we have much in this will be one of the prisons are we get this you and tonight will show you examples of those who have not during the holiday season also made it a top priority to buy expensive gifts many of the less fortunate struggled to find a hot meal. good evening it's december twenty eighth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine you're watching our t.v. well we're wrapping up twenty eleven and i think it bears looking at some of the ways things are changing in this world particularly in the world of social media twitter and facebook of course played a major role in the organization and mobilization of the arab spring this year as well as occupy wall street and it turns out the cia actually has an entire department people whose job it is to sift through tweets and according to the associated press they go through about five million tweets

a day so i think this is worth noting because of some of the things that are happening as a result and and because you know really this isn't discussed enough on one hand twitter is public for the world to see is book a little less so but people are posting their business online so just a little earlier i spoke to investigative journalist when madsen and i asked him shouldn't they expect that people including the government will read it. well absolutely we have to look at where the seed money came from the social networks we do know that the central intelligence agency through in-q tel its venture capital provided a lot of seed money for many of these companies that develop these social networking operations and programs so people have to be aware that when they put personal information online they're basically doing this the job for them it's one of they just pack up all their personal information and send it to langley virginia. let's

talk about something that happened recently because we are still very new in terms of the results in the consequences of social media twitter facebook etc but as i have been very recently the district attorney's office in boston a couple weeks ago subpoenaed twitter they asked for user information and ip addresses for people involved with occupy boston we're showing right now on the screen a copy of the subpoena that's apparently been leaked and you can see here the assistant district attorney benjamin goldberg are saying this information is needed for a criminal investigation asking for the ip addresses of these specific names he doesn't seem to understand that hashtags are actually not twitter handles but that's fine when are we going to see more of this more legal action like this in the future. i think so because what the intelligence agencies and law enforcement want to ascertain is if they have one person under investigation they want to see who they are all their friends and family members are so they're going to start

building up these lists and then they're going to run them through these. relational database very sophisticated algorithms to find out. who's friends with the person under surveillance what kind of politics they practice. religious information. and this type of thing you know the cia and f.b.i. got in trouble for this kind of thing after watergate and the laws were so restrictive on the f.b.i. they couldn't even keep things on paper from the newspaper there's a reason for it then enter should be a reason for it now it's called fishing expeditions and the federal government can't go on fishing expeditions unless they have a criminal predicate and probable cause i don't think they have probable cause in boston but look at people involved with occupy wall street that's that's just called a fishing expedition but don't you think wayne is a little bit different i mean back in the time of watergate in the sixty's and seventy's. newspapers were there people are not posting their own personal

information these days that's exactly what happens i mean you say that people are doing the cia's job for them but don't you think a little different when people choose to put their thoughts out there when they choose to be on twitter they have to be on facebook they go in knowing that other people out there including the government are going to see this. well there is obviously a problem now people have no sense of privacy they're willing to take their personal information what they do almost on a minute to minute basis in some cases but this online not that interested in all that you know what movies are saying what you know songs they like here but. i think there's a sense that people have no sense of ensuring their own privacy the one way to avoid the surveillance state is the just say no to these social networking programs the way out it's two thousand and eleven this is how

a lot of people including myself as a journalist this is how i find out a lot of information i find out the top news stories that i'm interested in their twitter this is how i keep in touch with my friends i mean what do you say to people wayne who say you know that's just kind of an old fashioned way of thinking social network is here to stay the question is how to best deal with it well i you're right and obviously we use e-mail which can also be looked at by the same agencies the problem is would you engage in a private conversation yelling at the top of your voice on a city street you wouldn't do that so you shouldn't there are certain information you probably should be putting online for everyone to see obviously there are some social networks like linked in and are used professionally by a lot of companies lot of businessman now that kind of information could be of interest to the cia because they're doing this under open source open source collection and that gets into the area of business competitive intelligence and

that's the type of information the cia really wants with that the cost the company a lot of money if that information should wind up in the hands of the government who would share it with potentially other countries other agencies and in countries where they may be competitors to their own. business interests i think it's an important point and i think there is a really. a fine line here people do complain about the infringement on their civil liberties but they're happy as i am i'll be honest when you know you get a friendly i phone recommendation about you know great vietnamese food in a three block radius of where you're standing so i think that there's positive too but here's one of the most common arguments that i hear wayne and that is well i'm not doing anything that i have to be ashamed of i don't have anything to hide so i don't care that that stuff's all out there so i want to ask you why should people care well let's just say. somebody decides i want to go down to the occupy wall

street demonstration say well i don't know but then they wind up on the list as somebody who supports the movement and then they wind up in various national security intelligence databases so the next time they go to the airport to try to get a flight they're pulled aside as a potential security risk merely because of something they the government thinks that there are some sort of a threat but they don't think what they're doing it but they're not the ones to make the decision the government makes those decisions certainly an interesting discussion and one that needs to be had more i would argue investigative journalist wayne madsen in tampa florida hi so we're talking a little bit about twitter and you know here at r.t. a bunch of us are pretty active tweeters but i've got to say and out of the our own queen of twitter is our senior producer lucy cavanagh of lucy is spent weeks at the occupy wall street protests both in new york and in oakland and us yesterday she got back from russia where she was covering the protests there she was back and here in studio with me a little earlier so i asked her about this notion that you're starting to see out

there quite a bit that the occupy wall street movement and the movement in moscow are very similar here's what was he said about that. you know i really don't think it is and i'm almost surprised at the fact that i'm saying that myself because before i departed on this trip to moscow you know sort of read all the new york times articles in the mainstream media articles the time magazine naming the protester as the person of the year lumping in moscow with that and so i generally expected to find the same sort of situation down there what i saw that really took me by surprise the large rally that took place on the twenty fourth of december you know we went there to cover that it felt a lot more like a giant political political rally essentially than some sort of organic grassroots protest you know that it was complete with a giant stage plasma screens everywhere political party activists those easily identified by the flags that they literally physically held and when you look at something you think of like the democratic or republican convention it really is

different corners from the different areas if we had more than two political parties for instance and those parties got together that would be the equivalent of what's happening in moscow we saw occupy wall street for instance is genuinely say it's a grassroots movement that was started by american citizens and not top down from by some political organizations or interest groups instead what we see in these large demonstrations was again you know political parties that have been marginalized either by their own radical positions like for example the neo fascist nationalist party whose motto is russia for ethnic russians only or whatever that means these days or other you know the communist party for instance and a lot of people who turned out at a genuine curiosity because again this wasn't really this isn't something that's commonplace in russia so i would say the only similarity from my point of view is that people in russia just like in the states and across the world are sort of becoming more politically less politically pathetic perhaps but i would not say the

these two these two movements are similar at all at least not in the way that has been described in the mainstream press as some sort of pseudo revolution that's it's far from done. i mean let's talk about the mainstream press and the coverage of these two movements i want to put up something that the new york times said about media coverage in russia this was just a few days after the protests began michael schwartz wrote quote for more than a week moscow has witnessed some of the largest protests against the kremlin in years yet until saturday most government channels if they reported on the demonstrations at all tended to portray protesters as rebels and lawbreakers which at least one report warning of people arming themselves with improvised bombs i thought this was interesting for a couple of reasons first of all just looking at occupy wall street the mainstream media didn't cover this at all intel they were forced to until there were seven people on the brooklyn bridge getting arrested so i thought it was an interesting thing to say what are your thoughts about on this you know this is the new york times but this seems to be a sort of common notion well i mean it's you know you're damned if you do damned if

you don't i would like to point out that the same new york times cover for example the november second rally in oakland which was completely and utterly peaceful until the very end of the evening when the riot police turned up with also you know giant headlines saying clashes violence exciter etc so there's a bit of hypocrisy there but what i saw i mean i flipped through the channels in my hotel room sort of searching for this state censorship and you know utter silence from the state oriented channels and no i saw healthy vigorous debates you know there were panelists who were very much for the opposition positions they were panelists who were for sort of the the political party that's in power positions and you know frankly much more open discussion about the political issues at hand than what i've seen here and furthermore i mean i apt to say that we've been covering the protests in russia from day one just like we have there and there's almost the sense of eagerness to sort of somehow quassia what's happening in russia

without really looking at the media coverage here i mean it's interesting to me that publications for example like foreign policy or the or the new york times are so. or to essentially side with the protesters whoever they may be in other countries but not really look at the impact of the kind of suppressive coverage that we've seen of our own private protest movements here in the states and that's that's unfortunate i think it's a really good thing to look at in a really important point and the people that actually are acknowledging that some of these state run channels in russia are actually covering it are doing so with shock like wow they're actually covering it and it's really interesting let's talk about is sort of the reaction from the higher ups in russia russian president dmitri have. responded to the protests and he's you know the people out there are unhappy with some of these results of the recent parliamentary elections they're saying they were rigged so video has said you know let's talk about making some reforms in the political system however you know we're not going to tolerate extremists we're not going to tolerate people trying to destabilize the government

talk about that reaction and what you kind of glean from that well what was interesting to me i mean yes you can say that talk is easier than action and you know how these actual proposed reforms will play out in russia only time will tell of course it's obviously a lot easier to promise things and to make concrete changes but at least we're hearing the party in power responds to the voices on the street at least we're hearing that it seems like there's almost a dialogue between the people and the political party in power in russia whereas you know when was the last time that we heard from president obama when it was just just this week we saw president of reshuffle the top cabinet in the kremlin when have we seen anyone lose their job over some of the economic factors that gave birth to the occupy wall street protest you know there isn't even the lip service it seems from the political forces in power here in response to what the people are demanding and what the people want and i think it's safe to say that i mean occupy wall street certainly has resulted in even if not sort of

a government response that has resulted in a change in dialogue in the public you know marketplace of ideas i guess and that's the same thing that's the same thing that's how. in russia people may not necessarily be all for the opposition parties that are sort of coordinating these protests but people are showing that they're more politically interested they're more politically aware and you know they want sort of a back and forth of the government and the fact that there is some sort of response is a healthy thing i think that was artie's own lucy. well guess what there's just three hundred sixty one shopping days left until christmas all right advertisers aren't that bad but over the last few months there certainly has been a focus on buying and buying more make sure you get the hottest items because the good ones won't last well when you take a look at this scene this is the scene in stockton california two days before christmas. so why the large crowds what are people fighting for you may be asking the new air

jordans is there shoes that sell for nearly two hundred dollars and people who are willing to get a little violent even to go then spend that kind of money for shoes just something to think about especially when you consider other reasons people stand in long lines this holiday season for thousands the reason is food getting a hot meal and we want to take a look at one of the poorest parts of california skid row where our t. correspondent ramon the lindo talked to a few of the four thousand people who waited hours in line some even getting in line at midnight the night before there were a lot of camera crews there though most likely because it was hollywood celebrities serving the meals but when the cameras go away the problem doesn't here's ramon's report. because this year we have we have we don't have much and this will be one of the only prisons that we get this year. maybe softspoken but the twenty year

old college student is tough and resilient this young woman is carrying a heavy load on her shoulders as she tries to make this a happier holiday season for her six year old sibling we try to live every day by day looking for places that are like this give us the give us the daily bread but they've got the family is among the many families who waited for hours in line to get a hot meal from a shelter in los angeles is notorious skid row some four thousand three holiday meals are being served here on skid row and as you can see from the long lines there's definitely a great need recent u.s. census figures show that nearly half of all americans are considered to be core and as unemployment remains high and the government social safety nets continue to be frayed the fear is that in the future these lines will only continue to get longer and this to them is it's a miracle you know just to have a hot meal and a present to give their child for some of these families that small miracle was

something they had to ask for for the berry first time many poor families in this country do where but as food housing and medical costs continue to rise they're forced to make tough choices do i pay for my housing do i pay for my food or pay for the bus to get to work we're seeing a lot of that that is driving people potentially being homeless for economic theory . says the housing bubble burst four million american homes have been lost to foreclosure and according to new government figures one point six million children will soon be homeless on this particular day news cameras show up for the perfect picture of celebrities and politicians. handing out meals to the poor but for those living on the streets and waiting in line for a meal it shouldn't take a red carpet event to bring attention to their year round struggle there's

a lot of homeless out there there's a lot of tents cardboard boxes people they need housing i think it is getting worse too many children the economy is not those harsh realities hardly get a mention in the mainstream media instead the latest i phone app or crazed mall shoppers get the type of news treatment that usually results in money making ratings family like that they got those are almost certain this country has misguided priorities and instead of that he was putting the money towards are the citizens here is it doing using it for other things that aren't benefiting us like them or that's going on right now and well more americans are finding themselves living in poverty the average pay for a c.e.o. shot up between twenty seven to forty percent a discouraging trend that continues to divide this country meantime the u.s. economy continues to be afflicted by high unemployment the struggling housing

market and the ongoing political wrangling in washington d.c. making it likely that the pain felt in two thousand and eleven will linger into two thousand and twelve in los angeles that i'm on that. r t so last year the line of people at that skid row mission total about three thousand this year according to the mission they served more than four thousand people a lot of people just to begin with and really a large increase over one year so i want to dig a little bit deeper into all this earlier i brought on max he's a senior analyst for green cross capital i asked him why he thinks shelters and soup kitchens around the country like this one are still getting more and more people coming in for help. well we know the food situation is fairly serious we know in part because we're at records and it's not a record you want to break or make but we did repeatedly throughout two thousand and eleven which is we have a record number of food stamp recipients over forty three million pushing forty

four million people getting federal food assistance and we know the numbers are bad enough that nearly one in eight american children and some communities much more like one in four american children will receive some form of food stamp nutrition across this year so part of what's happening is we continue to have high unemployment even if it's fallen a bit lately to eight point six percent which is still a very high number and we also have a sort of duration of recession issue here that very few people sort of like to discuss and that is it isn't just the times aren't good which folks are kind of sick of listening to people say that it's also they've been bad times for a long time and the sheer length of time that many people have gone without a job increase without savings in some cases about a job has begun to chip away at even their normal support systems of savings or asking relatives or doing part time jobs or doing odd jobs off the books whatever coping mechanisms people have they've had to use for so long that economically the crutches we're using to prop up the economy are becoming splintered and degraded i

think when a year wraps up it's always a good time to sort of take a look back and also take a look ahead at what's next twenty twelve of course an even bigger year than just any other year because it's an election year what do you think you know especially as we watch the election sort of unravel with the campaign and the different ideas being put out there what do you think people are going to need to hear to have their mind persuaded to vote for one candidate or another to deal with some of these really tough times. we've seen a primary process and this time really a one sided one because a democratic nominee is a foregone conclusion in sitting president obama so he's sort of seen the republican cycle dominate this and what we've seen here is a sort of party hard core kind of peripheral stalwarts have a little bit of a circus in the republican primary has become a circus and i don't even mean that from a political perspective it's just sort of a group of on electable people who have tiny niche markets that are very excited about them everybody apparently gets

a three to five weeks in which they can be either number two to mr romney or number want to head of mr romney we pretend that each of these people in turn is likely to be the next president even though many of them would have a hard time winning a municipal dog catcher election it's been a giant distraction and tough times people like distractions so in the great depression the radio and the movies became huge and to some extent this forty eight debates of mostly non electable candidates on the republican side looks to be the kind of freak show circus distraction of the moment i think it's two thousand and twelve progresses in the near future we're going to see people start to care about the big issues that americans care about who and how are we going to get this economy back on track who and how it's going to be better at leading us toward an economic vibrant environment with job creation and who and how it's going to help us negotiate the really serious set of obstacles that we have in front of us here with the european debt crisis with the looming debate about the but budget in the united states about budget cuts at the federal state and local levels about the all

these various compromises that have really not been worked out successfully by the president and congress so i think two thousand and twelve especially the second half of two thousand and twelve leading up to the election will start caring about real issues and who does well in the polls will move as people pay real attention about what really matters to them before a huge electoral cycle with a presidential run of course and as well i think it's a really good point to call it a circus or whatever you want and say what you will about herman cain and his role in the circus but he at least. had whether it was viable or not he had a planet his nine nine nine economic plan i haven't heard a lot of other simple understandable plans from any of these candidates and yet this is the number one most important issue you know they'll go into detail they'll put campaign commercials together about their stance on abortion or homosexuality but what about these economic plans that people can understand that people will you know think i'm a make their lives and this economy better is that just max because we're not there

yet in the timing of the campaign where are these plans to get really intense interest right now from niche peripheral players who are the kind of extremes in either party's primary it's not really to do with the republicans per se but they're the ones with a primary right now so i think you're getting activists in the activists look for their wish list of conservative bona fi days on primarily social issues and personal character issues those are rarely what hinges on elections especially in a time as troubled as this one is for for most american families so i think as we get to this sort of real american voter and people start competing for the undecided as opposed to the party activists. we're going to see the debate migrate towards something like what america is interested in and i think we also have a little bit of a skew here because a lot of the candidates are fighting particularly lately for new hampshire and iowa voters strictly iowa voters neither new hampshire nor i are very representative of

the united states so i was in a bit of a farm export it tends to be kind of rural it's not very multicultural so iowa new hampshire also kind of problematic in terms of their real quality of representing the american electorate so we're kind of in the periphery of the republican primary in states that may or may not be a very accurate representation of the united states certainly very is going to come down i was going to say i mean it's very interesting when you look at a place like i was in good point it's not very multicultural a lot of corn the ethanol issue is of course big but you know when the abortion issue is made so big of course they're pandering to the voters and i was because it is a socially conservative state overall it tends to be it's funny how much attention these two states get as we get up to the you know as we begin the primary process and yet as you say real america a lot of these other issues are really i guess are overlooked because they all vote on super tuesday or they all vote on the same day. let's talk about occupy wall

street this happened this started where you are in new york and it's sort of spread across the country across the world even i will argue that that it has made some changes that some real concrete change that happened at least in terms of dialogue in terms of talking about inequality something that wasn't really talked about before talking about the corruption of the political system in the big banks and like that what do you see in terms of actual action in terms of actual other changes happening in the new year regarding this. well for one i don't think we've seen the end of occupy wall street and things like occupy wall street i think when the nights grow a little bit shorter and a little bit warmer and the days grow a lot longer and a lot warmer we're going to see occupy wall street and some of its offspring bigger and larger and probably more politically engaged than they were last year in part as you point out earlier because it's an election year i think there are major activities planned over the next few months and we'll see if those come off or not

but i would also start by saying that it's actually more of a surprise that took this long to get an occupy wall street than that we got one from a political standpoint as well as from an economic inequality standpoint all the things that brought those those people into the streets all across the country about occupy wall street are actually more true now than they were three months ago or four months ago and barring a sort of miracle which is unanticipated they'll be even more true three or six months out so as we sit and chat with each other at the end of two thousand and eleven here it looks like we're going to have a public pension crisis in two thousand and twelve we're going to have public spending crises we're going to see one hundred thousand people potentially lose their jobs from the postal system in the united states and we don't seem to have a looming large job creation on the horizon so all those upset students with huge juden loan debts facing a job market that's terrible that's not going away neither is inequality neither is a lack of basic opportunity and employment opportunity for people coast to coast so i don't think we've seen the end of it we have seen

a discussion begin that we've put off for thirty years and that was a discussion about how do we distribute what wealth we do have in the united states i don't think that issue is going anywhere but further up to the fore and i would be surprised not to see elements of the inequality and tax fairness and political corruption discourses that we saw get prominence around occupy wall street i would expect those to be front and center in local elections as well as national elections including the election for the highest office in the land the presidential election that we anticipate november two thousand and twelve all right a lot of important things to keep our eyes on and really. about it as we wrap up this year and look ahead to two thousand and twelve next cried wolf a senior analyst at green cross capital in our new york studios well that does it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa also check out our you tube page at youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at christine for now have a great night. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know. are welcome to the big picture. and.