tv Consider This Al Jazeera October 12, 2014 12:00am-1:01am EDT
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championships in finland next year. good luck. thank you for joining us, i'm thomas drayton in new york. stay tuned. "consider this" is coming up next. have a safe night. >> why is the u.s. failing ostop i.s.i.l? every 67 seconds an american develops alzheimer's, the devastating effects on families. hello i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this." those stories and much more straight ahead. >> the battle for the control of kobani is growing urgent by the hour. >> another coalition, intensive street battle.
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>> kobani is a tragedy but not the definition of a full measure of what's happening. >> fasten your seat belts what's to come. >> too dangerous too expensive to remote for human aircraft to go. >> another innovation right around the corner. cars that can talk to each other. >> that was a genuine alert that you're about to collide to the car in front. >> fascinating book out all the truth is out. >> turn point boundaries between personal and political lives are rewritten forever. >> we begin with a desperate fight against extremism in syria. america's barrage of air strikes did not cripple the group. the u.s. fired 46 cruise missiles at the group, but many of them had already fled tipped off by growing news reports
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about the group in the days leadinleading leading up to the air strikes. meanwhile, i.s.i.l. moves deeper into kobani. the united nations warned friday that some 12,000 kurds could be massacred if i.s.i.l. manages to take control. calls for turkey to get involved continue but president erdogan refused unless the u.s. would confront the assad government in syria. as i.s.i.l. advances further into kobani, dispiet the city being in -- despite the city being in plain view from turkey. home to 15,000 kurds who are accusing the government of allowing their fellow kurds being slaughtered.
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the u.s. air raid would not be enough. >> it is not expected that turkey would lead a ground operation on its own. we are negotiating and thinking about a global trajectory and after coming to an agreement with our allies, turkey will not hesitate to take the necessary steps. >> joining me is wesley clark, former nato allied sprem commander. ucla burkel center. another strategy for american growth and leadership. general always good to have you with us. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll get to the book in a moment but let's start with i.s.i.l. reportedly taking over a third of kobani. turkish tanks right there, less than a mile away, but seem to be soon. what happens, should we let i.s.i.l. get stronger?
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>> i hope we'll use this as a motivating factor to pull the coalition much closer together. you need several elements here. you need u.s. air power, you need the moderate syrian is opposition you need the turkish air forces and the free syrian army in there. but the free syrian army is not capable of standing up against i.s.i.s. so i would like to see us working a three way arrangement to bring the turkish ground forces in. >> you've argued that we need to know who we're helping, that's a big question in syria because in an immediate microlevel with kobani we would be helping the kurds there but on a macrolevel who would be helping? as you said, the moderate syrian rebels are nowhere to be found. would we just be helping assad? >> this is always the problem and that's why when you're doing an operation like this you have to think from the desired in-state. the desired in-state is to leave
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in place in syria a moderate government that will not use syria as a place for tomorrow and is not bashar al-assad. we have got to pull together the moderates, when you have to have boots on the ground they're right. having boots on the ground is a necessary condition but not sufficient for success. to be successful you have to be able to govern that space. so u.s. troops can't do that, we know they can't do it but we could empower the syrian moderate option political leadership. we could work in conjunction with the turkish ground forces and a temporary no-fly zone over that area to make sure there's no interference from bashar al-assad, something could be pulled together and probably that's under discussion right now inside the pentagon. >> and you've also argued that several sunni arab nation have
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funded, and you said they created a monster and that now they don't trust their own troops and are looking for us to save them. those are pretty strong words and in fact they echo what vice president biden just got criticized for and had to go off and apologize for. >> well, i don't know what the relationship is with vpped biden vice president biden but this is my assessment having looked at the situation and talked to people in the region. it has nothing to do with the diplomacy of the u.s. government, it's not part of that, it's my private assessment. but i am concerned because unfortunately, this got out of control, this i.s.i.s. movement. and it does a spouse the same extremist interpretation of she era law thasherea law of sunniee region so it makes it difficult for forces, i think it makes it difficult. if they say it doesn't then i'm happy.
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and if that's the case, put those forward, those forces forward. and let's get to work. >> now you've said also, what the pentagon repeated this week, that we cannot win this war with air power alone and as you were just telling me you've argued that u.s. combat forces would be a huge mistake especially because you think if we did that, we would be playing into i.s.i.l.'s hands. >> absolutely. it would be a big recruiting draw for i.s.i.s. what they'd like to be able to say is they're the only power that can fight the united states. the greatly infidels over there and they would like that moniker. that's what they have tried to do is sucker the u.s. in. it would make it worse if we put u.s. troops on the ground. we have to find a way to could that together with our friends and allies in the region but ground. >> in the meantime then what is the air power mission? because if we all agree that air power alone won't defeat
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i.s.i.l, can we use it to at least stop i.s.i.l? despite the fact they were moving troops and tanks through open fields. >> you can't attack moving troops like that unless you have eyes on, on the ground with communications to the aircraft. this is what we're doing now, we used to call it battlefield air interdiction. we're flying deep over enemy territory, without friendly force he on the ground, we're identifying targets from the air, we're doing preplanned strikes in most cases and it is effective in degrading and disorganizing and causing the i.s.i.l. forces to react and take precautionary measures. it does slow them down operationally. it just doesn't get at the exact point of the of the battle. can't do that, without contact with the air. if we had the turkish forces in there if we could bring the
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iraqi forces forward, yes, those forces have the connectivity, or could be given the connectivity we need. we don't quite have that yet and that's why i say, a lot of these things are coming together. we didn't wait until we had every piece organized to go forward. we went forward with a sense of urgency with what we had. and we're assembling this coalition on the fly. >> in that context, you've still got a lot of contacts at the pentagon, i know. what about all this talk that's beginning to -- all this rumbling that there is a split between the defense department and the white house? because you know going back to when this effort first started the pentagon called our action a war before the white house did. we now have seen secretary, former secretary of defense panetta's deference of the department.
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>> there will always be different components of the government, because what you see and how you feel depends in part where you silt. it is the president's responsibility to see the big picture and it's the department's responsibility of defense to give him the military options and considerations. so he's not bound to accept every military option or every military assessment. if he tries to do military operations that contravene military judgment, that may run into trouble but the military is very loyal, they're going to give him their best advice, that's all. we don't need to get partisan bickering in here and get partisan politics in here. this is very normal sort of give and take within the executive branch as decisions are being made. >> you address partisan politics in your book and how they can be problematic in what the u.s. needs to do going forward. the book is entitled don't wait for the next war. you say american foreign policy
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has been far too reactive for the last century, not just recently and you say war is a poor substitute for strategic vision. so what should our strategic vision be now, moving forward in the middle east and around the world? >> well, we need a national strategy first and a way to re-grow, reinvigorate the american economy create jobs at home and increase our growth rate so that we're strong enough to do what we need do in the world. that's jom number 1. i -- job number 1. we need to focus on hydrocarbons. it isn't any reason we can't become totally energy efficient, and finance support that is available right now in the united states. we just have to turn it loose and it will go. it's all private sector and it will double u.s. gdp growth rate. we need those resources because in grand strategy terms we have to strengthen our relationship
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with europe and then we have to handle the terrorist challenge and the crises of the middle east and we have to help guide the assent of china as it grows to become a larger and more responsible player in the world. >> so it sounds like economic muscle, that we need to focus domestically a bit and strengthen our economy so that we can project that strength that you believe we need to project. you know and you say that we need to stay engaged globally and i could say there are great quoatquotes in your book. you say there is neither safety nor security in retreat. americans, every poll certainly before these horrible beheadings that americans were becoming more isolationist. >> sure. but you can't guide foreign policy over a long period by the vagaries of public opinions. public opinions come and go. americans were quite happy to
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turn their backs on the middle east, i.s.i.l. beheads two americans and all of a sudden, americans want to jump in and kill them all. general in foreign policy, the executive branch has to lead and shape public opinion. has to educate, has to figure out how to gain and maintain support of the public, rather than simply react to it. >> talking about the executive branch, you have run for president before. this book would seem, in muting out this grand vision it would seem like a perfect launching point for a presidential campaign. you have ambassadorsed, last year you have talked about how -- you have endorsed, last year you have talked about how hillary clinton should become the presidential candidate. are you supporting her? >> no. we need democrats and
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republicans coming together. we need finalists, and oil companies to come together -- environmentalists and oil companies to come together. we need a national strategy to deal with the big problems we're dealing with in this century. like terrorism and cyber-threats and financial stability and guiding china as it comes forward to be a larger and larger influence in world affairs. >> again the book is don't wait for the next war, a strategy for global leadership. general, good to see you. >> thank you so much. >> moving on to the global war on drugs and its direct connection on the global war on terror. a new book documents how drug money is directly funding terrorism around the world can including i.s.i.l. our next guest, going undercover around the world, also the author of the dark art, my
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undercover life in global narco- narco-terrorism. >> thank you, sir. >> seeing what you have done in those 30 years i do have to wonder about your sanity. because you are really in one of the most dangerous position he you could have been, infiltrating the mexican drug cartels, terrorist organizations around the world and you found that mostly all these terrorist organizations, from al qaeda, to hamas, to i.s.i.l, are getting money funding their operations to some extent through drug trafficking. >> absolutely correct. there are others who learned that there was a pipeline of money to be extorted and/or obtained by providing rudimentary services such as transportation, protection, and general movement with guarantees by other preceding terrorist
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groups than those that we are facing today. >> not necessarily the terrorist groups themselves growing the stuff but they then extort farmers who are growing it and get money from the other criminals who are involved in the drug trade. >> right. they often hire peasants and farmers, once the botanical drug is harvested, the drug trafficking organization sends in their experts to synthesize the drugs, morphine, heroin, cocaine, then synthetic drugs such as met meth a meth amphetamine. >> they have become a diversified criminal organization. >> they have some very intelligent and educated individuals. mart guys are realizing what, if they hit one, meaning their enemies and the rest of the
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world and they lots one element of their -- they lose one element of their money flow it's going to greatly damage them. iraq turkey and syria in this massive fight for land and power and those in africa and in africa they use ma che machetes and in i.s.i.s. they use ak .47s. it's all about money. >> and boko haram is using drugs to make money. and there's the whole issue of narco-terrorism. you spent a lot of time in afghanistan, i think you were while. >> yes, sir. >> and 15% of the country's gdp comes from opium growth and from the heroin industry. if you have got that kind of money what can you really do because the country is already a financial basket case.
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if you took that away who knows what would lap? >> correct, and the rest of the gdp is steeped in donor dollar, u.n. dollars and american culture. a lot of that is leaving because once they feel the u.s. and the international security forces leave the taliban and much of the pakistan insurgent groups will storm kabul. legitimate money is fleeing through capital flight and the drug money is explicitting more and proliferating moreand more. >> there are also other narco-countries out there that are making moneys out of this. this is a problem around the world. you say the mexican cartel is a direct threat oour national security. >> absolutely. as of right now the federation which comprises the seven cartels in the nation possess more soldiers than the number of
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soldiers in the mexican army. they're better trained, they're better armed and they're more inspired. literally, they could be completely, completely just run over. >> not only do they have the power but they have infiltrated the government and many people run scared because they are so incredibly violent. it is an issue on so many different levels. i want to go back to islamist extremists who are profiting from these. you dealt with these -- >> up close and personal. >> very closely with war lords, drug lords all sorts of people. the religion islam condemns the use of these drugs. is there ever any thought given to hey we're trying to finance our holy war by doing something that's clearly unhoyl unholy iny kind of definition. >> i used that very definitely. there is an element in the koran
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that allows for the fa fatua. if it is to advance the cause that would greatly and inordinately benefit the organization, in this case worldwide jihad. mullah omar issued a fatwa stating that opium could be openedly sold where before mere possession of a small quantity mer ited death -- merited death. >> i'm glad to have you here. the book is the dark art. and it's available where books are sold. >> alaska, a state that depends on it's natural beauty >> we need to make sure that we have clean air >> some are living off natures bounty >> we're rich cause of all the resources we have... >> while others say they can't even afford health insurance
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>> the owners of this restaurant pay an extra $5.20 an hour to provide health insurance >> communities trying to cope i just keep putting one foot in front of the other >> what can people hope for come election day? an al jazeera america special report amererica votes 2014 5 days in alaska all this week
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and we're not just talking about military. there are now more than 1500 types of drones in all sizes and in all price ranges. that's created a bit of a feeding frenzy for companies looking to cash in. but do the many positives outweigh the negatives? benjamin wallace wells just wrote the cover article, drones anything after, the spying flying killing machines that are superheroes. that's quite
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in japan after the tsunami, so sure, yeah, in all kinds of ways they can help. >> and how big a market is there now, for you know i was just saying that companies are trying to cash in. and the prices range from a few hundred dollars to who knows how much the expensive military drones are. >> tens of millions in some cases. the real interest over the last few years is how much prices have come down for the technology and has made it kind of democratically available. something available to everybody. it's about $1,000 for a dgi phantom which is a machine that can pretty much fly on its own.
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you can hook up a camera to it as the drone sees. because of, and this is kind of interesting, because of the smartphone revolution all of the technologies that are needed to power a drone you know good small batteries, tiny computers, gps, they've all been made much cheaper by your smartphone by that market so that's allowed the cost of drones to come down so individual users hobbyists, people who think about starting a company could buy them in a way they couldn't afew years ago. >> we were talking about the law hasn't kept up with technology when it comes to social media, the wild west when it comes to drones. you title them flying spying machines, there's concerns about privacy and how small ones could cause plane accidents. >> yeah, there was an incident a few weeks ago at l.a.x. where a
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drone that was flying out of its permitted air space kind of alarmed the pilot of a jet liner that was trying to land. i think the privacy concerns are the real ones and i think they are real. you know, the easiest thing to do with a drone it's incredibly cheap is to stick a camera on it. and as you fly, your airplane through the air, to kind of look over barriers that exist at a human level on the ground. to look over fences into backyards into parks. and you know the regulations that we have for what is allowed to happen, below 500 feet of air space, above which the faa regulates pretty tightly are almost nonexistent. nobody has tried to fly in this space before. the guy i was telling you about in texas who flies looking for missing people and dead bodies told me once he was on a search in georgia where his drone
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happened to capture a marijuana grow. nothing to do with a missing person he was looking for but the police he was working with took it and ended up making a huge bust. you know, there's a lot of ambiguity, many states have not decided whether the police themselves need a warrant to use property. >> all right. and you mentioned heb hezbollah using drones for surveillance inside israel. that raises the question about terrorism and why use a suicide bomber if you could use a drone to deliver a bomb? so there are some scary sides to this and i really encourage people to read your full article because it has all sorts of fascinating information. raises a lot of questions. benjamin wallace wells good to see you. it was a question that would not have asked a national politician and it had a big way in changing national politics
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and the way the press covers politics for good and for ill. 1947, the front runner was gary hart. but a miami press publication raised a scandal, have you ever committed adultery? for more on gary hart's rise and fall and what's so prevalent today, i'm joined in washington, d.c. by math bigh, former don't for new york times magazine and the author of all the truth is out, the week american politics went tabloid. presidents private lives as you pointed out were kept private to a degree that now seems astonishing from fdr to jfk's white house mistresses to lbj,
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the gary hart scandal was the final nail in the coffin of how political politics changed. >> if not the final nail, tointd, th ,antonio, thank you for having e on, i'm thrilled to be here. for most of the 20th century personal morality, and behavior did not figure into the political leader, maybe it should. flash forward to 1987 and you have gary hart, the presumed democratic nominee pinned against a brick wall in the oil stained alley in his home town in washington, surrounded by reporters, who is that woman in your house did you have sex with that woman are you cheating on
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your wife, can you be a moral leader, and then as you say, culminating in the press conference, where he's asked the astonishing question. the ground of political journalism in america really shifted. >> the picture of gary hart with donna rice on his lap in a boat in bimini. >> they actually didn't antonio. lch everything we remember -- the -- almost everything we remember -- the picture was not taken on a boat it was taken on a crowded dock. our mind plays a bit of tricks on us but the picture had nothing to do with it. >> looking at substantial portions of your book my memory is clearly still focused on the way i looked at it back then. but you described what happened to him as kind of a confluence of factors. one side was a journalistic
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side, we go back to watergate and the incredible success that bob woodward and carl bernstein achieved because of that, bringing down a politician as something that became the holy grail for a journalist's career. >> there are a couple of things that happen. watergate does make heroes of bob woodward and carl bernstein and you have journalists who come into the profession figuring the highest calling is to expose a scandal and bring a politician down. but it's a deeply embarrassing episode for the press corps in america. how did they let this guy who turned out to be unstable and dishonest in a way we don't think of american presidents in the 1970s, how did they let this guy end up becoming president after they had known him for decades in public
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service? maybe we weren't looking at the right thing, maybe characteristic means more. in that moment after 1987 you see the shifting of the prime directive away from the ill leution human nation of world -- illumination of world, our job is to expose that hypocrisy and bring it to the voters and it becomes a more toxic atmosphere. >> we often end up exposing real scandal for irrelevant scandal. >> it doesn't mean that every scandal doesn't matter. i would argue that john edwards scandal had some
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relevance. i think that's -- it was a very important quote because what we have done in our industry is to reduce you to your worse moment in a way we would not want someone to reduce us. i think it needs the cynicism of government. our readers to the context they would otherwise want. >> it raises the question what does this mean for people who are running for office? personally i'm among those who think you have got to be a bit nuts to raise yourself to that scrutiny. also about the people who may run despite the fact that they might be scrutinized that way. >> absolutely antonio. we can't put a -- we can't even quantify, there is no way of knowing how many have been run out of politics, how many people will never enter politics
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because the process is not worth it to someone who doesn't crave that power in a maniacal way. to sail through the process who don't have anything about policy or government and don't have ideas, because nobody talks to the media that way, there's no focus on ideas and jearns, they don't have to -- agendas, they don't have to. gary hart said his speech was too contrite. he gave an angry speech, mark my words, i tremble for my country when we may get the leaders we deserve. the speech was roundly mocked at the time, the feeling was he should have been more contrite, he wasn't taking responsibility. but i think 27 years later there would be too many americans who think, we could get the leaders we actually deserve.
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>> the question is, how important is what you've done in your personal life, how does that translate to your public life? we've had some very moral leaders who have been terrible presidents and probably the reverse. the book brings up all sorts of interesting questions that are worth looking at. i wish we had more time, because we could talk about it for a half hour. the book is all the truth is
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making it more expensive than cancer or heart disease. 502050 the number of americans diagnosed with alzheimer's is expected to double. the failing to address these huge costs appears that we're on a path towards an economic issue as well. tiffany stanley just wrote a first person account of how she became an alzheimer's caregiver when she was just 29. when she became responsible for her aunt. tiffany is a contribute to the magazine and joins us from washington, d.c. tiffany, i can only imagine how this past few years have been like. your dad became ill, primary caregiver for your aunt and all of a sudden you found yourself having to care for both of them especially her and what you
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realized that she needed full time attention and that medicare was virtually no help. >> that's correct. i think like a lot of americans, when i realized she needed more help than we could provide at home i thought well, we'll just have to find a good facility, and i assumed that it would be subsidized by medicare since she was over 65. but when i met with a social worker she informed me of the sad truth that medicare doesn't cover what we consider custodial care, eating dressing bathing and what dementia care patients need most, it doesn't pay for long time in extended care homes. >> you have to pay for out of pocket at some nursing home or you have to care for them at home which brings with it all sorts of issues. but under any circumstances there are either huge costs in what you're spending for their
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care or what you're losing and not being able to work and make money. the cost for families are phenomenal. >> it's huge and i think you know a lot of women especially become caregivers and studies show that if they leave the workforce to care for a family member they are giving up at least $300,000 in lifetime earnings. and as a young person i thought welt what does this do for me if i leave the workforce to care for her and moreover how can we make ends meet if i can't provide for her? on the opposite end, nursing homes cost $80,000 80,000 a year out of pocket. it's huge. >> it bankrupts some families but aside from the financial cost the psychological costs are tremendous too. >> absolutely. i think like a lot of people i was grieving my father who was ill and later died. so i was grieving him, while i was trying to care for her and i also was grieving the aunt that i loved that i was losing.
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and i think that that's something psychologically we don't give enough credence to, as people are making difficult decisions, making time consuming strenuous care giving while they're dealing with strenuous emotional issues. >> you found there was look of information. there -- a lack of information. you couldn't go to a stralingsed place that helped you figure -- centralized place that helped you figure out what to do. you felt adrift. >> exactly. i felt i was going from person to person and getting different information and i just wanted a care coordinator a social worker nurse, doctor, somebody that could really manage everything that jackie needed and point me in the direction of what resources that were available. they were out there. we often found out about them too late and weren't taking advantage of them. frankly there aren't enough resources but the ones that are out there it's really hard to figure out what they are.
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>> as i mentioned earlier, the costs are absolutely staggering for country as a whole. so what is the government doing? it was originally part of the affordable care act, but then it was taken out fairly early in the process. >> that's right. there was something in the affordable care act called the class act which was supposed to put in place public government backed long term care insurance. but the program was unfortunately cancelled before it ever got started because it wasn't deemed financially feasible. and so that was pulled. now there was a long term care commission that congress put in place to try to figure out next steps. but they ultimately kind of threw their hands up. they couldn't figure out how to pay for long term care insurance and the products that people need and knowing that both the public supports and the private really fail families. >> this is going to be a double whammy, not just caring for alzheimer's patients but what's lapping with autism, the baby
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boomers, and the massive amount of people who need alzheimer's care, we're going to have a human increase in the need for autism care, this is really going to be a very -- an enormous health care challenge moving forward. so do you think there's enough going on on the government front, enough of a comprehensive approach, to looking at the long term care all these people will need? >> i really think there isn't. i mean i think that there's some good things being done on alzheimer's. we have a national campaign to address alzheimer's that was released in 2012. but experts say that doesn't go enough and we need to do more. and for the baby boomers who are aging, long term care supports at home, we really don't have appropriate systems at home. medicare and even medicaid which is designed to provide support
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for the oldest americans are not adequate and what people realize is you need to spend down your assets to qualify for medicaid. medicaid doesn't prevent financial catastrophe, it really happens. >> it's a tremendous problem that's affecting not just people who have alzheimer's but their families. that number is going to grow. the article again is available in the national journal. it's available online, it's called jackie's good-bye, what i learned about our national health care debacle when i became responsible for my aunt. thank you for joining us. >> edge of eighteen, >> your entire life has brought you up to this point, right now! american teens, making a difference >> we wanna fight for our education >> choosing a path... >> if i'm not sharing the gospel, then i feel empty inside because that's the gift that god has given me >> deciding their own future... >> i'm petty burnt out...
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>> robert kennedy jr., >> american democracy is rooted in wilderness... >> his fathers lasting influence >> my father considered this part of our heritage... >> coping with tradgedy >> the enemy of any productive life is self pity... >> defending the environment >> global warming is gravest threat... >> every saturday, join us for exclusive...
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revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera, only on al jazeera america >> today's data dive looks at the older americans going through breakups. on the rise. researchers from bowling green university found that nearly 1 in 4 americans who are 50 plus are splitting from their spouses. we've seen a marked increase in just the past couple of decades. since 1990 divorce rates among americans 55 to 64 has doubled. the increase is even more dramatic for senior citizens. what may be even more surprising is that it's happening at a time when the rates of divorce among younger groups have stabilized and in some cases gone down. also surprising: more than half of all gray divorces are among couples in first marriages have had been together for more than
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20 years. the researchers were inspired to do the research after former vice president al gore split from his wife of 40 years, tipper. the study says women initiate more gray divorce than men. they can afford to split from their long term husbands once they get more autonomy. many couples grow apart once their children are living on their own and they reach retirement. still there's a financial down side, older divorced americans have 20% as much wealth as older couples who are still married. the net wealth of widows older than 50 are double that of older americans who got divorced. >> a firsthand look at the isil fight >> you can see where the bullets ripped right through... >> refugees struggling to survive >> the government, they don't help us... >> but who is fueling the violence? >> if they had the chance to kill each other,
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to make more territory, they would do it >> fault lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... emmy award winning investigative series... new episode iraq divided: the battle against isil only on al jazeera america
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we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news. >> the next big innovation is right around the corner. it actually could be driving around the corner by itself. driverless cars are just a few years from hitting the market and they're already being tested on public records. that's not all. even sooner, cars will be able to talk to each other to help save you from all sorts of dangers on the road. and here to give us a preview is "techknow" host phil torres. phil, good to see you. this is fascinating stuff. let's start to the new vehicle to vehicle technology. cars actually communicating to each other. what are they going to be saying? >> it's pretty amazing stuff. the way it's going to work is think of your car having a wifi router built inside of it.
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they will be saying things like hey there's a car braking in front of you, you better slow down. so it should be really useful stuff. >> and it could actually tell you if a car is about to run a red light or a stop sign because it can actually communicate around corners and give you a warning of something you might not see. >> absolutely. you know there's a lot of distracted drivers out there and sometimes you just actually can't see because it's around the corner so the technology is there. and should be really useful of. >> the u.s. department of transportation figures the technology can prevent 80% of accidents that don't involve impaired drivers. that's a huge amount of lives saved. this isn't just going to be available on new cars, you can add it to your older cars. how soon can we have this? >> every new car by the year 2017. it's really coming up. one of the interesting things
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just as your iphone needs to be able to communicate with a samsung galaxy phone, a ford needs to be able to communicate with a mercedes benz. what kind of warning do you get? if that car does brake in front of you, you're going to hear a sound, see a display telling to you slow down. >> it's not going to be that expensive. >> those after market things are around $200. that's what i love about it, complex enough to work, but simple enough you can put in your car from 1986 and have a advanced safety buffer. >> it can warn you about pedestrians, really amazing stuff. going beyond the cars talking to each other, the show is also going to focus on droiferless driver -- driverless cars. radar sonar, cameras, not
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looking like the early google cars with that thing on top right? >> they look pretty good and actually work really well and the beauty of this v to v system is it's sending the foundation for this driverless car, it built the communication system. there will be a lot more information from that radar and that sonar but at least have the medium to talk to another one. >> what i loved when i was read going this you go to the mall actually gather the car and send the car off to park itself, it will park itself and when you are coming out of mall you ask call for it and it will come right back. >> pretty simple. things that will make it a lot better. you could sit in traffic, read a book. with all of this it ising good to prevent less traffic. less traffic jams, everybody is a lot happier. >> four states and washington,
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d.c. have laws that allow driverless cars already. many have pending legislation. how soon before we actually see them available to consumers? >> you know we think it will be pretty soon. nissan says by 2020 they'll have a completely driverless car and tesla thinks the next three years they'll have a car that's 90% driverless so you can almost sit back completely and row lax but not quite. >> one more thing you guys address is hydrogen fuel cells almost kind of science fiction they've been talked about for years as the future of cars. how soon are we going to -- could we see that? and is it something that you know will be better than electric cars? >> you know this hydrogen fuel technology has actually been around for 20 years. they've been working on it and finally next year toyota has a car that's coming out using this technology. it's finally cheap enough, hydrogen's actually available enough and there is actually quite a difference between hydrogen fuel cells and electric cars. they don't quite have the same
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zip that something like a that's la has but they do get longer range. they can go 300 miles on a fillup and it's zero emissions. the stuff that comes out is pure h 20 and you could actually almost drink it. >> what about the issue of danger, you think of hydrogen and flammability. >> absolutely, hydrogen gas is very flammable but people at toyota do lot of testing on it including gun fire testing. they actually shot at these tanks to see how well they did, they did very well, the only way to pierce it was by using armor piercing bullets and shoot it in the same place twice. it's pretty safe. >> phil torres, thank you for being with us. the conversation continues on aljazeera.com slj "consider >> audiences are intelligent and they know that their
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