all. the. price of. the bullets from phones to crash. starts on t.v. dot com. the

french government stands firm on its plan to raise the retirement age is a violent protest that industrial action paralyzed the nation the unions say around three million people took to the streets and energy supplies have also been hit forcing france to import electricity. and there are more protests this time in london after the british government announces the biggest reduction in public spending since the second world war almost five hundred thousand public sector jobs will go on with multi-billion pound cuts to the defense budget the aim is to reduce record debts that swelled during the global financial crisis but some economists are saying the cuts should have gone even deeper. and a deadly show of loyalty the terror attack on the chechen parliament on tuesday may have been a pledge of allegiance to al qaida of porting to the republic's interior ministry three people died seventeen were injured when four terrorists tried to seize the government building. headlines up next the alona show and this time we ask if after fifty years of an economic embargo on cuba what will it take for the u.s. to lift the restrictions stay with us here on r.t.

. welcome the alone the show will get the real headlines with none of the mersey are coming live out of washington d.c. and today we are debuting a brand new look for the alone a show so i hope that you guys like it now today we're talking about the u.s. economic embargo on cuba it's been in effect for the last fifty years despite pleas from the u.n. and others to end it so why is it still intact and what exactly will it take to lift those restrictions we'll speak with colonel lawrence wilkerson next the word socialism and big government are constantly being shouted by the tea partiers and the right wingers across the country but meanwhile big corporations keep using their money to buy influence in washington so are americans missing the point the

corporations and backed pose a larger threat than the government author david swanson will give us his thoughts on the topic then in politics is it the dumb or the better what happened to the days of being proud of an ivy league education and a political experience christine for will join me to discuss the evolution of the political at next we'll examine the european right just like the changing sentiments here in the u.s. european countries are expressing overall hatred towards muslims so i ask how far they can go and does the tea party have anything in common with the european right and universities are taking the immigration issue into their own hands as several schools have banned undocumented immigrants from enrolling in classes so we'll debate the dream act and whether examples like this will really do anything other than hurt children that's at the end of the show but now let's move on today's top story. on october nineteenth one thousand nine hundred sixty the u.s. began its economic embargo of cuba now fifty years later and as of yesterday it's

still in effect and the obama administration has said that we are far from ending it more than seventy percent of the current human population has grown up under this blockade as some would say the losses inflicted against the island surpassed seven hundred billion dollars and every year the u.n. general assembly adopts resolutions urging urging the u.s. to cancel the sanctions will europe western european and canadian businesses have long disregarded the u.s. stance and perhaps most as currently for americans is the island has survived as has the castro leadership the revolution never happened so why after fifty years can we just end it when joining me to discuss it is colonel lawrence wilkerson former chief of staff to colin powell lawrence thanks so much for coming back on the show but i tell you this i mean do you have any answer why on earth fifty years later is these sanctions still exist you're asking me in your prologue at least why

is the united states insane about that infernal little cuban republic is teddy roosevelt called it that's a hard question to answer unless you go to the root cause and the root cause since the end of the cold war at least has been a group of floridians from they'd county florida from a few cuban americans from new jersey and a few from mountain of that and other places who have a walk on this particular aspect of foreign policy and who are well funded and willing to throw that money out to other congressmen and women who don't really have a dog in the fight cuba after all is not a huge issue and so will sell their vote for the the quid pro quo of debbie wassermann schultz or elaine a waltz whiteman's or some other cuban americans vote on more critical issues that's what it's all about that tiny little majority has tyrannized cuban policy since the. the cold war what is going to take i mean how do you beat out this tiny little majority i mean these days we even have fidel castro basically not

announcing defeats but admitting that his economic policies are not liberalizing or the economy releasing political prisoners late and what are we doing to reciprocate absolutely nothing and you would have thought that the obama administration might do a little more that's what it sounded like when he was campaigning a little more than just allowing people to wire money to their family members you would have thought it's unconstitutional that americans visit cuba the only country in the world where americans can visit and he won't even do that he won't even restore that constitutional right to americans to visit cuba and many americans find the travel ban incredibly unpopular you yourself have signed onto a letter with other officials urging for this travel ban to be lifted any any headway with on wall reagan actually use this ploy of this policy if you will the soviet union he wanted americans to travel to the soviet union because ronald reagan relies americans are great emissaries for their country and ultimately for

democracy freedom capitalism all those sorts of things. it is absolutely a mystery to me why this president and his staff including his assistant secretary of state roger seem to be possessed of no courage at all in terms of reversing this policy this is the first president who was elected without the cuban american vote in florida come on let's move let's do something now do you think that in a way because american politicians are are so stubborn which is also maybe why they don't want to lift it i mean if you look at it at the end of the day does these you know do these sanctions as some bargain keep it is that prove that well our policy failed i mean the island survives they still have business you know the kind of proves that in this globalized world just because america cuts you off doesn't mean that you're inevitably going to drown that's true but it's more serious than that for us we have an isolated cuba we've actually. it ourselves we've isolated ourselves in latin america brazil argentina and i think we're nuts and we're

isolating ourselves increasingly with our own allies and we're giving our enemies in the world a reason to pillory us in every council of international government an international conference you know i have chinese diplomats who laugh at me when i talk about human rights in china when they can exist can explain how for example we continue to harbor a terrorist in this country posada korea who was responsible for the bringing down of a cuban airliner that killed over seventy people and a bombing and to have an a hotel that killed an italian citizen nothing's been done he walks around through the streets of miami as if he were a patriot he's a terrorist and we don't do anything about it and on top of that we keep the five cubans in jail who were essentially in cuba or in florida to spy on the terrorist in florida as they call them and i would have to agree with them in some instances who were planning on actions like that in cuba so why do we give them the draconian sentences we did refuse to negotiate with and with regard to either release of

those prisoners or at least some alleviation of their senses it's nonsense it's definitely something that the rest of the world does not agree with us on and you are now the last vote the u.n. was about one hundred eighty forty two right i think one hundred eighty four hundred eighty seven countries against us but this is i want to ask one other question here this is a little bit off topic but another thing that perhaps the rest of the world doesn't really agree with us on is our insane defense spending just now david cameron or just a few days ago did announce finally that the u.k. is going to be taking an eight percent cuts and that they can no longer afford such interventions as they had in iraq and afghanistan what do you think that means i mean is there any chance that we will ever be influenced by that quite the opposite we have robert gates hillary clinton just. i just did an interview with the b.b.c. yesterday and we went into this in some detail and. secretary gates has let it be known throughout the defense department that the maybe not retrenchment is the word

is easy but that the cuts are coming i'm being told there in visioning one hundred billion dollars almost immediately and they're going to have to deal with that to a certain stand the decision he's made to concentrate on counterinsurgency strategy and those kinds of little wars rather than the big war is going to help help that because the big ticket items like f. twenty two raptor big aircraft carriers and so forth may not be in that portfolio but the cuts are coming they know it and they're steeling themselves for the admiral mullen the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff knows it i think the american people are going to demand it particularly when they begin to understand how bad this economy still is i hope they start demanding it but i know you're you say more convinced that i am that the defense cuts are actually coming to you and we have to work through the car is very nice they simply won't let secretary gates do it i guess though i guess laura thank you so much for being here all right still to come on the show tonight the apocalypse is coming or so glenn beck says his latest ploy to scare his viewers into enriching himself has to do with

a very pricey food survival kit and forty six percent of americans think of the government poses a threat to their freedom as corporations continue to buy influence in washington are americans missing the point. if i were a favorite show host to hate is making me angrier than ever you know glen bag he

loves talking about the upcoming apocalypse the impending doom of america that's right around the corner according to of course the fox news personality in fact beck talks about it so much he's encouraged his fans to invest in gold he's become a spokesman for goal line international the company that argues that gold is a better option and this is citing where the dollar just keeps losing value and a company who is now under investigation for fraud hopes but moving on with the apocalypse drawing closer and closer that is also telling his viewers to have food insurance that's right the company food insurance dot com has just popped up on beck's site and he's even done a spot for them please consider insurance take the pressure off know that your family will be safe do the easy things now call eight six six nine got food. now what he doesn't tell you is of those food supply kits cost anywhere between two hundred to ten thousand dollars and i'm the only one who sees

through this glenn beck is using these threats of the world ending to get more money in advertising and the first he promotes gold now is promoting food survival kits people this is fear mongering at its finest he is capitalizing on apocalyptic fears that rants about how america's do with having unfortunately large following one can only assume that fans will hop on that food shortage bandwagon forbes estimates that glenn beck made thirty two million dollars last year and his lawyer viewer loyal viewers have been shelling out a one hundred dollars or more to see their messiah speak the sad part of it all is that he's just scaring his falling into buying crap that enriches him personally crap that they're never ever going to need so let me just fill you guys in on a little secret if you don't buy gold or a food survival kit just buy everything the glenn beck tells you you'll be just.

now according to new polling from gallup americans don't really trust their government forty six percent in fact believe the federal government poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens and i guess you could say that while that's just normal for liberty loving americans in fact if you look at a gallup poll from two thousand and six it was forty four percent then who felt that way but see where the big shift has occurred is who feels threatened and it goes along with who is out of power and two thousand and six democrats where the government fearing party today surprise surprise it's the republicans you know in all of this data is something missing from the bigger picture if republicans win big in the murder midterms does that really mean that americans will start trusting their government anymore well i can tell you that they showed it and that's because the government and the corporate world those people who try to block progress and social change so they can keep making money they work hand in hand and the g.o.p. has twenty times as guilty of it they're the biggest threat to the rights and

freedoms of ordinary citizens but for some reason the citizenry just doesn't get it in fact they are being fooled to think of the corporate funded movement called the tea party is a grassroots so how do we get them to really understand when joining me to discuss it is david swanson activist and author of his most recent book daybreak undoing the imperial presidency and forming a more perfect union david thank you so much for being here tell me this i mean i understand americans are frustrated with their government right now a lot of it also stems from the economy you know there's a lot of things that you can be angry about but do you think that they're kind of missing the point because they're just so polarized these days they're being forced to focus on the differences between democrats and republicans and not realizing how closely tied they are while i'm frightened of my government my government is a threat i think there are serious dangers in what it's doing but when you look at the fact that republicans didn't think there was anything dangerous going on in this town a few years ago and now they do you have to wonder what in the war. is it is it you

know having on an african muslim president or what and when you look at democrats who just a few years ago were concerned about the illegal wars and expanding presidential powers and torture and incarceration without due process and warrantless spying and all the rest of it which is all still going on and being expanded upon why did all their concern go away and they don't think there's anything to worry about anymore that frightens me the fact that identifying the government as a whole and anything it may be doing and being perhaps incredibly ignorant there of with a single individual the president and if the president's on your team everything's good and if he's on the other team everything scary that fact about american culture frightens me i don't think so i'm with you here in the fact that you know including expanding presidential powers illegal wars putting american citizens on the sas nation list i think those are genuine real threats to american citizens to our rights to our liberties but those are what most americans focus on because right now there seems to be you know this these feelings sentiments about how

health care how cap and trade climate change bills that's really what's going to take away your rights and for me i mean that's because you have these big corporate powers that are fueling for example the tea party movement and they're telling them what to hate even though well they're the guys that are fighting progress every step of the way around every corner and they're the ones that are going to keep regulations out and keep those bills back well i completely agree and i'm sure you're right but it's hard to tell for sure from a gallup poll what people are thinking because of how gallup does it i mean the number one concern was that government's too big well there probably would have been my number one concern and i would be thinking of the pentagon for somebody else it would be they're trying to give me health care or they're trying to protect my retirement or whatever it is that terrifies these people and so you can't tell from just the government's too big which part of the government people are thinking is too big i don't think gallup should start asking what is it about the government concerns you exactly oh absolutely i mean you were talking in an earlier segment

about. military spending we don't have polling on that ever nobody is asking if that's funny they never seem to answer that question it's a problem but i mean what can you do that how do you get americans to you know right now yes they're unified anti-government where we're the liberty party the tea party movement going back to our roots how do you get them to really get the point to figure out what it is that's actually dangerous to our society versus what we're being told this dangerous well if you look at jobs and you look at housing and you look at the power of the banks and the corporations that are by the way not hiring employees rather they're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on attack ads that make us all stupider and meaner when we watch television then people start to get the message and you know this these tea party and glenn beck ism is built up on people's anger over loss of jobs and loss of homes and and concern for their own well being but then tries to push them into you know buying food insurance rather

than treating food as a human right by in retirement insurance rather than treating social security as a human right rather than pushing them into attacking the corporate structure that you know we're now learning about these meetings if you want to the corporate structure he works at them has in hand i mean they have this amazing way of of have hiding everything they do of shielding it so i feel like you know americans out there they just don't they don't get to see it because it all happens behind closed doors i mean that for that survival they give me a break you really have i feel it's survival kit for two hundred dollars it's incredibly dangerous because it doesn't just fall into glenn beck's madness it puts the idea in people's minds that food is not a human right but you if you can't buy food insurance you can do without food you can't buy fire insurance the fire department sit there and watch your house burn that's incredibly dangerous you know i looked at this list of two hundred super wealthy right wing funders of our elections conspiring about what agenda to push and which candidates to fund and i see this will. the couple from my tell me

they're the gilliam so i guess all their money comes from coal and they fund republicans and they get to play a role in where our country goes but none of those called average americans don't because average americans don't make it on that list and that's really part david thank you so much for being here thank you ari coming up tonight our nation's finest have been caught on tape prancing around a college campus chanting about rape you will not want to miss what i have to say about the yale fraternity brothers who think of forcing themselves on girls is a perfectly acceptable thing to yell about in public and if we've learned one thing from this election cycle it's that if you have a degree from an ivy league do not brag about it the education that used to be an asset is now a burden so look at the dumbing down of american politics next. month

. which great if you remove it. from science to. stop don't. where do you draw the line with fashion you know people have complained for years about the fashion industry everything from the racy fashion shoots prepubescent models and the list you know just goes on and on or not so this time critics are

angry about the way that the designers are. advertising their product check out this latest ad from calvin klein it features a model lara stone so rounded by a group of shirtless men and some are saying of this promotes the idea of gang rape so thus the image has been pulled from billboards now this isn't the first time we've seen a skinny female model surrounded by a group of guys in fact it in take much effort at all to find it least three other pictures with the exact same gang rape concept does this mean the fashion is glamorizing the idea of rape to sell their products i mean come on i just do not buy that if everybody wants to have a hissy fit there's something that's a lot more disturbing than a model photograph of the bunch of naked guys let me tell you just a few days ago frat boys from delta kappa epsilon at yale university were filmed doing a ritual to initiate new pledges check it out. if

you can catch that no means yes and yes means anal that footage is captured by the school's newspaper now these frat boys are just prancing around shouting about rape and anal sex this is a whole lot more disturbing to me than a calvin klein ad and the worst part about it is that while this attitude is very common for fraternities the idea of having your pledges prance around talking about raping girls all under the cover of hey boys will be bullies you know all the sex experts and counselors out there spend their time worried about a high fashion ad for attorneys across the country are doing their own advertising when it comes to getting a woman in their beds against her will to let's get our priorities straight people . now if you've been watching campaign ads this season you've probably noticed that they're more serious and severe than ever gone are the days when you made ads promoting your experience and your love for politics they're now replaced by fear

mongering attack ads for having experience for being smart now the opponent is a bad guy so how exactly do you create a political ad in this election or a tease christine for gives us step by step instructions on how candidates are campaigning. all right class listen up today's lesson how to get a job in a tough economy now in conducting my research for this i went to the one place where job candidates actually spend millions of dollars just to get through the door the door of which i speak the door of this building the u.s. capitol as well as other state capitals around the country now there are many approaches this is lesson number one set the bar low i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard i'm you. none of us are perfect lesson number two instead of talking about your own frank talk about the

other job candidates weaknesses wouldn't it be nice if every time make we've been told a lie or news would. be in your. lesson number three tell them why the place where you want to work sucks but many things are wrong in washington washington balance the budget i come from a long line a lumberjack. my family has a proud heritage a swing in me yeah i've always been quick to take on a big piece of timber and i'm just as ready to topple the big spending in washington. confused have you learned is different in the past well it hasn't always been this way veteran washington journalist rich cohen says things have changed drastically from the days of candidates campaigning on knowledge and experience and ideas not to mention their ability to be successful in washington where the unusual time in american politics when the politicians almost want to be

separate from the world in which they operate do you want a harvard or yale lords georgetown. don't talk about your high class education lest you be considered an elitist. marceau dot com good republican candidate for governor i like to recall all permits and registration but guns everyone carry a gun to the cultural one no you get murdered and you go to jail and clearly it doesn't matter what you say what matters is that you say it loud enough and ridiculous enough to stand out to you tom can you see what he tells. her see what he's become. deaf see. fiscal conservative a name. in sheep's clothing. viewers voters better of all out of time torn about care of aides that are of

a lot of patience so the candidates have to be quick to the point they've got to grab their attention kind of by by the fro. lesson number six them this is an important one you should always pack them heat. beat pamela gorman candidate for congress in arizona three conservative christian and a pretty fair shot. i'm joe manchin i approve this. game that the cap and trade bill will republicans they should be better now if all else fails well blame china carly fiorina laid off thirty thousand workers when you're talking about massive layoffs which we did perhaps the work needs to be done

somewhere else cheeriness ship jobs to china so in summary class when applying for a job make sure to do just like all those other people applying for some of the most powerful positions in the country don't talk about your qualifications or education criticize your competition and make sure whenever you're out in public that you're carrying a weapon. reporting for our team i'm christine for is out and i approve this message. well christine joins me now in the studio with more on this first of all i want to know why is it that you decided to play a character to play the role of a teacher instead of i guess just reporting it directly well it was hard to do a serious story about campaign ads when they're just so ridiculous i mean we turn on the t.v. and everywhere you turn it's a little strange that they're using these methods so i wanted to take a look back and that's why i talk to rich cohen i mean he has been covering washington and covering congress for longer than i.