the u.s. economy is on quite the roller coaster down then and today another steep drop for a country already stuck in a like natural sinkhole so will this ride ever and. it will but. the same time you do this you have to do you make sure that your phone providers are you know watching children where you. are bill you certain things like the right isn't going to end anytime soon least for those living in california we'll show you just how much the golden state losing its shine. and the verdict is in a russian pilot arrested in liberia is found guilty of drug trafficking by

a court here in the united states but why exactly is the u.s. involved to begin with. and first it was libya and now syria finds itself in the middle of deadly violence so what's the criteria for u.s. intervention we'll take a look at cherry picking in the arab spring. to our top story today some disturbing numbers out about the economy when it comes to jobs recovery it has been a bumpy ride but now one of those fun rides it's been a slow and unpredictable one last week applications for unemployment benefits jumped to four hundred twenty nine thousand that's an increase of twenty five thousand making it the highest total since late january while there still is some positive growth it seems to be just going a little too slow to get anyone really too excited take

a look you can see here the seventh straight quarter of positive g.d.p. growth up just one point eight percent is from january to march so what's it all mean for the average american joshua holland is an editor and senior writer at alter net he's also the author of the fifteen biggest lies about the economy and everything else the right doesn't want you to know about taxes jobs and corporate america he joins me now from napa california. all right so on one hand at least the numbers are moving in the right direction but give me your take on the bigger picture here what is number say to the average american. well i think it's important or stan that we've lost seven million jobs since the beginning of the crash and when you look at it one point eight percent g.d.p. growth that's anemic compared to what we need we don't need normal growth to make up for the loss of employment we super above average growth we need to catch other

because we've fallen so far but you know where and when you do think about you know the average person that's going to take a look at places where you can actually get you know i truth fleiss' of the american pie and i think you know wal-mart is certainly one of those places if not the place but even there the observation is a little grin i want our c.e.o. my do this week said quote a wal-mart of course shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices and the retail giant is worried he said you know we're seeing consumers under a lot of pressure what story does this statement tell you well it tells the story of this recession we know that it's a complex story the mortgage crisis caused the financial panic but it's a fairly simple story how that spread to the rest of the economy how it started to affect main street and what we're looking at is a country where we've lost fourteen trillion dollars in wealth. stock wealth our

retirement plans etc etc and economists tell us that when we lose well we stop spending then you look at the unemployment rate hovering around ten percent underemployment is also includes people who've given up trying to fire people who are working part time who on a full time job is around sixteen percent the foreclosure crisis continues we're going to hit a new high in foreclosures this year you add all of that together what you see is a huge hit in consumer internet and the united states. economy about seventy percent of our economic activity is made up by consumers but consumers by and cars are going out to general going to movies whatever and so that drop in just. translates to a lack of customers business is never hire people they don't customer demand for goods services at the same time we had a stimulus. you know classic econ no one says that he will. the government can step in and try to or huge amanda.

runs out i think. in order to be surprised but these are the figures one would have gotten into recession fundamental issues in session i think it's really interesting guys you said something that economists say that seems kind of simple is that when we lose wealth we stop spending but i do want to give this a little perspective there are some places where spending has not stopped in the midst of all of this this country is still involved in three wars and right now the u.s. and particularly the pentagon you know they're still trying to stay on top of the development of new weapons and technology so here's something interesting pentagon has just released this figure and may cost as much as one trillion dollars to operate the military's fleet of lockheed martin f. thirty five aircraft for the next few decades one at trillion dollars little was there i was so interesting to think about this in light of the economy. yes you

know we have such a deficit fever gripping washington d.c. these days and i think it's important to point out that it produces some estimates about ninety percent of our public debt is based on past military so we talk about you know social security or medicare and we're not really talking a lot of what i would argue is an unsustainable commitment problem and that's part and parcel of the deficit and major part and parcel of the deficit and it will continue to be going forward and i was asked about holland editor and senior writer at alter net dot org. but only when we talk about the economy about economic recovery in particular it's important to not just focus on the big cities san francisco new york and washington were signs of economic woes are much less obvious we want to take a look at some of the less populated and i guess you could also say less popular regions in this country where the light at the end of the tunnel is still too far

off to see our teams were among the lingo takes us to one california community where the situation has gotten so bad people are actually packing up and moving out . thank you all and construction in a series of development projects give the appearance of an economic upswing in riverside california well below the surface but darker realities blanketing the area east of los angeles river. panhandle and homeless encampments are scattered around the landscape of the riverside area like most cities in america the housing collapse caused great financial suffering here the problem is that on the occasion show her situation is actually getting worse it is getting tougher and tougher in my own family i have to send her out of work despite her own family struggles linda whitlock shows up here homeless encampment and sack lunches every week she's been doing this for seven years providing

a lifeline. to go back to dump her food from behind bars. but it's not just the homeless asking for a handout some of the people standing in line do have a home but were embarrassed to be shown on camera california ranks sixteenth in the nation when it comes to food hardship and riverside rank number two among all us metro areas. at the riverside county food bank requests for food have risen twenty five percent in the past three years we are able to help maybe as much as three hundred to three hundred fifty thousand people per month there's almost seven hundred fifty thousand people who are living at or below the poverty crisis line the two county region so we still have a long ways to go in the bedroom communities east of los angeles hunger isn't the only issue there are tons of foreclosed homes just like this one which have been warded and are now sitting empty. according to realty trac an online foreclosure

market place there is a foreclosure filing for every forty nine homes where the highest rates in america that's part of the reason that riverside has are in the dubious distinction of being on top of forbes list of cities where the economy is still getting worse. they call it capitalism what they probably call life thank you way. over the decades economics professor mason gaffney has seen riverside go through some difficult financial cycles but the type of market speculation they contributed to the two thousand and eight financial crash along with a decrease in tax revenue have created an environment with grim prospects. we've been through before we have bounced back. but i. have. a sentiment shared by the way nichols i would like to know where they can you see me e-mail you know i would like to know because i don't see it

happening here nichols has been unemployed for two years and is applying for food stamps divorced father of two but his job as a floor installer would be secure now he takes whatever i charge you can get into swallowed his pride to apply for government assistance it's really difficult young bynum at the same time you do that you have to do the nation at your house for a while before you know what until you're waking up and i come in with their bellies heard. last year riverside had an unemployment rate of fifteen percent only detroit was worse today employment rate is holding steady at about fourteen percent while nichols prays for a call back from one of his interviews he's already considering leaving riverside altogether he's not alone economists predict that some four thousand people will be area this year you buy a car or buy a bike. that's the dream of financial prosperity it's only california becomes more

elusive it's many just plain impossible these people are human beings and they need help in there they need to go in they should not forget about them we should help more of the people that are here in our own country in our own. as much or half as much as we hope everyone else around the world in riverside county california. archie so forbes magazine actually ranks the top cities where the economies are not only not getting better for getting worse here are the top five for side san bernardino where that report was just centered on is number one number two is stockton california three is detroit michigan for the los angeles long beach santa air an area and number five bakersfield california not such a good showing for the golden state on this list well earlier i spoke to george having her he's founder of survive and thrive t.v. and he told me why he's packing up and leaving. you almost have to laugh because

you feel like crying and. homelessness is so pervasive and i was talking about this on my you tube channel it's like ninety percent of the time i go out shopping the panhandle years. you know asking me for money sometimes accosting you for money so there's a lot of friction happening in my city between people that need money and are out panhandling and the people who do have jobs are just trying to go about their daily lives so we are now resting homeless people if you are too poor that you have to big you're going to be arrested and put into a police car and sent off to jail so that i clearly that that is a common practice in other parts of the country but that's the first time i've actually physically seen that so really i don't know i just thought that was a speaking of hitting the streets charge at really interesting this night gratian that we're seeing ramon pointed out about four thousand people are expected to leave the riverside area i mean where are they going to and what's the how. well

i'm one i've been here over thirty years and i am leaving next week i have a job interview with a company called royal metals group in iowa and they're doing over five hundred thousand dollars in in gold transactions in the midwest and that's apparently where you have to go for a job these days i talked with a gentleman in vancouver that does hotel hiring and he said california is dead he goes but the midwest is doing halfway decent so for those of us that can afford it or have the opportunity i guess we're going to farm country i don't want to fall capitalism because i believe in the free markets and i believe in the ability of people to you know produce for themselves but what happens what we have here in california. we have a real leftist political. bent to us and we have a political strategy that's killing businesses killing new job growth

and it's a tale of two californians you have you know illegal immigrants and illegal under the table jobs and then you have the above board jobs and those are just decreasing actually let me rephrase that we are getting jobs you know mcdonald's is hiring burger king is hiring big lots is hiring in there you can make eight to nine to ten dollars an hour those jobs are coming back so the economy is coming back but it isn't good jobs it's part time minimum wage and you got to get food stamps to supplement your income and then forget about having medical care if you get sick maybe you can go into one of those you know immigrant hospitals and pay all cash but you know if you have a major disease just die and i was sort of having their founder of survivor and crying. well of gary in a new york federal court found russian cargo pilot konstantin guilty on charges. of

smuggling cocaine prosecutors in the case they are saying who was involved in a criminal scheme to transport an estimated two hundred kilograms of cocaine via diplomatic mail from ghana to new york on a delta airlines plane lawyers for you are saying go say not only are these charges wrong but the case should be dropped artie's on a saucer churkin has details. a legit tons of cocaine a pilot snatched up and brought to a foreign prison and a wrong fax number this is the case of constant senior shango a russian pilot in his forty's scooped up by u.s. officials in liberia last year brought to a manhattan jail and along with four other suspects charged with international drug trafficking. is now long time he did not even know where he was when he was brought to the u.s. he was put in solitary confinement and he didn't even know he was in the united states constantine's wife victoria just to write to new york she says her husband

was kidnapped by american agents well america says your show was smuggling drugs to south america africa and europe mostly from this way la and liberia the pilot has complained he was beaten and tortured following his arrest. he tried to pick fights with him provoking him constantly close to try to stay away from that he asked them why are you treating me like this i didn't do anything to you and i have not been found guilty or tory believes the case against her husband was fabricated by the u.s. but i have not also i think that was involved in this is unclear he has never been to the u.s. in his entire life he never had a u.s. visa and was in third country upon his arrest him. when constantine you're schenkel was arrested russian officials were not duly notified and moscow cited a breach of international law we have. apologized to russia the state department's excuse we pressed the wrong button on the facts and. to be brutally for

notifying romania instead of russia to observers this seemed a joke in this series of questionable details in this case the idea that there's a bank of buttons they push it i guess if they push the next one they would have gone to rule rwanda which is next on the alphabetical list so that sounds like a bird. strange story and i don't think anyone would buy that your son goes cases often compared to that of victor boot similarly snatched up by the u.s. in thailand and currently on trial in america for arms trafficking some see a tendency here if they can use interpol they can use. picking up the phone to russia and trying to talk about this just going out and kidnapping people i think this is part of the carry over from the bush cheney administration the defense team has long legal the case of provocation and unsuccessfully called for its dismissal the prosecution meanwhile has been fighting to limit the scope of issues there can

be addressed during the hearings they want to exclude questions regarding the legality of trying your show in a u.s. court allegedly by a lesions in the investigations leading up to his arrest and official conduct during and after the pilot's arrest and essentially all the mean arguments of the difference after almost ten months constantine your shown cause trial date is finally here a jury is deciding his destiny if found guilty he will spend from ten years to a life sentence behind bars and party. all right so again one of the most interesting aspects of this case you are saying go was arrested and let liberia tried in this country and yet he's a russian citizen and that's a good journalist wayne madsen is here to talk more about this. is this not all strange here well there's many things about this case that are strange first of all we know that the irish apparently was offered

a deal by federal prosecutors to if he would testify against victor boot they're actually in the same prison in new york so this looks good is another case that we've been following another case charged with trying to sell arms to the colombian fark yarosh nko is accused of smuggling cocaine that originated from the colombian fark through africa which then would find its way into europe but we have this colombian fark similarity between the two cases we also have so we have two countries that are basically. the fact of colonies of the united states involved colombia under then very discredited president of lotto or e-bay who whose intelligence service is now been accused of all kinds of heinous crimes and liberia which is basically a colony united states the president ellen sirleaf johnson. was propelled

into office with a lot of money from mr soros i might add you know and the wife of here even told r.t. that she believed that the u.s. government actually targeted or set up her husband why you know what would the u.s. have to gain from that it looks like the americans may have two things in mind go in big or boot both were involved in weapons. some would say smuggling other would say transport sometimes are under contract to the united nations during the one nine hundred ninety s. in goal in liberia the two countries that were mentioned now we know that this trafficking was done with the full knowledge of the cia for example so is this an attempt to roll people out who may know too much or on the other hand is it an attempt to get rid of these russian arms dealers so american arms dealers america by the way is the largest exporter of small arms in the world is that is that it is that in an attempt to get rid of the competition i mean whether or not you know all

of these theories are right on i mean just the bigger picture here about you know being arrested in one hundred being tried in another country and being from a third country what's kind of the broader picture i mean is this how common is that yeah the problem here is the extraterritorial imposition of u.s. law. on people who have really no in both a victor bouquet selling even if you believe he was selling weapons to the colombian fark what does that have to do with the united states now that the federal government says well the those weapons would be used to target american citizens. that's kind of that's a giant leap go to that cocaine was coming from the colombian fark and making its way through africa into western europe but where's the connection the united states and whatever happened to interpol in these matters why is it that the united states is trumping interpol which exists to bring international criminals to justice and we did see and i thought his report that former state department spokesman p.j.

crowley thank you know we accidently pushed the wrong button on the fax machine when we were going to let you know russia know about this what about i mean do you think that there's anything that needs to be of concern between u.s. and russia relations as a result of this case well let's put this in context we have the rest of you are ashamed of the egress the victor boot and the rolling up of these unregistered russian government employees in the united states it looks like somebody in the in the bowels of the justice department and also maybe in the court system because the southern district of new york is notorious it's one of the places that the cia lycee used to hold kangaroo courts and addition the u.s. is record washington d.c. in the u.s. this records from virginia there the price cia courts to try these cases and i think we have to look at the impartiality and i don't think the impartiality is there all right investigative journalist wayne madsen joining us here thanks as always. well america's push for democracy in the arab world could see events spiral

out of control as a radical islamic groups are lining up to fill the power vacuum and already correspondent palace their reports the ramifications for the u.s. as close as ally could be huge. these gunmen mean business and they're upping the stakes just that little bit higher because years the egyptian regime like the zionist enemy trying to stop us for it is in girls it we always go to weapons we needed to fight the zionist enemy. and now they're getting more than they could ever hopeful before me gyptian president hosni mubarak's men gone the borders couldn't be easier to get through the greens in. who will go. to gaza have much more freedom to do whatever they like. and they're doing it smuggling weapons into gaza the result two attacks in three months on a natural gas pipeline that supplies

a quarter of israel's electricity which is why is the u.s. claims it's bringing a new tomorrow to egypt most israelis would rather remember just a year the eagerness of the united states to topple the former egyptian president hosni mubarak and bring about regime change i don't want to meet most harmed closest ally in the region is well the u.s. says it wants to establish democracy in the region but instead of democracy it's a very real possibility that radical islamic could come to power the u.s. strongly supported the opposition in libya despite al qaeda connections among its ranks now it's apparently governance and support against syrian president bashar assad but the wiki leaks website claiming that washington has been funding some anti-government factions what is afraid that if he goes away. the muslim brotherhood can take civil so instead of in freedom of the deal in syria we're going to we're an islamist you're talking one to two a term for what could be worse if and when radicals hunted power in knightly to

direct the arms at israel it will be very conscious of the fact that syria is not libya and the fact that if you do decide to intervene in syria you will have knock on effects across the region in iraq in lebanon to israel palestine whatever new threats israel my face from an even more hostile arab world emerging from the president's stability some experts believe the security of the jewish state is not under any grave threat israel has never been an unsafe place and one of the greatest lies and mother and father of all lies as it relates to the israeli palestinian conflict is that israel has been in danger of annihilation i detail in the three volumes of my book it is a complete lie israel's existence is never ever been danger from any combination of arab military force and that is unlikely to change in any foreseeable future but the fighters on the ground aren't giving up hope and there

are minister morning is that there's worse to come. a little more time of defeat and retreat is over now it's time for the israeli people and the israeli enemy to pay. israel is keeping quiet all of the current chaos in the middle east and north africa but behind closed doors they'll be plenty of disquiet here about how much america's desire to meet new friends in the arab world is fueling serious instability policy r.t. television. so while many officials here in the usa at the push for democracy from college instead of a clear sign of hypocrisy france and italy are now urging the u.n. to put pressure on syria to end its violent crackdown on anti-government protestors washington is also considering imposing sanctions but this sound familiar now while her son is beginning to sound a little too much like the lead up to libya so so far more is outrage than action earlier i spoke with work correspondent kid harmon snow in williamsburg

massachusetts he gave me his thoughts on mccain lieberman and senator lindsey graham's comments today well that's a bunch of interesting propaganda from those three guys it's important to note that they're backed by the center for security policy these guys the center for security policy is the most right wing terrorist organization in the united states very very secretive all kinds of defense and intelligence apparatus. so that they they're doing it in at the center of the security policy so there's a program behind this which has to do with unsealing different governments around the world to serve american interests and libya for example was a mistake but you're an illustration that it's going to get worse and i think they're leaning towards doing exactly the same thing in syria syria is in the big producer of raw materials the united states but it does have oil and it's been producing oil which involves american canadian british and other oil companies in the last few years and it's a kid's player in the region with respect to maintain a balance of power between other powerful neighbors such as israel turkey as.

the others but balkan state right next to the caspian sea. well i think that you see this trend in libya you saw in egypt and you see it in other countries in the world and that is that we're involved in the intervention that's going on and we stand back and say we need to bring peace and democracy to these people and help these poor people we need to help the people of syria that's the hypocrisy and nonsense and other leading women for example from israel has said the same think he'd want by the same standards in syria as we have applied in libya but the truth is the national endowment for democracy in the state department have provided over fifty million dollars in funding into governments places like syria in the last years to create a movement to provide more what we call democracy to make it possible for our interests to be better served in these places i think it is it's so interesting because you're talking about you know the standards but it seems to me that there

aren't any actual you know guidelines laid out for foreign policy when it comes you know to the pro-democracy movement sweeping across the middle east middle east and north africa president obama said in his speech last month you know we simply can't help everyone but what do you think needs to be sort of defined here i think we need to make clear that these are cia backed her mossad backed he tells and backed operatives covert forces involved in creating these divides and syria for example that the violence has been created there is not from the people this is not true democracy it's been instigated by the outside intervention is forces who claim to be in favor of truth and peace and those are the very forces who are causing the problems. now with kids harm and now war correspondent of his and that is going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to r.t. dot com slash usa also check out our you tube page youtube dot com slash r t america.