hello and welcome to spotlight, a government shut down looms in the us as the democratic led senate and the house which is controlled by republicans remain at loggerheads on plans to fund federal agencies. the senate is pushing for a stop gap funding bill that would extend federal spending until november 17th, but house republicans are opposed to a short-term funding expansion. they also want

deep spending cuts as well, the house of republicans have already passed several bills to fund parts of the government, that however would not stop a shutdown because there's no hope that the bills would pass in the senate, in and us government has started notifying federal workers that is shutdown uh is imminent, a government funding in the usns early sunday, if congress fails to come up with the clear plan, federal agencies will run out of money and that would affect hundreds of thousands. of workers halting a wide range of services, joining us on tonight's spotlight, we have daniel, at staff writer at executive intelligence review joining us from los angeles, and international from the international action center, sarah flouders joining us from new york. well, welcome to the program, to the both of you, let's start off with mr. platt in la, two days until a government shut down with no signs. of deal uh, does congress have

path to avoid the shutdown? there's always path, the question is whether the powers that be want that path to be used. there i think it is important to remember that much of what goes on in the us congress is theater. there was a study that was conducted in 2014 by the prestigious american university princeton where they found that the united states is not in fact a democracy, it's an oligarchy, it's a nation governed by a small group of of wealthy, you know, business interests, financial interests and so on. the us economy is in serious trouble, it's bankrupt, they are trying to preserve bubble of speculation, which were frankly cannot be saved, and there's going to be lot of hardship for the american people, and this this government shut down provides a scapegoat of source where they can say everything would be fine, biodinomics would be considered success if it

were not for the government shut down, so whether or not they choose to to solve the problem is an open question, but there are ways to solve. sarah flounders, how likely is it that there will be a shutdown come sunday morning in the us? well, there have been many shutdowns in the past, and it's true, this is absolutely theater on the part of both republicans and democrats, it is to intentionally on the part of both parties. create hardships for working people, for hundreds of thousands of federal government workers, for pension and social security checks, for essential programs for everything from libraries to parks that got shut down, it of course never shuts down the us military, it doesn't shut down any one of 800 military bases around the world, or the aircraft carriers, the submarines, it doesn't stop their wars for one minute, but does

impact working for profoundly in the millions and their families, so that is who it's intended actually to impact, do they care if they create hardships for working people? no, they don't at all, they'll actually save some money doing this, and that is what is the cruelest part of this theater. danielel plat, the american government's finances aren't in good shape, in august, the us credit rating took a big hit. how big of uh a hit, it will be substantial, but again i think that this problem would exist, shut down or no shut down, and they do uh look forward to blaming their failures on the shutdown. same question, you miss flounders uh about the fledging economy of the united states, our guests in la believes that the economy is in trouble with or without a shutdown, the u.s. economy, the economy is in trouble with or without a shutdown. "the us economy is in

deep trouble, uh, the dollar no longer ranks supreme, that's a fact, the whole world knows it, dedollarization is fact.". uh, their ability to impose sanctions on the world is falling out from underneath them, countries have found ways to trade and exchange directly with each other, that's enormously threatening to us power and to the us economy, they have sanctions on 40 countries around the world, if they can't impose them, if these countries are trading among themselves, that for spells disaster for the us economy, for us corporate power, for us banking power, so yes, there is real problems ahead, uh, who are they going to shift it to? they're going to try to push it to working people right here, so that they continue to make the profits, the super profits and uh, people here pay the cost, and people around

the world also pay the cost of this total theft of resources, pumping it endlessly into war and never into people's needs. sarah flounders, i'm going to stay with. you for the next question, the democratic led senate and the house, which is uh controlled by republicans, uh, they remain at logger heads on plans to fund the federal agencies, what are the main differences here? the senate is pushing for a stop gap funding bill that would extend federal spending until november 17th. house republicans are opposed to that short-term funding expansion. they also want deep spending cuts. what are these uh spending cuts? well, there's a lot of grand standing going. on uh and so the republicans may talk about uh war in ukraine and whether to keep funding it uh the military will always receive its money that's that's a fact and it's a given so what they're really talking about is cutting out all kinds of

programs which have been pretty essential in terms of infrastructure education uh health programs that's what they want cut to the bone. uh, there isn't enough money for that, and so there's a push pull back and forth uh with the democrats who would just as soon let some of these programs go by the way, but they want to be able to blame the republicans, so this whole thing about which deadline they're going to go with and whether it's extended or not, as i say, it it's it's really grand standing its theater. danielel platt, one of the key issues at hand uh is that some republican. lawmakers, they do not want money to keep moving toward ukraine, a georgia congresswoman has been quoted as saying, any defense containing ukraine funding is dead arrival. how deep is the division over ukraine here? well, i think the political opposition to funding is

significant. i agree with miss flounders that the likelihood that they will cut funding is very slim, but they fear the sentiment in american public, there was a pole conducted on august the 4th by cnn where they found that 55% of americans oppose sending more money to ukraine, and there were votes this morning in the congress on resolutions to cut funding, there were 100 congressmen that opposed the funding, they of course were outvoted, but that's still a significant number. there was also a vote on sending cluster musician, cluster munitions to ukraine, which frankly should be uncontroversial, most of the world. denounces the use of cluster munitions as a war crime, there were 160 congressmen that voted to stop the cluster munitions, and this was about half and half democrats and republicans, which i think is important, so even though i think that the powers that be will ram through funding for ukraine, they fear that

this fight over ukrainian funding will spark some kind of the major resistance in the american population. right, daniel plat. how did the us get here and what does it mean when the government shuts down? well, as you mentioned, it's shut down, shut down 22 times prior to this, it's kind of becoming routine, and think it is kind of mechanism for psychologically controlling the population, to keep them to convince them that there's a huge difference between the two parties, which is largely illusory, or that it's important to fight over these tertiary issues. rather than the big ones, which are the neo-conservative drive for global war, which is absolutely a bipartisan effort, and also the continued desperate attempt to bail out the bubble of financial speculation, which cannot be safe. there's never any debate over those issues, until like i say,

this business with ukraine is becoming something of a public fight, which is very useful. sarah flounders, you mentioned earlier that there have been a number of uh government shutdowns uh i came across an interesting question uh on the web by uh by user which said why is the government us government always shutting down why does a threat of a government shut down almost every year, what can you tell us in that regard? well, it is part of this posturing that they're fighting each other, and it's really shadow boxing, it is completely staged 22 times, that's a lot, it shows how many years this is gone on and on for and how it is every year, every time at least it gets resolved, with some essential programs cut. uh some really important ones that have to do with social needs and at the same time, lot

of speculation on terms of who's making the money on this, but the wars don't end, nor are they really cut, and uh, it is very true, this figure 55%, and that's at least of people who admit that they're against any more funding for the ukraine, so people in congress got to act like they're addressing that, but of course they're not. they will continue to fund the wars, they will continue to fund us threats and they will try to take it out of the population right here uh and and that is what this is about, it is so it's so fraudulent, it's really hard to treat it seriously, because everyone knows they'll they'll arrive at some backroom deal, they'll cut the budget here and there, we'll find out that uh this this social program, this medical program, this cost of pharmaceuticals is no longer covered, you find that out long

afterwards, it was all part of the bargaining and haggling, and uh, really none of it is, we're we're i'm talking to you from new york where we're in the midst of flash floods and subways shut down, just from rainstorm because the infrastructure here is so decayed, so decrepit, and there's no funding for it, so i'm here at home. unable to go anywhere because of the condition of the uh subways today. this is part of what is happening everywhere in the united states today and it's happening in the schools, it's happening in senior centers and day care centers uh everywhere, the the programs are being gutted and nothing is being rebuilt. staying with you miss flounders on the issue, the last partial government shut down as you also loted to was in uh 2018 through. 2019, that was um, supposedly the longest in history, lasting up to 34 days, there was one

in october 2013, where the government shut down for 16 days after congress was unable to agree a budget for the new fiscal year, whether this is posting or not, obviously um hundreds of thousands of federal workers, millions of people are affected by this, what are the projections saying about this one, about the duration, about the severity in comparison to the... shutdowns, well we should know what happened with the last shutdown, because in a country where the greatest number of workers live paycheck to paycheck, the idea of being more than a month without a paycheck and bills coming due and rent coming due and tuition for children and all kinds of things, these shutdowns create huge problem, the shutdowns for that... long a time of of parks and highways and roads, all kinds of things, uh, it's an enormous um

inconvenience, more than inconvenience, a real problem, real life threatening problem in some situations, uh, so it's been done again and again, how long this one will last, we don't know, uh, programs like fema, they'll shut down, but as i say, the wars don't shut down, and so just making those comparisons. i think is an important part of it, if if seniors don't get a social security check, that means hunger, uh, so you know, uh, these these uh shutdowns create real, enormous and immediate difficulties, and that's part of the theater, both, both sides claim they want to reach deal and it's a problem of the other party. daniel platt, miss flounders just uh, mentioned an interesting. um a comment and interesting notion that even if the government shut down, the wars don't shut down, do you, do you

agree with that? absolutely, it's a bipartisan consensus, the people that say that we don't have bipartisanship in the united states just starting attention. all right, and uh, daniel plat, the us government has already started notifying workers about this eminent shut down, with no deal in sight, millions of workers are in limbo. what services will be rattled if deal is not reached in time? what's the impact? for example on food assistance, medical benefits, retiry benefits and etc. well, it will be substantial, and again, we've seen this happen before, we know what to expect. and it shows a certain disregard for the welfare of the american people, the the commitment to the global war agenda of the neoconservatives is iron clad, and they're willing to sacrifice the welfare, the of the citizen, without hesitation. sarah flouners, where is

joe biten all of this? well, he's been kind of out to lunch for. long time, um, where is he, his party maneuver, part of this whole theater, uh, and i have no idea what to say, because clearly he can't resolve it, this is push pool that goes on between the house of representatives, the senate, one has one bill, one has another bill, uh, obviously he could with executive authority keep any of these things still functioning, but of course he won't do that, he would rather put it on congress to thrash with each other uh than to any way try to solve it, and that has also been the role of past presidents, they act like their hands are tied, and uh, of course, they they could pursue, they could push through any of these programs if they so

chose, but they don't choose to do that. daniel, the us president be more present. during such a critical impass? ideally yes, but we don't really have a president in the normal sense of the term. uh, there was another poll conducted by cnn a couple of months back where they found that again a majority of american citizens considered donald trump and joe biden both unfit for office. so you have to ask questions about a system which enforces a rigged choice where people have to choose between two aging, decrepit and frankly incomp. and individuals, you would think that at least someone in either party could emerge that is not a neecon that is not committed to the disastrous policy this country has been on frankly for several decades, but whenever someone like that tries to emerge, the media and the party apparatus join forces to suppress their campaigns. daniel, a side note

here, the gop led house oversight committee held its first hearing thursday. day morning on the impeachment inquiry of president joe biden, talk us through its relevance in in this point in time, well it's sort of become uh it's sort of like a junior high school environment where each party in turn tries to impeach the president of the other, and it's frivolous, it's again uh designed to create the appearance of huge battle between the two parties, which is frankly illusory. all right, and same. house oversight committee, they held their first hearing thursday morning on the impeachment inquiry of the president, talk us through its relevance right now, it's i it's kind of irrelevant frankly, impeachment of one party impeaching

the other, it's another thing that goes on again and again. and like like these government shutdowns time after time, how many presidents have there been attempted impeachment, impeachment hearings, you know, it's really none of this has to do with how the us government functions on an international level and functions domestically here at home, it's not, what happens in washington is not what is to people's paychecks, which haven't increased in literally decades now, and haven't, we can look at the declining education levels at all those things, this theater of who's impeach who and where the hearings are, it gets a lot of media, it's important in the election

campaigns of certain politicians, they get in some quotable quotes, but what it will amount to, i have, i don't see. all right, and uh, final question, for both our guests, daniel platt come sunday morning, what's your prediction uh of the situation with regards to this whole uh government shut down possibility? um, i'm really not willing to make a prediction about that, i'm not sure, there there is a certain volatility here, and the opposition to the funding of ukraine, i think is key flash point, it's very. peculiar that the american media have taken the describing opposition to the war as a right-wing policy, and this is something which is sort of an alason wonderland sort of thing, because historically in the united states, the left has appear opposed, you know, wars of aggression, they opposed the cold war. nowadays anyone who speaks out against this very dangerous proxy war in

ukraine is branded a right-winger, and uh, it indicates that there's a certain kind of desperation here to try to keep the public under control. they're afraid the public a certain point is going to say, this is ridiculous, we're no longer going to accept the the quote unquote narrative that is being foisted upon us by the... miss founders, i want to get your prediction as well as final question for the program. well, i'm very much part of organizing demonstrations, actions, protests around the country, from october 1 to october 8th, where we're planning demonstration here in new york, on sunday, october 1st, and it's targeting the media, their their role in war propaganda, in pushing. these wars and in creating the stage theater, and there's a growing anger at the media and at the military, so i i think these

actions around the country, and the they're very much left and progressive and anti-war forces, there's more than 60 different actions in the coming week, i think that's important, they're not large, many of them, they're still a symbolic level, and yet they're speaking to the majority of the population. who's against this war and against enormous waste of resources a time when human need is so great and where we have real problems of of climate catastrophe there should be a war on that and um infrastructure uh problems of social needs, these are the real problems facing it, the political parties aren't addressing it, and so people are beginning to address it on their own, with all kinds of community actions, so uh, you can actually see the this at uh unacpece.org (una c) peace.org for a listing of different actions, but i think it's just

the beginning. it's a first step in organizing opposition to the wars, to the cuts and demanding that money be spent for jobs and human needs right here, and not for endless war. okay, thanks lot. national action center from new york and uh staff rider at executive intelligence review daniel plat joining us from los angeles. thank you for contributing to the program and also a special thanks to you our viewers for staying with us on tonight's spotlight. it's good night for now see you next time.

the us said it was going to reconstruct afghanistan and restore security to the country, but after two decades where ever you look in the country, you only see death and destruction. many us officials have taken the lid off the widespread corruption. under the guise of reconstruction projects. follow the details in this documentary.

your headlines for this hour, israeli forces have shot and killed another palestinian youth during a ring in the occupied west bank. people have taken to the streets in burkino faso to show support for the junter leaders on the anniversary of the military takeover of power in the african country. and the biggest automobile workers union calls on 700. members join a historic strike over contract disputes with manufacturers.