are procedures that are done and again those procedures are done for the long term health and well being of the animals eventually donate now button underneath the scary video and you know i've got about. thirty seconds but. one of the narratives we hear from

them is meatless monday as a way of fewer fossil fuels less methane better for the body better for the environment what do you say to meatless monday well they've even admitted that it's a tiny little trick to get people to start becoming adopting a plant based diet a meatless diet it is again just another tactic of groups whose ultimate mission is to eliminate animal agriculture altogether to take meat dairy and eggs off of everybody's plate. it's really important to get the facts and i want to direct you to a website we've just put together called climate food facts climate food facts dime it climate food facts where you can find it out or agree complained it from our website animal ag alliance or. ok johnson smith president c.e.o. animal agriculture alliance thank you for stepping into the big picture absolutely thank you. it's presidents' day week and coming up who are your four

faves you're watching the big picture on our. and i mean another one of the highest amount when you're both going to sleep because the ballot itself mukti about. two hours in this way got to talk so hard not to think of the mother disappeared this moment the work of the day hour and i'm going to start then if. this is the only thing that we do is music because everybody fights in his way.

through our you can feel the feet of this most recent woody allen called the ability to put the payment on the. what i think is this is the funds that is accompanied. there's incontrovertibly evidence that we're being visited and frankly everyone in very high ranking classified projects knows 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.

will make this manufacture consent instant to the public well. when the ruling classes protect themselves. in the final larry go round listen to the one percent. we can all middle of the room six. million real news. and twenty four to you know bloody revolution to correct the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be increasingly violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it you know lawyer here if i mean your list book to do with me in the new bill is that idea speling you go to the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty fourteen. of those who took.

invested over five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. this week you join our panel which includes on the left attorney and former florida democratic party chairman mitch cesar and on the right new york media icon steve malzberg gentlemen welcome. welcome welcome and congratulations to steve for being and. now in just a few minutes we're going to ask you to weigh in on one of our topics or all ten of them if you want but shutdown hits the wall this week is issue one and it's good news bad news in the there will be no government shutdown and the bad news is it's

a national emergency mitch as the legal eagle on the panel will the courts scotch this. i think they will you know the president said with great pride earlier today how it's going to go all the way up to the supreme court with the implication being these are is guy and he'll be ok but he wants to do it this way the problem occurs because it sets a very dangerous precedent even republican senators did not want to do this but they need him to sign the bill it depends on the definition of what a national emergency is which puts the courts in a very precarious position or who the aggrieved parties are a national emergency is the past have been used to present those of that power but it's not unlimited it's confined to real emergencies such as was used by bush in nine eleven as has been used in hurricanes and natural disasters you know if you want a real national emergency talk about the opioid problem or talk about yesterday's stoneman douglas shooting unfortunate one year anniversary those are real

situations this is a political situation so the president can say to his followers to his base hey i try it's those damn democrats liberal judges it's going to be tested by the courts i think ultimately it will be distinguished out and not allowed well steve in december when republicans controlled the white house and congress democrats put twenty five billion on the table and got turned down then the president said he was proud to shut down the government unless they got five point seven billion now he's settled again for under one point four billion how does mr trump spin this as a whim. well first of all i got to take issue i mean we've had over fifty national emergencies since one nine hundred seventy six according to the presidents who have served barack obama had thirteen national emergencies bill clinton at seventeen national emergencies i don't recall the outrage at that point to the

shooting at the high school a year ago which was horrific don't get me wrong but i think up to seventeen people were killed how. i think people have been killed by illegals as the president pointed out today he had the parents the angel mothers and fathers speed all murdered by illegals how was that so it's a national emergency a win for his base. it's a win for his base because he's going up against a democrat that's the policy said not one penny for a wall he got over one point three billion dollars and now he's fighting the good fight he's trying to fight now to continue to build the way all the democrats are phony as could be and this is what every president does and nobody's ever said bow until now fifty times since one nine hundred seventy six all right about the new green deal with which the right is having a hey day here's senator john barrasso there's another victim of the green new deal it's ice cream livestock would be bad so if you bought a dairy to be the family farms to riches americans favorites like cheese burgers

and a milkshake will become a thing of the past millions of american workers will lose their jobs living this green dream is actually a national nightmare. my doctor will be thrilled that ice cream is going to disappear but the statute has yet to be written and lots of the horse laughs from the right are based on f a q's being paraphrased death so to separate the signal from the noise one item we're hearing about is free college tuition possibly two years at a technical community college which is now free in rhode island where i live steve do you think the k. through twelve diploma that was a step forward in the early twentieth century is still sufficient today. well i mean it's sufficient depending on what you want to go into you want to go to a technical school you want to go to college you become a doctor you could need more a lawyer you could need more education than just four years of college nothing is free that's the point of all this and the person who's introduced this ridiculous

bill has no brain power she just applauded amazon leaving new york city and said now we could give the three billion dollars to teach. here's that build subways that and hire others that was there is the three billion dollars then he says no you're right he doesn't get anything and you ought there up the bill there right it was tax credits not cash another provision we're hearing about would offer fifty somethings the option of buying into medicare nobody thinks our health care system is getting the job done and medicare which process a billion claims last year is no experiment mitch can we afford that. i think it remains to be seen what we have to remember and sure the medical situation is very bad for americans we have to remember this is an aspirational situation this is a starting point there is no bill that's passed it's no bill this proposed you've had some of the democrats running for president say they embrace the the green concept and other parts like like doctoring and education but there are those

who've already come out who are running for president said no it's too costly we're going to have to trim it down and make it fit so it makes sense like michael bloomberg for mayor of new york and the closure who just declared for the senator from minnesota and and also where sherrod brown the senator from from. ohio so it's a starting point you know republicans tore it to them by their expert president trump likes to come up with the there were a common enemy or a fictitious enemy so the unknown fear of the are no as this case may be at the moment is it's not fleshed out with detail is a very common easy target. them scream whatever you want like everything else it's about twenty twenty all right well let's invite everybody to join the screaming because i get a lot of tweets when i have you to watch so now it is your turn you the viewer to join the panel in the black hills of south dakota stands mount rushmore george washington thomas jefferson theodore roosevelt and abraham lincoln mount rushmore

took fourteen years to carve beginning in one nine hundred twenty seven when calvin coolidge was president he did not make the cut nor did fifteen subsequent presidents so odd president's day weekend our question for the panel including you the viewer is if we were carving mt rushmore to day which four presidents would you pick tweet for names and your reasons to me at holland cook mitch you're up first. well first we have to remember it took fourteen years obviously a government project that. well you talk so. i would say george washington because he was our founder and also because he put forth the president that we don't you know the king and therefore the most people limitations on presidencies abraham lincoln went through an internal war of one part of the country against the other and the slavery issue i would also say franklin roosevelt because of the depression the economic war we were at and the world war we were at which we ultimately

succeeded and serving for terms which was never done before or since and finally john f. kennedy because he was of a different generation it wasn't the same old type of folks like eisenhower like f.d.r. he was very aspirational but are shot for the moon getting young people involved in government or inside agencies like the peace corps going around the world to bring a positive image and positive results to those regions so i have to say those four born in this century as he said in his inaugural steve your four faves well george washington it goes without saying the father of our country abraham lincoln goes without saying i mean you saw us through a horrific time in our history the civil war american against american brother against brother i would put ronald reagan up there the great communicator who brought our nation together one in one of the greatest landslides in his second term ever recorded and helped us out of that horrific malays with eighteen percent

interest rates at record unemployment at jimmy carter got us into and then george w. bush who got us through and saw us through one of the most trying times in modern history an attack that many compared to pearl harbor the nine eleven attacks not only did he take action to thwart a future attacks he kept us safe he did what was necessary he was unafraid and harsh interrogation techniques etc so i think those of my four well here are my most monumental presidents like the both of you i would keep the father of our country george washington abraham lincoln. who saved the union and like match camelot president kennedy committed us to goals he never lived to see the civil rights man on the moon and because his passing was such an indelible moment in the lives of we who witnessed it and mitch i struggled with number four because like you i wanted to recognize our longest serving president f.d.r. but i ended up picking barack obama who like jackie robinson broke

a barrier that meant so much to so many so those are our picks you watching at home are on your computer or on your phone tweet me your four and tell us why on twitter at holland cook mitch and steve thanks for joining us thank you and thank you for watching the big picture if you see us somewhere else you can also watch our t. america live now at youtube dot com slash r t and we're live on directv three two one of a super cool pluto t.v. app one three two and if you're on the dish network to eight zero and all of our shows are available any time anywhere on any device at youtube dot com slash the big picture r t m holland cook in washington i'll be back here same time next week and in the meantime i am at holland cook on twitter where if you follow me i'll follow you questioned more.

after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next the ball different clubs on one hand it is logical to go from fields where everything is familiar on the other i want to the new challenge and a fresh perspective i'm used to surprising. or not. i'm going to talk about football. or else you can see goals are going to go. by the way what is it that. the book the book the book the book the book the book

the book the book why. global financial crisis part two it's underway it's all happening it's all white multi-trillions of dollars gone in a heartbeat looking like phantasmagoria right here on planet. crazy. talk of u.f.o.'s havering in the skies have been exciting researchers and the general public for decades are being watched from a ball fine are we ready for encountering the unknown i ask dr steven greer director of the center for his study of extraterrestrial intelligence and the

disclosure project. it's quite likely.