today on r t a locked and loaded with rhetoric u.s. arms sales tripled in two thousand and eleven as well as congress's attempt content that is for both china and iran are these fears justified or are we just jumping the gun. a storm named isaac might be able to delay the g.o.p. but it certainly can't stop the paul lights ron paul supporters are battling the elements and the r. and c. for their shot in the spotlight we'll tell you about this shadow convention and ron paul swan song. spanking on n.p.r. the radio stations planet money team is at it again this time giving positive press to bank of america will question the difference between subjective journalism and lazy reporting.

it's monday august twenty seventh four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching artsy. we begin this monday taking a look at the top global players in arms sales when it comes to selling weapons the united states takes the straw it takes a very strong lead researcher imports are real that arms sales by the u.s. tripled in two thousand and eleven to a record high of over sixty six billion dollars no other country comes close as you can see the u.s. accounts for seventy nine percent of weapons sales russia comes in at a distant second at six percent china lags even further at three percent. so who is america selling to turns out the top consumers are in the persian gulf saudi arabia is the top recipient over thirty three thousand arms agreements with

the u.s. last year india comes in second united arab emirates third and israel comes and fourth so what are the implications of all this to discuss retired lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer from the center for events defense studies joins us now anthony welcome and so just in the span of one that year u.s. arms sales tripled that's a very significant job how does that happen. well obviously we're in a depressed world and i hate to say that we have a huge military industrial complex which requires all sorts of care and feeding but that's part of the deal frankly as we start to look at managed military operations in iraq and afghanistan the brutal truth is this we have an industry which is looking for new markets there's a hidden and i think that's one of the things that you're seeing now is that these individuals these groups large corporations which really are trying to grow by

seven seven percent per year is looking for new markets and i think they're finding new markets and a lot of the areas you just mentioned saying this is all about business. and let's be doubly honest here a lot of europe called or russia to also begin expanding its own arms market back into the lot so this is not just the united states this is a large large local market that the. frankly the russians and chinese both look at as well so i think it's a very right area competition but they have a mother very far behind at this point the u.s. now. kind of owning it with seventy five over seventy five percent when it comes to the sale of lap and so they have a long way to go before they can come even close to touching the last oh absolutely i mean we're talking about the u.s. ten times larger in its exporting of weapons right now than the russians with that said no one believes for

a minute that expanding these markets is going to help make things more peaceful obviously the more the greater influx of these weapons into any country especially some of those in the middle east which are greatly unstable i think go very far to continue to see further just the stabilization of the middle east as we go and want to talk about who exactly were selling these weapons terrill the top recipient was saudi arabia i think what is the significance of that. with saudi arabia being a u.s. ally in the persian gulf the theory has been is if we maintain good relations with all of these countries specially saudi arabia as we saw during the gulf war ninety one the idea is they will maintain stability of their own oil fields all exports the whole region the persian gulf is one of the largest producers. of information relating to everything that's going on in the world so you know right now everything that we're doing has to do with all the issues relating to

what we need to do or the world on energy and. also beyond that the united arab emirates i mean beyond excuse me beyond saudi arabia we have the united arab emirates and oem and they're also a top part of the park as there is also in this region what is the significance of this and in terms of iran these countries being in close proximity to iran i think that's one of the key issues as you look at the geopolitical chess match going on right now the iranians are really being isolated more and more i don't believe that i believe most of the actual sanctions have not worked whatsoever and in many ways as we noticed over the weekend where the nonaligned nations actually actually meeting there into her on i think it's only added to the whole as i mentioned before a situation where i think more and more we add fuel the more potential we have to start a fire that all these weapons being helped produce and sixty six billion dollars

that's how much that's how much was raked in by selling weapons and it looks kind of weapons are we talking is actually we're talking about everything from f. sixteen fighters down to basic fire or we're talking about him sitting for whatever the current flavors the full spectrum of and the theory is obviously by arming and helping our allies these allies. and would be able to do especially a form of proxy war during the cold war we had enough you know basically two areas soviets and united states irvine lined up behind them a few nonaligned nations or if we're out outliers now it's not quite so black and white and i think obviously the more that we can arm these folks least that's the theory the got the thinking is what was our pentagon is that these folks would be available to actually support us and maintaining the lines of communication lines of commerce relating to the persian gulf so we're saying this strategy and

a way to isolate iran and away i mean is this kind of gearing up to go to war with the country well that war is inevitable i believe that the current right of high level of all the the language being used with the israelis with their right. let's remember that a lot of war so started over people having the idea that they can gain ground by being using military force i think that right now unless something dramatic changes in a civil war within the next eighteen months. or so i think that's why you see this large export of our weapons to ally what we believe to be like countries such as you a such as saudi arabia but with their radically being there and willing to use their weapons that we sold them in supporting military operations to secure or ever the objectives are that point and so now we are seeing we're seeing these sanctions

these ramped up sanctions against iran and now we are seeing weapons being sold to neighboring allies if any how can we expect iran to react to all of that well badly i think that what you're seeing right now is that the government of iran feels put off they do feel that they are being isolated i think they've been very. crafty in getting around sanctions right of the russians supporting their. radians in a number of aspects to your program. giving exporting weapons to the iranians so in many ways you're see at this and least unless this power comes from the iranians in the west the russians are still kind of siding with the iranians so i think what we can see over the next six months is a continuation of a lot of rhetoric from both sides but the moment something bad happens. is one tanker it's a scratch on it you could see a long conflict within hours and that conflict would see a lot of people lost very quickly and frankly could walk into

a larger conflict with the middle east certainly all sounds scary i think the last thing most american people want right now is another war you mentioned before that this is all about business but what is the foreign policy goal of the united states and all of this. good question right now there is no global strategy for united states which is and something generals as far and wide i've talked to are concerned about the array of the stated policy of isolating the arraigning is the primary focus on but beyond that we really don't have the we don't know what we're going to do if the are any rain party tries to resurrect itself and part of the current government we don't know what's going to happen in syria so without a clerical piece of strategy other than trying to isolate the iranians this point and supporting their right the israelis there's really no clear path meanwhile as you describe this as a business who is profiting. well any company you can think of within the current

structure of our production assistant following walkie martin general dynamics a lot of arms manufacturers this is again big business and something that they have been producing a lot of weapon systems for the u.s. military over the past ten years that market is diminishing risk even more diminishing seaquest ration or whatever comes out of that over the next year so they're looking to market market so they will continue to do what they can to plunge the markets. right anthony very interesting thank you so much for coming on the show appreciate it that was retired lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer from the center for advanced defense study is. still out on our t. ron paul supporters are descending on tampa and other bad weather nor the g.o.p. can slow in this revolution down coming up an inside look at this shadow convention and ron paul swan song.

ily. ily ily.

it's part of american power continues. on things that are. might actually be time revolution. and it turns out that a programmer drink a starbucks has a surprising him really you. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one who is you know in view with the global machinery to see where we had a state controlled capitalism its core fascism when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. r t is the state run english

speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. all the republican national convention was scheduled to kick off in full force today in tampa florida instead the chairman of the republican party pounded down the gavel to begin the r n c and then quickly recess until tomorrow afternoon due to the threat of tropical storm isaac but bad weather did not keep thousands of loyal ron paul supporters away from tampa where two events were taking place the third day of paul festival and the rally ron paul sponsored himself it was made possible with the leftover cash he had from his presidential run are the

correspondent christine is in tampa and gives us a look at both events. the typical political gathering it is not. close. just a few miles from where the two thousand and twelve republican national convention is about to kick off there are no coats and ties to speak of i am wearing a skirt with the constitution that i had made this is a broncos shirt and on the back of it it's it's the constitution the complete constitution this is ron paul he's the political honey badger the freedom loving political honey badger is often treated more like a rock star. the seventy seven year old doctor and congressman from texas has now run for president three times each time getting

more popularity this election is very important but let me tell you there's something even more important than all of them and that is the cause that we're leading in the cause of liberty the initiation that we're getting right now. that attention coming once in a while from the mainstream media that has largely ignored him but more so for more and more followers who have made his cause their own liberty freedom less government smaller government more rights to do what we want to do rights the keeper money that we worked hard for and earn these loyal disciples come from around the country and around the world was up at four or five of the lauding what to do the bit snowy. blows and you know you have to see the news is like it was a small tape on the other side of the city at the florida state fairgrounds the paul festival has been going on for three days now as you can see at

a little less well attended than ron paul's own rally but here we have yet another part of the ron paul machine and yet another venue for those people refuse. thing to give up on their candidate well back in may at the primaries in ohio i voted ron paul you know i tried my darkest pretty was here to stick it to the urgency ensure you know. paul would have won if it was a fair election. i was back at the rally a call to action i have been taught and i have been convinced that patriotism is their colt that permits us in a free society to criticize our own government when they're learning. and a promise that this revolution is just getting started. in tampa florida christine for sound to. discuss this and more i'm joined now by our

t.v. producer mandy welcome thanks for having me so many are saying that this is ron paul's kind of last her raw so does this mark an end to you know what supporters have been calling the ron paul revolution or at least an end to a chapter you know i think that remains to be seen. definitely ron paul had a very big impact in the following i think this years while he was running this year was was was huge compared to previous times that he's that is run for president but is this is last straw i think it's far from it i think that the movement that he's established transcends that and that we're i think we definitely have a lot to see from the libertarian movement whether or not it's from ron paul it's definitely from from the movement that he started an interesting thing paul told the crowd at this event that he declined a spot at their republican national convention he said thanks but no thanks he had said. how this convention kind of like a convention of his own and paul of course has proven to be

a stark contrast with mitt romney really separating himself from the republican establishment so i mean what is the significance of that what do you think this says i think. i think all this is that ron paul stays true to himself and is true and consistent with the things that he preaches about and whether or not you want to call it preaching but ron paul is is the one candidate i think you could say that really distinguish himself from the other candidates this time around and for him to have a whole other convention is just you know a sign of his consistency in that arena saying there are things that i don't agree with with my own party with the republican party and i have i have a set of principles that i abide by and that the people that support me by by and i want to make sure that that platform that there is a is a platform for me to convey those principles and that's exactly what he was doing with his with his separate convention that he was holding and i remember back during the republican. debates there are a lot of those debates said that one of the moderators had asked each of the

candidates to describe use one word to describe themselves ron paul used the word consistent and i think he does stay true to that to that attribute want to talk about a couple of specific things he focused on at this event his proposal to audit the fed you know he always had that monitor and the fad. gaining leverage in terms of auditing the fad now there is this pro proposal to audit the pentagon. talking about this i think this is great that you bring this up because ron paul there is one thing that he's definitely known for if you were following the occupy protests that's that's that's one thing that a lot of people within the movement were always calling for audit the fed audit the fed and this is something that ron paul has been standing behind for a very long time. unfortunately he doesn't have that kind of support from the rest of congress but with new legislation that we're likely to be seeing regarding auditing the fed we might actually see some headway being made in that regard now not only audit the fed you also bring up the audit the pentagon now even though ron

paul is not going to be speaking at the r. and c. his son rand paul will be speaking and that initiative. that he's taking to bring up the subject of audit the pentagon is is kind of central to the speech that he's going to be giving at the r. and c. so it's going to be interesting to see what rand paul has to say and whether or not it's going to be a perpetuation of rand paul's movement through his son rand even though it kind of hasn't appeared that way but it will be interesting to see whether or not the sexually the case and you know ron paul he really pushed this issue of auditing to the fad other things small government his anti-war stance you know not interventionist message and with this kind of being the culmination of ron paul's campaign mattie how do you think that all of these issues that he has really pushed him brought to the forefront how they will continue to be posh and how they will continue to play a role within the republican establishment i think that it's very difficult to

answer that question because we live in a country that is dominated by a two party system republicans and democrats you there hasn't been a case where you can say that there's really been an effective third party say the green party or libertarian movement or even members of the tea party haven't had maybe with paul ryan is their first kind of. swing at the white house but it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out now you bring up the noninterventionist approach that ron ron paul brings to the table well the reason that i see that this is going to be tricky for the libertarian movement in the future right now there's absolutely no dialogue in place about the war in afghanistan from either pull from either the republicans or the democrats the one candidate that has been vocal about a noninterventionist approach to foreign policy and getting our troops out of afghanistan has been ron paul so the legacy that i think we're going to see come out of ron paul's constantly running for president every other year is that is that

there is a movement out there that is growing that is that has a noninterventionist approach to foreign policy and above all other things i think that's going to be wrong. paul's legacy going out of this thing now we see it we just saw christine story there you know the normal ron paul crowd has very energized a lot of them very young followers and supporters do you think that this kind of signifies the rise of the libertarian movement absolutely amber and we've even had instances where we see super pacs coming out by by young voters by young americans that are saying you know what there needs to be another party there needs to be a real debate in this country that's not just coming from the establishment two party system and i think it's young people that are starting that movement and i think that it's young people that it will eventually lead the way into a seeing a new party in this country do you think young people these days are just sick of this two party system and want an alternative i think young people are upset and

frustrated because the keep hearing rhetoric from washington saying from the obama campaign saying hope and change and how much did we actually see in the four years of obama and then you have a nominee like mitt romney who is really not that dissimilar to president obama in. as far as their ideologies are really not dissimilar that you can be especially if you compare the united states to other countries of the world that really do have fascist socialist. right wing left wing parties that are very very easy to distinguish ideologically you don't really have that here in the united states so yes i think people are very frustrated and they're the ones that are going to be leading leading the new movement to to really change the rhetoric not only in washington but politicians across the country i think it's interesting i think that's why ron paul on both ends of the spectrum have are you know republicans and democrats have called ron paul's i. they've been described as radical so he's

managed to upset people on both sides of the political spectrum which kind of proves the point that he certainly has his own views and separates. self from the establishment he's consistent but in the infinite he's actually whether or not as for you that he's radical he is a consistent person now talking about the rise of the libertarian movement can we expect this movement to grow to be an even bigger force to be reckoned with in the future i mean this is the third time his third ride we see has traction kind of gaining you know he's gaining steam each time could he be an even bigger force in the future or if not him an icon like him i think that's a very good question and with someone like ron paul who i think is very strong in his beliefs very committed to what he does i'm very committed to public service. from what i gather i think this is this really is going to be his last is less kind of charge but we have seen this in the past and it's almost as though it's a dying breed of politicians people like ron paul people like dennis kucinich

people like ralph nader who really were challenging that establishment in the two party kind of dominance and so i think that in the future we will be seeing more of a rise but it's going to be a while and i don't think the this is really the time to see a new new party come right many thanks so much for coming out coming into the studio in a way again that was our t.v. producer many rappel of. last week we brought you a troubling story from n.p.r. the radio station's economic news show planet money was pummeled with negative headlines for alleged conflict of interest for a while the show had only one sponsor alley financial a major bank that received money and the bailout but the show wasn't the only part of planet money taking in big bank dollars planet money's co-creator and co-host adam davidson made money as a speaker at goldman sachs and goldman sachs and bank of america events here is mark ams from the project the shame project explained the problem with planet

money's ethics in an interview with r t it last week. the real problem is when you're taking money from these people covertly and then you know and then from od'ing their agenda on n.p.r. you're sensually a product spokesman. but it doesn't and there there's a new report by yuki noguchi about bank of america giving away two thousand five hundred vacant homes to people in need here's a clip from that report the giveaways may not change the broader public's view of banks but they have for leroy cisco. that's. all sounds great there's just one problem noguchi neglected to put this story and to contact the blog fire dog lake points out that banks often give away vacant homes as a way to get some of the free positive press noguchi is happy to dole out but even

more damning bank of america is obligated to give away vacant homes as part of the robo signing settlements a pay penalties to the government for fraud and the foreclosure process bank of america along with ally financial and other major banks are actually doing what they already do so the reality is this isn't charity and we've seen a good year before last month we looked at mainstream media outlets using sources without correctly attributing them. throughout his various appearances joe all about was called a small business owner but what they didn't tell you was that this man also happens to be a part of the national federation of independent business says it's a right wing pro corporate lobbying group there were also played seven the supreme court challenge to obamacare but in all these reports no mention of his lobbying ties and a good jury is one of the reporters that use joe all of our as a source without saying which lobbying firm he works for is this conflict of

interest in the same vein we saw with davidson could just be a lazy report lazy reporting either way the audience deserves better and we're going to leave it at that but for more on the stories we covered check out our you tube channel youtube dot com slash artsy america back in a half hour. free . free. free. free. free. free. free. deals for your media. free media r t.

stop and look at current to bits unemployment the national debt failing governments ask yourself does it really matter who wins with billions created daily you can gamble with your money or turn it into a solid gold.