i'm unsure when i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics. i'm show business i'll see you then. an air ambulance carrying alexina bali is on its way to berlin where the russian opposition figure will receive emergency treatment he's been in a coma since falling violently ill on thursday as porters believed he was poisoned and save the battle to save his life is only just beginning. the fellow russian opposition leader urges citizens to keep up the pressure on president look at more strikes and protest but there's also a growing show of support for the embattled leader. i came here because i want to keep a balance the way i don't want to rest and i was outraged that your position provoked secretes and i saw it myself you find those stories in lots more over on our

website r t v dot com we will be back in an hour's time with a full world news update in the meantime though it is the big picture stay with us . a lot from rhode island where i live like you probably are we're sticking close to home riding out the pandemic and while there are worse places to spend your summer than the great ocean state i miss baseball i mean going to games we can see games but they're in empty stadiums with fake crowd noise and fake fans and cold plus players are disrupting team rosters and what's going to turn. out of being an

asterisk season meanwhile we're seeing hockey and basketball played in august some college teams have already started canceling their seasons what of the n.f.l. let's go to sports h.q. at least remotely and ask steve crist aco steve welcome to the big picture. good to be with you alan thank you. although our world series champion washington nationals were deprived of a standing o. to get their rings of proper homeowner i did read with interest that the e.s.p.n. telecast of that 1st game against the damn yankees was the most watched regular m.l. b. game on any network since 2011 but whatever t.v. money the networks are going to salvage from this truncated season has got to be

a drop in the bucket steve ballpark it for us how much are they losing by playing a half a season and not selling tickets and warm beer and cold hot dogs. well hell and just from ticket sales alone they're estimated to lose about $640000.00 per game and that's just per game now we're talking the whole season obviously 60 games short season instead of 100 $62.00 games owners are estimating that they will lose about $4000000000.00 collectively but some think that number's a little exaggerated and they wanted it to be that high so they can justify paying the players less but the players did fight for that full corroded salary now generates typically $10000000000.00 in revenue collectively that's from ticket sales merchandise sales concessions and everything go into the ballpark per year 10000000000 per year and they expect it was about 4000000000 of that so it's not looking good for the m l b if they are even able to finish a shortened 60 game season has already seen

a lot of trouble with teams like the marlins and now the cardinals who have to play apparently about 55 games in less than 45 days now it's looking like because they haven't been able to get on the field without bricks. yeah after that 1st outbreak with the phillies and the marlins i'm surprised they made it to the weekend but during the shutdown every industry has been disrupted by supply chain issues the entire minor league baseball season has been called off what kind of domino effect is that going to have on coming major league baseball seasons without the 5 teams plan ready that form so 1st of all the farm system could be in jeopardy because a lot of those teams will be able to survive without that revenue from the bite at least in the small towns so that could be an issue but also just player development over the next couple years you either will be able to vet the players for operating properly or they'll be called up too soon before they're ready because they have no other choice or not able to be called up at all if maybe your breakout year or or

to happen this summer and you won't even get to experience that and we're seeing the trickle effect of that domino effect as you said being caused by kohut in all the sports especially as you mention in the intro challenged sports now being affected without a lot of the college football teams being able to play this year what will that have an effect on for the n.f.l. being able to scout prospects so the same effect with the minor league baseball as the big leagues will be able to prospects properly you know i have personally i'm so starved for baseball that i'm trying to stay open minded about all these rule changes they're experimenting with in the big city how do you think this designated hitter thing for instance is going in the national league expect that to be permanent and what do you make of the other disruptive experimental changes that baseball is playing with this year. why i guess of any season to do it so experiment is now because it's a shame as you said there's going to be an asterisk on the season so it's

a time to experiment with the universal d.h. i think baseball curious much like yourself maybe i'm guessing aren't a fan of it and want to go back to to the old ways but and making it yours has that but you know i think it's a lot of the other side would say that it's good to have an even played field so to speak now and because it's one of the few sports where you see different rules for different leagues and over conferences and divisions and rather have a uniform blanket rule across the entire league i think is also a good thing but i think this will need to be expanded beyond this year because we won't be able to see its full effect with just a little over a 3rd of the season being played if we're able to get to 60 games again. yeah you guessed right growing up in american league country i was used to the d.h. and thus i was fascinated by seeing national league ball because there's so much more strategy the late joe garagiola who like the d.h. said people don't go to the park to watch the manager think but i always found that part exciting and i guess in

a shortened season with these expanded rosters and players dropping like flies they had no choice we're speaking with our team sports maven steve christakis steve what's the deal with the players who chose to opt out for fear of the coronavirus they just don't get paid and do they lose that in-service time that reckons into free agency etc. so players who this is 2 fold because if you just forfeit your season you forfeit your salary but that's only if you're not high risk now if you are high risk you will still retain that prorated salary and your health insurance and you will still not lose any service time but if you are not high risk and you just wanted to opt out the other reasons personal reasons then you do not accrue that service time in the n.o.b. now the end. fellows a little bit different players who are not high risk and opted out will get $150000.00 stipend and not retain health insurance and not obviously accrue that

service time but if you are high risk that goes up to $350000.00 stipend for high risk players and of course you do get that service time accrued and you do retain health insurance as well so it's a little bit different across the board for the different forces and how do they define high risk so those are medical conditions if you have underlying conditions such as more prone to heart disease or let's say you have asthma or are extremely overwrote way god basically some of the athletes most of them are very physically fit but a lot of options of linemen in the n.f.l. are not so if you are more prone to underlying health conditions or if you have somebody in your immediate family who has a health condition then you would be considered high risk and would be allowed to opt out with less strict conditions gotcha unlike the baseball teams which are traveling the n.b.a. teams went into the bubble down in orlando and the n.h.l.

teams are skating in the bubble up in toronto and they have had little or no positive interruption correct. oh yeah the n.h.l. there in toronto in edmonton so 2 cities bubble cities there and it's worked out pretty well since they arrived in those 2 cities 0 positive career coach $900.00 tests the n.b.a. had a couple initially but those were before they got into the bubble since they've been in a bubble last month in july there have been 0 positive tests as well in the n.b.a. actually both system seems to be working and back to the end all be they might actually have to go through the bowl system for a playoff now obviously there are expanding the playoffs from $10.00 to $16.00 teams this year another change that's happening so there would be still a decent amount of teams but less players obviously for the playoffs and they don't want to lose that $1000000000.00 in t.v. revenue they make nearly a $1000000000.00 every year from just the playoffs television revenue alone so they might be considering moving to a bubble because they see that working for the n.b.a.

and the n.h.l. so we'll see if that actually will happen but they might have to do it in 4 different cities obviously because they need bigger stadiums and there's going to be more more teams of course yeah many fans were upset by players taking a navy they swore off the n.f.l. and since the george floyd the episode we've seen similar expressions in other sports on the opening night of the n.b.a.'s bubble season n.b.a. great charles barkley told t.n.t.'s inside guys you can't just beat people over the head because people watch sports to get away from reality and right now their reality is different we've never seen anything like this in our lifetime this pandemic we've lost hundreds of thousands of people all these small businesses are gone i'm never going to say just go back to basketball but i think these guys got to be really careful steve as things stand now will the n.f.l. be selling tickets this year. well holland right now as it stands if there is

an n.f.l. season i think it's 5050 right now obviously as we're seeing what's going on a college football totally different situation but the n.f.l. has a real shot of doing it now at the moment it's up to each of the $32.00 teams to decide if they're going to advance for example the washington football team here in our area in the d.c. metro area decided no fans already the las vegas raiders and they're not season there in vegas said no fans already but there are other teams that are exploring options that get used to this term party like peas in a pod the peas will be the fans and of course to be in separate pods $5.00 to $15.00 players picture of checkerboard across the stadium with blacked out areas and that space between these pods and some play some teams like the cowboys for example jerry jones hinted that they're looking at padi to allow fans while they do have a space for it at that stadium to attend games but we're going to see as we get closer this season whether that will be possible and of course it used the new normal now on the ticket there will be terms and conditions of course if they do allow fans at

some of these games that you're taking a risk if you catch job in 1900 you could it could be deadly. yeah just like they said at the trump rally steve thank you for stepping into the big picture and now another scam alert from attorney author and professor stephen j. j. wiseman and this is a new low recently the f.t.c. filed a complaint against golden sunrise nutraceutical inc a california company falsely claiming that its $23000.00 treatment plan would effectively cure the corona virus within $2.00 to $4.00 days it is important to remember that the world health organization has stated that there are no known effective therapeutics available to prevent or treat the corona virus and as steve reminds us there's a reason they're called scam artists you can follow his scam of the day alerts at scam aside dot com coming up with the pandemic and the economy and civil strife

here at home what else and where else in the world aren't we paying attention to michael maloof will join us next to light up the hot spots this is the big picture on our t. america. lead .

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snapshot of the u.s. a recent models forecast 300000 usa deaths by early december from a coronavirus the president is still telling us will his words just disappear economy interrupted still as states that jump the gun reopening back. peddle we're seeing urban strife across the country an arguably martial law in portland while it's all we can do to cope with all of that here at home what else in the world is happening that we should be paying more attention to because it could end up affecting us here let's ask former pentagon official michael maloof whom i haven't had an opportunity to talk to since before the massive explosion in beirut this

could simply be a matter of negligence as they improperly stored almost 3000 tons of ammonium nitrate a bomb just waiting to blow although the investigation continues michael take us inside the pentagon at a moment like this when a major news flash clears what kind of protocols immediately snap into motion. well they're going to focus on it. quite closely they're going to examine whether it was an accident or whether it's was. a an explosion manmade explosion by design and violent attack even trump himself the president said he had talked to his generals and they thought it could have been an attack they don't know yet nobody knows i know the french have brought in the forensic experts believe the f.b.i. is going in to help with friends of experts they and if if they do notice an

explosion my prediction is even. if it was a if it was an attack of some kind i doubt seriously that we'll ever get to the bottom of it if if the if a points to israel the implications of that would be catastrophic so it's in the u.s. and western interests even if there was fault by israel that we would never hear about it because of what the consequences would be as a consequence of the of that explosion it would it would embroil the entire middle east. you've been at the pentagon during some interesting episodes and it is quite a moment alarms go off people go to prearranged positions and conference rooms etc is that how it goes. well yeah they'll do that but it primarily your intelligence people are going to be working and feeding into the joint staff into the and.

trying to get as much information as you can from the teligent community the defense intelligence agency the cia they will be monitoring. screen grabs from radar systems i know that there were some u.s. vessels in the area at the time they will screen shots of radar activities at the time. i've had friends call me and tell me that they actually saw 2 jets fly over just before the major explosion i've seen other videos. of a strike of a projectile hitting just before the major explosion so all of these things have looked at as a as i said we don't know and i'm not i'm not pointing fingers at this point even if even if there was culpability. and it was and it was an attack you're not going to i doubt that you're going to hear alternately who did it because of what the

outcome could could be the alternative it would be much much more serious and dire i'll bet ya hey despite the president branding at the chinese virus we here in the usa are the hot spot and the e.u. and the caribbean and then various other countries even canada won't let us in the president spend pushing pills and talking about ingesting this in fact and telling us children are effectively moon michael your contact list is enviable you're talking to people all around the world how does the usa a look in the way that we're mishandling this crisis and how does this pandemic a worldwide event tip the geo political balance of power. well that's a loaded question in terms of handling or mishandling the virus it's

a novel virus no one's ever had to deal with this type of virus before and other countries have also been affected. we we are and we are basically experimenting as we go along and because we're learning more and more about the virus all the time i would add that other countries are going through the same problem you had some countries which had none and then all of a sudden there have been renewed spikes look at new zealand they went for about $100.00 days without any positive coronavirus and all of a sudden there's a spike in again. it just shows up and no one knows why so and so they're having to deal with it i think the countries are working together on sharing information as much as they can to try to come up with a vaccine and i think that's the push right now to point fingers of about who who is doing a better job or isn't doing a job i think all countries are are very very committed to trying to resolve this

problem because of what the ramifications are and i would add that the virus has basically altered the whole geo political scene and we're seeing countries that are less affected basically trying to make moves at this point where china for example seems to have recovered much more quickly and they're pushing right ahead economically with their belt road what does this mean this means that because the u.s. economy is the basically down for the count at this point the chinese see an economic advantage to to make inroads particularly with the belt road and the countries that. are in latin america and even in europe 'd and in africa so they're they're going full speed ahead and they're still pushing to be the dominant economic power between 2045 and 20. 50 and we see them really pushing in that direction and we're also seeing that the whole the whole effort to

to. come up with with with moving positions and and with with with the focus on the pandemic we're seeing countries such as turkey and and greece getting into it we're seeing. more and more over oil and gas or seen other. trouble spots beginning to emerge and not only in the middle east lebanon of course just be on the latest one and this is going and we're seeing or see in libya beginning to explode. because of the confrontations with turkey and and also with egypt and so things are really beginning to. boil over in him in many respects but there is no the problem is that there is no adult leadership right now you would think the u.n. would be doing something i think that's why met cry all of france the president of france made a very very fast move into lebanon because he saw that it could it that if the u.s.

to western not take action if the u.s. did not take action that china would begin to come in with its belt road back to the eye and they could rebuild that entire port area and that would that would turn the whole geo political influence around very very rapidly along with russia being involved in that so it's the consequences as a result of the pandemic is altering the whole geo political scene as well and it's also creating new areas. of tensions and because because no one's really focusing on those other areas and as a consequence you're not seen any leadership anywhere to try and do something about it to to to quell these these these hot spots. right. down to why. in minute but i must ask you because you mentioned turkey and you had a wary eye on air to one for

a while he's resumed drilling in the eastern mediterranean where egypt and greece have struck a deal and he's rubbing a number of neighbors over there the wrong way i need the short version but set the scene for us is this about to pop. it could it could all though i think that with russia russia is trying very hard to try to mediate the 2 sides within within libya you have the. u.n. sanction government there and in tripoli against a general of benghazi. but what's happened now this thing is international become international and that you have outside players now. you have egypt and. and other countries like saudi arabia even u.a.e. now siding with the government. as opposed to turkey but i think in the end of

the day you're not going to see turkey going going it. right why appreciate you keeping an eye on that one for us michael we'll get back to you on that michael maloof thanks again for your time on the big picture pleasure now an update on an important story we've been following closely here on this show and elsewhere on our t.v. corporate cutbacks are clobbering local news media and a while back we introduced you to digital news pioneer kate nagel who is news editor at upstart goal local prov dot com making waves here in the ocean state and she spelled out the dilemma that print media she's challenging face. does it really make sense to have barrels of ank on slabs of paper going through machines that have to be that have to be stored and that have to get put on trucks that have to be driven around and dropped off. you know the once proud providence journal had

a weekday circulation of 200000 that's down to about 30000 wow ouch and as legacy media ticker with their business model the online paywall confronts consumers accustomed to getting information for free on the internet the problem as stated by a cautionary column and current affairs is that the truth is paywall but the lies are free the new york times the new yorker the washington post the new republic new york harper's the new york review of books the financial times and the london times all have pay walls breitbart fox news the daily wire the federalist and the washington examiner and info wars are free as corporate cost cutting continues to whack local newsgathering talkers magazine publisher michael

harrison warns about using peer to peer media like twitter as news feed. we're going to have to do is educate our children because this is going to be a long process of coming into some type of a clearing with daylight we have to educate our children and ourselves in how to think critically when consuming directly you know right from the fire hose this nonstop flow of information with all kinds of credibility and points that you attach to it. if ever there was a time to remember our r.t.u. motto question more it's now and that is the big picture thanks for watching we're going to be back again next week same time and if that's not convenient set your d.v.r. on direct t.v. we are channel 321 dish we're 280 if you've cut the cord you'll find us on

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