there isn't a single british official in parliament hole in the intelligence services who could give you the full picture of what destructive mean in this space it's a little piece of the usa in that military industrial complex puzzle but is it really more money than money when we're out of earning probably. 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 so california was lost in making the date broke. and one state money problems have shut it down closed for business

completely so could what's happening in minnesota and forecasting rough skies ahead for washington. it's tuesday july fifth and christine for is our in washington d.c. and you are 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 while it'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 debts are paid a visit to the area and gives a for 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.'s yorkshire dales where it's britons who are demanding in. america this space symbolizes what's wrong with the special relationship between britain and states here we have a base that's on u.s. control which the british public 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 golf ball structures which can eavesdrop on telephone calls faxes and e-mails 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 police stick missiles as in poland and the czech republic where the u.s. also plans to site bases worry that having

a 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 case it's the culmination of former u.s. president ronald reagan's dream as his statue was unveiled in london on monday menwith hill in bodies where you can envisage 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 is around the country they want to reclaim this land and bring it but under the control of the british government and

its people it's not working. and with help comes cos of the missile defense shield it's building another goes satellite structure bringing the total to thirty three despite some local and national opposition growing not reducing u.s. influence in europe. menwith hill yorkshire so just one example of where the money is going at a time when many could argue this country doesn't have the money to spend i would you want to go deeper into this conversation and to help me do that let's go to jacob for an order president of the future of freedom foundation and jacobs good to have you we just saw a report where we saw one of the world's most expensive military bases to intercept . things in europe what are some of the pros and cons of this project do you think i don't see any pros at all i mean as you pointed out this country is in a serious crisis with respect to spending and borrowing if there was anything but

it should be cut into the project it's back to the cold war when the u.s. government was overly concerned about alludes to missiles coming from the soviet union told me where it's been over for quite some time and yet we can see how these empire military projects just go on and on and on i mean it's not just this we see it with nato but the original mission was to protect from a soviet attack i mean this let's show you the problem that the warfare state causes for the american people and i should say you know very few people are talking about even know about this base in the u.k. but for the people who do talk about it i mean there's there's people who do make decisions how do those people. find it worth it find it beneficial to continue with projects like this especially since you know this is been around for a while but the major expansion of it has just been taking place over the last couple decades why do you think they decided this was worth it. i think it's you know it's impossible to say because the thing is shrouded in secrecy but my hunch

is that it is typical bureaucratic mindset that once you get things going and you've got contractors that are on the dole dependent on the money that it just is there's no stopping them and since nobody's really watchdog watching over these kind of top secret operations. why should they stop i mean this is big money and power expansion of the military the military those products well here's one reason why maybe they should stop you know a lot of people who live in the u.k. claim the presence of this base of this technology heightens the risk of an attack on the u.k. by those with an interest in wanting to disable america's missile detection system you know other critics are angry that despite being in its country the u.s. keeps u.k. officials in the dark about you know what goes on here like you said it's for out in secrecy. why can the u.s. to this where clearly great britain wanting to put one of their bases here but certainly not you know the same freedoms. well no i mean that you know it's not

a two two way street here that i recall as an aside that the president of bolivia once said when they asked him to put a u.s. military base there he said i want to hear when we can put our bolivian base in the united states clearly bad would not be acceptable to u.s. officials and you're right it is the british people should be complaining but you know this is all going on during the cold war when it was argued that all the missiles from the soviet union would be striking that britain first to knock out those installations there is no threat here there is no intercontinental ballistic missile threat here this is all cold war project and the british people ought to just be saying you know i'm a big country you know we don't need this kind of militarism here in great britain another concern there is simply that you know this is the militarization of space and is this really necessary you know we can take a back to the money issue but is this really necessary today how do you think you

know once this becomes a more well known story what will the people say who are in charge of this project why it's needed. other problems bring up all of drama broken stormers arguments you know as to how why we needed antiballistic missile shield around the united states from you know all the all the arguments that are dated by twenty years i mean some of these people are still living under the old cold war mentality that you know the soviet union my rise that began to become a threat to me is ridiculous but it is traditionally when we're about going bankrupt it is ridiculous to go but there are a lot of people who you know might not be as concerned about you know russia right now but they're concerned about other places and they say you know the u.s. needs to you know they're less innocent i guess less ignorant about the fact that other countries have a vested interest in you know hurting the united states so a lot of people say you know we do need this we need to make sure we need to keep these countries in check even if some of them are in europe what do you say to

those people. the the only countries that are really angry at the united states are those in which the u.s. is interfering with the internal affairs of those countries either with bombs or invasions occupations do you know i think there are a thousand military bases around the world in terms of occupation that's a lot of. well that's right those are u.s. bases but that's what creates the anger in the anti american sentiment if if the u.s. just dismantled those bases we'd find that we're living in a very harmonious world where there is no military threat against the united states no nation state has the money i mean we're broke but everybody's broke or the military means to attack and invade the united states this is the time that we should be capitalizing on dismantling the military industrial complex the for an overseas empire and establishing a peaceful harmonious society with the rest of the world to take up let's be realistic here i mean do you see this happening do you see the u.s.

dismantling these bases i mean even in places where clearly this country is not wanted there even some of the smaller bases japan. the military industrial complex is a powerful entity how realistic is that and i think it's a great idea but do you think it's realistic at all. well you know not not today because you you you're right you have this coalition of interest and it's the congressional military industrial complex got a lot of people that are on the dole but look now there's a lot of people questioning this thing and you can see that in the political arena with people like ron paul and gary johnson that are now raising these ideas to public problems and i think people are now generally in the private sector are questioning a lot of things in this country especially when they see bankruptcy let me know the right now all right well certainly that's one of our goals here at r.t. is just to bring these discussions forth and ones that especially are not being had think of one of our thanks so much for speaking with us and thank you all right

let's take a look now at get another place massive amounts of money is being spent we're talking taxpayer dollars you know your money going to kill people in practice outlawed in almost all western democracies around the world except this one i'm talking of course about the death penalty and the polling new facts and figures that could make even the most staunch advocates ask this question is housing and executing the worst criminal really worth it are to correspondent ramon gelernter shows us how california is pouring tax dollars down death penalty train. you fell for each murder conviction individually. convicted killer jonathan for hard though is one of the latest additions to california's death row for the family of the hardest victim his death sentence gives them a sense of justice served. for that. but there is

a high price for society's desire for vick tribute three hundred million dollars per executed prisoner since one thousand nine hundred eighty 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 to keep 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 that cash traps they can no longer afford with so many to believe that you can put that push towards the set of people put the budget into different programs

the better the streets the spores were you the source like or. you can say how's the progress with the homeless all areas facing 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 it doesn't send a kid to u.s.c. for example by the university so what it says is the state is more than willing to spend money on our communities but it's to imprison. our communities a short sighted policy according to run goats as well as 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 like it is the change is used to the heart you know that they don't care what's going on with rules or are they going to break a day when they see anybody messed up i didn't make a black people white scared to death penalty going to money want to go to you know i say keep it where it is a waste of money bill is now waste the money never the less a bill to abolish the death penalty has been introduced in the state legislature well the issue remains a moral one for many the verdict maybe one based on overwhelming by natural evidence. in los angeles ramon. r t so these numbers beg the question does it make sense to keep the death penalty what it or here california is a state with some of the worst financial problems in the country and things won't

live 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 doesn't actually deter crime so much that it's economically viable to continue to keep it around to help take a little deeper here i want to bring in michael rupert the c.e.o. of collapse now or in the bathtub or california. hey there michael i want to reiterate really quick for the viewers some of the numbers here since nine hundred seventy 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 virile executions and it definitely 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 when we have to convince people that society is still running the way that we all thought it was supposed to run we have to kind of believe that the law is working although it's clearly not all around the country but that's a very expensive proposition but the bottom line is 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 but i'm up against a wall i don't know how it's going to play but it seems to me i mean in some ways the prisons are they certainly cost taxpayers a lot of money but there's a lot of power in this you know prison industrial complex as some people like to call it you know the building of 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 left which 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 mistaken. it cuts its budget and outsources the 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 of 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 that have already sort of been tried what were some of those good ideas. well there's

been a very active movement against the president does create a complex and focused on to corporations like and hot and corrections corporation of america when i was involved in this with congress would send you a kidney 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 in bets that they own which commodity prices crime it's stupid but aside from that all these efforts were very sincere but they accomplish pretty much next to nothing and there's an old saying that is that 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've done some stories about this michel and we have at least one c.c.i. at a company you mentioned one of those prisons i recently interviewed one of the members of the angola three who was actually freed and then we have a state like illinois that's another good example of contrast to california and

that capital punishment there was repealed that state also they spent more than sixty eight million dollars in damages to you know the sixteen men who are in exonerated they were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death so when we see these kinds of things happening time and time again 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 that over time at least could be evidence enough to sort of change these patterns. you know i would love to change the patterns but i you know i'm i'm schooled in school of what i see rather than what i hear and. the big banks are now laying off staff and now the legal history is forced to suffer cutbacks and his 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 let's just pull back you know we we are spending the entire day today talking about money and sort of the different ways in which this country is bleeding money from some ways in which people don't even really realize let's take this 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's in a role of responsibility or governing now public or private is walking a knife between what they can do and the image that they're supposed to maintain as opposed to a reality that's rotating under them governments are collapsing everywhere and we're going to see state governments collapse this year minnesota's shutdown is 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

it that the legal system is working and working here are your rights and i think they'll maintain the charade as long as they possibly can but certainly an interesting study that brought forth some of these stats and facts and figures on and something interesting to mention get a 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 is of collapse network and well switching gears now the holiday may be over but the state of minnesota is still closed for business and what is now day five of the government shutdown there it's you know it's another story one we've heard before where the governor a democrat and the legislature controlled by republicans have not been able to come to an agreement on the budget talks broke down on thursday night and the government has been shut down ever since so here's what that actually means sixty six state

parks and six recreation areas closest really terrible news for many families over the weekend one of the picnic or barbecue there highway rest stops also closed the minnesota's the too close for visitors although we are all the animals are being cared for the capital also close to the public and in the time of terrible unemployment already twenty two thousand government workers got layoff notices so could what's happening in minnesota for. similar situations around the country earlier i spoke to the miller political reporter for the business insider i asked him whether the government shutdown in minnesota was just politics as usual or perhaps a symptom of a far more serious problem for the u.s. here's what he had to say but what we're seeing in minnesota is going on across the country in washington as well republicans across the country who were likely last year in november with a mandate for smaller government to cut through or not increase taxes democrats on

the other and increase spending want to make sure that any cuts to government don't just push the impact out so the least fortunate this is so interesting 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 five days now that you know it could be the government to faltering on its debt obligations which could be catastrophic to economic recovery and 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 unwilling to budge on taxes even when you know the large majority of their constituencies wouldn't be impacted 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 or two different visions for the united states for the united states of america presented in these talks the question is should government be larger and take care of it take care of all of its citizens and

should just be a government better or smaller government better self-reliance more important as republicans will offer and this is an age old problem that you know comes up every time a state budget to go shit 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 a different visions and if that is the ins to be also another example of politics really coming into play here i mean need to i think in my mind you know a budget that seems to be number crunching you know let's subtract what we can't do when and where we can but here we have 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 being stem cell research setting up a harsher restrictions on abortion a limiting the right by teachers to strike i mean this is not just adding up

a math problem here nor do any budget seems to be lately how did we get here. i mean this is again something that happens in every budgeting process and states especially in the federal government it doesn't happen as often because of the military rules but in the states like missouri you're seeing you seem to making happen these budget issues that they want to bring in other issues like abortion like union rules or some or or other things that happens all the time and again it really only comes to head when these issues when you when you come to a shutdown but the same sorts of events were happening you know across all fifty states the past two or three months and you know a good number of them over the past week and a half to. create new budgets and avoid a shutdown in february july first and unfortunately minnesota was not able to reach agreement and if this happens everywhere. and that was it miller political reporter for the business insider. well when we look at the heart of the economy we look to american cities and states from wisconsin to now minnesota states are suffering

from the same symptoms plaguing the federal budget are to correspondent or lister gives us another look at the toll it's taking on americans all across this 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 altogether it could amount to two trillion dollars and a bill many may not be able to pay the problem of the state and local debt is more serious than the real estate bubble serious because with millions of americans still unemployed and losing their homes there isn't enough tax payer 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 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 in the state cut funding for the operations. here in new york city huge piles of garbage like this one are all over thirty three this city's behind on picking up trash after getting behind

the box right notes to our public officials blame it on any number of reasons but one accusation that keeps coming out is this is the result of budget cuts cuts to consequences you can't just sort of cut there isn't enough wasteful spending so to speak to cut you actually do it because services that people depend on analysts say the slashing will amount to an increase in unemployment and a lowering of wages driving more american down and the economy with it well the prospect of bankruptcies threaten the pensions of public workers and may cause a run on municipal bonds so that will push this existing families over the over the cliff. the stuff not the solution either scenario seems to be causing a widespread decline in the american city once relegated to ancient history it's a feedback board economic shrinking downsizing and the urbanization exactly the same thing happened in the roman empire when in the end rome was left almost

a deserted city and all of the production shifted back on to the land that's your face here although the land in this case looks like it will be abroad rather than in the united states as investment please other countries threatening to take with it the american dream lauren lyster r.t. new york. and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to archie dot com slash usa also check out our you tube page our stories are on their you tube dot com slash r.t. america you can also follow me on twitter i'm at friday thanks so much for watching i'm christine for that i'll be back here at eight o'clock. after flimsy law and cracking has told the preacher all that is when they have nothing people are suggesting she's told her no she says she's a lone star.