i've turned a lever is there to whether that's. greetings and sell you tell us you know it seems that everyone these days rather than just rolling up the sleeves and doing a little of a hard worker trying to fix the problems we face would rather just let technology do the dirty work for us it seems to be one of the sad truth of the 21st century you know rather than sweeping up your own mess savva room but do it before you tired of parallel parking your car hello auto park too tired to pick up the remote just to have alexa change the channel for you rather than do real detective work just let a show recognition technology tell you who who and which suspect to arrest yes that was the case recently in detroit michigan when police arrested 42 year old black

man robert julian williams on a felony warrant for larceny after facial recognition technology fingered him was the perpetrator of shoplifting $3800.00 worth of watches from a shy mellow store the computer said you did it so that's a wrap case closed looking down on let's go grab you know starbucks and maybe pepper pepper spray a few protesters on our way there but not so fast no no no turns out this crime fighting facial recognition technology has a pretty major fatal flaw the new york times reports that while facial recognition systems have been dangerously used by police for more than 2 decades recent studies by mit and the national institute of standards and technology or nist have found that while the technology works relatively well on white men the results are less accurate for other demographics in part because they lack of diversity in the images they used to develop. up the underlying databases and this flaw in the

programming has now made poor father of 2 robert williams famous famous for potentially being the 1st u.s. citizen arrested for a crime he did not commit because of a failed algorithm as n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden chillingly tweeted this is the story of your future told today. so let's take a dive into the today's future dangers as we start watching the hawks. if you want to know what's going on the city the streets you want to. listen to what she says see the crisis joyce state. rice grace suggests least systemic deception is to late show but she is out with some pretty chilled as. well corben watching the ox i am tired robot i'm.

sure so look at this the 1st known case of facial recognition technology fingering someone for a crime did not commit whatsoever because it just couldn't read minority faces that well. from eyewitness testimony. you are digital technology somehow discrimination still things to find its way. it's frustrating it's aggravating the fact that there was a young child present when he was arrested is also extremely problematic but the thing that i look at here is that there's so many people who counted on this being the make or break technology to where you know we would have been eradicated humans actually having to decide who committed the crimes and then the find out that these this facial recognition software was utilized mostly by white people's facial recognition which obviously looked entirely different than that of

african-americans so it's pegging anyone who happens to be black and anybody else who happens to be black yeah which is literally one of the problems that we've had over the years with the police is. your point they can't get all the difference between black men and women when you know chasing down a suspect you know well it's just that boggles when the detroit police now say that from now on after this kind of amazing failure they'll only use still photos not like security video footage. in due use by their facial recognition software and then it will only be used in violent crimes which to me is kind of like ok but what if it gets it wrong going to accuse of somebody of a violent crime which is far worse penalty than $3800.00 worth of shoplifting exactly i don't see how that's hopeful because at this point if you're only going to use it in upper level crimes which i would consider buying crime because they carry a much harsher penalty and oftentimes when a police officer is responding to a to someone who they feel as though they've committed a violent crime there are a lot more aggressive anyway so the odds of this person being being beaten being

treated you know in a very different way because of him being a suspect of a violent crime are a lot higher and if this technology gets it wrong which is more than likely will we're still going to have some serious problems it truly is i mean yes williams case was dismissed for the final effort but after 2 weeks the other thing you know you points out is that as a result of his rule arrest williams who is completely innocent of this his d.n.a. sample was now with law enforcement his mug shot is with law enforcement he is now no longer an anonymous even though he never actually committed a crime and that's that to me is a dangerous precedent that's why we cannot rely on technology to solve all our problems we still act because technology as great as it can be it's still designed by people and people are flawed it exactly seen this with them with the algorithm algorithms that are used to decide whether or not someone is released from jail or prison these same issues are there it was supposed to be a system that was set up to be colorblind and what we see is that the inputs how

the data was created are often by people who themselves are not colorblind and you have the exact same issues using these different forms of technology as you would with human interaction most definitely robert williams wrote actually put about his experience he said quote my daughters can see me being handcuffed as you mentioned and put in the police car but they can see me use this experience to bring some good into the world that means helping make sure my daughters don't grow up in a world. where their driver's license or facebook photos could be used to target track or harm them and i hope that that is a world that we all have to get together and start fighting against because that scares me just you know innocent people being because look we're innocent till proven guilty in this country just because someone gets arrested doesn't mean that they're guilty of the crime and it doesn't just because a computer says somebody did something wrong doesn't mean they're guilty of a crime and this is very dangerous and frightening to me oh absolutely have definitely agree there is some hope though facial recognition biometric technology moratorium act which was introduced recently in congress would ban the government's

use of facial recognition and other biometric technology nationwide that was done by senator ed markey jeff merkley. paul. presley of owner duce that which i hope that gets voted and passed because it's you know we need that kind of thing because let's not rely on technology anymore the things come out of the house yes. essence magazine is a cultural staple for african-american women the popular black women's magazine was birthed in 1980 out of a need for journalism that spoke to black issues it elevate the concerns of people of color and build the way for black women are largely left out of mainstream media from its inception essence magazine was well respected largely circulated in the mentally popular and lewis founding c.e.o. and publisher of essence started the magazine with 3 plaque men seeking to transform the lives of black women and change the media landscape throughout the ebbs and flows and print media essence has remained stable converting not only to

digital media platforms but also elevating its key event the essence festival the annual event brings a major corporate sponsors like 18 t. coca-cola chase bank mcdonald's procter and gamble and others not to mention big name celebrities but on the heels of its 50th anniversary essence is under fire. it's scathing article titled the truth about this was published on medium dot com the group called black female anonymous with several grievances including a toxic work environment sexual harassment pay iniquity and intimidation the group is calling for the immediate resignation of essence top brass including the current c.e.o. rick allude to miss black female anonymous claim c.e.o. dennis's surface level commitment to black women is driven by greed and debauchery of sexual appetite there is no doubt that is a sions of extreme sexual harassment workplace bullying and the firing of pregnant women and new moms a rock essence essence has the night the claims in

a 2 page statement for their part essence called for an emergency zoo meeting with the editor being concerned about the revelation going on in the middle of essence this and sponsors being visibly upset but black female anonymous has given them 5 business days to respond or they will release personal testimonials on day 6 they've additionally launched a change dot org petition calling for signatures in support of the resignation of named as an executive. wow this is an incredible story mel as someone who obviously is not in the key demographic for essence magazine cases in notice. i think it's important that people understand why what makes this story important what makes what. these people wrote on medium so important why is what's happening over here since you know how does that relate to the bigger conversation that we've been having about me too and workplace discrimination things like that in several ways essence has been known in the black community as the epitome of black journalism as

the epitome of celebration of black woman who'd in the black community it came about in a time in an era where black women weren't seen on the covers of magazines were barely mentioned in magazines and for the past 50 years has been the name in the game for black news and black journalism at a time where we're seeing a lot of black journalists not only be unemployed but black black magazines go out of business essence has been one that has been able to maintain its name its standing corporate donors corporate sponsors in large part due to the immense popularity of the essence festival which is the number one rated black festival in america but also because essence has for the past few years been able to pull in celebrities entertainers in addition to telling the stories of everyday black americans and innovators who are largely left out of the mainstream media and given that cultural impact especially for black women to think that they have them have a management staff who is now accused of being predatory and to fire

a pregnant woman because she got pregnant that's some heavy heavy accusation and dangerous stuff at the end of the day. be guilty of this what is black females anonymous like how is that how is this group tied into like me to things like that so the belief right now is the black females anonymous is a group of black women who are currently employed or have and have been employed by essence at various levels some of them at the executive levels others who have helped with the essence best and many of them have. grievances with the c.e.o. himself because of accusations of sexual harassment explicit sexual harassment where they're talking about being threatened if they were to speak many of them being threatened with their career specifically and as we're a media but those in media have the very strong they have a very strong cultural influence but also recognize that in many cases when you speak out that means the end of your career so there are women who are very serious about not necessarily having their names attached because they are afraid of what

that blowback could look like especially with black media not necessarily being as big as some of the you know mainstream white media so there are so few places that you can go to after you've reached the giant which yes it's considered it's also have some i noticed when you were talking we're going to talk about the story interesting that this is a magazine predominantly directed towards black women yet it seemed to be started and stuff by black men at the top executive level does not seem like a little bit of boy wait a minute shouldn't shouldn't be women who are speaking to women exactly and in researching this story with everything that i knew about essence and i grew up with it all around the house my mom was a huge fan of it i did not know that black man started the magazine because once you talk about aston's or you see everything that essence does there isn't a outward influence of black men you just see the celebration of black women so to know that there are men in there that are not only committing these sexual abuse atrocities but are also committing atrocities as it relates to pay equity and then

the hiring and firing specifically of of black women who are pregnant as well as black women who have recently delivered which you know is a federal issue when it comes to employment it's brush rating to know that that type of thing is going on it's interesting too because we go 5 business they get more fibrous and before them the personal stories start coming out that's an interesting move it seems and it wants to but i also think it's one that showcases just how serious that it this is that they are willing to go detail after detail about what's happening also that they chose to do it during the middle of essence this that is the cold. nation a bit for essence magazine man a good good story and we will stay on it will definitely stay on it already everybody as we go to break remember that you can also start watching the hawks on demand through the brand new portable t.v. app which is available on every platform that you could possibly part of the portable t.v. app so definitely download but check this out coming up while we've discussed efforts to defund the police now there are calls to be thought to be a better job or good laurie riley topic joins us next to discuss w. don't want to miss this photo one.

time after time to repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important. transitions to sustainable transport sustainability. a more equitable and sustainable well. they claim their production is completely hama's. companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is something else just as he. moves.

on. but a quick history lesson in economics you know people talk about socialism what is socialism business idea that labor has value and that people want to take part and the means of production. starting in the 1980 s. that became obsolete because all. well it was tied to money printing today and 2020 so that would be 40 years later this phenomenon 1st so-called activists and labor rights activists and workers are getting out that the problem is not about the means of production the problem is the money printers and they're taking action. i

don't know crowd. shots. actually felt. well it's true both of. which your thirst for action. government inefficiency is a topic that never seems to go away the more money thrown at certain agencies the worse their outcomes seem to be but we rarely hear consensus around deep on being government agencies actually as bad as they get the call to fund them at higher levels are melting one agency that consistently seems to make headlines is the us

department of veterans affairs the v.a. is funding levels have nearly doubled in the past decade with not much to show for it a recent article in the hill called should we defund the v.a. to explore the topic here to tell us more about her article as veterans advocate and political consultant laurie riley topping welcome henri thank you for having me . laurie you wrote a very strong piece and a nice correlation with the deep on the police movement what are some of the inefficiencies you've noticed in the v.a. that aren't being solved by the additional funding. so one of the big things centers around mental health care and suicide prevention not spent a very important topic over the past few years unfortunately we have a lot of service members who when they transition to that are in status go through a lot of. it's the culture and the torsional system as funding for smell health specifically has seen some of the highest increases that we haven't seen a decrease in the amount of veterans who are committing suicide so i use that as

a very pertinent example because as the v.a. has started to branch out and look for other solutions they've realized that suicide isn't just a health care problem it's a multifaceted problem and oftentimes there are community organizations on the ground who may have more access that may be able to intervene and they have seen that these community organizations can sometimes provide assistance outside of the health care context that is very beneficial to somebody who may be struggling and may be contemplating suicide so i use that as a primary example of some of the inefficiencies again it's largely been treated as a health care problem up until now but we see it is much more complex than that it's interesting when you look at the money because in your article you made no but in 2000 when the entire the drugs affairs budget was about 45000000000 now up you would nice long drawn out wars later the veteran affairs budget since that is

asking for 243000000000 this fiscal upcoming for a school year 202021 that's a massive jump how does the v.a. justify that budget increase in the wake of mounting calls from bad turns and their families of abuse neglect and other issues we've seen take place at the beach. so i think you bring up an important point by noting that we've been engaged in too long drawn out conflicts since 2001 and i don't want to take away from that because that is important we did see an influx of new veterans as a result of those conflicts so of course we would expect to see some increase in funding to care for their needs however with that being said and as i concluded in the article i think we've seen over and over again particularly in d.c. that money alone doesn't solve problems and unfortunately lawmakers continue to. to revert to this tactic and quite frankly it's lazy on their part it's easier for them to say oh more funding and allocate more funding it is a lot harder for them to conduct searching oversight and determine the root of

problems what's causing them and propose policy solutions that solve those problems so while we would expect to see some increase in the budget i think you're right i think 243000000000 is is quite astronomical and as i alluded to i think that we could invest some of that money perhaps in community organizations there are lots of them on the ground that are already doing the type of services that veterans need that extend beyond health care that extends beyond disability benefits that help with things like education employment housing these are all things that the v.a. says that they help them with but isn't really their primary focus and that they're not as strong at so we have these preexisting organizations in many communities that many veterans can go to and so rather than trying to recreate these programs within the federal system it seems like it would be much more efficient to use the existing framework a lot of times there's pushback that veterans needs are unique and while that is

true to some extent veterans are also people who are also members of their communities and there are unique demographic factors that influence the housing market is very different in individual communities across the country so i don't think that we want to focus too much on the fact that veterans are different we don't want to make them. seem like they are some sort of so very different people i mean again they're still members of their community so just to reiterate i think that a lot of that funding could be better spent in these community programs and then there's also the effect that if we're funding these different community that benefits non-veterans as well exactly exactly group point and since you're the expert here marie i want to ask you about the report. of waste fraud and mismanagement that a plague the v.a. for decades we know that they are there they have been lifted not only in terms of the federal agency but also what we're seeing at the state level and you know

communities basically shouting down what's happening how can the agency overcome these hurdles are there specific examples of what you think they could do to ensure that they get their head above water. so i think that's the $1000000.00 question or i guess the $243000000000.00 question because of the case may be you know the v.a. is such an interesting example because it's been plagued with scandal since it was created during the harding administration and in the very 1st director of the v.a. was caught in a contracting schedule and served time in prison for it so this culture of waste fraud and abuse has unfortunately been around just as long as the v.a. itself and one thing that i say often is that you can't legislate culture and we see over and over again that congress seeks legislative solutions to cultural problems and i think they need to have a better working relationship with those who work at the agency as well as veterans themselves because it's going to take a lot more of a deep dive and a lot more hard work to get to the bottom of these cultural issues than just

issuing a report or allocating more funding like we've seen so i wish i had a more precise answer for you in terms of here are the things that we need to do however i think that it's just going to be unfortunately a long process and as we've been discussing i think that investing in community programs that aid veterans outside of the v.a. itself that partner with the v.a. that is one step in the right direction but i think there are certainly other solutions and i think part of that is relying on people outside of the beltway who are on the ground who are providing these services and getting their perspective as well one of the challenges with me is budget is that they have a very large centralized management structure at their central office in washington d.c. and one of the things that comes up often is do you. they really need to be have so many high level political appointees in their central office can they have some sort of a restructuring where again they're hearing from more folks on the ground more

folks in communities and you know those 2 points tied together but i think that's something that could be beneficial to the agency as a whole as well you mentioned you know sending money to community based spending which then not only helps the veterans but also helps that community you know you mentioned i think one of the biggest problems in washington is that too far and too often it's throw money at it you know i'm talking earlier in the shoulder you know we're talking earlier in the show about you know everyone just kind of will throw technology at it will draw money at it why do you think the in washington specifically it's so easy for people just to fall in that trap of just shovel more money shovel more money is it just because it looks good on a reelection bid each year. i think that that's absolutely the primary reason particularly on the house side because it's the house that's doing the budget related matters when you're running for reelection every 2 years a lot you don't have a lot of down time and so you need to have specific accomplishments that you can point to to your constituents to say here are all of the things that i did and

having a piece of legislation with your name on it or that you voted for cosign that's something that's tangible that translates well to constituents so while you're doing oversight there may not be a direct tangible outcome in the same way that a signed piece of legislation provides you so again i think that that's really the primary reason is that people want tangible things that they can run on for re-election and we've seen reelection is the top priority of many congressmen they all start out saying that that's not going to be how they operate but very quickly they acclimate to the system and it's all about fundraising getting reelected and so it's very easy to fall into this trap it's a lot harder to do the work to really find those policy solutions that we've been discussing very truly really topping thank you so much for come on educating our audience is always always a pleasure. thanks for having me. are today we on the show with

a look at these shocking dare i say rather humbling power and scope of mother nature in recent years months and days of giving us an incredible record breaking a ray of giant scale beats of nature in brazil for example mother nature cooked up a record breaking heightening bowl back on march 4th of this year when the world meteorological organization recorded a bolt that lasted a little over 16 seconds longer to understand the magnitude of that record breaking lightning bolt remember that your typical lightning bolt lasts just point 2 seconds 16 seconds point to say that's a serious lightning bolt one that i hope to never see. all right everybody that is our show through the day remember everyone in this world we are not told that we are loved enough so i tell you all i love you i am tired rover and i mean keep on watching all those hawks out there and have a great day and night. thousands

of american men and women choose to serve in the country's military and the decision. every song came to a complete. the day that i was right to be instructed. you know told a shot to kill me and i see how it destroyed my life any scream didn't eat any meat coming. in here write me. if you take into account that women don't report because of the extreme retaliation and it's probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the us military rape is a very traumatizing. i've never seen trauma like i've seen from women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting rape is

more likely to get the victim punished than the offender i had an almost 10 year career or chose very invested in and i gave that up to report a sex offender who was not even put to justice or put on the registry this is some plan to share power and violence male sexual predators for the large part of target whoever is there to prey upon whether that's a man or when. we go to work so you straight home feel.

you cannot be both with the yeah you like. secret prisons are not usually what comes to mind when thinking about europe however even the most prosperous can be deceived we're going to 0 zone the way to view houses were allegedly blows a prisoner was located and only see how you can fool have access to the story for investigators sure held zillion covered the darkest dealings of the secret services but i mean it's a name for you great ignore. doctor known son you are so full of p.c. maybe a sword made use of the fore. thanks for justice. welcome

to in concord today we discussed the extradition hearing of julian assange with lawyer and author and professor margaret something that needs to be clarified chris is that hillary clinton's e-mails were revealed through a freedom of information act request filed in 20 well by the nonprofit citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington they were made searchable by both wiki leaks and the wall street journal and the destiny e-mails were retrieved by spearfishing whatever that means i'm not a techie spearfishing operation not by wiki leaks even james comey said that wiki leaks probably got the.