and that. there isn't a single purchase official in parliament or in the intelligence services who could give you a full picture of proto stuff from the in this space it's a little piece of the usa in the military industrial complex puzzle but is it really worth the money when the well running dry. you spend more money on incarceration and at the same time send less money on education that's a perfect recipe for disaster sentenced to death at a price of three hundred million dollars ahead oakland california is blah blah making the state broke. and one state's money problems have shut it down closed for

business completely so could what happen in minnesota forecasting rough guys head for washington. it's tuesday july fifth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine friends out here watching our team. i want to start off today with a story of a top secret u.s. military base said to be the largest electronic monitoring station in the world a missile defense shield similar to the star wars project it's called menwith hill located in north yorkshire in the united kingdom and one's been around since the one nine hundred fifty s. it has greatly expanded over the last few years at a price tag of ten billion dollars so what's it all for and is it really worth it at a time when the u.s. is experiencing such massive debt artie's lorem it paid a visit to the area and gives us

a firsthand look at how many people in the area feel about the base. here it's a little piece of america in the heart of the u.k. so yorkshire dales where it's britons who are demanding independence from america this place symbolizes what's wrong with the special relationship between britain and you know states here we have a base that's on us control it which the british government and british people have no control menwith hill is the largest intel gathering and surveillance space outside the us there are thirty two satellite dishes housed inside the huge go full structures which can eavesdrop on telephone calls faxes and emails from around the world it's been operational since the one nine hundred sixty s. but now it's set to become part of the controversial missile defense shield to alert the u.s. to any launch of ballistic missiles as in poland and the czech republic where the

u.s. also plans to site bases locals who worry that having the facility here will put the area in danger heightening the risk of an attack by anyone who wants to disable the shield but unlike in eastern europe the government here has put up no fight at all in fact it doesn't even know what goes on here there isn't a single british official in parliament or in the intelligence services who could give you a full picture of what is happening in this space it's the culmination of former u.s. president ronald reagan's dream as his statue is unveiled in london on monday menwith hill imported reagan in visit in the early warning missile detection system that was dubbed the star wars program it's secretive based far away from u.s. soil and some say it's a step towards the u.s. domination and militarization of space people demonstrate here campaigning for the closure of this space and the others like it around the country they want to reclaim this land and bring it back under the control of the british government and

its people it's not working as a. then with hill becomes part of the missile defense shield it's building another golf ball satellite structure bringing the total to thirty three despite some local and international opposition growing not reducing the u.s. influence in europe your edits r.t. menwith hill yorkshire so let's take a look now at yet another place that mouth of the amount of money is being spent we're talking taxpayer dollars your money going to kill people in a practice outlined in almost every other western democracy in the world except this one i'm talking of course about the death penalty and they're not polling new facts and figures they could make even the most staunch advocates advocates as this question is housing and then executing the worst criminals really worth r g correspondent remodeling their shows as how california is pouring tax dollars down a death penalty drain. you show for each murder conviction

individually. now a convicted killer jonathan for hard though is one of the latest additions to california's death row for the family of parters victim his death sentence gives them a sense of justice served. for that one. but there is a high price for society's desire for retribution three hundred million dollars per executed prisoner says may hundred seventy eight thirteen inmates have been put to death and some four billion dollars have been spent on california's death row according to a newly released study with more than seven hundred inmates still waiting to be executed that cost is expected to jump to ninety billion dollars by twenty thirty throughout the years voters in this state have consistently shown their approval for the death penalty at the polls now the argument over whether it's

a key point money and people into death row comes at a time when the state is dealing with a massive budget shortfall of some twenty five billion dollars leading many to argue the death penalty is a luxury the cash strapped state can no longer afford with so many different ways that you can put that budget for the senate to put but but it's a different program for the better the streets as far as the u. s. morris like or. you can say house a program for the homeless all areas space in deep cuts as money is short in one of riverside's middle class neighborhoods school construction is complete but there is no money to operate it so it remains empty they cost more to keep one person in prison in the state of california and it has the senate kids at u.s.c. for example university so what it says is the state is more than willing to spend money on our communities but it's to imprison. are communities short sighted policy

according to wrong go churches was a community organizer sees the human cause of the economic crisis up close if you have a higher unemployment rate and you spend more money on incarceration and at the same time send less money on education that's a perfect recipe for disaster well capital punishment is meant to deter the most heinous of crimes in one of los angeles's poorest and most crime ridden neighborhoods the debate is still not settled over whether it's even working i feel like it doesn't change it if these criminals are hardheaded you know that they don't care what's going on with rules or are they going to break them it's a way to get rid of the anybody that's not good at making bad people white good death penalty dunham i want to go to get to you know i think e.p.a. is a waste of money you know why waste the money nevertheless a bill to abolish the death penalty has been introduced in the state legislature well the issue remains

a more one for many the final verdict may be one based on overwhelming financial evidence. in los angeles ramon galindo r t. so these numbers beg the question does it make sense to keep the death penalty love it or hate it california is a state with some of the worst financial problems in the country and it seems a little odd to be spending so much on something that voters may want but it's literally bankrupting them and most states are struggling right now so in the places where capital punishment is legal does that actually deter crime so much that it's economically viable to continue to keep it around also help dig a little deeper here i want to bring in michael rupert the c.e.o. of collapse network in sebastopol california. and then michael i want to reiterate really quick for the viewers some of the numbers here since one thousand nine hundred eight there have been thirteen executions in the state of california each

of those prisoners have cost the state three hundred million dollars since two thousand and six there have been virago executions and a death penalty prosecutions cost up to twenty times as much as life without parole case so i guess i'm wondering why this goes on still. well we have this illusion that we have a facade to maintain here we have to convince people that society is still running the way we all thought it was supposed to run we have to kind of believe that that the law is working although it's clearly not all around the country but that's a very expensive proposition but the bottom was this what's happening in california is the same is happening in greece and everywhere these cuts now are just the beginning of more draconian cuts and they're based on wildly optimistic projections of future income as far as the death penalty goes. what's more likely i think is that we're going to see california just start to open the gates of prisons and let

people out and eventually they may have to do that with the death row people or just just put them up against the wall i don't know how it's going to play but it seems to me i mean in some ways the president are basically cossacks there's a lot of money but there's a lot of power in this you know prison industrial complex and some people like to call it you know the building more prisons to keep these companies continuing to be successful and then lawmakers can use that sort of tough on crime notion to continue to get reelected and people favor more prisons how do we change this you know the whole way this is all looked at i don't know that it can be changed all the great noble efforts to do that for a long time and failed i was writing about the prison industrial complex a decade ago but nonetheless here we go to greece again as an example privatization is going to be the inevitable answer to all of these questions the state cuts or

cuts its budget and outsource is to private companies whose only motive is profit and believe me know what it's going to get treated any better and a lot more money will change hands from the public to the rich bankers and the senior debt holders likely just that some of the best ideas for sort of how to change this have already sort of been five. what were some of those good ideas well there's been a very active movement against the president just a complex focused on corporations like and how and corrections were ration of america when i was involved in this with congress and said you mckinney and many others back in the late ninety's and early two thousand are quite a bit of attention was drawn to the fact that these companies traded their stock based upon the number of people at bent's they own which commodifies. crime is stupid but aside from that all these efforts were very sincere the cowboys pretty much next to nothing and there's an old saying that insanity is repeating the same action expecting different results to try to go through the political

process not a change what's happening i think is wasted energy i know i didn't stories about this michael and we had at least one c.c.i. the company imagine one of those prisons i recently interviewed one of the members of the angola three who was actually free and then we have a state like illinois that's another good example a contrast to california and capital punishment there was repealed that state also they said more than sixty eight million dollars in damages to you know the sixteen men who were in exonerated they were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death so when we see these kinds of things happening time is how we get people who were going to go to the electric chair and yet didn't even commit the crime i mean isn't that don't you think that over time at least could be evidence enough to sort of change these patterns. you know i would love to change the attitudes but i'm you know i'm i'm schooling in school of what i see rather than what i hear and.

the big banks are now weighing on staff and now the legal did a story is being forced to suffer cutbacks in its income as well if these are the later stages of cannibalism here i wish i had some optimism that this could be changed. jerry brown might be the guy in california to remove the death penalty here which i would be in favor of but let's just go back you know we're spending the entire day today talking about money and sort of the different ways in which this country is bleeding money some some ways in which people don't even really realize well let's take us back to california to this system that is clearly so expensive how do lawmakers continue to make the case to voters that this is worth it. well lawmakers anybody who is in a role of responsibility or governing. public or private is walking

a nice edge between what they can do and the image that are supposed to maintain as opposed to a reality that's roading under them governments are collapsing everywhere and we're going to see state governments collapse this year minnesota's shut down at this minute and as that continues to happen. the effort will be made to keep up appearances and what the politicians believe they need to reassure the public about is that the legal system is working and working characterized and i think they will maintain that charade as long as they possibly can certainly an interesting study that brought forth some of the staff and facts and figures on something interesting you mention to the few people behind the study one of them is in favor of the death penalty one of them is not they just wanted to see sort of the financial viability sometimes those are the arguments that hit home the most and you just look at the numbers michael report thanks so much michael. of collapse network. still ahead here on r t one state shutdown forty nine to go as the minnesota

government shuts down over their budget stalemate could it be a warning sign for d.c. . you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then he lives something else you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through that sort of made who can you trust no one who is you know with a global mission that we've seen where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called session so when nobody dares to ask what we do our t.

question more. into it only it would be mechanisms to do the work to bring just the sort. i have every right to know what my government sure you want to know why i pay taxes . well we characterize obama as a charismatic for. american exceptionalism.

let's not forget that we are. i think. well. we never got that says there are people who say so get ready because freedom. all right well the holiday weekend may be over the state of minnesota is still closed for business and what is now day five of the government shutdown there it is a familiar story unless i can broken record and we've heard before. where the governor and democrat and the legislature controlled by republicans have not been

able to come to an agreement on the budget talks broke down thursday night and the government has been shutdown ever since so what does this actually mean well sixty six state parks and six recreation areas are closed terrible news over the weekend for many families who would have wanted to picnic or barbecue their highway rest stops are closed the minnesota zoo is closed to visitors although we're told the animals are being cared for the capital also close to the public and in a time of terrible unemployment already twenty two thousand government workers got layoff notices so could what's happening in minnesota foreshadow similar situations around the country miller is a political reporter for the business insider and joins us now from our studio in new york and zeke it's a little eerie to me a republican say war has to be cut but refused to have any taxes raised governor dayton says he only wants to increase taxes for people who make more than a million dollars a year that would bring in about one point eight billion in revenue republicans

want to limit spending to thirty four billion dollars you know replace this dollar amount of estate prices and look at the bigger picture it sounds to me you know we've heard this story before in other states that we've heard it with what's going on here in washington with the debt ceiling talks why is this sort of feeling like a broken record. first thank you so much for having me and i think you're one hundred percent right this is what we're seeing and what we're seeing in minnesota is going on across the country in washington as well republicans across the country have were like to you know if you last year in november with a mandate for smaller government to cut through or not increase taxes democrats on the other hand one increase spending want to make sure that any cuts to government don't just personally impact out the least fortunate this is some sort of messing around the country and washington the only thing that's different is that the stakes are higher instead of the government shutting down for what's going on about five days now that you know it could be the government to fall to not its debt

obligations which could be catastrophic to economic recovery but i'm wondering on just your take i know you cover this for the business insider kind of different aspects of this why do you think republicans are so i'm going to budge on taxes even when you know the large majority of their constituencies wouldn't be untapped in it whatsoever. i mean i think that's a question you often hear democrats asking of republicans but really what we're seeing is two different visions of minnesota or two different visions for the united states for the united states represented in these talks the question is should government be larger and take care of it take care of its citizens and should hear government better or smaller government better self-reliance more important as republicans will offer and this is an age old problem that comes up every time the state budget negotiated but it's times like this when you see large deficits minnesota has a five billion dollar deficit to close this year that these really come to

a head and that's what we're seeing here it's really it's two different visions for for the state and for the country i think that's an important way to look at it different visions minnesota seems to be also another example of politics really coming into play here i mean you i think in my mind you know a budget that seems to be number crunching you know let's subtract what we can do and add what we can but here we have it in minnesota the republicans gave the governor an outline saying you know they'd be more willing to play ball here if the governor does things like banning stem cell research setting up a harsher restrictions on abortion illuminating the right by teachers to strike i mean this is not just adding up a math problem here nor do any budget seem to be lately how did we get here. i mean this is again something that happens in every budgeting process in the states especially in the federal government doesn't happen as often because of stricter parliamentary rules but in the states like missouri you're seeing you see deal making happened on these budget issues that they want to bring in other issues like

abortion like union rules or some other or other things and that happens all the time and again it really only comes to a head when these issues when you when you come to a shutdown. the same sorts of the base were happening across all fifty states over the past two or three months and you know a good number of that over the past week and a half to. create you budgets and avoid a shutdown on february fifth july first and unfortunately minnesota was not able to reach agreement and this happens everywhere i'm wondering out here why is it always kind of this thing to issues i mean maybe it's just everything with the enormous success of the tea party but it seems to be always spending and taxes spending and times that. why does these two options why is that the thing. i mean really there aren't any other options that you know you have a deficit and so you have a five billion dollar deficit for the year and the only options at your disposal really only real options so your disposal are cutting spending or raising passes

they floated different payment plans for paying school paying school funding to pay the following year to pay if this school year twenty thirteen instead of the current the new fiscal year fiscal year twenty twelve but those aren't real solutions to the systemic problems facing the you know that minnesota faces or that the federal government faces you have to choose do you do you want a bigger government you want smaller government and then where do you cut do you cut into social you cut social services or you cut. education or do you cut other things i mean this is there really there really is no other way to solve this problem other than one of those two options a lot of lawmakers here in washington in the car kind of keeping an eye on minnesota keeping an eye on what's going on there what do federal lawmakers you know that are congress what can they learn from what happened in a thug. federal lawmakers are paying very close attention to how minnesota.

the people of minnesota are reacting to the shutdown are they upset are they supportive of their legislators i mean are they are there are the if if that's the case if they are supportive of their legislators who are sort of staking staking out their positions but that would give them an indication that maybe they can go up to the brink on the debt ceiling negotiations you know that are there at the end done for four weeks from today but you know if if the public is so sure isn't so supportive of this sort of the sort of these principles ship tactics then you might see lawmakers try to make a deal earlier to for the void the backlash from the public i mean it all comes out we're still seeing how the public is coming is falling i mean it's we're five days in now over a holiday weekend the backlash really hasn't started this shutdown is going to continue until thursday at least and really by then we'll have an indication of how this will play out in minnesota and throughout the nation at large and really interesting here because they formed this bipartisan commission in minnesota today you know they're back at the table sound familiar but it seems that you know so far

nobody seems to be budging on their position i guess if you could just say and you know one or two sentences or less what you see happening you said thursday do you think republicans will budge on taxes i think it all comes down to how the public views the shutdown if if if polls come out this week saying that the public really does not want a shutdown anymore you're not going to see either republicans budging on taxes or the market after market in budging on that's not true i'm not sure which way this is going to come down to and i think we'll have to watch this closely over the next week or so all right interesting figure given all the credit to voters based on the polls acknowledge our political reporter for the business insider in our new york studio thank you having me. well when we look at the heart of the economy we look to american cities and states from wisconsin to now minnesota like we just talked about it since states are suffering from the same symptoms plaguing the federal budget are you correspondent moralists or gives us another look at the toll it's

taking on americans all across the country. actually it's the reality america cannot escape with the city's roughly two hundred eighty million dollars that more and more people are talking about bankruptcy and news of debt like that hitting cash strapped cities and states all over the country all together it could amount to two trillion dollars and a bill many may not be able to pay the problem of the state and local dept is more serious than the real estate bubble serious because with millions of americans still unemployed and losing their homes there isn't enough taxpayer money to pay creditors local governments which aren't allowed to operate in the red must come up with the cash this means some may be choosing between default or devastation in many cases it will be fairly simple for cities to cut services before they actually default on their gut cities and states coast to coast seem to be trying this route

and the toll it's taking on the streets of america is undeniable. camden new jersey is the second most dangerous city in the country you didn't see many cops on the streets to begin with and now. the city's had to lay off nearly half of their police force in detroit a city where people have been too broke to bury their dead the city's too broke to repair dying infrastructure to fix roads or lights in the desert state of arizona cuts have been a matter of life and death. governor jan brewer taking a lot of heat over the death of another transplant patient after the state cut funding for the operations here in new york city huge piles of garbage like this one are all over city streets this city's behind on picking up trash after getting behind me about for a snowstorm now public officials blame that on any number of reasons but one accusation that keeps coming up is this is the result of budget cuts cuts have

consequences you can't just sort of cut and there isn't enough wasteful spending so to speak to cut you're actually to have to cut services that people depend on analysts say the slashing will amount to an increase in unemployment and a lowering of wages dragging more americans down and the economy with it while the prospect of bankruptcies threaten the pensions of public workers and may cause a run on unisa pull bonds so that will push the city counties over the over the cliff in the past not the solution either scenario seems to be causing a widespread decline in the american city once relegated to ancient history it's the feedback towards economic shrinking downsizing and the urban the zation exactly the same thing happened in the roman empire when in the end room was left almost a deserted city and all of the production shifted back onto the land that's what you're faced here all the.