close circuit cameras watch. to now we don't only have on the ground we have them from the. coming to an airspace near you drones that can see your every move what was once a town did as a military advantage is now being used to spy on american citizens so beware big brother may be watching you. hello there it's thursday january nineteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine and you're watching our team. i want to start this afternoon by just with a discussion about class when you think of society with clear cut divisions it's really easy to think of you know old europe great britain for example where there are under classes an upper classes royalty but it turns out in england just thirty percent of those born into the lowest income bracket never escape it compared to

forty two percent in the united states so basically you know the nearly half the people born poor here will stay that way and it turns out people now have fewer illusions about that reality a new pew research center survey found people believe there is not only a divide but conflicts as the result of this divide check this out about two thirds of those surveyed about sixty six percent believe there are very strong or strong conflicts between the rich and poor in america that's an increase of nineteen percentage points since two thousand and nine. but what about the american dream and the notion that no matter where you're from and what circumstances are as long as you work hard and go to college you too can rise to the top well we decided to take our own survey to find out just what people think. and do you think that no matter who you are or where you're from no matter what socioeconomic background that you're from that you can be as successful as anyone else i think that anybody

if you're determined enough and you're motivated enough you can do anything you're in this country it is in a nutshell the american dream a dream so big even those on the other side of the world know about it but i am chris i'm from sydney and i suppose what we were told about the american dream is that anyone can achieve it the american dream is to come here and make the most of yourself. do you think it's still achievable today harder but it's still achievable achievable for a few but the reality supported by facts both from the u.s. census bureau and the facts of life is that it is most often a cycle repeated and whether you're born. here or here most likely that is where you'll stay and still some politicians believe it's a matter of teaching those poor people a lesson i'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people now on how to get a job learn how to get a better job and learn someday to own the job owning the job even getting the job

harder now than ever the whole. model is fake it's not real especially for those born on the wrong side of the wealth gap now since the one nine hundred seventy s. income inequality in america has been on the rise but today it's now at the highest level since the great depression and while the occupy wall street movement has helped shed light on some of the biggest problems for a lot of people a good concrete solution is still a long way on your out one hundred k. when you when you get out of most public universities right now how you get how you climb and all of that that was specially with the shrinking job market it's pretty ridiculous as i just found out i just graduated from college with a degree and i'm working at the same little thai restaurant that i have and was working in five years ago the middle class and no longer able to stay in the middle never mind rise to the top there are a lot of smart people that because of their situation aren't living up to what they

could be and they say that if you work hard and you've been successful you say that's true that's allowed because if you go to pour neighborhoods that are hard is what you want to plant are. working hard with little chance of realizing in ever more elusive american dream in washington christine for south r t. so it seems on the poll numbers show as well that americans are waking up to this reality that it's not as simple as you know if you work hard and you go to school you'll be rich and successful but the point of this is not to be a downer it's to talk about some of the real issues here that are getting in the way and i think it's to say it's safe to say now more than in the past. it's getting in the way of hard work and motivation being key factors to success so i want to bring in the founder of why don't wake news dot com charlie mcgrath hey there charlie i always think of george carlin and his you know skit about the american dream he said it's the american dream because you've got to be asleep to believe it and what do you think about these pew research numbers sixty six percent

of people in america believe that there is a class conflict or a conflict between it's because there most certainly is one you know and fortunately with the tea party movement as well as the occupy movement and unfortunately because of the situation on the ground and with the economy of this country more people waking up to it that pew research poll what i found most interesting about it is fifty five percent of people who call themselves republicans believe in this inequality gap and this is been you know this is been the time for the g.o.p. to come out and start talking downplaying this class warfare or or start talking down going after corporations and pay their fair share but when fifty five percent of republicans more than half of republicans surveyed say there's a disparity you can be rest assured there absolutely is what i think that was so i think that's a really good point let me let me just interrupt here real quick because it's not just republicans surveyed it's also republicans that we're seeing

a whole lot of i'm talking about the g.o.p. candidates and certainly the front runner right now has given his thoughts all of them have given some thought i want to play a quick clip from mitt romney in a recent interview. i think it's about envy i think it's about class warfare i think when you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing america based on ninety nine percent versus one percent and those people have been most successful will be in the one percent you've opened up a whole new wave of approach to this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under god charlie what about that concept when it makes me sick christine really to hear that you hear mitt romney say that you know this is somebody who has got to direct advantages of being a wall street insider he can't fail he's too big to fail look christine if i give you a trillion dollars and you go out and blow it for this lee and you blow it erroneous lee and fraudulent leak and then you take your failure and hand it to the government just giving you

a blank check once again you two cannot fail and nobody would fail under the conditions that wall street is paying playing in the fact of the matter is you know the girl you interviewed for the spot earlier you know this college girl still working in her thai restaurant that's reality that's main street in two thousand and eleven eighty five percent of college graduates were forced to move back in with mom and dad carrying a thirty thousand dollar debt load with them mitt romney has no clue he's been born with a silver spoon in his mouth he's been this raider of companies destroying them destroying jobs and now he's up there saying it's class in be it's in be because these top one percent who cannot possibly fail and when they do we socialize their failure it truly really makes me upset to hear this kind of same old rhetoric out of the g.o.p. the good news is the pew research shows fifty five percent of republicans are saying you know what i don't believe that anymore these too big to fail or the problem with the country certainly an important point as specially when it does seem like

a lot of these republicans in the spotlight are taking from the same pot of talking points using this class warfare rhetoric and people just aren't buying it anymore let me put up real quick on screen charlie a chart that shows people's income growth. from the last from the late one nine hundred seventy s. until recently now if you look at this it shows the lowest quintile versus the top one percent and how much their growth has grown from this period of time and you just see three hundred percent that's how much the top one percent wealth has grown so you know it's one thing to start low and growth suddenly and to start high and grow suddenly everybody's growing but to say that you know there's it's so disproportionate and i think it's to say it's safe to say by the way that that this trend is still continuing how do you reverse the us well i think it's going to reverse itself because you know this pew research study shows more people are waking up to it the occupy movement which was trying to be sold as just this leftist vent is waking a lot of people up ron paul is waking

a lot of people up with his surprising success in these primaries but the boot the thing that's going to wake most people up is the reality of an economy that's bad parading before the very eyes that are the standard of living is evaporating before their very eyes i thought a religious thing i recently quoted the new york comptroller on a survey from two thousand and seven to two thousand and nine wall street's profits are up seven hundred and twenty percent in that same amount of time unemployment is up one hundred twenty percent and main street the majority of the people that are middle class put their or their savings in their home their equity in that same amount of time has fallen by thirty five percent so the disparity i think is going to lead to one ultimate conclusion which is the everything that these the g.o.p. and even the democrats come out and say about we have to give these incentives to corporations and we just have to suck it up by our bootstraps and get out there get a job i mean the reality is the the economy just will not support people who are

looking for work so i think the reality on the ground will catch up and more and more people will continue to wake up and it's truly the only solution and there is so much corporate. corruption between wall street in washington d.c. that we have this legal based capitalist system and we recently saw this with the attempt to pass sopa you know giving and advantage to big business in hollywood and as well as the music industry people are starting to wake up to this game and they're not believing the lies because they're seeing you know the proof on the streets of how difficult it really years to make a living that is a livable wage or a middle class i think you're in good point sally i mean in terms of you know it's just sort of the information getting out there people waking up as you've said several times. but as far as concrete changes i mean the tricky part for me is that it's still those people who benefit from this system that are the ones in charge so that's what i'm wondering i mean just from my final question for you is how does

that change i mean those are still the people in power the people who benefit from the system why would they give it up. well you know they're not going to give it up they're going to be kicking and drag screaming to give up that power i think the only solution is this the this mass awakening that i think's already begun i think it began with the tea party and then it continued when reality started to turn negative in this country economically with the with this movement of the occupy movement the merger of these two energies i think would do a lot to change what's going on in washington d.c. and look you know again let's look what's happening with ron paul the mainstream media has been absolutely attacking this guy from day one in two thousand and eight he won one county in iowa and now he's you know double digits and he's coming in second in some polls have him you know nationally of there with the front runners i think because of the situation on the ground people waking up that is why ron paul is having the success he has and as we continue down this road of being totally and

completely lied to by washington d.c. and wall street we can't help but to wake more people up because that and that is going to be the only solution christiane's enough people wake up to say this is it we're done all right the founder of wide awake news dot com charlie mcgrath in bozeman montana thanks so much. also ahead on r t iran is on the brink of arming its atomic arsenal or so u.s. lawmakers and media outlets would have you think but is it a real threat or just a bunch of nuclear nonsense or question more when we come back. that just burns your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. much stronger than anything you'd be by obviously. our rules of the arms were stronger than any kind of debris and they were putting them.

into the real military mechanisms to do the work to bring justice or tell the good . i have every right to know what my government's true if you want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize obama as a charismatic. of american exceptionalism. well the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff army general martin dempsey is in israel today and no doubt the number one issue on the agenda will be to discuss iran never mind that strained relationship over the past several decades between iran and israel as well as its western allies well just look at the last few weeks first there was that mysterious assassination of

a top iranian nuclear scientist both the u.s. and europe of sort of kicked it up a notch in terms of sanctions against iran and tehran has threatened to shut down the strait of hormuz the passageway for about twenty percent of the world's oil trade there are a few reports out there now though that show iran has abandoned any and all plans to develop new. they are weapons there are also other reports out there that suggest at least that's not the case the question is how does the rest of the world react to what they think is going on while he said live on all of this policy director for just foreign policy robert naiman what do you think robert i mean is iran making a nuclear weapon or not. well according to defense secretary leon panetta he iran is not now trying to develop nuclear what this is what he said. to the nation that sunday are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon know it's important for everyone to know not just that leon panetta said although is the defense secretary of state but the does is the

consensus of the sixteen a children's agencies of the united states two thousand and seven is far as we know it in twenty eleven iran has not decided to to try to produce nuclear weapon is not to run it's not now trying to go out there looking at weapons so anybody who says different as an issue with the united states and its intelligence agencies and the secretary of defense all right and let's you know even israeli defense minister ehud barak says you know a decision about an attack on iran this is something that a lot of people talked about could be imminent. as this is a long way off if it will happen at all all of this week israel and the united states announced that they would postpone a joint military exercises in the middle east so what do you think i mean is this a sign that even in israel that worry is subsiding. a lot of stories are circulated why exercise was postponed one dominant story it did appear and told us in this

really press was that the united states canceled the exercise because they were trying to tamp down tensions and they were concerned get in the recent context that escalated tensions it would send the wrong message and escalate tensions in some. order jim press. service interpreted also as a signal to its release from the u.s. government or unhappy by the surete of this really officials are suggestions that israel would unilaterally starting at military confrontation with iran something that the u.s. government is strong opposed to so i think in any event it is a sign that they're a force trying to deescalate tensions in the u.s. government. doesn't mean that we shouldn't worry because there's a longer term trend towards escalation that we see with the u.s. economic sanctions and the counter threat and some iranian officials who are in the

or district of hormuz if the u.s. would seriously try to cut off iran's oil exports which is would be an act of war so i think over the short term we see an attempt to deescalate tensions but it has a long term there are structural problems that the united states and iran are illusion of course and more means until there's a serious real diplomatic diplomacy between the united states and iran to resolve the issues between them in particular it wants nuclear weapons all thinking about the promise they are at least possible attempts at it i want to talk about this letter that may or may not have been sent by the obama administration to ayatollah khomeini in which it may have stated that closing the strait of hormuz is our quote red line that's what apparently was said in the letter of their talk there was also a request for direct negotiations or talks with iran in a letter now obama administration officials deny you know sending a letter about iranian news reports say it wasn't fact sense and it was in fact received so let's say for the sake of argument that in fact obama did send this

letter asking for direct talks what changes anything. well it's an important thing for the united states to communicate over and over to are on that it's really talking everything you multilaterally you know. really can you you know bilaterally mulcher there communicate that the u.s. is ready for real negotiations and that you know many people in iran and elsewhere think that the obama administration should have gone through the motions earlier when it said that it was interested in diplomatic resolution so if cuba and administration does want serious symptoms then there really need to make it clear to the iranians that they are interested in serious diplomatic process and that means compromise you know some people in the united states that don't want a couple months and all don't want one that's what i was going to say robert i mean there is an entirely opposite narrative from the one that you're saying and you

know a lot coming from the republican party and some of these g.o.p. candidates are as you see them criticizing obama criticizing the president saying that would be a horrible idea president obama would just be you know silly to even attempt to talk to iran why is this such a prevalent argument as well well two things first of all the republicans are engaging in a kind of opportunism which is to try to to. you know sell a fairy tale that the united states can have whatever it wants just by the tuxes not true no serious analyst believes didn't ron will ever agree to give up d. in richmond if you raney and this result of a diplomatic process or as a result of sanctions so if you want to. eliminate a nuclear program completely the only way to do that is to invade the country overthrow the government in occupy the country put in a quisling regime that they will do we want to obviously nobody wants to that

because the american people are tired of war and that you know in that direction like disaster so if you're not going to engage in occupying you know obviously the government then you know the only other alternative is really diplomacy where the u.s. would have to negotiate and where you get something. like you know iran agreeing to cigarettes international inspections in exchange for the us. agreeing maybe tacitly that iran can enrich uranium in that direction lies a real solution and let third girlfriend know about what seems to be a bargaining chip a few well for tehran and that's the straight start of. again this passageway that one fifth of the world's oil goes through apparently the u.s. has now sent a second navy carrier despite warnings from iran not to do so to sort of either babysit this area or send a message what do you think is the deal here with us well obviously the situation

is dangerous honestly there is a pattern of brinkmanship on both sides the united states you know as steps this red line reportedly ok well if it is a red line you know then i want us to tell there on that but people should understand jeff the iranian threat was conditional threat that had a context it wasn't you know we're in a bad mood today it were going to shut down the strait of hormuz it was if you try to shut off our oil exports that's an act of war that's a big share of the lion government revenue when you're running economies in june we will block you to straighten them so if united states doesn't try to cut off iran's oil exports then there's no reason there's no reason why iran would ever do that so really the question comes down to is the u.s. really trying to cut off the launch of the exports congress passed legislation many in the administration do that they've got some you know that's where the question was how do you avoid that scenario for real diplomatic agreement between the u.s.

and iran that would allow the u.s. to say get ministration to say ok we don't need to we don't need to do this now because we have lost as a result of this is a policy director for just foreign policy a rather name and certainly a lot to keep our eyes on here. on ars no doubt that the way this. country fights wars is changing drastically from the places our military goes to the weapons it uses well here's some food for thought ten years ago the pentagon owned about fifty predator drones today they've got about seven thousand the pentagon has also asked congress for nearly five billion for more drones and twenty twelve and it turns out as we move forward those drones will not just be used to attack suspects suspected terrorists in afghanistan and pakistan so they'll start being used here in the united states and. shows us instead of invading people cities and towns they might be used to invade their privacy. they are the cornerstone of america's military

arsenal dropping bombs on bosnia pakistan afghanistan libya and yemen a manned aerial vehicles known as drones have become the trademark of washington's war missions targeted assassinations and spying operations overseas but today the local police departments using unmanned spy plane said to catch suspects the remotely piloted more weapon is flying domestic u.s. local police and federal officials are increasingly using drones under the auspices of keeping citizens see police departments are using them in the united states or not i think almost two hundred sixty six applications that have been approved for police departments to use drones as aerial surveillance devices drones can be armed with a wide range of surveillance technology including high powered zoom lenses and infrared ultraviolet images. as the u.s.

government flies prying eyes through the sky lawmakers have neglected to create any privacy protections for american citizens all of this is conscious and intentional and they're putting in place. controlling the population may be unemployed. and i think they're. not just. being federalized the agencies keep using more and more of these to justify their existence so they can say we need this to crack down on drugs we need this because there are a lot of robberies in this neighborhood we need this the united states is not only now a military industrial complex it's a homeland security complex they've merged into one in two thousand and six arrow via. a drone manufacturer received four point seven million dollars from the

u.s. defense department to develop new on manned aerial vehicles. the newest and smallest invention is hummingbird a palm sized q looking spy plane weighing less than one pound there can be a very lucrative market in the united states for growth through police department you are already militarized tanks just so we are called to assault rifles. the modern police looked like the military and so now they're going to be using military women first lawsuit has been slapped against the u.s. department of transportation for allegedly withholding records pertaining to the domestic use of drones currently the american public cannot find out why drones are being used or who is controlling every corner there's a closed circuit camera watching what you're telling so now we don't only have i'm on the ground we have from the air this month the federal aviation administration

is expected to propose new rules making it easier for law enforcement agencies to why drones americans democratic sky more weapons used overseas to keep the u.s. safe now being considered a serious threat to u.s. freedom at home marina porter artsy new york. while the capital account is up next on our team let's check in with lauren lister to see what's on today's agenda i know lauren you're getting ready in a few days to head out to the world economic forum in davos going to be talking about that i am getting ready to head out to davos next week but no that is not on the agenda yet today because there's something more pressing we got to get to which is that while i'm gone the fed's going to be meeting christine and they're going to maybe be talking about more quantitative easing more money printing some have reported is going to be on the agenda but we want to ask you know the fed has expanded its balance sheet it's tripled its size since. the financial crisis this

affects you this effects me this affects people all over the hour all right and we have no say in it we're going to talk about it right i'm sure all eyes will be watching that's going to do it for now for us though for more on the stories we covered go to our t.v. dot com slash usa or youtube dot com slash r t america. wealthy british style. is not on the title of. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on r g. download the official antti application to i phone all i

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good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. now the federal reserve has more than tripled the size of its balance sheet since the financial crisis printing money in order to do it whose decision was that not yours unless of course you're one of the handful of members of the federal open market committee next week they meet some are predicting more quantitative easing may be on the menu but what is all this money printing really amounted to we'll talk about it and speaking of bailouts. so do you know that taxpayers actually made money on the wall street bailout.