welcome to the alona show where you'll get the real headlines with none of the mersey are coming live out of washington d.c. i'm christine for south filling in for alona wilson i will dive into the latest developments from the occupy movements across the country while hundreds of protesters from occupy l.a. remain in police custody under five thousand dollars bail the n.y.p.d. is back at it again blocking press and crawling protesters out an obama fundraiser and then our markets more important than democracy but look at how economic turmoil has weakened democratic institutions from europe to the united states and do even

zelikow holes put religion above country we'll have all of that and more for you tonight including a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media has decided to miss. all right so it's the first of december which means we are just one month and two days away from the iowa caucuses and one month and nine days away from the new hampshire primary iowa and new hampshire the first two real litmus tests not counting the endless polls of course to see how each g.o.p. candidate really resonates with voters voters who show up and believe in having a hands on the democratic process making their choice for who they like to see as the next president of the united states right. wrong many of these candidates seem to have no intention of actually running for president yet they continue to happily collect money from supporters and attention from the press willingly gives them

a fact m s n b c's chuck todd seems very comfortable with. not talking group face to face that's what i see we have had many lengthy conversation this is a lot of reasons why i'm not going to make a decision until after we talk face to face and one thing i would just add here when you look at this unless it is family truly ask you to get out of the race what is in the senate to get out doesn't he have a better shot it repairing his image in the public if he wants to believe to have a speaking career things like that if he stays in the race after all we're talking thirty three days. of speaking career so that then you're just going to brush past the fact that herman cain still one of the front runners for the g.o.p. nomination for president is more is most likely not even taking his own campaign seriously but gunning for a speaking one at least mentioning that cain has put stops on his book tour ahead

of stops in primary states or about the fact that he's spent almost no time or money in iowa and as far as new hampshire while the former head of the new hampshire g.o.p. told time magazine local republicans had no idea whom to even call if they wanted to schedule cain for an event there but it's not just our favorite former pizza c.e.o. michele bachmann who remember won the iowa straw poll may also be on a boost my popularity tour also pretending she actually wants to be president here's what she said about her prospects for winning another state the one that has its primary at the end of january bachmann said that she quote intends to win florida and win it twice once in the primary and once in the general election. all right then so why when filing an application for liability insurance did bachmann staffer say she had no plans for any staff part time or full time on the ground in florida but it's not just florida it's also california d.c.

michigan and texas you see there the words none play and are written in the question about having employees of any in any of those states as even current front runner newt gingrich has had to schedule that rotates between book tour and campaign tour and they should wonder if this wasn't just an excuse for name recognition for publicly for some sort of a future venture now i know i know we're in the age of reality t.v. ok on the anyone else see a similarity here to i don't know reality t.v. t.v. star stepping into the public eye for one reason only to get rich and famous but to matter the g.o.p. candidates are taking cues from the real housewives seriously talk of the supplier for a nightclub in florida pimping out nini leaks from the real housewives of atlanta because everyone knows club appearances garner thousands of dollars money she'd

have no chance of making without her gig on real housewives or what about teresa the real housewives of new jersey her cookbooks talian made the new york times a best selling list you think anyone would have cared about her skinny italian but before. don't take my word for it check out real housewives star bethany as in both never after on jay leno. congratulation on the cover for magazines the hundred richest stars. it's gold just the last couple years oh yeah i mean you know about four or five years ago i could. all right well least with the real housewives there's no false pretense of trying to save the economy or make the country a better place this notion of people using the presidency as an opportunity to boost publicity is something i miss and he says chuck todd and the rest of the mainstream media seem well aware of but choose to miss.

well it turns out too big to fail doesn't just apply to banks it applies to entire regions of the world as well take the eurozone seventeen countries that banded together under the umbrella of a single currency the euro well in the next week or so we'll find out for sure if it is indeed too big and too powerful to fail but if it doesn't fail there are some major changes on the horizon changes we've already seen in say greeks i'm talking about major austerity measures cuts to everything from jobs to social programs to well it turns out freedoms remember when former prime minister george popped in israel wanted to propose austerity package to the people have them vote in a referendum it was after all the democratic thing to do right well he was forced to take back that idea no vote was taken and soon after step down now there is talk

that this trend of putting more power in the hands of the already powerful is a sign of things to come for countries like spain and italy as well and it's leading some to ask is rescuing the european union will simply turn it in to the european empire well joining me now is economic analyst gonzalo lira and they're going to be good to talk to you i mean let's talk about this i mean. the european union turn into the european empire democracy being sacrificed what are your thoughts about this. well it's really a tragedy that's going on because the initial idea is sound you know initial idea is to unify europe so we have such intense commercial bonds between the various countries especially france and germany that they never get to go to war with russia yet recall always all that it's going. to be and one hundred forty five germany and france wants war three top school prank russian war well run in world

war two and the seventy years since the second world war they haven't done well at once because of these commercial ties that bonds now the euro zone as an idea how it stands in unifying the continents of commerce but in practice it's been carried out very early because essentially it's one person city but seventeen different nations official in their own debt it's essentially basically one household and seventeen members and they all have this great credit rating because a daddy of them which is germany and all these gives one a month with their credit cards and now we're having to pay for it is probably them forgive me for mixing my metaphors but that's basically what's been going well now the essential problem that we currently have is that the european leadership cannot seem to make up its mind how to fix this problem the germans of course are pushing for austerity because they are the creditor nation this germany problem germany holland and austrian finland are the major creditor nations in the european and.

european monetary union the other nations money now these countries of course run austerity and they want to receive every penny of the money but the doubt but the problem is that these countries are broke and that what the. the baker or the debt burden comes because of course if you shrink your economy if you get means saying that debt basically is eating and we're bigger and bigger chunk of your g.d.p. and that is what we're saying in the european monetary union and and in serious and in revolution eventually it sounds like those in charge are are certainly benefiting from. i really like how the horn put it she writes for the atlantic and she said it's a case of two dualities democracy versus bureaucracy or democracy versus capitalism is such an interesting way of thinking about it and i do want to say looking at greece because so long for months in fact we saw thousands of people in greece on the streets protesting against what nothing really changed their intel the markets

had a little slip and i you know i'm wondering do the markets really play as powerful role as it seems i mean are they the driver in the seat here. sure they are her parents support research say when a nation goes out to sell debt and goes out into the markets to sell its its bonds sovereign problems it needs the markets and buy those bonds or to finance ok so i'm a country i'm greece if i go out into the market solve problems because i need x. number of euro's to pay for my services. you know you are receiving my civil service but how do you and i don't sell in stocks that means i don't raise the cash to pay for all these expenses if i don't get cash rolls expenses i haven't oh my people basically hate we have to shut down the government and not pay you back as because i was not able to raise the money in the bond markets so the bond markets are exceedingly important a lot of people you know sort of look down at the bottom detail on things that call them. and one of the people who care very much about the markets

a lot of economists for instance are quite minute without you say oh it's it's it's not really real you know there are ways for equipment to raise money there are ways for government to raise money in short term but in the long term if you are funding a deficit need to go to the markets to to shoot it up you need to have those markets try that currently because of the astronomical yields that nice is having to pay you know really well to finance themselves rather essentially and saw an athlon essentially insulted since april of two thousand and ten the real problem isn't responses by this point probably bucket because number riess is just two percent of the euro zone's cheapie their real important player at this point is good will because italy's debt is now yielding or seven percent could be an issue uninitiated that means that their costs are war over something which is extremely expensive for them in fact it is and then stain will level of to have to pay that amount of interest are going to so italy is going to go bankrupt if course italy is simply too big to bailout it's roughly two thirds of the size of germany in terms

of g.d.p. . it cannot be bailed out has to be fixed solved in a long term steps and that is where the thing. well for you it is. so for the european commission. already. let's begin though with what you're talking about in regards to europe and put it on the table next to what's happening in the united states and especially what happened here back in two thousand and eight with the financial crisis i want to talk to you about the power and the necessity of the federal reserve i know we just found out this week such an interesting report that the fed actually gave out seven point seven trillion dollars in loans congress was not only not asked for that money they weren't even given you know a little courtesy note about it so talk to me about all of this in terms of the fed and its great power you know over democratic nations. well you had the people who had set out to be outraged outraged it will see these revolutions that. news is

just revealing to sweep. essentially the federal reserve lent out seven point seven trillion dollars to you too big to fail banks now give concepts seven point seven trillion is rocky sha'ath of the united states yearly g.d.p. cheap i mean that's what the federal reserve just basically printed up and handed over to the banks i want to make stew he took this money which was lent them at zero point zero one percent that means one percent up one percent was the cost per hour they lent out this money to the banks which it winter and turned around and lent out this money and made a huge profit off of this free money but if it was getting them it also saved their baby and it was able to add up presently twenty five percent of their net profits for two thousand and nine in two thousand and ten with this free money that the threat was giving them so it's not just the paper but the fed gave them money to save their faith and keep them from insolvency it gave them this huge. cache of

this with huge loans that essentially made their year in terms of profitability now that we should all be outrageous as taxpayers and yet see it and yet nobody has any much attention to that reason i say oh oh well you know it's it's something you know what the fed did was chocola some of the worst sort it was the most despicable kind of early capitalism something that has literally never been seen in in real history because no reason her or heard of amounts of money as large as this being bandied about specifically to save these banks and allow their managers and c.e.o.'s to see that rageous despicable levels of profit i mean it's it's just it's so i think if the third day it's outrageous how many people to see how many angry and actually go into this you know mix thing going on all of these economic factors going dallaire out economic analyst thanks for shedding light on this fourth night . my pleasure thank you friend. also downs and the wiki leaks is back and

now it's letting the world know about a massive surveillance industry governments. and occupiers in new york take on president obama might surprise surprise they were greeted by the end life he will tell you are not conflicts and it after the break. ins would only. do the work up to bring justice or. i have the right to know what my government would want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you. see some other

part of it and realize that everything is all. part of the big picture. mr.

the police corruption is. what a protester nobody seems to know. that never happened sprayed the face but already argument that they're being overly dramatic. well wiki leaks is up and running again i'll be it not in its top form and founder julian assange has domes a cache of information this time regarding surveillance and a press conference earlier today in the u.k. response detail the spy files shedding light on a five billion dollar industry that is in high demand among governments around the world thus far several hundred documents from intelligence contractors have been released your wiki leaks and their partner in this project privacy international

the data some of which has already public revealed approximately one hundred fifty western based companies who have been designing a live riot of surveillance technology that's like knology allows anyone in possession of the software the ability to track and sometimes even take over satellites computers even smartphones and they're selling the technology to intelligence agencies militaries and law enforcement groups around the world giving them the ability to silently and covertly intercept information without any assistance from telecom companies here's a few examples of the kind of surveillance technology that we're talking about glimmerglass networks incorporated based in silicon valley has a quote intelligence optical system this allows a law enforcement agency to use optical technology to develop a huge database of an individual's activity on a network including web blogs web mail even social networking sites like facebook and as the signs pointed out a while ago to r t facebook could be a very valuable tool for government agencies. facebook in particular.

because the polling spying mission is sort of being put into and he would have the world's most comprehensive database about people and their relationships and i mean instead of a person's you know the cations communications. through with him it all seems we think in the united states. all accessible u.s. intelligence facebook and another company the hacking team of milan and gamma international based in britain offers customers actual spyware and malware lets them in fact computers and smartphones remotely and the company for nexium based in the czech republic creates materials that allow the military to identify individuals and track them based on what they call voiceprints a unique way of identifying a person based on their voice characteristics there are even firms that sell software just to translate and store all this data so they can be held and used by

military and intelligence agencies pretty intense stuff as making leaks detailed in their press conference today these surveillance companies have been fake or at least selling their products to governments deemed persona non grata to us during the uprisings in countries like egypt syria tunisia and libya intelligence groups and the military relied on this technology to track anyone who expressed anti-government sentiments and in some cases those tools are responsible for their deaths at the hands of the government now while this technology is technically illegal to market for surveillance tools in the u.s. and around the world has surged since nine eleven and as a staunch points out the industry is unregulated so these companies overstep any ethical boundaries on a regular basis over wiki leaks latest leak of information regarding this type of surveillance equipment will force government agencies to take a stance on the issue or at least fess up to what they've been doing behind closed doors. well last night for the first time demonstrators with the occupy wall street

movement targeted event for the president was a big fundraiser for president obama in new york city that supporters paid between one thousand and thirty five thousand dollars per person to attend were a few hundred of them and they say the protesters say they were speaking out against a system that makes those high donations often given by wall street executives necessary in what is becoming an all too familiar scene much of the media was kept as far away as possible with police there and mass to control the crowds. what was. right. there are. lots of.

meanwhile in los angeles earlier this week the occupy encampment encampment outside city hall was raided and destroyed by police there who arrested nearly three hundred people many of them have been released on bail but as we speak protesters remain behind bars with a five thousand dollars bail set for them it is the latest encampment to be dismantled but occupiers insist they're not going anywhere that their movement will not be torn apart and finally it seems more and more people are starting to believe them it's penetrating even think republican wall of contempt as one top g.o.p. strategist saying he's frightened to death of the movement there's a lot to talk about here and i want to bring in ryan devereaux reporter for democracy now he is in our studio in new york and ryan i want to just talk to you about the protest last night in new york outside of the fundraiser for president obama i know you were there and just talk to me a little bit about what it was like. well should first say that i wasn't there for the entire duration of the protest but i did arrive early and i was there for what

the n.y.p.d. referred to as a freeze when i first arrived there were probably about one hundred two hundred fifty protesters gathered near the hotel where president obama was expected to arrive they were kept in a paying indian area has become common in these demonstrations and the n.y.p.d. told some of the protesters that they were going to begin this quote unquote freeze at a certain time i was there when the freeze began and what it consisted of was a locking the protesters in they gave people that they gave me the option to you know stand inside the pen or stand outside the pen but i did not to stay inside the pentagon was very cold in having been in some of these demonstrations before i got the sense that the people that were in there were probably going to be in there for a very long time and it turned out to be the case as the police kept the protesters inside the pen for hours in the cold because a quarter member of the we are talking about the president of the united states in new york city

a city that has been targeted by terrorists in the past so it's not surprising to me that the n.y.p.d. was on high alert last night but what's important to note is that this is the same sort of behavior the gaijin when the president's not in the city at all so it's and of course fran was quite a scene it wasn't of course just the protesters that we're talking about i know it was the media and i know last time you came on the show you told alona about a letter sent to mayor michael bloomberg from a dozen or so different media outlets condemning what happened at zuccotti park when they really kept the press as far away from possible from that raid that happened there. found to me at least like the mayor took any of this to heart. well i mean i think i think the maybe some officers have made an effort but we have seen a lot of the same behavior that has been going on for the past couple months here in new york city with regards to the way bts treatment of the press colleagues that

i know of here in new york city that were trying to cover the protests last night were you know treated as if they were spies or something traded the police were trying to keep them away from the area when they identified themselves as journalists they were shoot a way i attended protests here earlier in the week at a human university where i saw a reporter for a new york of fairly mainstream publication here in the city struck by a police officer when he simply tried to the reporter tried to step out of the area where the protesters were and onto the sidewalk he was hit in the side with a baton so you know it might be the case that some officers are making an effort but we are seen some of the same problematic behavior that was laid out in that letter that you mentioned let's talk about this sort of new chapter that's going on about occupy protesters targeting events in this case and the president i know occupy d.c. has plans to protest outside of a nancy pelosi event coming up in the next few days i know that occupy protesters say you know their strategy is to protest against the status quo against

a system they say has failed the majority the ninety nine percent of people i want to know if you protesters have any qualms about targeting politicians and lawmakers who have supported them in the past. well i think that you have to remember that the protesters see both parties as party to a system that's fundamentally flawed that includes the democrats and many democrats who made favorable comments of the protests you have to remember that having been the party with the majority party in power for the last two years unemployment levels of reached great depression has reached levels unseen since the great depression president barack obama has overseen the. continuation of the longest war in u.s. history and so you know it's going to take a lot more than the democratic party just paying lip service occupy wall street protesters for them to earn the movement's respect and trust and i don't even know

if if that's possible i mean the protesters that i've spoken to are deeply deeply dissatisfied with the way the two party system here in the united states works so it remains to be seen if the democratic party can ever repair the damage that is perceived. i know that ryan you've heard the comparison made before between the occupy wall street movement and the tea party movement you know or some similarities i think it's justified to say. the tea party what they did it for their sort of next step after gathering the momentum is they took their wishes and they got candidate like that have you heard of any electoral strategy anything that the occupy movement has planned for the twenty twelve election. no i haven't heard anything like that though those discussions may be out there what i have heard is discussion of occupy wall street as a movement reaching out to low income communities they have a massive day of action play in here coming up on the six occupy our homes campaign

that will reach out to folks who did from their homes so i think this is a different strategy reaching out to disenfranchise communities than the tea party took in electing candidates to represent represent themselves in the system. the dismantling of the los angeles and kampman of course just one of the most recent dismantling that we would happen with zuccotti park all around the country police have really gotten more strict about protesters camping and sleeping overnight a lot of people thinking that this is going to change the movement itself i guess i just for my last question for you ron i just want to ask how do you see this developing and evolving in terms of the movement. well you know from the beginning i've learned to not make too many predictions about this movie because it always consistently surprises me but i do think the action i just mentioned the play and to reach out to communities and do defense is probably something that we're going to see more of as i understand it some of these tactics were used in greece and

spain i know overseas they took action in terms of turning water back on for people who had their utilities turned off so we might see that sort of activity from occupy wall street occupy wall street folks here in new york city have engaged in a protest against stop and frisk demonstrations so i think that these sort of. targeted activities they align occupy wall street with other protest movements that seek to help communities that have otherwise been on able to get their voices heard will probably be a lot more of what we're seeing in the future here i don't know if we'll see the kind of occupations the kind of you know camp occupations that we saw at the beginning it's in a it's in a stage where it's evolving and i think a lot of people are just waiting to see where it's going to go all right i'm sure you'll keep us posted reporter for democracy now ryan devereaux in our new york studios. well coming up next we'll hear from our viewer.