bonuses

Eleven workers dead, untold volumes of sea-life poisoned and more than 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea. If that's what a historically good safety record looks like at TransOcean, I'd hate to see a bad year. Most people know the name TransOcean only because of the explosion on the company's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Congress is passing tax cuts for the rich as well as everyone else this week, while Don't Ask Don't Tell is headed for a stand-alone vote in the Senate. Is gridlock over, or are these just issues that actually have some bipartisan support? Meanwhile, Julian Assange may be out on bail, but the debate over the charges against him still rages, and Megan Carpentier of TPM reminds us that it's possible for the arrest to be politically motivated and the charges still not be false.Megan joins Laura in studio to talk austerity measures, tax cuts, Don't Ask Don't Tell, rape prosecution, and much more.Wall Street is set to award $143 billion--with a B--in bonuses this year, while foreclosures continue unabated (and often undocumented) around the country. Protests are continuing around the country too, though, and Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter notes that when her family couldn't get a regulator to examine her family's foreclosure, "What we went to was a grassroots organization."Desiree joins us, along with Amanda Devecka-Rinear of National People's Action, to fill us in on yesterday's protest on Wall Street, actions around the country, and the process of building a movement to fight Wall Street corruption and help people remain in their homes.Finally, while Julian Assange sparks debate, gets celebrity bailouts, and heads to a country estate for "manor arrest," WikiLeaker Bradley Manning remains in solitary confinement after seven months, without being convicted of a crime. Laura asks us to remember Manning and other whistleblowers as well.

The Olympics have seen more than their share of controversy this year, from the death of a Georgian luger early on to the ongoing debate about policing, spending and co-opting Native land for sports. But many people still love the games, and tune in to watch sports that get forgotten the other three years--or to see dream teams put together to compete for gold. To talk about the good, the bad, and the corporate at the Vancouver games, we're joined by two veteran sports journalists, Ann Liguori of WFAN and Robert Lipsyte, PBS contributor and former New York Times contributor. And of course, we couldn't talk sports without touching on the media's ongoing fascination with Tiger Woods... You've seen them: the signs that pop up everywhere, with just a phone number and a seemingly-unbelievable promise. "We Buy Houses" "Make $45 an Hour." They're becoming even more common during this recession, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found, and they made this video in Baltimore with Robert Strupp, director of research and policy at the Community Law Center. President Obama revealed his health care plan this week, and activists across the country are gearing up to push to actually pass health care reform. In this video from Ramblin' Man Films, we check in with protesters in Los Angeles outside of Anthem Blue Cross's office, angered by a 39% rate hike by the insurer. Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy for God and Patience with God, has had enough of claims that America is now in a "post-racial" era; if that's true, he asks, why does so much of the opposition to Obama's actions seem to have a nasty undertone? Last week, while Esther Armah held down the fort here at GRITtv, Laura was in Santa Fe meeting with activists. Of course, she took a camera with her, and captured this interview with Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water and one time Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly. We've also got the trailer for the documentary film FLOW, which Barlow also appeared in. Jose Alcoff was in Honduras recently, and contributed this exclusive report recapping the turmoil, and checking in with the social movements there about what's happening next. Finally, Laura and Mother Jones magazine have some suggestions for what we could do with the bankers' $20 billion.

We've all seen the headlines about record bonuses on Wall Street just a year after record bailouts with taxpayer dollars. And we all know that the rest of the country is hardly feeling the recovery. But even right here in New York City, recovery hasn't yet trickled down, and inequality is just getting worse. To discuss real economic recovery for New York's working class (and the people in urban centers around the country) we invite Mark Winston Griffith, executive director at the Drum Major Institute and 2009 candidate for New York City Council, Matt Ryan, campaign director with Jobs With Justice New York, and Jonathan Hicks, former reporter with the New York Times and senior fellow at the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy. Bill Clinton, explaining the U.S.'s hand in Haiti's crumbled infrastructure. Queen Elizabeth, apologizing for colonialism. Has the world turned upside down? No, it's the Yes Men, putting some words in the mouths of world leaders that we'd like to see. Rev. James Forbes took part in sit-ins at Woolworth's lunch counters in his youth, and in his new book, Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Protestantism, he shares his prescription for a way to build progressive communities through spiritual support and understanding one another's worldview. The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission will allow unprecedented corporate money to influence United States elections -- essentially giving corporations free speech rights. Free Speech for People is calling for a movement to amend the constitution to keep corporate money out of our election process, and in this video they ask people whether corporations should be given the same rights as they have. Finally, as a result of policies around the tar sands in Alberta, the Royal Bank of Canada has been deemed the World's Most Environmentally Irresponsible company. This video from the Rainforest Action Network explains why.