tv PBS News Hour PBS July 4, 2019 6:00pm-7:01pm PDT
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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm ju on the newshour tonight: celebrations of independence across the u.s., as president trump breaks tradition with tanks and fighter jets on the national mall. then, examining theng t american economic expansion since 1945, and the warning signs ahead. plus, a priceless donation. "making sense" of the long- reaching effects of giving kidneys to complete strangers. >> if had known someone who needed a kidney, i'm sure i would have steed up. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour.
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at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: anindividuals. >> this program was ibde po by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to yourbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: pomp, pageantry and armored tanks. prident trump creates a different type of fireworks this fourth of july, as the country celebrateshis independence day. john yang begins our reporting. >> all of you aspired to be americans. >> yang: this july fourth, vice president pence welcomed newly-naturalized citizens at a washington, d.c. ceremony,
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where 44 people from 26 countries celebrated their new nation's independence day. meanwhile, in iowa, neighborhood parades became part of the 2020 campaign trail, as severalde cratic contenders spent the day politicking. senator bernie sanders oft vermok time to speak to supporters at a new campaign outpost in ames. >> what we need is an unprecedented grassroots movement of millions of people. we change america. >> yang: in the aptly-named independence, iowa, former vice president joe den ran along the parade route. he also took a jab at president trump's "salute to america" ceremony in washington.>> ourth of july is to celebrate our togetherness. i says, "we the people." "we the people," atalks about honor and dignity. and it's missing that. it's hurting us terribly. >> yang: biden was not the onlyi presid hopeful who
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criticized mr. trump. ia senator kamala harris yesterday in west des moines: >> i don't think he understands. this is america's birthday, not his birthday.an he w to have a military parade. why don't yothink about military families? >> yang: and south bend mayor pete buttigieg spoke to reporters today afr marching in a storm lake, iowa parade: >> this should not be a poitical eve. nothing about fourth of julye shouldduced to politics. i think reducing our nation to tanks and shows of muscle just makes us look like the loud- mouth guy at the bar.>> ang: back in washington, signs of the president's event were in the background during the annual parade. onlookers cheered as a birthday cake for americaa loated by, and ant uncle sam flew overhead.ks it was just blway from the military hardware parked in front of the lincoln memorial. besides armored vehicles, the white house has arranged for fly-overs by warplanes, including f-35 fighter jets and
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the blue angels. both the white house and pentagon have clined to put a price tag on the event, but the national park service is diverting $2 million intended for park repairs.rt for his mr. trump tweeted, "the cost of our great salute to america tomorr will be very little, compared to what it is worth." for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: our white house correspondent yamiche alcindor is on the national mall, and joins me now. híllo,çó í0iw presidentko prominent role on the fourth of july and to make sure that the er&itarv is front andenter? on this day we think about our history? >> well, the president is -- it's really unprecedented for the president to holhd a fou of july address along military equipment and leaders.
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te president says he wan honor america and celebrate all this military equeipment h's excited is being made. in the oval office he says tankn are being madehio and he wants us to see them. politics are at play.e publican national committee were giving out v.i.p. tickets to republican donors. people close to the president will have good seats here. the president is excited about all this, but there's a lot of criticism about the president using the military in this hay. been talking to former milt officials who tell me it's ridiculous for t president to essentially force military leaders to stand behind him and next to him. isey also said s really the stuff of dictators, that in russia or north kore you see military parades like this, butm here irica you don't see that. that being said, the president says he is excited to address this crowd. >> woodruff: and, yamiche, you're standing in front of the president, going to be speaking in front of the lincoln memorial, a place fraught with meaning, certainly fraught with american history. what do we know abat the president is going to say in his
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speech tonight? >> well, the president said he's really going to be talking about the history of america, the role of america, he said he's excited to speak about all the different military equipment that we have. o is is a president w trying to put patriotism at the center of his presidency. i talked to a retired four-star general, general jack keen. he says eesident's intentions are genuine and he thinks the public should get a chanceo seehe military and touch the military equipment. his point he made is only 1% of the population served in the military, and people should be able to get up close and perstal. i talkeo donald k. sherman of n,e citizens of responsible ethics in washinga woch dog group, he says the president is putting special interests above the people, he said that because the republican v.i.p. donors will have better seats than the public and there will be people sitting way far back listening to the president. >> woodruff: you have been hearing about the cost of this event and how there have been
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some comaints about that. >> there have been -- the biggest concern from crics of the president has been that he's spending too much money on this and this is really a waste of common for the president to have a vanity protoct. i spok a d.c. government official. that person told me d.chasn't been paid back for the $7.3 million they spent during inauguration for president trump. eleanor holmes, representative for the d.c. in congress. she's pointed outhe.c. government hasn't been paid back. blame is all around. th.president saidc. is going to get paid back and the other presidents pushed to have that money pppriated to congress. so you could blame other presidents or the president. >> woodruff: other visitors on the mall, what are they telling you? >> a lot of people have been out since 6:30 in the morning. i play sound of diane atkins, a municipal worker in new york who
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is very excited about this event. >> some people feel this is a dictatorship because you're bringing in the militar actually, no. without military involvement, this country would not have been able to survive as long as we have and the facte's our president, you know, he is a republican but he's the ovpt every citizen of the united states. so it's not partisan, it' nonpartisan. >> we also spoke to alex robby a 26-year-old veteran of the navy, active duty till last year. he disagrees. here's what he has to say. >> i feel it's kind of self-centered. it's not needed. the military is here to guard dour national interests, they're just not needed here. the world already knows how strong we are. we don't need to broadcast that. >> so there are a lot of different opinions and, as yo can tell in some of those scenes, e 's raining her washington but people are still out here. i'm excited to hear the superintendent. we'll have to see how it goes. >> woodruff: the weather is
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threatening, but we are told the president is going to speak within the hour. yamiche, you're going to beco ring it and we'll come back to you attend of the program thank you. >> thanks, judy. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a powerful magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook southern california today. it was the strongest quake to rock that area in 20 years. w centered in the mojave desert near the town of ridgecrest, out 150 miles northeast of los angeles. emergency crews responded to house fires, buildings, and gas leaks. seismologists in pasadena warned residents to be on alertshor strong aftks. >> there is about a 1 in 20 chance that this location will be having an en bigger earthquake within the next few days, that we have not yet seen the biggest earthquake of the sequence. it's certain that this area is going to be shaken a lot today, ckand some of those afters will probably exceed magnitude
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5, which means they wi become damaging. >> woodruff: the earthquake forced several california theme parks, including disneyland, to temporarily close some of their attractions. the temblor was even felt as far as las vegas, nevada. venezua's armed forces are sending death squads to murder young men, and staging the scenes to look like the victims resied arrest. that is according to a new report from the united nations. it said venezuela's governme recorded nearly 5,300 such deaths during last year's security operations. the u.n. said it was all part of a strategy by embattled president nicolas maduro's regime aimed at "neutralizing political opponents." a boat carrying migrants from libya capsized in the mediterranean overnight. 82 passengers are still missing and feared dead. tunisia, mediterranean sea the incident happened off the coast of the tunisian city of zarzis as the vessel was en
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route to europe. the tragedy came a day after andeadly airstrike on a li detention center killed 44 migrants. marines in gibraltar today seized an iranian oil tanker bound for syria. it w suspected of violating european sanctions. local officials saidhe u.s. had requested the operation-- a move iran condemned as llegal." the british territory's chief minister confirmed today's seizure. >> this action arose from information giving the gibraltaa government reae grounds to believe that the vessel-- the "grace 1"-- was acting in breacp of en union sanctions against syria. in fac we have reason to believthat the "grace 1" was carrying its shipment of crude l to the banyas refinery in syria. >> woodruff: it believed to be the first time europe has detained a tanker at sea since it banned oil shipments to syria in 2011. this afternoon, white house national security adviser john bolton tweeted he was glad the tanker had been detained,
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to prevent regimes from profiting off "illicit trade." heavy rains that have battered southern japan for days are starting to let up. but, authorities are maintaining evacuation orders for more than a million people. they are still at risk for more landslides, after as much asn 39 inches of rundated some areas over the last week. at least one person has died, and another is missing. and back in this country, u.s. representive justin amash of michigan aounced that he is leaving the republican party to become an independent. in an opinion article he wrote for the "washington st," amash said that he was disenchanted that politics are in a "partisan death spiral."ft the term congressman was the only congressional republican to call for impeachment proceedings against president trump, in the wake of the findings in the mueller report. still to come on the newshour: responses to the holiday military display on the mall.
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what is driving the longest u.s. economic expansion since 1945? a gift like no other. the power of donating a kidney to a complete stranger. and, much more. >> woodruff: we return to our lead story, independence day events here in the nation's capital. putting the military front and center on the fourth of july is unusual, but a large-scale thmilitary display has bee desire of president trump for many months.th dan la who covers national security for the "washingtonn h st," has bporting on this and is here wre. dan lamothe, welcome to the "newshour". so, first of all, what are we going to see this evening? what's on display? >> so on display are two bradley fighting vehicles and two abrams tanks. they're both down at the lincoln
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memorial, they will be right near the president as he' speaking, assumedly. there's been some confusion, but they're not all tanks, is igu ess the short statement there. in addition to that, we'ree looking at aatively robust air show if everything goes according to plan -- b-2 bombers, f-35 fighter, f-22 fighters -- a pretty lengthand impressive list. >> woodruff: this is something president trump hawanted for a long time since the beginning of his term in office. >> yes, this goes back to him appearing in france and seeing the b bastille day celebration. we had a discussion about this ing me normal day, then veterans day, and it made it as far down the line as this. we won'tave the biglitary parade he initially envisioned, but the air show that associated
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with that and the vehicles on the ground is what it end up. >> woodruff: what has been the reaction from the pentagon and people in the white house is this. >> the pentagon is in a pretty tough spot, i think. zled,have largely been muz really. they have said very little this week. nhey, in many ways, have bee told not to talk and to let the president and the white house do the talk og on the. i was told they wanted the element of sur show.n this so doing things like explaining what this would look like or what would be involved hasn't really happened, at least on the record. >> woodruff: i was just going to say, but resistance up until now to the sort of grand display the president had wanted. >> i've heard very mixed stori on that, so i think -- and i think partly because of the limited communication coming out of the pentagon. there was the impssion earlier in the week that a lot of this was all last miute, thahe pentagon wasn't on board but
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reluctantly carrying it out. over time, it sounded like the pentagon was on board, especially with the air shws out of this. discussions went back to february and march, rteally a lot of this inms ter of what was discussed and how they wewere alto talk about it complicated it. >> woodruff: you haven'tad a confirmed secretary of defense since last december, how does that complicate it? >> it complicates it in a couyse of w i think, one, people in uniform are often hesitant to step out in a way that looks partisan, that there's a long tradition in the military oryg to avoid politics. so you usually rely on you civilian leadership to be the one talking at that point.o we've had acting defense secretaries since christmas, really. so we've moved into a situation where you have a brand-new acting secretary who, you know, has yet to go before his confirmation hearings. >> woodruff: right.
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and, you know, how you go about talking about that or not, there's been very littlfrom acting secretary this week. >> woodruff: finally, we sawli th of who's going to be there from the military.mb several mes of the joint chiefs are not going.e there veral leading military officials who will be there but a number are not going. wh does this say to you? >> that snicially caught my eye because i -- this initially caught my eye. i wondered if it was a protest. it's more logistic. july is a common time for t the chairman of the joint chiefs will be there and i think in a lot of other ways they were ing to get sort of a senior representative from search service front and center. >> woodruff: but you are going to be cov tering night? >> yes, i will be out there. >> woodruff: dan lamothe, thank you very much. >> thank you. he
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>> woodruff:umbers are mainly positive, but for many americans, the math does not always add up. the u.s. is in the midst of the slongest economic expansice after world war ii. wiiam brangham examines th long progress and the potential dangers ead. >> reporter: as america celebrates its independence, it's a time to recognize some good economic news. july marks the 121s1s consecutive month of economic growth, that's dating back to president obama's tenure, coming right after the 2008 financial crisis and the great recession andtinuing all the way through president trump's time in office so far. moreover, the unemployment te is today at a 50-year low. but by other measurement, it's been an unven period. wage growth is better of late but lags storically. the wealth gap between the rich and the poor has grown toear record levels since the recession.so perspective from two economists. heather boucher is te president
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of a d.c. based think tank and mattheslaughter is the dean of tuck school of business at dartmoh, served on the president's council of economic advisors under forprmeesident george w. bush. welcome to you boh. >> thank you. >> woodruff: mathew slaughter, i don't know if you can call k,eleven years a strut this is a pretty remarkable economic streak this country has been on. what do you tribute this to? >> it really is a record streak and i can one of the maor credits goes to federallerrer see. going back ten years we were still in the depths of fiancial crisis, there was a great instability of america's bking system. charmen bernanke and yellen took historic steps to change the nation's balance sheet that stabilized the financial system.
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credit, first and foremost goe to the fed. i think the fiscal stimulus lpngress had in 2009 and the years after that h a bit as well, and i think a third force was just the natural healing of businesses in america to regain some confidence to be more aggressive in terms of capit investment and also hiring americans that brings us to this really amazing point of pretty much full employment today. >> heather boo shakers w would you add to that? >> that's a great list, certainly the actions of the fed and recovery act passed in 2009 llen obama took office certainly had a rea large effect. i do want to note, though, that while we have this very stronge recovery for ay long period of time, there's really an opportunity now to sit back ando look a of the underlying fundamentals of the economy that haven't be doing as well, an i want to make sure that we focus on that because, while the agegate numbers, aggregate employment flow and aggregate h grow been, you know,stead for many years now, and we haven't actually seen the same kind of income gains across
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families allross the economy. so those aggregate numbers real do mask this growing inequality and income and wealth and across different kinds of families across the united states. the strength of the economy now provides an opportunity to sit back and say, oka we can look at the ponopoly of economic policies and figure out, you know, with a strong economy and a lot of money flowing to the econom what we could be doing to address these fundamentals. >> reporter: wage growth, while it has ticked up in the past in the recent past, is still sluggish over the last period ofime. economics 101 tell us that when there's low unemployment,s employve to, you know, raise wages to hunt for the scarceorkers, but we haven't seen as much of that. why is that? >> heather's exactly right. we have too poor wae owth for far too many workers and families. we've seen wage growth pick up the past couple of years for
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most workers in america.t a lot of tha building back boast wages from the early years in the depths of the recession. so part of it is the healing of the labor mart, for a lot of americans, they're basically getting back to inflation adjusted terms to where they were before the nancial crisis and for some a longer period. but a fundamental challenge our economy has been facing has been quite slow growth in what economists call labor productivity, so that's the foundation of sustainableth growtht proverbial rising tide, that combined with fo like globalization and technology innovations raising the demands for viry sklled workers, that combination has been we've had far too slow growth in wages for far too many american workers their families. >families. >> reporter: heather, we care about the number of jobs an actual number of people working, but the quality of the jobs also matts, whether i as an employed person can actually support my family on what i'm getting paid.
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by that metric, how is the economy doing? >> i think matthew and i ae in agreement, the economy on the one hand is doing well, but it hasn't been working for many families and too my families are still struggling to recover from the depths of e gre recession. so jobs are created but not created at the pacofe age growth one would expect given low employment and given the level of profits flowing through the economy and given the level of incomes flowing to those at the very top. so you have this, on the one hand, the economy is increasingly benefiting those ah the top of income spectrum while, for the vast majority, you're not seeing thbeose gain broadly shared in terms of income growth. so the job quesality quon is really fundamentally a challenge, i think, in terms of evaluating the course of this recovery. >> reporter: mathew slaughter, what heather and you were taing about before is ths issue of inequality between the rich and the poor, between those that have and don't have as much. this is a perennial political
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issue as well, we seeing rising up in thecresidential e, already. what is the practical harm? i understand, if i look at what a c.e.o. making a thousand times more than his workers make or her workers make, that looks terrible, but help us understand what theñr practical harms of unequality are. i think one of the biggest practical harms is not the inequality per se, but when you look at too many workers, over time, their adjusted earnings and net worth haseen falling, actually. so the harm comes where people, as they're aging through life and their families change and they have children, what they're seeing is their ability to make this savings and investments they'd like to make for children's case e educations, buying homes and preparing for retirement. they're not doing as well as they used to be doing or hoped to be doing, and in an increasing number of cases, they're not doing as well as their parents in earlier
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generations were doin that's the real challenge. the biggest disappointment in the recovery, is toittle conversation in policy movement in washington, d.c. to build the skills for american workers at all levels, to build more ladders of opportunity so people in the families are gaining the skills that they need to thrive in this increasingly dynamic global economy. >> reporter: heather said we have this rich, wealthy economy, let's take time to address some ohe structural problems you and mathew were talking about. whatre those things? if i put you in a policymaking position now, what would you urge the president, federal reserving and the economy at large to do to address that? >> certainly. well, the first thing i would do make sure, when we measure economic progress, we're measuring it across famies. we're digging in, understanding these trends. two, we need understand and do more to address the was inequality obstructs, subverts and distorts the processes th t legrowth. a couple of cases in point.
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first, we know there are reams economic evidence that show investments in early childhood are some of toe mst important investments in future productivity and can helps workth families parts that it in the labor force, yet we're noth makin investments our economic competitors in iversal childhood, universal pre-k and safe and enriched childcare, because we haven't created the tax revenue to do that, yet we have all this money flowing through our economy. why we've made the decisions to starve the federal government of the revenue it needs at the time we're experiencing enormous growth instead of making investments in our economy. that's one of the ways we're seeing the negative inequality having the downwa pull today and in the future. >> reporter: what would you do from a policy perspective to address the fundamental problems? >> build a life-long opportunity for americans in all critical
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stages to build skills so they can thrive in the future and start where leatheras, there's 25 million children today in amera between ages 0 and 5 and the research is overwhelmingly clear that the private an social returns of the early childhood investments are really large. so i start by building that source of vestments for every child in america regardless of the family or neighborhood in which th i then look at high school graduates that don't go on to college. last year about 3 million young adults that graduate from high school but only about half went on to a four-year college. so for every one of the one that didn't go a four-year college, i'd build an opportunity for them to earn at least a two-year degree to be funded at public supports and look broadly at a american labor force. there's aboonut 100 mil workers in the labor force that don't have a college degree. we hear from them and companies out the need for upscaling and reskilling. so imagine if e had life long
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earning credits to allow them d their companies to build skills for them. it's those kinds of public investments that heaer points out that we haven't been making in america in a creative fiscally responsible way and that'shat's going to address the anxiety we see in american families about concerns about opportunities. >> reporter: math view slaughter, heather boucher v thank you boy much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: there are more than 100,000 people in this count waiting for a kidney transplant, and the median wait time is more than three years.pr a nobee-winning economist has a solution: kidney transplant chains. it starts with a donor giving to a stranger, with nothinged guarann return, and the momentum builds from there. here is an encore look at paul alman's story of two donors who volunteered to s chain,
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saving multiple lives. it's part of our weekly series, "making sense." >> emotionally, i'm feeling a little bit anxious. >> knock, knock, good morning. ar>> reporter: that was ba sine back in october, minutes before surgery at saint barnabas medical center in new jersey. >> scary! >> reporter: sine, a 53-year-old mother of two, works at a prep school, teaches spin classes on the side, is healthy as a horse. her operation was 100% elective. std yet, lifesaving. it was all due to y on npr. ba i actually brought my h in the car. i made him listen to that podcasand that interview. and i said, i have to do this. and... and i still to this day get very emotional. >> reporter: so that was you. >> othe "freakonomics" broadcast, so it feels good to be a part of this. >> reporter: turns out, barbara sine, and those like her, are key players in a medical revolution, and econics nobel laureate alvin roth deserves much of the credit. as a market expert, he'd been puzzling over how to
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increase the number ofra kidneyplants. dialysis keeps patients alive while they wait, usualears, for a deceased donor kidney. or, if they're lucky, a kidney from a living donor who's a good biological match. and then, al roth says he heard about two spouses chatting in the waiting room of a dialysis clinic. >> "wh"iare you here?" waiting for my husband. i would give him my kidney, but he has blood type b and i have bld type a." "oh it's a funny thing-- my, you know, we're just reverse." >> reporter: so the wife with blood type a gave one of her two kidneys-- we can live with just one-- to the other spouse, and her blood type b husband got a kidney from the person she'd met in the waiting room. but roth saw a way to go beyond two coupapping two kidneys, by using computer algorithms to create donor- recipient chains-- matched for blood and tissue type, even fo age.
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>> it turns out there are a couple hundred people a year in oe united states who want give a kidney to someone, who don't have a particular patient in mind. we've learned how to use them to start chains of transplants, where they give to a patient donor pair and the donor in that pair gives to someone else, who gives to someone else, gives to someone else. >> reporter: and all this because of just one non-directed donor, like barbara sine. i think prior to this, if i had known someone who needed a kidney, i'm sure i would have stepped up. but i don't know anybody. c so just kind of throw it up there to fate and let it land where it may. >> reporter: what's different about you? i mean, it's so unusual to have someone altruistically give a >> iospice volunteer. akidney. i foster animals. so, i think this is kind of a continuation, maybe, at a different level. >> reporter: 26-year-old eric walanoives blood regularly. >> i actually just finished up my fourth gallon. >> reporter: takes a homeless man he's befriended to lunch. >> we go to five guy >> reporter: walano too is a
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non-directed kidney donor. >> so, about a year and a month went to a charity organ donation gala type thing. and i turned to my parents and it was like, kidney donation. i can do that.or >> rr: and they said? >> and they said, you're crazy and probably a little bi drunk. like, what if, god forbid, something happens to my other kidney down the road? and then, a month later, i was in saint barnabas... >> reporter: ...undergoing rigorous physical andlo psyccal evaluation. he was cleared to donate, and gave a kidney in april. but, twhom? as the months passed... >> i was in a little bit of a funk. i was like, ahh, why am i a little bit sadder today? what am i missing? >> reporter: because it was a feeling of irresolution, or, not having been acknowle >> that's perfect. yeah, you hit the nail on the head. >> reporter: and you weren't getting anything back. >> and i didn't get anything back. >> reporter: meanwhile, the waing list for cadaver kidneys-- 2,500 people at saint barnabas alone, 100,000 or more nationwide-- keeps growing, growing faster than deceased
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donor organs come in. >> we'll do approximately 170 deceased donor kidney transplants, but we'll add 400 more candidates to that list. so we know that we're in a losing battle.as >> my hopeown here, and every day was darker and darker. f reporter: 39-year-old rosario davi was on dialys over a year. >> i could do 10% of what i used to do physically. mentallythat demon's on your ugoulder the whole time th this process. >> reporter: but last april, eric walano sent davi's demon packing. se angel on earth. i don't know what o say. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: and in december, f walaally did get something back, when he was allowed tone meet his ks new owner, and the entire transplant chain his gift had set in motion. but after rosario got eric's kidney, his wife tara also gave to a complete stranger: michaela dunn in califo >> you're such a blessing to do what you did, to sacrifice what you did. and i'm very grateful. >> reporter: michael's wife sandy gave a kidney to eduard cardenas-rios.
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>> how are you feeling? >> i'm feeling very well, yes. i was on dialysis for seven years. >> oh my god. ( crying ) to be able to give it to someone who needed it so much, it just makes me really happy. >> can i just say something to her? >> reporter: eduard's sister, ines. >> he has a life to look forward to now. and it just means everything to me and my family, i just wanted you to know that. >> well, eric, just take a look and look what you've created. all of these people's lives have been changed. >> bigger family. >> reporter: meanwhile, barbara sine has yet to meet her recipient. >> i know at a man about my age got my kidney. >> reporter: would you be more and more happy as a nction of whether or not more and more
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people were in your chain? >> well, yes. i mean, i think the more people who are helped the better. the idea that i can he 15, who knows! >> reporter: and bottom line, that's what makes this tear- jerker an economics les well. >> altruism seems to resthnd to some oeconomic incentives that other goods do. if you can do more good with a dollar, you're more likelyo give a second dollar. >> reporter: okay, you can't give a second kidney. but you can sure do a world of good giving just one. this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from new jersey. >> woodruff: on our "bookshelf" tonight, a conversation with arthur brooks, who was, until this month, the president of the american enterprise institute, aonservative washington think tank. i spoke with him recently about his latest book, "love your enemies." he started by explaining how he came to study the science behind a concept as old as thees script
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>> what really set me on this beat was reading an article about something called mote of attribution asymmetry where two sides in a conflict both believe th're motivated by love t the other side is motivated by hatred. this leala to impable hostility and we find many american politics same level that we see between the palestinians and the israelis and this is the reason whave a standoff, nobody's persuading anybody, we need a new solution. >> woodruff: sthe a animosity between the palestinians and israelis is what you're saying exist between ordinary americans. >> mm-hmm. >> woodruff: my question is when did differences, which is part of democracy, become contempt, which is part of your title? >> this has been going bang is decade or so butexcerbated since the 2016 election where people don't just disagree, they treat each other dismissively, where theout person is worthless. this comes from where eve leaders who treat each otherwi content. leaders in a capitalistic
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culture tend to be downstream from what we're seeing. we're being manipulated by media and politics and evende acaa where we're told it's okay to hate our enemiesoo >>uff: it's the media and all of us? >> it's clear 893% of americans hate how we've b. that doe't mean we agree. we shouldn't agree because we have a competition of ideas, that's a good thing. but the other 7% are get ating ri powerful and famous or just satisfaction by getting followers on social media saying it's okay to hate each other. no one's ever persuade bid insults and immoral to hate each other because of political disagreements. >> woodruff: you write in great detail through the book about examples of how people relate to each but some of the disagreements ayople have and have had tod are fundamental. they're over values or issues of lifesond death, abortion an
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on. these are not things people can ddenly say, it doesn't matter to me. >> these are big issues. it's true. sometimes some people ask me. what about people who deserve any contempt or people who say hateful things. my question is do you want toil that person or put them in jail? of course not. i'm not a horrible person. so how is your hate working out to make someone act or think differently? you have zero percent chains with that modus operandi. >> woodruff: you hear someone saying i don't want to do with anything who is a racist or believes in communis there are, again, fundamental value differences between people and i guess a question is don't people have right to say i don't want to have anything to do with that? >> we can absolutely do tha we form communities where we don't associate with other people, but in point of face t, eatness of the united states is persuading each other and making progress in terms of lues and the only way i can do that, if i'm firmly
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convind my ideas are right, are by showing love to other people and especially love when i'm treated with hatred. i get that's a hard thing to do, but i show the science in this t bot if you want to persuade, it's the only way. martin luther kinused to say you can only redeem a man when you love a man. if you want to be happier, science shows you will be happier if you answe contempt with long heartedness and have a shot at bringing more unit, which is what we want. it's a win-win. >> what are practical st y believe we can take to have less contempt. >> one of the first things i suggest is people stop being used by the outrage industrial emplex and politics anddia t en on college campuses where we're being tau leaders where we're taught it's okay. when you hatesomebody else is profiting. it's important to look at people on ou own side who are telling us to hate and stop reading the column, stop watching the show.
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people should watching the "newshour", not the shows actually firing up their otstility. it'selping us at all. the second is to look for contempt b opportunity to persuade and be happier. to go out looking for hatred so we can answer for love. i give examples on how to do itt a solution-based book. it shows the how-to on how to do it. >> woodruff: you started out talking about the responsibility n our leaders setting example. >> right. >> woodruff: president trump is clearly part of this. >> for sure. >> woodruff: can change happen while our leaders are setting an example themselves of contempt? >> in a democratic society, in a cast culture, our leaders actually are followers. they tend to be a consequence, not a cause of our acions. they affect us and affect our culture, to be sure, but what's happening in democratic societies and with democratic ease elections that leaders see a parade going down the street and they jump out in front of it to be a leader. if we want something bert, each one of us needs to take a different path.
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i started this off as an institutional book. i wound up writing a book at how each within of us can individually be a better person. that's how we get it.e it's tdemocratic and republican leaders today have a big problem of treating otheron people with tempt because that's what they believe their secret to success is. let's make it not the secret to their success and you will quickly see a difbeference in vior among journalists, among other members of the medi certainly among politicians, academics, leaders, people who actually get followers on social media, they'll fall in line.ou >> woodruff:ake it sound easy. >> it's hard, and the hardest thing, of course, is conquer one's own self. i've talked about this a great deal with his holiness the dalai lama who has been a teacher to me and he says conquer yourself. e you the master or the slave of your own feelings? and that's the real challenge is not chaing all of society. the real challenge is saying am i strong enough to conquer my
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own heart? >> woodruff: arthur brooks, the title of the book is "love your enemies: how decent people can save america from the culture of contempt." thank you. >> thank you, juy. >> woodruff: baseball, hot dogs, apple pie-- all american staples we celebrate. country music captures the sound of the united states, but when it cos to the radio, the voices we hear are more often male. jeffrey brown has this encore report on nashville's gender imbalance, and what's being done to address it. it's part of our regular series on arts and culture, "canvas." ♪ ♪ >> brown: this is the sound of monday nights at the listening room, known in nashville as a
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"writer's round," where singer- songwriters learn to hone their craft before a live audience. ♪ ♪ ent this one is different, and rare: an all-womhowcase, in a city dominated by male voices. ♪ ♪ turn to a country station today and is is what you're most likely to hear: (♪ luke bryan / blake shelton/ ♪ keith urban / riley green/ ♪ florida georgia line/ ♪ dan and shay ♪) >> brown: in fact, in 2017, onl1 arou of billboard's top 60 country songs were by women-- a number that's actually fallen in recent years. and it was that persistent disparity that led producer todd cassetty to found this all- female showcase, called "song suffragettes." ♪ ♪ >> we thought if we create a female-only weekly show where a lot of these women can come play
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their songs, try them out, see what the responses are, meet like-minded creatives, tt they would benefit. ♪ ♪ >> brown: kalie shorr is one of them. originally from maine, in 2012 she graduated high school early so she could move to nashville to pursue her dream. my first concert ever was the dixie chicks, with michelle branch opening, and i was nine. and i just remember looking at them and being like, that's what i want to do. ♪ ♪ >> brown: in 2015, shorr had a hit single in "fight like a girl"-- a song discovered here at the listening room, and played on the sirius xm station "the highway." ♪ ♪ it was an anthem for an issue she's become outspoken about-- the lack of opportunities forwo young men in country music. but, ironically, thaexperience
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only highlighted how bad the problem was. >> it was doing all this stuff and getting all this traction, has, you know, millions of streams, and it sold really, really well. and i walked into a couple of major labels and hadhem look me in the eye and say, we can't sign another girl right now. si already have one. >> brown: "we can'-- we already have one." >> yeah. and it sounds unbelievable. and you know, i would look at the guys who were getting signed and, you know, i'd have higher >> brown: for many in nashville, the lack of women's voices on the air came to a head in 2015. that's when a country radio consultant named keith hill told a trade newstter that to maximize radio listenership, women should be like "tomatoes" in a larger "salad" of male artists... never played back to back, and never more than about 20% of the mix. those comments confirmed what
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many had long suspected-- that the lack of women on country radio was by design. >> it's kind of historically, kind of an accepted practice, that if you play more women on your radio station, listeners willurn the channel, and you ratings will go down, which will affect your revenue. and it's-- as long as i can >> brown perceived economics.'s you don't buy it? >> there's no research. there's no hard research to prove this. >> brown: the backlash to mee remarks benown as "tomatogate," and galvanized women across the indt try to speak out their periences of sexism. including at this montrum called "change the conversation." each month, songwriters, performers, producers, industry veterans and newcomers-- mostly women, but men, too-- gather to share stories. beverly keel helped found the group.
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she's a journalist and professor of recording at middle tennessee state university. >> i wrote a column in the "tennessean" about it and said, look, you know, the problem's at country radio, because they're not playing women. and then you have a chillingbe effectuse country radio is still the driver in country music. so if country radio doesn't play women, labels don't sign women. female songwriters aren't going to get signed as much. you won't see as many female producers, and so on. >> brown: i mean, is it sexism? is it economics? perceived economics? >> i think it is long-held beliefs. i think that it's sexism. there's institutional sexism. there's just tradition, there's cultural norms, but you'd think we'd be past this in 2019. >> i think it's just as frustrating to radio as it is to anybody else. >> brown: that's r.j. curtis, incoming head of the country radio broadcasters, a non- hofit group thps promote the tmusic. >> loos is a multi-layered situation, and it's ( bleep ) up
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all over. >> brown: he's been attending the change the conversation meetings, and wants people to cognize that this proble isn't just with radio, but with the entirendustry pipeline, from talent scouts to publishers to labels. >>sf you looked at the rost of most major labels in town here, i think you'd find that the ratio is about a 4-to-1 male to female, in terms of artists on that roster. so there's jusfewer of them coming at radio for airplay consideration. >> brown: if you're a woman who's concerned about this and they're hearing you say, well, it's the ecosystem-- that would be frustrating. very frustrating. >> brown: right, because then it's like, if everybody's to blame,obody is to blame. >> yeah. i can see their frustration. i definitely heathat. >> brown: we reached out to multiple country radio stations for comment, but none responded.
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and whether radio is the driver of this rketplace, or just another victim of decisions made at other levels, many here say it's past time for solutions. >> i don't know what caused it. i don't know who caused it. and we don't want to just put the blame on count radio. and change the conversation is not interested in finding blame or pointing fingers. we just want to find a solution >> brown: swer: new streaming platforms, social media and touring to connect directly with audiences, circumventing radio. ♪ ♪ radio disney country is a relatively young, mostly streaming station based in los angeles that's found an audience by playing mostly women in its mix. ♪ ♪ and prominent artists such margu price and kaceraves-- who just won four grammys, including "album of the year"-- are succeeding despite a lack of airplay. ♪ ♪
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meanwhile, in nashville, forums like change the conversation and song suffragettes are bringing women together to help one anotr. ♪ ♪ >> i think in the past five, six years that i've been in town, i saw this attitude shift nen within myself. it was like, she your competition. she's trying to do the same thg you're doing, and that great because, like, you know, patsy and loretta were best friends. ow? and dolly and emmylou and all that. like, women can support each and i think they're mor successful when they are. >> brown: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in nashville,
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>> woodruff: we return now to the celebrations on the national mall. president trump took the stage at the lincoln memorial a short time ago. here's a bit of what he had to say: hello, america. as we gather this evening in the joy of freedom, we remember that all share a truly extraordinary heritage. together were part of one of the greatest stories ever told, the story orif ame. it is the epic tale of a great w natise people have risked everything for what they know is right and what they knw is true. ve is the chronicle of bra citizens who never give up on the dream of a better and brighter future, and it is the saga of 13 seplarate coonies that united to form the most just andtu virs republic ever conceived. onhis day, 243 years ago, our hfounding fathers pledgedr lives, their fortunes and theird
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saonor to declare independence and defend our god-given rights. (cheers and applause) >> woodruff: our yamiche alcindor is still on the national mall here in washington and she joins us again.s yamiche, iining. that explains the water and the shield in front of the president. tell us s at more he'ying. >> well, the president really talked about the history of america. he talmd abouterican inventors, the ending of slavery and civil rights. he said the nation is stronger than it's ever been, a little bit of the "make america great again" again. the critics still point out the republican national committee got tickets to the event while the democratic national committee did not. the people still close to the president are still the people with the besews of him, but it is open to the public. >> woodruff: yamiche, you're saying the speech is directed to american history, speaking about the reasons we celebrate on this day. >> exactly, judy, and the president has really stuck to talking about what makes america great in his mind that is
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all the different things that america can do. he also id he would like to put the american flag on mars some day. he's talking abut astronauts and really in some ways celebrating the history of america. sn't been talking about democrats or republicans, hasn't been talking about his campaign. instead, he's really inspiring people to clap because he's just talking about great american hero on both sides of the aisle including nonpartisan gures. >> woodruff: we know the president is going to be introducing military leaders there on the stie withm. is he still planning to do that? we know that that is an unusual aspect of this fourth of july celebration. >> reporter: oneve to he most unprecedented things the president did was make this speech next to mil equipment and next to military leaders. he did point out and talked about each branch of the military. he also said he's looking forward to creating the space force and getting that off the ground. so the president has been talking about military leaders. critics say this is the stuf of dictators. the president said this is his way of celebrating the military.
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>> woodruff: yamiche alcindor reporting from theincoln memorial covering president trump and the celebration there. thank you, yamiche. >> thanks, judy. w druff: and on the newshour online, we hope you're enjoying fami, friends and food today so we have tips about how to prepare, cook and clean up your summer feast safely. we are a full-service news program. that and more is on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. ord that is the newshour f tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening, with david brooks and karen tumulty. for all of us at the pbs newshour, have a greatfo th of july and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newsho has been provided by: >> babbel. a language program that teaches real-life conversations in a new language, like spanishfrench, german, italian, and more.
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babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or baline. more information oel.com. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> and with the ongoing support of these instituons >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station fromiewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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martha stewart: are you eager to learn how to update your favorite r cipes with bettefor you ingredients from the mern pantry? then you won't want to miss this season of "martha bakes." join me in my kitchen where i'll teach you how to ansform everything om traditional cakes, pies and even breads with new ingredients, plus mouthwatering gluten and dairy free treats ay for ever and every occasion. welcome to a new way to bake. narrator: "martha bakes" is made possible by. for more than 200 years, domino and c&h sugars b have been used by hoers to help bring recipes to life and create memories for each new gineration of benthusiasts. ♪
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