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Colorado 14, Malik 8, Sarah Palin 6, Us 6, Michael 5, Koch 4, Richmond 4, Lou Shapiro 4, Lou 3, Obama 3, Eleanor Clift 2, David Sirota 2, Charles Koch 2, Cnn 2, Steubenville 2, Chicago 2, Barack Obama 2, Ohio 2, Dave 1, Paul 1,
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    March 18, 2013
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>> michael: welcome to "the young turks." you know what, we're going toking to steubenville, ohio where cnn was under fire but it was to guilty in ohio. [ sobbing ] >> i was sitting about three feet from malik when he gave that statement. it was very difficult to watch. >> michael: yes, and anonymous will be joining us on the show next. also it was cpac and sarah palin palin. she's all difficult to swallow but watch this. [applause]
>> oh, a big round. >> michael: palin is around and the party is in danger. then we go to colorado where they are legalizing gungau. >> 40 rounds, 30 rounds, 20 rounds buying ammunitions. they're buying ak 47s with the drum magazines. >> michael: yes, i said it, i said gunga. it's gunga time. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> michael: the judge announced yesterday in steubenville, ohio, that the two defendants of the rape case of the high school football players two practice found guilty. they were accused of sexually assaulting a female
acquaintance. they were found guilty. here is the news report of that. >> beyond a reasonable doubt. >> reporter: trent maze and malik richmond broke down and apologized. richmond violated the girl while she was too drunk to say no. and >> without remorse. >> reporter: the case is far from over. the ohio attorney general pledging to convene a grand jury to find out what really happened that night and in the days that follows. >> this community needs to know that justice was done. >> reporter: here are those sentences that the two defendants received. both were found delinquent of sexual assault of an intoxicated girl. sentenced to one year in juvenile. and mays and richmond could be
hell until age 21. and mays extra year for distributing nude pictures of the minor. the victim's mother had this to say about these defendants. >> this does not define who my daughter is. she will persevere grow, and move on. i have pity for you both. i hope you fear the lord, repent for your actions and pray hard for his forgiveness. >> michael: joining me to talk about this tonight, lou shapiro in los angeles, and we're joined by k an anonymous protester who is coming to us from ohio. lou, i want to talk to you about this first. we hear a sentence like this, and we'll get to a little bit of what the reaction has been about the sentencing, how difficult is it to prosecute two juveniles juveniles--people of this age in a case like this? you're a defense attorney. how difficult is it to defend it too.
>> michael: okay, we're going to go to anonymous because we're having sound trouble with lou shapiro. we'll come back to you, lou. i want to ask you anonymous one of the reasons you're undercover is to help people who are harassed for this advocacy case. are you happy with the verdict today? >> of course i'm happy. i think justice was served. i still would like for them to be tried for adults. you do an adult crime do the adult time. all in all i think justice was served. i'm happy for her. i would like to see more, but they're going to be registered sex offenders for the rest of their lives. i'm happy about that. i think all in all she got justice. >> michael: she got the justice she wanted.
does it end there k? there are other people who are under grand jury indictment. the victim's parents say they don't want to see it go any further. how do you feel about that? >> being there during the whole thing, i do know that when we heard about people getting immunity pretty much on being charged for any other crimes related to this case, we were all very upset. i do know that they're talking about april 15th, i doe believe they're bringing a grand jury in. and i mean, we'll be there for that. we'll be behind her for that if she wants to proceed with it. i think others should be involved. there were more involved than two of the boys. there were month involved who distributed the pictures, the videos, not stepping in. multiple people witnessed the crime and did not step in. ohio has a law that if you witness a crime you must report it. there are many more that need to be charged for this.
>> michael: lou shapiro when you hear that, ohio does have this law. it's a felony not to report a crime. it's seldom invoked. i went to school with an honor system. if you saw someone cheat you're as culpable as the cheater. >> the general public is not always expected to know what is a crime and what is not a crime. when someone is faced with a question, did you see the person may say, i didn't see it that way or it didn't hit me that way that's why it's not typically invoked. >> michael: as a defense attorney now. let's say--i'm going to give a hypothetical. these two kids were convicted. you're representing one of the people who are under surveillance by these grand juries under possible indictment. what do you say to the grand jury? what do you have your clients
say here? at this point this case has been adjudicated. >> i would advise my client to play it as close to the vest as possible. if he hold out long enough i think this will be put to bed. i don't think it will go much further. the victim's family is saying put an end to this. she has to move on. she has to grow up. everyone who should be punished has probably been punished by now. we need closure on this. >> michael: lou, should these two have been tried as adults as anonymous just said? >> if you look at the video there was such a sense of immaturity. of course they were held to the standard that they were held to. but of course they are kids. they were teenagers. when you look back at 16 and 15, we did silly things. not of this level but we were in the same position to make decisions the best of our abilities. >> michael: come on, they raped her. you are a different person at 16
than you are at 32. but the point is they did do what is now known as an adult crime. >> the reason why the juvenile system is set up is because there is a presumption that if someone is a teenager, they can then be rehabilitated. they made a mistake when they were younger give them a chance because they do have a life ahead of them. >> michael: you have a reaction. >> they're 16 and 17 years old. that's how old they were when this crime was committed. one or two more years they would be adults. how much are they going to learn in those two years? two years away--this would have been charged as adults. it will take more than one to two years to rehabilitate--if you can even do that. i mean, there is also in my mind--i was just their age not too long ago. i knew right from wrong. i knew what rape was. i knew what murder was. how can you say that they're not
adults? they knew exactly what they were doing. >> alcohol. >> alcohol is not an excuse. >> michael: anonymous. the law is the law in this case. it's probably not arbitrary and it can be under debate. that's probably where you next where you go. let's go to their conviction. >> those pictures should not been sent around. >> i would like to apologize. i had no intentions of doing it, i'm sorry. [ sobbing ] i'm sorry. [ sobbing ]
>> michael: yeah, it's an unpleasant thing to watch. cnn took a look at that same tape and their reporter, poppy harlow, had this to say in her report. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> i never experienced anything like it, candy. it was incredibly emotional and incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men who had such promising features, star football players very good students literally watch as they believed their life fell apart. one of them malik richmond, when that sentence came down, he collapsed. i was sitting three feet from malik when he gave that statement. it was very difficult to watch. you know something that came up throughout this sensing, candy, was that malik's father got up and spoke. malik has been living with guardians. his father, a former alcoholic with a lot of trouble in the law, had been to prison before. his father stood up and told the court, i feel responsible for
this. i feel like i wasn't there for my son. >> michael: i'm going to ask you, anonymous first about this. you know, it turned a lot of peoplepeople's stomachs to hear sympathy for the defendants in this case. but it goes back to what you were saying before about youth and this father saying i did wrong by my child. to him that was still his son i'm paraphrasing it, but that's his son. don't you think that come into play and how do you feel about that report when they single out the defendants for sympathy. >> i had a chance of meeting malik's father. i see where he got a lot--malik got a lot of it. but that was besides the point. he might have been under stress, who knows. i'm not going to blame him for any of that. with cnn giving them sympathy,
it's too late. this is not about them. they were charged. they're rapists. talk about the victim. the victim has to live with this for the rest of her life. the rapist, you can't even say accused rapist any more. they are what they are now. they made their bed. they should have thought about this months ago before this even happened. they brought it upon themselves. i don't show sympathy for them. i show sympathy for jane doe. she has a long road ahead of her. focus on her. quit focusing on these boys who damaged this girl's life and reputation. it's just not right. >> michael: in response with the same sympathies you have right there, they've gone to www.change.org . there is a petition with 70,000 signatures demanding that cnn apologize for that coverage for not being sympathetic enough. 70,000 signatures already which
is important. i thank criminal defense attorney and expert lou shapiro and anonymous for joining us as well 37 we now go to another story that is coming up next on "the young turks" which is a look at the stock market. it's climbing and climbing, but is this a middle class rally? >> cheers of joy and relief on the trading floor. >> is this good times ahead? (vo) the answer in a moment. brought to you by expedia. expedia helps 30 million travellers a month find what they are looking for one traveller at a time.
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ice breakers. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> michael: well back to "the young turks." the stock market was down just over 62 points today. not typical of how it's gone in 2013. it's been an amazing year for the market. with closes record highs every-- every--just constant record highs including 11 days in a row at one point. here is a look at the kind of things we've been seeing this month. >> today's games represent a remarkable comeback for the start market. the dow jumped 126 points. >> the stock market on a rocket ride closing at an all-time high.
>> the stock market on a roll anan all-time high. >> the dow setting a new record high beating the high previously set in october of 2007. the dow up nearly 8% so far this year alone. >> michael: you know and though the market was down today february jobs numbers are up. it seems like there are good indications of what we call the economic indicators. if you look at the job numbers in february unemployment numbers show it's down 7.7% from 7.9% in january. that's an addition of 236,000 jobs. not an unsignificant number. an article in "the new york times" talks about what might be driving the recent peaks in the stock market. some of the concerns about these stock market peaks is that it's not trickling down. this money is being made by the corporations, by the people at the top not trickling down to
the wage earners, because there is a stagnancy of how much they earn. i would like to invite david k. johnson. author of "how big companies use fine english to rob you blind." david, thank you for coming on to the "the young turks" today. >> delighted to be here. >> michael: you know, let's talk about the article. i want to show you some of the corporate profits and what was said in the article. before stalks incorporate profits soars because of cost cutting and productivity. now it's because of investor confidence in the growing economic strength of american households. when you hear things like this what is the first thing that comes to mind for you who looks at these numbers and looks at this information? >> that's pop wall street talk that is not reality of what is going on. if you look at corporate profits, michael you'll see that after the dip in 2011 they have gone through the roof.
they're at tremendously high levels. corporations are sitting on 5 trillion-dollar of cash, a great deal of it offshore and untaxed. when you look at wages the median wage has been stuck at $500 since 1999. it's been pretty flat. we are getting more jobs. the economy is getting better but at a lower rate than it should be. we lost over 700,000 government jobs during the obama administration despite all the right wing talk about him the fact is the deficit is getting smaller and there are fewer and fewer government jobs. the addition of jobs we had last month, 236,000 jobs, 70 those of those were business service jobs. that's a good sign for the future. accountants office workers being hired that employeers expect more business in the future. but the sequester and the press for austerity and the increase
that's amazing. tell me, is this how things start? is there a reason to be optimistic? >> yes well, look, we got into this terrible situation because of three things. we had a president who said tax cuts will make everybody's income grow up. i have written and challenged the data, no, incomes fell. then we had these unfunded wars. they're going to weigh on us as a cost for long after i'm gone. my children will be old before we're done paying for the war in iraq. the third factor, when we had a meltdown at wall street we put at risk $14.7 trillion--that's the entire output of the entire country for a year to rescue wall street, and we cut back on things like education basic research infrastructure that create lots of jobs for other people. we have an economy that is designed to do what it's doing and that is to redistribute upward and to benefit those at
the very top, and the massive americans don't get that because that's not what i news media is telling them even though it's very clear when you look at the official data. >> michael: a lot of people, david, in living to you argueed more for a stimulus in obama's first term. is this what you're saying here? a greater stimulus would have allayed some of this? >> two things are important. basic economic principle, your spend something my income. my spend something your income. if we had a larger stimulus and we had spent it more wisely we "t" would have had more of an affect. it turns out the money we used to keep teachers and cops on the job although a lot of teachers have since been fired had very little affect. but the money we spent to fix roads, bridges and other infrastructure that we have to eventually fix anyway, that had
a tremendously positive affect. we should have not long term multi decade national program. why can the chinese afford first-rate rail and highways more fabulous than we have. south korean internet, we can't forward this? because our government policies are focused on making the rich richer. and the republicans have basically said that to us. they said that the rich don't have enough, and the way to get them more is the austerity programs that will take from the poor the disabled, the out of work the sick and children. >> michael: who cares what the bridges look like if you're flying in a corporate jet. >> that's right. >> michael: david cay johnson always makes us smarter, thank you for enlightening us why this
stock market surge might be false hope for the country. we have someone else who really was false hope for the country. sarah palin had a chance to speak at cpac. >> this go around he got the rifle, i got the rack. for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.
[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> michael: anyone who follows politics said to you they don't get excited talking about 2016 now you can pull the old joe wilson and say you lie. anyone who follows politics of course likes talking about 2016. let's take a look and listen from a little bit of pre-game, pleapreamble to the 2016 game.
>> we don't have leadership coming out of washington. we have reality television. [ cheering ] our big gulps are safe. the rest is theatrics. the rest is sound and fury. it's just making noise. that sums up the job president obama does today. >> the republican party has to change by going forward to the classical and timeless ideas enshrined in our constitution when we understand that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. then we'll become the dominant national party again. it's time for us to revive reagan's law. for liberty to expand government should shrink.
about the sanctity of marriage and donald trump who has been married three times. he doesn't care about the sanctity of marriage. the hypocrisy of the republican party at these events is unbelievable. as long as that hypocrisy is so front and center and hits you over the head like an awful carnival barker does. >> michael: it's so true. how do they get away with this? how do they get away with having a second convention, almost a shadow convention to get all of this conversation because there is nothing else to talk about. >> well, my son, who is a good voting liberal said, you know, do liberals have a convention like this? i had to think. ii said no. he said if they do they don't get coverage like this. it's true. why do we showcase this. the conservatives within the republican party did seem to be the driving force in a
legitimate way. they've just now gone so far. when they have donald trump at the podium saying we ought to change our immigration laws to let in more europeans and then they have a panel about race and talk about the virtues of slave owner because they did after all provide room and board, it's like--it's an alternate university. the cpac convention is not going to help expand the vote. prebus did have some good ideas, but then he had laughable ideas like hiring those who are diverse and then send them out to the minorities. theythe tobacco company did the same thing hiring beautiful people to show smoking. >> michael: yes, especially if people buy into it, which is the problem. david, i want to you listen to sarah palin. you'll remember her.
she's the former governor of alaska. >> if these experts who keep losing elections and keep getting rehired and getting millions if they feel that strongly about who gets to run in this party, then they should buck up or stay in the truck. buck up or run. the architect can head on back-- [applause] --head back to the great lonestar state and put their name on some ballots. through their sakes i hope they give themselves a discount on their consulting services. >> michael: karl rove shot back at this, and then we'll hear from you david. >> i thought sarah palin was about encouraging volunteer grassroots activity. i'm a volunteer. second of all look, i appreciate her encouragement that i go home to texas and run for office. i would be enthused to have her
sport. i don't think i'm a particularly good candidate. sort of a balding fat guy. second of all i'd say if i did run for office and win i'd serve out my term. i wouldn't leave office midterm. >> michael: oh, a dagger, dave. >> yes that's fun to watch when you're on the outside watching. the thing about it is i timothy rove knows they have to stop denying invitations to sarah palin. all they need to do is bring in a celebrity and thousand how they can have this rigorous intellectual conference. sure have some conversations but have thinkers there as opposed to performers or celebrities. that's where the republican party seems to be stumped in terms of how they conduct these things. >> michael: yes, eleanor in talking about 2016 sort of bringing this full circle, we can say o this is a scary bunch
of people. one of them is going to get the nomination. it seems that this republican party keeps shooting themselves in the foot with minorities, with any kind of outreach, and with their candidates that they send to the big game. how is that going to change in the party? >> michael: well they're going to deny us the full entertainment because they're going to limit the number of debates. it will be a very crowded field. for the first time in my memory the republicans don't have a natural frontrunner. they're going to get a lot of fringe conservatives in, and not so fringe--rand paul will probably be a key factor. you also could have jeb bush and chris christie, and you could have a real--maybe the debate about the party's future will legitimately take place in the debates. when they ask if they'll take 10-1 cuts, someone will dare to raise their hands. maybe it's the debate they'll
need and they'll wait until 2016 to do it. >> michael: as they seem to be the party of the past, their talk about the future is ironic. david shuster and eleanor clift it's always great to talk politics with you. coming up, is colorado turning blue. >> i'm feeling amazing. it's the best day i've seen in my life. >> we're not going to see another 10,000 coloradoans arrested and made criminals this coming year. [ ♪ music ♪ ]
>> amendment 64 is passing. we're herring no on 64. numbers are saying amendment 64 it a go. history in the making here, folks. colorado the first state to pass this, an amendment to the state constitution making marijuana legal here. >> michael: that of course
november 6, 2012, election day in colorado with the legalization of marijuana amendment 64 passing in that state. colorado, though, all of a sudden starting to turn blue. it was always a fairly reliable red state. they had an occasional centers like gary hart but six times democrat. 18 times republicans. that's three times as many times they voted republicans than democrat. that's pretty good. now to discuss this even further in our mind we're going to colorado, and we have david sirota. david wrote a piece about this. he followed colorado politics really closely. david, as first chance you look at the colorado delegation in the senate, then you look at their governor. then you think this is a democratic state. not always the case is it? >> no, it's not always the case. colorado has been traditionally
republican or republican-leaning state. we are seeing at the policy level now a serious of progressive victories after the democrats retook back the house. they had it for a while. they lost it, and then took it back. a conservative democratic governor. conservative democrats in the senate. we're seeing the legislature pass a number of really progressive measures, and people in the state at the ballot level photoing for a number of progressive ballot measures. you mentioned marijuana. there was passage of 65 in citizens united. we had children of undocumented immigrants and even a debate on repealing the death penalty. big changes are happening here. >> michael: and the changes that are happening are happening close by in nevada too. you know maybe it's going to start spreading into arizona as well. is it something about the west or something about colorado.
you think about traditionally colorado springs area there is a huge bible belt there. big military state and then of course the city of denver, the city of boulder fort collins as well fairly democratic strong holds. >> there is a big demographic shift. there is an influx of latino. the latino community is growing and that is a community that tended up until now vote for mostly or more progressive measures than conservative measures and support those. there is an influx of simply knew people. a lot of people moving to colorado so the old paradigm of conservative coloradoans and the conservative intermountain west is changing in a really profound way. there is the whole idea of libertarian streak. a lot of what is passing is libertarian in nature. we've had as the marijuana example is the best example of them all. that's not just a liberal
progressive issue. that's also libertarian issue as well. so multiple changes are creating a dynamic that's probably pretty troubling to the conservative mosques. >> it's also ground zero or had been until new town in guns, the whole idea of gun laws and gun legislation because of what happened in columbine and what happened in aurora. there is a little bit of a divide there because it is a crowd of libertarian state which leads to a fear defense of the second amendment. there are people like the person cenk interviewed mel bernstein who is fighting this progressive push. >> we sell 24 to 28 guns a day. normally we sell 8 guns away. they're buying 40 rounds, 30 rounds, 20 rounds. 75-round clips. everything that you see on the wall here. thank you, president obama.
>> michael: that's a great colorado accent he has, too. there is this element in your state, dave. how is that being reconciled. >> there is a huge debate in the legislature over gun control. there have been protests and staged protests by the conservative movement against the gun control measures. they were modest measures, measures limiting magazines but they were portrayed as assaults on the second amendment. here's the thing as the polling show, as we've seen more and more mass shootings and some of them have taken place right here in colorado, that has not surprisingly shifted public opinion. it shifted mass popular opinion to say modest steps for gun control is not an assault on the second amendment. we can have modest regulations and also protect constitutional rights. the right does not want to have anybody believe that, but those are the facts of what is happening in the legislature. >> michael: yes, we're going to keep our eyes on colorado because the idea that they're
talking about overfurnishing the death penalty banning fracking, it is a place where a lot of progressive ideas are being put into law like marijuana or that's where the debates are being started. david sirota, thanks for starting us off on talking on a lot of these issues. always great to have you on the show. when we come back the koch brothers didn't win last time. are they looking at another way of possibly winning next time. >> the fossil fuel industry has an enormous amount of clout.
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>> you are funded in spatter by funds. >> fossil fuel industry has an enormous amount of clout. they are worth millions and millions of dollars paid to the republicans to not do anything
to fight climate change. >> global warming is going to have on the economy our lives and our freedom. >> koch industries would be one of the big industries. >> michael: that's from "greedy lying bastards" directed by craig rosebraugh and produced by daryl hannah. their influence can be felt but they didn't win. their guy did not get the white house this time. president obama, of course, won and i'm sure deflated them. they weren't happy but they keep on coming. in an editorial in their newsletter charles koch's new letter, i don't know how you get a newsletter if you're charles koch but it's called "discovery." november's election results are part of a trend that if not reversed will destroy the american dream. which is curious because he seems to be living the american dream and president obama is in the white house.
as a matter of fact, there is such great irony here when you look at the amount of wealth the koch brothers have, in 2009 when barack obama took office they were worth $28 billion. so then the american dream gets destroyed. just toldly lambasted. now they're worth $64 billion. there goes the american dream. it's an amazing tragic story of wealth being earned in duplicate. here to talk to me more about this is the always insightful lee f fong. >> thanks for having me, michael. >> michael: they are staying in the house. >> according to the koch brothers their wealth has more an doubled. if you look at the billionaire list it has increased even more. ifit depends on which list you look at.
but the newsletter that you mentioned is important because in 2009 that's the newsletter that they used to basically broadcast their intent to go after obama. it was in this newsletter four years ago that they said that obama was coming to destroy liberty, and then the americans outfit for prosperity organized what became the tea party. >> michael: yes, so--that goes to it, lee what is their motivation? if things are going so well for them why are they fighting this guy and this system, the system that has brought them wealth. there is zero enforcement from this administration of the things we want them to enforce. it seems like it's just a happy day for the koch brothers. it seems like that every day but in terms of this political climate. >> well, we live in a political system. unfortunately that is governed basically by special interest groups. and this problem has only been accelerated by citizens united.
the koch brothers, they see our system as a plaything. they can drop unlimited amounts of money and shape the world we live in. at the same time they have said in previous immediate interviews that they would like to pass on this wealth to their kin. they do not want to see an estate tax at all. they want that rolled back. they would like to see epa rules on coal and emissions they want to roll those backs on climate change and they want to win on any of these fronts. >> michael: they're spending more money than they would have to spend in estate tax, this is just me guessing but it seems like it. it seems they're spending to get rid of something that would not be as bad as the spending itself. it seems like it's poor business business. what also seems to be poor business is they're not getting the results they're after. they're spending and spending. it seems they're taking another
turn, another tack in this race. they're rumored in buying the tribune companies newspapers, television stations, a whole new way for them to sped their wealth and influences. multiple sources tell l.a. weekly that they're, is this a scary prospect for the country lee? >> two issues here. number one, this is bad for the l.a. times. the l.a. sometimes has stood out as one of the best newspapers in the country investigating koch industries for their political and environmental misdeeds. they had a great story two years ago looking at their connections to the energy and commerce committee. number two, charles koch is famous in the business world for being personally interactive with all of his investments
political and in business. we saw a scandal about a year ago where when koch gave contributions to florida state university. in in turn florida state university department that he funded had to run by research projects through koch for approval to go forward. there are reasons to suggest that if the koch brothers do buy the l.a. times they might not respect the journalistic integrity of that paper. that. >> michael: is that the way they work with retribution. >> not being able to take out presidentpresident obama from the white house, they ordered a top to bottom list of all these groups that they fund. charles koch said he's going to
start firing people who didn't do a good enough job at defeating barack obama. that cast a doubt for ease other groups that are already under the control of koch brothers. the evidence suggests that he does have that streak going on. >> michael: man that, would be great to have them tried in some way for violating campaign finance law about what they threatened firing workers. lee fong, we appreciate it. when we come back we'll have a final thought. >> only on current tv.

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