many question the sudden resignation of pope benedict the sixteenth as shock waves reverberate throughout the catholic world. where a surprise attack by militants almost boils french claims on the victorious campaign . eighteen coal miners die in an underground blast in russia's republic an investigation team is now looking into the cause of the tragedy. coming up at the big picture with tom hartman right here on r.t. .

clientele are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. the cycles of history that led europe and the rest of the world into world war two eighty years ago or coming back around today how has a once fringe group political group turn into a major political player in that nation now the devastating effects of austerity fuelling its growth also the manhunt for christopher dorner continued today as police and so the california continue their efforts to find the ex cop turned cop killer but what's the real motivation behind dorner his rampage there is claims of racism in the l.a.p.d. even remotely legitimate and while police are searching for dorner on the ground also using drones to try and spot him from the air. possible this is manhunt an

acceptable reason to use drones drastically. you need to know this the cycles of history that led to europe and the rest of our planet going into war eighty years ago or coming back around today in greece several years of austerity have pushed the people to the brink and when working people are thrown into the sort of economic disasters that austerity causes and typically extreme far right and far left political movements rise up it happened after world war one and the treaty ever saw a force in germany to massively cut spending or roll back social programs like their nationalized health care. system or to pay for the damage that that nation that caused around europe during the world war during world war one treaty of versailles by the way was essentially an austerity program noting the economic

catastrophe this treaty would cause economist john john maynard keynes warned at the time those who signed this treaty will sign the death sentence of many millions of german men women and children it turns out it was even worse than that a desperate population turned reactionary and allowed hitler in the nationalistic and anti-semitic nazis to rise to power this is how the cycle works whenever austerity goes so to those extreme political movements which brings us back to today this was the scene outside of athens last week thousands of the old golden dawn party supporters marched past the u.s. embassy and paid tribute to fallen heroes of the party golden dawn is today's version of the nazi party and it austerity ravaged greece golden dawn is getting more and more popular in two thousand and nine the party which embraces nazi symbolism racism and xenophobia had zero seats in the national parliament after

years of austerity in the recent two thousand and twelve election golden dawn picked up eighteen seats in parliament and as the guardian reports golden dawn is looking to expand its influence not just in greece but all around the european caught germany and greek right wing extremists have been forging close contacts in germany in attempts to strengthen their power base in europe according to german officials last year the european union was awarded the nobel peace prize for its efforts over the last half century and preventing another continental war with fascism once again on the march in austerity ravaged europe did the nobel prize committee speak too soon is austerity bringing the world closer to war yet again joining me now is professor kostas. toques associate professor of sociology at the new york city college of technology at c.u. n.y. and author of the book remaking scarcity the capitalist inefficiency to economic democracy future and world capitalism professor welcome. good to be with you thank

you for joining us is there any other way to explain the rise of the golden dawn party than the sauce terribly has been imposed on greece. well i think it was very the major reason like you very correctly pointed out i would also out the failure of the european immigration forum to see that it. has created some of our problems. some of the neighbors would see big c. it is their problem with the immigration policy in europe is that it would serve a county an immigrant enters into europe even if that immigrant least this continent goes somewhere else they if they are found out they have to return to the original country and as you can understand given the crisis in greece and the huge unemployment rate no immigrant really wants to come to greece they're just enter greece from the middle east you know escaping not even wars or with the war and so

on and so forth because they want to go to some other european continent but because of immigration policy in europe the moment they are discovered each leader nor germany or eat a meal wherever they are sent barca to greece but speeds because it's not been for immigrants who do not even need want to be in greece off and to what extent is the golden dawn becoming a and european movement. well there is. there are stronger extreme right wing movements in other parts of europe and gordon don't certainly connections with them that would. do all new not super late edition's from the very artful words photographed with the leader of golden dawn in the greek parliament a couple of days ago but i think in some ways the golden dawn golden dawn stands out because it's not just an extreme right party told so it was

a criminal gun because many of its members like to go round and up often don't sit back immigrants and recently. come a sexual sin in not enough tents and some of the political leaders of our time to be convicted over so robbery and terrorism and so on and so forth so it's not just an ideological it wasn't that it was so true of the of the early followers of hitler or. the beer hall gangs. yeah i mean it may very well you know have been the case i mean i'm not going to exploit or not you know that there are no the. magic on it but i think that there is the point i'm trying to make is that a decent difference between the us and that party that because i do logically i'm the immigrant and race is problematic enough troops on the right but when

a party crosses over it do basically attacks and assaults and people stop people snipes you know i think the threat it poses. he's even greater were answered i'm sorry we're we're out of time but just a very very quick question do you see the gold nonparty is growing or diminishing has there time finished or is there more to come. well it's it's hard to you nic time of crisis like this the political system is very short lived out so anything is possible ok professor thank you so much for being with us tonight thank you. now for more on the economic side of all this and what solutions might be possible i'm joined by richard wolffe economist now. author of numerous books including his latest democracy at work a cure for capitalism fessor wolf welcome thank you tom do you see similarities between the treaty of her side which led to hitler and today's austerity demands leading to political extremism in europe. yes i do in fact quite

a few the tree of first side was the effort of the countries that won world war one to force the country the last to pay the parallel with today is that the forces that brought a crisis to world capitalism and that turned to the governments of world capitalism to bail out the corporations particularly the finance ears who brought the crisis have now turned to a mass or sturdy problem program cutting social spending raising taxes to pay for the costs of the crisis and the costs for the government bailing out corporations that leave the mass of people three times burned first by the crisis which cost their jobs and their futures second by the bailouts which bypassed most people and help those at the top and then finally in austerity program that hurts them to pay for all of that we shouldn't be surprised that the political center does not hold

that people who are progressive gather around for fundamental change and they have a very successful party in greece series it's call but that's not acceptable to the right wing the business community the wealthy are very afraid that the anger at the austerity will go to the left which is what syriza represents so they begin to support and to fund the extreme right as the only option they see to the rising left criticism that's what the business community in germany did supporting hitler against the socialists and communists who are the strong left by. in the one nine hundred thirty s. are we seen as you know using your metaphor of only in this case your place in world war one with the with the crash. but the triple assault and on the rise are we seeing the this mistake being repeated eighty years later because as i think was

twenty pointed out when when the last man dies who remembers the horrors of the last war the next war becomes inevitable. yes i think very little has been learned the conditions are always different from one here historical period to another but the thing that's frightening now is the kind of mongrel maniacal drive regardless of consequences in the case of world war one it was to make the losing countries pay the costs of a war that everybody was responsible for without worrying that putting that burden on germany could worsen the whole situation for europe as it did the parallel today is corporations in the rich in their drive to proceed with accumulating their own wealth notwithstanding the crisis notwithstanding the bailouts they took for themselves now to make the mass of people pay in an endless source thirty four at all in order to hold on to their wealth to not be taxed this is driving the mass of

people the whale the verse side treaty did in a way that will explode because it's not sustainable and it's not tolerable and the move to the left and now the move to the right which is in part reaction to it are the predictable disintegrations when the drive to control the situation by the minority on top loses all of its rationality and becomes self destructive as as we just have a minute left as all these european countries have given up their economic sovereignty by giving up their currency do you think it's possible that the that which you think is more probable that the e.u. will collapse of the euro will collapse or the you know europe itself might end up being taken over by by by fascists we might syrup in a world war two while the people who run europe right now are making a fortune of money off the unity they want to hold on to the unity they want to hold on to the currency and they want the mass of people to pay in losing their

social welfare benefits in lowered wages and lost jobs and all the rest. they think they can pull that off they can wreak craft europe continental europe to look more like united states and england with polarized richard poor and no social safety net the question is whether the mass of people in europe will permit it and what you're seeing now is a strong left a weak but rising right wing that have one thing in common the status quo is unacceptable and they're becoming strong enough to challenge for power europe is in for a very rough ride in the months and years ahead i think you're absolutely right dr richard well thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you after the break the manhunt for former l.a.p.d. officer christopher dorner continues in california as authorities offer a million dollars for information leading to his arrest what role might racism have played indoors decision to go on this cop killing rampage.

technology innovation all the developments around russia and the future covered. it is.

for former l.a.p.d. officer christopher dorner can turn continues in california on february fourth it's alleged that dorner gunned down two people in a parking lot in los angeles and those people as monica quan daughter of a retired police officer who represented dorner in a disciplinary hearing that eventually led to dorner is terminations from the l.a.p.d. it's believed that terminations is what has now sparked this killing spree is after the first round of shootings dorner allegedly attacked two l.a.p.d. officers injuring one and twenty minutes later he fired on two more l.a.p.d. officers injuring one in killing another since then dorner has eluded authorities

and on sunday the l.a.p.d. issued a one million dollar reward for his capture or left behind a manifesto explaining why he decided to go on his rampage and appears that his actions at least by his own words maybe the result of racism joining me now to explain more about this is maria lloyd a journalist and business manager at your black world network a real welcome. thank you thank you no thanks for joining us you know i think you know first we have to stipulate anybody who runs around killing people. has a hard time claiming any kind of rationale for that or or is alleged to have done so. but that said what clues can we find in dorner his manifesto to suggest is alleged killing spree is related to racism and the only p.d. . well he makes it very clear that he has experienced racism ever since he was in elementary school he says you know he was one of two african-americans in his class

and his first encounter with racism was in first grade so you know him going all the way back to his life as a six or seven year old to make it a point to say that he was discriminated against because of his race is the first indicator and then as you go on you know of course the manifesto is very lengthy but when you read throughout the rest of it he gets into the altercation with two officers who used the n. word while they were you know in a van going back to the precinct and then he goes into saying how the officers would intentionally go down to the south of l.a. and you know discriminate against minorities so he makes it very clear that you know racism i mean my opinion i think he makes it very clear that racism may be one of the primary factors for his actions do you think this. to what extent do you think that his. overreaction assuming that these allegations are true has hurt the

cause of solving the problem versus his this reaction might have actually brought some of the stuff to the fore in a way that will cause. a reevaluation or perhaps some solutions. obviously killing innocent people i mean i know that he killed you know former captain stewart her and her fiance. that obviously was very extreme would not recommend doing that so i do think in a way his murders are not have helping the situation but at the same token if you flip it around in a way it is because now we're talking about this ever since i've written article everyone has been contacting me wanting to kind of understand how this racism thing can build up to this point and especially with the release of django the movie django last year in december racism has been kind of running rampant the conversation about racism has been running a little bit because of the premise of that film so. i think that the murders have

certainly heard it in a way but then again i do think it's kind of bringing it to the forefront yeah and . what are you i know that there are like websites that are supportive of him. is this just a fringe phenomenon or is this is this a more systemic response to hey you know so many of us have experienced racism. at least well i don't want to put words in your what's your thought what are your thoughts about. i do think that that is the response of people just you know kind of sound look we've been experiencing this for a while i don't support you know rooting rooting him on or cheering him on for again killing innocent people i don't even killing in general i'm just not a fan of taking another person's life no matter what you know they've done to you but i do think that it is a response. to the system make racism i mean if you look around just in new york they said at least or more than half of the the people that were stopped in or part

of that stop and frisk law were african-american you know and then in new york again you have the situation where the four and five year olds at least half of those were african-american students so there are clear indicators that you know we're still being discriminated against solely because of our race and i think that people are just kind of responding to that kind of like the o.j. simpson case people were rooting for o.j. simpson i think most people knew that he committed those murders but it was just the principle of the matter of knowing how the judicial system is kind of a railroad african-americans and people are just hoping that somebody can kind of beat the system sort of speak for it's a fascinating phenomena we're lloyd thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you know. a new angle to the story opened up on sunday when the u.k. published the publication express reported the drones are being used to track dorner has since been some question about that report for the last week or news media has finally focused in on our drone war in the middle east in the targeted

killing of american citizens abroad but here in the united states we have a slightly different issue we have the issue of drones possibly being used domestically to track fugitives should we be just as troubled by this use of robotic flyers as we are by their use in the so-called war on terror as my next guest used on a bitch so sit litigation counsel of epic electronic privacy information center epic. welcome back thanks for having me back great to have you with us this first of all to how. what do we know about whether or not this this fellow is being stalked by a drone or drones are being used there were a lot of reports yesterday following the express report that you touched on that drones are being used but it seems now as we're looking back in combing through the facts that was mr porting the drones are not actually being used. however it wasn't the reason so many people picked up on it it was so it wasn't a stretch of the imagination to believe that c.b.p. would step in they've done this before they have

a routine practice of using drones to help local law enforcement agencies so they have the terrans as they have the drones isn't those in a way just a logical next step from helicopters i mean they're cheaper and they go up in the sky. it is a kind of a jump in technology if so whereas it's an evolution of technology it also is a huge leap forward so as helicopters can be redesigned to repurpose and can conduct surveillance drones are designed with surveillance in mind so they're incredibly effective they have some of the most invasive equipment sophisticated equipment on the market that outfit them and this is like their driving purpose behind their existence to when when helicopters first started being used or even before that aircraft for surveillance did we put into place rules that would prevent them from being overly intrusive i realize you know with all that noise of the helicopter makes it's a whole lot more difficult to be super intrusive words you know maintain

surveillance on somebody in a way that might. bridge or cross over the border the moment relative to a draw but did we did we put into place anything or are there like no rules what's the situation where is that transition there are no rules and i think in many areas some privacy not just the syria we've relied on the practical. realistic. characteristics of technology to protect their privacy like you said their helicopters and airplanes are allowed they can only get so close there are there are other factors that weigh in that maybe didn't need the same number of rules do we are there any states that are trying to put into place rules to regulate their drones there are quite a few actually just recently virginia passed a two year moratorium on drone technology being you charlottesville virginia so they could. further study the technology oregon is pursuing drone legislation the state of florida the state of massachusetts and many others. and many of these

cases that won't prevent federal drones so the customs and border turns from being used within the state boundaries but it would put a limit on state and local drone use but then you get a situation where the feds simply fly their drones at the request of state and local folks to have the data off to them that could be exactly what we're looking at here and with no transparency on c.v. piece program we don't know who they have agreements with we don't know what these agreements look like they haven't been made public and it's not only law enforcement it's also the f.b.i. and other groups so there's a huge swath of where these ten reaper drones can be used in the united states and there's no federal protection there's no protection against it what is the reprogrammed the reaper drone is the drone that's owned by c.b.p. they own ten of them c.b.p. california the customs and border protection bureau border protection so these are federal these are federal the same drones that are being used overseas in the war on terror except they're on armed so you don't have the hellfire missiles you don't

have the the same weapons that you have on those drones but they're the exact almost the exact same model. being used in the united states are these drones hackable they are unlike the military drones that are being used overseas which are used on encrypted band with these are on an encrypted band with they can get spooked this has been brought to the attention of the f.a.a. it's been brought to the attention of congress supposedly there's a two year span where they expect to have this issue addressed encryption is not that sophisticated every people have it on their you can do it on your cell phone and exactly so it's a two year time waiting period before all drone signals should be encrypted in the united states as well and that really raises two issues of their hackable one is could somebody gain control of the drone and secondly could somebody simply say for no. data stream like people used to listen on cell phone overspend right now both of those things are possible it's been shown to be possible we've had intercept

transmissions intercepted overseas on the encrypted bandwidth supposedly encrypted bandwidth using back doors and weaknesses in the technology and professor todd humphreys at the university of texas in austin showed how to take control of a drone and kind of take over its movements and sure so it's out there it's there amy thank you so much for being with us so it's always a must be. crazy alert freezing their butts off what would you do for twenty thousand swedish kronor as a roughly thirty one hundred dollars you sit on a giant ice pole for two days in bone chilling temperatures with nothing to do with will or thumbs that is if they're not yet frost bitten well over the weekend six swedes did just that braving frigid temperatures and freezing to women stayed at

the prize annual pole but sitting contest has been held for over a dozen years in the swedish town of vilhelm in. sweden surprisingly the competitors are the key but numbing cold was not the worst part of the whole experience and the boredom is what made the very unique contest a real challenge so next time you see you're freezing your butt off just think of a poor swedes who almost literally did just that. coming up watch out superman lawmakers in vermont have found kryptonite for republican to walk right to work for a last laws vermont's efforts to avoid becoming the next michigan influence any organized labor protections on the national level.

juggling. do hack work and get caught when lobbyists money and lawmakers are combined together that's where the problem of

corruption comes from. i don't know the document's. keep up a smart look. there is also. another well behind it which is how to influence the institutions to steer clear of provocations don't answer any question. came into the office and found banners hung around the office and lots of strange faces around and said what's what's happening will somebody please tell me what's going on and they said oh we've come to occupy your building. possibly they want to do a confrontation possibly they wanted me to ring up the police. have the police come and threw them out but it didn't seem to be a good idea to learn the european way with brussels business. in the uk.