between sixty percent approval rating at the home of the oil spill. and word and. you heard it here b.p. the i.r.s. and even the idea of communism have a higher approval rating than the u.s. congress at the moment maybe it's because of all that bipartisan bickering so as lawmakers duke it out with the threat of government shutdown looming tonight we ask are americans ready to send washington packing. and there is nothing americans love more than meddling especially when it comes to old middle east so with u.s. troops reportedly camped out on the border of syria can you smell what the u.s.

is cooking. and tis the season to be greedy american consumers these days could give a grinch a run for his money some of the credit card bills are racked up in the empty spaces under the tree fill up what does this by mentality have to say about american values. it's thursday december fifteenth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching r.t. . well hundreds of u.s. and nato soldiers reportedly arrive on the border of syria according to a former f.b.i. official hundreds of troops have mysteriously landed on the border and are training militants to overthrow the regime of syrian president bashar al assad but she says the u.s. media has been suspiciously silent about all of this the whistleblower that is helping to bring this to light so bill admin's joined me here in studio a little

earlier to expose some of the details. well my sources in turkey and those also of military sources here in the united states and these are u.s. military sources and turkish military sources familiar with the training of syrian rebels in turkey in southern turkey in u.s. bases engine like base in the southern part of turkey in hot tie area since last may and this is may two thousand and eleven and this story was confirmed by several high level people from both sides turkish military and u.s. military and they broke this story in november on november twenty second and no one in the u.s. media has reported on this even though a week later this story was confirmed and it was publicized by major newspapers in truckee and nothing we had and why aren't we hearing this from the mainstream media

well my sources told me that before day provided me with this information a month before that and this would make it around end of september early october they had gone to the new york times and washington post and the new yorker and some major popular alternative channels and the editors there they say that they were not going to cover this angle and they would not provide them with any answer and they were baffled so basically our web site became the last resort for this people and amazingly the turkish media even though they've been under intense pressure by the government there they've been reporting well it certainly is strange that we haven't heard any of the z. tales want to talk to you a little bit more about what you do know where did these troops come from any indication of them are we talking about the one on the interior border on the syrian border with turkey these these are the rebels who have been crossing the

borders and and military defeat. there is that incoming distance april two thousand and eleven but as far as the trainers are concerned these are the turkish army the nato and u.s. military and intelligence personnel who are working with colonel. riad al assad and he's been in turkey since may two thousand and eleven and he's been he's been the one who has been making all the training and also communication with the rebels inside the syria possible or or u.s. nato forces and when do you believe that the u.s. nato forces arrived of all they have they have always been in charge because they have a base u.s. has a base in julie base in charkhi so they've been there and now inside the base they have had this vision to train the rebels there they also help the rebels smuggle arms into syria but also they have

a communications division there in order to actually increase the number of defectors from the current syrian army and talk a little bit more about what their mission is and what the u.s. nato role is in training these these militants well i don't have the details on that but a lot of this this these activities had to do with the information wars and that's was to spread propaganda in syria to also how as these are the rebels who carried the messages and published it the craft is created by the turkish us nato forces inside turkey and also spreading information and they also have access directly to all the military communication inside syria because they were able to receive that information directly from syria in the base there. they are saying that u.s.

nato troops are helping. spread this propaganda in order to topple this regime or or the twist that information that they want to cross and get it to the people in syria and also the leftover people the people in the military with assad's regime and it certainly is strange that we aren't hearing about this how how can you verify or how to what extent do you trust your sources and how do we know that these are in fact u.s. soldiers. sure my sources first of all i have officers within the u.s. military but i also have turkish military sources who actually have been unhappy about these developments but this story after we broke this story was confirmed by all the major networks that newspaper in turkey starting at the end of november so they had their own sources and these were to people who were able to go and

actually some of them had photograph the former military members from assad's regime in saudi and turkey hatami area being trained with u.s. military personnel and the activities that have been taking place there so if you were to go and look at the archives the turkish newspapers have been reporting on this note of course from the u.s. media even though i mean they their reporters kept telling us that while they are on their pressure they wouldn't want to jeopardize our troops but i mean just those excuses don't make sense and this is exactly what they did with us with iraq and similar incidents took place during libya and now since may they have been helping the u.s. government to cover up these set up these preparations these activities. starting may two thousand and eleven because most people here in us there are on their team press impression that things are reactionary assad's regime is bringing about some

atrocities and some rebels there they are going down fighting they have no idea that all these set up props started in may two thousand and eleven so it is by design and it's not some kind of. simultaneously op rising situation where people are rebelling and then suddenly they are mysteriously armed and mysteriously arms are being smuggled into syria from turkey well who who's providing this arms nobody's asking in the u.s. media well these are u.s. arms shipped to chucky and from turkey it's being smuggled into syria so you're saying that there is a lot more to the picture than what the headlines expose after the fact absolutely and i would make a distinction between western media and the media they're less they in turkey or in middle east because people there tend to get more of the real news information than people here in western nations and of course that is by design too because it is

not the consent of the middle eastern people that the u.s. government is after they want to line up support from europe and people in the united states for the very soon to come war with syria and lastly sabella want to ask you why you decided to expose this information and why you think it's important for the public to know about this well initially when i first got this information my first question was why aren't why are you coming to me why don't you go to the media and i was told that in fact these people had taken these reports all the major newspapers in the united states new york times washington post plus when are journalists with with the new yorker but they have been getting silence treatment and instead. cases they were told that they were not going to cover it and this being the us media so when they came to us we decided to check. out our our other

sources and after the check to be decided to go and print and do you think that these are all signs that maybe the media is working with the u.s. government or complying with orders from the u.s. government that has stablished for many many years though i mean if you were to ask this the american people will tell the at least those who are aware we went through this with iraq we went through this with libya we went through this with so many wars that we have had since nine eleven and this fits the pattern be have had before and it's nothing just different and if you go and speak with the analysts out there they are looking at this information asia times reported on this your news organization report on this these artifacts these are just sources and it makes sense we have jordan we have syria we have iraq while they are basically surrounding syria and today we heard that canada now is evacuating their citizens

from syria basically telling us it's about to start we're about to begin well you don't start anything but doubt crap at least that's not the case with the united states military you start doing depressed work while this press war started in may two thousand and eleven in case of syria. well that was the bell admin's founder and president of the national security whistleblower coalition. well it's deja vu all over again our divided congress cannot agree on a spending bill so guess what if lawmakers don't come to some sort of an agreement by midnight friday a partial government shutdown well in syria when americans will see higher taxes on their paycheck and as the drama and bickering back and forth between congress plays out once again it seems there is no desire for republicans and democrats to compromise and the american people are fed up with the polls now showing their approval in the single digits senator bennett but that figure into perspective for us my goodness the journal revenue service has

a forty percent approval rating compared to or nine percent. sixteen percent approval rating at the height of the oil spill and were it nine percent there's an exercise that fifteen percent more people support the united states becoming communist i don't for the record. living proof that a job. so while they can't agree on a spending bill and almost anything else it seems the only thing they can agree on are the more controversial bills like the defense authorization act which passed the house in within the last few hours and passed the senate it allows the government to detain american citizens and hold them in military prisons indefinitely essentially bringing guantanamo bay right here at home and what about

the sopa act which if passed would allow law enforcement to shut down any website accused of pirating content a move that some say would hurt freedom of speech on the internet and let's not forget the passage of the tarp bill which authorizes hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out the big banks wall street and big corporations so in the wake of all this what our congress is priorities and is it time to scrap congress and start a new i spoke earlier to nomi prins author of black tuesday with yet another deadlock i asked her if lawmakers even have a desire to compromise here's her take. they seem to have a desire to act like children or if it's not a desire it's an inherent ability although i think children come to a compromise a little bit sooner it's like this is nice and vox this is mine ok let's play together whereas congress doesn't seem to be able to do that over the important issues which really impact americans day to day life which is their job to work

towards accommodating now there are a few things it seems that congress can agree on bailing out the big banks recently the defense authorization act so when it comes to military spending and bailing out corporations we do see a consensus but when it comes to spending to a spending bill which affects each and every american why is it that they can't agree. you know what that consensus is part of it's the fact that the wall street community fun many of the campaigns or the staying ability of these politicians on both sides of the aisle certainly so does the defense industry so if you follow the money issue the things that can be agreed upon are generally the things that have the most money behind them and not just in lobbying money that's part of it but also in campaign contribution money and i think the closer we get to the election and we're always in washington worried about the next election in the next run for office that becomes more and more apparent of course tarp the seven hundred billion dollars congressional bill that bailed out

a number of banks in addition to all of the money and trillions that were thrown at these banks through the federal reserve and the treasury department was just after an election so this just shows you that really that is the game in washington and with respect to individuals that's what seems to get put on the table assumes the long term bargaining chip between everything else that both parties want to get done and gets thrown by the wayside and you get these ridiculous inane conversations we just have this conversation about are we going to start down the government can we extend the payroll tax cut and so for the few months ago and all that happened when it was punted down the road whereas yes when you look at a tarp bill you get agreement within a period of days and as you just pointed out it's no secret that congressmen spend a great deal of time raising money because that is where they get their campaign funds from these big donors so how does this system influence the priorities of our elected leaders and what this is seventh who do they really represent. so those are

they represent the money rather than the votes and the way they look at is the corporate contributors who pay them the money to raise in their campaign situations are supposed to be about getting votes about getting their messages heard that's why else would you be raising money technically for a campaign but that isn't what happened what the money gets used to do is indicate what kind of legislation that particular politician is going to be pushing when he or she gets in office or is able to stay in office so that's really how our entire political system has devolved and it's not that there wasn't always money in politics or that there wasn't always a revolving door between people that were leaders or are high ranking officials in the business community and then become that in washington but we've gone to a point where it really is all about the money that's behind these these campaigns and the legislation that gets passed and the doesn't get passed in the priorities of the country are just verbal sort of rhetoric that you hear in debates or you you

hear on the floor but the don't get passed as quickly or as widely or get thought about is deeply and we're seeing this impasse get again when i ask you do you think that we will see a partial government shutdown this time around. no i don't think we were going to any more than we did last time at the end of the day because there is this election coming up you know congress person on either side of the aisle wants to get labor where you go from a nine percent approval rating and there's not even a very big drop from from one percent to zero and i don't really think they want to go for that i think there's going to be an agreement like there was last time which is going to be something along the lines of we'll extend the payroll tax cut for middle class americans we will extend the unemployment benefits like we did last time for a little bit further down the road we won't penalize or tax more greatly the wealthy and we'll throw in some pipeline extras to make it work and everything that's being discussed now ad nauseum for days and weeks is going to come is going to be resolved even with all of the squabbling back and forth and it will be them

punted down the road for the next time that the squabbling will reemerge so obviously congress not very popular right now they're at an impasse yet again american people are not happy what is the solution i mean eight is it time to start over or what needs to be done econ i wish that that the vote actually could get rid of anyone who is in the way of getting things done for the american public instead of doing their job which is to effectively help the american public that would be basically getting rid of almost everyone in congress not everybody but a majority of congress people on both sides of the aisle and starting over again the issue is that people don't feel that they have a choice beyond who's in office or running for office and generally the similarities that we are seeing between the republican and the democratic parties are very very the same and i just want to ask you. as you said a shutdown not likely but if that were to happen if they do not come to

a compromise what effect would that have and what would it mean for the american people. well i mean there be a lot of uncertainty again around this potential extension of a tax cut against unemployment benefits and we're looking at a situation where despite the fact that the unemployment rate was reduced a little bit in the beginning of this month that we saw it's really only because a lot of people have stopped looking or they might have jobs but they're not jobs that are able to make ends meet and people are paycheck to paycheck away from not being able to make a mortgage payment in addition to the ones that are living in poverty or close to poverty which is known as fifty percent of the nation so all that does is continue to prolong the pain instead of providing a little extra comfort to go a little further forward realizing that a lot of this situation this economic deterioration that we're seeing in the united states is partly because of these decisions to fund wall street and to fund the defense and to fund the bigger corporations at the expense of the community of the

population of the united states know me great to have you on the show that was no me prince author of a black tuesday and los angeles. well tis the season to spend it's the moment retail industries wait for all year long they want you to rack up those credit cards to make sure the presents under the tree are plenty so with this consumerist mentality have we lost the meaning of the holidays and with the economy in a slump how can people keep up with the expectation to spend this holiday season laurie harkness takes these questions to the streets of the big apple. there's no doubt we live in a consumerist world are you sick of it this week let's talk about bad goods christmas. i think it's normal. to do but why is it normal to buy so much more stuff just because it's jesus is birthday. good

question there's no thanksgiving it's black friday so i think that's sort of a real cultural shift you know what does it say about us as a culture that when we're so obsessed with buying stuff. that we need to get a life and i think it's because the human nature and has a longing for something and they've decided to fill it with things instead of a spiritual focus to those things get in the way of our spiritual quest i absolutely believe so because i think distraction is one of the keys to getting humanity off focus and you know you use you when you have it then then. it isn't important anymore so you have it and you feel good and then and then you are looking for something else and then you feel bad because you bought something but you didn't mean yes this is happened way before you were born that's how it is yeah times with additional money was made it was made to train the volume with the thought the man was. buying trading making selling is the way make

a living so were prehistoric caves covered in neon lights with logos plastered all around us they are right now around us but the technology was available sure would be i believe in recycling i believe in you know not consumerism but go to your local salvation army exchange. what does it say about our culture that we are so disposable. that we are exactly that and we're looking at life in a really shallow way how do you think history is going to remember this to how i am an age as consumers i'm going to be a part of that yes. right way school because i'm i live in france and my family very careful with their money my family and. they think twice about buying stuff so i listen to them it does make me more careful on the freight on can see with. your caught up in the time that i've been it's. whether or not your sick of the pressure of our consumerist culture the bottom line is when it comes to buying stuff you

don't need maybe it's best to just say no. now some large trying new ways to reverse this addiction to shopping reverend billy is showing there is life after shopping by performing credit card acts or says on churchgoers here he is an action and the government and the corporations in the big religions and all those heather strutting institutions that demand our taxes. and our shopping. that is not us we are one hundred percent heroes now they are the owners we are a slice and we were driving to the right enjoying the arts and the arts and live in a sustainable way with the art you know moving away with the earth never let me have somebody give me a level oh yeah well reverend billy joins us now to talk about his mission hi reverend thanks for gracing us with your presence today what inside your church

lives you know what inspired you to become the reverend of life after shopping. you know i was like some of the people that our friend was just talking to in times square i was a consumer who got kind of lonely and queasy and weird feeling and broke broke and i had my own crisis just like everybody else i mean it wasn't it wasn't like i got knocked off the back of a donkey by lightning i just stopped for a second said well what is consumerism why do i want to do this and then when i started doing that in fact i was a sidewalk preacher in times square at the time i started talking to other people on the same sidewalks that we just saw and people started gathering around we started discussing why are we caught in this mazing trap

and that was the beginning of the church of stop shopping and in asking those questions what answers that you arrive at. many people americans but people around the world are declaring their own independence right now they're occupying christmas in another way they're refusing to go to the wall street financed chain stores and supermodels the brand name products rather they're going to their own neighborhoods they're finding ways to give a gift that does not necessarily involve a logo a corporate logo keep the corporations out of it and that's the devil's distance that's the dept limit free speech and meant for that how i understand that you perform credit card exorcisms what is that how does that work we do have a power that is exerted over us and it is invisible it's mystical we

don't we don't see it and then suddenly there's a seventy foot tall supermodel looking at us like we just made love and we buy that perfume we buy that car we buy the police forces are coming from a mystical place and so we thought you know what let's have a little humor but it's not just humor it's also we have to make up our own magic system is we have to come back at the corporate marketing that studying us for years and even figuring out what our desire might be and so they come in and they sent us these things that we don't even want we don't want to we don't have the money for it we don't want it and we buy it so we do have these mysterious outside forces. you try to care somebody of that and that's what you do with these credit card exorcisms how do you know when you've carried somebody. we get e-mails every day in the church stuff shopping people say reverend i sat down with my family this

year we're making a third as much as we have made in the past. we're converting our hobbies into ways to make a living we're meeting our neighbors we don't have to you know we don't have two jobs like we had but now we're finding ways to spend time together we're giving a gift that we don't necessarily have to buy when we do buy something it's from a neighborhood store it's it's from something it's something within bicycle range we're learning to be in a community again and that's complex and that's fun. right that's when rediscovering again i do want to ask you because i understand you you are an expert advice i know some people that have that are inflicted it will with these with shopping addiction i want to play this clip for you and we can we can talk about it afterwards all right sister elizabeth elise are now looking for a woman who pepper sprayed a crowd of shoppers in order to get her hands on a bargain one shopper actually pepper sprayed fellow shoppers out a wal-mart

a los angeles because to me. a fight breaks out at a big box jewelry counter reverend billy what happened there are those people possessed sister liz they are possessed shopping and shooting out the same thing in american culture but i and bombing are the same thing we're just now discovering how violent consumerism is consumerism and militarism they are the same thing the war in iraq the world if afghanistan we are now the american military is now over in one hundred thirty countries. we we both do that we approve of it because we think it's video games we think it's just christmas again we think we're just buying something that's not confused that's our son be like we are the united states playing for a system is for us to live for us i am home by our and i will certainly

pray and hope for that black eclipse just up. the river when it was eileen ok well we're soon we're sitting right maybe reverend reverend we have get a little bit of time left really quickly is your final message to holiday shoppers . message children we're going to give to each other it's you. this is the idea of peace christmas hanukkah. we're starting over again and pieces here in our future. this season is about changing. a louis. in a lovely. holly i love it. man reverend billy we got to go.