and suddenly it's on everyone's radar and it's a very complicated issue to explain to people. but it is remarkable. have you been involved in that we met. >> i started it. >> that includes global corporate actions and consumer labor, all of this going to secret tribunals which are not part of our court system. and they block the most awesome power combination that you can have. that includes the corporate law firms and the people in congress and the president of the united states jobs, industries, center corporate regimes, stripmining america. >> that includes on capitol hill. they don't have that vanguard. the two of them working together. the whole point of return to sender was not to showing people that there are interesting things and they don't care what knowledgeable letter. it's to try to get young people you are much more committed on the issue that you are writing the letter on. and you produce a vacuum and that is exactly what the 1% has talked about. >> they needed a stop sign because they wanted to slow cars down. the third-grade decided to make that their project. and they see that they were able to make an impact. >> perfect example of what we should do in elementary school other than this corporate gillam. >> and here is the point. we are obsessed with test. >> one individuals that i think i have located a waste him. she was only five blocks away. so she took a little journey and it was like a square block all over it. and they exposed it and the press gave them publicity and the mayor invited them and they cleaned up. and as you say, they are never going to forget that. they actually testified on the legislation in the state legislature and they were so motivated that they wrote a book called kids and social action. she's not lecturing around the country how you can motivate elementary school children to learn about their civic responsibilities and improve their own local communities instead of watching screens and text messages. and that is what the power structure wants. they want to read us in a way where we grow up corporate to shut up and shop as they once encouraged us to do and live our private lives in increasingly degraded standard of living. >> what has been your biggest disappointment? obama has been almost seven years. he came with so much hope and i think that me being included in that wave of excitement brought him in and i think that a lot of it is disappointing in many ways. and you were speaking about this. what has been your bigger disappointment. >> he dodged a lot of controversial votes by not voting. and you could see that he was a maneuver is. he was trying to figure out how to climb the ladder of power. >> if you want to know who would be the next person climbing the ladder to the one who has the least record. >> it comes down to character and personality for all politicians. he was conflict averse and when it comes to challenging the power structure and he wanted desperately to win on the complex and the war machine and the empire and he was not elected on a mass movement and that is the problem with all of these politicians. unless we have a movement over 100 years ago, the ones that were elected knew where they were coming from and they knew that they were not coming back. and it is a slogan. and so that is the problem is that he didn't have a transformative personality politically, he had a transaction. the worst thing is that he didn't even have the personality to deal with congress. he paid the price on the trade bill. >> he was transformative in some ways by bringing people from the right and the left together, whatever it will is. and so you have to have that transformative ability. and that includes some change from the get-go. >> he was transformative in terms of bringing minority groups. >> the house and senate he blew it and he never mentioned it. in two years when he could have got it through congress and the same with health care, he punted on the public option and not insurance company are laughing all the way to the bank and so are the drug companies with a staggering prices of medicine. >> has it been talked about, we had a majority of the house and then it and all democrats and you have that moment passed. >> i'm so glad that you mention that because most people don't talk about it. >> you know, i am from iraq originally, i was able to vote today to have a representative. my daughter who was born here hardly speaks arabic is able to vote in the iraqi parliament. >> president obama in the white house. the thing is that people out there have to be a little bit supportive of us here around the country because there is no capital that has a hint of being a democracy where the people that live in the capital like paris and london cannot vote. >> i think that the statistics show that they don't even know that. >> and the democrats are likely to blame. >> is there another website for statehood for washington dc? >> yes, they do a lot of work on this issue. >> arts this exciting in any way shape or form? >> well, if hillary is really a very confirmed a militarist, she put aside robert gates who did not want to attack libya. and the secretary and isis is going in and out qaeda is there and the weapons are spreading all over and it's spilling into central africa should never seen a war she didn't like and it's like they are trying to over compensate by being more aggressive so that they don't say this, that you are too soft. even though the great tradition of advocacy in this country is more associated with women than men. and when it comes to domestic, sometimes i have to accuse him of plagiarism. >> he's good on wall street, he's good on worker rights, he's good on tax reform. >> he's very hawkish on that issue, very supportive no matter what. >> he voted for the appropriations for iraq year after year in afghanistan and he hasn't taken on the military-industrial complex. he's very sensitive as to the industry in vermont, like the dairy industry and the machine tool industry which feed the lot of products into the equipment. but he's going to take strong stands and he's going to have to take this. you cannot have a parallel campaign because they can sweet talk them. >> he was a fairly progressive senator. but he could really develop. but he has to be more exciting. >> he could really raise the minimum wage and work on health care issues on this. >> he has to develop a strategy. on the republican side you're probably going to have like 18 candidates and the worst nightmare and the worst of these is donald trump. if assuming that he hangs in there he's going to burlesque the whole republican nomination process. and he just goes wild and his ego, you know, the problem is that he is going to be a nightmare. i'm sure that bush and others are going to say oh, no, this i can go all the way through the primary because he has the money. and he's going to practice later the entire country, but he thinks he's going to give a lot of people jobs and he presents a serious problem because now they are probably trying to figure out how they deal with their flamboyant announcement. and the only techniques that they have is to exaggerate someone's bizarre traits and make people laugh and second you can exaggerate donald trump. >> i don't think that he likes to be pushed in areas of progressive movement. and so he is a lone ranger and he is not a network the way that paul wellstone was of citizen groups representing people in the country, he doesn't have that type of personality. if all that we have our progressive senators and they are all over lone rangers and don't have a caucus to do so, we are not getting anywhere. >> that would be good. jerry brown doesn't like to talk about it. now that he's governing as two thirds of the legislature in sacramento and it's amazing. and he's playing a very safe. >> he is ready. >> thank you so much, ralph. it has been an honor to have this conversation with you. we have had some, but never this in depth and i appreciate your time. >> if you think that this is an interview, he opposed me. >> thank you. >> you are welcome. >> booktv in prime time continues on friday with books by 2016 presidential candidates. at 8:00 p.m. mike huckabee discusses god and guns, grits and gravy. his look at american culture great at 9:00 p.m., doctor ben carson, what we can do to save america's future. and at 10:00 p.m. senator marco rubio on american dreams restoring economic opportunity for everybody. and then former secretary of state hillary clinton on her memoir. 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. >> helen taft made several notable changes to the white house. the most obvious is replacing white male ushers with african-american staff, leaving an effort to create a memorial for victims of the titanic and her greatest legacy was bringing thousands of japanese cherry blossom trees to the nations capital. this sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on first ladies influence and image. examining their influence on the presidency. sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv and c-span3. sumac coming up on c-span2, or town hall meeting on race relations in the u.s. then the navy secretary on cybersecurity. later the human rights commission posts a briefing on the african militant group the resistance army. >> on the next "washington journal" health care correspondent margot sanger katz joins us to talk about whether the expansion of health insurance actually cuts health care costs and then the 80th anniversary of social security and what the future holds for the program. later conversation on the u.s. foster care system with the director of policy reform and advocacy. we will also take your phone calls and facebook comments and tweets. "washington journal" is live every day on c-span. >> secretary of state john kerry is in cuba for the raising of the u.s. flag of the u.s. embassy. diplomatic relations between the u.s. and cuba were restored on july 20 after 50 years. see the ceremony starting at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span2. >> c-span is in des moines for the iowa state fair and wrote to the white house coverage of presidential candidates. live coverage is on c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org is the candidates walk the fairgrounds and speak. here's the schedule at 10:30 a.m., jeb bush. the noon on saturday, rick santorum followed by lincoln chafee at 1230 and senator bernie sanders. on sunday afternoon ben carson at 5:00 o'clock and george ptaki taking you on the road to the white house. >> this sunday night on "q&a." to for policy studies fellow phyllis bennett on u.s. foreign policies since 9/11. the recent negotiations with iran in the war on terrorism. >> what are are are their origins? where they sell violent? all of those questions are important and i dressed him in the book. but i think that what is more important in some ways because of something we can do something about is what is the u.s. policy >> coming up next, the state of race relations in america. looking at policing, ferguson, baltimore, and charleston. this is about one hour.