those in command of toxic systems designed to keep us confused distracted and afraid are no match for an awakening they lie you win the war they lie you and they tell you what they think they are watching you are you watching them are watching. watching. artsy america brings you stories of world wide significance news the corporate media refuses to show you from social movements to civil wars to tech breakthroughs to epidemics because our journalists and audience ally there to question more.

first the good news in 1965 more than 40 percent of americans smoked cigarettes and now it's down around 14 percent the bad news many particularly young adults have swapped their marlboros and newport's for joy pods and vapor pens and the know when glenn journal of medicine has estimated that a 5th of all 10th graders and a quarter of 12th graders use electronic cigarettes even middle school kids are vague thing unbeknownst to many parents and the national institute of drug abuse reports that nearly a 3rd of teens who start using east cigarettes begin smoking traditional tobacco products within 6 months they think is a story we've been covering ever since i came to our team america almost 4 years ago we've reported on lawsuits against manufacturers of electronic cigarettes that

have exploded and more recently the u.s. house of representatives passed the reversing the youth tobacco epidemic act which seeks to ban sales of all flavored vapor and tobacco products in a statement the food and drug administration predicts that banning menthol the last allowable flavor in cigarettes and banning all flavors and cigars will help save lives particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products who are those disproportionately affected and with menthol accounting for one 3rd of all cigarette sales how will big tobacco fight back let's ask attorney sara papen tonio of the. evan papen tonio rafferty law firm sarah right off the bat this looks contentious pro ponens of this ban point to those disproportionately affected as the 85 to 90 percent of african american smokers and vapors

prefer menthol products while 0 ponens civil rights groups fear over policing of black communities lots to unpack here sarah where do you see all this headed. well to start holland this ban has the potential to encourage nearly 1000000 people to quit smoking has the potential to save a lot of lives just by banning a flavor of tobacco so this should have respond as a racial injustice issue should be viewed as a great step forward to promoting public health and preventing unnecessary deaths among minority communities but the real reason that minorities are being dispersed and only affected by this menthol ban is because minority communities are being print disproportionately targeted by the tobacco industry the track industry aggressively marketed to these communities because they're one of the last strongholds of this industry relies on to make their money so honestly on i wouldn't be surprised if they were actually tobacco industry that was pushing this racial narrative these cuts because these companies are going to do whatever they

can to keep cigarettes on the market but we've got to break down exactly how this mental band works because like you said many fear that the results of this pill will be over policing of the black community but that's not really going to be the case based on my evaluation of it and that's because this ban isn't forcible only against manufacturers and distributors and whole cell sellers of cigarettes it's not going to be enforceable against the individual holders of cigarettes so what we're really going to see is over policing of the tobacco industry which is good rather than overpolicing of individuals which is going to be a huge step in the right direction right now i'm glad just said spawn because back in olden times when there were billboards by the side of the road for cigarettes you saw the newport billboards in the hood and the marlboro billboards elsewhere so i think you put your finger on it when you said spawn a several years ago responding to public outcry the food and drug administration banned cartridge based fruit or mint flavored e's cigarettes after waffling on

the issue for several months then president trump f. bomb to his health and human services secretary in the oval office and after meeting with representatives of the east cigarette industry who were. concerned about their industry and cautioned by his campaign that vaporing was popular in certain key states trump went swab speak proclaiming we're going to protect our families our children and we're going to protect the industry just this past march allegheny county became the 2nd county and pennsylvania to ban east cigarette use in public spaces to applause from the university of pittsburgh medical center health experts there and elsewhere dispute manufacturer's claims that they being as they say for alternative to tobacco cigarettes and that vaporing

help smokers quit and that exhaled vapor does not contain the same dangerous toxic gases as secondhand tobacco smoke sarah an appeals court in indiana struck down part of a similar law there with all the big money that big tobacco can spend on lawyers are bands like these just inherently fragile. well 1st i got to point out exactly how this industry is spinning the narrative like we said they think is not a safer alternative to cigarettes in fact what we found is that there can be up to 8 times the amount of nicotine in a single possibly ysaye garage versus the thought of a regular cigarette and that's not even to mention all of the carcinogens that are found in the state being liquid so it's not a safe little safer alternative to the traditional cigarette is just a narrative that this industry a spinning and they contend you to spin this narrative because they're so desperate to create this new generation of addicts right that's the classic tobacco business

model that we've seen over the years let's get people addicted but specifically let's get children addicted let's get addicted without flavored nicotine so each cigarette manufacturers are pushing hundreds of thousands of dollars into schools in an effort to promote a thing they're telling people it's safe and it's become a serious issue among teens we see we see the increase in baiting rise substantially so luckily states are pushing this legislation because they recognize that the cigarette manufacturers are targeting our children they're targeting young kids middle school kids so we're going to continue to see cities fighting back and states fighting back and that's good it but not all of them are going to be successful because you know it really is going to just depend on the nature of the legislation that's proposed and it's going to depend on the jurisdiction that it sends and of course it's going to patent depend on whether or not we can overcome the thousands of dollars hundreds of thousands of dollars that these industries fund and their legal team to try to overcome these hurdles yeah you know that brings to mind something else because

a recreational can of this is now legal in what 17 states and i speak to you from providence rhode island where up and down interstate 95 there is a billboard war going on between the just over the state line and massachusetts weed stores and no government seems to be resisting this because everyone needs the tax money do you foresee a backlash against legal weed. it's all going to depend on what the federal government does like we say when you're traveling over interstate borders that it does become sort of an issue because you know if it's legal in one state not like on another then you run into interstate commerce but if it's really going to have to come down to uniformity across the states when we find a solution i think like you said states are so willing to accept it because because they're seeing huge profit rises in medical marijuana so it's really going to be interesting to see what the federal government decides and how this issue develops

over time and at the moment we retailers have a real problem because the banks don't want to do business with them sarah papen tonio levon papen tonio rafferty thank you as always for stepping into the big picture throughout the pandemic we've spotted silver linings and here's a big one centers for disease control and prevention reports only about 2000 not a misprint only about 2000 influenza cases in the usa since september this is a rounding error compared to the recent years 200000 plus average as flu season was looming various doctors we interviewed warned of twin demick just because the cove it is here doesn't mean that flu is taking a year off would guess what flu did pretty much take a year off when businesses and schools closed and we were staying home and social

distancing and were washing our hands like crazy and we had the hand sanitizer in the masts and eager for coronas vaccine many who didn't usually get a flu shot got one this year back in november as the flu season was looming we asked vanderbilt universities dr william schaffner if like flu cove it could become endemic meaning that it's with us for a keeps. it's. heart of our life influenza is endemic even though it's seasonal it's it lives with us this virus it becomes more active in the late fall and through the winter then it baits during the spring and the summer but it comes back so it's just part of the life we live you know we do live in a very very germy world so that's what that means the question regarding cove it

is is this now a virus that we're going to have to live with henceforth at the moment it looks that way. so you got your jab this year you're probably going to need one next year as the usa reopens influenza outbreaks could be more widespread than usual or they could happen out of the usual flu season or the opposite because flu didn't get a chance to spread much this year it didn't get a chance to evolve and mutate and fool us so stay tuned coming up after settling for staycation last year you deserve one this year but the wise guys are already plotting how to rip you off we have a scale model alert from stephen j. j. wiseman right after the break this is the big picture on our t.

america. guys i made a professional powerpoint to show you how artsy america gets into the greater media landscape is not left or right but we are a solid alternative to the. liberal or conservative and as you can see from this bar graph you the facts either talking at lefties talking at righties oh there you go above it all so look out we're all artsy americans in the spotlight every. classify is actually took me way more time than i care to admit. no one has

ever cruised around the globe in an inflatable catamaran before. you know you stop them on any. kind of gives you but to me. it is such a cruise you need a solid crew people you can share folks whole with so to speak. you can do it with the least 100. 50. or. one who have the money you will need the money but most if you're asking that you just love them enough mark with the wreckage the group with much of the world what do you need for us if you have got the money for a good few maybe. going to join your group. and an ocean of stories

even the news worth knowing can overwhelm you. you could even use your way i know you want it all so let me bring you the best. it's easy just. play. we earthlings have managed to live her mother earth into a huge heap of plastic and the sky's the limit. not.

don't worry that's not nasa video but hollywood warned us it's a mess up there what if anything can we do to clean up all this celestial junk and how bad is it up there let's ask the co-author with j.l. pickering of the handsome picturing apollo 11 rare views and undiscovered moments and the space age presidency of john f. kennedy a rare photographic history and coming in august picturing the space shuttle the early years rare views of the beginnings of an historic space program that are in space journalist john business if you keep writing these books i'm going to have to buy more coffee tables welcome back to the big picture. thanks so much home great to be here. october for 1957 was the

starting gun the u.s.s.r. launched sputnik the 1st artificial satellite in the 1st manmade object to orbit earth and the space race was underway since then more than 40 countries have launched nearly 9000 satellites and most of them are still out there john can any of the stuff that's up there come crashing down here well some of it can haul and it depends on how big it is smaller objects simply burn up in the earth's atmosphere because of the heat of reentry the friction with the atmosphere so a lot of the small things eventually don't cause problems at all he's going to a limited life time but a larger object obviously him cause of problems and there have been a few cases of this now very few of them on land of course 3 fifths of the earth's surface is covered by water so that's where most of the stuff that does make it through the atmosphere comes down there was about 5 jet yabbies sailors who were

injured believe it or not in a boat in 1969 bus and space debris there was a woman in oklahoma who had her shoulder injured she got hit by something but this is really really super rare there's been no appreciable property damage that's been reported. the concern really holland is more about what's going on with the space junk in space as opposed to coming down here bothering us well what up there is imperiled up there could the international space station suffer what was depicted in that movie clip or what about g.p.s. and the communication satellites would depend on. yeah i know the movie is a movie is a little bit over the top we can talk about gravity sometime when you have a couple of hours but as far as the actual space station up there if like a lot of us satellites is covered by something protected by something called a quibble she'll without going into too much detail it's

a very thin layer of material that won't you so actually protect the eye assess but it slows down and dissipates the impact of objects now that's really for smaller pieces of space junk invisibility piece of space junk then they have some time to prepare because nora head and nasa tracked a lot as much of this stuff as they can and they will tell the space station crew something's going to happen you know and 3 days move just your your jets and move just a little bit out of the way and you'll avoid it you'll be fine now sun and that's happened about once a year in the 15 times i assess has been in orbit but sometimes something comes up unexpectedly they don't have as quite as much time to prepare and they have told the astronauts and cosmonauts get into the soyuz spacecraft is attached to the station and shelter in there in case there's a problem you'll be able to go home but that's never been

a real serious ringback problem no satellites are a different story because there are unmanned women to maneuver ability and yes they are definitely some of them in some real danger we've only had one big known collision between 2 satellites if the pieces of junk from other watches that can affect them and the real problem that might happen is something called the castle or syndrome where you get a cascading effect things bump into each other they break up they break up they break up and now you've got an unbelievable debris layer. in certain altitude so that's very much. a plate of scientists and engineers there were but and they're starting to think about what to do about now who put the car up there was it in one mosque that set up a test low with an astronaut dummy in it yes yes absolutely talk about

intentional space junk is that a safer elevation or altitude that's probably not the right word but did they know where to park the car so it wouldn't be a menace. well i believe that car is headed in a skateball lot to the to earth orbit so it's sailing out again for the somewhere and doesn't present any real risk to us but there are a lot of lybia is floating around as to how we can deal with this problem everything from harpoons maybe a small satellite fly up next to one with a magnet or autocrat onto it and then either pull it down into a lower orbit or it with decay and burn up or maybe push it up into what's called a graveyard orbit where it's high enough above and separated from the satellites that it won't cause any problems but if you might expect i mean think of this very

much as like. you mentioned the plastic in the sea everybody thinks out of the sea is big throw junk in there who cares with space the even bigger problem because they have faith that the emperor who cares well we do care you know we talked about the orbital problem but now try to imagine the legal and political problems involved in this who owns it who is responsible who pays for it what happens to this top what if you you know nudge somebody else's satellite accidentally there is a whole myriad of thing sort of like a lot to see with this pavel if we're going to have to sell it more lobs pay to cover all the uncertainties that will happen once a good method developed to try to clean up some of this junk and we're still a long ways from having the perfect way to do that. we are speaking with author and lifelong space journalist john disney who is with us as the perseverance rover set

down on mars and as the helicopter drone ingenuity 1st flew and in a subsequent flight it grabbed a photo of the rover down below and we could see the rover its tracks on the martian surface john i've got a couple of minutes left but i saved them for an update on the mars mission what's going on up there now yeah well that's a little helicopter has proven so successful nasa has now extended its mission it's not just a technology demonstrator anymore it's going to be called operational the most recent flight you mentioned it went up to 16 feet and then headed south for about 450 p. then it came back and landed near perseverant so they have a lot of confidence now in its abilities to move around a little bit the next flight plan will be the 5th flight would be the settled one way trip out to a new landing spot sat down and then wait for the rover to catch up ok the rover will will then proceed to a few days and find out where the helicopter is meet up with it eventually check

this out all the goal is to have them operate in hand move around mars and have the helicopter the drone service sort of a scout or for the perseverance rover itself so it's all terrific technology and people are just thrilled that it's working so well that is so cool because you remember the suspense about with the atmosphere so thick and those blades spinning so fast could it even get up and the fact that it's moved beyond concept and that now going to do these maneuvers i think we're going to end up learning a lot more than we might have correct. oh i think that's right now that they know it can be declared operational for example they can send it to a certain spot and say has to still cameras know if you. can use the cameras to take stereo images of the living cibolo and then on the earth we can put together 3

d. images get a much better eye view of the. future landing sites or more probes sure and the drone of course can go places that there would be tricky to arrange for the rover john you are not the only space buff who has scoffed at the movie gravity i appreciate your time thank you for stepping into the big picture i remember a tale of woe from several summers ago about a vacation rental property nearby here in provincetown out on cape cod the scam stor was apparently collecting deposits on a handsome rental property that he or she did not own and people kept showing up with all their beach stuff so often that the real occupants of the property had to stick a sign on the front door that says you've been ripped off can you imagine the heartbreak in high season with nothing else of vailable get stranded out there this is

happening everywhere year round now here's a sign posted on a home in florida. magine just imagine that that happened to you attorney. professor author and ace scam buster stephen jay jay wiseman give us some do's and don'ts for booking vacation rentals on line. again my motto trust me you can't trust anyone and this is something where i actually followed my own advice and found a scam when i was looking for a vacation rental the key thing here is people book everything online and it's very very easy for a scammer to just copy a legitimate vacation site and the thing is even if you're going on one of the wheel regular big cation websites the r.v.o. and others you can't be sure that it's legitimate because they get fooled as well

here's the one tip that you want when they 1st of all you don't wire money because if you wire money and they get it it's gone if it's a scam but the big thing is you go online to the tax assessor's office for the city or town where that property is supposed to be if that does not match the person who is asking you to send money to that person or to that address you know it's a scam so easy to do all of the tax assessor's their offices are online you just who match him up if they match your ok use a credit card don't use a debit card don't wire don't use it gift card but if you do that you should be in good shape. smart stuff steve's website is scam aside dot com and his scam of the day alert can save you a lot of heartache and that is the big picture we're going to be back next time same time next week if you watch us live and if you want to set the d.v.r.

it's direct t.v. channel 321 on the dish dish where 280 our live stream feed is youtube dot com slash r t america and all my shows are archived at youtube dot com slash the big picture our team and our our team cast of thousands is on the super cool portable t.v. app you can download free a google player at the app store or a portable dot tv i'm holland cook question more. everyone i'm joined by my old friend mr ellis williams and can't miss the beings

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something for you and your sports h.q. . for so much going on in the world don't you think when's the last time you had a real bird's eye view. of the news being more than just hours of bickering and getting 30 minutes i'll take you off the low. mayor questions birth new questions numbers just as stars and lists as the sea and bring you all the insight distance death and.

if drive all that remains in question. welcome welcome radack to deny this is a comedy show or americans in america covering american news are called foreign agents a lot of americans seem very excited about the fact that joe biden gave her lovely speech to congress a couple weeks ago they say biden has already exceeded progressive expectations he's the most progressive president since f.d.r. as long as we keep our daughters away from him we can be thrilled that he said things like this by the way they are thinking about standard things and my goodness . that's raised the minimum wage to $53.00 you know on a you.