and cut off protesters stream of thought so to speak will explain. and the us might reach freedom of speech and assembly but its police forces sure seem like they're trying to silence the revolution will speak to one occupy activist who isn't afraid to speak up and speak out. it's thursday january fifth four pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching r.t. . all scaling down the military budget that's what president obama is announcing today as we look beyond the wars in iraq and afghanistan and the end of long term nation building with a large military footprint will be able to ensure our security with smaller conventional ground forces will continue to get rid of dated cold war era systems so that we can invest in the capabilities that we need for the future of the obama

administration now realizing the u.s. can cite two wars at the same time anymore it just costs too much money now the department of defense is trying to figure out how to cut some four hundred billion dollars in spending and they say they can do this by ending the wars abroad and cutting back on other costs the pentagon certainly has a lot to work with with such a massive military budget to try to put it into perspective let's take a look at the u.s. military budget compared to other countries well in two thousand and eleven the u.s. pumped five hundred forty eight billion dollars into the military compare that to ninety one billion in china russia spent sixty three billion iran the country where the u.s. military is keeping close tabs on now spend about nine billion in india spent thirty six billion. but now that the u.s. is going broke it says it needs to be more frugal in their spending their military spending this as they unveiled plans for the most expensive piece of military

equipment ever take a look at this you're looking at the u.s. as a gerald r. ford the biggest price tag for any single weapon in history it cost a whopping eleven and a half billion dollars that carrier is worth more than the g.d.p. as of nicaragua and haiti combines so is this what you call cutting back to look deeper into this earlier i spoke to retired u.s. army colonel douglas macgregor i asked him if this is money well spent. no i don't think so. the real question for the american taxpayer is are you getting something better a dramatic leap ahead in capability than what you normally would get with the traditional carrier and the answer is really no it's very expensive we've invested in some new technologies such as the electromagnetic air left aircraft lift system which is designed to replace the catapult it's troubled we've got problems with it's not working properly they'll eventually work through that but the question is do we

really need it what does it do for us that we don't already get from an existing carrier and again the question is not much when you're spending billions and billions of dollars in addition to what you'd normally spend you expect a dramatic leap ahead we don't get that with the f. thirty five either which is designed to be launched from these carriers and most of the things that people point to any of thirty five have to do with the intelligence reconnaissance surveillance suite the radars all of those things could be refitted to fifteen's that have sixteenths so the bottom line is if what you really need if you're a cop on the beat in new york what you need is a thirty eight and someone is trying to give the cop a laser pistol does the cop need a laser pistol at me as he probably doesn't so do we need to spend the money for these things i'm not sure that we do they are saying that this is bigger but not necessarily better not dramatically better bet it not good enough to justify the additional billions of dollars that we're investing in it how about why then spend

billions and billions of dollars i mean it's meant cost more than the g.d.p. is an entire country and why that pump so much money and whether there are other questions about the wisdom of this sort of thing first of all when you spend this much money on one platform one ship are you really going to put it at risk what do you really plan to do with it if you go back to the first world war the battle of jutland when the royal navy falk the german navy the royal navy commanders were very reluctant to commit all of their battleships because they were. it's have to build and they were afraid to lose them we were reaching that point where we're building something that we were afraid to lose and there's nothing we can do to prevent that from happening if we actually put it in harm's way so the question is do we want to build things that cost less that are more that we can afford to lose if you will in combat or do we want to continue to put our money into these very large expensive capital ships which frankly at sea are becoming more and more vulnerable than they've ever been in our history affect you go back to the one nine

hundred fifty s. the sixty's admiral rickover the father of nuclear navy or maybe was asked when he testified before the senate in one nine hundred seventy s. how long would our carriers last against the soviet navy at sea and his answer was two or three days before their sunk maybe a week if they stay in port well that's because the submarine and submersibles unmanned submersibles today these kinds of things are so powerful and so difficult to track that they will put down capital ships like these aircraft carriers that are in a serious conflict so again what's the rationale strategically for doing this perhaps it's jobs because clearly you know this creates a lot of employment in norfolk virginia. almost like a really nice car you don't want to. say it's for a show that you don't want to really put in harm's way because of how much money i mean do you think that the money spent on something like this can be better spent elsewhere yes i do but it but again the navy admiral are stuck with the structure

that they've had now since the end of the second world war they are doing the same thing that is being done in the army and the air force to a lesser extent and certainly in the marine corps and that is refit the old structures the old ways of war the single service war fighting established was left over from one thousand nine hundred five we're refitting those we're not building anything new we're building a better version of what already exists but it is so outrageously expensive is so much more vulnerable today. the question is does it make sense monetarily i don't think it does the other problem with the expense is that we've done a very poor job of containing expense the acquisition system is flawed we don't hold people accountable when's the last time that we conducted an audit of the department of defense we haven't we haven't audited the federal reserve we hear about that a great deal we haven't audited the department of defense and the recent announcement by the president on his new defense plans and strategies doesn't include any mention whatsoever of an audit of financial accountability and we desperately need

that so money could be spent recklessly and the public wouldn't even know about it absolutely there aren't these audits that's that's happening as well as you just that president obama today announced this plan. to draw down troops to decrease military spending but at the same time we have something like this in the works that this is military aircraft the aircraft carrier there seems to be a disconnect there well look there is no existential military threat to the united states there is no power out there today that it is organizing itself to take on and destroy the united states we know that we enjoy a considerable lead in many key categories of military power that's not likely to change in the near term. the point is this creates jobs this is a big ticket item that's important to the defense industry it's important committees of the united states the people who manufacture aircraft we don't have we're not going to occupy anymore muslim countries that's been

a disaster in iraq and afghanistan our strategic disaster self-defeating enterprise's that's over that was the signal so what do you do you reduce those ground forces we've started with the army the marine corps will not escape this either there will be more reductions after the next election this is just the beginning but there is no coherent strategy here that doesn't exist it's well we need to cut defense spending so where do we cut first we cut where it's easiest and you go to the large united states army which was increased in size for the occupations in iraq and afghanistan you make cuts there and you don't cut these big ticket items because jobs depend on it income depends on but while we are drawing troops out from iraq from afghanistan there is this mounting tension with iran and i mean do you think that the u.s. is ready to go to war with iran will go into war with iran is a very challenging to be perfectly blunt i mean if the united states is twelve feet tall iran in comparative terms is maybe six inches high it's

a nonentity militarily it can't project military power beyond its borders the fear of iran closing the straits of hormuz as much exaggerated the iranians would suffer terribly from that remember that about eighty three percent of china's oil comes from the middle east it has to pass through the strait of hormuz then through the strait of malacca and reach china the japanese the koreans are equally depended upon it no one no one profits from the closure iran is revenues would tank it's already going to suffer as a result of sanctions nothing would improve we would not benefit so the frankly speaking this tension is artificial it doesn't have to happen it doesn't need to exist the iranians would do themselves an enormous favor by saying. unless and we would do ourselves a favor by ignoring most of it because quite frankly it's not important they're not going to do it we don't need to engage them there's no nothing to be gained mutually all of this i sadly i think is connected to israel and the israeli fear of

iran for rhetorical reasons war the military ones and speaking of israel the us recently announced one of the biggest huge military build up and as israel and israel are seeing is ready it's not a war with iran so israel does go to war with iran i mean by default is the us also be involved in it well that i think is probably the israeli plan that's what they would like to see happen i think that would be unfortunate because i just don't see any benefit to it and i think that ultimately if we can exercise some patience and some restraint over time we may see the conditions in the region change rather dramatically the turks are the most powerful military force in the region turkey also has interests it has interests in iraq along with iran they're increasingly in conflict with each other we don't need to become involved in these things but we could ultimately help the sorts of it out from

a distance if we don't become directly engaged as far as israel is concerned. war with iran would not involve an iranian invasion of israel or an end israeli invasion of iran they they would trade strikes with each other and i'm sure that the iranians would try to use their proxies because remember iranian influence depends on shiite populations you have that in southern lebanon you have some very very small in number in syria you have them in iraq and in the emirates in eastern saudi arabia their principal tool is subversion. that's how they would probably try to counter the israelis but but quite frankly again you know i hope the israelis will back away from this because i think it's unnecessary i think there are alternative ways to deal with this but the israelis have reached a point now where honestly they don't believe there are many of the top leaders feel they have to do this certainly a lot of tension and a lot of instability in the area douglas thank you so much for coming on the show thank you. well still ahead on our at the police forces are swimming upstream and

trying to cut off the occupy movement apatosaurus well they be able to silence the revolution question more next. to the same. people calling like you said for free and fair elections. and they're still reporting from the land where you can hear behind me loud explosions.

there's the police corruption. but what a protest that nobody seems to know. that never pepper sprayed the face but part of the argument that they're being overly dramatic.

welcome to the capital account i'm lauren lyster. put a picture of me when i was like no years old i don't get old with fruit. i confess that i am a total ghetto friends that tylenol rap and hip hop is back and. that it was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world with its place.

all signs up police are trying to silence the occupy wall street movement up until now the u.s. could turn into a global revolution t.v. it's a website for twenty four seven that live streaming video of what's going on there . but the outlet has reportedly been evacuated from their studio in brooklyn new york police officers also arrested some of the project's key volunteers this week including co-founder of bird well when global revolution t.v. first started up arts he reported on how they became a driving force and breaking the information blockade our marina port and i reports . from the mass demonstrations of support.

to the disturbing images of police force. day after day the world has been able to watch occupy wall street in action through global revolution t.v. this is a live web stream documenting the ongoing corporate resistance and civil unrest growing and growing in the big apple it's not about one political party or that it's actually creating a platform to have this debate without the being manipulated by the powers that be five years ago. was a derivative straighter on wall street today the thirty nine year old is among those camped out in zuccotti park protesting against the financial institutions he once worked for i saw it on live with combined with the call just the combined with the still the biggest bomb in the waters of us in the saga

world economy co-founded i launched global t.v. weeks ago we're going to bring people into explain what's going on when the occupation movement began in new york will simply steeple how to shoot video of the other than just upload it and how to make it go viral and the whole idea is that you creating it's opinions record in the with this now that the movement has exploded worldwide the web channel will be broadcasting live streams for more than seventy countries and six hundred cities we're going to see more people that's going to be a thing or the other square. in figuring out what's happening there and taking their streams of putting them on the body with each other so this sort of a model for a replacement for c.n.n. says mainstream media outlets will be able to marginalize or spin the peaceful uprising as people from all over the world take to the streets demanding elected leaders begin working for the majority instead of the financial elites it's

a worldwide movement and if these principles of equality are going to be the find everything because we're basically creating the united. the typical united nations united people. and that was our own marina par and and for more on that live from new york activist and writer for the daily kos jesse. hi jesse so they shut down that web site apparently so what is going on there. from what i understand the very good the people out in brooklyn based on quality of life issues and the funny thing is they were in the first floor of a larger building there were no violations for the upper floors isn't that funny so the only residential area in that building that was a good safety standard was where our global growth revolution live stream video was but the rest of the building is safe to live in it sounds like a very flimsy pretext. so i mean what do you think is behind it i mean do you think this is a cover for police trying to silence the movement or what do you think is really

happening. you know whether it was just strange circumstance or if it was cover to silence the media i think it's easily proven that journalists have been under attack while they're covering occupy wall street protests whether they're credential lies journalists who serve with the new york times in the daily news or whether it's citizen journalist like myself of the people who groove revolution and i think it should be a great concern to all of us the conversation that we want to have about the oligarchies controlling our politics and our economics needs to go forward no matter what and the fact that the system is fighting back against the shows that what we're doing is working and i just want to talk about this particular website global revolution t.v. and where they fit into the media media world war viewers getting by tuning and that they weren't getting perhaps in the mainstream media. well that's exactly the case you know so many people that i met down to do comedy back in october november flat out said i heard something the media but i didn't hear enough so i had to come see it myself and global revolution filled that gap that so many people wanted to

see coverage of what was happening in the news that important to their lives and not the corporate media stuff that they try to you know create a narrative around so global revolution was massively important and shows what an outstanding model citizen journalism can have going forward to counter a corporate media narrative so i think it's very important but the best part is it's not going away i'm one hundred percent certain global revolution will be back very shortly but are they temporarily shut down it sounds like they are temporarily shut down but you know what they. knew it wasn't going to be easy so i expect to see them back soon why do you think viewers would prefer these days to go directly to the source. oh it's simple you get a. filter look at reality especially with live stream technology there is no editing there's nothing that you can prepare for diverse for it shows the unfiltered unadulterated truth and let's be honest c.n.n. and fox news are not providing that nowadays and so you know with global revolution

t.v. shutting down at least temporarily and how will that affect coverage of the movement well we're an organic movement so it's just going to shift in other directions are still a ton of activity on twitter facebook there are still several their lives streams if someone were to go google occupy wall street live stream i'm sure they're going to find a lot of different options so it's a little bump in the road it's unfortunate but we're still going strong so i don't see this is being a roadblock at all but now that they have been shut down you say that there are other outlets where you are as cads who need to to get this live stream but do you anticipate that maybe it's going to have this domino effect and we'll see more of these sites being shut down. you know even if it were the case that you saw a domino effect in other states will shut the shut down other sites will pop back up too so it's kind of the game of whack a mole and if the wealthy vipul and their corporate interests who don't want to have this conversation want to play that game we can play that game all day so i don't think it's going to be a roadblock at all in the larger scope of things i mean would you go as far as to

call this censorship. or how would you describe it i would certainly describe it as censorship you know the n.y.p.d. stated recently that if you don't have a credential as pesky press pass that you are you know obstructing justice or some nonsensical term like that so if you're a real journalist you have to stand on the corner where they tell you and you can report the news if you're a citizen journalist like myself you're subject to arrest this is all on constitutional it's all not in the spirit of the freedom of the press as defined by the first amendment and i think that yes it is censorship it's just very subtle and pervasive but it's censorship nonetheless so you would say would you say that these are all signs that the movement is try is there is an attempt to to silence the movement oh certainly the the last thing that the wealthy people who decide our politics and economics want is a large conversation about income inequality and the corporate ownership of our

politicians and the buying of our elections so yeah absolutely censorship because the last thing i want to do is talk about anything that matters to real people like us well in the wake of this and the arrests that we've seen just where does the occupy wall street movement stand right now at this point and where is it having. we stand a very firm ground everybody's talking about the basic issues we've numerated about the wealthy concentrated into the hands of one percent of americans out of better than ever and the rest of us were being fed austerity fetishism and tax cuts for the rich and cuts for everything else so the future is bright we've got plans on the fifteenth we're going to be holding a worldwide vigil nationwide worldwide vigil in honor of martin luther king jr january seventeenth is occupy congress we've got planned for february march just going forward it's not going to stop and they can shut down one web site or one occupied territory but it's not going to kill the idea jesse has been quite cold lately yesterday it was one of the coldest here in d.c.

and i can imagine farther north it's been a lot worse how has that been affecting the turnout of the movement. well it's a good thing in a certain way because it forces of so hunker down and organize so we still have mansions out in the street i was participating on new year's day of the retreat gives you cardboard sixteen hundred people showed up so even if that was in new year's eve people were still coming out there are problems or not going away neither should we get to keep it up stay warm nice to have you on the show that was activists and very there's always for the daily coast just see it like greca. now let's the capital account is up next on our t.v. let's check in with lauren lyster to see what is on the agenda lauren hi there liz i know you guys have been talking to fans talking about what is in store for the pentagon cuts people on different sides of this but we think we're going to break this down we always talk in trillions and hundreds of billions we're going to put this in perspective of

a household budget and look at what it looks like you're not going to be very excited about it liz if it was your household you'd probably be freaking out also lots of news out of the fed is trying to tell congress to do something about housing we'll talk to edward harrison of credit write downs dot com to say how could a housing have a correction when the whole world seems to be drowning and there's only so many life raft seems like the fed is picking their friends and on wall street for those life those are a few items we're going to touch on europe too well that is definitely something to look forward to that is going to do it for now thank you lauren for more on the stories we covered you can head over to our t dot com slash usa you can also check out our youtube page it's youtube dot com slash artsy america and you can also follow me on twitter liz wall the capital account with lauren lyster is coming up next we'll see you right back here with an all new show at five.

pepper spray just burns your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything in the bio absolutely thousands of times stronger than any kind of bird you ever put in your.

i had a family i lived in a fairly nice community wasn't which was an upscale it was just like you know archie bunker's society ok then they started showing up here what happened was my company decided i could get cheap labor and they got rid of. most of the eaglets line legally we have to get up every morning we have to go to work and you know we have to pay our bills only have to do it and that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the law so i figure this here's one of the major trails in the united states. i watch

and they run run down my property and something about this noise. bothers a little mean that cockroaches from coming over the wire is protecting the country i'm the kind of guy who doesn't mindedness pay and sturdy so i come out here you know we're all immigrants as well that we all here are some thoughts. wealthy british scientists on it's time to. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report. good

afternoon and welcome to capital account more in mr here in washington d.c. europe is the open sore that just will not heal france not looking so aaa after a lousy bond auction greece needs dough or could face default spain tells banks to guard against bad loans with billions of euros more than before and trading in shares of italy's largest bank by assets has been suspended for the second day in a row and don't worry there is more to it all in the show and a plan for cuts to u.s. defense spending were unveiled today. so will no doubt the spending reductions are too.