millions of users and even global leaders flock to privacy centric messaging apps like helen brown amid concerns over data sharing. facebook and twitter are hit by scandals over censorship. there is anger over u.s. media suggestions that donald trump supporters are a cult you need deprogramming like extremists. of all 35000000 people that are agreeing with me on america. and a shift in vaccine advice in norway as 13 people die after receiving the job but the country's drug agency says it is not along. those are the headlines for this

hour coming up it is the big picture right here on r.g.p. and. the bike in the inaugural is just days away how must it feel to be an incoming chief executive with an ambitious agenda succeeding a predecessor from the other party let's ask someone who knows jim douglas served 4 terms as governor of vermont succeeding howard dean and having previously served as state treasurer and vermont secretary of state and in the state legislature right

out of college gym is a great trivia question having earned more votes than any other vermonter in history and i saw his political career begin when we voted him a senior class president class of 1968 east longmeadow high school gym welcome to the big picture great to be with you and thanks for those kind words in 2009 you were the 1st governor to meet in the white house with just inaugurated president obama described that moment and the very young looking man you met not even 2 weeks into his presidency. well it was a real honor to be the 1st governor to have a one on one meeting with president obama just about a week and a half after he assumed office and 2009 i had met him once before right after the election a few months earlier he asked to meet with all the governors and so we convened on very short notice 50 of us in philadelphia to meet with the new president and the

new vice president joe biden so we had an opportunity to spend some time discussing our concerns then i was in washington for another purpose and i asked to meet with the white house intergovernmental affairs team and to my surprise they said well we'd like you to meet with the president so i said why not and there's an iconic photo of the president and the moving furniture in the oval office it was on display you know a little later at the truman library in independence missouri and get this holon it was deemed one of the top 10 presidential photos of all time now that is immortality hey as joe biden takes office this virus has the usa indeed the world in crisis and as a new governor you 2 had your work cut out for you in your 1st inaugural address you acknowledged and extended economic slowdown which had indiscriminately cast thousands of vermonters into unemployment and you described the cloud of

uncertainty that lingers on the horizon as our economy teeters precariously between recession and recovery and you asked everyone to pitch in noting that we have responded to our greatest challenges not by putting aside our differences but by building on our common understandings seeking that common understanding is what vermont founders called civic virtue after the last 4 years indeed after the last 4 weeks a civic virtue seems quaint how do you figure president biden's chances are of selling what unites us is greater than what divides us. he certainly has his work cut out for him this is a deeper recession than i faced in 2003 although it seems pretty serious at the time he's indicated that he wants to work across the aisle with republicans he'll

certainly have to do that even though the democrats have a slim majority as in both houses of congress they're not overwhelming and there are a few independent minded people there who can't be taken for granted so i hope that he'll be able to do that i think he has the capacity to do so he's been in washington for nearly half a century he'll need to tackle the pandemic 1st and foremost but i hope particularly early on when a new leaders often have what's known as a honeymoon he'll have a chance to make some other progress too well the flipside of that honeymoon is something that. even when the incumbent administration is more welcoming then trump has been to biden is always a learning curve our colleague jesse ventura says you only know what you know when you get elected and then when you get in there you kick over rocks and things crawl out 2 part question jim having served as treasurer and secretary of state and in

the legislature did that spare you unpleasant surprises and does joe biden's 8 years as veep give him a leg up on the learning curve. oh it clearly you know did my career in your head reduction remarks and in addition to that holland i served as executive assistant to a governor in the late seventy's and early eighty's so i felt very well prepared to assume the responsibility in 2003 and really nothing surprises me i think the new president will find similarly that is 8 years in the white house has 36 years in the u.s. senate before that will give him real insight into what's going on in washington that someone else may not have for example his predecessor president trump as the 1st president in our history with no experience in government either civilian or military and some might say that that has been a disadvantage for him so i think president biden will will be just fine we are

talking chief executive transition with the retired 4 term vermont governor jim douglas one of the i think 2 states where the governor's term is 2 years jim how loud is that ticking sound in the background to the extent that you feel as though you're constantly running for reelection and do you think the sheer actuarial unlikeliness of a 2nd biden term could actually be an advantage. well 2 your terms are quite brief you're exactly right vermont and new hampshire are the only 2 that still have them believe it or not in vermont until 870 we had one year terms and when i proposed to the legislature that we go to 4 they said yeah well you keep talking about that we'll put your back in one but it's just it's a brief time we always have to think about the next election the good news is in vermont very few incumbents have been defeated for reelection only

a couple in the last century so vermonters generally stick with the people they put in office our current governor phil scott one re-election this fall overwhelmingly without much of a campaign at all because of the outstanding leadership he's provided during the pandemic. will president biden seek re-election when he's 82 i don't know you and i have to hope that 80 is the new 60 right you know maybe he will but he might not and at least one president rutherford has said early in his tenure i'm only going to serve one term i would think that president biden would wait a while before making that determination so we'll see but he's got a lot of work on his plate during this 4 year term. we were speaking with retired vermont governor jim douglas whom i have known since childhood and because of the english alphabet gemma and i sat next to each other in 7th grade home room where

the principal did not come on the p.a. system and make an announcement but we learned that president kennedy had been shot later that afternoon on the school bus the school bus was then social media back to the future of facebook and twitter have been controversial lately parlor has been shut down yet social media does afford direct contact between a governor a president and those represented and vice versa jim how does it all net out is social media a net plus or minus. i don't know that i can answer that yet hollande. an interesting new development in my last campaign and 2008 it was the 1st time i had a facebook page and admit to you that my staff manager and most of the time. i haven't had that much experience with it but it's both a blessing and

a curse i think it gives people an opportunity to communicate directly and widely and instantly but it also can stir up a lot of mischief in and offer information that isn't true i worry about the shutdown's we've seen though recently one of the hallmarks of our democracy is the 1st amendment the right to speak the right to have our ideas heard and challenged and debated then and i think these companies need to be very careful about shutting down anyone who uses their their platforms there's an old saying the best antidote to free speech you don't like is more free speech not trying to block it. once again technology leaps ahead of public policy during his years of job. basketball coach rick pitino says a new coach has to win and win quickly if you had joe biden's ear other than the obvious urgency of corralling the pandemic i've got about

a minute left what would you urge him to tackle this infrastructure of the obvious job creating f.d.r. $2.00 or would it be something else. well it might be that but i'd offer a couple of additional suggestions i think this is a great opportunity for him to tackle some challenges that have been confronting our country for a long time during the pandemic we have amassed 7 trillion dollars of additional debt and it's going to keep going up for at least the near term if you can begin to bend the curve on that that would be a tremendous contribution to our kids and our grandkids future and secondly another long term problem is the solvent c. of our social security fund and medicare he's already talked about the possibility of a fix there and i think if he can do that through a balanced approach of raising the retirement age increasing the revenues i think that would be a tremendous accomplishment too so i hope you'll think big act big and and perhaps

be able to get some some wins under his belt. from your lips governor jim douglas thank you for stepping into the big picture while most members are incumbents swamp dwellers the 117th congress welcomes several dozen freshman senators and representatives and in its report gresham will membership has its privileges salaries pension travel and other taxpayer funded perks american transparency a nonprofit nonpartisan watchdog group details just how warm that welcome is members of congress earn a $174000.00 base salary speaker of the house gets to 235 majority and minority leaders and senate president pro tem get 193 for outside income is restricted but open the books dot com discovered that sub members were employed by

a federal contractor located in the members' district reaping billions in taxpayer fund while key executives donated 5 and 6 figures to the members' campaign fund members vest in their federal pension system after 5 years and can take payments as early as age 50 and they're also eligible for social security no member of congress has ever been stripped of their federal pension due to a conviction because the ethics law is riddled with loopholes and they're covered under workman's comp and social security disability insurance then congressman jesse jackson jr claimed a worker's comp by successfully arguing that congress made him mentally ill and they travel back and forth to the district is not that big a deal for say stanny hoyer of maryland as opposed to toll c. gabbert of hawaii and there are those fact finding missions overseas apparently

there are facts aplenty in france which is among the top destinies. since when they're in d.c. they park where ever as texas congressman louie gohmert notoriously demonstrated when he hollered at a police officer who had ticketed his car they also park free at reagan national airport their health care plan subsidized is great and appropriated settlement funds are to resolve me too and other problems from 1997 to 2018275 settlements totaling 17600000 represented an average payout of 60 $4000.00 members of congress get up to $195.00 days off each year when congress is not in session so who is working for whom you can download this entire report free at open the books dot com coming up

20202021 were challenging enough for us grownups to sort out how does this all play to children this is the big picture on our view america. so let's not pretend for a change of traits or that you're being silenced steve just your take is are popular with me struck all the fun in that fight go find your own audience to complain when they're all stupid racists.

so we lose this newsrooms he's. going to name chris mccallum the new movie. many of. them on those he just can't stand forever of what they think they did you hear that oh. i'm talking about is a very international community. meeting yesterday and you don't need to. do this to keep it as this study says they need to do indeed. there's a push for them at the with mr newkirk in brazil so their nuclear cooperation in antarctica is everything because he was the leader with the phone from 32 with 3 of the above the. 5 i have and with affected all day but i decided not to take his place. with my gig and tell you that.

happily animal shelters have been emptying out during the pandemic crisis as the lonely housebound are bringing home bodies to keep them company but how has this crisis impacted human adoption let's ask penny collins clinical social worker and adoption program director at adoption partners of maine patty welcome hi thanks for having me profound thoughtful circumstances dr both parties

in the adoption process tell us about the birth mothers you meet so the birth mothers i mean the jerry of course like everybody does there's some common themes generally the most common thing is stability so a woman who feels she's in a pregnancy that was unclear and that she's unprepared for at times perhaps is a different point in the pregnancy then she thought she was when she found out she was pregnant. and then a lot of women tend to be either young not in the way that you would traditionally think and there's a lot more support now for teens better access to health care choices more transparency in acceptance in families but we have a lot of women who are maybe college age in the middle of making choices about their future and then we have women who are in their twenty's and sometimes thirty's who are struggling with poverty already parenting

a number of children maybe struggling with addiction treatment turns substance abuse history with the department. who end up choosing private adoption as a way to make a choice a loving parental choice for their child i'm sure you see it all now about the couples who are seeking to adopt who have no parenting experience how do you assess their readiness. sure. it's tricky sometimes you know with a lot of care because family generally don't we don't always ask people to prove that they're ready to parent adoption it's different because a woman is making a choice to place her child in your home and it's our duty to put on paper that you know we as social workers really believe that that family is ready for that so there's everything you would think background checks we look at your driving record

we look at your criminal history we look at your job stability we talk to references if you have children we're talk to your children. there's certain things that are required positive discipline you know talking to potential parents about best practices. in parenting communication resiliency you know what basically what we're looking for is kind of empathetic people who understand that parenting an adopted child is not the same as parenting a child who is born into your family so there's always going to be special issues or needs that come up along the way and is a family prepared to have really honest conversations with a child around their identity that are difficult you know as a family ready to really dig in. with that child and embrace the birth family so

isn't what it used to be it's not you know you can swoop in and pick up a child and leave and maybe you tell that trial they're adopted mean you don't know . what we know now is that it's really bad in an unhealthy for identity development in trust building so you know we encourage people to be really open so are you ready to embrace this extended family at some level into your life. give me a ballpark percentage how often do you have to say no to couples hoping to adopt. well you know we like to say that we catch people for whom we're not a good fit very early in the process. when we 1st thing we start talking about the realities the cost. the hurdles a lot of people will self select l. and then once we gather the application on a family or looking at background checks we're asking for an hour away on her feet

you know any red flags tend to pop up in advance so to say the odds of a social worker coming to your home and being deny. you know your homestudy are very slim you know that's like once every 5 years you know that might happen so we try to do that hard work up try to it's impressive to hear how deliberate this process is at least in normal times the pandemic has turned everything upside down how has it impacted this process. sure it has like all things that need everything a little trick here a little slower so what's particularly interesting with adoption is in the united states it quite often happens across state lines so you may live in ne in yet you travel to florida to meet your child in and your. agency might be in yet another city altogether so travelers chickens have been

difficult can we have a family even come to mean are they even able to get a hotel somewhere. the legal process of traveling across state lines with a child is actually fairly complicated you have to get permission from the state here interleaved in you have to get permission from your home state to enter so we're kind of on the fly figuring this stuff out. families who adopt it's all very doable you know they're motivated they are benefiting they're growing their family the hardest part of colbert has been for our birth families you know we're hearing how hospitals are only letting in a person either alone or with one supporter you know one support person you know imagine if you well a 14 year old earth mother and she has to choose between her social worker her own mother the father of the child the adoptive parent who is going to be with her in

the hospital and that's a really heartbreaking you devastating choice to put someone in that position and when you say 14 year old mother i can picture the room or speaking with the penny columns a clinical social worker but she's also a mom i want you to talk about something i ask every mom we have on the show you've got a couple of kiddos in school how is it go away during the asterisk school year that we're in the middle of. yeah it's it's tricky so not only in my appearing to to kids in grade school i also do therapy with parents in families around you know sort of just functioning right in the best way that we can in so i'm talking with a lot of parents right now who are struggling with this in what i do with my own kids in what i'm recommending is you are the expert on your own child so

schools are doing what they have to do they're doing the best they can i also serve on a school board in my district the amount of effort is tremendous at the end of the day the schools trying to meet their benchmarks in their trainer basically have the people work to show that we you know we've done school as parents you have to look at that and say this is useful to my child this is helpful to their learning in these things or not so there's a lot of zoo meetings my children do not attend. the screen times done their best interests. you know it's just not for us and so we fill in the blank so with some other activities and we just you know we're just figuring it out in our also very privileged that i can be really flexible my husband can be flexible we are living through hopefully the story of a lifetime and i say that hoping that nothing worse happens patty who do you think is more freaked out about these circumstances children or their parents. a

150 percent their parents you know i see this every day to at least one client kids are resilient kids are flexible kids can handle the truth they're very accepting it's parents who in adults who get freaked out you know we're ski we don't like change we don't like compromise. you know chip there at the kids are going to be fine for the most part you know i'm talking about the kids who have support at home and then there's a whole other group of kids who are very worried about them but in terms of thinking my cheat is going to be so damaged from this experience if you can keep an open line of communication with your cherubs in keep things stable in loving for them at home they're going to be they're going to be fine. i've only got about 30 seconds left so i got to ask you for the short version but i've got to ask you

a week ago wednesday how do you describe what happened at the capitol to your children. there e honestly in age appropriate language i don't mince words. people were well it said the bounds of safety in the law in they did it because they were lied to and they have believed a story by someone who they were supposed to feel their trust in this is what happens when we're not honest and we don't trust people that we don't behave in a way where it actually. thank you penny collins clinical social worker i hope you come back thank you for stepping into the big picture. and thank you for watching we're going to be back same time next week with another show if you want to set the d.v.r. on direct t.v. channel 321 dish dish 280 the live stream is always there at youtube dot

com slash and every show i have ever done in almost 4 years is at youtube dot com slash the big picture our team all of the above and thousands more shows are free on our free portable t.v. app you can download it portable by t.v. or from google play or in the app store holland cook planet safe stick and close to home here in rhode island and i hope you are to question more.

you know this is a theme that is always fascinated me how markets janet track investors too are investing in destruction of their own country or their own communities it's like similar to the business model of the mafia you know when they burn down a restaurant right then they collect on the insurance etc.

i got this 8 millimeter film purely by accident. time period 963 to 65 place damascus. oh don't don't do. it i've watched it many times a man posing the monuments an old poster of the hollywood premiere of town without pity and a fight in a minute so with bruises. i had my doubts if i should waste my time on this but i came back to that film over and over again tracing a sequence of events happening in syria at that time and those who would think the mood on. which.