what i would call a john brown moment in john brown for those of you who might have a fragmentary memory of american history was that fellow who in the late eighteenth fifty's mounted an insurrection at harper's ferry and really changed the tone and tenor of the national debate about what we were going to do about that big problem of the time which was were we going to continue to be slave holders or not and he galvanized the attention of the nation and about two years later we were in the civil war the greatest convulsion that the united states ever went through and so i'm wondering now you know when will the john breaux moment come for financial misbehavior that you know is not only unseemly unethical criminal and bad but is really hurting this nation terribly the revolution in tunisia started with one fruit seller the french revolution started with one girl talking

you know the price of bread going up and talk about john brown one individual starting the the revolution back in the u.s. in that time you know you talk about the financial crimes enough to contrast let's say in asia in the middle east north africa the more information they got the more upset they became you know the satellite photos it's uneasy a of how the top one percent was living got everyone upset in the u.s. however the more information they get the more docile they become you know julian assange or wiki leaks giving information makes people want to just lie down and cuddle up into a fetal position and hope it all goes away isn't there again is it drugs in the water is it obesity is it too much football what's is it d. evolution are americans doubt i know a lot of republicans don't believe in evolution but do they believe india evolution because it appears as though the mindset of the average american is devolving there are a number of things going on that revolver. the question of authority and legitimacy

and especially the news media and you know i it personally i consider myself allergic to conspiracy theories and i don't think that there is a media conspiracy to keep the american people ignorant but they're certainly doing a terrible job of reporting you wonder why the call thought leaders in places like the wall street journal and the new york times have they haven't reacted at all to the shenanigans going on with the new york state attorney general and the taskforce for mortgage fraud and the smokescreen at the department of justice they're just not paying attention so you know we're seeing some kind of an epoch a failure of people in charge if it's like you know control fraud itself which is using accounting. by people who run things namely people who run banks

and the people who regulate them and the whole idea that you are a legitimate vested authority and people expect you to be discharging your duties and doing things properly but yet you're not doing it and you know there's kind of an equivalent to that in the news media. so we're getting kind of a control fraught of news too but you know it seems to me to be more a matter of incompetence malice and in the case of the news media a-k. don't buy into the conspiracy theories that are out there however corning to a recent survey people who watch fox news are less informed than people who watch no news so clearly the fox people all know that if you have a population that is being dumbed down by purposefully inflating the debate with lies deception and from. god that's a that's

a population that you can steer by the nose in any direction you want to go ok now chris hedges believes that part of the reason for the national defense authorization act is that the banks are going to collapse and that bankers don't trust the police to maintain order so they want to give the military some boosted powers in the united states because they see this thing collapsing and they want protection from the mob your thoughts chris is a very intelligent guy and very experienced as a war correspondent and you know i think that he's a voice that we ought to pay attention to i would imagine the problem a little differently i you know i think that there's just kind of a general level of nervousness throughout the whole culture that it's not just the bankers but it's really everybody in any kind of authority is so nervous about about the failures that they have brought about that you know they they really no

longer trust the system to keep on running it and you know they're taking extraordinary measures in regard to your previous statement about fox news when i was a young newspaper reporter i investigated religious cults and political cults and one of the things that impressed me tremendously was how a group of people could simply subscribe to a bundle of ideas or shall we say programming and then you know there are a whole mental program was then set and they didn't really have to review any of their beliefs and i think that that's happened to a tremendous extent now and in our culture right so you've got bill o'reilly is more like charles manson than edward r. murrow now let's talk about something you're very keen to write about and talk about over the years peak resources and i want to ask you is there any connection between our two. element of civil liberties in the u.s.

and this peak resource the peak oil peak water etc well there certainly is a connection between all of these enormous looming issues the failure of capital finance the failure of civil order and the faith that we can run a civil society and the availability of the vital resources that we need to have an economy that continues to grow and produce the ability to do things like service debt so yes that you know these things are all intimately connected and they all end up down being into the question of whether or not this is a society that has enough confidence that it will be able to keep going and carrying this project of civilization into the future right now we're not too sure about that james council has another curious thing there's a washington post show that with a democrat novice the anti-war movement made up mostly of democrats has declined

drastically they are apparently fine with the wars while they team up while their team is en subtle spake how what's not all about it probably again the question of authority you know if you identify yourself as a democrat or a progressive and your party is carrying out the wars and doing it in a way that you know there's no draft so people aren't being dragged off to you know against their will they're volunteering and in fact it's really kind of a job center for that disappearing cohort of young men especially you know who who need to work with their hands and can't go to work in a factory or it or do some code you know or or any longer you know build houses or do other construction jobs so you know they work with their hands killing people in other lands so you know probably it's regarded as a kind of a jobs program right well of course when they go to these wars they often lose their hands and then gone aside. creates hand come out of times and collateralized

futures contracts they trade with other banks and they profit in another way on the death and misery of poor u.s. servicemen sent to do goldman sachs dirty work ok then there's another war the ongoing financial war and then once again frankly the democratic voters don't mind financial crimes because their guy obama is in office so somehow like i listen to bill maher on h.b.o. no matter what finance a crime is committed he repairs the same stupidity that comes out the white house about how the bailouts are profitable how the auto companies are doing fantastically well and so these liberal so-called just because they have their guy in office they don't seem better still to finance a crime is what is it just financial illiteracy on that huffington post side of the aisle i don't think so and i think it is certainly all parts of the political spectrum thomas frank wrote a book a few years ago called what's the matter with kansas and the basic point of his

book was why do voters get snookered by political parties into voting against their own interests but the situation's changed now a few years later and what we're seeing is something a lot worse than that what we're seeing is now a comprehensive failure of leadership and not just in politics which is the most visible kind of leadership but comprehensively through american life and to some extent western life you know a failure of leadership in politics business in the media you know in the clergy. in education at every level and that makes for a very. nervous society all right james howard kunstler we're out of time thanks so much for being on the kaiser report quite welcome mats always a pleasure all right that's going to do it for this edition of the kaiser report with me max kaiser and stacy herbert i want thank my guest james howard kunstler you can find our. a counsellor at consular dot com if you like to send me an e-mail

please do so at kaiser reported r t t v are you or you can follow me on twitter until next time x. guys are saying bio. russia's

foreign minister says the libyan scenario will foreign intervention or risk being repeated in syria as a cases built against the assad regime to justify external military action. a fresh wave of downgrade sweeps the struggling euro zone six nations get their debt ratings cut all while greece faces further bailout hurdles from the e.u. despite its latest harsh austerity plan. and russia's military predicts the west might decide on a strike on iran before summer as clouds gather over terror ron paul and israeli accusations the islamic republic was behind monday's attacks on diplomatic

personnel. midnight in moscow i met très a good to have you with us here on r t our top story moscow says there is significant risk the libyan scenario for intervention could soon be repeated in syria russia's foreign minister warned the cases being built against the regime in damascus that could be used to justify external military action sergey lavrov was speaking with journalist during a trip to the netherlands are. reports from the hague. criticised the idea to put together the so-called group of friends of syria which could meet as soon as by the end of february would include several western nations including the u.s. and france some arab countries and representatives of the syrian opposition and

said you are better off says if this group will not include representatives of the syrian authorities it would mean the international community is taking a certain side in this internal conflict for syria while russia and china they stand for peaceful dialogue between both sides of this conflict especially with the syrian authorities saying now that they are ready for this dialogue the russian foreign minister also said that right now it's very important to establish who controls these heavily armed militant groups within the syrian opposition and the other issue touched upon why the russian foreign minister is the recent proposal by the arab league to deploy a u.n. peacekeeping contingent into syria and according to the russian foreign minister there are several issues which may be of concern the first one is that such a peacekeeping contingent would have to be welcomed by the receiving side meaning by both sides of this conflict both the authorities and the opposition which brings us to the desperate need for dialogue between them and secondly with the aim to

protect civilians this contingent would have to be armed as well which also causes concern and also the no fly zone operation in libya also initially started with the aim to protect civilians but ended up with the international community also taking a certain side in that conflict of sense that perhaps instead of looking for new missions the arab league should resume its currently frozen monitoring mission especially with the syrian authorities giving the green light for having more observers in the country including in the most hostile areas. patrick a reporter for online magazine spiked tells r t what he believes that the west is using the pretext of so-called humanitarian intervention to promote its own agendas what's happening is this kind of intervention is really looking at down you know the removal of diplomats from syria. the desire to arm the free

syrian army from the west and to basically support them to give them kind of sectioned off training areas where they can develop and a strong opposition apart from the kind of threat of assad's all suggest that you know the west isn't willing to have you know encouraged and the kind of dialogue discourse and to ultimately they want you know they've now polarized the situation they've now said you know. evil we need to get rid of him they use those kind of terms evil you know the. ogre all bogeyman and you know the syrian people are vulnerable victims who need to be protected by the west now i think we saw the same thing with gadhafi and it's always very striking that you know it was only two years ago that assad was seen as the group's reformer in syria the west were basically queuing up to talk to him and engage in dialogue now they've been no he's completely been frustrated as this absolute this absolute figure of evil that needs to be kind of tackles and i think the west has this tendency to polarize the

situations and again that can cause massive problems later on. syria's opposition says the rest of city of homs has come under some of its heaviest shelling yet from government forces rebels claim around four hundred have been killed and several days of an intense assault syrian authorities blame violence on armed terrorists operating in the city with al qaeda now adding to the increased turmoil the country there are fears syria could soon plunge into sectarian chaos sara for if it's planes. the predominantly christian town of milly lies up in the syrian mountains yet even here in this hauntingly beautiful place and the signs of the polarizing conflict that is tearing apart much of the country right now a creeping in and a sense of foreboding hangs heavy locals tell us they don't travel out of this area much they no longer feel it's safe we speak to the nuns at the monastery here they

tell us about the town's preservation of the ancient aramaic language and like their cherished tongue they hate the fine balance of religious groups in the country can be kept even in these difficult times we have been living here with all people regardless of their religion ethnicity in peace for a long time. back in the center and damascus is known as a melting pot of religions south alloa effect are a minority in the country but despite making up around just twelve percent of the total population heloise have occupied elite positions in the government and the military for decades and now there are fears that resentments among the majority muslim sunni sex could erupt the country that until this crisis breakout was religiously diverse and tolerance now the calm increasingly polarized genuine fears that as well that those divisions my laid his a sectarian tensions being further exploited have been staked by the emergence of

an al qaeda video cling for holy war over throw the assad regime violence is just not going to end we see it happening and iraq neighboring iraq sectarian violence that is catastrophic and nobody is reporting on that the reporting on syria and they're not focusing on the potential problems that syria could lead into another iraq on the streets through an increasingly desperate population has called for help in whatever form it comes as long as it stops the violence there's little time for them to think about long term sick carrying risks as many of the more worrying about daily survival anyone who knows we are ready to hear them to say yes to anyone over there so for this regime yes everyone in syria right now the split still largely remains along political lines but there's concern that as this increasingly bloody conflict continues it could turn into a sectarian one as well south r.t.

damascus syria. chinese vice president xi jinping has met with u.s. president barack obama in washington an effort to smooth out the country's differences tensions between the two nations escalated recently with the u.s. criticizing china's currency policies and washington bolstering its military presence in the asian pacific for more on the current relations we're joined by paul craig roberts who served as assistant secretary of the treasury during the reagan administration so both china and the u.s. have said they want to clear up their differences how far do you think she jinping is visit can go to address these concerns the main problem of the journeys united states relationship is washington. going to generate. and that makes it very difficult to have a real relationship. the reason for the american nato attack on libya was to deny the benefits of its all investments in eastern libya and of course

iran is now in the western sights and iran accounts for twenty percent of jonathan's oil so it doesn't make a lot of sense for washington to go to china and say look embargo yourself from iranian oil and let us go to an american puppet in office in that country as well so we can prevent your. economic development from catching up to us too quickly i think that's what the real game is the united states is trying to. slow down china's economic prowess with goes it sees a rise of graft to continuing american his enemy and you keep making this point about head germany but is that making it one step too far i mean doesn't it just seem that the united states is actually just looking at the world as it is and

trying to make the best geo political decisions that can given the hand that they had it's dealt basically. no when the soviet union collapsed and this gave the neo conservatives a chance to come to the forefront it took about a decade for them to develop their doctrines and to maneuver themselves and to influence and then with the so-called terrorist attack of september eleventh with the bush administration this gave them their chance and the wars for his enemy began. and that's what. is been going on in the middle east and in afghanistan for a decade and has now expanded into africa and syria and iran are also in sight so we aren't when you conservatives is that. with the soviet collapse there's no check on american power and so is the united states is

the indispensable nation and as its social political economic system is the only one that works. we have a right and a responsibility to impose a system on the rest of the world it's kind of like a replay of the french revolution two hundred years ago so. it's it's a and e. ology. and the expansion and that has come up i mean why in the world does the united states think it should put marines in australia i just i i don't i had interrupted here but i want to move out of the next question one area of dispute is china's trade and currency policy something many americans blame for a job losses in our country's manufacturing sector do you think that's warranted. no not really the reason that china originally paid its currency to the doll it was

when it was making its transition out of a communist country and to a capitalist country and it wanted to assure the world that its currency was good as the dollar off that's the reason pegged it now the reason for the chinese trade surplus with united states is not simply the chinese currency being undervalued it's all the american firms that took their own production for american markets off shore to chat. so when you produce all sure for your home market when the goods and services come back into united states they come in as imports so the trade deficit with china is at least fifty percent due to the all sharing of jobs and production by the american corporations now china is the u.s. largest foreign creditor so how much leverage does washington have to make. does

how sorry how much leverage does washington have to make demands on beijing. well that to that question i think used to be clear that the largest creditor had a certain amount of influence but you see what's happened is the federal reserve has been monetizing the treasury debt and yet the interest rate stays erode so if the federal reserve is able to finance washington's deficits without some sort of hyperinflation breaking loose then the united states no longer needs china as a creditor it has the federal reserve and so for the past several years we have seen quantitative easing on quantitative easing two and essentially it's continuation now because the federal reserve is buying enough bonds to keep the interest rate zero so we have the central bank now financing united states government so it's less dependent on chinese purchases never the less the trade

surplus from china has to be recycled somewhere and it appears that china is still mainly recycling it into dollar assets unfortunately we have to end it there paul craig roberts former u.s. assistant secretary of the treasury thanks for your time. the debt ridden he you has suffered another blow from rating agencies moody's downgraded the debt ratings of six states including vulnerable portugal italy and spain this is the bloc struggles to prevent greece from default by offering ballots in return for more austerity parties jacob kruse reports from athens. system on the seach m.p.'s drowned out the pleas of tens of thousands of demonstrators amassed within a short passing another round of unpopular cuts. the results proved incendiary . that uganda protests turned violent as protesters including fringe

anarchist clashed with police again leaving their mark on athens. a day on this is the remnants of public anger the glasses of the only thing that's been broken as governments passed increasingly unpopular austerity cuts will be left asking who can they trust serve their interests the measures are very very tough part of the poor people especially and this is the reason that they feel. today i think more measures have been taken and they're it's not going to work in the end it will be another bill he clearly bad and. oh i hope for the best but i don't see it coming. under pressure from brussels berlin and the international monetary fund the greek government has cut more jobs slash funding for the nation's pensions a minimum wage but current policy appears to mainly expose those most vulnerable to

crisis conditions is a mindset some feel is doomed to fail we already have destroyed the whole generation of young people and their dreams destroyed the structure of the sabian infrastructure of the whole country we know that it is impossible to repay this debt that we have now signs that the disease lauro do us bad we cannot continue like that because the policy that the government is following actually increases the day yeah instead of finding a solution but the heart of activists claims is there are certain that they've noticed there. the for the best part of five years now and the time taxes have risen incomes have full and but the country's deficit only seems to grow and in this austerity cycle is something sought by an increasing number despite the turmoil the government warns would follow but what these are our political system

is that they have the right exactly the date even more. people buy these thirty. years they are going to come the only way out of this point is that default default is going to be good for us but there's going to be a better solution than these so slow death for now relative calm has returned to the streets of athens smashed buildings have been patched up the signs of damage swept away but the simmering discontent hasn't been a mass force medicine appears to bring nothing but pain many are continuing their call for terms of treatment jake agree. athens wednesday's meeting of eurozone finance ministers has been cancelled because greece hasn't fulfilled all the conditions set out by the e.u. demands include written assurances from leaders of the two main greek parties that the agreed austerity measures will be implemented even after the general elections in april economists.